Happy 2008

Wishing all my dear blog readers a very happy 2008!

Opening Soon!

Here's the Open/Closed sign that I made for the Bargain Bazaar.  January 15 is the day the store will open.  There's still a LOT of work to do but there are a lot of hands pitching in so I know everything will work out.  Thanks to Mom, Pam, Shari & Jen for the items you have donated and to those of you have told me you will be donating.  We still have a  big need for children's and teen clothing.  So if you are doing some January cleaning please keep our store in mind.  I plan to work on my closets tomorrow and my kitchen cupboards too!  

Fun with our nieces

We got to have Courtney & Kelsey last Thursday while Jen & Eric celebrated their 10th anniversary.  Dan took the girls to a matinee-Alvin & the Chipmunks while Sarah and I shopped at the mall.  We had pizza at Sarah's house with Ann and then went back home to set up their bed in front of the TV so we could have a slumber party/pillow fight (short!) while watching Ratatouille.  C fell asleep halfway through but K made it through the end.  Dan and I loved the movie and discovered that we could tape off of pay per view with our CDR.  Very cool!  Friday the girls had fun helping me feed the birds and then making tents inside the house and making a puppet show.  Before we knew it their parents were back to pick them up!  They were lots of fun!!

 Saturday we headed for Shakopee for the Smith Christmas and I have lots of photos that I will download in the next couple of days plus a few more movies too.

Ski videos

Christmas Pictures Cyrus

Lynn & Gracie

Royce & Gracie

Ellen & Gracie

Ski Bunnies

Sophie & Dan play Guitar Hero and ....

Sophie wins!

Joey's song

Carly's Christmas Song

Ellen's Titanic

Sophie's Nutmeg Song

This video shows Sophie singing her solo from her Christmas Program.

Larson Christmas Pictures

Cousin Ryan with Samantha Larson

Ellen plays piano at Ande's Tower Hills and gets a $tip.

Carly poses

Dad and Nancy

Mom and Carly

Larson Christmas Pictures

Gracie's 1st Christmas!

Christmas Eve Skiing

Ellen's first Ski Day!

On the Quad chair lift

David and Dan jammin' it up!

Last day of school

On the last day of school before Christmas break, we brought the 4th -6th graders to Andes Tower and Hills to ski and snowboard.  Tami is on break and joined us there as a chaperone.  It was fun to have her there!  The students had a great time and there were no injuries in 4th grade..yeah!!!!

Sunday

We attended Courtney and Kelsey's Christmas program this morning and had brunch afterwards. Jim, Darlene, Warren, Ann, Andrew and Sarah were all there too.  The girls did a great job with their parts.  Courtney had 2 speaking parts at the podium and looked very grown up standing up there.  

It was our first time to see Skittles.  He's a nice friendly cat.  He lets Kelsey haul him around and submitted quite well to his role as a doll.  He's a nice addition to their family.

Hospital Christmas Party

Shirley, Mary and I are all on the thrift store committee and thus belong to the Hospital Auxiliary as well.  This year the hospital invited the Auxiliary to attend their party so we went and had a good time.  They had a good country band and we remembered how to do the 2 step from dance class years ago.  Here's a nice picture of Dan & Kurt too. Kurt is the one who you saw earlier in my blog picking Dan up in his plane on the lake.

Humane Society

I brought two of my students to the  Humane Society after school last week and they enjoyed playing with the cats.  This is the cat room as you can probably tell!   In the bottom pictures the girls are playing with the cats on the new climbing posts.  They're set up right in front of the picture window and almost reach the ceiling.  

Flom Residence

Welcome!

Sophie and her blurry brother Joey in the entry.

Sophie's new pink room

Joey asked that his room remain white!

A cozy fireplace mantle 

We stopped at the Floms for a quick visit before we headed home on Sunday.  Sophie had her birthday party yesterday and was having fun playing with her new toys, Joey too.  

Berkness Party Pictures

Dan hammed it up with Emily for about 3 minutes, thankfully.

Dan & Tim outside, Brrrrr!

Emily & Me

Our official Christmas pose...notice my $30 Ebay dress(originally sold at Nordstroms in the 200 range!) and Cyrus Bazaar jewelry that I purchased a few years ago for 25 cents.  I love that vintage necklace and surprisingly it goes with many outfits.  I wish I knew whose jewelry box it came from.  Dan says he got his sweater from Daytons a few years ago and paid full price.  Oh well.   Oh, and even though you can't see my shoes, they came from Shari's vintage store in Hibbing-Rummage in the Park.

Dan, Jon Hovren & Todd Treml

Tim and Emily have a big Christmas party every year, this was their 5th and our first time to attend.  We had a really nice time!  Kind of fun to get dressed up too.

Cold weather & Concert pic's

Fish houses across the lake,  doesn't that image look like the Arctic?  Brrrr.....
Here's my Arctic man after a job well done and only one busted pin on the blower...

The boys in my class hamming it up....

The girls have their turn.

Just a cold Friday night at home and if you've been to our place in the winter you know what I mean.   It is REALLY cold here tonight but we have the fireplace going and it helps if you're sitting RIGHT in front of it.   Tomorrow we are heading to the cities, meeting Warren & Ann, maybe the Floms, hopefully a little shopping and then the Christmas Party at Tim & Emily's.  Sunday, I hope we can hit the Arbor Shoppes on the way home.  Only 2 more of weeks of school before Christmas vacation.   That's going to go fast.  I'm almost done Christmas shopping, how about you?

Tuesday Ramblings

I forgot what blog this came from but the image appeals to me so I saved it for a day when I didn't have many images to post.  I'd like to step inside and I'm sure the cat is allowed inside too.  I love a simple little farmhouse...that's what it reminds me of anyway.
We're doing Secret Santa at school again this year.  We took a 4 year break because people were losing interest and creative ideas.   We have 24 signed up this year, which is about half of our entire staff.  I made this for my secret santa, she doesn't read my blog so it's okay.  Our rule is to start after Thanksgiving but of course there are people who still haven't begun gifting and then people tell me that they're not getting anything since I'm in charge of the SS sign up list.  I wonder who these deadbeat Santa's are.  I'm going to pay attention when they're revealed at our SS party.  Why sign up if you don't plan to do anything.  Same problems 4 years later.

We got a few more inches today.  I thought we'd let out early but it never got that bad and then it actually quit around 3.  I had freezing rain on the way home and that wasn't fun on the windshield.  A late start would be wonderful but I don't think that is going to happen either.  Don't you hate it when you get home from work and it's dark?  I don't even get to enjoy the birds but I know they've been there!    

I'm going to work on some Christmas cards and watch Hollis Woods, it was a Hallmark movie on Sunday and I recorded it to watch while Dan is away.  Some Hallmark movies are way too sappy but this one looks good.  Have you read the book?  I haven't.  Have a good evening!

Snowy Sunday

Here's the well fed, clean up crew.

Lots of activity at the feeder this weekend, mainly chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, cardinals, juncos, sparrows and goldfinches.  I thought I saw the ever elusive rusty nuthatch but I can't be sure.  I've been worried about them because they don't seem very wary around the feeders and we've had wild cats hanging out, not in this snow however.  There were chickadee feathers by the garage feeder a couple weeks ago so I stopped feeding near trees where the cats can hide and surprise.

I used the photo booth feature to show you a summer rummage sale find.  This is a handmade shrug that I bought for $1 at Juliette Jeurgenson's sale in Cyrus.  She said it belonged to her mother in law who was the maker and that she wore it often.  I think it would make her happy to know that it is keeping someone else cozy and didn't end up in the trash.  It's basically a tube with cuffs.  I use a little barrette clipped at the neck to keep it from sliding off my shoulders.  Somebody in my family asked when I bought it if I would actually wear it and yes I think I will.   Aren't you impressed that I showered yesterday and curled my hair on our snow day?  I'm not taking any pictures this morning!  :)

I just noticed that we have fish-houses on the lake!  There's a 4 wheeler out there too.  It seems like we just brought the dock in.  I guess that's what makes Mn interesting.  Shari should be able to use her snowshoes up north and maybe I'll use the cross country skiis today, just at the shore mind you or along the road.  I don't trust the lake yet.  Otherwise our agenda is to watch the Vikings, do laundry, shovel/blow snow, and maybe do some baking.   Dan would like that. I made a pork roast, mashed potatoes, squash & green beans last night for dinner and we'll have left overs for lunch today.  I made a frozen pizza yesterday instead of soup and melts. Maybe soup will be good tonight.   Okay, time to get productive.   Have a good day and enjoy the pretty landscape out there!  Laurie