Well, before you know it it will be turkey day! Can you believe it. One more day closer to spring and summer. I have kind of sort of started Christmas shopping so to speak. I probably will make it easy on myself and give the married kids money… hate to spoil the surprise but I am leaning toward that. ten bucks should be good enough. :>
Val is in Pierre, Gettysburg and then the Hills. He had a good week legislatively speaking… he was elected as Speaker Pro Tem, meaning one spot away from Speaker of the House. He is pretty happy about that. He goes hunting now until Wed. and then out to the Hills until Sunday. Jet is happy to have him gone. Bren and I are holding down the home front. It has been low key and laid back. Just the way I like it. No drama, usually.
School is going fine… the chatty bunch is still living up to their reputation, they are being chatty. We are striving to gain ground on Math and get other stuff accomplished. Gotta go for those good test scores you know.
It has been cold around here buy we don’t have snow. Cold and green/brown. The wind has been terrible this fall and seems to blow at gale force every other day. That doesn’t help staying warm. I just hope this next week it isn’t too cold because I have outside duty… I hate outside duty when it is cold. At least Wednesday we have an early out.
I told Brenna we should get the house decorated for Christmas before Molly comes home because she is so testy when she is decorating… overdecorating… but Brenna said we can’t do that… awwww. I could just see her face. It is kind of a cruel joke but at least then I wouldn’t have so much to put away. Oh well we will leave it for her.
Friday Holli has her ultrasound. That will be cool. I hope they take their video camera so they can record the little tyke. We never requested a tape but I would think you could record the monitor as it is happening. Can’t wait until we hear about the experience. I will feel a lot better after that is done and they see that little heart beating. Coolest sound on earth is the whoosing of that prenatal heart.
Well, I suppose I should get something done today… maybe. Then maybe not. After attacking the closet yesterday I am leary of doing big jobs. House is pretty clean. Bren did most of it. She has a packed agenda today so we may just sit around and take in a movie or something. Time will tell. I just know leftover pizza is the supper menu. Well until next time, stay warm.
It is cold outside! Brrrrr. We escaped the snow that hit the western part of the state plus some of the eastern part with a vengence! We got a dusting of snow and plenty of rain. Just what the farmers wanted… more rain.
I received the pleasant news that I am going to be a Grandma… I can imagine the nicknames Miles and Holli will try to come up with. They have wicked imaginations. Seriously… prayers keep going out for an uneventful pregnancy and easy delivery. Can’t hurt to pray.
School is going fine. My class is very chatty… very chatty… did I say they are not quiet? They aren’t naughty… just talky.
We had a gathering on election night and there were around 30 to 40 people around the house. We had a nice party and we were glad that at least Val won! I am just glad it is over. It is nice not having a political ad every 15 minutes.
Right now we are watching Natl treasure 2 so I am going to watch and enjoy… more later.
Yup another Saturday night, but this Saturday will be followed by a Monday off. Yippee. I am so ready for a Monday off. Mondays are my packed days (along with Wednesdays) so I always love my Mondays off.
So Molly is at USD and might be home tonight, who knows, Val and Nana road tripped to Rochester for a wedding and Bren and I are holding down the home front. I went to an auction this morning and got a huge George Foreman for &17.50 and then there was a swing like brand new and I got that for $70 so those of you who know how bad my swing is on the deck can be glad to know there will be a new on on the deck. Yippee. The old swing will go down on the patio under the deck. Maybe Molly and Tyler will still build a new swing part for me and we will have two good swings. I love swings.
Today we also had a funeral (Vick Lempke died) so I played for that and Amanda did a very nice job singing the Our Father. Brenna and I will be going to Derrick Loeschke’s wedding to Eliza. We in the neighborhood are glad they are tying the knot, she is sweet and they make a great couple. So a funeral and a wedding in one day!!
That is what is new in our life around here. We are getting ready for the end of the quarter on the 17 and conferences, the Sioux Falls dog show on the 24 25, and FINALLY the election. I am always glad when they are over. Jet and I will be in the camper at the Sioux Empire fairgrounds on Friday the 23 (I think) if anyone wants to visit. I hope to link up with family there. Pray for warm weather so I don’t freeze. Talk to you soon.
Can you believe it is the last Sunday in September????? I can’t. I am looking forward to the Sioux Falls dog show the 24th and 25th of October however. Our quarter ends on Oct. 17 and this week we have the Grandparent mass on Thursday and travel to Sioux Falls on Friday to tape the tv mass!!! I am always thankful when this trip is over. It is quite stressful for me. We go to Keloland to tape, then to Cathedral and pop in on Mom and DAd at the apartment, eat lunch outside (weather permitting), go to Ronald McDonald house and drop off tabs, then the final stop St. Francis house for the homeless. Finally we head for home. So I am looking forward to Friday after Kari Tillmans wedding reception.
So what else….. not much. Cross country is winding down and then a quiet spell… I think I can handle it. Well, I have to get the dogs bathed and groomed. I get to break in my new Booster bath yippee no more bathing in the bathtub. I get to have the bath at waist level. The dogs won’t like it but I do. Dad and the girls are watching football and I need to either start the bath or make popcorn???? what to do?????………… scrolll down to see what I do…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I am going to make popcorn :>
As we all know summer is the time no one blogs. Twittering does not replace blogging in my opinion, but I am glad I am a twitterer so I can keep up with Miles and Holli. I decided it was almost a week and I would make a greater attempt at droning on about what is happening around the home front. Think of it as a shorter version of Grandma Rausch’s letter… but not as comprehensive.
School has been going on since Aug. 20 and we had a three day week, three day week, four day week this week and next week is a five day week but Fri. is homecoming so more like a four and a half day week. Slowly we are getting into the swing of things. I have had ten kids have late work since school started and it is driving me nuts!! We have a new “F” word in the classroom. We don’t say the “F” word… it causes late assignments…. it is football! All in all I have a pretty good bunch, they are very chatty and need to get their butts in gear but they are pretty good… most the time.
Bren is competing in CC and has had two meets. The first was when I moved Molly in and the second was on Thurs. She did ok. She keeps on pushing on. She runs JV and it keeps her busy enough. She also has a part in the fall play so she will soon be heading to school early. When it works out she takes Joe VanDover to school and I take the other VD kids and Molly Hartman. They bring the kids to the house which is great, I don’t have to worry about the speed limit by the lake road. 20mph is toooooo slow.
The green fridge died and so we were down to the old gold one and the white one so dad decided to get a new fridge! We have a black french door with the bottom freezer and an icemaker. The water isn’t hooked up yet but it is nice and will be so great to never have to fill those dinky ice cube trays again. Yippee
I had a lot more written but Miles’ site must have had a seizure and of course when I am trying to save it stops and won’t let me save or publish so insteat of the 500 plus words I have I onlly had around 300! MIles what were you doing at around 9ish on Friday night???
I wrote about Molly but she will now have to write about herself because her part is in “server is screwed up try again later” mode.
Well I hope all those seeking jobs will soon have them and enjoy them, I hope those newly employed will love their jobs and I hope those who are employed will be able to keep their jobs.
Have a great week
Well, we started school as of Aug. 20 and had school for part of a week and then the next week we went for Mon, Tues and Wed, then two days off with Labor day on the Monday to make a five day weekend… sweet yes but probably unnecessary. Then we have a four day week and we will finally be into Sept. We are slowly getting used to being back to school and I mean slowly. I am anticipating a great school year, but of course I always do.
Our summer was so busy it was tiring. I have all my credits to get renewed in 09 for my teaching certificate and that is always a good feeling. Now I won’t have to worry about it until 2012!!! We had a lot of comings and goings this summer, many for 5 days and for those of you who know me I don’t leave home very often. Val is a different story. It was an ok summer, I don’t like real hectic ones so I am already looking forward to next summer.
We had many family gatherings and some I didn’t make due to my selfishness but we were represented by the rest of the gang for them. They included a family reunion hosted wonderfully by the Bismarck clan and Brenna and Chris’s wedding in the cities which was wonderful and the pictures are magnificent. I was able to show my dogs at the Canadian National show and we were very warmly welcomed by the Canadian Irish Setter Club. Val sandblasted two garden stones to put on their silent auction. It wasn’t as well attended as they would have liked but their gas is over $4 up there so it is understandable. Jet had foot issues early so he wasn’t shown until Winnipeg and Hogan bloated and torsoned and had emergency surgery to untwist his stomach. They tacked his stomach so hopefully this will never happen again. We didn’t make it to too many shows this year. Sioux Falls will be the end of Oct. and St. Cloud around Dec 9 and then RiverCenter in the cities the first weekend in Jan.
Molly has been moved into her dorm at USD in Vermillion. In the course of moving her it dawned on me that our tags are outdated as of Monday… yiippee so she has to be very careful until I can get them sent to her. Brenn will have to be careful until I can get her taken care of in the parking lot!!!
Dad is going to play golf at Hazeltine in the cities with some republicans. He is excited. He had a chance to go to the convention but the person getting the tickets didn’t get it in on time to get the security clearances. He would have loved that.
We just had the annual Labor day gathering and it was a blast as usual. Giorgios were here from Tx and Andy and Traci from the cities and their families. Barry Ronning and family and a host of others people. it is always fun.
As far as everyone else I think everyone is fine. Linds and Bryce are settling in and Miles and Holli are keeping busy also. We will have to get together when we can. Well I think this is an abbreviated update… until next time. Get to church
Well, we are still going strong this summer with a schedule from H*ll. Val and I went to a political conference in Rapid City last week. It is CSG Midwest conference and there were 11 states and 3 Canadian provinces represented. SD had a good showing since they were hosting. I went to this three years ago when it was in Regina Saskatchewan. I got to see Kelly quite a bit and Pete some, he kept busy at the restaurant. It was nice to spend some time with Kel and eat at Delmonico. Val had meetings on Sat afternoon and then again on Sunday morning so we went to mass at the Cathedral and then the conference was on. The evening events were at the following places on different nights: Ellsworth Air force Base, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse (we ate at Ellsworth on Sun. and at Mt. Rushmore on Mon) and then on Tues. they had the final banquet and a concert with Brule which was fantastic. They played for 1 1/2 hours. SD got very good comments on what a good host they were. Next year it is in Dan’s back yard by Kansas City. We saw lots of people and that included Dan from Canada and others so it was nice to get reacquainted.
Our next BIG event was the Heirigs wedding. Terry Heirigs married Gillian Bright and we went to that wedding on Sat. it was very beautiful and they had a brass ensemble playing the instrumental music, they did a fantastic job. Gillian is a music major at Augie. Just as she got up the aisle a big thunderboom went off. I mentioned that when we went through the line (Tammy brought up the storms when dad and I got married!!) and she said it was her Grandma giving her ok! Is she a Miles? Tammy you better check that out. She sounds like she could be a relative of mine! We went to the reception at Cherry Creek and the food was fantastic. They sat with the hometown folks and only got to talk to Tammy and Steve and kids a little but we had to head back north. There is never enough time to visit with Tammy and Steve anyway right Tammy. By the way the mother of the groom looked fantastic in her black dress (although I bet Gillian didn’t give her “Monster in Law” Lindsey).
Now we have a week home before my three day class in Madison. I am going to Sioux Falls on Wed after class. We get out at two and then I can get something done, see the family down there, take Miles and Holli out to eat and head back home.
The next set of events is the girls and their trip to New York (don’t ask me about it) and then as soon as Molly is back in town we head to Canada with the camper.
Well, till later. Oh wait… I have to say thanks to Miles for having this site. A long lost friend of mine from Presentation College found me via this blog site. How cool is that. Hi there Kristi Even Willey. Small world isn’t it. Ta ta.
Hello all. First of all I want to say thank you to Miles for hosting this blog site. I just got reacquainted with a friend from way back who saw this and made a comment on my blog page! We went to Presentation together and had lost touch over the years. I am very thankful that this site is here and look at what is possible because of it. Thanks Miles, I love you. Now I can keep connected with Kristi.
Ok now on to what else has been happening. Last time I blogged I was just back from WA and getting ready to begin my summer classes. Sue and I took Algebra class… the instructor called it Algebra camp. I thought it was going to be different than what it was but what it ended up to be was us learning Algebra as a refresher course. Since I didn’t get Algebra the FIRST time!!! this was going to be a very interesting class. The first day was quite overwhelming but by the end of the week I was almost ready to sign up for a college Algebra course (I managed to get out of any math class in college because of what was called a wild card substitution… I substituted Philosophy for Math!!! brilliant) Well I did enjoy the class and the week went pretty fast so that was great.
The end of my Algebra week was also when Bryce and Lindsey came home for Ryan and Natalie’s wedding. That weekend went way too fast and I hated seeing them go, even though Lindsey thought I was trying to kill her when she slept in the extra bedroom. IN my defense… I didn’t think she would be over since her allergies have gotten worse and we do have four dogs she is allergic to! I keep a ready supply of benedryl so no excuses. Anyway back to the topic. It was so great seeing them and Miles and Holli were home to so we had the whole family together. It was great. Too bad it was so short and busy. The wedding was very nice and all in all it flew by but was very memorable. ahhh.
After everyone left for their respective homes I had to get ready to be gone a week and take a Science on the Move class in Brookings. Earlier in the spring I was going to stay most of the week and then try to figure out how to get the camper and dogs to Vermillion for the weekend show the last weekend in July… well since Jet was still healing I couldn’t show him so I just stayed in Brookings and was fed and housed by SDSU. It went great. The beds were not that great but it worked out fine. I got home on that Friday and then it was time to get ready for the next phase… Family Reunion.
By now I am not that gung ho on going anywhere… Fr. Matthew had his last mass and Fr. Dan would have his first mass over the 4th weekend… so I opted to stay home and do the church thing. It was a very quiet weekend. Val left on that Tues so he could golf and the kids met up with Miles and Holli in Summit that Thurs I took the dogs to dog class and huffed and puffed around the agility ring with Hogan and Jet! Whew. On Friday I joined Susan to watch a fun match horse show. Then it was just hanging around. Mass went great. The place was full and FR. got settled. By the way. Val won mens, Sue won womens, Bren won jr girls and Tom won jr boys! now jr b and g only had one entry but that is a minor detail. Everyone was happy!! yahoo.
Now we have had a week off and got some work done. Val is getting some lettering done and on Sat. morn we head to a political thing for 5 days in Rapid. Sue will stay here on Sat due to the street dance and then the girls will be in charge. Molly works quite a bit and they are also going to watch Lori C.s cats. Neighbors keep a lookout on the house. Call the police if there are too many cars here.
With that you are caught up. I am supposed to take one more class the end of July at Dakota State and get to show the dogs at a Canadian National show in Winnipeg. We will be in school before you know it. I hate how summer just flies by. Hopefully the winter will go even faster.
All of you behave and enjoy the summer… before it is over. :<
I know I said my next blog was going to be “How I will never be able to please my daughters-in-law in any way whatsoever!” I am doing a different topic. The before mentioned will come but I have to really put thought in that one… if you know what I mean :?.
So… Since FINALLY landing in Sioux Falls from Denver coming home from WA we made it to the house by around 2:00am. What a day. Don’t you love delays. Molly better not have any delays coming back from New York or sh_t will fly. They say Chicago is terrible and so is Denver, huh the two places we went through!!
Once home I had the rest of the week to get ready for my two weeks of classes. Sue and I took “SD Counts Algebra” which our instructor called “Algebra Camp” I thought it was going to be how to teach Algebra to young kids… but not… it was to teach teachers Algebra!! Say WHAT!! At first I was overwhelmed… x squared or (x) *2 holy cow. We struggled through 30 hours of class in Watertown but by the end of the week I thought I could maybe get through a freshman Algebra class!! Maybe. We had to be at class by 8 so that meant early mornings but it was a good trip. I still owe Sue money for driving… SUE when are you going to let me know how much I owe you?????
The Thursday of Algebra Bryce and Lindsey came home. Yippee. They came on Thursday and Miles and Holli on Friday so for a brief time we had the whole family home. It was very nice even though Lindsey had allergy problems, no I am not trying to kill her! The girls share some of the blame. They were supposed to get the bedrooms ready. The homecoming was made possible because Ryan and Natalie got married. It was a nice wedding and Bryce was in the wedding as 4th usher, he can explain that. Sunday came too quickly and everyone went their separate directions all too soon.
Monday morn found me traveling to Brookings to take “Science on the Go” class. Science from 9 to 5 literally. It was good and now the mobile lab will come to our school. It utilizes Vernier science software and technology to use in the classroom. We did Science experiments all day. Our instructors were mainly Bob from Elk Point and Jerry from Mitchell. They are polar opposites! Bob, laid back Jerry, Science guy on steroids! It was a good week and I can’t wait until the lab comes to our school it is neat. I thought of Lindsey a lot. It isn’t too high tech but she would have loved the equipment from the educational aspect. I was ready for Friday to come. We got out a little early so I was able to be home by about 4:30 or so.
The weekend was all about Farley Fest even though it rained on Sat. We had the final mass with Fr. Matthew… he is bugging out and moving back to Chicago! We hope someday he is back in the diocese. I won’t hold my breath though. He will probably love being back to a big city so much he won’t look back. We had mass and a dinner on Sat for him. It was a weak crown but summer tends to be that way. Farley Fest also had a concert with Emerson Drive that evening also. On Sunday we were all in the parade. The weather was nice and I met a some guys that knew Miles!! Small world. I gave them some ammo to raz Miles even though they are very capable on their own. Anything to help.
This week is quite laid back. Monday we had Fr. over for a cook out, he leaves Wed. morn. We helped with the rectory so Fr. Dan has a descent place to leave, even though the kitchen wall came down after plumbers were upstairs. I helped paint with Candee. Tues. Val took the camper and headed out to Bismarck to do a three day golf outing with his cousins. He called yesterday and said the first day of golf was fantastic. I am glad he is having a good time. Today the girls will meet Miles and Holli at Summit and Miles will drive the suburban to Bismarck. I hope he remembers to bring his gps. I know Dan will be with them and maybe Amy. I am staying home to play Sunday for Fr. Dan’s first mass. I know everyone is saying I am weanieing out… yes I am but being gone 3 out of 5 weeks is a bit much for me and on June 12 Val and I head to Rapid for 5 days! So I am staying home and going to enjoy my time at home not having to be anywhere. I might even get the dining room painted! Maybe! Or maybe not!!
So there ya go. This has been one of the busiest summers since I went back to get my library endorsement! I have my credits to renew my teaching certificate and after one more class this summer (a three day one at DSU the last Mon-Tues-Wed of July I am done with schooling for a while. With the fourth the summer is about over. We have in service the first week of Aug. and start school Aug 20! This summer is going way too fast. Before you know it the snow will be flying….. lets not think about that.
Well I hope your summer is going great. I will update everything soon. Have a safe 4th. Always wear your seatbelt and don’t drink and drive. Good luck Linds on your interview and Happy birthday to Lonie the big 50, Dirk, Gabe, Julie, Grandma Rausch and eventually Molly. A toute allure.
hi there all. We went to Richland Wa to attend niece and Goddaughter Julie Rausch’s graduation from High School. She graduated in the top 4% of her class and her class had close to 400 people! Her boyfriend Steven gave one of the grad speeches and was a Valedictorian. It was in a large arena and Val and I left early with Nicholas to get stuff set up for the reception and get the grill going. She had a very nice party and lots of people came. We tried to help out Becky and I think it went very well. The days went fast and of course there had to be complications with flights both coming and going. I think every flight I have had has had delays. Right now instead of getting in at 10, then 11 now it will be more like midnight or later. I hope it gets better, I hope at least it isn’t canceled.
So we will have lots of time to sit back and relax and maybe God will smile down and the plane will actually get in earlier rather than as late as predicted!!!
So congrats to Julie. Thanks to Becky and Bill and the kids. We had a great time and thanks for all you did for our stay. Now United, please get your planes in sooner.