Flashback Friday

My little sister, Heidi, at her 6th birthday party.

I stuck up for this kid to the point where I rode in the front of the bus with her during her entire year of kindergarten because I did not want her to get picked on like I did when I was little.  I will defend her to the death if I have to...I would for any of my sisters.   Isn't she a bug?  She still is...even though she will be 30 in less than a year!  Where does the time go? 

My paternal grandpa is in the background...birthdays were always a big deal in our family because I had the immense fortune of growing up within 20 miles of both sides of my family. 

Flashback Fridays

My grandma and my Oma (great-grandmother) Mother's Day in the early 90's.  Two very important women in my life and when I was going through scanning pictures for my mom, I just found myself reminiscing about all of the Sundays when we would go and get donuts after church and then visit with everyone at the nursing home.  I don't think Oma was really involved in all of the conversations much, especially at the end (she lived to be over 100) but I believe she knew we were all there because of her and she was comforted by that.

Just think.  Ankica and Lillian would not be here if not for my Oma....or other ancestors for that matter, but I remember this one well :-)  Strong female genes on my mom's side of the family...both great-grandmothers lived to 100+ and my other great-grandmother lived in her own house until she died.   I hope I can leave a legacy like they did for me and my sisters. 

Thank you, Oma, for your faith and your strength.  I need to find out more about her and get it written down...I want my girls to know about her and what a great woman of God she was.

Enjoy your weekend!

Flashback Fridays

My sister, Heidi, is in the background watching me get my clown make-up on.  I don't really remember how we got into the clown gig, but we dressed up for a parade one year.  I know that my grandfather loved to dress up and act the clown so I suspect it had something to do with him :-)  This was the summer of 1989.  The shorts were homemade and NOT part of the clown outfit :-)  Oh yeah...stylin'!

The start of Flashback Fridays...on Sunday

I am scanning pictures for my mom and thinking that maybe a Flashback Friday might be fun for the blog.  I still want to start my What is it Wednesdays back up but I haven't found anything good yet.  I am working on that.

November 1986...I was student of the month in middle school and much to my dismay (at the time), my cousin Amy earned the honor the same month.

In an effort to blog more...

Once upon a time, way back when we lived in Columbus, we stopped at Barnes & Noble and we looked at the journal section....we LOVE the journal section.  Here I found a journal that encouraged mom's to write down their legacy to their children.  What happened at this time? What did you feel about this?  I liked the idea but I didn't like the journal so I bought that journal for the ideas and another journal that was blank to write in.

I haven't started the process.  I want to, I just haven't started yet.

So I thought maybe I would type it out on the blog first and then write it later...something about having a hand-written journal to read appeals to me and maybe the girls will find it interesting some day.  Turns out Julia has a journal to read when she gets older...something Loran kept when he was overseas for her.  I think that is totally cool...weird for me in a way...but cool for Julia.

Maybe I'll start the process soon...or maybe I should figure out how to more effectively teach my Intro to Dairy Science class.  July is going by so fast already!  You'll be the first to know what my decision is.  I might share with you either way :-)  I know I have friends who always like to hear about cows :-)

I love to leave the light on in the kitchen

I have a memory of my grandmother leaving the light on in the kitchen.  Sometimes it was the stove light after supper and sometimes it was the light by the water dispenser in the fridge when we went to bed.  But there was always a light on in the kitchen so we could see our way around. 

Tonight, because of the humidity I suppose, two banks of lights didn't work but I wanted to finish the dishes after the girls went to bed so I turned on the rarely used light above the sink.  Mostly it is rarely used because the light switch is in an inconvenient spot, but as soon as I turned it on, I was reminded of my grandmother.  She passed away when I was a senior in high school.  I remember how I felt that day.  We knew it was coming but I was devastated.   She was the first grandparent I lost and it was just a roller coaster of emotions at that time in my life.

So I think I will leave little lights on in the kitchen more often...it reminds me of times in my life that were simpler and very special.  These memories are why I needed to come back home to Wisconsin...so my girls could have sleepovers at Grandpa and Grandma's house and have memories lodged so deep into their beings that simple things become profound and wonderful. 

No pictures? Sorry, just my thoughts

I came to the realization today that I don't blog if I don't have pictures or videos...and yet I read people's blogs all the time that don't have pictures or videos all the time, just because I like to read what they write. So why don't I write just to write? I suppose because I don't find myself as fascinating as those people whose words I admire or I don't think I am as interesting as my kids (who are adorable enough to cause a stranger to tell me that if my husband and I make kids like these we should consider making more...I'm with him on that).

So last night it rained. We were watching Avatar because I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the graphics that people raved about and I generally don't care what political agenda there may or may not be in a movie. I liked the movie overall...I just pretended that I had never heard anything about the supposed agenda. We watched the movie upstairs on the smaller screen so that we could be with the girls who fell asleep not long after supper, both of whom admitted to me that they were tired and asked if they could please lay down on the couch (which is SO much better than falling asleep at the table :-) ) As we watched the movie, it rained hard. It rattled the big windows upstairs but I was glad because I really don't like watering my flowers or my garden...I really prefer God to do that for me.

As we were getting ready for bed, I let the dogs out and as they moved out into the darkness to do their thing, I heard the rain hitting the corn...it was a great sound. As I sit here I can see the corn out in the back and it is beautiful blowing in the breeze. A few weeks ago, Loran complained about the farm-type smells one evening and found myself a little miffed because there is a part of me that LIKES that smell because of what it means. It means farming, which I love, it is part of my family's past, which I treasure, it means that we are in Wisconsin again, which continues to make me happy on a daily basis. It reminds me of the good things in life. I can't wait until we can have our "farm" that will have mostly a few horses, but maybe a few other critters as the girls start to see the benefit of farming. It might be fun to bale our own hay or have an alternating field of corn and soybeans.