Happy 2010!

One of my new favorite family photos.


Wow, here it is, 2010! The passed few weeks have been a bit of a blur, but a new year stretches forth in front of us, and I will hope for peace and joy for my family.

Libby making her first batch of Christmas cookies.

We had a very fun Christmas Eve with my brother Keith, his wife Diane and Kyle. Traditional Swedish meatballs were served and we all stuffed ourselves. Libby had a great time making Uncle Keith play hide and seek, and even cajoled her teenage cousin to play with her. We all agreed that Christmas Day was going to be too hard to celebrate after we heard the news of Rick, so we postponed it until Saturday. That was fine with us, and we hunkered down and had a very nice family day together. Libby is still oblivious to toys and the fact that she gets them for her birthday and Christmas. I don't want to push it, but was sure that this year there would be a little more, hmmm, "mine, give me", etc...She loved everything she received and had a great time playing. I had a few things wrapped that she did not touch, so I put them to the side and will give them to her for Valentine's Day, Easter, and family day. I love a girl who does not think it is all about her!

Our beautiful snow princess.

My brother's service in Hibbing was very nice. His two children did a very good job, far better than I could have done under the same circumstances. That evening, we sat around the pool at the hotel and ate and laughed and told stories. The one thing missing was Rick and his bad jokes.

Libby contracted pink eye and it was pretty nasty. She also has some rumbling in her chest, so we have kept her home from pre-school this week. I think she is feeling much better today, and should have gone back, but a bad night's sleep by all of us, made it hard to be on time. We are having another lazy day here. We are at a loss regarding some sleep issues that Libby has. We cannot establish a pattern as to why they happen when. From everything I have read, it actually seems to be a combination of night terrors and nightmares. She is not asleep, yet she is not quite here. It is very frightening. She will run around the room and yell at us, the dog, the cat, etc...Last night, it lasted almost an hour. Then, suddenly, it will end. She will snuggle up in my arms, my sweet girl will return, look up at me, and say "Mama". We have reached a point where we would like to contact a doctor who specializes in sleep disorders.

We are still waiting word from our agency on a referral. We have come to believe it will not happen for a few more months. I may have mentioned in another posting, that once we get the referral, it can be up to six months until we travel. Why? A whole bunch of reasons, but very frustrating to those who are anxious to be with their children.

Somewhere in the midst of all that was going on was my birthday. I had planned on a brunch with friends and neighbors that day, and debated canceling, but so glad I did not. We had close to 30 people here that morning, and the noise, chaos, laughter and sheer number of people reminded me of holiday celebrations when I was a child. It was a very nice balm to my soul to be surrounded by so many dear people.

I wish you all a safe, peaceful, and happy 2010!

Pretty Christmas Day girl.

Loss of a brother at Christmas

This has been one of the hardest Christmas's for our family in years. On Christmas Eve, I got a call from my niece, who was in tears. She had come home from college to spend Christmas with her Dad, when she discovered his body. My brother Rick was a great guy. He loved to joke and tease, and would tilt his head back when he was laughing especially hard. We had seen him this fall at a bbq at another brother's house. He was in good spirits. The Friday after Thanksgiving, he had several of my brothers to his house in Grand Rapids to have pizza and play pool. They all talked about how they just hung out and had a nice time. It is just hard to take in that he is gone. My thoughts are there especially for my niece Andrea, who had to go through such a tragic event. My poor nephew Kevin was here in the Cities, and due to weather, it took him a while to get home. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers. We are waiting on final confirmation as to the cause of death, but it appears to have been a heart attack. He would have turned 55 on January 16th. We will be heading to my hometown of Hibbing on Saturday for Rick's memorial service.

Attached is a picture of Libby with her cousin Andrea from when Andrea was here this fall.



I will be updating my post with more Libby pics and stories in the next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Libby loves Merfi very much. She is almost gentle with her. I think she honestly tries, but sometimes forgets. Merfi has gotten much more tolerant, and even Eric would say, fond of, Libby. It is so sweet to see.


This is taken in our "gasp" mudroom. We are facing two closets. One will be our coat closet and the other will be a utility closet which will also someday house our laundry. Laundry on the main floor-wow!


Taken looking at our garage from our new beautiful deck. Our old deck was on three levels, and I really prefer having one big one like this instead.


Looking at the back of the house. The window to the right is in what will be Libby's new bedroom.


Our "oh, so cool girls" after the performance of Cinderella. I think the Mama's enjoyed the play as much, if not more, than the girls. I really love shows at the Children's Theatre and am debating about getting a ticket package for next season. There will be a performance of Mulan this spring that I would love to bring Libby to.

This past week, Libby received her first letter from a boy. She had been upset earlier in the week and had called Tenzing to speak with him, but was too teary to be understood. He told his Mama that he wanted to send something to Libby to make her feel better, so a short letter, along with some Twizzlers were sent her way-how sweet is that? And Eric wonders why we are busy planning their wedding? :)

Eric and Libby were out walking near the river one day when they spotted a bunch of wild turkeys. Daddy asked Libby if she saw the turkeys and she said "yes, and cheese and bread, too". Then she laughed and laughed.

We are off to Pat and Becki's for Thanksgiving dinner. What fool volunteered to bake pies in the middle of a house remodel? Yep, me! Thankfully, our neighbor Ellie was home from college and she came over to visit and took Libby back to her house to play. I was able to get crusts made and apples peel and cored. The pies turned out very nicely and anxious to try the pumpkin one as I tried a new recipe with pecans and ginger snaps crushed and sprinkled on the crust.

We are thankful for many things. A big thank you to friend Rena for being a great all round friend, but then taking an extra step of giving us a coffee maker as soon as she heard ours had broke. How kind, especially for two caffeine hounds like the Rollers. This act is just one example of how fortunate we are to have so many sharing and caring friends and family out there. A warm and heartfelt Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Eek, where did November go?

Is Thanksgiving really this Thursday? We are spending the day with our friends Pat and Becki and their kids. Even thought my kitchen is a mess, I have volunteered to make the pies because I need some normalacy in my life.

I have not been good in keeping up the blog because it is usually so loud here during the day with hammering, that I try not to be home. In the afternoon, Miss Libby, who does not like to nap, keeps me occupied.

In Libby news, she is loving, loving pre-school. We had our first conference with her teacher and she confirmed what we knew. She also said that Libby joins in on everything, follows and understands directions, and plays well with other kids. She was having a few issues with grabbing at first, but the teacher assured me it was very "3 year old" and that it has gotten much better.

The other morning, Eric said "Mamma Mia" and Libby grabbed me and said "she's not a mia, she's my Mommy" Aaahhhh

I told her the yesterday morning that she needed to have a bath because she was dirty. She unzipped her pj's, looked at her belly, and said, "I not a dirty girl".

The house is coming along so well that I do not want to whine, but will you let me for a minute? My dishes are in boxes, as are my pots and pans. It is hard for someone who loves to cook to feel so stymied. I was a trooper the first few weeks, but it's getting old. Enough whining, here is the good news. They are sheet rocking this week and it should be close to done by Wednesday. Can we say "Woo Hoo?" Next week, the taper, mudder person will be here to get that part done. Our contractor thinks we should be able to paint the weekend of the 11th. The following week should be all the trim and final touches. Our deck is huge. I love it. Crossing fingers that we will be able to make it into a screened porch come spring.

My friend Leeanne informed me that November is some blog posting thing where you are supposed to post every day. Uhm, not happening. However, I do have other stories and remodel pics that I will try to share in the next day or so.

Halloween is Upon Us

Libby had her first Halloween party on Saturday. Our friends Mike and Brenda have their annual party and do a great job. I also got to bring home a pumpkin that weighs more than Libby! We had a fun time and it gave Daddy time to work on demolishing stuff to get ready for the addition. We were supposed to work on Sunday, but I talked Eric into doing the Grand Avenue Halloween event. Libby had such a great time seeing all the kids out and all the costumes. We walked almost the whole thing! Drove to the other end to then see the petting zoo. Their were fainting goats (want one) and the cutest baby alpaca. All in all, a nice weekend.

Our contractor surprised us Monday by saying the foundation could now be laid this week-eek! Poor Eric had to rush out to get a jackhammer to get the concrete out (really, he may have whined, but he was like an 8 year old boy with a new toy). Everything is starting to fall into place, and now I am getting nervous :)



On a minor rant, poor Libby gets called Lily almost every day somewhere. We loved the name Libby, thought it was easy enough to say, and although not hugely popular, was at least known. Did not realize Lily would be one of the hot names around at the same time, and now she will have to suffer like her Mama. "It's Janice. Uh, nope, not Janet, Janice. Not Denise, it's Janice." Really had thought she would not have to go through that-sigh. Wonder how they would slay "Lisbeth"? :) I am not mad about it, just...chagrined.

We are going to a Halloween party on Saturday night. Our neighbor Gail has volunteered to watch Libby. Since it has been so long since we have celebrated it, we are pulling out our
Viking costumes from years ago. Looking forward to a big party which will include many of my former co-workers.

Happy Halloween to everyone! Have fun, and be safe.

Yeah, it's a beautiful day!

Finally, we have the gorgeous fall day we have been waiting for! Nope, not the picture above, that is from last weekend. I am doubly happy on this beautiful day, as our friends Natasha and David are getting married today. They did have to settle on an indoor wedding earlier this week, but it will be a great day for pictures and it does make the wedding day so much more festive. Congrats, Natasha and David!

We have had a rough couple of weeks. We had a very nice dinner at a friends house a few weeks ago and stayed longer than we should have. Libby had a tough time falling asleep, and then woke us with night terrors. It was an awful hour as we struggled trying to keep her safe, while not waking her. She wondered around and flailed and cried and screamed. At one point, an exhausted Eric went to the freezer to get a popcycle, and Libby trailed behind him. She then looked at him, as wide awake and sweet as can be, and asked if she could have a pop pop. When they came back to bed, she smiled at me and said "hi, mama" and the went peacefully back to sleep. We have generally been very good about keeping her on her schedule, but this showed us that we need to adhere to it.



This past Sunday, we went to the pumpkin farm with friends Heather, Chris and Tenzing. It was a very cute place and the kids had a blast. There was a big stack of hay to play on, a tower to climb, a play area with a track for kids to ride trikes around, petting zoo, and, of course, pumpkins. It was also an apple farm, so we had to buy some of the Haralson's, some cider, and yes, strangely enough, peanut butter they make right there.



Libby now "reads" her "It's time for Bed" book to us each night. It is so dang cute. She has the whole book memorized. Eric has tried to capture it on video, but once she sees the camera, she either clams up, or acts goofy.

I can hear Eric with the electric tools as I type. He is at his very favorite part of renovation, destruction. He is taking off the back deck and will then do the sad little mudroom thing that is there. It's going to be a long fall! Wish us well, as we actually start down the path of home remodeling...

Rainy, snuggle in kind of day

Brrrzzzzz, I am tired of this rain and cold! The talk of possible snow this weekend just bums me out. We have a friend's outdoor wedding on the 17th and will pray that a beautiful autumn day will appear for them. Libby does not like wearing her raincoat or rain boots in the car, so she shucks both of them. It is a pain to put them on and take them off between stops, and she whines, like a...well, toddler, until they come off. Going to be a long winter.

We had a lovely party at Rena's for the fall Moon Festival this past Saturday. There was a great turnout of adults and children and we all had such a nice time. The food was overflowing and delicious. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures, but next year...

We watched Lexa for a few hours yesterday while Rena attended a funeral. The girls were so good together. They both were a little tired, so I put them on my bed and told them they could watch Kai Lan for a little bit. I then came in and turned it off and Lexa asked me to lie down with them. Once I did, she was out in a flash, with Libby close behind. The picture attached is of them napping together. Too cute or what?