A Heavy Heart

This past Sunday my grandpa K passed away. He was 102 and lived a long and good life! He lived in his home until the very end and had his wits about him. I pray that I am that lucky when its my time to go.

Some of my best childhood memories were with my grandpa. He was one of a kind that's for sure. My grandparents lived in Tekamah which is about an hour away from Omaha. I LOVED going out to their farm to stay the weekend or a week. It was great.

I remember that my grandpa would always give me an important job to do. One of those jobs was to organize and clean one of their kitchen drawers. My grandpa would tell me if I found any money in the drawer I could keep if for all my hard work. I thought that was AWESOME!! Years later I found out that before he gave me that job my grandpa would dump a handful or two of change into the drawer for me to find. He was kind and wonderful like that.

Since my grandparents lived on a farm, they had a big red barn that I loved to play in. In the hayloft my grandpa turned it into a playground for me to play in. He must have spent hours making it child friendly. He took old tires and made various swings out of them and then hung them from the rafters for us to play on. There were a lot of good times there.


My grandpa loved to work in the garden. He spent hours taking care of his vegetables and my grandma's lillys. He even let me help out too. I got my own little section of dirt by their house for me to plant whatever I wanted to in it. Honestly, that only lasted one season. I chose dandelions and those purple thistles to plant. Hey- as a kid those were the only "flowers" I could pick and didn't know that they were really weeds!! So why wouldn't I chose those? Plus living far away I wasn't around enough to really take care of anything. Its still a really great memory though!

When I was with my grandpa I was never without Oreos or ice cream with hershey's chocolate syrup out of a can. We spent lots of time playing Kings in the Corner, peggity and kerom (sp?). I will really miss my grandpa. He was a wonderful man. Very supportive and kind. Some people say when you get married you marry someone like your dad. I didn't do that. I married someone like just my Grandpa Kjeldgaard and I am so blessed for that!

An Interview with Zach

What's your name?
Zach
How old are you?
5
Where do you live?
4004

Who do you like to play with?
My preschool friends.
What is your favorite food?
Macaroni and Cheese
What is your favorite drink?
smoothies
What is your favorite snack?
all of the snacks
What is your favorite toy?
Choo Choo Train Toys
What is your favorite TV show?
I think I like...um....My favorite show is SpongeBob
What is your favorite game?
What was that red and yellow things that you put into the blue thing that you try and get four in a row?
Connect Four?
Uh Huh
What is your favorite book?
My favorite book is Goodnight Moon.
What is your favorite restaurant?
Burber King (aka Burger King)
What is your favorite holiday?
My birthday.
What is your favorite animal?
Teddy Bears
If you could change your name what would you change it to?
Its a funny word.
What is it?
Its SILLY ZACH!

What do you love about each person in your family?Like what do you love most about daddy?
Playing together.
What do you love most about Josh?
Playing train tracks with him.

What do you love most about Alex?
Playing construction trucks with him.
What do you love most about mommy?
Playing together.
Like what?
Just playing together.
What do you love most about yourself?
I love everything about myself.

Where do you want to go on vacation this year?
I want to go to Annalie's house.
What are some wishes for this year?
A new car.
Thanks for letting me interview you Zach.
OK.

I completely stole this awesome idea from my super creative friend Bethany!

An Interview with Josh

What's your name?
Josh
How old are you?
5
Where do you live?
uh...4402...uh I dont know.
Omaha, NE
Omaha, NE

(photo taken by Joe Sands)
Who do you like to play with?
My brothers.
What is your favorite food?
Chicken. NO WAIT! Its SHRIMP!! SHRIMP!! SHRIMP!! SHRIMP!! I love shrimp!!
What is your favorite drink?
milk. NO....CHOCOLATE milk.
What is your favorite snack?
I love cupcakes for snack.

What is your favorite toy?
I think its....I can't remember....hmmm...lets see....My favorite toy is trains.
What is your favorite TV show?
Dinosaur Train, SpongeBob, and Olivia.
What is your favorite game?
On the wii its Mario Cart!!
What is your favorite book?
hmmm...I don't know what my favorite book....Wait....I think I know now. My favorite book is when we look at pictures of Santa.
What is your favorite restaurant?
I think its Burger King.
What is your favorite holiday?
What's a holiday?
Its a time to celebrate something.
Oh. My favorite holiday is my birthday.
What is your favorite animal?
My favorite animal is butterflies.
If you could change your name what would you change it to?
uh...Josh.

What do you love about each person in your family? Like what do you love most about daddy?
I love the most about daddy is tickling me and playing with me.
What do you love most about Alex?
I love his silly faces.

What do you love most about Zach?
Playing trains with him.
What do you love most about mommy?
uh...about mommy is.....going....uh....my favorite thing is.....hmmmmm.....I have to think about it. *paused for a while* My favorite thing about mommy is playing with you.
What do you love most about yourself?
I love playing outside.
Where do you want to go on vacation this year?
To uncle Andy's and aunt Marcie's!
What are some wishes for this year?
Getting presents and eating cookies and playing in the snow, but my favorite FAVORITE wish is I really really REALLY want to get a new jump rope.
Thanks for letting me interview you Josh.
Oh.

I completely stole this awesome idea from my super creative friend Bethany!

An Interview with Alex

What's your name?
Alex
How old are you?
5 1/2
Where do you live?
Here.
Where's here?
I forgot.
Omaha.
Oh. Omaha.

Who do you like to play with?
Dad.
What is your favorite food?
Cheese Pizza
What is your favorite drink?
Apple Juice
What is your favorite snack?
um...its...um...ice cream.
What is your favorite toy?
Um....hmmmm....my race track that Santa gave me.
What is your favorite TV show?
Fireman Sam
What is your favorite game?
My favorite game is...hmmm...remember the hippopotamus one? The one that gets all the marbles.
Hungry Hungry Hippos?
Yeah. That one.
What is your favorite book?
The Batman Book.
What is your favorite restaurant?
whispers to me-What's that pizza one?
The Pizza Machine?
well yeah. AND its Pizza Hut
What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, my birthday and Easter
What is your favorite animal?
My favorite animal is all of them.
If you could change your name what would you change it to?
Henry.
Why Henry?
Wait. Not Henry. I would pick myself again.
You would still be Alex?
Uh huh.
What do you love about each person in your family? Like what do you love most about daddy?
He tickles me.
What do you love most about Josh?
He builds train tracks.

What do you love most about Zach?
He builds train tracks.

What do you love most about mommy?
You scratch my back.
What do you love most about yourself?
Being silly to the boys. I like making them laugh.
Where do you want to go on vacation this year?
To Minneapolis.
What are some wishes for this year?
My wish is for a big car. Not that tractor but like the tractor that grandma and grandpa have. I am going to ask Santa for that next year.
Thanks for letting me interview you Alex.
You're Welcome. Good Bye!

I completely stole this awesome idea from my super creative friend Bethany!

Birthday Party at the Amazing Pizza Machine

Some good friends of ours son turned 4 this week and had his birthday party at the Pizza Machine. I forgot my camera so all the pictures are from my camera phone. Not the best quality but its better than nothing!
TJ is FOUR!!! Where did that time go?

It was a blast for all! We all stuffed ourselves silly with pizza, salad, bread sticks, etc. The room we were in had a stage so the kids had fun putting on a show for us slow eating adults.

Then TJ got to open presents. I am not quite sure what the gift giving policy is. Any advice on this subject would be appreciated. When we are invited to a birthday party do we give one gift from the family or should each child give a gift? Not sure what the etiquette is there. I have done both and am still confused. This time Alex, Josh and Zach each chose their own gift to give to TJ. It was kind of fun to see what each of them thought TJ would like. Alex gave TJ a lego helicopter. Josh gave TJ a imprint thing-a-ma-bob. Zach gave TJ a dinosaur race car track thing.

I think my boys were just as excited to give TJ the presents as TJ was getting them.

After the eating, singing and present opening was finished, it was time for the games to begin!! We played air hockey...

Zach and Alex rode a frog hopper (which is a ride that goes up and down)....

Josh wanted nothing to do with this ride. In fact, this is how Josh felt about it....

The boys rode a train....

(Zach, Josh, & Alex)
We rode Go-Karts...The boys were too short and too young to drive them so I took Zach,

Nana took Josh...

And Alex rode with Matt. I know this is more of a picture of Deanna and Josh but you can see Matt's head behind them. It was the only picture I had of Matt and Alex. And Alex isn't even in the picture. Sorry about that.

We also went on this spinning around roller coaster type of thing. It wasn't too bad until we went backwards. Then it was pretty bumpy. Matt took Josh and Zach.

And I rode with Alex.

We had a great time! We were all pretty worn out after wards. Happy Birthday TJ!!

Unbalanced

I feel like I haven't blogged in quite a while. For some reason I feel really unbalanced this month. I just can't seem to get my barrings. Is anyone else feeling that way? I don't know if it is because of the endless snow days we had or what. I just thought after Christmas life would calm down and get back to normal. Whatever that is. :) January is already half way over and I don't know where it went. Sure, time passes quickly sometimes, but not usually this fast for me. I wonder why, but then when I think about all that is going on right now, its no wonder I am feeling so unbalanced!!

Its official- our house is for sale!

I am trying to not think about all the what ifs - like what if it doesn't sell? What if it does sell? etc., -and just go with the flow. I keep telling myself what is meant to be will be. I have stopped looking at other houses because I become too attached. Until this house sells it doesn't matter how good of a deal it is or how perfect the house is. It is also really hard to keep a house "show" ready with 3 five year olds. I am not a messy person, but man its hard keeping things perfectly clean and decluttered. I am stressing about things that normally I wouldn't give a second thought to. We did have our first house showing this week. So that was exciting. At least we are moving in the right direction. Hopefully!

I also started my LAST class in my masters program. I saved an "easy" one for last- Language Arts. Keep in mind its not exactly easy, as its still a masters course, but it wont do me in like research about did. In fact, last class we went over what makes a research article. I could have taught that lesson! :) Plus the professor brought in Eileen's Cookies. So it was off to a good start. Until we went over the syllabus. Hmmm...a little more work than I thought it was going to be...but still doable. I get my comps (comprehensive exam) on Wednesday and then I believe I will have entered "Comps Hell." :) I have 5 weeks to get that exam done and then I can worry if I passed. If I don't pass I don't get my masters.

Each of those things don't seem too stressful, but when you put those together and then add my normal life to it, I guess I can see why I feel unbalanced. So what have I been doing to destress? Eating. So then that stressed me out. Every morning I would wake up and be happily surprised that my pants still fit. Well, this past week or so my pants are tight now. And now I am stressed about that. :) hahaha. So I have added going back to the gym and getting my routine down again. And am feeling better about that.

I also have been crocheting like a maniac. It is very zen like for me. I crocheted some cupcakes. These don't have any calories! :)

I made Alex a blanket.

And I made Zach a blanket.

Today I am going to start on Josh's blanket. After that, I will probably feel lost as to what to do next. Although I did find this cute little alien pattern to do. But then again, hopefully I will be busy moving and doing my comps.

I think that this year might be hard for me. I don't do well with change. No matter if its good or bad- change is hard for me. This is going to be a YEAR of change! This year we are moving (hopefully), I am getting my masters (expectedly), the boys start Kindergarten (definitely), and I go back to work (possibly). I just hope I don't feel unbalanced this entire year! eek!

Rescheduled Christmas #3

New Year's Day was our last rescheduled Christmas due to the bad weather we had. Originally, both my aunts and uncles and a cousin were going to come up from Kansas. Due to the rescheduling, only one aunt and uncle were able to make it. But we were really happy that they did!

We arrived at my aunt Mary Carol and uncle Harry's house in the afternoon in hopes to go sledding at their farm. Unfortunately, it was WAY too cold for that. There was a wind chill advisory so we decided to stay inside. My cousin Wade and uncle Harry had some electric trains for the boys to put together and play with. If you know my boys, you KNOW they were in HEAVEN!! They all squealed with delight when they saw the tracks. They had a bigger set in the basement.

And they had a smaller one upstairs that in years past they put around their Christmas tree. They had a blast!

When they got the trains running Josh thought it was a lot of fun to be the tunnel.

While the kids played trains, us adults chatted away while munching on delicious food.

Matt and Ralph played some cribbage.

Josh played detective.

Allison and Alex had fun together too.

After a while it was time to open presents! What fun that always is!! We all gathered in the living room and took turns opening presents.



After we opened gifts it was time to eat!!

After dinner we had some wine...

and desserts. Since this side of my family is Sweedish, we had ostakaka with lingon berries over it.

It was a wonderful night!! Mary Carol and Harry sure know how to host an amazing party! :) It was great to be able to see (almost) everyone at Christmas. I can't wait til we can all get together again!