School is....IN SESSION!!!

September 14, 2010

Yep, school's back. Here are some photos. We got thru the school bus issues and first day of school just fine. All is well...I hope the year goes great!

The Summer...is pretty much done.

August 31, 2010

I'll get right to it. :)

In July, we went and celebrated my 33rd birthday (I think that's what it was...I can't keep track anymore...let's see 7-14-2010 minus 7-14-1977 = 33. Yep.) back to the update...we went bowling and out for Godfather's pizza for my birthday the weekend before the actual day and we had a blast. Chloe had so much fun...her first time bowling. And Godfather's pizza...YUM!

Chloe was jumping up and down here..she did that after every throw. :)

Back in June, the road construction finally started. It's been fun. the best part (sarcasm) is that they then started construction on all 3 of the detour route roads. Smart thinkin' on their part. that was awesome. You pretty much had an issue getting anywhere this summer. Currently we can get out one way so that's good. It'll be so nice when everything is done. It'll look really nice out here and they can leave it all alone for a while. :) And the workers have been really accommodating for the most part.



July was pretty busy...I can't remember what with though. There was a weekend filled with all of Lincoln's family at the end of that month and that was pretty fun. It was a good weekend, I thought. the kids started swimming lessons in July and they loved it and did great. Luke and Ashlyn passed to go onto the next level for next summer, Chloe did not, but I expected that. She was a little young for her class. But she isn't as scared of the water and she will let go of me now and she will also jump in from the side with or without a life jacket...you just gotta watch her and catch her if she's not wearing one. We also went to the Cannon Valley Fair and the 4th of July Parade...and fireworks.

All three kids spent a week at my dad and step-mom's house and I have to say, that was awesome although we missed the kids. It was quiet around here. They enjoyed themselves, but I think they missed home too...Chloe is still clingy toward me. Ashlyn attended summer school to prepare her for 1st grade. That was two weeks long which brings us to this week. Tonight was open house at school so we met teachers, checked out the classrooms, paid for everything that needs it...which is not cheap in my opinion.
I am excited for this year, but i am so nervous. I am having a hard time letting go and a hard time not thinking about how Luke is going to learn this or that or get it right and the same goes for Ashlyn....especially her. Ugh, parenthood. Thank goodness for teachers. This will be a good year. And next year...Chloe in preschool. Wow. So, 7 days and they will be getting on a bus...2 of them all day, every day. Whew. LOL

I suppose that's all for now. Linc and I are headed to the MN State Fair tomorrow...alone. Date day. I can't wait. :)
Until next time.....

We have another...NEPHEW!!!! (and more stuff)

June 19, 2010

There is yet one more boy in our family! Clinton, Bonnie & Sophie welcomed Harrison Clinton into their lives on Tuesday, June 15 at 7:33 am. He weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz. and was 21" long. Big boy. Everyone is doing great and Sophie seems to be a proud big sister. We are so happy for them and so excited. (and I have to get this in there...Bonnie took her nursing boards on Friday, found out she passed them over the weekend and went in to the hospital at 12:30 am Tuesday...way to go, girlie!)

Summer vacation has begun! The kids are bored. Figures. We are trying to keep them busy though. Luke is leaving tomorrow afternoon for Good Earth Village Camp through church. He stays for 2 nights. Weird for mom. He is also signed up for a couple other things this summer like a track & field camp type thing and a LEGO activity class for a few days.

I haven't written in a while. May turned out to be very busy for us for a while. Unfortunately, we attended quite a few funerals last month. Our neighbor lost his battle with cancer and a few days after that, Lincoln's grandma Betty passed away at the age of 90. 90, wow. It was a very sad couple days and she passed away on Mother's Day night. Appropriate, I think...for the Matriarch of the Sjoquist family to go see her Savior on Mother's Day. Her visitation and her funeral were both at Spring Garden...again, appropriate, I thought. She touched a lot of lives. I am very thankful that I was lead to meet my husband and to marry into his incredible family. We ended the two days over at my in-laws house with almost the whole Sjoquist family and I thought, again...how appropriate that everyone was together...and we had a great game of baseball going on that day. What a woman she must have been in her days. 90. What a life...a good and hard and rewarding life. I hope that she continued to be proud of the kids she raised and the kids that her kids have raised and the kids that her grandkids are raising. :)

May continued with dance performances and school programs. And eventually a couple field trips and the end of a school year the first week of June. My little sister graduated on June 10th from Elk River High School. Then when she went off to her all-night party, the rest of us went to eat...it was a great night.

The kids. Luke will be off to 3rd grade in a couple months and Ashlyn will be in 1st. Wow. We already know their teachers which is awesome. I love that. With May also came Chloe turning 3. She sometimes acts like she's 5. :) I am going to be signing the kids all up for swimming lessons in town and with that comes a season pass so I plan on hanging at the pool a lot the rest of this summer. They are excited that I am finally getting on this. Luke has been helping out on the farm too and I think he's been a big help. He is also now heavy enough to keep the lawn mower going when he sits on it so he learned to mow and now helped his dad mow the yard and it actually cuts the mowing time for Lincoln in half. LOVE IT! I know he expects to be paid....we'll have to work something out. :)

Us...well, Lincoln and I just had our 9th wedding anniversary come and go. Eventually this summer we will go out and eat or something. Our nephews birth took precedence to us and we love it! I love that everyone else is adding to the family now. :) (And I'm not the one getting up in the middle of the night feeding and changing...although, I wouldn't mind doing it once in a while and an overnight sitter!)

We don't really have a vacation planned this summer. Lincoln will take a few days off probably and I am going out-of-town with my mom next weekend, but we aren't going on a week long trip again like last summer. Maybe a couple long weekend trips or something...if we can get them fit in. Too bad before we know it it'll be school time again and I won't lie, I am half excited for that, but yet I love summer so....well, it is what it is. :)

Easter 2010

April 18, 2010

I hope everyone had a great Easter celebration!! We had a great day. Very, very busy, but great. I got up early, sang at the 6:30 am service, ran home, helped get kids ready, saw what the Easter bunny got them, ran back to church with the family, had breakfast there, sang in the 10:00 am service, ran home, changed clothes, got to my grandma & grandpas for lunch, did an egg hunt there, at around 4:30 we ran to Lincoln's parents for dinner (if we were hungry), hung out there a little bit and finally got back home by about 7:30ish. Whew. What a day! It was awesome though. Next year, however, I think I am going to skip out on the choir for the 6:30 am service. I miss getting to watch the kids look for their baskets and I love seeing their faces when they are surprised. We shall see. :)

Here is a photo of my Easter kiddos. Luke was so excited to be wearing a tie! :) Grandma Chris made Ashlyn's dress this year...sooooo cute! Chloe's dress was actually one that I bought 2 years ago for Ashlyn, but then Chris made dresses so it never got worn.


We are loving the spring-like weather. I do, however, like that it is still a little cool out. I don't need it to be hot yet. :) It is a little hard to believe that it is only April with the weather. There are farmers out planting already. I am so excited for the early season, but sooooo hoping for their sake that it doesn't backfire on them. So, here's to hoping we don't get any freezing weather anymore until after harvest.
You can tell that spring is here as the kids are kicking off the spring program season this week. Luke has a concert on Tuesday, Ashlyn has a small performance at the nursing home for dance on Friday. The spring field trips have started and there will be more performances for dance and school soon. Wow. And once school is out I will officially have a 3rd grader and a 1st graders. 2 kids in school full-time. I also will have another child eligible for 3-year old preschool, but we are going to wait until she is 4. Speaking of Chloe....she is going to be 3...in less than a month. So exciting and so sad all at the same time.

I better close this and get some stuff done before bed. Another Monday tomorrow.

Myspace Graphics- At Myspacejunks.com

Can't Help It...

March 29, 2010

I couldn't help it. I had to watch this movie. I recorded the 11 pm show, but I started watching it and couldn't stop to go to bed. Stupid probably. It was a great showing on the Amish message of forgiveness....not so good on the media story about the Amish school shooting...not that I was looking for details or anything because that shooting was unforgivable...for us. The Amish...that is what they do. I admire that and wish it came more easily to us. I kind of think forgiveness is easy, but at that same point...no one has ever done anything unforgivable to me directly.

How's this post for a random ramble? :)

We spent the day yesterday in West Salem, WI...coincidentally on the way there we saw an Amish buggy by Rushford, MN. Hmmm. You know, I guess the Amish only have church every other week and they hold it at each other's houses. I wonder if they were going to their church service yesterday. I also wonder if they were, then were they celebrating Easter?

Anyway...as I was saying...we went to West Salem to celebrate the first birthday of our godson, Graham. He actually turns 1 on Wednesday. It was a fun and beautiful day. I love this family I married into. The kids had a blast, the food was great and it's always laughs when we are with Lincoln's family. Lincoln took pictures on his phone...I have to figure out how to get them onto the computer now. Those will probably come after Easter though as this Holy Week will be busy, busy.

Tuesday, as part of the Christian Education board and committee I am going to be helping prepare for the Seder Meal that will take place on Wednesday for our 5th graders and their families in preparation for their first communion that they will take during the Maundy Thursday service. Seder Meal is kinda like the last supper. It looks weird, but is is actually all soooo good. (Lamb, by-the-way, smells horrid while being prepared for this particular dinner...not sure if it just because of this particular prep or if lamb smells like that all the time).

Wednesday evening I will, as part of that same Christian Ed board, be helping serve the meal and I am hoping that I will have some help. Thursday is the Maundy Thursday service and the choir sings...and the 5th graders as I said take their first communion. Good Friday service....then Saturday is like a day of rest for me...I hope, because then there is Easter. I have 4 bulletins to get prepared and copied at church this week along with being gone every night but 1 this week. 1 night this week...tonight...that I will be home. 1 night. Ugh. Not that I don't enjoy church and stuff, but 1 night. I welcome the Easter season and the meaning of Easter is kind of hard not to love...and I love hanging out with family, but every Easter I am just so exhausted I don't have the social capabilities in me. How do our Pastor's do it I wonder. Seriously. (and with the post-Easter week...well, let's just say Holy Week makes it hard to want to go back to the church on Monday and start working again...at least it will be a quiet week, hopefully...) I love Spring Garden. :)

Enough rambling for now. I gotta get the girls ready to go to the farm for breakfast and payroll. I'll post some pictures probably after Easter seeing as I won't be around much this week. Maybe. With Easter brings back face book for me...I may be busy for a couple days. HA! After 40 days, most people probably forgot about me anyway. Ha-ha!

Happy Easter everyone! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

March 2010

March 25, 2010

9 more days until Easter. Which means I will be hanging out on facebook again that evening. Ha-ha. I'm pathetic. I miss conversing with people.

I can't believe that March is just about over. This winter has actually flown by for me. It was a good winter. It wasn't over-powered with days and days of -20's and we got a TON of snow...now this was a Minnesota winter. And all that snow was gone in 2 weeks. I think we still had 4 feet in the front yard and it is completely gone now. And our 8-12 foot piles of snow are finally completely gone. Now we just have to rake the gravel back onto the driveway....our very long driveway. The best part...knock on wood...is that we didn't get teased with nice weather and then have it snow 3 inches after we saw 60's. Luke's birthday was even decent this year...usually we are worrying about snow and ice. Hopefully, spring will stay.

With March and Spring comes March Madness. I am pretty sure you all know what that means in this house. (Does anyone read this blog even?) It's all about the basketball. :) And all the upsets this year are killing everyone's brackets. Oh-well.

We are preparing for the inconvenience of road construction this summer. Our county road will be ripped up this summer and left to be gravel for the winter. They are widening the road and redirecting parts of it. Then next spring they will finish fixing it and tar it. I am excited for the end result, but man is it going to be a pain. We'll deal though...what else can we do? Hopefully they aren't at the height of the mess when my sister-in-law, Bonnie, is ready to go have her baby. By-the-way, Bonnie, I am secretly hoping that you go into labor at a really odd time at night so maybe I get to take Sophie while you go and then I'll know you went which mean I hope you go early because I will be out-of-town that weekend :) )

Chloe started dance class last week. She is in there with her cousin, Sophie, and a couple other little girls we know. She LOVES it as does her cousin. It's really cute. She wears some old stuff of Ashlyn's and talks about dance all day long before she goes. Lincoln doesn't mind that his girls are dancing, but he hopes that they grow out of that and into other sports like...Basketball of course, or volleyball or whatever else...anything but dance. :) Summer sports forms are starting to come home from school. Ashlyn says she wants to do soccer again. I am not so sure. Last year wasn't convincing to me...I am thinking we should stick to one sport. T-ball. We shall see.

We received a form in the mail from the school for Chloe to go to the 3-year old preschool class next year. WHAT? How can she be ready for that already? She is though. I don't know if I want to pay for her to go to preschool for 2 years. I may wait and have her just go when she's 4. I don't know yet. She is totally ready though. I just can't believe that she is about to turn 3. I better get started on losing that baby weight. HA!

No pictures this time....I haven't taken any really. Oops.

Happy Easter, everyone!