The Wheeler Family Adventure

Four Generations

2012-01-12T22:25:00.000-06:00

Dan's grandma is 97 years old! Until recently, she's been living in her own home. Now she's in a care center as she recovers from a fall at home. Over Christmas break, we stopped by a few times. We captured a pic of four generations!

Read!

2012-01-12T00:42:00.000-06:00

I've been having fun volunteering in Annika and Lauren's classes this school year. I can work just as much or as little as I want, and I can incorporate some of my fun ideas every once in awhile. And the biggie benefit for me is that A&L always seem so much more excited to see me when I'm at school than when we're all home together. Go figure.

One project was our local library's Read! campaign. You may have noticed posters of celebrities encouraging kids to read posted in the local library. Our library took a twist on that and took pics of local folks, some famous, some not-so-much, and made them into Read! posters.

I saw this and decided to do it with my own daughters. So we took a pic of our four girls holding Dr. Seuss books with two cast members (who also are our babysitters!) from Seussical the Musical which our local high school performed.

I submitted it to the local library, and Cassie will be turning it into one of the posters!

Well, taking that a step further, Cassie said we could submit as many as we wanted. Woot! First graders, here I come! So Mrs. S let me come with my camera. Each student grabbed one of their favorite books and we clustered the students together to take some photos. Here is one of the completed posters after Cassie worked her magic. Lauren is in this one. You'll note the kids were all celebrating Mickey's birthday--thus the hats.

Our 2011 Christmas Letter

2012-01-12T00:18:00.000-06:00

It’s amazing how easy it is to forget the many things that happen in a mere 365 days.

We are still in Fairmont, Minnesota, completing our second full year here. We now have kids in third and first grades and two preschoolers. Emily and Megan will be 5 and 4 respectively next month. Crazy, eh?

Since not much has changed in our situation in the last 12 months, I thought I would try to find some of the more memorable quotes from our kids this year to share with you.

Cute Kid Quotes

· For my birthday this year, Lauren invited all of her classmates to my party!

· "I'm going to be five my next birthday," Emily said. "And then six and seven."
"Stop!" Annika, age 7, replied. "It's so weird to hear little kids talk about growing up."

· Pupcakes--what Megan wanted more of at Dan's birthday (cupcakes)

· "I slipped. Good thing I didn't plop. Plops hurt." Lauren

· "Somebody made a clock that runs on lemonade and water--no electrocution!" Lauren

· "It's the human mushrooms," says Emily, talking about garden gnomes from Gnomeo and Juliet

· "My toes are hiding," says Megan as she walks around in her slippers.

· "See? They're sparkles," says Megan about her many concrete-caused scabs on her knees.

· Overheard at Annika’s tea party birthday party: "This is the best tea party I've ever been to. I've never been to one before."

· Megan's newest cell phone is made from three Lego pieces. I have no idea how good the reception is; she seems happy with it.

· Emily discovered “squirrel” ice cream this summer. Or, as I like to call it, swirl.

· Emily also likes “cabinets”—where one goes on vacation in the northwoods.

· Megan likes watching those pretty black and white-spotted ducks, the “balloons.”

· Lauren: I can't hear Jesus, but I can see him.
Mom: How can you see him?
Lauren: I have super vision because I'm a fairy, you know.

· Emily singing in the shower: "I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ He calls me Frank."

Megan and Her Papparazzi

2011-11-22T11:03:00.000-06:00

Preschool productions are among my favorite. Part of it is probably the fact my attention span is about 20 minutes long--the same amount of time preschoolers can sing their entire repertoire.

Another reason is that preschoolers are unpredictable. Very fun to watch the spontaneity.

Below are some clips of Megan's preschool Thanksgiving song-thingy from today. Yes, that's her, picking her nose...so proud.

It was our first time using our new-to-us flipcam so we've learned a few things during this time--like the zoom makes things fuzzier...

Chocolate-Yummy Fun for the Whole Fam

2011-10-24T00:46:00.003-05:00

When I graduated from college, I was fortunate to land a position re-typing press releases and managing circulation for a banking magazine in the Twin Cities. With an entry-level salary in the very low five figures, I thought I had hit the jackpot! Eventually I wrote stories, covered conventions and became state news editor. Because my degree was in writing and not strictly journalism, my poor editor had to drill into me the fact that it was a “lede,” not a thesis statement; that it was a headline, not a title; and that it needed a byline, not my name in the upper right hand corner. And that chewing watermelon-flavored Bubble Yum in the office was not acceptable.

One other thing I’ve learned in almost 20 years in journalism—it’s best to stick with what you know.

There are literally thousands of magazines out there in circulation. There are magazines for topics you’ve never even heard of and jobs you didn’t know existed. One of those magazines is Professional Candy Buyer, a trade publication for people who buy candy for a living. These are the people who decide in April what candies they’ll be ordering for Christmas to stock the shelves at gift stores, boutiques and the big box stores. I get to write for them.

While I chew a lot of gum and eat a lot of chocolate, I really had no idea how much science, technology, engineering and math went into these products! I’ve received quite an education on polymers, supply and demand, and sustainable growing methods. So I am an expert end-user, and I’m learning more on how it gets to the consumer.

One of the huge benefits of the interviews I do is sampling some of the products I’m writing about. Some of my favorites over the years have been chocolate-covered potato chips from out east, dark chocolates fromout west and a spearmint gum from overseas whose flavor lasts longer than my jaw does.

But one of the most unique kits I’ve seen is the do-it-yourself gum kit from Verve, Inc. I came across this company as I worked on a story on gum trends and decided I wanted to do this with my kids.

Verve began in 1995 with these make-your-own kits after Deborah Schimberg made a trip to Guatemala and saw how gum was originally made before synthetic resins came onto the scene. She was very interested in sustainable development for that area through using chicle, the sap from the sapodilla tree, to support the chicleros (those who gather the sap).

“When I brought back a block of chicle, my kids (ages 7 and 9) had such a fun time making gum,” Schimberg said. So the company began marketing these novelty kits and eventually started production of Glee Gum, based on the same recipe as their make-your-own gum kit, which is available at the Olive Leaf Pantry in Fairmont and at Lakewinds Natural Foods in Chanhassen.

There are three make-your-own kits—one for gummies, one for gum and one for chocolate. We had all three. The kids voted on making the chocolate one first. Great choice!

Annika, age 8, helped me take inventory to make sure we had everything in our kit. Then four-year-old Emily helped me melt the cocoa butter in the double boiler (a glass mixing bowl placed on top of a small sauce pan with boiling water in it). Once we combined that with the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, the other girls helped me mix them together. We then re-heated the mixture with three-year-old Megan doing the stirring this time. Then came the hard part—waiting. Once we took the mixture off the stove, we had to wait until the concoction came down to 94 degrees. A tough feat in a hot kitchen. But the kit comes with a really cool little thermometer sticker that you place on the bottom part of the bowl. The 94 degrees glows green when it’s ready for the next step.

While it cooled down, we got the paper candy liners ready—some we filled with a mini-marshmallow, some with almonds and some with a dried cherry, while a few were left empty.

While we waited for the chocolate to cool, we had a chance to try the two cacao (pronounced kuh-kah-oh) beans that were included in the kit. They were horrible. It was like eating coffee beans. There’s a reason I add two ounces of chocolate and 12 ounces of milk to my espresso. I don’t much care for the taste of unadulterated coffee.

When the chocolate got to the proper temperature, I had Megan help stir in the chocolate crystals which would help our new chocolate crystallize as well. This probably wasn’t the best plan; I think we missed our crystallizing window. A three-year-old doesn’t exactly mix fast; however, the chocolate still tasted really yummy.

While we were eating one of our treats, we read some of the information in the kit that told us the history of chocolate, including mention of Montezuma, who was said to drink 50 pitchers a day of xocolatl (pronounced ho-ko-la-tol), a predecessor to our drinking chocolate. As chocolate is a diuretic, I can see why Montezuma’s Revenge was so named.

After chilling the chocolate for 15 minutes, we then filled the candy liners about two-thirds full and ended up with 21 chocolates. They didn’t last 24 hours. The kids’ favorite was the marshmallow which worked out well as Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed the plain, almond and chocolate-cherry ones.

The kits retail for about $13. A discount for educators is available directly from Verve. There’s even a sample lesson plan at http://bit.ly/sentinel11.

Two cautions for doing this project in the evening: 1) Chocolate has caffeine; think about the ramifications of this when allowing your children to taste-test the end product, and 2) make sure the children are well-rested. Mine weren’t. I know, novice mistakes—I’m sure I’ll make them again!

About 26,000 Words

2011-10-01T00:05:00.001-05:00

I'm about two weeks overdue on my blog (I try to post about the 15th of each month), and I'm too tired to think of something clever, pithy or even close to interesting. So I'm cheating. Here are some pics from the last month, mainly. That's all you really want to see anyway, isn't it? Hey, "they" say a pic is worth 1,000 words...

Cute kid quote:
Emily, singing in the shower yesterday: "I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ He calls me Frank." [It should be "He calls me friend."]

Above: Lauren several years ago--wearing an outfit that Meg now fits. Crazy.

Valleyfair this year.

Annika as goalie at our family night at the farm

MMMMMmm. Smores.

Meg's dragon face

Meg's first day of school

Em's first day of school

Last ice cream of the summer at Dairy Freeze

Annika and Lauren's first day of school

Lauren opening some of her presents for her 7th birthday...Sigh. Too old.

Ah, Dick and Jane. Always a classic.

Everyone's got one--crazy Uncle John (at Lauren's birthday party). We love you, John! : )

Em giving Meg bunny ears as we "Make Your Own Chocolate" from a kit by Verve, Inc. The kit costs about $13 and they tie it into information about where they get their ingredients in Costa Rica. Pretty good chocolate, too. More on that next time.

Popcorn on a Stick

2011-08-22T23:15:00.001-05:00

Boredom is contagious; however, so is enthusiasm. A lot of the activities I do with my kids are simple ones, but a lot of their enthusiasm for an activity has to do with my attitude about it. For instance, visiting the dentist.

At this point in my young life, my mouth is more bionic than original. But I want my children to go to the dentist and have the opportunity to manage their oral care better than I have. So my attitude in having them go to the dentist is critical. If I flinch, they’re going to flinch. So I don’t flinch.Much.

Of course, for some activities, my lack of enthusiasm doesn’t seem to dampen theirs. Like getting caught in the rain. The whole “colds/pneumonia/influenza can’t happen to me” mentality is still very much intact for them. We were at the Dairy Freeze one Tuesday, eating our $1 junior ice cream cones, when a sudden downpour began.

The fact Emily was wearing fabric shoes didn’t stop her from jumping into the little puddles that cropped up near our table. Megan, the three-year-old, just took her shoes off. She didn’t want to get her rubbery Croc sandals wet as she stuck most of her body into the steady stream of rainwater coming off the tin roof.
In a break in the storm, we dashed to the truck. We didn’t dash enough.

In our somewhat bedraggled state, we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some necessities, like frozen pizza. As we were turning into the Five Lakes Centre parking lot, I noticed some rather soggy farmers selling their wares at the market. And there was my catch of the day.

At Ken Simmering’s table was something I hadn’t seen before. Popping corn. Seriously, I hadn’t seen it this way before. It was still on the cob. Logically, yes, popcorn has to come from somewhere, but I don’t believe I’ve spent much time pondering its origins. Ken gave me information on how to prepare the corn—put the whole cob in a brown bag, put it in the microwave and hit the “popcorn” button. For us, one ear of corn took about 2:10 to cook in a 1000 watt microwave. It was so cool!

We made it that night as our family watched “America’s Got Talent,” a fairly family-friendly show. A little butter, a little salt. Voila! Happiness in a bowl.

I think Ken has something here. I think he should put his dried corn on a stick and sell it at the Great Minnesota Get-together…popcorn on a stick. If he has any left when we go back to the farmer’s market, I’m getting more. I think this is a great novelty and several siblings and cousins are getting this for Christmas!

Simple? Yes. Exciting? Definitely! Man, I’m so easy to please.

Megan eating the rest of the popcorn on the cob

Some other fun family activities this summer...Kids Bowl Free afternoons

You gotta just love these thigh-highs Em chose to wear on a hot summer day...

The county fair--complete with bounce castle and slide

Leave it up to the 3-year-old to decide to go down head first...

The family photo with "Bumblebee" from Transformers. Pretty much any yellow vehicle is Bumblebee, really, to my kids. We've even seen a Bumblebee motorcycle and firetruck. However, yellow buses are not bumblebee. Notice Emily's pose (you can click the picture to enlarge it)

Can you tell pork is really big down here in Southern Minnesota? Shameless promotion right here.

Waiting on the Lord

2011-08-22T22:38:00.002-05:00

Today I read about one woman's struggle that resonated with me.

When we had the cafe, the finances were always in the red. Because Dan and I felt that God had called us to open the cafe, I naively believed that financial worries would be nil. I'm still not sure what lessons I was supposed to learn. I can only hope I learned what God wanted to teach me so I don't have to go through the same lessons again!

Laura MacCorkle in the story on crosswalk.com said:
I’ve been struggling with an ongoing life situation that has got me journaling and praying and reading and discussing up a storm. I don’t understand what God is doing, and I want answers and a flowchart of how this will all be worked out. Right now.

I want to plan my course and make something happen—move the situation along, if I can, and get the results that I think should be had and on my time schedule.

I can relate to that. How many times did I pray during the most stressful times that God would help me learn my lesson faster so the stress would be over?! And yet, I think the one lesson I most needed to learn was to trust in Him.

Amazingly, when the cafe got an eviction notice, someone came through with the money to pay the back rent--in five figures. Several times we got shut-off notices from the utility company. I even got to know the guy by first name--and he would call us first that morning to let us know he was on his way. He did that so we could get to the bank, make a payment and then show him the receipt when he got there, and he could leave our electricity on.

Over the course of the cafe's six years, I always had cafe stresses, but I ended up stressing less over them. My trust in God's sovereignty grew. I still have bills. I still wish they would be paid now (that instant gratification thing), but I'm s l o w l y learning to take more joy in the journey. Sometimes I have to be reminded, and that's what this devotional and the Bible passage from Psalms did for me. So this is my version of "one generation will commend your works to another." And my way of reminding myself of God's greatness and how worthy He is to be praised.

Psalm 145:3-7
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
His greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
They will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Kid Quotes

2011-08-18T23:50:00.000-05:00

Two quick kid stories to share:

Lauren and Emily love the fatty parts of meat. We discourage it as much as we can, but there's a limit to how much Dan and I can do. What's really bad is that Lauren will sometimes only eat the fat and neglect the meat. After one particular episode, Annika said, "It was like a palace of disgusting meat" in describing the mound of roast Lauren had chewed and then regurgitated back onto her plate. Yeah, I know--TMI.

And we're working on training our children to not eat dinner before a)we pray and b)Dan and I are also seated at the table. Believe it or not, it's working better on the younger children. A few weeks ago, I had this conversation with Megan:

Megan: Mom, can we eat yet since we haven't prayed?
Mom: No, not yet.
Megan then spit out a mouthful of cole slaw onto her plate.

And a pic of Megan's latest musical instrument. If you ask her, I'm sure she'll tell you she's pretty good...

In case you're wondering, it's a teapot.

Summer Lovin'

2011-08-18T23:42:00.000-05:00

This summer, we did have a blast, and this time I took notes so I could remember some of the fun we had.

When we went to the "cabinet" on the lake, we created a lot of memories by taking things slowly and not rushing.

We got to:

watch a turtle bury her eggs
hear Minnesota's state birds, the "balloons"
go fishing for the first time for most of the girls and catch keepers!
see a butterfly land on a rock
be in a boat parade
watch a blue heron
watch seagulls
notice a birdhouse designed like a cabin (apparently even our fowl friends need a getaway)
run into a classmate of mine from Minnetonka High School who I hadn't seen in 21 years--her son was attending the same camp as Annika
go tubing behind a speed boat
dangle our feet in the water
sleep on a top bunk--without railings!
have Meg sleep in a twin bed
see a wall that looked like a cow
drive around Camp Ripley which has entrance gates like a castle--really cool! to which Emily replied, "If we go in there, will we go in the dungeon?"
see ALL of our cousins on both my side and Dan's
celebrate Dan's grandma's 97th birthday party
watch "dance" (ants)
have deep theological discussions

For instance, one conversation I had with Lauren went this way:
Lauren: I can't hear Jesus, but I can see him.
Mom: How can you see him?
Lauren: I have super vision because I'm a fairy, you know.

deer tracks

Meg at Camp Ripley--what a contrast. "Pearls" and a tank...

We also tried to spend money at mom-n-pop shops in Little Falls, but they were all closed. We ended up at the Pizza Ranch.

Lost in Translation

2011-08-18T23:00:00.001-05:00

Before I became a mother, I remember listening to youngsters only to look at their parents with that lost look on my face. I was being attentive, yet I had no idea what the youngun had just said to me.

Now, as a parent, I've become the translator. What's funny is that even though you can understand every word my three-year-old is saying, you still may not have any idea what Megan just said.

For example:
Mom: What shoes are you going, to wear?
Megan: My beautiful shoes.
Mom: I don't think those will work so well for the water park.
Megan: I'll get my tapping shoes.

And the tapping shoes will work just fine for the water. Why? Because these are not necessarily straight descriptions of these shoes; these seem to be the actual names for these shoes. These shoes are always described exactly the same way. What's great about being able to spend so much time with my girls is that I know exactly what Megan is talking about. Not that I'm not driven to madness (in more than one way), but being a Mom is great fun.

the beautiful shoes

the tapping shoes (because of their sound when walking)

the coconut shoes
(so named by Emily because she misheard the words 'polka dot' shoes)

Surgery #1 and #2

2011-07-16T00:11:00.000-05:00

In June, I had surgery to remove a small cyst, a complication of my last c-section. I let a few people know about it way ahead of time, including the dear woman at our church who coordinates meals. I asked for one week's worth of dinners while I recovered. We got two weeks.

Food always tastes better when someone else makes it; and these were grand. I don't think our family has ever had so many desserts in a 14-day period! We also got some good ideas for future recipes. We were so blessed by those who shared their gifts of hospitality.

Before my surgery, two of the women from church also came by to pray for me. I was the recipient of the first shawl from the newly formed prayer shawl ministry at church. That's pretty cool. Of course, I like being first at anything, which doesn't happen often since I'm not very athletic. But this was pretty special, and I feel the prayers of these women and the many others who lifted me up really helped since I wasn't very nervous before the surgery, unusual for me.

Two weeks later, it was Lauren's turn. She had to have her adenoids out; since her tonsils would probably have to come out at some point, too, we decided to do it all at once since Lauren has such a fear of all things medical.

Lauren hates needles. When she had to get her last immunization for kindergarten, it took about three of us to hold her down. This time, she was much braver. It only took one nurse to hold her arm as Lauren sat on my lap as the phlebotomist drew blood for her pre-op appointment.

Before her surgery, she asked Dan if people at church could pray for her. So, the Sunday before, her name was added to the prayer request list. And on Monday, two ladies from church brought her her very own Lauren-sized prayer shawl. The women prayed for Lauren as did Dan and I.

Lauren went into surgery with some nervousness, but not too much. She went to the surgery in her pajamas and slippers carrying her stuffed dog and prayer shawl.

We're now both fully recovered and very grateful that so many cared for us enough to lift us up to the Heavenly Father.

Some fun thoughts

2011-07-15T23:58:00.000-05:00

Spending time together in an unhurried setting allows more time to just observe. So here are a few observations...

1. Megan's newest cell phone is made from three lego pieces. I have no idea how good the reception is; she seems happy with it.
2. Tonight, she fell asleep with her sunglasses on. Good ol' girl of the 1980s..." I wear my sunglasses at night..."
3. I think it was yesterday when Megan approached Dan and said, "Daddy, can I play the chicken game on your iPod?" Dan wasn't sure what she was talking about, so she expounded. "The green chickens, the red chickens." Ah, Angry Birds...
4. While on vacation, Dan and I heard a lot of new jargon:
     squirrel--as it relates to ice cream--it means "swirl" (Emily)
     cabinet--where one stays on vacation (Emily)
     balloons--those pretty Minnesota birds (Megan)
5. Lauren's voice has changed since her surgery. It's now higher-pitched and a tad more nasally--ironic, I think, since her nasal passage is supposed to be more open.
6. Megan is always ready with a song. Often she serenades us while on car rides.
7. Lauren is content to fish for hours, even when not catching anything.
8. Annika, however, is much less patient. She hates fishing when not catching keepers and hates shopping if she can't buy.
9. Megan's latest meltdown was tonight at bedtime--when Dan wouldn't let her continue chewing her gum while in bed. This after we had to cut a chunk of her hair to extract the last piece...
10. All four girls are daddy's girls, but after getting to spend more time concentrating on them and not tasks to be done while at the "cabinet," I think I've carved a bit more of a niche where they are a little more mommy's girls.

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation 2011, part deux

2011-07-15T23:28:00.000-05:00

We learned last year that driving up and back to Lake Beauty twice within 48 hours is a lot of driving--16 hours, to be exact. And this year we decided to take a more relaxed pace when driving Annika to the two-day camp for first and second graders. So we rented a cabin for the other five of us to R&R while Annika was busy at camp getting hives from a heretofore unknown allergy to horses.

Woodticks aside, we had a wonderful time. We put together a 100 piece puzzle, shared internet from an unknown neighbor, did some swimming, a lot of fishing...our first full day there, we were able to eat surf and turf for dinner since we had enough "keepers" of pan fish and had brought up some steak.

Dan and I even watched 1.5 movies together.

It was low-key, quiet, peaceful, restorative. I loved it. For us, it was a perfect family getaway.

The family we rented from, the Olsons, attend church at another Covenant church. We heard about them from a mutual friend. The Olsons bought the cabin which is directly next door to the wife's parents' cabin so we had a chance to get to know them, the Christiansens. Ah, good Swedish names. Good Covenant names. It was fun--it was like we had connections there before we ever got there. They even let Annika and Lauren help clean the paddleboat and ride around in it.

Since we were so close to Brainerd, we had to see Paul Bunyan and Babe. We also made a side trip to Camp Ripley, which is where the National Guardsmen down in Fairmont do their two-week training. We stopped there because those guys/gals will be deployed to Kuwait in the next few weeks for about a year.

Spotting deer tracks...

Emily catching her first fish...

This is a traditional dustpan in the northwoods...

At Camp Ripley...with her beads and smile while carrying her "slip-slops,"

Meg seems the poster child for "Make Love, Not War"

Lauren was totally Daddy's fishing buddy.

On our last morning there, I was able to catch this shot of the

mama and baby loon which had provided us with night music all week.

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation 2011, part one

2011-07-15T22:55:00.000-05:00

After a few family surgeries in June (like Lauren, below, preparing to have her tonsils and adenoids removed),

we left on a family vacation to the great Northwest...well, north, anyway. First stop was the Twin Cities. We needed to help celebrate the 97th birthday of Dan's Grandma Margaret. The whole Wheeler family was there--Dan's parents, us, and Dan's brother's family--along with Dan's aunt and her daughter and, of course, the family matriarch, Margaret. Between Dan and Todd, there are eight grandkids--seven girls, one boy, ages 3-11. So there was a lot of whizzing by on wheeled vehicles on the circle that goes in front of the house to the sidewalk...

this is Lauren wearing her sensible espadrilles as she razors around the house...

Dan and his grandma

Farmer Lauren giving a ride to precious cargo...

look closely and you'll see Todd's name on the front of the tractor

Emily

Annika in her party dress

Uncle Todd reading a recent letter to Grandma from a Swedish relative

Lauren chillaxing

Little Megan in her big chair

And, then, on Independence Day, we gathered my side of the family at my sister's home on the lake. A fun time was had by all, even Lauren who was able to ride on an "ergonomically designed" tube which is slightly less violent than a regular tube. So, within one week, our kids saw all of our aunts, uncles and cousins (although they missed out on Uncle John and Aunt Cassie who will have to make it up to them somehow : ))

Annika, Cousin Raegan and Lauren

Emily--some say she looks like me at that age...

Lauren and the gang readying for the boat parade on July 4

Cousin Ethan navigating his boat...

Megan

Emily and Gabe

Gaby Baby--is this an impressive pout, or what?

Lauren and her very large rubber ducky

Annika, Raegan and Brody on the "ergonomic" tube

Captain Lauren

We then headed up to Long Prairie to drop Annika off at her two days of overnight camping at Lake Beauty. Instead of making the four-hour drive back home, we rented a cabin on nearby Lake Alexander and enjoyed some time away...ah, but that's another blog post.

School Ends, Field Trips Begin

2011-07-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

We had a few fun field trips in June:

a trip to the Jago farm to see Mary and Maynard. We ended up helping feed their cattle. Ironically, we have a quarter-cow in our freezer from some of these calves predecessors...

we were able to pick a ton of strawberries from a patch in some friends' back yard...and had more than we could possibly eat in a few days. So we made some strawberry freezer jam. Annika helped mash the strawberries with a potato masher and Lauren accurately measured the required amounts of sugar.

we packed up our lunch bags (I packed my metal Nancy Drew lunchbox, too) and took the Martin County shuttle to the Red Rock Center where we heard some of the youth from our church play the music for Lunch with the Arts at the end of the month. This is us waiting for the bus to come.

Scary but True Stories

2011-07-07T01:10:00.000-05:00

There's a horror niche that Hollywood, for some unexplained reason, has left untouched. Vampires don't make grown men wake up with night terrors, check their shadows or feel uneasy in their own skin. Woodticks do.

As we're on vacation (and stealing wi-fi from some unknown neighbor of our rented cottage), we've been enjoying the great weather and far-off-ness from the world. So today we went for a walk. Unbeknownst to me, I must have walked through a veritable haven for ticks, Minnesota's unofficial official pest. (What do you get when you cross the Minnesota state bird with the Minnesota state bug?--a Loon-a-tick)

I found the first one on my arm just after our walk. It didn't occur to me to look for others.

As I climbed into bed tonight, about an hour ago, Dan turned the lights off and I put my hand on my leg. I quickly closed my eyes and told Dan to turn on the light so he could get a bug off me. He turned the light on; I kept my eyes closed. It's another of my defense mechanisms--If I don't see it, maybe it hasn't really happened. The whole Doubting Thomas syndrome isn't always a bad thing, especially in relation to woodticks on my person.

After Dan took care of that one, a more thorough investigation led to the discovery of one more on the back of my knee. I'm pretty sure after removal of that one, which required matches, Dan had the heebie jeebies himself.

See? You're not even here, and I bet your skin is crawling, especially if you've been outside at all today. Be afraid; be very afraid.

Random but Fun

2011-06-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

While it appears first, this is the last of my marathon of blog posts! I decided to do shorter posts instead of packing everything into one too-long post.

Back in May, our church hosted an all-ladies tea. It was all ladies because the men were needed to do the serving and clean-up! Great plan!

As part of the event, a group of ladies participated in the General Store Fashion Show. Here are some of my faves with a brief description. You can probably double-click on each photo if you want to see it enlarged.

Cathie, in her all-cotton dress (complete with cotton balls)

Kirsten in her box dress and literally topped off with a pill-box hat.


Jayne in her seer-sucker outfit

And some of the good sports who served us--Pat

Bob

Roger

The girls doing their own fashion show after

All of us at the Ladies Tea (Dan took photos and watched Meg...)

The Mother's Day cake that Dan made for me--Em and Meg chose strawberry

Blackmail photos and disclaimer--Lauren dressed herself


as did Emily...

And here's for the really random...Read both headlines

I have it from a good authority that the Granny Bandit is NOT my mother. These two were headlines in our local newspaper somewhat recently...

The World as my Canvas

2011-06-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

The girls have greatly expanded their sidewalk chalk art renderings and have found a new canvas as well--our neighbor's driveway. As you can see by scale, these drawings are quite large--bigger than Emily. Lauren's is obviously a rainbow. Annika's was inspired by one of the suns in Disney's Tangled.

One of the benefits of having all girls--and having the first set and second set about the same ages apart (Annika and Lauren=16 months, Emily and Megan=just under 1 year) is the fact that the second set wear the same sizes at the same time, just like the first set. See below.

I'm currently working on a story for a candy magazine. One of the companies I interviewed for the story, Hammond Candies in Denver, sent me some really cool "samples" of their products which include ribbon candy, chocolate turtle-like Piggybacks and seriously neat handmade lollipops. We decided to have fun with these so the Wheeler girls did the photo shoot at Heritage Acres in Fairmont. Here are some of my favorites.

Quick Trip to Near-ChiTown

2011-06-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

This last week, our entire fam made a quick trip to Arlington Heights to visit my aunt, uncle, two doggies and my cousins Judy and Vicky. We left Wednesday from Rochester after Megan's appointment for her diabetes (everything is just fine, thank you. We just have to break her of her 'grazing.') and spent the night in Wisconsin Dells at the Polynesian because of their waterpark and it's half-way-ness to our final destination. We had a good time in the pool, but will probably try another resort next time.

We did drive around the Dells to see what we could see. Below is a rather interesting architectural wonder--the White House upside down. We did not do the attraction inside; six times the cost gets expensive fast. Leslie Lencioni, we took this pic just for you!

Thursday was a low-key time at my Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian's house. It took Megan awhile to warm up to their two tiny dogs, but by the end of the trip she was saying, "She's my friend and she's my friend" to Lucy and Jennie (I think they're Bichons...there's a pic down below).

That night, we had a regular dinner party with Vicky, her boyfriend Jean-Charles (who I accidentally called Jean-Claude--too much VeggieTales, I tell you!), and some of his relatives who were visiting from France. The girls pretty much kidnapped JC's cousin Chlamos and hid her in the "French room" at the house where they were educating her on the English names for various animals. Poor girl.

Friday was spent at the park and Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a great time! It's still strange to see Chuck E. Cheese offer Miller, Miller Lite, Red Wine and Chablis on tap. I can only imagine how good it is.

Cousin Judy with a few of the girls

Me in "the clubhouse" which apparently is nicknamed "Tre's Hood" (as noted in etchings above the Club House)

Annika

Emily

Monkey Megan who got up there by herself


Some really pretty blossoms on Aunt Rosalie's plant

Kid quotes:

"It's the human mushrooms," says Emily, talking about garden gnomes from Gnomeo and Juliet
"My toes are hiding," says Megan as she walks around in her slippers.
"See? They're sparkles," says Megan about her many concrete-caused scabs on her knees.

Annika's Birthday Parties...Plural

2011-06-14T02:09:00.000-05:00

Annika kind of had four birthday celebrations this year. The first was with her classmates on June 2 when they trooped down from school to celebrate her birthday and the freedom that comes with the end of the school year. After school, Annika opened her presents with just the family and before Dan went back to work after the class root beer party.

After that, we then drove to our friend Mary's house because Emily and Megan felt left out--Lauren's class had gone to a farm earlier that day and Emily knew about it. Annika had requested brownies for her birthday dessert--with chocolate chip chunks--so we brought some of our treats with to Mary's--not knowing Mary had another friend of ours (Amber) and her mother, daughter and granddaughters. Presto! Instant party! Which also explains why some of the brownies are missing as Annika blows out her candles.

The last day of school, June 3, is when Annika had her real birthday celebration with friends--rather, I should say "formal" celebration. Annika wanted a full-blown tea party. She hand wrote her invitations inviting the girls to wear their best dresses. She invited six girls and her teacher, Miss Wubben. We even were blessed with two additional girls. This is where the training I received working in junior high ministry comes in handy--I'm much better prepared to fly by the seat of my pants!

High tea included orange sherbet for round one, finger sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly...), cream puffs, and fillo cups filled with cream cheese/powder sugar frosting and raspberries. We had enough tea cups for everyone and tea (with cream and three lumps of sugar) and hot chocolate. Emily, Megan, Lauren and our neighbor Nena had their own table in the living room. Unfortunately, this means Megan was not completely supervised at all times. And took about 22 lumps of sugar in her tea. Fortunately, she didn't drink the sludge.

Some of the comments heard? "This is the best tea party I've ever been to. I've never been to one before."

Weirdest thing to happen? I didn't think about the fact lemon and raspberry teas might curdle the cream. Oops. Yes, dear, I can see why your tea doesn't taste very good.

Megan getting ready to help make the brownies.

Annika displaying her new dress from Papa and Grandma Wheeler--she wore it to her tea party the next day.

And the jacket from Grandma Barb

I just like the look on her face. She already has been sunkissed--so early in the season.

Bargain of the century: this pink bow is around $60 at our local sporting goods store. We don't usually spend that much on single birthday presents. However, one or two weeks before her birthday, one of our neighbors was having a garage sale. Her granddaughter had outgrown her pink bow. Price? $5. Annika's joy? Priceless.

All of the girls who attended the tea party were thrilled when their teacher Miss Wubben was able to make it. We were thrilled because we invited her to stay for dinner and she did! It wasn't delivery. It was DiGiorno's. You gotta love a teacher who is willing to stay for frozen pizza.

On Your Mark, Get Set...

2011-06-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

Of course, the last few weeks of school wouldn't be complete without the advent of Field Daze. However, unlike my upbringing, Field Daze at Annika and Lauren's school isn't an individual competition, which is good. My kids would probably do as well as I did in the long jump--took the fifth place ribbon. Out of five competitors.

The kids have a few different stations and all of the kids in one grade are on the field at the same time. Fortunately for us, Lauren's group was first and Annika's second with the third group (first graders) going after lunch so we could just stay. Dan was also able to attend which is fun, too! I appreciate the sometimes-flexibility of his job.

The stations consisted of things like jump-rope relays, three-legged races, tug-of-war and water games, of course. During the three-legged race, I was even able to participate since one of Annika's classmates needed a partner. That was fun. The girl, Ashley, is one of Annika's closest friends in school.

So here are a few pics of that day...and, no, Lauren's pink leggings will never be the same again.

Hazy, Lazy Almost Days of Summer

2011-06-14T01:35:00.000-05:00

I feel pretty privileged to work less than full-time (when I remember to put up work boundaries) from home. This lets me do things like volunteer in Annika and Lauren's classrooms every so often. At the end of the year, I chaperoned the second graders' trip to the zoo in Sioux Falls, S.D. Yep, that's a four-hour round trip.

I was given five kids I knew fairly well which is nice, but also a challenge depending on the attention-deficit or defiant nature of the child. But all the animals made it out of the zoo just fine. And I did have fun with them, although we did have to run through the zoo to see it all.

We also got to go to the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. While all of the students were fascinated by the hundreds of beautiful butterflies there, several also were a little freaked out by the bigger blue butterflies, which are about the size of my hand. Annika was bummed she didn't get "kissed" by a butterfly landing on her.

They also had an aquarium there; yep, that's me taking pictures of the brightly colored fake coral. Goes along with that infantile fascination with color, I guess, but a tad embarrassing. Got a nice shot of Nemo and Dori though.

The next day, June 2, was almost the last day of school and Annika's class came to our house after lunch for root beer floats. We live about 10 houses down from the school so it's a quick walk and it was a nice day. While we would have done this anyway, I think Annika thought it was extra-special to celebrate her birthday this way. Fortunately, the 21 students and Miss Wubben could hang outside in our very large backyard. I think I enjoyed it just as much as Annika. I feel very blessed that we can welcome people into our home this way--and kids this age rarely care how clean your house isn't.

The kids also were great with Emily and Megan and allowed them to play Duck, Duck, Gray Duck (this is Minnesota, eh!) with them.

Kid quotes:
"They were so good, let me tell ya...they were amazing!" -- Lauren
"I'm wearing slip-slops." --Megan, on her orange flip-flops

Von Wheeler Family Debut

2011-05-15T00:19:00.000-05:00

We didn't go too far from home this month, but we had several people visit us.

The Thursday before Easter was Grandparents Day at Annika and Lauren's school. We were blessed enough to have FOUR grandparents there. Dan's parents, my mom and my dad's mom made the trek from the Twin Cities in order to see short singing programs put on by the various grades and sit in too-short chairs. After, we smuggled the two girls out of school and to the Pizza Ranch. They returned to school just in time to have one hour left of the school day before a four day weekend!

While my mother-in-law was here she had mentioned something about dying Easter eggs with the skins of onions. I had never heard this before and the idea intrigued me. So, with the single yellow onion skin I had, I wrapped the egg in the skin, then wrapped it in tinfoil, then boiled it with the other eggs before dying them. You're supposed to use cheesecloth. However, I don't know what that is. Tinfoil seemed to work okay and it was kind of fun!

For Palm Sunday at church, the liturgical dance group Sacred Steps did a song. Later that week, my girls, along with a neighbor girl, decided to re-enact part of that song!

My dad and his wife also stopped by on their way back from Arizona from the winter. We finally got to meet their dog Sophie (much smaller than our former Sophie!). The girls also had fun checking out their 29 foot travel trailer!

Apparently, I left out all about Dan's 38th birthday last month. The girls made their very own streamers for him! Very creative! They also gave him some Darth Vader dark roast coffee, a work mug from Dunder Mifflin, and I can't remember what else. But a good time was had by all. We had dinner in our pajamas for some reason.

We also had family portraits taken. The ones with Dan and I in them apparently didn't work so well--something about breaking the lens. However, the ones with the girls were very fun! Derrick Hautamaki (Upper Peninsula) took them in Minnesota just before Mother's Day, so you can guess what the mas and grandmas got! We have more of these, but I have yet to download them (and don't want to do it tonight at 12:15 a.m.!)

Emily, Lauren and Annika made their singing debut recently at our church's annual Ladies brunch event, usually held around Mother's Day.

Seriously?

2011-04-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

Lauren got glasses this month. Nine days ago to be exact.

She had complained of having headaches in school. So, through a process of elimination, she had allergy testing, an eye exam, and soon an appointment with an ENT. She's highly allergic to something, but we're not sure what. The tests we did on her shows she's not allergic to the basics like dust, mold, certain grasses or dairy, egg, flour. But she's off the chart for something.

Then at her eye appointment, the optometrist said Lauren's eyes have a hard time focusing quickly from far to near to far--something you do often in a classroom when looking at the teacher and then looking down at your paper. The optometrist recommended a low prescription for glasses. So we got them last Thursday. Today she broke them.

Lauren was busy showing Megan how they bend in the middle. They are a hard plastic frame. They don't bend. Obviously. Alas, there is a one-year warranty so "if they break for any reason" they should be covered. Honestly, this is really not something that should be covered. But it is definitely "for any reason."

We picked up the glasses on a Thursday night just before driving up to Minneapolis to help my Gramma Pat (my dad's mom) move back to Minnesota after a long hiatus in Illinois. After my sister-in-law Jessica and I put the kitchen together as much as we could, we along with Gramma decided she needed one more cabinet in the kitchen for her microwave and other kitchen items that still needed to be stored. That of course meant a trip to Ikea! A good time was had by all.

Then, on our return trip, Emily and Megan stayed at Gramma Barb's house for the week. I'm not sure what all they did, but Emily said, "Can we stay there longer next time?" Hmm. So much for separation anxiety.

For me, it was nice to be able to work Monday-Thursday on projects I needed to get off my desk. Apparently I overcommit. And the house was definitely a lot quieter. We didn't miss the whining and fighting that seems to have reappeared in our home overnight. They'll grow out of it, right?

This month, we also celebrated the birth of another cousin, Olivia Rose.

We also celebrated the artistic abilities of Annika and Lauren at their annual school art show. These are all seen below.

Kid quotes:
Pupcakes--what Megan wanted more of at Dan's birthday (cupcakes)

"I slipped. Good thing I didn't plop. Plops hurt." Lauren

"Somebody made a clock that runs on lemonade and water--no electrocution!" Lauren

Lauren next to her doggy statue

Lauren's tissue paper art is above her head

Annika's jaguar is beside her. You can see her signature.

Annika's still life

Annika's pottery--it's a clown.

Looking at backyard furniture at Menard's

Kicking back at the Menard's showroom

We let our children dress themselves...

Our kitchen furniture being used as the foundation for a fort...

So this is how they improvised for lunch dining.

The littlest princess

Winter Flurries

2011-03-12T22:42:00.002-06:00

It doesn't seem we've been outdoors and doing much in the last month. The second biggest news is we got a dog. And, then, after six days, we had to give her back.

The plan was to keep this gorgeous German Shepherd forever, but Sophie wasn't well socialized, and we just have too many people coming and going. She would bark loudly, scare kindergarteners, jump up on other adults and make Megan run the other direction. Somebody had to go; it was either Megan or the dog.

During most of Sophie's stay, Dan had been up in the Twin Cities with his parents. His dad suffered a second round of heart attacks after snowblowing after one of our numerous winter storms this year. Jud had suffered the attack Sunday around 4pm. We found out about 9pm and Jud still hadn't gone to the ER. Finally, he allowed the paramedics to be called to check him out. After the ambulance came, the medics hooked Jud up to a monitor and discovered he was having a second heart attack right then.[Jud had a heart attack in June 2008 while we were living in Chicago.]

Dan left our house around 11pm that night; we didn't tell his mom until he was closer to their house. The roads were horrible and she didn't need more to worry about. He was there until Wednesday.

Jud ended up having some at least one stent put in that night. He's doing well and back home, hopefully taking it easy. That alone is a reason for us to be glad we're back in Minnesota. That was the first biggest news of this month.

Somehow, the message got around town here that it was Dan that had the heart attack. Ah, rumors...

So this 2-year-old doggie was a nice comfort to me and a good heating blanket in our basement as I watched b-rate movies. Annika and I are saddest at her leaving.

On Valentine's Day, Annika and her classmates went ice skating. Dan and I both chaperoned. I haven't been on skates in years. Wow, do your legs get tired quickly! I was glad when the hour or so was up! Annika did well, first with a "walker" and then on her own. Now, of course, she wants to take lessons--she always wants to take up things after experiencing them once. However, I don't know how long she would actually stay with these things.

A nice pic of Annika--not sure which of her sisters took this...

Pics by Emily again...she has a fascination with her feet

If you do read this, please post so I have an idea of whether anyone is reading. Thanks!

Kid quotes:
Fake sauce (what Emily calls A1--steak sauce)

"That floor is all gurgly!" Lauren exclaimed about our downstairs toilet room floor. I asked that that meant since she usually has her own definition for things. "I don't know," she said. "But the floor is disgusting."

"I'm going to be five my next birthday," Emily said. "And then six and seven."
"Stop!" Annika, age 7, replied. "It's so weird to hear little kids talk about growing up."

February's Post--A Multimedia Extravaganza

2011-02-14T11:31:00.000-06:00

Megan

Megan who got hold of her mother's swim goggles...She put them on by herself, too.

Megan opening her gifts with help on her third birthday.

Emily stealing Mom's camera again and taking a picture of the giant...

Meg talking on the phone to Gramma Barb on Meg's birthday. She's getting so big...

Annika and Lauren at the playground as we celebrated my, Em and Meg's birthdays.

Cousin Ethan playing at the indoor park, too.

It's a medical clinic theme...he's at the bottom of the giant bandaid slide.

Even my Uncle Lou from near St. Louis, Mo. made it to my party! Thanks, Uncle Lou!

My brother John and his wife Cassie at the party

Becky and new baby Lucas

Me trying to see what bubbles do in below freezing temps. Basically, they don't pop.

They kind of slowly deflate.

Emily opening her gifts on her birthday. We had some extra friends staying the night as they moved from North Park Seminary to the West Coast so it was a BIG party!

The friends...

And more of The Friends...

Annika and I got to see two meets of the Martin County area Magic--the women's gymnastics team. So fun! Here Annika is pictured with a lot of them. The team took the conference!

Here is my team for the 2011 Cystic Fibrosis Climb-a-thon.

This is where insane people climb 1,280 stairs voluntarily as a fundraiser to help educate and research a cure for CF. I hadn't done this since I was a teenager. I worked out for about a month to complete this. I did it, though! Took me about 45 minutes. As I made it to the first rest stop on floor 8, there was a guy laying on the floor with a trainer or paramedic helping him. Not a good sign! However, he had been on his eleventh trip up the stairs. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

The big news for this month, however, is probably the fact that Emily got her hair cut. Seriously. Note the pony tails? She had 10 inches cut and I'll be mailing the hair to Locks of Love. They make wigs for kids who have lost their hair.

So, before...

After.

It takes some getting used to. It's a cute cut, but short!

Dan was at a conference for the Covenant church earlier this month. I took this video to send to him, but never quite got to it. Emily singing a repertoire...

Oh, Look! A Squirrel!

2011-01-16T00:25:00.000-06:00

Amazingly, I have a hard time remembering what has happened in the four weeks between blog posts. And then I get … Oh, look! A squirrel…

My distraction this time is the statistics of who views this blog. My intended audience is family and friends who want to see my adorable children grow through pictures while showcasing my incredible writing talent. (Man, I just crack myself up!)

Knowing that our blog is on a Google-owned platform, I figured they had to have analytics. It seems that of the more than 700 page views, most were from those in the US. Not a surprise. What is a surprise is that 22 people were in Russia, nine were in Germany, eight were in Latvia, et cetera. I guess what’s terrifying is that Russia and Germany are two of the leading countries for illicit internet activity—in other words, a lot of people there steal online identities, passwords, plant bad software. You get the picture.

Of our viewers, three-fourths used Internet Explorer. I didn’t realize people still used that. Only seven percent used Firefox which is how I browse. One person even used their BlackBerry 8700. Thirteen percent use Mac. One person used their iPhone. There’s a lot of information there…should you be afraid of Big Brother? Probably.

Anyway, back to my original line of thought. I do remember what we’ve done the last few weeks mainly because it involves lots of sickness. During Christmas I “caught” three different ailments. I usually get sick when I finally slow down. However, what we’re dealing with now is Megan’s sickness. For the last week, she’s thrown up once a day. She doesn’t act sick, although she hasn’t been eating as well as usual. We finally took her to the doctor. We’re hoping it’s only a temporary stomach ailment made worse by dairy and greasy foods. We’re avoiding those for a few weeks and hoping for a good report.

This month also means our family celebrates three birthdays: mine, Megan’s and Emily’s. The older I get, the more I like my birthday. It’s a day to take a personal national holiday and do what I want to, which I enjoy! And it gives me a chance to be the center of attention for a little while.

For work, I’ve picked up a few new gigs. One of them is posting tweets on Twitter for two different companies. I’ve been doing one for over a year now and I just picked up a second account. I don’t know if there’s money in Twitter for businesses, but there is for me! It’s fun and I learn a lot—I keep up with current events and find a lot of resources that people post links to. Recently, I’ve viewed a 3D human body on yahoo, watched a video on how marketing portrays women and its impact on society, and kept up with all of the various playoffs! Go Seahawks!

I also began working as executive secretary to the local chapter of Dollars for Scholars. Still learning the ropes. Spring will be crazy as their application deadline for scholarships is April 1.

As for my kids, it’s fascinating still to watch them. Kindergarten is a good age. Lauren invited all of her classmates to my birthday party…

Megan has two big phrases right now: “Mom, hear me!”when she wants attention and acknowledgement, and “Knock it off!” Hm. Wonder where she got that one.

Annika is quite the reader in second grade. One of my favorite times is when I go to her school and spend some time volunteering with her classmates and Lauren’s mates with reading. I get a great reception from the two girls—something to do with being out of context, I think.

Emily is still a little peanut—wearing 3T as she moves into her fourth birthday. I think she’ll be the one with the quotable quotes soon. Stay posted.

Christmas program at church

Annika's a sheep for the church program

Enjoying our tea at the Chubb House--ironically, they called it a tea, but only served coffee and cider!

Lauren with the gingerbread house Dan helped her make at school.

Our car in one of our many snowstorms...

Emily and Megan's program at school/daycare for Christmas. Meg sporting the antlers...

Following is a series--I got a new point-and-shoot camera for Christmas.

Emily steals it. These are her works...

Just a nice shot of Em

The cousins and friend at a playdate at Aunt Becky's house. They were doing this on their own. Their uncle just happened by and snapped the shot on his phone.

December Update...

2010-12-17T00:58:00.005-06:00

It's one in the stinking morning, but I'm feeling guilty for not updating. So here is my update in pictures...they say a pic is worth 1,000 words. You can do the math!

This is Lauren in her school Christmas program.

If you look reallly carefully, you can find Annika in this pic for her school Christmas program.

Emily as our little Irish dancer (the dress is 2T; Em will be 4 in January)

I was in Rochester by myself. Dan was speaking at a retreat and I got to hear him. I stayed somewhere else. During my free time, I took pics of random things I thought were cool.

Us taking pictures in an attempt to get one for the Christmas card. If you want one from us, let me know.

Three of the girls with my mom's mom, Dawn. Megan got sick just before this trip up to the Twin Cities so she stayed home with Dan. Also pictured are my mom's brother Steve and his wife Karen.

We have a Glows parade here in Fairmont...here are a couple of the floats you would only see in an ag town!

Our "blended" Christmas with my dad, his wife Andrea and her daughter Alia and family.

Annika, Lauren, Emily and I went to a tea at a restored historic home in Fairmont. The preservation association does them every so often. Ironically, they only offered coffee and cider. The first pic Lauren took. Of course, we wore our hats.

October is History Month--for the Wheelers, Anyway

2010-11-01T23:01:00.006-05:00

October seemed to be History Month for the Wheeler family. We had the chance to hit a lot of events with re-enactors and had a lot of fun doing it! Here are some pics with explanations...

Antique harvesting demo at Heritage Acres

Our tour at the Fairmont Fire Dept.

Old-time school bus with 1 HP

Lauren, Emily and Annika on stage at church singing "Davey, Davey"

Megan's pumpkin

Dan carved Annika's pumpkin (Snow White) and Lauren's (Night bird). Very nice!

Grinnin' fool, Megan

Chubby Cheeks!

The Wheeler version of the Disney princesses: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle.

Me, Annika and Lauren sporting our very fashionable hats at the James J. Hill mansion in St. Paul.

Part of the little train, pulled by tractor, at Heritage Acres in Fairmont, Minn.

Aren't you lucky?

2010-10-10T21:58:00.005-05:00

What? Another post from me? So soon? Okay...a few pics.

I excused Annika and Lauren from school on Friday and we drove to Mankato for HistoryFest--a sort of hodge-podge of era re-enactments. Abraham Lincoln and some Civil War soldiers were there shooting off muskets and a cannon (with one live round). They were a bit down from the Vikings (era 1100?).

The girls with Abe Lincoln (Bryce Stenzel who has been a re-enactor for 21 years--and lives near a friend of mine in St. Clair, Minn).

Why, yes, I do let my children play with very large knives...

After visiting the Vikings and learning about their weapons, seeing their method of getting wool ready to spin and defining "trencher" (because that is very practical knowledge if they ever grow up to read period romance novels), we continued on, jumping ahead to about 1800s era Texas.

Who knew that cowboys came about as one effect from the Civil War? The cattle had been roaming free while everyone was busy fighting battles and needed someone to get them to railheads.

Lauren roping a steer...

They had Cookie there, some pieces from a trapper, a blacksmith and a cowboy cracking his whip and helping the kids do it, too.

The cowboy helping Megan crack the whip...

Walking across the field from Texas, we stopped in 1600s era Scotland. We got to see men and women fighting in different types of armor. They also had armor the girls could try on--kid-size! But very heavy chain mail. Pictured here also is the armor a horse would have worn. Looks very dragon-like. We also saw a demonstration on how the chainmail was created. Very work intensive!

We also caught a very brief glimpse of about 1912 in Mankato--the town is where author Maud Hart Lovelace grew up. She wrote the Betsy-Tacy books I loved. Here are Annika and Lauren behind the stand...Lauren is in the Betsy spot, Annika is Tacy, and Emily (too short!) is Tib...

General cute picture from the day. The girls dressed up in period dresses and aprons--well, as close as we could get. They got a lot of attention!

The next night, Annika, Lauren and I attended a Pioneer Stew night at an 1867 home (The Chubb House) here in Fairmont. We then got a tour of the home. Dinner was yummy: homemade stew, homemade bread (3 types), homemade applesauce, candied beets and cucumbers and homemade chocolate brownie in homemade caramel sauce. Annika again dressed up, and I wore my pioneer bonnet...No, I would not have done that a few years ago. Probably wouldn't have done it Saturday either if Annika hadn't asked me--and I want them to be freer spirits as they grow up. So I had to pretend I was a free spirit, too. No pics from that one!

Everything Old is New Again

2010-10-06T22:27:00.003-05:00

(This was one of the columns I wrote for our local paper.)

If you want to add a little spark to your own history, which you might think a bit hum-drum, see it through the eyes of a child.

Our seven-year-old had been begging for the outing all summer, and two days before school began, we finally got to it: a trip to the Pioneer Museum.

Annika had been there during school last year but wanted to go again and show us everything she had learned. I love history so it wasn’t really twisting my arm to go.

So we packed the mini-van with one mom, four small daughters and one stroller, and off we went.

As we walked up to the museum, I noticed the stained glass windows, granite columns and cornerstone dated 1903 from the original Carnegie library in town that once stood where the current library is. While I wish the original building still stood, I am glad parts of it still remain in town. The girls were not quite as fascinated as I.

However, as we entered the lobby and saw the photo collection of homes in the area, they were more interested as we saw one of 310 Woodland Avenue, a home we had toured last year when it was for sale, and we were planning a move to Fairmont. It’s a beautiful home (made even more stunning lately by the current owners) with great dark wood throughout. It was fun to learn that home had been the carriage house for the Wohlheter mansion next door before being moved and added onto.

Past those pictures and the rock and roll memorabilia, including the swamp monster poster, we found the Pioneer Room with toys from that era and a very small bed for the parents. My highlight was explaining how the icebox worked. Annika’s highlight was the large ostrich egg around the corner.

As we entered the Brodt room with the information on Fairmont Railway Motors, my five-year-old noticed the rotary dial phone on a table connected to the wall. It was the first thing she spied. She stopped, excited and exclaimed, “Mom, look! A really old cell phone!”

Annika found it amazing that all wedding dresses were not white as we toured the Welcome Room and saw a dark dress that had been worn by Mrs. August Filberg in 1885 for her nuptials. I am fascinated, and want to learn more, about Fairmont resident and active historical society member Mrs. Brodt who attended Ike Eisenhower’s inaugural ball in a gown now at the museum.

In the Carlson room in the basement, we saw a 1923 American LaFrance fire truck. Because the girls’ grandfather is a retired Minneapolis firefighter, this was a great find, along with the body basket used by funeral homes, and the model of the covered wagon, just like at the Pizza Ranch (that was the three-year-old’s addition to the tour).

This room also has a jail display, complete with the old solid jail door which had one small door at the top so jailers could slip food trays into the inmates. The upper door is then surrounded by a rounded metal cage for additional security. I wanted to see if my girls could come up with what the little glassless window at the top was for. Lauren, the five-year-old, came up with a very clever, but innocent response: “Of course, Mommy. That’s so the jailbirds can fly in and out.”

The 1912 Wagner motorcycle, the 1950 Baby Tiny Tears and the 1874 Wooton desk (one of only 150 made) also are pretty cool and provide something for everyone.

So if you want a new, if not historically accurate, perspective on your past, I recommend bringing your kids or grandkids with you to the museum. If you don't have any of those, borrow a neighbor kid. Since three of our girls can’t read all the signs yet, about one hour was a good amount of time for us to spend there to see all three floors of the museum. It’s open regular business hours, it’s free, and it can be very entertaining.

School Daze...Good ol'fashioned rule days...

2010-10-06T22:15:00.006-05:00

With September, of course, comes school. Annika is now the BGOC since second grade is the oldest grade at Budd Elementary. Lauren is officially a student now in kindergarten. Emily began preschool. Man, is she loving life! She thinks school is "awesome!" She loves being a big girl.

First day of school pics...

For the first time in their lives, Emily and Megan began going to daycare a few weeks ago, also. The daycare is in the same building as Emily's preschool so she just walks down the hall after school is over. The first few days were rough for her in daycare; we're not sure why but are thinking it was too much separation. Now she's in Megan's daycare room and today went much better, she said.

They go two days a week so I can do my writing during daylight; I'm almost on schedule with getting things done when I should. However, today I played hooky and had lunch at school with Lauren and then Annika. I got to go to two recesses, too!

As I was waiting at the school for Annika's class to go to lunch, I was waiting in the office. That place is really busy! First there was the girl who had a ring stuck on her finger, then the boy who needed a bandaid, then the boy who needed to talk to the principal--for peeing on the playground, and another boy who was vomiting. All this and more during 30 minutes.

During September, we also had an appointment at Mayo Clinic (yes, THE Mayo clinic) for Megan. We were able to get in with the doctor who had been recommended to us by the head of the children's diabetes department at our hospital in Chicago. We learned that, at Mayo, you don't ask for an appointment time--you get an appointment time. And you better make it or it's back on the very long waiting list you go. We go back tomorrow for more education. It's been nine months since Meg was last seen by a diabetes specialist.

We're still exploring all our town has to offer. Friday night was tailgating with the soccer teams night at the local high school. Our babysitter is on the girls' team so we went. We got there early to see the Mayo One helicopter land at the high school. Very cool! We stayed for half of the game; that was more than enough for three of the girls. Lauren stayed to finish it with Daddy.

This was the Mayo One helicopter that landed at the area high school

I've been writing columns for the local paper about our adventures. I'll post some of them as separate posts in case you were interested...

Lauren at the Pioneer Museum

The new water park in Truman, the town next door. We've had a lot of flooding down here.

Celebrating Lauren's 6th birthday with Papa, Grandma Yvonne and Great-Grandma Margaret.

Lauren opening her fave present this year: zhu zhu pets.

What I Did During My Summer Vacation

2010-09-01T21:50:00.008-05:00

We actually did take a summer vacation. Lake Beauty Bible Camp in Long Prairie, Minn., has a family week for pastors and those on ministry staff at Covenant churches in our district. Boy, were we looking forward to it.

It was a good time--Sunday night through Thursday morning despite a few children catching flu bugs...There wasn't really any programming--just good food, including a salad bar, and a lot of free time. So we swam, went horseback riding, climbed the wall (literally and figuratively) and more.

We looked up some geocaches, too. There's actually one on Lake Beauty (not the camp). We found it. Very fun! A geocache is a treasure that someone has hidden. That person then uploads the geographic coordinates to a website so other treasure hunters have an idea of where to look. When you find the treasure, you can either replace it or just leave what's in there. We've found a small TinMan from Oz in one, a lipstick pen in another, and shells and bracelets in others. It's fun!

Soccer finished tonight. I'm soooo glad it's done. It was tough trying to get two girls there at different times right over the dinner hour. But it provided some good photo ops.

School begins next week. Megan also has her doc appointment for her diabetes at Mayo Clinic next week. While school might provide more structure for us, I'm sure I'll still be tired!

Emily in church wearing her tie-dye shirt that matched the Vacation Bible School kids who performed Sunday morning.

Emily in her sailor dress--Lauren wore this one year for Easter.

Megan on the horse at Lake Beauty--she looks like pop art!

The climbing wall at LBBC. Dan and I made it to the top and did the zip line down. I had to have a little push to get me over the edge, but I did it!

Three very dirty girls after playing in the one mud puddle at camp

This is Lauren's drawing of me wearing a crown

This is Lauren's drawing of a dinosaur. The painting is on an easel.

Lauren helping make some peach crisp from some really delicious Colorado peaches.

With Farmer Pawel--we had a party at the farm where we bought a "share" this summer

August 1 Already

2010-08-01T23:51:00.005-05:00

Man, time goes by much too quickly--in between blog posts and in daily life.

Megan's speech is much clearer these days. I can understand about 75 percent of what she says. My favorite is when I say, "Hey, Megan. Guess what?" She replies, "What?" and then I say, "I love you very much." She then repeats back to me, "Mama, guess what?" and so on. I love hearing that--though, to be honest, the exact words are a little muddled.

She's looking more like a toddler and less like a baby, another benchmark--we no longer have a baby in our home, although I won't tell Megan that. Actually, I keep telling all my girls they are still my babies. Hey, I gave birth to them--I can call them my babies no matter how old they are.

This summer has been a fun one, if a fast one. We've gotten to spend a lot of time together doing some fun things Fairmont has to offer. We've also spent a lot of time together--in the car--driving to the Twin Cities for events like Dan's Grandma's 96th birthday party

and to Lake Beauty Bible Camp to drop Annika off for her first ever summer camp--a two-day event. She loved it! and didn't want to come home. Boo! She brought her doggy with her as did a few of her cabinmates.

Annika and I got to do ceramics together awhile back. I made a princess bank for Emily--I kind of broker her last one when it fell off her dresser. Annika made two cats and then a black horse.

Annika and Lauren also are doing some fun events with the 4H group in town on Mondays. We also bought a pass to the waterpark which is really fun as a family. We've also done road trips like to Blue Earth (home of the giant Green Giant statue) to pick up our Community-Supported Agriculture vegetables at the farmers' market there. They had Giant Days one weekend--complete with kiddy petting zoo.

Annika and Lauren also took swimming lessons and did well. They enjoy practicing--so far Lauren can go a few lengths and is doing well with using both arms and legs to swim. Now those two are playing soccer--but at two different times--aargh. The schedule is tough since Dan has meetings on both nights! Annika's on the purple team; Lauren is on the tangerine!

We've also enjoyed movies at the library and other events the library has hosted like a magician
and a beach party in the basement (the water park got rained out that night).

We've also gotten free bowling from our local bowling alley which all of the kids have loved. Dan and I joined them in a game--doesn't go so fast with six--and most of us being under 10 years of age!

All in all, we're just enjoying exploring our new home town and taking advantage of what it offers. I'm also writing (volunteering) a column occasionally in our local daily paper which is fun--basically summarizing our family adventures in exploring Fairmont.

Annika's 7th and New Pics

2010-06-05T23:50:00.005-05:00

Annika just had her seventh birthday. I think it's the end of an era. Annika is officially a little lady. Gone are the chubby baby-fat fingers and slightly extra chubby cheeks. She now has a grasp of logic and doesn't often say cute illogical things. It's kind of sad, but I can't keep her from growing up.

Papa and Grandma Yvonne came down for her birthday. Papa and Lauren got to watch Annika at her school's field day.

I got to see part of field day before leaving to attend a funeral for a 16-year-old killed in a car accident. He knew Jesus; the other young passenger who died did not. A tragic accident, yet the Lord was glorified in so much of the situation through the faith of the parents, the witness of the victim beforehand, and the sharing of the gospel at the funeral. Please keep these two families in your prayers.

On Memorial Day, we dressed the girls up and took some more updated pictures of them. The most recent ones we had of the girls hanging in our bedroom don't even include Megan because she hadn't been born yet. Definitely time for some new ones. Here are a few we liked.

On two side notes, in the last few months Dan bought a new-to-us 1999 GMC Suburban, dark blue. He loves it! And Annika took first place in the local newspaper's Easter coloring contest for the 6-8 age group. This of course crushed Lauren who didn't take any place in the ages 3-5 category. All three of our oldest girls are pictured below with their artwork which was displayed at the local mall.

I should also note that Annika is now riding her bike all by herself--no training wheels. Video was caught; perhaps it will be posted later.

Davis Family pics

2010-05-26T13:51:00.003-05:00

This update is for those who know my sister Sara and her husband Steve. They had some informal pics taken this last week. The photographer, Angel Eagen, also blogs and has uploaded some of the pics here.

http://tadacreations.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-camera-loves-him.html

Sorry--no cute titles here

2010-05-05T22:26:00.004-05:00

Since Megan didn't take a nap and cried for much of the evening, I am wiped out and pretty much brain dead. Thus, no cute title. Alas, since it has been so long, and I have some fun photos, I'm writing a blog post anyway.

Annika is enjoying her school here in town and has just a couple more weeks before she graduates to second grade. Lauren will join her at the same building in the fall for kindergarten. In one year, that school building will no longer be used. The district is probably going to add an addition to the 3-6th grade building--this will then house Annika, Lauren and Emily for preschool. This empty house thing is coming up quickly!

March was crazy busy for us as I worked day and night to finish editing my sister's second book. If you do webinars for work, I highly recommend it (Webinars with WoW Factor by Becky Pluth). I also did some more work for USA Today and a sales training company. I really get a lot of variety in my job! So fun.

We're settling down well here in Fairmont. Dan's really enjoying his work and we both enjoy the people here. We have a few new younger families with kids in our neighborhood which Annika, Lauren and Emily are adoring! I also get to do lunch with "The Ladies of Redwood" once a month--for many years, the women on our street do lunch. One of the ladies from our church was thoughtful enough to invite me a couple months ago so I've had a chance to get to know my neighbors despite the very cold winter. Really nice women! A lot of them are significantly older than I am, but I still enjoy the time with them. I love their stories!

And I attended my first mother/daughter banquet with Annika and Lauren a few weeks ago. The girls were in one of the songs and skits. Very fun! I enjoyed it which is good since I'll have many more to attend! Dan is wondering how he can get into the Father/Son event...

The two older girls and I also had a chance to hear the U.S. Army band for free recently. Very good evening of great music. The theme song from The Incredibles was the girls favorite part! The younger girls were in the Twin Cities with Dan and my mom for a few days while Dan was at a Covenant annual meeting.

Megan has the fiercest temper yet of our kids. I don't suggest getting into a catfight with her. She might win. It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still an exhausting process.

I have kind of been using my facebook status update as a mini-journal for cute (well, I think they're cute) things my kids say. So I'll post a few here. I'm hoping to catch some video of Emily singing a few of her songs soon--need to charge the battery in the video camera.

If you're on facebook and haven't found me and Dan yet, you can go to
http://www.facebook.com/LizPikeWheeler and there I'll be!

from facebook:

May 4: Swiper is alive and well in our house; Lauren and Emily are scurrying madly around telling Swiper to stop swiping our windows, phones and Bibles. Wow! can little kids entertain themselves for hours!

April 22: My former governor, Rod Blagojevich (from Illinois), who has been indicted for being naughty, wants to subpoena former Illinois senator Barack Obama...let me know how that goes for you, Rod...

April 10: While I was napping, the pastor's kids were out on the sidewalk hawking lemonade for $1 per bathroom dixie cup. Is that even legal?

April 4: Dan and I gave up something for Lent this year. Lauren plans to give up something until next Easter: showers. She also has been talking to her plant friend, Lily. She told Lily about what she got in her plastic eggs--Lemonheads. "Lily laughed. She thought that was funny. She'd never heard of Lemonheads before."

March 19: 2-year-old Megan woke up at 4am vomiting. I think she got it from my Facebook friend Angel. I haven't seen Angel since Christmas--I just figure Megan's illness is one of them computer viruses...

March 14: Snapping your fingers doesn't really help clean the house--not even if you're snapping at your kids.

March 9: Three-year-old Emily says, after going to the bathroom, "I don't need to wash my hands. I washed them in the toilet."

March 6: I've discovered a new way to have my house look clean: candlelight.

February 23: My 5-year-old just handed me 89 cents and said, "I have enough money to live with Heather (McMillan at North Park)." How sad for me! And it hasn't been a bad day either...

February 11: Emily's bum hurt and she wanted medicine. I told her to give me a minute. She couldn't wait that long and put some on herself--apparently her self-medication was a poor choice. Sensodyne burns.

January 9: Tomorrow's my birthday. I'll be 37. Because of the crazy week we've had, my husband and daughters (ages 6,5,2,1) decided to get a pre-made cake instead of making one. They thought hard to discern my wishes. They got a Barbie Fairytopia cake...how did they know?

Come visit!

2010-03-18T13:50:00.004-05:00

As we're getting settled in our new permanent home (whoo hoo!), we would love to invite you all to come visit for the day, the weekend, the week...you get the idea!

And in case, Dan, Liz and four children living in a whirlwind of chaos wasn't enough for you to "do" while you're in Fairmont, I wanted to help you know when best to plan your trip to see us.

Fairmont and the surrounding communities have a lot planned this summer--July is especially busy--so choose an event that sounds good to you and call us so we can "schedule you in."

April 2--begins racing at our local 1/2 mile dirt track. Every Friday night until September 3.

April 17--Community Day in Ceylon--the town hosts an annual auction and sale of almost everything.

June 7--our local waterpark opens with slide, toddler pool, splash area, sandbox. If you stay for the week, your kids can take swim lessons with mine! More info and a great pic of the Aquatic Park at http://www.fairmont.org/aquaticpark

June 11-13--Interlaken Heritage Days--Fairmont's local summer celebration with a lot of games for kids and adults including the tractor pedal pull, boat rides and bingo. There's "one of Minnesota's finest parades" on Saturday night and an outdoor church service Sunday morning.

June 18-20--Sherburn Festival includes a firemen's dance and sweet corn feed on Friday and a parade on Sunday with "quality entrants."

July 10--Trimont Chocolate Festival--need I say more?
July 16-18--Welcome Summer Festival: Chicken feed and street dance on Friday, city-wide garage sales on Saturday (and I'm told there are some good ones here!) as well as flea market and parade. Saturday night there's a pork chop feed and street dance, too.
July 23-25--Truman Days. If you would like to stay somewhere besides our basement, Truman also has The Whittler's Lady Bed and Breakfast which I am told is nice.

August 16-22--Martin County Fair. I think the sign outside the fairgrounds calls it "Minnesota's Other State Fair." Now that we know some honest-to-goodness farmers, I think this year will be a lot more exciting to go to a fair!

November 19--Santa flies into town this night at our local airport and he kicks off our Glows Parade, similar to Minneapolis' Holidazzle. I'm actually looking forward to this, although I can wait for the snows that November may bring.

This area also has a ton of camping opportunities (which we may try this year, despite having one in diapers-but only one!), two "challenging" golf courses, an official "flying disc" (frisbee) golf course, classic car shows, live music in the parks, a lot of lakes (and fish!)--it's just beautiful country!

If you want more info on these, you can navigate around here: http://www.fairmont.org/chamber/mcarea.htm

Just make sure you come and visit, ya hear? If you don't have our contact info, email me at LizPikeWheeler at gmail dot com, and I'll send it to you!

Homeowners! and other stuff

2010-02-26T14:10:00.003-06:00

Well, in the last five weeks since "we've talked," Dan and I signed for our house. On February 4, 907 Redwood Drive became ours (and the savings and loan's...). So Dan is tweaking the house a little--a door on the laundry room here, a new light fixture in the kitchen there... It'll be a little bit before we finish the basement with an office, TV room and toy room, but it's nice to have our space!

Dan also was officially installed as senior pastor here at the Covenant church. The sermon he gave while candidating can be found here: http://www.vimeo.com/7750699. The service where he was installed isn't on vimeo yet. Jim Fretheim did the installation and sermon that week (superintendent of the northwest Covenant conference).

Annika hit the 100 days of school this week--which, with about 9 snow days this year, is quite a feat! She had the best day ever, she said. Today her class is at the ice rink where she is trying out her skates for the first time ever. Dan is assisting the class by tying lots of skate laces. And yes, her school does collect boxtops for education--and Campbell soup lids, and anything else they can for schools. So feel free to send those our way when you have enough accumulated to warrant the postage!

Annika is definitely our reader. She and I are having fun reading my favorite books from early elementary like Nancy Drew (just started book 2--Hidden Staircase) and the Boxcar Children. Lauren--not so much. She'd prefer to make up stories or sing along with Daddy. We're teaching her some classics like "Beautiful Baby" by Bing Crosby. Come now--we've always wanted renaissance (well-rounded) children. My kids are even going to be able to name singing cowboys, too!

Emily seems to be our athlete so far. She can do a perfect forward roll and is pretty light on her feet--which may not be saying much as she is only 28 pounds and just going into 3T clothes. However, with her double ear-infection right now, her equilibrium is a bit off--and she's sporting a split lip (from hitting our in-home mailbox) and a black eye (from playing chase with an Ikea rocker).

Emily is almost potty-trained! We've got the #1 down--now working on getting #2 into the toilet and not the pull-ups...progress, though! We also went to the open house for preschool next year. For two hours each week, Megan will be the only daughter with me...how strange when my girls are still so young. Lauren will be attending full-day kindergarten next year at Annika's school just down the street from us. Alas, and then I lose them for 12 years to the school.

Em's 3rd birthday--note, the ring on her hand is actually a toe-ring!

It's so hard to take it moment by moment when the four make so many demands on me all at once, and I end up exhausted--and yet, when I can stand back and just watch, I so enjoy each stage they're in and wish I could videotape it all.

Megan is our bully who knows her mind. Unless she's in just the right mood, she won't let you kiss her and by far has the most impressive temper tantrums of any of our kids. She and Emily are very helpful, too--too much so. Yesterday, Megan decided to help us rinse the dishes by putting chili powder into the cascade spot in the dishwasher.

As part of a discipline in our faiths this year, Dan and I each sacrificed something for Lent, as Christ sacrificed himself for us. I gave up soda--not too hard since I can still drink coffee and get my caffeine--of course, I'm only 10 days into it, and I do miss my Mountain Dew.

Dan gave up TV and all forms of TV like movies, DVDs, etc. Annika asked him two days ago if he would spend time with her by watching Barbie and the Three Musketeers. He said, "Annika, you know I gave up TV for Lent." Annika replied, "Dad, you shouldn't have done that. You should have given up being mean to your kids instead." Wow--that was quick-thinking!

Lauren has now had her first communion (and second, and third...) She asked Jesus into her heart by herself at some point in the last few weeks. We grilled her about it to make sure she understood what she was doing. Her explanation? "I apologized to Jesus for what I did wrong that I could remember" and she named a few extremely minor things--nothing like lying or beating up on sisters...And she plans on continuing to ask Jesus into her heart. We tried explaining that wasn't necessary. She said, "But I want to." Okay.

We asked her why she wanted to ask Jesus to be part of her life. "Because I love him," she said--a much better answer than "fire insurance." So we're very excited to have her join us in our Christian family as well!

**
We've had several visitors to our new home. Here is poor Cousin Will--he should probably be glad he doesn't have any older sisters...

Some of the beautiful snow we've received so much of this winter!

Dan has had some pretty creative ideas for the kids this year. Here is the cardboard house made from the box Lauren's memory-foam mattress came in...

All four girls and one of our adventurous babysitters, Caitlin.

What the girls did with Lauren's old mattress...

Annika, Lauren and Emily with Diego (Dora the Explorer's cousin)

Merry Christmas! A Tad Late

2010-01-16T22:12:00.007-06:00

We've officially become Minnesota residents as of December 14. We are still renting the home we plan on buying; apparently another government agency stepped in and said they wanted to see two of Dan's paychecks before allowing us to close. So hopefully, by the end of the first week in February, we'll be homeowners again. Until then, we pay rent.

We still like our home a lot! Note I've got some pictures down below. The gentleman we're buying the home from bought it nearly two years ago and renovated it. He took out one wall between the kitchen and dining room which really opens up the space (yay for space!). We also have a lot of built-ins like a hutch, some shelves, tons of cabinets! You're all invited to come and visit!

Dan and I and some other adults helped us get the house in order while my mom watched the girls in Minneapolis. We were able to get the girls' rooms set up before they ever saw the house. Very fun! We got a great deal on a bunkbed set and matching furniture off of Craigslist so Annika and Lauren have a pretty nice space. We also found some matching comforters and shams on clearance at JCPenney.com. We haven't really spent any money on ourselves/our family in seven years, so we are having a ball!

Dan began his job as senior pastor at Fairmont Evangelical Covenant Church on January 4. He preaches his second sermon tomorrow. The girls are planning on wearing the purple to church to let everyone know they're part of the Vikings cheering squad.

Annika began school at Budd Elementary--really nice staff there! The principal, Mr. Truman, was the one to give Annika and I a tour before she started. She began school three days before Christmas break (yes, the school here still calls it Christmas break--complete with Christmas trees in classrooms!) so she got in on all the parties and fun stuff!

We have more than two feet of snow in our yard and that's without counting what has been plowed into it. We also spent a week indoors due to sub-zero temperatures. Quite the initiation to Minnesota life, eh? (That's for you Yoopers!)

So, we're doing well. We plan on sending out cards to friends to give y'all our new address and more info. They obviously won't be Christmas cards. We figure we'll be on the 14-month calendar; and then, by the time Megan is in kindergarten, the 14 months might hit December again, and we can get back on schedule.

And, just for randomness, we currently have two 2-year-olds. Megan turned two on Monday; Emily will turn three next Friday. Kind of fun! Megan and I shared my birthday cake since we really didn't need three...the girls chose Barbie Fairytopia for me...hmmm. And then promptly argued over who got MY toy from the top. Good times, good times!

Please drop me a line or leave a comment, and let me know if you read this...Pics are below!

P.S. If you would like to see more pictures of our home, go to this link: http://bit.ly/OurHome

Megan trying to put on her new birthday turtle neck.

The girls sing a Christmas carol before opening gifts at Dan's Grandma's house
on Christmas Eve. Lauren and Annika are "reading" their song.

Quick Update

2009-12-03T00:24:00.002-06:00

Please forgive the brevity of this blog posting--and especially the lack of photos. We took some at Thanksgiving with my Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian, but since we're in the midst of moving and will leave shortly for an overnight visit to my Gramma Pat (that's her name to us kids--no, it's not misspelled...), it just seemed too overwhelming to upload pictures.

We have purchased our appliances (stove, fridge, washer, dryer) and are excited about that. We must be grownups...what kid gets excited about a new washer/dryer? We've also made some other purchases in anticipation of having our own space again. Whoo hoo!

On Monday, the bank did an appraisal of the house we intend to purchase. We'll hear back on Friday if the property qualifies for our loan. However, because the appraisal was a tad late, we may end up homeless for a few days if the closing can't take place on December 14. We're looking into moving in early and renting for a few days.

We're getting ready and saying our goodbyes--always the hardest part of moving. Part of living on seminary, however, is the fluidity of the residents. If we didn't leave now, many more of our friends would be leaving us come spring so it helps with the melancholy of it a little.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (we certainly have much to be thankful for!) and an early Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Dan's job update

2009-11-17T08:59:00.001-06:00

The congregation at Fairmont Evangelical Covenant Church in Minnesota met Dan, heard him preach and then voted on whether to ask him to be their senior pastor. The majority voted yes, to offer Dan a call to pastor the church! He accepted and will begin during the first week or two in January! Whoo hoo!

We stayed an extra day in town to look at homes. My mom had picked up the girls and brought them back up to the city so Dan and I could get more done in Fairmont. We looked at five homes and put an offer in on one. It's a little smaller than we had wanted but is definitely in our price range and is move-in ready which is nice. There were some that were far from ready!

There is only one bathroom, but there is a second toilet in the basement (do NOT read that as a second bathroom--trust me--it's only a toilet, but it works in case of emergency!) and Dan is pretty handy. He may be able to put in a sink down there. With four young girls, two of whom still need to be pottytrained, you NEED a second toilet.

So we'll find out if our offer was accepted on the house in the next day or two. We will move from Chicago the weekend of December 12 and hopefully close on the house on Dec. 14 or 15.

No pics, but at least you're now in the know! Thank you so much for your prayers! We all made it through the two days of meeting people and being on good behavior--which is very exhausting! and we look forward to being part of that church. We enjoyed our time there with all the folks very much.

Family Update

2009-11-07T22:13:00.003-06:00

Well, since last writing about our family, several big things are in the midst of occurring.

Annika started first grade at Peterson Elementary, about four city blocks from our home. She's loving her teacher, Mrs. Rivas, and has become a very fluent reader. She just bought her first chapter book from the Scholastic book program at school and is ecstatic! She now reads the Bible stories to Lauren at night.

Back in July, Dan interviewed via phone with a church in Fairmont, Minnesota. They asked him to come for an on-site interview over Labor Day weekend. A few weeks after that, the church notified us they had narrowed their search down to two people; Dan was one of them. So after a few more weeks of them checking references and such, they asked Dan to come and candidate!

This basically is a final interview with the whole congregation. Up until now, it's been interviews with a nine-member search committee. So, next weekend, November 14-15, we'll be heading to the church to meet as many of the church-folk as we can in about 30 hours. After a "pot providence" (not potluck!) lunch on Sunday, we'll begin heading back to Minneapolis to drop off the girls while the church votes on whether to ask Dan to be their lead pastor. If all goes well, Dan and I will head back to Fairmont to house-hunt. (Whew--that was a mouthful!)

If all doesn't go well, we'll still be moving out of student housing by December 15 and in with family somewhere in Minnesota. Aren't they lucky? All six of us!! For some, that would quadruple the number of people in their home...

So we've been packing boxes of things we won't miss too much over the next two months like CDs and DVDs (we've got mp3 files on the computer and a temporary membership to Netflix!) and perhaps a few family photos from the mantle this week.

We've also been trying to do some things we won't have the chance to do again--or not for quite some time anyway. So, we went to the China Day parade in Chinatown--got some authentic egg rolls (well, as authentic as we thought we could get), some Chinese paper umbrellas, and one toy drum.

We also got a great deal on a carriage ride through downtown--something Annika and Lauren have wanted to do for three years! Below are some pics of us in the carriage and walking down Michigan Avenue (the Garmin store with the golfing nutracker!).

I've been picking up some more jobs writing curriculum for a national newspaper. Between the different vendors I work for, I have such variety in what I'm writing. I really enjoy that part. Lately, I've learned a lot about Twitter, being cyber-savvy, homeless youth on the streets of New York and some unique ways to market a bank.

Lauren is enjoying her world of make-believe and drawing as much as ever. It's sometimes difficult to make her wear 21st century clothing...Cinderella dresses are way more fun.

Emily has now gotten into more of the dancing with her sisters when music is on one of their DVDs. She has also gotten into shushing us to be quiet so she can sing O Christmas Tree. My favorite action of hers is when she's holding my hand as we cross major streets like Michigan Avenue downtown. She gets nervous, so as we get into the crosswalk, she puts up her hand like a stop sign so oncoming cars stop before they run her over!

Megan was moved into a toddler bed two nights ago. Since we didn't plan to take the crib with us, we decided to move her a little early so she'd only have to adjust to a new house later instead of a new house and a new bed. We also knew the family who was getting the crib had a baby sleeping in a pack-n-play...but not sleeping well. Knowing how that goes, we took pity!

So we're doing well. We're praying for a bigger space to move into. We realize we've been so blessed with a large two-bedroom apartment here in Chicago, no student loans, very little personal credit card debt (not cafe)...wow! We stand in awe! And are looking forward to another part of the adventure.

Please pray for us this coming weekend--safe travel, Dan's peace as he preaches on Sunday, good sleep for the kids (i.e. good behavior, too!), etc.

By the way, to contact us via email, use LilNorthrn at hotmail dot com (spelled out so I don't get additional spam!) so we can keep you updated with our new address, contact info, etc--or ask me to be your friend on Facebook!

Ethan Davis Reports on What He Did This Summer

2009-09-08T07:51:00.004-05:00

My sister Sara travelled to St. Louis, Mo., for some business a few weeks ago and was able to bring her nine-month-old son with because Gramma Pat and Kris had agreed to watch him during Sara's two-day absence. So Ethan is our guest blogger for this entry on how his stay with Great Gramma and Great Aunt went.

Mom and I got to spend a whole week at Gramma and Aunt Kris’ house in Illinois, which is very far away from my house. Gramma and Aunt Kris took great care of me while mom had to go and visit some colleges. They fed me yummy food, which I liked to share with Syndey (Sophie was afraid of me . . . I think because I’m small and crawl along the ground, and oh so unpredictable. Anyway, poor thing wouldn’t come near me! Probably best, you never know what I might do with a furry thing that’s just about my size!)

I crawled and crawled all over the place. Gramma and Aunt Kris bought several toys for me to play with. They bought me a Blues Clues Karaoke machine, which is how I learned the mail song, which Aunt Kris and Mom really like to sing together! Gramma and Aunt Kris also bought me a Sesame Street walker that was perfect for me, I used it on the porch in front of the house and on the patio out back – it is very versatile you know. But I still don’t know where Sesame Street is yet.

Aunt Kris took Mom and me to the YMCA where she works. I got to swim in her swimming pool! Aunt Kris got in and swam with me too! If Mom can figure out how to upload the video, I can show you a video of me swimming, well, almost swimming. I can’t leave out the best part, Gramma and Aunt Kris taught me how to do Patty-cake. I still don’t do it on command yet, but I definitely learned to clap my hands there. Mom is trying to see if we can come back out to visit in December. I’ll be MUCH older then.

Teaching Our Kids Well

2009-09-01T04:05:00.008-05:00

Some cute moments from our house: A few weeks ago, I was putting Emily to bed in our bedroom (it just works better to have her and Megan separate!). She was sleeping with a weird-looking doll from some Cartoon Network show. Lauren had won this doll at Great American in one of the carnival games (ironically, Annika also won a prize--bunny ears. Mom got skunked.)and named him Bobo. I asked Emily if she wanted to pray. She said yes and prayed: "Please bless my food. Aaamen." She then turned to her right, put Bobo's hands together and Bobo prayed; "Please bless my food. Aaamen." **

We've had a few dish casualties in the last week. One of them was Emily. Our 32-month-old was busy clearing her cereal bowl from the table. Without being instructed, she took the bowl and began scraping the leftovers into the garbage. Apparently, holding a spoon and a bowl and scraping was too much for her. But she was very cute and helpful. **

Through some instruction and a lot of observing, Annika has really gotten the hang of the Food pyramid—and not Bart Simpson’s version. A couple weeks ago, she made lunch for her and Lauren. It was 12:03 (past lunchtime) and I was laying down with Emily in my room. So Annika made lunch on her own: Poptarts (one for her and one for Lauren), a slice of American cheese, some cuts of salami, champagne grapes and juice. And pudding for dessert—which was set waaay down the table so they could eat it when they were done. I was impressed! All food groups were represented if you count poptart as a grain... **

This morning, Lauren was telling me a story about something that happened yesterday...you know, "the next day backward." **

Annika and Lauren have officially been given chores. Lauren's job is to clear the extra dishes from the table after dinner. Annika's job is to fill and empty the dishwasher. She was much put out by this, declaring instantly that it was boooring. We began her training in three nights ago. The first night went very slowly as I explained the best way to fit each dish in the washer to maximize use of the space. The second night went better, but Annika was still much put out. Tonight, however, she convinced Lauren it would be a great idea if they shared chores. So she needed to now train Lauren in. We got some of it on video. Annika did a great job of explaining things step by step. When she got to the part about how the dishes got washed, she pointed to the water supply in the bottom of the dishwasher and said, "that is so cool" with enthusiasm. Apparently, on-the-job training creates more enthusiasm for those doing the job as well.

**

Here is some video of Megan praying. If you watch carefully, you'll notice she folds her hands, too. So fun!

We've been packing up boxes from time to time to put in storage in preparation for our move. Emily is our "little helper."

Annika entered a candy contest where you sing a song about candy to enter (see last blog entry for video). She didn't win, but the candy company sent her a goody basket which should arrive tomorrow. Anyway, the original idea was for Annika, Lauren and cousin Raegan to sing Good Ship Lollipop together. This video shows why that didn't happen..."Mommy, I need to...oh, look! a squirrel!"

Vacation!

2009-08-07T22:11:00.005-05:00

Our last seven days was spent at Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wisconsin. I've spent time there throughout many of my summers and always enjoy the restful nature of the area. And the fact that there is little cell phone reception does add to the peace and quiet! My whole family was there--mom, all siblings with spouses and children. Makes for a large group. Altogether there were 13 adults (and one nanny) nine kids, all ages 6 and under (of course referring to the kids). And five dogs--surrogate grandkids, if you will. My brother just bought a golf cart so it was perfect for taking the kids around the grounds to look for deer (didn't see any but saw wild turkeys a lot), stop at the Country Store for penny candy, climb the towers (formerly used as water towers) and generally feel the wind in our hair. Of course we climbed the 81 steps to the top of Judson Tower to see the lake. Lauren didn't like that too much--she had to walk down backwards. We toured the old log cabin museum on the grounds with cousins Raegan and Brody. While there, the girls put some stitches in a quilt, put a few extra pieces on a loom rug, and Annika and Lauren made dipped candles which I think are pretty cute! We found out about a candy contest where you sing and post it on youtube...here's Annika's final rendition. Lauren, Raegan, Emily and Brody (cousin) wanted to do 12 Dancing Princesses instead so Annika soloed.

We're doing well. Dan will be going onsite for one church interview--encouraging! We'll know more details in a couple of weeks after vacations by the search committee members.

As for now, school is allowing us to stay until the end of the calendar year so Annika will be starting first grade here at Peterson Elementary and, Lord willing, we'll only have to move all of our stuff once.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! They really do sustain us.

Perhaps Summer Will Come in July?

2009-07-17T09:30:00.006-05:00

Temps have been mild here in Chicago. The Fourth of July came with rain and thunder. July 5 finally, pretty much for the first time, brought nice weather to Chicago. For the 4th, we hung out with Uncle Brian's family and a surprise guest--my cousin Amanda who I haven't seen in a decade! It's crazy when you last saw someone when they're 10 and now she's 20, living on her own and going to Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College. I'll see if I can get some of the pics from cousin Judy to post. P.S. I also beat Cousin Judy at arm wrestling. I guess slinging kids around for six years did tone some muscle!

Our family has been sticking pretty close to home the last six weeks. Dan has had on-calls at the hospital almost every weekend, some weekends with two shifts. Makes for a tired set of parents.

Annika had gymnastics camp for two weeks. It's really affordable through the park district. She enjoyed that and loves showing off her sort-of splits and attempting hand stands. A friend picked her up on the way to camp and then I picked the girls up after camp. Worked well.

She has also lost her two front teeth on top and another one on the bottom.

Lauren is in ballet once a week for eight weeks and she's enjoying that as well. Fits in with the whole princess obsession.

Emily is obeying a little bit. Still trying and testing boundaries--testing--what a misnomer. She's blowing right through them.

Megan is teething again which makes for sleepless nights. We've had to refill her diabetes prescriptions once. But God is gracious! While being concerned about Megan being in the hospital, I didn’t have to worry about the bills that accompanied it. Matter of fact, beyond making sure the hospital took our insurance (state aid), I didn’t think about it during the rest of our five-day stay there. Nor did it even cross my mind to think about how we would have paid for just her diabetes supplies after.

A rough estimate of alcohol swabs, needles, lancets, blood sugar meter, two types of insulin, sugar injections (in case Meg is every dangerously low and we can’t wait for juice to take effect) and ketone strips would have cost us about $1000 if we had to pay out of pocket. Her insulins were $122.99 and $103.99, ketone strips were $11.99, test strips were $249.98 for 200 (we use at least five a day…), and lancets were $33.98…. That will be our typical order each month—the insulin, even if we won’t use it all, is only good for 28 days. So…it’s not exactly social medicine, but I’m grateful for it right now!

Dan has had one phone interview with a church in Minnesota. We won't know the results of that for a few more weeks as they also interview other potential pastors. We're still not too worried yet. We're also excited for friends of ours who did get a job this week--The timing is great because they have to be out of student housing in two weeks and now they have a destination.

I'm still just writing. Did stories on Twitter and Facebook (two online sites where you can interact with friends) for three publications--if you're going to learn something new, make the most of it! I'm also spending too much time on the games on Facebook. Right now, Becky and I are tied on Mahjong.

Cousin Raegan and Becky were with us this last weekend. Becky had some work in town and was able to bring Raegan to hang out with us. We went to a splash park, the Field Museum where we saw real pirate treasure from the Whydah (very cool) and ate some real Chicago-style hot dogs at Gene and Jude's.

Dan Graduates! Annika Graduates!

2009-06-10T14:05:00.008-05:00

Yes, it's been a busy few weeks for us! The week Megan went into the hospital was also the week Dan graduated from North Park Theological Seminary with his graduate degree (Masters of Divinity) with honors! Pictured: Dan with his parents (I'm assuming you can figure out which one is his mom and which one is his dad...Dan's the one in the middle!) Annika graduated from kindergarten this morning. Dan was unable to attend due to his internship at a local hospital for his chaplaincy requirement for school--so I was photographer and videographer...Lauren was with to help with equipment. Here is Annika receiving her diploma from the principal, Mr. Lucas. And Annika dressing herself... Annika practicing her role as Bell Ringing Girl at Uncle John's wedding: Lauren finished preschool well and is looking forward to summer fun. She and Annika will be attending VBS next week at the Covenant church down the street where Lauren had preschool. She has her first friend birthday party to go to on Saturday at Jens' house. (He was the one she was going to marry until Jonas gave her flowers.) Emily is still defiant while being a great hugger. She is addicted to TV although she also likes books like Thomas (the Tank Engine) and Barbie. I have a pic very similar to this one of me... Megan is doing well. She wants to feed herself now so baths are a more frequent occurrence--like three times a day. We're still working on getting her sugars regulated, but she is doing fine. Thank you so much for your prayers!! As for me, I've just finished editing my fifth book. I'm becoming more comfortable at pushing back and I'm still learning about the subjectivity of the English language...rules from 15 years ago have changed... I picked up a new freelancing client through a coffeehouse magazine so now I'm going to become an expert on the candy business! Very cool! God is good--all the time! We still don't know where we are going to live come September, although Dan has a few leads on senior pastor positions. We're not too concerned. We just don't want to have to move all off our stuff twice!

Annika also had a birthday in-between--but those are all on Dan's computer. Feel free to email and harass him to get them on here!
The Wheeler Clan at Uncle John's Wedding, May 15, 2009.

Annika's Graduation: One of the songs her classmates sang recounts (literally) numbers in English, Spanish and Korean. She had a very ethnically diverse group of classmates.

This is proof that Megan can walk; she just refuses to do so.

Wow! A second blog posting in May!

2009-05-26T23:23:00.002-05:00

Megan was released from Children's Memorial Hospital yesterday, Memorial Day, around 4 p.m. The doctors (we had four--one attending, one resident, and two others) were comfortable enough with her blood sugar results we were seeing with the new amounts of insulin Meg was getting so now we're home.

Megan seems to spike in the early afternoon and drop during the wee hours of the night. The drops at night now are not as drastic (one night her sugars were registering 60--incredibly low for her since we began measuring) but the midday highs require an additional shot of insulin.

She's in good spirits and doesn't whimper too much when we have to draw blood to measure the sugar levels or when she gets the shot.

The docs can't pinpoint when she got diabetes, but they're pretty sure she got it when she had a virus. The body's soldiers were sent out to fight the bad germs, but through a case of mistaken identity, attacked pancreatic cells. After a full onslaught, the pancreas could no longer produce insulin. So, I'm correcting myself a little here. Meg didn't necessarily have a weak pancreas--just confused lymphicites.

She is also walking like a marathoner at long last! She's had the coordination and muscle for it--but she doesn't have Emily's fearlessness. But today, she found the courage to leave her walls behind. She was busy walking up and down our long hallway by herself--with no bribes, which is good--since Grandma Barb really can't use Mountain Dew with her, anyway.

Lauren and Emily are in Minnesota with the grandparents this week. Emily misses Daddy. I'm hoping Meg will at least be a Momma's girl. The other three aren't unless they're extra-tired.

Besides Meg being in the hospital, it was a busy weekend at our house. Dan, at long last, graduated from seminary with honors no less! A great improvement over his undergrad years! We're very proud of him. All but Meg got a pic taken with the graduate. Now we just need to have him gainfully employed...not too much word on that front, yet.

This month also saw my brother John get married. So, at long last, I downloaded the pics to my computer. I'll try to get them formatted and attached, maybe even some video. Again, no quotes. I haven't had time to take notes...

News on Megan

2009-05-22T15:13:00.002-05:00

Well, this wasn't the blog update I originally had intended. My plan was to put in some pics of my brother's wedding and Annika and Lauren as bell-ringing girl and flower girl. Maybe some other tidbits on Emily and Meg.

Well, that got changed about 15 minutes ago when I thought about the blog.

Yesterday I took 16-month-old Megan to the ER at Swedish Covenant Hospital because of a fever she had and seeming pain I couldn't treat at home. After several hours there, some chest x-rays and urine tests, the diagnosis was Type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 is insulin-dependent so Megan will have to have shots for the rest of her life. It wasn't brought on by anything we did or didn't do or feed her. This kind of thing can be hereditary (although we don't really have any type 1 running in either of our families) or an affect of the auto-immune fighting itself. If there was a weakness in the pancreas, diabetes can be brought on by a viral infection which might be our case. The infection didn't cause the diabetes--just kind of pushed the pancreas over the edge.

We seem to have caught it early. Megan didn't have diabetic ketoacidosis which is really bad. It's when the body can't use sugar for energy so it starts destroying the fat. One problem with that is destroying the fat in this way creates ketones, a harmful toxin. If you get DKA, it takes awhile for the toxin to get out of your system. So we didn't have go to through that.

Megan is at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. We're hoping she'll go home tomorrow after they figure out a good amount of insulin to give her each day to regulate her blood sugar levels.

We're praising God that this was caught early, that Megan has been such a trooper, and that it isn't something worse. Please pray for us as we regulate her sugars at home. This is new to us, obviously! But we're willing to tackle it!

By the way, our oh-so-amazing pediatrician, who I thought was supposed to be on vacation this week, showed up at the ER last night when the ER doc contacted him regarding Megan's history. Dr. Morse even talked to the endocrinology fellow here at Children's to find out next steps and see if there were any other med options for sky-high blood sugar other than diabetes (in someone Meg's age--not really). We're going to miss him in August when we move somewhere else!

Sorry--no pics. I'm writing this from the hospital and just don't have the camera handy! You'll just have to imagine cute saying like Lauren drawing a picture of a sad umbrella: "But he likes being sad." or Megan stripping to the buff and saying, "shake, shake, shake; shake, shake, shake; shake your booty" in two-year-old-ese. Or Megan walking, finally! or Annika informing us that she's past Cinderella. Jasmine is the princess for six-year-olds!

2009-04-26T19:40:00.003-05:00

Trying to get a blog update in before it becomes May!

We had Easter at our Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian's house. Rather unexpected as they're reformed Jews. They also had an Easter egg hunt with 64 plastic eggs. That's a lot of hiding! But our girls and Rosalie's great-niece and nephew (Lily and Colin) and Cousin Judy helped. Lily, Colin and Judy left a little earlier than we did--they had more Easter parties to get to!

Emily's English is becoming more recognizable. She's also doing full sentences. No, we cannot translate everything she is saying. She still has her own bizarre fashion sense and shoe fettish, even if the shoes don't match or fit.

Megan finally got all four molars in completely. That was a trial for weeks. She still isn't walking on her own despite her 15 1/2 month status. Her hair is also getting in her eyes, but she pulls barrettes (and chunks of hair) out if we try to pull her hair back, although she left pony tails in her hair at Easter. She is ticklish and has a good laugh.

Annika is becoming more grown-up. She is starting to understand plays-on-words if you explain them slowly like the joke "April showers bring May flowers. What do May flowers bring? Pilgrims!" She, too, has her own fashion sense. Plaids go with plaids. 'Nuf said.

Lauren is getting better at picking up although none of the kids is all that fast at it. And, she has no sense of organization--it all just gets dumped in the toy corner. Why would she think puzzle pieces should go back in the box? She's also great at making up stories, definitions, words and songs on the spot. She is fascinated with sharks, too. I'm not sure how all these fill fit into her future careers. We're trying to see more of the sights here before we leave Chicago, so we have a few pics of me, Annika and Lauren at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.

Dan has been contacted by a few churches. The process is a slow one, but we still have months left before we can move, so we are sort of patient. He's getting one of his sermons transferred now from VHS to DVD. We're not sure where we stored his copies of sermons from First Cov. One of the downsides of storage.

I just finished editing two books and laying out a newsletter and am tired after a gruelling two weeks. Looking forward to a slower-paced week, Lord willing.

Enjoy the pics!

Kid quotes (keep in mind, you can't tease the girls about these--they get self-conscious fast and will stop talking--then no more kid quotes!):

March 24 2009
Much is done dramatically by Lauren. We don’t walk somewhere—we saunter. Tonight, she was getting ready to sign her name in Annika’s journal. She did it as though she was putting on a show (so think announcer’s voice) as Lauren said about herself: “And now she pulls out the chair…And watch as she sits down. See her as she reads the book…”

Annika made up a song and put on a show for me. Here are some of the lyrics:
It doesn’t matter if you’re lovely as long as you care about people

Know that’s not true. Please bring hope to all the people for their words you can fly away. if you faint, don’t faint when you’re not supposed to faint. for the world I would take care of it for the rest of the city and I wouldn’t miss anything for the whole piece of advice. you never do anything when somebody loves you, you shall love them back even if you don’t like them but they like you…for you can see little things. You are seeing this when I was I will always love you too.

You must care for the people for you can see your family and you must love them the most. And you can see the world, you can see different places if you go on a plane. If you go to Disney, you do need a plane. So little lord jesus, he brings you there safely. And if it’s your birthday he will not make it rain. For the world to see your weirdness, but don’t do weirdness around people who are naked and you don’t know them and you can’t see naked people if your shades are open and their shades are open and the lights are on and you have windows there and you have shades there. So you must care for the world.

We will love to see your songs for your carols. You are beautiful.

March sometime:
Lauren was looking at a picture of her and Annika in their Easter dresses: “There’s us in our church costumes.”

Annika praying: “Even though I’m the beautifullest, I need to care about other people.”

4/1/09
Lauren to Dan: “I know why you have a headache. You watch too much TV, and you’re a vegetable!” (Hm. I wonder where she heard that…)

4/2/09
Annika: "I’m so smart. I always know everything now."

The Theology of Children

2009-03-05T17:48:00.004-06:00

On our way to church one Sunday, we were talking about how many of the Jewish people in Chicago don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. We discussed it for awhile. As we passed Kraft headquarters, Annika says,"No one wants to be the Messiah. It's too hard work." And then a pause. And then "But not for Jesus." And that, my friends, sums it up.

Then Lauren and I went for a special trip to Starbucks. While there, Lauren sagely informed me, "If you only had one daughter, you'd be bored." I realized that was probably true. But she had more wisdom. "If you only had two daughters, that'd be great." (Keep in mind, that would be only Annika and Lauren.) "If you had three daughters, that would be perfect; if you had four daughters, you'd be beautiful." So there.

Emily dresses herself frequently...Some of her fashions...

The girls wearing Dan's shirts...For some reason that's fun.

Just stinkin' cute.

Annika and Em playing ring around the rosie

Lauren as sleeping beauty.

Lauren as Santa Claus--she said so herself.

Great pic, eh?

Stylin'--Emily's now dressing Meg, too.

Quick Update on Our Life

2009-02-13T23:25:00.002-06:00

As you know, the cafe closed on December 24, 2008. Since then, we (or the bank) have liquidated everything. The final auction was Saturday, Feb. 7. That brought in just under $4000 for everything. Very disappointing. Our oak and corian counter went for only $1000--originally built for $21,000 not including the display cooler. Our $7000 espresso machine (original price) went for $300. But at least it's over. I thank God every day the cafe is closed. After six years, I was ready for a different kind of adventure. I'm enjoying my break between adventures right now. We're just finalizing what debts we have left and hoping that nothing else expensive crops up.

Dan had an interview at Lutheran General Hospital here in Chicago for his chaplaincy internship this week. He'll find out next week if he has a position there for this summer. It will be full time for 10 weeks beginning June 8. He'll have one on-call a week, but that's only an 8-hour shift. Many chaplaincy programs have a 24-hour on-call shift which, in Chicago, would be extremely taxing. After he completes his chaplaincy, Dan will have completed all requirements for his master of divinity degree. He's actively seeking a position as senior pastor for this fall. Maybe that will be my next big adventure--being mom to four girls ages 6 and under and learning how to be a senior pastor's wife.

Annika is growing up more each day. I told her I was going on a trip to Atlanta and would return in "two sleeps." She said, "You mean two days?" Doesn't even do the little kid lingo anymore. She's giving more hugs these days--I think it's because I'm able to spend a little more time hanging out with them and not working on cafe stuff. She's extremely finicky about how her socks fit (prefers to go without) and what food she eats. Most days, she's a vegetarian.

Lauren is definitely going to be our drama queen. Today she told Dan that "You hurt my feelings" in a teary voice when Dan told her we were out of hot dogs. She then replied, "Ice cream would make me happy." She also loves to create her own words. She told me, in her made-up story, that the king and queen were "prickled." Prickled is freckles, she said.

Emily, our 2 year old still in 18 month clothing, will be our gymnast. She seems very athletic and loves climbing everything. Tonight at Chuck E Cheese, where we went on our family valentine's date, she was busy crawling under everyone's booth. I had to go over one booth just to catch her and drag her out. Then she tried climbing over it. Stinker. She's also our exhibitionist. At night she takes off her pajamas and her diaper and climbs into Lauren's bed and covers up--our little Botticelli. Very cute, but dangerous--we always put a diaper back on her.

Megan is starting to thin out in her face a little. Her thighs are so chubby it's hard to tell if they're thinning out. (Why doesn't anyone think chubby thighs are cute when you're say 36?) She's walking with help and can climb to a standing position now from a prone position. She's still doing the commando crawl. She's opening drawers and pulling their contents out. Soon we'll have to tape things shut so we have less to clean up.

We've been blessed. Despite Dan not working (for money anyway) and the cafe having been a drain on finances, we still haven't taken out any loans for school and so far we pay our bills each month. We also have four incredible kids who I thank God for every night. Marriage-wise, Dan and I are doing well and will celebrate 10 years on Feb. 26. Although it's sometimes hard to see the good things through the forest of despair, God is helping me to be faithful and trust.

Catching Up

2009-01-19T00:21:00.005-06:00

Alas, I'm wondering if any of these posts will ever be done before midnight.

Well in the last two weeks, we celebrated Emily, Megan and my birthdays. We figured it'd be easier to do it all at once so Emily could open presents when she saw me and Megan opening them. Don't worry--Emily will still get some more chocolatey yumminess in a few days. Nothing like a good sugar-high to ring in a new year.

Because of Martin Luther King's birthday being celebrated tomorrow, Annika has been having a lot of discussions about why MLK had such an impact on history. It's probably the first time she's ever had a discussion about race or skin color. It's so amazing to see the color-blindness kids have. I've enjoyed that about her. I'm hoping that having the discussion on equal rights for all people doesn't "color" her thinking or the way she treats other people.

Lauren has met the new upstairs neighbors. A family of five is above us now. They have two daughters (ages 2 and 11) and one son (8). They've found a creative living arrangement for all in a two-bedroom apartment. Lauren was invited to play with the
2-year-old for awhile the other afternoon. She has informed them all about our political views, her illnesses (artichokes) and my birthday (I'm 106, but look great for my age, I was told). The neighbors can't wait to have her over again. I think I can.

Emily is still into everything. Annika and Lauren got nail polish for Christmas in their stocking. Emily was able to open one of the bottles. She very carefully painted her toenails and toes. I should have taken a picture, but didn't. I marched her to the bathroom and removed it all. So, later on, she found a permanent black marker and colored her toenails. I gave up. They're still goth.

She is getting really good at helping--she's a natural at it. She's good at picking up, getting her own juice, putting on her own socks and shoes. She's getting better at managing her temper and saying please. Many of her words are becoming more recognizable to me and Dan. It's still amazing to compare her to Megan--both girls being aged 1 still--and see the difference 354 days makes.

Megan is zipping around the house in her little car. Her legs are getting stronger and her balance is getting better. She is moving her legs on her own for walking. She also has the army crawl down finally. She waves and is starting to really get the hang of "mamamama" and "da-ddy." We're trying to savor it all as we go through these stages one last time.

Dan's interviews for a pastoral position went well--just the first step. He starts an intensive class on Tuesday so we won't be seeing him much this week.

As for the cafe, we're still working on that one step at a time. The equipment auction is February 7. After that we'll get more of an idea on how much we owe the bank.

My Uncle Brian is in the hospital with some cancerous tumors that are bleeding. Please pray for him and his family.

Cute Kid Quotes:
I don't think I've added these yet, although some are a couple months old...

“Papa and Grandma[Jud and Yvonne] are going to have a baby. It’s a girl. Her name is going to be Leslie,” Lauren informed us today (12/1/08). I asked her how she knew because even I didn’t know this. “I just know it.”

She also told us recently that if we called Emily a toddler again she was going to live somewhere else. Originally it was with her cousin Raegan. Now it’s with her brother and sister, Bootee and Quince who live in Shigan. She plans to get there on a plane with me and daddy.

Lauren has also been sick lately, she tells us. When Dan had kidney stones, Lauren also had “rocks in my tummy.” Now she is sick with artichokes. Lauren tells me she got artichokes when I mailed them to her. She opened the envelope and they went into her mouth. Artichokes apparently are green stickers. She knows she’s going to get rid of one soon—I’m not sure how she can tell, though. Her explanation has more “Lauren words” which I don’t understand.

1/17/09
Lauren today drew a picture of a bee-con. A bee-con is “a strange animal, like a black and blue moose.”

Long Strange Trip

2009-01-06T14:29:00.005-06:00

In early December, the decision was made to close the cafe we've co-owned for six years. We'd tried finding a buyer to no avail, and we needed to stop the red ink from flowing so freely. So Christmas Eve was the last day for the shop. After Christmas, Dan and I went up there to remove files and liquidate as much as we could. We plan on turning the rest over to the bank to help pay part of the loan we still owe. Please pray for us as we go through the day to day struggles of finalizing payment plans with everyone and trying to cover last paychecks for the staff.

So that's my excuse for not writing in seven weeks. We've obviously had a lot going on.

We traveled to Minnesota on Dec. 20 for Christmas. Got to see the Hovis family while there. Their youngest Isabel is six months old and has some seriously long hair already. They're doing well and are enjoying the church they're at. They've found it to be very supportive! They have a great temporary home on the lake with a fabulous view.

We also got to see newest nephew Ethan who was born just before Thanksgiving. Steve Davis (daddy) is already planning Ethan's presidential campaign and opening the campaign's bank account.

Megan finally has some teeth in her mouth--three to be exact, with a fourth that just broke the gumline. She'll be 1 on Sunday.

Emily went to the bathroom on the toilet once--more of an accident than planned! She'll be two on Jan. 22. She is able to put her own jacket on--albeit upside down.

My brother John got engaged and asked Annika and Lauren to be in the wedding. Apparently, Annika gets to be the "bell girl" who announces "the bride is coming." I have to get the specifics from Cassie, my soon to be sister-in-law.

Dan has one more semester of school which starts in February and then a 10-week chaplaincy internship at a hospital. We begin the "call process" or interviewing next week.

Disney and Other Good Stuff

2008-11-18T22:38:00.005-06:00

In the last month, it's been crazy here in Chicago. It's been an incredibly nice fall. On October 14, the four older Wheelers (Dan, Liz, Annika and Lauren) traveled to Orlando to visit Mickey and Minnie--oh, yeah, and the princesses. Aunt Becky was also in Orlando so we got to see her one night!

We had lunch with Cinderella and her girlfriends in the castle. That part was really cool. I'd love to have a tour of the whole castle sometime. We stayed at a Disney vacation club resort which was really nice. Lauren lived in the kiddie pool and I got tan for the first time this summer (better late than never?). The resort does a good job of making itself a haven from reality. It was an incredibly nice cocoon for six days.

It's been busy since then. The whole family traveled up to the UP to check on the cafe the last weekend of October. John and Cassie joined us and ran the shop that Saturday. John had worked at the cafe for a summer way back when and Cassie also had coffeehouse experience. The clientele loved her; too bad she lives in Minneapolis. We went to First Covenant Church in Iron Mountain that Sunday--it was good to see so many friends and get so many hugs! It was the first time we'd been there with Megan--and she's 10 months old already.
Dan also recently had kidney stones which put him in the ER for some realllly good painkillers. He was flat on his back for four days because of the pain. He's up and around now, but we're still waiting for the stones to finish their travels.

Dan has begun the job interviewing process or "the call process" as it's called in the Covenant church. The Covenant church in the United States is divided into conferences (similar to baseball!). Dan will be meeting with the superintendents of those conferences beginning in January at the annual midwinter conference. I guess I will be, too. Please pray for us as we begin this process, make many decisions, and hope to discern the Lord's will. Annika has decided that we'll move into a home that looks like the one in the Terry Redlin print that we have.

Annika is doing well. She seems to be an introvert, but is making new friends. Her first love Dan Larson is now engaged. She seems unaffected. This is good. She is thorough in her homework which sometimes means her teacher needs to encourage her to finish at home. She is starting to sound out words and is in the beginning stages of reading. She likes spelling and making up "Spanish" words to speak.

Lauren's preschool teacher will be taking a new position after Christmas. Lauren is dealing with that well. Lauren makes up her own songs often and loves dancing.

Emily is still getting us in trouble. She has taken to drinking out of the toilet. How? She gets cups and dips. So gross. Dan really hesitates to kiss her at night. Wonder why? She too likes singing and dancing. She understands much of what we say to her and has stopped whining/tantrumming over everything since we're able to figure out her communications much of the time. Her English is getting better, but still in that very cute stage.

Megan, at long last, has her first two teeth--the bottom ones of course. She also has a real laugh now. She sits well by herself and has begun the first stages of crawling. She can hold herself standing for awhile, too.

If you think of it, drop us a line and let us know how you are doing. I may not answer for awhile, and if I do, it'll probably be after midnight, but real email is good.

Megan Dedicated and Catch-up

2008-10-12T17:37:00.008-05:00

Megan was dedicated this morning--a chance for us to say thanks to God for lending Megan to us and affirming we'll do our best to raise her in a way that glorifies him. And a chance to get a lot of other people helping us!

My brother Andrew and his wife Jessica (happy month-iversary!) were able to be with us to celebrate.

Two other seminary couples/families were also able to make it.

Since Andrew's wedding, it's been rather hectic. I and the three younger girls have already been back to Minnesota--I had a business conference there. My mom watched the girls. Annika stayed here in Chicago with Dan. She attended her first graduate level course--made it about 80% of the way through. She also got to go on a couple dates with daddy. Very cool!

I had 14 lesson plans to do before the conference...a few very late nights there. It seems to be the only time to get things done. Hmm. Wonder why. I still have a few pieces to write up about the conference. And I had to get an 8-page newsletter done (written, layout, edited) before we go on our vacation (yes--VACATION!) on Tuesday! Someone gave us free hotel for six nights and someone else gave us two plane tickets (we had two others saved up on credit card points) and yet someone else is paying for friends of our to watch Emily and Megan while we're gone. While they will miss us, they'll have more fun here this week. Wow. It's the first vacation we've been on since 2000 I think.

Annika is loving kindergarten. She's having a rough time getting along with sisters right now. She's using more of her vocab--but is still mixing them up--using "recognized" instead of "remembered." She really enjoys reading--which is good since that's her main "homework" each week for school. She (with a little of Lauren's opinion) dictated a book review. It's on the web at: http://reviews.armchairinterviews.com/reviews/purplicious

Lauren is loving preschool and is the biggest/oldest kid in her class of three. She got a v-smile for her birthday (preschool version of PlayStation) and is having a blast with it. Comes with a microphone for Alphabet Song karaoke.

She also uses her tummy as an excuse for things--it seems to be the heart of her emotions. "Mommy, my tummy wants to come up and sit with you" while we're driving in the car. I told her my tummy thought it was a bad idea.

Emily is really into everything. We now have to lock the back screen door because the smart stinker figured that one out. She says phone (foe), shoes (shoes), Annika (Annika) and Lauren (Lala).

Megan is sitting by herself and becoming more vocal. Still no teeth!

Below are pics from the last month.
Annika posing
Chicago skyline from the 96th floor of John Hancock building (with Andrew and Jessica Oct. 11)

We did a family photo shoot at a nearby outdoor mall.
Lauren's fourth birthday.

Soggy Summer Camp

2008-09-19T17:25:00.002-05:00

North Park in the fall feels a lot like summer camp to me. As I walk around campus at dusk, I hear some of the kids yelling down from dorm or apartment windows to friends below. Two nights ago, a couple guys were on their front stairs playing guitar and singing. And, due to last weekend's flooding, I also see co-eds with their shower baskets traversing campus to the rec building to shower with hot water.

To fill you in, North Park's campus was deluged with water from the North Branch of the Chicago River last weekend after more than eight inches of rain in less than two days. We got back from Minnesota on Sunday night, after criss-crossing back roads to get to campus due to flooding on the main streets. Dan then went to look at the river which was just under the bridge connecting the two sides of campus.

Several of the buildings were evacuated due to flooding or potential safety concerns with water near energy sources.

After two days, the dorms were again open, but the co-eds had to endure cold showers. The school's main dining hall for the undergrads is still closed because the basement was filled with eight feet of water.

The wedding weekend in Minnesota was good, but very busy. Dan was the officiant and Annika and Lauren two of the flower girls. When I get some pics, I'll attach them. We really didn't have time to take any. You can go to davidnewellphotography.com, click on Shop Photos, and choose Jessica and Andrew. Plenty of family pics there.

All six of us are getting over colds which we always seem to get in Minnesota. We just line the girls all up and give them squirts of kiddie tylenol. Anyway, enough for now. Below are some more cute kid quotes.

**9/08
Sometime before Uncle Andrew’s wedding, Annika asked when he and Aunt Jessica were going to have a baby. I told her they couldn’t have a baby until after they were married. Then I asked her how long she thought it would take for them to have a baby: “Um, about seven days, I think.”
**
9/16/08
Lauren, pointing at the blond doll on the cover of Barbie’s Swan Lake DVD: “That’s me when I was a Barbie.”

Annika, after catching the bouquet at Uncle Andrew’s wedding: “I get to get married now! Mommy, can we bring this back to Chicago so I can remember to get married?”

Annika, after getting a new haircut and Daddy commenting that she looked older: “Mommy, how old do I look? 15? 17?” She was pretty excited when I told her she looked at least six.

Lauren: “Mommy, when you were little, were you my size?”

9/17/08
Annika, when asking Mommy to wipe her bum: “I don’t know how to yet. Only when I’m 17.”

9/18/08
Annika, when asked if she thought she’d ever get to Disney World again: “When I’m a mom, I’ll let my kids go whenever they want to.” When we told her it would cost at least $1000, we also asked if she thought her husband would have any money left. “At least seven dollars.”