End of January already?

Wow! The month has both crept along and flown by. We have been very busy with band fundraising efforts as well as spending time with Stephen before taking him back to Morris for his second semester of school.

January has been cold until today. We had a high of 29 predicted and hit 38 (the first time above freezing since Nov. 14). We haven't had much snow this month, just dustings and an inch or two once or twice.

Rachel has finished her piece for speech season and is working on memorizing it. Next Saturday will be a local practice meet as the team has grown exponentially in size this year and most of the kids have never competed.

Rachel and I found fabric and yarn in Bemidji on our way to Morris to make her next costume for Convergence. I am designing the dress and jacket so am being stretched creatively in the coming months. I am planning on making a mock out of a sheet and have started on the knit jacket (a shrug with long sleeves).

Rachel is working on music for her movie and completed a small project for a class project. She has another idea for a short movie to potentially enter in a regional film festival.

And Jeff just keeps plugging along. He is doing a lot of writing and recording in the studio and is beginning prepartions for a live show at the end of April/early May. He is posting new podcasts every other week and is seeing an increase in those numbers.

I hope this finds everyone looking for warmer weather and staying healthy this winter. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Diane

Merry Christmas One and All!

We have had a wonderful season of advent. Preparation for Christmas has been the priority and we are ready to celebrate. We hope you are too. It will just be the four of us on Christmas day and we are looking forward to a relaxed, low-key day. We have our customary smoked turkey and will enjoy presents, grazing, and each other.

We got our tree last Saturday. The weather was perfect. It was snowing lightly, about 5 degrees (which was warmer than the entire week up to then, so it felt almost balmy). We found a beautiful tree and have thoroughly enjoyed having it up in our living room.

I know the west coast has been pummeled with snow for over a week now but we have had some great snowfalls as well. We have been below 15 degrees since early December and have about 3 feet of snow on the ground. Below are a few pictures of our lights and snow drifts after the first big storm. We also had a night of easterly winds and that pushed the mill steam onto the trees in the area. I don't think the picture does it justice but the next day everything glistened with horefrost.

Diane

Blizzard Day

Such a wonderful day to be indoors. Diane, Rachel and I all worked at church this morning, and are now back home with no reason at all to go outside. This is good, because we are experiencing our first ever blizzard in Minnesota. It’s impossible to tell how much snow has fallen since it’s piling up in drifts up to two feet, and they say the winter storm warning will be in effect until noon tomorrow. There’s plenty of wind out there, and perhaps strangest of all, bitter cold. Our backyard thermometer currently reads 5-below-zero. This is strange because you usually don’t get that much snow when it is so cold. REALLY cold air tends to dry up moisture making precip a little tough to come by. Not this time, however. So I’m just sitting here, watching the Vikings play Arizona, and I thought I’d update this blog.

Last week was Calls to Santa week for the Icebox Radio Theater. Five nights of playing the big man on the radio. This week, our focus turns to Stephen who is undergoing his first finals week at college. Not to mention a round-trip on Thursday to go get him. That’s what we have going this next week. I’m sure someone will update this blog before Christmas, but if it isn’t me, let me say Merry Christmas to everyone, and I’ll be praying for travel mercies all around.

Moving On

Well, swim season is officially over. The team potluck and awards ceremony was Thursday night. Rachel is planning on getting together with a group of the girls and swimming 2 mornings a week to keep their "sea legs" so to speak.

So we move on, the holidays are almost here and we are having Thanksgiving with a smaller group this year at another friends house as one of the friends is allergic to cats and ours definitely dominate our house. We will also have Stephen home from college and our niece Caitlin with us.

We will just be us for Christmas and are excited for Stephen to be home for about a month and for him to be done with his first semester of college.

But things are getting any less hectic. This last Monday the school district finally approved the band trip that the band had been invited to join and so now the fundraising starts. It will be a wild four months. The trip with Ely H.S. band to New York City takes place at the end of March so we have a lot of work ahead of us. At the same time the church youth group is fundraising for CHIC the triennial youth conference held at the Univ. of Tennessee. Rachel has an exciting year coming.

She is also learning to drive. Last Tuesday she passed her learner's permit written test and has been behind the wheel a couple of times with Jeff in parking lots. She is the only one of her friends who hasn't driven before (most kids get their permit and drive back to school) and so we are gradually spending time with her in parking lots getting her used to being behind the wheel before we introduce other cars and the road.

I think winter has arrived here. We haven't been above freezing since last Saturday and we're glad we got our stakes in the ground for putting up Christmas lights because I don't think we could get them in the ground now.

Take care everyone and have a great Thanksgiving week.
Diane

Whew!!

What a wild couple of days. On Thursday Rachel competed in four races at the section 7A girls swimming preliminaries. She (and three teammates) qualified in all three relays races for the finals. She swam personal bests in all four races she swam.

That meant Jeff and I made another trip to Hibbing today to watch her swim in three relays and Jeff had been asked to cover the meet for the paper. So he took photos and will write a story tomorrow. I sat with the parents and cheered all the girls on as the three relays and three individuals competed in four events (100 butterfly, 100 back stroke, diving and 100 breaststroke).

The weather was fine and we only saw a couple of deer coming home on Thursday and one deer heading down today we had no driving troubles which was nice because the forecast had been for snow/sleet/freezing rain/rain etc on Thursday and we only saw wet roads and a little snow coming home and dry pavement today.

Rachel feels good about her swim season but is glad it is over. We are working on establishing morning swims for any interested girls so they continue swimming over the winter and spring.

The other big news is she is planning on taking the written test for her driver's permit on Tuesday. We'll let you know when to clear the roads.

Love,
Diane

Last Weekend

All week I've been wanting to write a post and update everyone about our wild, yet spectacular weekend. This week has been slower but I think I must have been recovering from the fun.

Thursday the 30th, Jeff drove down to Morris, MN and spent the night. He and Stephen then drove home on Friday after Stephen got out of class about 1 pm. Meanwhile back in International Falls, I hosted the Little Giant spaghetti dinner and served 25 girls and their coaches dinner. I cooked 6 pounds of spaghetti and made about 3 gallons of sauce. And the weekend before had made 8 loaves of french bread (and used one for a church event).

Friday, Rachel had early morning practice and had to be in the water by 5:30 am. She was picked up by a fellow swimmer at 5:15 am. She then came home and went to church to help with the Fall Fest. I got home, raked leaves and then made an apple pie and dinner to celebrate Stephen's birthday. I handed out candy when the doorbell rang.

Jeff, Stephen and I ate dinner and were just beginning to open his presents when three high school students came by collecting for the food shelf. They asked to come in and warm up and settled in for about 30 minutes as one of them was Anna.

Saturday morning we got Rachel to the school at 6:30 and the rest of us left about 9. We dropped Stephen off at Anna's house in Ray and Jeff and I continued on to Aurora (Mesabi East High School) for Little Giant (junior high girls' swim sections). We had an 18 mile detour and missed Rachel's first race but were able to see her swim three other times for a first and 2 thirds. She swam personal bests all day and was pretty excited.

Sunday I went to early service as I had agreed to read names for All-Saints Sunday. I brought every one to church for Sunday School and following Sunday School we ran an errand, dropped Rachel off at home and Jeff, Stephen and I headed to Morris. Rachel spent the day in front of screens with cats on her lap while we made a round trip to Morris. It is a long day but doable. It was great to talk to Stephen and then Jeff on the way home. We got home about 11:15. The weather was great all weekend for all that driving.

It was wonderful to see Stephen and even more wonderful to feel that he has fit in and has a home at the University of Minnesota Morris. He will be back home for Thanksgiving as well as our niece Caitlyn at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.

Diane

Rachel Swim Pics

Hey All,

Thought we'd post a few pictures from Rachel's swim meet last weekend.  These are from her 500m race where she finished 3rd overall.  She also did well in the Medley, 200m and 400m relays, all three of which she'll be competing in at Sections in a couple of weeks.  Enjoy!