warm fire

Brad has fired up our wood stove...wow, does it feel pretty incredible. We also have our squash harvest drying on our dining room table. A rough estimate of number of squash is 60. We better love squash or our loved one also should love to ask for squash.

first place in AA competition...the RIVER FALLS WILDCATS

Last night, Brad, Osten, Emma and I went to Irondale to see the Music of the Knight marching band competition at Irondale High School. Brad was on road crew so he spent time loading/unloading/loading/unloading the trailers. Osten, Emma and I got a treat at McDonalds, then we dropped Emma off so she could hang out with the band/Anders. Brad, Osten and I went shopping at Sams and met Nate Weaver-Olson at a place called the Tipsy Steer in Blaine. Brad had fond memories of his time growing up in Blaine and recognized parts of the geography/buildings there.

Then we went to the field to see River Falls sound fantastic. They ended up winning best visual performance and best color guard. Waseca won best musical performance and percussion. The River Falls Wildcats won first place--I don't know what their score was, but as I've said before, every time I've seen them perform, they make some really neat changes/improvements.

We also saw the Marshall Tigers, the Rosemount High School and the Irondale Knights perform. Rosemount kind of blew everyone out of the water with their dazzling performance. What a sight to see!

Final note...as we were leaving the Tipsy Steer, we saw a license plate with Anders' initials and his former favorite number...kind of wacky. 

the woe of the toe

On Friday, I was leading gym class with two classrooms when I got called into the office for a call from Meyer Middle School. Amy E. called to tell me Katie had hurt her toe in class and was not putting any weight on her foot. The time was 2:10 and I still had 1 1/2 hours of the school day to work.

Thank you to my incredible co-workers who covered gym, to our para sub Megan for taking my class for the rest of the day, for Grace Gilberg (one of my students' parents) for giving me a ride home, to Courtney for giving me my bike so I could ride it to the High School to get our truck, to Anders for walking home from school so I had a truck to pick up Katie, to Amy for calling me and taking care of Katie while I scrambled to get to the Middle School, to Hudson Hospital for their kind care of Katie and reassurance to me for bringing her in for examination.

Results--Katie broke a bone low in her left pinky toe and is currently walking on a stiff shoe while it heals. The ER doctor said she will have increasing pain through Sunday, but that should start feeling better after Sunday. She will have to miss three on three basketball and also cross country until her foot is feeling better. I hope she doesn't die of boredom in the meantime...

we managed to find our way to Caribou for a treat after the ER. Hopefully that took an edge off the pain.

bouquet of the week

with the last days of frost free, I picked this little bouquet from our front planter and from a sweet mum that one of my second graders delivered to our front doorstep.

happy birthday Thomas Matthew!

Happy happy 22nd birthday to our charming, intelligent, athletic nephew and cousin Thomas Matthew Blomgren.

Thomas' proud parents as I went to visit him for the first time in the Redwood Hospital

run Katie run!

Today Katie had her second cross country meet. Today she placed 80th out of 153 runners. She completed her 1 1/2 mile course in just 12 minutes 20 seconds. She's our running queen! River Falls boys placed 1st of 5 teams and the girls placed 4th of 5 teams.

Katie with friends Cheyenne and Maya who came to cheer her on in her race.

celebration

I love my daughter. She is playing 3 on 3 basketball with some very talented athletes. Katie works hard and doesn't quite have the skills that a few of her teammates have (they also practice quite a bit more on their own). Anyway, tonight at her games, she played GREAT! Her defense was good, she looked like she knew where to go and she also ended up with two baskets in the first game and three in the second.

Another thing that another parent noticed is that she is singing along with the music almost the entire duration of play. She celebrates every basket and she is just plain full of joy. She commented on our way home that she thinks she's in a lot better shape because she's in cross country. I definitely agree with her.

Keep up your positive attitude and zest for life my sweet Katie Cat Corn!

vikes lose big

Today, Osten was invited to his friend, Mia's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese in Woodbury. While he was there, the Vikings game started. He was happy not to see the start of the game because the Vikings ended up losing 27-6 to the Buffalo Bills.

Tonight Katie is playing 3 on 3 basketball again in Hudson. I'm updating blog, getting my newsletter written and then chauffering Katie to her game.

taking in the dock

Today is the official first day of fall and we are spending the afternoon taking in the dock at Grandma and Grandpas house. Brent and family are at their place and will host us all for dinner. Ibby, kids and Siri are in town for Grantoberfest.

Dinner was really nice and we spent some time enjoying the new view of Wood Lake from the east end. Lovely evening.

homecoming 2018

Logan Graetz completed 9-of-11 passes for 225 yards and five touchdowns and River Falls put Eau Claire Memorial away by the end of the first quarter in a 48-7 win at Ramer Field in River Falls.

The Wildcats led 34-0 at the end of the first quarter and 48-0 at half.

Jared Creen caught six of Graetz’ passes for 161 yards and four of the touchdowns. Graetz now has 1,385 yards passing in six games with 20 TDs and just one interception. Creen has 708 yards receiving and 11 scores.

Will Hesse caught a 16-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter from Bryson Johnson to prevent the shutout.

the Browns ended their dry spell

The Cleveland Browns have ended their extremely dry spell of winning a game. They won on September 20 and had previously won on Christmas Eve 2016. Baker Mayfield--a rookie who formerly played for the Oklahoma Sooners lead the Browns to victory.

mid September back in 62

My amazing and terrific brothers Kent Edward and Kurt Martin made their appearance here on earth. Wishing you peace, joy, love and happiness dear brothers.

some photos from the early days of their lives...

and the rain came down

In the middle of the night there was lightning, thunder and some rain. This morning, on our walk, it started out dry, but the rain gently fell on us in the last 25 minutes of our walk. I was glad to have a rain jacket.

break in the heat

Today I was on a nature walk with my class when the extreme heat broke with a tremendous wind storm. We were walking under a grove of Black Walnut trees and the walnuts rained down on our heads. It was pretty exciting and the kids did a great job of coming together and listening in a kind of scary situation. We talked about it afterwards and the kids thought is was either scary or really exciting or both.

I love the break in the heat, that is for sure.

marine art fair and tie for the Vikes

Yesterday Katie and I went to the Marine Art Fair with Julie and Libby. We enjoyed the beautiful day and also learned that the Vikings tied the Green Bay Packers.

Katie then went on to play in a 3 on 3 basketball league team and won one game and lost the other.

Fun but warm day.

football, bacon bash and marching band

Saturday was a busy day with Osten playing a football game--winning 24--14 with Mike and Ibby coming to watch the game. Then eating lunch and visiting the Bacon Bash in downtown River Falls in the 90+ degree heat with Mike and Ibby.

Picking up Emma at her house and driving to Cumberland to watch the Wildcats Marching band score 75 points on their performance and placing 2nd of 4 teams to Irondale (a AAA school while RF is a AA school).

It was a really fun and filled day.

wildcats are on FIRE!

The River Falls Wildcats did it again! This is from MaxPreps : River Falls captured a comfortable 61-44 win over Rice Lake. The success made it back-to-back wins for River Falls.

River Falls' offense came in ready to rumble, picking up 41 points in the first half. Rice Lake came up with 24 to make it 41-24 heading into the break. The offense for River Falls continued to do well in the second half, scoring another 20 points to put the game away. The victory bumped their record up to 4-1. The loss dropped Rice Lake's record to 4-1.

River Falls is currently ranked 10th in state. How exciting!

1. Fond du Lac

2. Muskego

3. St, Mary's Springs

4. Bayport

5. Waunakee

6. Hudson

7. Franklin

8. Marquette

9. Kimberly 

10. River Falls

best part of my day

Osten's teacher has set up a page for her classroom. Today she posted a couple of pictures that just brightened my day to the nth degree.

Our boy working on his money work.

and here's his class:

bouquet of the week

I received a lovely bouquet from a very special student this week...

meet your doom

Osten has been reading an early reader with Brad every evening...it is titled Meet your Doom. He's getting really quite good at the text. Way to go Osten!

hot cocoa

One of Osten's year round breakfast beverages is hot chocolate that is 3/4 hot water and a splash of half and half. Katie has decided to adopt the same beverage. This morning it was especially welcomed with the 51 degree thermometer reading.

willow river hike

This morning, Julie, Abby, Libby, Mikayla and I met to hike the Willow River trail and see the magnificent falls. The water was rushing beautifully and we climbed the stairs to overlook the St. Croix River Valley. Breathtaking.

outdoor all day for football and marching...

Osten's team 4 played buddy Jayden's team 3 on Saturday morning...Osten scored his first rushing touchdown...horray!

Then off to follow the marching band busses to Eden Prairie for a performance at 2:15pm. I was a chaperone and Brad was a road crew member. I spent the day with the percussion section and had a great time all day. Got to spend time with my friend Michelle Madsen and meet some new friends throughout the day. Marching Band is HARD CORE! Very loyal members and parents.

Here are some photos:

friday night lights...whoot whoot!

On Friday after school, I arrived at the UW River Falls football field to help set up for our marching band tailgate party where we sell $5 meals to any community members who would like a grilled hotdog, brat or hamburger, chips, carrots and bars (I made frosted brownies where my dear Mom helped me decipher the term "large bar pan" in the making of the treat). We served over 200 people

and my brownie pan was empty.

Then I went home and picked up Osten and Katie for the football game. We walked to the field just in time to see the kickoff. As a staff member, I gain free entrance to the game ;).  Katie immediately separated to watch the game with friends and Osten and I took a spot in the stands. About 2 minutes after taking our seats, Osten's buddy and teammate Jonathan came to sit by us. The boys were greeted by Wiley Wildcat:

Then Jonathan went to get something and Osten followed him--they ended up sitting by a bunch of their Westside buddies and had a blast watching the game. The Wildcats faced the Menomonie Mustangs and the last time the Wildcats won was in 1995.

We were down by quite a bit in the first half. I ended up sitting by some friends and we were enjoying the game when the Wildcats started a scoring drive. Osten and his buddies came down a few times to sit near me and cheer and then they would go back up higher in the stands to better see the field. Jonathan's Dad is a football coach for our team, so I was getting some good tips from Jonathan on what was happening in the game.

At halftime, Anders and the marching Wildcats took the field to perform their piece--X the edge of the unknown. They are still practicing very hard so there were some little hiccups, but I see some very good bones.

During the 2nd half of the game, the Wildcats turned it up and we ended up defeating the Mustangs 25-18. This is a game that will live in our minds for a time to come.
Here are some of Anders former teammates after the win...

Joe Stoeffl, Seth Kohl, Austin Mueller, Peter Noreen and Peyton Flood

golden evening of football practice

These days have been absolutely gorgeous. It all started on Thursday as Osten was practicing with his team for his first football game. I was sitting with some other parents and we were pondering on how the days are just so incredibly gorgeous right now. We are very blessed.

making ice cream to celebrate our official first day!

Osten and I had our official first days of school today. I am currently making a batch of vanilla ice cream. Hope to head to bed soon after we've finished our sweet treat.

first days

September 4 was my orientation day for parents, Osten's school photo day and meeting his teacher, Katie's first day of grade 7 and Anders first day of grade 11 or Junior year.

happy birthday Ibby Gina

44 years ago our lovely sister--sister in law--aunt Ibby was born. May your year be filled with health and joy!

Ibby and Betty's birthday celebration with a delicious ice cream cake

lost a tooth eating sweetcorn

Osten lost his 2nd top front tooth while enjoying a cob of delicious corn made by cousin Nate at our Labor Day gathering. Anders and I were out at the store picking up some ingredients and dinner was served as we were out of the house. While we were out, Osten ate with his cousins and then went to play. At this time, he discovered his remaining snaggle tooth was missing. He went back to his plate and found the tooth right next to his plate...so thankful he didn't swallow it! The tooth fairy did find him at his grandparents home (his first front tooth was lost at Grandma B's!). May all the rest of his baby teeth be lost in a non-painful manner ;).

earlier in the weekend, he bumped his tooth and it looked like it was going to fall out at any time...

 

here is the delicious corn where it loosened the tooth just right

and here is the grin that will be featured on his 2nd grade school photos to come

happy birthday dearest Mumfintino

Vivian Grace Pierson Blomgren...an incredible Mom, daughter, sister, wife, mother in law, grandmother, great grandmother, friend. We love you!