the Journal write up for the first swim meet

from River Falls Journal

The Wildcat boys' swimming and diving team gave new head coach Caitlin Brudzinski her first career win by edging Rice Lake 86-84 in the season opener for both teams boys' swimming and diving season opener for both teams Tuesday, Nov. 27, in River Falls.

River Falls posted five first place finishes, including the top three spots in the 50-yard freestyle, and took three of the top five spots in the penultimate event of the night-- the 100 breaststroke-- to edge the Warriors by two points.

“It was a good meet to start the season,” Brudzinski said. “The boys swam well for only being nine days into practice.”

The Wildcats picked up 13 of the available 16 points in the 50 freestyle with Seth Larsen, Nate Lawrence and Derick Graves sweeping the top three spots. Larsen posted a first place time of 25.52 seconds, Lawrence was second in 26.34 and Graves third in 27.86.

The Cats were clinging to a two-point lead with two races remaining when Anders Olson won the 100 breaststroke in 1 minute, 12.36 seconds, Darin Derks took third in 1:22.01 and Zach Martin was fifth in 1:26.75 to seal the team victory.

The meet started on a high note for the Wildcats when Jacob Richardt, Olson, Larsen and Lawrence combined for a come-from-behind win in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:59.69.

Freshman Darin Derks followed with a win in his varsity debut in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:30.52 while Olson was second in 2:34.74. Connor Barr gave the Cats their fifth first place finish by winning the 500 freestyle by almost 40 seconds in 5:33.19.

Barr added a second place time of 2:00.43 in the 200 freestyle and Larsen was second in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.09 while freshman Shawn Derks was the Cat's top finisher in the 100 backstroke with a third place time of 1:18.94.

The Cat's 200 freestyle relay team of Nathan Burke, Graves, John-Eric Klecker and Richardt combined for a second place time of 1:59.23, and the 400 freestyle relay team of Shawn Derks, Klecker, Barr and Olson was second in 4:16.34.

Next up for the Wildcats is the Chippewa Falls Invitational this Saturday, Dec. 1.

31 precious years

for 31 precious years, I have known and loved this beautiful young lady. Happy birthday nenna weiss baboon.

here's Jenna, Vance and Stuart Christmas...I'm guessing 1996?

comic book creator

Tonight, I got home from a wonderful day at school and our 8 year old mobbed me at the door. "I need two more sheets of paper for my comic book, Mom". Does a heart good.

first swim meet of the season

Tonight, we made it to Anders' home meet where he sang the national anthem and then swam in two relays and two individual events.

The 200 IM relay got first place, he got first in his 100 breaststroke and he swam the 100 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay.

His time in the 100 breast was 1:12. He's hoping to better his best time of 1:07 later this season.

 Take your mark                                                                   beep

heading into the homestretch                     first place for lane 4 (Anders) with his 2nd lap time

The Wildcats win the meet--86 to 84 (the real score was 108 to 86) Wildcats win

Anders schedule for the remainder of the year...

resilience

Last night, I went to a screening of the movie Resilience, a movie about people and how they are impacted by Traumatic events of childhood. It was an eye opening movie and made me think deeply of children I work with every day.

homestead Thanksgiving with the Blomgren's

On Saturday, the five Olsons packed up the Prius and headed to St. James--the Super 8 and then onto Homestead apartments to celebrate with the Blomgren family. We played fun games like "What do you Meme" and other party games. There were several displays of Vikings allegiance and we had a terrific time spending time together and eating lots of food.

Evan, Joan, Liana and I--the 2000 and 2001 Blomgren cousins Anders, Abby and Ryan, Kyle Sr. and Adam and girlfriend Erika.

On Sunday we gathered at the Hometown restaurant for lunch and then all parted ways to our homes. Thanks so much to Grandma B for hosting and coordinating our family gathering.

four letter word is back

On Friday, as we were having dinner and planning on going to a movie for Dehlia's birthday, it was discovered that her brother Joe had lice. The kids had been interacting with one another, wrestling around, sharing hats...then nits and live lice were found on Dehlia's head so plans changed and we spent the evening shaving boys' heads and Dehlia had her head closely inspected by her Mom.

On Saturday, we got home to River Falls, treated both Katie and myself with Lice MD (I inspected our hair and didn't find anything), but I have notoriously bad eyesight for lice/nits. On Saturday evening, as we were celebrating Thanksgiving with the Blomgren family, Katie found two live lice on Osten's head--he had already had a really short haircut so we didn't think the lice could survive/hide but today when we got home, he got an all the way shave.

He's pretty sensitive and worried about going to school tomorrow, but we're realizing he has a beautifully shaped head like his brothers' so will look great in the future as a bald adult.

with his minor short haircut last night and cousin buddy/Viking fan Liana

with his all the way haircut tonight wearing his Xavier Rhodes shirt for the Vikes game

happy birthday Dehlia Grace

Dearest Dehlia. You are so kind, fun, energetic and amazing. Happy 9th birthday.

This morning, Ibby and I met at 4am and drove to Forest Lake WalMart and found some fun gifts. At 6am, we at our breakfast at Tim Hortons. Then on to our standard Target and Kohls location and found some more fun gifts. Off to Good Will and then hit some big traffic on I35 as we headed to North Branch to Bath and Body Works. We finished up our trip with our annual visit to Denny's. Wonderful adventure with my beautiful sister in law.

giving thanks

So many people to be thankful for.
Dad, Mom, Bud, Betty, Kent, Kurt, Kyle, Cory, Kim, Joan, Mike, myself, Brad, Ibby, Brent, Molly, Cody, Jenna, Vance, Stuart, Kaitie, Kyeanna, Adam, Kyle Jr., Thomas, Anna, Ross, Liana, Evan, Emma, Abby, Ryan, Anders, Katie, Isaiah, Joe, Siri, Trenton, Henry, Ivan, Dehlia, Osten, Stella, Ike, Kesleigh.

catch up

Last night we drove up to the hunting shack and spent the night. Today Katie, Osten and I are hanging out at the lake, ordering Christmas cards, baking pumpkin buns, getting caught up on emails, grading and hopefully heading out for a nice stroll for fresh air. 

Hopefully Brad will get a deer today and we will have the third deer at deer camp--Brent got a 6 point buck and Joe got a doe. 

davina and vagabonds

Last night, my friend Sharyl and I met her sister and brother in law in the Fridley area to see a really engergized band named Davina and the Vagabonds. Such vocals and musicality! I'm thinking of bringing Brad and going to see her again for my birthday. Such a fun night.

happy birthday Stuie!

To our lovable, kind, handsome, strong and brave Ring Bearer Stuart Martin, wishing you an incredible 25th birthday.

final curtain

The Newsies of River Falls made their last curtain call last night. They changed one of the lines in the play saying that they made the front page above the fold of the River Falls Journal and indeed they did!

Anders is currently at the cast party--he went to a small party at the main dancers house last night. They were a really terrific cast. Some tears were shed last night...a testament to the number of hours and work they all sacrificed to put on a terrific show.

I'm pretty sure he's in the frame poking his head over Jackson's (Pulitzer)

grinch

Osten and I attended the newest rendering of the Christmas classic The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was inventive and extremely entertaining...they also had a sold out crowd at the River Falls Theater.

show 4

Last night the River Falls Theater sold out the first show they've ever sold out! Way to go kids. Grandma Betty, Ibby, Henry, Dehlia, Osten, Katie and I went to the show together and were impressed by the great audience and amazing performance. Keep shining Anders and all!

swim season starts

Anders has started his swimming season and his beautiful hair will likely start looking a little fried as the season progresses. He is also in lifeguard training class in school so I'm sure he will feel a little prune like every day.

third Olson child down

Katie started feeling ill on Sunday. She has been out of commission and is headed towards missing her third day of school this week. Brad is planning on taking her in to see if the culprit may be Strep or just the plain old flu. I hope she starts feeling better soon!

super bowl 2019 picks by Osten

This morning at breakfast, Osten declared that the New Orleans Saints will face the Kansas City Chiefs for the Super Bowl 2019. We shall see how his prediction works.

salute

A salute to the amazing Veterans in our life.

My Dad, Clarence Edward Blomgren Jr.
Brad's Dad, Loren Bradley Olson
Bradley Cole Olson
Stuart Martin Blomgren

and to the countless men and women who have given their lives for our freedom!

out of town guests

This morning Kim picked up Mom, aunt Loie and her mom, Pat. They journeyed to River Falls to see the play Newsies and to attend church and go out to lunch at the Westwind with us. How thrilling and again, the cast sounded and acted even better today!

once and for all!

On Saturday, we drove up to Grantsburg for a couple of missions. The first was to deliver Grandpas truck home (thanks for letting Brad drive to Idaho!), the second was to get a tractor from the hunting shack to the work shed at Wood Lake so Brad can work on it, third to do some prospecting on some ideas for cabins for us and lastly to spend time with loved ones.

here's a glimpse of one of the places we took a peek at yesterday

All missions accomplished and then we drove home so I could see an even more riveting performance of Newsies. I was on ticket sales and it was fun to hang out with my friend, Teri.

There is a song called Once and For All that has a key change that totally blew me away. The performers really nailed it and I got chills and a little teary eyed. Way to go cast!

Then it was home to snuggle with my beautiful daughter Kathryn Grace and settle in for a short winters nap.

opening night!

Friday was opening night for Newsies. My dear college friends--Trish, Ivy and Julie braved the new winter driving conditions to come see our Anders Cole take the stage in his role as Finch--a New York Newsie. Julie's daughter Libby also came along for the adventure.

I was so impressed with their performance and a friend of mine wrote a great description:

A.MAZE.ING.

We went to opening night last night and
I had a perma-smile on my face the entire time!!!

These kids can SING,
they can ACT,
they can DANCE,
they can FLIP, and
most importantly,
these “kids” are A FORCE to be reckoned with!

Watching them,
I felt the power and determination of our youth.

These beautiful people
that I get to hang out with every day
are HOPE and
JOY and
HARD-WORK
embodied.

Thanks for the opportunity to watch them shine, Kim Miller

20

This morning when I woke at 5:18, I checked my weather app and found that the air temperature was 20 degrees--YIKES! The real feel was 14.

As I was stretching after my workout, I also learned that there was another mass shooting with 12 fatalities. Is society changing or is our media coverage changing? I pray for those who have been affected by all violence and feelings of violence. Praying for gratitude and peace.

For the next 20 days, I plan on expressing gratitude for the tangible and intangible. 

the excitement for the show

Getting so excited for Newsies!!!!

happy birthday Kim!

Happy Happy birthday to our wonderful sister and aunt, Kimberly Ann Blomgren. You do so many things for so many people. Thank you for being a part of our lives.

2nd place

Katie was able to play basketball this weekend and their team lost one game to Menomonie so ended up placing 2nd in the tournament which is so exciting! Way to go RF Blue!

more new shoes

The feet in our house just keep getting bigger and bigger. Katie's gym shoes have gotten too small so we went shopping last night to replace. With her healing toe, we had to be very careful in the fitting process. She settled on a new pair of Under Armour Charged Escape shoes. I hope they work well for her!

happy 10th birthday Ivan George!

Happy 10th birthday to our funny, silly, smart and goofy Godson, nephew and cousin Ivan George Olson. The photo is Ivan paddling my kayak in September 2018. He was preparing to be ready for his kayak at their new lake place.

bouquet of the week

5 little pumpkins I gathered from Have Ya Herd Goat farm during our Amazing Adventure with Julie and Libby.

sick boy

Today I got a call at about 1:45 from the Westside office saying that Osten was not feeling himself. He was laying down and just feeling really punky. I called Brad and he was able to pick him up. When I got home just after 5, I found a small 8 year old curled up on the couch. He is now running a fever