Double Trouble

It was so great to see Eric, Ella and the boys!. They are SOOOOOO adorable...they were so much fun. Here, they are enjoying the cars our boys used to play with.....They were playing with them almost the whole time they were here. Marshall was enjoying my tupperware cupboard here...sort of reminds me of someone else.....Hmmmmm...wonder who? It would be so cool to get all the great grandkids together....wonder what kind of trouble Marshall, Ryan, Boaz and Joel could get into together.

An Old Steam Engine

A couple weeks ago I heard a really loud/strange noise....even louder then the normal train noises. Then I remembered that there was this old steam engine train that was scheduled to make a stop in Shakopee...very cool...it finally paid off to live near the train tracks. It stopped right in front of Kurvers.

The "Joel Brian" Blanket

I had such a good time making this new baby blanket! This is my "Joel Brian"blanket.
Like Jason said when I brought it down...."It's like boats ur something?"

News

As I look back on my postings, I realized that I better update a couple things.
First, We got pretty good news about my mom. The pathology on her lymph node came up negative, which means that it doesn't look like it has metastasized yet. The mass on her arm was large enough though that we'll have to keep an eye on it. But that was good news for her.

Second, we finally were able to talk to Brian. He was calling from Cuba yesterday to let us know he was alright. He has been around Haiti and Cuba the last weeks dodging Hurricanes. For the last week he was on the Great Inagua Island near Cuba helping the people out: Repairing generators, repairing water purifying systems, cutting down and removing trees from homes and fixing electric lines. He said it was alot of work but a good experience. Today his ship was heading towards the waters around Miami, to be back in Wilmington, NC the end of September.

An Anniversary Getaway with my Best Friend!

Mike and I took a little trip last weekend, to celebrate our 34th anniversary which is actually tomorrow, 9/21. We wanted to check out the little town of Bayfield, Wisc and the Apostle Islands. What a beautiful area, kind of reminded us of Grand Marais. We stayed in a little Bed and Breakfast. 'Took a ferry over to Madeline Island and rode bikes around the island, the last picture is in a state park on the island. It was a very relaxing trip.

St Louis

I'm FINALLY getting around to updating my blog! Over Labor Day Mike, Karen and I took a quick 4day trip to St Louis. 'Had to see the new addition "Joel Brian Bindewald." It was a great visit...so good to see everyone and spoil the kids a little, But, we already missed them by the time we got home.

Grandma Schaller

I made a difficult trip over to my mom's yesterday. I had some news to bring her that none of us were expecting. She had had a biopsy of a strange mole on her left upper arm last week and I received a call from her doctor yesterday regarding the result. The mole ended up being a melanoma. This type of cancer, unfortunately, can spread to almost any area of the body. We're just going to take it one step at a time. On 8/27 Carol and I are going to go with her to the Melanoma Oncologist to have a consult and discuss what he thinks we should do first. There will be some decisions to make regarding treatments, etc. Please keep her in your prayers. She is really doing well and feels pretty good.

On the lighter side....when I was over there last night, before I left, she started laughing about something Walt had told her when he had visited her this week.....My cousin Janice has been doing some intensive geneology studies regarding our Norwegian ancestors and has gone way back to the 1300's....Well.......believe it or not, she has discovered that we have direct ancesotors to the King of IRELAND!!! Go figure! My mom said that her mother would be rolling in her grave.....she didn't think grandma johnson would have appreciated that.....Mother said, "That's where I probably get my sense of humor!"

A Quick Week!

Boy the time goes fast! It was great to have Brian home with us . He was able to get away for 10 days...was able to see alot of people and spend some special time with friends and family.
Here is a "special" picture with brian, karen and "the aunts". Also, he got some more tattoos...said that he had been thinking about this for a long time...from what I understand, the sparrows are a special symbol for the Coast Guard and signify that they will always "Bring you home". Brian also said that the same artist designed my father's tattoo.
Anyway........ fun was had by all, but oh it went so fast and he will be underway again in mid August....just about the time the new "little Bindewald" will be making an appearance in St Louis.

Brian home on a little leave, him and his dad really enjoyed building a new set of stairs for Grandpa and Grandma.

Look what I can do!!!!

Little Wyatt!

Bindewalds and Averbecks

Brian's Home! He spent some time sleeping after getting home....he said it felt good not to have to get up so early for once. We had a great day on Sunday....The Averbeck clan came over and we had a ball, as usual. It was kind of "spur of the moment"...but EVERYONEwas able to come.
The boys had fun with a little football, and as usual had way too much to eat. We got our "baby fix" with our little great nephew, Wyatt. He decided to try climbing stairs for the first time right when he got here....Fun! Oh, that picture will be next, I'm still a little technologically incompetent....but you'll get the picture!

Went to the cabin this weekend for the fourth....was very relaxing...just us old geezers. It sure is quieter without the kids around! But it really was nice to get away and we had perfect weather. Did some fishing on Mille lacs and also went over to Clear Lake where, believe it or not....Grandpa and Grandma finally made the "Wall of Fame." Grandma was SOOOO excited to finally get to be on the wall....and of course she loves eating them too.

Friendly Neighbors!!

Hey!
Grandpa and Grandma and I had an interesting talk with "Officer Friendly" this afternoon!
(Karen, Jason and Brian will know who that is). Him and about 7 other police cars were surrounding the house next door when I got home. As Grandpa, Grandma and I were swingin' on the patio, speculating what was going on THIS time, they were walking around with gloves on and cameras again! But good ol' officer friendly came over to talk to us and fill us in, thought it was important that people know what's going on in the neighborhood. So! everything the new neighbor told us is pretty much not true, she's not a cop, doesn't own the house and pretty much everything she has she either stole or forged checks for. The cop said that it was a pretty big bust, they were bringing lots of things out that he said were stolen. He even gave Grandma his card in case she ever wanted to report anything suspicous! Well, so much for that wonderful new neighbor!

A Norwegian in Ireland

Last Sunday was such a gorgeous day! We spent the late afternoon at the Lake Harriet Bandshell (Mike just made it in time from the cabin). It was great to hear Brian Tenneson's Irish Celtic band. It was such a great atmosphere with sailboats going by in the background as they were singing. It was extra special to hear Karen sing a couple songs, I think she even did a great job with the Irish accent, Pat mentioned that with a name like Bindewald, they would only let her sing 2! All in all was really a beautiful concert.

A Wet Weekend!

So....guess where we went this weekend! Oh yes, our camping trips are starting to get notorious, and this one will go down in the memory books. We've always wanted to go down to the Lanesboro area to camp and go biking....it really is a beautiful area and we did get to take a short couple hours bike trip on the pretty trail before the clouds rolled in! It started raining on Saturday afternoon and didn't stop! It got pretty noisy in our tent trailer that night, between the continuous thunder, wind and hail! But we can honestly say, our tent is totally waterproof.
The next morning we went into town and thought we'd try to stick it out one more night but when we got back to the campground, WOW! let's just say the river was getting just a little too close for comfort. We dismantled the tent in the pouring rain, got in the car soaking wet but could still laugh about it....drove to red wing and stayed in a hotel overnight....felt good to be warm and dry!

Mike has been a little busy!!

Time sure flys by! Everybody probably already knows what's going on but feel I should Journal a little bit here and update this blog. Mike took a short but great jaunt down to St louis to see Jason and Andrea, and bring them a little cabinet he made for them. He also had to get a little
"Bo Time". It was fun for him to see Bo running around ....also waiting for the "next one"....due in about August....it has to be a little hard to be pregnant in the summer, huh Andrea. Bo will have fun being the big brother though.

Mike got back on May 12th, and the following week, as many of you know ended up in the emergency room and was admitted for a couple days due to some heart problems. Even as a nurse I haven't really realized the degree to which doctors are specializing. First he saw the cardiologist, then a few days later went to the atrial cardiologist and yesterday we went to Abbott to the Cardiac Electrophysiologist! mike calls him the electric engineer. The problem of atrial fib, is what he has. His heartrate is very fast and the rhythm gets all "fluttery". The doctor says he has an abnormality in his atrium and so the nerves trigger abnormal beating. He says that it will probably just get worse, but there are things they can do. They can do a procedure that will "zap" the nerve endings in the atrium and usually solves the problem totally in 85% of cases. Mike is going to wait until he sees if he has another "spell" as bad as this last one. The doctor is comfortable as these spells don't cause a heart attack but he would have to go to ER as they could potentially cause a stroke. Mike is feeling good though, and the dr said he could do his normal activities. So we will just have to wait and see.
He got out of the hospital on Wed 5/21 and we went up to the cabin on Saturday 5/24 for his birthday, with his parents, Karen and her friend Brian, to relax........It felt good to get back up there.

And he's off again!

Brian made a quick call this am....he was just on his way down the ladder to his ship....shipped out today at about 11am. He said he was excited to get back to sea again. He'll be out only about 45 days this time. Still going around the Keys, Cuba, and the Bahamas. We can still email but won't be able to talk for awhile.

We had a fun and productive day this Sunday. Grandma got a new floor for Mother's day from all "the kids". As all the guys were at Grandma's, everyone else was at our house eating, playing games and going over to supervise once in awhile....they loved that. I like to call that one picture....."You know what a guy could do?"

Here's 2 more of our trip to NC

Karen and I took a nice trip to NC to see Brian the first of April. It was beautiful there and we had a great time. If you've been on her blog you will maybe have already seen some of this. Brian was a great host and it was fun to see his ship and go on a tour. We were able to help him "set up housekeeping" in his new townhouse that he is renting. It's very nice. We got to sight see in Wilmington and went to the beach one day. Brian's ship is "The Diligence" and will be heading out this weekend for a 2month trip around the Bahama area. Here's some pictures of our time. Note the picture of the side of the ship, these are the markings of every load of marijuana, and cocaine they have captured. Also, a scary picture of Karen steering.

Can you guess which is "Christmas in MN" and which is "Easter in MN"????

More "Missouri Pictures"

Here are some pictures from our "Road Trip". Wilma and Rog, Steve and Dena, Mike and I went to St louis to see Jason, Andrea, and Bo and Emily and Caleb. We celebrated Bo's 1 st birthday and also went to Omaha to see Martin, Becky and the boys. In the "middle" we took a fun trip to Branson. We really had a great time together!

Bo and his new 4 wheeler.

Mike's Big Trip

Mike drove to Virginia Beach, VA after that and saw Brian graduate from his school, he's now
Petty officer Brian Bindewald! They then drove down to Wilmington, NC where his new base is. His ship already went out the week before, and Brian will be flying to meet it in the Grand Caymans on 2/15. They had a good time exploring the town, then Mike flew home Sunday evening. It was good to have him home...I sure missed him...the house is SO quiet!

Mike had a great trip! His main reason for the trip was to bring Brian's car out to him and see his graduation from E-school. But Grandpa had to stop and spoil his "Bozer" for a few days. He had a great time with Jason, Andrea, and Bo. Grandpa and Bo got to be great pals.

Great Grandma says a "funny"

'Had a visit last week with my mom, especially fun because Carol, Dawn and Wyatt were there, too. Wyatt has grown so much...it was fun making him smile! We were having a good time until mother brought up her "Chocolate Explosion!" Dawn got an apprehensive look on her face and said "I don't think I want to hear about that." I'm sure she must have been thinking about the "Peanut butter episode." Carol and I had a good laugh as we explained to Dawn that the chocolate explosion is the "dream" desert at one of the Waconia restaurants that no one seems to be letting her have.

Christmas - Come and Gone

Wow it went fast! Time has flown by with the holidays, partying, family and friends and my new job. I do want to post some pictures from the holidays though. It's been such a wonderful time, spending time with the "Schaller" clan, the Bindewald family (including the day in Hartland), time with Brian for a week, Time with Andrea, Jason and our beautiful little grandson Bo, time with Karen and her friend (another Brian - since he's one inch taller than our Brian he's "tall Brian". ) We appreciate our family and friends SO much - and thank God for how he has blessed us so amazingly!!! But I do believe we are getting older....it's taken a week to finally feel rested.....too much partying I guess.

So, Back to work and the real world, I guess. Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!

4 Generations of Schallers

Grandma enjoying Bo and Our strange children