Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Did you Survive

Did everyone survive the hot weekend?
The National Weather Station claims this weekend was the hottest Memorial weekend in history (or as far back as they have tracked) and the hottest Memorial Day since 1934.
Camping was fun, although the heat got to us on Sunday. I spent the day at the swimming pool with the boys and Dave and Ivan and the rest of the guys went golfing for 18 holes. We were all pretty shot by the end of the day.
If this weather is any indication of what kind of summer we are going to have, Dave will be working 7 days a week again. Heather-watering your plants will become a full time job (smiles). Maybe Dave could fix you up an irrigation system (haha).
Hope you all had a great weekend.
Jody

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

From the sunny & HOT southwest

Well, we once again joined the ranks of chickendom. Problem this time is that we presently have 2 roosters and 1 hen. I distinctly (as do the folks who were visiting us!) remember the previous rooster. When they came to join us there were actually 2 hens. The 4 were placed in a sideways lying dishwasher box ... with a board in front of the door so they wouldn't "escape". Wasn't very long at all & the bottom of the "chicken pile" didn't survive. Am really hoping that someone trades us hens for these 2 roosters. Brock figures we should bring it to the vet and have it's crowing ability clipped. Am not quite up for that one! Will have to post pics of the chickens residence. It is ever changing. Think we'll skip the butchering party ... Heather, you don't need to save yours for me either. (smile)

Anyone up for digging holes in rock hard ground tomorrow? We have almost 180 feet of back fence that needs vines growing along it. Mind you I kill everything that isn't cactus/desert related. They just seem to multiply on their own and don't need much from me. Now I am going to try planting some vines ... low water and love the sun. Let's hope that is a winning combination.

Have a great day all!
Anita

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Lindula's

I hope everyone is doing great. Things up here are going well. The weather has been beautiful. Jen and I were able to go garage saling on Saturday and purchase a Blazer full of stuff. All very valuable to us =). It rained and I was excited thinking that there wouldn't be too many people out, I guess everyone else thought the same thing. I also worked a lot on flower beds and got a lot of other things done. Shawn worked all weekend putting up block for Ralph and Judy as they are building on Spirit Lake Road. They got the block work done (13 rows of 12 inch block). I have a goal of getting my flower beds done before Anita and others get up to the Range.
This next weekend, as long as it remains dry enough, we have a lot of field work to do. I'll be plowing, Shawn spreading ashes. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
One of my cats had her kittens. She had one and lost 2. She wouldn't feed it, so we brought it in the house and fed it, sadly, it didn't make it. My other cat has had her kittens, but she must be caring for them. She is gone for hours, comes back and eats me out of house and home, then disappears again. Hopefully we'll see the kittens soon.
As for the chickens, so far, we have lost 3 (that's not bad). They are getting really big so we should be butchering them in a month or less. Someone asked about the food. We have been buying a lot of food. So far, we bought 2 bags of chick starter, then probably 8-10 bags of meat bird feed. They are drinking 8-10 gallons of water per day. Makes a person wonder why they bother raising chickens, but then you eat them and they taste so much better than store bought chicken.
Hope everyone has a great day.

Monday, May 22, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy belated to Laurie!!!
Happy Birthday to David!!!
Happy Birthday to Alanys!!!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Blayde! A little late, but gives more cause to celebrate!

FRANS AND JENNY

Frans and Jenny made it safe and sound, excellent time. They drove straight through (did not stop for the evening as originaly planned) with several shots stops and I think Jenny said they made it in 23 hours. The girls were very excited to finally reach Minnesota.
Sounds like we will have a pretty good turnout for the BBQ tomorrow and weather should be on the cool side but sunny. All of the brothers are going to make it (and Laurie and Tristan) and I think Wayne is coming with the kids. Should be a very good time. Looking forward to it!
Hope you all have a great week-end.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Minnesota trivia

To add to the fun, i include the possibility that some of these "facts" might not be more lore than truth - good luck.

1. The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of ____ football fields.

2. Minnesota Inventions: _____________ tape, ________ cereal, the _______ pan, _______ beauty products, and ______ _______ vegetables

3. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 allowing oceangoing ships to reach _________.

4. The world's largest ____________ stands at the base of the Mill Pond dam on the Pelican River, right in downtown Pelican Rapids. The 15 1/2 feet tall concrete statue was built in 1957.

5. The _______________ Sculpture Garden is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country.

6. Minneapolis’ famed skyway system connecting _______ blocks (nearly ______ miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.

7. Minneapolis has more _________ per capita than any other city in the country.

8. The _______________ is the only facility in the country to host a Super Bowl, a World Series and a NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship.

9. Minnesota has 90,000 miles of ____________, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.

10. The first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant in the United States were done at the University of _____________.

11. The _________ was invented in Spring Valley.

12. The first Children's department in a Library is said to be that of the ______________ Public Library, which separated children's books from the rest of the collection in Dec. 1889.

13. The first _______________ was marketed in June 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster. The retail price was $13.50.

14. The first _________ ________ was put into Operation on April 9, 1905, over the ship canal between Duluth to Minnesota Point. It had room enough to accommodate 6 automobiles. Round trip took 10 min.

15. ___________ were the first commercially successful in-line Roller Skates. Minnesota students Scott and Brennan Olson invented them in 1980, when they were looking for a way to practice Hockey during the off-season. Their design was an ice hockey boot with 3 inline wheels instead of a blade.

16. In 1919 a __________ factory turned out the nations first armored cars.

17. Tonka Trucks were developed and are continued to be manufactured in _______________.

18. Hormel Company of Austin marketed the first canned ham in 1926. Hormel introduced _______ in 1937.

19. Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the _________ candy bar in 1923. Mars marketed the Snickers bar in 1930 and introduced the 5 cent Three Musketeers bar in 1937. The original 3 Musketeers bar contained 3 bars in one wrapper. Each with different flavor nougat.

20. Minnesota has one _________ per every six people, more than any other state.

21. The _____-_____ _____ in Hibbing became the largest _____-_____ _____ in the world.

22. Minnesota's waters flow outward in three directions: north to ___________ ______ in Canada, east to the __________ _________, and south to the _____ ___ _______.

23. At the confluence of the Big Fork and Rainy Rivers on the Canadian border near International Falls stands the largest _________ _________ ________ in the upper midwest. It is known as the Grand Mound historic site.

24. ________ is birthplace and home of world's largest Paul Bunyan Statue. The kneeling Paul Bunyan is 20 feet tall. He might be the claimed 33 feet tall, if he were standing.

25. ________ is the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson - who opened the first bus line (with one bus) in 1914. The bus line grew to become Greyhound Lines, Inc.

26. Polaris Industries of ________ invented the snowmobile.

27. Twin Cities-based __________ Airlines was the first major airline to ban smoking on international flights.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Ivan

Hey you all! We've finally come out of the stone age over here (or at least I have, Missi informed me just now that she has not been, she just didn't have the address so she says, WHATEVER!). So anyway, if you don't know we don't have a computer at home, or least not internet, so we won't be able to enter in much but will check in whenever we can.
If anyone doesn't already know, Missi is still nannying for a family with two girls in MPLS. The pay is better than the daycare center with only two kids to watch over versus ten or more. June 26 her bosses are going to France for a vacation and the dad said if Missi doesn't go to help with the kids, he's not going either. So off she goes to Europe for a week. They're going to the South of France and renting a house where Missi will have the guest house all to herself. Anyone who can help me out-I've always wondered why the French think they are so special that the southern part of their country is the South of France-not southern, or lower, or anything but the South, capitalized no less. OK I'll get off the soap box now and get back to the tee box.

I've been spending a lot of my time at work and the rest of it at the golf course, just ask Missi-she'll tell you. I'm fortunate to be working for the framing company that I am as construction in the Metro area is slowing down. A lot of our competitors are starting to suffer, some of the bigger ones are having to lay off some people or at least cut hours. Some of the smaller ones are out of business or nearly there. We have so many customers that our workload is somewhat steady. We aren't as busy as we were last summer, but still working overtime. (last summer I was working 10-12 hour days 6 days a week, doesn't leave near enough time for golf.)

We are at Ma & Pa's at the moment checking out the place for the first time and using their computer. Going from here to Gary and Laurie's for the evening and the morning. Planning on golfing with Gary on Sunday morning (9 holes at Eveleth). Hope the weather holds out for that-been raining a lot lately.

Hear through the grape vines that AZ Kuoppalas are coming up here next week, Frans I'll try to call you this week sometime to confirm, but will plan on making a tee time for early Sunday morning. Will try to talk Dave into going, but don't really plan on succeeding on that one. (probably will ask Chuck-Missi's aunt's friend) to fill out a threesome so can make a tee time. Plan on Fountain Valley 5 min. from Dave and Jody's.

Anyway, my arms and fingers are starting to cramp up as haven't typed in years. Should probably go and finnish the tour of the apartment. We got to the spare room and started to check out the computer and whatnot and ended up reading the blogs and haven't left in a quite a while. See you all sometime, will try to blog you all back before then.

Ivan and Missi

Friday, May 12, 2006

Happy Mother's Day

Mom likes flowers, so in honor of Mother’s Day name the flowers:

1. What a guy did when proposing marriage.
2. An udderly bad barnyard accident.
3. What John’s mom says every morning.
4. Sad Southern gals.
5. A country with lots of automobiles.
6. Groups of sheep.
7. Farm critter’s whiskers.
8. Keeps a woman warm.
9. Used for eating ice cream.
10.What you might call a lousy female boxer.
11.A child did this to a birthday candle.
12.Obstetricians are relieved to hear this.
13.Grows between mountains.
14.A man’s name and an old writing instrument.
15.What temperatures below 32 degrees do.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

I do ... at least I tried!

Do any of these work?

Everyone gives advice to newlyweds, so why should we be an exception? First of all, as you know, you __canteloupe_ because everyone wants to see you at the wedding, and if you _carrot__ all, you’ll both __turnip_ at the church. You may get the _raspberries_ first, but you’re not such sour _grapes___ that you can’t take it.To you, Reino, please take this advice: never __????[beat]__ Diane, but remain cool as a ___cucumber___. Remember, she’s a human __bean__ too. And a very cute __ ???/date [or tomato]___, as well as the __apple__ of your eye.To you Diane, a good wife always has a sunny disposition. Never be __melon_choly. We are glad Reino has a good job and hope that he soon gets a __raisin_ __celery__.In closing, __lettuce__ say this may be a lot of _???[corn]_ and we’re __plum_ crazy or even full of __beans [prunes]__ but we hope that this __onion [pear]_ will be blessed with some cute little __ ???/peanuts [or peppers]___.

What a busy week! Completed a project on Tuesday, which I'm adding here. The three girls on the right are my daughters. This was a "few" years back at Hurricane Lake in the White Mountains. Have to figure out the best lighting to take pics of paintings. I'm not thrilled with the photo, but a place to start anyway!

Wednesday I listened to a book on tape and scrapbooked Rawhide pictures!!! They have been nagging at me for quite a while. Mission of the day was to at least get those done. Mission was accomplished ... problem with my missions is that instead of doing just my book, I also do pages for the kids. So a 2 page idea turns out to be 6 pages of production. The story pouring out of speakers in the living room was really good tho'. If you have a chance, and are a fan of murder/mystery, try Body of Lies by Iris Johansen.

Today while I was running doing errands I started listening to another one. Now am wondering if I can spend my lunch hour at work tomorrow sitting in the 100+ degree car listening to the story!

Have a wonderful weekend all! Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there! (really wish I could find my oh so special mothers day pic ... if I ever find it I will post it!)

Anita

I do I do....I don't I don't

OK, I give up! Who posted the "I do, I do, Aren't you glad you did" riddle. My co-workers and I have been trying to fill in the blanks and we are stumped! We have 3 blanks to go and are simply racking our brains for the last 3!!!
Please email me (jodyk@frontiernet.net) and give me the answers...I can't take it anymore! haha
We even went as far as to make up a list of every fruit and vegetable that we could think of to fill in the blanks but nothing makes sense.
This was fun and even though we have done this riddle before, I simply can not remember the answers!
Thanks!
Jody

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Phoenix Kuoppala's Will Be here Soon

Frans, Jenny and girls will be leaving Phoenix on Wednesday and heading in this direction. I am looking for a final head count for the May 20th BBQ. Elizabeth, Jennifer, Charlie, Gary and Laurie and Tristan can any of you make it down? I know Ma and Pa will be gone and Heather and Shawn can not make it and Wayne is a possibility with some or all of the kids....anyone else in???? Should be good fun and good food!!! Hope you can make it! I plan on having a cake for Dave's bithday (surprise).
Jody

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I do; I do; Aren't you glad you did? Happy Anniversary!

Dear Diane and Reino –

Everyone gives advice to newlyweds, so why should we be an exception? First of all, as you know, you ______________ because everyone wants to see you at the wedding, and if you ________________ all, you’ll both __________________ at the church. You may get the ________________ first, but you’re not such sour _______________ that you can’t take it.

To you, Reino, please take this advice: never _______________ Diane, but remain cool as a __________________. Remember, she’s a human ___________ too. And a very cute ______________, as well as the ____________ of your eye.

To you Diane, a good wife always has a sunny disposition. Never be __________choly. We are glad Reino has a good job and hope that he soon gets a ____________ __________.

In closing, ______________ say this may be a lot of ___________ and we’re ________ crazy or even full of _______________ but we hope that this ___________ will be blessed with some cute little __________________.

I.M. Dumm, Pres.
U.R. Too, Sec.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Lindula's

Hello from Da 'Range. This weekend was quite exciting. Pete came to visit (he was here last weekend too, but could come again). I had my garage sale and lost money=), Shawn had his trucks at the auction and didn't sell his trucks but bought something so, he lost money=). Then our chickens are getting way too big to be in a cow tank, so we built a chicken coop. It is really quite nice. It is going to have siding on it that we are getting free from someon due to them having hail damaged siding. So, overall a wonderful weekend. As of this morning, my chickens were still alive. We weren't sure if the cats would try to climb through the eaves to eat chicken, but they didn't last night. Not only that but my male cat is not highly motivated. The two female cats are both pregnant (guess who the father is?) and they can't climb as well as they used to, so hopefully our chickes will remain safe until we get the eaves done. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Spaghetti

My hubby does not like spaghetti. Perhaps for the same reason I don't eat beets. He is kind and eats it when I make it ... tho' for a long time he wouldn't even get near it. So, this is one of the many reasons I absolutely love my guy! Last night there was a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser at the school. I was working and just assumed it would be one more year that we didn't make it. Seriously, I figure I can get through life just fine without having to PAY for the joy of eating spaghetti. Heavens! Does anyone else cut their spaghetti or do they have the twirl thing down? How embarrassing to have to cut your spaghetti in front of an audience!! I came home from work last night to find that my wonderful hubby had taken the troops to eat spaghetti. He actually had to PAY to eat spaghetti ... and he did it! The kids had a ball .. see part of this whole thing is raffle tickets to win baskets. And win they did. He got to eat spaghetti ... and now I get to soak in a lovely bubble bath and eat delicious cake (from the winning baskets). Not a bad deal ... what a dad! - anita

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Lindula's

This is a late entry, but hopefully Jen hasn't gotten to a computer yet. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!! Her big day was the 2nd.
To be prepared and do things in advance:
Happy Anniversary to MR. and MRS. REINO KUOPPALA!!
Happy Birthday Brian.
Happy Birthday Laurie.
Happy Birthday David.
I don't have a calander in front of me so I hope I didn't miss anyone.
At to everyone else, may you have a wonderful day!!
"It's time to start living the life you've imagined" - Henry James

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Anita's Green Monday

I spent the morning scrubbing the house for a visit from a cabinet refacing sales person. As I was scrubbing I spied Tia's frog. She had won this thing from the school prize box & was informed by a boy at school that it would grow if kept in water. So, it has moved from water bucket to water bowl .... and had been it's last resting place a little too long. I went to dump the water and the frog seemed slimey to me. So, being as the dishwasher was open ... I've shoved plenty of kids toys through there ... I popped froggy into the machine. Loaded the soap and turned the dial. Froggy bath coming right up.

Several hours later Anna & Tia came home from school. Tia opens the dishwasher and says, "mom, what is this green soap you are using ... it is everywhere!". I couldn't figure out what was all over the dishwasher. Silly soap! Tia went to use the bathroom while Anna & I stared at the "soap" disaster. ... and the light bulb went off. It wasn't soap. It was froggy! Let me tell you that the only piece of froggy that was left was down in the bottom of dishwasher and appeared to be about the size of chewing gum. The rest of froggy ... green stuck spot on glass, bowls, forks, spoons, coffee cups, the silverware basket, the top of every pokey uppy plate divider. Froggy was seriously splattered. I told Anna "let's not tell Tia what this is" ... and we had to just giggle. I must say I came clean ... the dishwasher never will! Tia thinks it was mighty silly. I used so much goo gone, threw away too many dishes ... and still have a frog spotted dishwasher that is really quite disturbing/disgusting/diseased looking.

So ... we're glad Monday is over!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Another weekend ...

This is highly unordinary for this household, but we managed to experience yet another new thing over the weekend. Sunday afternoon we went to Pioneer Village, which is a living history museum. Have passed the sign hundreds of times on the freeway, just never stopped. John & Karen Skoog & family volunteer there and had a bunch of us out for an 1800's afternoon. Was a bit on the warm side as the mercury rose to something over 95 degrees, but we had a wonderful time.
Mom, this one was for you. There were also the modern day port-a-potties.










Alyx churns some butter ... sorry a bit dark ... the butter was delicious.











A window in a church that reminded me of the one Dave & Jody were married in. The pews weren't as charming tho'. One of my daughters has decided that she would like to be married here.









Brock turns woodcutter. It took about 2 swings of the axe and he was finished.








Karen Skoog in her garb. Looks like quite a toasty warm outfit for such a warm day. She plays it well. She was so kind to take us on a tour of the Village.

FARMINGTON

Not much new here...just wanted to share my new painting technique. I took a class on faux painting about a month ago and tried it out on the bathroom downstairs. I am so amazed at how it turned out. I used 2 colors of gray (1 dark and 1 lighter) and faux painted that first then I bagged on some accent metalic silver over that and it turned out so nice!!! I only did one accent wall and it looks so nice with black rugs and black towels, black shower curtain (which I already had) and with the chrome towel hangers. Dave didn't know I had the talent but this class taught me so many different methods. Elizabeth, I think I have this down now (unlike your bathroom experiment-smiles), Would not claim to be an expert by no means but it sure is fun to try something new and have it turn out.
Anyone free for May 20th? We are planning to have a BBQ for Frans, Jenny and girls. If anyone else could join us for the day that would be GREAT! We are going to set up beanbag horseshoes and we also have the real horseshoes as well. Should be a fun time if you can make it! Just let me know who can attend and I will plan food accordingly! I am pretty sure that Missi and Ivan are coming and I haven't gotten a hold of Charlie and Machelle yet but am hoping that they can make it as well. It has been awhile since the Northern Kuoppala's and Randall's have been down and although I do know Frans and Jenny plan on going up north as well to Becky and Wayne's , it would still be nice if you could make it down for the day, we would love to have you.