New York City

Not sure why Ms. Liberty insists on laying down in this picture - please be assured she's standing tall and proud in New York's harbor.

I was in NYC last week to hobnob with the rich and famous and a $25,000/table event (i got in for free, but did don a sparkly new shirt for the occassion) - i was there to get some money for some political training i want to do up here for women interested in running for local office.

While there i got in a bit of site-seeing, including Ellis Island (which is this other picture).

Abbu the cat wanted me to post his pic as well.

Fancy schmancy house you've got there Anita. I love the announcer's voice in the virtual tour - i want to learn to talk like that.

e.

Hello from da Range

I just wanted to post to see what's going on:

Anita & Jari: How is the sale of the house going, many people looking at it? Any expressed interest?

Charlie & Machelle: Where have you been, what's been going on?

Dave & Jody: what is going on around your house?

Liz: Haven't heard from you on the blog.

Haven't heard from Gary - don't know that he has access to it.

Laurie - haven't heard from you in a while.

Ivan & Missi - how are the wedding plans coming? Ivan - are you back out on the golf course yet?

Jen: Where have you been? Would be nice to hear from you on here as well. Do you have access now working for Charlie?

Here's a Heather update:
I went to an auction on Saturday, no llama for me. Shawn doesn't want me to get one, I'm going to, but have to fence in more land first. Will try to find one around here so it will be easier to haul. I did buy 3 more goats. The sad part is that one of them looked sickly last night and was dead this morning. I guess sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. The rest of the goats seem to be healthy. Will be trying to buy more soon. Am possibly going to be putting 2 of the goats in an auction soon and see what they go for.

We are getting 100 chickens tomorrow, so worked this weekend on cleaning out the chicken coop. Have to insulate it and put more plywood on to finish up the inside tonight. Then, on Wednesday, we get 20 more chickens, but those will be laying, so we can proudly hang a sign at the end of the driveway - "fresh eggs for sale". We were talking to a guy the other day who's theory I agree with. There is no money in any one animal unless you have a lot of money to make it huge. We don't. So, he says, you need to have a little of everything. We are working on it: cattle, horses, goats, chickens (butcher and laying), and we will see what comes next. Probably get a couple pigs this summer to raise for a month and then butcher to sell.

Is anyone interested in buying pork? Beef? chicken? Let me know as we will be taking orders

I've also begun biking again. Last week on Monday I went 6 miles, Wednesday - 15 miles, Friday 16 miles. Didn't go over the weekend due to the auction and rainy weather. Am hoping to leave work early today to get to Hibbing to buy a bike and then go for a bike ride tonight. Probably can't go for too long, but at least do some miles.

Anyone have any big plans for the summer? Are Lauri and Elsie coming? If so, when? Should I try to rent Kaleva Hall for a get together?

Take care everyone!!

Heather

Frans' Birthday bash on the bus

What started out as a nice quiet relaxing bus ride down to jari and anita's with our family....soon turned out to be quite the ordeal! The girls and I kept this a secret from Frans for over a week, and they couldn't wait for the big day to ride the city bus! Frans was surprised, and thought it was a great idea, since this is what he has always wanted to do. And it was cheap too...$1.25 a person but kids under 8 are free...so it was a whoppin $2.50 for our whole family! My kind of birthday!
Frans was totally surprised when all our guests boarded the bus and like Anita said...we had a hoot of a good time!!

Spring

Yesterday and today have been VERY nice, a little chilly but thats spring, and toay we have clouds coming and going about a half hour ago it was sunny and clear and now it looks as though it may storm. but any way, yesterday was shiny and beautiful so i went outside and took some pictures of the 4 little girls, and of our tulips that are poking through the ground here are a few...

Time for a Southwest Update

I have discovered the most amazing thing! I have had issues with doing any close handwork for the past year. Cross stitch became nearly impossible to do with over 40 eyeballs. Too cheap to pay for a nice pair of reader lenses, and not knowing if they would work, I found a pair in the Target cheap bin one day. I CAN SEE!! May spring for a sportier pair of better quality sometime soon. This is the LAST Christmas stocking I need to complete for my kiddos ... and am actually getting it done now that I can see.

Becky posted such nice family Easter photos. My "day before Easter" photos are of kids with water in the backyard. The pool is long gone ... we are down to plastic. They had a whopping good time ... it was rather warm outside. Dad & Mom sat around and practiced with Brock's blow dart gun ... could get quite time consuming when your nature is to get the middle of the target and you won't stop until you do!
This past week all of our kids had state mandated AIMS testing. You can no longer graduate high school in this state unless you can pass this test. Because Brock is schooled at home using a public online school, we traveled to a hotel conference room every day for testing. It got Mom a week of vacation from work ... got to bring the kiddo. Before and after AIMS, we worked on science all week ... made good progress if I say so myself! This evening we were working on an acid/base experiment. Difficult to get started doing these things, but quite a hoot when you get going. Really wish Auntie Liz lived a little closer. : (

Our house has been up for Sale By Owner for about 4 weeks.
Long. Enough.
Tuesday evening we signed a contract with a realtor who has sold several houses for "almost" family members. She is one go-getter! She has been here about 4 times since then, added things to the bottom of this sign, dropped off info, etc. Sunday she is holding an Open House, Tuesday they come in with video equipment and do a virtual tour for the internet. There are a lot of houses on the market in our neighborhood. Apparently things are not moving by owner ... I see some more signs by realtor going up. If it can be done, we have great confidence that she will do an awesome job.

Along with moving a house out of our hands & into someone elses ... there are all the little things we are working on to get our move moving along. I have been working with a recruiter for a travel nursing job that will be in Anchorage. The benefits of that kind of position outweigh by far being hired on as regular staff at a hospital. I have a 2-day ACLS class that I am scheduled to take the beginning of May. Other than that, am now waiting for an interview call in the next several weeks. Should this house go into escrow, Jari will leave again to go find us something to live in up there ... and open that p.o. box! This past week I also got new tires/wheels on my rig. We should be good for the trip up there now. Topper is ordered for the truck to keep Duke enclosed and bad weather free for the trip. May also keep him somewhere safe while we stop for nights on the road.

Last night was an absolute hoot!! Frans & Jenny will post much better photos I am sure, but for a taste ... here are a few. Frans has always wanted to ride the city bus down to our house ... so Jenny & I came up with a plan. They hop on the bus with the girls up around their house. Then we invite all kids of hoodlums to join along the bus route. The bus was a bit early and we ended up in only 2 groups at 2 bus stops, but it was a hoot. Quite a first bus ride for the birthday boy. We did have a few moments where we were really wondering what to do. A gentleman rider asked if he could join the party. He was invited by a few folks. Being a bit naive in the way of "public parties" we assumed he was kidding. He wasn't. He was all set to join us. After much discussion and whispering among folks who were too nervous to tell him otherwise, the Brave Birthday Boy kindly suggested he not join us. Whew!! I believe that we had about 22 adults here, 8 teenage boys ... and heaven only knows how many little kids. (Jenny can probably figure that one out!) Cracks me up. Was listening to a realtor the other day saying that she has a house that has been on the market for over a year. Beautiful home in a gated community. Just kind of small. It would work for 1 child, but you couldn't really have more than that in the house. The house was about the same size as ours!!! I was nice ... I didn't say a word ... we still manage to have a hoot of a good time over here with our tiny house!

That is about enough from me for the day. Should probably get dressed. This house has to be ready to show at a 30 minute notice. Yeah. Right!!!

Happy Birthday!

Debbie,
Happy belated birthday. I hope your birthday was wonderful!
Heather and Shawn

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Charlie.
Hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Heather and Shawn

The new floor...

Mom is at work today but wanted these pictures put on of redoing our floors.

all of the stuff is in the living room, no where to walk! like mom said, it doesn't seem like you have a lot, until you start moving it, the stove and refrigerator are in the garage. the picture above was taken after sanding but before the staining, i wish that we left it that color and clear coated it but others didn't.

you can see how much they changed by looking at the table, there isn't a huge contrast between the two now. The main entry way floors.

family on Easter. the girls!

Happy Birthday FRANS

Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear FRANS
Happy Birthday to you.

Hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

Heather and Shawn

This, that, and a lot of blah, blah,blah...

How was everyone's Easter? What did others do?

I do read the blog spot consistently, but haven't had anything exciting going on in life, but being as it has been so quiet...

I got sick last week, so didn't want to do much this weekend. Thanks for the invite to Brainder though - we will come again soon. I've missed too much work and just wanted to start feeling better. So, Friday we got off early from work - just a treat from the top dog. He does that occassionally. Went home and slept for a while, then Shawn and I went to Taco John's. It was very bad food.

Saturday, I worked on cleaning some while Shawn went to a horse sale. Not sure why he needed to go, but I declined the offer of going with as I don't want anymore horses. He gets home and says he has to go back on Sunday to pick them up. He bought 4 for us and 1 for Loy and Mindy.

So, Sunday, he left early to get horses. I meanwhile am still not supporting this decision. We now have - in a corral - 4 horses (3 are young), 11 calves who are growing more and more everyday, and 3 goats. Our own little petting zoo. Walter agrees that being as Shawn got 4 horses, it's time for me to get the llama. I'm going to find out when the next exotic auction sale is and am going to try and get me a llama. Oh yeah, we have 100 chickens coming in a couple weeks and plans to get pheasants.
So, while he was picking them up, I went to church, then home to continuing organizing things and Laurie came over for a while. I clipped a bunch of recipes and am going to put them into a folder/album. It is so hard to use a recipe box unless you know what you are looking for. If you just want to try out new recipes, it would be nice to see them.
What do others do for their recipes? I'm going to try and get a folder and then put in protected sheets that have slots that would fit recipe cards. That way, you can see them easy, flip the page and see the back side of the recipe card. It will be so easy to add in new pages too, when I find more recipes. Well, Shawn got home, we took the horses out of the trailer he borrowed, loaded Mindy's back in and put ours in our trailer. Then, to deliver Mindy's horse. We had to drive out to Markham to return the trailer. Someone out there is feeding deer. No joke, I counted 25 deer in their yard and I know I didn't get all of them counted. Would be nice for deer hunting =). Anyway... We returned to our home, put the horses into the corral - the cows are intimidated, the goats don't care, and the horses are curious. No fighting, kicking, or biting though. I always get so nervous about that. Maybe these are too young to really kick it out to show who's boss. Walter and Sylvia then came over to see the horses and Randy came later. So, the planned nice quiet Easter was very nice, just not so quiet.

Interesting point from a discussion we had last night:
Did you know that when you die, someone has to file your taxes for the year? If Shawn and I die together, I sympathize with whoever is stuck with that tedious task =(. I'd say forget the filing and then what? What could they do if we are both dead? 2 things that are sure in life, death and taxes - neither of which eliminate the other - interesting.

Have a wonderful week!!!!

Heather

Hope everyone has a HAPPY EASTER!!!!!
Love, The AZ Kuoppala's

just pictures....

hey everyone... I probly should be on the kuoppala grandkidz blog but i dont know... Well here are two pictures from Sunday. The Marjanen family went over to the kuoppalaz and us kids went swimming... mind you itz what? APRIL! WOW!! That water was cold! But yeah hereis a picture of alanys...

" But anna... do i have to? "

"yes, come on alanys"

"NOOOOO...."

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Becky and Shawn,
Happy birthday to you!

Hope you are both having or have had a great day!!
I was just going to call you Becky, but since you are
two hours ahead, decided to wait till tomorrow!

Where are all the Kuoppala's??!?! Did everyone quit reading the blog?????
Jenny

Where is Everyone?

I know that the abc's consist of a b c d e f g h i and j along with ma & pa. Where is everyone? Am thinking that I am going to have to post some oldy moldy photos here to liven things up a bit. (If I can find them. ; ))