scrapbook

Diane, here are the scrapbook pages. I hope you can see/read them fine, becuase it took forever for me to upload them! I (with the help of caroline jacobson) did this book for jari and anita, and gave it to them last night. It is an 8x8 book. I had fun doing it! if you click on each one, it will enlarge it so you can read it. At least it does on my computer! Frans also made a DVD slideshow for them of pictures from us and ones we collected from a lot of their friends...turned out really nice










I have really been dreading this move for a long time now...yes, I am happy for them, but at the same time, part of me was hoping that it wouldn't ever happen! I started taking pictures for this album last fall, and it seemed like the time would never come for them to go, and that was fine with me! Now it's here, tho it still seems kind of unreal, as I'm sure it does for them too! I'm sure we will realise even more after they are gone how nice it is/was to have some of the "kuoppala" family here! You tend to take things like that for granted!
Anyways, I guess that's enuf rambling!
Happy sunday to everyone, we are off to the marjanens for "thanksgiving" as soon as frans gets home from church!
Jenny

snapshots!

there hasn't been pictures on in a few posts so i thought i would post a picture or 2 of the 4 little girls...Mom was taking them so the ones that she has, they are looking at her. Have a good weekend!

-debbie

Hello from St. Paul

Just wanted to stop by and say "hello". Jen and I are hanging out in the lobby of the Kelly Inn by the Capital waiting for Julie Redman to show up to join us for dinner. I'm here for yet another meeting, only a few more to go over the next few months.

Deer hunting was this weekend. I got a small "button buck" Saturday night. I have a tale to tell on my deer hunting expedition, but won't go into details to bore all of you - needless to say - 6 deer around the stand, one deer down. Shawn got a 6 point buck Saturday night and a 3 point Saturday morning. Monday night, he got a doe. He was hoping it was bigger than it turned out to be. Thank goodness we can each get 5 deer this year as I'm not sure what he got today!!! One of our friends was injured and can't hunt this year, so he's hoping Shawn will get him a deer.

Well, Julie is here, so I'd better run. Take care!!!
Heather and Jen says "hi"

Marjanen Household News

News from our house:

Last weekend we had an offer on our house that we were working at counteroffering. Monday evening we had a family look at our house and Tuesday they made an offer. We accepted it on Tuesday and are looking forward to closing on November 19th if all goes according to plan. The family has 2 girls who go to school with our girls .. will be a nice addition to the cul-de-sac and hopefully continue to keep it a "quiet" place to be. Inspection is scheduled for Wednesday .. will see what they have to say. Am hopeful that it won't be too lengthy a list as we paid for an inspection ourselves before we listed the house originally. I think this means that we are down to 3 weeks and 2 days to pack our house and have a place to live up north. We are excited!!!

Yesterday I slowed down the packing process just a little bit. :) I went in Friday morning and had a laproscopic gall bladder removal. Came home today (Saturday) at noon .. slept part of the afternoon .. and have been listening to a good book on tape and working on Anna's quilt all evening. Now I think it is time for some sleep. Plan to chill out and relax until after the inspection is completed on Wednesday. As long as that goes well and they don't have any major problems with our hosue ... Alyx & Brock can help me start packing.

That's it from here for now. Just wanted to update those of you who read this blog and haven't heard the house news.

Have a great day all!

My Moose

For those of you that I haven't shown this to.... Meet "Honk, the Moose". My newest pet. Not really my pet, but I'm hoping that she does stay around. Someone was hunting at my house this weekend and claims that he saw "your moose" in the woods. I'm very excited. Hopefully, I can get another glimpse of it and a better picture.

Missi's shower

Sorry that I'm so late in posting. I've been a bit busy and haven't had time to spend at work posting pictures....
Missi's shower was a lot of fun. We had a great "brunch". Thanks to all of those that brought the food. It was great.
We went through the process of the wedding at the shower. 1st we needed the bride:

After we had the bride, we needed the "perfect man". Everyone worked diligently on their "play doh" men with Missi judging which was the "perfect man"...

After the bride and the perfect man were created, everyone wrote vows. I don't have any examples of them with me, so can't write what they were. After the vows, we knew there would be gifts. In order to remember 50 years from now on who gave what... we practiced with a pan full of items and the "memory" game.

Missi got to open her gifts too....

Wedding weekend

Rehearsal went well. Surprise that Liz was a reader for the wedding; hadn't heard that before.
Met the groomsman from Detroit. Went to David and Jody's for the grooms dinner which
consisted of a variety of pizzas, salad, pop, coffee and,of course, Diane's cheesecake. Very few
took salad but am glad Mitchell did. Ivan and Missi passed out gifts to attendants, parents,
etc.

The day of the wedding was beautiful. Couldn't have asked for anything better. As one of
the ushers ended up in a cast it was a nice touch that Ivan did some ushering. Also missing
was one of the bridesmaids as she had to go to an uncle's funeral that day. Wedding was
very nice; I guess I was too nervous to cry! The flower girls had looked at wedding videos
taken by their parents so they'd know how flower girls should act. They did a good job as
did the ring bearer but he was younger so laid down once in awhile.

Was nice to see a few at least from our side of the family at the wedding and reception.
Delicious food. Chicken was raved about by people who generally don't eat chicken.

Went to Missi's parents for gift opening Sunday morning. They certainly got a nice variety
of gifts. Then to Randall's for the father of the groom's 70th birthday. That was fun. Will
anxiously wait to see the video of the skit. dk

Happy Birthday Isa

Happy 70th Birthday!

Thanks for all you have done and for all that you are! May your day be filled with only love and happiness. Wishing you the best today and for many more wonderful years to come! I love you!
~jen~

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Alyx,
Happy Birthday to you!

Wow, 16!

Heather and Shawn

Happy Birthday

Happy Belated Birthday, Gary!
I was thinking of you, but things were busy for me all day. Hope your day was great and all that you wanted it to be!
Love,
~jen~

Life of a goat farmer...

One of my goats had babies on Wednesday. Both kids were doing fine. Thursday AM, the bigger one couldn't walk anymore. Brought it in the house. Milked Mama and fed baby. Went to work, researched on the internet, decided it had to be "floppy kid syndrome". Off to get pedialite... Fed it, held it, did all sorts of tricks with it and it got stronger. The problem was that last night, I didn't leave it on a heating pad and it died. I tried. Know better for next time....

Heather

more pictures from Grandma: their trip out west...

Sheila & Ed
Gil's mom and Grandma's aunt

Cloud over Mt. at Livingston, WY, KOA

Old Faithful

Devil's Tower

Wall Drug S.D.

1880 Town in S.D.

Laura Wilder sign

accumulated mail

-Posted for Grandma by: Debbie

Pictures from Grandma

Testing blood glucose.
Chandelier tree, 315' tall, 21 ft diameter, 2400 yrs old in Leggett, CA

Pacific Ocean

Covered Bridge

Mt. St. Helens taken 5 mi. away
Gil & Bonnie
Reptile Zoo in Monroe

post number 1....post number two follows this picture of the two headed turtle.

Brainerd Reporting

In the Newsletter I said that when a computer savy person comes I will ask to be shown how to
get on the Blog. Debbie Randall is that person! Now if I remember two weeks from now what
she said! I am sending a CD with her of some of our trip pictures. View those later. We went
to Farmington for the bridal shower for Missi. Was fun being there. I even won a prize! I know
it didn't work for everyone to be there; perhaps we'll see you at the wedding, now less than
2 weeks away. dk

Ivan and Missi

Just a reminder for those of you that haven't sent your RSVPs to Ivan and Missi, they would like them!

Good morning all!

Good morning to everyone and Happy Tuesday! The thermometer outside this morning at 6:30 said 66 degrees!! Fall is here .. and it is blissful.

Jari is in Alaska and flying up to Prudhoe Bay this morning where he will be for the next few weeks. I was googling on the internet this morning and came across this website. Thought it might be interesting enough to share. Disclaimer: I don't know how accurate the information is in this website, but interesting nonetheless.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/archive/5230/glocal/prudhoe/www.d.umn.edu/~hoef0049/prudhoe.html

We have some school to do today, a trip to some grocer (probably Costco), and then company this evening for some rousing games of Settlers. Will have to take a nap. Worked yesterday and then stayed up until nearly 2 a.m. (that is a bad thing for this girl) working on a cross-stitch while finishing a book on tape. Sometimes you just need to unwind a little bit!

Have a great day!
-anita

going hunting

I am leaving in about a half hour to northern az (area4b the most saught after area for the early bow hunt for bull elk). I will post some pics some time later. I am going along to video the hunt. Then the next week I will be gone for ten days on a bull hunt in the missouri breaks in montana. That is about one and a half hours south of the canada border. Going there to video also. Hope to get lots of bulls up close and am planning on trying to sell the videos to stores. On both of the hunts there are going to be people along that are good at calling bulls and understand bull elk. They are claming to "guarantee" that we will have bulls within twenty yards of us. Even if no one gets a shot off we should get some good video I am hoping.
Frans

My views of Washington

Washington was so much fun. Thanks to Eric and Rosie for getting married there. It was great to be able to be a part of their special day and to see the sights in Washington. I'm excited to go exploring there again some day.

Jen and I drove all over - trying to take the "road less travelled" at times. It was beautiful country to see: We were able to spend some time on the water, but it was so cold that we weren't brave enough to hit the water:

We saw mountains. I tried really hard to get a picture of a mountain that I liked - it makes it difficult to do when driving, and finally got this picture off of some small road:

Sunday, after bringing Jen to the airport, I made it to Snoqualmie Falls - not sure if that is how it is spelled. It was beautiful. A bit of a hike to the bottom, but well worth it:

Can't wait to find other areas to explore. It is amazing how much we got done in the short amount of time that we were there. It was so much fun.

Heather

MISSI SHOWER

Invitations went out this morning. Date is September 29th at Noon (brunch). Here is the list that I have for those of you that have volunteered to help out: Jennifer (Fruit and Juice), Laurie (Hashbrowns), Machelle (Muffins), Heather (games).
Anita, Becky, Elizabeth and Jenny have already mentioned that they will not be able to make it.
Heather can you let me know how many games you have come up with so I can get prizes? This should be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to seeing you all on the 29th!
Thanks for all of your help with this!
Farmington Jo

New Hobby??

I am suppose to be at work today, but was "called off" this morning ... again. Ugh! Extra days home are awesome, but not right now. Shouldn't be my turn again for a while and I'll be wishing it was.

Have been wanting to try digital scrapbooking. I don't have any fancy shmancy program that I'm using, my computer is much too full of pics to work at a decent speed, but this morning I tried a page. Am sharing. I only downloaded one free "kit", so worked with what I had. Just fun to try something new.

-a

Happy Heather Day

Happy B-day, Heather!

After cake, ice cream, and other treats, its right back to the goals: jog 14 miles again for me this week and 30 mins/day on my bike. -e.

Seattle

What a beautiful wedding ... I, too, was sort of wishing we could have popped all those umbrellas open during the wedding. Was sort of imagining the nice little noises it would have made. My picture leave a bit to be desired .. thank goodness I know where to find the photographer with the good ones!

Jari & I had a fun time exploring Seattle and the surrounding areas as much as we could. Wednesday we went to Whidbey Island and Deception Pass. Thursday we visited the Space Needle. I didn't feel the need to go the thing, just to see from the ground was enough for me. We attempted to find Pike Market at the same time ... it didn't work. I am so directionally challenged and we walked miles in the wrong direction. The hills are sort of like Duluth. Going down isn't bad ... thought we would just grab a cab/bus/trolley back up to the top. We hiked it instead. Good exercise!! We went to rehearsal in the evening after surviving the traffice there. :) Visited Ryan & Tiffany Huotari after rehearsal. Saturday morning we managed to make it to the Market. Could have spent an entire day down there. Was really fun. This time we headed to Martins house a bit earlier and traffic was much friendlier. The wedding was beautiful .. the setting incredibly picturesque. We had coffee at Denny's after the wedding with Mom, Isa, Heather and Jen. Once again getting back to our hotel rather late. This morning (hard to believe the wedding was only yesterday evening!) we meandered, drove around looking at things and even found a marina with a sales office where we could dream. Caught an earlier flight home today .. only by an hour .. but rather be home than in an airport. Hint/Tip: If you change your ticket at the ticket counter (at least with Alaska Airlines) it cost you $50 to change it. We changed it at the kiosk and it didn't cost a dime. Not sure that works the same with every airline, but I believe that Heather is going to try it tomorrow as well. Let us know if it works Heather.

Time to head for bed! Have a safe weekend everybody.

-a

Eric and Rosie's wedding

I haven't had a chance to really look at all the pictures from the wedding, but have just quickly glanced at them. Here are a few. Their wedding was absolutely beautiful! It rained some on and off before the ceremony, and sprinkled a little towards the end of the reception, but it ended up being okay! A trip was made to the dollar store about two hours before the wedding to buy the 47 umbrellas that they had, and they were set on about every 4th chair, but we ended up not needing them....although, it would have been cute for pictures with a sea of umbrellas!

Hope everyone is having a great labor day weekend! Greetings from the west coast:)

Jennysorry you have to tilt your head to see this!