All State Chorus - AMAZING!!

So the big news this weekend was getting to see Maddie here in Rapid City -- and the performance of the All State Chorus and Orchestra. There were more than 900 students in the choir... and nearly 400 more the the Orchestra. It was an incredible evening of music. They were GREAT, by any standard... and the fact that they were all high school students... even more amazing!
Maddie was in town from Thursday night through Sunday morning... but her only real free time was Saturday afternoon. The kids and I met her at the hotel, and took her and friend Lindy to the mall for a few hours of "retail therepy."

This is Maddie and I at Enigma, having supper after the performance. It was fun to get dressed up all fancy-schmancy... the dress code for the All-State concert was Black Tie... so all the girls looked GREAT in their formals. Mom and Dad, Dirk and I joined Maddie and the group from Castlewood for supper at 10:00 p.m. Can you say "REALLY need a babysitter??" Yes, the kids stayed home with dear friend Katie for the evening.


I thought I wasn't going to be able to wake up Sunday morning, but as soon as the kids were up, it was "day as usual" for the household! Unfortunately, Anika had a moment of "flu" just after we got to church this morning... the rest of our Sunday plans were cancelled in favor of staying home and napping. Actually, it turned out to be the best plan for ALL of us!

FAMILY UPDATES:
Dirk: getting ready to go hunting Wednesday - Saturday this week. Can you believe, it's an actual vacation for him? We are getting the new camper packed
and ready to go... he is cleaning guns, working on ammo... anything is better than re-siding the storage shed! (actually, he is probably going to try to "rip" into that this weekend too, if he shoots his deer and two turkeys before the weekend is up!)

Thor: just finished session one of swim lessons. He "graduated" from Pollywogs to Guppies the first day of lessons, and after 5 more weeks, he almost graduated up again. He will get in 6 more weeks of lessons on Friday afternoons -- and then jump right into a new sport... hocky! He is really excited to start on the hocky league -- it's a "house" league (can you believe other 7 year olds are on travelling hockey teams?). I'm just looking forward to watching him learn to skate!

Anika: Also just finished session one of swim lessons and improved greatly as a Pike. She still needs to work on letting her whole face get in the water. But it won't be long and she'll be moving up to the "Eel" class too. She also just finished a session of Preschool Character Builders at the YMCA. It was a great class, for two hours each Thursday morning -- gave me a little time to run errands, etc. and only have to keep track of Liv and myself! For the 2nd session this fall she is going to do a Science class on Thursdays.


Liv: almost 7 months old? Can you believe it. She was 16+ pounds at her last check up, and doing very well. She did have a short time of being slightly constipated (I'm sure she'll look back on this and be so glad I've shared this with the world)... but now we know she just can't do a lot of rice cereal... oatmeal is much better for her!


Nancy: Life is back to a calm, regular routine. I'm "out" everyday, at least to get Thor at school... but I do try to plan around my "town days" and get all my errands done on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking ahead to Christmas... brainstorming ideas for a Kids Program at church... and other holiday odds and ends...

We have a NEW camper!!

Yes, it's official... we are camper owners AGAIN. After 5 years of window shopping, and saying this Play-Mor camper was our "dream" camper for "someday"... we finally bit the bullet and got one for ourselves.

It's been a LOT of fun to purchase this camper. Not that I'm trying to compare, but we felt like the whole process buying the first camper was like major surgery... we were fighting and pulling every inch of the way. With this camper, every step along the way was so EASY... it was almost a God thing... (well, probably NOT almost... probably, certainly a God thing!!).


Anyway -- we have it home, and have started to pack the cupboards and storage areas with all the stuff we HEAVED out of the old camper after it was totaled. Dirk got everything worth saving out of the old camper after the hail -- but it didn't get much further than our garage floor.
Now everything is back in it's place, neat and orderly!! I have to say, my favorite feature so far is the toilet and the shower... and of course the sink, with hot and cold running water!! I sound like a pioneer experiencing indoor plumbing for the first time!!

The only bitter sweet moment was knowing we really didn't have a since night free to be able to take the camper out this fall, at least as the whole family. We did try the heater out, and it works great... so the guys will enjoy a comfy hunting abode in November... but that will be just for Dirk and Justin, for this first camping adventure. Maybe the kids and I will join them for an afternoon lunch or something??


Needless to say, we'll all be counting the weeks to spring, when we can take the camper out for it's first Official Morrison family camping adventure!!

This was one BUSY week....

Let me give you a quick run down...
1. Sunday, Setember 30th - the official beginning of our new year of Kids Ministry at Dove. I planned a partially catered dinner of BBQed beef brisket (from the Texas State Line) and scalloped potatoes (me)... enough for our whole church family. We asked everyone else to bring salads and desserts. It turned out very well, having a cozy afternoon in the fellowship hall -- and more meat that anyone could or should eat!
It was also Zion Lutheran School's 50th Anniversary -- with a huge celebration at the school and potluck dinner after the morning service. With the event at Dove, it just didn't work out to be a part of the Zion celebration at all.... what a bummer! It seems like when we are busy, there are usualy two or more things we could/should be doing at the SAME time??

2. On Tuesday I had to be ready to be the guest speaker at MOPS, on the topic of quick and healthy meals. I had 6 different meals planned to demonstrate and cook during the 2 hour meeting... letting everyone taste as we cooked. It's always a really fun morning... but lots of prep work ahead of time, I don't want to waste time cutting 60 carrots, onions and potatoes ... so I tried to have most of that done ahead of time.
It was fun for me too -- I always love to cook, and sharing some of my ideas of what it takes to make a good meal is fun... I mostly try to help moms 'lighten up' about following recipes exactly... but to make them personalized, the way thier family would like to eat it... and of course, help out with nutritional information too.
We made Sweet Potato Biscuts, Honey Butter, Chicken Pot Pie, Campfire Stew (Mom Moeller's recipe), Wild Rice Soup, Cashew Chicken and an Italian Antipasto Platter (appitezer tray).

3. On Thurday, Friday and Saturday I worked on the 200 cheesecakes I had contracted to do for a local wedding (cupcake size). They were less work in some ways, becuase I didn't have to do the family decoration, or worry about stacking towers of cakes.... but on the other hand I had to piddle around with 200 of those little cupcakes!! All it all, they turned out (hopefully the wedding party liked them too)... and were deliverd by noon on Saturday!

Now I'm feeling much more FREE and ready to tackle quite a few NORMAL weeks, with no extra projects... that is .... after I finish one last project .... speaking for MOPS in Spearfish! No cooking this time, just a regular guest speaker!

The one highlight of my week was getting to spend the money I made making the cupcake wedding cakes... I "finished" out my silverware service (now for 12 place settings)... the Fjord Design, Kristen pattern. I can only get it at the House of Scandinavia here in town... or on the internet. The local shop owners are very local-minded, and I love to support thier business. We came in with cash in hand on Saturday afternoon, and she still gave us a great deal anyway -- taking 15 percent of the normal price, even though there isn't supposed to be a sale going on! How sweet she is! Now I REALLY want to go back and buy from here every time!
Here is a pic of the silverward (from the internet).... still my favorite, after 10 years of looking!


Let me just give you

Changes changes...

Do you like my new car?? Thanks to the hail (back in August) we've been going through a LOT of changes here in the Morrison household! I have to say so far I'm not complaining AT ALL!! I LOVE driving the "new" Suburban! It's an '05, and was pretty loaded - DVD player and cordless headphone for the kids... leather heated seats for the grownups. We've all enjoyed the extra space! The kids didn't really want to say "good bye" to the Jeep, but honestly, I didn't have one bit of remorse letting it go. Did I say, I LOVE the suburban?

I spend a good share of my days before pickup up Thor from school each day on the phone with the various Insurance contacts. We have been very blessed through the whole situation. Many of our neighbors have had to fight for full coverage for their hail damage, including my parents. One neighbor even had to go so far as to tell the Insurance company they had visited with a lawyer about the situation. They didn't fully disclose that the lawyer happened to be the wife's father.... but that really wasn't thier business anyway. The Insurance company finally paid up after that!! (kinda sad!)

We got the settlement finalized for the pickup (we bought it back) and the house. The roof is supposed to be shingled sometime next week. Menards and Lowes both ran out of shingles (surprise surprise??), so we've had to wait an extra 2 weeks to get the shingling done. The camper situation has been a little long and tedious, but it's not that it's a "problem" -- mostly related to the fact that our insurance agent wrote the policy up wrong, so we've had to wait extra long for all the correct paper work to get processed, then a 2nd adjuster to take pictures, etc. But they promised me it would be finalized THIS WEEK!

Maybe we'll have to go camper shopping again this weekend?? (hint, hint Mr. Dirk??)

love you all!

Learning New Things...

Just thought you'd all like to see the latest "thing"... Liv is learning to sit up! AND I'm learning how to upload short video clips (personal) of our family, into this blog! We're all learning new tricks!! smiles to you all

Crazy August

What can I say.... it's been a BUSY two weeks... Photos and explanations to follow!


Hannan Campout
We headed to Hannah, SD (just a campground area not a town) between Lead and Spearfish. We found a good place to park the camper out in the woods, all by ourselves. We spent one night (with a few black angus cattle) and day treking through the wooded trails on our ATV and dirt bikes. Thor finally had a chance to ride his dirt bike endlessly... every time he would get a little bored of sitting on our camp chairs, he would say "Can I ride my dirt bike?" He didn't know it, but that is precisely why we went... to give him a safe, quiet place to ride back and forth and get used to the bike. It think we hit the mark! By the end of the day he had ridden up and down the trail (as far as we could see) about "a THOUSAND times" (according to Thor!). Now maybe he is ready for a real "ride" with dad and the boys?!

So the next weekend we headed to Rosholt for the big 60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for my mom and dad!! LOTS of family and friends showed up for the big party... so many more people, from so far away... we didn't really expect it all... we just really didn't know what to expect! Mom and Dad had such a good time seeing everyone... but the poor basement felllowship hall of our home church, St. Joseph (out in the country near my hometown of Rosholt) was so crowded, they could hardly move around to visit with people. My brother said the basement room holds about 80 people comfortabley, and we counted 125 people during the 3 hour "open house!" We did get some great family group pictures with both the Moeller/Jackson and the Moeller/Nigg sides of the family. So many of these cousins I hadn't seen in 10 years (or more)... One group of cousins (kind of distant by the
time you get to my generation) came from Minneapolis and Wisconsin together. They visited the old farm place the next day -- now Layne and Betsy's home. They said they hadn't been the the home place house for probably 30 or 40 years!!

So then next... or actually WHILE we were off partying in Rosholt we had the biggest hail storm at home in Piedmont that has been seen in years and years.... maybe ever? Our neighbors reported that the hail came in three waves. There was large hail right from the beginning, some as big as a baseball. It started breaking people windows and windshilds right away. One elderly neighbor went out to try to cover a window and slipped on the ice... he got inside, thankfully.. or who knows! The next wave of hail brought softball sized ice mixed with all sizes of smaller hail. By this time every house on our street facing North had lost at least one window on the front of the house. Our house faces South -- we did not lose any windows.

The pickup truck with the topper camper were sitting right in front of the garage and took the worst of the hail. Our roof, gutters, eaves, one window (the frame was cracked/chipped) the siding, all
the above on the storage shed, our patio table, the grill and misc. kids toys were all eligible for "claims" with our insurance. We're still waiting to hear the final amount on the pick up, but the campers is a "total" for sure. The house repairs and personal property replacments will be covered 100%, Praise the Lord! (of course, after our deductible... which won't be that much considering).



You might think we'd have given up on "going and doing" after all that... but we had been planning a special camping trip with Abby and Anna, Holli and Jason since last
summer.... and had just settled on this late August date earlier in July. It was going to be a birthday treat for the girls, and an early birthday gathering for me. We actually did have a really good time, even though I was a little sad we don't have our camper anymore. Tenting went really well, considering it was very cool and rainy the first day and a half. The night time was a little chilly --
so baby slept between Dirk and I on our King sized air mattress. Who knew King size could feel so small?

We had all sorts of fun at the Grace Coolidge campgroup at Custer State Park -- bike
riding, playing in the water (even though the parents had forbidden it!), experimenting with meals over a campfire, watching a few buffalo, etc. As you can tell by my pictures, my attempt at making biscuts over the fire, in our dutch oven went pretty well -- but a bit too brown on the bottom. I'll just have to practice more often! I even made my own birthday cake in the dutch oven. No burning there either... just some very prominent carmalization (again, a nice way to say just a little too brown!!).





Thor starts school, 2nd grade, tomorrow. Maybe this will put me back on track with getting projects and usual chores done? Summer adventures for this year are pretty much done... and maybe I'll get a little more sleep at night now too??

Summer Fun

Only 22 days until Thor starts school again... Can you believe it? He is ready to be back with his friends -- but I'm still enjoying the time away from our regular routine. If you talk to Dirk, you'll know I never miss an opportunity to have fun! This weekend we had a great time at home... listening to the Sturgis Rally Bikers go by.

Anika tried a new thing, the "tag-along" bike. It makes any grown-up bike into a bicycle-built-for-two. Dirk had Anika "tagging" with him, and I pulled the trailer for Liv. As you can see in the pictures Liv wasn't totally happy... but really, that was just when I stopped to take the picture. As long as I kept moving she was a VERY happy camper! This might have to be my new exercise routine?? .
Every time I stopped biking, Liv broke into the 2nd Level (this means I'm serious) crying! Anika loved the tag-along bike too... and even gave daddy a break from peddling once and a while! (as long as they were coasting she could peddle "for him")

Here is a picture of our newest "fun stuff"... and part of the reason I didn't get a blog posted last week. We got a pick-up slide in, pop-top camper. (Lots of names for a really small camper!). Anyway -- it's a basic model, no bathroom, but a real fridge and freezer, and an AC unit too.
It's going back to the camper place for a few repairs... but they are a little busy during Sturgis week, so I decided not to leave it at the Camper Store while we waited for them to have time to fix it. We're planning on taking it out a couple more times this year. Who knows? it might even get used during hunting season?

The 2nd thing is our new trailer for the ATVs and bikes. Now we're all set to go for a weekend of mountain trails and camping! I'll let you know how Liv feels about her first 4-wheeler ride!

smiles,
N and gang