TTFN

I'm taking a little break. I'll probably be back later. Just thought I'd let you know

{In case you aren't familiar with TTFN, it stands for "ta ta for now" and, although it was around before this, I'm pretty sure it was made popular by Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh books by A. A. Milne}

flashback friday

thankful thursday

We had a great weekend celebrating {very nearly -- their anniversary is on Sunday} 40 years of marriage for my parents. Our whole family {my parents, the 8 of us, my brother and his family, my best friend -- who is an honorary Carlson -- and her family, my grandma and my cousin}, 20 of us total, headed up to Trout Lake Camp on Friday afternoon for a weekend of family fun and celebration. The weather wasn't overly cooperative, but we had tons of fun anyway.

The whole lot of us {minus my Grandma, unfortunately}
Joe, Anna, Kirby, Sara, Brie, my mom, Haddon, Jacob, Lydia, me, Rebekah, Schaeffer, Jenn, Allie, Ava, my dad, Justin, Sam & Luke::

My parents and our family of 8 were the only ones who had seen, in person, the result of the years and years of hard work my dad has put into the new Timber Ridge Dining Hall, so it was fun to have the rest of our family finally have a chance to see it. It is amazing, that's for sure. He laid nearly every cement block that makes up the foundation and structure of the building, then proceeded to put stone on the {very tall} chimney and the pillars on the outside of the building -- and since the building stands on the highest point of land in Crow Wing County, saying he was up high when putting the tippy top stones on that chimney is an understatement! Praise God he was safe through it all, especially since he was often working alone, without another soul around! After that was done he grabbed a few thousand more stones and built 6 stone fireplaces inside the building. The main one of which is the largest stone fireplace in the state of Minnesota {and my dad thinks, although has no proof, possibly in the entire country}. It's HUGE! And beautiful. {and Lydia would have you know that she laid 3 of those stones too. She can even point out exactly which ones they are.}

The biggest of the 6 fireplaces
The focal point of the dining area::

When we arrived on Friday night we got all situated in our rooms for the weekend and had some hot dogs and s'mores cooked on the fire out back. One at a time, the 10 kids got tucked into bed and the adults stayed up to chat a bit before turning in as well. Saturday we ate, played some games, had a tour of camp, ate some more, climbed rock walls, went skateboarding, played air hockey, had a snack, played some board games, ate dinner, enjoyed the machine that automatically dispensed hot chocolate at the touch of a button, strained to hear my mom {who had laryngitis} say a few sweet words to my dad, looked at pictures from their wedding, toasted my parents and ate wedding cake, watched movies, played some more games, ate a bit more and turned in for the night. Sunday morning we woke up, ate again, took a "Doug and Marcia" quiz {which I won!}, had a family church service where Kirb preached on God's faithfulness, packed up our stuff, had brunch, took a walk {since the temps were a bit less arctic than they had been on Sunday}, made sure everyone went potty one final time and piled back in our cars for the ride home. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend together. Between the 20 of us, hopefully we can find a major milestone to celebrate each winter as an excuse to do this again each February!

I am so thankful for my family and for the example of love, commitment and faithfulness that my parents' marriage is a testament to. What a blessing!

Here are a bunch more pictures from our weekend. Enjoy!

Our 6 kiddos in the bookshelves my dad built flanking one of the 2 basement fireplaces::

The Carlson boys take a turn::

My best friend, Allie & my cousin Brie::

Joe, with the Dining Hall seating in the background {aren't those windows fabulous, too?}::

Another view of the biggest fireplace::

Ama & a few of her favorite little people::

The other basement fireplace::

Singing "Head & Shoulders, Knees and Toes" on Saturday morning
{we must be at the "eye and ears and mouth and nose" part}::

I just think this is a funny picture of Sara. It makes me smile::

Cheers::

The cake cutter::

A rousing game of Scrabble::

Grandma and Allie::

Feeding each other cake::

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::

1963. good mornings with Joe
1964. another night at Feed My Starving Children with the fam
1965. food to feed my kids
1966. the smell of fresh coffee
1967. a fun bookclub night
1968. my Bible study girls
1969. people you can be transparent with . . . what a blessing!
1970. 16 months of Sara
1971. family time
1972. celebrating 40 years of Mr. & Mrs. Doug Carlson {and, 1972 happened to be both the number of this blessing in my list AND the year my parents got married -- how cool is that? I didn't even plan it that way and didn't notice it until I was writing 1973 and thought how that is our house number and then realized the correlation in the previous number. And, in case you are wondering, I hand write my "gifts" in a journal throughout the week and then just type them here on Mondays}

1973. Trout Lake Camp
1974. traveling mercies
1975. light, fun reading material
1976. seeing people enjoying and using the space that my dad worked so very hard {and long} to create. what beautiful work. what a talented guy!
1977. the beauty of creation
1978. a lake so crystal clear you can see the weeds frozen a few feet below the surface -- SO cool!
1979. my kids in full protective skateboarding gear . . . and a great time at the skate park
1980. Lydia, the monkey, climbing up the rock wall over and over and over again
1981. waking up to full mouse traps {meaning there are that many less mice living in my house!}
1982. Sara's excitement over riding {not buckled to anything} in a bus

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

flashback friday

This time last year::

There's not a speck of snow on the ground today. What vastly different winters!

thankful thursday :: my "mudroom"

We enter our house through the side door -- which leads directly into the kitchen. No closet. No mudroom. No nothin'. It didn't bug me too much when we first moved in. It was just the two of us then. Now that there's 8 of us . . . and long before we were that many, even . . . it started driving me mad! Shoes, backpacks, coats, boots, snow pants. They took over the entire kitchen. It made me crazy!

I didn't take good before pictures, but here are some pictures from about a year ago {not staged, mind you} of the area I'm talking about ::


And here's that same space now ::
It had bugged me for so long, but I had no idea how to remedy it. We tried a couple little changes without much positive impact, so I kind of gave up. Fast forward to about a month ago. Enter my friend, Nicole :: a organizing guru with her iPad and a latte for me in hand {bless her heart!}. She had spent the night before looking up and organizing ideas for me online and came armed and ready to go. We looked at the nasty space {or lack thereof}. Measured. Brainstormed. Studied the space a little more. Sipped our coffee -- I even spilled a bit of hers, klutz that I am. Looked at pretty online pictures {that I'm confident WERE all staged} and made some plans.

I then did a bit of online shopping {directly from Nicole's links!} and got to work. It's so very fabulous now, and so far {about a week in} is working out great for our family. I'm so thankful to have the space be better used and so, so much cuter too!

My parents came over for an entire day last week and helped me put on the finishing touches. I am so grateful!

Here's the whole photographic tour of our entryway {also all unstaged -- this is how it looks most of the time now! Praise God! Well, except for the fact that 5 of the people who live here weren't home when I took the pictures, so there were coats and backpacks and some shoes missing that are also in this area when everyone is home -- but the coats and backpacks all have hooks to go on and the footware that was upon those -- possibly stinky -- feet when these pictures were taken fit right into those empty cubes you see there. Prett great, huh?}::


Inside of the door leading to the basement :: shoe organizer that holds winter gear {hats, mittens, scarves, etc.}. When winter is over -- not that it's even really been winter this year -- we'll rotate that stuff out and it can hold summer stuff {sunscreen, goggles, flip flops, hats}::

View from just inside the back door looking toward the dining room::
Our new recycling bin {IKEA has the best stuff!}::
Looking from the dining room toward the back door::
A wider-angle look from the dining room::
Boots and a bucket for music stands and the patrol flag {which isn't in there in the picture because the kids were at school} and umbrellas when that season is upon us::

So, what do you think? Isn't it great? Do you love it as much as I do?

multitude monday {evening edition :: once again}

Once again, better late than never :: here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that I read each day. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::

1946. a 3-year-old fresh from sleep
1947. seat belts
1948. breath-taking, beautiful frost-covered trees . . . frost covered everything!
1949. living across the street from a hardware store (3 trips there in 1 day)
1950. Joe's cowlick
1951. a VERY productive day
1952. the selfless help of my parents
1953. prayer
1954. a re-done entryway :: better use of space, less shoes all over the kitchen and prettier too
1955. businesses with integrity and more concern for the customer than with making money (George's shoe repair)
1956. new running shoes (and spendy orthotics :: I must be getting old)
1957. five family fish fry with fabulous, fabulous fish (and the joy of a good alliteration)
1958. family sleepovers
1959. great sermon on Sunday morning
1960. time with friends
1961. girlfriends doing each others hair and being silly (you should have seen my curls!)
1962. fabulous customer service -- companies that stand behind their products (Columbia is replacing my roughly 10-year-old winter boots with brand new ones because the sole detached from the rest of the boot, which they said was a manufacturing defect)

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

thankful thursday

Despite all the complaining that may suggest otherwise, I adore these people that I share my life and my home with. My family. I am so very thankful for each of them. Here are a few of my favorite recent picture of our clan::

multitude monday {evening edition :: once again}

Once again, better late than never :: here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that I read each day. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::

1924. the sky right before the sunrise :: silhouettes of trees with a beautiful navy backdrop
1925. how Sara climbs on everything :: my little monkey!
1926. 6 ponytails in Anna's hair {do you still call them "ponytails" if there are 6 of them? or are they "pigtails"? or maybe some other farmyard animal?}
1927. glorious January sunshine :: warm on my face
1928. a new patching alternative for Joe that seems hopeful
1929. Sonic Happy Hour with Joe following his eye doctor appointment. Listening to "Bob and Larry Sing the 70's" together. All good stuff!
1930. breakfast for supper
1931. Sara's squeezable thighs and cute dimpled butt {I was tempted to say "cute, little dimpled butt" -- but then I realized that description was a little inaccurate so I dropped the "little" part}
1932. a wonderful memorial service for one of the most wonderful women I've ever known {and I know many people who would agree with me on that point!}. Welcome home, Viola! You will be missed. I will miss you!
1933. protection
1934. a winter Sunday afternoon family swim :: Sara is such a water baby. She LOVED it!
1935. a 3-day weekend
1936. lunch at my mom's
1937. encouraging, exciting preliminary tax refund numbers $
1938. the long-awaited Water Park of America visit for the 4 "bigs"
1939. powerful music lyrics
1940. our church family :: they really are family to us
1941. Kirbs new {additional} positions of leadership both at work and at church
1942. Anna singing along with the music -- music that no one could hear but her, since she was listening to it through earbuds . . . in public . . . and the blessing it was to see a women, who clearly thought it was great too, stop and listen to her and say to her husband "listen to that, isn't she adorable?" . . . did I mention it was Christmas music? when it's almost February. Yup, it was!
1943. people who "hear me cluckin' {Jennifer Scott, I first heard that one from you and still love it to this day. So perfect!} and feel my pain
1944. Grace. All is grace!
1945. crafting

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

a day in the life {or just a morning}

3 of the kids were up WAY earlier than usual . . . and way earlier than they should have been, if you know what I mean. It's never a good way to start your morning to have the kids get up before you. {But I usually like to wait until the first number in the time is at least a 6 before I get up.} One other kid got up later than usual, which also has its issues! We were not off to the best start at this point.

Anna {one of the early risers} was whining like crazy and I could, honestly, hardly make out what she was saying. It was something about cinnamon. I had to go to the bathroom, so I went -- how dare I do such a thing, I know! -- She comes up to me in the bathroom with HUGE tears streaming down her face. I kissed her tears from my perch on the toilet {can I not just have 30 seconds, please?} and asked her what the trouble was. She was angry that I wouldn't give her cinnamon. Yup, plain cinnamon. Not on toast, not on oatmeal, not on applesauce. She just wanted cinnamon! Weirdo! Finally she conceded and let me give her oatmeal {which she calls opey-meal, it's ADORABLE!} -- with cinnamon on it. So that situation had been diffused.

Next, a certain pre-teen complained of not having socks to put on. I asked if he had checked for his clean clothes pile in the laundry room and looked through the not-yet-folded stuff in the basket by the dryer. He screamed yes! He did that! He had NO socks to wear! What on earth was he to do? So I checked the clean laundry {and the dirty laundry, to make a point} and there were no socks to be found anywhere. So I reminded him that I don't wash stuff unless it gets into the laundry basket and that, possibly, there were a bunch of dirty socks in his room. He thought, maybe, there might be some, but surely I was slacking on my motherly duties somehow to create a scenario where he had no clean socks. We went, together, up to his room {which I rarely enter} and it was a pit! We found the missing socks . . . almost all dirty. A few pair still balled up, like you do with socks instead of folding them, and in random places in his room -- but none in the sock-and-underwear-drawer where they belong, mind you! He put some on, slammed a few doors, mumbled under his breath and went to the bus.

Next, the first grader of the house decided he didn't really want to go to school {it's kind of his "thing" to not want to go to school}. He told me his leg was broken and he couldn't walk. He wouldn't get up off the floor. I tried to lift him up and set him on his feet and he slumped to the floor like a wet noodle. It was time to leave. He had no coat on, no boots, no backpack, and he wouldn't get up off the floor. SUPER! So Rebekah left without him. {Lydia is home for the 4th day this week with the crud. We've been to the doctor and I guess it's just viral, so they can't do anything. Fever, sore throat -- her voice doesn't even sound normal -- and generally achey.} Our kids usually walk, but there is a bus that comes to the apartment building a couple doors down from us and picks up kids and takes them to Falcon. So after talking to his dad on the phone {who miraculously with a few well-spoken words, possibly the same ones I had already said, can make things better -- which, if we're being honest, just pisses me off more} he agrees to get on the bus.

So, now I'm down to "just" 5 kids {one baby, one sick 4th grader, a 3-year-old dressed up as Minnie Mouse and 2 "extras" who don't live here, but who are practically like family}. This afternoon I have a funeral to go to.

At least the dryer started today {it doesn't always start} . . . there's always that! Gotta wash some socks, dontcha know?

Happy Friday!

{In the spirit of keeping up the appearances of normalcy on the blog -- even though you may have noticed I totally blew yesterday off -- here's an old picture. Enjoy!}::

{Don't freak out and worry about me. I'm fine. Really. I was just a yucky morning. I'm pretty sure you've had one or two of those too, right?}

it must be january

. . . the other day when I got to the Y all the treadmills were full. ALL of them. There are lots! Then yesterday when I got there, the childcare was at capacity. They gave me a pager and told me I was #2 on the waiting list and they'd page me when enough kids had left that I could check mine in. Crazy! Oh well, it should settle down a bit pretty soon. Right?

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that I read each day. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts"::

1905. getting my favorite parking spot at the library (yup, I have a favorite parking spot -- it's wider than the rest, perfect for my HUGE van!)
1906. watching the snowfall out the window :: a real live snowglobe! so beautiful!
1907. shoveling when it's not too cold and the snow is light and fluffy (I think I could have swept it with a broom!)
1908. sisters practicing violins before school
1909. the 550-piece orchestra festival the girls were part of :: it was wonderful!::1910. a long-overdue coffee date with a friend
1911. Bible study
1912. people with whom we can be honest, vulnerable, transparent and authentic . . . and enjoying, so much, our time together
1913. a MUCH-NEEDED haircut for my shaggy pre-teen
1914. each time the dryer starts :: what a blessing!
1915. turning in early
1916. my hard-working husband
1917. church
1918. fabulous workout music that makes the workouts fly by
1919. Joey heading to school this morning without complaint
1920. the privilege of having known (and been blessed and prayed for by) Viola Carlson and the joy of knowing she is home with the Lord. The world is a much, much better place because she was here!
1921. him coming up to me after our adult Sunday School class yesterday (where I had gone WAY beyond teary -- teary, for me, is no longer shocking to anyone who knows me well, but this was a whole other story! -- at the memory of a wonderful, wonderful woman gone to heaven much too soon) and giving me a hug, telling me that he knew his wife would have given me one if she had been there that morning and he thought she would want him to give me one from her (great man you've got there, Catherine . . . but I know you already know that!)
1922. prescription drugs
1923. Sara's sweet voice as she learns new words

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

big girl

Well, Sara had her 15-month check-up a couple weeks back. Turns out, she's growing just fine . . . and that's an understatement!

At 15 months::

• she weighs 26 pounds, 3 ounces {90th percentile}
• she is 31-1/4 inches tall {75th percentile}
• her head is 18-1/2 inches around {75th percentile}
• she eats just about anything we put in front of her {and LOVES it!}
• she clearly knows when she's full and will vigorously shake her head "no" and refuses to open her mouth anymore
• she walks, runs and climbs
• she can say :: momma, daddyyyyyyy, ama, hi, hot and up -- and a version that we can understand of :: Joey, Bekah and Lydia
• she can sign :: more, please and all done -- and she waves too
• she still doesn't sleep through the night regularly {typical of our kids, unfortunately}
• she prefers her daddy when she gets up in the night and has been known to go from standing up, calm and quiet {but awake!} to going limp, melting into a puddle and resuming her crying when she sees my silhouette instead of her dad's at the side of her crib in the middle of the night -- once she even scooted way into the corner of her crib, thinking maybe I couldn't reach her or something. Silly girl!
• she is magnetically drawn to the dishwasher and the bathroom, whenever either door is left open she is there in an instant!
• she is an easy-going, happy kid!
• we adore her!

flash{way}back friday

Some Stoll family history.

Joe & Anna Stoll had 17 kids::

Fern was born in 1918 followed by Paul in '19, Ruth in '20, Ella in '22, Ivan in '23, Carl in '24, Doris in '26, Lorna in '29, Lloyd in '31, Joseph in '33, Warren in '35, Ronald in '38, Donald in '39, Raymond in '40, Roger {my father-in-law, whose first name is actually Henry. Roger is his middle name, but it's what he has always gone by} in '42, Roy in '43 and Carol in '45. Anna was pregnant with her 18th {which, I heard once, was known to be a girl} when she died.

I have always found it so interesting {and a little bit funny} that of all the names in the world, they chose to name their first boy Paul Stoll. {Say it out loud. But don't pronounce our last name like "stole", otherwise you won't get it.} See, it rhymes. I mean, if it were boy number 11 and the name options were running a little thin, that's one thing. But to start with the rhyming name right off the bat has always made me laugh a little.

Ok, on with the pictures.

This one is of the family during music hour, or some such thing::

Here they all are together for a more formal picture::

And here is everyone {well, I heard that one brother wasn't actually there, but was "photoshop-ed" in {or the 1960's equivalent} with their dad and step-mom. Fanny {their step-mom} was some kind of saint, in my opinion, to marry a man with 17 kids and jump right in, having never had any children before. I love this picture of my father-in-law. He looks SO happy . . . and handsome. {He's the one on the bottom right}::

How many kids did these 17 have, you might wonder? 84! Starting with Merlyn in 1944 {all Fern's kids had names starting with "M"} and ending with Dale in 1980. Every single one of the 17 had kids. Ray only had 1 and Doris "wins" with 10. Everyone else was somewhere in between with 6 and 4 both being quite common. Kirb is grandchild #78 for Joe & Anna {although Anna wasn't around to know it -- she only had 3 of her 84 grandkids before she died}.

There is a Stoll reunion every 3 years {and 2012 is a reunion year!}. My first Stoll reunion was in 1994, before Kirb and I were even married. This summer will be my 7th reunion. At my first reunion, I heard it announced that there were close to 500 direct descendants of Joe & Anna. I would imagine there's about 1,000 by now -- Aunty Arlene {Llyod's wife} would be the one to ask, she's the family historian and record-keeper. Plus, when Kirby is on the radio, she always calls in to the radio show and says "Hi". She's fabulous!

I hope you've enjoyed this little Stoll family history lesson. What a heritage!