Archive for August, 2009

Dave and I were privileged to meet the family of Lloyd Podtburg yesterday at the refuge. Mr. Podtburg passed away in December 2007. While he was alive, he and his wife Olga enjoyed visits at the refuge, so in his honor, his family donated a bench that has been placed near the near Eagle’s Nest exhibit.

The Podtburg family members met with Nancy Haugen, the refuge’s Visitor Services Manager, and Lee Johnson, President of the Friends of Sherburne NWR group. We enjoyed the opportunity to get to know this wonderful family. Olga was there, along with three of her four children, and three grandchildren. One family was here all the way from Boston, Massachusetts.

Here are some photos–click on the picture to see a larger version.

We attended the Back to School Bash in Zimmerman yesterday, sponsored by Nelson Chiropractic. The girls enjoyed the Wacky Hair booth the best–we saw some awesome hairdos! This is the second year that Dr. Greg has held this event. I appreciated the opportunity to have my children evaluated for scoliosis. This is done in the public schools by a school nurse does not specialize in disorders of the spine.

One of the Sherburne Sheriff Department’s K9 units was there as well as the Zimmerman Fire Department. We also visited with the there, including Usborne Books and Pampered Chef .

Everyone appeared to have a good time!

Here are some photos. Click on the thumbnail to see the larger version.

Nelson Chiropractic is sponsoring a Back to School Bash tomorrow afternoon – be sure to stop by!

Dave and I went to Tennessee to pick up the children. They spend seven weeks each summer with their father. I was able to see all four of the grandchildren, which was very cool. I would have liked to make our way home leisurely, but my 15 year-old daughter has a boyfriend that she was DYING to get home to see.

I love to make the lives of the children as miserable as possible, just to get even with them, so Dave told them that we were going to stop in Nebraska to see the World’s Largest Ball of Aluminum Foil. Annika was devastated, but we insisted that we were going to do one thing we wanted as part of our trip. Dave and I kept talking about directions, and making up details as we went. Every time, I could see Annika furiously texting away to some “unknown” person.

For those of you who don’t know, I love being creative in Photoshop. After we got home, I used my mad skills to make one of my masterpieces. Since there isn’t really any World’s Largest Ball of Aluminum Foil in Nebraska, this one is really good! I didn’t want to take the extra time to make it look really real, but you get the idea!

The best part was convincing the younger girls that we actually went and got pictures of them even though they were so tired that they don’t even remember getting out of the car. Life does have its great moments – and sometime’s you just have to make them up!

(Click to see the larger version)

As we passed through Waterloo, Iowa on the way home from Tennessee, I saw an car accident. Here is a short clip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDhFCw_sR0[/youtube]