"My Crazy Kids"

Mr. Home Repair I’m Not By Allan Olson In what was supposed to be a quiet, easy night at home with just four boys in the house (one nephew in tow), I ended up breaking the bleach out for the second night in a row and fighting with my dryer. It all started with the humidity – at least that’s what I’m blaming it on. We kept smelling the moisture in the air in our finished basement, and finally we pinned down the real source of the problem. The floor in a hall closet downstairs was wet, or rather, sweating (like most of us) from the heat and humidity. It was not the only thing damp. So were our DVD stands and other items we had in there. Some mold (yuck!) was found on the walls. The best cure for mold, I’m told, is to scrub it with bleach. Personally, I don’t like the smell of it, and due to allergies of chlorine/bleach in the family, I can’t remember bleach being present in any of our dwellings in the 13 years my wife and I have been married. After a quick trip to the co...

A family tradition By Allan Olson Well, we survived yet another camping trip with an even dozen people – seven kids and five adults. We returned from our four-day excursion at Fall Lake, the National Forest Campground located just outside Ely. The trip was different from our original destination, and slightly farther, but our state’s political games altered our plans and forced us to choose a different location. Our plans were adjusted and the route was planned; we had only one issue, the location we had chosen only had walk-in sites left. We didn’t know if there would be two campsites to accommodate us. We found the campground about four hours after we left home, and held our breath as we went to check on the availability of sites. The friendly staff assured us they had room, and after consulting their map, they found us two campsites nearly right next to each other. We were in luck. The first day was pretty relaxed. We checked out the big town of Ely and found the...

Vacation plans altered By Allan Olson What started out as an impromptu camping trip a couple of years ago with my oldest brother and his family, along with my youngest brother, has apparently become a tradition. We all went on a trip together again last year, and immediately began plans for this year. We picked a great location last year, beautiful St. Croix State Park. It was an enjoyable trip, with plenty of things to do inside the park. This year, my oldest brother picked the park. It was a mere two hours from my front door. Perfect, I thought when I looked it up. Then, the politicians got in the way – all of their bickering detoured our having fun by fighting like a bunch of young children, and ultimately they ended up with a State shutdown, which included the closure of all State Parks. Now where are we going to camp? We held out hope that they would come to a quick agreement and our plans wouldn’t have to be amended. We also started looking at alternative sites....

The sound of silence By Allan Olson For the majority of last week, I had the house to myself. As the door shut behind my wife and kids as they departed, I reveled in the sound of silence. I kept myself busy on the first part of the day (Sunday) by finishing up some trimming work on the lawn and watching a baseball game. That evening is when I first noticed it. I’m so used to the commotion and the background noise of children playing or fighting that I didn’t know what to do with the silence. I’m not sure that I liked it. I admit Sunday was okay being kid-free, and work kept me busy most of the week, but when I got home on those evenings and had no little ones to greet me, it felt really strange as I had to deal with the abnormally strange, quiet house. When I reunited with them on Thursday evening at the grandparents, I was excited to see them. Thankfully, they were happy to see me as well. While they were gone only a few days, I felt like I missed an important week ...