"My Crazy Kids"

Home Woes By Allan Olson It’s going on nearly two years now since we bought our first home, and for the most part the repairs have been minor, although there is some remodeling in our future plans. There have been some challenges these past few months. I’m not a fix-it person, I’m a break-it person. When it comes to home repairs, don’t call me. In October our furnace refused to come on, and a new thermostat didn’t solve the problem, so I had to break down and call a heating pro. A day later, I had heat. Thankfully, it wasn’t terribly cold yet when this happened. Another problem surfaced on Monday morning, December 17. I got up at my normal time, early in the morning, expecting a nice hot shower to jump start my day, to be followed by a quiet breakfast before waking the children. I turned the shower on, and nothing happened. Panic set in. I quickly checked the bathroom fixture – nothing. The kitchen sinks produced the same amount of water – zip. The bathroom yie...

Allan Scissorhands By Allan Olson This weekend was mostly quieter than ones past or coming up, but we still found time to have some fun and spread a little Christmas cheer. On Saturday morning we woke up to the thrill of everyone’s favorite winter weather: rain – oh, joy! That didn’t wreck our plans for the weekend, since we didn’t have any. I left the yard just once to empty the garbage, venturing out onto the icy, snow-covered back roads and returning home without a problem. The roads seemed fine, as long as I wasn’t stopping or taking off. That afternoon cabin fever started to set in, and I felt the need to go outside. Since Marcus had just got up from an afternoon rest, I asked if he wanted to go with me on a photo shoot. The two of us enjoyed a walk around the backyard and out to the lake, taking random photos all around of the ice- and snow-laden trees. We also managed to shovel off our decks and had a brief snowball fight. The snowball fight idea caught on, and he wa...

Caching and Hockey Weekend By Allan Olson Last weekend was a busy one. The most unusual thing about it was that a large portion of it was spent watching hockey. I think I watched more hockey last weekend than I have in the last several years combined. The hockey started on Saturday, but the fun started on Friday. I took a day off – aside from checking the mail (and the email occasionally) – I was not working. I put the kids on the bus in the morning, returned home for a nap and then had breakfast. After the wife and I did some work around the house, we decided to do some geocaching on our own. We headed into Cass Lake just before noon and hit the Pike Bay Loop trail. It was just mom and me and Bob (the dog) who couldn’t stand to be left at home alone and jumped in the van without hesitation. A bunch of new caches on the Heartland Bike trail were posted that morning, but the wife said we weren’t going to do that trail. I said, “Okay.” I really was okay with it, because I wan...

To tree or not to tree By Allan Olson It was another weekend jam-packed with fun and of course, when dealing with children, some frustration as well in my household. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were having a very serious discussion about the benefits of a real vs. artifical Christmas tree. During all the years we lived in our three-bedroom mobile home, we had a small, artificial tree, always saying that when we moved into a house that would change. Last year it did change. That was the first Christmas in our new house. I cut down a tree at my parents’ property at the end of deer season and stuck it in the snow at home for another week, planning to put it up after Thanksgiving. We were excited. Finally, a real tree. That excitement quickly waned as we grew sick-and-tired of the needles falling off, and Abigail always moving the decorations around, knocking more needles off, or someone just brushing too close by the tree or even, it seemed, just breathing on it (halitos...

Thanksgiving Weekend By Allan Olson From my point of view, it was a lazy weekend. I did as little as possible, other than help to keep the dishes cleaned up after all the meals over the weekend. Our holiday company arrived Wednesday evening, when the pies were just beginning to bake. On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, the cooks in charge (my wife and her mom) started the rest of the meal preparations. This year I did not try to make several pans of rolls and clean the oven twice in one night on Thanksgiving Eve. Lo and behold, the oven rewarded us by functioning perfectly, cooking a delicious turkey along with other fine fixings to go with the day’s feast. At dinner time, we gorged on a scrumptious ham, a mouth-watering turkey, moist warm pan bread and all the rest of the fixings a person could ask for on Thanksgiving. The only thing missing was Lefse. The meal went very well, with no spills or messes from either the kids or adults. After a short break, the...