"My Crazy Kids"

A Family Weekend By Allan Olson It was most certainly another busy weekend for our crazy family as we took to the fresh snow covered roads early Saturday morning. Our ultimate destination was heading north for Easter weekend and fun with the family. We started Saturday morning off with a geocaching event in Bemidji and since we were going to be in town we decided that we might as well head north right after – well right after ended up being closer to 11:30 before finally making the departure but we still left in the morning. The miles flew by and a couple hours later we were pulling into the town of our youth and judging by the time on the clock I knew that if I forced my family to head out on what I envisioned a two hour hike with no food for energy prior to the hike I was likely to be abandoned by everyone – including my wife. So my wife called her mom to confirm she was home and once that was affirmed I headed to the grocery store for some highly nutritious frozen pizza. We ...

Weekend Cleaning By Allan Olson Most of those who have kids can attest that children often take the shortcut in cleaning – and I’m certain I was guilty of it myself at one time. This weekend was about getting some cleaning done at least Friday and most of Saturday. Alivia found the cache, while Dad was searching in the wrong direction. I started the project by cleaning a multi-named room downstairs – lately it had become a haven for everything – kid’s toys, too small clothes, books along with other stuff. I took it upon myself to get that project started Friday late afternoon before the kids were home and created quite a pile for them to get started on cleaning when they got home. Once I took that room to a point where I could really go no further, I tackled the downstairs living area – so I started moving furniture and that led to cleaning the closet and cleaning a large chest downstairs, that I discovered was another hiding place for clothes, toys and a variety of other s...

By Allan Olson It just might be true, spring is in the air. Of course for those of who have lived in the tundra of Minnesota long enough are skeptic enough not to get their hopes too soon as Mother Nature has a way of wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting. Abigail at a geocache in Clearwater County. This weekend, I attended the Leech Lake Perch Jerk on Lake Winnie along with many other parents, volunteers and of course the children. I spent most of my time walking around the ice getting photos for this week’s paper and pausing occasionally to jig my line that Nikolai and Alivia were tending to. As usual – we didn’t get a bite, I really thing that if someone said, “come out fishing right now, they are jumping out of the hole” and if I showed up immediately – the bite would quit. Of course I guess any fishing trips I would like to do now would require that new annual government piece of paper as the previous ones have expired again. While the temperatures were definitely nice ...

A Warm Winter Weekend By Allan Olson It just might be true, spring is in the air. Of course for those of who have lived in the tundra of Minnesota long enough are skeptic enough not to get their hopes too soon as Mother Nature has a way of wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting. Alivia, waiting for a fish to bite..... This weekend, I attended the Leech Lake Perch Jerk on Lake Winnie along with many other parents, volunteers and of course the children. I spent most of my time walking around the ice getting photos for this week’s paper and pausing occasionally to jig my line that Nikolai and Alivia were tending to. As usual – we didn’t get a bite, I really thing that if someone said, “come out fishing right now, they are jumping out of the hole” and if I showed up immediately – the bite would quit. Of course I guess any fishing trips I would like to do now would require that new annual government piece of paper as the previous ones have expired again. While the temperatures w...

A Weekend in Bed, an hour in ‘jail’ By Allan Olson A crazy whirlwind week flew by in a hurry with four separate trips to the doctor’s office for treating the latest “pandemic” to hit the house and this time I was even bit. This week I was even more grateful that my wife and I often have what I refer to as “departments” and 90% percent of the time one of her “departments” is handling doctor appointments. This week I had the privilege of making three of the four unplanned doctor visits as I had to take both Marcus and Abigail to the doctor last week and then myself – not fun. Food Shelf Jail..... I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a poor patient, I don’t get sick often, at least not enough to keep me down and out and then once I get meds, I had better be on the mend – fast, because I have plans and being under the weather ruins my plans. Looking back on the week I saw the signs that I was probably coming down with the same thing the kids had – strep, but I pushed the signs...