Happy Birthday, Happy BIRTHday and Happy Coming Home Day.

First of all, I'd like to wish my husband Mark a very happy birthday today. OK. So I know there's only 1 1/2 hours left of his birthday and he's already asleep, but it's the first time I've had to post all day. We had a great birthday time today. We both took today off work and had a nice family time. Last night I was trying to think about some things we could do today and a plan came together. I love it when that happens! We headed north to St. Croix Falls and took Hope to Fawn-Doe-Rosa. REALLY cheesy name, but a fun place. There are deer, goats, geese and other kinds of animals just roaming around, waiting (and sometimes begging) for you to feed them. There are also lots of cool animals in pens. Thank God for the pens because I'm talking about animals like Grizzly Bears, Badgers, Bobcats, a Lynx, etc, etc, etc. It was a beautiful day and Hope finally got used to feeding the animals. I have lots of pictures, but I'm way too tired to get them on the computer tonight. That'll just be something for you to look forward to. LOL

After our time at Fawn-Doe-Rosa, we headed just north of St. Croix Falls to a winery called Chateau St. Croix. Very nice!!! Mark and I tasted a few wines, Hope had "kiddie wine" as she called it (it was a non-alcoholic sangria), and we had some cheese and crackers. We also ended up with a case of wine in the back of the HHR. YES-- we paid for it. And guess what??? That box of wine (12 bottles, in case you were wondering) will last us for a VERY long time.

Then it was home for supper, a bath for Hope (man was she DIRTY tonight), and bedtime for everyone...except for me....but I'm very close.

I'd also like to say happy BIRTHday to Matthew Seguin Jr. He's the brand-spanking new son of my friends Amy and Matt. He was born today (on Mark's birthday) at 4:20pm. He weighed just over 7 lbs and was 20" (or so...I didn't write down the details) long. I'm so glad that Amy and Matt got their little boy. Matt has a sister, Heidi, who will be 3 in January. Amy told me that Matt said to her not long ago that if they had another girl they might have to try one more time for a boy. I don't think Amy was too excited about that. LOL Hopefully in the next couple of weeks Hope and I will make a trip to Dodgeville, WI, to see the new baby. The really exciting thing about this is that I had a feeling they were going to have a boy and I'm ALWAYS wrong!!! I was finally right. WooHoo!!!

Please keep the family of Phil Kuss in your prayers. Phil and his wife Ruth are members at Ezekiel Lutheran Church in River Falls where I used to be the Children's Minister. They are WONDERFUL people and I love them dearly. Phil died on Friday at the age of 74. I am going to miss him so much. He always had a wonderful smile, kind words and engaging conversation. When I was pregnant with Hope he told me that I should have the baby on the 26th of July because that's his birthday (my due date was July 27th---my Mom's birthday---so having her on the 26th was a real possibility...but it didn't happen). He also thought that IF I had the baby on the 26th and IF the baby was a boy, Mark and I should name him Phil. That's a special memory I'll always carry in my heart. Thank you for the prayers for that incredible family.

OK...that's it for me for tonight. I've been totally getting sucked in to the Olympics and I love it. I think Nastia just got robbed of a gold medal though. Oh well, she DID win the gold in the all around, so I guess I'll be satisfied with that. How do those people make these events seem so effortless??

Night night!!

#1

So now he has 1 NFL start under his belt. Of course I'm talking about the Green Bay Packer's new starting QB, Aaron (A-Rod) Rodgers. I wasn't able to watch him play because I was teaching VBS tonight, but from what I heard, he did alright. I'll take alright. He did throw for one TD and also got us close enough for a field goal, so that's great! But he also threw for an interception. But ya know what?? If I'm remembering my stats correctly, doesn't Brett Favre have like the most interceptions in NFL history??? It's something like that anyway. Now I'm not a Brett hater by any means. I still love him and it still seems like a very bad dream that he's playing this year and not wearing a Packers uniform, but life has to go on. I'm just glad the drama is over. I'm behind Aaron 100%. Plus, he's so dang CUTE!!! lol The Packers did end up losing tonight, but it was close, so I'm happy with this first performance. I got to see the 3rd string QB (Flynn) play and he did a great job, too, so I think this year is going to be OK. I know---it's only pre-season, but---WAIT----they're interviewing Aaron on ESPN. Yep!!! He's really cute. Look at those dimples!! Could he be interested in someone old enough to be his mother??? OK...I'm just kidding (mostly). lol Anyway...here are his stats for tonight:

he went 9-15, threw for 117 pass yds, 1 TD, 1 INT, and had a 79.0 passer rating. So I think that's OK. He'll only get better. ESPN is saying that he handled himself well. Aaron has HUGE shoes to fill (understatement of the year), so he could have come out and totally let the pressure get to him tonight, but he didn't. OK....I'm done with Aaron Rodgers for tonight. I know when Mark reads this he'll totally disagree with what I've said, but I'm a Packer fan: through good times and bad times. Yes, I'll miss Brett like crazy, but I am looking forward to football season anyway. I've requested an Aaron Rodgers jersey for my birthday next month.

Speaking of seasons...as I was driving home from work tonight at 8:30 I started getting this heavy feeling in my heart. It was already getting dark. Not too long ago it would stay light until almost 10. The shortening of the days means only one thing: we're getting closer and closer to winter every day. Even the nights here have been in the 50s. UGH!!!! In all honesty, I don't know how I'm going to get through another Wisconsin winter. I'm not looking forward to the darkness, the cold, the lack of color outside, the ice and snow. There is absolutely nothing about winter here that I like. And it seems to go on and on and on and on. I'm praying that this will be our last winter in Wisconsin and that I can find a way to convince Mark that it would be a really good idea for us to go where it's sunny and warm most of the time. That, of course, would be Dallas, TX. I don't think I'm going to have much success with that though. BUT...lest I end this post on a totally depressing note, I just happened to remember that there IS one thing I like about winter: it's also football season. That brings me full circle. GO PACKERS!!! GO AARON!!

Not the best picture of him, but it's better than the old pictures of him with his long hair.

Cat bites, hair cuts and a brush with fame

Weird title, huh??? Well, the Brue family is just a little bit weird if you haven't noticed yet. Tonight we'll start with the cat bites.

So a week ago tomorrow I got Hope in the car and we headed to her secondary day care provider's house. (NOTE: Grammy and Papa are the primary care takers of Hope while I'm at work and a friend of mine who does day care in her home watches Hope 1-2 days a week. This allows Hope to interact with other children AND it gives Grammy and Papa a break.) So we got to the house, I took Hope in and sat her at the kitchen table with L and her kids. The babies were sleeping. When it was time for me to leave I headed for the front door and I noticed that one of L's cats was sleeping between my shoes. I went to slip my shoes on so I could leave and that's when all hell broke loose. The cat apparently didn't want me to have my shoes so she hissed at me and attached herself to my left leg with her claws and her teeth. Well, the second cat of the house heard this and came to the defense of the first cat and then SHE attached herself to my left leg with HER claws and HER teeth. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. It was horrible!! Well, L heard the noise and came running and when she saw what was happening she was able to get the cats off my leg. She told me to quickly scoot out the front door before they came after me again. I was starting to head out the door when I looked down at my left leg and noticed that blood had saturated my white---YES, WHITE--capris. Blood was literally gushing down my leg. Instead of scooting out the front door I scooted into Ls bathroom where I gushed blood all over her floor. I couldn't believe the blood. I got my pants down and saw that most of the blood was coming from my vericose vein that one of the cats had punctured. YIKES!!! I got it to stop bleeding, L took my pants to put them in the wash and she gave me a pair of hers to wear. I got Hope in the car and we headed back to River Falls and to the clinic. They got me in right away. I didn't need stitches, but they cleaned my puncture wounds (8 in total) and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic so I wouldn't get an infection. Didn't work. I got an infection anyway. My leg swelled up and got red and I could barely walk on it for 2-3 days. Finally on Sunday the swelling started going down and the redness started going away. It's pretty much back to normal now, but the puncture wounds still look pretty nasty. Here are a couple shots I took on Saturday...

This is a tricky situation because L and I are good friends. That hasn't changed at all, but I don't feel that I can leave Hope there while I'm at work while she still has the cats. I'd be too concerned that something might happen to her. The cats have never attacked a child before, but I'm not the first adult they've attacked. What is preventing them from attacking a child for the first time?? I hope that never happens.

Now on to the hair cuts. Back in May my sister gave Hope her first real haircut. She took off 4-5" at that time which made Hope's hair just a little longer than shoulder length. I initially wanted to get it cut quite a bit shorter, but I got cold feet. Well, her hair has grown like crazy since that first haircut and although her hair is beautiful I made the decision to get it cut again...and this time a lot shorter. So here are some pictures of Hope's new 'do:

Lastly, I got home from work today and Mark and Hope were just getting back from one of their "adventures." Usually their adventures finds them roaming around the UW-RF campus. It ESPECIALLY finds them roaming the UW-RF campus now that the Kansas City Chiefs are in town for training camp. Well, today they headed to campus and Hope got to meet head coach Herm Edwards!!! I was SOOOOO jealous when she told me. It was either just before or just after their morning practice and Mark was letting Hope bounce on the big bouncy thing (technical term for that large thing that the pole vaulters land on once they're over the bar) and standing just a few feet from them was Herm. Mark told Hope to say hello, so she said, "Hello Herm." He came over and talked to her!! He asked her her name, how old she was, etc. Mark said he's a really nice guy. We don't have any pics of Hope's brush with fame today, but if you don't know what Herm Edwards looks like, he reminds me of Tony Dungy (head coach of the Indianapolis Colts). If you don't know what Coach Dungy looks like, you really should get out more. LOL The other day when we were on campus we met one of the Kansas City sports reporters named Erin. Really, really nice girl. It's that time of the year when the Chiefs are in town and, frankly, it's one of my favorite times of the year. It's fun having these guys in town. Plus it's summer...and it's HOT and HUMID right now. I'm in heaven! It's no Dallas (it's going to be over 100 degrees every day this week down there....lucky them!), but I'll take it.

And now she's THREE!!!

Yep. That's right. My baby turned three on July 19th. I wanted to post about her exciting birthday weekend before now, but it's been a crazy week (I'll post about that in the next couple of days). So here's a synopsis of the weekend and some pictures to go along with it.

We left River Falls on Thursday, July 17 and headed south to Wisconsin Dells: tourist trap of North America. But it's a fun place, so what the heck. We got a great hotel with lots of swimming pools and Hope was in HEAVEN!!! She's a little fish that girl is. Our room overlooked one of the pools, so that was fun to her. We went to the mall in the Dells that night before supper and Hope made her first Build-A-Bear. Bearamy (she came up with the name on her own) is a bright pink bear with white hearts all over. Hope had a great time filling Bearamy up, putting a special heart inside her, giving her a "fluff bath" and then picking out a cute little outfit for her to wear. So cute. Bearamy is special in Hope's life not only because Hope made her, but because Bearamy has taken the place of Hope's much beloved pico (aka pacifier). More on that later. We went to Uno's for pizza after our trip to the mall and had a great time. Hope got to make her own pizza and after we were done eating, the wait staff gathered around our table and sang Happy Birthday to Hope. They also gave us a great dessert: a warm brownie with ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup on top. YUMMY!!!!!!!! There was a family sitting kitty-corner from us and as they left one of the girls (I'd say she was about 15) came up to Hope and wished her a happy birthday. So nice. We found out they were from Stevens Point. Love it! Then it was back to the hotel for more swimming and a good night's sleep.

In the morning we left for Madison. We headed to the Vilas Zoo and had a great time. The Henry Vilas Zoo is a free zoo and it is a wonderful place. It reminds me of Como Zoo in St. Paul, but Vilas has more animals. It was HOT that day and I was in heaven!!! I felt sorry for the Amish families I saw because they were in their traditional "garb." They must have been so hot. After 2 1/2 hours at the zoo we headed for my brother's house. We got to visit with them and they made an awesome supper for us. I don't get to see Gene and Tammy nearly enough. I love them. After getting party bags together for Hope's party, we headed to our hotel and, you guessed it, went swimming. We stayed at a very nice hotel in Madison, too. I love the deals you can find on the internet!

Then came the day. Saturday, July 19th. Hope's 3rd birthday. We headed to Gene and Tammy's house to help get things ready for the party and then we headed back to Vilas Zoo to meet our family and friends. We weren't at the zoo very long because it was very hot and very humid (at least by Wisconsin standards) and we had several toddlers as well as an 8 month pregnant friend in our party. So we ditched the zoo early and went back to Gene and Tammy's for the rest of the party. They did SO much to make Hope's birthday special. We had a great meal and great company. All of my siblings were at the party and so were our friends Amy with her daughter Heidi (Heidi will be 2 in January), Amy's sister Becky and Amy's "almost here" baby (Amy's due in early August). Brian (the best man at our wedding) and his girlfriend Patricia also joined us. It was a good day. Friends, family, food and fun. Who could want anything more?? Oh...I even set the alarm clock on my cell phone to ring at 3:42pm. We sang Happy Birthday to Hope at the exact anniversary of her birth.

Before we left Madison on Sunday morning we stopped at West Towne Mall and did a little shopping. I got some great deals on clothes for Hope for this fall, next summer and next fall at the Boston Store. YEAH!!!

We celebrated Hope's birthday with Mark's parents this past week and next weekend we'll celebrate with his sister. Emily (aka Miss Hudson 2008) found a crown to give Hope for her birthday. She's going to LOVE it since she was eyeing Em's crown the night of her coronation. There are some other cute things that Hope will be getting from them, but I can't write it here because Mark doesn't know what they are yet and he wants to be surprised...and yes, once in a while he reads this blog. lol

Now that I've bored you with the details of Hope's birthday, let me tell you that I can't believe my baby is three already. I have NO idea where the time has gone. It really does seem like just yesterday Mark and I were on our way to the hospital because my water broke sometime between 2-4am on July 19th, 2005. I remember that day like it happened yesterday. One of the things I remember most is my first look at her when they held her up and carried her to the warming bed. I was so worried about her because she was SOOOOO tiny. She weighed 5lbs, 10oz when she was born. Little, little, little. They assured me she was just fine...she was just tiny. And she is just fine. And she's still pretty tiny, but she's growing like a weed! And I swear that in the past 2-3 weeks she has grown up and changed so much. She really IS pico-free. I'm so proud of her progress with that. I thought we were in for a rough few weeks when we made her go cold turkey, but it only took a couple of nights. She doesn't even ask for it now. YEAH!! Our next big hurdle is to get her to go to bed on her own. That's another story. And she's even been asking to wear barrettes and pony tails in her hair. That is COMPLETELY new. Usually she doesn't want any of that stuff. The funny thing is that she's scheduled for a haircut tomorrow and I was going to have them cut it SHORT. Now I might have to reconsider getting it cut so short.

Today we watched some of the video we took on our September 2006 vacation to Texas and Colorado. Hope wasn't even walking on her own during that vacation. She was close, but hadn't mastered it yet. Such precious memories. Such a precious baby. Such a precious three year old. God has so blessed my life with this special little girl. I think it's amazing that God gives to parents exactly the baby they're supposed to have. Always mixed in with the joy of Hope's birthday will be the sorrow I have about losing my first baby due to a miscarriage. Hope's birthday is July 19th (2005). I had the miscarriage on July 23, 2004. Not even a year between those very two events. I'll always wonder if my first baby was a boy or a girl. I'll always wonder what that baby would have been like, what he/she would have looked like. I think that's normal. But I find comfort and solace in knowing that we have been given this incredible gift that we named Hope Christiana...and she's exactly the baby we were supposed to have. I can't imagine life without her.

I could write a ton more, but I won't because this is WAY longer than I anticipated. Here are a few pictures from Hope's birthday party.

Mark and Hope by the rhinos.

Hope in the pouch of a kangaroo.

Mommy and Hope in front of the beautiful flowers.

Intently opening yet another gift.

Brett Favre a (GULP) Viking???

Say it ain't so!!! So some of you may have heard the latest today: Brett Favre has supposedly asked the Packers to release him from his contract. YIKES!!! As a retired player, Brett has the right to ask the NFL commissioner to reinstate him. That means he'd once again be on the active roster for the Packers. After that, the Packers organization would have to decide to either bring him back or see where they'd get the best deal for a trade. Or the Packers organization can simply release Brett from his contract and wish him well. THIS STINKS!!! I can't decide if I'm more upset with Brett for being such a diva (and keep in mind that I LOVE Brett Favre) or the Packers organization for not really encouraging Brett to come back. It's probably a combination of the two. So...speculation has it that if Brett does indeed come back, he might end up in Gold and Purple. WHAT??!!!! ANYWHERE BUT MINNESOTA, BRETT!!! How odd would this scene be: Brett's jersey is supposed to be retired in Green Bay at the first Monday night game...against Minnesota!! Can you imagine the bedlum if that happened and Brett ran out of the tunnel as a Minnesota Viking??!!! Oh man. It makes me want to hurl just thinking about it. I just want this whole drama to end nicely. I know there are so many more important things happening in life, but this has the potential to be pretty sad.

On a good note: God answered my prayers today and the storm didn't hit River Falls until after the River Falls Days parade was over. YEAH!! So we got to see Emily in all her Queen-ness on the Hudson float. She was having so much fun! She even blew Hope a kiss when she saw her. So cool!

OK...time to read some more. I'm on book for of James Patterson's "number" series. This one is called "4th of July." I'm glad I've gotten back into reading this summer, but the late nights are killing me. Thank God we're on vacation next week and not going anywhere except to Madison for Hope's birthday. Oh..,.and I picked up Hope's usual b-day gift from Mark and me today. Starting with her 1st birthday (I wish I would have thought of it when she was born) we get her one pearl from Fennern's in Baldwin. I have to buy a chain soon to put the pearls on. I figure that we'd be better able to afford a string of pearls for Hope if we bought one pearl at a time as opposed to one whole string at one time. I wanted to get her something for her 1st birthday that would be sentimental, lasting, kind of a family heirloom that she could pass on down the line. I had this pearl idea and even though right now Hope doesn't appreciate it, she will some day.

3 year check up

Hope went to see Dr. Raverty today for her 3 year check up. I know she's not 3 until July 19th, but Dr. Raverty is pregnant and due any time, so I wanted to get in before she has her baby.

Anyway...Hope is growing like a weed. Ever since she was born she's been in about the 25th percentile for height and weight. Always 100% percentile for head measurement though...lol!! Today she made it into the 45th percentile for height AND weight!!! YEAH!!! She's still at 100% for the head. hehehe So she weighs 30.4 lbs and is 38 1/2" tall. She was a really good girl at the doctor today. We took a giant step in getting rid of the pico (aka pacifier) today, too. Hope has 3 picos that she doesn't really like all that well, so we took those with us today and gave them to Dr. Raverty for her baby (I'm sure they made it promptly into the garbage can after we left). Hope did better with that than I thought she would. The real challenge will be to get her 2 favorite picos away from her in 1.5 weeks. At the end of the appointment she gave Dr. Raverty a big hug and said, "I love you Dr. Rita." SOOOOOO cute!!! She did that all on her own. Oh...and she wore her own stethescope to the appointment, too. The nurses loved it.

That's it for now. I have some pictures to get up, so I'll do that one of these days.

The envelope please...

Mark, Hope and I just came from the Miss Hudson Pageant. (Hudson, WI, that is.) The 2008 Miss Hudson Queen is Emily Klanderman...OUR NIECE!!! YEAH!!! We are SO excited about this. Emily is an incredible young woman. A strong, strong, Christian. A wonderful spirit. A beautiful (inside and outside) girl. I was so proud of her when she decided to run for Miss Hudson because she has always been really shy. When she got into high school I wasn't sure how it would go for her because she was shy. But she's come out of her shell and amidst that has still retained her beauty, her spirit, her kindness and her innocence. So from now on when you're at a town's festival and you see the Hudson float, you'll see Emily as the Queen. We are just praising God tonight for this blessing. Just incredible!!!

Now...for those of you outside the area I'll try to explain a little bit about what this town festival thing is. I grew up in central Wisconsin and we NEVER had anything like this. It was new to me when I moved to River Falls. Each of the towns in this area has it's own "fest." It includes the crowning of royalty (usually some princesses and a queen...although there is one that also crowns a king), food, a carnival, a parade, etc. It happens throughout the course of a weekend. So this weekend is Hudson Booster Days. Hudson is the town next to River Falls (and it's the only thing, next to the St. Croix River, that separates us from Minnesota. Thank God for Hudson. LOL). That's where Mark's sister and her family live. Next weekend is River Falls Days (original name, huh? sheesh!!). Every weekend during the summer is a different festival. The City of St. Paul (MN) has the Winter Carnival. So now you have a better picture. Well, each town has its own float that the members of the royalty ride on...and each town has its float in every other town's parade. It's crazy. So, as the Hudson Queen, Emily will be riding that float ALOT (pretty much every weekend) for the rest of the summer. She'll also be representing the town of Hudson at other community activities. Next year at this time she'll get to crown the next Miss Hudson. She will also receive a scholarship next year. She is going to be a very busy girl this year (there goes our babysitter), but she is going to represent Hudson beautifully!! In her personal interview last week with the judges, one of the questions they asked her was what would be the hardest part about being chosen Miss Hudson. Emily's response: that she'd feel bad for the girls who didn't win. That's our Em. She's pretty amazing. Such a great heart for God and for God's people. I think tomorrow I'm going to make T-shirts for Mark, Hope and I to wear to the parades that we'll be going to this summer. They'll say something like "Miss Hudson is my niece." How fun would that be?? I think I'll even get to do a few of the parades with my sister in law which will be fun. Oh...the parents of the royalty are just as busy as the royalty themselves. So Mark and Cheryl will be incredibly busy this year as well.


I've got lots of new pictures of Hope to post, but for tonight I'm just going to post some pics of Em from tonight. I'll get pictures of Hope up sometime this weekend. Enjoy!!


Bethany (Emily's sister), Emily (Queen) and Courtney (Princess). I gave piano lessons to all three of these girls once upon a time.

Emily, Hope and proud Uncle Mark.

Em, beaming Aunt Mel and a mad Cousin Hope (when she saw Em's crown she promptly said, "I want a crown, too." lol Maybe we have a Miss River Falls in our future??)