and we are off...

all five of us, to my hometown.  my grandpa rosonke passed away on saturday afternoon...so instead of 3 of us heading to colorado to find a new town all 5 of us are heading to iowa.  wish us luck.  pretty much only the love of family could get me to attempt such an undertaking.  hour to the aiport, 2.5 hour flight, followed by another 3 hour drive.  if you are so inclined say a prayer or two for us all.

and a special thanks, and no coincidence, i'm sure, that grandma & grandpa pierse were here to help us get ready for the family trek.  and give us a bit of time to get things done for the house photographer who comes a week from today.  and to distract my kiddos while i go through little fits and tantrums.  they are so helpful that i have time to post an hour before we leave for the airport!

for now colorado will have to wait...my heart is in iowa this week.  or as grandpa liked to call it with that twinkle in his eye, iowaaay.  :)

Harold B. Rosonke dies at 85

Harold B. Rosonke, age 85, of New Hampton, died Saturday, April 21, 2012 surrounded by his family at his home.Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 26, 2012 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in New Hampton with Fr. Mark Osterhaus celebrating the mass. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery at New Hampton. Military honors will be provided by New Hampton American Legion Post 38 and New Hampton VFW Post 5238.Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. with a 5:30 p.m. scriptural wake service on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at Conway-Markham Funeral Home in New Hampton. Visitation will continue at the funeral home one hour prior to the service on Thursday. Memorials may be directed to the family. Online condolences for Harold’s family may be left at  www.conway-markhamfh.com.
Harold Rosonke was born on March 6, 1927 to Bernard and Clara (Schwickerath) Rosonke in New Hampton. He attended and graduated from New Hampton High School. Upon graduation, Harold enlisted in the United States Army serving during the Korean War. He received his honorable discharge and returned to Iowa where he was employed at Rath of Waterloo. On September 1, 1954 Harold was united in marriage to Myrtle Marvin at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Alta Vista. After their marriage the couple began farming in the New Hampton area. In 1958, Harold and Myrtle made their home on the family farm west of New Hampton where they’ve lived ever since. Harold was active with the farm until January 2012. Harold enjoyed farming, playing cards and especially enjoyed his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was a member of Holy Family Parish ~ St. Mary’s Center, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters.
Harold is survived by his loving wife, Myrtle Rosonke of New Hampton; his three sons, Michael (Lori) Rosonke, Patrick (Linda Stejskal) Rosonke, James (Donna) Rosonke all of New Hampton; his grandchildren, Brittnee (Clayton) Pierse, Dr. Brooke (Sunidh Jani) Rosonke, Ben (Chelsi) Rosonke, Baylee (Andrew Reicks) Rosonke, Jeremy Rosonke, Brian (Becky) Rosonke, Tina Rosonke, Melissa (Ben) Holt, Joshua (Sarah) Rosonke, Lucas Rosonke, Noelle Rosonke; his 12 great-grandchildren; three sisters, Mildred Brus of Alta Vista, Leona Herold of Cresco, Lorna Gorman of New Hampton; one brother, Jerry (Malee) Rosonke of Mansfield, SD and one sister-in-law, Mary Rosonke of New Hampton.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his granddaughter, Kaitlin Rosonke; two brothers, Donald and Glen Rosonke and one sister, Florence Rosonke.

-2

my girl was a mess today when she arrived home from school. like total meltdown. i tried to ask about her day...the usual questions. "who was line leader? did they do a good job? what did you have for a snack? what letter did you talk about? who did you play with on the playground?"

she wouldn't tell me anything. clay told me lu was the line leader. usually she'd be VERY excited about this. but nope, just melting. all she would say was that she was tired, but she didn't want to nap (shocking).

we put the boys down for a nap & decided to snuggle on the chair with some wow wow wubsy. clearly she was feeling very insecure about something. with all that we have going on i thought maybe it was just upsetting that she came home to find her favorite room in the house (the craft room) completely dismanted.

after an hour of snuggling...
lu: mom. do you want to know what happened at school today?
mom: of course, yes! i do!
lu: i got something wrong.
mom: what do you mean? (genuinely confused...we've never had this conversation before)
lu: on a worksheet. i got something wrong.

so i went digging through the 15 papers she brings home daily. i look at them but have never, not ever, seen anything other than right answers & stars. i assumed (incorrectly, apparently) that they sort of the did the worksheets together...otherwise how could EVERY worksheet ALWAYS have ALL the right answers??!?!?

ah. but not today. today i found a sheet with a -2 on the bottom. they are learning the difference between long & short vowel sounds & she circled the bug instead of tube for the long u sound. she told me she thought the tube was a cap, so the answer must have been bug. but she was wrong & so ms. s put a -2 on her page.

oh my.

i'm still processing. i'm alarmed that:
a-she's gotten everything right this year up until today
b-that prek 4s get points (for lack of a better term) on stuff i was doing in 1st & 2nd grade
c-it really had a negative effect on her & shook her up

i'm grateful that:
a-she's a smarty pants, works hard & cares
b-that she is learning a ton & has built a lot of confidence
c-she had a learning moment (for lack of a better word) in the 'safe zone' of pre k when she comes home at noon.

and i could write more, but like i said, i'm still processing. and it's 10:40 and i need to go to bed.

thumper says

so i had started a state of the union this evening. then i heard the wise words of thumper (and his father) echo in my head...

"if you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all."

so i'm keeping my crazy to myself tonight with still fingers.

in the meantime take a look at my loves.

if could have figured out how to crop out the maternal fat stores i would have. but i couldn't. and i haven't worn makeup regularly in many months.

i'm all about being authentic. it's key for the health of my emotional state. i should probably be more gracious but there seems to be a fine line between graciousness & pretense to me.

i'm working on it. that AND my maternal fat stores. k, so not so much the maternal fat stores. but i'd like to. with all that free time i have. whatev.

y'all should be looking at my sweetpeas with my sweet parents anyway.

playing on the 'kindleone' (gus speak)

you'd never know it was an introduction ;)

rolly polly

who needs to dig for worms when there are rolly pollies to be had! roly poly...rolly polly...i have no idea how to spell it. when you touch them they roll up into a ball...oh the appeal! this little bug has seriously occupied my big two for countless hours over the last year. this morning there were what seemed like hundreds in our backyard and my girl was on a mission...

this is about 1/4 of the total she ended up with. GROSS!!!

all of that collecting tired her out & it when it was time to play in the kai lan sprinkler she set them all free :)

my girl the fashionista

the girl has developed her own sense of fashion in the last few months (year or so, really). my days of selecting pieces of clothing out of clothes i purchased for her to make outfits has long been over...and now i've lost sole purchasing privileges as well. my guess is that we will now shop together for her clothes until she's a....tween (gulp)...at which time i will retain veto power.

she's sportin her first belt here. see those colors? they hurt my eyes....but not hers! she digs her belt, her new jean skirt, and anything with lots of color. two different patterns of stripes + polka dots? you bet. lately she's been really into a dress, pants/leggings underneath, & a long sleeve shirt OVER the dress. I think to create that skirt/shirt/leggings illusion? i had no idea how much she had been coveting a skirt until a trip to Target...then it all sort of made sense...

oh. and she also only wears gus' socks. not a matching pair, but say one red, one green. we call that particular 'pair' our 'christmas socks'*. usually gus wears one pair (1 red, 1 green) and she wears the other.

and she lives for these boots. she wears them with pretty much everything. i'm often reminded of the stork from disney's robin hood...
really though i couldn't be prouder of her individualism & confidence. i'm taking it as a good sign! :)

*see those eggs up there on the fireplace? we also call those our 'christmas eggs'...

no babies were harmed

no babies were harmed in the making of this collage...

you needed a closer look...i know! i just couldn't leave any out cause they were all so stinkin cute!