Lorna and Nick's Wedding

Thursday Jerry, Janet, my cousin Pat and I drove to Indiana to attend the wedding of my first cousin, once removed, Lorna. She and Nick have been dating for seven years, so we have had many times to meet him and get better acquainted.

This is my Aunt Ginny, also Lorna's grandmother. It was really nice getting to spend some time with her over the past couple of days.

 

My cousins, John, Diane, Linda and David—father of the bride.

Cheryl and Dave, mother and father of the bride

L to R: Janet, John, Linda, Diane, Pat, and yours truly

Me with my brother and sister

Lorna and her father entering the church. She was just beautiful!

I took this photo while the professional photographer was getting everyone in place. I love how Lorna and Nick look just great, in spite of everything else going on. They are a very special couple.

Linda, John, Janet, and Jerry at the reception

Lorna and Nick opening wedding gifts yesterday

The new space is becoming more obvious

Wednesday I entered the office and the first thing I noticed was the hole in the wall, making the new entry to the kitchen and dining room obvious. Here is the before and after photo:

 I've been away for a few days. I have a feeling I'll see more changes when I go to work tomorrow.

Office Remodel Update

For the past couple of weeks we haven't seen much change in our office, but today that all changed. Arriving this morning, the first thing I saw were the big holes cut into the walls of our future large conference room.

The holes will become windows and double doors, duplicating the conference room directly below.

This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

This is what it looked like about 6 weeks ago.

And this is what it looked like about 8 weeks ago.

By the way, we're still trying to give this tree away. Anyone?

The Remodeling Continues

While we haven't seen too many changes in our office this week, the workers have been just on the other side of the wall that separates us from what will be our new kitchen, dining room, and small conference room.

This is our lobby today. 

Going up the stairs, this is the view:

Up until now, this open doorway was the entrance to the photo studio. The interior walls have been demolished and soon this area, along with an additional 8 feet (more or less) will become our new large conference room—directly above our previous one on the first floor. This new one will be a bit longer, extending to include the area which was previously our mail room.  By the way, our tree in the middle of our lobby is still up for grabs. Anyone? I had contacted a local high school to see if they could use it. They sent over a couple of staff members who looked at it and liked it. They thought they had just the spot for it, but today I learned their grounds and building manager told them it wouldn't work. 

Looking across the atrium, one sees the former Reference Library. This will become the new office for Jim Parrish. Centered in the opening will be a large floor to ceiling window which will be identical to one of the windows of the large conference room. This office will be directly across from the new large conference room and the open window will allow all to see outdoors. My new office will be just to the right and across the hallway from Jim's office (far right side of this photo).

This photo shows the doorways to the mailroom and a former storage room. As of this week, they have been removed to become part of the new large conference room. I will have to take more photos to update this.

Workers doing demolition work inside the future large conference room.  More updates to follow.

The morning after the sleep-over

Felix slept well last night and then we had a good breakfast together. After watching a bit of Peter Rabbit, we took off for Eden Prairie. The first stop was at Pet Smart, where we looked at the fish, birds, dogs, hamsters, and cats up for adoption. Felix took a liking to the hamsters and wanted to see them a second time before leaving. 

Next stop was the Eden Prairie Mall to the kids' playground. Even though there were a bunch of kids there, there was still plenty for Felix to do. I was proud of the way he watched out for the little ones.

King of the hill!

Getting ready to blast off!

How could one resist buying a treat from this ice cream man?

Then it was off to Cub Foods to pick out a "sweet." Felix chose a raised donut with vanilla icing and sprinkles. This was the best of three attempts to get him to smile. I should have been taking photos of the shoppers walking by and smiling at us. 

I enjoyed having Felix for the overnight and I'm sure we'll be doing it again. 

Felix has an overnight at Grandma D's!

So Felix is spending the night with me and he has been so much fun! We played with Legos, cars, put together a puzzle, watched a couple of "Little Lulu" cartoons (yes, he was enjoying it, Peder). Then he spent some time running around in my back yard. When we finished the puzzle, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him, but he was disagreeable. That is until I told him he could take a picture of me. Well, that was a  hit. We kept taking turns taking photos of each other.. Here is a sampling:

He said he was taking a picture of my shirt. :-)

This is the puzzle we put together.

Felix took this photo of his cars

Felix took a photo of my pie safe.

We ate dinner at Broadway Pizza. Much to the delight of Felix, they had a train that ran on a track near the ceiling. He couldn't get over it.

While Felix loved the train, I loved the light fixture over the table. And the pizza was delicious!

Our office building is undergoing huge changes

As I mentioned a few entries ago, our office building was purchased a couple of weeks ago. The new owners are planning to use the majority of the office space in the lower level, so there is a lot of remodeling going on. More than a week ago I began packing up my cubicle where I have "lived" for over 13-1/2 years.

After several trips to the opposite end of our office with box after box, and my many plants, I got moved into my temporary space:

This new (temporary) space is considerably larger than my previous office. I'm not really unpacking  much because I will be moving again in about a month. There are twelve in our office who will be moving to new locations. Two of us will be moving twice - Stacey and me. I'm fine with that.

Last Wednesday a dumpster was delivered to our building and as of this afternoon, it is well past the top, with more to be piled on to it by tomorrow's pick-up time. It's actually been a good chance for things that have been stowed away for years to be tossed out—old files, film, folders, and things such as typewriters and Dictaphones! (Don't worry, Heidi, they were disposed of properly.)

Friday afternoon the cubicles that were vacated were dismantled. Monday morning steel framing took their place, and today, some sheet rock was added.

My former cubicle being dismantled

This is the location of my former cubicle with steel supports being installed.

Here's the location of my old cubicle. Sheet rock was added later today. Our office manager will be moving into this space once it is completed.

I'll update more in a few days. Having the camera in my new iPhone is coming in handy!

I have entered the 21st century!

Today I entered the 21st century. I bought an iPhone! This was a big step for me, one I have been thinking about for the past two years or so. The nice people at the Sprint store were so helpful. One of them even agreed to type a message for me while I watched. It went like this:

                                                        "This is my first text. Mom"

It was addressed to Heidi and Peder. As I was telling her what to type, my voice broke up. I was crying when I said, "Mom." I told her it was emotional for me and she sweetly chuckled. 

I will have a lot to learn, but my good friends at work are all so anxious to help me. One benefit I look forward to is communicating with my grandkids in the coming years.

Flowers

This morning I watered my plants which I think are so pretty this summer. Then I came indoors and sat in one of my porch chairs. I was sitting there admiring them and enjoying the beautiful morning, when suddenly a hummingbird flew up to the hanging impatiens. She (I think it was a female since she was drab in coloring) poked her beak into one of the flowers and then must have spotted me because she flew away. What a thrill this was! Perhaps she and others feast off my flowers when I'm at work, but I'm so glad I got to see this one today.

My Birthday

Yes, another birthday crept up on me. They sure come quickly! My first celebration was last Friday night in Rochester with my brother, sister and cousin Pat. Jerry took us out to eat at a nice restaurant. Following our dinner, the waitress brought a birthday dessert to our table (on the house). It was 3 large, warmed brownies, topped with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream and real whipped cream. Thankfully, this was served with four spoons. It was very yummy. 

On Sunday, my birthday, my friends and I traveled out to Waconia—a small town 30 miles west of downtown Minneapolis—to Lola's, which is on Lake Waconia. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a nice view of the lake. Our food was very good, and it was fun to get together again. It had been quite a while since we had had a birthday gathering—last November!

No, this isn't my car. It was parked outside the restaurant, so – why not? A little photo of me standing next to it won't harm anyone.

L to R: Laurey, yours truly, Nancy, Bonnie, and Debra. These are some of my dear friends.

On Monday, my co-workers gave me a nice party, complete with home-made chocolate cake and home-made fudge icing, plus ice cream. They gave me a beautiful arrangement of fresh flowers, too. It was a fun time, reminiscing of my first week at our company. That was over 13 and a half years ago.

When I got home from work, I had a package in my mail box. I could tell from the mailing label it had come from Hans' family in Japan. I opened the box to find greeting cards—one from each of them, and then I opened this beautiful Kokeshi doll. [Double click on the photos to enlarge them.]

She has the image of Hans' destroyer engraved just under the torii gate. On the back is an engraved Japanese and American flag. I will treasure her!

Nels thought the box was for him!

Over the weekend, I heard from all of my kids, and even got "Happy Birthday" sung to me by Marshall and my Aunt Ginny. I'm grateful for another year!

Jerry and Janet's new home

Friday Pat and I drove down to Rochester to help my brother and sister in getting settled into their new home. They moved last week to a one-level town home just a block away from their previous home.

Six weeks ago about right now—5:15 pm—a driver made an illegal turn and plowed into my sister's car, sending her to the hospital in an ambulance and totalling her car. She sustained a broken ankle, broken ribs, and a fractured sternum. After 5 days of hospitalization, including surgery to stabilize her ankle, and a couple of weeks of rehabilitation in a dreary nursing home, she went home to live in 3 rooms of their four level town home, dependent on a wheelchair and family and friends to bring food and help her shower and change clothes.

While she was in the nursing home, my brother signed papers for the purchase of a new home, one that would eventually make their lives easier. And then the fun began—sorting, clearing out, and packing possessions.

A little over a week ago the majority of their things were taken to their new residence, much of it being parked temporarily in their garage. A little path was created so they could come and go, and begin the process of emptying the cartons and finding a place for everything.

With the help of Jerry, Pat, Keith, Deborah, Annika, Chad and I, we got the majority of it unpacked and put in its new home. Oh, Janet did what she could, too, though that is not easy when being bound to a wheelchair. Here a few photos of their new home.

Jerry, taking a break in their new dining room

Janet has beautiful dishes and it was fun to display them in their handsome Amish made hutch.

The American flag on the top on this pie safe was earned by Jerry and was awarded him when he retired from the US Navy. He served 21 years!

After Annika helped unpack carton after carton of dishes, she earned a well deserved break to play with the American Girl dolls. Annika is Deborah's sweet daughter.