DING DING DING -- Ringing the Bell

Sorry we’ve been a boring blog for the last couple of weeks! Once again, a lot has been going on.

My Grandma Judy was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in July of 2008. She went in for a regular physical and was admitted because the oxygen level in her blood was abnormally low. She spent a couple of days at the hospital in Mason City and then was released, but she had to be on oxygen 24/7 from that point on. It was a shock to all of us when she was admitted the first time because she seemed perfectly fine. Grandma started going to Rochester to visit Mayo Clinic and over the last couple of years they had given so many different (negative) prognoses. Right away we were told that she wouldn’t be here the next summer, and then at the next check up we were told that she wouldn’t make it to Christmas, etc. None of us expected the news to get any better as time went on, but it was still hard to hear those kinds of things from the doctors.

Mom spent a lot of time with Grandma and noticed when anything was just a little off. About two weeks ago she noticed how out of breath Grandma was, so she made an appointment to go back to Rochester for another check up. On May 19th, Grandma was admitted to St. Mary’s and stayed there until the 24th. Keaton and I went up to see her and I got to give her one last hug and one last kiss before she came back to Mason City and went to a Hospice facility. She passed away in the morning on May 25th.

I can’t believe she’s actually gone and I don’t think it will sink in for quite a while. Grandma was so lively, so witty, so honest, and so funny. My mom and I made the best of these last couple of years we had with Grandma and we were so close. Most kids don’t go to visit their grandparents “just because” but my brother and I always did. It’s the little things like that that make life so special.

Many of my favorite memories came from girls weekends – a time where we (Grandma Judy, Mom, and I) would get together with Grandma’s sister/my great aunt Bonnie, her three daughters and their girls. Our weekend outings always had a theme and trust me, there was never a dull moment with our group! The last get-together we had was at Bonnie’s house in Britt and the theme was “Crazy Hair and Scarves.” Before going out to a small town bar, we got our crazy hairdo’s ready and let me just say that there were teasing combs, bobby pins, hair pins, banana clips, and hairspray residue EVERYWHERE! When we were all ready to go, it looked like we were going to a 1970’s middle school dance with our big hair and gross extensions! Grandma wore a set of extensions and she had the gnarliest mullet EVERRRRR!!! It was hilarious. The sad thing was, she wasn’t the only one sporting a mullet in the bar…I’d say that those without the mullets were in the minority! Here are some pictures of the big hair and some other outings that we've had in the past. Enjoy!

Lindy was helping Grandma to the bathroom. Both of them are wearing extensions. I'm sure everyone at the bar was envious of their mullets. :)
You can see the colorful clips in the back of my hair and Kelly's "pretty" clips from Dollar General. Haha!


Bonnie and Grandma twirling their wig-hair. How beautiful!


Mama Bear and I with our crocheted attire that her and Grandma made. This was from our "Go Green" weekend last March.


Grandma, Bonnie, and their brother drinking the "Green Grog" -- yummmm!


Taking a break from Shang-Hai (the card game we play at all family events) to take some "Coconut Kelly" shots.

This was the weekend we spent in Kansas City and went on a scavenger hunt in the mall. I would have to say that this weekend was probably one of my favorites. Some of the items on our scavenger hunt list were: a fruitcake (however you may take that), a mullet, a man with a braided ponytail, a man holding/modeling lingerie, red shoes, a woman wearing white socks with mary janes, "hooker boots", and a celebrity look a like...just to name a few! We split our group into three teams and each team got a disposable camera to take pictures of their findings. After a couple hours on the hunt, my team was waiting around to take a picture of a kid crying on Santa's lap when we were(...dun dun dun...) BUSTED by "Barney Fife" the female mall cop. We got in trouble for taking pictures of people without them knowing/their permission (which we had for most of the pictures) and not clearing our little game with the mall. I can understand why they didn't want us taking pictures of young children without permission, but sorry lady...you can't ruin our fun! Regardless of getting busted, we all had a blast.

Our team! The color of the weekend was orange. I'm sure that helped all the mall cops spot us. Dang it!

One fruitcake holding up another. :)

Julie with our celebrity look a like -- Dr. Torres from Grey's Anatomy. Close enough, right?!

My team tracked down this man in Victoria's Secret and asked him to pose in the store with his girlfriend's lingerie. We were about to take the picture and then got stopped and told we couldn't take pictures in the store, so after his girlfriend bought them he modeled them for us outside of VS. Love how it turned out!

The next couple pictures are from the weekend of Harvest Fest in Clear Lake. There are all sorts of things going on during this wine festival: wine tastings, jazz music, art exhibits, food vendors, salsa-making contests, and GRAPE STOMPING COMPETITIONS! Of course we had to do this! We got to Clear Lake around 10:30-11 AM and calmed our nerves with the Bloody Mary Bar at the VFW. See!

(We're missing Kerri and Julie)

After the VFW, we went around to a couple of the vendor sites for our wine samples. Our first taste of the day was "Nic and Vic" from Mt. Valley in Forest City. I'd have to say this is a family favorite! (My family and I visited their vineyard last fall and it was so much fun! It's definitely something I would recommend doing if you're around the area and haven't been there already.)

There was lots to see and do on Main Street of Clear Lake but at last it was time for the grape stomping competition! Our group had three teams: Lindy and Kelly (Judy's Juicers), Melissa and Jenny (Purple Toe-Jammers), and Mom and I (Smashing Wine-o's). Mom and I made it to the final round (Hooray!) and it was raining in spurts but we still had our cheering section!

Boo to the rain!

The girls cheering us on. :)

Ready....(We were nervous!)


Set....("Hold me! Don't let me fall!")

GO GO GO GO GO!!!!

After we won round 1.

Right after we found out we won the whole thing -- such a celebratory picture! I love Lindy's cry for joy in the corner!

CHAMPIONS!!! Posing for the paparazzi...riiiiight!

We won $100 Clear Lake Dollars so we went back to the VFW for buckets of beer!

As you can see, we have a lot of fun. Even if I didn't realize it at the time, I am so lucky to have these girls in my family. They were always there for Grandma and they kept Mom sane while she was in the hospital for 18+ hours a day during Grandma's stay. Chad, her nurse, said that Grandma was so lucky to have the support system that she did and he wished all families could say the same.

As Kelly said: "The life of the party has moved on. What a ride. We will miss you Aunt Judy, but know since you're not around we're going to talk about you. Bet on it. I'm ringing the bell."

I'm posting the link to my Uncle's website so you can read the message he gave at Grandma's funeral. It was perfect. :) http://www.kevindahle.net/wordpress/

We love and miss you Grandma!

Thank you EVERYONE for your thoughts and prayers.
Thanks to all the MnM's for being there for my mom...you guys are the best!

We are writing this post from the car as we are on our way home from Colorado. Well, I’m writing as Keaton is driving. :) We’ve been busy since the last time I posted, and have a lot of stuff to share!

My best friend (and roommate for 3 years), Tori, graduated from the dental hygiene program at Hawkeye last Friday so we got to celebrate with her and Jared, and the rest of the Sunde family. We attended the graduation ceremony, ate at Bourbon Street in Cedar Falls, and then went across the street to the Pump Haus for 99¢ margaritas. Yum! After her family left, Tori, Jared, Keaton, and I went to Voodoo lounge for a couple of drinks. The atmosphere at this bar is very cool! There are big leather couches and chairs all over but they are in sections so we kind of had our own private area.

Congrats Tor -- thanks for letting us celebrate with you!

On Saturday morning, we woke up at 5:30 and were on the road to Colorado by 6:15 for Kendra’s (Keaton’s twin sister) graduation from Metro State. The trip took about 11 hours and we went straight to Denver to go out to eat with some of Keats’ family and then we went to the Rockie’s game. It was FREEZING out, but our seats were awesome! Thanks Jeff!

After the Rockie's game we went and stayed with Debbie, Nanny Char, and Smeigie. Keats took this picture on Sunday morning -- it was too early for both of us to be awake...can you tell?!


This is Scott and Kendra’s puppy Bananas. Keaton said that if you guys start a blog you should call it “Blogging with Bananas” :)

Kendra’s graduation was on Sunday morning and the weather was perfect. The reception was at their brother and sister-in-law’s house and there were lots of family and friends there to help Kendra celebrate. Thanks Kellen and Amy for hosting! Kendra’s fiance, Scott, recently graduated from Western Nebraska Community College and they will be moving to Utah this summer where Scott will be playing basketball for Weber State. Congrats and good luck guys!

Scott and Kendra

Last..Kellen and Amy are expecting their first baby and they just found out yesterday that they will be having a boy! Congratulations guys, everybody is so excited for you! Mary Pat and I looked at the ultrasound pictures for about 45 minutes trying to figure them out. She showed me one of the boys' ultrasounds from when she was pregnant and it was one picture printed on a piece of paper with a chart/checklist and spaces for doctor's notes and what not. It's crazy how much technology has changed!

We got back to Cedar Falls around 9:30 last night but as I was trying to post this, our power went out and my computer died so it's just getting posted now!

I've added some other pictures from the weekend below...enjoy!

Richelle and Jeff (Keaton's dad)

Jay and Mary Pat (Keaton's mom)

Kellen, Kendra, Keaton, and Kendall

Amy, Kendra, me, and Emily

Kade didn't want to come back to the front yard where everybody else was, so this is where he planted himself for about five minutes.

Kyrstin was teaching Keaton how to hold the bat and hit the ball.
"No, hold it like this..but you have to stand sideways. REMEMBER?!"

I didn't get any pictures of Kyrstin hitting the ball but when it was Keaton's turn to pitch to her, he wasn't doing a very good job (according to her!) and she kept saying "You know, you're not very good at this. You're supposed to throw it unnnnnder!" They switched places so she could teach him how to pitch, it was so cute. Brock and Dorie -- I think you guys have a future softball player in your hands!

So long, Colorado!

Target Field

This past Tuesday we got to go to the Twins vs White Sox game up in Minneapolis. It was our first time to the new stadium and we both loved it! We rode to the game with my stepdad and then met my brother and his friend up there. Keats and I sat in row 5 right by third base for the first couple innings and then scoped out the bars for the rest of the game with everybody else. The Twins lost but the beer still tasted good, haha!

Numero Uno

Well, here it is…our first post! We wanted to find a way to keep everyone up-to-date with what we’ve been doing and we figured that starting a blog would be the easiest way to do it!

For those of you who don’t know, Keaton packed up a U-Haul and made the 800-mile trek to Cedar Falls last week and we moved into our first apartment. We’ve been dating for a little over a year and the long distance relationship was obviously a hard thing to do, so he just decided to move here and finish his last year of school at the University of Northern Iowa. I know, I know…you’re all thinking “HE LEFT COLORADO FOR IOWA?!” I would have much rather moved to Colorado but I’m done with my undergraduate courses next fall and then have to start graduate school in the spring so it was just easier this way. He wanted to move here and there was no way I was going to argue with that!

Keaton is majoring in Public Administration and possibly getting a minor as well, but that is yet to be determined. He keeps going back and forth with what he wants to do and I kind of did the same thing. I came to UNI thinking that I was going to end up being a teacher but after two and a half years, I hated it! I felt like all of the classes were just busy work and that I didn’t need to be paying thousands of dollars for an education that I could have gotten at a daycare. I was going into early childhood and elementary education, so most of my classes consisted of giving presentations about how to organize a dress-up center, or what children’s books I would recommend to a child with special needs (Okay, maybe the classes were harder than that, but you get the point). Aside from the college part, I knew that in the long-run I’d rather work with children one-on-one instead of in large groups. SO! I am now majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders, so I will be a speech-language pathologist when I am done with school.

Keaton and I moved into a two-bedroom apartment a couple blocks away from campus and finally have everything unpacked and organized.

See!

My mom gave us an African Violet (which looks terrible right now!) and
Keats brought me an "I Love You Bean" lima bean plant.
I can't grow anything to save my life, so we'll see how this turns out!

When the bean sprouts it's supposed to say "I love you" on the outside.
Hopefully that'll work. :)

Our apartment kind of lacks storage area. This is what we get for the bathroom.

This is our guest bedroom, decorated with Keaton's stuff.

How can they call this a closet?! (This is in our hallway)

All of our clothes fit in our bedroom closet though so that's good!

Here's our under-decorated bedroom!

Now the living room and the brand new couch from Keats and Mary Pat..thank you :)

Keats went to the grocery store and came back with flowers. Surprise!