Julie's Graduation!

Julie Graduated! She is now officially an Early Childhood Education Teacher! YAY!I'm so proud of my sister! Love you, Jules! Here is the picture of Julie's graduated class. Jessica Asire is behind her giving the bunny ears...silly girls!
This is Mom and I as we're waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Fun Surprises: I saw Bobbi there! (along with Abigail Utley, Paula Burch, and Lindsey Rew who I was not able to get a picture with cause my camera batteries died) Miss you girls!
This is my favorite picture of Julie's graduation pictures! Both Julie and Kaden look so happy and adorable here! Priceless! :)

Hewy & Jewy

They're dating!

Laura Date

Laura and I have been trying to get together whenever possible before she's married and moves to IN. It's been difficult to plan dates around each other's jobs, etc...but whenever it works out we have so much fun together! I went to her house after work and we got to sleep in the special guest room (somehow that's still just as exciting as it's always been!) I think we were up until 5:30 talking and catching up about everything under the sun in each other's lives!

Then we went to Mankato for some girl time shopping and ate out at Olive Garden.

When we got back to the Swensons we munched on chips and salsa while we watched a movie! Then I had to head home so we could both work the next morning. All good things must come to an end eventually, I guess...but I'm thankful for the fun times and memories...until next time! :) Love you, Laura!

My Tulips!

These are my tulips! These are my favorite flowers, so dear Mrs. Swenson planted some bulbs in this flower pot last fall and gave them to me. I've been so excited for them to bloom, and they lasted for a long time and brought me many smiles :) I can't wait to see them again next spring! Thank you, Mrs. Swenson!

The Races from the Sponsor Box!

Grandpa Mel has owned Mel Carlson Chevrolet in Truman, MN for about 30 years. The last few years whenever he sponsors the Fairmont races, he invites us to invite friends and watch for free with him in the box seats! He's so sweet! I went with Charise Schofield this year. Between Grandpa Mel's jokes, the funny commentators, the people who'd had a little too much who were up there in the box with us, and of course the races, we had a grand time together! :)

Here's our excited faces because the car we wanted to win the heat was winning!I finished my water, and got tired of my sunglasses being on my head, and we had our tickets out in case we won anything when they read off ticket numbers, so we made a little aquafina friend :)This is the car that won the final race of the hobbystocksHere is the Mel Carlson Chevrolet Sponsor truck. Before each of the races it leads each group of cars on their warm up laps. I couldn't get a very good picture of it cause it was so fast! heehee! or maybe I'm just not a very good photographer...but it was a very cool truck! And finally, here is the winner of the Modified 360's - those are my favorites! They are SO fast, and the rumble of their engines always vibrates straight through to my bones!

Rubix Cube

I've never been good at these - but i finally found a way to win!

Bertha & Thelma's Babysitting Adventure

It has been fun being home this year! I haven't had to miss all the fun showers for all the people in our church getting married and having babies, and have even been able to get involved. For this particular shower, it was the celebration of 2 babies being born, Elliot Flohrs and Emma Pankonin. Laura and I put the skit together as Bertha and Thelma who were babysitting in order to earn the money for a 2-seat power scooter! heehee! It was fun - I'm going to miss my pal, Bertha when she moves away :(

I MISS YOU, HELAINE!

Love You!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know this is a few days late, but I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to you, Mom! And thank you so much for all the fun we've had together this year! You're the best dorm sup. and "roomie"ever! ;) Heehee! I love you so much and am so thankful God has blessed me so immensly by giving me the best Mom in the whole world!

<3

The Daily News in our Country.....there's nothing like the comfort of a boyfriend's tiolet

Woman sits on boyfriend's toilet for 2 years
Girlfriend was physically stuck to the seat —
her skin had grown around it


NESS CITY, Kan. - Deputies said a woman in western Kansas sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years, and they're investigating whether she was mistreated.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said a man called his office last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend.


Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.


“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.”


Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend.


“She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple said. “It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”

He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom. “And her reply would be, ‘Maybe tomorrow,”’ Whipple said. “According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom.”

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that “there was something wrong with his girlfriend,” Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.
Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was “somewhat disoriented,” and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.

“She said that she didn’t need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave,” he said.
She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.
Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.
Police have declined to release the couple’s names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.

The case has been the buzz in Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor. “I don’t think anybody can make any sense out of it,” he said.


Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years. He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.


“It really doesn’t surprise me,” Ellis said of the bathroom incident. “What surprises me is somebody wasn’t called in a bit earlier.”


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

What a Night! (PG - parental discretion suggested for scary elements)

Tonight I came home from a wonderful night at work. I always enjoy working when I get hours at my assisted living job. Nevertheless, I was excited to get home and relax. The noise I heard when I walked in the door, however, was anything BUT relaxing! It grated against my nerves and the closer I got to the noise, the more unnerving it became. I walked down the stairs to the cold, dark and scary basement...louder, louDER, and LOUDER! I'm plugging my ears, but the buzzing is so loud that I had to check to make sure that my hands were really up by my ears doing their job! Then I saw it - the red light shining through the darkness right at me! - deja vu! This happened about 2 years ago when Jenny and I were home by ourselves, and Pastor had come over and silenced the horrendous buzzer. So Pastor was kind enough to come over again and make it stop. This time, he showed me how it is done so I can fix it if it ever decides to get scary again. After he left I poured myself a bowl of cereal for supper, and settled into my favorite armchair, finally i can rela........x......wait, I see something moving out of the corner of my eye! I look over and there's a spider crawling up the wall!!! EWWW!! Well, since I'm home for awhile by myself before mom, the brave spider crusher, gets home, I realize I'm going to have to kill it myself before it has a chance to climb to the ceiling above me, drop down, bite me, and kill me! So, I put down my bowl of cereal, hoping this will go quickly so my apple jacks don't get soggy. I grabbed a kleenex (which I had handy since I've recently been slowly suffocating of a cold), and started closing in on it....then I jumped back....closed in.....and jumped back...closed in, and jumped back one more time (yes, 3 times is the charm!). I finally closed my eyes and grabbed for it - then freaked out and opened my eyes to see the spiders legs waving in the air while the rest of his body was safely clamped between my fingers (in the kleenex, of course)...i started running to the trash can - not realizing that as I was running my fingers continued to squeeze tighter and tighter until I felt a POP! A muffled sound of disgust escaped my mouth and shivers ran through my spine...several times...until I released my grasp and let him fall into the trash. After which I buried him a little...just to be safe. Big Deep Breath. Okay, back to my cereal, which was still crunchy. Good. I turned on the TV to see what was on and scary music was playing! A girl in a dark room was looking into a kitchen sink that was filling with water and then suddenly a hand came out of the drain and grabbed her hair! AGH! I turned off the TV and decided to read the back of the cereal box....HEY! I get a free barbie watch! Ok...I guess the apple jacks people don't expect 21 year olds to eat their cereal, because they only made the watch big enough to fit on a little girls' hands. Well, I'm off to my room, where I'm hoping for some relaxation...but am afraid after the course of events tonight, I may end up with a nightmare! Just remember this:

1. When you come home from work at night, wear earplugs, then hopefully any scary sounds won't be heard.

2. When you see a spider, don't try to kill it, just stick it under a glass until someone brave enough to kill it comes along.

3. Always stay away from kitchen sinks that are in the dark, you never know what might come popping up out of the drain. And if you HAVE to use the sink - wear your hair in a pony tail.

4. Don't buy a box of cereal based on the prize inside, you might be disappointed.

5. Think happy thoughts prior to going to bed in order to avoid nightmares.

Frank Sinatra Concert!

Around Thanksgiving time a gentleman came to the Fairmont Opera House to do a 'Frank Sinatra' concert - I don't recall his name, but he had an amazing voice and a back-up orchestra that was made up of people who had played in several famous locations and broadways. The concert was almost 2 hours long with so many of the classic songs! I went with my good friends, Laura and Charise and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! I would put some of the video clips on here, but I'm afriad they don't come even close to doing their amazing performance any justice.

Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures of us girls until the very end of the night. We had already dropped Charise off at home and Laura was about to head home, so we took one really quick before she left.

Such a fun evening! :)

Hats, Hats, Hats

Mrs. Schofield planned a Ladies Banquet entitled "Hats off to Ladies" last semester. The men made the meal and served each course - very delicious! Each lady that came wore a different hat and then got judged for the different things you can judge about hats (prettiest, most creative, ugliest, biggest, smallest, etc...) ;) Laura was part of the skit, hence the absolutely ridiculous hat she is wearing in the picture...decoy duck and all! haha! I pulled out my nurse hat that JaJu gave to me for my birthday ;) and also wore my graduation hat for part of the time since Mrs. Schofield had asked me to share a testimony about being a graduate along with other ladies sharing testimonies about the "different hats we wear." It was wierd to think of myself as a college graduate for one thing, but also to be asked to speak in front of the ladies of the church was a bit intimidating. Yet it was so neat to be able to share along with them how the Lord has worked in my life (Ps. 40:5 - "Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thous hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.") and to thank them all for how they have invested in my life (and continue to do so) from nearly the beginning by their example and through their prayers. (Titus 2:3-5) I am SO thankful for my church family!

The Movies

Confession: it doesn't take much for me to cry over a movie. Mom took me to the movies to see "Becoming Jane." Right when we sat down to watch the movie she told me Jane never gets married. "How do you know, mom?" "Well, it's a true story!" I was devastated - a chick flick that doesn't end happily ever after!? Aren't chick flicks supposed to be fairytalish? Throughout the entire movie I kept hoping it would end right, but sure enough in the end it left me crying. I don't think I will watch that movie again. I still had fun spending the time with mom, though.

A Baby Shower

One of the first church events I was able to attend when I got home this summer was Darla Zuelke's baby shower! She had a baby girl named Jada, so now Jonathan has a little sister! They are such happy parents! I had fun taking pictures of the cute little present carriers, Anna, Victoria, and Sophia, and taking pictures with Mom. She doesn't like getting her picture taken, so she hid behind one of the gifts being passed around without knowing the title of that book was something about being the greatest mom! We got a good laugh out of it...but it is true! I have the best mom!