Discovery World

After Julie's Graduation on Friday morning (May 2nd), we all had a cookout at Doug's house along with a few other friends. It was so much fun and delicious! Saturday before Jenny and Jordan headed back up to Northland, we went to Discovery World and enjoyed looking around at all the neat stuff - especially all the hands on things, such as "creating" a few souvenirs on the Dream Machine.

Ate Supper at a Pizza place that I can't remember the name of - but it was good! :)
Julia & Kaden Dean!
Takin' a rest - Matt, Jess, Jules, Jenny, & Me
Doug & Julie by the beautiful Lake Michigan!
The Octagon House: The first Kindergarten in America!

Mom having fun being Grandma!
They had a place to pet fish - even a stingerless stingray! pretty neat! And the fish actually seemed to ejoy it! Found a neat place to chill! The headphones magnified all the sounds around you. I would like to have a hanging bubble chair like that at home! It was quite comfortable ;)
Julia snapped this candid - it looks like everyone's posing for a CD cover for a singing group or something. Haha!
Julia lying on the bed of nails. We all took a turn - even Grandma!
The guys providing power for the giant fan!

Visiting our dear friend, June O'Neil Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..it's so wonderful when we can all be together!
Jason on the Segway - he was a natural at it! I tried it, too - it's a pretty neat little form of transportation!
Julia and I - we found all these round mirrors and thought it made for a pretty neat background! I love Julia - she's totally like another sister!

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.