Ugh...Winter!

Winter has arrived much to my dismay. Yep, you got it, not a speck of green grass showing anywhere anymore. Oh how I hate winter...the cold and having to get bundled up just to step outside; adding snow pants, boots, hats and gloves into our morning routine and hoping no one forgets to throw their shoes in their backpacks and listening to Kory grumble because his hat is going to mess up his hair (what drama); finding places to hang all of the wet snow clothes to dry before another day begins; constantly mopping up wet floors which are left because little (and big) shoes carry in the snow...But, the boys are lovin' it.



The only good thing about the winter season is that it brings along with it Christmas. A wonderful time of year...families gathering together to share in the celebration of our Savior's birth. I love the Christmas light displays (some people are so creative, we are not among those people). Each house decorated in its own special way. I am not crazy about the hustle and bustle between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the anticipation of Christmas subsides the irritation.

We are starting a new "tradition" this year...we are going to cut down our own Christmas tree. I know that this is not a new thing, it's just one that we haven't done yet. The boys are so excited to go "hunt" for that perfect tree.

We have already begun the Christmas festivities as Jason's office had a party for the Big Brother/Big Sister program here in Wausau. The kids came up to the office where they met their mentors for the day and were able to do several activities (i.e. picture with Santa, crafts, cookie decorating). The best part of the day was sitting around the Christmas tree and letting all those kids rip into their pile of presents and seeing the joy on their faces and sending each family home with two laundry baskets full of food. What an honor it was to have a part in blessing these children and their families.

We are joining in the "hustle and bustle" of the season as we have a weekend packed with Christmas programs and parties. Starting with the boys' Christmas program on the 13th, one office party on the 14th (and Jason's birthday), another on the 15th and the youth groups' on the 16th (at our house). Whew! Speaking of parties...who ever came up with the "White Elephant" gift exchange? I am not a big fan. This is an event where you grab a present with high hopes it's not someone else's garbage and to either be elated that is not or left with the thought of "What in the world am I going to do with this?". And to throw a little wrench in the festivities, your "gift" can be stolen only for you to repeat the process again. Have I mentioned how much I dislike this "gift exchange"?

I apologize that this post doesn't warrant warm fuzzies, I am truly thankful for the blessing God has given to me and by family...winter just rubs me the wrong way!

Here's hoping that you and your families are staying warm and "enjoying" this winter season :)

Happy 10th Birthday, Kyle

Kyle William

November 13, 1997, at 2:00 p.m.

6# 11 oz. ~ 19" long

Now look at him!

We had a party with Kyle's friends on Sunday afternoon. Based on the noise they created, they had a good time. Let's just put it this way, the dart guns will never be the same!

It's hard to believe that my sweet boy is already 10. I think about how quickly 10 years went by and eight short years from now he will be graduating from high school. Six years he'll be driving. Now that is a scary thought...hopefully, his attention span will increase somewhat before then. He's so easily distracted. I don't know what's harder to come to grips with the fact that Kyle is approaching another stage in his life or that I am getting older...nearer and nearer to 40!

Well off to finish up our crazy, busy week.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Man!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY!

Kory Douglas came into this world Friday, November 9, 2001 at 5:55 a.m. It's hard to believe that six years have gone by already. My sweet boy is growing up too fast. He came into this world in his own sweet time and still does everything by his schedule. However, he is still full of mercy, joy, determination, humor and spunk.

He came walking into the kitchen yesterday morning with the biggest smile on his face saying, "I'm 6 today!" In my opinion, he is the cutest six year old around, but I am a little bias :)

He had his first "official" birthday party -- 5 of his friends over for games, pizza, cake and ice cream. I think I must have been delirious when I said, "yes" to having 5 additional 6-year olds in my house. All-in-all it went very well and all the boys had fun. After all the boys left, we cleaned up the house before Grandma and Grandpa Olson arrived. Then Kory wanted to watch "Spiderman 3". However, only Kyle and I made it to the end, the rest were watching the insides of the their eyelids.

Today we are celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa, which I'm not sure how much longer Kory will stand looking at the present sitting in the living room. He had to double-check with me this morning to make sure he can open that present today. And also had to clarify one thing... "We can open presents, but you don't have to sing Happy Birthday to me because I'm already six and it's not really my birthday anymore". We must have sounded horrible last night!

Well, one birthday down, one more to go...Kyle's party on Sunday and actual birthday on Tuesday.

Can you say "Yee-haw?"

Last night all of us youth leaders got together for a meal at Texas Roadhouse (new restaurant in town). Some thought it would be fun to go dressed in western wear (I was not one) so here we all are in our gidup! Some went all the way and some, like myself, went with the fashionable cowboy.

Here I am, sporting my cowgirl attire :)

Steve

Ali

Emily (what a nut!)

Gus, nice banana

Jerrick, he's the new sheriff in town!

Rachel

Unfortunately, I did not get everyone's individual picture. Anyway, the food was delicious. In fact, I just finished eating my leftovers...yum! After dinner, most of the gang went onto a local bar to ride the mechanical bull. Jas and I decided to opt out of that one. I haven't spoken to anyone yet today to see how that went :)

The boys stayed with some friends of ours who took them to The Pizza Factory for dinner. They played their share of arcade games and had a blast. When we went to pick them up, they were hard at work painting piggy banks. Well, they were up early today to finish them; however, they ended up recruiting me in this process to finish them up. Here are the finished products.

Kory's

Kyle's

Today we are enjoying a lazy Saturday...we haven't had one of those for awhile. Enjoy your weekend and week to come. Drop us a line if you have a chance.

Oh my goodness....so behind!

Hey everyone ~ I am so behind. I can't believe my last post was a month ago. We have been so busy, I can barely see straight! October started with a whirlwind trip to Valley City, North Dakota for Jason's cousin's wedding. We were able to drop the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa's and have the weekend to ourselves. It was great. The wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful catching up with the family. The boys had a blast with G & G. Here's few pic's of their time spent there.

We had a week at home and then off to Valley City again for pheasant hunting. We met up with Jason's dad and brother and aunt, uncle and cousins. Unfortunately our friend, Dan, from KC was unable to make it this year....bummer! He was truly missed. We had a good time, but it wasn't the same without him. We were up and at 'em at 5:45 a.m on Saturday; breakfast at the Hilltop Cafe at 6:30 (yum...do you hear my sarcasm?...those of you who know me well, know I hate breakfast); trampling through CRP, soybean and corn fields by 8 a.m. It was a bit harder hunting this year because of all the rain and all the crops being unharvested. Most of our spots for hunting with either filled with water or covered with crops. Nothing like chasing pheasant through a corn field :) We had a good time though and lots of exercise. It was just nice to be able to be outside all day with no responsibilities! Everyone but us left on Sunday afternoon so it was just Jas and I on Monday. Which turned out to be the best day for hunting. We would have filled out by 11 am, if we could have found 3 of the 6 pheasants we (well Jason) shot. Jason did awesome! He got his first triple (3 shots, 3 birds). Maybe some day, I too, will be that good. He was 9 for 11 on Monday. All-in-all we were able to bring home 9 birds.

Us and the boys with the last day's limit

The boys were exhausted by the end of each day. The ride back to the farm pretty much looked like this everyday.

Our lives have been pretty chaotic since returning home and I am still trying to catch up. The next few weeks are filled to capacity...maybe by February we'll be able to slow down. We are looking forward to the boys' birthdays. We have two parties planned this year (I can't get away with having them together anymore) and Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit too! I think we are going to check out "The Bee Movie".

I hope that all of you are doing well...have a great week and God bless.

Church Ladies go...Paintballing

On Saturday I had the one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life...paintball! Dressed in full camo armed with a gun full of ammo, we headed out to the first course. We divided into teams, formed a strategy and the game began. We took off with the goal to capture the orange teams' flag. Our strategy didn't quite work, the orange team conquered us. Alison, Jessica and me

There were several courses, but I would have to say that the "Gates of Hell" was my favorite. I was down in the trenches defending our territory. People were getting hit left and right, but I was advancing. I made it to an opening and hit the ground, crawling on my belly to accomplish our goal...the flag. I had paintballs flying over my head and I was shooting back until I ran out of ammo. I ditched the gun and began crawling like a mad woman. I made it within 6 feet of the flag and then the whistle blew, the game was done...ahhh...so close!

Pretty hard core, wouldn't you say?

The last course we did was pretty much charge and unload. Awesome! This time I did capture the flag!

I made it through the day with only a few bruises. The biggest ones being from when I was running through the woods, tripped and fell flat on my face. I'm sure I looked ridiculous. The whole group made it through the day without too many horrible bruises...there were only a couple neck and face shots...ouch! All-in-all it was a great day. Who knew shooting your friends could be such fun!

We have a crazy busy week; however, today I have the day to myself. I think I'll relax and prepare myself for the remainder of the week. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

A Miscellaneous Week....

We'll begin with Kyle's field trip to the Little Red School House last Thursday. They wanted the kids to experience this day as authentically as possible and thereby had to dress accordingly. Here is Kyle is his get-up.

There was the option to roll his jeans to the knees and wear long dark socks, but Kyle wouldn't go quite that far. In fact, he only put the hat on for the picture. He brought home a "lunch pail" the night before and we had to pack it with an 'olden days lunch (a jelly sandwich, an orange, a brownie and water in a jar with no ice). The boys had to enter in one door and the girls the other. They had reading, writing (which they did with pen and ink, all in cursive), and math. When I picked him up from school and asked how the day went, his reply was "It was alright, just kind of boring. I am glad that we don't have school like that anymore".

On Saturday we went over to our friends, the Bretl's. Jason and Brad were working on pouring a concrete pad for their LP tank. Well while they were doing that Jessica and I decided to take a little adventure to an old abandoned house. And an adventure it was...our first attempt was fouled by people being at the house, which we thought were hunters, but apparently were not because when we returned 10 minutes later, they were still there. I guess the third try was the charm. No one was around and we entered. The house was pretty much trashed and the walls and ceilings were crumbling, but we were able to make it through to the upstairs. Once upstairs we found some old furniture in amazing condition, jewelry, year books and a box of photos.


This is the back door and view of the outside of the house.

One of the interior doors and this wedding dress was hanging in one of the closets









Anyway, we also found a marriage certificate of the previous owners, which peeked our curiosity. Jessica got the pictures of the house she wanted and then we headed to the barn. And...while we were walking back to the car, someone pulls up behind our car! Jessica and I book it back to the car and totally out of breath, scared to death and probably looking as guilty as could be spoke with the lady that OWNED THE LAND! She was very nice and didn't seem to care that we were there, but talk about awkward. Well, we went home and did some investigating and discovered that the original owners are still living, but sold the land to the lady we encountered in the driveway who is marrying what we believe to be a son of the original owners this weekend. How bizarre, but very exciting! Oh, Jason and Brad did a fine job with the concrete pad. Jason, I and the boys went home and Brad and Jessica came over a little later for pizza and a movie, "Fracture", which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Sunday we had Sunday School and church then came home watched the Packers trounce the Giants, took a nap and then brought Kory to a friend's birthday party. We ate supper by the campfire and then sacked out of the couch for the remainder of the evening.

So today brought with it laundry and cleaning. But I was also able to finally complete my and Jason's bedroom, which began with repainting and ordering fabric for the window panels in July. Which, by the way took almost 8 weeks to arrive. The panels were made in August...more fabric was purchased for a valence and pillows and they were finished this weekend. Some miscellaneous decorations hung on the wall and finally, it's done!

Tomorrow's back to work with a doctor's appointment and a few meeting mixed into the remainder of the week. Have a wonderful week.

Back to School

Welcome Back to South Mountain Elementary!

Oh, the sound of the kids voices filling the halls of the school. Kids shouting out to their friends whom they have not seen for 3 months; checking out all the new gear (i.e. backpacks, shoes and the like); and seeing the tears of the Pre-K kids and some kindergartners and their parents as they separate for the first time. (On a side note, my children never were sad to see me leave!) Oh to be that carefree again!

Kyle William, age 9 - 4th grade

Let's see, Kyle has grown about 3 inches since last year. It won't be long and he'll be taller than me! Anyway, his first day went famously. He is so stoked that he has a guy for a teacher this year. It will be quite different from last year, but change is always good, right?! He has been introduced into a semi-criminal justice process in his class. They have a fine system. They get "paid" every two weeks and then for bad behavior, late assignments, etc. they are fined and have to pay their teacher a certain amount of money based on the "crime". If you can go a whole quarter without fines, you get to spend your money at an auction. Kyle has taken on this system as a challenge and is determined not to get fined. On the practical side and as a mother, I know that this might possibly be impossible!

Kory Douglas, age 5 - Kindergarten

Kory has been anxiously awaiting the start of Kindergarten since the day after school got out in June. Throughout the summer he would ask when school starts and always disappointed in my answer until last weekend, when I could say..."only 4 more days". He has jumped right in and he even remembered his code for lunch. He was so proud of himself. The biggest adjustment he is having to make is being there all day. Let's just say he was quite tired when bedtime came around last night. He actually fell asleep during devotions. The highlight of his day was the fact that he got 3 recesses. And, of course, his favorite part of the classroom is free choice when he gets to play with the animals. Maybe someday he will be excited about actually learning academics :) Kory reported that not everybody was as excited for school because apparently one of the girls in his class was so nervous that she threw up in the gym before school even started. Poor thing :(

Our Labor Day weekend was quite relaxing. We caught up on much needed sleep; drove to Eau Claire to see Grandma and Grandpa Olson; and enjoyed a campfire and cookout with friends.

I have embarked upon a new adventure this week too. I have started a new job as the administrative assistant to our youth pastor. I will be working two 1/2 days and on full. So far it has gone well and is very enjoyable. Next Wednesday is the big kick-off to youth group so I am shuffling through a lot of paper. Once things slow down a bit with the youth, I will also be doing some of the administrative stuff for our worship pastor. I'll have to take a crash course on power point design! I will enjoy the next two days as I have the house all to myself. Hmmm, what will I do with myself? I will actually be able to go grocery shopping or just plain shopping all by myself...woohoo!

Well, off to make dinner. Have a great weekend!

Twelve years ago we said, "I do"

August 12, 1995, marked the day we became Mr. and Mrs. Jason Rieth.

Then....

and now...

The best thing about marrying Jason has been the fact that I have shared the last 12 years with my best friend; watching him grow in his faith and character; and, his uncanny ability to make my world at peace by just his presence. I have truly been blessed! Jason understands me probably better than I understand myself and has given God room to refine me and grow into who I am today.

We were able to go out to dinner on the 11th and filled our stomachs with halibut for Jason and a ribeye steak, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus for me. I get to enjoy the leftovers today! We reminisced about the last 12 years, the good, the bad, the up's and the down's. Thankfully, we have had more good than bad and more up's than down's, but truly know that we wouldn't be where we are today without any of them. God definitely made us for eachother and I am so thankful.

Thirteen more and we'll be celebrating our 25th! And, being married at 20, we do have the potential of making 60! I doubt I'll still be blogging at 80, but if I am, I don't think I'll be posting the "then and now" pictures!

Pictures of My Trip to the DR

Dominican Republic Mission Trip

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brother of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:40

What an incredible experience! Our team, which consisted of 30 people, 9 adults and 21 youth, returned late in the evening on July 22nd from our short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We left Central Wisconsin airport at 6 a.m. on July 12th on three different flights to eventually meet and regroup at the airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The travel presented challenges throughout the trip but God is faithful and everyone arrived where they were supposed to be and lost only one suitcase!

Our trip was arranged and sponsored through Solid Rock Missions, which has been working in the DR for 20 years. Their main ministry has been in the town of San Juan. Over the years, a guest house, clinic and school have been built and are firmly established in the area. Over 80% of the students who graduate from the Christian school go on to the university. They are looking to expand a similar ministry in El Cercado, which is where our team was ministering. As of right now, a clinic has been built and is operating. Anyway, we began our trip by staying in a hotel in Santo Domingo on the 12th and the next morning traveling by bus for 3 1/2 hours to El Cercado. Once we arrived in El Cercado met our host families. I stayed with a family of five whose children were 21, 19 and 16. The middle son spoke some English so we were able to communicate a little bit. I am hoping to improve my Spanish before I go back again.

Saturday was the beginning of the construction project. We spent the day painting their multi-purpose building, inside and out, with two coats of primer and a finish coat.

Sunday we attended church with Pastor Morales. After church we had the opportunity to take a bus ride to a dam about 1 1/2 hours away to go swimming. After the previous day's work in the warm weather, swimming felt pretty good.

Monday through Thursday we did Vacation Bible School with the children in the morning. The VBS was awesome! We started with 83 kids on Monday, but by the end of VBS on Thursday, we had approximately 300 kids waiting in line before we even started. We had to limit admission to 100 kids due to a limited amount of craft supplies, but the remaining children stood outside and participated in the worship, dramas, etc. Then we all took off to the park for game time. And after lunch we resumed painting the multi-purpose building. Through this 4-day VBS program, approximately 30-40 children raised their hands indicating that they had prayed to ask Jesus to be their Savior. God is good!

Thursday was a powerful day for me as instead of painting in the afternoon, we traveled about 40 minutes into the mountains to distribute rice and beans to extremely poor families. These were not poor in the sense that they had little; it was poor in the sense that they had almost nothing. Many children we saw were malnourished and it was heartbreaking that we could not do more. However, despite the difficult circumstances, the joy that these people conveyed was incredible. I will never forget these people or this experience. To share the love of Jesus in such a powerfully tangible way was truly a privilege.

Our "mission" ended on Friday with us completely finishing the painting of the multi-purpose building. Saturday and Sunday were full travel days and despite some interesting challenges, the Lord was faithful to bring us all home safely.

I can't help but reiterate how inadequate words seem to be to describe how mightily God worked in my life and in the lives of others. I learned in a completely new way what it means to serve the Lord and appreciate what he calls me to do, both at home and wherever else I am. While it was a joy to serve and give, it was made clear to me that I cannot out-give God. I returned feeling that I gained more than I gave up.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:7-8

We are headed out...

Tomorrow Jason leaves for his missions trip to the Dominican Republic. He will be gone for 10 days so the boys and I have decided to head to Kansas City to visit the Hedlund family. So we will be up and at 'em at 3:15 a.m. or so. We have to have Jason to the airport by 4:14 a.m. ...yikes! Once our good-byes are said, we are on our way to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. We will spend Thursday there and get up early (again) and head out for Kansas City with Grandma on Friday. I will try and update you on our trip while we are there.

Please keep Jason and his team in your prayers. He is very excited to share Jesus with the Dominican people. I know God will richly bless him and all who are going.

So long for now.

Catch up

Whew! Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. Our days and nights were plump full of miscellaneous things. But, I am now happy to report that things are slowing down a bit. The baseball season is over and it ended with a 2-17 record. Not great, but at least they didn't end the season at the very bottom. It was exciting to watch them improve and work together as a team with each game. During the season Kyle never got a hit (just a piece of it a few times), but did get on base a few times via a "walk". Two of the times on base he made it home...yea! We are very proud of him and the effort he put forth. Now he is onto swimming lessons and tennis lessons. When those are over and we head into the new school year, he will begin guitar lessons and eventually wants to learn how to play the drums...yikes...headaches, come on down! These have to be better than the recorder, right?


Now I need to prepare you for the pictures you are about to see. I never thought I would be doing this yet. I love my blonde-haired little boy, but Kyle has been asking to dye his hair for months now. Who thought it would start at 9. Anyway, Jason and I gave in. It's not like he is asking to permanently color his skin with a tattoo or put a hole in some part of his body...it's just hair, right?! (I'm sure the aformentioned things are coming!) So yesterday afternoon while dad was fishing, the boys and I made a trip to Wal-Mart to choose the new color. I was fully prepared to dye Kyle's hair, but wasn't quite prepared for Kory (who is 5) to also request that his hair not be this color anymore. I was also shocked by how excited they were to sit and have stuff squirted on their heads and sit and wait some more. Especially when they can hardly make it through a haircut without complaining and asking when it will be done. Anyway, the following is evidence of yesterday afternoon's experiment...

Kyle before

The processing time

The new look

Kory before

Processing...

The new Kory

It isn't quite the color I had hoped for, but I guess it will do for now. A couple of haircuts later and it will be gone! I guess I can always say that we are entering the witness protection program. I can only hope that this is now out of their system and they will be content to remain blonde until their hair naturally becomes darker.

Jason and I have embarked on a very large landscaping project for this summer... our backyard! Three weeks ago we had a landscape designer come out to the house to talk with us about what we would like to see done with our yard. Well, she is now done with her "plan" and we meet with her tomorrow evening to see what needs to be done. I can only imagine the exorbinate amount of money it will be to complete it all...I think it will be scaled down a bit :) But, when it is all done, it will be nice to have a patio and some living things back there besides the deer and the squirrels.

This week is a catch up week. We only have a few extra-curricular activities during the day (swimming lessons) and all but one of our evenings are free! And we have the bonus of dad being home for a day in the middle of the week...yea! We are not sure what we will be doing for the 4th, but for sure will be finding fireworks to attend somewhere!

Have a happy 4th of July and God bless.