Weekend Rewind, Part II

Yeah, yeah, yeah--it's Thursday. I typed that dumb "tomorrow" so optimistically (wishfully-thinking-ly) the other night, and in between then and now 1) Papa got a stomach bug, and 2) my "sinus stuff" turned into a "I want to crawl into a hole and sleep" cold. Nevertheless! I'm bound and determined to finish this weekend rewind, Thursdays be darned! As we like to say in my extended family, "We don't get hung up on dates." Which basically means, "Don't ever try to guilt-trip me into feeling sorry for being late." :)

So Saturday Papa and I woke up at six o'clock in the dewy dawn to head off to Windom, Minnesota for the Vine and Branches Conference, which Papa has helped organize and plan the last few years. It was so early that I was regretting leaving, until we'd been in the car for about three minutes and I realized Papa and I could actually have a conversation together. The Kelly-green fields, the overcast sky, the complete randomness and meandering of our conversation during the drive totally made the day worth it. And this is before we'd even reached The Lutheran Church of Our Savior, not to be confused with Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, or Our Savior's Lutheran Church, or Our Savior Lutheran Church, or....(What's with all the variations of the same name thing in church names? My personal favs are Garrison Keillor's Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and Ray Stevens' First Self-Righteous Church. Maybe people would really love the honesty of The Lutheran Church of Saved Sinners. Or not.)

Anyway, I got to greet and mingle with laypeople and pastors when we arrived (thanks, Gary H., for wanting to put "Better Than I Deserve" on your name tag, and Pastor M. for wanting to put "None" on yours). We enjoyed a great morning prayer and then presentations by the three speakers President (of the LCMS Ohio District) Terry Cripe, Dr. Carl Fickenscher (of CTS Fort Wayne), and Dr. Wallace Shultz of Good News, an evangelizing magazine that circulates in scores of countries.

President Cripe spoke first, using the theme "Witness from the Past" under the Rural Ministry topic to tell us about Johannes Streiter, a mid-nineteenth-century German Lutheran pastor who served a--wait for it--SIX POINT PARISH in central Wisconsin. The dude was a beast! He not only had to deal with people who didn't want to announce for communion (his fix? Have public announcements before the Sacrament, until people got too embarrassed by airing squabbles and problems in front of their neighbors and asked Ptr. Streiter to, ahem, reinstate private confession with the pastor); he had to deal with Pentecostal "fanatics" who denied the bodily presence and claimed to uphold Scripture but couldn't find any passages to support their heretical claims. A highlight: a front yard debate between Ptr. Streiter and an opponent where bystanders took to chanting "Body! Body! Body!" or "Bread! Bread! Bread!" at each other. Now that is some visceral theological arguing! It certainly was an inspirational portrait of the life-and-death implications of the ministry at a time and in a place where people struggled to survive--an unconventional but fascinating topic! Side note: President Cripe really loves model trains. I'll probably never see his collection, but it sounds amazing!

The second presentation by Dr. Fickenscher (and yes, I had to look up how to correctly spell his name, despite meeting him years ago!) was "Mercy at the Present" and focused on our liturgy and how it reinforces the connection between the first and second table of gifts we receive from God. I'm sure there's a better way to explain his thesis concisely, but the closest I can come is to say "God and sinners reconciled." Dr. Fickenscher was extremely methodical and so obviously a teacher--he brought us along with him as he laid out his argument. I'd never thought about the homiletical mistake of pastors preaching, "Yeah, Jesus healed the blind guys of their physical blindness, BUT the REALLY IMPORTANT part was how He healed them of their spiritual blindness!" True, yes; misleading also, yes. Because God ultimately protects us from all harm and danger, be it physical and spiritual; He "puts enmity" between us and the Devil forever. This is hard, because it means pain and suffering; it also means we can breathe in and out. If God hadn't reconciled Himself to us right away, Adam and Eve would have smushed like gnats on a windshield as soon as they walked out of Eden. Because, of course, the Devil just wants us all to die. Forever. I'm probably totally wreaking this (sorry, Dr. F!), but it was an excellent presentation, made all the better by Dr. Fickenscher's, erm, attention-getting voice and mannerisms. How could we not get excited when he was so excited?

P.S. Later we got to visit with Dr. Fickenscher, who with God's guidance placed Papa in our congregation where he was ordained nearly five years ago. He is one of the most kind people I've ever met, and totally genuine to boot. We're kind of hoping he gets to put a "Prez" before his name soon.

After lunch, we reconvened to hear Dr. Schulz present on "Life Together in the Future." Now, I should be honest. When Dr. Schulz arrived that morning, Papa whispered to me that he was a piece of work. And I don't think he'd be offended by that, or even by our conclusion that he both looks and acts somewhat like Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Kind of crazy hair, slightly scatterbrained, and a genius. I think he spoke some German, Russian, and Spanish during his presentation. Anyway, Dr. Schulz mostly looped through a series of related anecdotes, beginning with his boyhood on a South Dakota farm ("At lunch, we'd go back to the fence row where we'd left our bread and summer sausage sandwiches and brush off the ants swarming all over them") and recounting the deathbed confession of a famous Harvard doctor friend (a real tear-jerker), all the while emphasizing the importance of Proverbs 22:6--"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This is the blessing and the burden of raising children in the faith, of the time and the investment we make into the future. There isn't a faster way or more effective way of growing churches; if children aren't taught why we believe what we believe, they'll have no reason to stay in the Lutheran church. Related note: I spoke with two ladies behind me during a break; both were baptized, confirmed, and married at the same church. They didn't grow up with Sunday School; instead, they went to Saturday School from the time they started public school until they finished eighth grade. Saturday School lasted from 8:30 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon, every week, and all they did, according to one, was memorize, memorize, memorize. And they'd go to church school for a month in the summer. That's truly intense--kinda makes this seem, well, lame.(Papa literally just read me the promo email he got for it.)

Dr. Schulz is a intense, forthright speaker. After hearing his presentation, I kept wondering what he was like one-on-one. Well, at the get-together at the lovely W's house after the conference, he came over the pastor's wives (electively leaving the pastors, where Papa told me later he didn't say a word) and started talking to us. The conversation turned to pets, and he told us this story about when Good News wanted a cover photo featuring two snakes. They managed to access three boa constrictors (I think), put them in a bag (!!), and take them to a local church where they'd be photographed. While they were working with one of them, another snake got loose in the church... and they couldn't find it. Dr. Schulz said, "I wanted to tell the pastor, 'Just make an announcement tomorrow before service that a snake is loose, and if anyone feels something crawling up their leg, they'll know what it is.'" It was hilarious. 

We had a great time visiting with friends, new and old, at the W's, and headed home in the early evening. We were exhausted, but pleased with the day. And we were so impressed with the lovely Cora M., who had come over bright and early, total game-on, to be with the boys from their wake-up until their bedtime. I mean, fourteen hours with two toddlers? She is awesome and deserves far more compliments than I can brainstorm!

Sunday we recovered from the prior two busy days and spent a lot of time outside in the afternoon--yay for warm weather! I'd write more about it--I remember thinking on Sunday, "This has been a really great day! I have to blog about it!"--but I honestly can't for my life remember anything that happened. Other than that it was a good day. So there you have it! Weekend Rewind completed. And probably don't expect another one for awhile.

Weekend Rewind, Part I (Of Scoring Shopping Deals and a Little Ring)

It's been awhile since I posted a Weekend Rewind--I haven't been blogging period, and the idea of rehashing a weekend just exhausted me--but now I'm getting a second wind, so here goes nothing! I mean, here goes Part I. Did you really think I'd be able to thwart my diarrhea-of-the-keyboard tendencies?

Friday we headed down to Sioux Falls for our bi-monthly shopping trips. We've been realizing that these will be coming to an end in the near future, what with two active little boys and another pooker on the way, so we try to relish our family time together. It was cold this weekend, fiftyish and windy, so we missed the nice weather from the prior week. But our trip to Toys 'R Us to start out sure made our day! We went to buy a double umbrella stroller that I had an in-store coupon for, and come to find out they were out of stock. Bummer! But the awesome manager A. was super helpful--she helped us order it online through her to get free shipping, AND we got to use the coupon, AND the original price was also $15 lower due to a weekend sale. So we not only saved the trunk room for stuff we later got at Menard's, we also pocketed enough dough we'd originally budgeted for the stroller to buy lunch at Subway! Okay, so it's the little things. But that was SWEET! We LOVE deals! (AND exceptional customer service!) Extra-extra bonus points? We found out that the store will be beginning construction soon to be completed before Christmas to add a BABIES 'R US! It won't be a superstore, of course, but it'll be a miles-ahead improvement over the skimpy baby sections of Target and Walmart in SF. I was thrilled. :)

Other perks from the day:

[Disclaimer: If many items on the following list have to do with fundage and/or bargains, please forgive--I get a little excited when we score deals. Dave Ramsey, you rock our faces off!]

• Running into an older gent in the mall food court with an Ohio State cap. Okay, I actually chased him down. Then he and Papa got to talking about sports (bummer about Tressel and the controversy) and the Packers (Papa had his hat on) and the guy said that Wisconsin is the most beautiful state he's ever visited. There's not many other comments that can please Papa so much. :)
• Spending $50 at Hyvee to get fifteen pounds of fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast, four cans of diced tomatoes, three pounds of fresh baby red potatoes (German potato salad, here we come!!), eight ears of sweet corn, Tabasco sauce,three bags of potato chips, two vine-ripe tomatoes, and four quarts of Edy's ice cream. FOUR QUARTS OF EDY'S ICE CREAM! All this stuff was for sale with their "Hot Deals"--I love it!
• Watching people smile at our boys as we passed.
• Shopping for clothes at a second-hand store with S. Oh, wait--these are supposed to be highlights.
• Shopping for clothes at a second-hand store and getting two pairs of shorts, a pair of comfy pants, a cream short-sleeved summer sweater and a black J.Crew sweater for $23. Boo-yah!
• Getting more finish stuff for the basement with rebate dough, and therefore spending none out-of-pocket. 
• Spending time together--always a gift!
• Papa getting yet another venti black coffee (no Pike's Place, of course) courtesy of a Christmas Starbucks gift card from Mom and Dad E (practically the best gift he can get)! It lasted nearly until Memorial Day due mostly to their generosity and partly due to the fact that the only time Papa goes is when we're in Sioux Falls. :)
• Watching our boys sleep in the backseat on the way home. Well, P sleep. 

I was exhausted when we got home around five, so lovely Papa watched the boys, grilled pork chops and fixed supper. He's amazing! Then he gave the boys a bath while I prepped for Saturday. What would I do without him? I crashed early (after prayers with S and reading and prayers with P), thinking a few chapters of Obama's Dreams from My Father would be my last waking memory, but...

We got a much better ending to the day! We received a call from Papa's lovely sister J that she and awesome E are ENGAGED!  Here's a few pics of them when they visited us around Thanksgiving last year. Yes, the boys loved the attention (can you believe S in that pic?! He's still a baby!); yes, they are Packer football fans (ignore the Favre jersey--E was giving Papa a hard time), and YES, they are BIG TIME hunters! We've already scheduled the boys' first trip out west to learn hunting in 2018! Much love and congrats to them!

Check back tomorrow for the next Weekend Rewind parts!

Double Weekend Rewind.

Hiya, loyal readers. It's E--you know, the lesser-half parent of the Olson team. I played blog hooky this last week for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: we had two super full weekends sandwiching very full days in which I cleaned (I'm slightly obsessed, but hey! With two kids under three, I find that Tacky, Gooey, and Crudy are three of the blechest companions I can encounter, and they need to go bye-bye sooner rather than later. Which means sooner. And sooner again. And sooner again, ad nauseum... I mean, ad cleaneum.), made three types of bars for church fellowship after service on Wednesday (creamy lemon, butterscotch pecan, and ultimate brownies--yum!), and took my FAVORITE 15-minute naps in the afternoons while the boys napped. So here's a little family recap of the last two weekends--and thanks to Papa for posting in between and not letting our blog fall off the face of the earth!

 Friday night we had over the lovely CH, who helped us eat my homemade chicken alfredo pizza. She alternately played with the boys, watched The Incredibles with us on our newly-arrived plasma flatscreen!!, and talked to Papa while I did the normal night-time routine. We enjoyed her visit immensely! What a terrific lady!

Later we Papa watched the UK-OSU debacle while I folded laundry. I saw the last two minutes. I already said what needed to be said here.

Saturday we headed over to the high school for the annual Home and Health Show, where we signed up for hundreds of giveaways and got twenty free pens, some Tootsie rolls, and a big orange balloon with a trash can on it for P--all in all, pretty much a jackpot! Then we met up with CH again for Indian tacos at the Little Feather Interpretive Center, which we'd never been to in all our years here. They were very good--regular tacos and seasonings, but on this incredible soft, puffy, fried bread. We ate next to a preserved buffalo that was used in Dances With Wolves. Not your typical eating environment, but very local-culture-ish!

Sign above the buffalo: "Please do not jump on the buffalo. You could get hurt. Thanks!!" And yes, that is a Santa Claus by the buffalo's head. Not sure of the significance.

After that, J took the sleepy boys home and I went with CH to our lovely library for a poetry reading by Lee Marwitz, a former area teacher who's a poet. His book, Turning the Cup, featured many lovely ramblings painted with the soothing sounds of aptly selected words. Very relaxing.

I had to go check our calendar to remember what else we did last Saturday, and it looks like we skyped with Aunt Mil at 4. That was fun, as always! I'm sure we did stuff after that, but it's not written on the calendar (I know, that is SO 1993!) and I don't remember anything else.

Sunday we went to church and Sunday School, Papa went to do a service at the nursing home, and I packed up some stuff like crazy (with P's help) so we could hit the road as soon as he got home. A little after two--which was our goal; really good for me!--we headed east on 30 toward Lewisville and Uncle Brian's house. (He's not our REAL uncle; he's P's godfather and our good friend!) The drive was very March, very southwestern Minnesota March.

The boys rode beautifully, especially Papa, who had both Coca-Cola AND coffee to drink on the way (not together). :D The backseat boys (I should trademark that name for an all-male pop group, hey?) did terrific, too.

Reading, shortly before he fell asleep.

Gotta love Bear, S!

We enjoyed a lovely late afternoon and evening with Brian. He made baked chicken and served it with homegrown potatoes, beans, and corn, and organic bread--the perfect Sunday dinner! Later he made popcorn on the stove with pure coconut oil--I practically drooled into the pot. It was PERFECT POPCORN. Especially because we consumed it while watching the well-known 1938 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, You Can't Take It With You, in which Lionel Barrymore played a GOOD GUY! who, in one very memorable, fiscally-conservative kick-ass scene, put an IRS agent in his place with an exchange that would land the average US citizen today behind bars for a decade for tax fraud. Very provocative film, for many reasons, too many to list here. I'll just throw in a good word for Edward Arnold here, too--very, very few actors with his kind of gravitas anymore. Incredible voice!

We arrived home late Monday, in time to Skype with the Ohio E's and Grandma E and to collapse into bed. Great weekend!

Fast forward a few days to this barely-still-here weekend! Friday was our bi-monthly trip to Sioux Falls to go shopping, so we left early. Between grocery shopping at three different stores, a return to our favorite second-hand kid's store, picking up some basement remodel odds and ends, an oil change and tire rotation, we managed to go to--once again--the world's best burger-and-custard joint, this time with Uncle Mark (again, not a real uncle; a dear friend and S's godfather)! We ended the day with a family viewing of (the beginning parts of) P's favorite movie, always a winner! To quote Mater: "I'm havin' more fun than a tornado in a trailer park!"

Saturday two wonderful M family kids came over to watch our boys so I could go to the LWML Spring Zone Rally. The speaker was Dr. James Lamb, executive director of Lutherans for Life. His presentation was on "The Abundant Life," John 10:10, and what a gift it was to hear how Christ leads us like a shepherd leads his flock--He knows where He's going. He's been there before. And He knows where He wants us to be. We read Psalm 139 responsively (one of my favorites!), and I got to sing "The Tree of Life" with my dear friend Beth accompanying me on the piano--many, many reminders of how precious life is! On Sunday Papa, the M parents, and their two eldest got to hear Dr. Lamb again at a circuit presentation geared for youth. Then they all came over and we enjoyed pizza, carrots and ranch dressing (does anyone ELSE think raw carrots taste awesome with pizza? We realized we have this in common, to add to the list of commonalities) and chocolate-covered bars together! I just love friend and family time! Now it's 10:45 Sunday evening, all my boys are asleep, and I guess I need to wrap up this rewind, too. I'll just leave you with these pics of my lovelies from this evening.

My boys laughing together. One of life's best moments.

Weekend Rewind

Tired. So tired. Ergo, few words for this Rewind.

Friday. Sioux Falls. Seven hours. TVTVTVTVTVTVTVshoppinglunchclearancerack
grocerygrocerygroceryshoppingTVTVTVTVTVgroceryTVTVshopping. Result? No TV. Lots of groceries. Four tired Olsons. Home. TV found, purchased online. Years of waiting (old TV: 1995 27-inch Toshiba), six weeks of intense research on plasmasLCDsLEDssizespixelsinternetcapability, seven hours of foot shopping, three hours of online browsing and selecting=success. And if this is what buying a TV looks like, what does buying a car look like?!

Because TVs are really all about sports, which is code for really all about FOOTBALL. BTW, did you know the Packers won the Super Bowl?!

Saturday. Recovery. Playing. Eating. Another trip to Sioux Falls, this time to order carpet we've been waiting for for... almost five years. The blue shag is long gone; the concrete will be covered up very soon. !! Supper out. P introducing himself to Alicia, the cute, bubbly waitress.

Sunday. P and S baths in the AM; miraculously, we made it to church early. Yes, early. Fine service. Fine sermon about the Syrophoenecian woman. Me thinking I need to do more shameless begging. Naps in the PM. Skyping with the Ohio Elseas (Mr. and Mrs., otherwise known as "Uncle" and "Aunt"), in which we all laughed uproariously at P,S, and Papa doing laps around the living room and kitchen and laughing hysterically themselves, as only two wee ones and their Papa can do. Fine way to end a weekend!

Time.Change (S Walks).

Late Sunday afternoon, I thought: "Boy. This weekend rewind will be pretty short. Not  much has happened." But then stuff happened (and I remembered something else that did happen). So I'll just skip the non-events and go for the good stuff.

Friday and Saturday were pretty slow and uneventful. I'm still trying to recover from a sinus infection that does not want to go away (two weeks and counting!), so I've been quite unaccomplished. The boys, however, haven't. Been unaccomplished. That's a double negative. Aak. They are always their fun selves! See?

Sunday dawned bright (no! it was still dark!) and especially early. Since I changed our clocks at 8 p.m. on Saturday, I think we actually managed to avoid the typical fatigue Spring Forward brings. So we did the regular morning thing; breakfast in parts, changing clothes in parts, running around, constant chatter, renditions of "(This is ) The Feast," messes in the nether regions, clean-ups, smiles, hugs (you can plug in the person(s) responsible for the above). Then, after all the frantic activity, no pick-up. That is, no pick up from Papa, who, in his rightful focus on his flock, teaching Bible Class, and preparing for the Service of the Word, forgot to come home and pick up his wife and two sons. At 10:28, I realized this was this case, and began assembling the boys into coats and mittens (J did call at 10:29; he felt horrible), and I packed said munchkins tandem into the heavy-duty, one-kid stroller, surrounded with a thick, double-sewn fleece blanket, then pulled the sun-visor top over them, pulled on my gloves, threw on the backpack, pulled down my shades and hit.the.sidewalk. Hey! It was fourteen degrees, bright sun, little wind. Not a bad way to get ready for and get to church!

Of course, I felt pretty proud of myself. Until we got to church in time for the sermon hymn ("Take these they our life/Goods, fame, child, and wife") and the sermon (on Jesus being, erm, tempted in the wilderness. You know, without any food or comfort. With the devil reminding Him of how bad He had it. While Jesus knew His Father had left Him there. Alone.). Then I remembered how cushy my life is and how easy I have it. A few years ago I heard that Madagasy people will get up at 3 a.m. to walk miles to church and sit in the dark to sing hymns until the service starts. This is impressive and puts me to shame. But even this pales in comparison to what Jesus did for us. Ouchy but Good (that IS with a capital "G") reminders.

The afternoon flew by. By late afternoon, the boys had awoken and were playing/screeching around the house. I changed S and felt his gums, and--WOW! The top two teeth had broken through! It's only been over four months since the first two popped out! I'll post pictures as soon as the camera can actually capture them. We had a lovely dinner, and as P, Papa, and I finished up, I took a squirming S out of his high chair and put him on the floor, let go, and. . . he stood there. And stood there. And stood there. He's started to make grunting noises when he wants to do something, and that's what he did. Like, "I wanna walk!" But he didn't. He sat down on his little rump and started eating a magnet. I thought, "It won't be long."

Then he crawled over by Papa and stood by his chair. I took a bite of sirloin (mmmmmmmmmmm!) and Papa said, "Hey! He just took a few steps!" Sure enough, S took a few steps from Papa's chair to the corner chair all by himself! I didn't see it because the table blocked my view, and of course, we couldn't get S to do it again right away. But now there's no turning back.  He walks, and will walk, and will continue to walk, God willing. Time = change.

We took a drive after bath time and enjoyed the lingering daylight and beautiful sunset. We also saw at least one hundred deer on and around the Monument grounds. Awesome! A terrific way to end the weekend.

Weekend Rewind

Actual mileage, from northern border to southern, calculated with a baby and toddler in the backseat: longer than I care to even think about. But this is still an AWESOME place to go!


This rewind involves only me and the little boys, as J had his own (very quiet) weekend here at home. Brief recap for a madcap trip:

Thursday. 7:00 am - 7:00 pm. Driving from Minnesota to southern Missouri. The boys were GREAT, all things considered. When S started getting fussy near the end, P would yell: "We're almost to Grandma and Grandpa's!" over S's yelling. What troopers. God in all of His mercy blessed us by sending a warm front through the Plains, so we left twenty degrees and feet of snow only to be running in grass (!! There IS grass underneath all of that slush!) in sixty-five degrees ten hours later. The boys were so delighted to be outside in actual warm sunshine, they were shrieking. And Mom/Grandma had a delicious supper waiting for us--AND chocolate-chip cookies. Heaven will be like this, I think; exhausted, we stumble to a threshold where our Father is waiting to catch us and feed us. And maybe, just maybe, He'll have chocolate-chip cookies--the perfect ones, a.k.a. Plato and the perfect bed.

Friday. I awoke to hungry boys and exhaustion, and my lovely mother sent me back to bed, praise the Lord. We enjoyed a lazy, restful day, capped off by a trip to consumerism's answer to the stresses of child-caring to buy a diaper bag (we live four hours from the nearest BRU, so this is a novelty, a gift. They actually sell more than one item of baby paraphanalia! Wonder of wonders! I'm like the Soviet women emerging from the Cold War, shocked by the sight of oranges and pineapples piled in the corner grocery. They DO exist! Okay, I'm getting a little carried away). THEN we met up with Grandpa who returned safetely from Canada and ate together at the home of the world's best chicken sandwich, where P got his long-sought red balloon.



This pic posted solely for the sake of S's curls. TOO cute.

Saturday. Ate. Rested. Visited. Blogged. Ate. Shopped. Visited. Napped. Watched Gpa put up the swing and P distend his neck watching him. Watched S climb the labyrinth under the table. Visited. Ate homemade German Chocolate Cake (made with P's help)! YUM.





Sunday. Attended early service at Immanuel (reality: arrived five minutes into service despite being up two hours early). The boys were terrific and the parishoners sitting behind us amused by S's flirting and amazed at how quiet and well-behaved and cute both boys were. "I can't believe he sat in the pew all by himself!" one lady said of P, post-service, after seeing us leave him while we went up for communion. Shameless bragging? Yes. Also, I hope, a plug for taking kids to church, actual church, from birth onward. Result? They can learn to sit and be quiet AND listen during the service. P now joins in the liturgy--and makes commentary, like hearing the Lord's Prayer: "Daddy says that," he told Grandma. The rest of the day? Me and P drove back to MN, arriving after dark. S will enjoy a few days with undivided adult attention--and we miss him, and his "talking" and eating unedible items that I haven't picked up off the floor quickly enough. Happy week, all!




Me: "Smile, boys! Look over HERE!" Gpts: "We'll smile; put the Iphone over there so their eyes are up." Boys: Zoned out, watching the Hallelujah Chorus flash mob. Result? Classic family photo, of course.

Weekend Rewind

"What? A weekend rewind?" you say. "But today's only Saturday--and barely Saturday afternoon at that" (all you sleep-in folk are still in your jammies and sipping coffee as I type this). "How could it be time for a rewind already?"

Well, all you faithful readers will have noticed that last weekend brought no rewind... so here's the very shortened but very important rewind from last weekend. So sit back in your recliner with your warm-up, run your hands through your bed hair, and enjoy!

Friday dawned bright, optimistic, and chaotic. Bright and optimistic because J is SUPERMAN and painted the entire basement on Thursday night. The best part? No, not that it marked the final lap of the (really, truly) end of our major remodels; not that the drywall dust was finally subsiding; not that we were just high from the paint fumes. (Although...) No, the best part was opening the basement door and seeing a warm tan on the walls and not 1980s powder-puff blue. The disappearance of the powder-puff blue was a turning point in my life. We had said goodbye to the shag carpet and the wall paneling; the blue was our home's last relic of a bygone age of big hair and leg warmers... oh, wait. Those are coming back (well, they never left many of the folk we know). Anyway, the blue had disappeared for good and I was in bliss.

But my bliss quickly took a backseat to chaos, as I ran around packing stuff for J and me and the boys to prep for our weekend getaway. Finally the chaos confined itself to the truck of the car, and we took off for Hardwick, where the boys happily joined the M young folk (Us: "We're going to go bye-bye!" P:"I don't want to go." Us:"You're not. You get to stay here. WE'RE leaving." P:"I'm going to play with toys.") and the M couple and J and I headed to Mankato to an excellent evening of conversation, dinner, and soaking in our hotel hot tub (with a bunch of high school wrestlers whose coach would yell at them to get out so they wouldn't mess up their weights in the morning). Other than the wrestlers, bliss again!

Saturday brought us the "Women in the Church" Minnesota South District Conference at Hosanna Lutheran Church. We've got a lot more to say about this, but here's the short version of that presentation in the form of rhetorical questions:

1. What's the obsession with "random" groupings that occur based on numbers written on name tags? Thanks, M and B, for picking name tags with the same number... on purpose. Now that's revolutionary! 

2. How does the CTCR (Commission on Theology and Church Relations) explain itself to outsiders? "We're a LCMS group that puts together documents on controversial and/or timely topics that people aren't required to read and that aren't used as official church theological statements. They're just... here"?

3. Why do conferences attended primarily by pastors often cater lunches with portions the size of my toddler's appetite? (Have you ever seen pastors eat?)

4. Why are feminist theologians scholars so obsessed with newness? Don't they realize they sound like ads totally immersed in our materialist culture and that religion packaged similarly to "new and improved" laundry soap isn't all that appealing--or in fact that "new and improved"?

5. Since when does "respectful" dialogue include comparing educated, thoughtful, pastoral male Lutheran leaders to the Taliban and to Nazis?

Sunday found J at church and me and the boys at home battling colds. After noon, the boys dropped me off with two other pastor's wives in our circuit to head to Nebraska for a Pastor's Wives Retreat. Aside from a flat tire (!!!) and fleeting moments wondering if we'd get there, we hit smooth sailing--the conference topic on prayer was insightful, the pastor speaker was terrific, and all of the ladies were awesome! I'll write more about this later, but I really enjoyed it! I made several new friends and can't wait to head back next year! That's incredibly corny and generic, but it's true! (Have I hit my quota of exclamation points yet? :)) I got home Monday night to a clean house (yes--you read that right! I TOLD you he's Superman!) and my lovely boys. The weekend definitely ended on a high note!

Weekend Rewind

We've had a nice weekend here at the Olson's, with planned--and unplanned, and non--events. I'll go in reverse so I can actually remember what happened.

On most weekends, Sundays are fairly predictable. Breakfast, then J catches a ride to Bible Class (only in icy, typically horrible MN winter weather), followed by chaotic scrambling by me to get our little boys ready and off to church ON TIME (stop laughing!). Then we receive the Lord's gifts, our souls are soothed, we return home to dinner, naps--can anything compare to Sunday naps?--and family time. Instead, I woke early only to note that ice was hitting the windows, promptly rolled over and went back to sleep, and awoke much later knowing that church must have been cancelled (it was). So we hung around here, gloating over the basement (see below) and J putting in more elbow grease to speed it along (as well as blowing snow again, per the blizzard conditions outside), reading, playing, screaming, puzzle-completing, skyping with loved ones, and eating a succulent, tender roast with carrots and potatoes (YUM.). Now J and I are alternately conversing, browsing on our respective laptops, and watching John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson hammer out the Declaration of Independence in John Adams. And I'm relishing J's delight at looking at flat screens and surround-sound stuff online, now that the end of all of his hard work is in sight...

Saturday morning I spent fixing up some odds and ends in the fridge (pureeing some, cooking others). I gave the boys baths after their lunches because then we all went to Edgerton for a wedding. It was lovely--nice to see familiar faces, good friends, and make new ones! P had great fun climbing stairs at the reception, S had fun being held by many loving arms, and we had fun eating--surprise, surprise--and visiting!

Papa and P enjoyed some great daddy-and-son time on Friday when they headed down to Sioux Falls so Papa could return the commercial sander.

This baby doesn't look like much, but it's actually a GOLD MINE.

They walked the mall and visited Toys 'R Us and McDonald's--P's idea of a really great time! Meanwhile, since I only had one kid to manage (and he can't walk by himself yet, so he goes in the playpen when it's expedient), I managed to clean the house more thoroughly than I had in... we'll just say a really long time. Sweet! Good timing, too, since J spent all of Thursday sanding, thus sending drywall dust into every conceivable corner of our humble abode (and that vacuum thingy kept the stuff CONTAINED! No matter: drywall dust is like sand from the beach. An infinitesimal amount feels endless.) Later, P and I made the world's greatest brownies in prep for our friends the Kohn's to come over. They showed up with pizza and their smiling faces--a wonderful time! What a terrific family. One of my favorite moments? Sitting in the nursery (S's room) with Aimee while five children crawled over and around us (and under the bed) while we visited. Life is good! We hope and pray that their move to Iowa may be uneventful and that they may enjoy all the support and joy that they have so graciously given to their friends.

Weekend Rewind

Well, it's been a busy, busy, busy weekend in the Olson household. Not only have temps soared to the upper 30s--a miracle for February--and snow melted like crazy, we've been out and about, shuffling through the slush and enjoying the sunshine. Slush and sunshine! What an incongruous mix! Kind of like luaus in February. But I get ahead of myself.

Friday, which is J's day off, we headed over to Kelly's Koffee after J's rescheduled-from-Tuesday-morning Bible study. We've enjoyed many cups of the black stuff there over many lovely conversations. It was nice to catch up with some church ladies! Then us Olsons headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, our source for bi-monthly shopping trips.


The lovely Falls Park in Sioux Falls, shown here during the short summer period when the waters thaw. You should visit it for sure! But not in February.

We ate lunch at the world's best burger-and-custard joint, if you haven't been reading J's recent posts or Facebook status, which was a treat. S ate his first bites of hamburger with no adverse results, while P enjoyed his "crunch cries" alongside his mini-butterburger and applesauce (the token healthy food). So we supped, we shopped at Target (where I pulled another drive-by clothing grab at the clearance racks--no time for trying on, the boys were waiting in the car! Three finds for five bucks total!), Walmart (where P spent his dollar from the generous Mrs. S on a "mystery" Matchbox car--"I want a yellow one," he told us; and, miracle of miracles, he insisted on getting the car whose color he couldn't see, only to open it in the car and it was a vivid, shiny, yellow-gold winner! He's clairvoyant, we decided), and Menards (another standby) before heading home. J did an hour of basement work while I zipped through with the vacuum, the boys trailing along; we ate, bathed, put to bed, and then J played Madden while I folded laundry, caught up on ironing, watched Akeelah and the Bee, and decided our children will definitely learn Latin (and perhaps study hard to try to make it to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee).

Saturday J left early for a Minnesota South District BOD (that's Board of Directors) meeting of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League in Mankato. The little boys and I got up and got going--P and I reviewed the vowels after breakfast, which he learned this week. He already calls the less-than-five-minute learning times "Letter Lessons," and since he's enthusiastic, I'll take this as far as he can go! Anyway, we headed over to the first annual Women's Expo, where we got some free stuff, talked to lovely people we hadn't seen for awhile, and managed to navigate several chunks of stairs with the help of several good Ms. Samaritans. We got home, ate grilled cheese, sorted through the free stuff and the chaff, took naps (well, S and I; P read on his bed and sang songs to himself), and then headed over to the Library for a carnival luau sponsored by the National Children's Study. S has been a part of the study, and the people we've met with over the last year and a half have been terrific. We saw familiar faces at the library, which was great! AND P got to play a few games, of which the pick-a-duck-out-of-the-water was his hands-down favorite. His favorite prize? A balloon. We also snagged a few library books on our way out. Score!


You'll find this on a bunch of stuff in our house. Consider it taxpayer-funded advertising.

We headed home, watched us some Bob the Builder (double score!), and did some skyping--J arrived home just in time to alleviate my frustration--before collapsing so we could cry over Pixar'sUp, when we weren't laughing at "Squirrel!"

On Sunday we've enjoyed Jesus at church! P now knows the word "Transfiguration," and over the next decade we'll work on comprehension now that he's mastered pronunciation. We had a great time at a church potluck--when are church potlucks NOT a total winner? I guess just those really rare times when everybody brings the same thing, like twenty years ago when everybody showed up at Our Saviour's with desserts but no entrees! We didn't have that problem because after the potluck the youth group sponsored a Sweet Walk, kind of like musical chairs but with tickets, cupcakes as prizes, and no rules (i.e. no chairs pulled out on account of participation by toddlers and the elderly). It was GREAT FUN! Then we came home, S and I napped (note who didn't), and then we headed out to Gary and Carmen Hailey's for pizza with them and Kyle and Kayla (their son and his fiancee). A very relaxed, fun time, thanks to playing with Kyle's (and Gary's!) cars from childhood, ski jumping and hula hooping with the Wii, and throwing the tennis ball to Max the dog! We swiped Kayla's purse by accident, but luckily she's understanding (as well as attractively sporting some awesome new lowlights)! Now we're just making fun of the schizophrenic boomer-generation Y switchback at the Grammy's. Did you know Barbra is 68?! And we thought Mick looked old! Holy cats.

We're still here! Half of a Weekend Rewind (plus Monday).

To all our loyal readers: we survived Green Bay's spectacular Super Bowl victory on Sunday! (I know, you all thought J keeled over from overwhelming joy and took the rest of us with him.) We drove over to Lakefield and had a great--if sometimes tension-filled--time with the Weiss family. P loved playing with the four Weiss kids, and us adults caught up (okay, Angelika and I caught up with news), kept Steve and J from losing hope, criticized Christina's national anthem, stuffed ourselves on brats, cheese sticks, eggrolls (oh. my. goodness.), and assorted desserts, and passed S around while we cheered on the Pack. J will post his take on this later; suffice it to say he was T-H-R-I-L-L-E-D the Lombardi trophy (as EVERYONE has been saying) is "back home" in Green Bay! Luckily he had an adrenaline high after that because our drive nearly doubled in length on the way home (blowing snow across the highways. Shocker in MN in February.). We got home after midnight, tucked the boys in, and...

Real life returned on Monday. We were up early so S and I could get to his nine-month appointment in Luverne. S looks great and did terrific! He weighed in at 20.4 pounds (he can now sit in a forward-facing car seat, his doc said--I was surprised), he's met all the milestones, he was good-natured... except for when he got spooked on the scale with the nurse. As a result, the doctor looked at his height measurement and said, "Do you think the nurse measured him accurately? Because I'd put him in the 90th percentile for length--he's tall." The chart showed him around the 50th percentile--I haven't even looked yet at what the actual length was. Anyway, he did terrific. AND he didn't get any immunizations on this visit--which Mommy really appreciated (that's a killer to watch babies getting shots!).

I got home in time for J to turn over P (he was watching Bob the Builder while Daddy got caught up on emails and the like) and head out to the Winkle and other meetings. He came home for supper and left again for more meetings--believe it or not, he did NOT spend the day watching highlights. :) I caught up on cleaning, laundry, making some baby food to freeze, and other chores--AND P and I did his first reading lesson from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading ! He learned the short vowel sound of A (think "apple")--pretty neat. The boys conked out early--a miracle! My lovely sister kept me company while I washed a mountain of dishes, and then I promptly fell asleep at 9:45. A good day!

I didn't take any pics during our Super Bowl party on Sunday, but I dug up the following of P when he was about three months old watching his first Packer game. Back then we had never even seen Rogers start as QB in a Packer game. Needless to say, we are SO happy for him now that he's got a honkin' ring to wear.

Hope you all had a great weekend (and enjoyed watching the Pack win as much as--okay, a tenth as much as--we did)!