Living in Hibbing...

I feel like the family has finally made the move. We are now living in Hibbing. It's a long story but we did manage to buy the property in Chisholm, and wholeheartedly intended on living there, but upon getting possession and trying to make the most of it, we realized that bringing the kids into that home was not a safe thing to do. So we found a home in Hibbing to buy as well, kind of like an investment, and intend to sell it come spring if all goes well.

When I say if all goes well, I mean if Dan's back continues to heal. He had surgery about 7 weeks ago to remove some disc fragments from his L4-L5 area. The timing couldn't have been worse as he didn't have short term disability or any sick days to fall back on at his job in Little Falls. So he quit work the week before his surgery, did some final work around the house in Little Falls, and made the move to his folks to recover from his surgery. He was up and about shortly after and so things have gone well. He will hopefully be starting a new job shortly with the Iron Workers Union. With all the construction projects up here, we are hoping for plenty of employment for some time.

Of course, the boys are getting huge. The summer brought us lots of great memories. Being at Grandma and Grandpa Goehring's proved to be more valuable than we could have imagined. The bonding went both ways. Towards the end of our time there, we noticed the boys were quietly "playing" in the bathroom. With a strong odor coming out, I went in to see what was going on. There Gage was drinking some 10-year old bottle of Stetson colone. His breath smelled like that stuff for hours after. I really don't know what he was thinking.

This past summer, Logan got pretty darn good at riding his bike - with training wheels of course. Our big problem has been keeping him from going too fast. When he gets going, he tends to get a little wobbly and those training wheels can send him right over. He did wipe out once but it was in the grass so no harm was done. Now this winter, Gage has picked up peddling with a big wheel in our basement. I can tell this summer will be a fun one. Gage will be 3 and that's how old I was when I learned to ride a bike without the training wheels.

Gage loves to play ball. With the right ball, he can play catch with me forever without dropping it. Then Logan wants to play but he just runs around with it and plays keep-away from us. Of course, Gage responds by crying. Both boys want to be good but they just have such a hard time. :) Gage will often point to himself and say, "Me good boy?" Then he'll point to Logan and say, "Logan, naughty." Over the summer, he'd even tell Logan to take a time out by pointing to his wrist and hollering, "Two-minutes. Two minutes." just like Grandma did for Gage.

Logan spent September through November at Grand Rapids schools. It went pretty well I think. He only went twice a week. Now that we're in Hibbing, we open-enrolled him in Chishom as they have school for him 4 days a week in the afternoons. A suburban comes and picks him up each afternoon and Dan drives to the school in Chisholm to bring him home. We could let him ride a school bus home but he'd have to transfer at the HS with the help of a 3rd grader. Ummmm.... Let me think about that.

Christmas was a blast this year. Gage could be seen hoping around the room Christmas morning saying, "I'm so excited." And Logan said, "This is the best Christmas ever!" Very neat, and very fun. Santa brought them a couple GeoTrax plane sets to go with their train sets, a Matchbox car park, long johns, a fireman helmet for Gage, Handy Manny Tool Set for Logan, and of course lots of goodies. Grandma and Grandpa Ed and Nancy got them both bomber hats, mittens, and wool socks. The puzzle they got for Logan has been his favorite. I marvel at how well he does those things... so impressed. Gage's favorite toy was from Aunt Sarah who gave him a Elmo phone. Gage doesn't care about the phone unit that makes all the sounds. All he wants is the plastic handset that has no buttons or sounds. He carries it with him everywhere and pretends to talk on it.

Ava had puppies a few days ago - 7 of them. Very cute, and very healthy so far. We have a web site for them at http://www.rangeuglydogs.com/. Yes. Ugly dogs. German Wirehaired Pointers are also affectionately called Ugly Dogs. We have no idea why because we think they are the cutest. Hopefully, we'll be able to sell them without too much hassel. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have 9 large dogs at our little Hibbing house.