We're going to State!

Last week, Bridget shot an 83 at her regional event, took 1st place and her team advanced to the next level. We took off Monday night for Little Chute, near Green Bay and she tied for first place with an 81. That necessitated a playoff, which she missed by one stroke. Her team took 5th place, but as an individual she is going to go to the state tournament in Madison. She wanted to go last year, but scored so badly in sectionals that she blew her chance. She came roaring back this year, overcame her anxiety and stayed steady. It was fun to watch. We stayed at a nearby hotel with three of her teammates and the rest of her team nearby.

Jay and I got away last weekend to Fox Hills for our anniversary and had a very nice time. We played 36 holes of golf and I played my best ever, an 86 and an 89. I beat Jay on the first round. We ended up coming home a few hours early due to some brake light problems with the van, but since we had to leave again Monday night, it was OK.

We have a hotel reserved for Sunday and Monday nights in Madison, just in case. It is really exciting. Colin and I were texting back and forth all day and he will try to watch her next week.

Jay is taking a tax preparers course three mornings a week which he is juggling right now and I will take some vacation time to do this. Our dogs will forget us as they have been in the doggie hotel. They will come home tomorrow and go back on Sunday!

Thanks, Casey for the update and the great Freya picture. She is such a doll and Grandma keeps thinking of stories to tell us about all the cute things she said and did. What a great age!

Bridget had homecoming last weekend, which we missed. Her friend Susan who was Prom Queen was also voted Homecoming Queen, much to the disappointment of all the other court folks. She had a good time, but missed us a little.

Hope everyone is well and that the East Coast visit with theAleksandrowicz-O'Connells and Domi is great. Love to all, Susan

Autumn in Idaho

The leaves are turning, the wind is blowing, and autumn is settling in here in Idaho. Matt has been doing a little bit of work around some early hunting seasons, but officially things get going this coming week. He'll have a new employee to help train, which will take about three weeks before the new guy moves on to the next trainer. October and November will be busy months for Matt, as usual.

Freya has been doing great. She still loves her Montessori program. We went to a potluck at her school on Friday night. It was fun to watch the bigger kids shout, "There's Freya!" and they came and held her hand and walked her around the lawn area, just like they evidently do very often at school. I think she's popular!

My busy season is actually just starting up. I volunteered to head up the Combined Federal Campaign at the Fire Center, which is the federal version of the United Way campaign. I'm excited about it, but holy moly, it's a lot of work. We had one of the local weathermen come out and do an on-site broadcast from our main building last Friday, which took some coordinating. I am also hearing word that a public affairs specialist position is opening up out there, and I will definitely be applying for it. I'm not sure how well I'll rate in the application process, as I'll be competing against a lot of folks with college degrees, but I do know I have some key players on my side. We'll see what happens--I probably won't know anything in particular until December or January.

We made reservations to go to Denver at Thanksgiving, and we'll be meeting up with the New Jersey folks there. Can't wait to see everyone!

We took Freya and her Grandpa Throngard out to a local farm stand we frequent for eggs and produce yesterday. They have some fun harvest activities set up, and we think we got a good family picture to use for our Christmas card. Here's another one for you guys to enjoy--Freya is standing in front of the "kitchens," which is what she calls this variety of poultry.

Love to all,
Casey, Matt & Freya

Hi Everyone-We had a great time with everyone last weekend and a busy week since! We are extremely short staffed at work, and I will probably be putting in some extra hours for a couple weeks. Bridget has her Regional golf outing this Thursday then Homecoming this weekend. Jay and I are going to Fox Hills for our anniversary this weekend because I didn't check the schedule and see that it was Homecoming. Bridget is on court and will be riding in the parade. She said she hopes she is elected Queen so I can feel bad about not being there. This is what being so child-focussed for all these years has gotten us! I hope she is at least half kidding.

I got a call from Mike Martin last week after he saw Bridget's name in the Journal as player of the week. We had a nice visit and he sounds like he's doing well.

Hope things are going well for you Domi. I assume you have gotten so busy that you haven't written anything. I sent the blog info to both Bridget and Colin, but I don't know if I have convinced them to write. Maybe it will happen!

I am sure Freya was very close to buying those diamonds and I wish I had been there to help. She is such a cutie!

Have a great week! Love, Susan

hello everyone--it has been quite awhile since i've been on here. lots of great messages and memoirs.
david is in jackson hole for the next 3 days; i just booked a flight for october 26-29 for a long weekend in seatlle with marianna, cindy tencick (my old cascade boss) and jane cropp (another idaho pal)--for 3 out of 4 of us to celebrate our 50th birthdays in 2007!; and i checked the blog. pretty good for an evening after being on the computer at work. i also got a run in with the dogs! this is our favorite time of year for walking--not too hot--but about halfway we get to stop at a little creek and get a drink! even ruby jumps in this creek.
i have been overwhelmingly busy at work. it really has been too much the past year--becasue we are shortstaffed. but we just hang in there.
we've been out camping twice--in the mountains in eagle, and the plains at la hunta. 2 very nice state parks. and david has been riding. i went to boise--and almost got freya convinced to buy diamonds. she was on the edge.....i know it. she was very fun. and overall the trip was sad--but i got to see lots of old buds--and M and C--and that made it fun. marianna was doing pretty well.
david built the small pergola--and this past weekend we dug a new flowerbed around it, and planted grape vines and honeysuckle--to climb up the lattice. and stained it--so it is ready for winter.
we hope everyone is doing well.

love--michele, david and link and rube

A grandparents' item on 9/17/07

Thanks to Susan and Jay for hosting such our reunion on Saturday. Lots of great food, conversation, and recollections which added more than a little HUMOR!
Don and Mary's family were present in force, Terri and Sandy, Bernadette, Patti, Tom, Lindsey, and Amanda, Kathy and Megan and Mary. Charleen and Bob were joined by Peggy, Kathy, Joe, Andrew and Kerry. Mark
brought Nemo, Calvin and Capri. Bridget joined us after she had a heavy golf invitational at Janesville where she placed 10th in the field. Current information about the rest of you was shared including
pictures featuring Freya from our Boise trip. All of you were missed.

Kudos to Magdalena and Domino for the time they have taken to share their new experiences during August and September. Must mention, too, Magdalena's picture post card with information about the lion encounter arrived on Friday. Domino's news about the Tempest part reminded me that I had seen
Paul Robeson playing Calaban in a Chicago performance which our Loras Players group attended on a college "field trip" during my Freshman first semester. Our high school chorus leader took a group of us to hear him sing some of those great "bass" numbers when he came to the then Iowa State Teachers' College in the early 40's. We were planning to observe Magdalena on 9/30 in a regatta, but as her crew will not compete there, we're now looking at another event on 10/6 which may give us an opportunity to hear more about South Africa. Hope that can work out and that we might be able to see Domino if we make the trip east. Presume that Domino's family was surprised about the fencing class! Don't recall any of you "7" being interested in it at Catholic Memorial where is was a unusal, but prominent, student activity. All of us will appreciate
more from both girls as they have time. Stephen, Nemo, Colin and Alex might have some interesting contributions, too! How about some high and middle and elementary school submissions????

Thanks to David for his alert on Google Earth where he first found the satelitte overhead view of our Rose Ave.
lot. He thought that the image made by the round compost ball was one of us standing near the 4 raised bed vegetable squares! Interesting.

Sorry we missed a phone visit with Kevin during the
reunion on Saturday and that we were only able to leave a anniversary message when we called later.
Congratulations Lyn and Kevin.

The drive for the Boise visit was enhanced when we were upgraded to a 2008 Saturn Aura with all the bells and whistles! Guess it had been since 1962 that we drove east on the route of I-90 route out of Seattle and over the Snoqualmie pass. While we had driven on another trip down the Yakima River valley following I-82 was new for us, then on to I-84 across the Columbia. Leaving Boise we followed a lot of great waterways all the way to Kalispell--the Boise, a Salmon
fork of one name or the other and the Salmon thru Stanley, Challis, Salmon and on to the Montana borde where we began to follow the Bitteroot to Missoula.
From there AAA routed us east to MT 83 to Kalispell which was east of Flathead Lake which saved us from the many slow areas on US 93 on the west side which we encountered as we headed west to Spokane and
Seattle. Couldn't remember how rugged the Idaho area is east of Cour d' Alene and the lack of interstate
rest stops! West of Spokane was smooth sailing, but we did take a break to enjoy the Columbia River Gorge where we accidentally pushed the On Star button and
had a voice ask us what trouble we were having and
state accurately where we were!! A great drive back thru the Cascades, too.

HI, EVERYONE==i GET TO TALK ABOUT FREYA. sHE HAS LEARNED SO MANY WORDS THAT IT IS FUN TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH HER. sHE REFERRED TO US AS WHAT SOUNDED LIKE GUMMA-GUPPA, AND WOULD ASK WHERE GUMMA-GUPPA GO? IF SHE DIDN'T SEE US. sHE LOVES TO READ BOOKS, AND WOULD DIG THROUGH HER TOY BOX UNTIL SHE FOUND THE RIGHT ONE, THEN EITHER CLIMB ONTO YOUR LAP OR SIT BETWEEN YOUR LEGS IF YOU WERE SITTING ON THE FLOOR, AND PROCEED TO TURN THE PAGES WHILE SHE IDENTIFIED THE DIFFERENT OBJECTS. SHE CAN RECITE THE ALPHABET WHEN SHE LOOKS AT THE PICTURES AND IDENTIFY NUMBERS. ANIMALS, THE SOUNDS THEY MAKE, sOMEHOW SHE HAS REVERSED KITCHEN AND CHICKEN, SO WHEN WE STOPPED AT cASEY,S FAVORITE PRODUCE STAND, SHE WANTED TO SEE THE KITCHENS. aPPARENTLY THE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL HAVE PLAYED AT BEING AIRPLANES, SO ONE DAY SHE MARCHED INTO THE KITCHEN AND PUT OUT HER ARMS AND WHIRLED AROUND IN CIRCLES, GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR.wE WERE EXPECTING HER TO TUMBLE DOWN, BUT SHE KET ON GOING AS FAST AS SHE COULD AND REALLY ENJOYED THE APPLAUSE. tHEY ALSO PLAYED ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT, SO SHE TOOK HER MOM AND DAD.S HANDS AND MADE A ROWING A MOTION, THE IMPISH GRIN ON HER FACE. GETTING GROVER PROPERLY ALIGNED SO SHE COULD GET HER LEG OVER BEING FACE TOWARD HIS HEAD WAS ALSO INTERESTING TO
WATCH!!

Great to have been with Casey and Matt, again, and we
really appreciate their hospitality and their invitation to return, sometime.......

Still getting some produce from our garden, but the days without watering when we were gone took a
toll.

Had a quick nature trail walk yesterday afternoon at
Lapham Peak State Park near Delafield. Long time since we've been there. Lots of improvements. A really nice outing

Have to run, so there is no time for a spell check!

Love and prayers, Grandma and Grandpa

“Ugh. You play ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!’ don’t you?”

I just found out about The Tempest and I’m one of the three Ariels!!!! I can’t wait to start rehearsing!

Say What?

My Thursdays are awful. I have Italian from 9-9:50am, work 10:30-12:30, Comparative Politics 1:30-2:45, Fencing 3:10-4:25, an Italian Drill session 5-6, and then choir 6:30-8. Convenient that my birthday falls on a Thursday this year, huh?
That being said, my day today (ok, technically yesterday for me…) was unexpectedly enjoyable.
Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day and all of the sudden I just really felt like Vassar was 100% the right decision and I realized just exactly how much I love it here.
I got to Italian early this morning and my professor complemented me on my Italian. She actually asked if I had taken Italian before and was very surprised when she found out I hadn’t. That was really nice to hear considering that’s my hardest class and I never really feel prepared for it despite the fact that I spend more time on that homework than for any other class.
Work was fine. Not great, but there were only 6 kids, and it went quickly.
My lunch was delicious, and I had time to finish reading the play that the scene I’m performing came from. The play, and indeed the scene, is absolutely absurd and is going to be a total blast to perform! I can’t wait!
Comparative Politics was a mess, as usual. We get really caught up on method and don’t spend much time on politics, which is rather frustrating. Today we got into a huge debate about whether or not the author of an article had a hidden Protestant agenda… despite the fact that we looked the author up online and he’s Jewish. So yeah, it was pointless. That class is kinda driving me crazy.
Fencing was cancelled today because it’s Rosh Hashana and my professor is Jewish, so that was a nice break and I got my homework started.
The drill session for Italian was terrifying. But it ended half an hour early, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. I grabbed a quick dinner, sat with my friend Peter, who is also in choir and in my IPA class, and found out that he home schooled.
It’s kind of amazing how 1.5 hours of choir here goes ten times faster then my 45 min. of choir at Fort High ever went. The choir is seriously incredible. And I’m actually really enjoying singing alto. I still definitely prefer singing soprano, but altos do get some very cool harmony stuff. I’m getting better at finding my part, too. Although today, while the conductor was working with the men I spaced out, and then she said “ok, now let’s try the sopranos!” and I straightened up and got ready to sing… then I realized I wasn’t a soprano and felt silly. I’m really happy, though, because I now have someone to talk to/laugh with during choir. Her name is Crystal and she’s really nice and funny. She really makes me miss Erica and Savannah, though, because it’s just not quite the same.
Then, the event that really made today fun: Tempest call-backs! Oh yeah, I told you I’d let you know as soon as I found out, so Hey! I got called back for The Tempest!
So I went to the call-backs, and this adaptation of The Tempest is going to be absolutely ridiculous and most likely awesome! There are going to be 3 different people playing Ariel, which is how me and two other people auditioned. We were given a scene and told to split up Ariel’s lines however it felt right and interpret the scene anyway we liked and then come back and perform it. So we went in another room, split up the lines so that we were pretty much all talking over one another, then stood on chairs, cuz we’re spirits after all, and basically acted completely insane. Then we went back and performed it, and it was one of the most fun auditions I’ve ever done! The director seemed really pleased, and I should find out the results tomorrow. I really, really, hope I get in! I think it’s going to be an incredible show!!!!!!
Now I should be going to bed…. But I’m very hyper, so maybe I’ll actually get some homework done…