Another week passes.......

The past week has been a count down to getting the house ready for Christmas before I start training for the new job.

Joel scheduled himself to work from home on Thursday, unfortunately corporate never e-mailed him the information he needed to complete his job. So he screwed around the house while I worked.

Friday, Joel had taken the day off, Jonathan was scheduled off, but I needed to work. Joel kept on checking to see if corporate finally had sent him his work stuff. Once I got my freight covered, we all headed out to see if we could find the perfect family Christmas tree. We decided to go check out "Snowshoe Valley" in Almena/Clumberland area. Once we arrived, we read a sign stating how a lot of their trees suffered from an early spring, summer storms and that they were planning on closing for the 2011 year to allow their trees recuperate. We were unable to find the right tree. As dusk starts to settle in, we make the decision that we would be unable to get to the next tree farm by the time they close. We flipped a"U" and headed back towards Clumberland to go "Louie's Meats". After picking some butcher cut meats, we stopped at "The Tower House" for dinner.

Saturday morning, we all got up bring & early to go get the tree before Jonathan had to be to work at 11:00 am. It was the most absolutely beautiful morning......it had snowed overnight, so it was clean & fresh. While we were heading up to Birchwood, it was lightly snowing.......It was picture perfect. Once we arrived at the tree farm they handed us a saw and out into the woods we headed. After about 30 minutes .....we found it. Joel & Jonathan cut it down and once it was down......next the task of loading it onto the car!

Once it was loaded, we headed to drop Jonathan off at his work. Joel & I continued on with dropping the tree off at home, picking up the garland and our weekly errands.

Sunday, we started working on decorating the house for Christmas and my final preparations for my first day of work.

So with that all said.......I must go get ready for work!

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Christmas is in the Air......

Greetings All,

Well a week ago today, I went back to MN to pickup my new Tahoe. Dam! it feels nice to be back in my Chevy. It isn't the Suburban, but it is very close!

This last weekend wasn't to eventful, but Saturday was the annual Christmas card photo shoot. The past 2 years we just had to get Lilly to cooperate.....This year was a different story! Since last Christmas we have added Jack, Charlie & Oliver to our family, so getting ALL 4 of them to cooperate was a feat in itself. After 2 1/2 hours and over 100 shots (thank goodness for digital cameras) we finally got the winning photos.....ok, we gave up and this is the best we could get! lol

Saturday evening after Jonathan got off work, the 3 of us headed off to Elk Mound to cut our Christmas tree. By the time we arrived it was dark, we were unable to see, so we decided Joel would take Friday off and we would go back in the afternoon. Headed to Eau Claire to a new Chinese restaurant I had found and after a nice dinner for 3, we headed home.

Sunday, Joel screwed around the house while I worked on the newly developed Christmas cards.

6 days until I start my 7 week training program for the new job........

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Finally all ready for my new job!

Brand new wardrobe.......check

Brand new/used vehicle.......check

December 6th start date..........

The past week was nothing special, but the weekend was pretty spontaneous!
As the winter comes upon us, we have been anticipating what the Waage's are going to be doing about transportation. So seeing Joel can't drive the Aveo long distance to work, he will start driving the Honda. Jonathan's birthday is Friday, so happy birthday baby......you now are the owner of a 2004 Chevy Aveo! And I am the recipient of the new car, 2001 Chevy Tahoe. I just couldn't imagine driving the Aveo back & forth from Eau Claire in the winter, so hence the new vehicle.

So we found the Tahoe on car-soup, but before we went to far we decided to get pre-approved on a car load. We turned in the completed application to our credit union on Friday morning and figured we wouldn't hear anything until Monday. On Saturday morning, Joel & I headed up to Rice Lake to do our weekly errands including stopping off at the bank to deposit my work checks. While we were there, Lisa yelled across the room and asked us to come into her office. She told us we got approved and let her know what the final number was going to be. We left and started heading west to MN. Called Rick to schedule to meet him & see the vehicle. Rick scheduled our meeting at his work, Coon Rapids City Hall. Once we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find out he is a Police Sargent. After test driving, negotiations, sealing the deal.....we headed out for lunch with John & Joanne. Had a fabulous time visiting with them and once we departed from one another.......it was time to do some more tax free clothes shopping!!

Dang! Does shopping ever wear me out....NOT! But I think my husband was getting pretty whooped, so we started to head for home. We couldn't leave MN without hooking our little guy, Jonathan up with a couple of his favorites.........The Gargantuan from Jimmy John's & French Silk Pie from Baker's Square. Thought we would stop off for some dinner for us as well, but couldn't find a nice Chinese restaurant. Being stuck in Lino Lakes with no place to dine means...............a 911 call to Klaus & Ann! Love when we surprise people!! It is great!! Ran over to their house, had a beer or 2 while they got cleaned up and ran up to Miller's Bar & Grill for dinner, drinks and conversation. Handed out hugs and kisses......started for home.

Sunday.....the ice day. Jonathan had to work at 6:30 am and we were awoken to phone ringing. Jonathan was stuck in the driveway and couldn't get out. Joel got up to take him to work in the Honda. As he backed out of the garage and "gunned" it to get up the driveway which is a hill. Needless to say he got stuck and slid as I watch horrified that he was sliding into the Aveo which was parked in the driveway. He saved it and didn't plow into the Aveo, but with only about 2 inches to spare. Once he pulled the Aveo forward onto the grass, he was able to maneuver the Honda around and eventually got onto the grass. While I was watching this all go down, I decided to get dressed to ride with along with him to drop Jonathan off at work. The roads weren't too bad, but sure not for the Aveo to drive on. Headed back to bed to sleep a couple hours. Later, got up to do chores around the house and watch the Vike's get their ass kicked. The rest of the afternoon & evening was uneventful.....

The week ahead is starting off to be a fun one filled with family, friends and loved one. Tuesday I get to go back to MN to pickup my new car, Wednesday is a trip to Eau Claire and of course Thursday is a day to be Thankful.....even though I am Thankful everyday. On turkey day....John, Joanne, Courtney and Grandma Waage are coming for dinner, games and birthday cake. Rita & John Young are unable to make it this year, so they will be in our thoughts and Thanksgiving prayers as well as Ashley & Abby.

As we enter this week of Thanksgiving.......know that the Waage family is thankful that you are in our lives.

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Well, we broke down and............

turned the heat on!

I guess we adults can put additional clothes on to keep warm, but the puppies just couldn't keep warm.

Once we turned the heat on, there was one puppy that was very happy.........


Little Jack was caught being a heat register hog! lol

Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping!

This past week was pretty boring with the exception of lots of shopping going on! I have spent the last week & weekend shopping for new clothes for the new job. Being in the transportation field for almost 15 years, my wardrobe consists of jeans & sweatshirts, so I have been having to rebuild a business casual wardrobe instead.......darn! :)

Saturday, Joel & I went to Rice Lake in hopes a finding a reasonable priced carpet cleaner due to our little Oliver not being potty trained quite yet. Did a little Christmas shopping and clothes shopping. We received very little snow, ours up here was more in the form of rain & sleet that melted immediately. We maybe received about an inch or so. That evening we attended a Lions function at The Pokegama. Back in September we had purchased some gun raffle tickets in support of the Lions and the charity & people they help.

Flash back....about 16 years. Jonathan had a eye problem when he was a wee little guy.....about 2 1/2. Most people saw it as a "lazy" eye, but it was the furthest from the truth. He had a week or almost non existance eye muscle that controlled the movement of the eye. Joel & I had 2 options to consider: surgery or bifocal glasses. We decided to go with the glasses, but didn't have the money at that time to purchase them. We were put in touch with the SSP Lions who paid in full for Jonathan's glasses. It took many years before we were financially stable, but we have never forgotten that gesture. Every year for the last 12 years,we had purchased our family Christmas tree from the SSP Lions. Yes, we could have gone else where to buy a cheaper one, but we wanted to re-pay their gratitude for helping us. Well, last year when we moved to the lake permanently, we didn't have the Lions to purchase a tree from. So, hence the rifle & gun raffle.......we were able to find a way to continue to give back to the Lions and help support their great causes.

So speaking of Christmas trees, now the Waage's need to start a new tradition for finding the family tree. So we have come up with the 1st annual cutting of the family tree! We live in the north woods and we have decided to make it a family outing & go cut our own tree. It is never to late to start new traditions. As the holidays draw near, this is when I miss the girls the most......it would be nice to include them in our new tradition.

Any how, on Sunday we went back to Minnesota....again! That is twice in a week. Our niece Courtney, is a play entitled, Home Room. It is a play about Homelessness and helping bring awareness to the community. She and the cast did a phenomenal job. After wards, We .......along with John, Joanne, Grandma Waage & Courtney went to Olive Garden to celebrate. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.....Good job Courtney, we are so proud of you and glad that you are turning your life around!! There is NOTHING you can't do if you set your mind to it. Whoot! Whoo! On the way home we stopped to do some more tax free clothes & shoe shopping :)

This week ahead is going to be spent preparing for the new job, preparing for the holidays and just being thankful.

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Greetings from the Northwoods....

Well, the last couple of weeks have been trying at the Waage's house as Big Joe has lost his unemployment. He has been applying all over the place, but unfortunately his prior workman's comp law suit seems to be stopping him flat in his tracks.

11 years ago he worked for Bix Produce. He was delivering produce to a restuarant on Grand Avenue where their refrigerator was in the basement. So as he lowered his 2-wheeler down the narrow steps, he fell to the bottom and landed on top of the produce. Well, it wasn't enough to break his fall and he sustained a back injury. After about 9 months, he won his lawsuit and took the proceeds to re-educate himself. In addition we also received life time medical benefits on his injuried back. He has restriction of no lifting over 40 lbs, no constant bending, no twisting, no standing for long periods of time and no sitting for long periods of time. Once we put himself through CAD drafting school, he found the perfect job at Dunham & Associates. He was able to sit & also move around........until they laid him off due to the recession in Feb 2009 after 10 years of service.

Now, as he applies for jobs as soon as he checks "yes" in the box "do you have any restrictions" ....he is done for. With today's unemployment rate as high as it is, the employers have their choice of employees and they surely don't want him with his back issues. If he were to lie on his application, re-injure his back, file a claim on the old lawsuit, they would do an investigation on his current job, find out he was not living under his current restriction....they would deny his claim. He is dammed if he does & dammed if he doesn't!

Joel & I count on his rent and his contribution to the household since I started my own business. A new business in this recession.....sucks, but it is do-able. So in order to keep everyone above water, I went out a got a new job!! Woo Hoo!! Last Friday I received the news, so starting December 6th I will be a customer Service Representative at X Cel Energy!!! With the option of picking my hours, I will be able to continue my dream of working on my business.

Saturday, Joel & I met a high school friend of mine, Susan at Turtle Lake Casino for Breakfast cocktails, conversation and a little gambling. Had a blast and even took $5.00 and turned it into $60.00. Mama needs a new pair of shoes!! After that we went to Rice Lake for some shopping. Once we closed the stores, we headed back to the house where dinner had been in the crockpot and Jim & Pam come over for dinner, domino's & beers! It was a lovely evening.

Sunday Joel & I headed back to Minnesota to fix the siding on the SSP house that had been ripped off during that last big wind storm we had. We had coordinated that along with Rita & John's birthday's all in one trip. So after a couple hours of clothes shopping for my new job, we picked up Rita & John and headed to meet Grandma Waage, John, Joanne and Courtney for a family dinner. We all had a very nice time and we were very excited to see Courtney whom we hadn't seen in quite some time. After we dropped everyone off at their homes, we headed out to do one more shopping stop. Once we purchased our heated mattress, it was time to go back to the northwoods.......

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3rd Annual Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Well.....what can I say but Halloween weekend was a frickin blast.

On Friday, Joel took the day off to complete another quick remodeling job he had been working on for about 2 weeks. I had a busy day at the "office" while Big Joe puppy sat and kept them out of trouble. Wayde & Shelley were the first to arrive with Sheldon coming in closely behind. Shelley was sporting a nice cold, so after a while she & I turned in early while the boys had a beer or two along with a couple of games of cribbage.

Saturday morning we were up early to get breakfast under our belts and prepare our costumes for the scavenger hunt. We have been taking part in the Gilligan's Halloween Scavenger hunt for 2 years and we never had gone in costume, so we decided this year we would put something together. Klaus & Ann showed up around 10:00 and after all the hugs & kisses it was time to go to work in the garage.
After the prep was completed.....off to Gilligan's Bar & Grill we went to start our hunt. The idea is to go to each of the local bars and participate in a game, test or craft. You get scored on each of the them, but you never know how they are scoring until the end of the hunt when they add up your score. As an example......at the VFW we were given a red piece of paper, a blue piece of paper (a tad smaller than the red) and a white piece of paper (a tad smaller than the bed). We were asked to make an American Flag. You don't know how you are getting scored, you just gotta wing it. At Red's Bar & Grill .....we had to open individual wrapped life savers, lick and stick them on a team members face! Poor Big Joe!!!! The shitty thing about the whole thing is that we didn't even get a picture of it!
After the hunt was over, we all had to meet back at Gilligan's for scoring. In the past we always had come in last. This year we moved up 1 notch to 8th place out of 9 place.
Went back to the house for dinner, bon fire, game of Mexican Domino's and cocktails.

Sunday morning everyone sorta slept in, but we needed to eat breakfast quickly as Wayde & Shelley needed to depart early to attend a family gathering later in the day. Klaus & Ann followed closely behind with Sheldon taking off in time to get home to watch the Vikes game & take his children out trick & treating.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend and fun to be had by all. Now the question is...........what shall we be next year?

P.S. We got almost a prefect score on the VFW Flag score. Me being anal paid off for once......2 points for every star, 2 points for every stripe (13 stripes), 25 points for starting with a red stripe, 25 points for ending with a red stripe and 50 points if you did a flag on the back side of the paper.

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We are winding down for the season..

It's that time of the year that we most don't look forward to it....winter!
Jet ski, fishing boat & pontoon are tucked away for their winter hibernation. Docks are out, yard is winterized and friends stop coming to visit. So to pass the time, we remodel! Lots of plans for this winter, so everyone will have to wait & see what we do.

This past week was pretty low key and nothing exciting to report. Oliver is slowly adjusting to being part of the herd. We have been feeding him with high protein food trying to get some weight on him, but it has been a slow process. Why is it with me putting on weight isn't a slow process? Poof!! I wake up with 25 pounds on! lol

Jonathan has been working like crazy & I'm sure that will continue to increase as it gets closer to the holidays. We pointed out to him that his birthday is on Friday this year.......Black Friday that is! What do you think his chances of getting that day off? ZERO!

We/I am coming back to the cities this Thursday for the day. Our adopted elder, John Young has his care conference scheduled. A couple of months ago, John's family friend, Robert disconnected his phone without leaving any further information. So the nursing home called us and asked if we would take over. Joel & I didn't hesitate to step into the role. Also will find time to visit Rita, my surrogate mother. Never know what other trouble I can find to get myself into.

This weekend, we have our final house guests for the season. It is our 3rd annual of participating in the Gilligan's Halloween adult scavenger hunt. It is a blast....hence why we keep doing it each year. This year though we have decided to go in costume, maybe we will take 1st prize. Just will have to wait & see.

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Holy Crap.....It's been over a month!.....AGAIN!!

You would think that me being a stay home puppy mom and working from my home office that all I do is sit around all day, eat bon bon's and update the blog daily! Ha.....furthest from the truth. I'll try to give the quick version update:

September 18th was Oktoberfest in which Sheldon, Joel, Big Joe, Jim and myself attended. There was an awesome band and we all enjoyed ourselves.

September 25th Joel & I participated in the Doc Stanley fundraiser walk for Humane Society of Barron County. It is HSBC's largest fundraiser and thank you to all of you that sent us pledges. We walked in Zoey, Senator, Anney and Bear's honor. Lilly, Jack and Charlie did very well even with all the temptation of the other dogs around them. Guess all the trips to the dog parks paid off!

September 30th our contract for deed people moved out of the house. We decided that we are just going to become landlords and complete the rental process with the city of South St Paul. Our new renters Tim & Jeff moved in.

October 2nd Joel & I went to Stone Lake, WI with Jen, Bob, Gena and Alyssa. Jen was doing her first big craft show and did awesome in sales! Her product has beautiful craftsmanship.

October 3rd we worked around the house in preparation of winters arrival. Bob & Jen stopped by. Charlie nipped at Jen and that is when the nightmare started.

October 4th we checked on Jen in the morning to see how her hand was, which she said it was fine. By 3:30 pm I received a phone call that she had gone to the hospital because she felt her hand was red, hot and swollen. Because it was a "dog bite" the hospital had to report it. She was calling also to give me the phone number of the police. Lovely......Thanks Jen! So I call the police office and tell him what had happened......Jen approached him with her hand to quickly, he got scared and nipped her. We at one point thought about putting him down, but after talking to our friends and people at the humane society we decided that Charlie has come across many many people in the last 3 1/2 weeks and has never shown any aggression, we all decided it was the way Jen approached him. So now that the policeman took the report he explain the next step is waiting for a phone call from the Wisconsin Department of Health. That call came the next day.....Charlie has officially has been put on quarantine for 10 days even though he just received his rabies shot on September 10th. He can't leave the house except to go do his vet checks every 2 days.

October 9th we were supposed to go back to Minneapolis to attend our elder, John Young's Oktoberfest Celebration at his nursing home, but unfortunately we couldn't go because of Charlie's quarantine. Big Joe was going to be at Jim's house all day helping to install a metal roof on his house and Jonathan was scheduled to work. We couldn't leave the dogs home ALL day by themselves. So we decided to take most likely one of the last cocktail cruises of the season. We got the life jackets on the puppies (yes, we brought Charlie along for his first boat ride). It was a beautiful day and we were just getting ready to enter into the draw when Jack fell out of the boat! Scary! Joel immediately turned the engine off and we both went to the back of the boat to find Jack. All we could see was Jackie swimming like crazy to catch up to the boat. Mind you the water temperature is 59*, so Joel streched out to reach him and got him into the boat. Thank goodness we always travel with a crap load of towels and blankets, so I wrapped him up to warm him. It took about an hour to get his body temperature back to where it should be. It's funny now.....but it was scary while going through it.

October 10th the guys took the big docks out and moved our boat over to the little dock. More winter preparations........

October 12th Joel celebrated his 48th birthday along with us welcoming another family member into our family. Most of you will think we are whacked in the head, but this house is full of softies. Oliver was rescued from the Humane Society of Barron County. He comes with a story just like the rest of them. Oliver aka: Ollie is so under nourished that we could see ALL of his bones which where all very defined. He waist is about 2 1/2 inches and you can count his ribs with no problem.

October 14th was double duty at the vet. Oliver's junk was scheduled to be removed from his truck and Charlie did his last quarantine vet check. As expected Charlie passed with flying colors and was released from quarantine. He has his life back again!

October 15th in the morning Oliver was able to be picked up from the vet. Unlike all the other puppies, he was pretty laid out for the day.

October 16th Joel tried to finish the coat closet but cleaned up early to visit with Scott Litfin, an old family friend.

Sunday, Joel worked on the coat closet, went to Chetek Lanes to get his new bowling ball drilled and headed to Rice Lake to get additional materials for the closet.

So as you can see......not much going on's when the "lake season" is over. We do have one last hur-rah on Saturday, October 30th, when Wayde, Shelley, Klaus, Ann and Sheldon come up for Gilligan's annual Halloween Scavenger hunt. This will be our 3rd year of participating but our first year of actually going in costume. Our choice of costume is awesome and hopefully we will win 1st place!

We maybe be closed for sleeping large groups, but we still have the ability to sleep a family comfortable. So if you are wanting to come up, let us know because we would love to have you :)

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Fall is creeping in

Once again we got busy and the blog didn't get updated. But life with 3 puppies & just about as hectic as having 3 children....only exception is that the puppies don't need to go to soccer practice!

Introducing Charlie into the family has reminded us of bring Jack into the family 7 months ago......When rescuing a animal from the Humane Society, you never know about their past. You must be patient while they figure out where they fit in the family, are they going to end up back in a cage or if they will be loved or hurt. Charlie has had some "male issues" but Joel has worked very hard with him over the last week and he is slowly coming around. On friday, September 10th Charlie had his junk in his truck removed, so it was a quiet weekend for him.

On Saturday, September 11th was a fun day. Chetek was having their Harvest Fest with a whole day of fun stuff. Joel & I started by doing a little garage sale"ing" at the City Wide Garage Sale. Normally we don't do garage sales, but we have been looking for some items. Then we picked up Charlie from the vet after his over night stay from his surgery. After we dropped him back off home, we took Lilly & Jack to the craft sale and bake sale in town. Around 1:00 it was time to head to the Demolition Derby which is always a good time. It was a little cloudy in the beginning, but it quickly turned into the most beautiful afternoon. We were outta there by 7:30 and ran up to Rice Lake.

Sunday, Joel worked on the shed for a couple hours in the morning while Big Joe and I went to Humane Society of Barron County for a small fundraiser called Doggy Days. We brought all 3 of the puppies and Charlie did VERY well considering he was stuck in a cage there a couple days earlier. Early afternoon we headed down to the "Big City"....Eau Claire to shop at Best Buy. We needed to buy another monitor for Joel's new station. After that we hung out at the dog park so the puppies could burn off some steam. Charlie did very well socializing with the other dogs and their owners. Once the puppies were pooped, we stopped off at Petco to get a fall coat for Charlie as he didn't have any. Found a real cute on, so bought matching ones for Lilly and Jack. Then we bee-bopped over to Petsmart to pickup a life jacket for Charlie....you know, safety first :) Then we had our little treat.....Olive Garden for the Never Ending Pasta dinner. Yum!!!

This last week Joel was able to work from home on Monday and Tuesday which was very nice to have him home working side by side with me. Sure wished we had a office here like we had at our SSP house.

Today, Joel & Sheldon both took the day off to attend the "Tapping of the Golden Keg" for Oktoberfest in Chippewa Falls. I was going to go with them, but had work to do, so I was unable to go with them......I'm sure it is a guy thing anyways.

Tomorrow we all will head down to Oktoberfest and enjoy "Drunk Fest 10"

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Zoey.......My precious Zoey

Tribute To A Best Friend

Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.

We miss you Zoey, we know this is for the best. We all knew you were ready to go, but we just bare the thought of you not being here with us. The disease overtook your body and life wasn't as you always knew it.......so today we say goodbye to our family member, a best friend, our companion and the grandma, the one who always kept the babies in order. Once in heaven we know that your body will be back to your old self and you will be pain free. We know that you will give those squirrels a run for their money......Go get em' Zoey

Love,

Mom, Dad and Jonathan

The past 2 weeks.......

Holy Moly has it been busy at the Waage's house over the past 2 weeks. So I do the quick run down to bring you up to speed.

The weekend of August 27-29th, Kevin, Nicole and kids came up along with their new addition, Molly. Molly is a 8 week old golden lab and is a bundle of energy. The adults had a day planned for Saturday, so Big Joe had kid and puppy duty. We planned on heading down to Eau Claire for the "Festival in the Pines". It was supposed to be an all day affair with 350 vendors, but once we got down there, we were in & out in an 1 1/2 hours. So with our plans cut short we decided to have so lunch and head out on a wine tasting tour of 3 wineries in our neck of the woods. With new bottles of wine in tow, we headed back to the house. We were able to get out on the boat on Sunday. We tried to do some swimming at the island, but the wind was so strong the boat wouldn't hold, so we decided to just do some cocktail cruising. All & all it was a fabulous weekend.

Monday, August 30th:
Was a busy day preparing to go back to the cities the next day for the fair. Making sure everything was in order. It also was a very special day because it was Joel's first day of working at home. It went very well and apparently Shred is going to continue to let him work from home on occasion. In the afternoon, Joel had a doctor appt to meet his new doctor and get his RX refilled. That evening, Joel & I headed into Rice Lake for our first night of bowling on our mixed doubles league. It was the first time since my 2 surgeries that I had bowled. It held up well and I bowled a 99, 145 & 133. No bad for not bowling for 1 1/2 years. Not near my bowling average, but now I have something to work for.

Tuesday, August 31:
Joel, Jonathan & I got up at 3 am to head back to the cities for the fair. Joel needed to work a 1/2 day, so Jonathan & I had a morning filled of activities. After dropping Joel off at work, we went to breakfast at Key's in Woodbury, then to Ficocello's for Jonathan's hair cut, Dress Barn for some mom shopping and a pedicure for mom. After Jonathan hooked up with Derrick we headed to pick up Joel from work. By the time we arrived at the fair is was almost 2:00 pm. The boys went their way and Joel & I went our way. During our time at the fair we received an e-mail from the people that purchased our SSP house by contract for deed. Seems they had wanted us to fix some things in the house that had gone hay-ward since they took over. We ignored it and figured we would deal with it once we got home. We ate, we walked, we people watched and we outta there by 6:00 pm.

Wednesday, September 1:
Immediately started dealing with our situation with the SSP people and to be perfectly honest it went from bad to ugly in less than half a day.

Thursday, September 2:
The ugliness of the day before came into today as well. Between the two days of several e-mails going back and forth between the SSP people, their attorney and us.........I was forced to make an emergency trip back to the cities to have a Notice to Vacate served upon our SSP people to get them to vacate the premises in 30 days.

Friday, September 3:
Spent getting caught up with my business paperwork, the SSP house ordeal, additional e-mails to attorneys and preparing for Nancy to come for the long weekend. After Nancy arrived and settled in , we headed out to meet Joel at the demolition derby in Ridgeland. First the sun was out, then it rained a bit and then the wind picked up.......I had brought blankets, so we just hunkered down for a fun night.

Saturday, September 4:
We all slept in but once we got motativated we headed to Rice Lake for lunch at the Beer Cheese Bar and Grill. Then it was off to make a couple of returns at the mall, Weyerhauser to check out their town celebration Booster Days and then off on a beautiful fall day road trip scouting out an apple orchard. Just so happens we found 3 orchards within 1 block of each other. After than we headed home for dinner and a evening of Mexican dominoes.......in which I won!

Sunday, September 5:
We just hung out until the sun warmed up a bit. Joel & Big Joe worked on the shed while Nancy & I headed up to get a couple of groceries. Once back we loaded up the boat & headed out for a cocktail cruise. Enjoyed a yummy dinner, watched a couple of television shows and headed to bed.

Monday, September 6:
Got up, visited in the living room, went to breakfast at Bob's Grill and once back, Nancy headed out for home. I did laundry, cleaned up the house and prepared for another week at the Waage's. Little did I know that the following week was going to be bring great changes to the Waage household.

Tuesday, September 7:
Started uneventful. Spent most of my day in my office working on paperwork. Around 3:00 pm I needed to get ready to go tot he post office but before I went I needed to go check out The Barron County Human Society which I had been doing every week since we moved. I just figured if there was ever a little min pin baby that was trying to find their forever family.....I needed to know about it :) Besides what are the chances?

Well.......this was the case yesterday. There was a little guy by the name of Charlie, who was listed as a stray and on hold until 09/11.

So I went up to Barron County to put my name on a list for them to call me once his hold was up and if he hadn't been claimed. So I spoke with the manager, Kim as I filling out the appropriate paperwork. After completing, I decided to go check him out and say Hi, As I was visiting him, Kim knocked on the glass and waved her finger at me to come to her. She proceeded to tell me that she is fairly confident that the person that turned Charlie in as a stray was really his owner and that I could take him home right now.......

I wasn't ready nor prepared for this. My intentions were to just go put my name on the list so that after the hold date was done, I would have the rest of the weekend to think about it. Joel was in Duluth working, so I quickly called him & sent him pictures and we decided to go for it........

Charlie is slowly adjusting to the family and still hasn't figured out his place in the "herd" but with Lilly as a sister, I'm sure he will get it quickly!

This weekend Kevin, Nicole and kids are coming back to attended Chetek's Harvest Fest and on Saturday the Demolition Derby!

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

Shed, shed & more shed!!

Well, this past weekend was all about the shed.......again! It has been 3 weeks since we have been out on the boat. I am really starting to resent that dam shed!

Saturday, Joel started by attempting to finish the roof. He was 6 shingles short, so now we have to go purchase another bundle. Then he made another supply list. Off to Rice Lake we went. We first stopped at Menard's to get some paint chips samples then ran over to Taco John's for a taco while we decided on our paint colors for the shed. Worked on shed when he got back, but it seems he never gets anywhere. After dinner we celebrated Lilly's 2nd birthday with cake & presents.

Sunday he worked on adding the cedar shakes to the front side peak. He got 4 rows on before he realized he made the rows to close together. So he removed a couple of rows to fix it. By Sunday evening he had completed the whole front peak.

Monday, Jonathan helped out by painting the cedar shakes with the accent color and Big Joe painted most of the trim, so that when Joel is ready it will be ready to go. Talked to Grandma Waage today and she decided she wanted to come up to the lake for her first overnight visit. Joel swung by her place on the way home from work to pick her up. No work on the shed........deadline is coming

Tuesday, normal work day for Joel, while Grandma Waage & I decided to do a little retail therapy. Showed her around by taking her to the Jenni-O Turkey Store outlet, Mennonite bulk food & spice store, Bargin Bills, Herbergers, Wal*Mart, Beer Cheese Bar & Grill for lunch and showed her where Jonathan will start college on September 2nd......The University of Wisconsin. All in all it was a fabulous day. After dinner, Joel completed the doors for the shed while Grandma Waage worked on her cross word puzzle book. Also got word that Joel & I are officially on the mix doubles bowling league in Rice Lake which starts this monday! I'm excited but yet also scared since I haven't bowled since my 2 surgeries, so we will see.

Today, Wednesday......Joel & Grandma Waage got up at 3:15 am so that Joel could get Grandma Waage dropped off at home and him up to work before 6:00 pm for a meeting he was doing a presentation. Well, they woke up
late, so needless to say Grandma Waage went to work with him so he wasn't late. After the meeting he finally drove her home. Big Joe painted the doors that Joel completed last night and seeing it is a beautiful day......Jonathan, Big Joe & I are going to surprise Joel by painting the shed walls. Tonight Joel said the shed doors will be ready to install.....It's Joel, so we will see!

This weekend Kevin, Nicole & kids are coming. We allways have a blast when they are here. Saturday the adults have planned on going down to Eau Claire for a festival.....Whispering Pines. Big Joe is going to stay back to hang with the kids. I'm sure Sunday we will be on the lake before they head out late in the afternoon. Gee Keith........maybe you should join us! We have a lot of room for you & your family....or just you!

We still have a couple of openings for Oktoberfest weekend, September 17-19th and for Gilligan's adult Halloween scavenger hunt weekend, October 29-31st. Let us know if you are interested to attending any or both of these functions. Also have a couple of weekends open in September and October for anybody who wishes to come up for a visit. It's coming down to the wire when the snow flies & we lose all our friends for the winter months :( So check your calendars we would love to have you.

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Not too much excitment

Last weekend was somewhat bland...............

Saturday, Joel & Big Joe started to work on the roof of the new shed. Things were going just peachy until around 2:00 rolled around & they need additional supplies. So Joel & I hopped into the car and headed to Rice Lake Menard's. When we got up there we decided we hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch so we stopped by Taco John's for a taco. As we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a pickup truck with boat in the pass through lane in front of the restaurant. I figured they must had stopped for a taco & there was no place to park. As we were eating I watched the people in the pickup truck open the hood & all the doors. Figured they were needing help, so we finished up and went out to see if we could help. After talking to the dad, we found out they were on their way to Long Lake to a rented cabin to start their vacation. They were going to be celebrating their daughter's birthday the next day with all their grandma's & grandpa's, so they had an ice cream cake in the back. The truck wouldn't stay running. We don't have a trailer hitch so I knew we we going to need more help, so I called my friend Jen. Jen then called her son, Jason who is a mechanic. Jason was on his way but wasn't going arrive for about 30 minutes, so in the meantime, Joel and I loaded up our car with mom, daughter, son, ice cream cake and went like hell to their cabin to get the cake in the freezer. After we saved the cake, we headed back to Taco John's. Jason had arrived and was checking out the truck when Jen arrived with her husband's HUGE dodge dual wheeled diesel pickup truck. The broken pickup couldn't be fixed so it needed to be towed to Jason's friends shop. We dropped the boat, unloaded pickup into our car, loaded up pickup onto the flat bed, hooked boat to Jen's truck and headed back up to their rented cabin. Once we arrived the guys dropped the boat into the water for them while the girls unloaded the car of all their belongings. We had a cocktail with them and after we help save the day, it was now 6:30 pm! We ran to Menard's to get the supplies for the shed that we needed while Big Joe & Jonathan headed up to meet us at the Beer Cheese Bar & Grill for dinner. By the time we were done.....it was 8:45 pm. We headed home & hit the sheets.

Sunday they continued to work on the shed and later in the afternoon we ran up to Menard's to pick out a roof. Got back, dinner was ready in the crockpot, ate and they headed out to roof the shed. They worked into the darkness. After they cleaned up, we started getting ready for our trip to the cities in the morning.

Monday morning Jonathan, Lilly, Jack & I headed out with Joel on his way to work. My classmates were getting together Monday evening at Wooddale for some rollerskating, just like the old days. So I hadn't told them I was coming so they were surprised when I showed up. I did have roller skates on, I did skate 1 time around, I didn't fall and I did have a fabulous time.

After roller skating we headed over the Throwbacks for a cocktail or 2. Joel & I got to the hotel about midnight.

Joel got picked up at the hotel Tuesday morning by his co-worker Mike, so that I got to sleep in until 6am when I needed to get up & ready to pickup Grandma Waage at 7 am to take her to an appointment. After that we hung out, ran errands and took the dogs to the SSP dog park. Late afternoon I dropped her off, went to pickup Jonathan at Derricks and headed to Shred It to pickup Joel. We left the cities and arrived home at 10:00 pm.

Wednesday, for me was spent catching up on all my paperwork, laundry & Facebook while Jonathan spent his day at U of WI preparing to enter the next stage of his.......college. Big Joe had a hot date with his fishing rod and his best friend, Jim starting at 7:00 am.

Tomorrow.......Thursday is farmers market day and Friday had nothing planned as of now. Hopefully Sheldon will continue to keep me busy with work. This weekend finds us with nobody coming up. A couple of classmates were coming up again but due to conflicting schedules, kids and work.....they are unable to make it. Joel did talk to Kevin yesterday and that call brought horrifying news. Kevin's dog, Jessie was hit by a car early Saturday morning and was called to heaven to be with our beloved Annie, Bear & Senator. Joel told Kevin if he wanted to come up to the lake for some healing time he is more than welcome to come, so we wait to see......

The last weekend in August, Kevin & Nicole are up.......So Keith, we have some industrial appliances like a walk in cooler, 50 gallon mixer & dishwasher that needs repair.....why don't you figure out how you could make a service call happen! We miss you & would love to have you up!!

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

Trouble in Paradise

It's amazing the power of the grape vine........

My input: The door is open, what you do with an open door is totally up to you :)

I'm just saying

Hot, Humid and Hazy Days.....and Kids!

Jonathan's friends.....Chase, Derek, Michael, Hailey and Bri arrived Friday for a weekend of relaxation & hang out. Had dinner & kids pretty much gamed all night long. I think the girls weren't impressed!

Saturday morning Joel was up & adam by 7:30 am to start working on the shed. Sheldon arrived at 9:00 am to help with the big project. After I served them breakfast it was back to work. You know how "Waage Project's" go around here.....well, this one was no exception. What was supposed to be a "simple" 8'x12' shed......really turned out to be a nightmare. Guess we should have had Wayde up here to supervise. The poor guys couldn't keep the shed square so as the day progressed.....Joel got even more pissed. Brandon showed up after he got off work in the early afternoon. While the shed was giving them problems, Jonathan & the friends hit the water with the jet ski & boat. They were gone most of the day basking in the sun. After dinner the kids started a bon fire & had dessert of smores & were entertained by Brandon proceeding to burn his hand on the hot marshmallow roasting sticks. Around midnight Joel & I were awoken by a wind storm off the lake. We got up to check on the kids that were sleeping in the camper.......silly us, they were still up & gaming. Once again the girls were pissed! In which I didn't blame them. We went back to bed & watched the weather to makes sure nothing was coming that we needed to know about.

I did find Sunday that my friends Cindy & Jen were at a campground in Cumberland having a family reunion weekend and the storm hit the campground really bad. They all escaped with mostly minor injuries but some the of the campers & tents where smashed by trees falling on them. After breakfast, Sheldon & the kids headed out. Sheldon was going to drop them all off at Michael's house and then they all would get rides home from there. Joel continued to work on the shed with Big Joe's help while I started to do the bedding & all the rest of the laundry. Jonathan & Brandon went out on the boat to go hunting for chicks.....they came up empty handed so then they went to Gilligan's for one last effort in finding some......no luck, so they ate. After the day of working on the shed, Joel came to conclusion that he needed to do something different with the roof, so we headed up to Menard's to get a tarp to cover the roof up until he can work on it next weekend.

Monday morning Brandon left to go to work around 4:30 am & Joel was right behind him at 5:00 am heading to Duluth to work until Wednesday evening. At 8:15 am Big Joe headed out the door for Rice Lake and his interview with Mastercraft/Holiday Kitchen's for a Auto CAD job, which is his speciality. After the interview he returned home feeling good about his meeting. Now he needs to wait until the end of the week before he finds out if he gets called back for a plant tour and a second interview with the engineers. Keep your fingers crossed!

This upcoming weekend finds us with nobody coming up. We had blocked out the weekend for Mike & Suzy's Wedding, but we are needing to finish the shed before it get blown down with all these storms we are getting resulting from the hot, humid & hazy days we are having. We wish them nothing but luck for a glorious day. They are meant for each other and the love they have for one another is most obvious. Congratulations Mike, Suzy, Bailey & Maddie!

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

2 weeks to make up!

Greetings from the north woods. We have been very busy and it always seems the blog is the first to not get updated. So here it goes:

First I'd like to say the the picture to the right is the first time the baby came to feed in our yard with mom. Baby still had its spots. Mom was feeding while baby was exploring our yard. For those of you that have been up to our place before, know how close this little one was to our house. It was probably 10 feet from out front door. Our deer have become so accustom to us being around while they are feeding that we can continue on with our work while they are in the yard. We can't make sudden movements, but can surely walk around in the garage & driveway.

The weekend after the class reunion, Kevin, Nicole & Kids were up. Nothing to exciting.....same old boating, beverages & hanging out. Nicole did work on her swimming & life jacket skills which she needs to get comfortable with before she can get on the jet ski again (after the last time she was here, she & Joel got dumped off, she panicked and almost drowned both of them).

Week ago yesterday Big Joe & I started getting ready for the grand finale garage sale! I hope. While Kevin was here with his pickup, he brought all the big stuff back from the storage locker so we could sell. After 1 year after we started preparing to move to the lake, we had spent $720.00 on a storage locker to house the "shit". So time to clear it out & get rid of it. It took me 2 days, but I got the garage all organized.......Ok, so my OCD kicked in big time.

Thursday, was the first day of the sale and let me tell you by the end of the day.....they had me cleared out. Sold the sectional couch but still had Jonathan's bedroom set, Foosball table, dining room table & hutch. I still had Friday & Saturday to go.

Friday brought more garage people out in droves. Joel got off work around 2:00 pm and stopped by to get Rita on his way home. It was the prefect weekend to have Rita up with the garage sale & all. She is not into the wild, crazy party weekends. Had dinner & we we all in bed by 10:00 pm.

Saturday morning we opened the garage sale at 8:00 am and kept it opened until around 11:00 trying to sell the "big" stuff. While Big Joe supervised the sale.......Joel, Rita & I went and hit up a couple of garage sales. I can't stand to garage sale but it is right down Rita's alley. Came back & closed the sale down with no luck selling the rest of the big stuff. Then we headed up to Rice Lake to donate the remaining garage sale stuff (2 small boxes to Good Will & 1 box to Restore). While in town, Rita decided she needed to hit up the thrift stores. After the "fun" shopping was done, we needed to head to Menard's to go price the cost of a new shed we need to house the 3 bikes, mobility scooter & table saw that doesn't fit into the garage. Big Joe called while we were shopping to let us know that our neighbors had come by with their family who are getting married in October and bought the dining room table, hutch and my china dishes. Woo Hoo!! Jen came over for a visit, the neighbor's family came to pick up the furniture, had dinner and we turned in early once again.

Sunday was pretty much uneventful. Joel & I had to run back up to Rice Lake while Rita, Jonathan & Big Joe hung out. Sunday early evening Joel, Rita & I attended the Chetek's Hydroflites Water Ski Show. We had been watching the clouds all day hoping that it would hold out. As we watched the pre show which is the junior skiers, it sprinkled a couple of time. Nothing that an umbrella couldn't handle. By the themed showed "Big Phat Wisconsin Wedding" started.....the sprinkles were closer. At the intermission, it was down right raining, so we headed home. Had dinner, relaxed and turned in early because it was a work night for Joel.....and Rita.

Monday morning at 4:00 am......Joel & Rita were off.

This beginning part of the week is on schedule to be quiet. The only excitement is Thursday's farmer market and prepare for this weekend's guests................Jonathan's friends from Minnesota!! This is his 2nd annual summer bash and I'm sure fun will be had by all! I believe the guest list goes something like this......Brandon, Chase, Derek, Bri, Hailey, Jenna and I'm not sure about Michael because he is newly employed. Also dad & mom will be having a friends up.....Mr Sheldini, who is coming up to help Joel & Big Joe build a new shed.

Weekends are filling up fast, in fact we are booked until the 2nd weekend in September. Just a reminder......Oktoberfest is the weekend of September 18, 19 & 20th. We still have room if anybody is interested in coming up. This year we will be attending the "Tapping of the Golden Keg" ceremony on Friday at 12:00 pm. Then back on Saturday for the festivities of drinking, eating and doing some Polka.

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

What a whirlwind weekend!

This past weekend was my So St Paul mini class reunion. Back in February as several of us started to find each other on Facebook, we decided to get together and reconnect. So over the last couple of months we have tried locating as many of our classmates as possible. I think we were able to locate about 55 or so.

The end of last week we found out that one of our classmates Lisa Johnston could make it due to health problems. Her doctor made her cancel her flight because of the COPD she was recently diagnosed with would have made it to difficult to fly. So last Tuesday I got a hair up my butt & called her to find out if she was grounded from the air only or could she do ground travel. So first I offered to drive to Leesburg, VA (Washington D.C.) to get her, but we then decided that would cost way to much in fuel and I couldn't get back in time to finish my preparations for the upcoming weekend. Next we addressed her taking a Greyhound. If she would have taken it all the way from VA to Eau Claire, WI it would have taken her 28 hrs but if she took it just to Chicago, IL we could shave of over 9 hrs off her travel time. But after talking about it, she decided that all the irritants worn by the fellow passengers might cause her future lung damage. So it was very clear, Lisa was going to miss the mini reunion & the birth of her grandchild the following week. Wednesday morning I came down to my desk to check my Facebook and there was a message from Lisa. She had decided to come after all so we immediately went into action to get her on the bus. She had an aquaintance bring her to the bus station in Washington D.C. for her 4:50 pm departure for Chicago, IL. In the meantime Jonathan & I prepared to leave at 3:00 am in the morning to head to Chicago to pick her up. Jonathan & I had an uneventful trip, we picked up Lisa with no problem and arrived back home at 5:00 pm.

Friday was used for Lisa to get caught up on her sleep after being on a bus for so long and for me to prepare for the classmates that were arriving in the evening. House was ready, camper was ready and garage was all ready to go when our first guests arrived......Roxie, Karen C, Sue and Diana (who travel from Houston to be with us!!!!) Shortly behind them was Sandy who made the trip from IGH all by herself and didn't even get lost! We hopped onto the boat, had dinner at Gilligan's, danced at Gilliagan's and then went for a cocktail cruise. We partied & got reacquainted.

Saturday we started the morning with Belgium waffles and after dishes Karen, Her husband Jim and Linda arrived. After a hour of preparing for the boat........we finally made it onto the lake & headed towards the island. Due to pact.......I can't discuss the afternoon but will say......"You missed a awesome, fabulous, glorious day if you were invited & didn't make it". After an afternoon/early evening on the lake we headed back to the house to get cleaned up and have dinner. A couple of us had run out of alcohol so Jonathan played sober cab & drove Joel, Karen and Jim to the liquor store. About 15 minutes later I get a phone call from Jonathan saying Joel had passed out in the grass & they couldn't get him up........after a little while they were able to toss him in the back of the honda, just like a bag of groceries :) Once home Big Joe & Jonathan got him out of the car, headed him to the house when his legs became jelly and he ended up passing out in the driveway. As it started to rain we tried and tried to get him up. He wouldn't budge so hence the photo:

Finally got him upstairs to take a shower but he had second thoughts and decided to sleep in the bathtub! As the Waage drama was unfolding the rest of the gang was having dinner, cocktails & music. People turned in for the night at different times but runner-up went to Sue for staying up until 3:00 am and the winner was Linda & Jim (Karen D husband) who made it until 3:45 am.

Sunday was a quiet day for Mr Waage as the rest of the world got on with life.....lol While awaiting for breakfast to be served, Diana and Sue brought old school notes that had been passed back in forth in school that the teachers didn't intercept. Can you say funny! We had a lovely breakfast in our make shift dinning room in the garage of crock pot egg bake, toast & mimosa's. Then we assembled for the official class picture before saying goodbye to Sandy, Roxie and Karen B. Afterward we sat down to continue reading the notes and I read the "Senior Values", "Senior Phrases", "Advice to the Underclassmen", "Senior Pastimes-Future Plans", "Senior Wants", "Senior Philosophies", "Senior Attitudes towards Seniors", "Senior Awards", "Senior Favorites" and "Senior Wills"from our year book 28 years ago. Can you say frickin hilarious!!!! We never laughed so hard. We laughed, sweated cause it was hot and then jello shot came out. Next thing we knew it was like 5:00 pm and Diana, Sue and Lisa took off immediately followed by Karen D, Jim & Linda. It was nice to have everyone gone, but I know they all will be back.........the lake will do that to you.

This upcoming week is scheduled to be uneventful but with the Waage's you never know. This weekend we will be welcoming Kevin, Nicole, Lisa and Matthew. The calendar is starting to fill up somewhat, so e-mail or call us if you would like to come for a weekend of relaxation.

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

Fun week/weekend.....but long :)

Holy Moly........I honestly didn't think that we would get through the week. It was non-stop drinking & today I am detoxing!

Last Tuesday we got a break to clean, do laundry & prepare for the next guests to come. Wednesday my girlfriend Nancy, her husband Michael and their daughter Hannah come to spend the rest of their vacation with us. Joel even took Thursday & Friday for a mini vacation for himself.

Thursday the guys made a final Menard's list to finish making another 3 dock sections, so that when we went into town for the farmer's market we could stop to pick up the missing components. We got what we needed at the farmer's market & had lunch as well. Stopped into the Wisconsin DOT to do the last & final step of becoming WI residents......changing Joel's driver's license. After doing errands in Rice Lake, we headed home to prepare dinner. I snuck off to bed while the rest of them sat around the bon fire.

Friday the guys worked on the final dock sections while we us girls prepared for an afternoon on the boat. It was a beautiful day to spend on the island and a wonderful day to convince Nancy to stay on until Sunday evening and catch a ride with Kevin & Nicole. Mission complete! We also met some new friends, in fact these guys live in the A frame next the house on Sumner that we put in a full price offer and didn't get. Small world :) After dinner, the adults went on a cocktail cruise.

Kevin & Nicole were schedule to arrive late Friday evening or early early Saturday morning. We all we beat from being out on the lake all day long, so we all went to bed. Around 3:00 am the house was awoke to all 4 dogs barking as Kevin & Nicole pulled up. Once settled into the camper, the house went back to sleep.

Saturday morning Michael & Hannah needed to leave for home due to prior commitments. So once we had them packed & out the door everyone kinda went into low key mode. Brandon showed up about 12:30 to hang with Jonathan. I worked a couple hours before we went out onto the lake for the day. Joel gave Nicole a little swimming/life jacket lesson due to the little incident last weekend. Joel had been giving Nicole a ride on the jetski & they dumped. Nicole panicked & almost drowned Joel. So we told her before she went ont he jetski again she needed to learned about life jackets, what they do for you & how they feel when they are doing their job. After another fabulous day on the lake, we headed back to the house. After we all got cleaned up, dinner was in the oven & dinner wasn't due to ready for about 1 1/2 hrs.....Kevin, Nicole, Joel & I decided to do a little cocktail cruise. After a fine dinner and a long day on the lake....everyone turned in fairly early.

Sunday morning we were greeted with gloomy skies, so we headed back to Rice Lake to get more dock stuff as Joel decided to build one more dock section. I swear I have so much dock that if you were to drive by lakeside you would think I was a resort! lol Spent the rest of the day hanging out until Kevin, Nicole & Nancy take off around 5:00 pm. Once they left the sirens went off even though there were boats on the lake & the sun was shining. I came in and turned on the TV to find out there was a storm rolling in. It came & went in 30 minutes.......Joel finished up the dock.

This morning Brandon got up at 6:00 am to head home for work & Joel left at 5:00 to work in Duluth until Wednesday evening. Also today is the start of getting ready for my mini class reunion this upcoming weekend. Through Face book, we have been able to reconnect and back in February, decided to plan a party. Suppose if you wanted to get technical..... this would be a 28 year reunion.......Wholly Shit!

Weekends are filling up, so if there is a weekend you would like to join us.....let us know.

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

4th of July Weekend

What a wonderful weekend.........

Friday was spent covering freight in the morning and cleaning the house in the afternoon. Sheldon & his kids, Shea and Ashley arrived around 5:00 pm. Once we got them settled in, we waited for Joel to get home from work. We grilled out for dinner, cleaned up dishes and headed for a cocktail cruise. fter a nice night on the boat, we all turned in early in preparation for a day on the boat.

Saturday after breakfast, we got the jet ski fueled up, boated load and coolers packed. Big Joe stayed back to wait for Kevin, Nicole and kids, Lisa & Matthew to arrive. Once they got in, he shuttled them to the sand bar in his fishing boat. The lake was very choppy, but we made due. The day was fabulous with friends, sun, boating and beer. Once dinner was done, we once again headed out for a evening boat ride.

What's a weekend without some rain! Sunday we started by dragging out feet hoping that the rain would stop so we could hit the lake again. No go on that idea.........so the adults went & hit up the craft sale at the airport (Chetek had their town celebration - Liberty Fest this weekend) It started to look as if it was going to start clearing, so we continued onto the flea-market in the outskirts of town. After that we bee-lined down to Leinie Lodge in Chippewa Falls for some beer tasting. We bought a couple of can coolers to replace the ones that seem to get lost. Can be in Chippewa Falls without making a stop at Olson's for a "homaid" hand dipped ice cream cone. After arriving back home the rain had stopped and the sun was slowly started to peek out in time to be able to go out in the boat & watch the fireworks.

We awoke to a sunny day on Monday morning. Big Joe made us home made pancakes with fresh blueberries for breakfast. Yum! Next we started the drill to prepare for heading out on the boat. We spent the afternoon at the island having lunch, cocktails, jet skiing and swimming. Once back, Sheldon & the kids got cleaned up so they could head em' out to go to their grandma's house. Jonathan and a new friend, Jenna joined us on the dock for some additional jet skiing. I think Joel & Jonathan were having a "dumping" contest to see if they could dump their passengers. Joel first dumped Lisa.....then Jonathan dumped Jenna.....then Joel dumped Nicole......and Jonathan dumped Lisa........and then Jonathan dumped Jonathan (he really jumped off, but we can't tell Jenna that) while Jenna stayed on. Then around 5:00 pm it was time to say goodbye to Kevin, Nicole, Lisa and Matthew. After a long goodbye.........our house was quiet. Now it was the start of laundry to prepare for Nancy, Michael and Hannah to come on Wednesday. They will be with us until Saturday morning and Kevin & Nicole are coming back Friday to spend the weekend with us kid-less! During the planning stage..... Kevin, Joel & I decided we needed to have an intervention for his brother Keith. Over the last couple of years that Keith has been married he has lost his identify.....which we are willing to help him find. Keith........we are coming for you :)

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

This is why we live at the lake.......

This past weekend is why we live at the lake............
Friday, Joel brought Chase & Michael up on his way home from work. So Jonathan was excited to hang with his SSP friends. They must have some major catching up to do because they didn't go to bed until 5:30 am on Saturday morning. Boy.....I sure do remember those days, but I think my days involved alcohol!
Saturday we had a couple of errands to run in Rice Lake but we were back way in time to get out on the boat. While the boys jet skied, swam & tossed the football around, Joel & I hung out with some new friends with a couple cocktails. After a full day of fun & sun........we headed back to the house to get cleaned up & have dinner. Once again Joel & I were long in bed before the boys.
Sunday the boys slept in and breakfast turned into brunch. Jonathan's favorite in the whole wide world.......Egg slop. Once brunch was over, it was time for the boys to go home. Arrangements had been made for Chase's parents to meet at the Wal*Mart at exit 41 which is only about a 45 min-1 hr drive for Jonathan. While he was gone Joel & I decided to load up the boat to go on a cocktail cruise. It was an absolute beautiful day. It is amazing how we can turn a little cruise into a 5 hr trip. We ended the day & weekend with a trip to Rice Lake for a little Chinese :)
This upcoming week will be busy at the Waage house in preparation for a house full of guests for 4th of July celebration. Hope everyone's holiday is full excitement, hanging with friends/loved one and of course....safe.

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan

Not a 100% Boatin Weekend, but it works

Jonathan, Big Joe & I all had a bet Friday on what time Joel would get home "early". As you see, since moving to the lake, Joel NEVER gets off early like he used to. So he told us during dinner Wednesday night that his boss said he should come in late on Thursday morning, Joel said "Nope, I am leaving early on Friday!" Yea.....right. The family has heard that before. His idea of early is coming in the door 10 minutes earlier than he normally does. So when we heard this, we all decided to place our bets. The stacks were high......1st person that lost the bet was going to have to cook dinner and the 2nd loser was going to have to clean the kitchen after dinner. So I chose 5:15 pm as my time, Big Joe chose 6:00 pm & Jonathan had the most confidence in him & chose 6:30 pm. His normal arrival time is 7:15 pm. I was the winner when he actually arrived at 4:34 pm!!!! Holy Crap!!! We didn't even get to enjoy it because this was a rarity. I had a conversation that afternoon with Sheldon, who was on his way to get his lunch of Chinese food, so throughout the whole day I have Chinese stuck in my brain. So off to Rice Lake we went for Chinese Food. Turned in early thinking it was going to be a beautiful Saturday for boating.

Boy, were we sure wrong.........we were all set with lunch, boat food & beverages to go boating. We waited & we waited.......and waited for the clouds to blow away and get some good old fashion sunshine. Finally around 1:30 pm Joel, Jack, Lilly & myself hopped onto the old party barge loaded with sweatshirts, towels & blankets. Once we got over to Pokegama the wind died down & we actually were able to enjoy ourselves. We had a good ole crawl down the shore line. Went through the draw & once we came out to Prairie it was very nice & the sun came out! Went up to Lion's Den & putted our way home around 6:30 pm. Had dinner, watched a couple of hilarious movies and headed to bed.

On father's day, Joel celebrated his day by working on completing the laundry room. By early afternoon we were ready to go out on the boat, but some unexpected news put him in a crabby mood, he decided to continue to working for awhile. Eventually we made it out on the boat for a relaxing ride & time to reflect on friendships & who really are our friends.........

Hope all the Dad's had a fabulous Father's Day with their children & family doing what they all enjoy doing together......

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Joel, Amy & Jonathan