OMG........It's the Fourth of July ....already!

Boy times flies when we are having fun. This summer has been so busy and now we are fast approaching the holiday weekend. This weekend is no exception.

On Saturday, Joel & I are meeting John & Joanne at the family house on Carrie Street to FINALLY clean it out and prepare to put it on the market. Grandma Waage has not been in the house for over 4 years and it is time. We have rented a trailer and will be bringing all the stuff up to our house for a HUGE garage sale July 7, 8 & 9.........more work for me! yea!

I'm sure we will save some time to enjoy a cocktail cruise or maybe even a dinner cruise with my honey.

The grass is slowly coming up in the front yard and I was hoping that it would be somewhat grown before my class reunion here the weekend of July 15th. We did have an interesting visitor at our house a week ago. Came home from Menard's to find a momma painted turtle laying her eggs in our front yard. Big Joe figures that due to the soft black dirt, she was attracted to our place. After looking up on the internet, we will have babies in approximately 72-80 days. A couple of days later as I was working in my office, we had more visitors........ Mommy and twins.


This is why we live in the north country. Love the wild life.


Hope everyone has a enjoyable and safe 4th of July.

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

The Shit Hotel is now open for business

Last Friday we finally had our new septic put installed. No more worrying about Jonathan taking to long in the show or a toilet running, which would cause our old septic system to overflow.

Rick Brown started dropping equipment off around 0600 Friday morning but didn't actually start until 0730. We were only without a toilet, shower or sewer for about 3 hours, so that wasn't bad. I guess there isn't much to say about the installation and pictures speak louder than words!






Pumping out the old tank for the last time.......








Digger Dude taking out the old septic & dry well......










Digger Dude ripping up the yard to install the 3 rows of baffles for the drain field.....









Our new 1600 gallon septic tank that is going to be lifted into the big hole...........











View from my office as I was working.............









After all the dirt was put back into place, machinery had left and workmen had gone home.......we had one hell of a mess on our hands. The digger dude had changed the pitch of our hill, so on Sunday, Joel installed a new retaining wall to house a new flower garden and hopefully will hide the cement lids of the septic.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer.

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

New Hotel for Shit!

It has been pretty uneventful since the party. Joel went back to work on June 1st after his 10 day vacation. Maxx has 2 lacerations on his eyeballs after chasing the deer into the wood. Now he is on medication and we think he need a pair of "doggles" to protect him and us from $85.00 vet bills! LOL The weeks after the party we discovered 2 sinkholes in the driveway. The dry well collapsed taking the driveway with it! We had scheduled the new septic installation, it just wasn't quick enough. Yesterday the digger dude came to dig 2 holes for the perk test and is coming back on Friday to start constructing the new hotel for shit!

Yesterday was Big Joe's birthday, which he spent on the road in PA. His job is going well and he loves it....with the exception of having to leave his little Oliver behind. Sunday John & Joanne drove Grandma W's 1995 Ford Tarus up to Chetek so he would have a car.

Tomorrow the farmers market starts out at the Mennonite Bulk Food Store in Barron. I head out every Thursday for fresh bakery, fruits and veggies now until October.

More pictures to follow during the construction of the Shit Hotel.

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

Another bash comes and ........goes

Once again we had another successful Memorial Weekend Bash. After a week long battle to get the house ready, we pull if off the best we could and welcomed our first guest of the weekend........Wayde and Shelley. We hadn't seen them in quite some time, so we spent the early part of the evening getting caught up on family news. Klaus and Ann parked the trailer at Northland resort, came down to say they hadn't eaten and we all went off to Pokegoma for a late dinner. After a wonderful fish fry, cheeseburger, sirloin steak and multiple beer tastings, we head back to the house for a huge bon fire and bed time for the girls.

We started our Saturday with our annual Belgium Waffle Brunch and as breakfast came to a close, we welcomed our next guest........Nancy. After dishes were done, Wayde, Shelley, Klaus and Ann did the healthy thing and went for a bike ride and bar hopped along the way. While they were biking, we needed to run up to Rice Lake to get a couple of items and get back to the house to meet the rest of incoming guests. Sheldon arrived around 3:30 pm and by 4:00 pm the rain started to roll in and along with the rain came John & Andi driving Buford (Buford is South St Paul's retired ambulance) with the lights & sirens a blaring. Once they stopped out popped the last of our guests.......Bri and Michael. After Buford and the trailer were settled in for the weekend, we prepared for dinner. This year Joel & I thought we would try something different........an good ole East Coast shrimp & crab boil. Yum Yum is all I can say......there wasn't much left over, so we are assuming everyone LOVED it! I can say we will be doing more of these this summer. After dinner and dishes.......the after party started. Pretty much the same, bon fire, laughter and John's homemade Apple Crumble.....................which was Lil Andi's demise!

Sunday morning brunch went well and after dishes we all decided to sit under the the tent for a game of Mexican dominoes and cocktails. By late afternoon it was time to start getting ready for the party. Soon after 5:00 pm guests started arriving for the food, fun and dancing.......
Big John and Lil Andi started the music festivities by requesting all couples submit their wedding songs. Joel's brother, John and Joanne danced to "their" anniversary song....I'm All our of Love by Air Supply.
It didn't take long for the shots to start coming out with vengeance and all the brave soles started to sing their best. Bri, Breeanna, Jonathan, Kyle and Michael tried their hand at it, but it was decided quickly that they were not American Idol material, but maybe they would be a hit on the American Idol reject show.......LOL.

After hitting the liquid courage that was being served in the 3 gallon drink dispenser.......Joel, Sheldon, Klaus and Wayde decided to try there hand at "Mustang Sally" which normally is sung by Mike Kensy, who was unable to attend as he was vacationing in Florida. Lets just say........dam we missed you Mike!





Then once the Doctor arrived for the ceremony, Jonathan and his girlfriend , Breeanna....aka Chickie sang a duet which was very cute.





We were able to get a picture of Pam with hubby Jim before she decided to hit the liquid courage hard and heavy. As the evening progressed, she got enough courage.....with the help of the liquid courage dispenser to sing "Pretty Woman" with her backup singer Mike. After her performance her self proclaimed new title was "I'm a Superstar!" Well, just to give an update........"Superstar" didn't make it out of bed until Monday evening at 6:30 pm after spending most of the early morning on the bathroom floor!

The the best announcement of the evening........after being single for over 5 years, Sheldon brought a date for the occasion. May I introduce.................







Polly the Pole..........and they lived happily ever after!








Monday was spent taking the tent down and cleaning our mess up. Friends and family left for the reality of the real world! With the exception of our niece, Courtney.........who extended her vacation until Wednesday when she will go back to the cities with her Uncle Joel.

See you all next year for the 5th annual Memorial Weekend Bash!

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

Thanks Sheldon & Michael...........

Sheldon and Michael Dickinson came to Joel's rescue on Saturday to help get the trees out of the lake and rebuild the docks. Without their help, we would still be trying to clean up after the horrendous storm that hit us. We were bless with wonderful friends, but not wonderful weather. Big Joe was able to come home to do his 34 hour reset, so we had another hand. Saturday was raining, cold and windy......but that didn't stop our boys from doing the job at hand. Poor Joel was in the water so long that he eventually lost feeling in his legs & feet! It was a long day, but they got 'er done.

While the guys were working in the yard, using the chain saw and talking amongst themselves...........there was an Amber alert issued! Momma deer lost her baby fawn. She was attempting to get fawn to cross the road, but a car come and scared momma back into the woods. Prior to her running into the woods, she talked "deer" to fawn and must have told fawn to stay put. Fawn then ran to our neighbors porch to wait for momma to come back. So, of course had to take advantage of the photo opportunity before momma came back. It took less than an hour before momma came back to get the fawn and they both ran off back into the woods.

Monday, Jonathan finished up his last final and is officially done with school for the summer. Now he will be able to start working more hours and put money back into savings.......yea, right! lol

In case nobody realizes it.......but the 4th annual Memorial Weekend Bash is just over a week away. RSVP's are coming in, but there are still a couple of the regulars out there that haven't sent them in. If you plan on coming and are needing accommodations in the house, please let us know as we will be assigning people to beds in the next week.

Hope to see you all here

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

One step forward.....Two step back

We have been making headway on getting ready for the party and then in an instant.............more work that needs to be done.

Yesterday morning started as any other ordinary Monday morning. Joel off to the cities at 4 am, me & puppies up at 7 am and Jonathan off to school. Each morning when I get up, I love to look out over the lake from our bedroom window. It is the most peaceful and beautiful sight. This Monday morning was a little different as I looked to the south and there was just a small horizon of sunlight and to the north it was pitch black. I knew we were in for a doosie of a storm. It took a matter of no time before the storm was upon us with huge down pours, thunder, lightning and quarter sized hail. It stormed for a couple hours, then the wind direction changed and the skies started to lighten up a bit. Once the wind changed......it blew and blew and blew some more. Huge tree branches fell on top of the house which sounded as they were coming through the roof. I keep going outside to make sure things were okie dokie. After several hours of the blowing, I called Joel to see if he could look on his weather monitor at work to see how much longer me & the puppies had to go through this crap! As we were talking, I was standing at the door looking out over the lake. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.......white caps on the lake that had to be 3-4 foot tall. They were coming one after another, pulverizing the boat. They hit the boat....one after another and a couple of times went over the boat. I told Joel I thought the dock was slowly moving, so I ran upstairs to get a bird's eye view from the master bedroom. As I approached the window, I got there just in time to see the boat tilt to one side. As the boat was literally balancing one one pontoon, the 24' of dock crumbled and became plywood in an instant. The boat was now being tossed in the waves while attached to one section of the dock. Joel was on his way to Hinckly for work, so as I reported what was happening he immediately turned around to start heading home. He told me to call Steve, Jim, Jonathan or Gary to see if anybody could come & help me secure the boat. I tried everyone I could thing of.......everyone was unavailable. So here I am watching out the door as our boat and dock smash against the rock and there is nothing I can do. I worry that the boat is going to continue going down the shoreline taking my neighbors docks and boats with mine. As I watch this horrifying scene unfold........all of a sudden one of the trees breaks off and falls into the water. As it couldn't get any worse........when it fell, it landed on our other dock (Big Joe's/Pam & Steve's dock) and smashed it to pieces. Prior to this I was crying.......now I flat out balling and frickin out! I watch as the boat and docks get caught up on the tree, but seems to hold them there instead of damaging my neighbors dock. Within about an hour the lake grows calm and I wait for people to respond to my distress call.

Now what we have left is a hell of a mess to get cleaned up before the party........so if anybody out there reading this has nothing to do this weekend, we could sure use the help in clean up, tree removal and dock repair! Give us a call if you are able to help.....even if it is for the day! Every little bit will help.



Now some good news to report......Big Joe has gotten a real job. He left C R England and was hired on by K & S Carriers out of Greenwood, WI. Joel, Grandma Waage and I took him down there Saturday morning. He loaded up his truck and off into the wide blue yonders! He delivered his first solo load yesterday morning in Hummelstown, PA with no incidents! Even though his terminal is only 80 miles from the house, he will stay out until the party. So now we will have one more thing to celebrate. The list is getting longer.

Well, I must go now and continue working on the storm clean up........

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

The countdown to 4th Annual Memorial weekend has started!

Invitations sent.......check
Dance floor ready.....check
Music secured.......check

Well, ok we are the first to admit we have a ways to go before we start welcoming guests for the season, but we guarantee it will all be done before the party. It is hard to believe that this is going to be the 4th annual Memorial Weekend Bash.........

Over the years we have created so many meomories and know that his year will be no different. I hope that you will join us in welcoming the summer season at the party, Sunday, May 29th starting at 6:00 pm. This year, we will be doing things a little different. For cost reasons, we will be turning dinner into a potluck. We will supply the friend chicken and ask our guests to bring something to pass such as a salad, side dish, dessert and bring your own beverage of choice. Return for our listening and dancing pleasures is Big John & Lil Andi.

For those of you whom are wanting to come for the weekend, we have limited spots at the house, room in the yard for a small pop up/small camper/tent, Northland Resort literally right down the street has cabin rentals & camper sites and hotels/motels in town........just give us a call.

Hope to see or hear from you all soon

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Joel, Amy and Jonathan

Hello World!

Things have settled down a tad at the Waage's, but not totally.

After the Packers won the Super Bowl in January, we set our sights on the next task at hand.......Grandma Waage. Over the last year or so, Grandma Waage has started to decline and the family decided it was best to get her closer to one of the boys. We started checking around the Blaine, MN area where John & Joanne reside, to see what we could find for low income senior living. Didn't get very far, as there were 10+ year waiting lists for most of the facilities that would work for her. Then we expanded our search to Chetek, WI. In September 2010 she submitted her application for a senior community right in town and in the end of January 2011 her number was up...............She is moving February 28th! We had a lot to do in so little time. When it came down to it, she actually moved March 5th. I came back to the cities on that Friday for the big move. With the help from Sheldon & Brian along with Joel and late arrival, John, we got the moving truck all loaded in no time. All in all the move, adjustment and settling down into our small town has gone fine. She has made new friends and absolutely loves her new neighbor, Ruthanne. She even got a new hair do.

In the end of January while we were dealing with the Grandma Waage move, we were also dealing with Big Joe and his new career change. After one day shy of 2 years of being unemployed, we drove down to Eau Claire, WI to put his butt on a Grayhound bus headed to Salt Lake City, UT and his new job........as an over the road truck driver! He was accepted into their driving school to get his class A license. So for the last 8 weeks we has graduated, completed his phase 1 training and started his phase 2 training. Last Thursday he came home for "home time" after being gone since February 4th.

Then there is Joel......since the price of fuel has gone to the moon, he has been staying back in Minnesota. He leaves for work on Monday morning and returns Friday after work. In the month of April, he has been taking all of the Fridays off, so he has only been 4 days a week. I am getting used to that, but it will be coming to an end soon :(

So with Big Joe and Joel gone......that leaves Jonathan and I to tend to the house.......ok, me!


Official "ice out" this year was April 14th. The determination of ice out is when you can drive a boat from Red Rock to Red's without hitting ice. This picture was taken right before the Sunday evening storm on April 10th. Chetek was the center of the bulls-eye. No damage from the storm, but the cell that passed over us went 113 miles to the east and threw out a tornado on Merrill, WI. Scary to think. A couple days later I found a friend doing a little fishing about 20 foot off our shore. He never caught anything, but it was sure majestic to watch. About 3 weeks ago, I woke up to a sunny morning. As I laid in bed trying to fine the energy to crank my butt out of bed, I thought I heard the beautiful songs of our loons. I told myself I was crazy........as the day progressed I looked out the kitchen window to see our loon fishing right in front of our house. There was still a couple of ice islands floating around.......but it didn't seem to bother him.

Now that Easter is behind us, we start the process of getting ready for the 4th annual Memorial Weekend Bash. Lawn to groom, small projects to finish and garage to sweep......all in preparation for Big John & Lil Andi. If you are coming this year and need a place to stay, please call, e-mail or send a message through facebook. We still have spots available to stay at the house, resort down the street and hotels.

I promise now that the season is upon us.......I WILL update the blog weekly. Also remember.....if there is a date that you would like to come up to the lake, please reserve early.

Take Care and see you all soon.

Check Back Often.......Check Back Soon

Joel, Amy and Jonathan

Drinking Opportunities.......Thanks to the Packers

Last Friday was a busy day with the business.....it was nice and refreshing to keep hopping all day long with freight. Thanks Sheldini for your part :) After a busy day, I welcomed by beloved husband home after not seeing him for 5 days. It is such a long time, but with the cost of fuel raising....we have no choice.

Saturday, Joel & I were going to do some snowmobiling, but Big Joe & Jim decided they were going to go to upper Prairie Lake to do some fishing. So we just decided to do our errands in Rice Lake and true to form.....we blew off the whole day by shopping, lunching and bumming around. Saturday evening Joel spent time lounging while I proceeded to drink a bottle of Sangria all by myself while doing a little Face booking & backgammon. I love quiet evenings.......until 11:45 pm when we received a call from our son stating he had hit a patch of ice on his way home from work, hit the curb and into the snow he went. He got himself out, but felt something was wrong with his car. He drove to the Shopko parking lot and called Joel. So we get out of bed, get dressed and hopped in a COLD car at midnight! It sucked! After Joel looked at the car it appears he did something to the suspension, bent the tire rim and screwed up the steering. As of right now we are waiting to see what the estimate is before we decide to turn it into insurance.

Sunday morning we decide we are going to do a little snowmobiling. We gas em' up, get us bundled up and head out towards Gilligan's......needless to say that is far as we got. Tailgating, friends and beers at 11:00 am in the morning for a 2:00 pm Packer Football game.......nice! We had a delightful afternoon filled with beers, shots and touchdowns. After it was determined the Pack was going to the Super Bowl, as if we hadn't had enough beers.....we decide to do a little SWI (snowmobiling under the influence) and go bar hopping. Quick stop at Lynda's Lakeshore for a bucket of beers and then onto Red's for a Bailey's & coffee and a quick bite to eat. Home by 8:30 pm

Today it is a quick clean of the house, laundry and business paperwork before Joel comes home with Grandma Waage. She will be here for just a couple of days.

Now we prepare for another drinking opportunity on Sunday, February 6th as the Pack take on the Steelers.....if you have nothing to do, please join us at Gilligan's.....guarantee it is an experience nothing like you have ever experienced before :)

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Life has been a tad hectic!

It has been over a month since I updated the Waage's life up in the northwoods. I'll try to to give the quick version......but you know I can be...blah blah and more blah!

December 6th I started school/training program at Xcel Energy. Life as I knew it was gone! School was from 3:00 pm - 11:30 pm and with the 1 hr commute on the front & back side....it made for a very long day/night. At first I was running the business in the morning but as the lack of sleep caught up with me, Big Joe stepped in to watched e-mail and answered the phone while he let me sleep in.

Christmas was the most memorable Christmas we had have in many years. We started Christmas Eve day out by celebrating the 1 year anniversary of Joel & I permanently moving to the lake. Then it was time to pack up the truck and head to the cities for Christmas festivities. Jonathan was unable to come along as he needed to work, so Joel & I went alone. We started by picking up our adopted family members, John Young & Rita Koch and headed to Old Country Buffet to meet up with Grandma Waage, John, Joanne and Courtney for dinner. After a lovely dinner we all went back to Grandma Waage's party room for dessert and present opening. John & Joanne were behind us with Grandma W & Courtney in their car and once we dropped off John & Rita, Grandma W & Courtney got into our truck and we headed to the lake for more Christmas. It has always been a tradition in our home for everyone to get into their Christmas jammies before opening Christmas presents. Well, Courtney didn't have jammies, so when we opened presents earlier we had given some to her. Once we all got our Christmas jammies on we opened presents. On Christmas morning the kids awoke to find out Santa came and left presents for them. With dinner in the oven we waited for John & Joanne to arrive for dinner. Later in the evening we sent Grandma W back with John & Joanne. Once they were off safely, we all suited up to do a little snowmobiling........ the end to a perfect day! The following day we loaded up Courtney and off we went to return her back to her apartment.

New Year's Eve was slated to be a blast with my classmates Susan & Diana and their spouses coming for the weekend until we learned of the ice storm coming then they needed to cancel. So the evening was filled with doing errands while Jonathan headed up to his Chickie's house in Shell Lake. When the ice came....it hit hard & fast and as fast as it came....it was gone! I think Joel & I were in bed by 10:00 pm! Whoopied Do!!!!

January 10th Joel & I celebrated our 26th anniversary.......he in Minneapolis and me still in training in Eau Claire! With the price of fuel steadily rising, Joel has been staying in Mpls during the work week and just coming home for the weekends. On the weekends he & I have had the opportunity to do a shit load of snowmobiling on the trails! Loving every bit of it!!!

Big Joe got a job and will start trucking driving school with Roehl out of Marshfield, WI. Due to unforeseen circumstances I turned in the notice at Xcel Energy....they left out a little detail such as we are expected to work until midnight and weekends.........screw that!

So that is pretty much everything in a nut shell!

Take Care all
Joel, Amy & Jonathan

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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