The Schmidt House

My gift for Xmas was a new video camera. Here is Dan and JG's first video production of AE's championship game this weekend. Love the Benny Hill Theme music... Baby girl is #44. She had 16 points in this game.

This ad helps explain what I do at my job, everyone asks me and this pretty much sums it up. The systems we support: buy the grain, identify it, trade it, then we export it all over the world. That is why I have been down at the export plants with the rats, making sure our systems are safe. As I have always said, not the sexiest thing in the world, but people have to eat.

by all of the changes to the blog look lately... I really liked the fun flowers, however couldn't read a blasted thing on the iPhone. Hope you all have a great week!

Mom, Dad, Amy, Sam, and Hailee, How are you? I'm fine, but a little tired today. It is raining again today, it sees like all it does is rain here. How is the weather at home? Sorry again about calling at 1:00 a.m. in the morning. Yuki and I went shopping yesterday and I bought this paper at the bottom is Mt. Fuji. I am kinda excited at school. I am sad they are done with their tennis and basketball unit. Now we are starting swimming - yea! Last night at dinner we had a salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. Well, I was pushing the alfalfa to the side and I found this purple thing - it was raw octopus. It had the suction cups and everything - I about died. It tried it - didn't taste like anything. So I guess it wasn't that bad. All I do since Yuki is gone today is try to find my way around the neighborhood and watch TV. I think I've seen "An American in Paris" three times. I write a lot too. Tomorrow I am going to a flower arranging class somewhere. Next week I am ...

after the downer kind of post yesterday (really after I typed up the note from Gram I was sobbing), but I guess I needed it because today was a good day. I heard this song this morning and sang it all day...I want my money back. Lenka - The Show

I was looking for one thing and came across something quite unexpected. I somehow had put some old letters in a box and forgot about them. It was a bittersweet surprise. They bring back so many feelings and memories. I am really missing Gram.

I guess I had some disappointment at work - can't for the life of me remember what it was - must have been big because my mom told Gigi. Dear Susan, I talked to your mom on Sat. and learned of your disappointment at work. As usual here comes grandma's unsolicited advice. Every day I say a prayer for all of the grandchildren which includes the following: "May they go forward with open and receptive minds to meet their future, that they may live and face up to disappointment, that they may learn to accept themselves and not lose heart." Growing up you learned that life has its peaks and its valleys. You have much for which to be grateful. It is good from time to time to take stock of the plus side as well as the minus side of the ledger. Just keep applying your many talents to your job. The day will come when you can say, "All is well that ends well." Amen! Enjoyed your card and am still enjoying my birthday goodies. My writing is terrible - hope you can rea...

Dear Susan, It is unbelievable how quiet & lonely the house is without you and Amy. The dogs keep watching the doors waiting for someone to come home. They practically attacked Grandma when she arrived yesterday. The Evanses decided to leave a day earlier than planned, so Amy left on her trip yesterday (Sunday) at 7:00 a.m. She & I had to really scramble to get all her clothes and supplies ready, plus we had to get the donut down from the garage & ready to go. She called us from Salt Lake City last night and said all was going well, with the exception of Donny's driving. I am trying to not worry too much, however, for me that isn't an easy job. I understand Dad called you the other morning to make sure you got a conversation with him. I know he misses you both a lot, but of course he doesn't say much. Friday night around 7:00 p.m. the doorbell rand there was Erin Lefdahl. She was driving a large station wagon and wanted to know if you wanted to go "cruising...

Every year at the Jost family (my mother-in-law's family) Xmas Eve we do the White Elephant gift exchange. Usually you walk away with something you gave the year before, however JG walked away with the six-year-old mother load this year. He was a little bit disillusioned when he opened his gift and there was a piece of paper with a bunch of tickets stapled to it. In fact he almost threw it away, thanks to Dan it was recovered. Dan was definitely more excited than his son. JG received numbers for all of the college Bowl Games. JG and I had completely forgot about the numbers until Dan's aunt Debbie called last night to check in on JG's numbers. I read her what he had and she said, "We have a winner!" JG won $45 bucks on the Cotton Bowl. Dan's mom is not going to be happy when she finds out her grandson has gone to school and informed all of his friends during his class sharing time: "Yeah, I won $45 this weekend with my numbers. I like gambling cause you w...

I have had it. Over the past two weeks I have lost my drivers license. Then we couldn't find our Chase replacement cards - they did come in the mail last month - where they went I HAVE NO CLUE. So old card was cancelled and replacement was sent. Then on Saturday my Wells Fargo debit card was flagged for fraud because they sent me a new card on DECEMBER 3rd which I didn't receive. So old card was cancelled and replacement was sent. Today in the mail there were two envelopes. One was from Chase and the other from Wells Fargo. I was soooo excited!!! Both contained new cards... with the old numbers. I called to ask why and no one could explain why they sent out cards with old numbers that will not work for ANYONE. Got completely lame standard response, "ma'am I do not know what happened but we did send you the card and you lost it, however I apologize for your inconvenience... blah, blah, blah..." They are both sending another set of cards which could take 5-7 busines...

How did the past two weeks go by so quickly??? I am not looking foward to tomorrow and getting back to the daily grind. At least I managed to decrease my work email from 848 to 103. That my friends is an accomplishment which will allow me a better night sleep tonight. Here are a few photos our our Holiday...

One of my good friends from childhood put a picture out on Facebook that I have not seen for 25 years (gosh, it seems so strange to say 25 years). It is of our 6th grade school basketball team and what a motley crew we were. I was 12 when this photo was taken. It is actually quite embarrassing. We were the Paintbrush Pirates and had to wear these God awful uniforms with white, yes white shorts that would pretty much be classified as a swimsuit nowadays. I do remember the day the photo was taken, I even curled my hair for the occasion. I just received a curling iron and was still trying to figure out how it worked as you can see from the photo. Always had a hard time in the early years trying to make sure I didn't turn it the wrong way and end up with a crease. Did anyone else feel my curling iron pain? Well here we are...if you can't guess I am #50. As I can see now, my mom was right, I did need the reminders to "stand up straight!" Look at my posture, I was really st...

Dan brought it home tonight, fell asleep and then I watched the whole thing for some reason. Completely confusing. Was there another movie that came before this one cause when did Scully and Mulder hook up? I missed that. I used to watch this show, but I don't have a clue what is going on. The best part of the movie is the music playing during the end credits... ** out of 10 stars. That is being generous.

1. Blog more. Need to document the Schmidt happenings, I feel like I forget so many of the little things the kids say/do. Plus my mom really, really likes to read what we are doing because she can never get us on the phone. 2. Start book? Just need to figure out what to write about...perhaps crazy family? Who wants to proofread? 3. Stop procrastinating. Don't know if there is any hope on this one, but thought I would give it another go before I turn 40. After then, not gonna try to teach an old dog new tricks. I will forever be on Galarneault/Schmidt time and up until 4:30 a.m. Christmas Eve. 4. Purge. Just when I have done it, there is always another round. I feel like I am suffocating with the amount of "stuff" we have in this house. Do I really need 17 empty bins/containers/holdy things??? If there isn't anything in them maybe they should leave the house. Does anyone need any holdy things? 5. Do not buy anymore books from book store. I have at least two bookcas...