The Schmidt House

Here for the annual look to see if you are still here old friend. You are. I can exhale now. Wish life could be back to before it all changed. I miss that life. It is still an amazing life, but different.

I seem to do a drive by, lament about not wtiting anymore, leave, and then do the same thing a year later.

Over the holidays I bought a new computer so I could start working on collections team while volunteering at the Aitkin County Historical Society - start of the next phase of my life in the place where I always wanted to be. It is home.  With this new purchase I now have my very own, not family shared computer, for the first time since 2009 I think and it is set up with all of my own accounts. While I was exploring today, I found our old family blog and it brought back so many memories of how therapeutic blogging is.  So maybe I will start to do this again. I will probably share more of what I am working on with the family tree work I am doing and items that intrest me that I am finding at the historical society. Don't really care if anyone reads it, but it is to keep my record of things that I find because I am really starting to have a very hard time remembering things, pretty sure my brain is full. 

It has been years. Yes, really years since I have posted last. I was so relieved to find this blog still here waiting for me to come back to visit. I have done a lot of thinking over the past few months about who I am and where I have come from after my dad passed away. So, I think I will take this time and this outlet to explore that. Where this was once a place where I documented every day as it unfolded I will do the same with the stories that come to me. Hopefully I will stick to this and use this as a conduit to many different things. I will be back. I hope. So good to see you again old friend.

Hello long lost friend. It has been awhile since we have seen one another. Stopping by the page seems familiar, but so foreign. The last time I blogged it wasn't in Google, when did that happen that when you post it is like you are writing a letter? Change happens.  Well, I am going to try to make this part of my routine again where I can share my stories, thoughts, and observations on life.  Stay tuned...

But then again it should be just like riding a bike - right? I laughed at the last post and the last sentence stating that I would be starting a new role @ work.... That was the last anyone has heard from me and quite rightly it has been a ride for sure. I am still in the role and things are going well what an 18 months it has been. In fact tonight when I was talking to my dad on our daily evening chat he actually said: "You know kiddo it is a small miracle you got that thing on track and have survived." We will leave it at that and hopefully this is the start of this outlet again because I feel like something has been missing to calm the chaos. Nothing like a little purge...hope to talk soon.

today was one of those days that from the moment we were up we were going...to sports, sports and more sports. started the a.m. in blaine with allie and her mg team, they won both games. she wasn't very happy with how she played, wished she had some do-overs. the high school coach said that she has to DOMINATE this year and think that is top of mind. she wants to dominate, but that also means that she needs to get the ball which still isn't an easy feat in 8th grade basketball. getting easier, but i swear girls don't "see" the court. oh well. it will come. she went 8/8 from the line, so that was very positive. little man had two baseball games and what a two games they were. he went 7/7 from the plate and was on fire. he was so proud and most of all confident. no funks. which is such a good thing. back to the daily routine tomorrow, oh wait, today. must get to bed. have just accepted a new role at work, think it will be announced tomorrow - start that new adventur...

and I don't think that I like it very much. Gone are the days of holding my hand, saying goodbye, and telling me how much he loves me. I know that under the tough guy exterior he still wants to give me a hug, tell me loves me and he really wants to tell me I am the best (and only) mom he has ever had.

I have always been interested in genealogy - I know it is really looking back, not forward, but there is much to learn about yourself from the ones who went before you. Over the past 15 years or so I have been digging into my family history, back when you would have to go to the local LDS library and start looking through microfiche. Let me tell you it was very frustrating and you would have to often times go to the small towns and dig through years of newspapers for one little blip telling you that Mildred luncheoned at Mamie's house last Tuesday noon. Was not for the faint of heart of fairweather tree hunters. Over the past 3 years of so Ancestry.com has really hit it out of the park with all of the changes they have made with their site. They actually make genealogy kinda easy and at your fingertips, how great is it to have a PDF of a 1840 US census at the click of the mouse. I currently have 859 people in the Galarneault, Hulett family tree and add more every day. It is...

Almost two years ago I had a post entitled, "Empty" . It was about my grandmother's home in Aitkin. I visited the post today and it took me back to how I was feeling when I wrote it - the house was empty and so was I. Well my friends, empty no more. My dad just purchased the little house and I couldn't be happier. I know it isn't on a lake or a river, but it is perfect just as it is. It will be our little retreat in the middle of lake country and most of all it is the setting of some of my most beloved childhood memories...now we will be able to have our children make their own memories. Oh, btw it is open to any blog friends who would like a "in town" north-woods retreat.

***warning - there will be whining in this post*** don't know about the rest of you but i have had it with this warm. first we were in TN with the miserable heat and then we come home and it is worse here. plus i don't know if our air is really working as it should...i suggested to the home office that we could have blown the fuse again, but that wasn't received well. about 4 years ago i ended up calling minnegasco when the air wasn't working, dan left and went to work and left me here at home looking like a complete idiot when the guy showed up, told me nothing was wrong with the a/c and flipped the switch/fuse and instant cold. i am hedging my bets that it might be the same case, but i am not going to fall for the minnegasco trick again. btw the same thing happened this winter with the furnace, dan left me here alone looking like the inept homeowner. i am sensing a pattern here... i have to go to st louis next week and do a presentation to like 375 people - ugh. littl...

don't know where the time is going this summer. seems like yesterday was the last day of school and now all of the school supplies are out at target and the kids are already talking about the first day of school... the summer is going well, the kids have a nanny this year and absolutely love her. she is the greatest and is driving them all over kingdom come. wish that nannying would have been an option for when i was in hs. seems like when i was a kid i babysat the entire week for like $20 and i felt that was a fortune. just got back from TN with allie and the national aau tourney - they finished 6th in the nation. everyone got along for the most part and the girls had fun - the should be so proud of their accomplishment.

I feel like every time I fall off the face of the Earth I come back saying, "Boy, have we been busy..." Well, it's the truth. Boy have we been busy - until today. Today Joe had a football game - they won, the weather was fall - brisk, and we didn't have anything the rest of the day - I was bored.

i am amazed at how otherworldly our daughter is. she sees no bad in anyone (except maybe her brother), the world is always new to her, she speaks before thinking and is pure in thought. she has no filter and i love that about her. she doesn't know how to judge others. what a beautiful place to be in the world, oh to spend a day in her shoes and see the world from her eyes. i am proud of who she is and who she will be. in the same breath i wonder what she will do when she goes out into the world on her own. when she will need to balance her own checkbook, cook her own meals and actually have to earn money to support herself. i appreciate each moment i have with her and continue to shake my head in amazement at how the world truly is new to her each and every day.

we had a great vacation, the basketball could have been better, but we saw america from the family truckster. the kids didn't fight...that much and dan and i didn't get into one domestic thanks to the lovely garmin. garmin are a life saver. oh and did i mention... i suck at being a blogger think i might be voted off blog island...sigh

One day I asked my Dad if we needed to get new hockey equipment. On Tuesday my Dad came in with a big bag of hockey stuff... He tried to put my shoulder and chest pads on but my head was too big. Then my Dad went to the store for bigger ones, but I did not want to wear them to practice. It was my game but I still did not want to wear my equipment. Then it was the end of my game. My Dad asked me if I wanted to wear my hockey equipment. I said on Monday. I was at practice and my Dad put my equipment on. I went on the ice and I didn't like my hockey equipment for awhile but... I got used to it. I thought to myself it was the best hockey equipment ever! I told my Dad this is the best hockey equipment ever. Finally, I told him to never throw my equipment away. The End

***To my mom Sharon - don't worry - the blog title for this post comes from a Clark Griswold quote from National Lampoon's Vacation - I really DID have fun on our family vacations.*** We had a very busy weekend as I am sure was true for everyone. I managed to get a lot of the chores done due to procrastination of work commitments. Not a good place to be, but have it all done now and need to get to bed. The work commitment is due to continuing to do my old job as well as my new one. Can't tell you how happy I am going to be when they get someone in to do my old gig. AE asked me if I was being paid for two jobs and I smiled and said, "No honey, that's not how it works." I am trying to be a good former team member and help out versus just leaving them holding the bag - not my style. Dan and the kids went fishing today while I got the first Schmidt family Griswold adventure planned out. AE's team is going to Nationals at the end of the month - gosh can't b...

Don't know if everyone listens to The Current, but have been enjoying Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Love them, they are coming to Mpls this summer and thinking it would be a fun show to see...

Dan took JG and his best bud JV up to Mille Lacs yesterday for a little fishing, they went on one of the charter boats - Dan figured it would be "easier" with the boys and was hoping that JG would have a good experience and want to fish more this summer. Dan has always wanted a little fishing buddy and now he has one. Guess that JG caught the first three fish on the boat of 12 charter fisherpeople. Third time was the charm. Little man managed to land a 7lb. 7oz walleye - it weighed as much as he did at birth! He was the envy of the boat and was so very proud. When Dan got home all he said was, "I have been fishing 33 years and have only caught one walleye bigger than JG's in my whole life. The kid goes out and catches that after his third try." Lucky little cuss...

this past week has been a whirlwind to say the least, i have barely had enough time to fit in breathing. i am drained and energized all at once...is that possible? i am at a cross roads of sorts, i am starting this new journey and am so very excited to enter the "sweet spot" of what i have been wanting to do for years. this new gig truly is my dream job... then on top of all of this i have been encouraged to think about my career in a new light and potentially go places that i have never dreamed of. . . when i was spoken to all that kept going around in my head was the title of this post... a poem i wrote a paper on twenty years ago in college - in 1990 i said that i would travel the "grassy road" that wanted wear... now in 2010 i hesitate... and am thankful i have time... i need a lot of time... because time will tell if our family will travel the road not taken and maybe someday... I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverg...