Family Time

It is a very very rare occasion that we can gather the entire Fredricksen family for a meal. Amanda and Tony have such ever changing shifts at Mayo, so it makes for difficult planning. Last night, we were all able to gather for supper at Outback Steakhouse to celebrate my dad's birthday, yet again! What a lucky guy! (only 1 more celebration to go today)

After dinner, we went to Will and Amanda's house to finish off the ice cream cake some of us started on Thursday. I brought along our camera and newly acquired tripod to see if we could get a good family photo.

Here we are! It was a little difficult with the lighting, but I think it turned out great!

This one's for Jacque. You might remember the cousin elbow train at my birthday party...We just had to do it again! 

Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post from our big family birthday party today. We're celebrating Dad, Megan, Nathan and we added in Uncle Norb because his birthday's coming up this week.

Day 3

Today I'm most thankful for the razor. This may seem like a shallower post than my other two, but I haven't actually "seen" my husband since Tuesday evening. He's been on the evening shift, so I'm in bed when he gets home and he's in bed when I leave in the morning. This morning, when I finally saw him awake, I noticed how scruffy he was looking! I went to a conference at my mom's church, and when I got home, he had utilized his razor! He was so nice and clean looking!

Therefore, I am thankful for the razor!

Day 2

Today I am most thankful for my 1st hour class. I teach 1st hour in the high school, and I have really come to love those students. They all have learning disabilities in the area of reading/writing, but they work so hard to overcome their disabilities. Today we had a few minutes at the end of class, and they just HAD to show me this funny music video. It was a good relationship building moment for us!

Thankful November

I saw that a lot of my Facebook friends were going to post daily status updates with things they are thankful for during the month of November. I'd rather do it on this form of media...

Day 1:

Today I am most thankful for laughter. Laughing gets me through my day, and it makes my job/student teaching so much more enjoyable! I was in tears at least 3 times while laughing with my students today. They are just a hoot!

The Birthday Boy!

As I said in an earlier post today, I had the family over for Dad's birthday dinner. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade bread and green beans. It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

Here are the highlights:

Here's a shot of me getting the fresh bread on the rack to cool down.

The birthday boy and his DQ cake. YUM!

The traditional birthday song with the scan of the crowd. 

Mom spent a little time snuggling with Sol. 

Happy birthday again Dad!

I have to also wish Megan and Nathan a happy birthday today. Megan turned 7 today, and Nathan turned 9! It's kind of special to have 3 family birthdays on 1 day!

Well Written

I'd like to share a really well written article from Relevant Magazine. This article is in response to Ann Coulter's use of the "r-word". The article is not political, nor am I by posting this. There are plenty of people on the other side of Ann that have used hateful and offensive words. This one specific word has a lot of meaning to me.

I have always been one to stand up to people of any age or relation to me when they use the r-word in a disrespectful way. I think the author of this article put his feelings out there in such a great way.

I hope you take the time to read this article, and spread the word that using that term is not okay!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/nation/ann-coulter-r-word-and-why-language-matters

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my wonderful father's birthday! (Since I didn't get permission, I won't share his age...)

I'm having Elinor, Mom, Dad, Will and Matt over for a nice warm home cooked meal. Dad put in a request for that yummy artisan bread I posted about. Since we have so many bread lovers in our family, I made two loaves just in case! We're having another FULL family get together for supper on Saturday so Tony and Amanda can join us. They both work evening shifts tonight.

I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post later tonight from our little get together.