Fall is magical

My byline returns to USA Today!

My byline is back in USA Today for the first time in nearly 10 years! A project I've been working on since I returned in June published online today and will be in the print edition tomorrow, Oct 1.

This is the first part of a four-part series called "Where the Jobs are." I did all the reporting/writing for part 1 and am currently working on part 3, which is scheduled to publish at end of October. Parts 2 and 4 are being done by other reporters at the paper.

You'll notice that there's a big print story, plus tons of videos and an interactive database. I had a hand in every little piece, one way or another. It was a lot of work!

Enjoy!

They're off to kindergarten!

Happy day in our house....

On the trampoline at the MN State Fair

Last day of daycare!

Wow, the last two years have flown by! It was such a great decision to put our kids at the Northwestern College child development center. They've enjoyed every minute of it and learned so much. I'm pretty certain I can count on one hand the number of days one or both of them did NOT want to go to daycare.

Today is their last day at the center. Then they get a long vacation at the cabin. Then next Tuesday it's off to kindergarten!

I snapped a few pictures this morning when I dropped them off....

Here's Maddie's favorite teacher, Karrie. 

This is Maddie with a castle the kids have been making recently.

Signing in. Today they had to put their names on ribbons (the theme this week is State Fair)

This is my favorite....our morning ritual. They wait by the playground door and I wave to them, and blow kisses, from the sidewalk outside before I head back to my car. 

Recent pics..summer 2014

Last weekend we went to the Minneapolis Fire Museum, where you can check out old fire trucks -- even get in and pretend to drive this one. And then they take you on a ride around the neighborhood in an old fire truck. We got to sit up on the back (like where the hoses go), but the kids didn't want me to take a picture for some weird reason. 

Here's a pic of Ben with one of his Lego creations....

And a pic of Ben today at the Washburn County Fair in Spooner...

And here's Maddie with her Tinker Toy creation....

And Maddie last week, dressed up like Elsa from "Frozen." She wore this to her "princess and fairies" art camp that she attended (just a couple hours each morning last week).

Giant slide

You can see a video of the kids going down the giant slide at the Washburn County Fair, in Spooner, today.

They had so much fun!

Click on this link to see the video

Summer 2014!

Saturday was a quintessentially perfect summer day at the cabin -- brilliant sunshine, warm but not ungodly hot and a little breeze. I pulled out the fancy camera to add to our collection of pictures on the cabin wall. I try to get at least one or two each summer and the kids love seeing pictures from years past. In fact, they wanted to re-create a couple of them in these pictures.....

Grilled Honey-Mustard Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 pork boneless loin chops

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

dash of onion powder

Directions:

Heat coals or gas grill. (Alternatively, you can cook these in a pan with a little vegetable oil; keep the heat on medium or lower)

Remove fat from pork

Mix remaining ingredients in small bowl

Cover and grill pork 4 to 6 inches from medium heat 14 to 16 minutes, brushing occasionally with honey mixture and turning once, until pork is slightly pink in center. Discard remaining honey mixture

Preschool graduation!

Tonight we had the first of what I hope will be many, many graduations for Ben & Maddie. It was a cute little ceremony, complete with white caps and capes. The kids sang several songs and did a percussion number with sticks. They went around and introduced themselves and pointed out their family. And later they said what they wanted to be when they grow up and they displayed a picture (on a screen) that they drew depicting this future occupation. Ben said he wants to be a police officer. Maddie said she wants to be a dance teacher. They each got a diploma and a chance for a picture with their primary teacher. And then a group photo at the end, which was pretty much a disaster since very few of them (especially the boys) could sit still by that point). We also tried to get a family photo and didn't have the greatest luck with that, either.