We went to the Joslyn Art Museum today. It was a nice collection. They had a couple Monet paintings so that made me happy. 

 Merry Christmas!

We had a lot of change this year. We started the year with a new great nephew when Danielle had Carter in early January. Anna also started her first semester at a U.S. High School in February. Our school was still 100% virtual at the time so she didn’t get the full experience until March when they went to in-person every other day. She seems to be enjoying it.

We spent Easter in Omaha visiting Eric’s sister and brother, Bonnie and Chris and their families. It was nice to see family again.

We did a few live 5K races in April and May and started attending Twins games again. Since Eric was traveling so much, Anna and Caio got to go to more baseball games then they probably wanted to. Minnesota Loons soccer was back too so we had a lot of fun this summer.            

In early June, my mom’s cat Malcolm was having issues breathing. We rushed him the emergency vet. They initial thought it was asthma. But when he didn’t get better after a couple days of treatment and his breathing got worse, they said he probably had cancer. There really wasn’t much we could do. He crossed the rainbow bridge. We think he was missing Mom and wanted to sit on her lap again. A couple days later our cat, Swirl, started acting strange and he stopped eating. We rushed him to the vet and they said he was in advance stage of kidney failure. Again, there wasn’t anything we could do and Swirl crossed the rainbow bridge too. It was a rough week losing both cats. This all happened during the one-week Eric was actually home all summer.

The day after Swirl passed, I dropped Eric off at the airport for another trip to Indiana and he said to me, “you are going to have new cats when I get home on Friday, aren’t you?” Well, I wasn’t that fast but after a couple of lonely weeks in the house I searched for our next cat. We wanted a bonded pair since having one cat is so boring. We applied for a couple different sets but then we found them, 10-month-old orange sisters. Eric, Anna and I went to meet them at foster’s condo in St. Paul and it was love at first sight. The rescue named them Reba and Kyra. Reba was very affectionate. She immediately climbed under my chin and was purring. Kyra was more adventurous and was focused on playing with her toy that Eric and Anna were using. After being vetted and having a virtual home visit, the girls were ours and we picked them up July 1st. We kept the name Reba because it is a great name for an orange/red kitty. We named the other Finnegan because she has a white nose…the only way to really to tell them apart. They are so much fun and love being held and getting belly rubs. They can be mischievous at times, but the Christmas tree is still standing.

For Caio’s birthday in July we went up to my cousin Larry’s on Red Cedar Lake near Rice Lake, WI to go fishing. Mom promised to take Caio fishing so we made good on her promise. It was a fun weekend. We didn’t catch too many fish but Caio got a nice perch.

In August, Eric and I went to Florida for an anniversary trip. We saw baseball games at both the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins stadiums. We got to spend time on the beach and toured the Florida Everglades. It was a great time.

Right before school started (yes, we have to worry about school schedules now) we went to Rapid City to see family. We did some touristy things like Wind Cave and Badlands. It was a fun trip.

Eric and I ran a half marathon in November in Madison. It was the 4^th year running the race so we could complete our medal picture. It was a hard race; I was dealing with injuries but we finished and that is all that matters!

Eric was traveling to Indiana and Texas for work most of the spring and summer. He was proud to achieve Diamond status at Hilton. When he wasn’t traveling, he was working in the office as CenterPoint Energy went back 100% in office in July. He continued to referee adult league soccer in the summer and high school soccer games in the Fall.

I was busy being a “single mom” during Eric’s travel (who ever thought those words would come out of my mouth). Ameriprise has been slowly making me go back to work. We are currently working 3 days a week through March 31, 2022. The Eden Prairie Community Band was back in action this summer. I play two outdoor concerts this summer and two Holiday concerts the last couple Sundays.

Caio is working at Hy-Vee as the full-time donut fryer and is busy prepping for college next fall. He recently passed his driver’s test.

Anna is a junior at Shakopee High School and works at Wahlburger inside Hy-Vee. She also just got her driver’s license.

We are looking forward to a nice Christmas season, getting together with family. We just got 15 inches of snow yesterday so it should be a white Christmas.

Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season and a great 2022.

Love,

Eric, Kim, Caio, Anna, Reba and Finn.

 We took Caio and Anna and their friend Chavy to the Kiwanis Holiday Lights in Mankato. We met DJ at Hardee's first and had dinner and then we went to Sibley Park. It wasn't very busy. Maybe because it was a Tuesday and it was a little cold. It was nice to have the park mostly to ourselves.

 

We went to Christmas in Color at Valleyfair with Mike, Linda and Alec. Anna was done with work so she joined us too. We had a 7pm appointment. We sat in the line up of cars for 25 minutes before we actually got into the lights. It took us 25 minutes to drive through. For $35, it wasn't bad but when Mankato's lights are free and you can walk through, I would go for that one over this one any day.

Nancy, Danielle and Blake came over to make traditional Christmas cookies. We had a blast making our usuals, cut out, rosettes, peanut butter blossoms and ritz peanut butter sandwiches.

 

 It has been a while since I've had a new blog post. I'm so bad!  November was busy. 

The first weekend Eric worked at the RVR store in Mankato and I went to MN Largest candy story with DJ and Anna and then we decided a trip to IKEA was a good idea too. Haha. I always end up at IKEA with DJ. :) 

The next weekend Eric and I went to Madison for our 4th and final running of the Madison Half Marathon. Since the beginning of October I've been dealing with knee pain and my running has been put on hold. It is so frustrating because I was make such good progress. So leading into this race I hadn't run much. I took the two weeks off between Halloween race and this one. It was very slow, the worse half marathon ever, but I finished and got my 4 medal to complete my puzzle.

We celebrated Evelyn's birthday the next weekend. Greg's parents and grandma Helen were visiting so it was nice to see them again. 

The days leading up to Thanksgiving my brother, Mike and his family came up to visit. We were supposed to see holiday lights at Valleyfair but they delayed their opening day until after Thanksgiving. We went shopping at the Mall of America and made cookies at home. I was able to give Linda her flamingo picture I painted her. 

It took me 2 hours to complete and it was so much fun. I really like it.

Thanksgiving morning, Abbie and Bryce came up to run the Turkey Trot in St. Paul. Afterwards, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Caio had to work until 2 so we had a late afternoon dinner. DJ and Ethan also came over and Nancy and Greg. It was a good time.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was my first holiday concerts at the Arboretum. Nancy and Greg came to see me play. Last Sunday was my second holiday concert at Eden Prairie High School and Eric came to see me play. They were good concerts. 

Update on Reba and Finn...they love the Christmas Village.

But they are very mischievous, they stole my butter off the counter among other naughty things but the tree is still standing!