Seeking remnants of our past

I love cemeteries and Rick is into Geneology!

To us that equals fun and two hobbies that meld together so that both of our interests are covered. You may not appreciate the picture below as much as us but hear me out....

Rick found this "abandonded" cemetery on the web, it's not just any old bunch of tombstones, they are all his relatives. It's official name is "Coffin cemetery" and it's located in the middle of a farmers field, south of Chatfield. The tombstones are just sitting up against an old fence, who knows where the actual burial plots are? I'm guessing that since it was only 10 people, (and abandonded) the farmer just moved the stones out of the way....sad . Six of these headstones are the McAlister children that all died from Diptheria under the ages of six, three of them in the same year.
Four of these kids were Children of Rick's Great-great grandpa Rufus McAlister

the other two were, Rufus brother's kids. (How am I doing Rick, am I getting this right). It's interesting to us to now see evidence of what we have only read about. Rufus McAlister is buried down the road a bit in Cummingsville. Rick and I were at that cemetery a month or so ago.

The picture below shows the actual site of the tombstones (Coffin cemetery).

Rick and I cant wait to go find it. We will have to go up to the farmer's door, knock, explain ourselves and hope he is a friendly sort of guy that will let us hike across his field to the grove of trees near the fence where the tombstone are located. We're also hoping the guy who owns the land know a little history about this abondoned cemetery. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! May is a busy month so hopefully in June we will venture out to find this treasure. You can be rest assured I will blog again and hopefully have lots to tell about.

Sunday afternoon we got to go out to the Volleyball Center to watch my niece,

Alex (and her Stillwater team play volleyball).

She's a good little v-ball player and I'm pretty sure she inherited all her skills from her Auntie Jackie.

That's Alex on the left blasting a serve over the net. Way to go Alex, you da bomb! Picture on the right she's ready to switch places with her teammate.

It was fun to see my Brother Randy, his wife Michelle and my Nephew Grant.

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Below, my sweet little nephew Grant with cousin Gavin.

They were "chillin" during the first match.

Grant is so cute, squeezable and sweet , I can hardly stand it.

Girl at the track meet

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I was awestuck by her beauty and perfect complexion !
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*Little girl at the track meet*

~~~~~~~~~~~ She's quite the traveler at 6 days old

5 Generations

From baby Audrey's prospective... (Center) Great-great Grandpa Neil Hemmer, (top Left) Great-Grandpa Wayne Hemmer, (top right) Grandpa Rick Hemmer, (bottom right) Mommy, Brianna (Hemmer) Lewis

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We had such a fun day gathering up the generations of Grandparents and heading to Adams MN with Brianna and Chris to let Audrey meet the patriarch...her Great-Great Grandpa Neil. He has been in the nursing home for several months and it was definatly time for a visit. It was soooo neat to see the sparkle in his eyes when he saw her. He couldnt keep his eyes off her.

He had such a forlorn expression on his face as we left, and he asked that we bring her back before she "gets all big".......

.......like his Great-grandaughter Brianna

(with baby Audrey)

Brianna (left) 6 mo old Great grandpa Neil 71 yr

Audrey (right) 6 days old with Great-great Grandpa neil 96 yr old

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well yah...I know I got a separate blog for my "gramma stuff", but you gotta cut me some slack, This little girl is worth bloggin' about on ALL my blogs ! http://granmum.blogspot.com/

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Brie and Chris met us at Quizno's for lunch today. Audrey was so well behaved, she slept through it all.

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After we ate, Grandpa and Gramma had a little snuggle time!

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Then changing gears a little Rick and I traveled up to Lakeville South to Watch Gavin throw. It was well worth it because Gavin threw his best ever in Shotput 41.5 inches (welcome to the 40 ft club Gavin) and he threw his best Discus of the year 130.8 Whoop whoop, way to go Gavin.

Getting ready to throw

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"Back in the day", when I had my babies. Methodist Hospital did something really cool for the new parents. On the 2nd night after the baby was born they provided a dinner for two, "Night of Elegance". They sat us up to a make-shift table, covered with a pretty linen, or was that just a bed sheet?, and they served us a steak dinner. The nurses took the baby to the nursey so it was just the two of us. It was special, cuz we knew our quiet times (just the two of us) would be far and few between. We had about an hour just the two of us to reflect on what just happened....

a baby. No distractions, just the two of us.

I was sad to hear that Methodist no longer provides this wonderful service to the parents. I suppose the cost just got to be too much. So tonight I provided a little bit of that atmosphere for Brie and Chris.....

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...No it wasn't steak, but it was one of Brianna's favorite meals... meatloaf and baked potato's ,they had corn for a vegetable and dessert ended up being Walmart's bakery cookies.

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The best part was for me was taking my little granddaughter upstairs to her room and we just rocked in the chair. I got to REALLY look at her and check out her fingers and toes. I got to smooch her on the cheeks and hold her really close.... all the while faintly hearing Brianna & Chris chat away with occasional giggles, that made me smile.

******** Introducing... Audrey Joanne Lewis

The day we've all been waiting for....

Yep, I'm the proud Granma.

She's a cutie guys, proud parents Chris & Brie, you done good guys!!!

Talking to "Uncle Brice"

Audrey is unphased by the flash photograpy...get used to it little one !

We got "Open eyes". Looking at her daddy

Uncle Gavin's 2nd visit of the day...he just couldnt stay away.

1st time Grandparents and loving it already, thanks Chris & Brie

Suckin' her thumb just like her momma did.

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Cant wait to see you tomorrow little Audrey,

sleep tight tonight so your mommy can get some rest

Sweet dreams after such a BIG day.

~~~Check out my grandma blog for more updates.~~~

http://granmum.blogspot.com/

What a great day for a track meet.

We traveled to Austin for a 9 team invitational.

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Gavin threw shot well, but not good enough to make it into the finals.....

He did qualify for finals in Discus and placed 5th,

He really had a good meet and as usual we are proud.

Senior "Throwing team" Tyler, Jay, Andrew and Gavin.

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My other two "Loves"...Rick and cemeteries.
Since we were already in Austin we knew we werent far from the "Chandler" family plot. It's out in the country on a little dirt road in no-where land. Rick has really taken an interest in his family tree and is having a great time putting names to the grave stones. Many years ago he was actually a pall bearer for his Great Grandma (jensen) Chandler so we revisted her grave as well. Gavins middle name is Chandler, we wanted to use a family name and liked the sound of it.

Rick is checking out the tombstone of his Great great great Grandpa "Welcome Chandler" and next to him is Rick's Great Great Grandpa "David Chandler".

It's a lost art

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I grew up with a mom that had clothes lines.... I mean REAL clothes line poles, the ones that are cemented in the ground and able to withstand 5 lines full of clothes in any wind storm.

(*Indestructable aint going no where clothes line poles.)

I grew up helping hang out clothes twice a week (Mondays & Thursdays) so therefore when I got married I asked Rick If he could get me some clothes line poles. That's not as easy as it sounds... These poles are not something you can pickup at Menards or Home Depot. These poles are made of 1/4 inch iron and very heavy duty. Rick says my Dad found the poles for us at an auction. After getting them home they were painted and cemented in the ground.

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I Love hanging my clothes out, I do it from April till October at least twice a week. I love the smell of the clothes after they come off the line. I like that I can hang them all out in the morning and take them all off late in the afternoon.

I have a technique to hanging my clothes, I learned it from my mom....

Pants and shorts go on one line,

shirts on another....

I double-pin my shirts to save the number of pins I have to use and to save space (plus it's very neat and tidy looking.

Underwear goes on the line between the shirt and pants (cuz I dont want people looking at my undies...hee hee)

The other 2 lines are for overflow and they are usually full too.

I dont hang out "whites or towels" The whites would take me all day ( between the 2 guys I would be hanging out 500 pairs of socks) and I want my towels to be soft. I think they are too stiff if hung out to dry.

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Then there's the clothes pins.
I really prefer the wooden peg tops pins, they are more durable and will hold jeans and heavier clothes especially with the strong winds we get in Rochester. I do have a few pincher pins, I use them for the underwear and I do like them for the tee-shirts.
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Well, my clothes are all clean, folded and put away... all in a days work.
OOPS, I forgot the towel are still in the dryer, oh well.. there's always tomorrow.

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First outdoor meet of the year......

first place

Way to Go Gavin :)

Peeps sunflower cake

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I found this fun cake on-line and made it for Easter.

If you squint your eyes a little it really does look like a sunflower :)

Today was such a fun day.

Started out by going to church to witness an amazing "passion play" put on by our drama team. It was a great way to start out our Easter celebration, being reminded of what Christ did for us on the cross.

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Then it was home to check on the Ham and prepare for Lunch at 1:00. Rick did the honors of slicing the ham, he always does a good job.

We had 19 from the "Hemmer side", Kellie, Brice, Ryan and Katie all came home from college, so we were happy to get to see them. The food menu was traditonal and yummy.

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After lunch the older kids went out to have a game of "blocks and sticks" very original name but that's exactly what it is. It's a game Brice taught all of us and it involves stategically placing blocks in a row and trying to knock them over with sticks. There are a bunch of rules that go along with it and it's actually quite fun.

The winning team consisted of Brianna(audrey), Katie and Chris

The very determined LOSING team consisted of Ryan, Brice and Gavin.

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It was a fun day, hanging out with family, watching the cousins play and enjoy being together. ***

Just when we thought our day was winding down, my mom and dad stopped in at about 8:30 for a surprise visit on their way back home from the cities. Thanks for stopping by guys :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Happy Easter

Yah...I got a house to clean and more shopping to do but on a day like

today ya just gotta stop, pull out a good book and soak up the sun.

I will be having Easter this year (approx. 21 people), so I've been menu planning and recipie gathering. The Ham is bought, the menu is planned, now I just gotta finish up with the groceries. Brice will be home tomorrow, can't tell you how exciting that is!!!

I hope the weekend doesn't go by so fast that it's gone before we know it.

I'm thinking we might have to set up our patio furniture and Gazebo enclosure,

in case its nice enough to sit outside after lunch on Sunday.

I'll add that to my "honey-do" list for Rick :)

*** Won't be long now....

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather,

always bring your own sunshine.

Anthony J. D'Angelo