Once again, I'm behind but this is Collin & I at the Farnes' Halloween party last month:

Collin stuck a wire hanger through my braids to make them stick straight out - - it made walking through doorways interesting! LOL

And here's Max with Grandpa:


My Mom's best friend Rita and my Grandma at Grandma's 81st birthday party:


...and Mom & Rita...


and last but not least, my puppy Carson sitting pretty....

Labels: collin, family, max, Mom, Pictures

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Derek & Collin both might post about this but since I paid, I figure I better do it first!

Last month was my parents' 38th anniversary. Sadly, they were both sick so I told them that when they were better Collin & I would take them out to dinner. Saturday night turned out to be the time. The place they chose was Brooklyn's, an out-of-the-way Italian diner that serves the most wonderful food. Derek & Heather joined us that night.

Our waiter was new and it took a while for our order to be taken. While we were waiting, he brought over this plate of cut up pastry. I can't remember the name of it - Squatchy was the only one who could after he told us what it was - but it was delicious! It was like a cinnamon roll infused with a little bit of Heaven. We all decided that was what we wanted for dessert.

When it was time to order dessert, Mom & Derek changed their minds to cannoli's. I was just going to share the cinnamon thing with Collin but he talked me into my own and Dad wanted one, too. So we ordered three. Now the waiter's job is to look out for his customers but this guy was new. What he neglected to tell us was each of these desserts was the size of a 10" pizza! No joke! He brought the first one and said, "Two more of these coming up."

Oh, my God! Dad was laughing his head off and all I could think of was "How much is this going to cost me?" We finished off a whole one and took the rest home for snackies later during game playing, which is another story that I'll let Derek tell. Now I know to always ASK how big a dessert is before we order!

Labels: family, food

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This past week I went to Grand Junction with Christina to visit my Grandma. It was so nice over there - high 70's and sun! Here we have temps in the high 20's and snow. Bleck! I want to go back!

While we were there, my Uncle Rex came over. Just recently he lost both legs to a staph infection and now gets around on prosthetic legs. He runs a lawn care company with his sons and when he's working on things like fertilizing, he uses a 4-wheeler rather than walking. So Rex was telling us a story that day of what happened that afternoon:

He was fertilizing and ran out so he drove the 4-wheeler over to the truck that was parked on the street to refill. When he went to go, the 4-wheeler wouldn't start so he got off and tinkered with it, finally getting it going. Somehow, though, his hand slipped off the brake and the 4-wheeler took off, running over his foot and popping his left leg completely off and the right one half out. The one leg was rolling down the street while the 4-wheeler was zipping around under it's own power. Rex figured it would hit a tree before it hit a car but somehow it missed every tree and hit a car, causing the fertilizer bag to pop out and explode all over the street.

A woman who had seen this came running over: "Oh my God!! Do you need an ambulance??" She was probably horrified when she saw his leg come off! She helped him get up and retireve his errant leg so he could get them on again. By this time a police officer had shown up and dealt with the damage (which was minimal) to the car. He told Rex that he could give him a ticket for reckless driving but since he wasn't on the vehicle and there was hardly any damge to the car that he would let it go.

I figure we can look forward to many more of these types of stories from my uncle in the future.

Labels: errant limbs, family, grand jct

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On the year anniversary of my Grandpa Widegren's death, I wanted to post something in memorial to him but I don't want it to be sad. Yes, I miss him terribly...his dry humor, his hugs...but I like Derek's idea of posting something that will bring a smile instead of tears.

About 11 years ago, my ex & I went to Grand Junction to visit my grandparents. They live in what is considered the country and have a drainage ditch running the length of their front yard. On the afternoon that we arrived we were sitting in the kitchen talking and Grandma looked out the window and noticed they had a multitude of weeds growing up from the ditch. She mentioned that they needed to be cut down.

Grandpa, in a fiesty mood and probably not up to cutting the weeds down, looked out the window and said, "Well...they're green. What's the matter, Marjorie? Doncha like green?" It was said with such a straight face that she merely gave him The Look while I laughed. That has become my standard answer now for anything pertaining to weeds.

I miss you, Grandpa.

Labels: family

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Here we are at Thursday already and what better way to celebrate than with funny faces?


This is Justin hamming it up for the camera at Jordyn's birthday party while Christina hides her face.


Scared? Mad? Worried? Whatever it is, Mom's making a great face.


Collin's nephews, Gavin & Reed. They were just as excited at Jordyn's presents as she was!


Missing tooth, helmet on her head...this is a great one! Jordyn's actually showing off her SpongeBob cards that she got for her birthday and the bike helmet was a gift as well.


Talk about looking mad...Dad hated having his picture taken!


This is pretty much Derek's look all the time!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Labels: family, Pictures

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Collin recently pulled off all the pictures from my camera - it had been so long since that had been done, there were pictures from before Christmas on there! So this is a random offering of photos! Hold on tight cuz here we go!!


Even Jordyn, when I showed her this, didn't know why she looked the way she did. This is the greatest picture ever!!


Shanon & Elena. I love this picture! Elena has the best smile!


This is Jordyn on Thursday with the soon-to-be newest member of our family, Carson. Carson is a 5 year old shepard/smooth coat collie mix that we're adopting (he should be permanent member of the household by Saturday) and he is the best dog I've ever known!!


Santa needed a little extra help this past Christmas so my hamster Sam filled in. What a good hamster...



And here he is showing me that his food bowl is near empty - - "Don't stand there taking a picture of me! Feed me!!!!"


This is my friend Christina. I've always thought she had a striking resemblance to SpongeBob.

So there you go! More to come in the following days! Hope you all had a fantabulous weekend!

Labels: Carson, Elena, family, Jordyn, Pictures

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Genealogy is a never ending project. I've been working on it for about 5 years now and there's no end in sight. Recently I found out about my Dad's side - the Knight Family. Turns out that through that line we're hooked up with a slew of famous people. They include:

-George Washington (we were related to him through Mom's side as well)
-General Robert E. Lee
-President William Howard Taft
-First Lady Edith Bolling Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson
-Thomas Jefferson
-First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush
-President George W. Bush
-Actor Lee Marvin

Of all of those people that I recently added to our family tree, I am most excited about Lee Marvin. He may be like a 22nd cousin 10x removed but it's still cool!! Kid Shelleen in MY family tree! Dad is thrilled - he says actors today aren't real men and Lee Marvin is one of those "Real Men" that people like Brad Pitt & Johnny Depp aspire to be. That's Dad's opinion, not mine, don't get mad at me!!! I would be tickled pink to have either Brad or Johnny in the tree!

Labels: family

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I've been, once again, working on genealogy and in going through some old family letters and such from my grandma, I found the following recipe:

"1 qt. vinegar
shells of 1 doz eggs
simmer in a pot vessell with a light lid down to about a pint.
put in 2 big onions, cook till tender then strain through a cloth.
cook in sugar or honey to thick syrup
a teaspoonful every few hours as needed."

You know what this recipe is for?

Bleeding in the lungs.

No joke. That's the header of the recipe. "For Bleeding at the Lungs." I'm thinking that the eggshells alone would contribute to my lungs bleeding!! Gack!

And!!! My new post dedicated to the courtship of my great-grandparents is finally up & running!! Check out the inagural post here!!

Labels: family, stories

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I'm in Grand Junction right now, visting with Grandma and my cousin Shelly. I've never had a chance to ever really sit down and talk to Shelly but now since she lives with Grandma, I've got the chance. She stayed up til 1am last night talking with Dad & I and before that we played games all evening (I lost at Oh Heck! and lost 3 out of 5 games of Gimme 5) - she's a lot of fun.

The trip over was good until we hit Debeque Canyon and then the wind started! The windspeed was clocked at 42 mph and I haven't heard what the highest gust was but the wind almost knocked the Vue into the Colorado River! And it didn't die down when we got into Jct, either. It ripped shingles off of Grandma's neighbor's house and broke Grandma's wind chimes and mailbox! About 8pm last night it finally died down.

I ran to Target last night for pj's - - I had forgotten to back anything to sleep in and I had to share a bed with Grandma so I figured I better have SOMETHING!! I got the cutest shirt while I was in there - - the color is listed as Brick Heather and it has a silhouette of the state of Kansas on it with a pig on it. On the pig it says 1982 and then at the top it says "Kansas State Fair." At the bottom it says "Go hog wild!" What's so great about this shirt is that I've been reading the courtship letters of my great grandparents and they were from Kansas so I figure this shirt ties in with all that Kansas Fun! Ha!

Speaking of, I'll be starting a new blog here shortly where I'm going to be posting the old letters. They were written between 1915-1917 and they're incredibly interesting! I'll get that up when I get home. In the meantime, have a great Tuedsay!

Labels: family, Nada

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This has been circling in the back of my brain for a while now...I think it's time to exorcise this demon and get it out there.

I have a pair of family members who have this idea that only their kids are smart. No one else could possibly compare to them in a match of brains or wits. It's inconceivable.

The first incident occurred maybe 5, 6 years ago when I went with Mom to Grand Junction to visit Grandma & Grandpa. Of course, visiting them means visiting with the other family members who live over there. Family Member #1 was over for lunch one afternoon and Mom started telling him how I had been on jury duty that January and described the case a little bit to him (not sure if I've ever posted about my time on jury duty. Perjury case, found the guy innocent, boring as hell. That's it in a nutshell.). After Mom stopped talking, he said, "You know, it's a proven fact that they only pick the dumbest people for jury duty." I seriously started looking around the kitchen for something to throw at his head. Only Mom's warning glare stopped me. He went on & on & on about his wife's time in court and how the jury picked to hear her trial was soooo stupid, blah blah blah....and then started in on his sons, how brilliant they all are, yadda yadda yadda. After he stopped talking, Grandpa piped up with, "I think all our grandkids are smart, present company included." Thank you Grandpa!!!

The 2nd incident occurred just a few weeks ago when we were over for Grandpa's funeral. There was a large group of us sitting in the living room playing Mom's favorite game, Catch Phrase. My cousin, one of the Smart Ones, said as his clue, "A Roman emperor..." I immediately hollered out the one Roman Emperor everyone thinks of right away, Nero. It was correct and play passed on However, Family Member #2 said to her other brilliant son who was sitting next to her, "Wow! She must play this game a lot to know that!" Uh! Why do I have to play that game to know who Nero was??? I know stuff, especially from history since that's my thing as of late. It just infuriated me the more I thought about it. I didn't say anything then because of the circumstances surrounding the reason we were all there and it wouldn't have been appropraite to make a scene.

But damn!! These two make me so angry!! No one can match up to their professor with a doctorate son, their engineer son, their son who owns a lawn business, their son who has a business degree but is unemployed, living with Mom & Dad. Doesn't matter what you do, you're dumb because you're not one of their children. They should spend a little time with Derek and actually let him talk rather than yapping his ear off one day - I think the Knight kids would definitely surprise them.

Ahhh, there. I feel so much better now!! I hope you all have a fine Tuesday!

Labels: family

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Happy birthday Derek!!



He's on his way to Vegas right now with his wife - I hope you guys have a blast and have a wonderful birthday, Derek! And Andy - Happy birthday tomorrow!!

And also...



I still miss my Rita Kitty...3 years today.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Labels: family

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Last Monday, my aunt Charlene was admitted into the hospital because of pneumonia and a slipped disk in her back. My Grandma took her in and waited as they settled her into her room. After a while, Grandma asked the nurse of she could see her and the nurse replied, "Yes but only one visitor is allowed in the room so you'll have to wait."

"What do you mean? There was no one else with us."

"There was a man in there with her when I walked out," the nurse told her. Now, this is Dad's side of the family, the creepy side where people see ghosties all the time so Grandma pretty much took this statement in stride.

"Was it a big man or a tall, thin man?"

"He was pretty big." The nurse poked her head into Charlene's room and of course it was devoid of visitors. Charlene said there had never been anyone with her. We figure it was her brother Jim who died 13 years ago, checking up on her.

It's comforting to know that relatives are still there for us, whether we can see them or not!

Labels: family, ghosts

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There were so many people at my Grandma's house this past weekend that the place was constantly abuzz with conversation. Mostly I just sat and listened as people talked but somehow I ended up at one point in a little circle that consisted of myself, Mom, Aunt Thelma and my cousin Nita. We talked for over an hour and then someone was called into another room or got a phone call or something but suddenly I was sitting on the floor alone and heard a snippet of a conversation between my cousin Jody, his wife Malea and another cousin, Kirsten. What I heard Jody say was, "Can we do the spanking in the morning?"

My first thought was that Jody was being crude but then I realized that Kirsten wasn't the type of person you would tell a joke/story like that to. She's way too sweet & nice. And then Malea jumped in and finished the story, highlighting what I had missed. It's too funny not to share.

Jody & Malea's daughter, Sierra, is about 4. She went up to Malea one night around 10:30 and asked if she could have some ice cream. "Absolutely not," Malea replied. "I'll make you some oatmeal or cereal if you're hungry but it's too late for ice cream." Sierra walked away and the incident was forgotten until Malea heard a noise in the kitchen. Walking in, she found her daughter dishing herself up a bowl of ice cream.

"If you eat that ice cream, you'll get a spanking," Malea warned. Sierra looked at her, then the ice cream and said, "Okay. But can we do the spanking in the morning? I really need this ice cream."

Malea admitted she was in a quandry. What could she do? So, she relented and Sierra ate the ice cream. Jody said the next morning, she came into their bedroom and said, "Okay, I'm ready for my spanking." So she's got the system all figured out. A little bit of discomfort in trade for the truly yummy things in life she would be denied if she followed the rules. I have to start subscribing to her way of thinking!! :-)

Labels: family, Funny, stories

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"Between the news of holy war & holy need, ours is just a little sorrow talk." - Duran Duran, 'Ordinary World'

Mom & Dad & I returned home yesterday after being in Grand Junction for my Grandpa's funeral. It was a long trip highlighted by the horrible snowy weather from Vail Pass all the way to C-470. But we made it.

The quote above captures perfectly how I felt this week, especially Friday, the day of the funeral. To me, my Grandpa's passing was huge news and I felt everyone should know about it. I seriously kept expecting it to be on the news, to see shots of the cemetery service or something. Then I would remember that there was bigger news to be reported other than what had happened in my family.

As far as funerals go, Granpa's was a good one. It was upbeat and a lot of friends and family got up to speak about him and say wonderful, kimd things. That wasn't hard to do because Grandpa was a wonderful, kind man. I held it all together until the end of the funeral service when they started handing out the flowers off of the casket. I think that just symbolized the end for me, that it was over and he was gone and there would be no more hugging him or joking with him or trying my hardest to beat him at a game of Oh, Heck*. Thank God my Dad was standing behind me when I lost it or I probably would have fell on the snowy ground.

My most irrational moment came just before the church service. The viewing had just ended and they needed to close the casket for the funeral. Two men went and folded the white quilt lining inside and shut the lid. I was so mad at them for shutting my Grandpa in there like that. I knew I was being irrational and the men were very nice to all of us but I was still mad.

I hated having to leave my Grandma behind when we left yesterday but she's still got family in town to look after her so I know she'll be okay. I just worry. I think I'll be making a lot of trips over the mountains from now on.

Thank you, also, to everyone who commented or sent cards &/or flowers or called, expressing their sorrow and condolences on our family's loss. It means more than you know.

*=If you've never played Oh, Heck...it's a card game that is a favorite among Mom's family. Grandpa loved it and played it masterfully. He was always the one to beat. The last thing he did Sunday night before leaving us was to win his last game. There couldn't have been anything more fitting.

Labels: family

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I had so many post ideas for you today - - an ooky one about nearly-severed thumbs and a ranty one about Burger King and an outraged one about Wal-Mart selling the Morning After pill but they'll have to wait. It's not a day for posts like those. My grandfather, my Mom's dad, passed away last night after having a heart attack.

They were in Denver for my cousin's birthday party and were supposed to come down here to the Springs to visit us on Wednesday. I couldn't make it to the party because of work and figured I'd see them then. Now I feel horrible that I didn't just take vacation time for it and see him.

It doesn't seem real yet. I've not had to deal with death a lot in my life (knock on wood & point like Fred that it doesn't start happening with regularity now) and I don't know what to do. My Mom is inconsolable of course. I offered to leave work last night to be with her but she told me no. I want to be able to do something but there's really nothing to be done. I want to be there for my Grandma as well, even though she's a strong person, I hate the thought of her being without him.

He wasn't supposed to die. He was supposed to be around forever. God, I'll miss him!

In loving memory of Harold Leroy Widegren - We'll miss you, Grandpa.

Labels: family

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Tonight the Knight Family - including Collin and his offspring - are going to have a Game Night. I love Game Nights!! We sit around Mom's dining room table, playing game after game of inestimable fun and laughing heartily at Mom. In honor of this mountain of fun soon to be had by all, I present to you the pics from the last Game Night we had for my birthday.


Here's Derek looking like he has an Ace up his sleeve. With the blood that runs through our veins, that's not too hard to believe, either. He's been known to hoard Wild Cards when playing Phase 10 in his sleeves - true story, hands in the air!!


Here we have my lovely sister-in-law Squatchy. She appears to have been enjoying whatever game we were playing at the time. It might have been Crap or Fact which is an enjoyable game!


I know this is a little blurry but I couldn't pass up on sharing The Look with everyone. This isn't a full-blown Look, just the one she directs at someone who wants to take her picture.


And one more...a blurry as well but the looks on Mom's & Derek's faces...I do believe we were playing Mad Gab when I snapped this. Derek & Squatchy had brought the game over and no one had ever played it. During the reading of the instructions, it kept telling us, nay, instructing us to be overcome with mirth & hilarity. We didn't think the game sounded that fun but it turned out to be so fun that we were all laughing til we cried and our stomachs hurt. It was mostly Mom's fault. She can't help but be funny.

So now that you've seen the madcap amusement that is Knight Family Game Night, I bet you wanna come over, huh? Mom's place, around 7pm. See you there!

Labels: family, Pictures

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Happy Birthday to my 19th cousin 32 times removed George Washington! Yayayayay! He would be...umm... 274 years old today. Wow. Wonder what the 1st President would think of the old USA today. They dedicated the Mini Page in the Gazette to him Monday...of course it was written for kids but it was still interesting to look at. There were a lot of good pictures. I saved it to add to the genealogy pile. Derek & I are related to good ol' George through my father's mother's side of the family but I always thought he kinda looked like my Mom's mom with the white hair and the set of his mouth. Anyway, let's all celebrate Geoge's birthday with some Chocolate cake. I'm always in the mood for chocolate cake!!

Labels: family

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Yeah, yeah - I know I promised to show you all the Thank You cards I made today but Collin didn't upload them into Flickr like I thought he had and I don't know how (yet!) so today you get the silly fun of Random Thursday! Yay!

Last week Jordyn & I went to have lunch with Collin. On our way to Schlotsky's, Jordyn starts talking about this boy in her kindergarten class. "You know, that Calvin doesn't have much going on in his head." While laughing, we managed to register our shock that she would say that. "Well, it's true," she continued dilligently, "He's only got the Land of Silly filling his head!"

- - - - -

Dad was up in Parker for 4 days this past weekend watching my cousins Mandy & Amy while their parents went to Vegas for a vacation. Through a roundabout way, Dad & Amy got to talking about suicide. Amy asked Dad how he would kill himself. "I wouldn't kill myself," he replied. Amy said, "I'd eat 40 teaspoons of salt. That'd kill ya!" Dad told her that she'd never get that much salt down and she said, "Yeah, but it would kill ya!"

- - - - -

Hey, how about a picture or two, just to round out the randomness?


Derek in his Popeye impersination. Can you see that little red thing on his eye? Over on the right? That was like a blood blister that never went away! It got knocked off twice and always grew back. He finally had it removed by a laser - I remember being in the waiting room looking through a Highlights magazine (I was only in 6th grade maybe so he was in 3rd) and hearing him screeeeeaaaam.....scared me to death!


It's Collin!! He's so cute!!!


Here's Brando/Otto trying his damndest to get out of his cage. You can see the determination his beady little eye and the way his teeth are gnawing for all he's worth!!

Well, that's all I got today. Have a great Thursday!

Labels: amalgams, family, Jordyn, Pictures

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Theme? I don't need no steenkin' theme!!! With that in mind, welcome to sheer randomness! Have fun!


To start off today's festivities, we have Collin's daughter Jordyn and her Christmas hamster Sam/Sunshine. She keeps switching between the name I gave him and the one she thought of. The poor guy is going to have a personality disorder soon! How cute are they???


Here's the other hammy-wammy, Brando/Otto. This is why he's called a teddy bear hamster!


Last week we had a game night at Mom & Dad's and while we were playing the hilarity-infused romp known as Mad Gab, Dad fell asleep and stayed asleep! His little "T Rex arms" crack me up!! I don't even think he knows this picture was taken. Until now!


A familiar site - Derek's open mouth! I took this at the Avs/Stars game last week. Much fun was had by all!


The view from my porch. Pikes Peak after the snowstorm we had a couple weeks ago. I did have a great shot from my bedroom window but the screen ruined it!


My favorite picture of the moment. I was trying to get a shot of Jordyn with Brando/Otto in his ball and the camera didn't work so she pulled the pizza out from behind her back and "POOF!" Picture taken. I think it looks like she's threatening him..."See what I'm doing to this pizza? You're next!! Argh!" And Otto's like, "AHHHHH!! I can't run away!!" Something like that. Anyway, have a great weekend!!

Labels: amalgams, family, Pictures

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Just as I promised, here's today's fun foto-post all about Derek!!


In his hand-me-down swing at 3 month old. He looks so comfortable and drooly. "Teacher, my test is wet."


When I grow up I'm gonna be a Broadway dancer!! Yeah!! Big dreams for a 5 month old!


Awww...I'm so sweet to my baby brother. I think Mom made me do that, though. I like his little Michelin Man leg hanging out...


Derek's about 2 in this picture...the look on his face, his little hand, his butterfly collar - so funny to me!!


Here's my favorite picture of Derek of all time. We were told not to mess with the tinsel but what does he do? Yep. Messed with the tinsel...tore it right off! See it in his hand? But he knows he messed up, he's in trouble...BIG trouble...


And here we see that he's not going to get into trouble for ripping all the tinsel off the door. See the look of sheer relief on his little face? And notice all the tinsel's gone now? "Oh, go ahead Derek, tear it all off." Pbbt! He's still got some hanging from his fingers, for cyring out loud!! Oh, well...what can you do?

So there you have it - the Knight kids when they were little. Have a great weekend!

Labels: family, Pictures

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