This is Uncle Jerry and Aunt Cleone. They live in Walton, Kentucky. Jerry is my father's older brother. We do not get to see them very often so when they come home it is a pretty special event. They were up in North Dakota 3 years ago, shortly after Cassidy was born. Before then, the last time I saw them was when my grandmother, Jerry and my father's mother, passed away in 1996. They are two of the nicest people you will ever meet.

My Aunt Cleone and Cassidy.

My Uncle Jerry attending to the grills full of some of the best pork loin I have ever eaten.

Uncle Jerry made these great pork loins in the grill. He uses a special rub made by Dancing Pigs, which can only be bought out of a place in Tennessee. He slowly cooks the pork in the bottom of a charcoal grill right next to the briquet's, not on the rack. When there is about 2 hours left of cooking time, Uncle Jerry then puts a BBQ sauce over the loins and lets them cook until they are done. The were absolutely wonderful!!!

Uncle Jerry and my dad sitting around in my parents back yard. You cannot tell me that they are not related by looking at this pic.

The girls and I. There are not many pictures that the girls and I are in together since I am the one who is always taking the pictures.

Jessie likes to sit in the big yard chair that Grandpa got out of the Leeds Wal-Mart (the dump).

Cassie's new love is Grandpa's 4 wheeler. I think Grandpa needs to get her one.

Ahhh! When you are 1 1/2 a water tank is so much fun to splash around in. Mommy tries no to think about all the horse slobber in that water.

Jessie's sweatshirt needed to be dried after playing around in the water tank. We did not have an extra shirt for her at my mom's house so Nana used one of her T-shirts and held it together with a potato chip bag clip. Jessie reminds me of Darth Vader.

Here are the horses just chillin' out at my parents place. I think they like it better over there than they do here at our place.

OUR PHONE IS WORKING AGAIN

The phone actually rang today!! It was a guy from Midstate Telephone. He said that there was a bad phone card in the central office in Stanley and everyone whose phone line was connected to that card was not dialing in. They fixed (or switched) the card and he was calling to make sure that people could get through to our line. YEAH!!!

I have got used to it being so quiet around here since the phone was not working, I am not sure how I am going to handle the phone ringing like mad again.

TODAY WE SAID GOODBYE

Savanna Jo Nieman, 23, Fargo, ND, formerly of Calvin, ND died Friday, June 22 at MeritCare Hospital in Fargo from an infection related to leukemia.

The service to celebrate Savanna’s life was held outdoors at the Sarles Lutheran Church, Sarles, ND on Wednesday, June 27 at 11 a.m. with Pastor Adrian Olson officiating.

Savanna, the daughter of Tony and Jayne (Elverud) Nieman was born on May 23, 1984 in Devils Lake, ND. Savanna attended preschool in Churchs Ferry, ND; elementary and high school at Border Central School in Calvin, graduating valedictorian of her class in 2002. She was involved in nearly every extra-curricular activity with a special love for singing and basketball. Savanna graduated from Bismarck State College in December, 2003 with an A.S. Degree. At Bismarck State she was a member of the Mystics Women’s Basketball team, the Concert Choir, and the Chamber Choir. She worked at Pizza Hut and Walmart. In March of 2004 Savanna moved to Highland Falls, NY to live near her brother at West Point, NY and to attend his Army Football games, as his number one fan. She worked as a Customer Service Representative for Walmart Super Center in Monroe, NY. Savanna returned to North Dakota and moved to Grand Forks in August 2005, attending UND and working for JC Penney and Kimco . August, 2006 Savanna moved to Fargo. She attended NDSU and worked at Walmart until December when she was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

WHAT CANCER CANNOT DO IS SO LIMITED...

It cannot cripple love,

It cannot shatter hope,

It cannot corrode faith,

It cannot destroy peace,

It cannot kill friendship,

It cannot suppress good memories,

It cannot silence courage,

It cannot invade the soul,

It cannot steal eternal life,

It cannot conquer the Spirit.

Anonymous

WE LOVE YOU SAVANNA AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!!!!

SSSHHHH! DARREN'S GETTING OLDER!

Darren will turn 30 this Sunday. He has been hinting that he would like to have something done for his birthday. I decided to surprise him and invite all of our friends/family out to our house to help him celebrate.

I want everyone who can make it to come. We will grill food, lounge around all day, and then start a fire in the evening while we sit around and have a drink or two. Everyone can stay as long as they would like. Hell, anyone who wants to can even pitch a tent in our backyard/pasture. Those of you who opt to put a tent in the pasture please watch carefully where you set your tent. Since we do not have a lot of cash right now, we ask that you kindly try to keep it BYOBB (bring your own beef/beverage). We will have a few items such as the cheap Wal-Mart brand sodas and macaroni salad for everyone. We have some food, but will not have enough to feed the entire crowd. You may also want to bring your own folding chair. We only have 2 picnic tables so this will limit seating. We have horse shoes and if anyone has great outdoor games please bring them. If it gets hot, I have some ideas of what we can do so you may want to throw a towel and swimming suit into your vehicle just in case.

Again, this is a surprise so please don't say anything to Darren if you see him before Sunday. I hope to see a lot of you here!!

MORE PHONE ISSUES

We are experiencing another phone problem here at our house. We can make outgoing calls but we are not getting incoming calls. The phone will ring continuously and the answering machine does not pick up. We do not hear anything at the house. Right now, I have been telling everyone to call my cell phone so they can get a hold of me. The last phone call that I can remember getting was Darren's friend, Jeremy, when he called on Saturday morning to have Darren meet him in Towner when they went to Minot.

At first, we thought that it was the cordless phones. So we disconnected the phones from the phone line and plugged in an older cord phone that we keep on hand, in case we loose power in a storm, into a different phone jack. The cord phone did not ring inside the house either but I could make outgoing calls on it, so the cordless phones are not the problem.

I called Midstate Telephone Company today. They put our issue on a work order and said someone was in York yesterday so they do not know when someone will get to it or how quickly it will be fixed! I HATE MTC!! Darren is expecting calls and I have people who try to call me now and then. It would be really nice to be able to get those calls.

I would give anything to have a local phone company instead of this one.

A LOT MORE POOL TIME

Since temperatures here in ND reached 92 degrees and greater, I took the girls to the pool since Jessie has started to feel better from her new medication. Both girls enjoyed the pool and pretty much stayed in the water for the whole 3 1/2 hours we were there.

Today feels like another hot one so when Darren went to get the riding lawn mower from my parent's I had him pick up this water sprinkler that I remember using when my brother and I were small. My father had completely forgotten about it until I called asking for it. I am thinking about turning it on when Darren is finished mowing the yard. I will have to watch out for Jessie though because we believe he has a fresh-cut grass allergy since her last break out after Darren mowed.

My aunt and uncle should be arriving at my parents house shortly. It will be so nice to see them when they get here.

Finally a picture of Jessie enjoying her time in the pool. She is a TOTAL water baby.

Cassie just relaxing for about 12 seconds before she scurried off quickly to play with her friends.

I know I have posted a similar picture before but I had to post this one because you can see Jessie's big belly.

I have a love/hate relationship with this picture. Jessie is just adorable and you can tell how really fat I have gotten by my swollen face.

This is the only shot of the girls standing together in pool because there were so many other kids there that Cassie was off playing with them. Jessie was just content in the corner of the pool doing her own thing.

If you cannot tell, Cassie really got a kick out of the inflatable seal that one of our friends brought to the pool. I am thinking about getting Cassie one of her own.

This is Billy's brother Jeremey. Doesn't the inflatable seal hat just scream DORK! I thought it was funny.

SAVANNA JO NIEMAN 1985-2007

Today I received horrible news from Billy Jo. Billy's brother, Jesse, called her at 7 o'clock this morning to let us know that Savanna lost her battle with leukemia. It is impossible to express how I feel at this moment. I have been weeping since Billy called.

Savanna was filled with love, happiness, and was always excited about something. Her wonderful personality rubbed off on everyone and she one of the truly happiest people I knew. I think of the many memories I have about Savanna when I lived in Churchs Ferry and they bring a smile, and occasionally a little laugh. Now she lives with God and sleeps with the Angels. I am sure that God's plans for Savanna have not ended yet. My very deepest condolences go out to the Nieman family. Their loss is so huge and it effects everyone that Savanna has ever met.

There are no funeral arrangements made yet. Right now they are just waiting for her brother, Seth, to come home from Iraq. Seth's wife will be flying up from Kentucky soon.

For anyone who wishes to know more about Savanna can read her her Caring Bridge site set up by the Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo, ND when she was first diagnosed with leukemia at www.caringbridge.org/visit/savannanieman

MY LAST COUPLE OF DAYS

Jessie is STILL sick. Darren got up with her this morning when he was getting ready for work. He brought Jessie into our bedroom and she was burning up. Her fever had returned through the night. She was fussy and could not get comfortable. I gave her a dose of Motrin and her medicine. She fell asleep for a few minutes but that was all. Later, we ran up to the pool but she didn't want anything to do with swimming or splashing so after a couple of hours we came back home. This afternoon she tried really hard to take a nap but just could not get comfortable enough and she kept screaming like crazy. I called my mother over to take a peak at her since Jessie had been screaming all day long. Mom did not think that the meds she was on were working so I made a mad dash up to the Cando Emergency Room. Our favorite doctor was on call this evening, thank God, and he gave her a shot of fast acting antibiotic and gave us Zythromax. The shot did wonders! Half way home in the car she started to feel a lot better. She was blabbering, making faces in the mirror, and laughing...things she had not done all day. She is now sleeping like a log and I hope tomorrow is better for her since she is on different medication.

My aunt and uncle from Kentucky are going to be at my parents house for a while. They are going to be arriving sometime Saturday or possibly even Sunday. I have not seen them for five years. We do not get to see them very often to it is nice to spend a little time with them when they are around.

Willow city is holding their annual Willow City Western Weekend this weekend. There is a parade, then a derby, and after the derby there is a street dance. Because of the arrival of my aunt and uncle, we have not made plans to get up to Willow. I think Darren may have even made plans to hit Minot with an old classmate. Also, with Jessie being sick I just don't know how the weekend would go with her. I feel bad because it would be nice to see Darren's folks.

I took the girls swimming with Billy, her two boys, Candace, and Candace's son Josh yesterday but, like a moron, I forgot the camera. It was too bad too because Jessie was a complete water baby on Wednesday. Every time I tried taking her out of the pool she would scream to be left in. We went back to the pool today. This time I did bring my camera but Jessie just was not into it today. She is still is not feeling well so I think that may have had something to do with it. Hopefully she will get better now and the new meds will work properly. I signed Cassie up for Level I swimming lessons too. She starts her lessons on July 16 through 27 and instead of the baby pool she will now be in the big pool!!! I hope that being in the big pool does not scare her.

It has been a while since I have posted pictures so I posted some for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully I will have more pictures soon.

If she could, I swear Cassie would LIVE in the water. She is just like her mommy when it comes to swimming! I cannot wait until she is big enough to be in the big pool.

Jessie was satisfied sitting on the bench eating her chocolate chip cookie and apple juice box since she was not all that into swimming today.

Jessie is going for Candace's tongue ring. She is fascinated by them! She tried to get daddy's ring all the time too.

Billy with Squeaker (a.k.a Ashtyn). Billy hates her two piece swimming suits. For some dumb reason she does not think she looks good in them. I don't know what the hell she is talking about.

Candace at the pool. I met her through Billy Jo and she is Billy's very bestest friend in the entire world. I like her a lot. She is a good person.

Here, Cassie proudly displays her green and yellow Shrek fishing rod. At the age of 3 1/2 the girl can cast better than I can!

This is a shot of Jessie's early morning bed-head. I did not comb it right away before going outside on this particular day.

Ahhh, swings! There is nothing better than jumping in swings early in the morning. I like to go outside and push them on the swings.....when the mosquitoes are not bad.

A charming picture of dad and Cassie. She loves doing things with her daddy since they have started fishing together.

I just adore Jessie's expression in this picture even though the background is blurred.

Cassie loves the big wavy slide at the park!

Cassie enjoying the teeter-totter with her pal A.J.

WORRIED WAS MY FIRST REACTION TO THIS

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

REALLY, JFK? WHO KNEW!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

SICK JESSIE AND A BIRTHDAY APPROACHING

Jessie isn't feeling well again. She woke up this morning and did not eat a bite of her breakfast. This was very unusual because she normally eats us out of house and home. I noticed that she was feeling warm so I took her temperature. It was 99.8. I gave her some Motrin and stripped her down to her diaper to cool off. A half hour later I took her temp and it was back down to a normal 97.1. I gathered the girls quickly to head to Billy's place. My goal was to do homework while the girls played. When we got to Billy's the girls were surprisingly very tired so they both laid down for a nap. I got some homework done by the time Jessie got up and she was very warm again. I took her temp and it was back up to 99.8 so I gave her some more Motrin. I waited another half hour and took her temp. It did not go down at all and when I took her temp this time she really fussed about it so I decided to take her to the clinic and left Cassie sleeping at Billy's.

When I got to the clinic Jessie's temp had risen to 102.2 and one ear was pink. The doctor gave us some medication for her stuffy icky nose that she has had for a week, as well as antibiotic for the ear infection. I gave her the first dose of both meds, along with Motrin, when we got back to Billy's and a second dose of meds, and Tylenol, before bedtime. I checked on the girls about two hours after they went to bed and Jessie was sitting up in her crib. She was quiet and did not make any noise. I felt her forehead and it was very warm again so I gave her another dose of Motrin. She is sleeping now and I hope she doesn't get up in the middle of the night. I am hoping that she is feeling better in the morning and does not have a fever. I am hoping that my mother can come to my house tomorrow so that I can get more homework done along with some house cleaning. Because I had to run Jessie to the clinic I did not get near as much done today as I was hoping to and if she is still sick tomorrow I probably will not get anything done at all.

It is Darren's 30th birthday on July 1. He has bluntly hinted numerous times that he wants to have a celebration so keep calendars open. I am thinking of just doing something out here at our place. I was considering doing something in town but I do not have the money to rent out a place and gas is killing us right now. I was thinking that we could grill out and drink. If people needed to spend the night that would be okay...just depends on how many people. We can always put tents up in the yard too. If anyone has any suggestions let me know because I am not sure what I am going to do about it yet.

FOUND

The case of the missing pink/grey Sketch shoe has been solved. Some how the shoe found its way to the bottom of the toy box in the girls toy room. How it got there I do not know. How the shoe remained there for 3 weeks is more puzzling yet. At least it has been found and it still fits the foot it belongs on.

P.S. - Doug, you can let your father know he doesn't need to worry about the shoe anymore.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I have to send a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY out to all the father's out there: My dad, Darren's father, Kevin, Doug, Vinny, KSoFM, and any else that I may have forgotten to mention.

This week my father was gone to Grand Lodge meeting stuff so the girls and I spend Wednesday night over at my mothers house. It was great to spend the day, and night, in a home with central air. The next morning I called and got myself a hair appointment in Devils Lake. I was getting sick of my scraggly long hair. I told the gal, who happens to be a really good friend from the Ferry days, that I wanted my hair cut short, colored, and highlighted. Well, I got what I asked for. My hair is cut short. Too short for me, but I am sure I will grow used to it. The length of my hair is right above the nape of my neck. The color is great. It is just a little bit darker than my original color and the highlights are not too bad.

When I was in town I also ran over to Alltel wireless and got a FEMA phone. I didn't know that FEMA phones existed until Billy told me about it. It is an unlimited minute, month by month cell phone plan. I pay just $7 for the service and $3 for the phone monthly and I can cancel my service at anytime and I will not be charged a cancellation fee. I can get caller ID, voice mail, and all that other garbage too for a small fee but right not I am just going to keep it at $10 per month. When I went in, I gave them $30 (which came from my financial aid) that has me paid up until September. If I should cancel my service I do have to give the phone back. That is no big deal because if I cancelled I probably wouldn't use the phone anyway. The only bad thing is that it is for ND calls only and I get charged extra for receiving out of state calls too. I am not worried because the only person out of state I call is my sister and we have toll free long distance on our home phone so I can call my sister from our house phone and then she could call back from her cell if she wanted too but wouldn't have too. The reason that I can get a FEMA phone is because we are on food stamps, energy assistance, and Medicaid. Darren would be able to get the same phone plan too if he wants.

For Father's Day we all went out to Billy and Vinny's. Billy and I cooked steaks, pork chops, and potatoes. When we arrived they had already cooked up some hot dogs and brats. We pigged out BIG TIME. We were not intending to stay too very long, but we were having so much fun we ended up spent the night. After the kids all went to bed we mixed up some drinks. Vinny couldn't drink because he worked the next day. We left their house shortly after everyone was awake. Everyone ran out of the house pretty fast because we all had shit to do. In the rush of the morning Billy managed to get everything into her Explorer except for the keys to the house which were in her purse that she accidentally locked inside the house. Luckily we had not left yet and Darren was smoking outside of the car so he was able to open up a window for Billy and give her a boost back into the house. Hopefully we can spend the night again some time. It was a lot of fun.

Well, back to the grind. I have a lot of homework to catch up on tonight.

MY WEEKEND

My weekend was fairly relaxed. On Saturday my father and I moved the horses over to my parent’s place. While my parents are horse-sitting for me, Darren and I are going to get the pasture sprayed for the leafy spurge that has totally taken over the pasture. Cassie was extremely upset the first night the horses were gone. She kept screaming that the horses belonged to her and that grandpa and Nana had to bring them back. I don’t think she totally understood why grandpa and Nana have the horses. I reassured her that the horses will be back after a while and if she ever wants play with the horses all we have to do is just drive over to Nana’s and we can see them.

Sunday, Darren cut the grass and I threw a bunch of chicken legs and vegetables on the grill and made a macaroni salad. I was really impressed because everything turned out great. Right before we ate Vinny, Billy Jo’s husband, called and invited us out to their place. We were really looking forward to going out to their house in the evening to have a few beers with them and let the kids play together but it didn’t turn out like we hoped. In fact, we didn’t get out there at all.

After Darren cut the grass we let the girls outside to play. I believe Jessie has some type of allergic reaction to the cut grass because she developed red hives all over and one of her eyes turned bright red and puffed up pretty good. After we ate, I threw Jessie into the tub and then gave her some Benadryl. That seemed to work okay. Her hives went down but her eye was still gross and she was very fussy and uncomfortable yet. So we had to call Billy and Vinny back and let them know that we would not be coming out since Jessie broke out.

Today we have a good chance for thunder showers. I like to listen and watch the thunder and lightening. I tried taking the girls out this morning but the mosquitoes were so damn bad that I brought them directly back inside the house. I may call Billy later to see what the insect report is like out at her place. If it isn’t bad out there, I will take the girls out there along with some homework and do a few tests out at her place.

I have to send a very late HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE! out to my brother. It was his birthday on Friday, and like a terrible sister, I forgot to give him a phone call. I may still call him because I know that he doesn’t get to check my blog a lot. Most of the time he just plain ‘ol forgets that I have one.

Say, Doug, do you know if your dad found an infant size 3 grey/pink Sketcher yet? Jessie is still missing her shoe. Oh, and don't let me forget that I owe you $6.

HAPPENINGS

Last weekend was fun. It was the Devils Run Classic Car Show. Darren, I, and Jessie drove in for the car parade. After the parade we went to Dairy Queen with April and Kevin. After we finished lunch we went back to April’s mothers house to finally meet Aiden in person. He is such a little cutie.

In the afternoon Doug, Kevin, and Darren decided to go out and shoot a potato gun for a while so April and I hung out with Karissa and Isabella at Doug’s fathers place. I really like Doug’s dad. He is a very nice man. I think I may have left one of Jessie’s grey and pink Sketchers over there because I have not been able to find her shoe since Saturday.

We drove back home around 4 p.m. and after the girls had supper and were in bed my mother came over to the house so that we could go back into Devils Lake for the street dance. It was a lot of fun and I even ran into Rainy and Tawny; two very close friends who I have not seen for a very long time. It was nice to chat with them for a while and catch up on things. After the street dance ended we went with April, Kevin, Blake, Amber, and Ben over to Tab & Derek’s place. We sat around eating pizza’s and drinking until about two in the morning. We didn’t get home until very close to 3 a.m. I felt bad because my mom was sleeping on the couch when we got home. I am really glad that she did that for us. It has been a very long time since I was able to get out and do something like that.

This week has been pretty nonproductive except for my homework. Amazingly, I have been able to keep ahead of schedule in all of my classes. I may just finish my summer classes early.

I have a terrible abscess on the inside of my thigh. I see the doctor at 2:30. He wants to drain it and see what is causing it because it keeps returning. It is extremely painful. At the slightest touch it gives a burning, paralyzing feeling. It hurts to sit, walk, ride, and wearing clothes hurts beyond all belief when the material rubs against the abscess.

Darren and I have been going to the city council meetings lately because the mayor, who is a friend of ours, is having some really bad problems with a few of his council members and those members are not making the best decisions for the entire town. We just want to hear what is going on and keep up with things since the public is allowed to attend the meetings. We gave our opinion about some of the homes here in town and we suggested that the town get rid of all the abandoned houses. I guess that did not go over well with one of the board members since it is there abandoned house that is next to ours that we want burnt down. So yesterday we got a letter in the mail from the Benson County Weed Board about the leafy spurge problem in the pasture and that we need to take care of it. Funny thing is that Darren and I had already sprayed some of it with a weed product that we bought in Wal-Mart to see if it worked. If it kills the spurge that we sprayed then we will buy more and use it on the entire pasture. Otherwise, we were going to give the mayor some money and have him buy some good weed killer at the elevator here in town and see if he could spray it in the pasture for us. The mayor thinks that a certain council member turned it in because the whole 6 years we have been living here we have not had the Weed Board make any comment about the property but now after we have been going to these meetings it has started. We do not have any proof of it so we cannot really accuse anyone but it is suspicious.