First Day of School for my Niece and Nephew

Liver Transplant!

It's a miracle that my mom received a call that a liver was available...after two years of waiting!  The surgery was long but she is now recovering in ICU as her body goes through this amazing transition.  It is all happening so fast!   Follow her story by visiting her CaringBridge page:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/julaneanderson

School program at Northern Voices

Ty started attending Northern Voices school program!  He moved up from their toddler room, giving him more structure and small group sessions to focus on speech/language development.  He is pretty exhausted at the end of each day!

Check out some recent publicity on their program:

Roseville Review:  http://www.rosevillereview.com/articles/2013/09/17/nonprofit-school-children-hearing-loss-expands-roseville#.UjnPPBbWzao

Edina Magazine:  http://edinamag.com/article/edina-schools/deaf-shall-hear-and-speak?page=0,1

Go to their Facebook page here..and like us!  It's a great way to support NV!  

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Voices/112166415541030

Saying our prayers

 Trying to practice our prayers with dinner!

Future Soccer Player!

Trolley Ride!

Enjoying the beautiful summer with a ride on the Trolley in Uptown...

Summer trip to Duluth

We had a great time in August on an overnight in Duluth, MN.  Our nanny from last summer (Kayla) works at the train museum and they had an event featuring "Thomas the Train".  It was a gorgeous day so we spent time at Canal Park then went up North Shore Drive.  I splurged on a nice hotel room overlooking Lake Superior.  It was so much fun!  I hope we can do this more often...

Pleasant Lake - 4th of July/Labor Day

I hate to say it, but we're becoming the "weekenders" who only go up north on major holidays...I wish it wasn't so.  We love spending time at the cabin and there is nothing better than quality time with family.  4th of July is always a blast...there was some adventure with a surprise scavenger hunt for Lori and I to celebrate Birthdays.  Ty got a little excited and went right into the poison ivy.  He loved being on the boat but didn't get in the water much...that changed by Labor Day.  He wanted to stand and play in the sand and was more open to the idea of swimming.  We also did a ton of fishing - enough for a Fish Fry!  Lots of memories shared - good food and conversation as always!

Fun at Chaska Community Center

We love spending time with Heimarks!!!

Grandpa's Father's Day

Donuts and Juice at Daycare to celebrate and honor GRANDPA!
Tyrin and his grandpa have a special bond...so much love and laughter shared among the two.
He hasn't quite committed to sitting through a church service of his, but he does like riding on tractors with grandpa and doing outdoor chores at the lake.  We love you so much!!

Fundraising - Twins Split the Pot Raffle

Implant Milestone - year 1

It is so hard to believe that a full year has passed since we were sitting the waiting room at Children's Hospital during Tyrin's six hour implant surgery.  There were so many unknown factors at the time - risk of infection, device selection, how to operate the technology, what would occur at the numerous audiology visits...The list goes on.  Most important was the question of how Ty would respond.  

His speech and language development has skyrocketed!!!  He has a vocabulary of 100 words and is starting to put together three word combinations (I see the red car...I want milk...where's the cup).  He still learns new signs and I know he enjoys sign language too.  We recently went to the deaf expo and he engaged with a few people by signing "baby" and "shoes".  It was pretty cool.  I feel like he learns the vocab at a fast pace when he can combine the speech and sign.  This just helps validate our decision to provide total communication.

I'm so Thankful for all the support and prayers!  Tonight for the first time he pointed to the device and said "Implant" while touching his head.  It was a big moment for me to witness his request to have access to sound.  It is his decision...I'm simply trying my best to give him a world of possibilities!  Love, Love, Love you Tyrin!

Walk for Talk

It was our first time participating in the school fundraiser for Northern Voices...called "Walk for Talk". It was a cold morning, but we met at Como Park and joined other families in a brisk walk to raise money and awareness of the school.  My brother Nate and his family attended...he ran and made us all look bad.  Erin and Julie came out too.  I feel so blessed to have this community of supporters and cannot believe how much progress we've experienced in the last year!  THANK YOU!!!

Birthdays

Had a fun time celebrating the birthdays in April...Jordyn and Grandpa!

Signing Time

The cast and crew from our favorite video series "Signing Time" was featured at a concert in Maple Grove!  It was great idea but the thrill didn't last long and Ty starting running the aisles after about 5-10 min.  Maybe in a few years he will be more interested in these activities?!

Pancake Breakfast

Stopped by the Eden Prairie Lions Club Pancake Breakfast to make some connections...as a national organization, they offer some scholarships and sponsor several initiatives around hearing loss.  It was a long shot to ask for money to help support Tyrin's education...perhaps someday.  This picture did make it to the EP Newspaper.  Our two minutes of fame for the year!  Lol.

How great thou art

I saw this video for the first time and was blow away by Carrie Underwood's performance of How Great Thou Art.  This song reminds me of my Grandma Holthe and her generation...often I heard this song played at funerals or very formal church services.  My thoughts on worship have evolved over the last decade.  It has become more clear to me that God shows up in a lot different places (when you least expect it too!) and the message of His love is shared in many musical and liturgical ways.  It showed up for me in this video today.

Grandparents Day

Sketch videos

Have you seen these?  For some reason, I'm fascinated by this style of video where an artist sketches a message and then audio records the main points.  Several years ago I was hooked on the Story of Stuff project...similar concept.  Take a look.  Hope you like.

23.5 Hours

How coaching works

Story of Stuff

Walk for Talk

Join us on May 5th for a Walk around Como park to raise awareness and money for Tyrin's school.

Check out this Video and contact me if you are interested in walking or donating for the event!

Promotional video for work

Check out this video we put together to showcase our wellness programs!

Michael's story

Tyrin is my inspiration...and I know my cousin Magda is looking down on us with a hopeful heart!

Easter fun

The end of March was great, although it really didn't feel like Spring.  My parents decided to host Palm Sunday brunch at their house.  That same week, my grandma had a stroke and was getting care at the Red Wing/Mayo hospital (a beautiful building).  I didn't see her for the first couple days following this episode, but when we visited she seemed quite good considering the circumstance.  She was telling stories, could name her sons.  Of course there was confusion about what happened, where she was and who was responsible for those little kids!  She also always asks about my husband, to which we just change the subject quickly.  The time we spent together on Palm Sunday was good - always nice to have conversation and yummy food.  There was even an Easter Egg Hunt for the little kids.  Ty slept through the whole thing!  (He helped Grandpa clean up a few weeks later)  Here is a picture of Jordyn and Kate (my cousin Corey's oldest)

We went to our cabin for Easter weekend and actually went snowmobiling!  My brother has a few sleds and I was floored that my mom wanted to go for a little ride.  She trusted me enough to drive!  The trails were fantastic.  Driving across the lake was another story (I was a little nervous...there was some melting of the surface snow that made it pretty slushy!)  Good time overall.

Northern Voices on Kare 11

It's great to have publicity for Tyrin's school...

KARE 11 Link: http://www.kare11.com/news/article/1014882/14/Local-school-for-deaf-children-faces-financial-uncertainty

Northern Voices is a small nonprofit organization – with highly trained teachers and small classrooms – so the staff and parents work hard every day to generate resources to support our school.  Look for more info soon on the "Walk for Talk" event.  I'll need some fundraising help from family and friends...

Cross Country Skiing

My work team is so awesome.  We decided to go cross country skiing for our quarterly team building.  It was the most perfect day...fresh snow, sunshine and warm temps.  The trails were well groomed.  I haven't been on skis for a few years....the last time I did this was with "Events and Adventures" club for singles.  (Not ideal to try a new sport when trying to impress the guys!)

I feel fortunate to have a great job and such a wonderful team of people who are collaborative, respectful, passionate, innovative and fun!  I'm 110% committed to creating and delivering high quality wellness programs - encouraging individuals to become active and healthy!  

It was fun to "walk the talk" today too...I know it is time for me to practice what I preach.  

Luckily I have a really good health coach to support me in seeing both my immediate opportunity and long term goals.   My best friend encouraged me to sign up for a 5K race in May.  Super excited! 

Winter goes on and on

We arrived home after being in Florida and got hit with a huge snow storm.  I couldn't believe we actually had a snow day.  I'm not used to this yet...having to pay attention to school closures and make alternate plans.  His daycare is open under any and all conditions, but driving 90 minutes to Roseville with this weather was not an option.  We took advantage of the time together and played outside some more!!!

Florida trip

We had a blast on our spring trip to Florida.  The idea was tossed around via emails among college friends and next thing you know we booked our flights.  

My friend Kelly lives in Cooper City, just outside of Fort Lauderdale.  Tyrin has been on a plane twice, but this time he was full of energy and very curious.  He was insistent on touching all the buttons - the reading light was on and off about 100 times.  The tray table went up, down, up down!  I'm sure the other passengers loved us. 

He loves airplanes, so it was extra special to see so many all at once!

 
He didn't sleep at all on the plane (and we had evening flights for that very reason!)  Once we landed, he was knocked out.  It was hilarious!

I loved seeing Kelly and Kate.  We went to the park with all our kids.  Ty made friends with Molly and loved saying all their names (Brock, Skyler, Sam, Sadie!)  It was cool and breezy, but certainly warmer than Minnesnowta.  I'd love to have palm trees at our parks!

We went to the beach and Ty was in heaven.  He could run with abandon and was really interested in all the sand.  It was so awesome to see him being so playful and adventurous!

 We stopped at another park after getting hot chocolate and then had lunch in Hollywood, FL.  We don't have these spinning circles at our parks, so this was quite a treat.

The highlight of our trip was visiting the Miami Seaquarium.  Ty loved seeing the dolphins and was signing "fish" like crazy.  The show kept his attention for a few minutes.  The sun was shining and we had fun walking around.  Ty even got some love from Molly that day (his new girlfriend!)  Kelly brought us to a beautiful spot for lunch and we rounded out the day with ice cream.  I'd say it was a perfect day!