Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Forty-five years ago, our Brian entered the world at 7# 9 oz and 21 inches long. We now had a girl and a boy, amazing! This little tyke grew up to be the charming man he is today.Handsome and debonair, street smart and able to understand the world he lives in.Happy Birthday, Brian!

This week has been an adventure in discovering new and different ideas about exhibit design. On Tuesday, Britt and I headed down to Fargo-Moorhead, working our way south on 32 out of Thief River Falls because of the flood Red River closing part of 29.

The Big Picture and the Little Picture… Exhibit Design Insights & Case Display Details meeting was hosted by the Clay County Historical Society at the Hjemkomst Center. Pam Burkehart and Claudia M. Pratt were our presenters. They are both excellent designers but I honestly think that Britt is every bit as clever.Her idea of using the insulted tubing used for pipes for the bars in the jail cell she created in the museum shows how creative she really is. Today is started putting the exhibit for the clay animals designed by the advanced art class at the Roseau School following the Artist-in-Residence program we partnered with the school. This partnership brought the very talented Memo to the school to spend a week teaching the students the different types of clay work. No pottery in this class, faces and animals instead.

I am in my third week of physical therapy, Pain and Torture, and that it has been. By the time we are done with the half hour session, both my therapist and I are sweating and I am half crying from the pain of it all. I have gone from 82 degrees to 105 and we are both thinking we may have to settle for that. My back was so sore last night I laid on an ice pack prior to going to sleep, one on my knee and one on my lower back.I think part of it comes from being out of shape. I need to find an all around fitness program and work at it. Perhaps a personal trainer would be a good thing for a while. I wonder if there are any in the Roseau area. Tomorrow is another day in a course of PT so I think I will hit the sack and get a good nights sleep.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Knee Replacement and return to physical therapy

After suffering in with some back pain and going to a chiropractor and massage therapist, my regular doctor finally returned from vacation and suggested physical therapy. I knew my range of motion was not good. I have been lax in doing my exercises for about a year and a half. I have done some walking but not the kind of exercises that will help the range of motion. Some people probably think whatever they have is good enough after that long. Mine ROM was 82 degrees, considering that we live in a split entry home, that is not good enough and was causing me to improvise too much.

Can I say there has been lots of pain and torture? I believe so.Each one of the last seven appointments my ROM has increased and on Friday we ended at 103. Whoo hoo!  This is going to be a life long situation I am afraid. Even as I sat in church this am I was exercising my knee. Saturday I worked out at the rehab for  about 45 minutes. I found I could ride the bike much better following the workout with the leg press machine. Where I was only able to sit at a four and bike, I could go to a three.

Today is my daughter, Michelle and her husband Dave's wedding anniversary. Congratulations you two!

On Friday Michelle had Breanne and the kids over to do an an Easter egg hunt. It is things like this that cause me to be closer to her and her children. I haven't talked to Bryce in quite  while either. It is difficult when he is in the Coast Guard and on the east coast. I am sure he gets lonesome for home. He spent about two weeks in California in February. I believe he missed his family more than he thought he had. I get to talk to Breanne and Leah often but not him. Michelle can be hard to call unless she is in the car on her way to one of her 27 music students! Good thing we have mobile phones or we hardly ever talk. Between her attending the university full-time and the music students, she is one busy woman.

Yesterday afternoon the Roseau library had a professional genealogist give a workshop through the Minnesota Arts and Culture Legacy Library funding. It was given by Rick Crume.It was very informative. He examined several websites we could find information. One of the sites that looked promising was Roots Web World Connect Project. The have approximately 644 million names and it is a free website own by Ancestry. We each received a six page paper of websites. It makes one itchy to do their genealogy when they receive information that gives good sources.

FIVE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN THE PAST WEEK
  1. The Roseau library and the Roseau County Historical Society A-B-C book, P is for Pioneer went to the printers last week.
  2. I finished the historical society annual report for the meeting on Saturday.
  3. I worked out or went to PT six days last week.
  4. The Roseau River opened in three days, the ditches opened past our house two days later.
  5. We are getting things ready for the Minnesota History Contest in May.


Time to head to bed, pain and torture again at 10:30 tomorrow so need a good night's sleep.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Waiting for Spring

Today is the annual spring general conference for our church in Salt Lake City. Our family has so many good memories of us going to general conference in April.It was always inspiring to be among so many Latter-day Saints. I just turned on conference to listen and watch while I blog and President Monson announced that there is going to be a temple in Winnipeg! I am so excited! I have prayed for years to have a temple in Winnipeg. Now we will only have to drive 100 miles instead of 400 to attend the temple. Wonderful! We had a temple trip scheduled about three weeks ago. Our friends, who went were caught in a terrible blizzard on their way to the Bismarck Temple on I94. 800 motorists were rescued during that storm, including them.

This was the last week of Women's History Month so it must be time to put some photos on my blog.
This year nineteen women were selected from Roseau County cities and townships for the honor of being a One Woman.
One Women selected were Gladys Paulson – City of Badger, Alice Miller – Barnett, Alpha Darst – Barto, Marianne Kristofferson - Enstrom,  Alice Erickson – Falun, Adele Folland – City of Greenbush,  Pearl Loe – Grimstad, Avis Wiskow-Huss, Helen Bergland - Jadis, Lillian Nelson – Malung, Sadie Rygh – Mickinock (2009 selection), Dorothy Brinkman – Mickinock, Clarice Billberg – Palmville, Alma Mellquist Skime - Reine, Annette Hermansen – City of Roseau, Mary Dostal – Skagen, Frances Karlsson-Stafford, Loretta Voll-Unorganized/ Norland, and Anni Daedlow – City of Warroad. These women are well deserving of this title for their communities;  their volunteer work and serve has made their communities better places to live.

This year we were concerned about the program due the townships not sending in the name of their selections but about two months prior to March first they began arriving. This kept Britt very busy working on posters. Her creative touch can be seen throughout the museum not only in the One Woman posters she designs but in the exhibit she put together for the Women in Government area.

The programs were wonderful and well attended. Time for photos! For a closer view of the  photos click on the photo, then hold the ctrl key and increase the size by rolling your mouse wheel forward.


Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped make the 2011 One Woman such a success and a special thank you to Britt Dahl our staff guru who designed all the Women in Government exhibits for the second program of Woman's History Month. Those photos will be put on in the future too.