Eleven Years of Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

Eleven years ago today, our family was completed as our little girl joined the ranks as the youngest, and last, little Klimek.

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Did you ever see a cuter baby girl--I think not!

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Our "baby" has grown into a sweet young lady--well, a young "lady" who likes to play basketball, golf, soccer, ride bike, climb trees, jump on the trampoline, chase dogs, get dirty, and wrestle with her brothers--and who scoffs at all things frilly, lacy, and dressy.

**SIGH**

A young "lady" just like her mom used to be!
:-)

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Abby celebrated turning eleven with a few friends this past weekend. Unfortunately, most of the boys ended up playing in a baseball tournament and were unable to attend the party. Only one lone boy (Alex--in the hat) was free to party with the girls.

Here is Abz with a few friends...

(l to r) Alex, Sara, Abby, Bailey, Kristin, Brenda

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Abby and Brenda

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Modeling her new shades--thanks, Kristin!

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After playing at the house for a while and opening a few gifts, we headed to Rice Lake to the bowling alley for some fun knocking down pins...

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Of course, I took some shots of everyone bowling. I will spare you the photos of Jamie and I throwing the ball, though...

:-)

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Abz tearing up the lane...

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Sara

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Bailey

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Brenda

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Alex

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Kristin

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After we had some pizza, we played another game. Jamie "bet" Abby that she couldn't bowl a 100 on her second game. Abby kept the game interesting right up until the last pins...

See her final score?!? 100 EXACTLY! We all had fun laughing at Dad's expense when Abby hit 100!

:-)

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Brenda, Abz, and Bay

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Who let these dorks loose in the bowling alley???

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After our rousing games of bowling, we went to the AmericanInn in Rice Lake to do some heavy-duty birthday swimming. The kids swam ALOT and had a great time together. The girls spent the night with me, and Alex went home later in the evening via the Jamie Taxi.

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The girls did a "Group Plunge"--check out their jumping finesse!

On your mark....

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Get Set...

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GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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How fun is that?!?

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Here is the party gang all lined up on their noodles...

(l to r) Kristin, Sara, Abz, Bay, Brenda, Alex

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Happy 11th Birthday, Abigail Jean-Catherine!

We love you!

Seventeen Years of Marital Bliss...

Seventeen years ago today, on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon, Jamie and I were married in what our children refer to as the "Redneck Weddin' "...

After all, it DID take place at the Alma Rod and Gun Club, with the reception and dance witnessed by countless mounted "dead heads"--which we had STRICT instructions NOT to hang any decorations from.

Bummer.

Wedding bells would have looked STUNNING hanging from the antlers of those trophy deer!We thought it was a FABULOUS day, as we were surrounded by our family and friends as we joined our lives together. Good thing we had three kids over the years to set us straight and help us see our social faux pas that was our "Redneck Weddin' "!!!

:-)

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We celebrated our fifteen year anniversary with a dinner cruise on the St. Croix river with three of our favorite people--the kids that resulted from that "Redneck Weddin' "...

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And now, seventeen years after that "Redneck" day, we will be celebrating together as we help Abby celebrate her eleventh birthday party with a few of her close friends.
We clean up pretty good for a couple of rednecks!
:-)
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Celebrating seventeen years together...
Jamie and Shana
June 27, 1992

Four Years Together...

Happy Fourth Anniversary to my brother and sister (in-law),

Woody and Maite!

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Four years ago today, you were joined in wedded bliss...

Congratulations on four years!

love,

Jamie, Shana, Austin, Andrew, and Abby

Happy Dad's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

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A day to recognize some spectacular dads in our lives...

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The Best Dad for Our Family!Thanks for everything you do for our family! You are AWESOME!

We love you, Dad!

love,

Austin, Andrew, and Abby

Jack and Sophie

Shana

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And there are a few other GREAT dads to recognize today, too...

Grandpa "Air Dennis"

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Grandpa Ken

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Great-Grandpa Edward

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We are thankful for all of the great dads, grandpas, and great-grandpas in our lives--

We love you all!

Happy Father's Day!

A Day in Indee

I am a bit behind on my blogging--well, like almost a week behind! My apologies!

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Last Sunday afternoon, Jamie, Austin, and I jumped into the "Big Green Booger", A.K.A. the green Expedition, and hopped highways 53 and 93 to Independence. We needed to pick Andrew and Abby up from an overnight visit to Granpa Ken and Grandma Debbie's house, and we were due for a visit to Grandpa Edward. Grandpa hosted us in his beautiful, shady backyard. Grandpa was looking fine, and no where near his 96 years... ~~~

Of course, Grandpa Ken had the "toys" out for the grandkids to play on. Abby was lucky to get rides from both Grandpa Ken and from her Daddy!
Austin tried out the big scooter, too, as he would sure like to have one of his own someday for "scootin' " around Barron!
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Andrew claimed Grandma Deb's scooter for the afternoon. I think Abz had a few chances to ride it, but Andrew "tore up the lawn" with this "Beast"!
:-)
The dogs had a BLAST chasing the kids on the scooter all over the yard, and Grandpa's yard offered them plenty of room to run.
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We posed for a few pics while we were enjoying the nice summer weather...
Here are the kids with Grandma Debbie--the Grandpa poses may surface around Father's Day (hint, hint)!

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Jack and Sophie had the times of their lives in Grandpa Edward's backyard! They ran and ran and chased the kids. Then, for an extra-special treat, I had a ham bone for each of them to gnaw on while they lounged in the grass--yummy!

We had a fun afternoon in Independence!

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Earlier in the week, Abz had the opportunity to spend some time in Chippewa with her cousin, Lexi. Lexi's mom, Kathy, and Jamie are first cousins. Lexi lives in (or near) Chicago, and was up in Wisconsin visiting her Grandma Darlene, so it was a great time for the two girls to get together and renew their friendship. Lexi got to come visit us at our house one evening and play some Wii, see the dogs, go for a walk, ride bikes and scooters, take in a baseball game, and meet some of Abby's friends.

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Here are Lexi, Abz, and Ahna playing the Wii during Lexi's visit...

Silly Girls!

:-)

Good Friends

Last summer, Grandpa Ken and Grandma Debbie arranged for their friend and our's, Connie (Conrad) Marsolek, to come to our house help us (translation: he did most of the work, and we were the grunts) pour a cement patio out our back door. You may remember my post from that adventure that can be seen here:

http://klimekchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/08/adventure-in-cement.html

The patio turned out lovely, and we hoped to one day put a hot tub out our back door.

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Well, the hot tub came to us sooner than we had planned! Grandpa Ken decided to get rid of his two-person hot tub that he had in "Jamie's Old Room" at his house, and he and Grandma Deb generously gifted the hot tub to this Klimek Family!

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Well, that poor old hot tub spent the winter out on the back patio, well, COLD! Getting the electrician to come and put in an electrical box outside and run it to our circuit box proved to be much more costly than we had ever anticipated, and with the way the economy had been affecting the car business... Well, there are priorities, and, unfortunately, a hot tub isn't one of them.

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Fast-forward to tonight. Our good friend, Dallas, took time out of his night that he could have been spending with his own family to come to our house and help Jamie wire an electrical box to the side of our house for the hot tub! (Dallas is the President of Barron Electric, but he still can get his hands dirty with the grunts!) The guys worked from 7pm until 10:30, but they got the project done, and once Jamie fine-tunes the "plumbing" underneath the tub, we will be in business! Abby is just thrilled at the prospect of having a hot tub available to her possibly as soon as Wednesday!

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We are grateful to have such giving friends as Connie and Dallas. Neither of them had any obligation to help us with these projects, yet they both gave willingly of their time and knowledge to help Jamie (and myself with the cement) create a nice area for our family. Thank you, Friends!

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Also, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, not only for the gift of the hot tub, but also for the time you put in helping us put in the patio last summer! We wouldn't have gotten it in if it wasn't for your help! Thanks, too, for the new trampoline--the dogs (and the kids) love it!

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I will have to snap some pics of our nice backyard area in the near future so everyone can see how great our friends are! We are blessed!

Philippino Birds, Rookie of the Year, and Stunning Toes

Many years ago, my MUCH OLDER sister, Sheila, went on a teen mission trip to the Philippines. I believe it was the summer of 1981? I would have been 8 years old at that time. When Sheila came home, she brought several souvenirs back for me. A little yellow dress, a woven purse, a jewelry box, a new testament Bible, and two necklaces. I still have all of those special souvenirs, and the necklaces have been in my various jewelry boxes over the years.

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Fast forward to 2009. Mom and I were shopping last weekend, and I found the cutest shirt! I wore my new shirt today, and guess what necklace looks stunning with my new shirt?!?

Yep! My "old" necklace my sister picked out for me from the Philippines over 25 years ago!

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Abby was kind enough to demonstrate her photography skills to take a pic of me modeling my necklace tonight. I was kind enough to pose willingly for her...

(no, I did not rotate the photo, Abz turned the camera upside down!)~~~

A close-up of my little shell-bird necklace...
Thanks, sister, for a gift I will have forever!
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Austin brought home his awards from his golf season yesterday. He had a great time playing golf this year--and who wouldn't?! The team got out of a lot of school to go play in meets around the area!
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Austin was awarded "Rookie of the Year" by his coaches...
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And, he earned his Varsity Letter in Golf!
Congratulations, Austin!
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The Squirrel got painted toe nails tonight. They were so stunning and "girly", that I had to take a picture for the blog. Sometimes, she is so busy playing soccer/basketball/volleyball/golf and keeping up with the boys, she doesn't take time for the girl things, so we had to document this moment for posterity!

:-)

Batter Up! It's Baseball Season in Barron!

It is that time of year again--time to oil up the glove, lace up the cleats, and dust off the hat. Summer baseball had officially begun in Barron!

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Andrew had his first baseball game of the season last week against Cameron. Unfortunately, I don't remember the score (okay, I never knew it--I just know we scored ALOT and Cameron scored just a few...). We didn't have the scoreboard lit up for the game...

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Andrew played outfield and shortstop for the game. We played after the Varsity play off game was done, so it was getting dark by the time our game was done at 9:00. It was a good thing we won after 5 innings by the "ten-run rule", or it would have been a really late night!

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Here is Andrew at shortstop, waiting for the ball.

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Number 23 at the plate.

Waiting for the pitch...~~~
He sees a good pitch coming...~~~
...and he makes contact! See the ball by the red arrow?! Unfortunately, THAT hit was a foul ball, but it was still a good picture!

:-) ~~~
Andrew will be playing most Tuesday and Thursday nights throughout June, so I will have plenty of baseball to blog in the future.

Stay tuned!

Squirrel's Soccer Season Sewed-Up

The Squirrel played soccer for another season this spring. She loved it! ~~~

She is developing into quite an aggressive and accomplished soccer player.

Check out some of her skills...

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Demonstrating some ball-handling...

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A kick with excellent leg extension!
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Abz played a lot at the goalie position this year. She has quick reflexes and is not scared of the ball, so she does well as the "keeper". Here she is making a save in front of the goal...
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The goalie can pick up the ball and kick it down-field. Check out these chronological pics of Abz getting the ball away from her goal...
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The "wind-up"...
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The "toss"...

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The "drop"...

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The "kick"!

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Abz had her last game of the season today, and they managed to get the game finished before the rain started. Her team, TEAM D, ended the season with an undefeated record!!! Grandma Pat and Grandpa Denny made the trip to Barron to watch the Squirrel guard the goal--thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!!!

:-)