2012 Year in Review

Its time to get back to blogging this year.  It has to be time to stop making excuses about why I can't do it.  Here is our annual Year-in-Review video.  I hope everyone has a blessed 2013!

Liam the Golden Belt

Liam took Tae Kwon Do this summer through the rec department... at the end he earned his gold belt.  The highlight was him breaking a board with a side kick.  The smile at the end is priceless.

Owen's Drawing

I'm committed to trying to post more on the blog and less on Facebook or Instagram... so here is a picture that Owen drew a few weeks ago in church.  He even numbered it himself and explained it with no prompting.

#1 - Jesus on the cross (nice crown of thorns and guards with mean faces below)

#2 - The tomb with the rock in front (on the left)

#3 - The empty tomb

#4 - Jesus ascending into heaven (up above)

First Day of School 2012

Hard to believe that school has already started, but harder to believe that Liam is in 4th grade and Owen is in Kindergarten.

K5 & 4th Grade

Owen with Mr. Rosenow

Rose C. Heikes, 97, Dexter Township, Minn.

My grandmother entered eternal life this past Wednesday.  We will be traveling to Minnesota today for her funeral tomorrow.  While sad, it is a wonderful thing.

Rose C. Heikes, 97, of Dexter Township, Minn., died July 4, 2012, in Clara City, Minn.

Rose C. Heikes

Rose Clara Florence Goetsch was born on May 9, 1915, in Dexter Township of Mower County to Otto Goetsch and Johannah (Baumgartner) Goetsch. She was one of nine children, one of whom died in infancy. She was baptized as an infant at Trinity Lutheran Church in Dexter Township. She attended rural school at District 121, and later attended parochial school located near her church. She was confirmed in her faith at Trinity Lutheran Church in 1929.

Rose’s mother died when she was twelve and she spent her teen years taking care of the home with her grandmother for her father and brothers. When she was 17, her grandmother died, and she began doing housework and child care for various families in the Austin area.

On Nov. 14, 1936, she was united in marriage to Joe Heikes at Trinity Lutheran Church. To this union, three children were born, Myrtiss, James and Ruth. Joe and Rose resided in Dexter Township, spending most of their married life on their farm east of Brownsdale until they moved to their home in Austin in 1984.

Rose worked beside Joe on the farm, where she raised many chickens and helped wherever help was needed. She was an active member of Trinity Lutheran Church. She taught Sunday school for 20 years, taught Bible school, and held various offices in the Ladies Aid and the Ladies Circle. She loved visiting shut-ins, nursing homes, and cared for various relatives that needed special help.

Rose suffered a debilitating stroke in September of 2000 and after that resided at the Clara City Care Center in Clara City until her death. She continued visiting the bedridden and reading to residents for many years at the nursing home.

Rose was preceded in death by her parents; her husband in 1994; her son-in-law Elmer Weckwerth in 1999; her son, James, in 2009; her sisters Louise, Tillie, Lydia, Elsie, and Alma; her brothers Harvey, Art, and Leonard and their spouses; also all of Joe’s eleven siblings and their spouses.

She is survived by her daughters Myrtiss (Norman) Riediger of Willmar, Minn. and Ruth (Dr. Ray) Dusseau of Pewaukee, Wis.; her daughter-in-law, Carole Heikes of Hutchinson, Minn.; her grandchildren Kimberly Heikes, Kevin (Gloriann) Heikes, Wyatt (Heather) Weckwerth, Kandice Kath, Heidi (Craig) Witz, Kari (Steve) Rettig, Robert (Cathy) Dusseau, Michelle Dusseau, Keith (Tess) Heikes; 15 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. She is also survived by step-grandchildren Galen (Susan) Riediger of West Salem, Wis. and Duane (LeeAnn) Riediger of Arkansas City, Kan. and nine step-great-grandchildren.

The funeral service for Rose will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 7, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Austin with Pastor David Flesichmann officiating. A visitation will be held on Friday evening from 3 to 5 p.m. in Clara City. Interment will take place at the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery.

Blessed be her memory.

Grandparents

Here are a couple grandparent pictures from Easter time...

I'm Horrible at this Lately

Well, I have probably lost all of the little loyal reader base that I had, but I'm determined to give this a whirl again. I know my last post was January, but I need to start posting some things again. This school year has been hectic as I am trying to finish 18 of my PhD credits in three semesters, we moved, and school is busy. I know, no excuse. Anyway, here is to starting again. Below I've got Liam and Owen's Easter picture. Enjoy and welcome back.

First Post of 2012!

I usually tried to get a post in on January 1st of the new year.  Not so this year.  We are still continuing to move into our new house bit by bit.  We have to be out of the first house by Jan. 31st so that should provide us some motivation.  


Liam and Owen got their first haircuts not by dad yesterday.  I guess my Buzz-Only style wasn't working for Liam.  He wanted to be able to spike it up on the top.  Owen still thinks I'm the best though.  Here is a cool picture of them and why I thought it would be great to have two boys.  They look like such brothers here.

This photo was one I caught this morning.  Liam told me to wait to go to school.  Why?  To fix his hair.  I wonder how things will be when he likes girls.

2011 Year in Review

Since we aren't very proficient at ever getting out Christmas letters or cards.  I think the last one was the 1998 travel brochure.  We (I) have gone to creating some picture slideshow.  Last year, I created the video and here is one for 2011.  Enjoy and a Merry Christmas!

More Christmas Fun

Here are a couple pictures from Christmas day's activities.  We opened presents and sat around and ate.  We capped the night off with a rousing Packer victory over the Bears.  All in all, a good day.

Merry Christmas...

...from Florida!  I know what you're saying, "HOLY COW, there is a blog post at the Chateau!"  I may have had my longest hiatus from blogging in the past five years.  I was on pace to have a good number of posts and then I faded.  Well, things have been happening that I can hopefully update my faithful readers (if there are any left) on in the next year.  Mainly, the Chateau has moved officially to Menomonee Falls.  I hope to get pictures uploaded when we return from our vacation in Florida.

We arrived yesterday at about noon.  We had to get up at 3:30 AM to catch the bus to O'hare and then our flight to Orlando.  The rest of the day just consisted of doing, well, nothing.  Today we went to Christmas church and now will just probably sit around.  Here are a couple pictures of Liam and Owen today.  Merry Christmas to all!

Too Long

I know it is a theme that I don't get a lot posted lately.  I haven't forgotten about my lonely little blog.  If nothing else, here is Liam's 3rd grade school picture.  I'll have to scan Owen's in and post it later.

NLDS

It has been a while since I posted (that seems to be a common opening sentence lately.)  I'll bust out some other photos one of these days, but here is one from Sunday at Miller Park for game 2 of the National League Divisional Series between the Brewers and Diamondbacks.

Misc. Stuff

Posting regularly has been difficult.  I am taking two classes this fall, Cathy is working full-time, and life is just a little busy.  Here are some random pics from the past 4 to 6 weeks.

Liam working on his soccer skills.

Legos are a big activity... here is a lego roller coaster.

Not sure how good Owen will be, but he sure will be tough.



This is Liam's speed boat.

Liam and I went golfing a few weeks ago.  He out drove me on the first hole.

Liam driving.

Liam's First day of 3rd Grade

Again, hard to believe that they are growing up so fast.  Liam started school yesterday but I didn't have the card in my camera so this is really a "second" day of 3rd grade picture.  Although, I suppose I could say it was his first FULL day of 3rd grade today.  Anyway...

Owen's First Day of K4

Summer has grinded to a screeching halt all of the sudden.  Liam, Owen, and Cathy did get to the Dells waterparks with Grandma yesterday, but today was my first day of school as well as Cathy and Owen's.  Liam starts tomorrow and he's not real excited.  Below are a few pics of Owen in his spiffy new uniform.

Betik & Stuff

I took a few pictures of the guys in their new betik shirts from our trip to Indonesia... Liam also got his first hit in baseball the other day... Here are a few photos.



Owen in his new Indo jersey

Day 11 - Jakarta

We spent today driving into Jakarta and seeing some sights and shopping. We first visited the old Dutch part of town in what was originally Batavia. We had some coffee at the beautiful Cafe Batavia and visited the national museum, etc... The cafe is said to have one of the top ten bars in the world. Strangely enough it is covered in cow hide.

Old Dutch Government building

Old City Square

Cafe Batavia... duh.

Supposedly a top 10 bar in the world (according to Newsweek)

Just to try and show the sheer amount of traffic

We had lunch at a German restaurant which may sound weird but was delicious... Filling enough that dinner tonight was optional. We then did some shopping at one of the large malls in Jakarta and headed home in the crazy traffic. Arif drove today which is quite an adventure with all the cars and millions of little motorcycles.

Tomorrow morning we begin our trip for home. It will be nice to see Liam and Owen and sleep in our own bed.

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Day 9-10 - Travlin' & Chillin'

Not much to report for these days as we traveled from Bali to Jakarta. We didn't have the fun of missing our flight like we did from Jakarta to Bali... But that was easy to live without. We did get to spend a short time in the ocean in the morning playing in the water and boogie boarding. The waves were huge!

Surfing in the ocean

It was nice to get to see where Amy (and Arif now) lives as well as their school. We had gotten the Skype tour previously but this was much better. The girls went and got some massages and shopped on Saturday and the guys just hung out. We had some great fresh seafood again on Saturday night. Enjoy the few pictures I have.

Amy's School

Amy's House (and Arif's now too)

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Day 8 - Rafting

Yesterday we went into the center of Bali again to go white water rafting. The girls were all excited because this was supposed to be some Eat, Pray, Love location tour where they filmed the movie... Whatever.

Rafting was very, very fun (except having to walk all the way back up to the top.

Gettin' Ready

Trudging through the jungle

A Motley Crew (No the band)

Amy is buyount

Arif is hanging out on the outside?

I'm told this is Eat, Pray, Loveish...

After rafting and lunch we came back to the hotel and then went out to watch the sunset on the beach.






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