Thursday, June 28, 2007

Pictures - Finally!

I've finally sat down long enough to create some photo albums online!! You can click here or go to www.picasaweb.google.com/larafransen

I don't have many posted of the kids yet, but check back often. I plan on adding more and will try to remember to post here when I do!

Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The King and His Court

What more can I say?

The girls are Ashlyn and Carter's friends from down the street - Elisabeth is Aurora (Pink for those who are Princess Challenged) and Emily is Cinderella.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Where Have You Been?

I know you're probably asking me that question :) We've been busy, but I can't really tell you what we've been doing. Have you ever felt that way??? We did spend most of last week expanding our patio and as soon as I can get out there to take pictures of it, I will post some. I have before and after so that you can truly appreciate it! A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids on a wetland tour. Britney's aunt Mel works for the Heron Lake Watershed District as the Education Coordinator. This was a special event that they coordinated along with some other organizations in the area. The pictures are of Carter and Ashlyn on that tour. At one of the sites, a baby goose (a gosling) had fallen into a hole and one of the guys on our tour noticed it and rescued it. The gosling rode on the bus with us back to the starting point. Carter and Ashlyn loved it. We also got to see some monstrous tadpoles. This one is only about 1/4 of the size that another one we saw was! And the plant is what the Pioneers used as toilet paper in their early days on the prairie. It really was quite soft - almost like brushed cotton or something. Other than that, nothing too exciting. I'll try to get some pictures up of the house and the yard tomorrow. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Monday, June 11, 2007

S-O-L-D!

This is gonna be quick because we're on our way out the door for dinner. But, OUR HOUSE IN GEORGIA IS SOLD!!!!!! We are so thankful and relieved that the deal finally closed and that the Lord has seen us through. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts over the last few weeks. There have been many times of frustration, anger and questioning, but through it all, Britney and I both felt the Lord saying "Trust Me." We knew this was his plan for us and where he wanted us to be. We just had to wait on his timing.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Removing Wallpaper = Fun???

No, I haven't completely lost my mind. But believe it or not, over the last week I've had fun stripping wallpaper off the wall in our front stairway. It's kind of a long story...

When Alyson was here, we were talking about how I was going to change the house - what my ideas and plans were for decorating. We were in the living room talking about colors and somehow Britney brought up that he thought the stairway was paint over wallpaper. So, I went up the stairs, found a small rip and pulled :) Sure enough, there was at least one layer of paint over some wallpaper. But, the real find was underneath that first wallpaper layer. It appears that I uncovered the original wallpaper of the house or some that was installed in the early 1900s at some point. It's a mural of what appears to be antebellum homes with horses, carriages, etc. It reminds me of the movie North and South.

Anyway, I did some research online about historic wallpapers and mostly found opinions of people who think it's horrible if you rip down a part of history. Then I found other sites with instructions on how to safely remove historic wallpaper and ideas on preserving it. So, armed with Ivory soap, a squirt bottle and a razor blade, I set off tonight on the task of removing the mural wallpaper. It actually came off quite easily but I still have a long way to go...

It seems that the mural is painted on the wallpaper because when I first started and sprayed the paper, I was using a sponge and wiping the residual glue from the other wallpaper off before I tried to ease the mural paper off the wall. As I did that, the colors smeared and the lines became less crisp. At least that proved that it was in fact an old paper and my thinking that it was probably the original was correct. The things you can find on the internet are amazing!

I wondered what I might find underneath the wallpaper, but it looks like it's just the original plaster with lots of cleaning to be done. I've decided that since I was able to get at least two large sheets of the mural off, I'll have them framed and they'll hang in our guest room as artwork. I have our Charleston pictures of Rainbow Row in there right now, so the mural houses will go too.

The wallpaper is just one of the many finds I've made since we moved here. Maybe I'll save the others for another day. I have to keep you coming back somehow :)

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A long overdue update!

Hello! We're still alive! We haven't frozen to death :)

Please remember my mom today - it's supposed to be her last chemo treatment! We're all praying for a clean report and a healthy mom after all of this is over. We know that the Lord put us all through this for a reason, and we're praying that He will restore her health quickly. Thank you all for your kindness and concern over the last 6 months. I always appreciated the notes, prayers and questions about how Mom was doing.

Life here has been delightfully slow. Alyson visited over Memorial Day weekend, and it was so great to see her! She helped me set up the disaster area that was to be the kids' playroom. Now that's a true friend! The kids have even done a pretty good job of keeping it picked up. She conquered 3 states in her short visit - South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. We turned her into a true road warrior and world traveler :)

A lot of you have asked for pictures of the house or the kids. I'm working on it and as soon as it's up on the website, I'll post the address and let you know. Sorry it's taken so long.

Last weekend was Buffalo Days over in Luverne, MN. It's a town about 15 miles away that is a little bigger than Adrian. I discovered lots of little gift shops and clothing stores that are just calling my name!

Anyway, Buffalo Days is kind of like Lilburn Daze or Suwanee Day, but without the heat and the crowds. The morning starts with a parade down Main Street. Ashlyn was expecting characters dressed up in costume enclosed in snow globes to go passing by. But, to her, this was even better because the people walking down the street in the parade threw CANDY! There were beauty queens, tractors, "big trucks" and the best part for Carter were the fire trucks! There must have been close to 10 of them in the parade, so you can only imagine how many times we heard "A FIRE CUCK!!!" at the top of his lungs! Oh yeah and there was also a cement mixer, so that was pretty good too.

After the parade, there is a huge craft show with over 100 booths. And a hot dog stand where you can feed a family of 4 for $7 :) We ate lunch and walked around the booths, the kids played on the playgrounds for awhile and then we came home. It was a nice day and Ashlyn is already asking when is the next Buffalo Days???

Today we're planning to go ride bikes around the lake. It's supposed to be sunny and almost 80, so should be a good day for it. Hope you all have a good one!