Happy Birthday, Dad!

Yesterday was Dad's funeral, also his birthday. So...we had a party. Before the pastor prayed, we sang and my sister showed her video that she made celebrating the man that God gave us. It was definitely a first for many people - eating a birthday cake at a funeral, but Dad had the best birthday of all!

Christmas minus 1

Cael before his program Christmas Eve. He did a great job with his two songs. It was weird not having Dad around to open presents. We laughed, we cried, then we went sledding! Dad would have loved to have been out there with us and watched the grandchildren speeding down the hill. This is on the farm where LeAndra and I grew up. LeAndra challenged me to a race. I won.

Some of my favorite pictures

These are some of my favorite pictures of my dad.When I asked Cael who this was in the picture, he said, "That's me!" What a stud. This was at my sister's wedding in 1992. Dad was in the Army from 1959-61. He was stationed stateside and in Korea. My dad is with his big brother, Kenney in front of their work team.

A Life Well Lived

Today my earthly father was called to Glory by our Heavenly Father. His was truly a life well lived. It was not without struggles, but we always had everything we wanted. Duane Albert Breinig Dec. 27, 1939 - Dec. 22, 2008

Welcome Home, MJ!

We didn't have school on Friday, but the roads were clear in the late afternoon, so we went into town to get Mary Jane. I think she's a Daddy's girl! She was very skittish when we brought her home. New place, and all. She's not too into snow, but we'll keep trying. Cael likes to play tug of war with her.

O, Christmas Tree

We finally had a spare minute to put up the Christmas tree tonight. Cael found his ornament from his first Christmas. Allen and Cael put the angel on top. Cael is proud of his tree! We put together the new kennel for Mary Jane. Cael is anxiously awaiting her arrival. Believe me, he was in there on his own will. It was hard to get him out! He said he had to be Mary Jane to see if her new house was ok.

Fullerton

The Fullerton wrestling meet went well, even though we only took two boys. Jacob won first! He was up against a kid in the finals that beat him by one point last year. His dad overheard this kid say in the hallway to his friends that "that Lutheran kid will be easy. He's a wuss." When Jacob heard that, he was pretty fired up and was not going to let the kid beat him. Jacob took him to the third period. Allen kicks the boys' butts pretty hard in practice, so they're conditioned quite well. While the other kid was sucking wind, Jacob was just fine. He got a pin for first place. It was awesome! Brad pinned his kid in the second match, but got beat out. He's doing well for giving up almost 10 pounds to the other kids (it's a long story as to why, but Brad is wrestling 140 and weighing about 134). We took Cael with us, too. He had a lot of fun watching and playing. He would yell whatever the rest of us yelled. Then he fell asleep. Hard. I'll have a picture of that this next week if Jacob remembers to bring them. Also, on Friday I had my annual "apple cider corner" in my classroom. Traditionally, I bring apple cider (complete with red hots) in my room for students and teachers on the Friday before finals week. The kids were asking about it at Thanksgiving, so I knew I had better keep it going. It's a little perk I offer as they get ready to study hard and do well on big tests!

Winter season

Wow. Haven't updated on our family lately, huh? We had a good Thanksgiving with our family, hopefully everyone else's was good as well. Looking forward to Christmas, we see our calendar is scheduled full! We had our first wrestling meet on Friday at Ravenna. It was pretty good, as Jacob got 4th and Kyle got 3rd. Brad got beat out (he won his first match, lost second two), but wrestled pretty hard. Brad's weighing around 132, but has to go up to 140 (long story), so he's doing well considering. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them. I remembered everything else except my camera. Just too excited, I guess. My kids are getting ready for speech season as well. I'm busy cutting and timing. I think we should do pretty well this season.