I asked somebody that today at a family graduation party.
It actually was an old classmate of mine! Small world. She married my aunt’s brother.
Another classmate married the same aunt’s SISTER!
I saw them both today after 26 years.
SO
Wierd.

Everyone told me what they "do".
I’m a trainer at the Pella Windows plant.
I’m a social worker at 5 area hospitals and do discharges.
I farm.

What do YOU do?

I was stumped.

Not much, I said!!!

My children are getting older, and I’m not as involved in their activities.
I am active in the high school Fine Arts Booster group.
And I’m one of Tom Osborne’s TeamMates to a 6th grader.
I’m not in Girl Scouts anymore.
I don’t volunteer at the hospital gift shop anymore.
And I don’t have a paying job.

I don’t even really clean the house!

I read.
I do research on the internet.
I play with Photoshop and photography.
I make bread.
I windowshop.
I help Dan.

But, my MAIN job, according to Matt….
is
making
his
lunch.

Apparently, a very IMPORTANT job!

My search for a home at Okoboji started about 35 years ago. Well, it didn’t take THAT long. But I spent some really fun summers up there, staying in a small cabin on a compound with several other families who were friends of my parents. I played with what seemed like hundreds of kids and read lots of books.

For the last several years, we have shared a condo on the golf course with some other family members and were so happy to have at week or two or three at Okoboji.

Things change.
And we have the opportunity to get our own place on the water.

I started searching on the internet for realtors and began looking at properties.
I’d look at the photos very closely.
Imagine me or my family at that location.

Dream that night about the house.

I did this for months. I e-mailed the realtors, asking questions about properties.
Some did not respond.
Some gave me a quick, hurried, thoughtless one-word reply.

One stood out.
One.
Their website is beautiful. The photos are large and clear. The information is all there.

And
They
Answer
E-mails.

Okoboji Realty was a perfect fit for me. I drove to Okoboji to see some condos. I told Sue Westergard my story, my dreams, my plans, my history, my ideal.
And she showed me some condos.
And she showed me some houses.

And I let some time pass. And contacted her again, and we looked again.

And I remember how she carefully took care of the dead mouse in the bathtub of that house…..soon to be known as the Mouse House.

And I remember how tired I was after looking at all the wrong places.
We aren’t condo people.
We wanted a home on the lake.

Thanks, Sue and Kirk, for helping make our dreams come true.

Thanks for spending time with us when I didn’t like anything.
Thanks for taking us out to lunch.
Thanks for picking us up at the airport several times.
Thanks for always answering e-mails right away. Even at Night. Late at night.
Thanks for doing all the paperwork.
Thanks for measuring for me at short notice.
Thanks for making it all happen.
Thanks for being our first friends at the Lake.

We can’t wait to start our Okoboji Memories.

Matt.
Probably age 4 or 5.
We have SO many pictures of him making these funny faces. He wasn’t a particularly funny kid, either. He sucked his thumb most of the time and had a blanket.
He stuttered a little.
He really didn’t talk all that much.

I think he was listening.
And watching. And learning.
Observing.
And he learned that when people laugh, it is a good thing.
So, he makes the cutest faces you’d ever see, gets a few laughs, and goes back to his life.

Such a pleasure to watch this little boy turn into a young man.

I enjoy television. I am a TV kid. I associate television shows with periods in my life.

I don’t watch shows that are necessarily popular. I watch what I like. And with TIVO, I can watch whatever I like whenever I like. How cool is that!

Cartoons USED to be ONLY on Saturdays….and they were mostly stoopid…but we watched anyway.
I used to like the ABC Afterschool Specials.
I used to like Friday night sitcoms….Saturday night, too.
Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart. Sonny and Cher was on Sundays, I think….maybe it was Wednesdays.

After we were married, I loved 30 Something. I related to that show because my child was the same age as Hope’s. Kids shows mostly dominated my life for a while then, but I liked many shows my kids watched. Of course, I mostly chose them!!!

Matt and I like to watch many of the same shows. He also likes military shows, which just make me either cry or nervous.

But I’m REALLY loving LOST!
The show makes me CRAZY because of all the twists and turns. Very innovative and clever.
BUT
What I’m REALLY liking, is the OTHER stuff they are doing with LOSt!!!
Like, the wierd websites.
And the book that Sawyer was reading that is really a book?!
Look at this... and THIS was last weeks….

I majored in Advertising, so I’m interested in publicity. THIS show has changed marketing and advertising, for sure!!
I remember when the biggest thing was product placement in a show or movie! A REAL Coke instead of a "red can of drink".

How lame!!!