A New Niece!!!!!!

Josephine Ann Eastgate was born on June 9, 2008, at 10:02 p.m. to Kari Blume (my niece) and Jason Eastgate (her soon-to-be-husband). They are so excited!! She has a small red heart on her forehead and they say she was kissed by an angel. My sister, Dawn, was there for many hours waiting for the baby to be born and called with excitement at 11:30 to tell me that it was all over and that she was cuddling her granddaughter! Boy! A granddaughter! She IS old! (Just kidding, Dawn!) We are all thankful that Kari is doing well after her C-Section! Congratulations to the Eastgate Family! We can't wait to meet your daughter!

The Stensrud-Eubanks Family

Kaden, Kiley, Jase and in this one: Kaden, Jase, Isabella

Isabella LuRose at 2 months old.....cute awake or sleeping!

Jase....being the cute ham that he is!

Tonya is blessed with beautiful, sweet children! Kiley is a step-sister that is so sweet that everyone that meets her falls in love with her! She is a terrific young lady! Jase is such a ham and makes me laugh! He can get so silly! I love this picture she sent me with the sunglasses on the tip of his nose! That is so Jase!!!

Isabella is already 2 months old...what a pumpkin! She is getting so big!

Kaden is a smarty-pants and I am amazed by him. What great children!

From June 6 - 8 the Malakowsky sisters spent fun-filled days together at Jenny's get-away! The white building was built by Mitch, Jeff's brother, and it is large and so nice to stay in....especially Friday night when the wind would have gladly taken a tent for nice ride to Wisconsin! There are 2 windows on every side except the front where the ladies are sitting on the patio that Mitch added last year. To the right of where that building is, they have a camper that houses a full size bed, couch, eating area, kitchen area, and a bathroom.....thank goodness for the bathroom when we were drinking so much.....water!!! A great time was had by all! We have been doing girl get-togethers for three years and we always enjoy each other's company. It is so nice to have five women around when it is time to clean up....it was done in no time!! Thank you, Jenny, for having us all up there and to Mitch for letting us take away one of his "get-away" weekends! I look forward to the next get-together!

Whew! This is a doozy of a blog post and I am praying that it works. Camp Nickelodeon, was called Camp Snoopy, was our destination of choice on Monday, June 2, 2008, after we looked at the forecast and saw "thunderstorms" for the entire day. (Valleyfair was our first choice as the girls have not been there yet.) We thought the kids would be disappointed.....boy! were we wrong!! They had a blast!! All five of the children (I am including Jeff in that grouping because he acted like a child!!)!! I have so many pictures...these are just a few...I was the "pack mule", carrying everyone's things and watching them have a blast...which helped me really enjoy the day! I love seeing my kids getting along and smiling and laughing! It was great! I would recommend this place to anyone...the price is good for a whole day of riding, the lines were VERY short, the favorite ride was the bumper cars....smash and bash!!...and everyone enjoyed it, plus the weather was not a factor. Fun was had by all!!

May brought a class field trip to the Sioux Falls Zoo for Morgan, her dad, and her 2nd grade class. It was a long drive there and back, but so worth it! The rhinoceros was only one of the fabulous animals that they saw. Morgan said her favorite was the anteater because he was fast, his tongue was long, and he was eating lots of ants while they watched. She had a great time with her classmates. They had a beautiful day to travel and enjoy the scenery.

We will be returning to the zoo over the 4th of July weekend when we have a family reunion at my brother, David's. We are looking forward to it! (Sioux Falls also has a way-fun-cool-awesome outdoor water park that we are going to try to enjoy...weather permitting!)

I have the most fabulous friends! Shirley Coleman, Connie Petersen, and Donna Wyatt pulled me into a "meeting" and told me all I could do was "nod". They had a party in the works and I was to sit back and enjoy......and boy did I enjoy!!! It was fantastic! They even pulled in ALL of my friends to help serve, make food, clean up, etc. so it was definitely a group effort. Even the bell choir that I am in made bars for the event! The graduation party was held on May 10, 2008 from 4-9....well....a little longer than that! We had out-of-this-world food, the decorations were beautiful...daisies on every table...and the company couldn't have been better! I am so blessed to have such caring, loving, organized, party-planning, sweet, wonderful friends. My heart was so full that night that I thought it was going to burst! Thank you, my friends, for always being there and supporting me every day!

Morgan was a little bit proud of her mommy and wore my cap and medallion for hours that night. She now "owns" the robe and has become the judge of our house. It is quite cute.

And, of course, I cannot thank my husband enough for putting up with me, pushing me out the door to get to school or to go study whenever I was low on energy, helping with the cooking, cleaning and laundry, carting the children where they needed to go, and listening to my stories upon stories about people he had no clue about but was polite enough to listen. We have our days, but he is the best husband for me. We are both excited for the day that I can actually say that I have a job....even more excited than the day that we could say I was an official teacher! Jeff has stood by me through it all. He deserves half the diploma, along with our children that really pulled together and took care of each other when I was unable to.

May 9, 2008, the Pinning Ceremony at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Mr. Harlan Gorath, my University Supervisor while I was student teaching, was the one to officially pin me saying I had completed my education and could now graduate in the teaching field. He was a superb supervisor and always encouraged me to do my best.

May 10, 2008, Graduation Day! Michael Meeker became my closest friend at MSU,M, even though he is half my age. He is a great role model to all boys and men and I am so proud to call him my friend. We both graduated Summa Cum Laude so we were able to walk together. Michael already has a job as a 2nd grade teacher in Austin and he will be a fabulous teacher and those students are so lucky to have him.

Graduating was such a thrill. I wasn't going to "walk", however, my dad talked me into it. I am so glad that he did. It was a tingling experience and almost surreal. My husband, Jeff, my children: Ben, Cory, Maren and Morgan, my dad and his wife Laura, and Mike and Shelly all came to see me get my diploma. I heard Shelly yell, "Go Teri." as I crossed the stage. They were sitting in the perfect spot so I could "show" them my diploma as I crossed the end of the stage. One of the greatest parts of the ceremony was receiving my diploma from Dr. Prenn, a professor that helped me realize that Reading is the area I want to do a Master's Degree in. Her class was amazing and I felt that she was there to guide me on the right path.

Even though it took me a full 10 years to graduate (I started the journey in 1998, we were blessed with Morgan in 1999, I returned to MSU in 2005) and there were many ups and downs on that path, it was so worth it. I realized it most when I was student teaching. I had six weeks of full time student teaching which were wonderful. My cooperating teacher let me try whatever I wanted and I came to realize that if a lesson "bombs", I just needed to pick up where I left off the next day. Being in the front of the room, or in the middle of a circle of students, or walking down the halls, or being in an assembly hall, were all the experiences that helped me realize that my dream of becoming a teacher was a dream worth purusing. My advice....follow your dreams, even if they seem crazy at the time, because we only have one life and we need to fill it with our dreams.