Looking for owners....

This nice new house is almost complete and ready for prospective buyers. Today I took a few pictures so you could see some of the house.

This is the view of the foyer, a nice decorative tile in the center. The front door is off to your right where the tile continues. I am standing in the living room taking this picture. The open door is the powder room. You can also see the built-in shelves Wally made. Hopefully some customer will just love it!

Also in the foyer, when you enter, you look at this nice arch opening. The staircase to the lower level is behind the half-wall. This would be a lovely place in which to display some art. There is a light that will shine onto the wall where the art would hang. The living room is the room you see with the wood flooring.

Here is a view into the kitchen from the living room area. The wood floor includes the living room, the kitchen and the dining area in the kitchen.

Another view of the kitchen - the glass door you see is the pantry door. There is lots of storage in that corner. The door actually says "pantry" on it, etched into the glass.

October 18, 1975

As you can easily surmiss, this is our wedding anniversary. In 1975 wedding dresses included lots more fabric then todays dresses! No strapless, sleeveless dresses - if you are going to pay a lot of money for a dress, you should at least get a fair amount of fabric, right?

I remember that I never really took a good look at our wedding cake and had to rely on the pictures of it afterwards. Note Wally's wavy hair. In the humid climate it really gets wavy. And how about those velvet lapels, velvet bow tie and ruffled shirt! I was so pleased when Wally choose that trendy tuxedo. He lead me to believe he had just picked a plain one.

This is the picture that was in the newspaper announcing our wedding. The photographer made Wally bend his knees to get him shorter and closer to my height. Funny.

Grandma talks with Josiah

Grandchildren together

Today Meghan, Brooklyn, Preston and I went to Fargo to visit with Andrea, Timothy, Luke, Hannah and Josiah. (Andrea was visiting her parents.) We should have tried to get a picture of the 6 grandchildren at the beginning of the visit instead of the end when they were getting tired. This was the best shot...
We thought perhaps we would try to have them sit down instead, but as you can see, it didn't go so well!!
Josiah is 6 1/2 weeks old and very responsive. He smiled for me when we talked. Adorable.
When the little ones were napping, the "big" kids Brooklyn & Timothy got to do a project. They painted pumpkins and had a great time. They really play nicely together.

Preston makes music....

Tonight Preston and Brooklyn stopped by for a visit - and they got to playing with the old Fisher-Price musical instrument kit. Preston was fascinated with the kazoo piece and he was good at making noise with it! We thought it was pretty funny! (I used to hide this toy from my sons!)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving today!

Happy Thanksgiving today to all our dear loved ones in Canada. We wish we were sitting around a table again with all of you! (This picture is from our little reunion in Banff last October. Here we are getting ready to eat at Wild Bill's!)
This picture of Berge siblings and spouses was taken a year ago - minus Phil & Betty Jo, who were unable to join us.
We are looking forward to us all gathering again, hopefully in early 2008!

A nice weekend

Just a quick post to say thank you to John and Sara for a nice visit. Wish it were longer!

Happy Birthday Alison!!

Happy Birthday today to my niece Alison, who is 11. Alison, I hope you have a wonderful day! You are growing up to be such a sweet girl! I wish I were closer so we could hang out more often!

Happy Birthday Jill!

Happy Birthday today to my niece Jill! I hear you are having a special day with hubby - and no children! Enjoy every minute! Best wishes to you today.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Birthday greetings today to my niece, Stacey! I hope your birthday is a day of happiness for you today. You are in our thoughts today especially as you celebrate. Much love to you!

Officially autumn!

Here we are in Minnesota with fall colors and crisp air. Today Wally and I went to Maplewood State Park for a nice walk. It turned out to be very warm, actually!

I love fall colors - my pictures just don't capture how nice it was today. I wish fall lasted longer here in Minnesota though. If you blink, you might miss it!!

Hi everyone.

Last evening Grandpa and Brooklyn harvested our pumpkin crop.

(It didn't take long to harvest our four pumpkins! )

What did they think?

The brothers review the dessert.... is it as good as mom's??

The pie is cut - still looking good... how will it taste?

Yippee!!

But will it taste like hers?

This tasty looking pie is a Sour Cream Raisin pie - I just made it today from a recipe of Wally's mom's that I found in the 1932 Saron Ladies' Aid cookbook. Wally has often mentioned he liked his mother's sour cream raisin pie. So, tonight we are having company and this will be dessert! The fun thing is Wally's brother Norman is coming for dinner (along with his wife Martha, of course!) So, will these two Berge brothers think this pie tastes as good as mom's?? Does ANYTHING ever taste as good as mom's??? nah... but it might be a close second.... At least it LOOKS pretty good!

This precious cookbook belonged to Wally's sister Alice. I consider it quite a treasure because of that as well.

(Sharon, your grandma, Mrs. C. Ganes, has some recipes in this book too. Do you have this book? She has about seven recipes, all baked goods. )

Josiah's baptism day

Here is our precious little grandson, Josiah, almost 3 weeks old. Yesterday was his baptism day!

Notice the large screen on the wall with the picture of Josiah.
Rev. Rodney Venberg is performing Josiah's baptism.


Grandpa gets his first close-up look at Josiah!

The growing Berge bunch. What a precious family.

Josiah's family members who witnessed his baptism.

Josiah is wrapped in a blanket made by his great grandma Crater.

Josiah at 2 days. So cute!

This is just too sweet not to share. I took this little clip the evening Josiah came home from the hospital. He wasn't quite 48 hours old! He was so alert. (and adorable!)

Hats and tea!

I love tea, in case you didn't know that little fact. I love tea parties, hats, necklaces and all the fuss and fun. I am pretty pleased that I have company for tea!

Preston decided it might be time for him to wear a hat too!
Here he is!

Grandma's week in Wisconsin...

One lovely evening when Josiah was only three days old we gathered around a cozy fire in Adam's backyard to relax in the evening. Josiah was resting comfortably and cozy in Grandma's arms. What could be better?

Little Miss Hannah loves being outside just like her brothers.


Timothy just loves holding and looking at Josiah. He keeps saying "isn't he cute?" It is really precious to hear him say that.

One special activity the night mommy came home from the hospital was getting to finger paint in the driveway. Imagine being allowed to make a mess!

I had to include this picture of Adam reading "Oh, What a Busy Day!" since it was THE book I read again and again and again to our sons. It is a fabulous book and we drank in every page. I think we all know the words by heart.

And finally, a picture of Daddy settling in with his little fella. (It didn't last for long though! Soon everyone else wanted to touch him too!)

Joining 190,527 others at the State Fair!

They call the Minnesota State Fair the "great Minnesota get-together" - and was it ever! We went on a beautiful warm sunny day - along with 190,527 others! It is the largest attended State Fair in the United States.

The crowd stretched as far as the eye could see!

There are some unique food items offered that you may not see elsewhere. Things like...lingonberry ice cream...

Potato lefse....

and walleye on a stick!

It was delicious! In fact, they have most everything "on a stick" at this fair. Last year the new item was "hot dish on a stick!" We didn't try everything, for instance we didn't try the...



Alligator ... or the....

Ostrich on a stick!!

We stayed from noon until quite late so we could enjoy the sights of the rides on the midway. I even went on a ride - John & Sara and I went on the "Cliff hanger" which was like riding a hang-glider. I loved it and I am NOT a ride kind of gal... and it has been years since I actually went on a ride. What has gotten over me??

The day ended with happy faces. What a great state in which to live.