JOJO's Journey

Friday, April 25, 2008

yummmmm....smelt.

as you can tell a smelt fry has been happening in my neighborhood the past couple of days
and i really wanted to go...but i had no one to go with so i chickened out. seeing these signs all over the neighborhood stimulated a memory i have of my childhood. when i was really young...6,7,8 or 9 maybe...my family went smelt hunting, or is it fishing. the crazy thing about smelt hunting is you don't go during the day, you don't fish with pools and it seemed like you never caught a thing. smelt hunting requires nets and the dark- well at least according to my family. I remember heading out to the river in the middle of the night with our nets in tow. I remember being so excited about getting to stay up all night long and play in the water with our rain boots on- but always falling asleep in the car. I remember how cold it was out and how frustrated us kids got when the smelt were not 'running', as my dad would call it. for those of you that don't know 'smelting' at a certain time during early spring swim ('run') up stream to find a shallow warm area to lay all their eggs. and...to catch them you sit around and ever so often put a net, or bucket, in the water and if you catch some...than that means the smelt are running. when that happens- everyone yells 'their running', wakes up all the sleeping kids in the cars and than bam....you've got buckets of smelt just like that. of course the excitement of the smelt running doesn't last to long and back to sleep in the car I'd go. but- i remember it being so much fun. we'd start a camp fire at sometimes and us kids (there was a lot of us) would just play in the water and find something to get dirty in. i remember not really caring so much about the smelt- but that's just me! not really sure if i remember everything and all the fine details...but, i do remember it being fun. i had to call my mom to make sure my memory was right on some things. she found it super funny that i was remember our smelting days! good stuff!!!!!!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Weekend full of Birthdays!

My sister in law, Jess, had her surprise 30th birthday bash this weekend, which turned out not to be a surprise. She found out a couple weeks ago - but that didn't stop us from having a great time celebrating her. My brother owns a event center and has great access to throw big parties...so a big party is what happened. Jess spent all afternoon cooking for her own party. We - about 50+ peeps - showed up to play. We has some good eats, some good conversation, chased around some kids (there were so many kids), watched a video tribute to Jess, and than the music started. I cant say that i danced at all- well wait, i did a polka with my younger brother and than a waltz with my dad!!! otherwise, i sat around with the cousins and BS'd all night. it was fun. Had a couple drinks and just chilled. Laughed our heads off at each other. My cousin Kizzy is a hoot. man, she makes me laugh. Ya see, Buzz had a bunch of glow rings that the kids were using and us 'older' kids got a hold of them and had some fun with them. Kizzy, of course, was creative in how she used them. Outside of that there was a lot of dancing...good times.


i spent the weekend there cuz on Sunday we had another birthday bash for Tyler- who is Jessie's littlest boy. He turned 3 today. It was a much smaller bash, but still fun. Again, Jess cooked up some good eats for us all and we again talked up a storm. The party was focused around kids- so we had bikes, skate boards, Rollerblades, and balls flying everywhere...lots of screaming-laughing kids. Tyler opened up some fun gifts and seemed to have a riot. He was super tired and really needed a nap, but just didn't seem to wanna stop running around like a crazy kid.


towards the end of Jess's party a band came in to play some live music and low and behold my 11th grade English teacher was the guitar player and back up singer. he asked my brother to come up on stage a sing with him. I didn't talk to him cuz i really didn't like him as a teacher. I remember he made me do a impromptu speech on toilet paper and than he also made me recite poetry from Shakespeare. so....anyway- it was interesting to see him in band. their sound was really good.


On my way back to the cities I was so tired that i almost feel asleep behind the wheel. i blame that on my dad, cuz for the party he made us decaf coffee....so- enough said. I had to call peeps just to stay awake. of course, no one was around their phone. thanks to Matt for returning my message and keeping me awake. When i got home, i laid on the couch and kid you not, was out in seconds and slept for 2 straight hours. i woke up just in time to watch that 70's show, than went to bed.
NONE THE LESS...I AM BIRTHDAY BASHED OUT!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

penned up!

This past Monday night I got a roommate, who will be staying for a whole week. My mom an dad decided on a whim to fly off to sunny Florida, so that means I get to dog-sit the 'puffers'. (that's what my dad calls Dakota and it sort of sticks...). Anyway, I hate when I leave and have to pen her up in her kennel. She always looks so sad. So...with a little convincing from Jen, I decided that enough was of enough of penning up the puffers- so I stayed home today to play with her. (shhhh...don't tell anyone that i wasn't really sick.) We spent all morning playing tag- that's right...tag! Yes, a dog and i played tag. Super funny. She loved it. Jenny came over, with caribou in hand, for the afternoon and cuz it was 52 out today we decided to take a hour long walk. Puffers was covered in mud after the walk and went directly into the tub for a bath. That was interesting! Than we all were tuckered out from the walk and needed a nap, oh how i love naps!!!! Jen did loads upon loads of laundry while she hung out and we got a chance to catch up on life; it's been since Feb 21st since we have hung out one-on-one. Than I had to head to grad school, which was super boring. This was what she looked liked when I was on my way out. Sad!!!!

pics from spring break.

shelby and I at the ball banquet
nicki and sara
me beating the crap out of Chummer in boxing...the Wii is fantastic!


Tuesday, April 01, 2008

what did i do?

spring break has come and gone....what did i do with my time you ask?
(not in chronological order)
-slept til 8 almost every morning
-read a book from cover to cover for grad school
-wrote 4 papers for grad school (worked ahead some)
-went to NWC's Basketball Banquet (i was Shelby's stand in parent)
-did lunch with Doc Nate
-hung out a caribou all Tuesday afternoon with Jay and Justin
-got my teeth cleaned
-went grocery shopping and spent way to much money
-went to church 4 times
-gave a couple swimming lessons to Fawn
-cleaned out my car
-went to IHOP for pancakes with Sara
-spent a night and a couple days at the parents house
-cleaned out a closet at home...i need to have a garage sale!
-had dinner with a past co-worker
-watch a whole lot of NCAA basketball
-spent alot of time @ Children's Hospital with the Anderson family
-had a lot of coffee
-went to NWC bookstore with Matt and bought a book about the TV show Lost...so excited to read it.
-took a 3 hour nap, just once. wish i had done that more
-hung out with my niece
-gave Sara a setting lesson
-wished i was somewhere warm
-went to a bowling birthday party with Sara in Sandstone MN, had the best ice-cream cake ever and played the Wii
-caught up on some emails
-tried to give plasma- but i had a cold...


well for the most part that was my spring break. nothing to exciting. good down time. good time with friends. good time not having a agenda. just wish that spring break meant warmer weather. what is with this stupid snow?