Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf! 

Rest in Peace Grandpa Bernie

Brad's grandpa Bernie passed away peacefully on Monday, October 17th at the age of 83.  Bernie & Bev had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary that prior Thursday.  On Monday afternoon they made their flight arrangements to fly back to their winter home in Arizona.  Moments later, he sat down in his rocking chair and "fell asleep."  Grandma Bev ended up in the hospital with Broken Heart Syndrome.  Examples of true love...through good times and bad. 

Bernie Harold Hockel was born on May 27, 1928 to Sam and Inga (Langeland) Hockel on the home farm in Cedar Township, Martin County, Minnesota just south of St. Olaf Lutheran Church. He was received into the kingdom of God through Holy Baptism on June 17, 1928 and reaffirmed his faith at his Confirmation on June 7, 1942 both at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in rural Odin. On October 13, 1951, he was united in marriage to Beverly Jean VanOver at the Church Parsonage in Odin, Minnesota. He was grateful for the forty-years of farming which was his pride and joy. Moving off the farm was a major transition for Bev and Bernie but they found new joy in their new home and new neighbors in St. James. He and his wife spent over thirty-five years wintering in Mesa, Arizona. Bernie held several positions in his church, St. Olaf Lutheran of Odin, as well in community organizations. He loved to go camping with his friends, traveling and fishing. He also enjoyed golfing, bowling, playing pool and cards. Above all he loved being with his family and grandchildren who were especially very close to him.


Survivors include his wife of sixty-years, Beverly Hockel of St. James, Minnesota; two daughters, Deb (Jerry) Krusemark of Hoffman, Minnesota and Connie (Guy) Risty of St. James, Minnesota; six grandchildren, Scott (Melissa) Krusemark and their children, Elizabeth and William; Tony (Christy) Krusemark and their children, Shelby, Madisen and Maya;Bradley (Gina) Krusemark and their children, Emmy and Erin; Jennifer (Wayne) Kinneman and their children, Dalton, Gabriel, Seth and Colten; Sarah (Richard) Huffman and their children, Maxwill and Elivia; John Michael (Lindsay) Kremmin and their children, Wyatt and Jayde-Alexis; several nieces and nephews and other relatives and friends.

Bernie was preceded in death by his parents, Sam and Inga Hockel; son, Bradley; brothers, Harlin (Celista) Hockel, Ordean (Myra) Hockel and many cousins, in –laws and friends.


Each of Bernie's grandchildren, their spouses, & great grandchildren were asked to write down at least one memory of Grandpa Bernie to be read during the funeral.  Each memory was so very touching.  Below are just our memories of Bernie. 

For Brad: When we were young and would get in trouble, grandpa would grab the little tiny hairs on the back of your neck and pull up. It worked every time.


I remember rock picking and working on the farm with grandpa. He was so meticulous and loved planning parties…Getting everything just right.

When I just got my driver’s license, grandpa let me drive his new Cadillac. He wanted to show me how much power it had, so he told me to floor it.

For Gina:  My favorite memory of Bernie is from our wedding day. During our wedding dance he asked me to sit on his lap. He said he felt like the luckiest guy in the world having the bride on his lap. He also noticed all of the little details that we put into the big day. Most guys don’t even notice those types of things, but Bernie did. I always thought it was so special.


Another one of my favorites was when Brad and I visited Bernie & Bev out in Arizona. I was pregnant with Emmy and had morning sickness as we were all driving down the road. I made Brad pull over so that I could get out of the car. I got back into the car and shut the door. Bernie asked what was wrong and I said, morning sickness. Later that afternoon, Bernie asked Brad to pull the car over. He opened his door, spit out his chew and said, “Morning Sickness.”

For Emmy: Bernie always called Emmy his little dolly every time he would see her. Emmy always called him “Grandpa Ernie.”

For Erin: Erin is a busy bee and doesn’t like to sit still EVER. Whenever Bernie was around she would always cuddle with him in his recliner.

Rest in peace grandpa Bernie.  Thank you for the great memories.  Much Love! 
Until we meet again...

Farm Livin'

We took the girls to the Eveland Family Farm again this year.  It's the perfect little farm with all kinds of animals roaming the grounds along with a huge pumpkin patch.  The girls enjoyed the fainting goats...none of them got scared enough to faint though.  Erin got scared by a huge pot belly pig.  He stuck his snout right between her legs.  :)
The farm has all kinds of animals that you can get close to.   Even the cows came up to us during our hay ride.  It turned out to be a beautiful day.  The girls had fun picking out their own pumpkins.

Emmy's Surgery

Last month we saw a surgeon regarding Emmy's lump on her face.  Emmy calls her lump a mosquito bite.  The surgeon looked/felt her lump and said it was a cyst and recommended having it removed.  He said that if we were to leave it, eventually it would grow and become painful.  

We scheduled her surgery for the following week at Children's.  Emmy was such a trooper and had no worries.  It's definitely more hard on us as parents to see her go through all of this...even though it was a relatively easy surgery.  

The surgery took approximately 20 minutes.  The surgeon came out to meet with us after the surgery and told us that Emmy did just fine and that the cyst was exactly what he thought it was.  We waited a few more minutes before they called our names to go meet her in the recovery room.  It took her a little while to come out of anesthesia.  When she did wake up, the nurses pampered her with crackers, a Popsicle and juice.  

The whole procedure from surgery to recovery took about three hours.  

She has a half inch incision on her left cheek right by her ear.  The doctor gave her a few stitches and then covered it with steri strips.   He instructed us to limit "horseplay."  {cough}  how do you keep a three year old from jumping off of the couch, etc?  Anyway...that means no gymnastics for two weeks.  It's okay for her to continue going to dance class & swimming.  

We still haven't found out any results from the surgery.   The surgeon told us to follow up with him within a month and if there was any results from pathology, he would give us a call.  We see the surgeon next week...I'm assuming everything is just fine at this point.  

Emmy got more pampering the rest of the day after surgery.  We brought her to Target so that she could pick out a new choo choo train set.  

I haven't been able to look at her incision/scar yet.  Emmy won't let us take off the strips.  The doctor just said to leave them on until they fall off.  

Summer Vacation - Wisconsin Dells

If you are looking for a truly memorable vacation, I highly suggest going to the Wilderness Resort at Wisconsin Dells.  We couldn't have asked for a better vacation with the girls.  It was absolutely perfect!!

We stayed in the Glacier Canyon part of the resort and upgraded to the kitchen suite.  It really wasn't that much more and I'm so glad that we got the kitchen.  It would have been difficult packing up the wet kids and heading out to eat for every meal.  This way, we were able to just run up to our room and make a quick meal.  I packed & organized for all three days that we would be there.  I planned our menu for every day.  It was pretty easy stuff.

Our hotel room was more like an apartment.  It had a "cabin/up north" feel to it.  It was furnished with everything that we would need at home and was wonderful!  I didn't even have to bring utensils.  Emmy even got her very own Murphy Bed.  She thought that was pretty cool. 

The water park passes are included with the hotel and are exclusive to registered guests.  So that means no outsiders are allowed into the water parks.  This helps keep it quiet.  We actually didn't have to wait in any lines and there weren't that many crowds.  We lucked out and got there at the perfect time - right before Labor Day. 

The resort has four outdoor pools & four indoor pools.  We got to swim in all of them but one of the outdoor pools - it was raining on our last day so we couldn't check out that one.  The park has so many things to do for all ages.  I really wanted to check out the arcade!  It was HUGE!!!

The girls had so much fun in the water parks.  Our favorite pool ended up being the one closest to our hotel room.  It was new, kid friendly, had water slides, an outdoor lazy river with tube slide and a bar.
Did I mention it had a bar?  Well, we didn't get to use it that much.  Maybe once.

Emmy and I enjoyed the lazy river.  Erin didn't want to sit in her tube so she hung out with Brad while Emmy & I relaxed. 

Emmy and I checked out the wave pool too.  We were having a blast in our double tube and I was hitting the waves just right when all of a sudden a huge wave was coming towards us and I had no time to paddle away.  We tipped over - thank God Emmy was wearing her life jacket.  It scared the crap out of me.  I couldn't find her right away and then I felt her grab me from behind. 
Okay...I probably shouldn't have had her out there with me, but we were having so much fun and Emmy was giggling. 

I think we will be making this into an annual trip.  We had such a blast and I can't wait to do it again next year!  Who's going to join us!?!?

Look Mom, No Cavities!

Emmy's 1st dentist appointment last month went well.  She sat really still & let them do their thing.  She has no cavities and the dentist said that her teeth were spaced apart really well except for the two top middle teeth.  She was excited when she got done because they gave her a new toothbrush, tooth paste, a sticker & two coupons for free ice cream at Dairy Queen. 

Fall Activities

Our schedule is very busy each week.  Emmy is currently enrolled into gymnastics, dance, and swimming lessons.  Each class is once per week and is approximately 30-45 minutes.  She loves going to all of them and is learning new things each week. 

We usually hang out in the waiting area during dance lessons.  Every classroom has video cameras so that all the parents are able to watch their kids on TV in the waiting area during class.   Emmy loves to show us her moves when we get home.  She loves to "shuffle step."  She's got some pretty cute rhythm for her age. 

She's improving well at swimming lessons.  She's keeping her head in the water for at least seven seconds.  Last week she swam on her own for a bit.  Now we need to get Erin enrolled into the Baby Backfloat class that Emmy was in this summer.  Erin loves the water!

In addition to Emmy's activities, I have started taking Jazzercise.  I try to go a few times per week - I just have to find time to fit it into our busy schedule.  I really like it though and it's a great workout! 

Brad's hockey season will be starting soon, but will be mostly on the weekends.  We are a bunch of busy bodies.  Thank God for DVR or I would never get to watch my shows on TV.

Sunday School

Emmy started Sunday School last month.  She enjoys going to "school" and likes to learn as well as sing & do art projects.  Before going into her classroom, she picks out her name badge.  She knows that her name button is yellow and she can find her own name.  We sign her into her classroom and then bring Erin across the hall to the nursery.  When we sign Erin in, we get a buzzer to take with us into church in case if she is crying for more than 15 minutes or if she needs a diaper change...then they will buzz us.  Most of the time she does just fine. 

After the service was finished last Sunday, we went to pick up the girls from their classrooms.  Emmy came running to us and said, "Mommy, I learned all about Jesus!" So precious!