Kids
My great grand niece, Alice Green is a delightful little girl with a variety of things that capture her interest. As a little girl of just four years, life is just now unfolding for Alice, and she finds most of it exciting. This past year found Alice attending preschool. Alice totally blossomed during her time in preschool. She loves to count, and making new friends is a big plus too. I think sending Alice to preschool might have been hard on her mom, Melanie Harman though. It’s hard to let your little one head out into the world, I know, because it was hard for me. You just can’t believe that they are old enough to go somewhere without you, but Alice showed her mom that she was ready, and preschool has been great fun for Alice.
This last year also found Alice getting ready for some big changes in her life. Her mom married my grand nephew, Jake Harman, and they gave Alice something she has totally loved…her little sister, Izabella. Alice loves being a big sister. I think having a sibling is something Alice has wanted for quite some time. She mostly likes to entertain her little sister, but there will come a day, when Alice is more than just a playmate for Izabella. Older sisters are the role model for their younger sisters. They are looked at for everything from fashion style to makeup to boys. It’s a big job, but I think Alice will be up to the task.
In fact, Alice has been practicing her superhero skills already. She absolutely loves Superman. Alice doesn’t 
care about being Superman’s girlfriend either, because in reality, while Lois Lane was pretty and all, she was not the superhero…Superman was. That just isn’t what Alice has in mind. She wants to be superman. I suppose that some people would say that she can’t, but in years gone by, girls weren’t allowed to play certain sports, and now they can. So, I can say if Alice wants to be Superman, I think she can do it. Today is Alice’s 4th birthday…one she shares with her new grandpa, Dave Balcerzak, and Alice thinks that’s just perfect. Happy birthday Alice!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
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These days, most people find themselves leading busy lives, but I doubt if many have had the kind of year, or actually year and a half that my nephew Dave Balcerzak, and my niece Chantel…his wife have had. Dave and Chantel are empty nesters now, because all their kids have moved out, but to make matters worse…they are between nests!! That’s not a bad thing, because they are in the process of buying a house. The bad part is packing, patching walls from nail holes, and cleaning their current place so they are ready to move into the new place in early September. Nevertheless, they are so very excited about buying this house. It is a dream come true for them, so all their hard work now will eventually be totally worth it. Dave is practically like a kid in a candy store. He keeps calling Chantel on the phone, just to tell her…”I bought you a house!!” That is pretty typical of Dave anyway, because Chantel is his princess, and he loves showing her just how much he loves her.
As if moving wasn’t enough to keep these two busy, they will have three weddings that hey have planned, paid for, and helped with in 16 months. The final one takes place in October, and then they will have one daughter left to eventually plan a wedding for. Their little family is growing by leaps and bounds, and they couldn’t be happier. They are grandparents for the first time now. Alice, who shares Dave’s birthday, thinks he hung the moon, and now her little sister, Izabella has him wrapped around her baby finger too. Dave is reveling in the pleasure of being grandpa, and the girls are very blessed too. And the fact that they are girls…well, that pretty much sunk Dave’s resistance ship right away. He would love them if they were boys too, but he is a sucker for those little girls. Sorry Dave…but it’s the truth.
Yes, it’s been a busy year for Dave and Chantel, and life just gets better and better every day, and add to that, ![10649458_10153167063682237_5884941205658342552_n[1]](https://carynschulenberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/10649458_10153167063682237_5884941205658342552_n1.jpg)
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any work they decide to do to the new house, and you have a recipe for a busy year to come. Let’s face facts here too…you always change something. Nevertheless, that work becomes very rewarding when it’s on your own house. I know that they are going to have a great time building a new life in their new home, with lots of precious moments there with the kids and grandkids. The possibilities are endless. Today is Dave’s birthday. Happy birthday Dave!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My nephew, JD Parmely is a single guy who mostly just loves cars, working on cars, and driving cars. For the most part it’s all about the cars for JD. But there is one more…well, really two things that are even more important to JD than his cars. I never thought I would see the day that happened. I think anyone who knows the Parmely family can guess what is more important to JD than cars. Yes…his nieces Reagan and Hattie. JD has always loved kids, and had a great time playing with his younger cousins, but no cousin can hold his heart like his nieces do.
Any man who has kids knows how quickly those kids steal your heart, but girls have a tendency to wrap their daddies around their little finger pretty quickly. While JD doesn’t have kids of his own, he has found out how quickly two little girls can have a major effect on one uncle. A man spends his whole life learning to be a strong man. Nothing is supposed to have an effect on them…right? Wrong!! Enter two little girls, whose smiles can melt your heart in a second. Add to it the fact that these two little girls like some of the same things the uncle does, such as cars and motorcycles, and the fact that they don’t mind getting dirty on the trails they hike, and 
you find yourself with every ingredient necessary to steal a heart. And that is exactly what those two little girls did.
JD still loves his cars, motorcycles, and mechanical work, and he loves working on the house he bought from his grandparents, but none of these things will ever take the place of those little nieces…and I think JD is totally ok with that. Being uncle to Reagan and Hattie is the highlight of his life. But then he always was a kid at heart. Today is JD’s birthday. Happy birthday JD!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
If there is one way to describe my grand niece, Katie Balcerzak, it would have to be that she is all about the kids. For a while she was a pre-school teacher, and in many ways I think that was her dream job. It takes a very special person to teach school, whether it is pre-school, high school, or home school. Kids can be a handful, whether they are your own or someone else’s, and not everyone can take on the task of teaching these young minds the things necessary to succeed in this life. Katie and her husband, my grand nephew, Keifer Balcerzak don’t have any kids yet, but I can see them having several some day. Right now Katie has to settle for loving on the children of friends and family.
Katie has a great sense of humor, as anyone who has ever looked at some of her posts can see. Katie’s humorous side didn’t really surprise me nearly as much as some of her other interests did, however. Being a history buff, I have gotten used to the idea that I may be an odd duck, especially when compared to people younger than me, but Katie likes the history channel, and some of the political ideas that I have are her ideas too, but I won’t go into those here, because this is a birthday post, and not a political debate. She likes country music, which makes her ok in my book too, because I guess, like my parents expected, I outgrew rock music, and traded it in for country music along time ago. I would rather listen to music I can sing along with.
Katie is the kind of person who makes friends to last a lifetime, and she has friends from as far back as her Kindergarten years. These are close friends too, not just Facebook friends. That is the kind of friend everyone wants to have…whether they realize it now or not, because friends that last a lifetime are true friends, who will walk with you through all of life’s trials and all of life’s rewards, and let’s face it, we could all use more of that kind of friend in our lives. Today is Katie’s birthday. Happy birthday Katie!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
Seldom does it seem like a person is truly the light of someone else’s life, but that is how my grand niece, Melanie Harman seemed to be for my grand nephew, Jake Harman, the first time I met her. I have to think Jake, while not old by any stretch of the imagination, thought that he would never meet that special someone who would truly complete him. It’s hard to imagine how a person can feel when they honestly think they will be alone in this life. We knew that Jake felt that way…not because he said it, but because it showed in how he was. That always made me sad, because I knew that Jake had something special to give to that person who could see something special in him, and it was hard to see that there didn’t seem to be someone out there who could see that.
Then Melanie came alone, and suddenly, Jake was complete. Melanie is such a sweet, loving girl, and when he is with her, Jake just blossoms. I suppose that sounds odd, in light of the fact that he is a man, but men can blossom too. They suddenly become the person that God had in mind for them to be. Melanie was truly a gift to Jake, from God, to bless his life in every way. Melanie brought with her, a daughter, Alice, who simply adores Jake, and now together, they have another daughter, Izabella, who is Jake’s mini-me. Life is suddenly good for both Jake and Melanie, and it will only get better and better every day, week, month, and year they spend together. 
Their love for each other is simply beautiful.
Melanie is loved by everyone in the family, and everyone who knows her. It’s easy to see that her special kind of personality has been such a sweet blessing for Jake, and that endears her to all of us. Jake has never been happier, and Melanie is the reason. She is an excellent mom to the girls, and they are so blessed to have her for their mom. Melanie couldn’t fit in this family any better, if she tried. Today is Melanie’s birthday. Happy birthday Melanie!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My nephew, Sean Mortensen is a man who loves a little friendly competition. That could be where his daughter, Jaydn gets her competitive nature. Sean loves sports…and machinery, or at least of the toy variety…but then, what man doesn’t. None I know of, anyway. Sean loves boating, snowmobiling, 4-wheeling, and motorcycle riding. He likes snow, as much as he does the summer sun. And the friends that he and my niece, Amanda Reed have, all feel the same way. Their love of competition has made for some amazingly great weekends, with amazingly great friends…mostly at Seminole Reservoir, but in the mountains too.
One of the latest escapades has involved water mats. I find that particularly interesting. These mats are strong enough to stay afloat with a number of people sitting, or even running on them. The friends have decided to have water mat races, with the goal being to see who can get across the mat the fastest…without falling down, of course. Sean and his friends are pretty good at water mat racing. I’m not so sure I would be, but it looks like it would be fun to try. That is the impression I get from the pictures and from his friends, anyway. I’m sure I would be a complete klutz on those mats, however.
Sean is a great partner to Amanda, and a great dad to their daughter, Jaydn, who was born the day before his birthday, 12 years ago. Sean and Amanda bought a house a year or so ago, and they have done a lot of work on it. I think that for Sean, the coolest thing is the garage he has now, where he can work on all his toys, because after all, you can’t beat your friends in a 
competition, if your toys aren’t in tip top shape.
Sean is the kind of guy, who works hard and plays hard, and everyone who is around him and Amanda find themselves having a great time, because as their friends say, they sure know how to have a good time. And that’s what the weekend is all about, isn’t it? Great times with great friends. It doesn’t get better than that. Today is Sean’s birthday. Happy birthday Sean!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
It’s really hard for me to believe that my grand niece, Jaydn Mortensen is twelve years old today, but she is, nevertheless. Jaydn has done a lot of living in her relatively few years. She is the only child of her parents, my niece Amanda Reed, and her significant other, Sean Mortensen, and they like giving their daughter a full life. She has never been made to feel like she is too little to be around the adults, and so, she has been four wheeling, boating, and snowmobiling with her parents and their friends. 
Jaydn’s family loves all kinds of outdoor sports, and so it stands to reason that Jaydn does too. I think her extensive time at Seminole Reservoir has probably turned her into a fish…so to speak. He parents spend every possible weekend at the lake, and that means lots of activities.
Sports aside though, I think that Jaydn’s true love…for now anyway…is horses. She has such a way with them. She loves to ride them and take care of them, and she isn’t afraid of them, even though last summer started off badly, when she was bucked off of a horse, breaking both of her arms. What a way to start the summer vacation. That didn’t deter her at all. Jaydn is very much into all things animal, and especially if it relates to the fair and rodeo. She has started showing horses, and is really quite good at it, to which her ribbons will attest. In her first horse showing, she took 4 Grand Champion, and 1 Reserve Champion in horse. She was also voted Outriders Princess last year, which is the best of the best…but then we knew that.
Every year, Jaydn gets better and better at the things she loves to do. I don’t know 
what her future goals and dreams are, and maybe she doesn’t know either, but I think she would be a great veterinarian or some other such occupation involving animals, because she simply has a way with them. She doesn’t just love horses, although, they are her true love, but she likes goats and rabbits and other animals too. I think she just has a heart for animals in general, and it’s obvious from what I’ve seen, that they love her too. Today is Jaydn’s 12th birthday. Happy birthday Jaydn!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
A baby’s first year is one filled with change. They go from being an infant to an independent little toddler…just that fast. Their parents tend to wish there was a way to slow them down just a little bit, because those infant days are gone in an instant. Still, watching the changes and the emerging personality is awesome too, and soon you find yourself simply going with the flow and enjoying the new little person your child has become.
One thing that few people expect from their younger children, however, is for them to become an inspiration to their older children. Nevertheless, in the case of my grand niece, Zoey Iverson, she has become just that. Zoey’s brother, Lucas was born with Down’s Syndrome, and so is slower at things than she is, but Lucas loves his little sister, and literally follows her everywhere. That has inspired Lucas to work very hard at maneuvering. And for Zoey, that’s not a bad thing either, because she absolutely loves her brother too. Zoey brings out the very best in her brother, because Lucas wants to do everything Zoey does.
Zoey and her brother are best friends. They love spending time together and with their grandparents and uncles…especially Uncle Tucker. They love to go camping together with their parents and other family members. Zoey spends a lot of time in her swing or playpen when camping, but that doesn’t matter. She is outside, and that’s a fun place to be. I’m sure she will take after her parents in camping, fishing, and all things sporty.
One of the main things I see in Zoey though is the love she has for her brother. I have a feeling she is going to be his biggest cheerleader, best friend, and his teammate. It’s amazing to watch a younger child who sees the 
need to take on the role of the older child, but without stepping in their older sibling’s toes and making them feel like they are incapable. I think Zoey will be that kind of child. Filled with love for her brother and never feeling like he is a burden, because he is just her brother and she loves him with all her heart. What a blessing for Lucas to have such a sister. He has a sister who encourages him, inspires him, and loves him always. It doesn’t get any better than that. I know that Zoey will be a very compassionate girl. Today is Zoey’s 1st birthday. Happy birthday Zoey!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My grand niece, Raelynn Masterson is turning 13 today. Turning 13 is an exciting, mixed up, trying time in that persons life, but Raelynn…or Rae, as she is known to her family, is taking it pretty much in stride. She has always been easy going, and maybe it’s that style that lets her make a smooth transition into the teenage years. The journey from child to young adult is filled with ups and downs, but Raelynn doesn’t seem to be too shook up about it…unlike her mom, my niece, Dustie Masterson. Dustie is having a bit of a hard time believing that her first born…while no longer a baby, yet always her baby, is growing up so very fast. Dustie calls this by far their “biggest adventure” yet. I think that any parent of children over the age of 13 knows exactly what Dustie means. I don’t think any parent is truly ready for their kids to grow up.
Raelynn is the big sister to Matt and Anna, and younger half-sister to Christina, who lives in Colorado. For some time now, Raelynn has been the “little mom” to her younger siblings. She is helpful to her mom and dad, and doesn’t present them with a ton of drama…unless her younger brother and sister provoke her, that is. She is so motherly sometimes that her mom has to remind her that in reality she is not the mom, but that often happens with older children. She is a kind person too, so I’m sure that keeps sibling relationships on an even keel. Many people really have no ability to empathize with others, but Raelynn is compassionate and has an understanding of people that surpasses her years on this earth.
These days Raelynn is into science and boys…and not necessarily in that order. I suppose that might be viewed as an odd combination, but it works for her. The Science Zone is a really big deal here in town, and she loves going there. They even have summer classes for the kids. Dustie signed Raelynn up for three this year. The first one was a Dissection Class, and is definitely the one Raelynn likes the least…probably because of her love 
of animals. The second class was on Water, which she really enjoyed, but it was the class where she was able to help the instructor with the animals that really did it for Raelynn. When her mom picked Raelynn up, she was excitedly telling her that the Iguana and the Science Zone doesn’t like anyone, but really took to Raelynn. She was so happy about that. Raelynn loves to read, and is keep a journal, which is seriously private, of course. Raelynn is such a sweet girl, and a great blessing to her family. Today is Raelynn’s birthday. Happy birthday Raelynn!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
If I tell you that there exists in this world, a children’s railway, would you think of the Orphan Train, bringing children out West for adoption into families there? Or would you think of some kind of forced child labor on the railways? Either way…you would be wrong. The Children’s Railway was started in Soviet Russia in 1932. The concept is a unique one. The idea was to teach teenaged children to build and run a railroad as a way of learning the railroad trade. It was an extracurricular activity that was voluntary. Things like that aren’t offered in this country…at least not that I’m aware of. Nevertheless, I think my grandfather, Allen Luther Spencer might have enjoyed that, had it been offered in his time. I also think that my cousin by marriage, James Forseen, might have loved that since he has always loved trains, and managed to land a job with the railroad. He loved them so much that he had to have one in the wedding photos when he 
married my cousin Dani Byer Forseen. Just imagine James, if you could have worked on a railroad in high school!!
As I said, the children’s railway was a phenomenon that originated in the USSR. The first Children’s Railway opened in Gorky Park in Moscow, on July 24, 1932. It was a greatly developed activity in Soviet times. By the time the USSR broke up, there were 52 children’s railways in existence in that country. Many children’s railways are still functioning in post-Soviet states and in Eastern Europe, so obviously this is an activity that has taken off…and imagine the kids who would stay out of trouble if they fell in love with railroad work. I can envision the kids having such a great time running the railroad that they would never have the time or the inclination to get into trouble or into gangs. Their imagination would be too busy.
The children’s railway has come so far that many of them exhibit railway technology not seen anymore on the 
main lines and they can be seen as heritage railways. Even though a few exceptions exist, most of the children’s railways that were built in the communist block have a track gauge of at least 600 mm (1 feet 11 5/8 inches) and can carry full size narrow gauge rolling stock. Of course, for the sake of safety and training purposes, the children’s railways are all run under the supervision of adult railroad workers, but what better way for things to be done. The children’s railways in existence these days are mostly for the purpose of tourism, but I suppose that if necessary, they could be used for other reasons. Whatever their purpose is today, I think the Children’s Railways sound like a very cool idea.
