girlfriend
My grandnephew, Easton Moore is pretty much all about his Bronco…except for his girl, Brionna Petrich, that is. For the past year, Easton has been busy working and fixing up his bronco. A year ago, he took his Bronco to Billings on his birthday weekend, and the alternator went out on the interstate by Laurel, Montana. Funny how stuff like that always seems to happen when you are out of town. The breakdown meant that he had to have it towed to get it off the interstate. Then a call to his parents, and they helped him get it home. That episode inspired Easton to replace the old alternator with a bigger alternator. Easton had put new subwoofers in, and the bigger alternator would help out with power for that. In the end, Easton’s dad, Steve Moore had to do a little engineering for it to work, but now, it works great!! With the power problem handled, Easton moved on to his next project, the carpet and a new muffler, or that’s what he thought was going to be the next project, but because some other things came up that needed done first, those would have to wait.
Easton graduated from high school in May of 2022. With apartment rent as high as it is, he is still living at home, which doesn’t hurt his parents’ feelings any. He is enjoying the freedom of not having schoolwork to do, and his mom is too. Its not that she had to help him so much, but there is always that push to get your kid to study, and get their homework done. While he did well in school, parents still have the job of chief encourager and supervisor. Now that is behind them, and if Easton decides to go further in his education, it will be on his own. Time will tell, but he happy with things as is for now.
Since graduation, Easton and his dad have collected all the parts to add a lift to his Bronco, so that he can use the tires he got from his friend…big wide tires. I don’t know what it is with guys, but the mor a vehicle looks monster truck like, the happier they are. Easton hated the wait to get the money together and then the wait to have the lift installed, but he persevered, and saving the money for your purchases is a great financial lesson to learn. Once the lift was all done, Easton couldn’t wait to take it for a drive, and wouldn’t you just know it…the starter quit working. That was odd, because he had just bought the starter, but it wouldn’t stay tight. As it turns out, there was a crack in the bell housing to the transmission. Oh, the joys of vehicle ownership!!
Thankfully, Easton has a good friend that actually found a replacement bell housing, located just a half a block away, and for just $100!! He was back in business. Easton and his friend finished taking it out of the Bronco, and Steve got it all taken apart and put all the parts into the new bell housing. The new on was perfect, with no cracks and nothing previously repaired (rebuilt). Finally, after all the parts were put back in, they took it for a drive. That first drive showed that there were still problems. It would only work in first and reverse. Now, that makes it difficult to dive it very far. A couple days later and lots of research, Easton took it back out and “Gave it the Onion.” Now, all the gears work great!! He then took it down to get the tires aligned right, since installing the lift. The carpet and the muffler will still be in the future, having been push out for other things.
If there is one thing that can be said about Easton, it’s that he is ambitious. He decides that he is going to do something, and he sticks to it until he accomplishes what he set out to accomplish. He has the determination to meet his goals even when life throws him a bunch of lemons!! His parents are so very proud of how he has worked through the hard times to make it to the good times! Easton has found a great supporter through it all…
his girlfriend, Brionna. She makes him happy, always smiling, and the two of them together makes everything good. When you have a good support system, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to!! Everyone needs a great support system. Today is Easton’s birthday. Happy birthday Easton!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
Alli Simpson, who is my grandnephew, Xander Spethman’s girlfriend is a sweet girl who has captured Xander’s heart, and everyone in his family loves her very much. Alli is a quiet girl, at least when I have been around her, but maybe she is just shy because she doesn’t know me too well. Xanders family has pretty much “adopted” her, for now…a situation that will change as their relationship deepens. It’s not every day that a person fits so perfectly in a family, but Alli is one of those precious few who really do.
Alli is a smart girl, who worked hard and graduated from high school one semester early. I know she has great things ahead of her. She had considered becoming a nurse at one point, but like many people who were considering nursing, plans changed following Covid-19. While her plans may have taken a setback, I know that this ambitious girl did not. Whatever she decides to do, I know 
that she will land on her feet. Right now, she is just working and enjoying spending time with Xander and his family.
Alli loves plants. If you look at her Facebook profile page, you will pick up on that fact immediately. I must say that I have to give a lot of credit to anyone who can raise plants, because there are lots of us out there who definitely can’t. I can kill a plant in record time, so I am in awe of anyone who can keep one alive for more than a month. Alli’s sense of humor even extends to her plants. While I don’t know if she would actually take a plant out for a walk, the fact that she sees humor in the idea makes me smile. Maybe she would do that, simply because it would be something new and different. I think that if Xander is looking for a birthday present for her, a plant stroller might be just the ticket.
It seems that Alli has always been a bit of a princess and really, a fashionista. That makes her a good friend for 
Xander’s little sister, Aleesia, who is a fashionista too, and as the only girl in the Spethman family, she and Alli and Xander’s mom, Jenny Spethman, of course, can all share in their fashion/princess world together. Alli and Xander have also decided that they want to help an animal in need, so recently, they adopted a dog that they named Rocky. Rocky loves his new mommy and daddy, and since the kids just moved into their first place together, they now have a nice little family. Today is Alli’s 18th birthday. Happy birthday Alli!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My grandnephew, Xander Spethman was the boy that made my niece, Jenny a mom, and her husband Steve, a dad. The minute he arrived, he stole their hearts, and their lives will never the same. Xander was the first of five children, and he has two younger brothers, Zack and Isaac, and two younger sisters, Laila (who lives in Heaven) and Aleesia, the baby of the family. Xander has been the leader of the “band of brothers” who watch out for their baby sister, and Aleesia loves having that army of brothers around her. Xander has also been protective of his younger brothers too. It’s what big brothers do.
Xander is a sweet young man, who loves his family and wants to be just like his dad. He has a lot of respect for his parents, and because they have led by example with him, Xander knows just the kind of man he wants to be. He loves his girlfriend, Alli Simpson, and they have great plans for their future. Xander is also a great friend to all his friends. People know that they can count on Xander. He is very hind hearted and tries to help anyone who needs assistance. He has considered becoming an electrician in the future, and that may be where his life 
takes him, but his mom also thinks he might make a wonderful counselor, because he is really good at talking to people about their problems and not making them feel bad about who they are and where they are in life.
Xander is a fun-loving guy. He loves to ride his longboard and loves to go shooting. He is a good marksman…another skill taught to him by his dad. He is always the life of the party, choosing to bring laughter and fun to every situation. That’s why everyone loves Xander. He just brings a sense of happiness into a room with him. It’s like happiness follows him around, and he gladly embraces the joy.
Xander isn’t entirely sure where life is going to take him, or even where he wants life to take him. He has talked about moving away from Casper, which makes his parents sad, of course. They don’t want him to go, 
because he is their precious first-born child. I think it is really the first child to move out or move away, that is the hardest on the parents. Of course, they know that no matter where Xander goes, they will always be his parents, and he will always love them and his siblings. Nevertheless, accepting the fact that their son is becoming a man is probably the hardest part about raising children…and the most rewarding too. Today is Xander’s birthday. Happy birthday Xander!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
I first met my nephew, Riley Birky, when he was 9 years old, and his mom, Rachel Schulenberg married my brother-in-law, Ron Schulenberg. Over the years that he has been in our family, Riley has gone through the fairly typical years of a kid, with the teen years being typically the most tumultuous, as is the case with most teens. While those were tough times for Riley, one thing that you could always count on, was that you could always count on Riley. Riley might not have always been excited about helping out, but if he said he would help you with something, he would. He always had a tendency to take care of everybody before himself. If there is a call for assistance with something, Riley will be the first to respond. His mom say of Riley, “He is so brave and committed and always striving to do his best.”
Those kid days are long gone now, and Riley is grown up. He works very hard doing concrete work at Griffis Quality Fencing and Welding in Powell, Wyoming. Riley likes his job and is a great employee. He finds the work interesting. Riley has grown into a good man, and that is one of the best things that can be said about a man. Riley likes his job, but it isn’t all that he is about. Like most people, your job is what you do to earn money to do what you want to do. Riley likes adventure…doing something new and exciting. He also loves the outdoors.
Riley has grown up so much in the past year. He has a great group of friends, who have been there for him. He has also been blessed with a wonderful girlfriend, Sierah Martin, and her two-year-old son, Jace. Riley loves kids, and was always such a great big brother to his brother, Tucker Schulenberg. They don’t get to see each other as much as they used to, since Tucker lives in Casper, but they are still close. Riley was also blessed this year to become a godparent to a sweet little boy. I think that has been a great honor to him. Today is Riley’s 20th birthday. Happy birthday Riley!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My grandson, Caalab Royce met a girl a while back and they have been almost inseparable ever since. Her name is Chloe Foster, and she is as sweet as she can be. These kids are perfect for each other. Both are dedicated to their families and to each other’s family too…and the cool thing is that their families like each other too. It’s always special when you can join two families…because the kids got together. When Caalab met Chloe, his whole life changed. I really didn’t hear about anything else but Chloe, and when we met her, we could see what he saw in her. Her personality was totally infectious, and I enjoyed meeting her very much.
As Chloe’s birthday approached I began to wonder about this girl who holds my grandson’s heart. I knew that she is studying criminal justice in college, and that she is a Christian, which makes me very happy. She has a sweet spirit, which I have seen in the things she posts. Caalab tells me that she has been spending part of the “shelter-at-home” time in which we have all found ourselves, studying the Bible. She is a girl who prays and allows God to lead her in the way she should go. These kinds of things make my heart glad.
Chloe is also a very talented artist. She recently sat down and is just a few hours she had painted a watercolor picture of Bob Marley. Caalab really likes Bob Marley, so he was very impressed with her work. I don’t know too much about Bob Marley, but I know enough to recognize him in her painting. She did a good job. Recently, I friended Chloe’s mom on Facebook, and when looking at her pictures, I saw some of the funnier ways that Chloe uses her artwork…namely, greeting cards. I won’t display them here, but let’s just say she thanked her 
parents for their part in giving her life…her mom for Chloe’s first home, and her dad for putting her and her brothers, Tyson and Tanner, in the race in the first place. The cards were tastefully done, and very sweet in a funny sort of way, but they told me more about this girl who has loved cows for much of her life. I thought it funny, when my granddaughter, Shai Royce, Caalab’s sister, told me to buy Chloe something with a cow on it for Christmas…now, I can see that Shai knows Chloe pretty well. Shai loves Chloe as much (well almost as much) as Caalab does. As a grandmother, I can say it is heartwarming to know that someone cares so much for my grandson…that she not only holds his heart, but she protects it too. Today is Chloe’s birthday. Happy birthday Chloe!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
My grand nephew, Keifer Balcerzak joined our family on June 22, 2002, when his dad, Dave Balcerzak married my niece Chantel. Kiefer was fourteen at the time, and while he was close to being grown, I had the chance to get to know him during the time that Dave and Chantel were dating. He was a great kid then, and is a great young man now. Keifer’s personality is a lot like his dad. He is outgoing and a fun person to be around. It’s strange to think of all the grand nieces and nephews being grown up now, and starting lives of their own, but that is what is happening.
Keifer has always been a worker. He worked for Charter Communications for some 
time, but recently left there to take his dad’s old position at the State of Wyoming, which Dave vacated when he was promoted. So now Keifer is on the IT Help Desk. I always though his technical capabilities were far above the level it takes to install and repair cable lines. I think Keifer probably got his technical capabilities from his dad, but he has studied and earned his place in IT by his own hard work. Fixing technical issues on computers is no small job. There are enough hackers out there to put any business at risk. The big corporations have to have their own dedicated personnel to keep their computers running with a minimum of downtime. They can’t wait for someone from a tech company to show up to help. Too many people and programs depend on computers that run and run properly.
On May 9, 2015, Keifer married his longtime girlfriend, Katie Davidson. They have been dating for seven years, 
and so they almost seemed married already. They are a great couple, and I know that their marriage will be very blessed. Even though they have been together a long time, marriage is still a wonderful new adventure, and I know they are having a great time. I don’t know Katie very well, but from what I do know, I like her very much. The main thing is that she makes Keifer happy. That goes a long way in our family.
Keifer is a lot like his dad in computer capabilities, but I’m sure he also got his looks from his dad too. The older he gets, the more he looks like Dave. In fact, there are pictures of him that I have almost mistaked for Dave. Today is Keifer’s birthday. Happy birthday Keifer!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
As a little girl, I always loved my Aunt Delores Johnson. She had such a positive outlook on life, almost like she had some secret joyful memories in her mind. What a wonderful way to be. Aunt Dee and my mom were always good friends, as well as sisters. Her children, Ellen, Elmer, Darla, and Delwin were of similar age to my sisters and me, so it was always fun when we got together.
As my parents’ second child, I was at an age where I was feeling a little bit left out of things when my older sister, Cheryl got to spend the night with her friends. That said, I decided to see if I could spend the night with a friend too, and somehow the one I chose was my cousin, Elmer. Needless to say, I was at an age when the fact that he was a boy and I was a girl had no effect on my thinking. Mom and her sister decided that it would be ok for me 
to stay, but unbeknownst to me, the plan included the fact that I would be sleeping with Elmer’s younger sister, Darla. Now, Darla was the age of my younger sister, Caryl, so that made her three years younger than me, and not a prime choice for the sleeping arrangement, as far as I was concerned. Nevertheless, I was overruled, and the plan went on as they had decided. In the end, I had fun, but as I recall, Darla had a tendency to kick, so I don’t think I slept very well, but I did get to spend the night with a friend, so I guess I was happy about that. Still, I never forgot having to sleep with Darla, or the lesson I had learned…that when picking a friend to spend the night with, it is probably best, in my case anyway, to make it a girlfriend.
Aunt Dee was always fun to be around, even if I wasn’t spending the night, which I believe only happened once for 
obvious reasons. She smiled a lot, and had a very kind and loving spirit, and a great laugh. She was the kind of person who got along with everyone, but if you went up against her family, you better watch out, because she would protect them to the end, and isn’t that the kind of person you would want to have in your corner? While I must say that my spending the night experience was a bit of a disappointment, Aunt Dee did it in the kindest way possible, and I guess you might say she was protecting my honor, or my reputation, even though at my young age it probably wasn’t necessary. Nevertheless, Aunt Dee and my mom were always ones to do the right thing. Today would have been my Aunt Dee’s 83rd birthday, and I miss her very much. Happy birthday in Heaven Aunt Dee. We love you.
Our nephew, Tucker has always been such a happy kid. He loves life and all that it has to offer. Tucker find humor in things that the rest of us might not see as humorous…a good trait to have when you think about it. Tucker gets very excited with he sees someone that he likes to be around, often running up to them like a streak to give them a hug!!
Tucker started Kindergarten this year, and he is quickly showing his parents what a smart little boy he is. He was coloring with my brother-in-law, Ron, his step-dad, and they started talking about the colors he was using. Tucker wanted to know how Ron knew the specific color of the crayon, like yellow orange. Ron showed him where the color 
is shown on the crayon, and Tucker immediately began checking out each crayon, and reading of the name. Reading seems to be one of the areas Tucker likes best, which is a good thing, because we all know that if you are a good reader, you can pretty much excel in any subject you are interested, and many that you aren’t.
I don’t know if Tucker has a girlfriend at the moment, but in the past, he has been totally smitten with his early life best friend, Kaytlyn, who has now become his cousin by marriage. I don’t know how that would work out, but since he is only 6 years old, I think we are safe…for 
now. Of course, his all time best friend is his big brother, Riley. They do lots of things together, and Tucker knows that Riley is there for him, no matter what. A guy really needs a friend like that sometimes, and Tucker is very glad that his brother, Riley is that friend.
Tucker also loves the dogs, and they have some really great times together. I can’t tell you what joke the dog told Tucker, but it must have been a really good one, because Tucker had a really good laugh over that one. Today is Tucker’s 6th birthday. Happy birthday Tucker!! Have a great time at Six Flags!! We love you!!
When you are one of two brothers, in a family of six children, your life is spent with a whole lot of female influence, and with most sisters, that means being bossed around a lot. Now if you happen to be the youngest boy and the youngest child, you usually get a double dose from each sister. Such was the case for my brother-in-law, Ron. My in-laws essentially had to families, even though all the children have the same parents. Marlyce was the oldest, with Debbie following 3 years later. Bob is 17 months younger than Debbie. Then it would be 7 years before Jennifer came along. Brenda would follow 2 years later, and Ron was born 5 years after Brenda. So the older kids were like one family and the younger kids were like another, even though Ron is 5 years younger than Brenda. That put the two brothers 14 years apart.
Now, you would expect that so many years between them would have made it impossible to have a very close relationship, but you would be wrong. I think that by the time Ron came along, Bob had pretty much given up on the idea of having a brother, so when Ron was born, I think Bob decided that the brothers needed to stick together, since it was them against all the women in the family. Bob moved out of the house when he was 19, and Ron was almost 6. It was about this time that I met Bob.
Our dating days were different than some, I suppose, because often times we took Ron along. He was a happy little 6 year old boy, and who wouldn’t be, when his big brother and his brother’s girlfriend allowed him to go along to places like Dairy Queen. He was a 
good little boy, and the three of us always had a great time. Little kids can be so funny, and we enjoyed his joyful presence. I had never had a brother, so to me, Ron has always been that brother I never had. And like most siblings, I could almost say that I have known him since birth…although not quite.
I know there may be other brothers who got to do the things Ron did because their big brother liked having them around, but I don’t know of any. Most big brothers just want their kid brother to leave them alone. For Bob and Ron, their relationship then, and now is a blessing to both of them, and therefore very cool. Today is Ron’s birthday. Happy birthday little…ok, big now…brother!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
Little boys are all pretty much the same. They are curious. They want to know about everything that is going on around them. I can’t say that I blame them. There are a lot of interesting things to see, do, and learn about, in this world. Now I’m not saying that girls aren’t curious, and this story could just as easily have been written about little girls, but today’s story is about boys…and one in particular.
When my mom was a little girl, school pictures were done differently than they are today, and even differently than when I was a little girl. I don’t know if they took any individual pictures, but so far, I haven’t come across any. The pictures were taken by class. While I have seen some with the whole class together, I have also seen some with just the girls and just the boys. That is something that wasn’t done when I was a little girl, and indeed later on, the class picture was just a grouping of the individual pictures, placed together on a 5 x 7 picture.
The funny thing about the curiosity of little boys is that there always seems to be one who is a bit of a lady’s man, and just loves hanging out with the girls. That same little boy probably wants to be right in the middle of everything. That little boy will somehow insert himself into situations where he just doesn’t belong, such as this little boy, who managed to be at the edge of, and leaning into the picture of the girls…just close enough to get into the picture. The cameras of yesteryear were unable to view the picture, and therefore, you really didn’t know what you had until the film was developed. The photographer probably never saw this little boy leaning into the picture until the film was developed, and they were stuck with it, because it cost more to retake.
Now, it is possible that the photographer, the teacher, and maybe even the parents were upset with this turn of events, but I, personally, find it very cute. I picture this little boy as the one who loved little girls a lot, and didn’t really care if anyone knew it. He was curious about them, and wanted to know all about them. He might have even had a girlfriend in that group…or maybe several. That is how a lady’s man is. Try as he might, he doesn’t just stick with one girl…at least until he finds that one girl who changes everything, and removes his lady’s man status. Until that day comes, he goes from girlfriend to girlfriend, and might even have more than one at a time. Whatever the case may be, I think that there is always one little boy like that in every class, and sometimes there are several. That is just the way little boys are.
