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new blog.

24 Jan
I’ve added another new blog to my blog roll on the right – stolen fotos.  You should probably check it out.
It’s my elder brother’s second blog.  And, as the title admits, he is stealing beautiful photos from the web and claiming them as his own!  gasp.
Just kidding.  [The name puns do, in fact, get old but I still engage them.]
[Sidenote: The best name story involving my older brother?  He loses his wallet while in college.  Calls campus security or police or something.  “I’d like to report a stolen wallet.”  “Okay, sir.  What is your last name?”  “Stolen.”  “Sir, what is your last name?”  “Stolen.”  “Sir, I know it’s been stolen but I need to know your last name.”  We often joke that how great would it have been if it was my younger brother – not if he lost his wallet – that would be unfortunate – but the story would have been good.  “Can I have your name?”  “It’s Ben Stolen.”  “Yes, sir, I know it’s been stolen but I need to have your name.” oh har har]
Right.  My brother’s blog.  He travels a lot for work [lucky] and for fun, and his camera is his travel buddy.  This new site is a collection of his photos, often edited in an awesome fashion.  We’ve never got along too well in the past as we live on opposite ends of every spectrum (politics, religion … you know, the big ones, plus the fact that he speaks fluent sarcasm) but I’ll do him this advertisement.  Plus, we like each other more now that he lives in CO and I in MN.  
Moral of the story: new blog.  go there.

[late addition – Matt [the elder brother] brought this video to my attention again.  Obviously, no direct relation to my younger brother.  Except that is his name …]

merry christmas.

27 Dec
Two days late but still within the season.  Ten days left to buy that pear tree and those drummer boys!  Here’s hoping you celebrated with people you love at the arrival of the newborn king!
What did I do?

I spent Christmas Eve with my immediate family and those on my dad’s side.  We went to church and it struck me – probably my last Christmas Eve service at East Koshkonong with my family.  Next year, I’ll most likely be planning and leading at a church yet unknown.  That makes me sad … but honestly, also a tad excited!  (I’m ready for this next step in life, though it means holidays will never look that same.)  We returned home to watch Friends (“The One with the Holiday Armadillo.”) and play an ever-hilarious game of Apples to Apples with the Luther clan.  Christmas proper had our home as host to the maternal side of the family, a crowd of twenty.  A game of 31, the tossing of a large rubberband, and watching the younger cousins open gifts comprised our day.  After company left, we watched a movie, recouped, and accidently fed my brother’s lab, Jetta, Diet Mountain Dew.  She was okay.  Once she stopped shaking.  (jk.)

Being home for Christmas means –

22 Dec
1. No wireless internet.  Means fewer blog postings.  Means I appreciate your patience, dutiful blog readers.
2. Christmas trees and holiday decorating.

3. Passing Santa driving an old rusted Chevy on the way into town this morning.  For serious.  [Driving into town to meet up with my Grandma’s Wednesday morning knitting group at the local coffee shop, only to find she had left before I arrived.  Also, for wireless internet.  See number one.]
4. The annual Christmas program at my home congregation.  As there needs to be each year, there was that one kid who yelled every word to every song.  Classic.
5. Banana Christmas with gift exchange.

Kim: Okay, now everyone wear your gift!

6.  The traditional eating of sponge candy with my Texan Banana, Allison.

7. Reading.  For fun books.  Finished Mansfield Park and onto a rereading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
8. My mother having each of her four children home at one time.  She has clarified many times that she loves having us home but do we really need to bring so much stuff home with us?

church families.

16 Dec
That’s the language tossed about within congregations – your church family.  The church to which you belong becomes like a family.  But rather, not just LIKE a family but it is your family.  Your church family.  You’re with each other through tough times and great times, the joys and the sorrows.  (Warning: Cliche approaching.)  I am so blessed.  I have THREE church families.  
East Koshkonong is the church family to which I formally belong, the church family in which I grew up.  It’s the country church where I was baptized and confirmed, the church where I spend every Christmas Eve (with the exception of last year).  When I worship at East, I share the pews with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  One of my favorite memories is as a small girl, crawling over other family members to sit next to my Grandma Vera.  She always had peppermints in her purse.  I remember sitting next to my dad who would always put his arm around me (and sometimes fall asleep during the sermon).  Here I played my flute with the senior choir, I taught Sunday School, and ultimately first felt my call to ministry.  With approval behind me and only one semester ahead of me, I look forward to planning my ordination – a celebration I will have the opportunity to share with this church family, knowing I have their constant prayers and support as I journey in ministry.
Trinity in Stillwater is the second church family of which I ever became a part.  I began working at Trinity in 2007 and worked through the spring of 2009.  I loved the time I spent at Trinity in children’s ministry and working with an innovative staff.  One of the coolest things about this church family is going back to it.  After a year and a half away, I’ve come back to Trinity to worship and to lead a small group of ninth grade confirmation ladies.  It’s crazy to come back and have these children that I worked with for two and half years remember me and still greet me with hugs.  (And many confused looks.  But we’ll focus on the hugs.)  My small group is truly a blessing.  Tonight we wrote on the chalkboard wall in our meeting room for the first time – for fun!  Not only do I get to interact once again with children I’ve known from years past, but I also am blessed to see the staff members. I love hanging out after confirmation is over with Denise, one of my ‘Stillwater Moms’ and my BFF from a Mexico mission trip of the past.  I’ve missed her.
Grace in Dawson is my third church family who I still think of and miss every day.  Lots.  And it is certainly true that people there – members of the congregation and the staff with whom I spent lots of time – became my family when I was away from mine for a year.  I remember tearing up during the candlelight singing of Silent Night on Christmas Eve, missing that moment that I have each year with my family.  But then afterwards, I was invited to dinner, gifts, and games with coworkers and members alike at my supervisor’s home.  Looking back, it was different.  But it was perfect.  They were the ones who supported me in some truly rough times and helped me grow.  A lot.  We drank lots of coffee and had a bit too much fun for our own good.  (I still remember playing baseball in the hallway with Kendall using a rolled up poster and wiffle ball on a random weekday morning.  And don’t get me started on VeeBeeS and sewing purses.  Too much fun.)  I know that I’m in trouble when it comes to my first call; I find it hard to believe that being the pastor of any church can live up to Grace and the year I had there.
I have three church families – even if I’m not actively involved in each at this time.  In any given week, I receive the newsletter from one.  There are facebook friend requests and long facebook messages to keep in touch.  I have a penpal.  Birthday wishes.  Text messages.  Holiday cards. I love my church families and think I’m most certainly blessed to have three of them.  Love it.

fifth annual bake-off.

2 Dec
Oh my goodness.  I’m just realizing that I never wrote about the fifth annual Thanksgiving Day Bake-Off!  How could I forget?  No worries.  I’m here now with pictures and the whole story …
The fifth annual Thanksgiving Day Bake-Off was planned by my cousin, Connor, and I.  We hold all power in the bake-off as the ones born on December 8th.  We decided on the rules for this year’s bake-off and let the baking begin.  (Please find the official rules at the bottom of this post.)

The day approached.  Tensions grew high.  Who would win and earn the honor of wearing the apron?  


Eh.  We don’t really know.  We never really voted. 


But my grandma said I won.  And who’s to challenge Grandma Julie?



I think Connor was disqualified.  His version of a bird was clever – humor points given – but he did not follow rule number five.  His pie was grabbed from the freezer.  His mom had bought it.  I call his entry not valid.  


What will happen next year for the sixth annual bake-off no one knows.  But I can pretty much guarantee Connor will enter with the hopes of finding another clever way out of actually putting forth any culinary effort. 










The fifth annual Thanksgiving Day Bake-Off participants hitherto agree that they will —

1. Bring their entry to Thanksgiving (Location: TBD.)  Entries should be carried/packed in any type of container.  (Previous years prove that the ‘undisclosed’ container and paper bag rules are not followed – let the chaos ensue.)
2.  The entry, brought by the participating cousin, must be a dessert.
3.  The dessert must bear some resemblance to a bird.  (Bonus points if it’s a good-looking turkey.)  In other words, make it into a bird.
4.  The dessert-that-looks-like-a-bird may not actually include any poultry.
5.  Participant must bake/create said bird dessert by oneself.  
6.  Though the theme of this year’s bake-off is presentation-heavy, the taste of the dessert will still be judged.
7.  The winner, in both presentation and taste, will win the honor of having his/her name written on the very official bake-off apron. 
As always, participation, rules, and any day-of clarifications are governed and decided by those born on December 8.

shenanigans.

1 Dec
I’m sure it’s what my mother thought.  Shenanigans.  
She walked into the kitchen the morning of the Lindsay-Emma-Molly sleepover and found us eating these:

They tasted no different than boring pancakes.  Perhaps, they even tasted a bit better because of how awesome they are in rainbow colors.  Oh, the possibilities of food coloring gels.

be thankful on paper (4).

29 Nov
Okay.  I cheated.
I didn’t use paper.  I didn’t send out a thank you note this past Wednesday as I had promised to do.  
Want to hear my excuses?
You’re right.  They’re just excuses.  They don’t change the fact that I failed at my assignment.  *hangs head pathetically*
While I wasn’t thankful on paper as instructed, I coordinated some thankfulness on chalkboard instead.   (Does that make up for it at all?  Please?)  Chalkboard word bubbles to be exact – word bubbles which I made after finding this blog post.  So incredibly fun with so many ridiculous uses!
Ready? 

I don’t have a word bubble to say it but I felt so incredibly thankful for my family and friends at home this past week.  They’re good, great, and grand.  Marvelous.  Hilarious.  Loving.

They. are. awesome.

be thankful on paper (3).

18 Nov
Week three of being thankful on paper and I wrote to my sister.  My sister is nine years younger than I. She was born when I was in fourth grade and boy, was I excited to have a baby sister in the house.  I was the ‘second mother’ – changing diapers, feeding, babysitting as I could at that age.  
As she has grown older, she’s had a different childhood than my brothers and I – not living on the farm,  or forced to do tobacco labor, and being the younger spoiled child (joke, Mom, joke) –  but Emma has become quite the wonderful and grounded 18 year old.  We share a mutual love of cardigan sweaters and scarves, not to mention a similar obscure sense of humor.  We’ve bonded through Gilmore Girls and Twilight.  We look alike; the identification of our baby pictures sometimes relies on the background or clothing to determine which is which.  But even now – I still remember one woman asking us a few years ago, “Which one of you is older?”  For real, woman?  
She’s pretty cool and more popular than I ever was or ever will be.  (cough prom queen cough) One complaint — she refuses my suggestion of Luther for undergrad next year.  Wherever she goes, she’ll do great work, make loads of new friends, and change the world.  I’m pretty confident about that.

I’ve linked my blog here – jump on over to read more notes about being thankful!

cookies again.

29 Jul
Here I am, talking about my message cookie cutters again. (Are you rolling your eyes? Hey now.) I’m still not bored with them and I’m hoping you’re not either. Remember – the possibilities are endless!
I sent some cookies off to the Reilly’s in Edgerton at the beginning of the week. I had told Aunt Kari that I owed them treats months ago and these seemed perfect. They arrived to the Reilly household and then they shared some of their cookie joy with me —

Aunt Kari and Molly. For cute. I’m excited to have a Hairspray sleepover with these ladies again soon, not to mention Hairspray dinner theater when I’m home in September!

Sam and Molly say, “Hi Mike.”

Sam follows directions.

va-cay.

14 Jul

I had a week of vacation and it was good. Kind of like what these guys think of the grass – good.
The main event was a few days in Colorado with my mother, visiting my older brother who recently moved to Fort Collins. This mini-break was sandwiched between nights in the Cities with college friends and Stillwater friends. Wonderful.
My mom and I met up at MSP (She flew in from Madison.) and then enjoyed the wonders of the airport with our three hour waiting game/delay. Board the plane, get off the plane. Here’s a meal voucher, just kidding, time to get on the plane. We stayed in Fort Collins with my brother at his apartment and gave it a feminine touch; we rearranged furniture, cleaned, and shopped for necessary household goods. We spent time in Old Towne, a great touristy, mill-about part of town with restaurants and shops. My brother booked us a tour at the New Belgium Brewery which was, if I do say so, a highlight of the trip. I don’t normally drink beer but the tour was a ton of fun, complete with a slide and costumes! We took a day and drove to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. I’d never before been to the mountains so the drive into 12,000 feet above sea level was quite the sight (and cold). Good trip.

I spent time with Amanda (my college roommate) and drank coffee with Joe (her husband). Along with college friends Kara and Julia, I went to the sculpture gardens in Minneapolis, played Bananagrams, and sat by the pool. Stillwater Sara and I laughed our butts off to The Big Bang Theory on dvd, sampled olive oil, and went to drive-in church. I saw and hugged many former coworkers in Stillwater and learned that a second of the Gieseke clan might be joining me on campus at Luther in the fall. (Between Karen and Adam being possible classmates and most certainly lunch dates, I think God is showing me that moving back to St.Paul won’t be so bad.)
It was a needed and splendid week away from Dawson but I was happy to return. I had a ton of fun but was ready to not live out of a laundry basket or airplane carry-on anymore. I was ready to sleep in a bed and not on a couch. I was ready to … go back to work? There. I said it.
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