Happy New Year!

"For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." - T.S. Eliot

"Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin

Cheers to 2008!

Random pictures

The Bjerke gals at Christmas


My apple tree still has apples!

"It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you ... Yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand."

Mother Teresa

Christmas Baking

Busy, busy

Allie attempting to help

Allie was really interested in the divinity-making process (I believe this was round two for the divinity and Shelly jumped in to help)!

Mom, Aunt Jan (left) and Aunt Louise (right) putting the finishing touches on the goodies

Christmas baking has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. I started tagging along to help a few years ago. I think it might have been shortly after Mike and Louise moved to England. I'm not much help, I only made one thing this year and it simply required that I melt some white chocolate chips and add cheerios and fruit. After that, I chased Allie around and entertained with some Christmas music on the piano. But it's still fun. We'll bring all the goodies to our Christmas gathering in Sioux Falls tomorrow and we shipped a box to Grandma and Grandpa in Texas. They should get it Christmas Eve, so they'll have goodies to enjoy on Christmas as well.

A visit from an old friend ...

Heather was back in town, so Steve and I met her downtown for a couple drinks. It was great seeing her again. My old student, Lindsie, was out and about as well.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas tree

With just over 1,000 lights!

Cutest Christmas Toddler Ever!

The Larson kid's holiday party was last Friday night and I tagged along. Nichole came over to get me so I could do Allie's hair (or at least attempt to do her hair). She doesn't have much, but I managed to get those pigtails in. She was so adorable. She seemed to have a good time, but as you can see in the picture above she doesn't quite know what to make of Santa. But she loves her suckers! Her mother took one away from her and she was not pleased with that. Grandma ended up getting her another one, which ended up in my hair. Of course. All the kids that attended got Christmas presents and they were also able to make some crafts and decorate some cookies. Allie was totally digging her rockin' Elmo guitar!

The Richest Man in Town

I had the opportunity to read this book shortly after it came out. Anyone and everyone who has read this book knows Marty as the "Wal-Mart guy". Well, I knew him long before he was ever the "Wal-Mart guy".

My mom started working for the Volga Tribune shortly after I was born. Marty worked for Reynold's Printing, which shared a building with the newspaper. I think I first met Marty when I was two. He was always grandpa Marty (and continued to be grandpa Marty to so many kids that went through his cashier line). I found out last night that Marty was an influence in my mother's decision to pursue her art. He convinced her that if she entered a contest for a logo design that she would win. He even bet a steak dinner on it! Well, she did enter ... and she won. I believe that foundation is still using her logo to this day. The book talks about how Marty believes in people and my mom is the proof that that wasn't something that just came about in his old age. He always believed in people.

V.J. Smith (author of the book and good friend of Marty's) was speaking last night at the Old Sanctuary. It seems that a publishing company has picked up this little book and is bringing it to the masses. My mom knows V.J. and I remember when he spoke at my college graduation. He is an excellent speaker and, quite honestly, an exceptional person. He takes little credit for bringing Marty's life lessons to everyone. So, mom and I stopped down. She had a copy of the book, but has since lost track of it. I'm sure someone, somewhere is enjoying it right now. Well, we had to get her another copy and V.J. was signing the books too. We missed the majority of his speech but the tail end was pretty good! Mom bought me a copy too. When I got home last night, I sat down intending only to read the forward by the founder of the publishing company. I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to put it down. I read the whole thing .... again. I read it straight through the first time I read it too. And both times I cried my eyes out.

This is truly an exceptional book about the most wonderful man. The world certainly needs a lot more people like Marty in it.

If you have not read this book, you need to. While not everyone has had the opportunity to meet Marty or someone like him, this book gives you the best insight to how great he was.

'Tis the Season!

My company holiday party was held Friday and Saturday night (Nov. 30 and Dec. 1). I've been filling the position of Employee Committee president this year and though I wasn't on the planning committee for the party, I did create all the marketing elements for it.

Friday night was packed, we had approximately 900 people in attendance. (After maxing out the Swiftel Center last year, we had to hold the party over two nights this year.)

I awoke Saturday morning to snow ... lots and lots of snow. There were times throughout the day that we wondered if we would even have the party that evening. But 7" of snow won't keep us crazy South Dakotans from a good party. While we were expecting 800 people Saturday night, we ended up with approximately 425. It was still a great time and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Both nights featured music from the SDSU String Ensemble. They were fantastic! And guests enjoyed games of Texas Hold'Em, Black Jack, Roulette and Craps. Guests were also able to enter into drawings for various prizes and we held a live drawing at the end of each night. Employees still received door prizes and we still had our grand prize drawings. Two lucky employees (one from each night) went home with a Wii. I was really hoping that we wouldn't draw names of people that were in attendance and that I might be able to take it home! No such luck.

Hats off to the committee that planned the event and to the rest of my Employee Committee members for helping to pull it all off.

"Lucky You" was the theme for this year's company holiday party

Amanda, Dawn and myself enjoying the activities

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I think it's because everyone seems to forget about it. Christmas season begins the day after Halloween, which drives me insane. I have a strict rule that I don't listen to Christmas music or do anything related to Christmas until after Thanksgiving. It gets harder and harder each year. I'm pretty sure all the stores have been playing Christmas carols since Halloween.
While I don't recall doing it every year, I have recited this prayer (from Dear Abby) for several Thanksgivings and wanted to share it with everyone ...

Oh, Heavenly Father,
We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
That thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And don't worry, you can start celebrating Christmas tomorrow!

On the mend

After a reaction to my antibiotics last week (which left me itchy from head to toe), I think I'm finally on the mend. I'm back at work and things seem to be going well. Although I miss my afternoon naps, I'm glad to finally be out and about. My leg is not completely healed yet, but I would imagine that it will be 100% sometime this week. More like I'm hoping it will be 100%. I'm ready to be done with this whole ordeal.
My reaction cleared up just in time for me to attend, and play piano for, my friend Kirby's wedding. There were several moments when I wondered if I would be able to make it at all and I really did not want to have Kirby scrambling to find a pianist the week of her wedding. But the universe decided it didn't hate me that much after all and I was able to make it. The music went off without a hitch and her wedding was beautiful. I think I may be able to retire from playing at weddings now!

At least I avoided the hospital ...

As most of you already know, I've been out of commission for the last few days. Since Thursday to be exact. I had a minor, irritating bump on my leg that turned out to be a staph infection. It hurt ... a lot! Anyway, I've been laid up since then doing my best to recover. I've been in to see the doctor a few times (redressing the wound and stuff ... don't worry, I'll spare everyone the details. It's bad enough that I had to go through it). I go to the doctor again tomorrow and hopefully they have good news for me. At least we know it's not MRSA!! As much as I'm enjoying this lovely vacation, I'm getting a little bored and stir crazy. Daytime tv is great (note the sarcasm).

Anyway, my grandparents had a lovely bouquet of flowers delivered, as did my parents (pictured). Rachel and Lisa also stopped by over a lunch hour to visit and bring me some flowers. I have a regular floral shop in my living room! I have also had tons of calls from Dustin's parents and grandparents. His Grandma Trego even stayed with us this weekend, which was a huge blessing.

Rachel also made supper for me and Dustin last night, which was so greatly appreciated ... and really delicious!

We're both pretty tired of this whole thing and ready for it to be over. Dustin has definitely earned himself the husband of the year award. He has been so great through this whole thing, driving me to the doctor, not passing out during the procedures!!

So, a big thank you to everyone that has called or stopped by to check on me. I'm cautiously optomistic that all will be well very soon. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Cutest Pumpkin Ever!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Happy Halloween!

Allie's Birthday Party

I'm pretty sure Allie had no idea that it was her birthday, but I think she had a blast!

Happy 1^st Birthday Allie Jean!

Time for a change

I cut my hair. And I didn't even cry. The last time I cut my hair, I donated it to Locks of Love. And I cried like a baby. This time around I only cut 8 inches (yeah, only), so I wasn't able to donate it. I absolutely love it! I'm not quite sure if I'll end up growing it out again (which is what I usually do when I get an urge to cut it off), but for now I'm loving it like this and it just might stick. The gal that cuts my hair was none too pleased with me. She has always loved my hair and wished that she had it. She made it a point to sweep all the hair in a pile on the floor so I could see what I had done, but she also knew that it would look great which is why she agreed to do it. She flat out told me she will never cut my hair if she doesn't like the way I want to cut it. That's probably why I love going to her so much. I never have to worry about her getting "scissor happy"!

Congratulations Rachel & Brian Fritz!

Courtesy of Rachel and Brian's photographer

Rachel and Brian were united in marriage on October 13, 2007. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception and dance was a blast. Rachel asked me to play piano for the ceremony and everything went quite well (after a minor hitch with the piano at the Old Sanctuary ... I ended up having to bring my own!).

26.2

They did it! My parents (along with some of their friends) finished the Twin Cities Marathon!! They all did such an amazing job too. We had a great time cheering them on, along with all the other marathoners. They truly are an inspiration! You can check out my parents times here (just type in Bjerke and select SD; you'll have to select Medtronics Twin Cities Marathon to see the full results!).

The marathoners before the start

10,000 runners!

Mile 7.5

Mile 13

Mile 17

Mile 19

Mile 23

The final .2 miles!!

THE FINISHERS!!

Our Crew

I think what truly amazed me was how great they looked the whole time. It almost seemed like running 26.2 miles didn't even phase them. I'm so proud of my parents and this incredible accomplishment. They still aren't sure if this will be their one and only marathon, but if they ever decide to run one again you can bet that we'll all be there cheering them on again.

Ugh

That's the only way to describe the last two days. Dustin and I were both home sick Monday and Tuesday with the flu. Not fun. Today we both felt better and made it through a whole day of work. However, I am now ready for bed. I'm still very tired and weak. It's shocking how laying around for two days can be so exhausting.

Being sick has not helped with the practicing for the wedding that I have to play for next weekend. So, tonight I sat down for an hour and practiced all my songs that I will play (prelude, ceremony and postlude). I've done the prelude, processional, recessional and postlude before. This does not worry me. For the first time, I will be playing during the lighting of the unity candle. I've accompanied singers before ... twice. Never has it just been me. I'm a little nervous and am having flashbacks to my recital days. Yikes!

Riddle me this ... I struggled through a few songs (I know it's only because I'm tired; I've played these songs millions of times before) however, when I broke out some Chopin Nocturnes, I played them flawlessly. I haven't played Chopin in ages. Interesting.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Best Anniversary Ever!

Happy Anniversary!

Dustin and me with Don and Shelly

Now that's how you pack and haul your coolers (if you don't mind the horrible scraping noise when you bottom out)!

Our tailgating crew

Pretty sure Dustin was in heaven at this point!

Arrowhead baby!

Okay, so it was our first anniversary. But still. It was awesome! We headed down to Kansas City Saturday morning and stayed with Don and Shelly (my uncle and aunt). We went to a fun Mexican restaurant/bar Saturday night and Sunday we went to Arrowhead. The Chiefs beat the Vikings (it was there home opener to boot) and we had such a great time. A bunch of Don and Shelly's friends came out too ... I've met some before, but it was Dustin's first time meeting most everyone. You know how people say that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth (or something like that)? Well, they're wrong. Or they have never been to Arrowhead.

Our First Anniversary

Courtesy of Wisconnygirl Designs