A New Year with a Christmas Wish for 2018

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with God's Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Goodness, Self-Control, Mercy and Grace!

The past decade there has been an ongoing discussion if Merry Christmas was OK to say during the “holidays”.

Should it be Happy Holidays or something else.

For our family, it will always be Merry Christmas!

 Why not something else? Luke had the answer from the beginning.

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2.11)

Jesus Messiah the Christ is born… Once again, we will celebrate the Greatest Gift of 2017 for all people.

That is what makes this Christmas and every Christmas a Merry Christmas! We will celebrate with gift giving to one another. Giving and receiving should remind us of Jesus the Babe.

Gifts already received in 2017 in our family:

Lindsay Grace Woelfle born June 6^th, 2017. Born with a full head of hair and beautiful. Named for her auntie Lindsay. Lois is holding Lindsay. Whitney and Colin have blessed us again with another grandbaby to share. Big brothers Easton (6) and Gus (3) are very attentive and loving toward their little sister. So wonderful to watch them grow up. Both boys are into hockey.

                 

Justin and Amy have two very busy little ones, Haakon (9) and Jaelyn (6). Both hockey players (see a theme here with hockey). We had a great family trip with them to Jamaica in April. Grandma Nancy, Amy’s mom, came too. We had so much fun.

Brian and Kelly live just down the road from us and we have the joy of Mackenzie (3) and Mason (1) close by us. We took Mackenzie and Gus to swim lessons this year. What a blast. The conversations they had in the back seat on our way to lessons was priceless. Mason and Grandpa Tedd get to cuddle occasionally as we watch Mickey Mouse. Not sure who enjoys Mickey the most… Mackenzie started gymnastics and is signed up for skating lessons…hockey in her future??

Lois and Tedd have had a busy year going to all the activities of the kids and grandkids. A visit to Mayo once a month to get a resupply of a trial medication for Tedd’s lymphoma. In the past year, he has become disease free. Miraculous medication. Lois is the planner/organizer for our clan. Tedd gets a list periodically to “do” which really helps Tedd be more productive in retirement. Junior is Tedd’s “big guy” holding the grandkids in the picture. Junior has been in the family now for 22 years. Thank you to Tim H. and Butch C. for letting us use their great barn. Stella our 2.5-year-old black lab had a great goose hunt in SK, Canada this fall.

A Merry Christmas to you all as you count your blessings too…

Tedd, Lois, Justin, Amy, Whitney, Colin, Brian, Kelly, Haakon, Jaelyn, Easton, Gus, Mackenzie, Mason and Lindsay Grace

Stella in SK retrieving "waiting backwards to approaching birds" 2017???

 At first Stella figured that the birds landed behind us when we shot so she sat looking behind us for the birds to fall. Not a bad idea but she figured out later that was not the correct way to hunt in the long run. Watch the birds bust through our decoys as they prepare to land...really moving fast and darting about.

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/nB2haOax4jxsX3Lk1nPR3lTfGVAKa8xbxxzgS2YZfkb

Stella's first hunt in SK Canada October 2017

Stella is my 2.5 yr old Black Lab. She made her maiden trip to SK in October 2017. She did really well on her first hunt for geese. I am attaching a link on her making a retrieve. She is not perfect but for a first timer she did well. You can hear her excitement as she whines and waits to retrieve. I am not the one whining :-)   
 https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/36RJdzP6rwMaAUrVNnrzDlz1t1xaei8noCePrrVuGUU

Proud owner of Stella
T

July 22nd 2017 Lindsay Grace Woelfle Baptism

Yesterday was a historic day in the Ostrem/Woelfle family.  Justin, our oldest, turn 43! Uff da I'm old.
To celebrate his birthday we were privileged to baptize our newest grandchild, Lindsay Grace Woelfle. Pastor Jason, Calvary Lutheran Golden Valley officiated and Grandpa Tedd was able to assist in the service. It was held at Camp Wapogasset in Amery, WI. Whitney and her sister Lindsay both were counselor at the Wapo site and Ox Lake nearby. The baptism was on the beach, Lindsay Beach, named after our daughter Lindsay. Lindsay passed away almost 14 years ago this November. It was a precious day for all our family. Many of the other folks in the video are from Calvary. They were having a family camp weekend.

I will attempt to upload the video to share at https://youtu.be/ZJYMURlQxqo

Snakey Creek...This is for all the MOORHEAD NORTHSIDE BOYS AND GIRLS!

Neighbors: Historic creek place for fun and home to critters

By Bob Lind on Apr 11, 2017 at 9:04 a.m.

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Bob Lind, Neighbors columnist

Today, let's take a peek at a creek: Snakey Creek, that is, which runs under 15th Avenue North in Moorhead by the American Crystal Sugar beet plant into the Red River.

MIke O'Day, Dilworth, writes Neighbors of his and his pals' adventures along the creek when they were growing up in north Moorhead.
"Around 1960," Mike says, "most north side boys visited, explored and enjoyed all the wildlife at Snakey Creek for years.
"My friends and I would take our bows and arrows to the fields way out by the sloughs, set up targets and practice shooting. There also was a rod and gun club facility right next to the sugar beet plant where, when we got a bit older, we would fire our .22 rifles."
Concerning the wildlife around the creek, Mike says that there were redwing blackbirds which made nests 10 yards apart in the 10-foot tall cattail reeds, and were "singing away."
"There were meadowlarks all along Highway 75. They'd build their nests on the ground and would sing, too.
"Crayfish would be living in the water; one could pick them up, but carefully; they were about 5-to-6 inches long. They had two front pinchers for defense and eating. Some had bright purple eggs under their tails; they would flip their tails and scoot backwards to get away.
"We caught giant bullfrogs in the area where the storage units are now, by the railroad tracks; they were a foot long!
"Big milkweed plants grew along the railroad tracks going north along Highway 75. Monarch caterpillars would feed on these plants; they'd make a cocoon that was a beautiful turquoise color with gold stitching that would hatch into the beautiful butterflies. We would put the caterpillars in jars (and punch holes in the lid) along with milkweed plants. Then when the day came, we'd spend hours watching the butterflies 'unfold' their wings. dry out and fly away. What joy that was!

The Bee Men

"Two brothers lived in a shack on the corner of 17th Street next to Snakey Creek," Mike says. "We called them the 'Bee Men' because they had a large number of beehives right next to their shack. They drove a Model A pickup. They told me Florida became their home when the cold of winter hit. Does anyone know who these brothers were?
"There also was a big tree by the Bee Men's shack. That huge tree kind of fell apart over the years. It was gone a long time ago.
"Other critters I've seen at Snakey Creek," Mike says, "were red fox, weasles, muskrats, snipes (birds), great horned owls, tadpoles from frogs and toads and minnows. It seems to me the mosquitoes weren't such a problem back then because the tadpoles swimming in the creek would eat the mosquito larva.
"Now Canadian geese gather at Snakey Creek, and I saw an otter family there last summer as well as a fox, deer, a snowy owl and an osprey bird.
"And ducks. I remember the Speaker boys, Donny, Darrel and Doug, showing me a box that contained baby ducks with mud balls on their webbed feet. The baby ducks couldn't walk or swim, so the Speaker boys soaked and washed the mud off and returned them to their parents. Cool!"

Sign needed

"Snakey Creek was and is part of our north side history to many a boy and girl growing up in the '60s and '70s," Mike, 68, says, "and I still see kids exploring at the creek these days. What a great place to remember all the beauty of nature!"
By the way, Mike's father and uncle were Moorhead police officers when he was growing up.
Now Mike has a request: "I wish the City of Moorhead would put a sign that says 'Snakey Creek' like other towns do which have such a historic creek running through the country and city." Over to you, city of Moorhead.

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107, fax it to 241-5487 or email blind@forumcomm.com.

Mantle Cell Drug Trial/Study 04/14/2017

Happy Easter!!

God continues to breaking into our lives in amazing ways.

Tomorrow I will begin participating in a new drug study BGB-3111 which is a promising immunotherapy drug to treat mantle cell lymphoma. It is designed to break down the protective covering of the mantle lymphoma cells to allow my immune system to destroy these cells. Additionally it is designed to inhibit the further growth of such cells. What an Easter blessing to be able to participate in this study at Mayo in Rochester. Hopefully I will be able to help others receive this drug in the near future.

Things hard to believe

On April 5th, 2017 Lindsay Ostrem Roach would have been 40! Hard to believe.

Miss you Toots or as other's referred to you as "The Queen of Fun".
Dad