The Louisiana Haaland's ON-GOING Christmas 2008

The Louisiana Haaland Tree

 

For the first time in MANY years, Day will not be home for Christmas! This is going to be a serious adjustment for us, as we've spent Christmas together since we began dating. Add to that, Caleb will not be here either but staying at Ft. Bragg.....makes me very sad to not have my husband and both of my children with me but I do know that God's Grace will get me through this holiday season...and I still have Rachael.

So, we've been celebrating Christmas since mid-November! Circumstances brought Day's adult boys to Louisiana during November, so we were able to personally give them their gifts. We gave Knowlton, Christen and his wife, Marianne, Amy & Timothy IPhones for Christmas! To say they were excited does not even start to describe it! So, our first trip to the store was with Christen & Knowlton-we purchased all the phones but only gave the adult boys their gifts. Also gave Marianne's phone to Christen to deliver. On Thanksgiving weekend, everyone was back in town, including Marianne; they came to the house and we gave Amy and Timothy their phones. Amy had been without a phone for months-hers was broken. Timothy had been wanting a phone for several years so he was beyond happy. Day and I are just glad everything worked out that we could do this and actually be present when they received the phones.

Christmas Pika

Caleb was also home for Thanksgiving-on leave from the Army. We gave him his gift....a GPS so he could safely navigate back home to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I spoke with him today and he is really using the GPS...he had finished Christmas shopping and was headed to the East Coast beaches, about 1-1/2 hours away from the base. He doesn't know it but we are giving him so additional cash nearer to Christmas and sent cash to Elisa over in Europe.

Day had a good surprise too....with the help of Bente, Day's cousin from Norway, I was able to FINALLY find him some new selskin slippers! His others were over 10 yrs old and ready for the trash...which is exactly where they ended up once he saw his new slippers! He really was surprised, especially since he was asking me about having his re-soled!!! I just love surprising people!!

Rachael is the only "child" who hasn't gotten her gift yet and since she will be home for Christmas, she gets to "wait." :-) She's getting a new Dell Laptop as her old Dell is, at the age of 5 yrs, near death. Being in nursing school, a computer is a necessity. And with the economy like it's been, I made a seriously GREAT deal! I can't wait for her to open it! Oh, and she's taken such good care of it, my good friend, Gail, will get it fixed up the best she can and Rachael is donating it to a needly college student.

So that's it for now....more pics and story to follow after the "real" Christmas!

The Haaland family with the IPhones

Christen, Knowlton & Day Timothy

Caleb with his GPS.................. Day with his new Selskin slippers

Amy with her new IPhone............... Christen & Marianne

Texas Renaissance Festival 2008

We took Amy, Timothy, Christen and Knowlton to the Texas Renaissance Festival for the weekend (in early November). A good time was enjoyed by all! Gotta love those fried Turkey legs..LOL.

Dinner enroute to festival:

Pics from Festival:

Norwegian Waffles

While on vacation in Colorado this summer, we had waffles several mornings, made my Toni. She had a professional waffle-maker she had purchased at Sams. On our return home, Day and I got to talking about it and I said I wanted to buy one for us for our house. He then tells the story of the heart-shaped Norwegian waffles and how he'd prefer one of those. So, when he returned to work in Qutar, I began an internet search and quickly found one of these little machines. Of course, to his delight when he returned home! Here are a few pics of our first "cookout" with our little heart Norwegian waffle maker, with Chef Day in charge!

Day's waffle w/butter & syrup.............................My waffle with assorted toppings.

Ski Dubai

Yep...you read right. You can ski in the Middle East! Day is working in Dubai this month and came across a mall with a ski slope in it!!! 110 degrees and sand eveywhere and you can step inside to a "winter wonderland." I told him he HAD to do this...cannot miss the opportunity! Here are the results!

Colorado Vacation - July 2008

What a great time! Returning to the great state of Colorado after only one year! A co-worker and good friend of Day's invited us on vacation with him, his wife and another couple to do some 4-wheeling in the San Juan Mountains. I suggested to Day that we invite Timothy, as he loves to ride our 4-wheelers! And having been there once before, I knew the beauty and excitement the ride would bring. We spent 2 days driving and 5 days there. We rode 4-wheelers for 3 days in the Lake City area; well I did; Day got "altitude sickness" and was out for one day. He and Timothy stayed at the cabin but I refused to drive 20 hrs and sit in some small room! So off I went and it was probably the best day, as we went to 14,000 feet on Engineers Pass! It's an erie feeling to stand and be "eye to eye" with almost all the other peaks in the range! We encountered a few snow flakes and plenty of "old snow." Day got to feeling better so he and Timothy did some fishing. Timothy caught 3 fish that afternoon.

Wildlife was plentiful although we never got to see a bear...something Toni was praying hard for! Much excitement on this trip....I drove my 4-wheeler off the road! Thank God it was in a meadow/valley area and no damage was done to me or the machine! Definitely made me even safer than I already am and the rest of the vacation stayed accident-free!

We left camp early and drove an additional 3 hrs to visit with Christen and am so glad we did! We went back to our favorite town in Colorado, Ouray and it was at dinner that evening, we decided we wanted to move to Colorado. We've talked about it since our visit from last year but returning to Ouray just enforced the idea for us! We thought about Montrose but after walking around Ouray and talking with Chris, we decided the 30 minute ride to Montrose for the airport was not a big deal. We drove by a few condos and discussed it more on the way home to come up with a "solid plan."

We've decided to haul our RV up there next May.....and stay the summer. Along with a visit this January to experience snow, we should then be able to make a firm decision by next September on whether to purchase a condo or play "snowbird." I am thrilled....we are blessed by God to be able to "try out this move" with little financial burden. The only major thing will be me leaving my job and even that's not an issue, as I've been talking about leaving or going somewhere for part-time work. I am soooooo happy!

So our vacation was GREAT!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

It's April 21st...one year of marriage for Day & Becky! We celebrated by taking our camper out to Lake Stuart in Kasatchie National Park in Central Louisiana. Got the chance to use our generator, as this is "primitive" camping....no electricity! The Friday, a cold front came through so it was a nice, cool sunny weekend! Got so "cool" the Friday night, we snuggled close at sleep time!

The park was gorgeous....lots of hiking trails and good fishing. We did a bit of walking but mostly did bike riding. Was a bit tough of some of the uphill portions but we did it and are planning on doing some longer rides here at home on the FLAT ground!

Day with his new Trek bike.

We spent a nice weekend riding, reading and resting....headed back home Sunday afternoon, had a nice dinner out that evening out our favorite little Mexican restaurant in Crowley (where the Margaritas are more than the food!) and came home to a quiet evening.

Coffee's ready, Honey!

And we're off to our journey on year two! May we always keep God as our leader!

Day's 54th Birthday

April 7th was the day....big 54 on a Monday! We celebrated with dinner at Copelands with a group of our best friends! Rachael was able to join us, although she brought her notes to study abit! Day got phone calls from most of his children and calls & emails from his brothers! Rachael & Caleb bought him a new grill for his camper and he got his gifts from me early....his new TOMTOM. He also treated himself that day to a new IPHONE! So I think he did good on his gifts! :-)