Great picture, Annette; way to go!

Here's a picture of Evan as he got ready for school this morning (he'll be something different tonight for tricks-or-treats). Pretty cute scarecrow if you ask me! And kudos to Amy who shopped the aisles of JoAnn Fabrics to come up with the 'ingredients' to make the costume. Great job!!

Happy Halloween from Grandma 'Nette and her two grandsons!! 

--
Allen & Annette O'Donnell
507-634-6118

Happy Halloween.....don't let the ghosts and goblins get you!! Hope to post some pictures of little Halloween tricksters later today. Get the candy ready!

Looks like I missed another important date for the 28th...Ben and Deanna O'Donnell celebrated year #2 of wedded bliss....congratulations!! May you have many, many more.

Congratulations to Andrea and Nate on their 8th wedding anniversary and to Sue Korkowski (Ron) on her ?? birthday!!

We are trying to set up a family calendar to show birthdays, anniversaries, gatherings, etc. but so far, we've had nothing but frustration so we'll just post here as we know of things to celebrate. The calendar I'm working from is seven years old so I know we'll be missing someone here and there, but hopefully we'll have things up-to-date and running very soon.

Bev

Retirement in The Villages

Ron and I are having a great time. We play a little golf, a little bocce ball, a little pickle ball and ride around in our golf cart. Sometimes we even clean house and pull weeds in our lawn.

I'm sending a picture of our neighbors and their golf cart.  Seems that they ran into a witch the other night.

The other picture is our golf cart which was delivered on Thursday.

Now I'll see if this blogging works

Faye

Beautiful picture

Hi, What a day brightener on this otherwise rather bleak weather day.  I was a bit humbled at what energy those parents must have to keep 5 beautiful little folks all fed, diapered, bathed, cuddled, rocked, played with, etc.  I am going to take a nap now.  Theresa

Fw: photo for CommUnity News

Let's see if this works.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Cordy Korkowski <ckorkowski@stfrancissartell.org>
To: Sister Cordy Korkowski <ckorkowski@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:45:15 AM
Subject: FW: photo for CommUnity News

From: Cordy Korkowski [mailto:ckorkowski@stfrancissartell.org]
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 8:20 AM
To: 'debner@fslf.org'
Subject: FW: photo for CommUnity News

Sunday, October 19, St. Francis Xavier Church, Sartell was filled to capacity as we celebrated the birthday of the Mrozek quintuplets. It has been a year of excitement for the entire parish. Luckily for me, I was the main contact person with Jessie and Rory. I went to their home many times during the year to visit and bring donations for the family. The parish remembered them with turkeys, hams, clothes and other items throughout the year. Perhaps the most important was the assistance they received with the babies for day and night care. This picture shows the parents Rory and Jessie, directly behind me, Jessie's parents to the left and Rory's parents, Darlene and Phil Mrozek from Little Falls to the right. I am holding Nathan. The other babies, Lainey, Matthew, Breah and Jackson all enjoyed the party as well. They poised well for pictures and enjoyed their cupcakes and the friendly children's décor that decorated the tables for their 1^st birthday party. They each received a special blessing from Father Lauren Germann and the parishioners who were present for the 10:30 a.m. Mass. They deserved an A+ for their behavior throughout the event. It has been a great year of gratitude for such loving parents, extended family and beautiful children.

Sister Cordy Korkowski

Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 2:03 PM
To: 'Cordy Korkowski'
Subject: photo

Hi sister Cordy,

I have attached the photo from the quints birthday party.

Have a good day!

Geri

It has been a long time since I wrote...and I see that my halo photo makes me look a little "light-headed". Anyway, I surely enjoyed going to the Korkowski Blog tonight and seeing if I could become a little smarter. Sure enough. All the entries were delightful and entertaining. As for me, I had two funerals of young people this week, so that was hard. Tonight we had our neighbors over for wild rice soup, salad, fresh cracked wheat bread and a wonderful cake that Lynn made for us and brought over. Lynn and Patrick have two children, Grace at age 3, and Olivia at age 1. They almost seem like grandchildren. They come running for hugs when they see us drive in. I had a nice chat with Mark today...and he slept about 10 hours last night. He was so excited about this. He and the family have been getting visits, phone calls and support. This is great. The weekend is a little slow, so he has been doing alot of walking the halls at the hospital. Lake Region Hospital is a great hospital, so I know he is in a great facility. Tomorrow we are having a Muslim-Christian dialogue at our house so that will be interesting. St. Francis of Assisi made friends with the Sultan of Egypt in his day...and they became friends. Franciscans do have a strong tradition with people of other cultures. We have Muslims that we teach English too here in St. Cloud. They are very peace loving people. The majority of Muslims have been very hurt by 9/11. Well this is all for now. I am excited about our Christmas gathering. Will Santa be there? or will his tour of duty be over?? Cordy

Mark's hospital number

Hi everyone,  Just wanted to let everyone know Mark's hospital number so he doesn't use up all his cell phone minutes.  His number at the hospital is 218-631-7561.  He is feeling much better.  Theresa

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Happy Birthday, Mark! We know spending it in the hospital isn't everyone's idea of a good time but hopefully they'll have a little sweet treat to mark the occasion. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Adventures at the retirement home!

I sent the following email to my kids after my afternoon of volunteering, advising them I was going to remember these things so I would fit in when living in a "home" some day! Maybe you can pick up some advice for those "golden years" ahead. :) Bev

Just so you're aware :) Returned home a few minutes ago from my 2nd time volunteering at the local retirement community just a few miles down the road. Today was the 10th anniversary celebration of the building so it was a big deal with lots of decor, good food, etc. My friend (who got me into this!) and I were each asked to go get a resident from the memory unit (yup, the Alzheimer's wing) and to sit with them during the program and subsequent reception. I got Pauline, a tiny little thing, who kept saying she wanted to go home. I kept telling her she was home but could soon see that wasn't the answer she wanted. Finally, she just sat quietly until at one point during the ceremony, she quietly said "shit" and then "get him out of here" which I assume meant get rid of the speaker. Thank goodness she wasn't too loud! She sat thru most of the program just folding and unfolding the program, looking at it like she was reading, but that obviously wasn't the case since she had it folded in half and there's no way that was going to work.
After the program, we walked our charges into the dining room and sat them down. Every appetizer that was offered, Pauline wondered what it was and what she was supposed to do with it. It was only when the cake came that she knew exactly what to do...she wolfed that chunk down like nobody's business! Then I saw her take the plastic fork, trying to reach the balloons on each table. I locked eyes with her, smiled a big smile and shook my finger at her, at which time she promptly returned the gesture to me with a big grin. It was a delightful afternoon but Pauline was ready for her room when I walked her back. She couldn't have told you what or where she had been for the previous two hours, probably only that she had cake and liked it. She kept asking if my friend (Nancy) was my son, and when I said no, she frowned at me and said "are you sure?" The entire two hours was really funny! I plan to write all these things down so when I'm in the "home", I'll know what to do, say, and how to act during my golden years. :)
Love, Mom

Home alone and BLOGGING

Hi All,

    Glad you all had a good time at the wedding, we got a  Cell phone photo of Cabo last night, the honeymooners destination. Matthew kept to his man of few words image, all the e-mail said was ( Cabo ) no hi Mom and Dad were here, no nothing, just Cabo. 

    As soon as we got home Mary Lee jumped in another vehicle headed to Mitchell S.D. for a software training conference, she will be back Friday Eve.  That's where she said she was going anyway, I didn't want to come accross as being to wordy, so I said K, see ya.    MIKE

Brandon Korkowski Christmas

Hi everyone,  I had several people ask me on what date the Brandon Korkowski Christmas was.  I have Saturday, Dec. 27th at 1:00.  I do believe that Mike and Mary Lee reserved the Brandon Hall for that day.  Please let all children, grandchildren, and anyone else you can think of that is Korkowski Kit or Kin, of the date.  Rosemary and I are in charge this year.  We will get more details out as the day gets closer.  Thanks.  If I have this date wrong, please let me know.  I am going off my memory up here on the computer.  That is always a dangerous thing.  Theresa

brandy

Hi there,  We will claim the bottle of Korbel.  As I remember it, it was about a gallon bottle and it came with a large wedge of cheese with some gourmet crackers.  We will claim all of the above at the Korkowski Christmas in Brandon.  Derald and Theresa

Today's birthday girl!

A big Korkowski (and Minnesota) happy birthday to Faye as she plays in the Florida sunshine; hope you shoot below par today!

Poor hotel bed-making???

Hi All,

Just wanted to thank everyone for coming to the wedding, and Amber wanted me to especially thank those involved with short sheeting the bed. She said who ever did it , did a excellent job, they wern't sure what was going on at first, after struggling to get in for a while they just pulled all the bedding off and started over. ( Good Job ! ) They got a good laugh out of it in the morning. I think they will help carry on that tradition. Thank's again to all, the week-end went by as fast as it came up, but it was a fun weekend. MIKE P.S. Someone left a Korbel Brandy bottle in our room, if it's not gone by the Christmas party, we will bring it with.

Last, but not least is our pirate, train aficionado and geography master is Joseph, age 7. Joseph can best be described as 'Big'. The little boy with a big smile, big heart and BIG ideas....He keeps us on our toes!

Have a great one!

Jennifer

Okay, we're trying again with Ellie Grace (age 5) aka Mia Hamm (scored 3 soccer goals on Saturday) or aka 'Chootie' (will understand if you're up on the initial blog....in case you're looking for an update, Ellie has learned to write Chootie and now writes this on the top of every paper in Kindergarten. Initially when she began writing it at school she wrote 'Cootie'. Thank God only the teacher could read it! Lesson to be learned: Only give nicknames to your children you are comfortable with in public.

Have a great one!

Jennifer

Who says I can't party with the best of them? Watch out BopBop & Sr. Cordy here I come! :)
Greetings to all from South FL....we're trying to send and connect again here so let's see if Andrew's photo comes through. I will send other photos if this comes through....witty stories to follow. :)

Have a great one!

Jennifer Majhess

great pictures

Hi everyone,  I also grew one of those halos on Saturday night.  You both, Cliff and Cordy, look very righteous.  It was a good party.  I am so glad that the weather was as beautiful as it was on Sat. and not as crappy as it was today.  Feels like winter is upon us....  Faye and Ron's six month hideout looks pretty inviting today.  Theresa

Cordy's partner in crime

Looks like Cordy wasn't the only "light" of the party!

Party animal

As Cordy implied in her very, very brief note here on the blog, everyone had a really good time at Matt and Amber's wedding. It does seem, however, that Cordy was so good that she grew a "halo". First, we have Cordy at the beginning of the party, and by night's end, she was the "light" of the party!!

Testing

This is a check to see if this works for me. We had a great day at Amber and Matt's wedding on October 11.

Checking out the BLOG

Hi All,  Just want to see if this really works.  Norb is outside becoming drenched with rain as he feeds his little Hansels  and Gretels.  He is enjoying watching them gobble (as he calls it) up the feed.  I, on the other hand, am blogging which is much more fun than getting wet!!!!

 

Donna

blogspt

Let’s see if this works.  Here is a picture of the elder.

Deb

Hi there everyone,  This is a test run to see if this way of sending information works for me. Theresa

Rachel's help

A very BIG thank you to Rachel for coming up with the knowledge on how each of you can post and download pictures on your own.  That way, you don't need to send me the email and pictures, which I would then have to post on the site.  If you do have any problems, just let me know and we'll work thru it.  Thanks again, Rachel! 

A New Way to Post!

If you would like to post directly to the blog (rather than having Bev do it), you can now do so easily.

All you need to do is send an email to the following address: ckorkow.skiblog@blogger.com 

It should work with pictures too, just attach them to the email.

Let me know if you have any problems with it!

Rachel Krentz

To the nieces and nephews: Thought you'd like to see the emails that resulted from Donna's news about the end of cattle at the farm. And, you probably should be aware of Theresa's plans for you all to take care of us as we become old people!

Well, no more mooing around here from the momma cows! It was pretty loud around here after separating the cows and calves.

Norb, Jackpine and my brother Ron loaded them all up to go to the great steak maker! It was pretty wet around here so they had to keep the semi on the mile road and then use a trailer to transport them to it. Norb had them all penned up this morning so all they had to do was load them. I guess it was more of a job than one would think because when I came home from work there was a stand up pair of pants full of cow doookie ( not to be confused with cowpie cookies) on the rug by the bed. A reminder to me of what I won't miss!!!! Oh the dairy air!!!

Pray that the market gets uncrashed when they get sold tomorrow. Momma needs a new pair of shoes!!!! Daddy needs a new comb!!!! We will still have the calves for a little while. Want to feed all the little Hansel and Gretel's up.

Well, this is the end of another era in "Life at the Farm". We may buy back some cows this spring to keep the pasture grass down. Maybe Norb can finally get in some hunting this fall. He is looking forward to it.

It was a cold rainy day which made it easier to see them go, but it is still somewhat sad. Norb will be happy when it is 30 below and the wind is blowing and he won't have to go out and feed the critters. There is a silver lining!!!

Take care all and see you at the wedding.

Norb and Donna

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:35 PM, S Cordy Korkowski <ckorkowski@yahoo.com> wrote:
Oh, thanks for the update. I could visualize everything. I am glad that you gave us a detailed account of the last roundup. You are doing the best thing...to do a little less. Yes, those winter days will be a little more palatable without all that outside work. If it would help, we could take up a collection at the wedding for your needed items. The stock markets don't look too promising right now. We will all have to live simpler. See you soon...and thanks for your humor. It is a gift to laugh and enjoy the simple things of life.

Hi there, I have a plan. It would involve Norb and Donna. I think that we should build a family commune. We could build it up on the "Big Hill" on the farm. All of us (the Elders) would be in charge, our children and grandchildren would grow the food and raise the animals, gather eggs, etc. We could all take those last few dollars left out of our retirement funds and bury it in some vault in the side hill. We could build some giant structure made of sticks, straw, or bricks and live pretty cheaply. None of us would ever have to go to a nursing home or assisted living as the young ones would take care of us. I, of course, would get a small finders fee for coming up with the idea. Any Takers? Theresa

Hey, Sounds like a good plan, it would be alot closer to Hunt lake where Mark and I did our daily hunting, fishing , trapping, exploring type trips almost every day. I'm in ,,,,,,,,,,,,, MIKE

Sounds good to me, We may have to vote on this finders fee if our 401K's take any more of a drop. We could give you extra time off. The simpler life does sound good. Annette

Where do I sign up? Putting my retirement money in a hole in the ground sounds better than sticking it where the sun don't shine; even though the end result might be the same.Hope everyone is doing well. I'm feeling much better. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Mark

Here's a small laugh that Jen just called me with....at home, Jen calls little 5 y/o Ellie Grace "Chootie" as a nickname so tonight when she was being tucked into bed, Ellie told her mom that she had asked the teacher today if she could be called "Chootie" at school. The teacher assured her that she could if Ellie would write that on her papers. But, Ellie said to Jen, "I don't know how to spell Chootie so could you change my nickname to 'Dog'!!"

Welcome to the Korkowski Kids and Kin

After hearing how much everyone enjoyed checking in each day to read the Caring Bridge site for Gerald, and thoughts about how nice it would be to continue something similar, it was decided to create a Korkowski blog. The success of this will depend on all of you and your families, because without input, it won't be interesting or fun. This can become a sort of "round robin" news outlet for anything and everything you'd like to share with the Korkowski family. I know the Florida contingent loved checking in each day to read what people had to say, and we have some very good writers in the family. We will post any information you want to share....emails that you want to share with everyone, pictures of your family and kids (everything from birthday parties to Halloween to Christmas), recipes, vacation tips, etc. The email that Cordy started last week has produced some delightful emails that have brought lots of smiles so I know we can do this. Just send me the pictures, news, etc. you want to share and I'll get it formatted and onto the site just as soon as possible. Please, please send this information to your kids who I know have a wealth of great pictures and stories re: their kids (our grandkids!). I've passed this idea to both Cordy and Cliff, and they both were excited to see where we can take this. So, here we go!!