Look What the Cat Dragged In

This is fact, not fiction. Erica did spend last week in Iowa and popped in at the Struckmans to love on their babies. Shauna took this picture of Erica, not me. Pinky swear. I know the deck looks a bit like ours but hers is bigger, we are currently catless, and our snow hasn't melted yet. I mean seriously...

Who would tie a jumprope around their cat? Besides a six-year-old, I mean.

Missing Iowa

I glanced at the woman's sweatshirt on the next treadmill and noticed the word "Wisconsin" in big black letters. Wisconsin. It still seems unreal to live here. 

Growing up in Northern California, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Definitely not Iowa. Certainly not Wisconsin. But here I am…

And I like it. If I had to move, this is a nice place to live. God has been good. I like our house and church and we’ve met some nice people. We’ve been treated well. Lake Superior is awesome. I look forward to when Ashland sheds her winter coat so we can explore.

 
But being human and contrary there are times when I long for things that Ashland, as nice as it is, and as much as we enjoy it, can’t duplicate. Hence the following list:

 
Things I Miss Most From Northwest Iowa
1. Kiah - she’s technically in Adrian, MN, but close enough 
2. Grandma and Aunt Karen
3. Girls Club - waah!!!
4. Rock Rapids Library - My all-time favorite library
5. Friends - goes without saying
6. Great neighbors - We left behind the world’s best neighbors
7. B & L Café - Beth and Lawrence are one of a kind
8. Rock Rapids Fitness Center - the gym here smells funny
9. Audrey Groen - her piano playing in church
10. Sunsets - Wisconsin’s trees block the view
11. Big yard for our dogs to run around in
12. Frontier Bank - Is it pathetic to miss your bank?
13. George Recreational Trail - easy and peaceful
14. Rock Rapids Pool - Ashland doesn’t have an outdoor pool
15. Lake Pajoha - I know, I know, you'd think living three block from Lake Superior would make this a non-issue

Erica's Turn

I think you need to know the real story of our family. Its easy to sugarcoat things to make them sound funnier or less cruel...but the truth was, with seven kids living in a 1,700 sq. ft house, things got pretty messy.

"Messy" as in Many Hands Make Many Messes, and "Messy" as in knock down, drag out fights and cruel tricks played on unsuspecting victims, such as when we told my oldest sister she was adopted and she fell for it.

We had a large acreage to wreak havoc on, although some days eight acres just wasn't enough. We had a grove of trees that one could (and almost always did) get lost in. We lived in the country a half mile from neighbors so our parents were spared angry phone calls about little kids streaking through their yards.

Looking back (all of my 17 years later) its easy to remember my childhood as ideal: lazy summer days at the pool, sleeping in, playing every sport imaginable (and quite a few made up ones) on our huge front lawn. Sadly we were not perfect little angels as shown in this classic example from Vik history. 

My older brother and sister built a tree fort, something I recommend kids do at LEAST once in their lifetime, just not how my siblings did. My brother Andrew did all of the manly work, you know, hammering nails, hauling boards, throwing a fit and kicking the tree when it just wouldn't grow the way he wanted it to, and my sister Kiah ran back and forth getting nails and giving moral support, like any sister would.

 
But then Andrew made a disastrous mistake, he decided Kiah wasn't necessary and declared the fort to be A BOYS ONLY fort. What does a poor little eight-year-old girl do when she's kicked out of the tree fort she helped build? Grab a hatchet and throw it as hard as she can at her brother, of course! 

Kiah has always been our little hothead but she pushed the envelope here. Its OK to throw large sticks and nails, but we draw the line at hatchets. Andrew climbed down to teach her a lesson but she was still chucking the hatchet around. Generally he won his confrontations with Kiah but this story ended with Andrew running to Mom as fast as he could, all the while dodging the hatchet.  

Moral of the story...never declare a fort Boys Only with Kiah around. I'll return with more hard hitting reports next week. Until then, go build a fort!