Friday night I’m chaperoning Katie’s eighth-grade dance, er, party at Falcon Ridge Middle School. Can’t call it a dance, the kids tell me.

Chaperone? Call me crazy. The last eighth-grade dance I attended, the kids dressed like the two fashionistas at the right.

I’m supposed to report to the gym 15 minutes before showtime for chaperone training. All I will be concentrating on will be a variation of my Grandfather’s mantra: “No drinking. No boys.” Or as my Dad might say, “Touch my daughter, dirtbag, and they’ll find pieces of you in each of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.”

So, kids, smile at Mr. Coulson and have fun at the dance!

Guess who’s in the school musical! I am. I am a mission band member and anytime there’s a singing or dancing part I’m on stage. I’m really excited. I get to put it on for the whole school and two evening performances! I’ll keep you updated.

Check out our young chef, Jesse, in this photo from about 1999, when we were still living in Gananda. What a cutie!
Keep an eye on this site for more vintage photos as they become available from our archives (we bought a new 200-gig hard drive and Laurie is organizing all of our photos going back eight years to the dawn of the digital era).

Remember the other day when I reported that it was 54 degrees here in the Twin Cities? Well, when I got up this morning to drive Katie to her Declam (speech team) meet, the thermometer in my car read 3 above — after I scraped the ice off the dash. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! By the way, that’s a picture of me above as I walked out to drive Katie to the meet.

My friend, Kris Taylor, and her family are hosting us in her company suite for the rodeo this evening at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Of course, the kids’ favorite rodeo performer is Whiplash the Rodeo Monkey (above). After the rodeo, we get to stay for a free country concert by Trick Pony. Rodeo and country-western music in Minnesota. Ya sure. Yee-haw, don’tcha know.

Which one is the cat? And which one the sleeping girl?
We came home from the neighbors’ Friday night to find Katie asleep in her bed, Jesse curled up at her feet and Cocoa the cat sleeping on Jesse’s makeshift bed in Katie’s room. It’s as if Jesse and Cocoa swapped bodies. Sounds like a Disney movie — The Shaggy Cat?

Katie cooked us a complete meal of Turkish food last night, part of a Social Studies project for school. She made us sis kofte (meatballs) with yogurt sauce and red lentil soup. We also had pide bread and fruit. We had to rate the food and send a review in to her teacher this morning. Below is Jesse’s review (we thought it was really cute).

Jesse’s point of view for Turkish dinner
By Jesse Coulson

The meat balls were not my favorite, I really didn’t favor the yogurt dip, but the lentil soup was delicious (I also liked the orange, but I don’t think that is Turkish)! We ALL loved having Katie take time out of her day to cook a yummy meal for us. That was my point of view of the dinner.