Rob and Emily Raleigh

After a couple months with Dallas, I'm sure our regular readers are curious as to how she's been doing.. so here goes.

We've squashed most of the behavior issues we saw early on in our relationship, and she's now a mostly-perfect-angel, so long as she doesn't have a raw-hide bone to protect. I've been teaching her tricks, which she picks up on really quickly. It only took her a few days to learn "stay", and with just a few minutes work she learned to shake, rollover, and dance. Rolling over is sometimes a challenge and she ends up doing a lay down and then sit up while spinning on her butt move. It's hilarious to watch.

We came upon a bit of a surprise this weekend while in duluth with her... apparently our vet was wrong and she isn't actually spayed. After cleaning up a bit of a mess on Emily's parent's kitchen floor, we had to shuffle her into the car and rush home, get her diapered up, and try to reinforce that we're not evil people for strapping a disposable diaper on her. I'll be calling the vet monday to find out if we can Spay her in the current condition or if we have to deal with this cycle and do it afterwards. In the meantime, it's quite hilarious (sorry dallas) to have a dog wearing a diaper.

My grandfather, Albert Lindberg, passed away in his sleep early Sunday morning. His mind was sharp to the very end, but his body just couldn't keep up anymore. We are all saddened by the loss, but are grateful that his struggle is finally over. The funeral was today in Dallas, Wisconsin. The family has been very upbeat through all of this and are all warmed by the memories we have of him. He will be missed, we loved him very much.

Here is the obituary, as published in the Chibardun news:

Albert “Ubby” Lindberg, age 85, of Dallas, WI died peacefully in his sleep Sunday, February 4, 2007 at Dallas Healthcare Center. He was born January 11, 1922 to Albert C. & Carrie (Shervey) Lindberg at Cadott, WI where he was raised and attended school. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII. On September 6, 1947, he was married to Eileen Olson at Stillwater, MN and the couple farmed in the Dallas area for many years before retiring. Albert was a member of Dallas Lutheran Church and the Willard Hinzman American Legion Post 511 of Ridgeland. He enjoyed hunting & fishing.

Albert was preceded in death by his parents, 4 brothers & 3 sisters. He is survived by his wife: Eileen of Dallas, son: Steve (Vicki) Lindberg of Dallas, daughters: Cheryl (Wallace) Raleigh of Stillwater, MN, Michelle (Steve) Danen of Medford, WI, Shannon (Michael) Herrala of Ramsey, MN & Denise (Jason) Mercier of Rice Lake, 15 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, sisters: Edna (Jerry) Bredesen & Myrtle Tischman both of Eau Claire, as well as many nieces, nephews, other relatives & friends.

Funeral services will be (were) held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 8 from Dallas Lutheran Church with Rev. Bob Friese officiating and interment in Dallas Cemetery with military honors accorded by the Willard Hinzman American Legion Post of Ridgeland. Visitation will be (was) held from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Rausch-Lundeen Funeral Home in Dallas and also for the hour prior to services at the church on Thursday. Arrangements are with Rausch-Lundeen Funeral Homes, Dallas & Cameron.

Carol Nellie Mae Blomberg was born April 19, 1930 in Chisago County, Minnesota to Albert and Helen (Hallberg) Blomberg. She grew up in the Dale area where she attended country school through eighth grade and went on to graduate from North Branch High School in 1948. The day after graduation, Nellie moved to Minneapolis and began working as a secretary.

On September 30, 1950 she was united in marriage to Robert Lambert at Nellie's home church, Fish Lake Lutheran Church in Stark. They made their home in South Minneapolis from 1950 to 1972 where they raised their three children Dean, Debra, and Diane. Robert and Nellie purchased a 40 acre farm near Rush Point and lived there until 1999, working with dairy cows and enjoying country life.

Nellie worked as a secretary at Central Lumber until shortly after the birth of her third child. She then did daycare and later was a banquet waitress at the Thunderbird Motel. As her children grew, she returned to full time secretarial work at International Homes and Aetna Insurance from which she retired in July of 1992.

Nellie enjoyed music; she sang with her sister Lorraine in the Morris Park Mother Singers and was the pianist for the Morris Park Players (Father Singers), a community musical theater group she and Robert were actively involved in. In 1974 they joined Calvary Lutheran Church where Nellie was choir director and organist for many years, and helped out with music for Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.

She enjoyed sewing, crocheting, gardening, baking bread and pies, and making jelly. The longer Nellie was on the farm the more she connected with her roots, doing things she remembered her mother doing.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Robert, brothers Dean and Charles Blomberg, sisters LaVonne Anderson and Arlene LaClair.

Nellie is survived by her son Dean and wife Kristen Lambert of Minneapolis, daughters Debra and husband Craig Sanders of Duluth, Diane and husband Roger Woods of Inver Grove Heights, 6 grandchildren Emily and husband Robert Raleigh of Saint Paul, Peter Sanders of New Brighton, Timothy Sanders of Duluth, Patrick, Kyle, and Andrew Woods of Inver Grove Heights, sisters Lorraine Pierson of San Diego, CA, Shirly and husband Ronald Kranz of Pine City, as well as many other relatives and friends.

Emily's grandma, Nellie Lambert, passed away on Thursday afternoon. She had been admitted to the hospital earlier this week after suffering a fall. They found that her blood pressure was low and falling, but with a bit of treatment she seemed to be getting better. On Thursday morning, she took a turn for the worse with fluid around her lungs which made it very difficult to breathe and added extra pressure on her heart. It was her heart that finally gave in at around 2:30pm. This came as quite a shock to us all, it seems like it happened so fast. Nellie was the last remaining grandparent in the Sanders family, and she will be missed greatly.

The visitation will be Monday from 5-7pm
Carlson Lillemoen Funeral Home
311 Ashland St. S
Cambridge, MN

The Funeral will be on Tuesday at 11:00am
Calvary Lutheran Church
600 Rush Point Dr,
Stanchfield, MN

The obituary should be in Sunday's Star Tribune news paper.

One of our first goals after getting married and moving into our new place was to get some real bedroom furniture. We did some shopping a few months ago and had even picked out a set at HOM Furniture. As it goes however, we shopped around a bit before fully comitting to what we'd picked out and came across PM Bedroom Gallery, a store in Woodbury that sells high quality furniture built by Meninites in Northern Wisconsin. After seeing the quality there, we couldn't bring ourselves to buy something from HOM that would likely fall apart in a few years. So we put the shopping on hold for a bit while we got our ducks in a row and finally, FINALLY yesterday we went out and made the purchase. We are quite excited to finally be getting some real furniture. Emily is especially excited to finally have a nice big dresser to put all her things in (I'm guessing I'll get to use one of the drawers, maybe ). Our set is being made out of Cherry wood, with an 'Espresso' stain (dark brown color with slight hints of red in it). We were quick to agree on a set of decorative, but simple metal knobs for the drawers. Here's some photos from PM Bedroom Gallery's online catalog: [G2:5524][G2:5519][G2:5522][G2:5526]

trying this out.. hmmmm

interestingly fun?

Blogged with Flock

Woo hoo. Just installed some new toys. Killed our photo gallery in the process though. oops. it'll be back in its entirety soon I'm sure. In the meantime, check it out, we got married:[G2:20][G2:29][G2:23][G2:26]