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Congratulations to the North Branch girls Volleyball team.  They have made it to the state tournament and will play their first game today.  Even at the end of last year, you could tell something was building, something special.  We are wishing the girls nothing but the best and hopefully I will be driving down on Saturday to watch them win the whole thing.

Another great story out of North Branch is Rhianna Rinke. Rhianna qualified and competed at eh state cross country meet this week.  While she didn’t make the podium, she did run a great race and will definitely be back next year.  Nice job Rhianna!

Last weekend I happen to have nothing going on, so I decided to leave my family.  Wait, before the rumor mill hits full boar and I find out on the street that I have been living a double life with another family in Grantsburg, let me clarify.  I left my family to head to Iowa to see my grandmothers. My  schedule cleared enough to hop in the car and spend a couple of days three and a half hours south of here.  

I will be the first to admit, it felt very strange leaving my family behind, but they had plans and this trip was litteraly a spur of the moment trip that I decided to take hours before leaving.  It had been forever since I had seen both of my grandmothers,  The ride was incredibly boring, lets face it, I had to talk and listen to myself, who would want that?  I did realize that I do appreciate driving to Iowa during the night, it makes it, well...less boring.  I know my grandma will be reading this so I had to throw in a little Iowa joke.

Over the weekend I got to spend some real quality time with both my grandmothers.  It was wonderful.  One of my grandmother is in a home so I was limited to how much I got to visit with her, but the time I did spend with her was wonderful.  I spent the majority of the weekend with my grandma Silver.  For those of you who have read my column in the past, you know just how much she means to me.  She is my rock.  She is my spiritual mentor. She is my absolute hero.  The lessons she has taught me about life and how to handle it, I will never forget.  When I am with her, I lose all track of time.  She is the funniest person I have ever met.  She also turns 98 next week.  Did I mention she still lives in her own house?  She still drags her laundry to the basement to do the wash,  She just recently bought a new car (okay it is a 2005, but it's new to her).  She is amazing.  She also is in such a great place with her faith that she is fine whenever it is her time.  Maybe she is okay with it, but there is one prematurely grey man in Lindstrom that is definitely not ready.  Why am I telling you all of this? Just a reminder to spend time with your loved ones. Make sure you tell them how much they mean to you.  Gram - you mean the world to me.

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