Happy Birthday Gunnar 17!!!!

He's 17 and I feel old.

Mockingjay book 115

I loved this series, I've looked forward to reading this and finished it in a few hours. I knew it would be sad, it had to be with the ending of the last book and it was. I cried and man sometimes life sucks. I did like the end and she gave it a diffident ending. Violent and heartbreaking, but I enjoyed the experience of this series. Good relationship struggles and life.

Time to clean out the gutters.

Okay, maybe take the Christmas lights down too. They aren't plugged in or anything like that. It gets cold here fast and they go up before Thanksgiving anyway and this year I got busy and forgot to get them down in the spring. Maybe they will still work when I plug them in, in a few months. Here to crossing my fingers.

I cleaned the gutters on the garage and above the kitchen, these are the only ones left I can reach with a ladder or at least climb out a window.

State Fair here we come, Go Gunnar!!!

Locals to compete at state fair

Published 7:47am Wednesday, August 25, 2010

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The four winners of the Mower County Fair talent competition will be competing at the Minnesota State Fair starting this Friday.

Each of the winners placed first in the talent show’s three categories. Shane Desilva won for the preteen division, Gunnar Peters won for the teen division and the duet of Dylan Kaercher and Brett Canny won for the open division. Desilva and Peters will perform on the Aug. 28 while Kaercher and Canny will perform on Sept. 1.

Peters, 17, won his division by performing “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. He has performed in the county talent show four times and received second place twice, including once when he was two years old.

“I had entered several times, so it felt really great when I won,” Peters said.

He will be a senior at Austin High School this school year, where he participates in choir, band and the quiz competition Knowledgeable. He also participates in plays at Riverland Community College and the high school. He said he plans to attend Brigham Young University, where both is parents attended.

He said he was not nervous about performing at the state fair because he has more time to prepare for it than he had for the county fair.

The duet team of Kaercher and Canny won with their performance of “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” They were both talented musicians before they teamed up for the county fair.

Canny, 14, is returning to the state fair for his second year of performance. Last year, he won in the teen division of the county talent show as part of a piano duet with Andrew Wester. This year he performed on a guitar in the open division. He participated in the open division because county talent show participants are not allowed to compete in the same category they won the year prior.

He routinely performs at the Village Cooperative in Austin and the Charter House in Austin. He is in both the jazz and pop bands at the high school, as well as his own band, So Much For Sleep. He will be performing an additional performance for at the state fair on Aug. 29 for the 4-H musical performance competition.

His mother Tammy, who homeschools him, said he first learned to perform when she began teaching him piano at age five. She said he is always so eager to perform and that he never needs to be reminded to practice.

Canny said he used to be nervous performing in front people, but now he feels experienced enough to not worry. He said he wasn’t nervous about performing at the state fair, despite the larger crowd.

“I think it’s harder to play at the Austin fair then at the state fair. At the Austin fair, you know a lot of people there and want to impress them,” Canny said.

He said he is not only interested in a future in musical performance, but also one in musical recording.

Canny was introduced to Kaercher because both of their younger brothers played baseball together. They only practiced together a week before the performed at the talent show.

Kaercher, 17, is part of a large musical family. Both his parents are musical performers and his great grandfather is Ollie Hanson, who was notable for his many years winning the county fair fiddle contest. Kaercher first started his life with music when his received a violin from his grandfather at the age of two. He said he has been a performer ever since.

He is also active in extracurricular activities such as performing in concert orchestra, concert choir and working as the president of the high school drama club. He has performed all positions in his role as president, including director and choreographer. He has worked with both the Riverland theater department and the high school drama department.

Kaercher also works his own singing telegram business as a side job. He started the business in 2008 and runs it entirely by himself. He said he usually receives jobs when people spread his service by word-of-mouth.

Kaercher said he was a little nervous to be performing at the state fair, but he feels his performance at the Owatonna county fair helped prepare him.

He said his abilities in music and theater to due to the people who taught him.

“I attribute a lot of my ability to Brian Johnson, Jerry Girton and Aaron Schoun,” Kaercher said.

Kaercher said he usually sings solo with a recorded track and that his work with Canny is his first time with an accompanist.

The duet’s success at the county fair has lined them up several new performances, including a performance at a nursing home in September and a New Year’s Eve performance at Canny’s church.

Desilva won by performing classical music while blindfolded. He named his performance Medley of the Blind Piano Man.

County Fair Talent Contest receives participants from county fairs throughout Minnesota. The county fairs send the winners of their amateur talent contests to the State Fair competition. Semifinals are held the first nine evenings of the State Fair on the Family Fair Stage in Baldwin Park. The first and second place finals winners in each division become finalists for the Sept. 5 talent competition on the Grandstand.

PS Gunnar was 8 not 2 at his first talent comp. The reporter error.

David's birthday dinner.

My Little Chef.




David is on a diet of no sugar for his blood work. So we had these for dinner and nothing for dessert. We made 24 of these and they are so good. Family and friends came over to help us celebrate and the weather wasn't as humid as it had been, so sitting outside was nice. I sat this one out letting the kids fetch and carry when needed. It was nice to sit and talk and enjoy the end of summer.

Squirrels may be cute, but I hate them.

These guys were looking at us and I swear I could see their thoughts. They want us out of their house before the snow flies. Well forget it, this is my house guys. I shot these out the window. Cenny was watching TV and they kept peeking up into the window, rubbing their noses on the glass. Bold little pain in the butts. Rodents with fluffy tails, silly personailities and they are nothing more.

Watch out Gunnar can drive

Gunnar passed his permit test and now has 6 months before he can take his drivers test. He can drive with an adult with a license now. Stay off the roads. You should call before going out to be sure Gunnar is safe at home.

I've spent 9 days waiting at the Northbridge Mall for Gunnar to take his 30 hour drivers class. I got to know quite a few of the mall walkers and a few, at least one everyday, loved to sit across from me and talk to me for an hour or so. I got a lot of reading done, but someone always interrupted the best part so I could talk with them about whatever was on their mind. David took Gunnar on one day to get some needed supplies at Home Depot.

Books 111, 112, 113 and 114

The 4th one and it continues the story. 3 thriller/romances with Killing, Death and Time or something like that in the title. It's weird, the more I read, the more I want to read and the more I don't get done, that needs to be done. It is a vicious circle I've gotten myself into. I have the 5th Little Liars and today I will have Mockingjay, yeah!!!! Bonnie read Shutter Island and really enjoyed it. I also loved The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen, almost as much.

Minnesota State Fair

Gunnar is performing at the talent competition on Saturday the 28th and so I got the early bird tickets for 2 dollars off regular admission and 2 coupon books to help with food choice, quite a few BOGO offers. Two years ago when Zeke got to perform I swore I was never going again and look here we are again. Be careful what you swear never to do. So many people it is like a flood of bodies. Vanessa is taking JT for the day, it scared me to death to take him, I would lose him and he's so short, never find him again.

Gunnar's song choice was fine for Mower county, but at the State fair it cannot be over 4 minutes. I shorten the song at the beg. and at the end with iTunes, but then I needed it to fade out at the end or it just cut off. I Goggled the question and downloaded a free program and then cut and faded the end. Quite easy after I figured out where I saved the program, always check before saving so you can find it again. So the song is now 3:56 instead of 4:49. I cut 15 seconds of the front and the rest of the end. Luckily the last stanza is repeated like seven times so he can repeat it fewer times. Now I just need him to practice so he does the best performance he can so.

Goofy Kids

Too darn cute JT
Hot and yet cool in the water at Vanessa's
Qatar and the setting sun.
JT and the smile
Gunnar and the big eyes and smile he is famous for.
Qatar is hot and tired.
It was a hot day and JT's teeth have finally come in.

Happy Birthday David!!! 41 today!

The Peters Family 2010. Gunnar 16, Qatar 14, Zeke 11, Cenny 10, and JT 8.
Peters family 2004

Peters Family 2003
Sue, Suzanne and David
Cenneidigh and David blowing bubbles 2002 July 4th, she is two.
Suzanne and David
David in April 2002 at his Masters graduation. Gunnar 8, Qatar 5, Zeke 3, Cenny 1, and JT 1 month maybe.

The Family
Frank and David in 1987


Frank and David in Turkey

Little league
David and Suzanne

Happy Birthday, I love you!!!! I did not put any Bremner family photos in, I figured you've seen enough lately.

Magic the Gathering crazyness

Too many cards, but they are asking for more of them every time I go to the store. Crazy kids. I have started to ask them to not tell me they NEED things. So now they WANT things instead.

Books 107, 108, 109, and 110

Another Virgil Flowers mystery, that is not half bad. Minnesota author.
More of a kids book, an interesting story about being almost 12 and needing a mom. Swedish author.
Her first and I loved it. Great story, good flow, lots of Minnesota things going on in this one. Would recommend to anyone, a good mystery. Quite clean. Another Minnesota author.
Her second and I liked this one. Same characters from the first and still an interesting mystery about the death of a groom, who was a no show at his wedding. Face blindness? WOW. Interesting, David has her next one on order at the library. I think we are number 75 or so on the list. Riley is funny and not above doing whatever it takes to get the story. Read these, she came to the library here and I forgot to go. Now I wish I had.

Mower County Fair Talent Competition

Hot, and humid and hot.
Better get this boy a hair cut soon. Great job Zeke with the piano.
Great job Gunnar. 1st place in the teen division and now off to the State Fair. This is from the Post Bulletin.

At the Fair Square stage an amateur talent contest entertained a large crowd throughout the afternoon. In the pre-teen division Shane Desilva age 10, received first place for a melody of piano classics pieces played without music.

In the teen division first place winner Gunnar Peters, 17, sang the Tim McGraw song, "Live Like You Were Dying." Peters said although he doesn't always listen to country music, he thought there was a good story in this song.