Since the name of our blog is life as a Rauschendorfer I figured that I should showcase some REAL Rauschendorfer's. This last weekend we headed up to Scandia MN for Sean's dad Mike's 60Th birthday party. This is a sign that was hanging up above the host couples garage. I liked it and thought that some day when Sean and I have our own house this would make a nice addition.

Here is a picture of Sean's dad with his brothers and his Mother. His sister Rose could not be there. L-R Mike, Terry, Chuck and Tom and then Grandma Geri in the front. She is a wonderful, strong woman who manages to keep up with all of her kids and grand kids using email and sending letters. She has a big heart that is full of love and always has a smile on her face. She is also very strong in her faith and reminds us to thank God for every day that we are given.

I managed to pull everyone together for a group photo and it turned out very nice I think. There are a few people that unfortunately can not be seen (maybe they wanted it that way :)?)

Here is Mike enjoying his birthday meal, grilled burgers, hot dogs and brats!

Grandma Geri was laughing and I thought that deserved a picture!

Here is a pic of Zack with the bug vacuum, he is such a cutie and is very easy to entertain.

I can just hear Kaisa saying to Haley, "did you really get all of those things tangled up AGAIN?"

The kids had fun with all of the games that were set up.

Here is a pic of Myles and Kerry with his GF Lisa. It was her first time meeting that side of the family. She is a sweetheart and fit in well.

Here we are hot and sticky and full of bug spray. It was a very muggy day and a bad storm passed thru just before we arrived. Yes there are mosquitos in MN just as there are in ND. They have a big beautiful yard in the country so keeping mosquitos away isn't so easy.

Kent and Kaisa smiling big for the camera.

The next day Sean and I took Myles to the Twins game for his birthday present. We were only a few rows from the ceiling as we got stuck in traffic for a while and did not get there early enough to get better seats. We still had fun even tho they lost 0-1. The day before was 14-2 so I was excited to see some action..... NOT! I am not the best baseball fan as there are still some things that I do not understand and my constant bombardment of questions for Sean makes him laugh at me... a lot! I do tend to get a little bored with the game at times, however there are always interesting people to watch and things to keep me busy. I did cheer for the home run even tho it was for the other team. I was just happy to see someone score!

Even tho it was a busy weekend in the cities (as usual) we always have a great time visiting with family and friends and look forward to our next visit.

Worlds largest............ You name it and its found in ND!

Our trip to Medora with my parents started out in Valley City where we met them and we left our car there. Then we proceeded on to Jamestown where we found the Worlds largest buffalo. This trip is kind of a tradition in our family. Since I can remember we always had to stop and see the buffalo and cow on the way to Medora. In the above photo Sean was jumping up to touch the Worlds largest buffalo balls :) We did get a chance to see all 3 white buffalo which included the baby, as they were all out in the open in front of the viewing area. But did I get a picture of all 3 NO. Why you ask?? I don't have any idea!


Then on to see the worlds largest Sand Hill Crane in Steele ND. This was a Hanssen first as we have never stopped to see this before. Which just blows my mind and I can't believe that we have never seen this magnificent thing before ;0) It is quite large and there are a bunch of native wild flowers and wild grasses to learn about here as well.

Sean of course had to have a special moment with the birds leg, I don't know about him.

Next stop on the list was Salem Sue the world's largest Holstein cow in New Salem! We couldn't get over how pink they have painted her veins on her bag and tummy. You can see a little bit on this pic.

Then on to the badlands. We stopped at the painted canyon which is just a few miles from Medora. We did see a buffalo but it was a long ways away. It was starting to get very cloudy and there was storm rolling in and we were getting very nervous as we still had to set up our tent.

Here we are after we had eaten our famous Steak at the Pitchfork fondue. With full tummies we enjoyed the scenery until the musical started. It was very windy and the storm was out to the west but heading North. Jamie was continually checking the weather at home and texting us with updates!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU SEAN!!!!!! Yes it was June 22, Seans birthday and here he is wearing his gift. A new Twins coat from Mom, Dad, Gma and Gpa, Angel and Dave. He really likes the color and I think that he looks sexy in red! I got him a twins hat but I didn't realize that hats come in sizes and I just grabbed one off of the shelf. When I was going to wrap it I was looking for the Velcro strap in the back and it didn't have one. Then there was a tag that had a number on it 7 5/8 or something like that!!!!!!! Yikes it was way to big, so we must exchange that one. Hey how can you blame a girl who grew up on a farm and all my dad's hats came from the elevator or seed company with the strap on the back!

A very rare picture of my adorable mother smiling!!!! No actually that's all we did on this trip was smile cause together all 4 of us are very silly. Here we are waiting for the Musical to start. It was very windy and we had our blankets with us, we were prepared!

Here are my parents Dale and Kathy! How cute are they. For many years they treated me to this trip as a kid and created lots of great memories. So it was my turn now. This trip was their fathers and mothers day gift from Sean and I. They both deserved it a lot. Dad works so hard to keep the farm going and Mom works hard to keep the house up and the men fed. It just happened to be the perfect time to leave right between spraying and haying!

Here is Sean at the Chateau we didn't go in but we went to the interpretive center thinking that it was free like the last time we were there. Yeah right $7.00!!!! So we just went to the gift shop and then left.

On the way home we stopped on this road I think that they call it the enchanted highway. Some dude has made several of these metal sculpters spread out along the hiway. This one is a deer jumping over the fence. It really is big and Sean is standing in front of it holding up his own deer horns. This is as far as we went because it was hot and we were bored with it and we had to find a place to eat.

Ok so maybe I am mixed up I don't remember which one was first the meal in New Salem or the metal sculptor.....anyway. We stopped in New Salem to eat dinner cause I wanted to eat at a small town cafe. They are always so cute and have good food. So we stopped here and it was just a really small cafe with really good food. Dad ordered a strawberry malt and they even had one of those old green mixers. Dad was very impressed. When she gave it too him he lit up just like a little boy and he told the waitress, "you just made me feel like a little kid again!" The malt reminded him of how Mildred used to make his malts when he was little in the Niagara Cafe. Then we headed home with our tummies full. It was a great trip and hope to do it again next year.

For the love of fish.....and Grandpas!

This is my Grandpa! I have heard stories several times in my life about how much this man scared me when I was a baby. I was the happiest, smiling kid until he came into the room or I saw him. I would cry and scream until he was gone. No one knows why he scared me so much, but I think that it was his big bushy eyebrows, he has always had big eyebrows. But over the years the man that scared me so much became one of my best friends. We have done so much together. The most memorable being hunting and fishing. He would take us fishing all over the place and he was always patient with us and helped us learn the sport and took the time to teach us how to do things. He would let us reel in a fish every now and then if we weren't catching anything. I was happy just to be outside and I earned my official title as net girl as I was very good with the net. Nothing made him more frustrated than one trip to Devils Lake that we took to catch white bass. I must have caught 15-20 and he didn't have such good luck, despite using the same lure and dropping the hook in the exact same spot. Oh I can tell stories for hours about my grandpa but I wouldn't want to bore any of you.
This last monday Grandpa, Uncle Jeff (from Rapid City, SD) Jamie, Sean and I went fishing for a few hours in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was a little breeze just enough to keep the bugs away. I had the opportunity to get some great pictures of him fishing. He is 89 years old and his legs are not the best as they give him lots of pain, but he was able to walk down through the rocks to get to this spot. He didn't actually catch anything by himself but Jeff let him reel in 3 northerns.



This is my Aunt Diane. They are visiting from SD this week. I haven't seen her since the wedding and when I wanted to take her pict she was a little reluctant as she didn't think that she looked nice enough. I told her that I looked like crap so don't worry about it. So we went and stood by Grandmas pretty flowers and she hopes that you look at them instead of at her!

Here is uncle Jeff casting with the rod that Sean kind of messed up. But thats ok cause in one cast he was able to fix the tangled up line.

Here he is with the fish that grandpa just reeled in. Looks like he has everything under control!

Or does he~~ the fish got the best of him with one hook still in the fish and one in his pant leg. That was easy to fix tho, at least there wasn't any blood.

If any of my nursing friends happen to read this.....Yes he is sitting on a shower chair and it worked very well for your information!!!!

One last shot of Grandpa casting. I kind of got in trouble by one of my cousins who lives far away for not putting a picture of him on the last blog so here you go Melissa:) Enjoy!
And finally here is a video that I took with my digital camera. It is grandpa being so calm getting his fish to the shore. Not even a smile until the fish was on land flopping around.

Hopefully I can get in a few more fishing and hunting trips in with my Grandpa before he is too weak to enjoy these activities. There is nothing better than spending a day with my Grandpa!

Here we go again!

Here we go again with the fishing experience. This time we had a lot more people. Dad, Jamie, Grandpa (yes my 89 yo Gpa came along and sat through the rain) Sean, Amber, Dave, Angel, Ian, Mandy, Kayla, and Buddy, Elvis and Duke. We had a great time even tho it rained almost the whole time. Only once did we have to run to the vehicles to stay dry from a down pour. Despite the nasty weather we managed to catch 8 fish. It was a great time until I got a hook stuck in my thumb. It bled and bled and It hurt and hurt. For a while my thumb had its own heartbeat!

Here are the 8 fish we caught. This picture was taken right before Dad and Sean cleaned and fillet them. I used the timer on the camera to take this one. Again we had smelly hands all day and night. We are saving all of this fish for a fish fry some day when we can get a bunch of people together. Should be fun!

Saturday date night!

Sean and I decided that we needed to go out on a date last Saturday. We went out to a restaurant called the "Spitfire". It smelled wonderful in there as they slow cook there ribs and bbq over an open fire in the middle of the restaurant. I had a half slab of the ribs and they were mmmm good. Sean had a brisket sandwich that was also tasty. We then rolled our full tummies out of the building and decided to go play mini gold at Thunder Road in Fargo. We played both courses (36 holes) and it took 3 hours as we had some slow people in front of us. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time. Sean brought the camera and snapped a few pics of us on the course. The holes were not all that difficult and I did pretty well on most of them, but Sean prevailed and kicked my butt. The funniest thing was half way through the course I wondered why Seans putter was blue and mine was black. He had taken a kids putter and didn't even know it. It was significantly smaller than mine and we had a good laugh about that one. After golf we went out for dessert at Old Chicago. It was a great time and hope to do it again soon.

Fishing, Family, Fun and FIRE!

OK so this is the end of the day. We had a bon fire at Mom and Dads house after we went fishing. The pics that I put on here ended up back words so we will start at the end of the day instead of the beginning. The above pic is really not that flattering of me. It was taken after my beloved Sean threw my favorite fire-poking stick into the fire. I was not happy with him and he thought it was funny. Sean however looks really cute I think.

Notice said stick in fire. We also put this huge/gigantic old piece of wood on the fire that happended to be covered with ants. Which brought on a bunch of really lame jokes about ants screaming for help and little tiny ant ambulances coming to rescue them and a bunch of other jokes that just don't need to be repeated.......ever again. Notice the look on Jamies face. Not to sure what he was contemplating, maybe he was trying to think of a song to sing as we went around the campfire and sang old silly songs from days gone by. It was alot of fun. We also had fun listening to the coyotes as they were all howling and it sounded like they were really close. Angel and Dave had their 3 dogs with so we had a time trying to keep them in the yard.

I thought that this was a cute pic. We have a calf at the farm who doesn't have a mommy so they give him a bottle twice a day and he is always waiting for them to come. It doesn't take him long to suck down that bottle.

Ok so here is Sean's very first time actually holding a fish. He didn't really like it since it was very slimy and smelly. Yes, we had to hear all about the smell of his hands the rest of the day. At one point it almost made him puke! to which I laughed :) I actually like to hold fish and mess around with things like that. I did grow up in the country and I used to walk around bare foot in the cow pasture so this really didn't bother me. He didn't actually catch any fish that day, but he will try, try again.

Ok so this is the fish that I caught, (the really big one that is hanging down). Dad caught the next one and the stringer was getting so heavy with all of those fish on it. The weather was beautiful and sunny and just enough breeze to keep the may flies away. The water was very cold. Jamie got his lure stuck about 6 feet off of the shore and couldn't bear to cut the line so I volunteered to walk out in the water and get it. The water was up to my knees and it was very chilly!

Here is Jamie with his fish, the first catch of the day! He was very excited and so were we that there were actually fish in the lake! Dad was teaching Sean how to do something with his pole. Sean loves to learn from him as he doesn't really know a lot about fishing and it is probably best if he learns from dad instead of me as I think that dad has more patience! It also makes Dad feel good when he can feel smart....... right Dad:) I love to see the two of them bonding, making a lasting relationship and to actually have some interests in common. Sean doesn't really know a lot about farming so anything that the two of them can do together is great. I hear that the next thing on the agenda is GOPHER hunting.... Sean is exciting to hold a gun!

This is a pic that was taken after we grilled our lunch at Dave and Angels house. Isn't Sean cute in that shirt. He doesn't wear it very often. It makes him fit in well around the farm. The other pic is of Dad taking a nap under the shade of a big tree. He was just lying there listening to the birds and loving nature. I thought it was cute so I quick snapped a picture.

The day went fast and it was fun. We really enjoyed each others company and had a great time catching fish and can't wait to do it again.

Baby "Cletus" Rauschendorfer

Some of you may already know, however some of you may not. Sean and I were blessed to be parents-to-be for 8 weeks and yesterday we had a miscarriage. I had a D & C and I at home now doing ok. This is a picture of what the infant bereavement program gave to us as we left the hospital. The blanket and booties were a gift from a local church and the teddy bear was so that we didn't have to leave the hospital with empty arms. It has been an emotional time for us and we are now looking forward to the next opportunity to start the family that we have always wanted.

They also gave Sean and I a tiny little gold baby ring so that we would never forget. I tied them on the ribbon on the booties. We did not know the sex of the baby but a good friend of mine always asked me how "Cletus the fetus" was doing. We kind of like that name and it grew on us, so that is what we are calling it. We have had a lot of support from friends and family in this difficult time and we thank everyone!