Top 10 Reasons to Visit the Phelps in 1999

10. They can’t find the rest of their Disneyland vacation photos so you’ll just be expected to ohh and ahh over the three cute ones on the wall.

9. Bet it’s been a long time since you were in Kindergarten and you are dying to hear Hannah tell how it is ‘nowadays.’ She finally feels she is learning something and shares it with us in minute detail, believing everything that she thinks she knows, even if it’s not quite right. For example; Columbus came 100 years ago but the pilgrims were here last week on two ships called the Mayflower and the Speedwheeler. She’s also pretty sure that teachers don’t live at school but when they have days off, all the teachers have to go there and clean.

8. Elizabeth and Shannon can entertain you with a recitation of their ‘list of favorite characters’ including Pooh, Mickey, Piglet, Norman, Patty, Goofy, and Cinderella. They can’t understand why everyone else who has ever been to Disney did not also see a Norman and a Patty. Long story, call, we’ll tell it to you.

7. We get the daily paper – delivered right to our door – with the Bulletin Board in it. This is something that can not be accomplished if you live far away, like say, Marshall, Virginia, or Mississippi (which is where Chr’s’s parents live this year.)

6. We live by a Rainbow that is open 24 hours. This means that it is open all the time, even when you are sleeping. This is a big deal at our house even though the store is a few miles away. All three girls give directions to our house starting with; “O.K. You know that Rainbow store that is open 24 hours, you drive by that. Even in the night, it is open and you can still drive by that and go to our house.” We’re going to have a field-trip some night at 2 a.m. just to see what goes on at Rainbow in the middle of the night. Join us, it would be a heck of a party that you could talk about for months.

5. In case you’re thinking that the last time you heard from us, we were living far from any Rainbow grocery stores…. We’ve been a bit nomadic the last few years, something Chr’s must have inherited from the Swedish side of his family, but we have finally settled in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Settled, with a capital S. Settled, as in had the house built, moved in with all of our stuff, and unpacked it. Settled, as in the sod is down, the swings are up, and the girls are out finding friends in the neighborhood. The guest room is open, and if Chr’s is home, the coffee pot is on.

4. Actually, Julie and Chr’s are still in one of those phases they go through where one of them lives in some strange place, in this case, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the other holds down the home fort. So, truthfully, Julie and the girls live in Cottage Grove where everyone has their own room until Chr’s flies home on Friday nights when as the girls put it; “Mom has to share her room.” On the plus side, it has again been an interesting experience and he plans to abandon his cheesehead and move back to Minnesota in February when he’ll have to re-learn that we live here all week with the toilet seats in the down position, always!

3. Bedtime is at eight so the tap dancing practice ends then. (Funny how when you live in Green Bay, you don’t get a headache every day from those #%*$% tap shoes.)

2. Our new house has a great kitchen – something about building codes, you can’t just not put in a kitchen. Julie is still banned from most appliances in that room for the safety and well being of others, so you are welcome to try anything you like in there.

1. And the Number One reason to visit the Phelps in 1999… So we can wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season and a superb Eve of the Millennium Year.