The Bergs

Thanks to Miranda who took these pictures while we were outside on Saturday! We put a harness on Dougly to pull Sol and Abe around in the snow. Unfortunately the sled flipped over and Abe did a face-plant in the snow and didn’t want to go back on the slide again.

Hello Everyone! It has been a while so I thought it would be a good idea to update all of you readers on the happenings at the Berg household. So far things have settled down a lot, our weekends and evenings aren’t half as busy as they were a month ago. We now can actually start planning things with our family and friends just for the fun of it. With Christmas just around the corner we have almost all of our Christmas shopping done except for the few people that are really hard to buy for. Today we had Jonn’s sister Miranda and her family over for a Spaghetti dinner. I made the Fruci Family spaghetti recipe. I hope I made it as good as my dad does.

For Thanksgiving this year we stayed down in the cities because I only had Thanksgiving Day off, and we spent it at my grandfather’s house. It was great to see all of the cousins I hate the fact that we only see everyone on a holiday and that we are to busy to get together on a Sunday or even for someone’s birthday. I always get a good laugh with all of my relatives jokes. One thing the Collova family is good at is telling great stories. We had a nice relaxing time. For Christmas we will head up to Jonn’s parents house, however I do have to work a half day on Christmas Eve so we will have to come back Sunday night.

Now another, God answered my prayer story to tell…

On Thanksgiving Eve, Jonn and I went to the service at Eagle Brook Church and met a friend of Jonn’s and I was introduced to his wife. They live out in the Mahtomedi area not to far away from where I keep Cricket. I wasn’t sure exactly where they lived, they described it to me but I kind of blew it off my shoulder thinking I would contact her when I go out riding and then find out where she lives by following her there. The following Sunday my cousin Gina and I heading out for a ride and we decided to take a route that I hadn’t taken in a while which is on a dirt road. We made about a half a mile down this dirt road when I heard something moving in the bushes ahead. The person that was in the bushes yelled “Hello” and apologized that she was scaring our horses. Our horses didn’t mind too much so we kept riding. The next house we arrived to had a donkey and two little miniature ponies (about the size of a Labrador) and one of the ponies decided to greet our two horses. We realized they were not fenced in and just roamed the property freely but we had no idea how to get rid of this little horse that wouldn’t leave Cricket alone! I quickly asked Gina if she could go back to the lady in the bushes to see what we should do. Gina took off running to the lady and quickly asked her for advice. When Gina came back to me she said to just ride away and they should stay at the house they were at. So we attempted to but this little mini wouldn’t leave us alone! Then Gina told me he is a little stallion so of course there is my answer! He has a crush on Cricket! We attempted to walk our horses back to the house and then turn around but the pony kept following us. Finally the lady from the bushes yelled to us “YOUR HORSES CAN RUN FASTER THAN THAT” so we did it one last time and took off running. We had finally lost the little miniature horse. When we slowed down I had realized that the lady from the bushes looked familiar. I told Gina that I had to go back and see if this lady was the one that I was introduced to last Wednesday at Eagle Brook Church. Quickly I turned Cricket around and ran back to the lady in the bushes who I heard call out my name “Becca?” and it was her.

I had been looking for a new place to keep Cricket but had not found a place that I like or that was affordable enough where I could keep her and possibly get another horse. We talked for a bit and then I asked her if she new anyone who would be interested in boarding my horse and maybe a second horse and she said her place was available. I was so happy!! It is also closer to where Gina keeps her horse.

Have a wonderful weekend. We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers! God Bless

The Bergs

Last weekend we went to Omaha. It was really nice. The drive went well, and Becca and I had a great time with Duane and his mom. Judy seemed happy to see us and meet Becca.

We left on Friday morning and drove down through Des Moines. The city name made us wonder what the history was so I looked it up.

“The history of Des Moines can be traced to 1834, when John Dougherty, an Indian Agent at Fort Leavenworth, Ks, recommended that a military post be established at the point where the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers merge. Nine years later, May 1843, Captain James Allen and a company of dragoons from Fort Sanford arrived on the site. Captain Allen proposed to name the
garrison Fort Raccoon but was directed by the War Department to use the name Fort Des Moines. The origin of the name is uncertain, but most historians agree that the name probably initially referred to the river. Some people feel that ‘Des Moines’ is derived from the Indian word ‘moingona’ meaning
river of the mounds which referred to the burial mounds that were located near the banks of the river. Others are of the opinion that name applies to the Trappist Monks (Moines de la Trappe) who lived in huts at the mouth of the Des Moines river. French voyagers referred to the river as La Riviere des Moines.”

Anyway, we made it into Council Bluffs Iowa and East Omaha right around sundown, so it was interesting driving. I have to plug my GPS again though. It saved us quite a lot of time and it was fun being able to look down at it and see the amount of driving left. When I first got it, it was interesting to note that the time estimation wasn’t always right, but it seems as though it is getting better. Perhaps it is alive?

While in Omaha we went to a place called the “Texas Roadhouse”. It was very cool. They had a huge barrel of peanuts in the entryway to snack on while waiting to be seated. We had 40 minutes or so. The food is like an American Steak and Seafood place. The gimmick is that the wait-staff come to your table if it a special day and do a sort of line dance while you sit on a mounted saddle. We were going to get Becca on the saddle, but by the time we had the chance, we were too full and had to be rolled out!

We also went to the dog track and watched some greyhound races. Becca bet a couple dollars and was very close to winning $55. She bet on the top three coming in at 4 – 1 – 3, when it was really 1 – 3 – 4. It was pretty cool. After that we went to the casino and watched people put money in machines. I decided to play a $.50 poker machine and put in $2 and pulled out $5. So I basically made up for our losses and some. It was pretty cool.

We left on Sunday, even though we didn’t want to. I had to play hockey at 8pm and we needed a day to do laundry and the stuff that we normally do on the weekends. The drive home was uneventful.

Hockey went well. The team we played had come very close to beating some of the teams that we have lost to in the past so we were up for a tough game. They didn’t score on me until the 3rd period when I started to tire. We ended up winning 5 to 2. The first goal they scored was a three-way pass and I had no defense on the the last two players. The second was totally my fault. I lifted my stick as the guy stuffed it from behind the net…

That’s about it for now. I have to head off to work, dropping Becca off on the way.

It is amazing how fast things happen the way you want them to when you just let God take control. After the wedding I had been looking for a job at a clinic so I could get the same hours as Jonn and to also get different experience. I had applied to 10 or 15 other places but after about a month and a half later with no calls for an interview I started to worry. So I thought of other clinics I could go and bring my resume to. As I started to think Maplewood Cancer Center came into my head so I gave them a call to see if they had any openings. They said that they had just opened up a new LPN position so I hurried and turned my application in the next day. A day or two later I received a phone call for an interview so of course I accepted and was so nervous that I was nauseous and during the interview couldn’t think of the correct answers. I felt like I failed miserably and told my husband I doubt I’d get the job. The next day I received a phone call from aspen clinic offering me a job at their clinic so at least I had a job no matter what. That same day Maplewood Cancer Center called me back to see if I would like to come in for a shadowing with another nurse, which I accepted! I spent the morning following a nurse around while she gave chemo and did blood draws and a variety of different things. I had such a blast. About two or three hours after the shadowing I received a call from Maplewood Cancer Center and they offered me the job.  I started on October 8th.

So far I have been at the job for two weeks and I have learned to so much and still have so much to learn, at times I feel inadequate because I am so inexperienced but at other times I feel like I can relate to the patient. It has been over six years since my cancer diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease and working in the clinic where I had gotten treatment has brought a lot of memories back that I had forgotten it is overwhelming at times. I know God had a hand in me getting this job and he wants me to work there because I couldn’t have called at a better time, if I would have called any sooner or later the job would not have been open or it would have been taken.

Thank You God

In 17 hours there will be a wedding of my friend Anne Gilles and Dan Markus, after about three years of dating they are finally tying the knot in Stillwater MN. It will be a day full of fun and NO RAIN Congratulations you guys!! I can’t wait until you get a cat!

Eh hem Correction! Anne said it is four years they have been dating instead of three.

Jonn and I recently celebrated our one month anniversary on the 18^th of September on yet again, another rainy day.   He bought me flowers and we reminisced about that day that was so blurry for us. Looking at the pictures it still seems so surreal  that we sometimes can’t believe it actually happened.   Even living together now it is still sometimes a shock.    I am still trying to get rid of a lot of Jonn’s bachelor stuff and the house is slowly starting to feel more feminine… I mean more like home.   We are also feeling an overwhelming sense of humility from all of the gifts that were given to us over the past few months. We are so blessed to have such great people in our lives that are able to open there hearts and pocketbooks to some crazy newlyweds.   This weekend we will be celebrating my 24^th birthday on Saturday by going to an Arabian Fall Festival at the state fair grounds, then we will be heading to celebrate another friends surprise birthday and then heading to church and possibly back home for a bon fire. Then Sunday we will be going to my parents for a yummy spaghetti dinner along with Jonn’s parents and his sister’s family.  Life is actually starting to simmer down a lot and once I get my Thank You’s done from the wedding (by the way there are about 250 cards) I will feel unburdened and so much more at peace.  I am sure my mother will also!

We made it through the Marathon this last weekend!  It was a grueling 26.2 miles with a 13 mph headwind.  Our expected time was a little over 2 hours, but with the headwind, we ended up getting just under 3 hours.

For me, the last 5 miles were the hardest.  Up until then, I didn’t feel too much exhaustion other than my knees feeling very tight and my fingers swelling a little bit.

Becca did pretty well, in fact we both did well for it being our first marathon.  She didn’t really start feeling tired until the last 4 miles or so.

The next day she was worse off than me.  I felt pretty good, no major soreness.  She said her thighs hurt more than any time in her life.

We have the pictures, but we won’t be able to get them uploaded for a while.  We are leaving in a short while to head up to Duluth for an inline marathon.  This means that we won’t be around all weekend.  It is looking like we won’t be able to start uploading now until mid week or later.

You will just have to be patient!

Thanks to Johnny G, we have a good number of photographs from the wedding up now. You can find it on the left there under Photos.

We have been getting quite a few requests for pictures from the wedding. We have not yet received the official images from Brian, but we have seen a few from other’s cameras. I will be building a photo gallery and we will start putting them up there when it is done.

I’ll try to hurry with this.