Hi Everybody,

 It can’t be that long ago that we were all young and impressionable.  It seems like yesterday!  Anyway, I digress.

 YES, my hair is as white as mother’s was!!!

 Paul and I were married in July 1972 while he was in the Army and we moved to El Paso, TX for one year. 

 November 1973 – July 1974 I joined Paul overseas in what was then “West Germany”.  Our older daughter, Jennifer was born at the army hospital in Heidelberg in March, 1974.

 Fall 1974 until June 1976 we lived in Bismarck and then went to Wahpeton, ND to both take some classes at what was then North Dakota State School of Science.  In March 1977 we moved to the Twin Cites knowing there were more job opportunities here.

 We moved into our home in Richfield on November 1, 1977.  Our 2^nd daughter, Angela was born in May 1978.

 I worked part time for various places: Northwestern Bell, LeeWards, Target, Bachman’s Floral and started working full time in the Financial Aid Office at Normandale Community College in September 1991.  The job didn’t go permanent until the Fall of 1994 and I’m still here.  Normandale Community College is a two year college with a total enrollment of over 8800 students. 

 Paul delivers mail and has over 28 years of “Government Service”.  He could retire in about 2 years, but he likes his “patrons” too much.  (We only live 1 mile from the Richfield Post Office, so the man doesn’t know what the word “commute” means!)

 Jen is married to Jomo and they have a beautiful daughter named Kalaya who is 8.  Jen and Jomo are both working and going to school full time.  Right now they are at Normandale getting their two year degrees.  Jomo was just accepted to Metro State Univ and plans to pursue a Psychology Major in drug and alcohol counseling.  The minors will be in helping adolescents and people in sports.  Jen is pursuing Exercise Science and then will go on for Business Major.   Needless to say, they didn’t start college until they were considered “non-traditional” students

 Kalaya likes anything to do with sports (basketball, soccer softball, etc) or working on things with Paul.  She’s tried everything from helping him reshingle the garage (photo) to using a jack hammer to break up cement steps.  He even made sure she has her own tool belt.  

 We’re really lucky that they live right here in Richfield.  That makes my life wonderful.

Angi is permanently engaged to Matt and they live in Fargo.  They moved to Oregon for a couple of years swearing they would never come back to the Midwest.  “Never say never.” Angi now has two majors and a minor from North Dakota State Univ.  One degree is Sociology, one in Criminal Justice and minor in Psych.   She’s hoping to get a job “dispatching” for the Fargo/Moorhead Ambulance-Fire-Police Departments.

 We get out to Lemmon quite often as Paul’s family still farms north of Lemmon in the Bentley area.  (If that’s not clear enough for all you South Dakota natives – it’s near Mott.  IF you still don’t know where it is, look it up on a map).

 We take Kalaya with us on all of our trips to “the farm”, family weddings – so far we’ve had about 9 weddings of nieces or nephews with one more this next summer and then we only have 22 more to go!!!  Then we’ll start with great-kids I guess.  I have only 4 siblings, but Paul has 13 so there are quite a few family events to attend.

 My Dad moved in with us in January.  He had stage 4 cancer and really couldn’t live on his own in the big old farm house in Bloomington anymore.   We had Dad with us until the April 24^th when he moved into a home that took care of people, “through the end of life”.  Dad lived until May 25^th.  He is now in a far better place. 

 Hope all of you are doing well and I really want to see a lot more bios and pictures on the website.

 karen.kilzer@normandale.edu