Hello Christmas Break..Yah!

Well the semester has come to an end. I am all done with finals, and papers. I am thoroughly going to enjoy my Christmas break with the kids. I got up all the decorations and it looks like a winter wonderland at my house. I am one of those people that have tons of decorations. To give you a little bit of an example I have put up three christmas trees this year. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
To my English  class, it has been a fun semester and I hope to see each and everyone of you around campus. I hope everyone's holiday is great.

Light at the end of the Tunnel!

This semester has been by far one of the most hectic semesters I have experienced since I began taking classes at SWIC August of 2009. I think the worst part is that I only had 9 hours of classes this semester and 12 - 14 hours for the previous two semesters. This does not make sense to me, but I am so glad it is almost over. I am looking forward to having about a month off for the Holidays.

We have been doing more construction on our sun-room  last week and this week. I have painted the room twice because the first color I chose was a darker brown and Tim hated it. Now it is a light tan and it looks very nice. We are almost done with all of the trim and crown molding. In that room there are two large beams that run the width of the room. We wrapped those beams in cherry stained pine, and it is so beautiful. We are finally almost done with the construction stuff for a while.

I had an interview yesterday to start driving the school bus again. I start my refresher courses tomorrow. Prior to going to school I had driven a school bus for 7 years. I miss it believe it or not. I figure it is the perfect job for someone attending classes full-time. I only have to drive two hours in the morning and two hours in afternoon, and what ever field trips I take during the school year. The best part about the job is I get to be off in summer when the kids are off of school. This is cool to me cause I don't have to miss this time with my kids. However, next summer I hope to be starting the nursing program at the Belleville SWIC.

Well on top of all the construction, homework, studying, and stress this semester has been fun. I have learned a lot about the community I live in. It has some interesting history, and members. I hope everyone has a great week, and good luck to all on finals!

Ready for a Break!!

The semester is winding down to an end and I am ready for a break! The last few weeks of school are the most stressful, so by the end of the next three weeks I will be even more ready for a break. I am disappointed in the fact that I have not been able to sit down with Glen, the oldest original member of Lake Ronnie, but I hope in the next week he will be able to sit down with me. Mary has been so helpful. She has sat down with me a few times to talk about Lake Ronnie and the old files that I have been digging through. I never realized how unique this place was until doing this English project. With there being a couple weeks of school left I hope to dig up a bunch more information on Lake Ronnie Incorporated for my ethnography.

On a lighter note, I am so excited about Christmas and hope to get up the decorations soon. We just got a brand new 7 foot pre-lit artificial tree. I would love to have a real tree but Adam, my oldest son is really allergic to any type of tree pollen and the allergist strongly suggests no real Christmas trees. Anyway, it is beautiful. I am surprised at how real it looks too. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

YUCK!! I hate being sick!

I have been sick and feeling like crap since this last week Wednesday. I hope it goes away soon..UUUGHH!! Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I don't want to feel like crap for that, plus I want to start doing my P90X again. This is totally not on the subject of my English project, but this week I was crushed to find out that my oldest son Adam now knows that Santa Claus is not real. He was so crushed and mad at his dad and I when he found this out. He called us liars. I felt so bad. He is doing fine now...thank goodness. Today is kind of a gloomy day, but the lake is always beautiful. There is a bit of a breeze and it makes the water ripple, it looks so neat. The trees are loosing all of there leaves, and we have a lot of trees around the lake, so the ground is just littered with leaves. You can start to see all the houses around the lake now since the trees have thinned out. It is such a neat place to live. I can't wait for Christmas. I am one of those people who has tons of Christmas decorations. The kids love that I a decoration nut. They like all the lights, snowmen, and reindeer. I am especially excited now that we have a new porch on the front of the house for hanging various Christmas decorations...its going to be so pretty. Even though I am looking forward to the holidays, and I love the cooler weather, I am not looking forward to driving on this road when it snows. That's another thing when it snows here and the ground is covered the lake is even more beautiful than ever. When it starts to get really cold the lake starts to freeze, one year I was able to walk on the lake. Anyway have a great day everyone!!!

A little about the Lake!

This post is a little late, but here it is. I spoke to Mary Vahlkamp this past weekend again, and she was telling me that when someone purchased land here they actually purchases stock certificates in Lake Ronnie Incorporated. She gave me a couple of old certificates to use for my ethnography project in my English 102 class. I also found out from Mary a little bit about how the older lake members use to stock the lake. To the left of the South Ronnie Drive damn are two small lakes that are sort of dried up. I always thought they were overflow lakes when the lake got too full. According to Mary, those two small lakes were used by the old members for raising their own fish for the lake. She did not know the whole story, but the old members would raise their own fish to put in the lake, instead of paying someone else to stock it. We don't do that here anymore because it requires a lot of time and effort and no one has the time to do it. I thought this was really neat, because it kinda gives you an idea of what the original owners were like. I am still trying to find out when the lake was founded and by whom. The oldest records I have been able to find so far are from 1952, but Mary heard it was founded in the 1940's...I am still investigating this. I hope to find a lot more interesting things about Lake Ronnie Inc.

More Construction!!

We continue to do more construction on our Lake Ronnie home. We just got done insulating the sun-room on the side of the house opposite the lake. Since I have been writhing this paper on Lake Ronnie I have learned so much about the different rules and regulations. I knew a lot of them already, but I had no idea that there are that many and they are so strict. I think when they first made the by-laws there was a whole different group of people living here, because most of the people who live here now are laid back and more lenient than the group that founded the Lake Ronnie Community. Yesterday we had one of the lake members come by and ask for permission to use the clubhouse this coming Saturday for his daughters sixteenth birthday party. We told him it was fine and made sure he knew he was responsible for cleaning up after himself, then gave him our key to the clubhouse. This particular member is fairly new to the lake and this is first time using the clubhouse. There are only a few members around the lake that have a key to the clubhouse and most of them are Lake Ronnie Board Members. I have been interviewing the lake members and have to add that to paper three. I am going to interview some more members to find out some more history of the lake.

Halloween Candy...Yum!!!

Well Halloween is over, but the kids got two huge buckets full of candy. It is hard to say "NO" to all that candy. Isaiah trick - or - treated for about an hour then decided he wanted to go sit in the car. It was boring but after walking for a while it was nice to sit and take a break. All in all everyone had a lot of fun.

There has been a lot going on with school in the last couple weeks. This part three of our ethnography has got me a little worried because the people who live at Lake Ronnie dress no different than anyone else. My group does not have a certain dress code. So If anyone has any ideas about what I could write..it would be helpful. We also have to make this glossary and there is not a whole lot of slang at the lake. This paper is going to be a challenge.

Kids are soooo much fun!!!

Not only are children the greatest gift in the world...they also give you a great excuse to do things that you s, would not normally do, like riding kiddie rides or going trick or treating...can't wait!!! This weekend Tim and I took Adam and Isaiah to Eckerts in Milstadt Saturday. It was the first time Isaiah had ever been there. He was soooo funny. While we were there they had a few rides. One ride was these big apples that you can spin, there were swings and airplanes. The only thing Isaiah wanted to ride was the apples and he would not let us spin the apple because it scared him. He thought it was so fun. Next we rode the swings...by this time I am so dizzy, but we rode the swings anyway. I was never so happy when the ride was over however, Isaiah was extremely upset because I would not ride for a second time. I went back with him a little later, after the dizziness and nausea wore off, and rode the swings and apples some more. Saturday evening we went out to Koby's with some friends. 

There was nothing interesting going on here at Lake Ronnie this weekend. This morning however, at 3:45 in the morning the phone was ringing. It was one of the lake members calling to tell Tim that there was a tree down in the road and that no one could get in or out of the road. Since Tim is the Lake Ronnie president, he went and pulled the tree off of the road with his truck and a chain. Later he or one of the other lake members will have to go and cut up the tree. The lake members usually work together when it comes to lake work. All of the lake members do there part to keep things looking good and running smoothly.

School is Cool!!! UGH!!!

I am feeling a little overwhelmed this week by all the homework I have in my classes. In anatomy last week I had a huge exam over the bones of the body. The class had to know all the bones, the special features of all the bones, where they are located, and how to spell everything correctly because for every three misspelled words a point is taken off the final grade. I am just a little wore out, but it is all good.

I am very excited about Halloween...I think I am more excited than the kids are. Adam has chose to be Super Mario for his costume...he looks cute!!! For Isaiah we got him a Lil Frankenstein costume. He likes the costume but he is not crazy about wearing anything over his head. It should be interesting come Halloween night since his costume consists of a hook that looks like Frankensteins head. Adam is freaking out because his cousin told him that he was going to be Chucky for Halloween, and he is terrified of Chucky.


This weekend was not to exciting. Saturday we went to Tims cousin Katies graduation party, then after that we went to a friends house to hang out around the fire.

Fall...My Favorite Season!!!

Hello everyone! I have fall fever, its my favorite season. Halloween is drawing near and the kids are all excited. I love all the bright colors of the trees...they are so pretty. Living on Lake Ronnie has made me appreciate the beauty of fall even more because the entire lake is surrounded by trees. The beauty of the lake makes it all the more beautiful. The ground is full of beautifully colored leaves. I am happy that the temperatures are cooling off as well.

I attended my first lake meeting in the Lake Ronnie clubhouse. The clubhouse is full of lots of old chairs and tables. The lake committee members sit at a large foldaway table on one side the clubhouse. The members  attending sit in old chairs, that look like they came from and old restaurant , facing the table where the lake committee members sit. The clubhouse is old and looks like it was built back in the 50's or 60's. The old wall paneling has been out of style for a long time. The meeting is very formal. The president starts the meeting to order. Then they have role call of all the lake committee members. Next they do the reading of the minutes where the secretary of the lake goes over everything that was discussed in the last meeting. Then they have the treasures report, where they go over all of the incoming and outgoing lake funds. Following the treasurers report they go over committee records, road work, loans, elect new officer,discussion re vacancy of treasurers job, when and what will be included in the next meeting, then adjournment.

The meeting took about an hour and a half. Not only are the meetings very formal, everything has to be recorded and filed at the lake as well as the county. It is very interesting.

P90X WHOOO!!!

I have just wrapped up my first week of P90X, and let me tell you this workout is like no other you will ever do in your life. I hurt everywhere. I hurt in muscles I didn't even know I had. All I can say is Whooo Weeee I am beat. I plan to stick with it though. On top of  doing the workout I am also following the diet plan that goes along with it. I am proud of myself, I pushed myself hard all week and just in one week I have lost 4 pounds. It doesn't sound like much but I think it is great.

Last weekend Tim the kids and I went to a place in Bonne Terre Mo. called Terra Du Lac Lake. Several of Tim's aunts and uncles have property down there. I thought this place was neat because, like Lake Ronnie Inc. it is lakeside community. This place is much bigger than Lake Ronnie, which consists of 36 houses and one lake. Terra Du Lac Lake Community consists of 117 lakes and too many houses to count. During our visit there we checked out several of the houses and lakes. I was shocked at how big this place was. When you first pull into the place there is a guard shack at the entrance that only lets in members and friends and family of members. I thought this was nice. Lake Ronnie does not have that, so it was different. We spent much much of the day with Tim's family riding around in golf carts and fishing. It was crazy how everyone was driving around on their golf carts everywhere. I think I only saw one person driving a car. They even have there own small police department. At the end of the day we had steak kabobs and chicken yum!!! We had a lot of fun!

EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!!!!

Between all of the school, construction and the P90X I just started....I am exhausted!!! It is the fifth week of school and things are rolling right along. We finally finished the construction on the house, so now I can relax a little. The P90X is a killer, but I plan to stick with it.

It never ceases to amaze me how great the people here at Lake Ronnie Inc. are. About a month ago one of our lake members was hurt during an ATV accident. The man was in critical condition with severe head trauma. He is doing a little better now, but all of the lake members are concerned about him. We have sent him flowers to show how much we care about his recovery. Several of the lake members have made regular visits to the hospital to visit him. We are doing as much as we can to help his daughter through this tough time as well.The amount of care and concern that the members have for each other is magnificent.

In the next week or so there will be and upcoming board meeting that I will be attending. I have started to do my research on the lake and realize that I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Construction CRAZY!!!

        Last week we started construction on our house. It has been a crazy event so far. I never realized how much work went into building homes. The man that is working on our has is our neighbor and he has been a carpenter for 30+ years. Our house was built in 1960, and up till a few days ago it looked like it was built then, but now it looks 30 years newer. We added a new porch and patio to the front of the house. It looks so nice. I am glad that we are doing the remodel, but at the same time it is a bit of a burden. Between homework, kids, going to class, laundry, dishes and the remodel I am about to go crazy. Luckily we are almost finished with the project.
     
        I was talking to Mary Vahlkamp this week and she was telling me that Lake Ronnie Incorporated use to be an exclusive hunting and fishing club for men only. I thought that was interesting. I also found out that once a year all of the club members use to get together once a year and have a big boat parade. Everyone would put their boats in the water and drive them around the lake just like a parade you would see going down the streets. Then after the parade they would have a big fireworks display. They do not do this anymore, but I wish they did, because it would be neat to see. Also Tim Winkelmann (my fiance) was telling me about a newspaper clipping that we have in a box of old papers left to us from the previous owners. The newspaper clipping has a picture of two men holding an one hundred plus pound catfish. I was amazed. I have the clipping at home, if I can find it, I will bring it to show people. I already love to fish, but this makes me want to fish even more.

       

Permission Letter

Dear Mr. Nadziejko, and fellow English 102 Classmates

               I am presenting this letter to thank you for granting me permission to write my ethnography on the small lakeside community in Waterloo Il. named Lake Ronnie Inc. I chose this topic because I have been a resident at Lake Ronnie Inc. for eight years now and still know very little about this unique neighborhood. With your approval, I plan to research the history of the lake and the residents who currently reside here, as well as former residents. I spoke with Norma Ray Heiss from the Waterloo Historical Society,she also works at  the Waterloo History Museum, and unfortunately she has no records of Lake Ronnie. Since I am a resident I feel confident that this topic is safe and legal, and that I will be able to obtain access to the lake records from the lake committee president Tim Winkelmann, as well as the lake committee secretary Mary Vahlkamp whenever necessary. I spoke to both Tim and Mary and the both have agreed to help me with anything I need. Although the Waterloo Historical Society, and the Waterloo History Museum has no information on Lake Ronnie, I was fortunate to find out from Mary Vahlkamp that the lake has the same records as the state and county on file here at the lake located in the clubhouse. I intend on attending lake meetings as well as schedule work days, which are coming up soon. I also spoke with Joyce and Glenn Tennous and they have agreed to sit down and talk to me. Glenn is one of few remaining original clubhouse owners here at Lake Ronnie.I also would like to research how this community is alike or different from other communities by researching scholarly articles on Ebsco Host, as well as credible websites. I have located a satellite map of the lake, as well a pictures of the scenery and wildlife that live there. In my eight years of living here I have grown attached to this lakeside estate as well as many of the residents here, but I feel that even though I have had several good and bad experiences here, and the fact that I am familiar with some of the behaviors, rules and regulations, and love of fishing shared by all the members here, that I can remain objective and avoid passing judgment. Further more, I am very interested in this project for the simple fact that this Lake is one of the few lakes in the state of Illinois that people know little about, so for me this will be a great opportunity to inform people of this spectacular lakeside community.

                                                                 Thank You
                                                                 Dawn Vanderver

Hello!

Hello, my name is Dawn Vanderver. I am a 30-year-old-mother of two wonderful children. I am currently attending classes at Southwestern Illinois College in Redbud Il. to become a registered nurse. I plan to continue my education to become an anesthesiologist. I am using this blog for my English 102 class. I love spending time with my children. I also enjoy fishing, swimming, riding my four-wheeler, listening to music, talking to friends on face book, and spending a beautiful day on the lake boating, tubing and swimming with my husband and children. Family has always been one of the most important aspects of my life. I am very close with my family, and I try to spend as much time with them as possible. However this can be challenging, I love all of my Aunt's and Uncle's, cousin's, etc., but I come  from a huge family. My Dads mother had 19 children. I always told her she didn't have kids she had a litter. My Moms mother had nine children, and my mother had 6 children. I want to be an anesthesiologist because I have always wanted to have a career where I can be close to people while working in the operating room. However, I am not looking forward to paying the high cost of malpractice insurance. I know that becoming an anesthesiologist will require several years of medical school, and a lot of studying, I am glad I chose this profession because it will be a huge accomplishment in my life, and I will be able to give something back to the community.