Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

Ouch! Broken Toe

Let’s see, what’s new? Let’s start with the broken toe. One afternoon Mrs. Kraus and I were goofing around at the kitchen table. She was sitting across the table from me, kitty-corner. I was using the chair directly in front of me as a foot stool, and she was attempting to do the same with the chair in front of her. However, she couldn’t quite reach the chair with her foot because it was pulled out a ways from the table.

She said, “Could you please push the chair in so I can use it as a foot rest like you are doing with the chair in front of you?”

“I dunno. I’m kinda busy right now,” I teased with a smirk.

Well, it ended up with her yanking my foot rest out from the table and taking off down the hall shortly after, running and laughing. I decided to chase, and before we knew it she had stubbed her poor toe on the corner of a wall and was on the ground with a very unpleasant look on her face. She broke her poor toe. This was a very unfortunate thing to do the day before her Spring break, when she just got ice skates last month for her birthday, and we were going skiing the following Saturday.

She managed to wrap it up with tape and take good care of it for a week though, and we did make it to the ski hill the next weekend. We had a really fun time. I hadn’t been skiing for many years, probably not since Luther Ski Club (WOW!).  I decided to get daring once and go off a large ski jump.  It was the kind of jump that had a short ramp at the top, and then a flat area that gradually raised up to a larger ramp.  The point I am told is to get enough speed on the short jump to completely clear the top of the second jump and come down on the downward slope of the second jump.  I however, did no such thing.  I hit the first jump at half speed, went straight up, spin sideways in the air, and landed hard on my right shoulder on the flat area at the top of the second jump.  Ouch!

Inspired by a stream in Minnesota

Next we’ll talk about my step-dad, Alan. He has been painting up a storm lately, really enjoying getting oil paint all over the floor. But he’s also doing a nice job of getting it on the canvas. He’s got a really nice style of outdoor paintings he has been doing, and has been selling them to folks around town. I made him a website to display his paintings, AlWaggie.com. I’ve shown an example here as well. This is one of my favorite paintings he’s done.  I just really like the way he painted the stream, with all those colors.  It makes me want to get my fly rod out and try to outsmart those blasted trout again.  They sure got the better of me last year.  Maybe I’ll have a fly fishing victory or two this summer.  But if not fly fishing, I’m really looking forward to other fishing with my dad out at the lake.

Art Show

Al had an art show on March 15th at the house, so we went over to check it out. Him and Mom had hung up all Al’s paintings in the living room, which was pretty cool. Probably about 25 people or so came over, and he sold a couple paintings, so it was a good time. Mom and Emily set out snacks and made some punch. Mrs. Kraus took a lot of pictures for the website. She’s been doing a really good job there, taking the pictures and cropping them for the site.

Minneopa Falls melting

A couple days after the art show, everyone was feeling like it was a good day to be inspired by God and nature, so we all went to Minneopa Falls. It was really cool because the ice was just melting, so some of the falls were frozen and hanging over the edge of the the falls. Large chunks of ice would break off and fall down into the water below. I had my iPod and was in a very contemplative mood that day, thinking about how beautiful creation is, and how lucky I am. My wife and I had just watched “Fireproof” a couple days before, so I was also thinking about how fortunate I am to have her in my life. Our 2 year wedding anniversary was just around the corner. I just couldn’t believe how fast it had gone. They say the first 2 years of marriage are by far the toughest, but for us it was a breeze. Generally, I don’t know if I buy that line anyway. How can being newly married, with no responsibility of children yet, be anything but fantastic? All that freedom you have to just enjoy each other and be together. Yeah, good stuff.

Munny from Kidrobot

So next came our 2 year wedding anniversary on March 24th. Mrs. Kraus got me a copy of “Fireproof” on DVD, and I got her something you’ve probably never heard of before: Munny. Not money. Munny. They are little 4 inch tall white figures that you draw on, paint on, or add clay and accessories to. Take a look on Google sometime for “Munny pictures” and you’ll see some of the things people have done with them. I’ve seen the Joker, Master Chief, Michaelanglo the Ninja Turtle, Davey Jones, and crazy designs by artists that sell on eBay for around $200 - $300. Rosie O’Donnell also loves these things, and sells the ones she does online for charity. This kind of arts and crafts project is right up my wife’s alley! She can’t wait to start on one, but has a few tough exams in Physics and Chemistry to get through first. Physics and Chemistry in the same semester… yikes, that’s brutal!

Mrs. Kraus and I are also in the process of buying a house. Our lease ends at the end of May, and so we have been shopping for homes in town. We found a good REALTOR name Russ, and he’s taken us out a few times. We actually have an offer in now on a home in short sale status. We’ll have more details about that soon I hope, but it’s probably not safe to use the word soon when referring to a short sale. Here’s hoping we are pleasantly surprised.

2009 Twins Opener vs. Seatle

Last but not least, yesterday I was very fortunate to go to the Minnesota Twins 2009 home opener with my cousins Jacob and Andrew. It was so much fun, it didn’t even bother me much that the Twins lost 1-6. It stayed close most of the game, and it was just fun to be at the Dome that evening, eating peanuts, drinking Coca-Cola, and joking about what our entrance songs would be if we were in pro baseball. We even got to see Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a home run.  He still has a pretty swing.  Getting out of there after the game was a bit crazy. A 9 mile stretch of I-35W S was bumper-to-bumper for about 50 minutes. As I sat in the slow-moving traffic, I thought of Aaron and his Garmin GPS. Perhaps it would have something brilliant to share with me, such as a extra secret route home that the other 45,000 Twins fans wouldn’t know about.

All-in-all, we’re off to a fantastic Spring. We’re looking forward to seeing family really soon during Easter weekend and the following week.

Chad Kraus Aaron, holidays, Mrs. Kraus, Twins Baseball, Waggie Art

Last week was Mrs. Kraus’ 25th birthday, so I threw her a surprise party. She had a test that evening and was due home about 7:30pm, so I had the perfect opportunity to load the apartment with friends and family after dinner. People started showing up around 6:45. We had fun playing Wii Fit and Mario Kart and chatting until about 7:15 when Mrs. Kraus called to let me know she was on her way home. I went down to the parking lot and hid so I could see when her car drove into the lot. When it did, I bolted back inside and upstairs. I shouted, “She’s here! She’s here!” and we turned all the lights off and hid in the dark living room.

We heard her key in the door and she came in without turning the lights on (perfect!), hung her coat up, and started to come down the hall. One of the guests hit the lights, and we all jumped out from different areas of the room, and shouted “SURPRISE!”. She let out a very high-pitched scream, and then shortly after a big smile lit up on her face as she saw some of her friends. We ate cake and snacks, played more Wii Fit, and chatted until about 9:30pm. Mrs. Kraus and I had a great time. Thank you SO much to everyone who came over! Pics of the party are up on Facebook.

For her birthday, I got her a pair of figure skates- her first pair ever in fact. She was really surprised about that too. She had mentioned she wished she had skates a couple months earlier, but had no idea she’d get them because it’s not something she specifically asked for when her birthday was getting closer.

After she opened them, Mrs. decided that it would be more fun for her to go skating if I could go with her. Well, of course I wasn’t going to buy dude’s figure skates so the next day I got hockey skates (so my birthday present is covered now too). Also my first pair of ice skates. We’ve been to the pond in the park a couple times now, and have been having a lot of fun. Poor Mrs. though- apparantly figure skates are more painful to break in than hockey skates. But they’ll be great after 5 to 10 skates!

Tonight we went to the pond and there were a couple guys there just shooting around at the nets. One of them was a middle-aged man who asked me if I had a stick. With a grin, I told him I just finally got my first pair of skates last week and haven’t gotten that far yet. He said he’d go grab me an extra stick and puck from his truck. It was really fun, I had a blast! The Mrs. skated around me, weaving in and out next to the puck saying, “It’s mine! It’s mine!”. I practiced my puck-handling and shooting. I really liked skating as fast as I could from one end of the ice to the other, keeping the puck moving and then shooting it into the net.

So this weekend I just might have to pickup a pair of sticks and a puck, if they aren’t too spendy. Then the Mrs. and I can pass the puck back and forth and shoot around. She thinks that sounds fun- she’ll be that girl who plays hockey in figure skates.

Hey you guys who live nearby and read this blog, you should consider getting some skates and a stick too! We could really have a lot of fun in the winter.

Speaking of hockey, Mrs. and I went to our first Minnesota Wild game last Sunday with our friend Aaron and his wife. Wow, that is a great time! I’d put a Wild game right up there with any pro sporting event I’ve been to. What a great game too. The Wild won 3-2. The game was tied 2-2 after the 3rd period, then it was a scoreless OT, followed by a shootout! Backstrom stopped all 4 attempts, and Mikko Koivu scored the winning goal. I put pics and a little video on Facebook.

Chad Kraus Aaron, Minnesota Wild, Mrs. Kraus

As I was leaving band practice Thursday night I heard a voice from across the parking lot, “Hey Kraus! Your last blog is about the Minnesota Twins! What’s the deal??” I guess I just don’t have much new to talk about these days. Life has kind of worked itself into a nice groove and I have no complaints. But I suppose I could work up a series of random thoughts for my buddy Adam (and my 3 other readers…).

The Mrs. has finished another semester, and is very happy to have a month break now. I asked her the other day, “So… now that you have a month before you have to do anything, can you handle the laundry during the day while I’m at work?” I had gotten in the habit of helping out with the laundry because she was so busy with studying for her classes. I thought maybe during this month she could just handle it. She responded, “No! If I take over laundry duties, you’ll forget to start helping again when I go back to school.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she’s probably right.

This Saturday I went to the cities with my wife, mom, step-dad and sister for a Christmas get-together with my mom’s side of the family. I hadn’t seen that wing of the family since before I graduated high school, something like 10 to 12 years ago. It was a great time seeing them again. It’s mostly my mom’s aunts and uncles and her cousins and their families. Kinda like the other family Christmases I go to each year where it’s all my aunts and uncles and my cousins, but like shifting a generation. Very cool.

Let’s talk sports! The Vikings are looking pretty good today. As I write this, they are up 35-14 on the Arizona Cardinals, with T.J. at QB. He’s thrown 4 TD passes, wow. Pat Williams went down though. It’s nice they didn’t suspend the Williams Wall, but then one of them goes down. Hmmm, hopefully he’s ok.

I’m reading an interesting book called “The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel. I’m 63 pages in, and so far it’s quite good. If you’re looking for something to read, pick it up. It’s written by a journalist who became convinced of Darwinism from his studies in high school and college, and became a stout atheist. One day his wife came home and informed him that she gave her life to Jesus Christ, and had decided to follow Him. His response was a sarcastic, “What has gotten into you?!” Over the next few months he would come to wonder, “What HAS gotten into her??” She started to become such a kind and wonderful person, that he just had to investigate the whole God thing again. The book goes through a number of his interviews with experts in different scientific fields. The arguments he came to accept in his studies have become obsolete and new research is supporting the conclusion that the universe was intelligently designed.

Well… that’s about it for now. Hope everyone has a great week.

Comments from old site:

Written by Chad
Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009 at 6:01 AM

Yeah no kidding, that’s the last time I name any articles after you, fella… maybe.

Written by Adam
Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 9:33 PM

I’m so glad that I could be the impetus for this wonderful installment. Also, notice how long it took me to finally read it. I must really have been waiting with baited breath.

Chad Kraus church, holidays, Minnesota Vikings

This weekend was a lot of fun. We started out by going to the new church to help construct the new lighting and hang the lights. About 40 volunteers showed up so we got a ton done. After that we had Chris and Sarah over to watch a movie. We watched “License to Wed” which had a few very funny moments and overall was a decent movie.

Saturday we slept in late and I played some computer games in the afternoon. We went to “B-Dubs” that night for dinner. Sunday morning, Mrs. Kraus and I were on the worship team at church. I had a rough set in my opinion– didn’t play as well as I wanted to and the wind blew my music off my stand during the 10:30 service. But others said it all sounded good, so I guess the big guy upstairs was at work in the room. Still, in an effort to get better at guitar, I asked one of the other guys who plays in church if he wants to get together and play guitar once in awhile, so that should be fun.

After church I vegged for awhile and then we decided to go out to Dad’s place on lake Tetonka. We packed a small bag to stay overnight, a couple of DVDs, and our fishing gear. When we first got there we were still a bit tired, so we watched “Hitch”. We’ve probably watched that movie about 3 or 4 times since I bought it, and it’s always funny. Kevin James is hilarious.

After the movie we went fishing off the bridge. I caught a largemouth bass (see pics). Nothing too huge, but it was a fun one because it thrashed so much in the water. It never jumped, but it was really fighting me in the water. We used nightcrawlers that we bought from the bait shop in Madison Lake on the way there. We didn’t catch anything else, so we went in for the night and cooked up a frozen pizza we brought over.

We slept well in the nice bed that night and slept pretty late. After breakfast we fished again for quite a long time, but didn’t have any luck. I think it’s because SO MANY boats passed by on account of it being Labor Day. We didn’t get more than 5-10 minutes at a time before a couple more boats would come by, some of them with children quite loud, so that’s probably why. It was still fun and we got a good tan. After that, we packed up and headed home around 5pm.

It was a great weekend. Thanks Dad and Kate!

Comments from old site:

Written by Adam
Posted: Monday, September 1, 2008 at 9:20 PM

Glad you guys had a fun weekend, largemouth bass are a lot of fun to catch, no matter the size. I can relate. adam d:o)

Chad Kraus fishing, holidays