Found some time

I found some time to get online and put up a post. I have been under allot of stress and have not found the time to keep up on my blog. I was surprised to see that my account was still in existence. I am in the process of making some major changes in my career and in my life all together. I have bombarded myself with more work than ever over the last year in a half. Running up to a half a dozen construction projects along with the house flip, cabin, home remodel, addition and the Dr's houses I have not had time to spend with the people that I love nor have I had the time to blog of all things. Over the last several weeks things have come to a screeching halt in the sense of work and I have rediscovered the things that I have been missing out on while being so preoccupied with work and school. Me and Anna have been discussing ways that could possibly make this permanent. Hopefully our ideas turn out to work. I have some pictures to post as well. Including some pictures of the nearly finished living room and a fun ice fishing we went out on where we slept out in a ice house over seven miles out on the ice. This was my birthday present from Anna. It was quite the adventure.

Yes I am still alive

I have been meaning to get a post up for the last six to eight months but just haven't had the time. We are all well the kids had a great Christmas and Anna and I finally got a few weeks off from school. We are currently spending the new year up north at our cabin. We haven't been up here since the beginning of October. We have been extremely busy with all of our endeavors. I am fortunate that I was able to pick up a wi fi signal so that i could do a post.

I recently finished spring semester and have now com pleated one full year of collage. I have been a very busy guy. I replaced the foundation underneath our House and added an addition to our house where I will be adding Anna's gourmet kitchen. I also bought a new house in Elk River that I have currently gutted out and am remodeling so that I can re list the house in the spring. I have also been very busy running my Minnetonks High School contract that I have been working in since last May. This hasn't left me much time to blog.

In tha last few weeks i have been struggling to get caught up with all that I have not had time for in the last few months. I finally got the yard plowed out and me and Leo attempted to get the snowmobiles going we were not successful in out attempts. I decided to let him rid on one of my Father in laws that I am storing for him. So at least he got to have a little fun riding in the snow. Harry and Leo are doing great in school. Thay have both came home with good report cards.

Gus is also doing great. He is a smart kid he really seems to pick up everything his brothers do. Hopefully only the good stuff. Vinny has decided to take up sky diving at an early age. Last week he had two success full attempts at tumbling down the stairs. One he cartwheeled down and the other he did the barrel roll. Thankfully he was just startled and was not hurt. I cannot understand why he dose not fear the stairs yet, as he wont stay off of them. He is in to everything faster that we can catch the little stinker.

Anna is enjoying a couple of weeks off from work as well as school. She has been baking her usual truck loads of Christmas cookies. She has now started going through everything to make those last few goodwill donations of the year. We tent to clear out our house just before tax time every year.

All in all everyone is doing great. I will post some pictures.

Vincents first birthday

We just celebrated Vinnys first birthday tonight. We had overost of the family over for dinner. Man I can't believey baby is already one year old. We have been blessed with four wonderfull little guys. This weekend Leo any Gus went up tony patients cabin ands and Anna stairs he with Vinny & Harry. We took them to St.Paul for the day and had lunch at Cosettas. Afterwards we went to the science museam and saw the Titanic exibit and also saw Titanica in the I max theater. Harry really liked seeing all of the dinos. When finished we took a drive up summit ave to check out the James J Hill mansion as well as all of the other cool houses ok the hill. On the way home we stopped for dinner at the Red Lobster in Maple Grove. What a great why to end the day. Next weekend we will head up north again. Hopefully this post turns out as I entered it from my I phone.

Grades are in

I just got my final grades for the fall semester and received A's in both of my classes. Wow that is the first time that has ever happened. Having a 4.0 gpa feels peaty good. Hopefully i can do this again for summer session.

Last weekend Ellen & Terry visited us at the farm and stayed over for dinner. It was a treat to have seven little boys all at once. They all played very nice with each other.

Summer schedule:

I will be taking 2 classes during the summer session and maybe three if I have time

I will be running 3 contracts this summer out in the field, so I will rarely be in the office most of the summer.

This weekend is mine and Anna's 11th year wedding anniversary. We will be spending it together up at the cabin. We will keep Vincent with us and the big boys are going to North Dakota to visit my grand parents and attend my cousins graduation party.


We will be going on vacation the week of the 4th of July. We have been spending this week up north for several years and plan on lighting off fireworks and fishing. We will be having Anna's co worker and friend Brandy & her Husband Mike up for a couple of days.

Vincent will be turning 1 year old on July 10th so we will celebrate of at the cabin since we will already be up there.

Ellen & Terry will be coming up to the cabin on a date yet to be determined and may even stay up for a little family vacation of their own.

Around the house I my projects include replacing the foundation under part of our house, installing the foundation for the new kitchen addition, staining the deck up north, and maybe puts around in a few other areas.

We should be peaty well booked this summer as you can see. Hopefully I can find time to put up 1 new post per month. This will be my goel.

Whats going down

Hi I have been meaning to get on the blog lately but have been too busy. Me and Anna have been busy with home work and running around the kids to swimming lessons. I have Finlay landed some contracts at work last week I secured around 650,000.00 worth of work for the summer so I am planing on not seeing the light of day for a while. I have been chipping away at the house project and just finished the sheet rock in the living room. Next I am leveling off the stair case and planing out the next phase of the demolition so I can repair the foundation under the south west corner of the house. The boys are doing great leo & harry just got their report cards and they are both doiung great. Gus is starting to loosen up a little and swim at his swimming lessons. Vincent is growing up fast and says dada and poop and he is kind of crawling and rolling all over the house. I am looking forward to the warmer weather to come. Hopefully it comes soon.

Harry's 6th birthday

Our little hair bare is now 6. I can't believe how fast they grow. We had a pizza party at God Fathers and took the kids to the YMCA to swim. We let Harrisen have a friend & his cousin Ford over for a sleep over. I think he had a great birthday. We got him a new bike so he is looking forward to spring so he can ride it.

Latest News

Hi, it has been a while since I last posted. Life has been very busy. I am still getting a 4.0 in my classes so that's good but time is flying by so fast. I can't believe a month has almost went by since I last posted. At work I have been very busy bidding on jobs all over the state. I guess up north on the iron range $900,000,000.00 worth of construction work is being done this year and I am bidding on everything I can get my hands on.



At home my wife and kids are doing great. Vincent is growing up quick he is rolling all over the house. Gus is so smart he surprised us one day when he started reading Harry's school work WOW. Leo and Harry are doing great in school we just received their report cards and they are doing much better than I did at their age. Anna is doing great in her Physics class and is looking forward to being done with all of the physics classes required for dental school. Last weekend we went up north to the cabin. It was very enjoyable not having to work on it.



The house remodel is going great I have installed all of the in floor heating and am ready to sheet rock the living area. The 7.1 surround sound is roughed in and all that's left is to remove the old hard wood floor and a few other small items. I am just taking my own sweet time with the house project. Anna said she could handle living on a job site for a while if necessary. Man what a woman. If only she was into Lord of the Rings too. Just kidding she is. Anyways that is whats going down in the hood at our house.

1st I phone post

Testing testing 123

Jasen's 32 Birthday

Today is my 32nd birthday. Me and Anna, Gus, & Vinny went out to lunch at Buffalo Wild. She has to work all night so at least we had some nice time together. I just got done making a great dinner for me and the boys. We had linguine with Italian sausage and marina sauce. Anna and the kids got me a new I phone 16gb for a gift. Peaty cool! Tonight me and the boys are going to watch some DVDs and chill in the crib. After that I ill reflect on the past 32 years of my life and try to think of at least one thing I have done to make the world a better place. This might take a while. Any ways I just felt like posting this important information. Gifts of money $100 bills only please can be dropped off at our home. ( I'm just kidding about that last part I will also accept $50s).

First week back in school

I am in the first week of school and I am taking 7 credits towards a business degree. I am finding out real quick that there isn't enoughf time in a day. Between work, the kids, my side projects, and school now I am really busy. Any how I just got my first grade and got 100% so at least I'm getting a 4.0 so far. To bad the assignment was only worth 4 points, ha ha. I have been tring to get my living room done and haven't had a whole lot of time. At work we are getting very slow and I haveb't been able to land any contracts lately. I have been calling on costomers and so far I have gotten 2 leads one with the Elk River school dist, and the other with Walmart, they havem't hired me yet but have been talking to me. Hopefully we will see some change to our economy soon to let off some of the pressure. I will post a new video soon of some cool stuff. I was thinking of shooting a film like star wars or something or maybe a how to video. Like how to unclog a toilet after 4 little boys went in a row or something like that. I have posted plans on how to build a bird house above. Good luck.

New project

I have started a new project. I am doing a complete remodel of our house. I just finished with the demolition of our living room last week. This means all of the old plasted walls and cealing are now gone and the floor is to come out soon. So far I have installed the in the floor heating in the living room floor and our bedroom above. Most of the wireing has been roughed in the walls and I hope to have the lighting situated by the end of the week. I am going to be installing a new plasma screen tv with built in suround sound speakers and internet. I will also be construting a tic tac tow style box beam cealing with recessed lighting and much more. I will post video of the on going progress.

Video #2

cabin video # 3

cabin video #1

Cabin Vider # 1

Because I can only upload 100 mb at a time I had to do this in 3 parts starting from the outside. Some footage is blury I think my camara was too cold or something so now you know you that you haven't drank too much.

The virtual Tour

At last here is what you've all been waiting for. Please excuse the blured parts . I will try better next time

The Month of December 2008

What a month. We have been very busy. We started out the month with closing on our construction loan for the cabin. Thank God that all worked out with how the market has been doing. Now that I am done with that job I had been enjoying some of my weekends at home on the farm tring to get caught up with all of the loose ends and fixing everything that wasn't getting any attention for the last year and a half. Over the holidays we enjoyed some time off of work for a couple of weeks and spent allot of time with family. The boys had a great time opening gifts and also giving gifts. We let them go shopping for each other and if is fun to see the things they come up with. I received a worlds greatest dad tape measure that I believe has already been stolen by one of the boys. Me and Anna are currently furthering our educations Anna is working on the prerequisites needed to apply to Dental School and I am just trying to get a business degree. We also were reunited with our friends Ellen and Terry Beaudry this month for the first time in a year. Now with the cabin done I will roll out the red carpet for Ellen when they come up to visit. The boys all had fun playing together and we had fun catching up. To end the year of 2008 we took a trip up north and basically enjoyed our self's setting up the kids new bunk beds and setting up our new home furnishings. We are gearing up for another great year in 2009. I will post pictures as soon as I fix what ever is wrong with the computer.

Florida Trip

Sorry, its been so long since I posted. I've been very busy. I'd like to start off with our Florida Trip. It was a long awaited and much earned trip. The airplane ride went well, the kids loved it. We started off our trip with Epcot, where we toured several exhibits and ended our evening with a fine dinner at Teppen Edo. (japanese restaurant) The next day we decided to stay in the city of Orlando. We visited every gift shop on the main strip. We ended the day going to wonderworks museum and the dinner comedy show there. Our lucky Harrisen got to be the star of the show. He absolutely loved it! Then we did Magic Kingdom, where we went on most of the rides. It was very busy. We had a caricature done of the boys and we got to meet the little mermaid in person. (Gus loved this) Also, we ate with winnie and friends. Gus was so excited. He ran up and down and gave tigger a hug and was so excited he fell flat on his butt. The next day we drove to Kennedy Space Center and we met a real astronaut from Apollo 11 mission. we also brought the kids to cocoa beach and the kids got to see the ocean. We then went to SeaWorld for half a day and saw LaNouba Cirque du Soleil that evening. It was spectacular. I would like to become the trumpeter in this show, so recently I took up the trumpet once again. Then we spent another full day at SeaWorld. Overall, it was a very nice trip. We will definitely do this again.

Update

Since the last post a lot has happened. On October 24 Gus turned 3. We had a party for him up north. He had a great birthday. We also got a new dead line to finish the cabin. I and now done and will be putting on the finishing touches this weekend. We will close on our loan the first Monday in December. The house looks so nice. I will be posting new pictures and a virtual tour of the house. I will also say that I am retiring from building for a couple of months. Coming up Anna's birthday is the 20th of November. We also will be going to Florida for our family vacation on the 21 of November and will be returning on the 28th of November. The boys are very excited. We will visit Disney world, Epcot, Sea world, Kennedy space center, coco beach, dream works for a magic show and dinner, and Cirque Du Soliel La Numba. Anyways we are looking forward to this trip. I will also post pictures of the trip when we return.

Cabin update

Ok, we now have a deadline to be done and closed on by the 13th of december. I have scheduled the carpet for the end of october. I sided the boat house most of the way. I wains coated and finished the lower staircase. I trimmed out both bedrooms and the main bathroom. I need to finish the tile work and grout. then I will start the hardwood in the loft and the main floor. It is all 3/4'' pre finished oak. There is a very nice contrast between the darker oak and the natural pine trim. Things are starting to come togeather. I finished the outside of the house, all that remains is the paint. My biggest challange that lies ahead is to build the costom oak steaircase up to the loft. I will post new picts soon.

Leo turns 10

October 7th was Leo's birthday. He is now 10 years old. Man how time flies. We got him some new mags for his bike. We are taking the boys up to brainerd this weekend to the holiday inn water park to celebrate Leo and Gus's birthdays. We also have to attend the weblos badge day for cub scouts on saterday up there so this will work out well. Gus's birthday is on the 24th of october so he will be 3 very soon. I will post a picture soon.

Chalet style home built by Jasen Grotte

We came up to a great surprise this weekend our deck was all built. What a great thing to see. Now the out side of the cabin is done with exception of caulking and painting. I plan on painting next spring. The stone is also done. I finished that work 3 weeks ago. I have started on interior finishes last weekend. I am gearing up to have the carpet installed. I finished the kids bedroom and almost finished the spare bedroom. I cut out the kitchen sink and set the laundry tub in the basement. Hopefully the carpet will be installed within the next couple of weeks. I am also going to side the boat house down by the lake and build a ramp on it for driving the mower in and out. We are getting very close to finishing this job. What a relief. At home I am hoping to finish the caulking and painting this week. I also need to finish the cedar shakes and seal them. So at the house the next step will be to add insulation to the attic and to put on the new roof. The roof might not happen until spring. Pictures to come tonight.

Vincent Baptised

Last Sunday we had Vincent baptised as St. Andrews catholic church in Elk River. He did great and didn't even cry when the Priest submersed him in the holy water. We had a party to follow and it was a great turn out. Picture to come soon

Congrats to the Pladson family ( Stan , Katie, Ford & Iris).
Katie my sister in law finally went into labor last week and gave birth to the first little girl. They named her Iris. She was a little sweetheart. Her big brother Ford is very excited to have a little sister now.

Back to school

Tuesday was Leo & Harry's first day of school. Leo is starting 4th grade and had a great day at school. He has a lot of his friends in his class this year. Harry is starting kindergarten and has Sister Karen for his teacher. He had a great first day and met a new friend but he doesn't know his name. Some of his class mates include some of Leo's friends little brothers & sisters. I think they are going to have a great school year.

Got stone

Ok I know I've been saying it for a while now but I finlay got up some of that stone. That stuff is alot of work. It sure dose look nice though. I hope to finish most of the upper portion this weekend. The deck should also be started some time this week. I hired a local guy to start on this job during the week so I could save a little work on myself. Man the summer goes fast when your this busy. We still hope to be finished by November just before our Flordia vacation.

We had to postpone Vincents baptism until Sept. 7 th after the 10:30 mass. We are having Katie, Maria, And Raksmey as the god parients. I hope to post some more news soon