Mike & Mary Beth Krebsbach

Mike’s father Roger left us at 12:20 this morning. He was a kind and gentle leader of our family and all of us will miss him very much. Four of the 5 kids were there and 2 of his 7 grandkids. Donna his wife of 54 years was also there. Today not only marked Roger’s passing but it is also Donna & Rogers wedding anniversary.

Roger was the type of person who never had much bad to say about anyone and was always upbeat. He was healthy his entire life until he was in a motorcycle accident on November 18th. They now think it may have been a dizzy spell that caused the accident. His heart stopped 3 times yesterday and it became obvious that his very large loving heart would not make it. He was my favorite golfing buddy because he had gentle advise and when you hit a great shot he really let you know it.

We will miss him greatly,

Mary Beth

  Zennon has graduated from PIE (his Autism School). Eric and Tammie had Zennon evaluated by the school district in Minnesota and the results were VERY positive. Zennon was not found to have any special needs going into kindergarten next fall. It is a huge deal to have the diagnosis of Autism removed before going into school. He started pre-school last Monday as a “normal” kid. I am very gratefull to the staff of Partners in Excellence (PIE) who took my precious grandson from “not looking you in the eye” to a kid who is interactive and kicks Nana’s butt at Wii bowling. His sentences are complete, he counts, he spells and he writes.He is on target for his age.

I am a strong advocate of the early diagnosis and treatment as this was key to Zennon’s success. I thank God daily for people like my son Ryan and the staff at places like PIE.  If it were not for them, Zennon may have been locked into an autistic world forever!

Please use Zennon’s success to help parents not fear the diagnosis and get behavioral therapy early. Do not trust a Dr. who says wait until he/she is 3 for speech or other symptoms. Do research if you think anything is wrong, encourage another opinion if the Dr says “give it another year”.  Autism is growing in numbers so don’t fear the diagnosis - look for it so if it is there you can seek help EARLY - this is key.

I just had to share our WONDERFUL news. I still remember the call that he was Autistic - the fears of  no normal life for my wonderful little guy! Then we all pulled ourselves up and learned our role in helping this child and worked hard to make sure that he got the reenforcement at home that was needed and did it. Thank God we had great success.

If you ever have any need of information on autism please feel free to contact us. This is such a misunderstood diagnosis and our experience with Z has been intensive, so please use us as resource.

Please join us in the great joy of Z being a “normal” kid!

Mary Beth

  Here it is - January 6th, 2008. It is 41 degrees and it is time to wash my 1972 mercedes in the driveway! It has been a very interesting winter so far. We played golf into November - then we had several early and mid December BIG snow storms. So today when the temp climbed up over 40 I thought it was a good time to wash the car. I don’t like to take the “old girl” to the car wash because then I have to drive it home over the dirty streets. This was perfect!. A clean car - a clean garage and a lot of fun! I hope you all had a fun weekend too!

I just talked with my mom and she said dad is doing much better! He is finally eating better, has more energy and is moving better. The doctor has taken him off some of the pills and his appetite has improved and he is sleeping better. It sounds like he has “turned the corner” and is on the way to getting back to the “real” dad. This accident has taken its toll - but listening to my mom talk about all the improvements has lifted a huge weight. I can’t wait to see him!

What a hectic end to a very busy year. I am not even going to try to give a recap…..

We had a nice Christmas involving way too much travel. Right before Christmas Mike Quinn (MB’s nephew) got married at St. Thomas University (where many Quinn & Krebsbach family members have attended including my grandfather and my son Ryan) in St. Paul. We had a great party at Brother Dan’s house with nearly all of MB’s family present - including the Arizona & Iowa branchs! After the wedding we attended a wonderful reception with ALL 10 Quinn brothers & sisters and nearly all of their kids and grandkids! We got a lot of pictures - which I will post as soon as I can find our camera! I hope it is at Eric & Ryan’s appartment in Woodbury. It was great to see everyone - it is a very rare event that can get such a large family together. MB has family in Minnesota, Iowa, Arizona and Wisconsin with nieces & nephews scattered around the country! The wedding reception was a lot of fun and Mike married a wonderful gal with a great extended family of her own. We wish them every success.

We stayed in Woodbury thru the weekend because the Vikings played on Sunday Night Football. On Dec 17 the Vikings played the Bears on Monday Night Football. I am pretty sure that we were on TV because the guy that sits right in front of us was dressed as Santa. There was a TV camera below and to the left of us. The camera was on us quite a few times and twice I saw the red light come on indicating that it was “live”. So on sunday the Vikings played the Redskins with the winner probably getting into the playoffs. Eric & Ryan went to the game with us. Santa was sitting in front of us again. The Vikings did what they do so often - played just bad enough to lose. Did I mention that it was another snowy day? All in all it was a pretty hectic weekend - late nights - lots of driving - lots of snow - what more could you ask for Christmas? How about tossing in Ava & Zennon!

Mary Beth & I left Woodbury early on Christmas Eve and drove to Alma to see my folks. We had a nice visit - but it is hard to see my dad. He needs to work harder at his recovery than he currently is doing. What makes it hard for me is that my mental image of dad is hard working, weight lifting, vitamin taking, golfing, walking, active Dad. Not the guy on the couch. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it here. I really hope he can turn it around in his head and start doing what he needs to do to recover. It has to come from inside him. I just want him back.

Eric & Ryan arrived home in the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Eric has officially moved back home. He has a job in Eau Claire that starts right after Christmas. We moved a bunch of his clothes and stuff. We got a call from Tammy about picking up Ava & Zennon. Eric & I met Tammy about 8pm halfway between The Cities and Eau Claire and got the kids. They are staying with us for two weeks! I will talk about that visit in another post.

Like I said - a very hectic end to the year. Even with all that we had a comfortable & fun New Years Eve party for Ava & Zennon, Eric, Mary Beth and me. I cooked crab legs for dinner (the little ones have expensive taste!). We played bowling on the Wii that we got for Christmas. The kids went to bed about 9pm, Eric went about 10pm and MB & I actually made it to midnight - for the first time in years.

All in all - 2007 was a pretty good year and I have pretty good feeling that 2008 is going to be even better! Happy New Year everyone……….