You may have noticed last month that my daughter Jenny passed the drawing pen to her daughter Addie Sue, age 3.  I'm pleased as punch to keep it all in the family but I also have a pit in my stomach at the passing of another era.
Filling a little corner of the Gazette for me each month, right next door to her mama's corner, has been but a teeny tiny part of all that Jenny is and does, of course, but she drew pictures for me, for me alone, month after month, through elementary school, middle school, high school, college, career, worldwide travel, marriage, and, finally, motherhood.  It spanned over 25 years of her young life.
When she played basketball and baseball as a little girl, she made time to draw cartoons for me.  As she swam for School District 112 and won state championships in the butterfly stroke, she made time to draw for me. 
When she won state problem solving championships at District 112 and faith-fully made the straight A honor rolls, she still had time to draw for me her mama.  As a cheerleader, band member, and state champion oboe player, representing Dis-trict 112, Jenny made a point of drawing for the Gazette every single month. 
As a fastball pitcher on the softball team and diver on the swim team at Carleton College, my little girl made time to draw for me and never skipped a beat.  During a semester of study in Munich, Germany, and another semester of study at Cambridge in London, she sent car-toons home to her mother.  As an eco-nomics major, the toughest major there is, Jenny still drew cartoons for the Gazette and graduated from Carleton with honors.
In the process of obtaining her Master's Degree (MBA) from the Carlson School of Management, Jenny made drawings for me.  As she developed her own business, Orsen Information Systems, and dealt with major clients such as 3M, Target, Jostens, and General Mills, she still drew cartoons for the Victoria Gazette.
As Jenny met Christopher and made wedding and honeymoon plans, Jenny still had time for her drawings for me.  Through the birth and baptisms of Addie Sue and then Gunnar Ray, she drew for their Grandma Sue.
Jenny's cartoons these past 25 years have reflected her life's experiences.  At the beginning, her subject matter centered on her mommy and daddy and little brother Nick.  School and friends and nature were frequent subjects as well.  Readers of the Gazette know that Jenny's own children have been front and center of her drawings these past recent years.
I'm very aware that drawing for the Gazette each month had become a pain for Jenny, though she did not complain and always smiled when it was over, sort of like with childbirth.  Doing cartoons for the Gazette was never a time consuming endeavor for my good daughter, however - the delivery was seldom more than two minutes long -- but the thought of it, the responsibility for it, hung over her head like a load of laundry.  You know it's gotta be done, it's not a tough thing, but you wish you didn't have to do it.
I'm not going to say that Jenny's artistic sketches and captions have become sophisticated over her 25-year history with the Gazette, and that probably explains why they remained attractive to me.  Jenny's drawings fit well with the nature of the Gazette, which is always interested in the fun and simple truth of things.
Thank you, dear darling daughter, for helping out your mama the editor these past many years by drawing over 300 published "cartoons" for the Victoria Gazette.  I know you will still be helping me by collecting Addie's drawings, now that the pen (or crayon or magic marker!) has been passed on.  Thank you, Jennny.  I love you forever.  I like you for always.  It's wonderful that Addie also likes to draw.

Less than two weeks ago - it was Friday, September 22^nd - Jenny and her little family pulled up their stakes at Northfield and moved - lock, stock, and barrel -- up to northern Minnesota to a little town called Gonvick.  Or is it Gully?  The county seat is Bemidji.  I've only heard of Gonvick in recent months, and I've never been to Bemidji so we've got all kinds of adventures calling to us.
Estimated population of Gonvick is 295.  When Allan and I moved to Lilac Lane, the estimated population of Victoria was 395.  None of our clan has ever been big city people, at least not for any length of time. 
Gonvick is about one inch on the map from the Canadian border, and it is not a coincidence that it holds the family roots of Christopher and blest be the ties that bind.  Addie and Gunnar will be very close to other grandparents, another great grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  That is also a good thing.  I've often said to my kids that you don't just marry a person, you marry a family.  Jenny married a good family.
As for tomorrow, nobody knows what it holds for certain.  All we know is that yesterday was very good and today is also very good.  Thank you, God.  Now where's that's map!