Life's moving on From Randolph to Brush

Schwan's Banquet with Marvin Schwan 1985 to 1990?

Rita and Michael, he was always eating

After we bring Michael home in July, Rita gets to take care of 2 small girls Alicia 5 and Ashley almost 2 and me almost grown up at 28, Rita is 27, and we've been married 8 years. Well back in those days only the Rich had central air so we were rich but not in cash so we had 1 window AC in our front living room and a house full of fans, you see I worked all day and left early am when it was cool and came home late in the evening 11pm-1am cool again, so I thought it was fine, not Rita, the heat and her did not get along. Especially after having Michael and being house bound for a while. Rita's parents always came down and spent some time helping her out with all the fun of running the Boyles household. Lets see Rita's daily chores starts out with by getting my cloths out for work, make me some coffee,make my lunch or lunches as I had double overnights every other week, do the Schwan's paperwork, take care of 3 kids, clean the house, talk on the phone, drive down to get the mail, deposit the Schwan's money, make meals, make me a plate for when I get home and wait for me to get home, Wow, she did not have a boring life. With all that, Rita did a fantastic job of running our household, now she did have 1 downfall balancing our checkbook, never happened the whole time we lived in Randolph.

About this time everyone in Schwan's is getting look at for promotion's, 1st to go is Randy and Donna Page, then Jon and Jeanie Schnoor ( I know I can't believe it either), well what about Mike and Rita, it seems I have a big mouth and when I drink I get cocky. I would still be there if it weren't for Rita as she always stood by my side and kept me going in the right direction by telling me how proud she was of me or disappointed when I drank and too look at my actions through other people's viewpoint. Which was hard for me as I only saw my way, Rita was a very patient, Loving, motivator, and the Best wife any man could hope for. We would take a walk around Randolph on Sunday evening and talk about our hopes, our dreams and where we would end up next year, then next year we would take the same walk and wonder whens our turn? It's our turn 11/1989, I get promoted to OJT manager and will be in training for 6 months and gone for week to weeks at a time, with never a complaint from Rita, just open arms when I finally come home again. Rita wasn't in my classes to keep reminding me to keep my big mouth shut, as I always spoke my mind and Did Not like authority until I respected that person, and to top it off I only wanted to be promoted close the the mountains somewhere, I was offered areas like North Dakota Nope!, Clovis New Mexico Heck No!, Finally Brush Colorado comes up on the radar screen, I remember Al Bussman taking me out for breakfast in Marshall Mn to talk to me about it, (Al was the original Division Manager who hired me and now was a Regional Manger who had Colorado), I asked Al if it was close to the mountains and his answer was No but you can see them from there. So off we go to Brush Colorado to meet with Bob Ludewig and check out Brush, population 5000, movie theater, Pizza Hut(Rita's in Love with it already), it was a farm community on the plains of Colorado, great schools and great people, only 1 thing Al said I could see the mountains from there, what he didn't tell me was I had to be on my roof at sunset to see them! Ha. We leave our beautiful Home in Randolph which we paid $26000 for in 1983 and put $12000 sweat equity in it, and sell it for $35000 in 1990 and land in Brush Colorado on April 19th 1990 with our 3 kids, a dog, a 1970 Chevy pickup with a camper on it, a trailer with 2 motorcycles and Rita car a 1986 Pontiac 6000, when you get promoted with Schwan's they pack and move everything for you, all we had to do was pack our cloths we needed for the trip, nice little perk. I need to back track a little to lead to the rest of the story. I bought our 1970 Chevy pickup with a camper on it in South Dakota after a banquet and income tax coming in for $2500, it was about 1985,you see I had taken Rita camping a few times and she was not into sleeping on the ground and dealing with the whole tent thing, so I thought that if we bought a camper she would enjoy going more, well she did until we started feeling the camper up with kids. We only had Alicia when we bought it and now have Ashley and Michael, Well Michael took the front seat with me and Rita and had to put Alicia and Ashley in the back when we went anywhere, and after we got there after about 2-3 days Rita would get claustrophobic and didn't wont to go anywhere in the truck after awhile. The only thing I didn't like about camping was finding the right spot or over crowded camp grounds. Had to insert this as it will lead to our decision to buy the cabin. Take Care everyone, the Holidays are coming and its our favorite time of year. We are heading back to Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving with all the kids ad spending Christmas at the cabin, I will be having a party for Rita on her birthday 12/11 at the cabin also, and will have it totally completed by then. Just FYI, Everyone has an open invitation to the kids cabin, so if you don't get an invitation, invite yourself, and we would Love to have you anytime, Evan at Christmas,(cabin can sleep 20+ on real beds and more if we count air mattress or the 5 couches) That's our Rita's Way. That's it for now, Love Mike and Family