The 4 o’clock hour, Monday, June 10, 2024

Mandy Peterson and her daughter Valerie: “You’ve got my picture a couple times but that’s alright.” Valerie: “My sister is playing baseball and when baseball is done we are going to get pizza.” (Domino’s) Valerie: “Well we kind of went on a tiny adventure. I went to the doctor. I have type one diabetes.” Mandy: “Yep. She goes to see the doctor in Duluth sometimes. She just got diagnosed with type one diabetes so today we went for a maintenance check for the diabetes. That’s been relatively new for us.” (How are you doing about that?) Valerie: “Good. The playground is good. I like that they have those little hangout covers.” Mandy: “She likes to be able to see the Little League field over the dugouts and be able to see everything especially from the the jungle gym. She’s so up high.” Valerie: “This is one of my hangout spots.” Mandy: “The black flies are so bad. I don’t know what it is that we forget about them every year but they come back and get us.” (Yes. Getting eaten up even here. Tell me a little about you!). Mandy: “I have two daughters. Valerie is my youngest and my oldest Samantha is over there playing Coach Pitched baseball. We just love coming and playing baseball. My husband Reed volunteers with Ely Little League. It’s a great wonderful day for baseball today. I’ve been helping out with the new EACF building. Ely Area Community Foundation. I’m president of the Happy Days Learning Center board. We’ve been doing a lot of work to help get that up and running. We’re excited to be opening in August and the new daycare Center. So we’ve been doing a lot of work for that. Otherwise just typical mom stuff. Running around with my kids. So really looking forward to summer. There’s a lot going on. My husband graduated from here so it’s the All Class Reunion coming up. He’s really excited about that. So we’ll be going to some of the events for that. And we always love the Fourth of July. It’s a great time of year especially to live in Ely. This is my kind of weather about 75 and below.” (How far below?) Enough.”

Brandy Stegeman and her dog Kitty and her daughter Miah: Brandy: “I am going to watch my daughter Miah play ball.” (Along came Miah). Miah: “So today is my baseball game. My team is playing against the Bears.” (Are you a Slugger then?) Miah: “Yes.” (Do you have anything special planned for summer vacation?). Miah: “Maybe somewhere this summer we could go on my first adventure with Northland Paranormal. My dad is actually the founder and director of Northland Paranormal.” (And what is that?) “Northland Paranormal is a type of ghost investigation group. This group of people in my dad’s group of Northland Paranormal, they actually go to haunted places. The people are 18 and older who go and I have nine more years to go. Sometimes I go with if it’s mild. Palmer House is mild.” (In Sauk Center, Minnesota). “We’re warming up for my game and then I get to do my game. We’ve had quite a few games already.” (Anything else special happening?). Brandy: “Nothing at the moment. Just enjoying summer, right?” Miah: “Yeah, nothing at the moment. Just enjoying summer.” Brandy: “When it doesn’t rain.” Miah: “Yeah, that is when it doesn’t rain.” (Miah went back to baseball practice.). Brandy: “I’ve been working. I work for Cherish PCA. So I go and help, care for people in their houses. Same thing Carefree Living does, but this is actually in their house rather than in a facility. That’s pretty much all I do. Kitty is a pitbull. She loves people and she loves animals. She just wants to play and we’re seeing how she reacts with baseball. Trying to socialize her. She was a rescue dog. Enjoy your summer!”

Ethan Tome: “Summers been ok. I’ve just been playing video games at my house. And I’m going to watch the baseball game. This is my second game to watch. I like video games and I like to play baseball and I also like to watch it. That’s really it. I’m not playing baseball this year but I played last. year. I was on the Dairy Queen Dodgers. We were fourth place. I’m just walking around and hanging out at the park. I was in fifth grade and I’m going into sixth. That’s when you start going into that school over there. It’s fine. I was just at the store, Holiday over there (Circle K). I got some snacks to eat while watching the baseball game.”