Musical History

Players

Inspirations

Family

Now for the most important part of the site--my family!


This is a picture of all of us at Ben and Sarah's first apartment in Cedar Falls, IA.

 
 


Zac and Tonia enjoying some "birthday watermelon." Their birthdays are 3 days apart in July.

My oldest daughter Tonia and her husband Zac live in Golden Valley, Minnesota, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. Zac works for General Mills in Minneapolis and Tonia works in the corporate offices of Best Buy, also in Minneapolis.

Zac has saved our computing life many times and in big ways. He’s even been able to fix my Mac in the basement when it has gone down. Tonia is the star of the first CD. We got the most feedback on the song I made up for her when she was a little girl, “Tonia Do You Love Your Daddy." People called and requested it on the local radio station. She is fiercely supportive of my musical endeavors. She's also the trainer of a super Yorkie named “Tator Tot”.

 

My younger daughter Sarah and her husband Ben only live a quarter of a mile away from Zac and Tonia, in the Minneapolis suburbs. Ben is Zac’s not so little brother. (That's right--two brothers married two sisters.)

Ben is the brains behind and creator of this web site. We are VERY fortunate to have someone like Ben to be able to put this together for us. I’m glad I’m not paying him by the hour! Ben works at a place in Minneapolis called Splice Here, where they do all sorts of stuff with video. Sarah has been working for the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS, but now is home taking care of our first grandchild, Jackson Knute Watne.


Ben, Sarah, and Jackson having a birthday party. Jack was born on November 26, 2006.
 
Andrew at his favorite place...the lake!

Our son Andrew is going to school at the University of Iowa, majoring in Management Information Systems. It's the same degree his brother-in-law Zac has, and Andrew hopes to work in a large company someday, too. Maybe even General Mills!

Andrew loves watersports and it shows. He can land a flip on a wakeboard, shred on a slalom ski, and even barefoot. He dreams about it all winter.

He also happens to be a good drummer, and you can hear him play on a few tracks of the new CD!

 
Becky is my inspiration for everything. She is my partner in our ServiceMaster franchise, which we’ve owned for over 25 years. She manages the office here at home and also works for a catering company called “Fancy That Catering”.

In the summers we spend a lot of time on one lake or another and in the winter we hunt birds a little and dream about summer.


Becky with her new haircut!
     
 

This is Becky and I with Andrew, Tonia, and Zac and Becky's parents Hermie and Wilma Nelson in our cabin at Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas. We've spent every summer vacation at the Waterfront Resort since 1996. The summer this picture was taken, Sarah and Ben had to work.