Rewarding job
By Ann Bailey
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Going from full-time work to staying home was an adjustment for Linda Laskowske but well worth it
Herald Staff Writer
Staying home with her daughter is much more than child’s play to Linda Laskowske. Though she does help 3year-old Anna organize animal parades, paints pictures with her and have tea parties, Laskowske also takes her to story time at the library, to open gym gymnastics and to the play area at the Columbia Mall. Getting out and spending time with other moms and children is good for both mother and daughter, Laskowke said. “Having her get together with other kids is really important. Since she doesn’t go to day care, it’s important to have that interaction. I don’t want her to be overly shy when she goes to school.” For Laskowske, visiting with other moms gives her a chance to have some adult conversation and the opportunity to bounce the challenges of raising children off of others. Laskowske, 29, quit her job working for the city of
Linda Laskowske and her daughter Anna.
Ann Bailey, photo
Written in stone ■
By Ann Bailey
Grand Forks before her son Cody, now 6, was born. She wanted to stay home when she became a mother partly because she grew up in a family with two par-
ents who worked and felt like they always were on the run. “… We were always busy. I don’t feel like I got to know my parents as well
when I was growing up.”
Adjustments
Going from full-time work to staying home with her son was an adjustment
socially and economically, she said. She and her husband, Jeffrey Laskowske, a Grand Forks firefighter, have had to learn how to live on one income instead of two, which often means weighing whether some items are really necessary and postponing purchases until they can afford them. For example, when the family needed a new vehicle, they waited until they paid off the other one until they made a purchase, Laskowske said. “There are dozens of other examples,” she said. “Do we need a new deck this year? Is it going to happen? “We’ll see.” Because the Laskowskes have to prioritize their purchases, they are more apt to talk about them, Laskowske said. “I think it’s helped us discuss things a little more before doing them.” After being a stay-athome mom for several years, Laskowske has a network of friends to ease her sense of isolation. “I get together with
other moms twice a week. I’ll just call and say, ‘Do you want to take the kids to the mall and let them play or go to Red River Gymnastics for open gym?’” Sometimes, Laskowske also goes to work out at the YMCA Family center. “They have a great dropin day care there,” she said.
Rewards
Staying at home with her children definitely is challenging, but worth it. “I just think being able to be there for them and listening to what they say. They learn my rules and how things are done at my house.” Almost as if on cue, Anna pauses from her painting project at the kitchen table and turns around to face her mother. “Mommy, I love you,” Anna said, smiling sweetly. “It’s a very rewarding job,” Laskowske said, with a return smile.
For Tina Greuel, making granite etchings is a way to express her artistic side
Herald Staff Writer
Tina Greuel’s art career is carved in stone. After working for Stennes Granite for 18 years Greuel and her husband, Dean, bought the business from Tom Stennes last month. “They were very good to me all these years and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity,” Tina Greuel said. Stennes Granite serves customers up and down the Red River Valley on both sides of the Red River. Greuel and Darren Nelson, who works for her at Stennes Granite, make computer layouts of words and pictures that people want placed on their loved ones’ gravestones, and then they sandblast or etche them into granite. She also etches and sandblasts letters and pictures on stones for pets and for garden art.
Career
Greuel got her start doing stencil layout and hand-etchings on gravestones when she worked for a Fargo monument business. In 1993, when she moved with her husband and family to Grand Forks, Greuel began working at Stennes Granite, East Grand Forks, part-time. “I learned a lot here,” she said. “Over the years, I moved into different positions.” Now she does not only hand-etching, but also computer layout, sandblasting, and shape-carving, a technique that makes the artwork on the stone look three-dimensional.
Ann Bailey, photo
Designing women
Karlyne Kovar and Cheri Randel co-own O’ for Heaven’s Cake N’ More.
Making their customers happy is a piece of cake for Karlyne Kovar and Cheri Randel of O’ for Heaven’s Cakes N’ More
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Ann Bailey, photo
Tina Greuel is the owner of Stennes Granite in East Grand Forks. Besides etching and sandblasting gravestones, Stennes Granite does yard and garden art and pet stones. Advances in computer technology have greatly changed the way she does — and is doing — her job, Greuel said. “It’s changing every day with the technology.” It typically takes her about three or four hours, from start to finish, to complete a grave stone. It can take less time or more time, depending on how detailed the artwork is. “Depending on what’s on it, and how deep you have to go, there are a lot of variables,” she said. “The hand etchings are very time-consuming.”
Creative
For Greuel, making the etchings is a way to express her artistic side. She began drawing when she was in high school. “I was raised by my aunt and uncle. They lived on a farm and they were very good about letting me go out behind the buildings and draw whatever I wanted on them. They let me write on the trucks. “They encouraged me a lot.” Greuel now enjoys using
her creative talents on granite surfaces that will be around for hundreds of years. “The creativity part is my favorite… I’ve always been a real hands-on person. I guess you could call it my dream job.” Greuel also is rewarded by knowing that her work honors the people for whom the stones are made. “We provide a service to the community. Each one of those stones has a story to tell.”
By Ann Bailey
Herald Staff Writer
Karlyne Kovar and Cheri Randel have got what it takes to make cakes — and more. The best friends and business partners divide up the labor at O’ for Heaven’s Cakes N’ More, with Randel handling the baking and Kovar doing the cooking. The two have been working together at their bakery in the Grand Cities Mall since November. The friends’ history goes back two more decades. They met while working at a
Grand Forks grocery store. That’s where Kovar learned how to decorate cakes. Randel had previous cake decorating experience because she had helped at a Roseau, Minn., Dairy Queen restaurant that her father had owned. Kovar and Randel worked together at the Grand Forks grocery store for several years until Randel moved to Fargo to work for a cake business and Kovar started making and selling cakes from her home. CAKE: See Page 2