Every family has cherished holiday traditions and of course ours is no exception… back when everyone still lived in the Midwest and the nieces and nephews were still little, one tradition we enjoyed was to get together with the whole big extended family for Christmas. This gathering was usually either just before or just after the holiday and up until the year 2000, we had been doing that at our mom and dad’s …, but in 2001, we had about 25 people now in the family and it was just too much for our parent’s home to handle… especially in the dead of winter… when EVERY ONE is in the house whether you want to be or not! Lol

So in 2001 we decided to break with tradition and have our Christmas celebration somewhere else – it was the first and only time we did that – not that it was a bad experience or that the location had anything to do with what happened that year and we had no idea that that year was going to be a true Christmas to remember… but not really for reasons you might think.

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- Thanks to our Storyteller Jeanine Lebsack, learn more about her below!

- Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit  Find a Free Coloring Book at The Coloring Book Coach

- Music from https://filmmusic.io - "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin

We want to share something very special with you this week… a Christmas story and a work of fiction, written by our mom, otherwise known as Maxine VanDeWalker, mother of seven, grandmother to many and now a great-grandmother, too!

Our mom is a multi-talented woman and she wrote this about 22 years for her first grandchild Maggie, who was then about 5, and and our family has enjoyed this simple, charming Christmas story for all these years, so today as a sort of audio Christmas card to you, we bring you Maggie’s Christmas Story or When Saint Nick met Saint Mick.

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- Thanks to our Storytellers: Kim A. Flodin, Kari Flodin and Erin Beach
- Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit 
- Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

Underneath the Christmas Tree (Instrumental) by myuu http://thedarkpiano.com Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2DUkGFj Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/q8fX3In7Qng

🎵 Track Info: Title: UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE (Instrumental) by myuu Genre and Mood: Holiday · Dark

🎧 Available on: Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/6hImIn... iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/unde... Deezer: https://deezer.com/us/track/454772542 YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0uYmGXLR0gc SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/myuu/underneat...

😊 Contact the Artist:

[email protected] https://thedarkpiano.com https://youtube.com/myuuji https://soundcloud.com/myuu https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/my... https://open.spotify.com/artist/5sP3c... https://instagram.com/myuusic https://facebook.com/myuusic https://twitter.com/myuusic

So, do you ever find yourself saying yes to something – not because you really want to do that thing – but more so so you can tell the story later? Our first story today, as told by me is about my tendency to do that very thing… say yes so I can tell the story later!

Our second story is about what happens when you try to record a sister who has said yes too many time to vodka and now cannot stay on the track of the story I’m trying to tell her, but it derails in a pretty funny and wonderful way, so we’re including it here today.

Lastly, Kari shares a story about what can happen when you meet some new friends on vacation and say yes and the places you can end up when you do.

If you're one of those people who haven't read The Princess Bride, check it out, now... it's a great book!  

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- Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

- Thanks to our Storytellers: Kim A. Flodin, Kari Flodin and Erin Beach

- Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit 

- Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

We ended our show last week with our heroine and friend, Jeanine, who started the day feeling a little off and was now ending her day heading through the doors of a scary and unfamiliar place… they psyche ward… stay tuned to find out what happens to Jeanine next in the second part of the episode we’re calling From Breakdown to Breakthrough.  Part one of this episode aired November 21, 2019, please go back and listen to that one if you haven’t heard it yet!

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- Follow us on Instagram @kimaflodin and @howinthehellpodcast

- Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

- Thanks to our Storyteller Jeanine Lebsack, learn more about her below!

- Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit  and check out the Energy Apprenticeship that Jeanine is participating in!

- Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

For Mental Health Help in the United States: Mentalhealth.gov

For Mental Health Help in Canada: Canada.ca/en/public-health/services/mental-health-services/mental-health-get-help.html

We all have those days when we wake up feeling a little off… like something’s not right, right? And, for the most part, we muddle through the best we can and hope that tomorrow will be better. Today and next week’s episodes are about a day like that, a day when one woman wakes up feeling not quite like herself and where that feeling takes her….

For Mental Health Help in the United States: Mentalhealth.gov

For Mental Health Help in Canada: Canada.ca/en/public-health/services/mental-health-services/mental-health-get-help.html

 -Join us on Facebook! bit.ly/FacebookHITH

- Follow us on Instagram @kimaflodin or @howinthehellpodcast

- Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

- Thanks to our Storyteller Jeanine Lebsack -Jeanine is a proud hockey loving Canadian who loves the written and spoken word. If life were a musical you’d find her singing as she dances to the beat of her own drum. She keeps busy with her freelance writing, research work, public speaking and being the best and balanced being for her family and the universe. Nothing is possible without the love and support of her family. Follow her blog and on social media:

Twitter- https://twitter.com/jlebsack

Facebook- https://facebook.com/jsackblog

Blog- - Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit 

- Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

In late August, 2007 – the weekend of the 18th and 19th to be exact , Minnesota broke the 24 hour rainfall record when just over 15 inches of rain came pouring down in southeastern Minnesota. This was pretty close to where we all grew up and extremely close to the beautiful hobby farm where Jenny, her husband Bill and their three children lived then.

'Almost everyone in our family had gathered that weekend at the farm to celebrate our mom’s birthday, nobody had any idea that a storm of epic proportions was about rain down for the next 24 hours or that they would all be trapped there together.. about 29 people give or take... for the weekend.

It was a crazy, funny, soggy, slippery and true how in the hell did I get here family get together. Stay with us.

One more thing… it’s been a pretty big week here at How in the Hell did I get here? First off, we doubled our downloads in the last 60 days, so that is HUGE !!! Thank you for telling your friends about the show and keep it up, please!!!! We want to keep making the show for you!!!!

And, we got a big bunch of cookies from our supporter Chris who used coffee.com to share the love earlier this week! Thank you, Chris! If you want to support us with a cookie or two, head to Ko-fi.com/how in the hell! Thank you! You’re the best!!!!!

- Join us on Facebook! bit.ly/FacebookHITH

- Follow us on Instagram @kimaflodin or @howinthehellpodcast

- Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

- Thanks to our Storytellers: Kim A. Flodin, Kari Flodin, Jenny Gardner, and Erin Beach

- Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit: http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit 

- Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

​

Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

If you’ve been listening, you know that we are part of a big family… I’m the oldest of 7 in a family of five girls and two boys and our mom was the oldest of eight in a family with 3 brothers and 5 girls and these were the people who taught us that if you weren't laughing at life's craziness, you were doing it wrong.

A big extended family also came with other perks – one was cousins! And, lots of them! Two, we had big family get-togethers filled with lots of laughter, smart-assery and shenanigans and three, our summers were filled with staying with our cousins at their various houses or having them come to stay with us! I’d venture a guess that for a lot of us cousins in our large extended family, those family swaps during the summer months hold some of our best and most unforgettable memories. We didn’t go on family vacations, so going to a cousin’s house in the far off land of Wisconsin for a stay was a big deal!

Today’s episode as told by our sister Erin and our cousin Heather is about one of those summer stays with our Aunt Annie, who was, as Heather calls her… “the fancy aunt”. I’m going to take a moment to give Annie a should out and wish her a belated 75th birthday! I saw her not that long ago and she’s still our fancy aunt who still knows how to have good time!

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- Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

-Thanks to our Storytellers: Heather Vaudreiul and Erin Smith

-Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, listen to How to Fall in Love with Yourself Toolkit:http://bit.ly/fallinlovetoolkit 

-Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango and ad music, Blue Skies  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

Happy Halloween! Today it’s all about tricks and treats! Our treat for you today is an AD-FREE show and if you’re up for treating us, we love cookies from ko-fi.com…It’s a super easy way to support the show and we rely on you to help us keep running…. So don’t be a trickster, be a treater and help us out at Kofi.com/howinthehell! And, we have a BONUS for you - be sure to listen all the way through to hear the November episode of How to Fall in Love... with Yourself Monthly Toolkit... the other podcast I release monthly!

We have a terrifying show for you today all about the house we grew up in. So, Jenny and Kari are here to share a collection of creepy tales that happened in our childhood home and some are being told here for the very first time!!!! 

Story 1: Growing up in a haunted house can make you feel like your losing your mind! There always seemed to be things happening that just didn’t quite make sense and all seven of us kids learned to cope by keeping our lips zipped and pretending that things were okay…Jenny shares two terrifying memories from when she was just a little kid!

Story 2:The house we all grew up in was large, it was an old Victorian that was built in around 1880 and had a distinctly Gothic vibe especially after our mom painted it a shade of gray that was almost black, but it was still only a 3 bedroom 1 ½ bath house and we had 7 kids, 2 parents and an assortment of dogs, cats, birds, and more living there, we also had the most kids on the block, so our house was the headquarters for every kid in the neighborhood – it was also, as you’ve heard, haunted as hell. Kari tells a story of something that somehow moved in the night.

Story 3: Our last story is all about the man in the house… and no, I’m not talking about Crazy Larry, also known as our dad… no there was another man and both Jenny and Kari had startling and scary encounters with him!

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-Thanks to our Storytellers: Kim A. Flodin & Jenny Gardner

-Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, grab your free coloring book: http://thecoloringbookcoach.com

-Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango, ad music, Blue Skies, scary music, Slow Shock  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.

​So today we have a collection of creepy stories all shared between myself and my sister, Jenny. Can you believe we’re already on our fourth week of creepy stories? Anyway, this week we’re basically letting you listen in on a conversation jenny and I had way back in April… she was telling her story about almost chopping her leg off with a machete (if you haven’t listened to that crazy story.. it aired on May 23, 2019) when somehow we veered off into creepy story land, which is what you’re about to hear… we covered a lot of ground… including insane asylums, psychic exes, things moving on their own and more scary stories about the creepy house we grew up in...we have not shortage of those! Stay with us.

-Join us on Facebook! bit.ly/FacebookHITH

-Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

-Thanks to our Storytellers: Kim A. Flodin & Jenny Gardner

-Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, grab your free coloring book: http://thecoloringbookcoach.com

-Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango, ad music, Blue Skies, scary music, Slow Shock  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.​

Kari, who was as the Night Manager at Chessens Bar and Deli in downtown Minneapolis during the late 90’s and early 2000’s , shares this bone-chilling tale of terror in four act about her time there. If you love scary stories, you’re not going to want to miss this and I’m telling you now… you might not want to listen alone, especially if it’s late at night. 

This story is told in four acts: 

Act 1: A Whomp in the Night

Act 2: This Has Happened Before

Act 3: Flies

Act 4: The Freezer

Other episodes referenced: Ghost in the Machine, I Banish Thee From my Roku! (this is where Erin and I have paranormal stuff happen DURING the recording!) and Missed the Party? It was a Trip! (where Jenny references how many dead bodies can fit in a car trunk!)

-Join us on Facebook! bit.ly/FacebookHITH

-Buy us a cookie or two! bit.ly/ko-fiHITH

-Thanks to our Storyteller Kari Flodin

-Thanks The Coloring Book Coach, grab your free coloring book: http://thecoloringbookcoach.com

-Thank you YouTube Free Music Audio Library & Silent Partner for our theme song, 7th Floor Tango, ad music, Blue Skies, scary music, Slow Shock  http://bit.ly/youtubeHITH

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Produced, edited, written and hosted by Kim A. Flodin, with editing help from Kari Flodin.​