ZirbelFamily.com
We May Not Have It All Together,
But Together We Have It All!
Welcome to the Zirbel Family Webpage. Here you will find a little bit of information on Justin, Maren, Renna, Ella and Maya and of course the big furry monsters, Sadie and Jade! Oh yeah, you might find a picture or two in the Photo Gallery. We hope you enjoy your stay and come back soon to see what might be new in our lives.
February 16th, 2011 - Francis John “Fran” Zirbel, age 59 of Eagan, passed away peacefully on 2/16/11 surrounded by his loving family. Please visit Fran's Caring Bridge Page and keep up to date with what is happening next. www.caringbridge.org/visit/franzirbel
How Zirbel Family dot Com came to be:
Our Story:
[Song] It all started... with a high school crush. Maren and Justin met
back in high school while involved in Winter Drumline and church
activities. Maren was the one with the crush at the time and was not
too shy about letting Justin know about it. Of course Justin must
have liked her too, he just didn’t know it at the time. He
always chased her around school and tickled her, made her crazy, and
basically egged her on. Constantly! Deep down he must have had a
little crush in return. Rumor has it that they even went on a date
once. Maren seems to believe that they went to a movie but Justin
just slept through the entire thing. He must have been one heck of a
date! Maybe this is why he doesn’t seem to remember the event.
However, the more and more he keeps hearing about it, the more
familiar things start sounding. That said, Justin and Maren remained
good friends for the rest of their high school time together.
Justin graduated in ’96 and went off to school, then in ’99 Maren
graduated and went off to school herself. For about the next six
years Justin only saw Maren a handful of times. Maren finished
college and returned to
It was during this time that Justin was beginning like Maren more
and more. It was on his birthday in 2002 that after a night at the
bar with our friends he called her and asked if she wanted to hang
out some more. Even after all those years of high school crush – she
turned him down. Not because she wasn’t interested, she just didn’t
realize that Justin was falling for her! Not to worry though. It was
only 2 weeks later that some friends had a Christmas party and
Justin invited Maren to go with him. She agreed to go and after a
few days, she called him and asked, “So is this a friend-date or a
date-date?” Justin replied with, “Would you
like it to be a date?” She said, “Yes!” and now they had their first
date scheduled! Well, at least the first one that Justin remembers!
They had a great night. Justin took Maren home at the end of the evening and after about 45 minutes of chatting and a few smooches in the driveway (really, it was a great first date), Maren went inside and they called it a day. From that day Justin and Maren pretty much spent every day together possible and every day they fell for each other more and more! In fact, by the end of the first week they both knew that this was it. This was going to last. Forever.
Over the next few months things were fairly normal as far as
dating goes. Their work schedules didn’t line up very well, Justin
worked days and Maren worked many evenings at PDQ. There were many late
nights and not much sleep. This didn’t matter though because they
were in love! Looking back, neither one of them knows how they ever
survived on such little sleep.
Maren decided that she was going to go on a short-term mission
trip to
Katie called Maren and asked her if she wanted to hang out at the mall and to bring Justin. It was about time she met this man Maren was so in love with. Maren talked to Justin and, miraculously, he was available to go with them. So, off they all went to the mall. It was great, Justin and Katie “finally” got to meet each other! They all hung out for a while and wandered around chatting and having a good time. Then Katie said, “Hey, let's go over to that jewelry store and see if they have the kind of ring ‘I’ want.” Then, while in the store, Katie asked Maren what kind of a setting she would want. Maren looked and found just what she wanted, and they looked. It was very pretty and Katie knew to take very good notes – and she did just that!
A few days later Maren was off to
Maren made it home safely and everyone was thrilled to see each
other again after two weeks. Maren had lots of stories to tell from
her trip but all Justin really wanted to do was propose, but - no
ring, no proposal! It was a great time hearing about all the things
they did and after a while Justin and Maren had some time for just
the two of them again. One of the first things they talked
about was that they wanted to get married. That didn’t take too
long now, did it? Justin played it cool, though, and didn’t give
anything away. In fact, he came up with some song and dance about how
he had to wait a few months for the ring because he needed his tax
return money to pay for it. Maren bought it but didn’t mind waiting
anyway.
The rest of the night was filled with making plans and they even picked out a date. The following day, Maren even called the church to reserve the date: September 27th, 2003. The only problem was that they still didn’t want to tell their parents because, technically, Justin still hadn’t proposed. They were trying to figure out how to get around this because they didn’t want the news to get back to their parents before they had a chance to tell them. Maren was really struggling with this and Justin made it look like he was, too. You see, their parents already knew everything. Well, everything but the date, of course. All Justin needed was a few more days, the ring would arrive and everything would be fine.
Finally, Maren couldn't take it anymore. She just had to tell her parents that they were planning to get married! When they got to her parents' house, Justin told her that he needed to talk to her in private. They went up to Maren's childhood bedroom, and Justin got down on one knee and, finally!, proposed. It was official: they were engaged. When they shared the news with Maren's parents, Lynne asked, "Is there anything else you want to tell us?" About four days later, Maren realized what her mom was trying to ask...
Then, the ring arrived! Two new problems: the ring was downtown
From there the rest of the plans were able to be made and on
September 26th, 2003 Justin and Maren were married. They
had already purchased a house and have been working on making it
their home ever since. They jumped right into parenting in January
of 2004 with two (yes, 2!) black lab puppies! Wow, there are some
stories that could be told about that!!! Sadie and Jade won their
hearts and continue to bounce around, sometimes uncontrollably,
whenever they can. The dogs seem to live by one rule and only one
rule, “If you throw it, we will go get it and bring it back as fast
as we can!!!!” Even if it destroys the back yard in the process...
and it did. For
the first few years, the dogs had it made: insulated garage, free
run of most of the house, carpet! They loved it! Then things went
down hill a bit for the dogs, but they are now beginning to make a
recovery.
In June of 2007, Renna Marie was born to Justin and Maren and yes,
the dogs quickly lost most of their privileges. Renna moved in and
has taken over – everything! She is wonderful and keeps everyone on
their toes at all times. Now she's talking, walking, running,
and being a big sister to Ella Rea who joined the
festivities in December of 2008. Renna still thinks she’s in charge,
and she just might be right! Ella continues to grow and learn more
and more everyday. Sometimes it’s most important to learn how to
dodge Renna, but they both seem to manage. Once again the dogs seem
to be making a comeback in their day to day life. They no longer get
to come in the house, but now that Renna weighs a whopping 30-some
pounds, she has no problem going out and telling all 160 pounds of
them what to do – And they do it!!!
There you have it: the Zirbels! They love their life here in
“We May Not Have it All Together,
But Together We Have it All!”
Much Love,
Justin, Maren, Renna, Ella, Maya, Sadie and Jade
Current Events
Maya Lynne!
She arrived back on December 30th!So much for mid to late
January. All scheduling aside, she was just as beautiful and perfect
as she is today! As we have learned many times in the past many
months - God always has a plan for us! Whether or not we see it and
understand it right away or not, he has a plan and it seems to be
that He tends to have things under control much better than we do.
Fran's Treatments:
Fran has been treated to an eternity in Heaven. As sad as we all are
that remain here and as much as we miss him everyday, it is a great
comfort to know he is now pain free. He set the bar high for the
rest of us and has blessed us with endless memories and set an
example of how to live our lives. Now he lives on in all of us!
Please stay current with the
Caring Bridge
site for a bit longer as we still request your input in the weeks
and months to come. Stay tuned for more details.
Crackhead Update!
Some of you wonder why Justin sometimes refers to Maren as
Crackhead! It all stems from a news story that aired a few years ago
on St. Patrick's Day. Listen very closely to the woman in the car
one minute into the clip.