Fall Happenings

Although I titled this post "Fall Happenings", there really hasn't been a lot happening worth blogging about. I've just put up a few picture from the past few weeks. Her's the pumpkin College Girl carved when she was home for the weekend. She's had a good transition to college so far, has made friends and seems to be doing okay, so that's a relief.
TB's football team got to play their last game of the season on a stadium with artificial turf, so that was kinda cool and not nearly so messy. Unfortunately they got walloped, TB didn't even get to play, so it was kind of a sad end to the season. He had a good time playing football even though he didn't see a lot of playing time in games due to an injury and inexperience. He was sick again this past week with an H1N1 type thing, but he was over it in about 4 days, so it may have been something else.

One last fall picture from the yard. This bush surprises me with its color every year, waiting til most of the other leaves have fallen. I've done pretty well with the yard work this year hauling many bags of leaves out. Now I just hope it waits awhile longer before we have any more snow.

Next week will be a busy one. Besides the usual activities, DH is making a trip to his parents to tour apartments with them, trying to convince them to down-size before winter. Over the weekend we will go to my mother's to move her out of her house. She wants to go to an apartment, but unfortunately her house has sold and none are available in her small town right now, so she'll move in with my brother temporarily. That's about it for now, I'm hoping for a nice evening by the fire watching my favorite hockey team play. Go Gophers!

An Addiction to Confess

I confess, I've become addicted to Facebook. Neglecting my blog is just one of the symptoms. I might have to go into treatment of some kind if the symptoms don't start to subside. It all started innocently enough, but now I'm on there way too many times in a day. It has its pluses, chatting with my kids at college is one, but the downside is getting sucked into playing these stupid and addictive games for hours on end. I need to find a balance for sure.

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Things have basically been okay lately, but it's been kind of a roller coaster. Some of the lows: DH getting his hand cut at the shop he works at very part time thereby losing a week of income, TB straining his foot, worries about money, kids, parents, etc. Some of the highs: Kids off to a great start at school, winning the grand prize for my Block of the Month group (free quilting on my quilt), a winning football season, fun times with friends, good health, etc. Pretty much like everyone else I guess, life has it's highs and lows. I'm thankful my roller coaster is an easy one right now with no extreme highs, powerful drops to a valley, or twisty upside down turns!

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Before said injury, DH completed our new kitchen table. He had worked on it on and off for about 8 or 9 years I think. The wood was from a big pine tree that was in the back yard of the house I grew up in on the family farm. The tree we always had our picture taken in front of. It had to be taken down when the old house was moved so that my brother could build a new one on the same site. The wood was rough cut into 2 inch planks and DH did the rest all by himself. It think it turned out great and it will be a nice memory for me- both of the tree and DH's work on the table.

A Couple of Movie Recommendations

It's been a beautiful day today in Minnesota. Over the weekend we had Iowa-like humidity, wind, and rain. We needed the rain, but it sure made things sticky. I celebrated my birthday on Friday. DH and SD made me homemade beignets (French fried pastries) and chocolate flavored coffee for breakfast. They got the mix for them when they were in New Orleans and had the real thing at Cafe' DuMond. They were pretty tasty, but the deep frying sure made the house stinky for awhile. Then later in the day, DH and I went to a matinee and over to some friends for supper. The girls went and saw "Julie and Julia" and the boys went to "G. I. Joe". My friend and I loved "Julie and Julia" and I would highly recommend it. It was a real feel good movie...a few sad parts, but also a lot of humor and it made me want to go out and get a Julia Child cookbook. I learned a lot about her life; she was quite an interesting lady, and she had a real peach of a husband also.

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The other movie I saw recently on DVD was "Marley and Me". Another good movie, but I'm glad I didn't see it in public because I was practically sobbing by the time it was over. I'm not a big cryer, but this one really got to me. A great story and I don't think you'd have to be a dog owner to appreciate it.

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School is starting in many places, but we're lucky here to not have to go back for three more weeks. My kids and I all start the same day, Sept. 8th, although the college kids have to be on campus sooner than that. The big move in day for them is the 1st, so we'll see how I deal with having two kids in college. Poor TB will be the only one left at home for me to pick on. The poor thing is so tired from football and mowing lawns he probably won't even notice.

One Year Ago...

I started my blog. I guess that means it's my blogiversary today. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that word ends up in the dictionary along with frenemy, staycation, and vlog. As an aside, I wonder if the current definition of "sick" includes the way TB uses it- meaning something that is good in a very cool, surprising, or awesome way. Ha When I was watching golf for a while today, the commentator even described Tiger Woods' 33 foot putt as "sick", so I guess it's catching on or the commentator is actually 16. Anyway, I've had fun with my blog and it's been a bit of a creative outlet which is good for everyone to have. It's been a rather eventful week around here; time for the always loved bullets...
*SD left for a pre-college camp called Nature of Life, a requirement for freshmen majoring in Biology. She had a good time up at Lake Itasca. I told her that she has traveled from the beginning to the end of the Mississippi in less than a week and she said she'd already had that thought.
*My mom was finally able to move home from the nursing home and seems to be doing well now that her neck is healed.
*DH's parents had a bit of a set-back when his mom was admitted to the hospital today with pneumonia. His dad is doing real well, but I'm sure this will prevent them from moving home from their nursing home for awhile. DH is down there visiting this weekend.
*TB started football camp. He's never played football, but wanted to give it a try to keep up his conditioning and try to put on some muscle. At 6'6" he only weighs 165, so he'd like to gain some weight. He has been so happy this week that DH and I can't decide if it's the endorphins or if there's a girl he likes. Ha
*I finished summer school on Thursday. It wasn't too bad, but I'm glad it's over since it started so early in the morning. I deleted my rant about getting a new job since I thought it seemed so lame, but I'm still thinking about it nonetheless.
That's about it, thanks for listening!

New Orleans...vicariously

DH and my younger two kids got home from New Orleans yesterday. They had a great time, but were very tired. They got in a little sight seeing, attending a lot of large group gatherings, did a lot of walking, and did a service project in the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. DH was very proud of the group of kids that they worked so hard and cleared 9 lots where other groups cleaned only a couple and quit before lunch time. It's hard to believe that nearly 5 years after Katrina that there is still so much work to be done. This convention, the ELCA Youth Gathering, was the largest convention group to attend in New Orleans since Katrina and numbered around 37,000 people. I'm sure it was a much needed influx of money to the area and each group attending did community service as well, so a lot of work got done. I'm sure a lot of the attendees will be inspired to return and continue helping if possible. A big emphasis of the Gathering was for each person to work for justice in their own community serving the needy, helping others, etc. so I hope that will happen. Anyway, I enjoyed my week at home but didn't quite catch up on all of my work. I've just got two more days of summer school left and then my schedule will be pretty free for completing projects.

Mother's Day Etc.

Here's a somewhat belated Mother's Day report. It turned out to be a really nice day, long, but nice. SD and I play in our church bell choir. We play at church only about once a month, so we play at both services that Sunday. That meant trying to be at church by 7:30, which for me means 7:35. The first service performance was somewhat of a disaster and included a page turning mistake of epic proportions. Oh well. We did a lot better the second time around, but I was more focused on the earlier failure. It was nice that we had a little volunteer appreciation coffee between services, so with all of the down time we got to enjoy some treats and some good Fair Trade coffee.

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In the afternoon we went to a concert by a local choral group in conjunction with Monroe Crossing, a Twin Cities Bluegrass group. (There is a link on the lower right of the page to hear some of their newest music) It was a wonderful concert, but the room was pretty warm and I was very tired, so I nearly dozed off a time or two. Fortunately, more coffee and some cookies at intermission perked me up. Part of the concert was a "Bluegrass Mass" and had all the elements of a worship service, very interesting. After the concert, we returned home with the two couples we went to the concert with and their families joined us for dinner at our house. We provided the main dish and everyone else brought something. DH made Key Lime chicken on the grill and homemade asparagus pasta with a yummy alfredo sauce with asparagus in it. It was very delicious, I wish I'd taken pictures. The others brought a salad, bread, cheese and crackers, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

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I'm feeling a little down about the state of our school system. We had a meeting at work yesterday. There was more of the same-"no news yet" -where my hours for next year are concerned, but I'm becoming pretty sure I'll lose some time. They've raised class sizes to the point that there will be as many as 32 in each third grade class next year and even more in 5th grade. Just two sections of each. Each will, I'm sure, have some challenging kids, so when you throw in some para cuts, etc., that will (in my opinion) make for a disastrous situation. We've got some great teachers, but it is going to be really tough and not fair for the kids. Think about that when you hear someone talking about how great teachers have it with "three months vacation" and all. We have a parent meeting tonight for band parents to hear about the "enhancements" for next year. Our new superintendent (once again IMO) wants to get rid of music in the schools so those areas are seeing lots of cuts as well. It will be interesting to see how they are going to sell it as an enhancement. It's discouraging and I feel bad that I've been taking my kids quality education for granted up to now.

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I almost forgot to mention that TB provided me with my only Mother's Day gift this year. He had been shopping with a friend the night before and picked me up a copy of Dream Girls. I thought it was very sweet. In all fairness, SD has promised to help me with some of the yard work I can't do because of my back. DH allowed me to buy tickets for a play in the cities in a couple weeks as a special outing as well. CS remembered to call, so that was nice. He has finals this week, so he's super busy.

Got It!!

Here's Wilbur checking out the squirrel we caught from the fireplace. We caught him shortly after yesterday's post when I changed the bait to dry roasted peanuts. Surprisingly, both were very calm and after awhile, Wilbur even started rubbing his chin on the cage. We took the squirrel for a ride and dropped him off by a farm on the edge of town. He ran away and seemed no worse for wear. I hope he'll be happy there and not return to my fireplace. The animal control lady said that their range is 16 miles when DH went to borrow the cage. I really don't believe he could find his way back though.

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I'm paring down my blog list a little, in case anyone notices. I'm grouping some in a different place in my computer, so not deleting entirely. I'm probably kidding myself that anyone will notice or care, but I'm always worried about offending someone. I'm going to try adding in some new blogs that I've been looking at recently, and maybe some with a little more local flavor. I've been looking for some local blogs that I like and I've found an interesting phenomenon. There are several where their entire group of friends and family must have blogs since there are so many in their sidebar. It would be a fun way to keep in touch. I still haven't told any of my friends or family about my blog. I kind of enjoy keeping it personal and anonymous and let's be honest, I'm always worried about what people will think. Hopefully I'll get over it someday!! Incidentally, I am on Facebook and have a grand total of about 13 friends!

Squirrel on the Loose

Finally something blogworthy; a squirrel has taken up residency in our basement fireplace for the last few days. I hope that it is not making itself too much at home or planning on raising a family within the walls of my home. I'm a little nervous about the amount of insulation that is showing up in the fire box. I'm envisioning the thing burrowing around within the walls of our house. Anyway, DH went to animal control today and borrowed a live trap so we can do a catch and release. This has happened about 4-5 other times since we lived in the house, so we've been through it before. We had a chimney sweep come, but even he wouldn't go up to put a screen on our abnormally high chimney. The first two times we actually had an animal control officer come to the house to take out the squirrel. The guy we had the second time wasn't too bright and got bit in the process nearly releasing the little offender into the house. Apparently they keep a record of these things, so lately we've been taking care of it ourselves. I hope to post a picture of the captured squirrel very very soon!!!

Quilt Rack

Here's a couple of shots of the quilt rack DH made for me. It's kind of a prototype for the ones he's making for the silent auction at church. I really like how it turned out. It has a notch in the shelf on top, so I could put some plates or what-not up there to display. I've asked my friends for dimensions of quilt racks they might like to bid on. If they wanted one anyway, I thought the money just as well go for a good cause. Several of the kids from church, mine included are raising fund for a trip to a national youth gathering for our church that will be held in New Orleans in July. DH is going along as a chaperone, so that will leave me home alone. Providing of course that CS finds himself a summer job. It's a rather expensive trip, so I hope that this auction will be a success. Looking at this picture, it reminds me that you should sew a straight seam when attaching borders!

Tide Stemmed and Quilt Finished!

The stream of water in the basement has mostly stopped. DH tore apart the wall yesterday to reveal a large floor to ceiling crack. Why we never did this before is a good question, but it's done now. He plans to chisel out the crack and fill it with a special cement patch and hopefully that will remedy the situation without having to dig up my bushes and the sidewalk outside. He assures me that he won't cause the entire wall to cave in!

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I finished the wall hanging that I'm planning to donate to the silent auction for this Friday night. I'm making another one just like it to have for myself, but I still have all of the quilting and binding to do on that one. I still hope to have it done by Valentine's day. This auction is to support some walkers for a breast cancer event. Then in March there are silent auctions for our church youth and the marching band, so I'll be busy with projects. DH has also made one quilt rack and plans to make some more, so I'll post a picture of that too.

Misc. ramblings and resolutions

By popular request, here's a photo of the pasta drying rack DH made for me. As usual, it's larger and fancier than really necessary, but it comes apart completely for storage. With the state of the real estate market, maybe he should go into business selling sturdy pasta racks. This is the last project he completed before we started the complete overhaul of his workshop. Even before the broken pipe incident, I had bought him epoxy floor paint for Christmas. Romantic gift, eh? To use it entails moving everything out of one half, sweeping and scrubbing the floor, then painting, allowing to dry.....that's as far as we've gotten. Crawling around on a cement floor is very exhausting and every muscle I have is achy. It looks great though and it has been a good way to do a thorough cleaning and get rid of a lot of junk.

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I spent most of the day yesterday working at a funeral lunch at my church. A 63 yr. old man had died while shoveling snow with his wife on Christmas day, really tragic. Spending a day in this manner is a good way to put things in perspective. For one thing, you never know when the day will come for you. Not a happy thought I know, but thinking about it can change the way you live your life if you let it.

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As promised, here's the New Year's resolutions for 2009 in no particular order-
1. Lose another 25 lbs. ( I've gained back part of the 25 I lost last year)
2. Don't gain back weight you tried so hard to lose!
3. Exercise at least once a week to start with.
4. Be a better listener, not always thinking of how I will respond.
5. Give more compliments, especially to my kids.
6. Remember when things get tough that other people have it waay worse than I do.
7. Along with #6, be thankful and grateful for everything I have instead of thinking about everything I want.
8. Read more books.
9. Sort my pictures and print off/back up all digital pictures.
10. Be kinder than is necessary.
11. Don't watch so much tv.
12. Go to bed earlier.

Okay, that's it. I realize I'm leaning a little close to the "change your entire life" resolution area, but I think naming several gives me a little more room for success. I'm looking forward to a great New Year's Eve spent with friends and I hope you will have a wonderful 2009!

Cookie Baking Crazy

Today DH and I hit the cookie baking hard. We have a tradition of making everyone's favorites for Christmas and putting them in the freezer so we can pull them out for cookie trays and to take to holiday gatherings. I started on Saturday by making 12 dozen Christmas tree shaped spritz with green sugar for the youth bake sale at church. I made them with butter and they tasted great. Today, after spending the entire morning at church, we made a shopping run for a few ingredients and then got baking. Not before putting on our oldest sweat pants however. You've got to have an elastic waits to bake cookies. :) I made almond crunchies, caramels, turtles, and chocolate covered caramels. DH made chocolate no-bake cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and Norwegian Kringla. We had a funafternoon and evening and I have a ton of goodies for the freezer. I'm glad that DH likes baking, it is a lot more fun with help and he even helps clean up and wash dishes. Here are some pictures of his kringla, just like his mom makes. We still have a few favorites to make and I realized I've got to make something with a little color since everything is brown or white so far. This week I plan to finally start my decorating and get the tree up, etc. Since we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground I don't think I'll be able to do outside lights again this year. We always seem to be busy on those nice late fall days when we should be putting up our lights.