"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! " - Dr. Seuss

I had a weekend filled with love, family, fun, and a little sadness. 

Saturday was my 62nd birthday. I never like to make a big deal out of my birthday. I don't want anyone to get me gifts, just a happy birthday greeting is all I need. This year I was a little sad. You see every year on my birthday  I get a phone call from my Mom and when I answer she would not say anything she just starts singing the Happy Birthday song to me. I would laugh and when she was done we would have a talk about my day. It was not a big deal but something I grew to expect. So Saturday, every time my phone would ring, I would get a little jolt of thinking,  Oh it's mom calling me, even though I knew it wasn't her

because she has been gone for 5 months now. It is funny how you think you are all okay and then the fact that she has died hits you all over again and you find yourself in tears....

But enough of the sadness, time for love, family, and fun!  

Sunday was Easter so I volunteered to host it for the Rugroden side. Since my children did not have anywhere else to go I invited them also. We had a house full. It was so fun to have everyone together, young and old! The above picture is of me and all of my grandkids. They are all growing up so fast! I love spending time with them. 

We had an Easter Egg hunt this year for the first time in a long time. Since 2020 we have not really had a big gathering for Easter so it was fun to have one again. Josie, Liam, and Carey took on the task of hiding the eggs for the younger kids to find. It was so fun watching the joy on the kid's faces as they found the eggs hidden all over the lawn. I think they all had a full-on sugar rush. 

We had so much great food that everyone brought! 

Cassie is missing from the group photo because she took it. We managed to almost everyone in the living room to eat. 

The little kids got to sit at the "big" table to eat. 

Rick made his world-famous chocolate cake. 

It was fun watching the younger four kids get to know each other and play so great together. It was also great that we could chase them down to the almost complete basement to play and be very loud. Who knew 4 kids could make so much noise. 

Sadly I did not have my Dad over. His memory/Alzheimer's is getting worse. It would have been way too overwhelming for him to be there. He has good days and bad days....The other day he asked me if I was his daughter, I fear that the day will come soon when he doesn't know who I am at all. But for now, with a little reminder, he remembers who most of us are. 

It was a good weekend...

Sharon 

 

“I thought renovating my home would be a piece of cake, but it turned out to be more like a multi-layered, never-ending dessert!”

Another house another remodel project 😀 

When we bought this house we knew the first thing that had to go was the dirty cream carpet from the 1990's. We also knew it had a wood floor underneath it. We pulled up parts of the carpet and looked at the wood floor and saw that at least in the parts we had pulled up it was in pretty rough shape. After much debate about it, we decided to order carpet. Once it was ordered we were committed. 

After a two-month wait, the carpet was in. So our work began. My biggest fear was we would pull all the carpet out and find out the floor was beautiful. Thankfully that was not true. The wood floor and several spots that were water-damaged and very scratched up. In the end, we were happy we decided to go with carpet. 

So many staples to be pulled out. 

Once we got all the staples out Rick scraped the ceiling and painted it. We also (well really just Rick) painted the walls a nice warm color. The room had been painted a very light gray. It really needed some color. 

The carpet is so nice!! It makes the room look so much better. I still need to paint the front door. The cream on it looks awful. I am waiting until it warms up and then I will take the door off to paint it. 

Here is the finished look. We are so happy with it. It feels so cozy now...

Next up the basement.....

Sharon 

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home.” - Mary Davis

 I got to do one of my favorite things this past weekend. Amy had mentioned to me that she was going to go hiking on Saturday. I immediately invited myself along and she let me come 😊 Rick was not able to join us because he had Covid. 

 It started with we would go to Upper Sioux State Park because it would be closing soon and ended with us going to three state parks! 

Amy, Carey, Liam, Eli, and I started our adventure at Big Stone Lake State Park. We got there around noon so we ate a quick lunch and then found the hiking club trail. 

It is hard to believe we could go hiking in sweatshirts and no gloves or mittens in January in MN. We had a little snow but not enough to make it hard to hike. 

Next, we moved to Lac qui Parle State Park. This was our shortest hike of the day at only 2 miles. 

Amy, Carey, and I have joined the Hiking and Passport Clubs that the DNR has. You hike on a certain trail in the park and you have to find the password. After so many miles you get a free night of camping. For the passport club, you get a stamp when you visit the park. Again after so many you get a free night of camping. It is a great way to get outside and see parts of the state. We are so lucky to have so many great state parks in Minnesota. Since 2021 when I joined the clubs I have been to 33 parks. 

Next, we went to Upper Sioux Agency State Park which was the reason for our day's adventures. Upper Sioux Agency is transferring the land back to the Upper Sioux Community and closing the park to the public. 

Below is a little information on why it is being returned to its rightful owners. 

2023 legislation directs the Department of Natural Resources to transfer Upper Sioux Agency State Park (USASP) lands to the Upper Sioux Community. The Upper Sioux Community has had a longstanding request to the State of Minnesota to return the land at Upper Sioux Agency State Park, given the extraordinary significance of the land to the Community. This land is the site of starvation and death of Dakota people during the summer of 1862, when the U.S. Government failed to provide food promised to the Dakota by treaty.

DNR is moving forward with the process of transferring the land at Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Upper Sioux Community, which requires closing the park. The park will be open to the public through Feb. 15, 2024 and close on Feb. 16, 2024. Beginning on Feb. 16, there will be no public access to the park. Closure of the park at this time is necessary to allow the DNR to remove park infrastructure prior to the land transfer, which is expected to occur in mid-March.

We pulled into the park right at sunset and hiked most of the trail in the dark. We were greeted by coyotes howling all around us as soon as we started to hike. I am not a big fan of coyotes they always scare me a little. But I had to admit it was pretty cool hearing them as we moved through their territory. We were the only people in the park as we moved along on the trail. 

The sunset was just so beautiful. Mother Nature was so very kind to us all day. 

As you can see it got very dark out as we hiked along. 

But what a show Mother Nature gave us in the dark. The stars were out in all their glory. 

I cannot even describe the joy and peace I felt looking up and seeing all the stars. It was just so beautiful. 

It was just amazing. 

It was a perfect day. I got to spend time with people that I love. I got to spend a day in nature and I found peace and joy. 

Get out and find some nature....

Sharon 

"Elephants and grandchildren never forget." -Andy Rooney

 Since moving into the new house, we had our first overnight with the grandkids. It was fun to have a house full of kids for a night. Larina and Nash were supposed to come over last weekend but the snowstorm hit so it was delayed a week. Larina was so excited to come over to play in the snow because she had hardly any snow at her house. I sent a photo of the drift we had in our backyard to all the grandkids and once Oliver saw it he also wanted to come over to build snow tunnels in them. And with Oliver comes Eli. It was so fun to see how well the boys played and interacted with Larina and Nash. Such good kids. 

On Friday afternoon I took Oliver home with me after school. But first, we had to make a stop at Walmart to pick out A LOT of fun, junk food for the the night. Nash and Larina arrived next around 4:00. Eli had play practice so he was not able to come until 5:00 when Rick picked him up.  

Of course, the weather turned bitterly cold this week but as soon as Larina and Nash arrived they along with Oliver headed out. It was a chilly 4-degree out with 15 mph winds. 

Nash had enough of the cold after about 10 minutes and came in to warm up by the fake fireplace. Oliver and Larina made it about 30 minutes. 

Side note: we love our little electric fireplace and we are sad that our new carpet has not been installed yet. Also since we don't have a date for the carpet installation we have not painted the living room either.

Nash and I had some snuggle time. 

 After Eli's arrival and supper was done Grandpa made everyone some popcorn and we had a Star Wars marathon. 

The kids woke up to even colder temperatures on Saturday morning! So as they waited for it to warm up they did a lot of playing. Larina loves to color so out came the coffee can of color crayons that my kids made me take from my Mom's house. They said they had so many memories of that can of crayons and the Grandkids should have memories of it too. 

You are never too old to play with Fisher-Price toys! They spent at least 3 hours playing with them. 

It finally warmed up to a balmy 3 degrees so we all bundled up and headed outside. It was not windy so it was really not too bad out as long as you kept moving. 

I think in every picture I took with Oliver in it while outside he had his eyes closed. Maybe they were frozen shut 😂

It was a successful weekend at Nana and Grandpa's house. I had fun playing with the kids in the house and outside. 

Grandkids are the best...

Sharon