2:24 A.M.

                                                 Christa getting her pattern cut out.

                                                             Amy sewing her pajama pants

So for the last week or so I have been waking up every morning at exactly 2:24. It is starting to creep me out. Now I keep thinking something bad is going to happen at 2:24 a.m. Of course the more I think about it the harder it is to get back to sleep.....

On Friday night Rick and  I joined Amy, Adam, Josie and Adam's mom at Liam's talent show. It is for kindergartners though 3rd grade. Liam's teacher had his whole class sing a cute little song. When we got there they give you a program and it said there was 34 acts. My fist thought was that we were going to be there all night. Thank goodness they limited them all to about 2 minutes so it went pretty fast. Some of the acts were pretty cute. Liam was very excited that Rick and I came.

Yesterday Amy and Christa came over for a little sewing lesson. Amy made a couple pairs of pajama pants for herself and Liam. She did pretty good other then sewing the legs together wrong on the first try :) She also wanted to make Josie a Easter dress but we ran out of time. She got it cut out and is going to come over on Thursday night so I can help her.   Christa wanted to make a dress for Easter and learn how to sew in a zipper so her project took a little longer. We were not sure what size to make for her and since sewing patterns tend to run small I told her to go one size up from her measurements. Huge mistake! The dress ended up being way to big for her. I took in the sides but it was still to big. I was so upset that told her to make the wrong size. I think I can get it fixed but we will have to take a lot of it apart. At least we had not done the neck and sleeves yet so that will make it a little easier to fix. I should have know better then to have her make it all up without really trying it on her. She did do a good job on the sewing so that is a good thing.

I am going to have a busy week getting ready for Easter. Last night Rick and I went to Hyvee and picked up the ham. Now I have to get the store sometime this week and get everything else. To bad I have to work the next 4 days. Well 3 if you don't count today.

I have parking updates to get done this week since the students start coming back on Friday. So I guess I better get to it.

Later Sharon

Fee fi fo fum. Ask not whence the thunder comes. For between Heaven and Earth is a perilous place. Home to a fearsome giant race.

                                                                             Easter Napkins

                                         Rick putting up shelf's in the office closet

It was a very nice weekend and I am sad that it is done. I got lots of things done and I had time to relax too. I got all of my napkins made for Easter and I got three scarfs made too. It is so much nicer sewing in my sewing room now. It is the first time I have used it since it was done. I am thinking I need a new sewing project soon.....

Rick thought we should go to a movie on Saturday so we went to Owatonna and saw Jack the Giant Slayer. When he asked if I wanted to see it I thought we should take Liam to it, but then I decided not to. I am really glad I did not since it was pretty scary for a kid. Okay it might have been a little scary for me too. I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5. It was pretty good.

After the movie I made Rick stop at Lowes so we could get some shelf's for the office closet. Since we are using it for an office and not a bedroom the closet was really wasted. Now I will be able to put all of our office stuff in it. I also got lots of paint samples. It is the last room in the house that needs to be finished. I just want it done. Of course like always we cannot agree on what color to paint or what to do to the walls. Rick wants to do a venetian plaster on them. I hope to have it done before Easter but that is most likely not going to happen.

I had a crazy dream the other night that the FBI was after Rick and I was trying to figure out how I could help him escape. It was funny and dumb.... I was debating if I should take the dogs to Amy's house or if I would have room for them and there dog food in the car. And of course I had to take all three cases of my emergency water! I guess I thought we would get thirsty in our escape. Good thing I woke up to find that the FBI was not after Rick and he was home with me :)

Later Sharon

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. Benjamin Franklin

I was looking for a happy quote today and found the one above and thought it was a good one so I figured I better share a picture of some wine.

I have not been up to much the last few days. I decided to take Wed. off of work after the funeral on Tuesday. It was just so sad and I was exhausted. Since I can have up to three days off and it was a day when we had double coverage all day I took it off. I was glad I did. I slept till almost 8:30 on Wed. morning.

I decided that I would host Easter this year for the Becker family. I have never hosted Easter so I am kind of excited. I really hope that the snow melts and it gets a little warmer before then so we can have an Easter egg hunt outside. Since I am having people here I decided that I better have a few Easter decorations. So I started with these jars...

I think they turned out pretty cute. I just use left over paint that I had around the house. The dark blue one got a little messy because I was talking to Cassie on the phone while I was doing it, maybe not the smartest thing to do. I planted some houseplants in them. I figured they will outgrow them pretty fast but they look cute now so I don't care.

Yesterday I went to Owatonna and ordered myself another pair of glasses. I really like the ones I got month or so ago but they are so fragile that I am afraid I am going to break them when we go camping etc. So I got myself a little more sturdy pair. I figure glasses are like shoes....you can never have enough.
While I was in Owatonna I stopped at Kohls because the bathroom rugs we had were falling apart. And agains since I am hosting Easter I wanted to have the bathroom look nice. Well I went for rugs and came out with a whole new bathroom set. Yep I got a new shower curtain, rugs. towels and toothbrush holder. I had to because it was all on sale and I had an extra 20% off and a $10.00 gift card for my birthday. So how could I say no. Rick even said it was a good improvement and really brightens the bathroom up.
Lastly I stopped at Walmart and got some Easter fabric so I can make some cloth napkins for Easter. I figured I would have cloth napkins since we are going to use paper plates :)

Oh I almost forgot that yesterday was a an exciting day because I got tickets for Jane and myself to go to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in June. I got us excellent seats because I got them on the pre-sale. It pays to sign myself up on all those radio stations and venue pages for emails. It is not very often that I cannot get pre sale tickets to what every I want to see. It should be lots and fun, Jane and I are both excited to have a fun girls night out.

Today I figure I better get the laundry done and get the house clean so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend. I guess I might even cook supper :)

Lastly I have to mention that today would have been my Grandma's 92nd birthday. So Happy Birthday Grandma, I hope you are celebrating with Grandpa by your side.

Later Sharon

"All that lives, lives forever. Only the shell, the perishable passes away. The spirit is without end. Eternal. Deathless" -Nate-Six Feet Under

Today I lost my Grandma. 41 days ago Grandpa left this world and now Grandma went to join him up in heaven. God is lucky to have them both.

Grandma Trenda was a great grandma. I have so many memories of being with her as a child. She was always out in the audience when we had those Dress Reviews for 4-H. Grandma was a excellent seamstress and she passed it on to her daughter who in turn passed it on to me. I think she enjoyed watching us in the Dress Reviews and seeing how her talent had gotten passed down.

We spent so many Sundays at Grandma and Grandpa's farm to visit with everyone. Grandma always had a great supper made for us. And every time no mater what day it was Grandma always had kolaches  for us. No one can make a kolachy like Grandma could.

Grandma was such a hard worker. She worked in the drapery department in Ochs department store in Faribault for many many years. After school when I was young we use to walk downtown and go sit with Grandma at Ochs and visit with her and do our homework until my Mom would pick us up from work. She even got me a job in Ochs one year wrapping Christmas gifts for a few weeks.

Grandma loved to garden. Her and Grandpa spend many many hours out in the garden. She also canned many of the things she grew. She and Grandpa sold many of the vegetables and her famous kolachy's at the farmers market in Northfield. She also got many purple ribbons at the Rice County fair for the open class for all of her vegetables. She was so proud of them. And we were of her. It was always fun to go to the fair with friends and say "look this is my Grandma's,"

Grandma and Grandpa did a lot of traveling and Grandma always brought us a little something back from every trip she took. Even if it was just a shell neckless from Hawaii or a silver dollar from Vegas it did not matter because we knew that Grandma had thought of us on her trip. I still have  many of those things that Grandma gave me.

In resent years Grandma had started to lose her memory. It was hard on everyone when she started to forget who we were, but she never forgot Grandpa, the love of her life. I  think that God decided to end her suffering and reunited her with Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa are now in heaven looking down at all of us, there children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

I love you Grandma and we all will miss you.

Sharon

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." - Hal Borland

It was so nice out yesterday that I thought I would go out and take some pictures of the snow. I wish I had gotten out a little earlier because the trees were all frosty and it was really pretty out. I also wanted to go outside to make some tracks for the dogs to go in. Poor Dexter almost got  buried alive the other day when he ran out to chase a squirrel and forgot that the snow was over his head. He dove in the snow and ran until he could not be seen anymore. I was just about to go rescue him when he managed to get himself out. Needless to say both dogs were happy to have some tracks to run around in again.

Yesterday was day for me to very grateful for my daughter Christa. She came down to my house and spend the whole day making a facebook page for Rick for R-Strings and Cables. We were going to do a web page too but Rick decided to wait on it since he is already super busy making strings. So since we did not make a web page for him I asked Christa to help me make one for the Waseca Archery Club. We had one already but it was a free one and it was not very good. It had very little storage and the web address was stupid. So Christa was super good and made the whole web site up for me. I won't even try to take any credit for it. It is much nicer then the old one and much easier to update. Please go check it out: http://www.wasecaarchery.org/  And if you are on Facebook make sure you like the R-Strings and Cable page  Christa did a super job on the pictures for it. I told her from now on I would just email my pictures to her and she can edit them.

Since Christa and Oliver were going to be here for supper I had to cook. So I made BBQ beer chicken sandwiches  They were soooooo good and so easy to make. Amy and the kids  and Jese also came over for supper. I will defiantly  be making them again.

I am going to end with a quote  today......

" Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away" - George Carlin

Later
Sharon

"There are all sorts of losses people suffer-from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more then just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion." -Jodi Picoult The Storyteller

I just finished reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. She is  a good author and I have read several of her books. She did not disappoint in her latest book.  The book is about the Holocaust and really about how is still affecting people today. It made me cry when I read it. It is a very powerful book and gives you so much to think about.  I would really recommend this book to everyone. 

I have to say I am not loving all the snow we have been getting the last two days. I am so ready for spring. I was pretty much irate today by the time I got to work. I got behind someone on Hwy 60, which was plowed and in good driving shape that was going 35 mph, there was a line of about 20 cars behind them. I was finally able to get past that person when I got into Faribo. Of course as soon as I got onto Hwy 3, which was also plowed and in good driving shape, I got behind someone that was going 25 mph! I could not believe it! Finally I was able to pass them, alone with several other cars that had been stuck behind him. After we all go pass the person we were able to drive 55 mph with no trouble. Really if you are that afraid to drive on the snow then stay off the roads!!!! Okay I am done ranting.....

Later Sharon