"I had been to visitations before and have been to many since and I've come to understand that there's a good deal of value in the ritual accompanying death. It's hard to say goodbye and almost impossible to accomplish this alone and ritual is the railing we hold to, all of us together, that keeps us upright and connected until the worst is past." -from Ordinary Grace

This is probably one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I cannot recommend it enough. If there is one book that you read this year I would say read Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger  It is a touching story of a family in 1961 and how they deal with the tragedy and death of people they love. It is written through the eyes of a 13 year old boy. The book is so well written it pulls you into the story from the beginning. It made me smile and it made me cry.  I can just not say enough about this beautiful, touching book......

Happy Reading
Sharon   

Camping In Style......

 This is the outdoor kitchen, it also has a gas grill. I could not get a very good picture of it because we parked the camper to close to a tree next to our house so I could not open it up all the way. It will be nice to have everything close when we are grilling!

 This is a view of the sitting area, this is the slide out part on the camper.

 Our entertainment center. The TV can be turned around so we can watch it in the bedroom also. It will be nice for those rainy days. 

 The inside kitchen area. We even have a oven now.

The bedroom, with a queen size bed. 

 The bathroom, kind of hard to take a picture of it but its just a bathroom so you get the idea.

The outside of the camper. It is a 22 foot Puma

I am so excited we finally have moved up from our popup camper! We picked up our new camper last night from Noble RV in Jordon. We have been talking about up grading for awhile, well mostly I have been talking about it. I liked the popup camper most of the time but I wanted something that had a bathroom. No more having to get dressed and go across the campgrounds in the middle of the night to use the bathroom! I am also excited to have two refrigerators to keep everything cold. It was a pain to have such a small fridge in the popup that hardly anything fit in it and having to keep ice in the cooler all the time to keep everything else cold.

So now we are going to go camping in style! I cannot not wait to go on our first camping trip. We have two trips planed already for the summer and are looking at least two more. It will be a fun summer!

Later Sharon 

Weekend getaway....

                  Rick trying to get his sight marks at 40, 50 and 60 yards in the snow and cold

                  Rick shooting at the NFAA Dakota Classic in Yankton South Dakota

Rick decided that he want to shoot the NFAA Dakota Classic 600 round in Yankton after finding out about it while we were in Vegas. The shoot has been around for years but it has always been shot outside. Well this year they decided to hold it in the NFAA's building at there headquarters since the weather in April can be pretty cold out. It was a good decision since it was only in the 30's and snowing!
Rick signed up for the 4:30 line on Saturday so we did not leave Waseca until 9:00. It is just over 4 hours away. Since the weather has not been very good he has not been able to practice shooting at 40, 50 and 60 yards. He did very good getting a 584 22X the first day and 583 26X the second day. He ended up in 8th place for Freestyle flights. He was pretty happy with that considering how little practice he had.
It was a fun but quick getaway. Rick shot the 7:30 line on Sunday so we were on the road back home by 11:00.
So we were just an hour or so into our trip home when we stopped for a treat break. Rick heard a squeal coming from the car. After driving for a couple blocks we decided that we better pull over and figure out what it was. It was coming from the back tire and Rick figured it was the break. Since we were still 3 hours from home and it was a Sunday we decided to just keep driving and hope the break did not seize up on us. We made it home and stopped at our local gas station/repair shop. The kid working came out and took a look at the break and said it was not that bad. So we figured it would be fine for me to drive to work. Also the squeal had stopped. After work yesterday I took it to Toyota in Mankato and dropped it off for them to take a look at it. So he calls me this morning to say that the repair guy had looked at it and said he could not believe I had made it to there without the break seizing up on me. He said I was very luck. I had to laugh as I told him that we had driven it from South Dakota like that. He said that the brake caliper had seized up and had wore through the brake pad and ruined the rotor. The good news is it is still under warranty so we only have to pay for the brake pads. I was very happy to hear that! So now I am without a car until tomorrow. Good thing I did not have anywhere to go today.

Tomorrow is going to be exciting day! We are picking up our new toy.......

Later Sharon

Living in the bubble

I was a news junky. I read the newspaper from cover to cover everyday, I read CNN on the computer and watched the local news and national news at least once a day. I had several news stations booked marked on my computer and went to them at least once a day. I read Time Magazine and any other news magazine I got my hands on.  Then a few years ago I stopped watching the news on TV. It was just so sad. Nine out of ten stories were about war, some tragic death or how bad the economy is. It seemed like they rarely had a happy story. Then I stopped reading the news papers other then our local news paper. I still get Time magazine but find that I hardly look at it. I will look at CNN about once a week but again I am always struck by how sad most of the stories are.

So I have been living in a news bubble. It was a pleasant place, I could pretty much just pretend the world was a happy place and there was not war and killings going on everyday.

Well on Monday the news hit me in the face. I was just so sad to hear about the bombing at the Boston Marathon. It just hit so close to home. The girls and I have done several races and some of them very big races with lots and lots of people at them. I know how you much time you put into training and how crossing that finish line is such huge deal. It is suppose to be a happy thing. Now this horrible person has ruined it for all of those people and there families.  I just cannot understand how anyone could do something so bad. What makes someone so bitter and full of hate that they would set a bomb off with no concern of who they are going to kill and hurt. I hope they catch the person that is responsible and I hope he pays for all the pain he has caused. But even that will never be enough for what he has taken away from all the families that were there running the race or just there to support the runners. It just makes me sad.....

So I am going to go back to living in my bubble. I am going to pretend that it safe to go where I want and do what I want without worrying that some crazy person is going to do to me or the people I love harm. It is okay to enjoy life and not dwell on all the heartache in the world. I will not live in fear.  It is what I need to do. We all need to show these crazy, full of hate, bitter people that they cannot stop us. We will go on and we will live to run another race......

Living in the bubble
Sharon

Bad Puppy Mommy....

I am a bad puppy Mommy. Dexter has been licking his foot like crazy. Now he always licks his feet because he has allergies so I did not pay much attention to it when he started to lick one more the he normally does. Just over a weeks ago we came home and Dexter had blood all over his foot. He would not let me get near it but I could not really see any cut or anything on it. I figured he must have had a small cut on it and because he was licking at it that it had started to bleed. Well he would not leave it alone and some days it look just fine and others it looked a little swelled up. It was hard to see since he had so much fur on it and he was not letting me really get a good look at it.
Well yesterday he had his regular grooming appointment at the vet, so I asked them to have a look at it. When I came to pick him up they told me he had an abscessed toe. Poor Dexter did not have a good day. They said that the vet shaved off most of the fur on his toes and cleaned and drained it. They also gave him a shot for pain and a shot of antibiotics. He has to be on antibiotics for 10 days. I guess it was not good when they were working on his foot. I am glad I was not there when they doing it, I would have been in tears. I felt so bad that I did not take him in right away.  He was so sad when he got home. Hopefully this takes care of it and it gets all better.

Later Sharon

Concert Etiquette......

On Sunday Rick and I went to see Bon Jovi. The kids had given us tickets for our Christmas gift. I was of course super excited to go since I love Bon Jovi! Rick is not an uber fan like I am so he was not nearly as excited. Anyhow we got in our seats and when the concert started everyone  stood up like always for the first song. Then everyone pretty much sat down. That is everyone but the women sitting next to me! She was dancing around and sticking her butt in my face and almost hitting me with her hand as she was dancing. I figured she would sit down but on no! She turned around to the people behind us and said she was sorry she was standing but she just could not sit down. I was so pissed. She stood up the whole concert and never stopped moving. As you can guess she was drunk. It really ruined my enjoyment of the  concert as I had to keep moving over so I could see and to avoid getting hit. The girls said that I should have said something to her but I did not because I know how drunk people get and I figured she would just get worse if I said anything to her. After her statement to the people behind us I knew that she did not care what anyone thought. At least after awhile she moved over so she could dance with her friend that she was with so I had a little more room to see.
Other then that the concert was great. Bon Jovi never disappoints! He sang for 3 hours and did a great  selection of his songs.

We did not get home until 1:00 so I was super tired today. I did not have to work today but I had to get up early because I had a bra fitting appointment with the girls. Yep  you read that right, a bra fitting. We have been hearing about this store called Allure. They do bra fittings and help you find a bra that actually fits right. Almost all women are not wearing the right bra size. They have bra's in about every size that is out there. All of us found out that we were wearing the wrong size bra. I knew I was but I am  never able to find the size I need. I was so happy to find a couple that were my size and fit me! The sales women the store was so helpful. She did not have a lot of bras for me to choose from in my size but told me that if I call in ahead  next time I want to come in they will order some bras in my size to try on. I don't think you will get that service anywhere else. I will go back next time I need a bra.  So girls go there at get yourself a good fitting bra!

I guess I will end my post now, after all what else can you ask for in a blog besides Bon Jovi and bra fittings.....

Later Sharon

Zombies, Easter Eggs and Deer

                                                My Zombie Birthday Cake

                                            Rick helping color the Easter Eggs

 All the kids running around the yard looking for the Easter Eggs full of candy as the adults looked on

                                     Liam dashing around looking for eggs

                      Oliver laughing at his Uncle Nick making faces at him

            All of looking at the treasures Grandma Becker brought for us to check out

         One of the two deer that came up into the yard in the middle of the afternoon for a snack

                        Eli put himself into the dog kennel, he thought he was pretty funny

 This is Amy and she did the most shocking thing on Easter Sunday. Yes that right she DID THE DISHES!!!!!!!

What a great weekend! It was my 51st birthday on Saturday. We went to New Richland for lunch with Ricks mom and most of the Rugroden family. Rick surprised me by having Jese and Christa make me a birthday cake. Since he knows how much I love reading zombie books and watching the Walking Dead he had them make a zombie cake. Jese did a great job on it. I think it was the best birthday cake I have ever had!

Sunday was of course Easter. Rick and I hosted the Becker family. It all went very good. I think everyone had a good time. It was so cold and windy out but we held the Easter Egg hunt outside anyhow. The kids had lots of fun running around trying to find the 100 plus eggs Rick and I hid in the morning. Monday morning I found two that they missed, I wonder how many more I will find.....We all ate too much food and I am really wishing that everyone would have ate just a little more candy since I seem to have over bought for the eggs. Now I have a bowl full of candy that is always calling my name!

I was happy that I had Monday and Tuesday off too. Yesterday I was sitting in the office when I looked out the window I saw two deer just walking up to the bird feeder. I know they are up there at night but I don't usually see them in the middle of the day. I was able to take a couple of pictures before the dogs spotted them and started barking and they ran away.

Today I ran to Menards with Rick and got a new screen door for the basement porch. We are also going to order a new sliding glass door for the three season porch. We looked at Menards and did not like any of them. I think we are going to order one from the lumber yard. That is where we got our windows and we like them.

Tomorrow it is back to work for me. It is going to be a busy day since the students came back from spring break over the weekend. I will have lots of parking updates to take care of.

I am looking forward to the 50 degree day they promised for tomorrow. When I get home from work Rick and I are going to try and go for a run or maybe even a bike ride. I am excited to get back outside working out!

Later Sharon