" I told you the Prius was a chick magnet....." -Paul Fay

  I am so behind on my blog! As you can see I have been very busy. I have been watching Eli and Josie when Liam has T-ball on Monday's and Wednesday for an hour if I am not working. It has been fun to have them over to play. It was nice for Amy too so she does not have to run after Eli and can actually watch Liam play.                                   

                                        Josie said I had to take her picture with her babies

     On the 14th we went Abbie and Patrick's wedding. They had a beautiful outdoor wedding.                                                 

       Theresa, Erica and I went up to Minneapolis to see War Horse.  I was a little worried about the play since I had read the book and loved it and had seen the movie and hated it. I am very happy to say that the play was very good! It was fun to be out with the Theresa and Erica again  and catch up. We don't do it enough...                                                                      

    We took off for Detroit Lakes on Thursday. We stayed at a wonderful campgrounds called Country Campgounds   I think it is the cleanest campgrounds I have ever stayed in. The owners were very nice and were there for your every need. It was also a very quiet, which is very nice. Thursday evening we went out for supper with some archery friends that live in Detroit Lakes. We ate at the Bridge Marina Bar and Grill. We thought it would be nice to eat on the deck since it was so nice out. It was all going good until a big ass army worm fell on me! As we all know I have a worm phobia. Needless to say it was not a good thing. I am pretty sure the whole restaurant heard me scream.
We got back to the campgrounds just in time for the storms hit. We had some pretty bad storms come through. We got 4 inches of rain and very high winds.  
Friday we just relaxed. We did a little fishing and checking out Detroit Lakes. Friday evening Rick did a little practicing for the MSAA State Target shoot and visiting with all our archery friends.                                                

      Saturday and Sunday was the big shoot. They had 124 shooters this year. Saturday was a pretty nice day, well it did not rain for the shoot but was pretty windy. Ric shot well in Saturday ending in 4th place for the day.

     Sunday was a whole new day for shooting. It started out raining A LOT. I was very happy that I was not shooting. When if finally stopped raining the winds came. I don't know how anybody was even able to hit the target. But they managed to finish the shoot.

                                                                            Sisters

     Monday we had to say goodby to Uncle Joe. He lost his battle with lung cancer last week. He will be missed by us all........

                       Monday was Eli's second birthday. Rick and I gave him the little mortised car. He was so excited when he saw it and all excited when he got on it. He pushed the button to make it move and was smiling away and then he could not figure out that he need to take his finger off the button to make it stop and got scared and stated to cry. It was pretty funny. He wanted to be on it so bad but then would get scared. He finally figured it out and was able to enjoy the car :)

So there you have it almost two weeks of blog catch up!
Later
Sharon

A little bit of this and a little bit of that......

 As a treat to myself I got the above necklace from Origami Owl Cassie's friend started selling them and when I saw Cassie's I really liked it. You can design anything you want in the locket. Mine has the birthstones from my three girls and from the four grandchildren. I can add more stones to it when when I get more grandchildren. I think it is really pretty and I can wear it with just about anything. Check out Katie's web site

 This winter Walmart had mint plants for sale so I got one since I love to put mint in my tea. I put it out on the deck this spring and it has been going crazy. I have more mint then I know what to do with! Pretty soon I am going to have to move it to a bigger pot.

 Two years ago Adam gave me some Iris plants for my garden. Last year they got huge but never got any flowers on them. This year they have a ton! I am so happy to see them, they are so pretty and really add some nice color to my  rock garden. I had to cut one and bring it in the house because it was so heavy that it tipped over.

 Since Morgan likes to eat my sheets I had a couple with big holes in. So instead of throwing them away I gave them to Christa and she made me this rug out of them. It is perfect under my reto kids chair. She is making some beautiful rugs now and selling them at her Esty shop She has some super cute new things.

 Poor Dexter has a bad foot again! Last week he stated licking it again like crazy and I knew it was no good. Today he went to the vet for his sassy new hair cut and to get all his shots. He is back on antibiotics again for his foot. Hopefully this time it gets better. They gave us a different antibiotic then he was on last time and he is going to be on it for a longer time. If it does not get better this time they are going to have to lance it again. I sure hope that does not happen since last time they did it he was so sad. I think it was very painful since they even gave him a shot for the pain. At least he looks good :) 

Morgan and Dexter on full alert checking out the neighbors dog Charlie.


We finally got some heat today! It feels good. I managed to get the lawn cut today. Rick did the front just 3 days ago and it already looked bad. It is growing so fast we can hardly keep up with it. I cut it shorter then Rick does. He does not like it when I do it but it looks so much nicer when it is shorter and then I don't have to do it as often.

Today I went to the dentist for my cleaning. I have two teeth that have been giving me pain for awhile. Both have crowns on them. The dentist figures that they have cracked under the crown and caused root damage. I have to go back to the dentist on Thursday so he can do some more testing. The one is over 20 years old and a couple years ago it had a cavity on the bottom of the crown. He said it may be that decay has gotten under the crown. We will see what they find out on Thursday.   Hopefully I do not need two root canal's.

Get out and enjoy the sun, we don't see it often....
Later Sharon 

Rhubarb Muffins

Since it is rhubarb season I thought I would share my recipe for Rhubarb Muffins. I have made them several times and they are always very tasty. So here you go:

Nutty Rhubarb Muffins
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use Olive Oil)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped nuts
 Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a small mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla; mix well. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add egg mixture; stir just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Spoon the batter into 12 greased or lined muffin cups. Mix together topping ingredients; sprinkle over tops of muffins.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until muffins test done.
Yield: 1 dozen


Another recipe I like to make with rhubarb is Rhubarb Crisp so here is the recipe for that:

Rhubarb Crisp 
1 cup flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups diced rhubarb

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix first 5 ingredients together until crumbly. Press half into greased 9x13 pan. Add rhubarb. Combine sugar and cornstarch in a small sauce pan, mix in water gradually, cook over low heat, stirring constantly until clear and thick. Stir in Vanilla. Pour over rhubarb. Top with the rest of the crumbs.
Bake at 350 for one hour.

Enjoy
Sharon 

Let the yard work begin!

                                               The picnic table before painting it

                                                   The picnic table after painting it

                                                         The swing before and after pictures

                                                         The mosquitoes are here.......

                                                            The leaves are finally gone!

              Here is a picture of my new bow. It is not set up yet and still has the factory strings on it. I will take a picture of it when it is all done. I am excited to shoot it! 

 Sunday Rick thought it would be a good day to try and get the antenna up on the roof. We get only one radio station in at our house so we decided to put a antenna up so we could get more. Also Rick has a TV in his shop that is not hooked up to the dish so he wants to hook it up to the antenna too. Rick even got me up on the roof so I could help him install it. We got it up and got some of the cable  down to the house but then we ran into a little trouble when Rick was drilling the holes through the wall in the garage. So now we have to get a new drill bit that is long enough to get through the wall. At least the antenna is on the roof.

I finally got the picnic table and swing painted! I was sick of the old dull brown so I went with a little color. I love them! Of course we may never be able to use them since the mosquitoes are thick. Every step I took in the yard they flew up. It is going to to a bad year with all the rain we have gotten.

Monday I went for a run and I am very sad to say that my ITBS is back. It never really gos away but it has not been bad for a few years. After I ran on Monday it was BAD. It did not help that after running I did  a ton of yard work and was up and down stairs all day. I really hope it gets better soon.

I finally am done getting rid of all the leaves in our yard from last fall. It is an endless job. There was still a huge amount of them in the area where we have the door out of the basement. It is such a bad area for everything to collect. We were going to do some landscaping this year and make it a nicer, usable area but then we bought the camper so it is going to have to wait until next summer. Hopefully we will be able to make the porch that is off the basement door fixed up this year. We did get a new screen door put on this spring so at least the chipmunks cannot get into it anymore. We are also going to replace some of the windows on the three season porch and use the old window on the basement porch. Once we get those in and get everything painted it will look much better. 

Christa brought me some rhubarb the other day so yesterday I made some rhubarb crisp and some rhubarb muffins. They both are very good! Look for my blog in the next couple of days with some recipes.

Later Sharon