"Your home should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love." -Nate Berkus

 When we purchased this house we knew it had a history of water damage. Knowing that one of the first things we did was have American Water Works come in and do a lot of work. We had a new beaver system put in and one sub-pump was replaced by three with a battery backup. It was a huge mess when the job was being done but it was worth it! With all of the rain and flooding we have gotten over the past month, we have not had a drop of water in the basement. The basement was an empty slate just waiting for us to make it our own. Once the water prevention work was done it was our turn to get to work. 

This is a picture of the channel the workers had to jackhammer out for part of the new beaver system. 

I wish I had taken more pictures of the basement when we moved in but life was pretty hard for us when we first moved in, so no photos were taken. 

Here are a few pictures that I took during the construction. As you can see it is a room that runs the length of the whole house. 

The previous owners had the walls braced after it had been flooded. After the walls were fixed, they had spray foam insulation installed. That is all the white that you see on the walls.  We removed the tile on the floor before the beaver system was put in. 

The next big decision we had to make was how we wanted to use the space. We went back and forth on what would work best and finally, after much debate, we had a plan. 

We sectioned the room off for a living space and a workout room. 

Under the staircase was a storage room with a tiny doorway into the laundry room. It was such a wasted space. We have a huge storage room on the other side of the basement. So after much talking Rick into it, the space under the stairs became a reading nook. 

The sheetrock getting installed. 

I won't lie, Rick did 90% of the work in the basement. The photo above happened when Rick asked me to help him put up a piece of sheetrock. I may have dropped it on the floor smashing the corner. 

Installing the flooring. 

Otis decided that this space was going to be his. 

So here you have it, The finished basement. 

This is the game area. We had this little table in our old house. It makes the perfect game table. 

And this is my pride and joy! I am so happy with how it turned out. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am an avid reader. So this space brings me so much joy. 

Cassie and I were estate sale shopping and I came across this shelf. I knew it would be perfect. I have a little bit of our parents on the shelves. The glasses are my Dad's, the baby shoes are Rick's Dad's and of course, the picture is of my Mom when she was a teenager. The little blue bird was my Grandma Becker's and I made the cornhusk doll when I was a child. So many memories on the shelf 💕

Lastly is the workout room. 

I like to call this our wall of fame 😄

Everything turned out so good. Every evening when we make our way downstairs I look around and I am instantly relaxed and filled with joy. Rick worked so hard to bring it all together. I was full of ideas and he made them all come true. 

I am so lucky...

Sharon 

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life last. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." -Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962

 

We had our first summer camping trip the first week of June. We went up to Rice MN for the MSAA State Target and 50-meter shoots extended the trip for a couple more days and visited some State Parks. 

We started our trip at Twin Rivers Campgrounds in Royalton, MN. I picked it because it was about 9 miles from the shot venue. Twin Rivers is an RV park/campground. If you are a family with kids you would love it. They have tubing, mini golf, a pool, and a huge bounce pad. It is not the kind of campground that I would usually pick. Overall we had a good experience while staying there. 

We had a very nice campsite right on the Mississippi River. Rick was very excited that he could do a little shoreline fishing. 

Enjoying the river view. 

Rick did awesome at the shoots, placing on both days. 

 Morgan was happy to spend the day sleeping in my shirt rather than watch Rick shoot. 

On Sunday after Rick finished shooting we made our way to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. When I was trying to decide which park we should go camping at next I almost picked Kathio. I am so glad I did not! We stopped there on our way to our final destination to hike the hiking club trail and check the park out. I am not a mosquito baby, I live in Minnesota so we all know that if it is summer we have mosquitos. But l think this is the worst place I have ever been for mosquitos! 

When I put on my bug tamer jacket Rick made fun of me. He asked if I was expecting armageddon. Well after about a half mile into the trail, I was the one who was not getting eaten alive by mosquitos.  

The trail was pretty with lots of hills. 

We saw a couple swans in one of the many ponds along the trail. 

We hiked the trail in record time. Even the dogs were moving along fast. 

We would like to go back and explore the park but not until after the first frost....

Next, we were on to our final destination for the trip, Father Hennepin State Park Father Hennepin is right on Malle Lacs Lake. 

When we got to the park and I checked in I told the women in the office that we had just come from Kathio State Park and had done the hiking club trail. Her response was oh that's a hard trail and the mosquitos are awful there because of all the swampy land in the park. It really made me laugh. 

The park has two campgrounds, one on the lake and one a short way away from the lake.  When we got to our site we realized that it was very uneven. We tried and tried to level the van but it was not going to happen. By then we were both tired and hungry so we just parked it for the night and decided we would deal with it in the morning. 

Once we got settled in we discovered the wood tics 😬 The dogs were covered with them from our earlier hike.  I am not exaggerating when I say we picked at least 30 of them off of the dogs!!! They were everywhere! Rick also found several on him. I did not find a single one on me. But I figured my bug tamer jacket helped and I had sprayed myself with Deet before we went on our hike. 

Poor Otis had had enough of us pulling tics off of him. Every time I looked I would find another one. Thank goodness I had treated the dogs with Frontline for the last two months so I knew the tics we did not find would die. I was more concerned with them making their way onto Rick and me. 

Well, morning came and I was tic-free and found another 10-15 dead tics in the van. 

We had some breakfast and then got on our bikes and biked back to the park office. The wonderful DNR worker let us change sites. 

We went from an electric site to a non-electric site but we were fine with that because we were now right by the lake. It was a great site. And best of all we had little to no mosquitos. We have discovered that we can get along just fine with no electricity for a few days. We have solar panels to charge everything up in the camper. If we need to use something like the microwave we can fire up the generator. We try not to use the generator because it is noisy and I hate to bother others in the campgrounds. 

We had so much fun over the next two days. We did some hiking, biking, fishing and best of all relaxing. 

So even with all of our troubles on the trip, we had a great time. You just have to laugh it off when something doesn't go as planned. In the end, we ended the trip in a wonderful park and in a site with the best view of the lake. We had so much fun just being together and enjoying nature. 

On to the next adventure...

Sharon 

"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else" —Fred Rogers

 After six wonderful years working in the DCD room at the Waseca High School, I walked out the door on May 31st for the last time. 

After retiring from Carleton College in 2018 I knew I would get another job. I had always thought being a paraprofessional would be fun so I started applying. When I got hired I was super excited.

On my first day, I thought "Oh boy what did I get myself into! But by the end of the day, I knew I had found the job I had been looking for my whole life. 

Working with the students in our room has brought me so much joy. Even on the tough days I still came home knowing that my coworkers and I were making a difference in their lives. 

Coworkers....I don't even know where to begin.  

LuAnn Ross has been the best teacher and leader of the classroom that any of us could ever ask for. She guided me from my very first day until my last day. I never could have become the Para that I was without her. Not only was she my teacher but she became a friend. 

Over the six years working in the classroom, we have had many Para's come and go. We have had so much fun. How can I ever forget Ali M and Alli L. They brought so much fun and craziness to the classroom every day. The students loved them. And Kari, she was my first partner. She taught me all the basics of being a Para, and I needed to be taught everything. Tanya was so kind to me when I walked in the door with a deer-in-headlights kind of look. She was the first one to talk to me and make me feel welcome. LuAnn assigned Shelly and me with our students 5 years ago and we became a great team. She has been my partner in crime, confidant, and friend. We got so we just had to look at each other from across the room and we would know what the other one needed. We worked with some very challenging students over the years and we not only survived it but helped our students thrive and learn. I never would have made it without her. 

All of my coworkers/friends were so kind to me when my mom was sick and when she died. I don't think I could have gotten through it without their support. 

I talked a big game when it came to retiring. I had a countdown on my phone and calendar. I would remind everyone just how much time I had left. But really it was hard to leave. The last week the thought of leaving my students was so hard. I cried so much that last day saying goodbye to them. Really, in the end, it was the students that taught me so much. Every smile, every frown in frustration, every high-five, every hug, every achievement even if it was the smallest of things. That is what it was all about. 

People would often say to me "I have to be a special person to work in the DCD room." But what I say is I have had the greatest privilege to work with each and every one of my students. 

Time to relax and begin the next adventure....

Sharon