Painting, moving and babysitting.....

Finally after 7 months I was able to use my gift certificate to have my car detailed. It looks like a new car again. My seats were so dirty. Hopefully I can keep them clean for awhile. I think I am going to put a seat cover on the back seat so when the grandkids get in it they do not get it so dirty. 

Sunday Rick and I went down to the club to do a little painting. The fair board had the Sentence To Serve people come in and paint right before the fair. We wanted to have one wall painted halfway up with a different color and the rest done in white. Well I am not sure who picked out the color but it was pretty much the worse brown/tan color I have ever seen. And then they only put one coat on so it looked so bad. At least they did most of the white okay. We had two gallons of blue paint so we decided we would take it down and paint over the bad brown.

I think it turned it really good. There is a small shelf that will go right on the paint line. We have to paint over the wood on the shelf because kids over the years have written there names on it. Hopefully if it is painted over that stops happening.

Rick and Paul had put the new wood up on the wall that the bails go on. Rick put some clear varnish on it. It looks much better then the shot up white wall that was there before. Now it is all ready to put the bails back up.

The trim that is up is this brown plastic crap that had paint spots all over it. So I decided that I would paint it the blue that we put on the wall. It is a great improvement from what it looked like before. Now the only thing left to put one more coat of white on one of the walls and cut it in near the trim. Hopefully Rick can get down there this weekend to finish it up.

Monday was moving day for Christa and Jese. I was just going to watch Oliver for them but I ended up helping them move stuff to Fairmont. Christa said they could not fit everything into the two trucks and two trailer. She also had her van full. So I had Amy take my car and I took her van and headed up to New Prague. Christa and I managed to get it all stuffed into the van and we were off. When we got to Fairmont  they were just finishing up cleaning the house so we took Oliver out for some lunch. It was not to easy to empty the vans with Oliver running in and out so Christa did most of the first van. By then Oliver was tried and ready for a nap so we got his bed together and laid him down. We got the second van unloaded and then Rick got there with the first trailer full. Rick, Christa and I got the washer, dryer and freezer down to the basement. Rick realized that the dryer needed to have a different plug in so he ran to the store and got it and changed it out for Jese. By that time the second truck and trailer got there. I helped unload that one too until Oliver woke up from his nap. By that time Oliver had enough of moving so I packed him up and took him back to Waseca with me. 

He was a good boy for me all day yesterday. Unlike naughty Morgan who went on the table and ate Oliver's food right out of his plate. I was not happy with her! Rick said he was surprised to find her alive after I told him the story. Naughty naughty dog!!!
Christa had to go back up to New Prague to sign the papers to sell there house in the afternoon. So she came by and picked up Oliver at 5:00. She tells me Oliver was not happy to have to be in the car again for another long drive.

So today I am back at work. I think I am going to get more rest today then I did on all my days off!

Later Sharon

Shoe Hoarder.......

 

Rick thinks I have a shoe problem. I don't know what he is talking about. I only have 40 pair of shoes, that is not really that many. You always need different shoes for different outfits.  And besides at least a quarter of my shoes were a super good deal so I had to get them.  The other three quarters I am sure I  got good deals on too other wise I would never had bought them :) I even threw two pair away today when I was cleaning up my shoes in my closet. I really had no choice but to throw them away because I had to make room for the three new pair I got last week..... It was Cassie's fault that I got them. She is a bad influence! She has even more shoes then I do.....Yep I am thinking my shoe obsession is all her fault......

Later Sharon 

Ahhhhhh.........

Last weekend Rick and I got away for a little vacation. We went to Beaver Creek Valley State Park . It is such a beautiful area. This was also the first time we took the dogs camping with us. I am very happy to say they did very good.

The dogs got more walks over the weekend then they have had in months. Since we have a big yard I hardly ever walk them. They were very excited to get out and explore someplace new. Dexter loved the water and walked right into the creek whenever he could. Morgan was not so excited to go in the water.

In June they had floods in the park. They just opened the campgrounds back up on July 3. I could not believe how much damage was done. The next few pictures are of the damage that was done around the creek and the walking trails. Several of the trails were closed down because of rock slides and washouts. We had to cross the creek to get to one of the main trails because the bridge was damaged and closed. Good thing the water in the creek was pretty low where we crossed, it went up to my knees in the deepest part where we crossed. The water in the creek is only 44 degrees year round  because it comes from underground. It was soooo cold. The first couple steps would not be to bad but by the time you got to the middle of the creek my feet would go numb. Good thing it was hot out so they warmed up fast.

                                                                Log jams on the creek

                           One of the many bridges that got washed out from the flood.

                                                Our camp site

                      Morgan being naughty putting her head on the table waiting to steal some food!

                                       This is a huge tree that was uprooted from all the rain

We thought we should take a picture of all of us with the timer on the camera. As you can see the first try did not work out so good :)

                             The second try went much better and we got a good picture

             Dexter and Morgan looking out of the camper wishing I would let them out.....

                 This is Dexter after we went on a hike up the West Rim Trail. It was a long uphill trail.He was ready for a nap when we got back.


We got to do lots of trout fishing. Neither Rick or I have ever caught a brown trout before, it was tons of fun. We also got to do a lot of hiking and of course just relaxing. We did not get  the heavy rain that a lot of MN got on Saturday. We just had a light rain on Saturday morning. By noon it was done and we were able to enjoy the day outside.

We got home on Sunday around noon and got the camper all cleaned up and ready for our next trip. To bad it is over a month away.

Later Sharon

How to get a refrigerator in the house......

                                                              Is it going to fit?????

                                                  Well maybe if we take the door off......

                Now that we got it up the stairs the next questions is how do we not scratch the floor......


So we got the new refrigerator on Monday! Rick and I ran to Menard's right after I got home from work and were back home with our brand new, bright, shinny refrigerator by 6:30. Then the adventurer began...

Well pull into the driveway and both of us look at the refrigerator sitting way up high on the truck and think now how are we going to get it down....Rick said we should pull into the yard where we have a dip for drainage into the ditch and that way the tailgate would be even with the ground. I told him I thought it was a dumb idea because we would have to drag it across the lawn then. So we put a ramp up on the tailgate. Well Rick tried to tip it up once we got the dolly on it and realized we were going to need help. So we called Joe and he came right over.Rick and Joe tried to get it rolled onto the ramp and it was not going to happen. It was just to heavy and huge! I then got us some more help and had Paul come over. It was decided that Ricks idea to get it off the truck in the yard was indeed a good idea. I had to admit that I was wrong and he was right.... They were able to roll it right off the truck and then got it across the yard to the front door. And that was when we had our next problem....

We measured everything up and it appeared that it would fit so they tried to get it though the door. It was not going to happen! The handles were sticking out to far. So they backed up and removed the handles  and started to roll it in again...but once again it did not fit....next the front door to the house had to come off. Finally after much twisting and turning it was in the house. Next came the steps.....

Once again we had a fit problem. It just fit past the railing but right at the top of the steps we have a planter that is made of stone and the top stone was sticking out to far so it had to go. Thank goodness it came right off and did not break or make a mess. I guess the cement holding it on since 1974 when it was put in was not doing a whole lot of good :) Finally we had everything in place and they managed get it up the stairs with brute force.

So three hours later we finally had the refrigerator in the house.

Since it is still in the dinning room with the handles off I did not take a picture of it but here is one off the LG site of what it looks like:

 

 Tonight the people who are buying the old refrigerator and coming to pick it up so we should be able to get the new one all put in place and start using it. Hopefully it does not take us three hours to get the old one out....

Later
Sharon

Making Memories......

Josie running into the finish line of the 1 mile race on the 4th of July. Amy is running with her.

                                              Liam and Josie with there medals after finishing the 1 mile race

            Linda, Beth, Amy, Me, Rick, Josie, Eli and Liam after the race. Eli wanted to be in the picture too.

                                             Eli and Amy at our 4th of July picnic

I was lucky this year and had the whole 4th of July weekend off!

Thursday Linda and Beth came over to Waseca and we all went to Clear Lake Park for the 5 mile Freedom walk/run. They also had a one mile kids run/walk and Josie and Liam did it for the first time. Josie wanted Amy to run with her and Liam was going to run by himself. At the last minute Liam asked me to run it with him. It was fun to run it with him. He would take off running as fast as he could then he would stop and walk then he would take off again. I kept trying to get him to pace himself but like almost every little kid there he ran the way he wanted to. It was funny. Liam finished the race in 11:59 and Josie finished it in 13:30. Pretty good times for a 6 and 4 year old. I was happy to be able to run the race with Liam and hope that he has good memories of running one of his very first races with his Nana....

After the kids race, Linda, Beth, Amy, Rick and I did the 5 mile run/walk around the lake. It was Beth's very first race and the longer then she usually walks. We walked/ ran it averaging at 14 minute mile. It was a great way to start the day!

Amy and Adam had us over for supper and a campfire for the 4th. We were going to have it at our house but the mosquitoes were so bad that you cannot even go outside :( Grandma and Grandpa Becker also came over to Amy's house.

Friday Rick had to work part of the day. We are going to go for a bike ride in the afternoon but it was so windy out so instead we went to Faribault to get some rocks. We wanted to put some field rocks around the hosta garden so I asked Dad if he had any. Of course Dad was on it and brought up a huge pile for us to take. Of course we thought we had more then enough and I was even going to put some around the house. But no! We were short about 15 rocks.Now we are going to have to make another trip to get more.  Here is a picture of what it looks like almost done.

  Poor Dexter was having major feet troubles again! He was just miserable, licking them like crazy. His front paw was all swelled up again so I called the vet and took him in again. The good news is the cyst is all healed up. The bad news is he has major allergies. They gave him a cortisone shot and gave me cortisone pills that I have to give him stating in two weeks. I have to start out with one every other day and then in a couple weeks I might get to cut back. The cortisone shot did a ton of good! He has not hardly licked his feet and is much happier. He was driving himself nuts. I knew he had allergies but they have gotten really bad. I hope the pills do the trick. Dexter is starting to cost me lots of money.......

Saturday was a busy and fun day. We ran to Manards to get some things for the Archery Club. While we were they we found a fridge that we both fell in love with. The fridge we got 3 years ago is a side by side and I hate it! You can put nothing in it. Of course finding a fridge we both like and at a good price is a bad thing because then of course you want it. So yesterday I put my fridge on Craigs List and the Waseca Buy and Sell. I have two people that are interested in it so hopefully I sell it tonight and then I can go get a new fridge!

Saturday night we went to Smack Shack in Minneapolis for supper with Cassie and Nick. It was super good and a fun place to go eat.

But even better then supper was the movie World War Z!!!!

It was so good! What is not to like about a movie that has Brad Pitt and zombies in it! Nick and I were super excited to see it. Rick was fine with seeing it and Cassie in no way wanted to see it. Poor Cassie was scared........

Lastly I finished a great book this weekend . It is called We'll Be The Last Ones To Let You Down 

It is written by women who grew up and Waseca and was the daughter of the local gravedigger. It was such in interesting book. It held so much history of Waseca. It also was a great memoir of the author and how being around so much death growing up affected her. Of course reading the book made me want to go to the local cemeteries and see all the graves she talks about in the book. Rick thought I was nuts when I dragged him along. I think cemeteries hold so much history and are such a peaceful place. I love to just wonder around in them and read the gravestones and wonder about the lives of the people buried there. Rick was not enjoying himself like I was so we had to leave the cemetery we were at after just a short time and he would not let me go to the other one in town...... So anyhow I think you will like the book so pick it up and read it.

So that about wraps up my 4th of July weekend.
Later
Sharon

Sunshine, Music and Rainbows.....

At work on Saturday I saw this squirrel just sleeping on the fence. He was there for hours just soaking up the sun...... makes me what to take a nap just looking at it......

On Saturday Jane and I went to the Tom Petty concert. We had great seats. Of course we could get high off of all the pot that was being smoked at the concert. It was pretty funny watching all the really drunk and high people.

Yes I know this is a really bad picture...but that is Tom Petty in the lights....he was looking pretty old but he sure can put on a great show!

Sunday was another great day. Cassie, Nick, Linda and I went up to Minneapolis and walked in the Gay Pride Parade with Jeff and CJ. It was a ton of fun!

                                          Cassie and I getting ready to walk the parade route

                                The huge Pride flag that started out the parade

Before the parade started we got to meet  Jason Matheson from My Talk 107 he also used to be on the Channel 9 morning show. He was nice enough to take a picture with us. It was fun to meet him.

                      Here is a picture of all of us! Nick, Cassie, me, Jeff, Linda and CJ

                                      One last picture of us before the parade stated. 

I could not have asked for a better weekend spending it doing fun things with great people!

Later
Sharon