The Clusiaus

Saturday, May 16

2009-05-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

It is a cold windy day here - windy enough to keep Paul from fishing. He is currently painting the downstairs bathroom a different shade of green. I taped while he went to Lowes to get the paint. The room is small enough that he can handle it on his own.

Yesterday I took a personal business day and spent the day in Duluth shopping with Carol. We left her house around 8 am. Our first stop was Target. I picked up a swimsuit and cover up for Carly as well as a few bags of Archer Farms chips. I love the tortilla & potato chips from Target. We then went to TJ Maxx where I didn't have much luck but Carol scored on pajamas, towels, sheets, and I don't know what else was in those bags.

We went to the mall. I had a JC Penneys gift certificate that I got for Mother's Day. I bought a nightgown and two pairs of movie star sunglasses. I bought Carly a dress and necklace at the Children's Place. Ellen got a couple of tee shirts and necklaces from Aeropostale. The mall in Duluth is kind of a disappointment.

We ate lunch at the Olive Garden - we just did the soup, salad, and breadsticks - always good. We were seated by a window and could see the little strip mall across the road and decided we'd go there next. We both commented that we had never been in Talbots before. I'll be honest, I was under the impression that Talbots was an old lady store. We walked in and right away I noticed the really cute dragon fly dress that was in the Oprah magazine that I just got last week - so cute! I was kind of excited about the store when I saw that. I wound up buying a pair of denim capris, two pairs of shorts, one shirt, and a pair of khaki pants. I did well on their additional 40% off sale racks. I had on a khaki dress that I really liked but knew that I'd need to spend a lot of money to accessorize it and it really wasn't such a good deal when you factor that in. I went on their website this morning and they had the dress in 4 different colors at the same price. I ordered it in olive green and have jewelry and shoes to match it already. Up at their counter they had a copy of Essence magazine. Michelle Obama is on the cover wearing one of their dresses - great advertising. They had so many great dresses - I tried on the dragonfly one just for fun. I have no events coming up any time soon that require a pretty dress.

We stopped at Kohls as we left Duluth. I got a couple of shirts and that was about it. I got back to my house around 5:45. I don't really like clothes shopping all that much, but it is fun when you have good luck and bring home a bunch of stuff that you are really looking forward to wearing. I should be set for a while now.

This afternoon I have a baby shower to go to. I'm glad to have something nice to do on this dreary day. I think I'll wear a new outfit for it!

White Elephant Sale

2009-05-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

A church in Hibbing has a huge white elephant sale every spring at the Memorial Building. I've heard it's a great sale, but had never been to it until yesterday. Oh my God, were there ever people there. It was hard to move about and really look at things. Fortunately for me, I was scanning for key items and made quick grabs. I got three sets of Christmas ornaments and paid 75 cents for all of them. The Christmas area was the least busy place - it was set up in the seating area.

These are ordinary, but I think they are pretty.

I love the three in the middle of this box. I also bought an unopened container of wire ornament hangers for a quarter, so I'll be all set to hang them up next winter. Out of all of my purchases I am most pleased with my ornaments. They had tons of clothes. I saw a lot of people walking out with a big garbage bag full of clothes. They had a lot of housewares, books, hardware, knick-knacks (see the post below), toys, bikes, etc.

Not a whole lot of Pyrex items. I paid $1.50 for the casserole dishes above. I like the divided casseroles for storing and reheating leftovers. The casserole on the left is missing a lid, but I'm pretty sure I'll run across a lid while out thrifting or garage saling soon. The last time I bought a casserole without a lid, I found one within two weeks. This is a pattern from the late 50s. The paint is perfect. They did have those orange and yellow casseroles with the big daisies on the lids that I love, but someone washed them many times in the dishwasher and ruined the paint. I played a hand in ruining all of Mom's nice Pyrex back when I was one of the dishwashers. That red square baking dish with the little square bowls that went with it is a hot item. Mom's set is white.

Carly and I are fighting over who gets to keep this. She says it's hers because I didn't get her anything else. I say it's mine because I have a desk to put a paperweight on. This is a Joan Walsh Anglund paperweight dated 1969. I love it and paid 25 cents for it. Paul says it's a good thing I bought it because we really need it. I'm choosing to focus on the words and ignoring the sarcasm.

Tacky Statues - we love them

2009-05-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

I have added several little statues to my collection lately. Sarah and Sharla found some at Goodwill recently. They were really cute ones - two different Get Well Soons and one of a little guy holding a flower declaring his love. I got the ones above for a quarter each. I have 4 variations of the World's Best Mother one - this one is quite a bit smaller than the others. One of them has a change holder on it and I keep it on my desk to hold paper clips. There are two different types of sillisculpts - Paula's and Russ Berries. All of these are Russ Berries - they are my favorite. What I think is funny is that my students are genuinely interested in this collection. They notice when I get new ones and they have favorites.

Not all of them can go into the classroom display, but these are the ones that amuse me most. I have one that has been used as a traveling trophy in our building among the people who have been laid off. It has a pink guy with a big blue screw going through his chest. The saying on the bottom is "Work hard, be faithful and you will get your just reward." Sad that it's so fitting.

We still love him in our house

2009-05-03T14:54:00.001-07:00

Ellen, Kayla, Carly and I went to see the movie "17 Again" at the theater yesterday. It was a cute movie. Ellen and Kayla loved it, but Carly was bored as soon as she finished her popcorn. I like that Ellen is a fan of his. It's nice to know that she can recognize a genuinely cute boy and not just the "emo" boy bands she is a fan of. It was tempting to post a picture of him without a shirt on at the beach, but that would be inappropriate because I am old enough to be his mother. I would be willing to bet 1 million dollars that Ellen will comment on this post.

Latest Fitness Interest

2009-05-03T14:40:00.001-07:00

I've been using hand weights with dvds for about three years now and I think it's got me about as far as it's going to get me - not that I'm going to quit doing it. I'm just not expecting to see any different results. During a jog with Nancy over Easter vacation, she talked about how she had been taking yoga classes and had a couple dvds. She says it's been a nice complement to her running routine and she recommended Rodney Yee.

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I ordered a beginner Rodney Yee yoga dvd from Netflix. I found out that I was familiar with almost all of the moves from other dvds that I have been doing, so I knew it would be something I could pick up on easily. I ordered three from Amazon and have been doing them a couple times a week for the past couple of weeks. I really like it. All of those upward and downward dogs really work the shoulders and chest. I guess they are supposed to be good for your rear-end and legs too - that is what I'm hoping. It's nice to be doing something different and I sure like Rodney. I haven't been real good about running lately. I kind of blame that on my running partner and the rain.

Ellen's Concert

2009-05-03T14:08:00.001-07:00

I wasn't able to get a good picture of Ellen at the concert. I'll have to take a picture of her with her saxophone and post it. After the concert Paul was talking to his uncle Terry. It's not often that we see Terry and I have my camera with me, so I made them pose for a picture together. Terry is Jack's older brother. It always feels like we're getting a little bit of Jack when we see him. I love listening to him because his voice is just like Jack's. It's a cute picture.

Remember when I told you we had a fire?

2009-05-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

The firemen came to our house the first Sunday morning of March. Paul was making breakfast - pancakes with sausage. He was baking the sausages in the oven when all of a sudden the inside of the oven burst into flames. I had been reading the Star Tribune website on-line drinking a cup of coffee and wasn't too alarmed when Paul told me the stove was on fire. I just thought something dropped to the floor of the stove and that he'd take care of it. Nope. It was a little bigger deal than that. Paul hit it a couple times with the fire extinguisher and called 911. I poured myself another cup of coffee and waited for the fire department to come. Carly hid in her bedroom. Ellen was still in bed and would be the entire time they were there.

They unhooked the stove and put it outside. They used a big fan to suck out all of the smoke from the house - very slick but it also spreads all of the extinguisher dust all over the house. The stove sat in front of our house for about a week. Our neighbor, Robbie, called us and asked if he could have it. We said it was all his after the insurance adjuster took a look at it.

Paul saying thanks and goodbye. Our house was a big mess for a while, but our insurance covered cleaning services from Service Master. Within a week our house looked great. We did go 9 days without a stove. I found that I missed the stove top more than I missed the oven.

Later in the month our washing machine bit the dust and in April the hood of our stove needed to be replaced. We were good for the local economy.

I am going to try to be a better blogger.

2009-05-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

I have sucked lately. In all honesty I haven't had much to say. I've been a bit consumed by things that are taking place at our school and I haven't had much else on my mind. In our house we take turns calming each other down. It's my turn to be the one who freaks out. I go off the deep end and then Paul reels me back in. I have always liked that Paul and I don't work for the same school district. I especially appreciate it now. Hopefully the legislature won't cut funding to schools and that our school board remembers that we are a school and owe it to our kids to provide a solid education.

We all slept in today. I went to bed before 9 last night and got up around 8 this morning. That is late for me. Ellen and Carly are still sleeping. Paul got up early to fish. I'm hoping one of the girls wakes up soon - it won't be Ellen. There is a big white elephant sale in Hibbing that starts at 10. I'd be willing to take Carly with me, but I'd rather not. I will need to wake the heavy sleeper to get her to watch her sister. The potential to pick up pyrex, tacky statues, and other junk all in one big place is very alluring. I'll post my finds if I run across anything good.

Ellen and Kayla want to see the movie "17 Again" this weekend. I said I'd take them since I wouldn't mind seeing it. I'm a Zac Efron fan too. It's PG-13 but Carly wants to go too. We'll have to see about that. We'll do that this afternoon or tomorrow.

I'm going to start making noise around the house to see if anyone gets up.

It's been a while!

2009-03-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

I'm going to blame Facebook for my lack of posting lately. I have had an account since October but never really bothered to do much with it. A couple of Paul's coworkers added me to their lists and that got me to playing around with it a bit more. I like that it's not time consuming. I ran across a high school & college classmate (Melissa McNeil) that I haven't seen since we finished college. It was so much fun to exchange some emails and to see pictures of her family. When I saw a picture of her daughter I was just amazed at how she has Missy's face from 30 years ago. It was this connection that made me appreciate the beauty of Facebook. I've been getting friend requests from some students who were in my class that are all grown up now, so it's fun to see where they are now.

I am home today with Carly. She has had a cold for over a week. On Sunday she woke up crying that her throat really hurt. She complained about it for over an hour and was really whiny about it (which is not like her). We brought her to the ER that morning - neither of the clinics were open. We were sure she'd have strep since so much of it has been going around our school. She tested negative. The doctor said that since she was there anyway that we might want to have her tested to see if she had something bacterial or viral. If she were to get worse, it might save us a trip to the clinic later in the week. So we did the test and it's a virus. She was fine yesterday at school. This morning she got up and was very crabby (that's not unusual). After she got dressed she asked if she could lie down for a while. I then took her temp and when it was approaching 100. I made a quick call to my school saying that I'd need a sub and that I'd come in until they could get one. My kids would be going to phy ed first thing in the morning. So I brought Carly in with me and got things set up for a sub, took attendance with my kids and was home by 8:35. I hate starting mornings like that and I hate that I made my school scramble to cover for me, but if I had sent Carly to school she would have been in the nurse's office by 8:45. I am glad to know that we are dealing with a virus and this will run it's course - no need to go to the clinic.

Service Master is here cleaning up - it's amazing what is standard clean up after you have a small fire in your house. This is their 4th day here. When I asked if I needed to do more decluttering before they came they said to not worry about it. Since I really didn't have time to do it, I decided to just not let it bug me that they will see just how cluttered my kitchen cabinets are - among other places.

I did take some pictures of the day the fire department came and took care of our fire in the oven. I'll post them later today. Our oven will be here tomorrow. We could have had one earlier, but the one we wanted was only available in black at the local Sears store. So we figured we could go a few more days without an oven. We've made good use of the electric griddle, panini grill, microwave, and crockpot. We've had a couple nights of take out too. I am really looking forward to having an oven again.

President's Day Weekend with Gracie & Grant

2009-02-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

Gracie wasn't all that cooperative about picture taking this weekend. She's not meant to sit still unless she is really tired. I took this one because it reminded me of something that Carly used to do. Any time she had pants with snaps between the legs she'd immediately unsnap them and wear them undone. It was funny to see Gracie doing the same thing.

Grant in his jammies. We were ready for them on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, Lynn & Royce got up very early to go fishing. Grant and Gracie got up an hour before we thought they would. At 6 am, I was sitting in the rocker in my pajamas with both little ones on my lap. The next day Paul and I both got up about ten minutes before they did. We got a few little jobs done and when they woke up we were ready this time. Breakfast was ready to go for both of them and we had a pot of coffee on for us - much better start to the day.

Gracie and Carly had a lot of fun together. Gracie was pretty good about finding different toys she wanted to play with and Carly was game for all of it. Gracie also really liked hanging out with Ellen and Kayla. If Gracie had a choice between me or Ellen - she always chose Ellen. Gracie was very happy go lucky while she was at our house. She has a nice little eating and sleeping schedule that makes her predictable. For the most part she'll tell you what she wants. She's a classic toddler - a little trail of messes. On Sunday before they left, Lynn & Royce were loading up the truck. I went into my bedroom to get Gracie and she was in there pulling all of the tissues out of a Kleenex box. As soon as she saw me she started shoving them back in the box. I get the feeling she has been caught doing this before.

Cute, cute, cute. I love his little round face. Grant is really a good natured baby. He's very smiley and likes to be held and played with. If he cries it's because he has a need - he's hungry, sleepy, tired, or needs to burp.

Today Carly wanted me to call Royce to see what Gracie was doing. After they left Carly said she wished that every day could be a Gracie day. Royce said that his children seemed to have survived their stay with us without too much damage, so that's good. We've been out of the toddler/baby stage for a while now. You kind of forget just how involved it is. You are busy and you do a lot of things one-handed. It all comes back to you, but you do wonder how you managed to do it every single day. I give Royce & Lynn props for doing it with two kids close together in age. Paul and I were never brave enough to take on two at a time, but we managed just fine this weekend with a lot of help from our older two. It sounds like Royce & Lynn had a nice fishing outing together too. It was a good weekend for all.

More pictures from Grant's baptism

2009-02-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

Royce, Lynn, Grant, & Gracie after the church service.

Paul and Grant. I have a feeling these two will spend many hours in a boat together over the years.

Here's Your UMD Scoring!!!

2009-02-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

Last night we saw the best hockey game we have seen in years. UMD has had a strong season, but we play in the toughest league in the country. So we are 5th in the WCHA and Denver is #1. On Friday night UMD lost to Denver - all of Denver's goals were on the power play, but UMD played well that night and outshot them.

Last night UMD scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of play. They looked like national champions. They were incredible. Denver did pick up a goal at the end of the first. Even though UMD led throughout the game you were nervous because Denver was really good and every time they came down with the puck you felt like they could score. It wasn't a fluky thing that UMD won 4-2 last night. They played the stronger game. It was really exciting. One of UMD's best players is from Alexandria - Josh Meyer - a senior. He played a great game last night and I've always felt a fondness for him since he's a west central MN kid, like me.

The arena was sold out and it's always fun when it's completely full. No one left the game early. There was a lot of cheering throughout the game. During the last minute of play everyone was out of their seats cheering the entire time. During the game the announcer wished a happy birthday to long time fan, Dick Stewart. Everyone clapped because that's just the polite thing to do. And then when the old guy in the plaid hat who sits right above the band (in the section next to ours) and always brings his UMD windsock stood up to wave to the crowd, people clapped even louder and many stood up when they saw it was his birthday. We love this guy. He's just a cute old man and a passionate fan. The student section sang the birthday song for him and he enjoyed the whole thing. This is why I love being a regular who sits in the same seat every time. Had I been on the other side of the arena, I wouldn't have had the same appreciation for that moment.

Last night was a first for Paul. He was not happy about it at the time, but he parked in the ramp and took the skywalk to the arena. We had no choice, the lot was full. In the 30+ years that Paul has been going to games he has always parked in the lot. It was all my fault because I kept us late at the mall because I was buying underwear. Usually we are one of the first people in the arena because Paul considers "on time" to mean 60 minutes before the puck drops. It drives me crazy. After the game he is accustomed to running across an icy parking lot after the game and turning around to yell at the rest of us to "Hurry up!" If the girls and I get caught up because the young college guy decided to let an older couple through the door ahead of us (which happened last time), well we just don't know how to maneuver a crowd very well. The entrance from the skywalk is right by the section where we sit. We didn't have to walk out in the cold and we got right out of the ramp and on our way home. in no time at all. Paul says that we'll probably park in the ramp from now on. Change is good, Paul.

We have one game left at the beginning of March - Anchorage. If they get home ice for playoffs we'll have another game in Duluth. This has really been a fun season. The team is young, so I feel like we have a few years of good hockey ahead of us.

I'm very nervous about the storm we are supposed to get. We are in the middle of the area forecasted to get a serious ice storm. They are recommending that people put together winter survival kits and have enough food on hand to get through several days without power - I don't remember ever getting that advice before. We could get an inch of ice and have 35 mph winds. I hope that it won't be nearly as severe. I'm making a point to get a bunch of jobs done around the house and we'll be buying groceries today. If you are also in this warning - good luck!

Back on line

2009-02-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

We pretty much lost everything on our computer - which sucks. It was stupid of us not to transfer some things over to a stick, but we didn't think it would be such a big deal.

I just got off the phone with a guy from mediacom who helped me set up my email again. It would be very helpful if you could send me an email so I can get everyone in my address book again.

sharilc@mchsi.com

Thank you!!

I'll add a couple more

2009-01-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

baptism pictures another time. I can't the photos uploaded. I'll write a little more though. Grant's baptism was at the Lutheran church in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. One thing that surprised me as we drove into town was the number of gift shops between Royce's house and the town. He lives only a few miles from there, but there were a few shops along the way. We may have to visit in the summer and play tourist for a day.

Considering it was -15 or so that morning, the church was pretty full. Lynn's parents, her sils and nieces and nephews were there, as well as a a friend of Lynn's and her daughter. The baptism was your typical baptism. The church did give Grant a really nice little quilt which I thought was a nice touch. Lynn & Royce and the kids officially became members of the church that day too. They got a nice gift basket from the church. I thought it was charming that there were three blocks of different types of Wisconsin cheese in it.

After the service we went back to Lynn & Royce's place for brunch. The food was great. I will admit that I ate two croissants. The raspberry one was so good that I had to try the chocolate custard one too. It was equally good. Someone needs to check out those types of things. Shortly after noon we headed back up north. We had left the dog home and since it was so cold, we felt a need to check on him.

Not much else has been going on here. Paul is heading out to one of his last fire department classes. When it is over he will have a national certification meaning he would be qualified to work for any department in the country. It's good to have options. Carly brought her cash register to show & tell today. Miss Samson and I are pumping her up to bring her Sharpay wig and sing a song for next week's show & tell. Ellen's class is going ice skating tomorrow afternoon and Kayla is staying over night. I'm also taking my class skating. It should be nice out, so it will be good to get out of the school for a while.

Paul and I have the second season of "30 Rock" from Netflix, so we'll be watching that all weekend. Paul is in love with Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon. She really is awesome. We paused it the other night and saw that Liz has a little 70s statue on her desk. I love it.

Have a good weekend!

A Visit with G & G

2009-01-29T15:20:00.000-08:00

Grant all dressed up for his baptism.

Gracie did not want to get her picture taken. We wanted to get a shot of her in her fleecy suit because she looked so comical running around in it.

This is probably the best photo I got of Gracie. She is at an age where she is on the move. I see a lot of Royce in her face.

We went down to Royce and Lynn's on Saturday for Grant's baptism. We had plans to go to the hockey game and then head to their place, but since Carly had just turned the corner from her ear infection we really didn't want to keep her up that late. So we sold our tickets to a coworker of Paul's (UMD beat Mankato 7-4, came from behind in the 3rd period) and got to Royce's house shortly after it got dark on Saturday. Royce had a turkey dinner waiting for us that it sounds like he prepared all on his own. Royce is a really good cook. The turkey was perfect and all of the sides were excellent.

Gracie was asleep when we got there. It took her a little while to work up to full speed when she woke up, but she was 100% silly that evening. She's so friendly and was excited to have a couple of kids there. Her vocabulary is really coming together. She's fun. Grant is really laid back. He has the same kind of personality that Carly had as a baby. He likes to be held and I don't think we heard him cry once the entire time we were there. He's sweet.

Finally a new post!

2009-01-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

Not too much was going on here in January. Then we started having computer spyware issues which are not completely resolved. It will be going back in. It's better, but that stupid Antivrus 2009 thing keeps showing up. No one has clicked on it this time, but it's only a matter of time before we get blocked from everything again.

January has been the month of Ellen turning 12 and getting an Ipod Nano. I will get a picture of her on here eventually. Lots of talk about budget cuts at school - typical of January. Carly had a terrible ear infection that kept us home with her for three days. We've had some freezing cold days and we're just sick of winter. The UMD Bulldogs continue to win and have the best home record in the WCHA! Barack Obama is president!!

Mad Men

2009-01-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

This has been my latest thing to rent from Netflix. My BIL Dan insisted that I would love it and I do, but in a strange way. I don't really like anyone on the show and many of the story lines make me very uncomfortable. It's about Madison Avenue ad executives in the 60s. I love seeing the clothes and interior design. I keep waiting for Betty to pull out one of my Pyrex bowls when she's working in the kitchen.

The sexism in the workplace (and out of it) is hard to watch. I do find the things that people would never do today but that were common back then amusing - just because it's so wrong. They smoke non-stop. Pregnant women drink and smoke. They pull out bottles of alcohol from under their desks several times a day. It's not uncommon to come back to the office after lunch quite drunk. There was a minor car accident and the kids went flying into the front seat and wound up on the floor of the car. Someone very drunk was leaving their house and instead of offering him a ride home, they yelled out a reminder to turn on the headlights. I watched three episodes last night and was sure that there would be three more for me in the mailbox today, but it looks like I'll have to wait until Monday.

My favorite show returns to NBC next week - Friday Night Lights. I made Dan start watching it last year and he likes it as much as I do. Laurie and Dan have been watching the 3rd season on Direct tv and they said it's been really good, so I look forward to watching Coach Taylor and the Dylan Panthers again.

New Fireplace

2009-01-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

Paul spent a good share of last weekend checking out electric fireplaces on-line. We went over to Grand Rapids and checked out a couple and also to Lowes in Hibbing. He called around to some places in Virginia and Eveleth to see what lines they carried. In the end he decided to order one from electricfireplace.com. The price was very reasonable and the shipping was free. He placed the order on Sunday and it arrived on Thursday.

It took Paul only about an hour to put it together. The website has a video showing how to assemble it, so he watched that a couple of times and got to work. He thought it was very easy. We probably need to lower the picture that is hanging on the wall above it but that would involve repairing a nail hole and painting, so that probably won't get done for a while. Maybe we can just put some taller things on the mantle. The wood is solid oak and it looks nice with everything downstairs.

I have been pleased at the warming effect this has had downstairs. It's normally pretty chilly down here in the winter. The heater is designed to heat a 400 square foot area. We put it in a central area and it heats up the entire family room. Ellen hasn't said if she notices a difference in her bedroom. We were told that if you ran it around the clock (which we would never do) that it would add about $50 to our electric bill. It will be interesting to see if our heater kicks in less often - which I'm guessing will happen.

New Cake Pan & Recipe

2009-01-10T13:50:00.001-08:00

My friend, Carol Kastonek, gave me a monogrammed cake pan for Christmas and I am quite fond of it. In addition to having engraving on the lid, it also has "The Clusiau Family" engraved on the side of the pan. I discovered that as I was taking it out of the oven. It's cute, isn't it? Right now it has about 3/4 of a pan of peanut butter chocolate chip bars in it that I baked this morning (I posted the recipe last winter).

I used my pan for the first time to make a dessert for Paul's birthday. The girls get cakes, but Paul and I usually use our birthdays as an excuse to make a favorite dessert. Paul requested the pistachio dessert that my mom frequently makes for holidays. He called her to get the recipe and it's one that is in the Trinity cookbook (the best cookbook I own). It's pretty easy, so I'll include the recipe.

Four Layer Pudding Dessert

Layer 1 - Mix together:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts ( I used pecans)
2 Tbsp sugar

Pat into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes (I gave it a couple more minutes). Cool.

Layer 2 -Mix together and spread into cooled crust:

8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup of Cool Whip (you need one 8 ounce container)

Layer 3 - Mix together and spread onto cream cheese layer:

2 boxes instant pudding (pick your flavor)
2 1/2 to 3 cups milk (I went with 2 3/4 cups)

Layer 4 - spread the remaining Cool Whip over the top and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Let cool in fridge until the pudding firms up.

New Years

2009-01-03T12:39:00.001-08:00

On New Years Eve, Paul and I went to a party at Blake & Sarah Liend's house. They live about three blocks from our place. A few other couples were there - most of them are fire department connections. There was good food, good company, and a lot of laughs. Paul and I were home by about 12:30. It's nice having Ellen old enough to babysit her sister. I had Ellen snap a picture of us before we left. I'm wearing my new shirt from Town & Country in Morris (a hardware store).

We really didn't do anything on New Years Day. Carly watched part of the Rose Parade and I watched another episode of the show Mad Men. Dan had told me that I had to get it in my Netflix queue and I wish that I would have put two discs at the top of my queue. Now I have to wait until Monday at the earliest to watch another episode.

Yesterday Paul, Carly, and I made a run to Grand Rapids. Paul wants to buy an electric fireplace for downstairs and there is a place in Grand Rapids that carries them. We then made a trip to Target where Carly spent a bit of her birthday money. She bought a pair of Baby Alive twin dolls. It worked out well that what she wanted was 50% off and she only had to pay $15. She still has a good chunk of birthday cash left.

I had received a call from the Knights of Columbus in Nashwauk a couple of weeks ago about donating blood during a blood drive in Nashwauk. So yesterday was donation day. I don't know why I don't do this more often. Actually I do know. I passed out after donating blood once in college and I have to work up a lot of nerve to agree to do it. So I did it and it went well. One of my coworkers was in the bloodmobile the same time I was making a donation. My New Years resolution is to donate blood at least once more this year. Paul has never done it before and says he'll go in with me next time. I have type O blood and it is always in demand, so I really do need to become a regular rather than a sporadic donor. I would recommend that you go in to give blood just so that you can hear the list of incredibly personal questions they ask you. I cannot get through it without giggling.

We also went out to eat at Sammy's Pizza for Paul's birthday. We figured we'd better go out on Friday rather than wait until Saturday. We're supposed to get up to a foot of snow. I'll do a birthday post later.

Carly's not the only one in Curlers

2009-01-03T12:28:00.001-08:00

I bought these hair rollers on a whim back in November. It takes almost three packs to do all of my hair. They roll up easily in damp hair and stay in place.

The next step is to dry them using the hair dryer. Carly looks a lot cuter when she wears rollers in her hair. I just looked pissed.

The end result. This is after some of the curl has been brushed out and I've put some styling paste in my hair. When the rollers first come out my hair is absolutely huge! The only real advantage to doing my hair in rollers is that I eliminate one heating process - the curling iron. I guess I do get a much bigger lift at the roots, but using the rollers adds about 10 minutes to the getting ready process.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T15:32:00.000-08:00

It was another cold day here today. It was about -20 when I got out of bed. I've been sleeping until 8 am lately and Monday morning's 6:15 alarm is going to feel very harsh next week. We just hung around the house today. I did a longer workout dvd this morning because I am going to a party tonight and I plan to eat. I got the first installment of the tv show "Mad Men" from Netflix and watched two episodes this afternoon. Dan had been telling me that I needed to rent it and I bumped it up this past weekend. I wish I would have had two dvds sent since only three episodes are on each dvd. I am feeling very thankful for the women's liberation movement after watching it. I'm also glad I'm not a smoker.

Paul was at the fire hall for a while this morning. He has hall duty this month so it is his job to make sure that trucks are ready to pull out of the hall if there were to be a fire call. Ellen stayed over at Kayla's last night and got home around noon. They went ice skating for a little while this afternoon, but I'm assuming they thought it was too cold since they came back in about an hour. They were at the rink for about three hours yesterday, so maybe they were just tired. It's nice that they are old enough to go down there by themselves. Carly and Paul spent some time on the computer today printing up math sheets for Carly to use. She's good with patterns and she was very good at doing addition problems. She'd use our fingers for counters and would write down the correct answer. She and I played Scrabble again last night. It's frustrating to her when she does not have the letters to spell cat.

We're going to a party in Keewatin tonight. It should be fun. Several people from the fire department will be there and I guarantee there will be great food there. Paul is bringing a crock pot of Booker's sausage and pepper dip. I made up a pineapple cheese ball this afternoon. We'll have a couple of drinks and probably be home well before midnight. Paul and I will never be called partiers in this town - especially Paul.

Happy New Year!

Andes Mint Cookies

2008-12-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--2343/andes-mint-cookies.asp

I tried this recipe last week and it's one of the better cookies I've ever made. It's kind of like a soft Girl Scout Thin Mint. It's great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk. My dad was a big fan. I made one small change. I used a full mint on the cookie and would do that again, so you'd need to buy two packages of mints to make this. It made exactly four dozen cookies for me.

Thrifty Finds

2008-12-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

On our trip to the Salvation Army in Morris, I had the best luck that I have ever had there. One of my finds was this Pyrex pitcher for 99 cents. It is not easy to find these with the covers. The price and condition are perfect. One of the lemon slices looks a little wonky in the picture, but it's just fine. It's currently being used as a water pitcher in the fridge. I have four Pyrex pitchers now and haven't paid more than $2.50 for one. I imagine that I'll always pick them up, so it's time for me to start thinking about who might need one.

Everything priced at over $1 was 1/2 price on Christmas Eve day. I got this 4 quart mixing bowl for $4. There is some minor scratching and a little bit of paint loss under one of the handles, but the color and condition of the bowl is great. This bowl is from the late 50s. I love the bright turquoise color.

I have three different bowls of this style & size (four actually, there is a yellow one in the cupboard). The brown one on the right isn't all that pretty on its own, but I think it looks pretty when it's next to the pink bowl. It was nice to use during the fall.

This was Laurie's yard sale find in Cyrus last June. She remembered me admiring this Fire King bowl at an antique shop a couple years ago. It's a great bowl and I was very happy to get it for Christmas. I love the polka dots! Thanks again. It's currently sitting on my kitchen counter.

New Panini Grill

2008-12-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting one of these for quite a while. I had been using the Foreman Grill for making panini sandwiches, but I could only make one at a time and you'd have to flip the sandwich over so that it would flatten and cook evenly.

I made three sandwiches tonight, although there is room for four. We had turkey, bacon, and Swiss cheese on each sandwich. I put a couple slices of avocado on mine. We bought ingredients to do good tuna melts tomorrow. I read on the internet that Barack Obama had a tuna melt at a deli in Hawaii yesterday so that planted the idea (yes, I am a total follower). That man has no privacy at all anymore.

The beauty of the Panini grill is the adjustable top. You don't have the one hinge at the end. You adjust the grill top to what you are grilling. You can use this to grill any type of meat. So I have no need for the Foreman anymore - if anyone wants it, let me know. It's yours, but I won't send it in the mail. You'll have to wait until you see me.

Notice the lovely grill marks. The sandwiches were delish! I'm glad that Paul got a recipe book too. There were a lot of combinations that I just wouldn't have thought of and we plan to try many. I've never bought prosciutto before, but I know they have it at the Sunrise Deli - I will get some soon.

Christmas in Cyrus

2008-12-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

I didn't take many pictures because Laurie had her camera out quite a bit, so I just planned to get her photos after she loaded them onto Shutterfly. Carly was pretty tight with Laurie while we were there. One of the better things we did was play Scrabble with the girls. They both liked playing. Carly was pretty good when she was paired up with someone else. When we got back home Carly and I played a couple games of "Scramble."

Carly & Grandpa

Carly took this photo of Mom & Laurie.

Laurie, the girls and I did a quick run over to Morris as soon as we got there. We went to the Salvation Army first and I had enough luck there that it merits its own post. We then made a quick trip to Willies, the liquor store (up north we call it a bottle shop, but in the farming areas we just call it what it really is), and Town & Country Supply. I love T & C Supply. Laurie and I each bought a shirt there. Laurie's is from the Farm Girl line and mine is from a MN company called "Cowgirl Tuff." I'll have to take a picture of mine the next time I wear it. You just don't expect to go to the Hardware store to buy cool clothes, but we do frequently.

On Wednesday night we had a ham dinner with several good sides. Laurie took a great photo of me with the ham, but I just cannot get it saved to my computer. The girls opened a few of their gifts that night.

On Thursday the girls got open and checked out what they got from Santa. They got a lot of candy and rolls of coins for their new banks. We had a meal of left-overs from the night before and then they opened their remaining presents. Since they both have birthdays around Christmas time, they were gifted twice and they got some great stuff - lots of clothes, pajamas, Itunes cards, books, all sorts of things that they are enjoying. The Sharpay wig continues to be a popular item. Thank you!

That night we made wild rice soup with ham and a couple of appetizers. It was all good and I ate way too much! Since freezing rain was predicted for the next day, we made a point to get up and get going by about 9 am. We had a very easy trip home - no icy conditions, little traffic, and kids who were sleeping or watching movies. I did have to laugh when Carly said, "I wonder what Santa left us at our house?!" as we pulled up to our house. We explained that Santa only finds you once on Christmas. I can't blame her for hoping.

Keewatin Christmas

2008-12-28T15:54:00.001-08:00

We opened all of our gifts on December 23 since we were heading to Cyrus the next day. Carly had a hard time waiting. On that Monday we told her we'd be opening gifts on Tuesday night. She suggested that we do it on Tuesday morning since she didn't have anything else to do. She had to wait until after dinner.
Ellen got a couple of sweaters, Guitar Hero World Tour, jeans, books, a necklace, a make-up case with some make up items, and I forget if there was anything else.
This was the main thing that Carly wanted - a Baby Alive doll with a pink headband. She also got the Muppet Show Season 1, a Disney CD, jeans, Spartan sweatshirt, some shirts, a necklace, and some books. Both girls got new pajamas, robes, and slippers. Carly is especially fond of the robe. They each got a set of banks too - the kind that count your coins

We were originally supposed to go to Cyrus the weekend before Christmas, but the weather just didn't cooperate. We missed out on seeing Nancy, Royce, and their families, but that's how it goes sometimes. We talked on the phone a few times. I guess I didn't mention what Paul and I gave each other. Paul gave me Under Armour cold weather gear - now that I have that and my Yaktrax I am well set for running in the winter. I've gone out a couple times and have been very happy. He also gave me a panini sandwich grill and a cookbook to go with it - awesome! Paul got a Sonicare toothbrush, 2 pairs of pajama pants, and a UMD Bulldog shirt.

Carribean Black Bean Soup

2008-12-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from the cookie madness food blog and made it tonight. With the exception of the coriandar , this recipe uses very basic ingredients. We had it for dinner tonight. Instead of using chicken tenders, I just used two frozen chicken breasts cut into smaller pieces. You could really smell and taste the orange juice in the soup. It was a little spicy (in a good way) and I think you could get by just fine with only one can of black beans. Paul loved it.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1831947

Santa Goes Green

2008-12-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Carly with Misty and Maddie. The kindergartners in Carly's class wore little elf hats. The kids in the other k class wore reindeer antlers. They were the first song of the program. They sang a song about being Santa's helpers and "Let's be jolly! Hang all the holly! Christmas season has begun!" The little kids are always so darn cute.

Our school does a musical every year. We order a play and we start working on the music at the end of October. This year's show was called "Santa Goes Green." It was about encouraging Santa to do more things to protect the environment. Each class sang a song that went with the play. We had songs about preserving our forests, penguins worrying about global warming, protecting our world, and recycling. All of the songs were cute, but I thought the 4th graders got the funnest one. It was about recycling fruitcake. It was so catchy that our kids learned it right away. Even Carly could sing the verses after hearing it just a few times. You are always a bit nervous when you get your song. You don't want to be the class that ruins the program. The songs sound really bad when you first start working on them. We do actions and little dances to go with them, so a lot of time goes into it. By the time you do the rehearsal with the rest of the school, the kids have it down and you quit worrying about it.

Ellen & Kayla. Their song was the final song called, "We're Going Green." It was kind of a chorus line type of song. It was cute and the sixth graders had cute actions and dancing. For the last month we have been bugging our kids to wear green shirts for the program and they did really well. We only had a few didn't wear one and we all tried to bring in some extras for those kids to wear. It looked sharp. The play went well. The audience enjoyed it and we all left school today feeling really good about it. If I could change one thing it would be to hold it in a real auditorium, but we don't have one. If any of you would like me to sing the fruitcake song over the holidays, give me a couple beers and I'll belt it out. I can't get it out of my head.

Christmas Decorations

2008-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

On Saturday at least a dozen people from our school went over to the gym to decorate. We got a lot done in a short amount of time. One of the things we did was assemble a tree for each grade level. We had the kids make an ornament out of recycled objects. My class made the paper ornaments out of a math worksheet we had done the week before. Mrs. DeNucci's class made the stars out of star shaped aluminum tins, wallpaper remnants, and some gold tinsel type of stuff. We wanted our ornaments to be seen from a distance. From a distance our tree looked surprisingly elegant. I wish I would have taken a picture of each tree, but it's hard to get pictures when you have your entire class with you. I should have brought my camera with me when we were decorating.

It's so hard to get nice pictures in the gym when you really don't have time to monkey with your camera. If you click on the picture and get a larger image you can maybe see the snowflakes hanging in the background. That was one of the projects I worked on. I held a little snowflake making class in my classroom after school a couple weeks ago and we went to work getting enough snowflakes to make a nice hanging from the gym rafters. The only cost involved was the magnets that held the strands of snowflakes to the rafters. It was quite pretty. I meant to take a picture of the sleigh that my neighbor Jeff made. It was so pretty. He's quite talented.

Carly's Birthday Party

2008-12-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

My pictures loaded in the opposite order that I wanted them, but I don't feel like trying to fix it so we'll go with it. I tried several times to space things in the post below, but it keeps eliminating the paragraph spacing. It drives me crazy. Anyway, above you will see my balloon chandelier. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Carly had a High School Musical cake. Paul is always in charge of picking out the cakes with the girls. She was torn between this and a Hannah Montana cake.

We decided to let Carly open a couple gifts from us at her party and save a few for her actual birthday on the 19th. We gave her a CD player and a High School Musical 3 cd. She looks pretty happy.

Posing with classmates, Jacie and Madison. Misty had a Girl Scout bowling party, so she had to leave before we had cake and ice cream. All the girls who came were just nice little girls and I can see why Carly enjoys being with them in school.

Carly invited 3 girls from her class - Jacie (Paul's cousin's daughter), Madison (Kayla's cousin), and Misty. These are girls that Carly talks about a lot and we know their parents, so it was pretty easy to decide who to invite to her party. We decided that we'd try having a party the first weekend in December rather than doing it right around her birthday. People have too much stuff going on that close to Christmas. They had an elementary cheerleading camp from 10-12 on Saturday afternoon. I picked up the girls and we went back to our house for a pizza. They enjoyed checking out Carly's room and toy area. Ellen and Kayla helped them play Dance Dance Revolution and did a Guitar Hero demonstration for them. They mainly played. Jacie was the last one to get picked up and I thought it was kind of strange that Carly went into her bedroom and didn't want to say goodbye in the entry. It made sense once Jacie left. Carly came out and cried that she was sad that her party was already over. I told her that we'd have a friend over to play again soon.

Carly got a make up kit from one of her friends. We've been playing "What Not to Wear" today. I got a "fabulous makeover!" So did Ellen. I also got many little glittery touch-ups throughout the day.

Homemade Caramels

2008-12-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

Caramel Recipe

2 C white sugar

1 C brown sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 C evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed)

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 C butter

1 1/2 tsp

Combine all except vanilla in a large, heavy pan. Stirring constantly, heat to exactly 250 degrees and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla (will bubble up). Pour into greased 10x15 pan and cool. Cut into bite-sized pieces and wrap with wax paper.

I found this recipe on-line today and thought I would give it a try. It was very easy and they turned out great. If you do try them I suggest that you put the phone next to the stove, turn the radio onto a good station, and start stirring. You will be standing at the stove stirring for a long time. You will not feel like you can leave it for even a minute without it burning on the bottom of the pan. I set the burner at medium and kept it there. I think it took at least 20 minutes to get to 250. I would also suggest that you make sure you have a wrapping assistant. I had Paul to help wrap them and that saved me a lot of time. I meant to put the wrapped caramels in a bowl and take a picture of them, but I didn't remember until about an hour after I put them in the freezer - I also read on-line that you can freeze them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T17:54:00.000-08:00

Again, I'm slow to update around here. It was great to have a three day week - it flew by. This afternoon my students and I did a major cleaning session in the classroom. I also stayed late and put up new bulletin boards and just got some extra jobs done so that when I come back on Monday everything will seem nice and organized.

When I got home Carly was standing at the top of the steps wearing her paper pilgrim bonnet that they made in school today. It is so cute and I will get a picture posted of her wearing it this weekend. School is going well for her. She and her little girlfriends have been exchanging those little classroom photos. She brought hers in today and was quite excited about it. I thought it was cute that girls this little were doing this. I asked her teacher if this was common and she said that kindergartners don't usually do this but one little girl brought hers in and they all jumped on it.

School is going well for Ellen too. I was listening to her practice her saxophone last night and was surprised at how much she has learned in such a short amount of time. I have no doubt that being able to play the piano made it much easier to pick up on another instrument.

Paul and I got several things ready for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We'll be on our own. I made a pumpkin pie and a jello salad (sea foam). Paul got the dressing ready. Tomorrow morning we'll get the turkey going, put together a relish tray and a couple of side dishes. We're cooking the turkey in the oven rather than frying it this year - this means we'll have real gravy and not a packet mix.

Friday I plan to go shopping after the initial Black Friday rush passes by. Saturday we'll head down to Duluth again for another hockey game. UMD beat North Dakota 3-1 this past Saturday. That hasn't happened since the 92-93 season. It was a great game. It's always a full house when UND is at the Decc. It's much more fun when there are no empty seats. The student section is just a couple away from where we sit and they are a lot more lively this year. They must drink more before the games. After Super Fan graduated, the student section was a little dead. Now they seem to have another student who has stepped up to get them going. You often see him at the front leading things. All of the same season ticket holders held onto their seats for another year. They're all friendly, nice people. All the kids get older. One young family a couple rows in front of us used to just be three people and now there are five of them. Last week they came all dressed up. They must have been at a wedding. The mom and two little boys came at the beginning of the game. The dad and daughter came during the second period. The dad was wearing a suit with a boutonniere (love spellcheck). Usually the five of them are decked out in UMD clothes. When the new arena is built I'll be sad if their seats aren't close to ours. It's nice that I can watch the games without a kid on my lap. I used to miss so many goals because I was taking care of something with one of the girls.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary today. I pulled a statue off my shelf today that is going to pass as an anniversary gift for Paul. I did that last year too. I doubt he'll remember.

I'll post some pictures of our thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Since no one commented on my last two posts

2008-11-16T06:54:00.001-08:00

I bring to you a sexy monkey.

Election 2008

2008-11-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

We were pretty happy with the outcome of the presidential election. Paul and I both stood up and cheered after they announced that Ohio was going for Obama. We cheered again after it was officially announced at 10 pm that Obama had won the election. There was also some crying. It was very moving watching the crowd reaction in Chicago and we have been so caught up in this campaign. Ellen wanted to stay up and watch Obama's speech so we let her under the condition that she could not be crabby the next day. John McCain gave a very nice concession speech. I think his campaign had a lot of problems, but I've always thought he was a nice man. We enjoyed Obama's speech and I always love seeing his family. His girls are so stinking cute and I love that they are getting a puppy. They do deserve it.

Our school levy vote failed, so it will be interesting to see how everything shakes up. Our new superintendent had a short meeting after school and said that we were not to worry about it. He wants us to focus on our classrooms and that it's his job to deal with the finances.

And the Franken/Coleman face off continues.

If you don't watch "30 Rock" I recommend that you go to NBC's website and watch last night's episode with Oprah. This show is so funny anyway, but last night's episode was the funniest one yet. I think this was the best guest appearance I have ever seen on a show. Tina Fey rocks!

Halloween

2008-11-07T15:57:00.001-08:00

It was nice enough that night that the girls put out chairs and waited outside for trick-or-treaters. We thought we would have a lot since Halloween was on a Friday and the weather was so nice. I don't think we even had 40 kids come to the house - our lowest turnout ever. We have a lot of Tootsie Pops leftover. Kayla is the one under the sheet. I think her costume is funny. We kept bugging her to smile for pictures.

Carly is wearing the costume I sewed for Ellen a few years ago. She looked very cute that night, but was she ever tired and crabby. Seh wanted Paul to go trick-or-treating for her while she stayed back at the house. It just doesn't work that way.

We were still in full campaign mode on Halloween night. Ellen did not put together a costume until after school that day. We bought a prom dress at a garage sale a few years ago and she worked with that.

We <3 Troy Bolton!

2008-10-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today the girls and I went to the final installment of High School Musical. It's possible that there will be future installments since it did feel like they were introducing some new characters. There was the graduation and then a curtain call for the lead characters that really felt like a "we're moving on" moment. HSM just won't be the same without Troy Bolton.

The movie was cute. Lots of singing, dancing, and cute clothes. I thoroughly enjoyed having kids in the target age group for this series - just good clean fun. Kayla and Ellen were starting to get a little on the old side for it, but they still enjoyed the show. Carly thought it was great. The only down side to it being in the theater is that we can't watch it five times the first week it aired like they did with the first two.

Latest addition to the collection

2008-10-26T06:31:00.001-07:00

That little pink one just stands out on the shelf, doesn't he? My friend, Sarah, found this one at the local Goodwill and paid 25 cents for it. He was 50% off that day. I was thrilled since this was my first pink one. It's a great little figurine anyway, but the pink ones are not that common. There are light blue ones out there too, but again not easy to find. It had been June since I had picked one up, so I had been on a long stretch without any additions. This was exciting and my 4th graders showed proper appreciation for the rarity of the object. You'd have thought I'd brought in a little live unicorn for show & tell.

It's cold, windy, and rainy here. Paul just left to do some hunting. The girls and I will probably go to Hibbing to see High School Musical 3. Carly is excited and Kayla & Ellen said they'd be willing to go. I told them I would not take kids who were willing to go, they had to be excited like Carly. They said they'd be exicted. I might also carve a pumpkin or two.

Yesterday I did a bunch of housework. I really let things go for a couple of weeks. I started reading the book "Flight" by Sherman Alexie. I am enjoying it, Nancy. We also watched the movie "Recount" last night. I kind of forgot what a bitter pill that was to swallow.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hillary Clinton Visits the Iron Range

2008-10-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Late last week it was announced that Hillary Clinton was going to visit the Iron Range. We didn't know if it would be a rally or a smaller gathering. We weren't sure where it would be held. We did know that if it was a rally that it would probably be in Hibbing since they have the biggest facility to accomodate a large gathering.

On Monday morning we heard it was a 7 o'clock rally at the Memorial Building - doors open at 6, first come, first serve. I had a first aid/cpr class in Hibbing that wasn't supposed to get out until 5:00. So we made arrangements for Ellen to go with Kayla just in case I didn't get back in time. I got home about 4:20. We immediately got in the car and went back to Hibbing. We joined Kayla, Ellen, and Laura in line. Everyone outside was in a good mood - lots of excitement. The line wrapped around the building and across the street. The doors opened immediately at 6 pm and people got in quickly.

Just a reminder that my blog still suffers from the disappearing comment button. Just scroll over the space to the right of the date below and you can read or leave a comment.

Inside the Arena

2008-10-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

The doors opened right at 6 and we were seated within just a few minutes. A lot of people opted to head to the floor rather than the stands. Our seats were about 40 feet from the podium. They played a lot of music before hand - Springsteen's "The Rising" and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" "Only in America" by Brooks & Dunn and a few others. It felt just like what you see on tv and people were excited.

There are conflicting reports of how many people were there. When we saw John Edwards (back when people used to like him) they said about 5000 were in the arena. There were a lot more people this time. Every seat was filled and a lot more people were on the floor. All ages were represented - lots of young people, lots of older people, and everyone in between. Many people were wearing Obama shirts and pins. There were a lot of people from the various unions up here wearing shirts representing both their union and their candidate. Paul would love to have a "Firefighters for Obama" shirt.

The rally started at 7. Local reps Tom Rukavina, Dave Tomassoni, and Tony Sertich spoke first. You see Tony Sertich on tv quite often, but you don't really notice just how handsome he is until you see him in person. He is really good looking. His talk came across as very polished. You get the feeling he has higher aspirations. Tony is the one who gets into battles with the Governor. He was the rep that prompted Pawlenty to say, "Cheap shots might be cheap, but they're not free." That got a bit of press last spring. Jim Oberstar also spoke. People here love him.

Al Franken was there, but he did not speak. He was introduced and welcomed with lots of cheers and applause. Senator Amy Klobuchar spoke right before Hillary. This was my first time seeing Amy in person. I always think she comes across well on tv and she's just as sharp in person. Her grandpa is from the Iron Range and people up here like that about her.

Then Hillary came out. There was lots of cheering and applause. People up here really do like her and I actually felt a little bit weepy seeing her. That surprised me. Hillary looks exactly like she does on tv except that she is smaller than what you expect. She spoke for about 25 minutes. It was a great speech. About five minutes of her speech dealt with the Iron Range's role in the United States. It didn't feel like a canned speech she had given 30 times. It was a really good speech. I think my favorite part was at the end when she was into the "We must elect Barack Obama!" section of the speech. There was an older couple sitting right in front of us. They were in their late 70s at the youngest - well dressed, very proper. At this part of the speech this tiny little woman was standing up, tilting forward, doing a double fist pump. I loved it.

Quite a few of my coworkers went to the rally and we all compared notes the next day. One of them said she was surprised at how excited she was during the whole thing and that afterward her hands hurt from clapping. I don't care what your political affiliation is, I think you should try to attend a rally during a presidential election season at some point in your life. I can't even imagine how much more exciting it must be when the actual candidate for president is there.

Paul and Royce are an odd pair

2008-10-22T14:29:00.001-07:00

Paul saved $12.

Classmates

2008-10-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

While at the church bazaar I saw two of my classmates - Janet Swenson & Vicky Davis. I can't remember Vicky's married name, so we'll use her maiden name. Janet is living in Fergus Falls and Vicky is in Morristown. Since Laurie sent me to the bazaar to take a picture of Mom, I figured we should get a picture of the three of us together. We really should have a class reunion.

Mom's birthday

2008-10-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

I bought mom a vintage apron at an antique shop for her birthday. She wore it to work in the Farmer's Market at the church bazaar. They were supposed to wear red that day, so this worked out well.

Finally going to update!

2008-10-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

I meant to get these pictures posted last week. Carly and I made 3 different kinds of cookies for Dad for his birthday. Carly is flattening the peanut butter cookies in these photos. We also made chocolate chip and chocolate/butterscotch oatmeal cookies. Dad has cookies to last for quite a while.

Ellen wants me to update the blog

2008-09-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I don't have much to report here. It's just been the typical back to school busy days. The days fly by.

Paul has been grouse hunting this weekend. Ellen started volleyball practice this week and will start band soon. She wants to play the saxophone. Carly is enjoying school and because she is only five doesn't realize that her class of 30 kids is too damn big. I had said I'd give it a couple weeks and then I would revisit the issue with my superintendent and principal. So that's a job for this week. I'm going to a referendum committee meeting tomorrow night and I'm going to talk with some school board members about it. I could go on about this for quite a while, but I'll spare all of you.

I also volunteered at the DFL office in Hibbing this past week. They have a "Women on Wednesdays" phone bank, so I did that for a couple of hours. It was me and a bunch of 20 year olds. Two hours on the phone was about all I could take. I could never be a telemarketer. Everyone was nice to me on the phone and I was actually pretty good at it. I'll go again. You can sit around and gripe or you can do something. It felt good to help, but I'd rather do something rather than make phone calls.

Our hockey tickets came in the mail this week. It's hard to believe that we are getting close to that time again. I finished reading the latest David Sedaris book - too funny. I especially liked the airplane crossword puzzle chapter. We finished watching the 4th season of "Entourage" from Netflix last night. I love that show. I could watch every scene with Ari and Lloyd five times and laugh just as hard each time. Paul is a big fan of Johnny Drama. I need to find another comedy to rent from Netflix. I've rented some hour long dramas, but that's so time consuming. I can get an entire season of a comedy done in two weekends.

It rained all weekend. I only left the house to make a quick trip to Walmart and Penneys. I was going through my closet looking for long sleeved shirts and it would appear that I gave an awful lot of mine to Laurie's thrift shop, so I picked up a couple and will need to get a few more when we start going to Duluth for games.

Dinner's ready. Paul cooked a porketta in the crock pot and it smells really good and I'm starving. Everyone have a good week.

First Day of School!

2008-09-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Carly was very excited for the first day of kindergarten. She was ready to 30 minutes before we needed to leave. She's wearing the same dress that Ellen wore for her first day of school. I thought she looked very cute.

Carly's teacher is Miss Samson or as Carly has been calling her - teacher. I correct her every time she says that because it would drive me crazy if my students called me "Teacher."

Ellen's first day was "Awesome!" She has Mrs. Fillman for a teacher. She was hoping to get her. She and Kayla have math and reading together, but are in different classes the rest of the day. They think this is just fine because it means they have more to talk about after school. I wouldn't have thought of that.

My first couple of days have been good. I have 21 kids in my class. They seem pretty good. They follow directions well. Tonight 1/2 of them had to bring home an assignment to finish. It will be interesting to see how many of them do it. Paul has 28 kids. He always has at least that many.

I'll write more this weekend.

Garage Sale Finds

2008-08-23T13:45:00.001-07:00

The grand total for the Pyrex items above is $1.75. I bought the bowls and casseroles at the same sale. They had 50 cents on the large brown bowl and 25 cents on the other items. This isn't a pattern that I love, but I thought the brown colors would be nice in the fall and I'm not going to pass up any Pyrex in this great shape at prices like that. Paul really liked these. It's called Early American and it's from the early 60s. The brown bowl has a couple scratches. People must use this size bowl a lot because I've noticed that they always look more used than the other sizes. I bought the pitcher at a different sale. It was priced at a dime, so technically I had $1.60 worth of old Pyrex, but I just gave them a quarter. As soon as I saw the shape I knew it was Pyrex. It was sitting with a bunch of ugly vases. The pitcher has gold starbursts on it. I don't know how old it is, but I bought another one very similar to it at a thrift shop earlier this summer. This was a good find. I have three pitchers now, as Creed from the Office would say (as he was collecting office chairs), "One more to go." I didn't really know what he meant by that, but I'd buy another.

$1 for a cute Corning Ware teapot. It's from the same sale as the Pyrex bowls. Laurie has one in a different pattern that she uses a lot. I've seen them in antique shops for $8. Not a high end item, but it's a cute usable item.

50 cents for a vintage Christmas apron. It was the only thing I bought at this sale, but it was well worth the stop. I will make Christmas cookies this year just so I can wear it.

There are a few more things that I bought that I didn't bother to take pictures of. I should go garage saling more often because I really do enjoy it. The truth is I should have a garage sale, but that's a different story. Tax deduction slips work well for me too.

Garage sale finds

2008-08-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

A vintage Yahtzee game for $1. No pieces are missing - the directions are still there. The box is even perfect. This one will not be going to school. The game we had at home will go to school and this one becomes the family set. We play a lot of Yahtzee in my class. It's an awesome way to practice multiplication, adding, and number patterns. I bought a Taboo game at a thrift shop for $2 last week. The timer was broken, but I have timers at school. I love finding useful games at garage sales and thrift shops.

Carly got shy on this picture. I can't find a date on this cookbook. It appears to be some sort of Sears freebie. I consider my Betty Crocker cookbook to be my cooking bible, so I thought it would be fun to have an old one. I paid 25 cents for it. I'm going to make the cinnamon rolls from it.

I bought this jewelry organizer for $1 at the garage sale of the lady who owns "Rummage in the Park." It lays flat and could easily fit in a drawer if you didn't want it sitting out. She had two so I bought both of them and gave one to Ellen. On the chair behind Carly you can see a small square vintage table cloth that I bought for a quarter at the same sale. I kind of felt like Laurie when I bought that.

Rummage in the Park

2008-08-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

Laurie, why didn't you buy this dress? Carly had asked Laurie to try it on. When She came out of the dressing room we couldn't make fun of it because it was way too cute. On the hanger you would never have predicted how cute this dress would be. I'm guessing this must be from the 70s.

Rummage in the Park is the best consignment clothing shop I have ever been in. They have a lot of really awesome vintage clothes that are fun to try on, but they also have a lot of clothes from the past few years - lots of shoes and jewelry too. I go there once a year when Laurie comes up and I think I'm going to have to stop in there more often because I do find some cool things. I have been keeping my eye out for a pair of trouser jeans and haven't had much luck until last week. I got a pair from Esprit for $8. I do have to wear super chunky heels to keep them from dragging on the floor, but that is the price of fashion. It wouldn't kill me to appear to be taller. I bought a pair of chunky heeled Italian sandals here that do the trick - they're cute and they only cost $5. This is the place where I bought a brand new, never been worn pair of Dansko sandals for $22.

The girl who works in the shop told us that today was city wide garage sale day in Hibbing and that the owner of the store would be selling housewares at a garage sale down the street. I made a point to go to it and I'm really glad I did. I talked to her about her store for awhile and she asked if I ever bring in items. I said I had not, but that I'd like to know how they take items. You pay a one time start up fee of $5. You bring in all of your clean items on hangers (you get your hangers back). She prices the items and you each take 1/2 when they sell. Considering that I give away all of my clothes that I no longer wear, I think I'm going to start doing this. They take men's clothes as well. I might as well get something back from it and visit the store too.

Art in Vining

2008-08-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Keewatin, Carly and I stopped to gas up in the small town of Vining. This town is know for their collection of metal sculptures. It all started with a great big foot and then then grew from their. I took picture of the ones that Carly told me to. It was cold so we made it a quick stop.

The man responsible for these pieces of art has the last name Nyberg. His daughter Karen was one of the astronauts in the last space shuttle launch. If you remember, Hillary Clinton mentioned her in her concession speech. She said she was the 50th woman to go into outer space. One of my coworkers is married to Karen's cousin, so he and his family went down to Florida for the shuttle launch at the end of May.

I have to go watch Barack's big speech, so I'll add few more posts later. I had a good garage saling day!

Done Celebrating Barack & Laurie's Birthday

2008-08-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took me so long to get back to the blog. A couple weeks ago we went to Laurie's place for the weekend. On the way down we stopped at a little coffee shop in Pillager. Businesses around the Brainerd area have been painting oxen to match businesses. Carly like this one that was covered in ice cream cones and cookies. There was a really cool one outside a Scuba shop that had a scuba diving ox.
Ellen & Gracie. She's a walker now!

Ellen & one of the cats - Maisy I believe. That was it for pictures that I took that weekend. Laurie had a bunch of pictures that I'll have to download to my computer. We played at the cabin that weekend. On Monday we went into Fergus Falls and hit the junk shops. I had some fun finds - a great Hawaiian print shirt for Paul, a wooden recipe box, vintage Raggedy Ann birthday invites, and I forget what else. Ellen bought a bunch of books at great used book shop. We had lunch at a really good authentic Mexican restaurant.

On Tuesday, Ellen and I went back home. Ellen stayed with Laurie for a couple of days.

What do these two people have in common

2008-08-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

besides their extreme awesomeness?

They both have a birthday on August 4th. Happy birthday Laurie and Barack!

A Visit with Gracie & Royce

2008-08-02T17:32:00.001-07:00

On our way back home we took a small detour to stop at Royce's place. We had been in the car four hours at that point, so it was a very welcome stop. I had not been to their place for over a year. The yard, porch, garden, and shop are looking really nice. Royce was kind enough to grill us burgers and heat up some corn dogs for the girls. Lynn wouldn't be home from work for another two to three hours so we didn't see her.

Gracie seemed very happy to have visitors. She was all over the girls and was happy to be carried around. I don't know if she could be any sweeter.

This is my 100th blog post. Imagine confetti falling.

Deer Park

2008-08-02T12:59:00.001-07:00

Deer Park is another very popular attraction in the Dells. You pay your admission and buy packs of deer food and then head into a large fenced in area. You follow a trail through the park. The deer are loosely gated so it is not unusual to see deer walking right down the middle of the path looking for a hand out. At times large herds of deer will be right in a pack of tourists as you can see in one of the photos above. They also have some other large animals that are fenced in - bison, elk, etc. It was pretty cool. I'd recommend a stop here.

Paul at Deer Park

2008-08-02T12:52:00.001-07:00

Paul was more than happy to claim Carly's pack of deer food (Rye-Krisp crackers) and feed the deer. He broke the crackers into really small pieces to make the experience last. When he ran out of crackers he bought handfuls of deer feed from the little candy machines. He did that until he ran out of quarters. You could drop Paul off when the park opens and pick him up when it closes and he'd be completely happy.

Ellen at Deer Park

2008-08-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

I think Ellen must have felt a little bit like Snow White this day. The creatures of the forest came up to her as if she was their best friend.

Shari at Deer Park

2008-08-02T12:42:00.001-07:00

Since I am the family photographer I spent more time taking pictures of my family interacting with the deer than feeding them. This is proof that I was there too.

Normally I would delete a photo like this, but this deer had some heavy interaction with me. My plan was to get a close up of Paul's hand feeding the deer. Instead this deer sneezed and got some black shit all over my white shorts. That was great.

Carly at Deer Park

2008-08-02T12:38:00.001-07:00

Wisconsin Dells is home to the Torture Museum. If Carly were the curator she would create a little exhibit on a trip to Deer Park.

Thursday, July 31

2008-08-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning we decided to play tourist rather than play in the water park. Even Ellen was ready for a break from it. We went to breakfast at a popular restaurant. It's called something like Paul Bunyan's Logging Camp. It's an all you can eat place. You pay for your food before you are seated. Everyone is seated at tables that are pushed together. We were seated next to another family of four. They have a few drink options that are included with your meal. They take your order for that and return with them and a plate of homemade donuts - they were really good. They came back about ten minutes later with our food. It's served family style so it's all in bowls that you pass around amongst your group. We had pancakes, sausage, ham, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. It was very good and we all left the table feeling full. I'd definitely recommend this place. It felt like a big lumberjack dining hall.

Afterward we hit the tourist shop section of town. This was where Ellen posed for a picture with a big troll. Carly would not pose. All we bought was a pack of gum for Ellen and a key chain for Kayla's collection. We then moved onto Deer Park. I took a lot of pictures and it will get it's own section of the blog.

Wednesday in Wisconsin Dells

2008-08-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we spent the entire morning and a good share of the afternoon at the water park. We were all tired by 3 pm. That evening we went out for pizza at Moosejaw Pizza. They had a couple of PT Cruiser delivery cars that were fun to see out on the street. Ellen and Carly refused to pose next the car.

Ellen was willing to pose with her antlers.

So was Paul.

Carly was not. The pizza was good. They also have their own brewery. I had a beer which was very good and Ellen tried their root beer that she said was really good. Ellen got a cute souvenir shirt here. They had really cute shirts for younger kids with the delivery car on the front. I wanted to get one for Carly but she said she would never wear it. We have learned that if Carly says she will not wear something she really won't wear it.

After dinner we went to the Rick Wilcox Magic Show. I've never been a huge fan of magicians. It all started back in the 70s when Doug Henning would have tv specials. I watched them because we only had two channels, but I didn't enjoy it (kind of like Lawrence Welk). I think David Copperfield is strange and David Blaine is just a freak in my opinion. So I didn't go in with high hopes. I loved the Rick Wilcox show - my whole family did as well as everyone else in the theater. He was very funny and every trick he did left us baffled. His wife is his assistant and she was great too. Paul and I saw Penn & Teller in Las Vegas and really enjoyed that show - we liked the Wisconsin Dells magic show better. It was fun sitting next to Carly during the show. She laughed a lot and had a look of amazement on her face often. The show and theater had an old fashioned feel to it. It was great family entertainment.

Wisconsin Dells

2008-08-02T04:39:00.001-07:00

It was about a 4 hour drive from Nancy's house to Wisconsin Dells. It was all interstate driving which made it go by pretty fast. We were able to check in early to our hotel. We were staying at the Great Wolf Lodge which is a newer place. It was huge. It has a large indoor and outdoor waterpark on-site. I didn't take any pictures of the waterpark because it really isn't a good place to bring a camera. As soon a we got there we put on our suits and hit the park for a couple of hours. Waterparks are not for the out of shape. Over the three days we were there we climbed so many steps while carrying tubes and sometimes big heavy cloverleaf tubes. Ellen and I counted 78 steps to get to a set of slides that we used quite a bit. We were exhausted at the end of each day. Every park has their big thrill ride. Ours had the "Howling Tornado." I think it was probably similar to being flushed down a huge toilet.

Carly is not a fan of pools and lakes, but she was a good sport at the waterpark. She went in the pools and rode a few waterslides with me. If you asked her if she enjoyed it she would say no, but everytime we went down a slide together she would yell out, "Wheeeeee!!" She enjoyed it once we talked her into it.

That evening we drove down the main streets of the Dells. I would describe it as a Vegas for kids. I can't imagine just Paul and I going there. It's the kind of place that is set up for family entertainment. We ate at a Mexican restaurant along the river that evening and it was geat. It was nice to be there midweek rather than a weekend. We never had to wait for a table at a restaurant and we could always find four lounge chairs together at the waterpark.

Next installment later.

Visiting with the Floms

2008-08-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

Carly and Sophie thought it was pretty cool to wear the same dress the night that we went out for dinner.
The girls are at an age where they play together so easily. It's fun to watch them together. They used the first tier of the retaining wall as a stage - which I thought was pretty creative. The first day we were there, they spent a lot of time playing on it.
We arrived at Nancy & David's on Sunday afternoon. It was our first visit to their new home and we thought it was really nice. We kept pretty busy. Nancy, Ellen, and I did some shopping at the Eden Prairie Center while Paul and David took the little kids to a park. We ate dinner that evening and then just hung out in their backyard - which is very nice. Nancy and David did a lot of work on it. I regret that I didn't get any pictures of Joey in one of his athletic uniforms - we saw many over the weekend.

On Monday morning Nancy and I got up early to go for a run. Nancy chose a route that would have us running past a drinking fountain twice which was smart because it was really warm and humid. We were out about an hour and everyone was still sleeping when we got back to her house. Nancy is running a 1/2 marathon this morning and it is supposed to be a warm one. Good luck Nancy! After the run we sat out on the back deck and saw the deer that Nancy sent out pictures of. It just seems odd to see a deer in such a residential area.

We all went swimming at the Lifetime Fitness Center later that morning - perfect choice for the hot, sunny day. It's really a nice facility and since it was a Monday it wasn't too busy. I would love to live near an outdoor pool.

That evening we split up. David, Paul, Ellen, and Joey went to a Twins game. They first went to the Mall of America for dinner at the Rain forest Cafe. Then they used the light rail train to go to the Metrodome. They had tickets in the 11th row along the first base line. The Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 7-0. They said it was a great game.

Nancy, Sophie, Carly, and I went to Trader Joes. I had been looking forward to going there and was not disappointed at all. I bought over two bags full of different items and did not pay all that much for them. I really wish that Duluth would get one. Everything we have tried so far we have really liked. We then went to a couple of kitchen stores. We didn't buy anything at the first one, but did buy a few items on sale at Sur La Table. We then walked over to the Edina Grill for dinner. Since it was nice out, we ate outside. We all had a good food there. When we got home we watched the last few innings of the Twins game.

In the morning we got up and were on the road to Wisconsin Dells. Thanks for everything Nancy & David. We had a nice time!

We are home!

2008-08-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

It was a busy week. I'll do little installments here and there because I have quite a few pictures. I will say that we had a very nice time at the Flom's home and in Wisconsin Dells. It was very nice to first drive to the cities, stay a couple days and then head to the Dells. It took us about 4 hours to get from Nancy and David's place to the hotel. Our drive back today was much longer. If we drove it straight through it would take a bit over six hours. We went a little out of the way to stop for a visit with Royce & Gracie - Lynn was at work. We had lunch with Royce, he showed us some of the things he's done at his house and in the shop, and we always enjoy seeing Gracie.

I have done most of the unpacking and I started the laundry. Paul just picked up the dog from the kennel. Kayla was over within five minutes of us getting home.

Vacation Time!

2008-07-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

We are heading off for a little vacation to the Wisconsin Dells in the morning. We're first driving down to Nancy and David's until Tuesday morning. As of right now, we don't have any plans for when we are there other than David & Paul taking two of the kids to a Twins game on Monday night. I'm assuming it will be Ellen & Joey that go with. Nancy & I will have to do something fun with Sophie & Carly.

We're staying at the Great Wolf Lodge which has a big indoor & outdoor water park. It looks like the temps will be in the 80s with a chance for some isolated showers on one of the days we are there. I'm hoping we'll be in the outdoor park a lot more than the indoor. Carly has a pretty good attitude about this whole thing. She knows she'll be in the water and we have reassured that there will be fun things for her to do. She's looking forward to riding in a tube on the lazy river, so I really hope they have one. I can't imagine they won't. We have tickets for a magic show on Wednesday night. Carly says that we are going to see a man cut a lady's head off and then put it back on. God, I hope not. We've made no other plans at this point. We've been pretty bored here lately, so this trip comes at a good time. From everything we have heard Wisconsin Dells is just a big fun tourist trap. That is exactly what we are hoping for.

We'll be driving back north on Friday. It's at least a six hour drive. We're going to stop at Royce & Lynn's for a visit. We haven't been to their place since last summer and it will be a really nice way to cut the trip in half. Next weekend I'll post some pictures. Have a good week!

Another Recipe

2008-07-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

I tried out a new recipe for a party last night and it turned out really well. I know that Carol is going to make it since she called me from the grocery store asking what she needed to pick up to make it. So I'll get the recipe posted here so she can print it.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Dressing:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp minced onion (optional)
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Mix the above ingredients in the blender. I think if you wanted to just shake it up in a jar, that would work fine. This makes quite a bit of dressing.

Fresh spinach
Sliced strawberries

I used a bag and a half of spinach and a quart container of strawberries. If you were making a smaller amount you certainly would not want to use all of the dressing. If you used 2 full bags of spinach, I don't think you'd need to make additional dressing. I didn't use the full two bags only because my 4 quart bowl was full.

I've been experiencing some goofy things with my blog that I don't how to fix - and I have tried. The comment thing to click on disappears once a comment has been made. But if you scroll over the spot where it should be, it appears and you can click on it. Nothing in the help section of blogger is giving me advice on how to correct this. I'm thinking since only a handful of people actually read my blog that I'll just leave it for now.

A New Old Apron

2008-07-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a comment below that I had picked up a full length vintage apron today. Half aprons work great for baking cookies and most other kitchen jobs, but I wanted one that I could wear when I make things like spaghetti sauce - things that splatter and stain. I liked the fitted style of this one. It has bias tape trim all around it. It has two small pockets.

I even think the back of it is cute (Its not very often that I post a picture of my backside). They had several others like it and I decided on this one because it was a darker color and would even match my kitchen. It was tempting to get a couple, but you have to give yourself reason to keep going into these stores. You can't buy everything. This was a fun thing to find.

If you click on the picture above you can see the top a little better. The little sign above the stack of aprons said that these aprons were made to be used as gifts, but just sat in storage over the years. It's finds like this that make me think that I should just keep my eye out for vintage aprons instead of sewing them. I couldn't sew this for less than I paid for it. I wore it tonight when I made homemade pizza sauce. I tripled the recipe and froze it. I'm starting to get in that phase of summer when I start cooking and freezing things for during the school year.

I should also mention that today 1100 bikers pedaled through town today as part of the MS biking fundraiser they do every year. I went out for a run early this morning and met a few bikes on my way back into town. If I had gone out later, I would have met up with many bikes. They stagger their leave times, so they were coming through all morning. Carly and I walked up to the libary and then we sat on a bench with some ladies and watched the bikers come through. They were waving and cheering for them, so we did too. This kept Carly entertained for about 45 minutes. She would announce when she saw a new group of bikers coming down the hill and how many there would be. They used our trail two years ago for this same ride. I bought a new bike the same day they rode through Keewatin. That was part of my plan for that week, but that got me fired up to go out and get one that day. It was also right after Lance Armstrong won his final Tour de France and I figured there was an opening for me for the next one.

Poor Sandy

2008-07-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Paul has been trying to get Sandy in for a haircut all summer, but has had no luck. So he took matters into his own hands and borrowed a pair of clippers from our neighbor, Calvin. Paul has never given a dog a haircut before so I went out out part way through to check on his progress. I had to go back in to get my camera. Sandy is such a good dog. He sat patiently through the whole thing.

I had Paul step him out part way through the haircut and this is what he looked like about 3/4 into the trim. I was going to go back out and get a picture after he was done, but it started to rain. I'll get one tomorrow. It's supposed to be a really nice day here.

Sewing Project

2008-07-19T15:30:00.001-07:00

Carly is using our new Pyrex bowl from the 60s to frost Bob Dylan Fudge Bars (I think I posted that recipe back in February - they're really good. We frosted them using the cocoa frosting recipe from the red Betty Crocker cookbook - a good combination). She's also wearing her new apron. I made five of them this week. I used the pattern from the Raggedy Ann costume I made a few years ago - I just left off the shoulder straps. They require 1 yard of fabric, rick-rack, and elastic. They cost less than $5 to make. Each one took about 90 minutes from start to finish. I bought a $6 gadget for turning straps right side out and that saved a lot of time. The first one I made is pictured on Carly in the post below. I decided to make them an inch shorter after that one and thought they looked cuter. Isn't my apron model cute? She refused to pose in all five aprons, so I don't think she has a future in the industry.

Since Carly is into cats, I bought a couple of cat prints. I love the cherry prints and I think the ladybug one is my favorite. Click on the picture to take a closer look. I thought these would be fun gifts for little girls. I'm thinking I need to pick up a cute pattern for adult aprons because they would make fun gifts for big girls too.

Not much is going on here. We went to a craft fair in Old Hibbing. It gets worse every year. We bought the girls cheap rings that they are very happy with. It rained when we got home. My plans for the evening are to watch one of our Netflix movies.

New Pyrex

2008-07-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I had an appointment in Hibbing and since I'd be alone, I knew it would be a good opportunity to visit a couple of thrift & antique shops. There are four of them located very close together. I had no luck at Goodwill which was my first stop - not even a tacky figurine. I then crossed the street and went to Antiques on Howard. I got the Pyrex bowl in the photo above for $9.50 - which is a good deal for an antique shop. This set is very collectable. This bowl would not sit there for long. Rachael Ray uses that bowl often on her show. It's in really good condition - bright blue dots, no fading. If this bowl was in the Salvation Army in Morris, they'd put at least $5 on it. The lady who runs the antique shop in Morris would buy it and put it on the shelf for $25 where no one would buy it because it is overpriced. It will be fun to see if I can come up with the orange and yellow bowls that go with it. There is a larger green dotted bowl, but I guess that one is really hard to get. I picked up a couple other items at this shop, but I'll post them later. I did well there. I'm going to have to start swapping out some items. Everyone on my gift list should assume that they'll be in line for some old kitchen thing in the future. I promise it will be cool and that food prepared in it will taste better.

There is a thrift shop run by a local church that has a pretty good housewares section. Like every thrift shop, it's hit or miss. I found this 1 quart Pyrex pitcher for $2.29. The paint is perfect on it and it's really cute. I'm just using it as a water pitcher in the fridge. At one time there was probably a little yellow cover that fit inside it, but I'm not entirely sure of that. I've had my eye out for one of these, so I was very happy to find it. Carly took this picture. She took another one that was a better one of me, but the pitcher photographed better in this one, so I chose to showcase my chins as well. I have a lot of crap on my fridge.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

2008-07-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

We just had dinner and I'm going to say that the sauce was worth the little extra effort it required. Since I had all of the ingredients to double it, I just went ahead and doubled it. Doubling it really just means opening up two more cans. Carly is my assistant in the kitchen. I have some mini-pizza pans, so we make two little pizzas and one big one. Carly pats out the dough and does all of the assembly on the small pizzas. I hope that she'll always be interested in helping out in the kitchen. I enjoy having her in there.

Here's the recipe. If you have a mini food chopper, I thought it was handy for cutting up the onion and celery very fine. I didn't measure out those two ingredients, I just guestimated.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 small bay leaf

1. In a large skillet, melt butter with the oil. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until soft and transparent.

2. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth.

3. Add remaining ingredients and bring to slow simmer.

4. Simmer for 30-60 minutes (or not at all depending on your taste and time frame).

5. Remove the bay leaf and spread the sauce on your prepared pizza dough.

Mine View Photos

2008-07-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

There are some opportunities to play tourist in our area. While Paul, Ellen, and I went to a funeral, Nancy & David took the kids to the mine views in Nashwauk and in Hibbing. The above picture was taken at the Hull Rust Mine which is the largest open pit mine in the world. I always think it's a good idea to put people in front of the trucks when you are taking a picture because you get a better idea of just how big these trucks really are.

And you wouldn't appreciate just how big this scoop is if Nancy and Joey weren't inside of it.

Hmmm, I'm not sure how to get this one straightened. Just tip your head to the left.

I'm guessing this is at the mine view in Nashwauk. If you went into the backyard of the house where Paul grew up, you'd be able to see this same pit. I'll have to see if I have a picture of the pits. They look like a huge canyon. When going for a walk later that day Joey told me, "I saw the Grand Canyon today." When I asked him what he thought of it he said, "It was pretty cool."

Nancy said that Carly and Sophie spent a lot of time picking flowers at this park. It's a cute photo. They had lunch at Zimmys in downtown Hibbing. This whole outing was really fun for Carly. It's not very often that she goes off and does something without her family. She told them a couple of times, "I am having a great time!"

Not too much is going on here today. It was ridiculously windy yesterday and it's really windy again today. We got some rain and it looks like we'll get more. We've been watching the John Adams miniseries that was on HBO this past spring. We've watched six of the seven parts. Paul says he is not going to watch the final one because we know that John is going to experience "personal tragedies." We read the little preview for it. I think if he's invested this much time into it that he needs to toughen up and watch it.

I have a recipe for homemade pizza sauce that I am going to try out later today. It's pretty easy and if it's good I plan to make more of it and freeze it in freezer bags so that I have it on hand. I know it's pretty easy to just buy a can of pizza sauce, but I'm trying to be more of a make it on your own type of cook. If it's good I'll post the recipe.

We did buy airline tickets to Fort Myers for next June. In honor of that I'm changing the blog heading picture. We've never booked this early, but we have been following the advice you always hear on the news. If you find a great price, lock in. Now we can start looking for a place to rent - always the fun part.

Keewatin Races

2008-07-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

After the Keewatin parade there are races for the kids. Joey was more than happy to run with the other boys and took the "and under" part in the age qualifications seriously. In this picture it would appear that he is running in the 12 and under category. After each race he would run back to the finish line to get ready for the next one. He ran at least five races. I think the only race he didn't run was the 19 and over category, but David ran that one and I think he was cheated out of a 3rd or 4th place award which would have been $1 or $2.

I tried to get a good action shot of Joey, but this was the best I got.

Sophie decided to get in one extra race too. She's with some girls that were in 4th grade this year, so I'd say this is the 10 and under category. We decided not to have Carly run because she was wearing a pair of flip flops. Running full speed on asphalt in flip flops is never a good idea and we saw at least three girls wipe out while running and they all were wearing little sandals. Ouch!

Nice form, Sophie!

We kept the kids busy all weekend. When we weren't at some organized activity, they were playing in the park across the street or driving Carly's car in the yard. Joey went fishing the first night they were here. Paul said he was impressed with how Joey fished three straight hours and never complained. That's really good for a little guy. Nancy & David took Carly, Sophie, and Joey to the mine views in Nashwauk and Hibbing on Saturday. They also went for lunch. Carly has never really gone off and done something with people other than us and she told them a couple times that she was having a great time. Nancy, if you could send me a few of those pictures, I'd post them. Did you happen to get a picture of the kids in the purple car?

Al Franken for Senate

2008-07-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

This was the best part of the day. We would have been happy to walk the route without Al, but it was really fun to walk it with him. Before the parade, Nancy and I visited with him. He has a really warm, friendly personality. After we took this picture I told him that the last picture I had taken with him was well circulated in emails and that this one would make its rounds too. Whether you like Al Franken or not, you've got to admit that this is a great picture of the three of us. Nancy and I are very happy with it.

Before the parade we helped put signs on the sides of the van. We also tore apart stickers getting them ready to pass out along the route. After the Keewatin parade Nancy and I talked with some college-aged workers who work in his Duluth office. They had done four parades in less than 20 hours and said it was fun for them to get out of the office and see people responding to their candidate. They were heading into Bernie's Main Dry for a well earned beer and then were on their way up to Ely for the rest of the holiday weekend. We enjoyed meeting them.

The guy with the arrow shadowed Al during the parade. This was funny as well as helpful. As we walked the route people were asking where Al was. It was so easy to just point out the arrow to find him.

A DFL town like Nashwauk is always going to be a safe visit for a Democratic candidate. Al was very well received by the crowd. There was a lot of cheering and picture taking. I was ahead of him and I enjoyed turning around to see him at work. He got to both sides of the street. He did lots of handshaking. He had to do some running down the middle to close up gaps. He appeared to be having a good time. He had one more parade in Brainerd that day. Go Al!!

More Fire Truck

2008-07-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

They look excited, don't they?
Today was the first time the members of the fire department would wear their new shirts and ties. Paul is posing with Blake Liend.

I had to get a full shot. All of the members went with the anchorman look. Serious shirt on top and casual behind the news desk.

Parade Debut of the New Fire Truck!

2008-07-04T11:14:00.001-07:00

Paul and his backseat riders. The kids were excited. Paul had taken them down to the fire hall earlier that day so they could see the truck. When he pulled up in front of the house, the kids just took off across the yard to get into it. I made them pose for photos first.
During the parade, Joey wore Paul's fire helmet. He had to switch waving arms toward the end of the parade because the other one got too tired. Paul said that a lot of people were smiling and waving to him during the parade and then he looked over his shoulder and saw that they were all waving to Joey and not him.
Sophie was optimistic. She brought a bag for candy. The Itasca County Sheriff did give the kids some candy, but they had to wait until the Keewatin parade until they could fill the bags.
David was ready to go too!

4th of July 10K

2008-07-04T11:10:00.001-07:00

At 7 am Paul dropped us off in Naswauk. We had pre-registered so we picked up our numbers and sent the tee shirts home with Paul. Ellen would be walking the route with Kayla. They took off at 7:30. At 8:00, Nancy & I took off with the runners. It was a nice morning. It wasn't windy or humid and the temperature was pleasant.
Just one more block to go. We are not being beaten by the two walkers. You have to remember that they left 30 minutes before we did. They set it up that way so that everyone is finishing around the same time.
Still running!
Kayla and Ellen on the final stretch.

Done! After the race they had bottles of water or Gatorade at the city park and a short awards ceremony. None of us won any medals this year, but it was a good time. It's a good, clean cut event and it's something I enjoy being a part of. It was really nice to run the race with Nancy. The time seemed to go by twice as fast running with someone else. We finished in 52 minutes which isn't bad at all!

Will he be there?

2008-07-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from an Al Franken volunteer asking if I'd be willing to walk with Team Franken at the Nashwauk parade. I said that I should be able to and that I thought my sister would also do it. I asked if Al would be there and he said he wasn't sure which parades Al will be attending. They gave me a number of the local DFL coordinator to call and let them know. I cleared it with Nancy and she said she would. I mentioned it to Kayla's mom, Laura, and she said she'd like to do it too. So I called and volunteered all of us. Ellen might end up walking with us just because I don't know what else we'll do with her during the parade since the fire truck will be full. She can carry a sign. Al needs us!

I got on the local blog that I like to check out and I see this morning that Al is going to be walking the Nashwauk parade. I'm excited! I check back an hour later and they say he's actually going to be doing the earlier Keewatin parade at noon and then heading up to International Falls. Well, I'm thinking he might end up doing the Nashwauk parade after all. Nashwauk is the earlier parade at noon. Keewatin's parade is at 2 pm. I'm hopeful.

I think we'll get Team Franken shirts out of the deal. We'll pass out stickers or carry signs. So the entire Clusiau and Flom families will be in the Nashwauk parade. I suppose we could do both parades, but I would like to watch a parade with the kids. so I'm sitting out the Keewatin parade.

The weather is looking great and we should have a lot of fun. I'm even excited about the running part!

*** I just read an update. We're walking with Al tomorrow!!!

4th of July

2008-07-02T05:22:00.001-07:00

They are busy in town getting ready for the 4th. The banner is up across main street. They've been mowing and getting things in place up town. The gyro stand could even show up today. That's a big one.

Nancy & Family are coming up on Thursday. Nancy & I are signed up to run the 10K on Friday morning. Ellen & Kayla are going to walk it. I went for a 40 minute run on Monday and for the first time in about 3 weeks, my knee did not hurt at all the entire run. There were a couple times that I limped around for a day or two after a run. So I've decided not to push it and will not run again until Friday. I think I should be good to go the entire 6+ miles. I'm very happy to have someone to run it with.

Paul is driving the new fire truck in the parade in Nashwauk. This will be the parade debut of the truck that Paul worked so hard to get. I'm expecting that he'll have David in front with him and Joey, Sophie, and Carly in the back seat. A couple years ago we rode with Paul and it was a fun way to see everyone who was at the parade. Nancy, show Joey the above picture of the truck and maybe he'll get excited about riding in it. Paul said that he won't run the siren. We got Carly excited about riding in it a couple years ago. I think it will easier to pump up Joey. The parade in Keewatin is a duplicate of the Nashwauk parade a little later that day. It'll be interesting to see what politicians show up. Our parades are usually a lot better during an election year. Iron Rangers vote.

Saturday, Paul & David plan to golf or go fishing - I'm assuming they'll golf. We do have to go over to Hibbing for a little while Saturday morning. Kayla's grandpa died on Monday and they are having his visitation and funeral that morning. This was not unexpected. Jon was 92 and his health had been failing him for several months. He was a very nice man.

There are activities for kids all day Saturday. There is even a wrestling demonstration that evening. We've never had that before. Fireworks will be on Saturday night. The weather is going to be great, so it should be an enjoyable time. I'll try to post some pictures during the weekend.

Previously on the 4th of July

2008-07-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

The picture without a head never fails to make me laugh.

I went in and ordered a "Jon & Kate Plus Eight"

2008-06-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

and this is what I got. I have been in the market for a new hairstyle for quite a while, but in order to do something different, I had to grow it out a bit. I had not had a haircut since February 2 ( I went back and checked the date in my checkbook) and I could hardly stand it anymore. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it until Monday night. I was watching "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." I have always liked Kate's hair, but I noticed that hers had grown out quite a bit in the front and that my hair was now long enough to do something similar to hers.

So first thing on Tuesday morning, I got on-line and found a recent picture of Kate. It was taken at some sort of TLC function, so she was done up a little more than usual and she and Jon were posing for the photo - it was perfect. I printed it and called to make an appointment for a cut, style, and brow wax. I was able to get in that afternoon.

The stylist and I looked through a book and found a picture of what the back should look like. I told her that I wanted to walk out with the styling products that I would need to do it at home. She was very helpful in giving me some tips on how to do it with the least amount of work. I walked out of there with my hair looking quite good. Plus Paul had given me a generous gift certificate for Mother's Day - so it was a freebie.

This morning, it took me a little more than five minutes to do my hair. I had Paul take this picture this afternoon. I had been outside in the wind and it was a bit muggy today. I think it holds up fairly well. I swear, I have been fighting against my stick straight hair for over 30 years and it feels nice to just go with it. I just flipped under the ends with a big curling iron.

Last night I watched the movie "August Rush." It was OK. It was no "Lars & the Real Girl."

Cinnamon Rolls

2008-06-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to make cinnamon rolls, but had not found a recipe that didn't make a ridiculous amount. The baking blog that I visit gave a link to this recipe so I thought I'd give it a try. I'd recommend this recipe, but I would make a couple of changes.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ninety-Minute-Cinnamon-Rolls/Detail.aspx

First off, I used butter and not margarine. I don't buy stick margarine. I figure if you are going to use fat in your baking you might as well use the better tasting fat. A reminder that you are using rapid rise yeast and not regular yeast - it works a lot faster. I mixed and kneaded this in my Kitchen Aid mixer. Laurie, it is awesome for that. I added at least 1/2 a cup more flour than what the recipe called for. It was sticking to the sides of the bowl and you could easily tell it needed more.

There was way too much filling. It oozed out and fortunately I checked the oven before it started dripping. I put a baking sheet underneath it to catch it. I will make these again, but I will just butter the dough after it has been spread out and I'll sprinkle a combination of brown sugar and cinnamon over it before I roll it up. I definitely would not use a full stick of butter or an entire cup of brown sugar. I think because this was so easy and they really were good, it's worth trying again with some modifications.

I made homemade cream cheese frosting and it was the perfect topping for it. On Friday, I'm making red velvet cupcakes, so I'll use the remaining frosting for those.

Walleye Fry Night

2008-06-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

I took only a handful of pictures when we were in Cyrus last weekend. I got a couple cute ones of Laurie (in her cute "new" skirt) & Carly and another of Paul frying fish. I like the prairie scenery in the background on the horse shoeing pictures. I think Paul's fish fry was especially good this time.

Ellen's Bedroom

2008-06-19T18:56:00.001-07:00

Ellen's bedroom has never been this clean before. She's actually putting for the effort to keep it looking decent. We need to get something to put over her bed. You can't see the $3 headboard at all.

Carly's Room

2008-06-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

On Monday we had a couple of Paul's coworkers come in and paint the kids' bedrooms. Paul and I cleared the rooms and they got right to work. We spent quite a bit of time decluttering and got the rooms put back together quickly. I'm thinking we are going to go with a more neutral curtain, but in the meantime,we just put back up what we had.

Carly's room is quite pink. I'm still getting used to it. She wouldn't pose for a picture in her bed, but she was happy to pose for a picture with her friend, Ella. They spent Tuesday afternoon playing together.

Lars and the Real Girl

2008-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about Netlfix is that it will get you to watch something you would pass off as "stupid" if you saw it in the rental section of a store. Normally I would pass on a movie about a young man who purchases a life size sex doll and treats her as a real companion. But the reviews at Netflix were good, so I thought we'd give it a try.

Paul and I watched this last night. It's a comedy/drama with more emphasis on the drama. It's a feel good movie. There's nothing really even sexual about "Bianca." We really liked Lars, his family, and his town. We even liked Bianca. I don't think I've seen Ryan Gosling in any other movies, but I thought he made this sad, lonely, odd man very lovable. I'm still laughing about parts of it this morning. If you have Netflix, put it at the top of your queue and then give me a call after you watch it. Laurie, it is worthy of pay-per-view. I think Dan would enjoy it too.

Pyrex Casserole Dishes

2008-06-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

I paid $3 for the bright orange dish with the sunflower lid and $2 each for the smaller dishes. All three are in perfect condition. No fading, scratches, nicks or any flaws. I thought they were really pretty. They are probably from the early 70s. I got them at the same sale as the bowls. She had a lot of Pyrex items, but some were missing lids, or a set of bowls would be missing one bowl. I've noticed that at our local Goodwill that older Pyrex in used condition is rarely priced less than $4. So I knew these were good prices.

One thing nice about Pyrex is that they do stack inside each other. I did a quick straightening of the cabinets in our kitchen and by getting rid of a few items I was able to make room for all of my "new" things.

Pyrex Bowls

2008-06-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited about this find. There are a lot of people who collect old Pyrex and I have noticed from ebay that pink Pyrex is especially popular with buyers. This complete set in good condition doesn't usually go for less than $50 - then you throw in at least $15 for shipping. I've seen it go close to $100. So for me to get it for $10 was the best garage sale find I'll probably ever have.

This set is from the Gooseberry pattern from the late 50s/early 60s. It had some discoloration along the edges and bottom, but I thought if I gave it a good cleaning I could get most of it off and I was able to. About the only thing I can point out is that the biggest bowl seems to be lighter in color than the other pink bowl.

Old Tupperware

2008-06-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

I got some very practical items directly across the street. They were selling a bunch of items from a recently widowed guy in town. My friend Stacy and I were at that place at the same time and she and I both picked up several things.

The yellow bowl in the top picture cost 50 cents. It is now being used to hold steel cut oatmeal in the cupboard. The veggie/dip set cost $1. The lid is underneath it in this photo. I like that the dip holder has a separate little cup with a lid. I consider that to be my best Tupperware find and it will be making many trips to potluck dinners.

In the bottom photo I have two covered left-over plates - 50 cents each. Paul says he will use those to take lunch to work. That is my plan as well. I got another pickle/olive holder. We use the other one all the time for olives and I'm glad to have this one for pickles - 75 cents. I recommend buying one of these - very useful. The measuring cups and spoons were each 25 cents. The tablespoon is missing from the set, but it'll do.

I did go back just a little bit ago and pick up 3 lidded square Tupperware containers that I think were designed with sandwiches in mind. I also bought 3 smaller lidded bowls that would work well for a lot of things. Total cost was $1.50 I've been thinking more about packing snacks and lunches for this school this year.

Garage Sale Day

2008-06-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten that this morning was garage sale day in Keewatin. Carly looked out the window and said that there were a whole bunch of cars over at the neighbor's house and that got me right out of bed. Ellen wasn't interested in going, so Carly and I went out.

At our first stop I bought a music stand for $4. It's your basic fold up stand. If Ellen is going to play in the band she'll be needing one soon, so I might as well get one now than pay full price at a music store in the fall.

Another good find was a head board for a full size bed. Ellen's bed doesn't have one and I had been keeping an eye out for one for a while. I'll take a picture of it after we hook it up to Ellen's bed and put on her new bedding. It's just a basic wooden head board and it cost only $3. I couldn't get it to fit in the jeep. Fortunately I wasn't too far from our house, so I just carried it home. Paul just checked it out and said it would be very easy to attach to the bed frame. Now I'm going to post pictures of my deals that I was pretty excited about.

Wednesday, June 11

2008-06-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

It was a cool, windy, and rainy day today. Before it started to rain Paul and I went out for a 30 minute run together. Today he ran the entire route non-stop and added on a couple more blocks than his usual. He's doing well. A run seems to go much faster when you have someone else with you.

Carly wore her Snow White dress the entire day since she hosted a ball on and off all day. She picked out a dress for me to wear. So for a good hour or so I wore the dress I wore in Nancy's wedding. I'm pleased to say that it fits as well as it did back in early 30s. I have a feeling I'll be wearing this dress on many rainy days this summer.

Paul and I watched the movie "The Great Debaters." It was really good. Denzel Washington directed and starred in the movie. Denzel is kind of a "sure thing" actor for me. If he's in it, I will usually really like it. Paul and I were both a little verklempt at the end of the movie. I highly recommend it.

Even though it was raining, Paul made a beer can chicken for dinner tonight. It was great. Considering that a whole chicken costs a whopping $3, it's a cheap meal. I also bought a bag of new potatoes and made the crashed potatoes from pioneerwomancooks.com. So easy and really good. That will be a frequent side dish during grilling season. If you haven't made them yet, buy a bag of potatoes the next time you're at the grocery store and try it.

No plans for the evening. we still have to watch "Weeds." That's kind of a tough one to get in because you really do have to wait until the kids go to bed for that show. I did notice that the HBO mini-series "John Adams" is out on dvd. I have to add that to my queue. Nancy, have you and David rented anything good lately?

Nothing else to report here. Tomorrow we are supposed to have sunshine in the afternoon and temps around 70 - a welcome change.

Good Baking Website

2008-06-10T17:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.cookiemadness.net/

This blog is done by a woman who won the Pillsbure Bake-Off a few years ago. She made a chicken dish that used waffle sticks as stuffing. You've maybe seen her on the Food Network. I printed a chocolate chip cookie recipe earlier this week that I plan to make tomorrow. It sounds like we'll have another windy, wet day on Wednesday. Oh great.

Ellen's Piano Recital

2008-06-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Last night Ellen had her piano recital at the library in Hibbing. When Ellen started talking lessons, her teacher, Lisa, had about 10 students and now has 23, plus she's adding more this fall. It's nice to see her doing well because I really do think she is an excellent teacher.

Ellen had three songs to play - Listen to Your Heart, My Heart Will Go On, and I can't remember the name of the 3rd song. Ellen, would you please give the name in the comments section.? She did a really nice job. You've heard her play the Titanic theme song, but she'll have to bring the music to Listen to Your Heart the next time we are in Cyrus. It's really a pretty version of the song done by the band Heart back in the 80s. It was not an easy song for her to learn and she worked hard at it. She has very nice expression when she plays. It just sounds pretty.

The problem with playing three songs is that the recital took 90 minutes. That's just way too long. At one point Carly and Paul went upstairs and looked at books because Carly could just not sit there any longer. About 60 minutes into it she threw her back and said, "I'm so bored!" She's five! It's hard. I'm hoping that someone will have the nerve to tell Lisa to scale it back to two songs. At least we'd be down to an hour.

Afterward we went to Sammy's Pizza for dinner. In addition to being bored, Carly was very hungry. She ate an entire plate of rigatoni - usually she'll bring half of it home. Sammy's was pretty busy for a Thursday night. That's good to see. When they had their fire at Easter time, I think everyone was concerned that they might not re-open. They've been open for a little over a month now and we've been there three times since then - each time it was busy.

Finally a new post

2008-06-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ellen got after me for not updating in quite some time and I'm finally getting around to it a few days later. It has been awhile.

The weather around here has been total crap. If it's not raining, It's ridiculously windy. We've had like one 1/2 decent day since school got out. Paul has gone fishing a couple of times and one of those times they were rained on quite a bit. But he will have enough fish for a walleye fry in Cyrus in a couple of weeks.

We've had plenty of time to get caught up in the latest election news. We've made it pretty clear that we are in the tank for Obama. It was quite a thrill to see Barack Obama deliver his speech in St. Paul on Tuesday night. We made Ellen stay up to watch it. I wore my Obama08 shirt for the occasion. Paul has a shirt too ( his is really cool), so we'll have to post a picture soon. We were puzzled by Hillary Clinton's speech that same night. We weren't alone. It will be interesting to see what her speech on Saturday will be like.

Today since it was raining - again, we took in a matinee. Paul has been wanting to see the new Indiana Jones movie, so he took Ellen and Kayla to see that. Carly and I went to "Kung Fu Panda." This movie got really positive reviews, but I thought it was just ok. The animation was appealing. I like Jack Black, but it just seemed like one fight scene after another. Carly didn't like it and said it was scary. Ellen & Kayla really liked the Indiana Jones movie, but Paul didn't really like it. He said there were aliens in it and that they don't belong in an IJ movie.

We were talking about going up to Grand Marais next week, but they got about five inches of rain overnight and it continues to rain there. They have serious flooding problems and it's going to take them a while to clean up. That trip will be pushed back a month or so.

We have the first installment of the 3rd season of Weeds and the movie Juno from Netflix. We'll have to watch one of those tonight. I also bought the dvd of the 1982 tv series "Square Pegs." That is the first show where I was ever pissed that it was cancelled early. I've said for years if it ever came out on dvd that I would buy it. It came out a couple weeks ago and it only cost $25 from amazon. I watched a couple of episodes and was amused by it. It's tempting to sit down and do a marathon, but I'm going to spread it out. Sarah Jessica Parker looks so incredibly young in it. Does anyone else remember this show?

Latest Tacky Figurine

2008-05-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

When I showed this one to Paul he said, "I think this might be your best one yet." It's in the top five. I have a couple I like better. My coworkers occasionally check out my collection and I'm going to make a point to show this one off. It cost a dollar. I truly enjoy my cheap retro collection.

Kids and their Mother Day

2008-05-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

I used my last personal business day today and it turned out to be a very good day. I went for a quick run before Paul went to work - it's good I did. If I would have waited until later in the day I wouldn't have been able to make it back home - it is so incredibly windy here.

Carly and I were going to do some shopping and go out for lunch. Carly wore her new flowery dress and black Mary Jane style crocs and we spent a little extra time styling her hair this morning and she looked great. Our first stop was JC Penney. Carly picked out two pairs of denim shorts and shirts for herself. She enjoyed trying them on in the dressing room. She also helped pick out some shorts for Ellen. We should be in good shape for summer clothes now.

We went downtown and brought my wedding ring into a shop to have it repaired. One of the prongs on my ring came off a couple weeks ago. I decided to have all four replaced since two needed work and another would need work soon. I figured it made more sense to do them all at once since I was bringing it in.

We then went to Goodwill in search of cheap 70s statues - no luck there. We walked down to the Salvation Army where I scored an excellent one which I will post after this. Carly was excited that we found one. She carried it to the counter and took the bag when we left. She insisted that we hold hands during all of the shopping - which was nice.

We had lunch at Sammy's Pizza. They reopened this week. They had a fire right before Easter and everyone in the area was concerned about them reopening. It's our family's favorite restaurant and it was nice to go back there. Carly had rigatoni which she said was "So good!" I had the pizza/salad lunch buffet - which was also "So good!"

We picked up a few groceries and stopped at Walgreens to get some hair clips for Carly. On the way home Carly said, "Do you know what day it is? It's kids and their mother day." We really did have a nice morning together. When we got home we called over to the Lamppa's to see if Ella would like to come over and play. She's been to our house a couple times, but never without her mom. She told Stacey to say yes, but only for one minute. The girls played in the park - picked lots of dandelions. They set up a million stuffed animals in the living room. We played croquet in the yard and they played with their dolls in the playhouse. We even went over to our new neighbor's place to check out the fireplace they just finished installing - very pretty. We had called Stacey about an hour into Ella's visit to let her know things were going just fine and since she didn't need to be home for anything we'd bring her back later in the afternoon unless she wanted to go back earlier. She was at our house about 3.5 hours - much longer than a minute. We brought her back when it looked like it would rain at any time - which it did. I hope that Ella will be a regular visitor at our house this summer. It's good for both of the girls and it gives Stacey a bit of a break. Her other daughter was napping while Ella was gone, so she just had her twins to take care of. When I got home from taking Ella back, Paul told me that Carly told him it was a day just for girls and moms.

Today was the kind of day that makes me anxious for summer. It's nice knowing we'll have a lot of days like that soon.

Before & After

2008-05-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Carly wanted her hair in hot rollers. I said the only way I would do it is if she let me take her picture. She agreed. The Snow White dress was one of our better Halloween costumes - it's been worn many times over the years and I hope that Gracie will enjoy it when I pass it on to her. My goal is to get the cost per wearing down to a dime.

Late Mother's Day Post

2008-05-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been too much newsworthy in our household lately, so I've been slow to update. I decided to take a picture of my Mother's Day presents from the girls. Carly made me a little tree and on each little heart hanging from a branch it gives a reason why she loves me. Carly doesn't expect much. She loves me because I give her drinks and tuck her in at night. Ellen made up an elaborate card that took a couple afternoons in school to make. I also got a gift card to the salon at JC Penneys that I'll use when school is out. Very nice gifts!

Later that day I went to Virginia to do some shopping. I only went to Herbergers and Target. My purpose was to pick up summer clothing and sandals for the girls.

Paul went fishing on the opener and they caught a few. He went out the next day and they got none. He's not sure if he'll get out tomorrow. It's supposed to be very windy.

I had the movie "27 Dresses" from Netflix and liked it. It was very predictable, but enjoyable. I really like the two main actors - James Marsden & Katherine Heigl. I'd recommend it.

Uppercase Living

2008-05-03T13:51:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to find something to put above my kitchen window for a few years now and just haven't found anything that would fit that space very well. At Easter time Nancy brought home an Uppercase Living catalog. She was going to a party in April, so I had her place an order for me. It arrived from UPS yesterday, so this was going to be a small weekend project.

Paul and I used the window frame as our guide and it does appear that the right hand side does go up a bit. The second picture that I took is crooked ( I can tell by looking at the bottom stripe on the curtain) so it makes it look more crooked than it really is. I'd probably put it a couple inches lower if I were going to do it again. I think it fits the space well and I think the price was very reasonable - total cost with tax and shipping was $25. I also like the red on the yellow wall. This took about 15 to 20 minutes to do.

I did try out my new self tanner from QVC - I'm very happy with it. The color looks like a real tan - not orange at all. I don't have any streaks. The mineral powders that you use on your face go well with it. I'm looking like I have a midsummer tan right now. You use the self tanner every few days, so it will easily last the entire summer.

Not much is going on here. It's Paul's turn to be sick. He said he was up a good share of the night with an upset stomach - I didn't hear him at all. He had a fever of 101 this morning and now it's in the 99s. He looks better than he did earlier today, so hopefully this is a short bug.

It's really windy and cool outside. It's supposed to be a nicer day tomorrow - I hope so. I'm ready for the upper 50s and lows 60s they are forecasting for this week.

Spring is on hold again.

2008-04-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to avoid a foot of snow, but we still got wintry weather. It started to sleet on Friday and we had a couple inches of snow on the ground on Saturday. It was really windy and it snowed on and of all day. We just stayed home. There was very little traffic on the four lane so we took that to mean that the roads weren't so hot.

Today the sun is out and the wind went down. this last batch of snow should melt quickly. Normally I love spring, but this one has been the worst one that I can remember. I thought I'd be using my clothesline regularly, watching Carly play at the park, and running on the trail a few times a week. This had better be the last of the snow. I can't believe I'm saying that the last weekend of April.

I'm finally feeling better. I was sick all last week. It started on Monday morning and by Tuesday I was feeling awful - stuffed up head, ears popping, sore throat, constant nose blowing. I finally had the opportunity to use the neti pot I bought last year. It certainly does a good job clearing out your nasal passages, but I did not enjoy the process of actually using it very much. I stayed home from school on Wednesday. Friday was probably the only day at school that I wasn't miserable.

On Tuesday I had a scheduled appointment with my doctor to check out a mole on my neck that had taken on a life of it's own in the past couple of weeks. If you were to go to the picture of Al Franken and me (and really everyone should take a second look at that one, just for good times) you'd see a red spot on my neck. I've had this for a couple of years and really should have had a dermatologist take a look at it a while back. About 3 weeks ago I casually scratched my neck and made it bleed - a lot. This red bump became very swollen and I continued to have problems with it bleeding when I'd towel off after a shower or somehow rub it against something. There is only one dermatologist on the Iron Range and I couldn't get in with him until August. My final straw came when I took off the lanyard with my school ID in the car and made it bleed like crazy - thankfully I have a stash of Dairy Queen napkins in the glove box. I went straight home and made an appointment with my regular doctor. I also started wearing a bandage on my neck.

I went in Tuesday and Dr. Rudberg said he it looked like blood vessels had pooled around the cut and he scheduled me to see one of the clinic surgeons the next day - the day that I had already decided to call in sick - so that worked out well. The surgeon gave me a prescription for an antibiotic since the site of the wound was infected. He was pretty quick to cut out the offending spot and I have four stitches that will come out on Monday. I don't think the scarring will be too bad. It looks like it is healing up well.

This is the 4th time I've had a spot removed and then stitched up. They'll test it at the lab as well. It won't be the last I do this either. I hate this. I regret using tanning beds during the 90s and I really regret laying out in the sun all of those years. On Friday the "Today's Special Value" at QVC was a self tanner kit from Bare Minerals that should last the entire summer. I bought it. I like having a tan in the summer, but it's going to be a fake one from now on. I hope my girls do not inherit my skin issues and I'm glad that I have always been good about using sunscreen on them. As long as they live in my house, they will never use tanning beds. I don't care if it's prom time. I will pay to have them get a good spray tan.

No big plans for today - laundry, maybe buy groceries. I have the movie "She's the Man" from Netflix, so I'll watch that - I've been told it's funny. I hope to see very little snow on the ground at the end of the day.

Signs of Spring

2008-04-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Paul dug out Ellen's old bike Saturday and even managed to find the training wheels for it. Carly took a 3+ hour nap yesterday afternoon, so she didn't get to try it out then. We took it out today and she did well. She was used to her smaller bike, so she had to get the feel for the bigger bike. I think I'm going to do it like we did with Ellen - put the bike in the back of the car and drive over to the bike path, so she can just ride without having to worry about traffic. I'm pretty sure Ellen did not master riding without training wheels until after kindergarten, so I don't expect we'll be taking the training wheels off this summer.

Paul is upstairs watching the Twins game. Ellen went to this game with her class as part of the DARE program. She was really excited to go. About 400 k ids from our area were going and sitting together. They left around 6:45 this morning. We now know that Ellen can get ready in less than 15 minutes when she really wants to go someplace. That doesn't happen on school mornings. They were grilling hot dogs before the game outside of the Metrodome. Then they were going to go onto the field to watch batting practice and to take part in a "parade" on the field. We've seen the cameras zoom into the Dare section - all of the kids were wearing their red shirts. We haven't seen any of the N-K kids. I regret not making a sign for her that said, "I DARE you to circle me, Bert!" I know she would have gotten on camera. I could have made one that rolled up and wouldn't have been a big deal to take with them. Oh well.

Paul was feeling rather nervous about sending her to downtown Mpls, but when the main chaperon is the chief of police you feel better about it. We sent her with a cell phone and she called us a couple of times - once while on the bus and another time when they were about to go onto the field - she was really excited about that part. We're really looking forward to hearing about her day. They just went into extra innings.

I'm making spaghetti tonight using a recipe from Oprah magazine from a few years ago. I used to make it often and haven't made it in a few years. I had to call Nancy to get the directions since I didn't have the original recipe or have it written down on a card. Thanks, Nancy! We also bought the ingredients to make fish tacos with mango salsa. I had fish tacos at a restaurant on Sanibel a couple years ago and they were really good. A recipe was in the Hibbing paper today, so that prompted us to finally try making them at home. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Not much else to report here. The sun finally came out!

eta - The Twins won!