Our little trip

The two of us at the Lock & Dam at Alma

The Eagle Center in Wabasha, this is Harriet

Outside the Eagle Center, on the Mississippi.  A little barge going down river.

Our favorite ice cream and cheese place...and they have wine!

On the bluff above Alma.  We have never been up there.  This would be a gorgeous spot when the leaves are turning. We are well ahead of peak for that!

A really nice day to spend together.  We ate lunch in Lake City Minnesota at a restaurant on the shore of Lake Pepin (which is actually the Mississippi river) and we saw our little barge from Wabasha go by, a paddle wheeler launched from our dock spot and a catamaran was skimming around on the lake.  Just beautiful.  And the lunch was delicious.  We had the walleye basket.  yummy!

20 Years ago today

We became husband and wife. We are spending the afternoon together driving down to the Mississippi for the morning afternoon.  A little shopping, eating, cheese and wine tasting and a stop at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha Minnesota (home of the movie Grumpy Old Men).  MAybe I will have some nice photos of the two of us later today.
Nick was on the run last night.  It was a warm afternoon for a run in the park, but Nick did a good job keeping the pace and finished in 9th place.
Mr Nick with the TEAM 1st trophy.  We never get to see the trophy's after the meets because there are not enough displays for all of them!!  I think it would be fun to take a photo of the boys and all the trophy's around them.  They have acquired 5 already and they have 3 regular meets to go for sectionals and state.  Go team GO.

And The Mighty Quin was busy with football. Peter went to that game and I was at the Cross Country race.  Can't be at two places at once!

Quin did a great job and they won their game.

My poison ivy is doing better.  The blisters are starting to subside and the pain is now just the EXTREME itchiness of the skin recovering.  I think it was worse than the initial poison absorption!  I need a calgon bath!

Homecoming

Nick had his first "date" Saturday night.  He invited a girl to the Homecoming dance.  It was actually a group of kids that went together, the guys were friends and the girls were friends.  They had a good time at the dance but had to wait forever for their food at dinner. They had reservations at 6:45 and were seated immediately but didn't leave the restaurant until almost 9pm!  There were 8 kids and 5 ordered the Fettucini Alfredo and the other three ordered burgers. One of the boys ordered something they didn't have but the waitress didn't come and tell him until 10 minutes after the order was placed.  Then she didn't bring a menu with her so he could pick something else out.  Then the waitress wasn't bringing them drink refills and asking how they were doing at all.  Nick was annoyed about that.  He told me he only left a $2 tip because of the bad waitress.  His bill was $25 so he still left a pretty good tip for such bad service.  I think the waitress figured they were not going to tip very well because it was a group of 14-15 year olds...but she was WRONG.  Nick knew what she should have gotten had the service been good.

My wrists are still killing me so that is all for now. I took a photo of my left wrist, but it is too grizzly to post.  Hubby and the kids all think it looks too nasty.

Poison Ivy and Rice

Not a good combination....lol

I was snuggling with my kitties the other day, after they had been lost it the woods for a day...and what do I end up with....poison ivy on my hands, wrist, chin, part of my ear, and a little spot on my shoulder (where my T-shirt didn't cover!).  I washed off, but apparently not enough.  The stuff on my wrist is killing me! The nerves in my wrist are tingling constantly!!  Oh, well.  Two weeks and it will all be gone.....

And rice.....is $3 for 12 lbs a good price?  I think so.  I was at Sam's Club and was wondering around the aisles and came across a big bag of Uncle Ben's uncooked long grain white rice for $2.81.  I not a big eater of the long cooking rice, but that deal was too good to pass up.  I am going to be making some spanish rice and rice pudding soon. I throw it into the crock pot and have it cook up with the chicken and soups.  I also found a 9 pack of the Kraft Instant Mac & Cheese cups for $2.81..again, good deal, can't pass up (Quin's favorite).  Off to work I go I go.

That's it for today....boring I know.

WARNING... Obscene photo

I picked this little tomato from the garden yesterday.... well, it's not so little either, it's bigger than a softball and probably weights over a pound.  But, when I picked it off the vine and went to place it in my basket I noticed this little protrusion.... kinda funny... had to share. I will be so sad when the frost comes and takes my little vine of fresh tomatoes away.

Does anyone like soybeans?  I know the people have been cooking/drying/roasting them  and eating them for a long time, but...being a potato chip, pretzel and peanut kinda girl, I have avoided these little morsels.  Why ruin a good thing?  So with my more "healthy" eating habits of late, I have been venturing into the wide world of "other foods".  Oh, don't worry, I am still a card carrying member of the chocolate chip cookie club (my bag of Girl Scout Thin Mints are open in front of me as I type) but, I tried something different...something my family refuses to do...and found I truly liked the little soybeans.  I guess they are probably a little healthier than a potato chip (um, probably a LOT!) and I have now tried the WASABI beans (not going to try again), Honey Roasted Beans (YUMMY ) and the plain salted and roasted ones (again, YUM).  They taste just like peanuts to me.....family is not so sure....and Quin tried one when I told him it was a peanut....he liked it until I told him otherwise....KIDS!

Other than my new love for different foods I have been busy crafting.  Mostly stuff I cannot share, but four days of busy crafting anyway.  Feels good to get something done and meet ALL MY DEADLINES!  I put in my application for the PAZZLES Design Team again.  They are doing the team a little different this year, so we will see in a few weeks if I get picked again. 

That's all for now.

Fly Boys

This was the view from our seats in the corporate chalets at the Air show.  Nice view huh?
We walked through the FedEx plane on the grounds.  Hey, Tom Hanks sat in one, why not us, right?  LOL
The guys on the ladder into the hold.
Fat Albert on the approach to the fly-by over the crowd.
And one picture of a Blue Angel formation.

The clouds stayed in the area for the whole show, but we were able to see the Angels fly.  They moved up their fly time because they had cancelled the show from the day before.  About an hour after the Angels finished their show the sky opened up and it poured again for about 45 minutes.  We stuck it out because we had a roof, food, beer and drinks in the chalet....yay for the chalet!  Still, it was quite chilly, so we left a little before the end of the show. 

Racing

Stanley Meet SHS

Thursday Sept. 11

Temp: 68 degrees and humid

Course: grass, knolls, blacktop and gravel

Time: 18:43

Distance: 3.1 miles

Individual Place: 16th

Team Finish: 2nd

Fall Creek Meet FCHS

Saturday Sept. 13

Temp: 60 degrees and rainy

Course: Grass, a BIG hill, trees and blacktop.

Time: 18:59

Distance 3.1 miles...uphill for over 1 mile!!

Individual Place: 6th

Team Place: 2nd

I still haven't gotten a decent photo of him running. I apparently can get other peoples kids no problem.  I had a hard time taking photos at the run this morning because of the rain.  My poor cameras were covered in rain drops.  I did get a nice photo of all the boys with the trophy this time. I just pushed my way to the front and made the kids stand there while I took the picture.  Pays to be an aggressive mom....lol.....and that is SO not me!

So in other news for the day, we have eaten out for every single meal today...and I am SO FULL!  Breakfast at Perkins at 8:30, lunch at Quizno's at 12:30 and dinner with my parents at Texas Roadhouse at 4:30.....yikes...I never eat that much in one day.  All of the meals were quite tasty though.

Tomorrow we have the air show but it looks like we will have the same yucky weather as today.  I just heard on the news that todays air show had been cancelled, so we will see how tomorrow goes.  The Blue Angels do not fly if the cloud deck isn't high enough and in lightening (which is not the problem in this case).  We are going to the show regardless, so I will have pix of airplanes tomorrow....will I get them uploaded....maybe.....hehehe

Equal Time

Quin had a scrimmage last night against a local school.  So, in fairness, I must do a post with his sports too...even though Nick will have more meets then the Mighty Quin. ...I must keep it equal..

Quin is the one with the hands out pushing in the center of the photo, 

in green and NOT laying on the ground.

And here he is almost running off the screen of my camera as I tried to get some shot....but, there he is.  He ended up getting #58 again this season, so that means he is #58 for 3 years....and I think he is pushing for that next year too...we shall see.  They do get first pick next year....he got lucky this year and traded a kid for the number he wanted.

This makes it difficult for me because if I have a pile of photos, I can't go by his number to remember which year it is!!

So, my entire day was spent away from home, but I got my workout in and a good breakfast at Panera.  Who knew they served breakfast?  I had an egg souffle that was quite tasty and pretty filling even though it looked very little on my giant serving tray.  The best part is the fact that they serve CAFFEINE FREE Diet Pepsi!!  Nobody serves caffeine free anything in a diet, so this is super cool!! I prefer Caffeine Free Diet Coke, but this is a nice change from having to drink water or regular Diet Coke..can you say jittery.

We have an Air show this weekend and we have tickets to the chalets....woohoo, aren't we cool?  Two of the The Blue Angels have arrived and are practicing over our house.  The others will arrive on Thursday. 

ScrapPink

At the end of September we are having a ScrapPink event at the store I work for.  I found some pink t-shirts at Wal-mart for $3 a few weeks ago and decided we should wear these on that day.  Well, just a pink shirt isn't enough for me!  We need to advertise leading up to the day, so with my PAZZLES, a little vinyl and my T!M HOLTZ color wash, I made the team some shirts.  I think they turned out pretty good!  The color wash is "Red Pepper", but I like it!

Nothing much else is happening in my world.  I am doing some layouts for the retreat house which is having a grand opening on Thursday and Saturday. Patti called me up and asked if I would be interested in having my pages on display in the workroom at the retreat house and I said "sure!"  And as if I didn't have enough to do with making samples (card and layout), page kits, card kits at the store, I have my PAZZLES project due, the tryout for the team projects are due and now this little side project......can you say crafting frenzy.  It seems like it is easier to crank out a bunch of things when you are on a roll and under a deadline....which is right where I am at!!  Add to all of that the sports schedules for the kids.

I am off to take a nap...after folding some laundry, making another page, finishing that album, creating a class.....

Running

First race of the season (why can't I capture him in a better pose? ever!)

13 schools (did I mention I drove 80 miles ONE way to see this race)

134 runners (holey moley!)

Varsity Squad

Freshman

26th place overall

3.1 miles

19:29

big rain storm coming
1st place for the team.....priceless...

Ok, there were 9 guys total running for our school, but the top 7 scored and Nick and three other guys finished top 30 which brought the team score to 74.....and that was all it took to win one for the team (I say that as if it was easy to run around in the 90 degree super humid weather!!). I am not showing the other members to protect the innocent...I just got lucky Nick was standing next to coach and the trophy....

and did I mention his name was in the paper too...gotta save that one!