Just Another Day

We arrived home this evening after a perfect holiday weekend with The Johnsons. It had been over a year since we got to spend some time with Josh, Stacie, Abbie, and James, but it’s so nice to just pick up right where we left off. The kids were with their grandma Wednesday night when we arrived at PDX, so Stacie and Josh met us at the airport… The guys were busy story telling in the front of the car while Stace and I gabbed in the back, and often the conversations intertwined and the car was filled with laughter.

After staying up Wednesday Night much later than I can seem to get myself to at home, we still managed to hit the road to the Thanksgiving Day celebration in Salem with Stacie’s family with time to grab a Starbucks. Mmmm! It’s no surprise that Stacie’s side of the family was super welcoming and kind in welcoming us to their big feast.

We stopped over at Josh’s folk’s place that night and got the rundown on their Turkey-day, too. The next morning Stacie and I were ambitious enough to get out of the house by 7 in hopes of collecting some electronics info. for Bill to give input on upon our return. Of course, the time just continued to fly by. The boys spent Friday afternoon getting Christmas lights up, and Stacie and I mixed up some of our favorite snacks for the evening. I just love cooking with Stacie! And we ended up with a table full of goodies to enjoy while we watched Fred Claus.

On Saturday we slept in and lounged around for a bit before heading to see Bolt 3D, which was a very cute movie. When we got home, Miss Tara was there to stay with the kids, and the four adults headed out for dinner and a couple of yummy drinks. Certainly the highlight of the evening was a near blinding pop-rocks accident brought on by our overly-enthusiastic server, Troy. Everyone left in one piece, though, and we’ve now got another story to laugh about.

We are so thankful for the opportunity to laugh and enjoy the company of great friends. A big thanks to Abbie for giving up her bedroom for the weekend, and to the whole family for their wonderful hospitality!

Tonight Dad, my sisters and I, and our hubbies all met for dinner to celebrate my sister Laura’s birthday. It was just nice to all be together, since life gets crazy and work schedules don’t often match up for us all. (Lo’s a nurse, so she doesn’t get the nice breaks we teachers do.)

At any rate, it was the best excuse to get together – and I even chose a b-day gift especially for cat lovers. (there you go, cat lady!)

Happy Birthday Laura-Dora-Dolly! Love you lots!

We decided to start celebrating Thanksgiving early!

Bill and I are going to be traveling this week, as will April and Jesse. So, I decided to cook up a little dinner in hopes of having a mock Thanksgiving. It turned out, though, that Dad was staying at the hunting shack, and Lo had to work. We’re just lucky Ape and Jesse came out to help us put a SMALL dent in the 20 lb. turkey with all the fixins.

I was especially happy with my first attempt at homemade cranberry sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I like the canned stuff as much as the next guy. (I really do!) But, I couldn’t find it at Target, didn’t want to stop at a grocery store, and had a bag of cranberries in the fridge that were intended to become scones but destined for the compost… so, voila! This has got to be the EASIEST addition to the meal. I also found a quick pumpkin cheesecake recipe that was tasty and super simple. I do love to try new recipes.

So, besides playing June Cleaver this afternoon, Bill and I headed up to Tower to see Mom and my Grandma & Grandpa Poderzay. Mom, Bill, and I then headed out for lunch together and extended the visit a bit. It will be nice to have a little vacation time coming up so we can all see each other a bit more.

In other exciting news – we got the furnaces up and running this past week. They hadn’t been run in almost 2 years, so I thought it best to have them checked out before we started pumping propane throughout the house. It is so nice to come home and not have to get the fire lit right away. We’ll still plan to heat primarily with wood, but it’s nice to have the back up.

And one last rambling… gasoline has dropped to $1.89 in Cook ($1.83 in Nett Lake!). We’ll still have to keep our extra driving in check and be concious of the environment, but it is nice to feel a little less restricted by outrageous prices at the pump.

Life has been pretty routine these days. I haven’t really been good about capturing it in pictures, and, well, I am much more likely to blog about the random events of each day if I have an image to go with them.

I guess I will just have to share this borrowed picture.

I happened to have spent this afternoon watching Elf. I just LOVE that movie, and now I’m even more ready for the holiday season.

Bill’s dad was here for a few nights and headed back down to the farm this morning. We were happy he made some time to head our direction before he flies back to AK mid-week.

The bay has a thin sheet of ice covering it, and the yard has a light dusting of snow… both signs that we’ll soon be in full-blown winter. Winter is NOT my favorite season, but I’ll admit I’m ready to get out of this gray, cloudy stage and into the crisp, white days ahead.

…perhaps those days will inspire more pictures.

Inspired by Tiff, who was inspired by another…

1. Please feel free to come and clean my whole house.

2. When I use Tide and Downy on my laundry, I can’t help sniffing it occasionally.

3. My favorite thing to cook is sloppy joes.

4. Time at home is something I can’t get enough of.

5. That’s the thing I love most about living where I do.

6. My sister’s love of cats always makes me think to myself, what the heck?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting to bed, tomorrow my plans include sleep, cleaning, visiting my grandparents, and Herberger’s Community Sales with Apey. Sunday, I want to lay around in my PJs.

Dad predicts that half of our bay will be covered in ice by morning. Here’s the start of it.

Life’s been good. It was exciting to see the results of the election. Like most everybody else, we’re ready for a change! Closer to home things have been a little more mild. We did finish up our first quarter of school on Friday. Time is moving crazy fast!

Bill’s dad came and stayed with us for a couple of nights this past week. Both Bills headed to the Debs property on Friday in hopes of bringing home some venison. By the sounds of it, they did pretty well. We will be busy preparing two deer for the freezer.

April came to spend the weekend at the lake. We’ve done a lot of laying around and flipping from one reality show to the next. It’s been very relaxing.

This week is sure to be another busy one.

April and I hopped in the car Friday afternoon and headed South to meet up with Amy and Trish. It was so nice to have a girls weekend away. Of course there was lots of eating, time at the mall, and tons of giggling. This morning we packed up and headed out for breakfast before heading seperate ways. Ape and Trish drove North together, and Amy was kind enough to hang out at Borders with me until Bill came through the cities.

Bill and I got some quality car time for the 4 hours north. (Alright, I did take a little nap…) But, we did manage a couple of highlights including “world famous” caramel rolls from Tobie’s and $2.15/gal gas in Cloquet!

Of course it’s back to work tomorrow. Thankfully I’ll have lots of happy thoughts from the weekend to fuel me through the week!

Bill and I decided to take a fall trip into the BWCA over our October long weekend. We headed out to Angleworm lake. The whole trail is about a 14 mile loop; we covered around a quarter of that before deciding to set up camp. We had nice weather for hiking. It wasn’t very sunny, but it was plenty warm without causing us to overheat.

I have been interested in doing a hike since I learned there are a few trails into the Boundary Waters that don’t require water entry. We packed a little differently because we’d be doing so much walking and our packs wouldn’t need to balance in a canoe. Also, since we were just going overnight, I splurged with some “fresher” foods, an extra thermarest, and a big down sleeping bag.

I guess I’ll have to admit that I’m still not very good at sleeping on the ground. And my plan to stay well hydrated meant the need for frequent bathroom trips during the middle of the night… not exactly easy in the dark. But, I do enjoy being outdoors, and the hike was a new kind of challenge. My legs, back, and shoulders are all sore this evening, and I’m always a little more thankful for our bed when I come back from a camping trip!

Discovery’s new show Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth? It’ll be replaying several times this week, and it’s worth a watch!

I think every day should be pajama day at school!

We’ve been celebrating homecoming week, and I didn’t hesitate to join in today by wearing my jammies. I was so comfy all day. Plus, PJs seem to soften up some of my “toughest” kids. Seriously, who can get stressed out by fifth graders in head to toe flannel?

I don’t generally like to use this blog space to dwell on work, but I’m going to go ahead and dedicate this post to just that. It’s been a pretty fun week.