Where has summer gone

I cant believe it is the end of July!! Where has summer gone?

Usually by now we are eating fresh veggies out of the garden, but this year yeverything is way behind. By this time we are usually getting ready to start canning. Pickles, salsa, spaghetti sauce etc.... I have some new canning recipes I want to try this year, a green tomato chutney and green tomato pickles. mmmmmmmm ... Fried green tomatos tonight for dinner!

Weather and movies

The weather here in Minnesota drives me crazy, if we are lucky there might be one full day of sunshine once a week. This is not good for someone who suffers with SAD(seasonal affective disorder) other wise known as lack of sunshine. I grew up in Colorado where we have sunshine 360 days out of 365, so it hit me hard moving to Mn.With the weather being bad it means no yard work so I am glad there are so many good movies out right now. We have seen Star Trek and it was great! Going today to Angels and Demons cant wait…still have Wolverine to see…whew Hugh Jackman hot hot hot!!

April first ~

APRIL FOOLS!!! NAUGHT......

This is the scene today April 1st. Not a happy sight for me...I am ready for summer. We have at least 12 inches and they are saying more today.

Time

It has been a while since I have written here. Time seems to get away from me, there is always something to do or a problem to take care of.

I am on Facebook......a girl I have known since Junior High contacted me, we were pretty good friends then...it was kind of a love/hate relationship with her on my part. She was everything I wasnt then...self confident, pretty and she knew how to handle herself around the boys. It was all the teen age angst we all go through. She got married right out of high school, to my boyfriend at the time best friend, I dont think the marriage lasted longer than 6 months and they were divorced. After High School our lives went on different paths and I havent really had any contact with her. I have mixed feelings about reconnecting with her...I am sure it is just the old teenage angst raring its ugly head.

I know time and life has changed both of us and we are not the same girls we were back then.

It amazes me how after being out of school for 35 years all of the insecurities from that time can pop up. I will click on the friend button and put the angst back in the closet it belongs. Welcome back to my life Cheryl.

Spending time together

Chuck and I spent the day together in St Cloud. It was nice to have someone to talk to, it gets pretty lonely going everywhere by myself. I take Shiloh sometimes but she isn't a great conversationlist .
We went to the RV show and looked at motorhomes we couldn't afford. They have gotten really nice on the inside, marble floors, flat screen TVs, and all of the room the slide outs give you. I miss our motor home we had some good times in it. The trip with Cheri and the boys to Mesa Verde and all the trips Eulogio took with us in the summer to Minnesota, and the infamous koolaide corner on Hwy 76.
We are talking about going to something next weekend. It is nice my husband wants to spend time with me. We always have a good time talking and laughing.

Love Dust

Chuck says this is made from "Love Dust". He drew it outside our bedroom window on my birthday. He always thinks of things like this to do, pretty creative. He is pretty special guy.

Sunday was my 53rd birthday. I have days when I feel that old and other days where i cant believe it. I guess in my mind I am still in my 30s. Life is so different now than when i grew up. We could play anywhere in the neighborhood, we went out after dinner and played hide and seek. We had a freedom kids now days will never experience.

Spring

I am looking forward to Spring 33 days and counting. The winter seems to last forever and spring/ summer fly by. There are never enough days in summer to get every ting done. This year I am determined to get my flower beds back from the weeds. The grass grows better in them than it does in the yard. I know there are some gorgeous flowers in them some where.

This is my favorite rose it is called "Black Bacarra" it has been really hard to keep alive here in Minnesota. We moved over 100 roses from Colorado and maybe 20 of them have survived. Hurry up Spring!! I have lots of things to do!

Family

Byron graduation 2006

My 20 year old nephew has been calling and asking for advice. I am not sure what he expects me to tell him sometimes and I am sure some of it is not what he wants to hear. But I am glad he feels he can call me and talk to me. I would not be his age again for anything. If he takes nothing else from our conversations I want him to finish college with a degree.

Eulogio Christmas 2008

This is my little brother. He is 26 years old, as you can probably he is not related by blood. We have had him since he was 2 years old.

He captured our hearts with his infectious smile and sweet personality. 2008 was not a good year for him, he has been struggling to figure out who he is. His biological mother abandoned him and he has always wondered why. I have told him that a family does not always mean related by blood. it is by love and living life as a family. He is thinking of going in the service and it scares the hell out of me. I know it would be a good experience for him but I don't want anything to happen to my little brother. He has been and always will be my little brother and I am his big sister and it is my job to protect him.

The snow is melting ! The snow is melting!

The snow is melting! It got to 41 degrees today! Spring might come after all!

Winter is really hard on me, I suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder), the lack of sunlight. I also ache all the time from all of my injuries from car accidents. So needless to say I dread winter. We try to get out of here for a week or two and go somewhere warm but with the ecomony the way it is we go nowhere.

Anyway THE SNOW IS MELTIMG TODAY!

Results from CT scan

My husband hit two Percheron draft horses at 65 miles an hour on the highway in August.

This has been hard not only on him from his injuries, but me for the worrying. He doesnt stop or slow down until he is in so much pain that it floors him. He has constant headaches and memory loss. According to the CT scan there is not any damage to his brain, he does have some bulging discs in his back.

Is this a relief to me? Yes and no.....Yes because it shows no perment damage but what is the reason for the headaches and memory loss? I guess it is a good thing we have this done and one more thing elimated from the list. But the worrying will go on.

Front of the Surburban

Left side of car

Pheasants on the fence

I took this picture two summers ago. For some reason we had a lot of pheasants coming in our yard...it probably helps that i was feeding them. They were very brave to come this close to the house. I counted 12 making themselves at home on the fence. I think they liked the squeeker that I used to call Shiloh. This year I am going to see if I can attract some of them back.
I know there are a lot of bunnies because I am feeding them now, we have so much snow I dont know if they are finding a lot to eat.

Sorcha Catori

Sorcha Catori

This is Sorcha Catori. Sorcha means light-brightness in Gaelic and Catori is Hopi Indian for Spirit. It is probably a good thing I didn't have kids who knows what kind of names they would have ended up with. Sorcha is a 20 pound Maine Coon who also happens to have 9 toes on each front foot, she looks like she has snow shoes on. Sorcha came home with me through my best friend Cheri, she took me to see fluff ball kittens (my weakness) and the rest is history.

She like to hang over the edge of the stairs and stare at me when I call her. She most defiantly has her own mind.

Up close and personal. She was laying on the bed with me and we looked

at each other eye to eye.

My two fuzz balls. Sorcha tries to give Shiloh baths which are not very much appreciated.

I think Sorcha has a love hate relationship with Phadrea. She was the only cat for a long time and now there is this pain in the butt kitten who needs to be put in her place daily. As you can see there is quite a size difference which Sorcha uses to her advantage either by sitting on her or swatting her with the over size paws.

Shiloh the Golden Doodle

This Shiloh ~ she is what they call a Golden Doodle, a Poodle/Golden Retriever cross. She doesn't shed, loves the kids, swimming at the lake and helping you catch fish.

She is Miss Personality Plus and she thinks everyone wants to pet her.

This was her favorite place to sleep and she always sleeps with something in her mouth

The Golden Retriever characteristics show up when she wants to play ball. She doesn't take her eyes off that ball, she can't even be distracted with food.

The joy of playing ball

I have never seen a dog sleep like this! I wondered how the footprints got on the wall!

She still thinks she can fit on the footstool. This is how she looks when she isn't groomed, we call it the woolly mammoth look.

Shiloh loves to play in the snow and if she is not groomed she collects snowballs to bring in the house and the only way to get rid of them is to let her melt. Puddles everywhere, sure am glad we have concrete floors.

She goes every night to this same spot and waits for Chuck to come home. If you notice the stuffed toy hamburger next to her, she greets everyone at the door with a stuffed toy of some sort. It is hard to find stuffed toys that are big enough for her mouth.

This is my Golden Doodle puppy that I wouldn't trade for any other dog in the world.

Phadrea

This is my kitten Phadrea (Greek for light). She came to me through a friend who had found her on the roof of her gargage, very loudly voicing her opinion of being up there. She was a tiny ball of fluff with bright blue eyes that fit in the palm of my hand. Phadrea has her own opinion on everything be it the tempture of her milk or how she is wrapped in the blanket. She was sweet and loved to be cuddled and rocked to sleep.

Then she got older and more independent. No more rocking and cuddling for her, she was busy. Things to do, trouble to get into. Phadrea has two big sisters, Shiloh a Golden Doodle and Sorcha a very large Maine Coon cat. Size does not stop her, I guess she figures the bigger they are the more fun they are to torment. What she does not realize is they can both sit on her and give her a bath when they are tired of being bugged. Needless to say she is a very clean kitten.

It seems every day Phadrea figures out new ways to drive us all crazy. My friend tells me she is being a teenager. I dont remember being in trouble every single minute of every single day when I was a teenager....but that was also a long time ago. lol Anyway, Miss Phadrea went from the sweet little kitten in the above picture to this!!

I want a BBQ hot dog!

This is my husband Chuck and if you are wondering what he is doing he is cooking a hot dog in our fireplace. You have to understand it was at least-20 outside with out the windchill. I told him to cook it on the BBQ in the garage but he stated it was still to cold out there. Needless to say i reminded him he is the one who wants to live here.

I guess where there is a will there is a way...lol

This is my life in Minnesota

This is my life in Minnesota...everything stated on here are my personal thoughts on living in Minnesota. I cant say I like living here. I live here because this is where my husband grew up, where all of his siblings and parents still live.

It amazes me that so many people who live here have never been out of the state. There is such a big world out there and they have no desire to experience it. But that is their choice.

So this will have the trials and tribulations of my life in Minnesota.