Celebration Time!!

Wednesday was Nick's birthday. How could he be 25 already??? We headed into the city that evening to celebrate.

We had a great evening. We had appetizers at their apartment. Then, Nick, Ellen, Suzanne, Paul and I had dinner at Rinata, an Italian restaurant within walking distance. Delicious!!! A little poppy seed cake finished the evening. Nice!

Nick is a good and kind person. We are very proud of him and love him dearly. He likes his job. He has a wonderful partner. He and Suzanne have a close relationship. We are blessed.

Now, I am on to sorting our pictures from our northern Minnesota camping trip.
I'll talk to you soon.

There are no certainties in life

Paul and I spent two wonderful weeks in northern Minnesota. We've been home since last Tuesday and have some great pictures to share. I had hoped to do a number of posts by now to help us document and remember our trip.

But, the night we got home we received terrible news. One of our daughter's best friends, Jen, lost her battle with depression that evening. Her funeral was yesterday. Jenny has been a part of our lives since Suzanne's sixth grade year. Looking at the pictures at her visitation and funeral brought back all of the memories of the girls enjoying sleepovers, middle school days, camping trips, high school dances, graduations, and other life stage celebrations. For Jenny, it ended too soon.  My heart hurts so for her parents and brother. And, for her friends.

Grieving is a part of life. It's unavoidable. Our children were very young when they learned that for the first time. The rawness of grief is so painful and observing a loved one in the depths of it is terrible.

I sought advice from our niece, Melissa, last week.  She is such an intelligent, caring person. She has helped Suzanne more than she will every know. I am so thankful.

I told Missy I had hesitated to share the news with my family because I wanted to spare them painful memories. Our family misses Chris every day. She told me that for her, that is the worst thing, to not discuss it. She's right. I continue to learn.

We have our family as an anchor and we can count our blessings for that.

Today is Nick's birthday. Twenty five years ago today our son entered our world. He is a great son and brother.

I am going to bake his birthday cake right now. It will be poppyseed. Same every year. And, tonight we will all be together and we will celebrate.

Hug your loved ones. I will talk to you soon.

Hurray!!!

Paul and I leave tomorrow morning for our 4th annual trip to the North Shore.

Some of us need to work at relaxation....

For us, nothing speaks to our soul more than a week on the shores of Lake Superior at Temperance River State Park.

And, after that, another week at Bear Head Lake State Park, near Ely.

I'm pretty sure we'll being enjoying our days immensely. It's a good world.

I'll talk to you when we get back!!

BBQ and Beer Lights

We finally got out of town last weekend with the cabin on wheels. It's a shame it sat waiting for us in our driveway since May. Never again!! 

BBQ judging called us to Albert Lea, Minnesota. We stayed two nights at Crystal Springs RV resort by Ellendale. It's a brand new park and we had a nice spot right by a small pond where great blue herons came to roost at night. We watched dozens of them fly in at sunset.  Our wooden egret, George, named after the artist who created him, joined us. You can always find him in our camp sites.

We visited Steve's Meat Market in Ellendale our first day and enjoyed a great meal that evening of locally made andouille sausage with fresh herbs and veggies from the farmers' market.

Saturday found us at the competition. We walked around before our day started to observe the teams in action. We can't talk to them before the event because we are judges. It's always interesting to see the different setups.

No two are the same.

Some have invested great amounts of money in their rigs.

We were each given a ticket for a glass of beer to enjoy after the competition was done! Boy, did that taste good after all that BBQ! Too bad the band struggled matching up their chord progressions. Yikes!

We moved a few miles up the road to Riverview Campground near Owatonna for the next two nights.

The purpose of our stay there was to visit our friends, Stan and Carol. Paul and I used to teach with Stan. They retired outside of town on acreage where Carol grew up and built a new home there. They are master gardeners.

They take land stewardship very seriously and are working with a land conservancy program to revert most of their forty acres back to native species. Their plan is to make their property available for future study programs.

They also have a mind boggling beer light collection in their basement. This picture shows just a small percentage of what is displayed. I think there may even be a electrical brown out in the southern half of the state when they flip that special switch to turn everything on!!!

We had so much fun visiting with them.

Next week is our annual trip to the North Shore.

We are extremely comfortable in our "Al-u-MIN-i-um Con-do-MIN-i-um." I can hardly wait!

Good times with good friends.

We got home yesterday from Lake Nancy near Minong, Wisconsin. Our friends, Mike and Nancy, own lake property there.

The mosquitoes were out in full force.

They were hungry critters!!!! We didn't let them get in our way of having fun, though.

We share so many great memories with Mike and Nancy.

I hope we can go back there again next summer. I lost at dominoes and demand a rematch.

Today we are working to load up the camper as we head out tomorrow morning for four days. It's been too long since the cabin on wheels has left the ranch so we can hardly wait!!!!

I'll talk to you soon.

Pasta with Trapanese Pesto

Try this.

Pasta with Trapanese Pesto

We loved it. The recipe includes directions for homemade pasta. Our version, pictured above,  uses this organic gluten free pasta  and it was delicious. 

We've been busy. Our calendar has been full for too long. Tomorrow we are escaping to the lake for a few days with our good friends, Nancy and Mike. 

Pontoon rides and campfires.  Yes.  

Vegan Sunday!

When our children were young, we often did our weekly grocery shopping as a family on our way home from church on Sunday. Paul made a game with the kids of selecting a different and unique (to us) fresh fruit to try each week. Ever wonder who buys those ugli fruits? This family did. Star fruit, persimmons, you name it, they tried it. I think this approach led both of them to enter their adult lives with an open mind toward new foods.

Even though we shop alone now, we still have the same philosophy. Last Thursday at our local farmers' market, Paul was attracted to these:

Thai eggplants. Neither one of us had tried them before. In fact, Paul is not a huge eggplant fan. But, he saw them and said, "Huh! Look at these. I wonder what they taste like?" So, there you are. I'm game to try!

We did some searching and both thought this recipe: Thai Eggplants and Chickpeas in Peanut Masala from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen sounded good. The internet is a wonderful thing. We judged BBQ on Saturday, so Sunday was a perfect day for us to go meatless and try something completely different from ribs and pulled pork!!!

This is our idea of fun. Assemble and prep the ingredients:

I love summer.

We cook together while we crank some tunes in the kitchen.

And, then, we sit down to enjoy what we've created.

This dish is dinner party material. Excellent. I can't wait for this week's farmers' market! I'll talk to you soon.