Monday Monday

I had to work all weekend so no holiday for me! Carleton does not count Memorial Day as a holiday. It is business as usual, if you want the day off you have to use a vacation day. Of course a lot of the staff take the day off so it is pretty quiet up here. Other then work I have not been up to much. Yesterday we had a graduation party to go to. After the party we come home and watched the movie The Road. It was good, but very dark. Since I had read the book early this year I knew it would be. It is one of those books/movie that makes you think what would I do. It is so nice out today. Rick is not working so he is off on a long bike ride this morning. I have been researching bike trail in MN and trying to finger out when we can go on a biking trip. Moving is really messing with our summer plans. But that is okay since I will have new house :) There is a nice bike trail up by Diane's house so since we will be there in Aug. I think we will take our bikes and go on it one of the days. Also looking at the end of Sept. to go on another biking trip. By that time the house should be in pretty good shape.
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day, and remember to take a moment to remember what the day is all about....
Later Sharon

Letter to me from Christa 1995

I found this while I was packing.

Packing

This is all the packing that I have gotten done on my days off. It seems like a ton of stuff already and I still have tons to do! I pretty much have all the closets empty except for clothes and I have packed all the kitchen stuff that we don't use often. Rick is going to work on the basement this weekend. Only 33 more days until we move!!!!

Look What I Can Do Nana!!!

Every since Liam had been little I have been trying to get him to roll his tongue. Well yesterday he came running into the kitchen and said "look what I can do Nana." He was so proud of himself.

We got good news yesterday. The people who bought our house said we can stay in it until July 2. So now we will not have to be homeless for 2 weeks. I have been busy packing on my days off. Liam of course was a big help yesterday with the packing. When I told him we were moving to a new house he asked me if I was going to let Rick come to. It was pretty funny. When he got here yesterday morning he kept telling Rick he had to stay home and be with us. When Rick told him he had to go to work Liam got all sad and told me Nana, Rick has to work and cannot stay home with you. I am pretty sure Liam would much rather spend his day with Rick then me.

Cassie came for a visit yesterday. After Amy got here to pick up the kids we all went down to Barneys for supper. When we were done eating we took Liam and Josie to the park and played for awhile. We even had Dexter going down the slides. I am not sure if he liked it very much!

I ran 5 miles on Tue. morning and then Tue. afternoon went for a 18 mile bike ride with Rick. We just got back to the house from biking when it started to downpour. I sure was glad we made it back before it started. It rained for along time. I also ran 5 miles today. I ran it in 40 minutes both days. I am finally starting to feel better when I run. To bad I have less then a month to get ready for Grandma's half-marathon.

I am off to get my hair colored and cut this afternoon then it is back to packing.

Later Sharon

Let's try one more time

Front of house

Back of house

View from the back of the house

Okay we are going to try again. We have put a purchase agreement on another house. We have had the inspection done and everything is a go. The banks assessor is going to the house on Thur. and then we close on June 15. We cannot get into the house until July 1 so we are asking the people who bought our house if we can stay in it until July 1. If not then I guess we will be homeless for two weeks. The house is in town. It is the last house on a dead end street in a very nice neighborhood. We will never have anyone build on the side or the back of the house as it is all swamp land. When we were there for the inspection it was so peaceful. I am excited to move. It needs some updating in the inside. They have wallpaper all over the house so that sucks. I hate taking wallpaper off. We are going to put new cabinets in the kitchen and gut the upstairs bathroom. It has a blue toilet and tub in it, I know pretty but just not by thing :) The basement is finished but will need new carpet. So we will have a little work to do when we move in but when it is done it will be a great house. So lets hope that the 4th time is the charm and everything goes through. Everyone cross your fingers!!!
Later
Sharon

The students are going crazy!!!!

RTD2
Floating Dorm Room

So it is coming close to the end of the term for the Carleton Students so they are doing lots of pranks. Yesterday they covered one of the buildings with painted sheets and made it look like RTD2 from Star Wars. We took it down before I thought to take a picture of it. It was pretty good. But this morning I found that whoever did it had taken pictures and posted them all over campus. So I took a picture of the the picture and that is what you see above. It looked way better then the pictures show. So last night the students made a raft and put a dorm's worth of furniture on it and floated it out into the middle of Lyman lakes on campus. I will be glad when all the students leave for the summer, to bad it is not for another two weeks!
Later Sharon

"Always keep your expectations higher than your reality. And the reality of your life will be sure to follow." -Ralph Marston

I am enjoying the beautiful weather. It is so nice to have good weather on my days off. We got good news. Someone bought our house! We are closing on June 15. So now I have to start packing. I want to move I just don't want to pack!
Yesterday I went for a run around the lake, it went good. I am still having trouble with my bronchitis. I have good days and bad, Sunday was really a bad day. I spent all day coughing and I had to use my inhaler twice. I also have trouble catching my breath when I run. It takes me forever to recover from running. But if I am going to run the Grandma's half marathon in a month I need to run. I am just going to run it for the fun of it and not even worry about my time other then the need to stay under the 3 hour limit. That should not be a problem. I have not put the training in that I need to because I have been sick for the last 3 weeks. Stupid bronchitis!!!
Today I got Liam and Josie at 1:00. Liam was here for less then an hour and peed in his pants twice. After that he went down for a nap. He has not done that to me in a really long time.
I am suppose to packing now and not on the computer so I guess I better go.
Later Sharon

Big Winner

So on Tue. Rick and I went to Menards because it was there re-grand opening. We had 3 coupons that you had to scan to see what they were worth. Of course all 3 of ours were only worth $2.00 each and you could only use one per person. Rick had a couple of things to get for work so he use one. They had buy one get one free on bags of M&M's so I got them and use another coupons so I only had to pay .68 for both bags. So I thought that was it for our big win. well while we were there we put our names in a drawing. I asked Rick what we were signing up for and he said he had no idea. On Wed. while I was at work I got a call from Menards. The women said she had to ask me a couple of questions. She asked me if I was over 18 and if I was related to anyone that worked at the store. Then she said congratulations " you just won a $500. dollar gift card to Menards"!!!! I could not believe it. I was a big winner!!! I am pretty sure we will have no trouble spending $500. at Menards.
So being the big winner at Menards almost makes up for the fact that it is going to cost me $975. to have my tooth crowned. To bad I have already used up all of my insurance for the year on the other two crowns I had put on. When it is done I will only have two teeth on the top of my mouth that do not have crowns on. I am sure they will be getting done in the next few years too.
Oh I guess I forgot to say that we did not get the house. I guess we will just keep looking. My dentist told me that he looked for a house for 6 years! He said that they even tried to buy the same house twice and both times lost it to someone else. I sure hope we don't have to look for 6 years.
I am happy to see the sun today.
Later Sharon

oh no!!!!!

Oh no it has happened again! Yesterday afternoon I broke another tooth. It is another one of my back teeth that was full of fillings. I am guessing it means I am going to need one more crown. I am blaming it all on Ricks brother Randy. We were having lunch yesterday with them and Ricks mom when Randy started talking about how his tooth broke off and he had to have a crown put on it. He should have known that I am cursed and just talking about it cursed me. So not even two hours later my tooth broke. Yes it must be his fault and nothing to do with me having bad teeth.
We did a lot of running yesterday. First we went to Albert Lee for lunch with the Rugrodens. Then we came back to Waseca and picked up Dexter and went to Faribo to my mom and dads for a visit. Then it was back to Waseca to drop Dexter off. Then we went to New Richland and went to a wake, and then finally back to Waseca for the night. I put 160 miles on my car yesterday. It was a long day.
We gave the people who own the house we are trying to buy until the end of today to give us an answer. We just want to know if we are getting it or if we need to move on. They have had a week that is long enough. So tomorrow I should be able to tell you if we are new house owners or if we are staying here.
I was going to go for a run this morning but it is really windy. So I think I will go lift instead. This afternoon I am going up to Savage to go house hunting with Cassie. We are looking at 5 houses. Sure hope she has better luck then me!
I guess I better go call the dentist.
Later
Sharon

Lets Go For a Walk

Yesterday while I was at work Dexter decided he should take himself for a walk. Rick was home all day because his next job does not start until Monday. So he was in the garage working on the camper lights and he had the door to the house open so Dexter could come out into the garage. Well he also had the garaged door open to the outside. After awhile Rick noticed that Dexter was gone! He decided that he would take himself for a walk in the rain since Rick wasn't. Rick found him on our usual walking route around the corner about a block away just walking along. Rick called to him and came running right back to him. Silly dog, he will not leave the yard at all if he goes out the front door but he knows if he goes out the garage door it is walk time. So I guess we know now not to leave him in the garage with the door open. At least he came right back and did not get hit by a car when he crossed the road. So after all of that Rick did get the camper lights figured out. The people who had it before had them messed up. If you put on the right turn single the left one came on. It was a simple fix. I have been looking at bike tails on the computer all morning trying to plan a trip with our new camper.
No word on the house yet.......
Later Sharon

Bad News

So we had the house we have the purchase agreement on inspected on Tue. Well we did not have good news. We of course expected a few things because the house has not been updated in 30 years other then new windows, siding and shingled . What we did not expect is the beams/rafters in the garage are cracked which is causing the garage roof to start to sage. Also when they re-shingled they put the shingles on wrong causing them all to crack. We had contractors come out and look at it and they said the only way to fix the beams is to take off the garage roof and replace them. The cost for that and re-shingling the whole roof is $15,000. So needless to say we went back to the home owners and said either lower the price by $15,000 or the deal is off. I am guessing they are not going to go for it. They are screwed either way because now that they know about it they have to disclose it to anyone who buys the house. We have not heard back from them yet but I do not have my hopes up. I am so disappointed about the whole thing. When we were at the house for the inspection we were getting all excited talking and making plans about what we were going to do. We even had a contractor out to give us a bid on new kitchen cabinets. Now it is all up in the air again. Stupid rafters!!!!!
I will keep up all updated on the house drama
Later Sharon

Good Weekend!!!

Our new house

Amy, Rick and I after running the From The Heart 5K

Amy's Birthday Supper

Liam wanted his picture with Fred


We have good news!!! We bought a house on Friday! It is in the Highlands in Waseca, it has 1 3/4 acres. It was build in 1974 and the same person has lived in it the whole time. She never updated a thing! We will be taking out all the flooring and gutting the kitchen and bathrooms. It has a walk out basement and a two car garage. We are closing June 25th. So now we better sell our house by then. We are very excited.
Saturday Amy and Rick and I went to Owatonna to run the From the Heart 5K. It was super windy out but still fun to run a race.
Sunday Rick and I went to Mankato to look cabinets for the new house. There is so much to choose from. We also looked at paint colors. Sunday was Amy's 26th birthday so we had birthday supper for her, Adam, Liam, Josie and Christa. It was lots of fun and great food of course.
I have the next two days off and am glad to say I have nothing pressing to do. I am going to lift today, pay some bills, do laundry and hopefully bake something.
Later Sharon