Surgery

I survived my surgery. I was pretty sick to my stomach yesterday but feel much better today. I have not had to take any pain pills, just a couple Aleve. Having a cast on sucks. I have to have it on for 8 days! The good thing is I don't have to do dishes for the next 8 days. Rick has about 1/3 of thee cabinets in. They look really good. It is hard to type with one hand so I will keep this short.
Later Sharon

Birthday Fun



Richard Marx





At the Richard Marx concert.

Last Thur. it was Christa's 24th Birthday. The girls and I took her out for supper and then we went to the Richard Marx concert. We were in row 3 and it was an acoustic concert. It was in Burnsville so it was in a small venue so Richard Marx talked a lot to everyone. It was pretty  fun. Cassie tried to say she did not know any of his songs but she was singing along with him and somehow knew all the words!

I am very happy with my new camera. It takes really good pictures. I hope to get to know how to use it better this week since I will have lots of time. I go in for my wrist surgery tomorrow at 7:30. I have to be at the hospital at 6:00. Good thing I am use to getting up early.

Rick and I got about half of the  underground electric dog fence in on Sunday. It really sucks because the ground is so hard and our yard is so big! Now that it is raining the rest of it should go in a little easier. I cannot wait to have it done so we do not have to tie Dexter up anymore. He has gotten pretty brave and keeps getting into trouble going into the creek and coming back all muddy. He will not be happy to have the fence up! Speaking of Dexter, last night I had a dream that he was a vampire. It was pretty funny. I kept telling everyone that I just had to train him and he would be fine but everyone had to stay away from him for now because if he bit them they would turn into a vampire too. Good thing it was only a dream!

Rick has been working hard on the kitchen. He has it all taped and did the ceiling last night at 9:00. We are going to paint this afternoon and evening. He hopes to start putting in the cabinets on Wed. afternoon. The stove will be here on Sat. so I hope he is ready for it!

Yesterday and today I have been busy sewing Liam's Halloween costume. It turned out very cute. I had to have him try it on yesterday before I could finish the sleeves and it fit him perfect. He was all smiles when he had it on. But of course he is already putting in his order for next years costume!

I have to go clean up the construction mess now so we can get the cabinets out and lined up to go up. I will try and update on Thur. to let you know how the surgery went.

Later Sharon

The most wanted and most dreaded day is here...

Christa cutting up apples for apple crisp filling

Dexter enjoying the fall day

Rick working on the deck

Rick putting in the new garage door

Me with Josie and Rhyli

Christa age 24 and Dad age 75

Christa, Sarah, Beth and Dad

The Deck is done

We finally finished the deck.  Rick worked on it most of Sat. It is nice to be able to go out the deck to the back yard now. Rick also got the door in the garage. Now we just have to get them painted before winter is here. 

Sunday we went to mom and dad's house for the Oct. birthdays. Diane and Rod were down and Meagan and her two kids were here too. Meagan has moved back to MN after being gone for 7 years. It will be nice to get to know her again. Her kids are super cute. 

Amy decided that I had plenty of time to make Liam his Halloween costume so I have started that. I actually like to sew and use to make the kids Halloween costumes every year but that was before I was remodeling a house. But I figure I should have time to get it done next week....I hope! I am making him a dragon costume it should be really cute. Poor Josie is just going to have to use one of Liam's old costumes because I just won't have time to make her one too.

Well my most dreaded day and the most wanted day has arrived. We started to gut the kitchen. What a mess! We took all the upper cabinets out yesterday and Rick started to work on the ceiling. We were going to wait on taking the bottom cabinets out but we decided that on of the walls will need to be sheetrocked so they are coming out too. So now I have kitchen stuff all over the house. I am so excited to have it done. I hope that we can get it done within a couple of weeks. The good news is Rick is slow at work right now so he will be able to work on it during the day and not just after work and the weekends. 

We went to Menards last night to get lights for the kitchen, dinning room and entryway. I hate picking out lights. It took us forever. It is almost as bad as picking out paint colors! 

I asked one of the neighbors how many trick or treaters they get and he said "oh around 100!"  I sure am glad I got the big bag of candy! We may have to turn the lights out and hide in the basement if we get to many. We are use to having around 10 kids come. 

I am working today-Sat. then I will be off for 11 days. I am having my surgery next Wed. I had my pre-op on Monday. The doctor confirmed what I have been saying for months now I do have arthritis. My hands and feet have been so sore that it wakes me up at night. It sure sucks getting old and having the body fall apart.

I will put pictures up of the kitchen as we get it done. 

Later Sharon

pies, pies and more pies

we had to make one of the pies to see if it tasted good

Christa and Amy pealing and cutting up apples

Christa took this pic of my hands. They look so old!

Liam and Josie helping with the pie making

My days off were spent being susie homemaker. Friday Amy and Christa came over to my house and we made  apple pies to freeze for the winter. We worked hard to get them all done. I was in charge of the crust. So I rolled out 70 crust by the time we were done. We made 31 apple pies and 10 crust to freeze for other pies. My hands were pretty sore after we were done.
Saturday Rick and I spent the day working on the three season porch. Rick had removed all of the old insulation and plywood under the porch earlier in the week because it was never sealed up so mice had gotten in it over the years. So we put new insulation in and put up green treated plywood and sealed it up tight so nothing could get in it. It was a sucky job because you could not stand up all the way and the plywood was heavy. It pretty much took us all day. After that was done I got on the lawnmower and cut up the carpet of leaves we had on the lawn. I was so dirty by the time I was done. Of course now the lawn is covered in leaves again! When I was done with that I figured I might as well go for a run, so I ran 4 miles. It felt good.
Sunday I did laundry and cleaned the house. Rick worked on the deck steps.
Monday Christa came over and we canned 16 quarts of apple crisp filling and 12 quarts of apple sauce. I am done canning for the year now. Well I am going to cook some pumpkins and freeze them for pumpkin pies etc. I also picked up Liam and Josie from daycare on Monday.
Tuesday it was back to work. Good thing I had to work so I can rest a little.
I finally scheduled my wrist surgery. I am having it done on the 27th.
Later Sharon

fun in the fall

Today I picked up Liam and Josie after work and Liam wanted to rake leaves. So I put them to work!

Vacation!

Our camp site

Map of the hiking trails

one of the many hiking trails

The lake the campgrounds was on

Rick biking

Deer in the woods on one of the biking/hiking trails

We had a wonderful time on our weekend away. We left on Thur. afternoon for New London and the Sibley State Park. We made it there around 6:00 and got the camper all set up. It was a really quiet campgrounds because this time of year it is all adults there as the kids are back in school. It was mostly old people in huge campers. Friday we got up and got ready to go biking. The day started out sunny but then clouded over and got really windy and cold. We biked from the campgrounds to the trail link in New London and biked to Willmar and back for a total of 41 miles. It was great on the way down because we had the wind to our backs. But by the time we headed back the wind was 22 MPH and we had to bike into it. It was hard but I managed to average 12-14 mph. A lot slower then the 16-18 we did on the way down. Of course when we got back to the campgrounds the sun came back out. So after having something to eat we decided to go for a little hike. We may have gotten a little bit lost and had to take the road back to the campgrounds. Friday night it got down the 36. It was a little chilly with the wind. Good thing we have a heater in the camper. It kept us pretty warm. 

Sat. we went exploring the area. We went to a great little  Amish furniture store in New London. I found my kitchen table and chairs. To bad the table alone cost $1500. I hate it when I find something I really want and it cost way more then I want to spend. Rick pulled me out of the store before I could buy it up! After that we went to a couple little shops and New London and then went to Spicer to a winery. We tasted a few wines and came out with a couple of bottles of wine to bring home. When we got back to the campgrounds we went for a 6 mile hike up to Mount Tom. It was a very hilly hike. It was a lot of fun hiking in the woods. The trees are all turning colors so it was very pretty. And this time on our hike we took a map so we did not get lost.

After another chilly night we got up at 8:00 and got the camper all packed and we were on the road by 9:00. We stopped at a really good cafe in Spicer and had some breakfast and then we were headed home. We had to stop at Cassie's house and pick up Dexter. He was very happy to see us. He has lots of fun at Cassie's playing with Jada but is always ready to come home. Once we got home we got the camper all unpacked and cleaned and ready to be stored for the winter. I am sad to have to put it away but  am already looking forward to using it again next year. 

Today it is back to work. It was really hard to get up and come to work after having such a great weekend but I guess if I want to go on more trips I have to work. 

Later Sharon