Giving

When you give money to a charity do you really know where that money is going or what that charity stands for. I have been giving money for years to a charity at Christmas time, I won't name it but it is the one that stand outside your local stores every Christmas season ringing the bell and with the little red pail to put your money it. I am sure you all know which charity I am talking about. Every year I have always given to them. Well I was not happy when I was told that this charity is anti homosexual. In fact I did not really believe it when I was told it. So I went onto there web site and read there mission statement and sure enough they are anti homosexual  and also  anti abortion I have a hard time with a charity or organization that claims to help all but then excludes certain groups. It is total my fault for not researching it before I just gave money. But needless to say I will never give them another dime. I am guessing that most of the people who volunteer to ring those bells every year have no idea what that charity really stands for. They just think like I did that the money is well spent and that is it. I will no longer just give without first checking into my choice of charities mission statements etc. There are so many good charities out there so I will continue to give but I will be a lot more picky about who I give to.

Okay onto other things. I had a good Thanksgiving even if I had to work half the day. I worked until 2:00 and then I went to Mitch and Jeannie's house for supper. I did not get to go to the Rugroden side for lunch. It was great to see everyone again. I am sad to say that Curt was not there with us since he is back in the hospital with the infection he has from his surgery. I hope and pray that he gets better soon and will be able to make it to Christmas.
Thursday at 10:00 Christa, Amy and I started our black Friday shopping at Walmart. From there we went to Mankato and went to Kohls, Target,  and Old Navy. Then we took a break from shopping and had some breakfast at Perkins. After that it was time to go to Menards. We got lots of good deals and every store went to did a great job. I think it is all about the Minnesota nice. People here are just nice even when they are exhausted. We got home about 8:30 on Friday morning. I was so shot since I had been up since 4:00 a.m. on Thursday. I got to bed about 9:00 and then got back up at 1:00. I figured 4 hours of sleep would get me through the day. I did manage to get all the Christmas stuff upstairs and got one of the trees put together. I am going to put two trees up this year since we have so many Christmas tree ornaments. After that I was pretty much shot so Rick and I  watched a movie and then I was in bed at 9:00.
Oh I forgot to say that Rick ran the Turkey Trot race in Faribault on Thanksgiving morning. He did really good having his personal best for a 5K
Yesterday I was back to work. Since all the students are gone I have to check all the buildings on campus plus student houses. It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to do it. I am glad that we have had such nice weather, it makes it much easier to do it. After  I got home from work Rick and I went to Walmart to pick up  a few things. Of course by the time we left the store we had spent over $100. I was even more tired last night then I was on Friday night so I was in bed by 8:30.
Today I am at work again. Thank goodness it is my last day and then I have 3 days off. I am going to try and get my Christmas stuff all up. I am also going to take some pictures of the completed bedroom and get them up here. I know I said I was going to do that before but this time I really am....
Later Sharon

Out with the old and in with the new

Rick cleaning up the last of the leafs 

My dress 

The dress I made Josie out of my dress. 

 I still had the dress that I wore to Christa and Jese's wedding so I decided that since I am never going to wear it again I should do something with it. So I took it all apart and then made a dress for Josie out of it. It turned out super cute. I am going to get her a little black button down sweater and some black shoes and tights to wear with it. She is going to look very cute for Christmas.
We have been so busy. We got the porch all done other then putting in a ceiling fan. The bedroom is also all done. It is so nice to have it done. I will try and get pictures taken and put on here tomorrow.
We had a archery tournament at the WAC on Sunday. I went down and shot it. It was the first tournament I have shot in since Vegas last year. Since I have not shot a full game yet this year I think I did pretty good.
I know it is short but I don't have time to write anything else. I will try and do better next time.
Later Sharon

Discovery

It has been a weekend of discoveries. Well maybe not that much but I did discover a few things.
My first discover is because of Cassie, I will get to shortly.
On Friday Cassie and I took a cooking class. It was fun but we both were a little disappointed by how the class was run. The instructor just did not know how to run a class so he was overwhelmed. He would tell us the first step and then everyone would start but then he would start talking to one group and the others would get left behind. Also they offered a bottomless glass of wine for $9.00 so needless to say there was a few drunk people by the end of the night. Cassie and I were good and did not get drunk. We did end up making a lot of tasty food and I got to spend time with Cassie so it was okay that the class was run badly. So back to my sad discovery. Cassie and I were waiting for the class to start and she looked at my hands and said " do you have arthritis in your hands?" I asked why and she said your hands look like it, your  knuckles look swollen and your pinky finger is starting to turn in. I was so sad. So I discovered on Friday that my hands are looking even older then they did before :(
My second discover was on Saturday. Rick and I had a busy day. We finished raking up all the leaves for the year. We had sooooo many. Then after that we got everything out of the bedroom other then the bed so Rick could finish the ceiling and we could paint. After that we decided to run to Mankato to get some paint and other stuff for the house. Well here comes my next discovery, I discovered that Rick and I really can pick out a paint color without an argument! We went in and Rick picked up a sample and said what about this. I could not believe it but I liked it. Now that may not seem like a big deal to you but for us it was. Since we have started the remodeling we have never been able to agree on a paint color without a huge discussion about it. So I was happy that we finally agreed.
Sunday we spent the day working on the bedroom and three season porch. Rick got the ceilings done and painted. They look great. He also got the walls all primed. I went to the store while he was busy with the painting and got stuff to make homemade chow-main. I have not made it in 10 or more years and since I do not really have an recipe I just had to wing it. I did make it much more healthy  then I used to using all fresh ingredients instead of canned like I use to. I have learned a lot about eating healthy in the last few years.
On Monday I spent the day cleaning the house of all the dust from the painting, Rick used the paint sprayer to put on the primer and to paint the ceilings and even though he had everything blocked and taped off with plastic it still managed to seep out into the rest of the house. Thank goodness it just wipes right off, but it was a mess. I also got all the construction mess out of the three season porch so it is all ready for the carpet that should be in on Saturday. Once that was all done I pulled all the baseboard off the bedroom so I could paint it. I was happy that I got it all off and only broke one little piece. Then Rick took the door off for me and got it all primed. Rick also got the first coat of paint on the walls. We picked  a dark color so it will need two coats.
Now onto my last discover and what I think is my best. Monday morning Rick helped me get the closet doors and drawers off. Well when we took out the drawers we discovered a bunch of papers and pictures under one of the drawers that the old owners lefts. I had never had a reason to take the drawers all the way out before so I was surprised to so all the stuff. We looked over everything, most of it was just old school pictures and a couple of kids drawings. But I did find one interesting thing. I found the original mortgage paper work from 1974 when the former owners bought the house. The original loan on Sept. 19, 1974 was for $13,500. They had 8% interest rate and a 20 year loan so the total for what they should have paid for the house was $27103.20 What is so unbelievable about this is that they lived in the house for 36 years and when we bought the house they still owed $84,000! They had remortgaged the house several times. The owner was not a very good business man or for that matter not a very good man. Other then replacing the carpet in the house he never undated a thing since he had it built in 1974. I would hate to say that I lived in a house for 36 years and was never able to pay it off. It really is sad. But it was a pretty interesting discovery.
Yesterday I got a run in and then I spent the day painting all the trim and doors. I started at 10:30 and finished at 5:30. I had time to eat supper and then it was off to archery for the first night of league. I was so tired and sore by the time we got home. My poor arthritic hands and feet cannot take all the abuse!
Today I am back to work so I am giving my body a rest.
Later Sharon 

Muskrat Love......

This the muskrat that has moved into our yard

Dexter and Morgan checking out the muskrat

When we did apple pies we had some leftover apples. Amy was going to make some apple butter with them but never got to it so the apples were starting to go bad. So I picked the apples up from Amy's house and put them out in the lawn for the deer to eat. The first night they were there the deer ate about half of them. Then the next afternoon I looked out and there was a muskrat walking up to them. We watched him for awhile and then I decided to walk over and see if he would leave, but he just ignored me. Then the dogs finally saw him. They went crazy barking at him, of course they are to chicken to get to close to him. Well the muskrat was in apple heaven so he just kept right on eating and let the dogs bark away. Finally I took the dogs in and he ran away. But don't worry he came back again yesterday. He pretty much spent the whole afternoon eating apples. He did not care that there was 4 guys working on the shed or that the dogs just kept barking and walking around him. He just ate and ate and ate. Hopefully the apples will be all gone this morning and the muskrat moves on. The shed is just about done. They started working on it on Friday, that is when I took the picture above. They came back yesterday and just about have it finished. The door was back ordered but should be here today. Once that is on we will be able to start using it. We are going to get stuff in it this coming weekend. Sunday we decided to work on the 3 season porch. We found out that it does have insulation in the walls and ceiling so that is going to save us a lot of work. So we took out the few things we had on the porch and Rick scraped the ceiling. We also got rid of the 1970's ceiling fan. Rick should have the ceiling done by the end of the week then we can paint it and get the new fan in. We are also going to replace the carpet since the stuff in it is gross. When all that is done was are going to put some plastic over the windows to try and keep it a little warmer in there. I want to get a little electric fireplace to put in there so we can use it  more when it is chilly outside. I am excited to have it done. Rick also scraped the ceiling in the bedroom and put new texture on it so it is ready to be painted. He has a couple of cracks in the walls that need another coat and then we can paint the whole room. Of course I have not idea what color we are going with. For now we are going to keep the oak trim up in the room because we would have to replace two closet doors and four closet drawers if we change it. I an not sure what we are going to do with the floor. We would like to get rid of the carpet that is in it since it is pretty gross too. Once that room is done then we only have the office to get done! I think we will be done with the construction until after Christmas. I went and had about 3-4 inches of my hair cut off yesterday. Cassie sent me a picture of how she thought I should have it cut so that is what I did. It has lots of layers now. Of course this morning when I was getting ready for work I was wishing I had more time to play with it to make it look nice. But I think after I figure it all out I will like it. It feels good to get rid of some of my hair. Well that is about all I can think to update about. Later Sharon

"The purpose of our lives is to be happy." - Dalai Lama

Amy, Rick and Liam getting ready to eat my turkey dinner.

Rick and Oliver

Me with Liam, Josie and Eli and of course Dexter

Eli

   We had so many kids come through out neighborhood for Halloween that I ran out of candy! I had a huge bowl of it and was sure I had gotten to much. I was I wrong. I had to turn off the lights at 7:30 because I was down to about 10 pieced of candy and the street was still lined with cars and kids. I figure we had about 75 kid come to our house. Dexter loved it, he got so much attention that he was in heaven. Morgan was more of a chicken and just hid in the house for most of the night. Poor Josie was so sick that I don't think she was enjoying trick or treating to much. Poor thing is still sick.
   Yesterday Rick and I went for a 4 mile run outside. I figured we better get back outside one more time before the weather really turns cold and the time changes. I would much rather run outside then on the treadmill.
   Since I wore my hair in a ponytail most of the summer I guess most people did not realize how long it had gotten. Well now that it is colder out I have been forced to actually fix it everyday. So now I get the keep getting the comment from people that my hair is sure getting long. No your hair looks nice or I  like your hair just "your hair sure is getting long." Now I am not sure how to take that, is it a bad thing or a good thing.....
   We are getting our shed built on Friday. I am so happy that it is getting done. Now we will be able to clean out the garage and have room to move around in it. Rick will also have more room to park his truck. It has a back up camera in it and when he gets close to something it starts to beep, the closer you get the faster it beeps. When he backs into the garage it just goes into a steady beep!
   We are also getting our TV switched to Direct TV on Friday. Our two year contract ended with Media com so I bill went way up. So we play the game and switch providers every couple of years. Most of the TV providers will deal with you and keep you at a cheaper rate but Media com will not so we are switching. Direct TV has a ton more HD channels so I think we will be happy with them. When we had the Media com person installing it 2 years ago he told Rick that Direct TV has the best TV service. It was kind of funny that he would say that since he worked for Media com.
   I have another 4 day weekend this weekend and I am looking forward to it. It should be a relaxing weekend.
Later Sharon