October In Pictures

I have had a very busy month of October so I thought I would share a bunch of pictures of the month 

 Here is Oliver in his Halloween costume that I made him

 Here is Liam in his Halloween costume that I made him

 Here is Liam, Eli and Josie in there costumes that I made them. I tried to get a picture of all four of them together but they were all so excited that it was pretty much impossible! They did all look very cute and Liam and Josie are super excited for Halloween! Eli and Oliver could care less :)

 This is a picture of Rick and his 11 point buck that he shot. It was the biggest deer he has every shot and he was super excited! It was a big deer!

 Christa and Grandpa share a birthday on Oct. 21. She is 26 and he is 77.

 Beth and Sarah also have Oct. birthdays so Grandma always gets a cake for them. Sarah was sick so she missed out this year :(

 Eli and Oliver are going to be best friends!

 I gave Cassie my camera to take a picture of Amy and I and this is the best she took. Next time I will give the camera to someone else......

Eli is showing Grandpa Rick how good he knows his shapes!


There you have it my October in pictures. Hope November has lots of picture moments too!

Later Sharon
Vote NO in NOvember

Pineapples do not grow on trees......

So I guess there is some confusion in my family as to how a pineapple grows. I had a couple members of my family (Amy and Rick) who thought pineapples grew on trees. I had another member of my family (Christa) make that statement that it takes 7 years to grow a pineapple. So today I am going to give you all a little lesson on the pineapple.

First thing you need to know pineapples DO NOT GROW ON TREES! They are a plant that grows in the ground. Once the pineapple head takes root, it’ll take two to three years before it starts bearing fruit. It’ll grow to be almost 4 feet high by 4 feet wide. Once it’s matured, a large flower will grow in the middle of the plant and eventually be replaced by a pineapple itself. Once the pineapple is harvested, a new fruit will grow in its place the following year.

You can also grow a pineapple in the house. Check out this blog to find out how to do this. The reason all of this came up is because I decided to grow a pineapple plant this summer and now that it is cold out I brought it in the house and now everyone has questions. Who knows maybe in two to three years I will have a pineapple to eat :)

Lesson over....

Later Sharon
Vote NO in NOvember! 

50 years old and still running.....

                        This is Amy and I right before the race started. It was COLD out!

                   Amy at mile 7 running strong. That is Liam just off the trail after cheering Amy on.

                    

                  This is me with less then a half mile to go. I was still able to smile!

                                                Amy and I after we both finished!!!!


My biggest goal of this year was to run a half marathon. I wanted to prove to myself that even if I turned 50 this year that I could still do it. Well I did!!!

I ran it in 2:07:40. I came in 21 out of 43 in my age group of 50-54 and was 807 out of 1346 finishers overall. I beat my last half marathon that I ran in 2010 by 19 seconds. I was very happy with my time.

It was a great race. It was only 45 out when we started but once we started running I warmed up. It was the hilliest half marathon that I have ever run. The fan support was great and the race was really run good. I am really glad that I ran it.

Amy did great also running it in 2:30:27. It was her best half marathon time yet. She did not train at all!

I told Rick that this was going to be my last big race. I am not sure I will be able to stand by that........

Later Sharon

Vote NO in NOvember!

This is why......

This is my nephew Jeff and his boyfriend CJ.  Jeff is gay.
Jeff came out when he was in high school, I guess that was about 12-13 years ago.  I cannot imagine how hard that was for him to do. I was not really surprised when my sister told me and I didn't really care. I still loved him just the same. When I think of him I don't think of him as my gay nephew Jeff.  I think of him of just my nephew Jeff. 

Just like all of us Jeff has has had good and bad relationships and was searching  for that special one to spend the rest of his life with. Jeff is now in a committed relationship with CJ. When I look at the picture above I see how happy they are and I see how much they love each other. It is my hope that someday if they decided to get married that they can. I want for Jeff to have the wedding of his dreams with all of his family and friends surrounding him just like my daughters did and his brother did. It is  as simple as that....that is why I am voting NO.

In my eyes there is no such thing as a gay marriage it is just marriage. If you are two people in love and want to spend the rest of your life being with that person you should have the right to choose to be married.

It is a a turning point in the history of Minnesota. I can only hope that the people of Minnesota do the right thing and Vote NO.

This is why I am Voting NO. For Jeff and CJ and every other gay couple in Minnesota. They should have all the rights that I do......

Later Sharon
Vote NO in NOvember

Sorry!

I have been a very bad blogger the last week. I have not updated since Oct. 9! My days off have been busy! I even had a extra day off since I took Friday off of work.

Friday Cassie, Amy, Christa and I went up to South Minneapolis and did some antique shopping. Then we went to the MOA and did a little clothing shopping. I did not get home until almost 11:00. A very late night for me :)

Saturday I spent most of the day sewing. Saturday evening we went to Faribault for my cousin's wedding. It was really fun to see all the cousin's and aunts again. I wish I had gotten around to visiting with them more. It was so loud once the band started that it was hard to talk. We did get a nice picture of all the cousin's that were there.

Sunday was a lot like Saturday. I spent the whole day sewing. I got Liam's Halloween costume done. It is super cute.

Monday was again just like Saturday and Sunday. I spent most of the day sewing. I got Josie's costume done and started on Oliver's and Eli's started. I also picked Liam up for school and took him to daycare. That was the only time I left the house.

Tuesday I decided that I better get something else done. I went for a 4 mile run and then finished the laundry. I also manged to get to Walmart to get us some food since the fridge was empty. Since I had food I decided that I better make supper so I made my favorite tator-tot hotdish. I got some more sewing done on Oliver and Eli's costume but I did not get them finished. I hope to be able to work on them a little tonight after work. .

I know this has been a very exciting blog so I will end it.....

Later Sharon
Vote NO in NOvember! 

21 Days.....

I have so much that I need to get done in the next 21 days.

First I need to get four Halloween Costumes made for the grandkids. I just got all the fabric yesterday. I managed to get the pants of Liam's costume done last night.  I called Adam and asked him to bring the kids over so I could measure all of there waist. I had to laugh when I found that Eli who is 1 year old has the same waist size as Josie who is almost 4. All four of the kids are going to be pirates. They are going to be very cute. I hope I can get them all done.....

 

Next I need to get out and shoot a deer! I really want to have one shot before the slug season starts. Once that is open I do not go out hunting. I really don't want to get shot by some dumb ass hunter. After the slug season ends the deer are  a lot wiser so it makes hunting a lot harder. Hopefully I fill my tag before then since I really don't want to go out in November and December when it is cold. 

Next I HAVE to go shopping with Cassie, Amy and Christa on Friday. Since we are taking a year off of apple pie making we decided that we still needed to spend a day together. So we are going shopping. Really we are going to some antique shops in St. Paul. After that we might do a little clothing shopping for Amy since she is so skinny now none of her clothes fit her. 

 I also have two weddings to go to in the next two weeks. Both of these weddings are out of town.

Lastly I have a lot of running to do. I am running a half-marathon in just over two weeks. I am NOT ready! Good thing I can use the fact that I am 50 as my excuse for my slow time :)

I guess I should also say that I have to fit work in also....To bad since work is the one thing out of all of them that I would like to not have to do.

So there you have it. October is going to be a busy month! I hope I have time to up date my blog....

Later Sharon

Remember to Vote NO in NOvember!

"Funny how everything can change in an instant. From death to life. From empty to full. From darkness to light." -from Fracture by Megan Miranda

If you had only one day to live what would you do?

That is the question that was asked in good book that I read yesterday. It got me thinking what would I do if with no warning if I suddenly found out I only had one day to live.....

I would get up and see the sunrise and just sit and watch the world come awake. I would go spend some time just being with and talking to my girls. I would gather all my grand kids around and just watch them play and laugh. I would spend the day with Rick by my side.  I would go for a walk in the woods and just enjoy the world around me. I would eat a huge piece of chocolate cake and have a Pepsi. I would tell everyone I cherish that I love them because we never say it enough. And lastly I would watch the sunset while holding Ricks hand watching the world go to sleep.

What would you do........ Think about it.....then do it.......

Later Sharon

An Interesting Read....

So a couple of years ago I saw a post on Facebook about this book being good. So even though I have never really done any Bible study I downloaded it to my Kindle. Well this past week I finally got around to reading it. It amazes me how much the author could dissect every word of the Gospel of Ruth . If you do not know the book of Ruth click on the link and read it, it is pretty short. After you read it you might just want to read the book too and find out what all those scholars think it means.  It was really pretty interesting. Not my normal read but well worth it......


Later Sharon

Weekend Getaway

                   One of the many trail in the Beaver Creek Valley State Park.

                                                             Beaver Creek

                                               Schech's Mill

                               Some of the many moss covered rocks in the park

                           Rick and I enjoying a rest after hiking up one of the trail

                                      I just loved this door so I took a picture of it.

                          This is one of the grinding stones at the flour mill

                                  One of the bridges one of the hiking trails

                               Another picture of Rick and I on the trail

                                Some of the steps on the trail that take you up to the peak

I think we managed to pick the best weekend all year to go on a camping trip. It was so beautiful out, it was raining leaves on us all weekend. The colors was so pretty and the weather was perfect. As you can tell we had a good time. We we went to the Beaver Creek Valley State Park  in Caledonia. It is such a nice park. They only have 16 site with electricity and the rest of the sites are tent sites so it is very quite there.  We got there Friday a little after noon. After getting everything set up and having a little lunch we went for a hike. The park has over 8 miles of hiking trails. The first two trails we went on were so steep! I should have know they were going to be tough when the names of the trails were Steep Rock Trail and Switch Back Trail. Of course it was worth it because when we got to the top we got to see a beautiful view of the valley. After we got back we got the campfire going and then Jane and Paul got there. We spend the night sitting around the campfire and just relaxing.

Saturday we had planed on doing a little trout fishing but we found out that the last two weeks of the season are catch and release only. So we decided not to fish. We did see a lot of trout in the creek so we know they are there :) Since we didn't go fishing we decided to check out Schech's Mill. It is a water powered flour mill in Caledonia. We spent over 2 hours there. For $5.00 we got a tour of the mill and then at the end of the tour he gave us each a 5 pound bag of wheat flour and a 5 pound bag of cornmeal  that the owner grounds at the mill. It was a was well worth the $5.00. It was really interesting to see how they grind the flour etc.
After we got back Rick and I decided to take Jane and Paul's dog Eddie on a little walk. We were just going to take the short trail the runs right alone the creek but ended up going over 2 miles. Poor Eddie was pretty tired out by the time we got back because the trail was once again steep.

Sunday we were back home by noon. It was nice to go someplace that is only a couple hours away. We will for sure be going back there again next year.

Later Sharon