All City and Pantry

It was time to update this blog and get those horrible snow-filled pictures off the first post! UGH! That was horrible! And I totally lost my Japanese Lilac. Makes me so sad. We are looking to replace that soon. There is a big hole waiting.

 

So, Connor had the All-City track meet in May. His event was the softball throw. As we were driving there with Papa, he set a goal of 114 feet.

 

 

A little warming up by every one's favorite PE teacher.....Mrs. Wiste. Mrs. Wiste GETS boys. She emails me pictures of Connor and little messages about how much she likes him. I love her. I hope Connor gets her for his last year at Washington!

And the throw.....

 



 

He got to throw three times. Then he helped shag balls while the others finished.

 

 

 

Then they huddled around for the results.....

 

 

 

 

Connor took second at 115 feet! One foot over his goal!

 

 

 

Way to go Connor!

 

**************************************

 

School is out and the projects have begun. On the agenda for me are painting the master bedroom, painting the trim around the outside doors, and cleaning windows.

 

Another job Mike and I wanted to tackle and actually accomplished was turning a coat closet in our back entry into a pantry. Our kitchen is small and has very limited storage. The cupboards are super tall and give the illusion of plenty of space, but they are difficult to use because I am forever having to reach for a chair to reach what I need. There was a coat closet just inside the garage door that screamed "pantry". We used it for coats and shoes and I knew talking Mike into it wasn't going to be easy, but he agreed! 

 

 

I forgot to take a picture before it was emptied. Just picture this closet (which is identical) with a two-level shelf going across the whole floor filled with shoes.

 

 

Then add about another 20 coats. That's what the closet looked like.

 

Here is the closet emptied....

 

 

Check out those lovely primed walls! Holy Dirty!

 

 

Mike went and bought all the supplies. We bought cheaper wood and then trimmed it out. I painted the inside of the closet (not easy) and then together we primed and painted all the wood. Mike got them hung up and viola! Introducing the pantry.......

 

 

 

I am so excited to have this space. I bought a cute book-end for my cookbooks....

 

 

 

Lots of plastic and some glass storage for snacks and cereal ......

 

 

 

Chip storage was tough. Those bags are hard to keep upright and for some reason, placing them in another container didn't seem like it would keep them fresh. So, I kept them in their bags and used baskets. I also have a wire basket for potatoes and onions on the floor too....

 

 

 

 

I love having a place to put those larger items such as the crock-pot, vegetable and rice steamer.....

 

 

 

 

 

It's been nice to buy large quantity items from Sam's and have a place to put them! I have not missed the closet one bit. We have hooks on the wall to hang coats and sweatshirts. We are better about only having one pair of shoes at this back door too.  I have lots more room to fill in there, but I am waiting for the perfect containers. I keep slowly adding week-by-week. Maybe a trip to Ikea in my future!

 

 

Baseball is taking over the month of June, and we love it. The rain has dampened a few games, but we are busy this week with double-headers. I can't imagine next year when both kids are traveling because having just one is crazy busy!

 

Hope you are all having a great start to your summer!

Peace,

LB

Some Snow

There are three things you can count on in this life;

 

1. If on the hunt for a specific accessory or clothing item, you will never find it. However, you will find 100 pieces you adore when you don't need anything, but just went to join your husband on a shopping trip for him.

 

2. Your hair will work like magic on the day you are getting your haircut, making you doubt going to the appointment and causing you to reach for the phone at least 4 times to cancel.

 

3. Owatonna will never call a snow day from school and even if they do, you (as a teacher) have to report anyway.

 

Well, ladies and gentlemen.... brace yourselves. Owatonna canceled school and told teachers not to report!

 

Holy Mother of God!

 

The morning started with a lovely 5:30 phone call from 911 dispatch recommending no travel in our area. What? Who are these 911 people and where have they been all my life?

 

I was already up washing my face for work, so I gathered myself and went out to check out the situation.

 

I couldn't believe what had happened overnight.

 

 

 

13 inches of heavy, wet snow had fallen overnight. It looked like frosting. We even made the national news!

 

 

 

I then checked online thinking, surely Owatonna had called school. Nope. No luck.

 

I decided to just hang out on the computer, refreshing the screen, waiting to see if it was a 2 hour late or if they would cancel the whole day.

 

 

It took a half hour (Why? What is wrong with them?). I never expected to hear the glorious news that schools were CLOSED and teachers should not report. I still didn't trust it and started texting friends to get confirmation. I just couldn't believe it. But it was true, no work for me!

 

 

I had no work at home so I could not do any school stuff. That turned out to be okay as I have had a few things that I needed to help Connor with (projects, assignments, packets.....um, honestly it was too much. I was annoyed) and so he and I got to work and got all that work crossed off the list of things to do.

 

 

Then I tackled laundry and figured that would leave the weekend free from that lovely job.

 

It was so nice to relax, not have work to do, and just enjoy a bonus day. Too bad it hadn't been Friday!

 

The only sad thing.....we lost our Japanese Lilac tree.....

 

 

 

 

I love that tree. It's ornamental so it's smaller and that amazing smell wafts right in that bedroom's window. I will be replacing that ASAP.

 

So even though snow is annoying in May, I am loving this day. 70 degrees is forecasted for Monday and the week following so this is going to be short lived, so I am totally okay with it. I fully expect to be enjoying a baseball game Tuesday after school with the sun beating on me.

 

 

So, hey, Mother Nature? When people are cursing you left and right today, know that I appreciate you and I am just fine with this lovely little gift you gave me.

 

 

 

Happy Spring,

LB

 

 

 

Florida 2013

Remember the years when I used to post daily while enjoying our Florida vacation? Well, here we are at year 7 and it's taking everything in my to update. Not that I don't want to blog about it, it's just one of those things.....I feel like you had to be there to appreciate it. I do this vacation blogging more to keep track of where we stayed and where we ate than any other reason! Those are the two most important things in my eyes when it comes to a vacation.

This year Mike's mom and Dave and my parents both joined us in Florida. We tried houses this year. Our favorite resort had increased it's prices double what it was in prior years and we just couldn't justify those prices. We all missed it though. Once you get spoiled, it's very hard to go back to regular living! I missed my pampered week in the sun.

We left on a Thursday this year. I liked that. It meant only a three day work week for me before we left and I could handle that.
A few airport pictures. We are starting to get good at this traveling thing. No more super early flights for this family. We left at 11:10.

 

 

 

 

 Our first night there we had Twins preseason tickets. It was at the Red Sox stadium (they practice down there too) and they had a new stadium. Well, we had fun seats (green monster with a bar and stools which was great for eating) but it was freezing. We literally froze in our shorts and sweatshirts! It was windy and cold. We ended up leaving around the 6th inning. I had had enough of listening to the obnoxious Sox fan in front of us anyway.

 

 

 I didn't take to many pictures. I was too cold.

 

Our house was nice. It's always stressful pulling up to your furnishings you will be living in for a week. It's a long week when it's not as nice as you hoped. Luckily, all was fine.

 

 

 

 

The second day it warmed up and we had a good time just enjoying the heat and sun. We ended up getting surprised by our sweet friends Tammy and Paul. We were supposed to have missed them by 12 hours as they were headed to Orlando from Ft Myers where they visited with Tammy's dad and step-mom. Turns out plans changed and they would be able to connect with us! Mike and I left the boys with my parents and headed over the bridge to see them for dinner. Always so nice to see them, even if for an hour.

 

 

 

 

Saturday Mike's mom and Dave arrived! Earlier we had spent some time wrangling snakes by the pool. You know, because that is what you do in Florida. The pool had drilled holes in the concrete for a child safety net. We did not have the net up, in fact it was in the garage. Mike was outside and noticed a "stick" in one of the holes. Turns out it was a little visitor coming up to sun himself.

 

Mike made small work of that lovely surprise and caught the snake only to have to repeat that performance with another one a few minutes later.

 

 

 

I am not going to pretend this didn't freak me out. My heart was racing taking these pictures and I hated to even edit them! However, I got in the pool a few times even after seeing this. I could not let this ruin my vacation. It's part of Florida to have these critters around. In Minnesota we have mosquitoes and in Florida they have geckos and snakes. We did call the management company and let them know what happened. It was Easter weekend but the assured us they would send someone out if we saw another one. We never did.

 

 

We went to Rib City for lunch. Good food! Then we hit the batting cages for a little pre-baseball swinging.

 

 

 

 

That night we went to Carrabba's for supper.  My parents had gone to visit their friends that night and we not with us for supper. It's one of our favorite Italian places. It's a chain like the Olive Garden but it's better. Plus it's happy hour until 7:00 so you get two drinks for the price of one. Cindy and I enjoyed TWO martinis! And then I ordered another round for myself. It's vacation after all. Plus, they were small.

 

 

Sunday we decided to hit the waterpark. We had never been there and before and it had some pretty serious slides the kids were excited about. What better way to spend Easter, huh?

 

 

 

Kids loved it and we all had a great time. Life guards were incredible there. Super serious!

 

That night we went to Prawnbroker for supper. This place was packed with many locals (old people). It wasn't that good. Wouldn't go back.

 

 

Monday Mike, Noah, Connor, and my dad had plans to charter a fishing boat and guide. Dave and Cindy headed to Naples and my mom and I enjoyed a day of shopping and lunch in Sanibel.

 

 

 

They didn't have great luck. Only one keeper (Noah's), but at least they tried something different.

 

 

That night we went to Marker 92 for supper. This was at our old resort. Made me miss it even more. Food wasn't as good as we remembered. I loved being back there though.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday we headed to Ft Myers Beach. The water was cold, but the kids played in it anyway!

 

 

 

 

 

That night we ate at Blue Pointe Oyster Restaurant. This was BY FAR the best place we ate at the whole week. We had never eaten there before so it was a new find! Such great food!

 

Wednesday we all went shopping in Sanibel. The women all found things they needed while the men followed along behind us, isn't that how it always goes?

 

That night we ordered in pizza. I think we were just wanting a low key evening. It was nice to let the kids play, sit around the pool, and just enjoy the evening without having to get all dressed up.

 

Thursday we had to be out of the house by 10 so we headed to the airport! It's always sad to see the week that we plan for a year come to an end. I feel for lucky to be able to enjoy this trip every year.

 

As I type this we are forecasted for a bunch of snow overnight. I also heard blowing wind, ice, and horrible roads mentioned on the news. Lovely. I think I will linger over these pictures a little longer.

 

Happy Spring!

LB