Five for Friday

Is it Friday? I love not knowing or caring. The only reason I might know anymore is because of baseball. How do most people work all year round? I can't imagine. If I ever bitch about my job, I need to go back and read posts from June and July.

Here's what I am happy for this week......

1. Lilacs. My neighbor has a bush. I MIGHT have borrowed a few blooms for my kitchen. Twice. I don't know what it is, but I swear their smell is heightened by 1000 this year. It fills my whole upstairs and I love it.


2. Curly hair. That's right.....I have been leaving my hair with it's natural curl lately and I cannot tell you how much easier this makes my life. I add product and I am done. I am using THIS product which has grape seed oil in it and I kid you not.... smells like a grape jolly rancher until it dries. Bonus! I let it dry naturally, rake a comb or my fingers through it and it looks good! When it was shorter the curls were all kinds of crazy. I am so glad I gave it a try now that it's longer and cut into long layers.


3. I am on a mission to get rid of all the fake flowers/wreaths in my house. Good Lord what was I waiting for? I bought this frame at HomeGoods the other weekend when we were in Lakeville for a baseball tournament.

A mirror is perfect for the entry of a home, don't ya think?

 

 

4. Chicago. Not only do I get to go with three of my besties in a few short weeks, but we are going as a family later in the summer too! WOO HOO! Nothing better than Chicago in the summer. I think when I retire I might have to have a house in Florida for a few months, a cabin in MN for a few months, and a condo in Chicago for the summer. Hmmm....might need another career for that to happen. Anyway, we will go to a Cubs game at Wrigley when we are there so I can't wait. What I can wait for....the long drive there. No flying that trip. Gotta stock up on movies and books.

 

 

5. The lovely retractable gazebo we bought a few years back was wrecked in a storm.

 

 

I loved that thing. I thought the retractable canopy would help this whole thing hold up with the wind we get back there, but it didn't.

So, we bought this.....

I am hoping it holds up. We had one similar once, but this one is studier.



Hope you all have a great weekend. My flowers have been loving the cooler, wet weather. Some heat in the forecast this weekend!

Peace out...
LB

Noah New Ulm Tournament

We traveled to New Ulm for a AA tournament this past weekend. Other than a HUGE rainstorm that completely soaked us over and over, it was a great weekend and the boys walked away with the Championship!

 

They announced each kids' names and then they shook hands with someone from the other team as they received their prize. Oddly, they gave trophies to the 2nd place and T-shirts to the 1st place. Kids would have rather have had hardware.

 

 

Way to go boys! Job well done!

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