Happy Father's Day

To all you fathers out there--whether you are a father in waiting, a father for the first or thirty-first time--have a wonderful day! I recall a Father's Day eight years ago, do you? Seeing Dad filling himself with shrimp and visiting with us all. I think there was even a visit from Mitsy. It was a wonderful day that God allowed us to have and a Father's Day I will always remember. Dad has the privilege of spending Father's Day with our Father, and I believe that both of them look down and smile when they see our children and what they have grown up to be and all they have accomplished. While we all miss dad, don't you think he has a great deal to do with what we all have become? You know he has been pushing and cheering us along the whole way. So, Happy Father's Day Dad!!

time on my hands

Well, now that my days at school are complete for awhile (yeah--well, I'll be going in once a week to do the mail), my brain has been busy thinking of all the things I can be doing. Major clean out of a few rooms would be Mike's choice. Mine too I guess. I really need to be in the mood to throw away, give away and organize. I may try my hand at Ebay--someone out there must want the stuff I thought I needed to have! I also need to find all my baby patterns of yesteryear. I realize that most of them are 30+ years old, but they are tried and true. And just in case I find more than infant sizes, what size are those little girls in these days, Emily and Lorena? I never know what I might come up with in my clean out mode.

Only a week until Camp Okoboji. How many will be there Sunday night? I believe we will be bringing 3 kayaks this year. We are hoping they see a lot of use. My van is getting outfitted with a trailer hitch so I can haul them with Mike's trailer. Am I to assume that we also need to bring the bean bag game? When Mike's family has their family campout, we have a tournament where we draw teams and play in brackets. We usually do this in one day, but we have 3 boards going at the same time. Is this of interest to any of you? If so, we may be able to bring an extra board. Been looking at other things to do while there--Gospel Concert at Treasure Village on Sunday night; Little Swan Lake Winery by Estherville; antique shops on main street in Spencer; a quaint little coffee shop in Milford called Huggabeans (I think); and the 4th of July Flea Market starts on the 30th. So much to do and I have two books I want to get through too. Becky, that book you brought last year, "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber was the start of something for me. I really enjoy her books and have probably read 10 to 15 of them since last year. I had forgotten the joy of reading until then. Jennifer, I have also read all of Karen Kingsbury's Red Glove series books. Always a wonderful message!

Enough rambling Diane! You won't have anything to talk about in 8 days! See you all soon!!!!

This and That

i just wanted to tell you all that our quilt will be #146 at the auction. When I delivered it the gal in the office asked if I had the description filled out and who was donating and a told her it was from a group of us. She happened to look at the sheet and said "Oh, you are the 4 sisters and a mom!" She immediately had to open the quilt to take a peek and then told me that we inspire her--that she should keeps thinking she should get her daughters together and make a quilt. Just thought you would all like to know.

Mike and I took the camper for its first outing of the season this past weekend. We just went to Spencer, but kept busy as it was FlagFest weekend and nephew Blake was in a baseball tournament. Sat through 3 games and we were reminded of all the times we sat and watched Josh and his teammates. That wasn't that long ago, was it? There was a Car Cruise on Main Street in the evening and Mike and Bob really enjoyed that--Beth and I stayed at the campers. Stayed up too late both Friday and Saturday, but really had a great time. Looking forward to seeing eveyone at Camp Okoboji. Won't be long now!!

Maybe I'm Too Old for this Blogging

I seem to be having issues again with my blog site! Mike, I've tried two times to blog and it tells me I have successfully published it, but it never shows up on the actual blog site. Go figure. Anyway, there are new pictures on the picasa web if you care to check up on the progress of the orchard and garden.
I am anxiously awaiting the week at Camp Okoboji, hope everyone else is also! I think the grandkids should be in charge of entertainment for the Friday night shindig! Any takers?

Last day

Yesterday was the last day of school. YIPPEE!!! While I still have a few weeks of work left, I can see my summer vacation at the end. The school year really went by fast and everyone was excited about the break. But our janitor (who works all summer) put it in perspective for us. Yesterday he had a big sign on his cart that said 86. Of course everyone asked what it was. "It's the number of days until school starts!" he told us with a big smile.

On another note, Mike and I went out to eat at Embers last night. Just right after we ordered, who should come around the corner, but Mom along with Ruth and Milo. What a surprise! They joined us and we had a wonderful time visiting.

Everyone is busy these days, so I am looking forward to our week at Okoboji so we can all get caught up with each other. When will everyone be arriving?

Happy Mother's Day

It's only Thursday, but Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's. This weekend is going to be busy so my greetings are early. Rodney's sister, niece and grand niece are arriving Saturday from Seattle, so I'm doing dinner that night and also dinner for Mother's Day. The weather has been great here and hopefully will continue over the weekend so we can be outdoors. All is going well here. Work is okay and Rodney continues to work on the addition. The fireplace chimney stack is up, so now the addition is totally enclosed. Took out the window between, but yet to cut the wall down. One of these days I'll figure out how to post some pictures. Looks like Kristi and Chad have the same color scheme going in their new home as we do in ours. Our livingroom is a medium green and the bedroom a milk chocolate brown. Again I do hope to post pictures soon. Time is flying and soon we will be getting ready for the trip to Iowa. Haven't bought and RV yet!! My love to all

Cut, Stitch, Snip

Meet Weber! This little guy was created on April 28. 2007 at Camp Okoboji. And you guessed it, this creation happened in Weber 1 Cabin. Carole, mom and I started working at around 10:30 and had him finished by 5:00. Granted, a lot of the cutting and applique were done ahead of time, but we still made good time. I think what took the longest was trying to decide the layout of the blocks. (oh yeah, and the re-figuring of size because somebody (me) cut the center 2 inches too small) But, in the long run that mistake made for a more interesting look. The weather was great--we had a table set up outside on the deck to do more cutting and the two machines were set up in the cabin. Carole and mom did all of the sewing and I managed the cutting. We all got our hands in on the snipping. After we were done, we went into Spirit Lake for supper at Pizza Ranch. No shopping this year gals! It wouldn't have been the same without everyone there and Carole and I had to get back home. We stayed and visited at the cabin until 8:30 and then headed out. Weber got washed and dried on that Sunday and then his eyes, mouth, and button front were hand sewn on. Soooo--what do you think?? I just hope he brings a good price at the auction. The three of us had a great time. it is amazing what topics of conversation occur when it is just the women. We missed you Becky and Jennifer. Do you want to try to do something that week that Becky is home in June/July?

Hope everyone is doing well. We just keep plugging along here. The kids are all trying to come home for Mother's Day. We are so looking forward to that! I just hope the weather is good so the boys can golf. Take care all of you!