You Were Right Jan

Received this from my friend Jan who knew that I couldn't resist putting it on my blog.

This picture says it all...and very smartly I might add..what a great message and a cute little face. With three granddaughters you can bet I would LOVE to get my hands on three shirts like this...beware parents I am on the hunt!

She Makes Me Smile

Julia and Daddy 'passed out' after a long day of work....Julia kept her mom busy all day and Lenny is resting from a long day at work.

In her car seat ready to go to her doctor appointment.

More to come....

Three Years Ago Today

I became a survivor. It has been three years since Dr Deaconson removed my cancer. Every year on this day I send him an email to thank him and blog so that I can thank all of you who have supported me during my journey.

Looking back just for fun...

On another note...last night David decided to sit in the deer stand in the wind and snow to see if he could see anything. After about an hour he came back having gotten a nice doe with his bow. She was about 20 yards away and it was a clean good shot.

Here he is with his deer and the arrow that brought her down...does he look proud?

A few nights ago we looked out to see a heard of deer IN MY GARDEN! They munched away on the radishes, cabbage, broccoli and ate the flowers. Mary, I have no Ukrainian hollyhocks left and they did a number on my black eyed susans! Of course we didn't scare them away, just watched them chomping away!

The next morning we had these two little guys in our back yard. One is a spike buck the other is a very little button buck.

The little button buck meandered over to the flower bed for more munching...not much left to munch little fella.

Peeko watched them very closely as well.

I read this on a breast cancer site somewhere and liked it so am sharing...

Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.

Your Thoughts And Prayers

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewJournal.do?method=executeInit

Above is a link to a CaringBridge sight authored by Becky Hewitt. She is a young mother from my home town who is battling breast cancer. She finished her chemo about the time that I began mine......and has recently had a recurrence. She has fought this battle with courage and a very deep faith....a faith that frankly I cannot even begin to understand and do envy. Becky needs your thoughts and prayers...so please take a look at her latest entry and send hope her way.

My heart is heavy as I fear that someone who has fought this battle with such courage is being tested once again. Frankly it scares me a bit if I am to be honest. People like Becky give others hope and strength..please please pray for her and her family.

Little Of This Little Of That

I have finally talked David into exploring some of the trails up here with the dogs and I. The fact remains that I am way to chicken to explore them on my own with the bear population and all. David comes with his gun and I with my camera. Thus far we have not run across a bear but have found lots of smelly (that would be the bear poop) proof that they are near.

The last couple of days we have been hiking the North Country Trail...that would be the one that Jessica and Melissa got the dogs and I lost on last year...LOL.

As the color has blown away I have found lots of varying textures and shapes on the hikes-

Cool textures on leaves

Mushrooms are a great species for texture, shape and color

Gnarled and twisted trees and trunks looking a little Haloweenie

Evergreen looking moss growing on the sides of small hills

Birch amongst evergreens amongst hardwoods surrounded by prairie grasses

A barn barely seen through the woods

Today, at the end of the trail, there lay David. I heard a loud thump and there he was. I couldn't help laughing...and laughing...and laughing. Mary and Bugs...any guesses what followed my laughing spree? I am glad to report that he wasn't hurt.

Hiking in the woods keeps our old girl young and happy. She looks like a young pup when she is exploring the woods.

Her and Peeko are happy campers doing their favorite activity.

We have also taken a few hikes looking for the perfect deer hunting spots. One brought us to this overlook.

And at home who has been sleeping in my bed?

Tackla in Peeko's bed and Peeko in Tack's.

Last week brought us more visitors. My Aunt and Uncle Sandy and Eddie ventured up to stay with former 'Nicolletites' Dick and Barb who moved here a few years back. We joined the four at the casino for a morning of fun (didn't win any money but it was fun) and the next day they came to our house for a game of shoot (cards).

Hunting season brings even more folks north. The Draeger's will be here (or in our area) and Kel, Lenny and Julia Bernice will be here for a long weekend. I cannot wait to hold that little grand baby.....

It Smells Like 'Grandma's House'

And what a good smell it is.....the aroma of cinnamon, cloves, sugar and apples cooking. Today is another rainy cloudy day and a great day to make apple butter and can it. After the apple butter is canned I am going to give apple sauce a shot. The only bad part is that the wonderful smells make me want to eat eat eat!

Peak color time has come and gone up here but there is some color remaining and David and I took a drive to see what we could find.

Lots of yellow in them there trees.
Color and bridge nicely reflected.Peeko's ears 'flapin in the wind'We have had some unusually wet weather which makes great ground for mushrooms. These two specimens were on our hillside.
Projects always projects...David does keep me busy. It is usually lots of work but always fun. We decided to lay sod in our front yard. A small area but it does look nice...and keeps the dogs from getting their feet so full of sand and clay!

Before....Kel he had to pop in the picture to make it look like he was doing physical work and not just running the bob cat....like you believe that...I bet not.

And after. Go figure the bob broke down so while David spent at least two hours in town getting it fixed...I laid most of this sod...OK we had half done before the bob fell apart but I did lay lots on my own and could feel it the next day! The sandy round area that Tack is on is going to be the fire pit area.
Speaking of Grandma's house here I am David and I and Julia Bernice.
It's no wonder that I am the one behind the camera...I don't do well in front of it...LOL

Julia and her Momma and Dad
Little Julia at almost 2 weeks old. I think she is in the cradle that her grandpa Dave made for her right Kel and Len?
And Julia in the spirit of the time of year...this one's for you Jan. Now we only have to make sure that she grows up to vote correctly!!
Here is Abigail Rose (photo sent to us by her parents Ry and Jen) who is now a month old!
And Dezbah Daisy taken at a Native American Festival that she attended with her mom and dad. She is held by one of the singers at the festival.
Hey I have found a couple of yarn shops one is in Brainerd about an hour away and the other is in Park Rapids which is 50 minutes away. They are both great shops with friendly people just too bad that they aren't closer. I actually drug David into the one in Park Rapids yesterday...he so enjoyed it...not. I very happily shopped and he sat and talked with the shop owner. I now have about 6 projects going. I guess the yarn shops are dangerous places for me to go....

Down South

Well not southern US but southern MN.

Our friends and former neighbors asked if we would house and dog sit while they took a little trip. It gave us the opportunity to see friends and family and of course that newest grand baby.

Our duties consisted of keeping 5 dogs entertained and well fed. Yup 5 dogs in one spot. Our two and Chrissy and Brent's three.The four little ones seem to like David quite a bit.....
Is it him or the food that he happened to be holding do we think?
We took daily walks the dogs and I down by the river and other former favorite places. This day it is myself, my friend Mary and 6 dogs. Little Harley seems to be confused...he's going the wrong way!We spotted these interesting grouped mushrooms in the woods.And we spent time with little Julia Bernice who is almost two weeks old...will be two weeks old tomorrow! I was playing with my camera and thought this made an interesting picture.Our friends Mark and Lorree put this up on their station after Julia was born.A good one for her baby book. Wonder what the gas prices will be when she has her own little ones?

We spent some time with the oldest grand baby Dezbah who is growing like a weed. And time with our friends Mikey and Jan. David and Mikey went fishing on three occasions and for some reason or another I didn't get a meal of fish out of it.....could be that they got skunked. Speaking of getting skunked...Mikey didn't you skunk David in cribbage as well?

Welcome To The World

After a long day, and on her birthday...Kelly gave birth to Julia Bernice. I say one shouldn't have to work so hard on her birthday but I am guessing that she thinks it was all worth it.

Let's see if I can get the sequence of events straight. And I will post pictures along the way...

September 23rd is Kelly's birthday and her due day. She was scheduled to be induced at 6am yesterday (the 23rd) but as I suspected Julia Bernice came into this world in her own way and on her own timeline.

At 1am that morning Kelly began to have contractions. I received a text from Len at 4am telling me that they were on their way to the hospital. At 6am she had progressed in her journey and if it continued to go as such we were to have a little girl by around 8am. 8am came and went and no little girl although Kel was comfortable and doing well as I could here her laughing in the background.

Lenny continued to give me text or voice updates until 1:00pm which was the last message that I received. 4:00 came and went and I figured well if something was amiss he would call me so I figured that they were busy. Little did I know.....the call that I got from Len and 4:30 was, "She's a whopper" I am afraid that I laughed out loud. Kelly is a petite itty bitty cute as hell gal and I just couldn't even imagine her giving birth to a large baby...where oh where is there room???

As it turns out , because the dilation process was just not progressing, and it had been a long day, they did a C section and Julia Bernice came into the world at 2:02pm weighing 8 pounds 8.3 ounces and is 21 1/2 inches long with lots of dark hair and bigger than her daddy was at birth. Kelly was and is a trooper and is doing very well and of course Lenny is a proud and happy poppa. She is really not a 'whopper' but I think she is bigger than even Lenny expected.

Is she not perfect?Trying to talk already..or perhaps boss her daddy around? Oh no it's just a yawn. However, I can't wait for the day that she does boss her dad around...LOLLook familiar?

26 years ago (OMG he looks crabby doesn't he??)And 26 years later

Lenny changing his very first diaper (and oh my it was a mess) getting helpful hints from Kel's mom Sherry.

Well now David and I have three to spoil and love. Life is good.
More pictures and updates to come (ya think????duhh huh)