Me through the years

While we were going through the pictures my Grandma had, we found all of the school pictures we had given her through out the years. Here's some of mine. I still have the dress from the first picture. My Cabbage Patch Kid wore it all of the time! Gotta love that I had the same glasses from 1st grade (I got them after the picture was taken) until 6th grade. And I wore a sweater vest for both 3rd and 4th grade pictures! What a trend setter!7th grade I finally got contacts - thank God! My hair turned naturally curly in 4th grade, so I can thank that for my lovely 5th grade picture (me in the purple). Why did they have me not look at the camera? So I wouldn't break it? :) Just kidding. What you can't see in the picture is that I have one curl standing straight up. I don't know where my pictures are for 9th or 11th grade are, so they weren't included. The Glamour Shot was when I was 16. My mom still LOVES that picture. Why she thought it was good for me to wear a pink leather bra and leather jacket, I don't know. My hair was HUGE and super hair sprayed. For my Senior picture, I actually prayed that my hair would be good that day! I think it turned out great and the photography studio actually used it in their ads for the next year of senior pictures!If you'd like to see the pictures bigger - you can go to my flickr account.

Stressed?

Why, yes. Yes I am.

Funeral Today

Here is the Obit for my Uncle. Funeral is today. This picture was taken on the lake where he and my parent's both have cabins.

E. Murray E of Baldwin and Spooner, WI died on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at his home in Baldwin, at the age of 67. Murray was born in Pine City, MN to Florence and Emmett E on February 14, 1941. He moved with the family to Hudson, WI when he was a freshman at Hudson High School. He graduated with the class of 1959 and attended college at River Falls. Murray was employed with 3M Corporation, St. Paul, MN for over 30 years until his retirement in 2000. Murray is survived by his daughters, Amy (Michael) J and April (James S) E both of Baldwin; grandchildren, Kinsey and Samantha J and John and Nora S; his brothers, Tom (Vickie), Clay (Janet) and Joel (Diane); a sister, Kaye (David) M; his aunt, Lauretta T; 8 nieces and nephews; many, many friends and his beloved dog “Jake”. He is preceded in death by his parents. In the late 70’s and early 80’s Murray coached for the Baldwin Youth Hockey Association, taking them to the 1^st State Title ever, even though he had never skated. He developed lifelong friends with the players and their parents. Murray was an avid hunter and enjoyed the outdoors but mostly enjoyed the camaraderie of his brothers, nephews and friends. He was very well known for his hunting stories more than his hunting prowess. Murray looked forward to his annual fishing trips to Canada and turkey hunting in Viroqua. But Murray will be forever remembered as “Uncle Mur” to his nephews, nieces and many friends who made up the circle of those he loved the most. His beautiful home in Spooner on Big Bass Lake was the center of much family fun in the summer, while he also happily welcomed guests from everywhere.

Another Sad Day

My Uncle Murray passed away today. This is the same Uncle that was in the hospital around Christmas. His daughter was having him for dinner tonight, and when he didn't show, her husband went looking for him. That's when he found my Uncle. He's been having a lot of health problems and had multiple arteries blocked 90% or more, but he had been eating better, working out, and seemed to be doing good. This picture isn't the best of him, but it's the last one I took. We were watching fireworks at his cabin on the 4th, and I used the night mode on my camera to take a crowd pictures. I think he had some choice words for me after I took it (something about blinding the crowd!), but it was all in good fun. I'm glad I took it now. I'm also glad that my Grandma wasn't around to see her first born pass away. But I am glad they are now reunited. I know he missed her a great deal.

More Storms

Some storms went through our town yesterday afternoon, about 30 minutes before we were to leave to go on a fishing launch on Mille Lacs lake. These pictures show the storms moving north of our house, about 1/10 of a mile from our house. The funnel clouds were hovering over a small private lake behind our house. It wasn't raining at all at our house, but you could tell it was really bad north of here. The sirens went off 3 or 4 times. I guess there was a tornado that touched down not far from here. The power also went out for a couple of hours.
Yeah, ignore the garden. I'm boycotting it this year. We left and it was only raining, but the power wasn't back on. It was beautiful on Mille Lacs and was only a little windy. We all went out for a couple of hours and didn't catch anything, and then the boys dropped us off and went out for a couple more hours. I think they ended up catching 10 or so. I'm just glad this is as close as the storm got, or things could have been much more interesting yesterday.

Wii Fun

It's been so fun having the Wii. I have no buyers remorse from it. This is Dh bowling on Saturday before the gang came over to play. I love how he's moving so fast that you can't really see his arm. We had to move out our coffee table to make sure we'd have enough room.

So, what are your favorite games on Wii? I'd like to get some other ones, but I have NO idea what to get. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Project Runway

Project Runway starts on Wednesday with the 5th Season. Alison is hosting a Project Runway Fantasy League for this season. You can join at her blog here. I thought it would be fun and another way to enjoy the show. Hopefully my predictions will all be right!

Whee! Storms!

Last night we had a storm roll through town. The clouds were really cool, so of course I had to take a picture of it. The picture is looking north from our house.
Baron went outside in the rain the other day. The dogs hate rain, but if they really have to go, they'll go out in it. It's so funny how they look spotted after being out in the rain.And for the most exciting news ever, I FINALLY GOT MY WII!! It's so much fun. Dh and I got it yesterday. We stayed up until midnight playing it, and now his parents, sister, and her boyfriend are coming up tonight to play. I highly recommend getting one!

4th of July

Dh and I went up to the cabin for the 4th of July weekend. It was great to spend time with all of my family. It's strange being up there without my Grandma, but I'm sure she's having a good time watching over us all.

Here's some of my favorite photos from the weekend:Dh and our niece. Being 2, she's hard to pin down, but I manage to take some photos of her.The Great-Grandkids waiting for fireworks. It's amazing how they are getting so big!My nephew and Brody. His dad and my brother were and still are great friends. It's so cool to see these two get along so well. They love hanging out together.One big project we had this weekend was going through all of Grandma's jewelry. She had a bunch of costume jewelry that no one had gone through yet, so we brought it up knowing most everyone was going to be at the cabin. Well, the little girls were very interested in all of this and really wanted some. So the stuff that was left, we gave to them. This is them showing off their new wears!My uncle didn't disappoint with his fireworks display this year. He always does a great job, and my aunt evens plays a soundtrack to accompany it! Hope you all had a great 4th!

One big projex

Me

I saw this on Nicole's blog and thought it was really cool.

How it works:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Nicole
2. What is your favorite food? Sweet and Sour Chicken
3. What high school did you go to? Hudson High School
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Luke Wilson
6. Favorite drink? Daiquiris
7. Dream vacation? Hawaii
8. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10. What do you love most in life? My dogs
11. One Word to describe you. Crafty
12. Your flickr name. craftycole

Here's my results:

I'm not good at getting the photo credits, but all of these were from flickr and taken by people who are really awesome. How's that for credit?

We're leaving for the cabin tomorrow morning. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!

Crazy Wiems

Dh took the dogs to the vet today. Can you believe this one is 86 pounds? And he thinks he's a lap dog?Another picture of Baron, who always seems to sleep with all of his paws in one place.
This is Orion's favorite sleeping spot. He can check out what's outside and take a nap. He weighed in at 102 today. No wonder we call him Big O!

I also took this cool shot of my chive plant. I didn't get any flowers for the outside this year (read: I am being lazy), so this will have to do. Not much going on here. Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy birthday Dad!!

8 Years

8 years ago today I married my best friend. I know he makes me a better person. I love you!

Keys and Ohio

Today was a fun day. I was running late for work, and as I’m getting into the car, I notice that I’m missing my keys. Great. Just what I need. I run back in the house and still can’t find them. I yell up to Dh and ask if I can use his. Not a problem. Around 9:30, he calls me, “Did you find them?”. Uh, no. I’m at work. I had dumped out my purse and checked around the car, but nothing was there. As soon as I got home for lunch, he asked me again. I checked around the whole house, even in the laundry basket and by the dogs’ kennels. Nothing. Dh keeps asking me, “Did you find them?”. After I go to the bathroom, I tell him they aren’t in there either. For some reason, I think to check the garbage, which is out at the curb to be picked up today. I check the Culver’s bag that I had in the car last night and threw out. Nothing, nothing, jingle. Shit. There they were. Did I mention it was garbage day? I was pretty damn lucky. Never lost my keys before today, won’t do it again.

Last weekend, Dh and I went to Ohio with the in laws for Dh's cousin's graduation party. It was a good time, except for all of the rain we (read: Dh) had to drive through to get there. The water was over the center line of the road in Portage WI. It made a long trip even longer. We did take two family pictures last weekend. One for MIL's fmaily and one for FIL's. It was nice to catch up with both sides of the family.

Here's MIL's family:And us blowing off a little steam from the photo shoot:

And FIL's family:

Never Been Happier To Clean

Dh wanted me to go four wheeling with him this weekend. I've never been so I stayed home and cleaned the house, which desperately needed it. They went for over 12 hours yesterday. My SIL went. This is her: Again, SO glad I stayed home to clean!

Scraploft Challenge

Here's my layout for the next prompt for the Scraploft Challenge. We'd love it if you'd join us!
I only had one scallop for this layout, so I scanned the original and then printed it out. It's a little bit lighter, but I think it works!

Finally Some Scrapping!

I did some scrapping last weekend and have finally remembered to post the pages I did. All of these pictures were taken at my parent's house after my Grandma's funeral.

I Never Knew I Was So Loved!

Geesh! Don't blog for a little while and see all of the love you will get! I still haven't posted my Memorial Day photos. Probably the best part was the kids fishing. My niece caught her first fish. My nephew got really good at casting with the new pole we got him for Christmas this past Christmas. We also had a bonfire both nights and had s'mores too! It was a great weekend, even though it wasn't that warm out. Here's the fishing photos:
This past weekend I did some scrapbooking. I'll post some pics of those later this week. And tomorrow I'm going to see Sex and the City! I'm so pumped for that one.

It's Amazing!

What's amazing? I actually cooked tonight! I do cook, but not that often. Tonight I decided to try a recipe from the Creating Post it Notes blog. Suzanne posts a new recipe pretty much every day. They always look so good! I wanted to try the Sweet and Sour Chicken tonight. It's really good. It wasn't that hard to make either. Here's what it looked liked:
The other amazing thing? I actually did my layout for the Scraploft Challenge! I just didn't have any time or mojo to do this one, so I finally buckled down and did it. The photo isn't the best, but it wasn't scanning very well either, so this is what you get! ;)

Work Finds

Finally, it's spring. They brought out the golf cart at work for us to go around the lot in. Someone decked it out this winter and painted it school bus yellow (yes, it's a real color name) and put the IC logo on the hood. Now that's a pimped ride! Today when I got back from my meeting, I found this on my desk:
Yes, someone had drawn a bus on my banana. It's a banana bus! Oh, and it's smiling! I had a good laugh over that. I did point out to the artist that they're missing a rubrail (the stripes on a bus, it's required to have 4 in MN), but he denied any knowledge of a banana bus. You gotta watch out for those salesmen!

More from Grandma

One of the things I got from Grandma is this beautiful cabinet. It needed a little lovin', but after some Murphy's Oil Soap and Old English, it's gorgeous again. It's now sitting in my dining room.On the inside I'm storing some stuff. The wire baskets are from the dollar spot at Target.
We also got to pick a cookbook from Grandma. This is what I picked.
Every page is filled with her handwriting and newspaper clippings.
I'm going to go through the whole thing and scan most of it. A long project for a rainy day or this winter.
Top Model finale tonight! Go Whitney!

Mother's Day Weekend

Dh and I spent time at my parent's house yesterday for mother's day. My mom had picked up my nephew a new set of golf clubs. (She got them for $8 at a garage sale!) She surprised him with them yesterday. Here's the unveiling:
So cute! He's getting so big!
I finally got the bedroom set from my Grandma's house. Here's the dresser:
And the bed:
Orion couldn't wait to get on it, but I held him back! Hope all you mother's and non-mother's alike had a great mother's day!

Puppy Pictures

I was cleaning out our second bedroom today (we're getting a new bed from my Grandma's house) and I came across some old pictures of Orion and Baron

Here's Orion at the cabin I think the week after we got him. He was scared of all of the other dogs and was hiding behind the geranium. This is still one of my favorite photos of him. I could actually hold him at this point! Now he weighs 100 pounds! You gotta love those ears! He hadn't grown into them yet. This was Baron the day we got him. He was about a month younger than when we got Orion. He had been living in an old chicken coop with his liter mates, so we had to give him a bath. He definitely doesn't fit in the sink any more! I also love that you can see Orion's nose checking him out. I can't believe that either of them were that small at one time!!

Cinco de Mayo

This is the coolest game ever - Rock Band. See that 99% for singing? Yeah, that's me!