Vacation in SD or Back to School...hmmm??!!

     Today when I left work, I checked my phone and received a text message from my good friend and neighbor, Katie, with this picture and a message stating, "Hope your day is as fun as ours." 

     To which I replied, "Your day is WAY more fun than our district meeting this morning, putting up bulletin boards, and getting ready for open house."  It looks as if Katie, Freddy, and the kids had a sunny blue sky while visiting Mount Rushmore today.  Lucky them!!

 Megann sporting her shades and a goofy smile while visiting a great national landmark

     Here we are getting ready to head over to the district meeting bright and early this morning!!  Yesterday was our first day back, and it was nice to catch up with friends and see how each other's summers went.  We were also introduced to a lot of new faces this year.  I hope that it will be a great year!! :)

The "S" Word

     The Websters hosted a fire and S'mores gathering after returning from Blake's football tournament in Big Lake.  Being at the fields made me that much more aware of the "S" word...school!  It's just two days away, so after getting back from Big Lake and taking the dogs for their nightly walk, Darrell and I brought wood and S'mores fixins' over to the Websters for one more night of summer fun.  Heidi teaches in Sartell, so she is feeling the same way I am about the "S" word!!

     We both agreed that we love our jobs; it's just that feeling of going from 0 to 80 within a week.  There's no way to slowly ease into a new school year!!  Oh well, it was another great summer, and I am so fortunate to enjoy every summer off from my job.

Daisy is thinking...let's get this show on the road!!  What's taking so long?

Luke went straight for the Hershey's chocolate while waiting for his marshmallows to be toasted.

 Blake looking exhausted from a hard day of playing football but not too tired for S'mores!!  Better rest up, big guy...it's back to Big Lake tomorrow for another game!!

 Curt entertains us while Heidi cooks the "dogs."

 Good buddies, Luke and Keaton

Paul, Luke, Heidi, me, Blake, Rachel, Logan, & Keaton...

not sure why this turned out so blurry ):

"Oh, Those Lutherans!"

     What a fun day!!!  Today Alison, Heidi, and I ventured to Plymouth for lunch at the Red Robin and to attend the newest installment of The Church Basement Ladies in A Mighty Fortress Is Our Basement at the Plymouth Playhouse.  

     According to the program... "Take a trip to 1960 for the fourth and funniest installment yet of the Church Basement Ladies. All of the ladies are back plus the pastor whose fledgling romance has always inspired mixed reactions. Beverly is turning 15 and gets her first pair of high heels for confirmation, and Karin is finally learning how to drive, while Mrs. Snustad and Mrs. Gilmerson plan a food booth at the county fair to raise money. The Church Basement Ladies' songs are always heartfelt and charming, and the humor is family friendly, so if you are looking for some funny, feel-good entertainment, A Mighty Fortress Is Our Basement is the production for you."   

     We had a great time and enjoyed A LOT of laughs!! :0)  There were some jokes for us Catholics since all of the characters in the musical are Lutherans.  Apparently, years ago in Minnesota, it was a no-no for a Lutheran to marry a Catholic!!  Heidi and Alison informed me of these "Lutheranisms" after the show.  I had seen one of the installments of The Church Basement Ladies a few years ago, so it was fun to go back and see a new installment.  It was nice to enjoy it with Heidi and Alison as well since they hadn't seen The Church Basement Ladies before.

 Alison and I picked up Heidi in Big Lake and set off for our adventure to Plymouth.

Next stop...Red Robin for a yummy lunch. :0)

So when we arrived, the three of us look at each other and began laughing.  For sure, we were the youngest three at the musical (and it was sold out) and pretty much the only three without silver hair. 

This was taken during intermission.  We had great seats (front row), so you can easily see the set behind us (circa 1960).

Summer Memories

One of our favorite summer and fall destinations...Duluth

     As summer draws near, and I think about starting teacher workshop next week, I thought that I would share some of my favorite memories of the past couple of summers.  I now know/understand when my elders used to tell me that time seems to go much faster the older you get.  It sure seems like that is the case every summer!!

     These four pictures are from the summer that my school friends threw me a surprise 40th birthday party!  It was so much fun!!

 Then Darrell threw me a surprise 40th bday party in Sheridan with my family!!

     These six pictures are from the summer that my brother, Dave, married Melanie and my nephew, Eric, married Jessica.  It was so nice to be surrounded by so many family members for both of the weddings, and it was certainly nice to spend so much time in Sheridan that summer!!

English dept. gatherings at April's annual "Bisch Bash" and Juanita's pool gathering

 

Kids are always welcome at the "Bisch Bash."

 The summer my sister got two new puppies, Simon and Sophie

 

Rodeo 2010 with Bob, Deb, Rach, Darrell, and Steven

Last year's The Bachelorette Finale gathering

Neighbor ladies ready for Sartell SummerFest

Alison and me at the Neil Diamond concert...it was awesome!!

 Dani and me at the Faith Hill & Tim McGraw concert...incredible!!

Sara's end of the school year...summer is here gathering 

 Celebrating with very good friends, Jim and Dayna (& Joe) at their daughter's wedding

Even though summer vacation is almost over, I do have a lot of fun co-workers to go back to as this picture indicates from open house 2009. :0)  

Farmer's Market

    

     Every Saturday morning there is a farmer's market in downtown St. Cloud.  Darrell and I like to go there for fresh veggies and flowers.  Today we picked up some cucumbers for cucumber salsa and zucchini, so I could make some more zucchini bread.  My friend and co-worker, Ann, gave me one of her large garden zucchinis a couple of weeks ago that made 5 loaves of bread!!  I sent 4 of them to work for Darrell's co-workers.  I have a really good recipe for zucchini bread with mini chocolate chips, and I found a new recipe (from one of my favorite sites, allrecipes.com) that uses blueberries.  If you like blueberries, try this recipe. :0) We all really enjoyed it.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

 Ingredients:

 3 eggs, lightly beaten

 1 cup vegetable oil

 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

 2 ¼ cups white sugar (I used 2 c. white and ¼ c. brown sugar.)

 2 cups shredded zucchini

 3 cups all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

 1 pint fresh blueberries (I didn’t use the whole pint, somewhere between ½ & ¾.)

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.  (I used 1 regular loaf pan and 2 mini pans.)

2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.

3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. (I decreased the baking time quite a bit when I baked the mini-loaves.  I think it was 25 minutes or so, and then I baked the regular loaf around 45 minutes. )

M & M

Massage and Mongo's Grill :0)

     I had a 90 minute massage scheduled at the Minnesota School of Business today as did my friend, Barb.  We decided to travel there together and then have lunch afterwards.  First of all, the massages are always free!!  However, once in awhile, there can be last minute cancellation, so it's not too much fun to drive all the way there just to find out that your massage therapist hasn't shown up!  This is exactly what happened to Barb today ):, so I am already undressed to my comfort level :) and under the sheets, when I look up to see Barb in my face trying to scare me.  She had to come and get my car keys since I drove, and she needed to waste 90 minutes.  Once that was taken care of, it turned out to be a wonderful massage.  Meanwhile, Barb went and did a little bit of shopping. 

     After my massage, we headed to one of our favorite places to eat, Mongo's Grill.  You get to choose your own vegetables, meats, spices, noodles, oils, etc... and watch the "grill masters" stir fry your creation.  It is always so yummy, but today there was a twist.  We had a buy one/get one 50% off coupon, but you had to purchase two beverages.  Our meal was great, as always, but when the bill came and we looked at it, we realized that we actually were going to end up paying more than what the coupon was worth.  Since we usually drink water when we go there, the two sodas were more expensive than taking 50% off one of the meals.  Apparently, it's a better deal when you use the coupon at dinner than at lunch.  At least we got a good laugh out of the situation!! :0) 

     Another interesting occurrence at lunch involved the guy sitting in the booth behind us.  He was talking rather loudly and spent a great deal of time talking about being in Gambler's Anonymous.  He had many stories to tell about that experience, but then he started talking about drugs.  I was facing him and could see him animatedly describing the drugs to the person with him.  I couldn't believe it!!  He said that he wouldn't want to "do crystal meth as it just makes you crazy, but heroin is good to do because it just gives you such a sense of peace, and you feel like nothing in the world matters.  It's my personal preference since it eventually destroys your pleasure receptors." 

     When Barb heard that part, she promptly replied, "I am glad my pleasure receptor is chocolate!!"  I wish I was as quick-witted as her!

 

Mongo's Grill

My creation :)

Our bill and two sodas...not such a good deal!!

Surprise Visitors

     Alison and I planned to meet today to plan and organize a wellness activity for one of our workshop days coming up real soon.  We are the middle school wellness coordinators and are responsible for planning physical and mental health activities for the staff throughout the year.  We are given a budget and try to come up with great incentives/prizes for those who are involved in each of our wellness activities. 

     So today we decided to meet at Bluestone Grill in Monticello.  It is much like a Chipotle, and it was very yummy!  While we were planning our activity, in walks three of our colleagues: Bridget, April, and Ann.  They were on a lunch break from Smart Board training at school, so we pulled two tables together and all enjoyed lunch.  What a pleasant surprise, ladies!! :0)

     As a reward to finishing our first wellness activity, we went to see The Change-Up with Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds.  We certainly enjoyed all of the laughs!!  I better relish all of my fun outings as my summer vacation is coming to a close very soon!!

April, Bridget, Alison, Ann, and me

An Unexpected Treat

     This afternoon we received an impromptu invitation to go over to the Bristow's house for an evening boat ride.  It was such a beautiful day, and the temperature was perfect, so we headed over to Mike and Barb's.  We were joined by one of their sons, Nathan, and his girlfriend, Jill, as well as Nathan's best friend, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Jamie (who just happens to be Jill's sister).  Nathan and Jill's "girls", Miley and Maddy, even got to come along for a ride.  Nathan navigated us around for a couple of hours, and we all had a great time.  It was a perfect night for a ride on the Mississippi River. :0)  Thanks to the Bristows for a nice time!!

 Jill, Jamie, Barb, and me

 Jill, Barb, Mike, Darrell, and me

 

Even Miley wears a life jacket!  She and Maddy have bikinis too! :)

 

     When I was holding Maddy on the dock, I kept saying, "What smells like poop?"  No one else seemed to notice or smell it though, so we jumped into the boat and off we went.  Come to find out, she rolled in dog poop before we boarded the boat (which wasn't noticed until we were well on our way along the river), so Nathan had to stop and give her a river bath.

 Meanwhile... Miley is wondering what the heck is happening to her sister!!

   

                                

 Mike & Miley, his "granddog" just kicking back and enjoying the ride!!    

 

                                   Jill & me                Both dogs jumped up for some lap time!!    

My honey :0) 

A nice view at the end of the ride...

What a neat picture because of the way the clouds are positioned around the sun!