These are a few.....

of my favorite things.... we made a trip up to spend some time with Santa at the Buffalo Nickel Antique Mall today where we re-did my booth....my very own little endeavor at being in the retail business... Somehow, everytime I'm inside that big old barn I find my spirits being uplifted and my creative juices flowing. I could spend hours just drifting from booth to booth checking out what other dealers have found as treasures to sell... my oh my, how I wish my dad was still living to help me create some of the pine furniture pieces I love. It's one of my favorite places to spend some of my "free time".

Birthday Boy #2

The "50" yr. old birthday boy celebrated by shoveling and watching what he called "a storm" outside....being a good old northern girl, I called it a "light breeze with some snow".....thanks Bean and Jim & Johanna for the birthday cards, and thanks too Ann for sending me a piece of birthday cake!

Now that was funny.....

The Big E entertained us during his first birthday party today....for those of you who remember Ryan when he was little you'll understand why this is funny....when Elliott finally got to stick his fingers into that great cake his mom made him, he pulled his fingers away, looked at his daddy and immediately tried to wipe that sticky stuff off those fingers on his daddy's sweater! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.... Ryan never could stand to have those hands of his sticky or dirty.....He really liked the Diago Airplane G'ma and R gave him - not sure his mom and dad liked all the noisy music and runway propellor lighting it gave off though.... could see Ryan contemplating hiding that thing in the corner when I left :-) Wish everyone could have been there to enjoy Elliott's big day.

1 outta 7

Looks like everyone but Carter has been naughty instead of nice this year. His is the only stocking G'ma S has finished hand -stitching and hung from the fireplace. Looks pretty lonely. Better get back to stitchin'.

Simply Buffalo

I've come to fall in love with the little city of Buffalo. This picture certainly gives you a clue as to why....When you come into the downtown area, you are immediately drawn to the beauty of the lake and shoreline which touch right up to the city streets. I just had to stop today and take in the beauty of this scene.... the City clears a large area for kids to skate and puts up a huge lighted real Christmas Tree right in the center of the skating rink. With the calmness of the morning and the heavy frost, it was a scene right out of an artists library somewhere, and here it was real andright in front of me. If I didn't want to move back home, Buffalo is where I'd live out my years. Great choice of town to raise your kids in Ryan and Ann!

Miss Jillian!

I was the lucky Grandma today who got to take Miss Jillian to her pre-school Christmas Program.....After a healthy dose of "lip gloss" she was ready to go :-) She's the one on the very right hand end of the bleachers. As her teacher told me after the program "that little girl sings her guts out" ! Our favorite song was the CHRISTMAS one...we got to see her classroom where she displayed her cubby and showed me the baby Jesus nativity scene. How special to go to a school where the real Christmas Story is taught. We had a treat, met her friends and then headed back out to the car where the always exuberant, always excitedly announcing something Miss Jillian pronounced "Well Grandma, WAS THAT A PROGRAM OR WHAT !!!!"......We then met up for a great lunch out with Mommy, Delaney and the Big E who had all attended Delaney's kindergarten program at her school. What fun!

So Ria....

does our yard look like mr. santa and his reindeer flew over and threw-up again this yr?

Hey Mom.....

Can you even believe it ? Tonight I had the pleasure of babysitting the "Big E" and his two sisters. Does this picture remind you of someone about 32 years ago back in the Berquist house basement Dan and I rented in PR? Elliott played under this table twice for quite some time... and BOTH, yes BOTH times he came out with....yup you guessed it..."poopy pants"...dejavu...the "BIG UH" saga continues on into the second generation.

Should I ?

Today was one of those days when my mind struggled with "should I quit the paper route or shouldn't I"? In essence, I had made that decision 3 weeks ago when I turned in my written notice to quit. Gas prices sky-rocketing, chilly mornings with frosty windshields needing scraping, the depot moving all the way over to Chanhassen adding extra miles and time, my moodiness due to sleep deprivation all gave way to "Yup, I'm quitting Richard!". Keep in mind I'm making this statement to a die hard paper route carrier of 30 yrs. Someone, who's delivered the morning news 7 days a week.. week, after week, after week....who will die of a heart attack or a robbery on his actual route..... with a smile on his face. Someone who has awoken me at 3:15 every single morning for the last 17 months with his cheery "it's time to get up honey and go "throw the morning news" as he calls it. He's been cautious to reprimand me for my quitting, yet at the same time raising his left eyebrow saying "are you sure ?" Initially I took the route as the wedding was coming up and the extra cash would be helpful... hey it was paid exercise I told myself. But the hotel account I had stopped, the depot moved 8 miles and 10 minutes further each morning to pick up papers, my sub quit subbing when I wanted to be gone, gas went to 3 bucks and my body is aching for adequate sleep. So why the quandry you ask ? Well, there are certain things I really like about doing the paper route that I shall miss if I quit. For instance, this morning there was the Gemini Meteor Shower with Mike Lynch giving the play by play on WCCO at 4:30 AM... It was amazing to see things just dropping out of the sky. Then there's the horefrost the other morning where the sky was so full of ice crystals that every street light looked like a shiny white column all the way up to the heavens. And of course, there's those many deer that I stop and scold to get off the road(sorry Ria) and all the imponderables Richard and I try to guess as we listen to the Al Malmberg Show up to 5 AM..... when North Dakotan Dave Lee and Mikey Lynch show up to pick on Sid....They've become like family to us paper carriers! The biggest thing though that I'd miss is the "thought time".... My Goodness the things that go through my mind in the 60 minutes I'm out there hopping from green tube to green tube! I've prepared many lectures to my husband during that time, drafted letters to my family members that have never been sent and scripted a brochure on things my boss really needs to know. I've taken pictures of patrons flower gardens that I like in the dew of the early summer mornings. I've planned my funeral, sung the songs to the night owls that I want played at it, and had an entire conversation outloud with myself about changes I need to make. I've seen the best harvest moons of my life, the prettiest sunrises over Lake Bavaria and the sparkliest of stars. Now if I spent the 2 hrs I'm routing...... SLEEPING, just think of the time I'd lose "processing"! So I guess the jury's still out - - - with only a week to go until I'm done.... check back to see who won :-)