Highlight Reel March 20th-26th March 30, 2010

Saturday-  It’s been a long time since Zach and I weren’t busy so we decided to have a little fun today.  We went to St Cloud and started the morning out with breakfast at Old Country Buffet.  Then we went to Gopher where I found a collection of Belles & Beaus by Demdaco clearanced and fell in love with them.  I bought all 17 that they had.  I’ll need to search the internet later to see which ones I’m missing and fill those in later.  Then we went to the mall and then to Barnes & Noble where we spent almost 2 hours!  After a “mandatory” stop at Treasure City on the way home, Zach went off to babysit for a friend of mine and I headed to church to be lector for mass.     When Zach got home we watched New Moon.  Good movie, not near as good as the first. 

Sunday-Zach and Jeff left home early to help with the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast at church to benefit the Food Shelf.  They made pancakes, ham, scrambled eggs and they had fruit & juice as well.  It was delicious.  In the evening Monica & Gracie came over to visit.

Monday- I went over to Papa & Nana’s for lunch and helped out a little on my lunch break.  Scouts in the evening was wading throught the paperwork required for summer camp and trying to figure out what merit badge classes Zach is going to take this year.  He has all his requireds out of the way now he can pick the fun ones.  he wants to take Swimming (which he already has) and Lifesaving (which he doesn’t need) just so he can be in the water most of the day!  The rascal!

Tuesday- I had conferences after school today.  Zach is doing awesome this year.  His teachers almost glow when they talk about him and his improvement and I’m so proud!  Tonight I went to the Adult Faith Formation committee meeting.  We have a ton of options we are trying to wade through for educational opportunities in 2010-2011.  Now it’s just seeing how we can fit them in to meet everyone’s needs.  It’s very exciting to see adult education taking front stage.

Wednesday- Tonight is the last soup supper/ Stations of the Cross before Holy week.  After last year’s fiasco where nobody but 2 of us brought food for the potluck for the entire church, I’m almost afraid to go!  Hopefully we won’t have to pull off a multiplication of the fishes & loaves miracle again this year!

Thursday- Picked Zach up after school tonight and we went over to Papa & nana’s old house to help go through things and pack things up.  Back to Bible Study after getting a different TV hooked up (yay!). 

Friday- Made a huge batch of beer battered fish tonight and we just kicked back and relaxed.

No Green Beer Here! March 24, 2010

Saturday night our Mighty Eagles Patrol got together for a St. Patrick’s Day party at the Doucette’s.  It was a potluck event and everyone had to bring something green to eat.  Alvin brought shepherds pie with the mashed potatoes on top tinted green.  I made corned beef casserole.  I put on a pan of boiling water and dumped some green  food coloring in.  The egg noodles picked up the green coloring wonderfully.  I added the cream of chicken soup, corned beef and cheese, and baked it.  Dar brought fruit salad with the whipped cream colored green and the Doucettes had green frosted cake and green slushies.  The food was all fantastic even though it looked thoroughly disgusting!

We fit in some scout stuff- working on first aid- and then the boys played videogames and ended the evening with a snowball fight with the last remaining snow on the ground.  It was a fun evening!

 

Highlight Reel March 13th-19th, 2010 March 23, 2010

Saturday-  a St. Patrick’s day party had Zach and I seeing green all day.  Zach and I found matching green t-shirts at Wal-Mart for $4, and we had found leprechaun hats and flashing shamrock necklaces at the dollar store.  Add to that some green fingernail polish (for me not Zach) and a crock pot full of green noodles for the Corned Beef Casserole and we were ready.  We got to Mark & Kris’ at 6:30 and enjoyed some green slushies, shepherd’s pie (with green mashed potato topping), green fruit salad, and green frosted cake along with my casserole.  The boys had a great time rough housing downstairs and having a snowball fight outside with the little bit of snow that is left.

Sunday- Zach cooked breakfast of french toast, scrambled eggs and sausage while Jeff did dishes and I picked up the house and did laundry.  Then the guys left: Tyler for Monica’s house and the other two to go fishing.  Finally, an afternoon to catch up on my blogs.  I am about 4 books behind on reviewing for my book blog By Book or By Crook.

Monday- Scouts tonight was swimming at the Red Roof Inn.  The boys learned some lifesaving skills and spent the rest of the time splashing around the pool. 

Tuesday- Tri-Parish Council tonight didn’t have a quorum so we were unable to hold an official meeting but we did go through the items on the agenda and discuss those.

Wednesday- Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I skipped mass tonight to stay home with my family for the traditional St. Patty’s Day meal.  Every year I put corned beef in the crockpot, make some potatoes, peas, and a Shamrock Pie.  A Shamrock Pie is just a chocolate crumb crust mounded with mint chocolate chip ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Not a favorite of mine, but they love it.  After supper I met Dad at Stations of the Cross.

Thursday- I was supposed to have Bible Study tonight, but after everyone arrived and I went to start up the DVD, we found there was no power at all to the only TV in the church!  Normally I take my laptop everywhere I go, but I had left it home tonight so we were unable to watch the DVD on that, so we all went home.

Friday- Jeff and I went to Craguns to help register couples for the marriage Encounter weekend.  Jeff and I Encountered several years ago, joined a fabulous marriage Encounter Community and have helped with the registration every year when the Encounter comes to the Brainerd area.  After all the couples were registered and had started their weekend, we joined our friends (and fellow Community members) Dean & Jan as well as another couple, Rick & Stephanie at Applebees for supper.  It was a fun evening that ended too soon due to the fact that Rick had to get up at 2am and Jeff at 3am.

Packing & Moving March 14, 2010

Ugghh!  Is there any job more horendous than packing up a house to move?  My grandparent’s have been renting a small house for the past 8 years or so.  The yard which was perfect for Papa to putter around in 8 years ago is now becoming to much to take care of and the time has come for them to move into something smaller where all the maintenance is taken care of by someone else.  Hence, THE MOVE.

It is amazing how much a person can accumulate it a short period of time, isn’t it?  Before the move into the house in town, they had an auction to try to pare down as much as possible, but there are always things of sentimental value (to no one but you) that for whatever reason you must hold onto.  In bringing stuff up from the basement I found boxes of junk good stuff that had never been unpacked from the first move, but are still to “precious” to get rid of.

The apartment they are moving into has less storage space then this house they have now so it will be interesting to see how they get everything in there.  This move has caused me to take a good look at some of the things I have laying around my house and wonder- What can I get rid of that I don’t really need?

Highlight Reel March 6th-12th, 2010

Saturday- I had to work today. Not the usual for me but we have inventory at the store this Tuesday so all department managers had to work to get ready for it.  Then it was a rush to get home, showered and changed for church.  I had to serve as Eucharistic Minister so I couldn’t be late!

Sunday- The guys went fishing again today and I spent most of the afternoon traveling around the blogosphere checking out my fellow book bloggers and adding even more books to my wish list.  Then I finally made the apple pie I had promised my family last weekend.

Monday- Scouts tonight was chaos.  One of our Scouts who has lifeguard training taught the boys Safe Swim Defense and one of our assistant scoutmasters taught safety afloat.  All of that took less then 1/2 hour and for the rest of the hour the boys kind of run amok with no clear direction since our scoutmaster wasn’t there.  We definitley need some games/activities to fall back on when there is no plan for the evening.

Tuesday-Book Club was a blast tonight.  We went to Mattie’s to review The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski.  We each made our own lists of things we want to do before we die and shared 5 of them with the group.  I learned a lot about my fellow bookies!  Great time!

Wednesday- Went to mass at 5:30 with Dad and Zach, followed by soup supper and then Stations of the Cross.  It was my turn to serve and I was in charge of bringing home baked bread.  I had let mine rise a little too long so it was really high when I put it in the oven.  Zach cracked up when he saw the height of it when I took it out, but it was really good.

Thursday- Bible Study tonight was on Matthew 22-23.  Great discussion with the group as always.

Friday- I had off today since I had worked last Saturday.  I felt terrible with a cold coming on but I had promised my help packing at Papa & Nana’s.  I helped Mom pack a few boxes and then I took Bonnie to her docor’s appointment.  Stopped at McDonald’s to order 9 Filet o’ Fish, 7 fries and 2 cokes (for us Catholics back at the house) and went back to Papa’s to pack and haul some more.  My cold completely wiped me out and I fell asleep during the 3rd period of the Wild game.

Highlight Reel February 27th-March 5th, 2010 March 7, 2010

Saturday-Shopped for Mom’s birthday party, went to the library, and made an apple pie for my grandparents.  I was going to make a pie for my family too but someone got into the bag of apples and I didn’t have enough for 2!

Sunday- The guys went fishing and I enjoyed a quiet reading day.

Monday- School conferences were wonderful!  I have never been so proud of my young man!  Scouts tonight was our monthly planning meeting.  We added a campout in March.  Brrr!

Tuesday- Our large group faith formation meeting was a little awkward tonight.  Our priest was offended by a comment  one of the committee members made without thinking and another committee member was upset that she wasn’t invited to join a subcommittee.  It ended well enough though and we got a lot accomplished.

Wednesday- Soup supper tonight was very enjoyable.  Father Oberstar can talk your ear off when you’re sitting next to him.  Chili was awesome!  Bonnie moved out of Nana & Papa’s today.  She is a semi-independant woman.  Go Bonnie!

Thursday- After work I ran over to my grandparent’s new apartment and helped my mom and aunt Candy haul things up to the 2nd floor.  Nice aprtment but the living/dining room is a tad small for all Nana’s furniture.  Bible study was fun tonight as one of our snow birds came back.  Welcome back Caroline!

Friday- Zach and a friend went to Ski Gull tonight.  Had planned on staying their longer but Brett took a nasty fall and sustained a concussion.

“Someone Please Take Away Her Library Card!” March 2, 2010

I have always been an avid reader making my way through 50-60 books a year.  But since joining the book blogging community and seeing all the great novels out there that others are raving about I have become obsessed.  When I see a book that looks good I add it to my list and then request it from the library if they have it.  Well, lately they have had a lot of them!  My son gets disgusted with me as he sees my To Be Read pile grow taller and taller and he’s been threatening to take away my library card.  The brat!

Check out By Book or By Crook for reviews on books already read this year!

Happy Very Belated Birthday Mom!

The last couple weeks have been very busy and when a bout of stomach flu hit me and I had to cancel Mom’s birthday party it pushed the celebration to February 28th (her birthday’s the 15th!).  Papa, Nana and Bonnie came out and we had vanilla cake with raspberry filling and ice cream and Mom finally got to open her presents.  Hope it was worth the wait Mom!