Tuesday night we planned a patrol activity of swimming at the Red Roof Inn. Swimming here isn’t as fun since it’s not considered a waterpark with all kinds of fun flume rides and lazy rivers. But it is a perfect pool for getting in the Boy Scout requirements for Second and First Class ranks and the BSA swimmer test. Austin passed- yay Austin! The rest of them all had fun swimming, diving , doing handstands and just plain being goofy!
No, the word bazaar in the title above is not a typo! Sunday our church had it’s annual bazaar fundraiser. The bazaars of my past were always extravagant events requiring a total parish effort that paid off in big dividends when there was something for the entire family to do. The bazaars of today are on a lot smaller scale. We still have the bingo and a beer and hamburger stand and handiwork available for sale in the country store. But gone are the children’s country store, the fishing booth, the duck pond, the dunk tank, the horseshoe tournaments and the all day fun.
Monica joined us this year for her first ever church bazaar since Tyler was still taking in the races with his friend Josh. I think Gracie enjoyed it. She won a few small prizes and had her fill of fresh strawberries we had purchased for snacking on during bingo. Hopefully the bazaar turned a good profit since it is our main fundraiser of the year. And hopefully it continues to grow and get better and better every year.
To cap off the evening we went back to my house and when Tyler came home he joined us for supper. Then Zach grabbed his fishing poles and we headed down to the public access where Zach fished and Gracie threw rocks in the water and attempted to feed the fish dirt. It was a day filled with wonderful weather. But boy, weekends like these are exhausting!
Wow! Saturday was a super busy day! It started off at 9am in the morning when we had to be to Wal-Mart for a Boy Scout Brat Sale fundraiser that was supposed to run until 6pm. It was kind of chaotic at first because our Scoutmaster who normally has all of our equipment, buys the supplies, and provides change, found out at 7pm the night before that he was to go to Boston for a convention the next morning. So, it was up to me to get all the last minute stuff together. One of the scout dads, Alvin, had purchased a popcorn machine a few months earlier so we sold popcorn as well as brats, hotdogs, and pop.
At 12:30pm Zach and I had to leave the brat sale and head to the graduation party of my great-niece Tarissa. It was fun to see some of my in-laws I hadn’t seen since Christmas.
From the grad party we rushed over to Gracie’s birthday party at Kiwanis Park. Can you believe she’s 3 already! It’s been fun watching her grow from a 6 month old baby to a tall, smart little girl.
It was a hot day and Monica had bought her an ice cream cake so you can see the frosting starting to slide off the cake!
Then, it was back to the brat sale to close it up. We didn’t raise as much as we had hoped, but every little bit adds up into the boys’ accounts for summer camp. We were exhausted by the time we got home! Aside from coming to Gracie’s birthday party, Tyler and his friend Josh spent the day at BIR watching the cars drift. He came home so sunburned!
Saturday- Zachary worked on Eric’s Eagle Scout project (see previous post), then we went to church in the evening because I had to serve as Eucharistic Minister. Zach handed out candy bars to the dads after church in celebration of Father’s Day. After a quick supper we headed out in the boat to South Long Lake were we enjoyed a late evening boat ride.
Sunday- Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, my husband and my brother Mike! We took Jeff out for a breakfast buffet and then came home and he opened his presents. Tyler had to go to work then, and Jeff & Zach went fishing for a few hours. In the evening we went to my dad’s and brought him his present & I had bought some sugar free ice cream and diet pop so we could have floats with him. They lit the fire and we sat around and talked until it started to cool off and the dusk settled upon us.
Monday- Went to the Lunkers game with Monica. (see previous post) Apparently Tyler didn’t want to dress like a woman to make it out on the field!
Tuesday- Zach spent the day at Valleyfair with the church youth group. Fun for him, bad for his knee. Being on it all day caused it to swell up huge again!
Wednesday- When Zach went to physical therapy today his therapist about had a fit when she saw the size of his knee. She took pictures for his file because she couldn’t believe it, and then told him if it’s okay with me she’d like to travel to the cities to watch his surgery. Tyler was on vacation so after therapy they went to Toy Story 3 and then to the Wednesday night races at BIR. They had a great time together!
Thursday-Zach stayed overnight at Doucette’s tonight so he could get to the interview with Father Kris at 9am tomorrow morning.
Friday- Today was my parent’s 44th anniversary and Jeff and I celebrated our 22nd. After picking Zach up at Doucette’s after work we went to the Seafood Buffet at the Casino. We love the Seafood Buffet but at$20.49 we can’t afford to do it often so it’s been a few years since we have went. My mom, however had coupons for $10.00 off per person in you have a player’s card so she saved us a ton of money! The three of us thoroughly enjoyed it! Tyler traveled with Monica to Wilmer so she could buy a new vehicle. After traveling through a tornado (!) they came home with a 2002 Trailblazer. I’m thrilled for her that she finally has a reliable vehicle!
My son’s daughter Monica asked me yesterday to go to a baseball game with her. She had free tickets to the Lunker’s game and after the game ladies had an opportunity to Dig for Diamonds. “Why not?” I thought. It beats digging in my flower gardens! So Monica, Gracie and I went to the game. We lost to the Duluth Huskies 7-4, but the real action came after the game ended when they had all the ladies line up along the third base line.
Riddles Jewelry had handed out ice cream scoops and buried in the dirt somewhere between 1st and 3rd base was a medallion that was good for a $2,000 diamond ring. Well, when they said go you should have seen the ladies run. It was quite comical to watch the dirt fly as the women dug into the dirt. I handed my scoop to Gracie because she wanted to dig but she spent more time picking up the dirt and putting it in the scoop then scraping the hard ground. And while I didn’t win, I did have a new experience and a lot of fun!
Last Saturday night we took one of 2 boat rides I insist on each year- without the fishing poles. At the beginning of boating season and at the end of boating season I like to enjoy a slow ride around the lake to watch the birds, cranes, loons, etc. and just enjoy being on the water. If the Jeff and Zach take the rods though we end up fishing and getting stuck where the fish are biting. So- no rods.
We decided this time to head to South Long Lake. Admittedly, we started a little late- after church and supper were through. We made it on the lake about 8pm. I kicked back and enjoyed a slight breeze as we headed around the south side of the lake. I saw a beautiful crane but watched it for too long before attempting to get out my camera. Then our boat came up on a family of loons. We got as close to them as we dared and watched the loon parents with their little ones.
Zach had wanted to get wet and jump in and go swimming, but we ran out of time. You can see from the looks on our faces though that we had a great time.
It’s definitely shaping up to be a busy summer. For the second weekend in a row, Zach is working on an Eagle Scout Project. This time it’s Eric D.’s. Eric’s Eagle Scout project is cutting a trail, laying down wood chips and installing an outdoor Stations of the Cross at All Saints Catholic Church.
They started Friday night at 5pm. Thankfully, lots of help in the way of equipment showed up. Lonnie showed up with a 3-wheeler, brush cutter and trailer and Bob showed up with a lawn mower and small bulldozer. They completed the cutting of the trail and brush and were able to get wood chips on all the areas cut out for the Stations of the Cross before they ran out of wood chips. They will be getting more wood chips for the trail later. They also stained the wood boxes and poles that the Station plaques will be hung in. When they finished that evening, Andrew grilled some hotdogs and they had chips and lemonade.
Saturday morning a few of them met again (well, just our patrol this time) to continue the work. Zach, Josiah and Austin started digging the holes for the poles, Eric was screwing the boxes to the poles and the plaques to the boxes, and Andrew, Mark, Alvin (and yes- even Fay) was helping put the poles in the holes.
I like that the boys have been doing some more challenging projects lately. I think that they learn a lot, and see that they can do anything they set their mind on. Now if Zach would just figure out what he’s going to do for his!
Saturday- In the morning Mom, Dad, Zach and I went to the Crow Wing Power customer appreciation day. They always put on a really nice event. They served a breakfast for free which consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage, cheesy potatoes, donut, and orange juice, coffee, or milk. They also gave away free umbrellas and rain ponchos as well as a free ice cream scoop. They have a band playing for the event and games & pony rides for the kids. At the end of the event they give away prizes for adults and children. We didn’t win…again. When that was done I headed over to the fairgrounds to drop Zach off to help with Blake’s Eagle Scout project and I met Janeen at Applebees for lunch. After lunch we headed to Kohl’s to use her 30% off coupon and ended the afternoon with a margarita at Poncho & Lefty’s.
Sunday- I met my AAD class at their church to fulfill the requirement that we have to do to church as a group and then we headed to the fairgrounds again for day 2 of the Eagle Scout project. Jeff fished most of the morning and slayed the walleyes again. He certainly has found the hot spot for walleyes, and of course he won’t tell anyone where it is! Tyler and his friend Josh played hero today. They were third on the scene at an accident and they helped rip off a car door to get a woman out of the car and Josh even tore off part of his shirt to wrap around a woman’s leg to help stop the bleeding. What a good bunch of guys I raised!
Monday- After work I picked Zach off and brought him to the Senior Citizen’s Center to serve supper for a scout community service project. Actually it doesn’t qualify as community service because the seniors tip quite well and the scouts split the tips and the money goes into their scout account to help pay for camp and activities. Then we went to visit my mother-in-law for her birthday. I had picked up some flowers and a gift card and we met Jeff out there.
Tuesday- rainy day…again. Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Bev!
Wednesday-Zach and I headed to Doucettes for the AAD class tonight. The boys were really distracted (the weather was beautiful today) and it’s getting harder to keep them on track as the summer progresses, but we have one more regular class to go and then we will do a couple of catch up sessions and be done. Yay!
Thursday- I took the opportunity to finish up the yard before the rain started tonight. We didn’t get the bad thunderstorms and severe weather that other areas around us got. Wadena got hit by a tornado and flattened many homes. Several members of our overnight crew at work went there to help out. Watched the movie Leap Year. I love romantic comedies, but this was just so so.
Friday- After work (which was just nuts today!) I picked Zach up and we headed to All Saints Catholic Church to help Eric with his Eagle Scout project. He is installing an outdoors Stations of the Cross. I caught up with Sharon, a friend of mine and we headed to Nisswa for supper and an ice cream. Then I went to visit Papa & Nana until Zach was done.
Once a month the Senior Citizens Center in town has a nice low cost supper for the senior citizens in the community. The director of the program called me the week before to see if the Scouts would be interested in serving the meal. Every month they ask a different non-profit organization to help them serve the meal and clean up and then the organization can keep the tips the seniors leave at the tables. Always looking for a fundraiser to help the scouts pay for activities and summer camp, I jumped at the chance and started calling.
We had 5 boys show up to help last Monday evening. They started at 4:45 serving coffee and water to the guests as they were being seated. Then they served a side salad, the meal, dessert and then more coffee. They were done by 6pm and earned $62.00 in tips to split between the 5 of them for their scout accounts. The boys got a lot of comments on how nice they looked in their uniforms and the director complimented them on what a good job they did and how well they stayed focused on the tasks and kept up. The best part for them (besides the tips) was the opportunity to enjoy a piece of cake when they were done!
Zach spent this last weekend at the fairgrounds working on the restoration of an old train engine there. One of the Scouts in our troop, Blake, had chose this project for his Eagle Scout project. The boys assembles at the fairgrounds at noon Saturday to start sanding the rust off and cleaning up the engine. The skies had been dark all morning and we knew rain was coming, but they did get it sanded and prepped for painting the next day. While they were there, the Dispatch stopped by and took pictures of them working on the engine, which made the front page of the paper. The boys thought that was really cool and there were complaints from a few that were there but arrived after the photo op!
Sunday at noon it was back to the fairgrounds for the painting. The engine looked really nice when they were done and even though this weekend they still have some detail work to finish up (like painting the white #8 on) I think the project went really well and kept on schedule despite the rain showers they had to deal with on both days. I know the fairgoers will appreciate the effort they put into it.
Simply the Simmonds Life 
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