Fall and Back to School

Stephen was returned to Morris last Sunday and Jeff and I made the round trip. We spent about 30 minutes in Morris. We unloaded the car and said our good-byes. Stephen was settling in very quickly. We were no longer needed and I think he is the only one of his apt. mates without a car so they arrived on their own.

Rachel and I went clothes shopping last week. She is such a thrifty, bargain hunter. We had fun spending her money and finding some great deals. Here are a couple of her new outfits.




Official swim practice has begun and she'll have her first meet of the season this coming Thursday. Both of our cats are attracted to the smell of chlorine and Tucker decided to use her swim bag as a sleeping bag this past week. It was a strange sight.



The weather is definitely feeling as if it has shifted to a more fall pattern. The leaves are beginning to change and we are harvesting beans, lots of beans. I have lots of green tomatoes and hope that we can have enough sun and non-freezing weather to get at least a few of them to turn red. (We've had a couple of very nice cherry tomatoes but that is all so far.) Hopefully we'll also have a few potatoes. I planted some yukon gold for the first time and am excited to see what grew. That is a project yet for tonight.

I'm currently making peach butter with part of the box of beautiful peaches we bought last week. We've had peach crisp, peach blueberry pie and lots of fresh peaches this week. Yum!

Enjoy the closing days of summer (at least if you are a student) and let us know if you ever get within 5 hours of us and we'll see if we can't arrange to meet you somewhere.

Diane

Weekend in Morris

At 12:30 on Friday, Jeff, Rachel and I left International Falls and drove down to Morris Minnesota to spend the weekend with Stephen. We arrived at his house at 6:15 pm and took him to dinner at Jose's burritos. It was a place he'd talked about as having really good Mexican food. It was delicious and Jose took a liking to Rachel and felt sorry that he couldn't make her the item she requested because he was out, so he said he'd surprise her. He made her a chicken dish that she thoroughly enjoyed.

We enjoyed a walk around town and then relaxed and talk back at his house. We had decided to just sleep on the floor at the house he is renting this summer, both to save money and to be able to play board games with him. Saturday morning I got up and fixed pancakes for breakfast. We then played Catan Germany, Ticket to Ride and Arkham Horror. All told we spent about 8 hours playing board games on Saturday. I made zucchini egg foo yung with rice for dinner.

Sunday morning we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast about 10am. I made eggs in a nest. Rachel wanted to continue playing Portal on Stephen's x-box so the rest of us went for a walk through his neighborhood (including seeing his bosses house, one of the oldest in town). It is a very interesting neighborhood with lots of fascinating architecture and variety.

We had planned on bbqing before we left to come home, but after the late breakfast we weren't hungry and Jeff was beginning to get antsy to head home. He had a rehearsal at 7 for the show this week. So we left to come home about 12:30 and arrived home in time for Jeff to prepare for rehearsal and me to work on laundry (which by the way is very difficult to get dry without a dryer when it is raining every day).

I took a few pictures and will work on loading them soon. Overall, a great weekend and I think we were able to take Stephen's mind off of his fretting for a few hours anyway.

Diane

Oregon adventures

Here are a few of the pictures from the 50th anniversary party for Laurel and Janet Adams (Jeff's parents) at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.

Then I included a couple from the beach. One includes para-kiters out on the ocean in 50 mile per hour winds and high waves. Looked like the kind of thing I wouldn't enjoy.

Rachel and Jeff went toe dipping in the waves.


Check out my Facebook page for more images.
Diane

Spring in International Falls

It has been a wild couple of months. We have been colder than normal and I think most residents of International Falls are ready for some nice warm weather. I know I am and my garden is as well. The second summer we lived here we bought two apple trees. They bloomed that first year and haven't since. This spring both trees developed a few blooms, they were just beginning to come out when we've had three nights of frost warnings. I didn't want the blooms to freeze before they had a chance to become pollinated so we cut small plastic bags and attached them to the trees around the blooms. They didn't freeze so I am hopeful we will get a few apples this year.

I have also covered my tomato plants each night this week. We are supposed to only drop to 40 tonight so I'm not covering stuff. Here are a few pictures of the apple blooms.







I am home alone tonight and enjoying the house to myself. I'm doing some catch up work and enjoying some peace and quiet. Jeff is at a guys night in movie at Steve Sinclair's over in Fr. Frances and Rachel is helping at a friends dance recital in Ft. Frances.

Hope everyone is enjoying life and making the most of each moment.
Diane

Spring Rush

My goodness but we are busy. Rachel had her spring band concert last Thursday. I helped organize and serve at the reception following the concert to thank the community for their support of the band and its fundraising efforts for the students trip to New York.

Jeff is neck deep in preparations for the Spring Fling Icebox Radio show next week. I am trying to get summer reading ready to go as I am taking most of the first week of May off to spend time with my parents visiting from Washington. But of course we have been very busy at the library and short staffed with illnesses and vacations.

We are beginning to see the grass green up and my tulips are pushing through the leaves I covered all my beds with last fall. Yesterday I spent time outside raking in the front yard and uncovering plants, just in time for snow this weekend :(

Rachel is helping with the baby broncos swim program after school for three weeks and is in the IBRT show as well. She is hoping to play soccer following the show over in Ft. Frances again. This will be her last year in the youth league.

The little we hear from Stephen sounds like he is busy but basically happy to be where he is, doing what he is doing. He has come down with a cold and is struggling to maintain energy and keep going. He spent last weekend in Park Rapids South Dakota at a computing conference and participated in a contest Friday night. His team placed third at the competition and won $100 for the school and $100 to split among the team of three. He was pretty excited.

We still don't know what he will be doing this summer. He has looked for jobs all over the state and elsewhere as well. He would really like to be doing something in his field.

Take care and enjoy your spring.
Diane

State Speech Meet

We had an eventful weekend with a trip to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota where the State Speech tournament was held on Saturday. Rachel drove down with the team on Friday morning and Jeff and I followed Friday afternoon. It was great to see the camaraderie among the teens. Many have known each other for years. As someone commented to me, they were speech bff (best friends forever).

Here are a few photos from the State Speech meet as we were waiting for the list of students who made finals to be posted. It was an agonizing wait. They said they would be posted by 2:15 and at that point only the three categories with draws were posted. The remaining categories weren't posted until 2:35 with the first speeches to be starting at 2:45 all over campus.

By the time they posted the list of those participating in final round the room was packed wall to wall with people. The results were posted on a computer that was projected on a large screen. We all could watch as the guy came up to the computer and loaded the file and opened it and set the parameters. The tension in the room was palpable. Then as each list came up, cheers, clapping, screams of delight or groans of frustration could be heard.

Rachel was excited to be at state. She watched and learned and began gaining experience that will stand her in good stead in future years. She has already begun thinking and planning next year's speech. She is tossing around ideas and keeping her eyes open to possibilities and stories.







The trip home was uneventful and we are glad for a slow day today. Hope this finds you all enjoying spring and looking forward to summer.
Diane

New York/ State speech

Hey everybody,
I know I haven't been on here in a while sorry about that. but here is a little update about what my life has been life for the past few months. for all of you who didn't know I got ans amazing opportunity to go to New York City with the high school band! I had lots of fun and loved seeing the big apple. Madam Tussuad's wax museum was probably my favorite thing in the city. If you are going to New York any time soon I would definitely go there.



My other exciting piece of news lately was me qualifying to go to state speech, I didn't do very well but it was still really cool to go and be one of the younger competitors there. I got fifth in my first two rounds and sixth in my last one (there were six people in each round). One of the seniors on our team (Anna Remus for those who know her) got first, so we now have a state champion!
Me getting second at Section Finals and moving on to State