Where does the time go, it seems like Friday hardly gets done and Sunday night is here!
We did have visitors last night, my brother Neal and his wife Claudia, came up to visit, they now live in St Cloud, so we can get together more often. We spent the night fixing supper, which were some nice steaks Neal bought and also some corn on the cob. We made a salad and had various treats including ice cream later in the evening. I almost forgot Kiki their schnoodle was with them and she enjoyed playing with Smarkle!
We spent time visiting about our busy lives, and the upcoming trip to Chicago to see their daughter Michelle get married. And all the plans to go with that, Claudia has been busy sewing, making alterations to the dresses. Things are going nicely and it will be our mini-vacation this summer as we are taking the Amtrak Train from Staples to Chicago.
We also played a game of Scrabble, which requires Neal and Claudia to be good sports has they are not as skilled as Crystalie and I are and they usually take a beating. But they are trying to learn the strategies involved in the game along learning their two letter words! Crystalie eeked out a victory over me, but it was one of the closer games we played!
After that a little TV and a good nights sleep. We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and fresh coffee. I had to work at R and Crystalie was off to Wooden Nichols...Neal and Claudia went and checked out their camper and bummed around before heading back to St Cloud!
A short but very welcome visit, as we always have a lot of fun and enjoy each other's company!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Jennifer and Matias's Patio!
Jennifer and Matias, have a nice home over in Lakeshore, MN which is located north of Gull Lake. When they bought the place, it just had a little slab outside a sliding glass patio door right off of their kitchen.
Matias being a chef, wanted to create an outdoor dining area there, so last fall they poured a much larger patio area, and then this spring the did some landscaping and added the brick walls, along with some plants and of course some mulch.
You can see it is really developing into a nice area, this spring they also got a hand me down table and chairs from my brother Neal. Below is the far end of the patio, and there are more plans to finish that corner under the stairs.
As you can see it looks very good, and will be the spot for many meals and also just visiting and relaxing, for them and their friends and of course family! Nice job Matias and Jennifer!
Are we famous yet?
Below,is a billboard that features the talents of one of our Son-in-laws...Chef Matias Latorre, who is married to daughter Jennifer. I first saw this a little over a week ago, and I couldn't get a picture of it due to traffic at the intersection of Cty77 and Hwy 371 just north of Brainerd.
Chef Matias works at Madden's Resort one of the finest resorts in Minnesota. That is him in the background! I am sure he is getting some teasing about this billboard, but he works hard and deserves it!
Baseball
Last night I had the good fortune to attend a Twins Baseball game with my son-in-law Chris Havens. It was my birthday gift from Misty and Chris,and Misty pulled some strings at the Blue Door Pub and got us the owners seats.
On the way in we walked past the Harmon Killebrew, bronze statue, a popular attraction now after Harmon's recent death.
Are seat location, was just behind the visitor dugout, and up about 20 rows from the first rate seats. Close to all the action! The game started at 7:10pm and we settled in for a few minutes while the game got underway in a little bit.
We both had the traditional hot dog and and I grabbed a pop and the chips came with this package, for only $10.00.We enjoyed a great game and the Twins won 5-4 over the Texas Rangers, it was a walk off single in the bottom of the 9th that determined the victory for the Twins!
Thanks to Misty and Chris and also it was great to visit with my son-in-law Chris for a few hours enjoying the nice evening and the baseball game!
Sunday, June 6th
Crystalie and I both worked today, she of course was at Wooden Nichols and I was at R.
Not overly busy but busy enough, and we both got home a little after 4 and we were off to our nephew Lucas's High School Graduation party, at his mom and dad's house, Montina and Scott's.
Below is Lucas in the gold shirt visiting with one of his friends looking over the wall of pictures on display. pretty nice shots in the bunch even one with him holding the lead rope on one of our Llamas Regalo when he was about 10 or 11.
Montina, and Lucas and Aunt Crystalie and Scott, came up with a Medieval theme as Lucas is into the "World of Warcraft" game series. Lucas as quite a collection of medieval garb and arms which is displayed on the walls in their garage the location of the party. Which is was a beautiful day for it!
This is more of his collection along with the man in armor, there was a full size one guarding the door, which is something Grandpa found and some of us have them on display, it added more charm to the event.
His younger sister also drew and painted this great looking dragon on the wall of the garage also, it is really well done...good job Dacia.
For food their was Baked chicken drummies and wings with sauces for your tasting, fried pork rice, snacks in wooden rustic bowls on all the tables, and also various drinks, slices of watermelon, and a cabbage type salad, and of course a cake that was done in the shape of a shield, and was silver in color!
There were about 60-70 people who stopped by to enjoy the event and also wish him well.
Congrats to Lucas and good job to his parents Scott and Montina on a great party!
Smores without the Mosquitos!
The ingredients for simplified Smores! Marshmallows, roasting sticks, and Keebler fudge strip cookies, also a glass of wine for the Chef!
A Chef to do the cooking over the controlled heat source!
The lightly roasted marshmallow done to perfection, and sandwiched between the all chocolate sides of the fudge stripe cookies!
Wa Lah! Creamy marshmallow goo, with chocolate and shortbread and so good! Thank you Chef Matias!
Ps---no fighting the mosquito's, which are way to pesky outside tonight! Goofing around!
This morning while Crystalie was taking pictures I wisphered to Rebekah to make a goofy face when Crystalie was taking pictures and here is what we got!
Time to go back home to Washington!
This morning, June 2nd, we had to take time to enjoy a few last snuggles with Rebekah and say our goodbyes to Ricki and Grant also. needless to say Rebekah was pretty sad this morning saying good bye is so hard for her to do. We had lots of fun, and of course lots of chuckles and treats! This is her and I on the couch before I had to leave for work.
After I left Grandma and her had lots of snuggle time and Grandma shared one of our stuffed Llamas to take home with her and to bring it back next fall when they come back to visit.
Here are some smiles, before she is about to leave. Hopefully they will have a safe trip back home to ocean Shores, WA. We miss you already, but the days will go fast and we will see you soon!Smarkles Friend!
Smarkle enjoyed having a new friend around for the last 10 days or so.. As you can see she has a ball and is in the playground fort, with Rebekah.
Here she is laying with him in the sun on the front deck of our home, enjoying the sunshine as it begins to warm up on Wednesday.
Needless to say it is always fun to see the bond between a child and a dog, Smarkle got lots of activity following Rebekah around the yard and playing fetch in the yard and also fetching the ball in the lake.Wooden Nichols extra help
Last Thursday, Crystalie had some extra help while she was open, Ricki her daughter who is here from their home in Washington.
Crystalie, put her to work, and they enjoyed a day of visiting getting things ready for the big Memorial day weekend. A number of friends stopped by also that day so she got to see lots of her Mom's friends also.
I know they had fun because later that day they ended up at one of the store's consignors house going through a bunch of stuff as they get ready to move this summer!
Thanks for helping your Mom out and I know she loved every minute of it!
My helper and me, headed off to the woodchip work at Wooden Nichols, last Wednesday morning.
After we got back I began replacing some countertop on the back deck, I bought a piece of countertop last year and had used for a counter on my shelf, but needless to say indoor countertop is not made for outdoor use. Below you can see I removed the old countertop already.
Below you can see the new countertop getting fastened down, the new stuff is actually the composite deck boards that are being sold for decking, but I think it will work great to have an all season counter that should hold up for many years. It is a natural woodgrain look and I used one piece as a backsplash for the counter.
After that we put the boats in the water and Rebekah and I towed the raft out to it's tie down, using the row boat, you can see everyone had to get up on the raft once I had it anchored. Including Tootsie and Smarkle, who rode with us in the boat.
The I enlisted her to help unload my slabwood that I had cut up off the trailer so I could go back to Wooden Nichols to mow the grass.
Quite the fashionable helper I have! Also thanks to her mom, Ricki for the pics of the two of us working!
Quite the fashionable helper I have! Also thanks to her mom, Ricki for the pics of the two of us working!We have visitors!
We have visitors from the west coast, yes our granddaughter Rebekah is here with her mom and dad, for a week or so.
They arrived last night around 8:30 pm, after a long day on the road. We are happy to have them visiting us and enjoying Coffee Lake Farm.
Rebekah had a busy day considering it rained into this afternoon, but Ricki and her kept busy around the house. Once the rest of us got done with work, the sun was shining so we played outside, she tested out the monkey bars, threw the ball for Smarkle to fetch, checked out the llamas, and the flower garden.
We also had numerous rides on the tire swing and of course, lots of food, and treats like rhubarb cake and whip cream, a freezy and a sampling of coco puffs!
Anyhow, everyone should be tired tonight!
Mothers Day!
We all have or had wonderful mothers in our lives, I have been fortunate also to enjoy the love and support of a wonderful Mom also!
She is a caregiver and has been her whole life, but that is who my mom is.
She grew up in a large family and was one of the younger children, but living on a farm in rural North Dakota, was a hard life and lots of work, where she learned to never be afraid of hard work.
Married to my Dad shortly after completing high school, and starting a family within a year, she is the mother to 6 of us, 5 boys and then our baby sister, who is 16 years younger than I am. I am always amazed how well she did with 5 boys to take care of, and moving around in the earlier years in SE Wisconsin, and living in a number of mobile homes during that time.
When I started 5th grade we had moved back to North Dakota, and began a life of farming on the Coit Family Farm. Where I remember her helping with washing the bulk tank, and other dairy chores, all the while feeding us all and doing loads of laundry day after day. Even caring for my grandfather Neal Coit, while he lived with us in the family farm house.
Then we were all blessed, with the arrival of a new baby our younger sister Valerie. Granted we all pitched in to care for her as we were all overjoyed with finally a girl in our family. But it was more to care for and she still had to feed us all and keep us organized and handle all the stresses of a farm life and in North Dakota.
As us children grew up and went on to college and our own lives, she has always been there to support us and help us when she could. But she needed to be busier and soon had a job as a County Home Health Care Provider, which meant she would visit her clients that she was assigned to care for by the County.
She spent 25 years, driving on North Dakota roads in all kinds of weather, going to the homes or apartments that her clients lived in, checking on the status of their health, blood pressure, medications they were taking, and assisting with bathing them if needed. Then she also cleaned their homes vacuuming and washing floors and cleaning up after them, doing their laundry and then even took the time to visit with them, share a cup of coffee or tea, and listen to what was going on in their lives!
Mom, also gave time to her church and her friends when ever they called to ask for some help.
I know my Mom's biggest fault is she never could say "No", she would always try to help in some way.
I have always marveled at how much she can give, and how genuine of a caregiver she truly is!
Mom, you deserve the time to rest and enjoy your family, now that you are retired, and to take care of yourself and Dad!
I am proud of who you are and what you have done and I know I am not the only one who recognizes everything you have done for us kids and all your friends and those you have cared for!
Love You Mom, and I hope you had a great Mother's Day!
Birthday wishes and day!
Well, first of all thank you to all the friends and family for the birthday wishes! Yes it is May 3rd, and 55 years ago I came into this world!
I of course worked today, and the day went well, and seemed to go by fast. And it was definitely a nice day, sunshine and around 60 degrees. So after work I played my first nine holes of golf at Ruttgers as a birthday treat! Hopefully it will be the beginning of many more rounds.
I played the back nine at Ruttgers and shot a 47 which is 2 over bogey golf, I Hit my driver well and most of the mistakes were on the putting green and also some iron shots, but it was great to play and I know I can do better with more practice!
I got home and Crystalie had prepared a great birthday dinner, which you see above, roasted root vegetables and fresh asparagus and oven cooked ribs! Needless to say it was it was all delicious, and then we had a special treat chilled chocolate dipped strawberries and next is cake---Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting!I of course got some nice gifts but that may be a different post! Don't want to use up all my editorial info on one big entry!
Thanks again to everybody for a great birthday! Thank you Crystalie, for the great dinner and gifts!
Double Nickel Day tomorrow!
No I am not going to the local Casino!
Yep, birthday tomorrow and the big 55, is my new age to be.
It doesn't really matter to me, as I believe you are as young as you think and feel!
I still enjoy pop music, playing various sports, and playing with the nephews and the grand kids down on the floor!
I am just thankful I have a loving family, and loving wife and partner in my life as i grow older!