We took a quick trip out to the site our new house is being built yesterday evening and this is where it is at right now:
So no sticks going up yet – but soon we hope.
Meanwhile, since it was our anniversary – This happened:
But the cement is pretty much dry, so though the rain may wash it away we will know. 
More house updates to come as the build progresses.
My youngest daughter and her husband live in Chicago. She has one little boy with another on the way. Her son is 2.5 years old and goes to his school/daycare there. After retuning home from school he wanted to ride his bike on their rooftop deck and determined it was too hot. So he took measures in his own hands to be able to ride and be cool at the same time.
Keep Cool!
Yes, 43 years ago today we were married! Happy Anniversary to my Husband!
Major changes have taken place in our lives around here. It all started with my being ‘retired’ from my job the end of December (2017) . We had been talking about selling the house we built 28 years ago and raised our family in. We finally decided it was as good as time as any so, as promised back in January, I am going to update you on what’s going on around here. After doing some decluttering, painting, re-carpeting and general updates, we staged our house and put it on the market the first part of February. This was as advised by more than one relator. We also saw a few relators before choosing one to sell our house. Even though we lived in Minnesota and I thought it was kind of a silly time to put a house on the market the beginning of Feb., we went ahead and did it. I should have gone with my gut about the timing of it all – I did a lot of research and analysis on the whole thing – but listened to the relators anyway. As a result we paid for our staging and had to go through living without our ‘stuff’ and protecting the stager’s items for much longer. I hadn’t wanted to put it on the market until the end of March…first part of April. Hardly anyone came through our house in Feb. and March, and those that did were just not really interested in buying a house at that time. However, once April rounded the corner we began getting the offers. By the first of June it was goodbye house:
and Hello Mississippi River RV park and living in our RV:
As you can see below – this really stresses Mandy out:
Mandy is a pretty happy camper.
So that is how we got to where we are now. We are building a new house, down sizing to a one level detached townhouse because when my significant other retires we will be traveling around a lot more and wanted a home base where we didn’t have to worry about plowing the snow and taking care of the yard while we are gone.The new place should be ready for us to move into in October at some point. Our two cats are currently living with my Daughter and her family until we move into the new place. We really appreciate them helping us out in this way. All the possessions that couldn’t find a place in the RV went into storage until the new place is finished.
Now that the major portion of our news is out of the way, I will go backwards in time in the days to come, to catch up on what has transpired up until now.
Hoping you all are keeping it happy!
Soccer is big here where we live in Minnesota. Blaine has the National Sports Center which is the world’s largest amateur sports and meeting facility. Lots of soccer fields and lots of soccer. Little guy decided it was high time he got involved!
He has a lot of smooth moves which he had no problem exhibiting.
Sometimes you have to take a break.
Hummm…. light bulb moment!
More smooth moves coming up!
“Hey, this is cool, gotta’ show this to the guys!”
“Hey look at this! You can hang the field markers on your ears!”
Little Guy is truly an inspiration to his team mates.
And vice a versa.
“We bad…uh huh…you know it…we bad! Don’t mess with us…we bad!”
This is the stuff award winning athletes are made of!
Nothing like an award and forced smile to end the perfect soccer experience. 
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This week’s pet blog hop hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. If you’d like to participate, please follow the rules and follow your three hosts, add your blog to the Linky and copy and paste the html code into your html editor (found at Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume). Thanks again to our hosts for putting on the hop!
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Mandy and Renner…not really connected at the hip, though Mandy might be more than happy if it were true. Mandy has been with us for about 6 months and though this very people shy girl has opened up she still does a lot of hiding behind Renner. Renner was like that when he first came to us many years back but now is pretty comfortable at playing people shield and big brother to Miss Mandy.
This week’s pet blog hop hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. If you’d like to participate, please follow the rules and follow your three hosts, add your blog to the Linky and copy and paste the html code into your html editor (found at Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume). Thanks again to our hosts for putting on the hop!
Too much water!
We have been to Pipestone before, but never with this much water. It was pretty hard to check out the quarries as they had all turned into little ponds.
The streams and waterfalls were swollen to the brim and rushing with power.
Still there was plenty of beautiful Pipestone to see and play on that was not underwater and we enjoyed the park just as much as before, especially seeing its ‘wet’ personality. Mother Nature does her share of dressing the park differently in accordance to the seasons.
Renner: “Hummm, that sign wasn’t here last time was it?”
Mandy: “I don’t think it was a big water bowl last time…..”
Ruby: “Maybe we should just get back to the car and hit a Dairy Queen on the way home!”
Renner: “Sounds like a plan, let’s go!”
Mandy: “I’m right behind ya big brother.”
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This would be Little Guy doing some shopping at Trader Joe’s. Very selective he is.
“Where is that Hidden Chicken….I want my free sucker!” (Just a little game Trader Joe’s provides for their younger clientele.)
Renner: “Did you see any treats for us in that basket? I didn’t.” 
Mandy: “Me neither. Sigh….”
Just got back Wednesday afternoon to find out that we were going camping on Friday through the weekend. So I am just now getting to the update after returning from camping yesterday.
I was at my parent’s home for a while due to my Dad having surgery. We found that he has Stage 3 colon cancer. Took him a bit to get released, he was in the hospital for 6 days after the surgery and we were happy to be able to get him back home again. I stayed on a little while longer than previously planned due to his extended stay in the hospital but he is home now and, upon my leaving, was eating and doing everything pretty well. He will go through Chemo and, at this point, not sure what else will be included in his treatment until they talk with the Oncologist next week. We feel that the prognosis is very good at this point.
The camping trip, well I was feeling on the tired side so didn’t do a lot, but tagged along for just about everything, as did Renner, Mandy and Ruby. I didn’t get a lot of photos this time but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. No big storms or a lot of rain but it was still rather chilly for mid-June – hey it’s Minnesota…what can I say? 
Still there was some serious horsing around. This is little guy and his Bampa being plain old silly around the campfire.
We did not go to a state park this time, but to a commercial campground just north of St. Cloud, MN.
I was going to put Renner, Mandy and Ruby up here in this post as well, but apparently our server has just decided to deny me access to my picture folders SO, guess more photos will have to wait unless I can dig something up on my computer locally. Let me see…
Mandy: “OH give it UP Mom, you didn’t get any good photos anyway! BTW…Renner is getting all the good scritches! Do something!!!!”
Ok, so there you have it, no good photos of the camping trip this time, but there is always next time. And as far as Mandy is concerned I’d better get to giving her some equal scritching time.
Thanks much for stopping by!
Went camping this last weekend at Bear Head State Park in Minnesota and did a lot of things that I will cover later as I am currently getting ready to join my folks for a while during which my Dad will be undergoing some surgery. When I return I will post more about this trip, as well as a few other things. This will have to do for a little while I guess. 
It was stormy off and on but we made haste in enjoying the outside between storms. One has to ask, will summer come soon to Minnesota? I think is slowly shifting into gear, but with it a lot of bad weather. Here little guy is in charge, taking the lead as his cohorts follow obediently.
So we hang out in in appropriate gear, which changes depending on the time of day… weather here in Minnesota has been very changeable, except for sun – not a lot of that so far, but we are hopeful. Soon there will be swimming gear, sand shovels and buckets to play with.
Hounds Ruby, Renner and Mandy stand ready to go in which ever direction their humans can finally decide upon. Sweet hounds.
Bear Head is east of Ely, up close to the northern edge of Minnesota. The skies remained entertaining through out our trip.
Seeing quite a bit of stormy weather during the weekend, though the storms passes through pretty quickly, they were harsh.
Bears! OH MY! 
We did some boating, though not all that exciting we still ended up having a pretty good time. More on that later…..even pirate stories!
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Taken at Pipestone National Park in Pipestone Minnesota when we stopped there for some hiking while camping at Split Rock Creek State Park the end of April 2011.
It had rained so much the pipestone pits, where the Indians quarry the stone, were filled with water.
It was our first camping trip of the season and the weather was totally uncooperative. We had storms the first night, but then it just threatened to rain the rest of the time. However, the wind was just wailing the entire time so badly that we couldn’t have a campfire and it felt like you were getting beat on all the time you were outside.
Some of the worst sustained winds lasting the entire time that I have ever experienced. The wind even made driving to and from the park difficult. In the photo above you can see the wind ‘bowing’ Mandy’s and Renner’s leads – and pant legs blowing. Going across the bridge, which is where we were walking toward, we were being pushed into the railings by the wind. Holding little guy’s hand became a must as he could not even keep his footing.
It was also Mandy’s very first camping trip and she relied heavily on Renner to show her the ropes.
Renner, Mandy and Ruby did very well on this trip and are looking forward to the next. The weather on this trip did kept us inside a little bit and then we left very early on the last day there. I do believe Mandy was anxious to get back on the road and get back home.
“Dad….where are you, I am ready to get going!”
For more Weekend Reflections click here to take you to James’ site!
Spacial Peepol 