Category: Saturday Snapshots

Remember back in school when you would start the new year and the teacher would have you write what you did with your summer?  Just me?  Well… we did that here in Minnesota.  As I sit here this morning annoyingly coffee free (I forgot to pick some up at the store yesterday),I thought it would be fun as I was mostly absent, to share in pictures what I was doing this summer. 

So… here we go:

This is my contribution to Saturday Snapshot hosted my Metro Mommy.  Stop in over there as well and see what others are posting about this weekend 😀

Good morning!  I am enjoying a seriously wonderful weekend and I hope you are too.  This is the last of the quiet lay back weekends until the second weekend in September (and that is Al’s birthday so who knows).  This next weekend I am at the cabin with my son, then the 1sr weekend of August is the Camp bike ride, then Wisconsin mud run weekend, then Library sale, camp week, Wine and Words and then camping the final weekend of August.  The first weekend of September brings on another bike ride and a fall kick off party.

It’s all things I really enjoy… its just a bit overwhelming when you look at it as a whole.

Last weekend was a lot of fun and that is what I wanted to share with you today.  My college son and I spent time in the cities together doing back to back 5k’s – both were messy… both were fun.  For Saturday Snapshot I thought I would share some of the moments:

Ok, as I posted these pictures I realized there are way to may fun pics for me to put the two events into this post.  Next Saturday I will post the Color Run pics.  Also fun… very colorful.  😀

Note:  No books were harmed in the making of this event.

For more Saturday Snapshots, pop in at West Metro Mommy to see what others are taking pictures of and add your own if you wish 😀

Today… I have this master to do list that has been accumulating and multiplying for weeks.  I wrote it all out yesterday and started chipping away at it then and will continue to do so through Monday.  I plan on working on that until about noon, possibly taking a bike ride and then later reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. 

What’s your Saturday looking like? 

Good morning!  It’s a hazy lazy Saturday here, overcast skies, a little drizzly rain.  I was up at 6 a.m. and ran my 4 mile scheduled run this morning before the rain started although I need to learn to train in all-weather conditions 😀 .

Today for Saturday Snapshots I thought we could look at a year with Mater.  Mater is a beagle/basset hound who came into our lives last July after he was abused by his original owner.  He had been fed beer (yes, beer) to the point that he could no longer go to the bathroom… here is Mater at 4 months old when he was rescued:

Mater had to have a surgery that would cost $3500 to fix the damage inside him or he would need to put down.  The original owners could not pay the amount so the wonderful people of Pequot Vet covered the bill from a charity fund they have.  While waiting for his forever home, Mater was put into a foster home where he fell out of the back of a truck and broke his shoulder.  He needed surgery and pins in his shoulder.

This weekend a year ago, my Navy son Brad was home and while over at house for dinner one night he was sharing the story of Mater.  A friend of his worked for Pequot Vet and had Mater with her at a get together.  By the time I heard this dogs story, I was hooked.  I called the vet the next day and they told me they had already interviewed and turned down 10 families for this dog.  They wanted him to have a forever home, they did not want money for him – just the promise of a good home.

I was on the phone for an hour with the vet and left the conversation with giving him references.  Later that day they called back and said Mater was ours.

It has been quite the year.  I am not used to bigger dogs and Mater has knocked over chairs and plants with his tail (think the movie Beethoven).  He has chewed shoes, books 😯 , mail.  But he is loveable and loved.

Tonight we are having friends over to grill so I hopeful that the rain is not an all day thing.  Tomorrow morning my friend Amy and I are off to our annual bike ride in St Joseph Minnesota – The Tour Of Saints. 

Check out other Saturday Snapshots here.  Hope your Saturday is awesome. 😀

Good morning!  Happy Saturday and all that!  I feel like I woke up and my day exploded.  Today is a full one, I need to be into work in about an hour to check off the students who are attending a feed the starving children event and a Minnesota Twins game.  Then I just realized that I am doing a meal train for a family tomorrow with a new baby – thank goodness for the email reminder!  I need to get on that. Then at 3:00ish my hubby and I are leaving to go listen to bands in the area for the Lakes Jam. 

And that will complete Saturday. 😯

For now, I want to share last weekends pics as part of the Saturday Snapshot.  I was up North last weekend with 4 friends.  The plan was to do some extreme biking, but the weather was not cooperative.  It was foggy, cold, and drizzly….. we did bike, but not as far as we would have liked, and we did go exploring some amazing sights of the North Shore…

And because I love the sound – I recorded a little bit of it:

We had a great time despite the weather.  We did a little shopping, exploring, biking, hiking, running…  we played board games and watched a movie.  It was a good time. 😀

Please go over and see other Saturday Snapshots!  It is fun to see what others are doing in their part of the world. 

Have a super Saturday – I need to get moving here but am hoping to post a yummy yummy recipe a little later today that you will thank me for 😀

Good morning and this time – really, happy Saturday.  If you were around a couple of days back.. you know that I woke up in a St Paul Minneapolis hotel room and promptly wrote a Saturday Snapshot post before I went downstairs to get coffee and go to the next session of my conference.

I wrote that Saturday post on Thursday.  😯

So….. other than a total lapse of what day it was… and probably a moment of “Where am I?”, when I woke up in that dark room in a huge bed of white sheets, white comforter, and more pillows than a Bed, Bath and Beyond….  my day went normally. 😀

Today…. on the REAL SATURDAY (I checked twice, it is Saturday), here is a little more about the Bremer L3 Training final session in Saturday Snapshot style. 

The Bremer L3 was a trial idea to connect libraries of different sizes, patron count, and other literacy agencies within Minnesota for 8 months and dream big, brainstorm together, learn skills to take your vision to the next level, and hopefully come out the other side feeling stronger and more confident about your place on this earth and your purpose within your literacy program.  6 Libraries were chosen, and 6 literacy agencies.

The Brainerd Public Library was lucky enough to be chosen as a participant.  I was lucky enough to have been asked to be part of our three person team.  Along with our Librarian Jolene and our Outreach Library Assistant Laurel.  We started last fall and had our final session this week.

If you ever find yourself at The Coates Plaza Hotel and are in the elevator and see that the 22nd floor is labeled “Windows”, make sure you go up there.  Windows is just that, an entire conference room that is floor to ceiling windows.  The picture above is taken from that 22nd floor.  So are the pictures I posted on the false Saturday Snapshot. 😛

The food is fantastic!  This is my lunch we had before our graduation.  We ate our lunch on the Windows floor.  It was delicious!  Salmon over my raspberry vinaigrette salad….. oh Yum!

This was my dessert.  I didn’t want to eat.  I didn’t need the calories…. I knew it could not taste as good as it looked.  I did eat it.  It was as good as it looks.

This was not my dessert.  This was Jolene’s who was sitting next to me…. she did not eat it (she was stronger than me).  For the record, I did not eat her dessert either.  😀

In the end, we all graduated and received a certificate and a cool paper weight in a beautiful box that said L3 Participant .    The Bremer L3 trial was a success.  All groups involved had made huge steps in grants, and other ideas.  One small library is building an addition that will literally double its space.  Another has built up the confidence to get out in their community and promote library services and has already seen a change in their community for the better.  Others are adding programming and working smarter with other agencies in their community.  As for us, we applied for and received a large grant, and, we created Wine and Words.

When asked what was the best thing about the Bremer L3 training, my quick answer would have been that Wine and Words came out of this.  But, when I thought more about it, my true answer was spending that time in the car with Jolene and Laurel for the three-hour trips each way was even more valuable.  By spending time with them I learned more about our local library, after all they work there!  By spending time with them I was able to understand what out library does for our community, what has been tried, and what has not.  By bouncing ideas off them and receiving feedback, that is what built up my confidence to move forward into the volunteer positions I hold now.  Wine and Words could have easily been brought up during those car rides and decided it was not a good idea and that could have been the end of it.  It was an idea that had the potential of never leaving that car.  However, it was encouraged…. and therefore it is happening. 😀 

West Metro Mommy is currently hosting Saturday Snapshot.  Stop over there to see what others are posting about this weekend!

As for today…. I have some errands to run, a few things to prepare before I fly out on Tuesday morning to New York.  I am in that mode where I feel like I have plenty of time to prepare…. and at the same time think I don’t have enough time to prepare.  Good grief.  At least I know it is Saturday 😀

Good morning.  It’s Saturday in Minnesota!  From what I seen on Facebook this morning it was also snowing earlier.  SNOWING. 😯  I think I may have slept through it.  After two incredibly busy days – work, library fund-raiser, work again, Mankato son hang out lunch and rollerblading and a board meeting for camp last night… I just wanted to stay still for a while.  SO I did. 😀

Today in Minnesota is also fishing opener which is the oddest opener ever as our lakes are still icy.  Al (hubby) and I are not fisher people so it doesn’t really affect us but the weird weather is still annoying. 

In honor of fishing opener and Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots. I thought I would give you an honest to goodness Fish Story…

and here it is.

In 1979 while my dad was in Alaska visiting relatives he caught a King Chinook Salmon.  The salmon weighed 62 pounds and 4 oz and 52 1/2 inches.  When he returned to Minnesota he left the fish there to be stuffed and mounted to be sent home at a later time. 

In January of 1980 my family went through a house fire that took the lives of my father and 5-year-old sister, Tara.  I lost my dad and sister and our entire home and everything in it in one swoop.  My mom and I were the only ones who made it out. 

Now – I don’t tell you this to make you feel bad, I tell you, because it is a part of this story…

When my uncle Dallas came to the funeral, he brought the fish with him.  Dad had never seen it after it was mounted but it was in our new home from that day forward, hanging on the wall.  When I was married, mom passed the fish on to me and to this day it hangs on one of my walls.  It fits no decor in my home but it is not coming down and as you can imagine it is quite the conversation piece as no one believes that it is real. 😀  It makes me smile as I have hardly anything that belonged to my dad, it was all lost in the fire…

but I have this humongous fish…. and the story.  And that works for me.

This post was made for Saturday Snapshot and is hosted by Alyce and At Home With Books.

*pictures of dad with the fish are saved from a partial album that was in the house during the fire.  Several photos survived and while they are burned on many of the edges, we still transferred them to another album that I have to this day.

Today I am hoping to get in some reading time – I have the weekend to read the book club book, The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman. 

Good morning!  Happy Saturday to you. 😀

You have probably heard by now some rumblings of Minnesota’s never ending winter.  It is May and parts of Minnesota had another 11 inches dumped on them the last couple of days.  Thankfully, this time it wasn’t Brainerd.  No instead we are getting the cold… the wet… averaging around 40 degrees for the day, high 20’s in the morning.  It is cold.. wet.. frustrating and getting very old – even to the snow lovers (which… for the record… I am not one of).

Yet – this last Monday it was nice out.  It was in the high 70’s and dry.  My friend Amy and I decided it was long past due that we got the bikes out on the trail.  I agreed….

I had warned her that in past March/ early April’s that I had been on the trail in occasional spots you could run into some snow.  The areas where the trail was protected by tree cover and the sun took a little longer in those areas to melt away the last memories of snow. 

Our goal was from Brainerd to Nisswa…. 32 miles round trip. 

And we did!  We biked/walked the 16 miles to Nisswa and then bike/walked it back.  It took up about 45 minutes longer than when we usually do that ride but it was fun and I love having a die-hard friend that not once said, “let’s forget it and turn back.”

I am posting these pictures today for Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.  Stop over and see what other people are posting – and feel free to add your own as well. 😀

I had mentioned yesterday that I was going to the cabin but a friend asked me to check the weather in that area.  Up by Duluth it was all snow and rain yesterday and today I did not want to deal with it.  Instead I started working on College sons bedroom which has been sitting for the past couple of years and I am now making it into an office.  Perhaps… that will be next weeks pictures. 😛  Tonight we have a benefit and a concert.  Should be fun.

Listening to audio today – Raven Boys is coming to an end and deciding what to start listening to next…

What are you doing this Saturday?

Good morning!  It is Saturday and the good news is that the Minnesota Book Awards are tonight and I have a Golden Ticket to go!!!  The bad news is (and this is for you Saturday Snapshot peeps)….

Minnesota looks like this right now:

Now you may be thinking “Sheila, why are you showing us a picture of snow?  You hate winter!”

Well… that would be because this picture was taken at 6:30 am this morning when I got up.  This is the current state of my yard after Thursdays 6″ snow storm.  AND after watching the news last night… it’s not over yet, we may get more late night tonight.

………………………….

Ok….moving on. 😀 

As I do now want my Saturday Spotlight pictures to be about the snowy state on Minnesota right now… I instead wish to give you pictures of…

Last weekends Chanhassen Theater!  My friends Cindy, Heidi, and Sara and I drove to Chanhassen last Friday Night and went to the Ultimate 80’s Power Balladz.  I thought it was going to be good fun 80’s (whats not to love?) I did not know it was going to be laugh out loud, laugh until you cry fun.  

IT WAS A BLAST!

They had sing a longs, asked the audience questions, dressed like the 80’s…. it was fun. 

Thanks Alyce from At Home With Books for hosting Saturday Snapshot so we can talk about the fun pictures of our lives. 😀

SO… tonight’s Minnesota Book Awards is a gala.  And last weekend I bought a dress.  A spring looking dress… knee-length, white with pick and light blue flowers on it….

uhhh…. yeah.

So maybe I wear a snow suit, hat, mittens and boots and call it good?

SHHEEESH.  😯

I missed the last two weeks of Saturday Snapshot.  Two weeks ago I was in the cities getting ready for a 7K and last Saturday I was buried in books at the Spring Library sale. 

Today I thought I would share about the 7K. 

When I say really cool words like “7K”, a lot of people will say to me, “I didn’t know you are a runner!”

My response, “I am not.  I am a runner want to be.”

I want to say for the record, I blame the books.  Over the past couple of years I have read some pretty good books on running.  Those that can run… fascinate me.  Their bodies get lean, their heart rates and over all health improve… they talk of a “runners high” and they can go on and on and on for miles… in some of those books, they would run like 100 miles in a day….

they are my heroes.

So… here I am FAR on the other side of the spectrum.  I have running gear.  I do ok on the treadmill… I have not yet mastered running.

SO this is before the 7k (which by the way is 4.34 miles).  It was SUPER cold that morning… I don’t even recall but we were dancing in the freezing air before go time… don’t let the sun in the picture fool you.  On the far left is my cousin’s wife Farrah, my cousin Jarrod, my friends Sheila and Belinda, Belinda’s cousin and wife – April and Ryan, and then me. 

Over 11,000 people were registered for this run… close to 10,000 showed up.  This is as we walked towards the starting gate.

We were not that far back from the start but I heard it took 26 minutes to get everyone across the starting line.  We wore a chip on our tennis shoes that activated from a mat we step on when going across the starting line and then it gives out time when we cross the line at the end.  Kind of cool.

This is my friend Sheila who I ran most of the race with (until her pace kicked my pace – I need to fast walk occasionally at this stage in the game and she can keep a nice steady pace).  At the end the water they had for us was freezing in the glasses!  If you look close you can see that she has the chunk of ice in her mouth. 😀

At the end we were all able to hang out at this Irish Pub which was kind of cool.  SO MANY people there… had to be over 1,000.  Here a few of the group are showing the “pie” medal we all received for doing the run – you can also see the hoodies that April and Ryan are wearing – this was also something each participant received. 

My pie 😀 The first of 4 from the Ortho events this year.

Overall – the run was fun to hang out with friends, but the cold sucked.  I warmed up quickly while running but soon discovered I have training to do before I am going to be any kind of rock star at running.  I finished the 7k at 51 minutes.  I believe the best time in our group was Jarrod at around 35 minutes.  He is training for a triathlon. 

So that’s my Saturday Snapshot for today. Check out more Saturday Snapshots at Alyce’s At Home With Books.    I do not have a lot going on this Easter weekend as Justin (College Son)  has to work so he will not be home and Brad is in Florida in the Navy.  It will just be Al and I and I think tonight we may watch the Hobbit. 😀