Tag: Saturday Snapshots

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. 😀

Good morning!  It’s Saturday and I am sooooooo excited.  Today I have nothing concrete on the agenda.  I LOVE days like this.  I can hang out, blog, read, clean, nap, whatever – at my leisure.  These days are too few and far between and other than a possible trip to the gym this afternoon (I am 7 days out from the 7K) and maybe a movie with hubby…. I am here for the day. 😀

Today I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my boys for Saturday Snapshot:

I love this picture.  That is Brad left and Justin right.  This picture graces my book room.  This past winter, right after Christmas I was on Facebook one day and seen this picture on Justin’s page.  He was having a voting contest to see who thought who was cuter, he or Brad.  *Take note, Justin is 22 now and in College.  Brad is 25 and in the Navy. 

I was stunned, but it was pretty hilarious.  Both boys were going back and forth trying to get their friends to comment on who was cuter. I popped in with a “Boys!  What is going on here?”  😛

Then Brad made a comment that I had text him and told him that he was cuter but couldn’t put it on Facebook as I did not want to hurt Justin’s feelings.  Justin commented back that he thought that was funny because I had text him and told him that same thing about him.

This thing went on for days and I don’t recall who won – or even if the votes were fair but they had over 100 comments and it was pretty funny.

This one I really like too.  Justin looks like someone from a century ago.  I remember doing Brad’s hair that day… he wanted it that way.

Currently, Justin is in Honduras on his 5th Mission trip to the country working with the kids who live on the street.  Brad, as of last night was in Georgia sitting on his back deck with friends having a fire and conversation.  He has 3 out of 4 weekends off in the Navy. 

As you can imagine, I am so proud of both of them. 😀

These pictures were posted today for the Saturday Snapshot meme, check it out at At Home With Books.

Last night my friend Wendy and I went to OZ, The Great and Powerful.  I thought it was done so well and it was impressive to watch the actors, they played some fun rolls.   Mila Kunis was incredible, especially the later part of the movie.  Rachel Weisz?  Well first let me say wow does she look incredible.  She easily passes as Mila’s sister.  Michelle Williams… awesome.  I think my favorite was the China Doll… really once she entered the picture I lost my heart to that little broken girl. 

I am not sure what to think of James Franco… maybe he was perfect, what do I know. 😀  At times, he just seemed off and maybe that was intentional… I have no idea who could have done it better. 

 

My thoughts… yes, see it.  I loved the fact that some of the scenes and settings are more to the original book then the past movies. 😀

Squeaking in late today.  I got up and hit the gym and then went and set the new March window at the Library.  Then picked up a few groceries so I would not have to leave the house again today.. unless I want to… unless Al and I go to a movie… you know, something fun 😀

Last week I painted the downstairs of our house and I had said I would post the pictures today for Saturday Snapshot, so here they are:

A fun fact I found out last week, painting burns 320 calories an hour.  This explains why after a day of painting we are a little stiff the next day.  😀
Check out more Saturday Snapshots at Alyce’s At Home With Books. 

Good morning!  Happy Saturday.  I am in the middle… no, that’s not right… I am in the first third of a MASSIVE painting project.  I decided I was going to paint our downstairs addition yesterday so off I went to buy paint and all the fixings.  This is a HUGE undertaking.  We finished off the basement in 2004 and the area I am painting is all of that… the wall at the top of the stairs, the stairwell wall area, a couple smaller areas and then an open family area.  Basically about 5 gallons of paint worth.  😯  It sounded like a great idea yesterday to surprise Al with this but after not getting started until 5:30 pm last night and working on it until 10:30 pm and knowing I have about 5 or 6 more hours of paining ahead of me… yeah….lets just say I better LOVE this color a LONG time.  😛  Pics of this next weekend.

Today however, I thought it would be fun to show you some pictures (for Saturday Snapshot)of what my Minnesota life is like.  Not all of you live in areas that have winters like we do, or if you, you may not heat your home the way we do.

We heat our house with hot water heat.  Yes, that was a new term to me about 8 years ago too.  

 

 

 

So there is a little about my life beyond the books.  😀  For more Saturday Snapshots, stop by Alyce’s At Home With Books.

Good morning!  It has been a couple of weeks since I have been home and able to put up a Saturday post. I am so excited 😀

SO for Saturday Snapshot  check this out over at (At Home With Books) I went back to look at some of the earliest pictures I have on this laptop which takes me back to the fall of 2011.  SO, just for fun… here are few pictures:

There it is.  I know it would be random – I have had no awesome picture opportunities as of late… Minnesota winters…. I am soooo ready for spring.

Hope you all enjoy your day.  I have a meeting this morning and then home most of the day which will be nice as the week has been fairly busy and reading time has been close to nothing.  Enjoy your Saturday!

Good morning or afternoon or evening depending on where you are and when you read this. 😀  I have just entered the week I have been referring to as “Hell Week” for the past month and yeah, I know that isn’t the best way to put it since it is all good stuff… but unfortunately the name stuck. 

This afternoon around 2 I will meet up with a friend and teammate to do some shopping for events coming up this week.  Right from there I will go to work and prep some things for tonight and the weekend and be home probably around 7:30 pm.

Tomorrow, Sunday I will need to be at the church around 7 am and leave around noon.  Then I will shop for our IHN serving week (Homeless week) which starts tomorrow. I will pick up the guests at 4:30 pm, and a group of friends will come and we will all do dinner together and then I will stay overnight there. 

Monday morning after I take the guests to the day center I work a half day.  Will hopefully go out to dinner and maybe a movie with my hubby.

Tuesday I work a full day and have lots of prep work to do for Wednesday which is our annual members meeting. 

Wednesday – work all day, train new people in with IHN and do the members meeting… I will probably not come home between 8 am and 9 pm.

Thursday – start working on all members info I gathered last night and cleaning up from the big meeting and prepping for the 10 Year party which is Sunday.

Friday – possibly my day off… depends on what needs to be done for the 10 Year, probably some shopping.  Maybe some set up. 

Saturday – train in new people at IHN, then our company Christmas Party.

Sunday – up at 5 am and tear down IHN, clean up and move the van to the next hosting church.  Hopefully get to the 10 year party set up by 8:30 am to help as that starts at noon.  Clean up and home by 3 pm… I hope. 😀

On the bright side… horizon…. goal, whatever you want to call it… I am taking Monday the 7th and possibly Tuesday the 8th off. 

Listing my week out was actually therapeutic… I see tiny pockets of free time in there that I need to take full advantage of.  Hopefully Monday, Tuesday and Friday will give me a little time to re-energize.  I am an introvert that needs to charge up my batteries by being alone, preferably with a book. 😀

For todays Saturday Snapshot I thought it would be fun to actually show pictures of my Saturday morning.  A snapshot of what my life looks like now as I simmer at the feeling of whelmed…. but not quite overwhelmed:

Now I am going to check out a few of the other Saturday Snapshot posts (Thank you Alyce), write a review, make a meme button for our Library, send out a book club email and year end voting form and hopefully spend a little time int hat book pictured above before it is GO TIME.

May your week be a lot less crazy then mine…. bear with me while I get through this marathon of events. 

Morning all. 😀  For today’s Saturday Snapshot I thought I would reflect a little on the fun events I took part of in 2012.  Winter, is not my favorite season.  It leaves me feeling….

restless.

As the days have become colder and yeah, whiter, I find myself thinking of the warmer weather more and more, and yeah I know I have a long time to wait for it but maybe some sunny pictures will help. 😀

Ahhhh… that feels better. On January 13th Amy and I are doing  a 5K Obstacle course in the cities called The Iceman.  I am pretty excited!

I am working on a Challenge for my Fitness website Team Kickin It.  I hope to have it up this weekend so if you are interested, please watch for it – I think it is going to be fun and I would love people to join me. 🙂

Good morning.  In light of world happenings yesterday I need a distraction from the incredible pain that has been let loose into Connecticut.  I can not even imagine…. and my heart cried for each and every one of those who have been hurt by this unthinkable tragedy.

That said…

This last week I went to a public hearing in support of our local Library.  Two weeks ago, while the city was planning the 2013 budget, our local Senior Center spoke up that they needed more funding and the city pulled $20,000 from the Library budget to give to the Senior Center.

This is a tough decision – both are very worthy non profits.  I knew for our local library this was a huge blow that would possibly include reduction of staff hours and services like the Book Mobile that delivers books to the surrounding area.

I went in support of the library while they hashed through this decision to finalize the City Budget.  I have never sat through one of these meetings before and it was both amazing, and harsh as they battled it out – and in the end…

the library lost the funding. 

There were moments I actually teared up to think of how hard our Library works to provide great services and now how much harder they will have to work on their own budget to make ends meet.  This makes me think, as book lovers what can we do to help support our libraries?

I am going to post more on this topic later when I have more time to process….  as for now, I will share a few pictures for Saturday Snapshot.  These pictures are from the 22nd floor of a hotel (gah – can not recall the name….) in Minneapolis when I was with my Library Team for the Literacy Institution I am assisting in.  The floor is called “windows and it is all huge windows all the way around this huge meeting space.  I imagine in the summer it is beautiful – but even here you can get a little sample:

Kind of a rambling post …. but yeah.  There it is. 

Today I am off to a morning brunch Christmas party and then coming home as it is a rainy wet day here in Central Minnesota and I do not want to be in it.