Quick Trip to Minneapolis

My brother, Glenn, sells wreckers for Coker Equipment Sales in Dallas. He and another guy drove here on Mon. in the white pickup and spent the night at our house. Yesterday, Diane took a vacation day and she, Camry & I rode with them to north of Minneapolis to drop the other guy off (about a 4 1/2 hour drive). He would be driving a truck back to Dallas. He is a "driver for hire". Then we headed back down to Spencer, IA for Glenn to pick up a truck. Then back home and out to eat in Pocahontas with friends who Glenn likes to see whenever he's back. Long day of driving/riding with some nasty weather but nice to get to go with him.

He left this morning in this truck above pulling the pickup back to Dallas. We were having ice this morning so it was a slick 50 miles or so for him until he drove out of it. He saw two vehicles in the ditch not too far south of our house including this little black pickup truck that was upside down.

There was a Wed. program at the library this morning, and we had to laugh because 29 retired people still showed up for it in the bad weather! I opted to not get out in it.

Nice Weekend

We've had a busier than usual but nice weekend. I picked up the little girls from daycare Fri. at 5:00 and kept them until about 5:00 Sat. I know why most people have their kids when they're younger!

Sat. night we were invited to a Sweetheart Dinner with 11 other couples from church. It was a mix of couples that know each other and those that didn't. Two couples planned it together and made the food, etc. As we went in the door, they had hats, boas, and some fake flowers and we had to pick our props and have our picture taken together in a couple of different poses. That was good entertainment as more people came in. I finally asked what they were going to do with the pictures and one of our Elders said "one for you, one for church on the big screen, and one for the paper". And I thought he was a quiet kind of guy! Then we had our dinner of lasagna, rolls, a couple of salads, fresh fruit salad and choice of a frozen chocolate dessert or strawberry pretzel dessert. Then we did a fun, mixer type game to get to know each other followed by the men answered 4 questions about their wives on paper and the women answered 4 questions about their husbands. Like what tool best describes your husband and why and what kitchen gadget best describes your wife. The last one was what marriage advice would you give to others. We had to read the answers to the group. Everyone left around 9:30 so nice evening in a beautiful old home.

Lacey and I made Jackpot Drop Cookies so I packaged up some to take to the party hostesses using my Stampin' Up! supplies. I stamped the "for you" and punched it out with our scalloped circle punch and tied it on with some of our ribbon.

Today was church this morning and then we were hoping to watch the Daytona NASCAR race but it's rain delayed until tomorrow. It's been very, very windy today. We had some shingles blow off that Bill has to fix in the morning.

Time To Watch the Eagles Again!

I just read in our paper that the eagles are back in Decorah, IA and one egg was laid Friday night. Per the paper, Raptor Resource project Researcher, Bob Anderson, says new equipment installed in October will give viewers an even better look at the eagle family this year. He says the next egg will likely be laid early next week.

When I looked, there was very clear video of one eagle sitting on the nest! Click HERE to go to the site - enjoy!

Bill and I went to Algona this afternoon to sign our tax returns. While we were there it started raining which is much needed!

Nice Birthday

I had a nice birthday on Thurs. It was sunny which is so nice especially in winter. I had about 100 birthday greetings on Facebook from friends all over. For people that think that Facebook is a bad thing, they need to try it before they say that. I know it can be for kids that give out too much information or become friends with strangers. But for adults, it's a great thing for keeping in touch with people of all ages and learning new things. I got more cards in the mail this year than ever before too.

That evening we went to The Cellar in Ft. Dodge with Terri & Todd. It's been their favorite restaurant for many years and we had never been there. My food pictures came out dark but 3 of us had steaks and Terri had this pasta dish. The chocolate lava cake was mine (very good). The restaurant gave us free champagne for a toast since it was my birthday. Everything was good. We'll go back! So all in all, a nice day!

Bill has been working on getting the planter ready to go. Diane and girls were here yesterday. Lacey & I made Dirt Pudding and walked on the Three Rivers Trail (her first time).

Last night we had a shrimp boil with friends - the shrimp was flown in from Florida so very fresh and good. (It was a pitch in so I took the Dirt Pudding there.)

Our Rodeo and Saddle Club had a Bachelor & Bachelorette Auction at the bar last night. Two of the guys at the shrimp boil were going to be auctioned off and were getting nervous about it as we were eating! They were thinking it might be better to just stay home and watch the NASCAR race! When we came home through town, it looked like a big crowd at the auction!

Happy Valentine's Day to All

I spent a lot of "romantic" holidays "alone" before meeting Bill! The ones like Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, 4th of July, Christmas Eve. Sometimes I'd go out with a friend and we'd complain about men and other times I'd try to forget it was a holiday. Lots of strategies for doing that. As they say, you learn from your experiences so now I try to remember people that are alone at the hard times.

Bill and I had only had one date in Iowa before he came to Indiana so he'd be with me for Valentine's Day and my birthday, and I think we've been together on those days since. Last night he brought home these roses. He's definitely a keeper! I think his parents were good examples. His dad always got his mom flowers and a heart shaped box of chocolates 'cause we picked them up for him once!

There aren't many good restaurants out here and one that we went to on Valentine's Day once was about a 2 hour miserable wait so now we usually just have a nice meal at home. We both love lobster so this year we had lobster, Red Lobster type garlic biscuits, potatoes, salad and Aunt Jan's Texas Cake - for lunch today. I have a P.E.O. meeting tonight.

Below are a couple of the Valentines I made this year using Stampin' Up!'s Big Shot and punches.


Special thanks to Uncle Neal for helping me get some flowers to my mom today!

Mankato

Our main stop in Mankato Tues. was Scheel's which was in the mall. While Bill was in Scheel's, I walked the mall seeing what all was there and found this carousel - with a bunny!




























Nice mall with a big Barnes & Noble.

Bill said he had never really looked around Mankato so we drove around some. One part of town is very hilly, and we found this Scenic Overlook. I guess there is an area to ski but we didn't see that.

We ended up calling Bill's sister and Dave to see if they could meet us for supper. Bill's mom happened to be at their house for a couple of days so she stayed with the kids and they met us in Fairmont. They had some shopping to do there. Nice to see them spur of the moment - and without kids!

I made buckeyes for Rob, Ross & Reed and got them mailed today to get there by Valentine's Day. Tomorrow I'm babysitting Camry and then will pick Lacey up after school. We'll have both of them overnight. Bill went to our tax appointment yesterday in Algona and with his mom for hers today plus took our Enclave in for oil change and tire rotation. Kemna Auto will give you a loaner car which is nice.

It started out sunny this morning but now the sun's gone and it's windy and about 35. Supposed to get very cold the next couple of days.

Nice Surprise

Today we have sunny, blue skies and there are only a few small patches of snow so thought I'd change the blog header to this picture. We've had 2 long trains go by our house earlier going west and just now these 2 engines headed east.

Yesterday morning Bill decided it would be a good day to head north to Mankato, Minn. to Scheel's for some hunting supplies he needed. I was excited to ride along because his mom and sister go shopping in Mankato a lot so I've always wondered what stores are there.

As we pulled out of the garage I noticed that we had hoar frost - one of my favorite things in winter! So I jumped out and took some pictures.

Hoar frost - deposit of needle-like ice crystals formed on the ground by direct condensation at temperatures below freezing point. Also called white frost.

It made the drive to Mankato nicer with seeing all the white fences and trees along the way.

Mankato is 2 hours and 45 min. from our house. I'll post a few pictures taken there on my next post.

Super Bowl Excitement

All of us from the Indianapolis area are so excited for Indiana's first Super Bowl! This week on Facebook I've been seeing lots of pictures posted from friends of mine who have been Super Bowl volunteers, and I've been reading the articles posted by WRTV6 there. Everyone was a little concerned about having a Super Bowl in a winter climate, but this strange winter is continuing and they've had great weather this whole week except for some sprinkles today. I read about the downtown crowds there last night comparing to New Year's Eve in New York. I'm seeing great reviews on the organization of it all, the fun things to do and the Hoosier hospitality.

If you see volunteers tomorrow that have on Colts blue and white scarves, they were knitted or crocheted by people all over and are all different! There was even an article about them in our newspaper last Sun.

I plan to be glued to the TV all day tomorrow so have been making some Super Bowl day food tonight. They are all new recipes to me except for my neighbor's brownies - yum! I made Beer Dip for pretzels that I found on Pinterest, Cookie Dough Dip best with graham crackers per the reviews from the Tasty Kitchen blog and Poppy Seed Ham & Cheese Sandwiches from the future Rolfe Cookbook. They are interesting - you use dinner rolls with ham & Swiss cheese, melt butter with brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire and poppy seeds and pour that over the sandwiches, refrigerate overnight, then bake covered for 30 min., uncover and bake 5 more min. to brown. I've heard that these are very good. We need a salad or some veggies but haven't decided what that will be yet. If any of these are really good, I'll post the recipe(s).

Since our Colts and Peyton Manning didn't make it to the Indy Super Bowl, most of us are rooting for Peyton's brother, Eli's, Giants. I've always kinda liked Tom Brady so it's going to be a good game for me either way. I hope it's a close, exciting game.

*** What a great game!! Way to go Giants!

Sale-A-Bration now until Mar. 31!

This is the card I made for Bill's brother's birthday in January. This stamp set with the trees has been around for several years but it's been a best seller. The stamp actually only has 4 trees but when you stamp it the second time without inking the stamp again and move the position up and over a little and stamp again, you get the effect of more trees. The moon is done by punching a circle out of a post it note and placing it on the card and then sponging blue ink all around it. Then I pulled the post it off and stamped the trees.

Stampin' Up! customers' favorite time of year is Sale-A-Bration and is going on now until the end of March!

You will choose a FREE item from the Sale-A-Bration catalog for each $50 you spend between January 24th through March 31st! Spend $100 and get 2 FREE items, and so on! Here is an added bonus: if you spend $150, not only will you receive 3 FREE items from the Sale-a-bration catalog -- you will also earn $25 in FREE hostess items of your choice and a FREE TOTE!!! The more your order, the more you can earn for FREE!!!

Please go to my web site, www.CindyKemna.stampinup.net for all of the details and to order - or e mail or call me!