Day 47 Memorial Day

And I'm proud to be an American,

Where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died,

Who gave that right to me!

Day 46 Fish fish fish, all day long!

The second day was a little cooler and overcast so we decided it would be a great day to spend out on the lake fishing. Brian was our "take the fish off the hook" guy :) I am surprised he got any fishing of his own in at all!


James with a sunny.


Brian holding one of the small mouth bass. The boys had a nice little fish fry for dinner. We were blessed with lots of fish and a very nice time away.

Day 45 Vacation

I have some back posting to do from the last couple of days. We spent Memorial Weekend "up north" at Lake Minnewaska. Unfortunately the first day was too choppy on the water so we headed to Glacial Lakes State Park, which is about 10 minutes away. This is beautiful Mountain Lake where we started our fishing excursion. We spent the afternoon on the boat catching some rays and fish :)



After dinner the boys did some fishing off the dock at our resort on Lake Minnewaska. In the land of 10,000 lakes it is the 13th largest. What a gorgeous evening!

Day 44 Laundry Day

Spotty doesn't enjoy laundry day either, but he really loves lounging in the sun with his ball :)

Day 43 Full Moon

I am still struggling with pictures in low light or at night. This was my attempt at capturing the full moon we had tonight. I wish it could have come across in my photo as beautiful as it was in person.

Day 42 Baby C

Check out this adorable little guy! He's going to be a future baseball star, but for now he'll have to settle with watching his daddy play.

Day 41 Nuts

Day 40 Iris

This is just one of the many beautiful irises blooming in the front of our house. Not only are they gorgeous to look at, but the smell is incredible!

Day 39 Happy to be home

James came home today after being gone for 10 long days! He looks taller...I think he grew an inch or two in the last week. We celebrated by attending church together, watching Brian's baseball game and a stop to DQ. It's nice to be back to our normal routine :)

Day 38 Date Night

Date night = cute shoes!

Day 37 Canon 50 mm 1.4!!!

My new lens FINALLY arrived today!!! I was so excited to get it I had Brian bring the box down to James' baseball game. Unfortunately the weather didn't want to cooperate so after it stopped raining I went outside to test it out. This is a photo of one of our cranberry bushes. The color and clarity is far superior to what I had been shooting with before. I LOVE THIS LENS!!!!

Day 36 Caterpillar

I came home from running errands to see this beauty so I ran inside to grab my camera quick!

Day 35 Plummer Building

After work I took a few pics of some of the buildings downtown. This is a photo of the Plummer Building. It's a very ornate and beautiful building. The bottom half was shaded by the Mayo building, but the sun hitting the top of the building almost makes it glow in comparrison to the dark modern buildings that surround it.

Day 34 Phone Woes

My Samsung Instinct and I are not friends this week. First it decided to stop running aps so I took it to the Sprint store where they kindly wiped everything from my phone and I lost all of my downloads, settings and extras. Then it decided to reject the whole concept of voicemail. Back to Sprint I went. They told me to call Sprint online and it would be restored. Guess again. After a long hour on the phone with them they sent me back to the store to have my phone replaced. My phone certainly did not like that idea because the next day it took a nose dive into the toilet. After 5 trips to the Sprint store and a couple of hours of my life wasted speaking to customer service and technical support I finally received a working phone today. I would gladly trade it all in for a lovely iPhone...just have to wait 9 1/2 months for my contract to expire, but who's counting....

Day 33 Takeout Slide

I love baseball action shots. Here I captured a KM player taking out our SS on a slide into 2nd. They were pretty aggressive running the bases which helped them to a victory over our boys today. Better luck tomorrow.

Day 32 Baseball Week

Today started another busy week of baseball. The Sharks lost 3-2 to Kasson in the bottom of the 9th inning today. James has baseball Monday, Tuesday, Brian Wednesday, James Friday and Brian again on Sunday. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Day 31 Happy Dog

A clean dog is a happy dog! It was finally nice enough outside to give our dog, Spotty, a bath and let him run loose to dry off. He LOVED every minute of it. Here he is shagging his beloved tennis ball.

Day 30 Ahh, Sun!

Finally, after days of clouds and rain I woke up to see the beautiful sunshine and boy did I ever need a pick-me-up! The weather will be beautiful this weekend. This is a picture looking out the window to the west from the 14th floor of my building. St. Marys Hospital is on the horizon. I how the sunshine illuminates the buildings. Happy Friday everyone!

Day 29 Down in the dumps

Today was a sad day. My son is spending the next 10 days with his dad. His dad hasn't seen him since August so it will be nice for him to spend some time with him, but I will miss him terribly. The house feels so empty already and it's only been 4 hours. I definitely was not feeling like taking quality pics today, but the blog must go on. Here's to hoping this week goes by quickly.

Day 28 Sharks Home Opener

Tonight was the home opener for our local amateur baseball team, The Stewartville-Racine Sharks. It was freezing out, but Brian still managed to get the game winning hit/RBI! I like this picture because Brian's bat was so fast you can barely see it!

Day 27 Warm Memories

Since it's been cold, wet and windy here for the last several days I decided to dig out some of our shells from our Florida vacation in March. In all actuality the weather feels more like March than May. Ah, here's to warm memories of beach weather...

Day 26 Drive

Some days I spend more time in my car than I spend at home. Today was one of those days. I had to make three separate trips to Rochester today...the first was on my way to work, nearly 12 hours later I was back in the car headed for home, then I picked up my shaggy little man and headed back into Rochester to get his haircut and my phone fixed, the back for home we went, then back to Rochester yet again to pick up my phone, then back home again. The gas companies love me. In the spirit of safety I pulled over to take this picture of my all too familiar view. Thank you Lord for a reliable automobile :)

Day 25 Target Field Reflection

We spent Mother's Day watching the Twins win at Target Field. It was James' first game at the new stadium and we were blessed with FREE tickets! Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery and watching a dominant 6-0 win with my boys...what a great way to spend the day :) This is a picture of Brian with the field and part of the bull pen reflecting off his sunglasses.

Day 24 WoodWick

This is a picture of one of my many WoodWick candles. My fiance bought my first one several years ago as a gift and I have been hooked ever since. The candles have a wick made of wood that crackles when you burn it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these candles! This is the Woodwick Green candle in Fireside Glow, but my favorite scent is Fireside, which I also have in the car fragrance. I may have a small addiction :)

Day 23 Rain Rain Go Away

Instead of just sitting in the freezing cold garage today I decided to get out my camera and try to get some pics of the rain we've been getting. It was a long, miserable, cold, crappy day today. It rained all day and there is a possibility of snow tonight. On the bright side I did get this shot and made great money. Maybe I will have some left over after our vacation so I can buy a 50 mm 1.4 lens :)

Day 22 Garage Sale Success

Who knew how much money you could make a few quarters at a time?! It's the annual town wide garage sales for Stewartville. I typically try to head out of town when all of those crazy garage salers migrate in, but this year I broke down and decided to have my very first sale. We really just needed to get rid of some stuff. Day one was a great success. Here's hoping that day 2 is just as lucrative!

Day 21 Jo Tote

For Mother's Day I decided to treat myself to a new camera bag! I was sick of feeling like a pack mule everywhere I would go...carrying a purse, camera bag and another bag. I was so happy to find this Jo Tote in scarlet! There is so much room inside for all of my camera gear plus all the crap from my purse. Great price and fashionable, which is more than I can say for my old bag. Can't wait to try it out this weekend when we head to another Twins game to celebrate Mother's Day. It will be so nice carrying just ONE bag :)

Day 20 Parking

I have worked at Mayo Clinic for 9 1/2 years. It takes about 10 years to get on-site parking at the downtown campus. I got a call the other day from parking and transportation and nearly jumped out of my seat thinking I was FINALLY getting upgraded! Unfortunately that was not the case, but I donate blood regularly and always enter my name in the drawing for the coveted on-site parking space for Mayo employees. My name was drawn for the month of May! It's only been two days, but I am loving every minute of it :) I snapped this quick pick with my P&S of the awesome parking spot right across from the doors/elevators that is mine until the end of the month...yay for donating blood!!! No more shuttle lots, busing and 15 minute walks to my car (sometimes in the rain or cold)...for at least a month :)

Day 19 Baseball Slide

James played a great game today going 2-3 at the plate with 1 RBI, 4 stolen bases and he scored 2 runs. He had a great game defensively as well getting several outs in the field. His team ended up winning 6-4 over Pine Island after giving up a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the last inning. This is a picture of him sliding safely into second base. It would have been the type of game we celebrate with a trip to DQ, but it was too darn cold.

Day 18 One Man's Junk

We finally decided to break down and have a garage sale (about 10 years overdue). We usually just donate all of our stuff to Goodwill, but the extra cash would be nice. I had planned on using the money to buy a new 50 mm 1.4 lens, but Brian thinks we should use it for our family vacation. He wins, you can't argue with that one. Here's some of the crap we are getting rid of. Only 1,000 more things to price, ugh.

Day 17 Lazy Saturday

I love lazy days! We spent most of the day just lounging around the house. It was a good day to practice exposure and amazingly enough James let me practice on him while he was watching TV in our basement :)