Zoey vs. Carnitas

On Monday we picked up a tray of precooked carnitas for Ben and my brother to have for dinner. I cooked it up and got the rest of the meal ready and then headed off to book club. When I got home, Ben greeted me with a hug and a kiss. Then said, "It wasn't my fault." Uh-oh. Turns out the carnitas was left a little too close to the counter edge and Zoey helped herself to the rest of it (probably a pound +). *sigh* I wasn't upset, but now I had to come up with something for dinner on Tuesday.

We figured that her little system would be going crazy, so I worked from home on Tuesday. Good thing too. Shortly after lunch she started to need to go outside. She had several messes outside and then seemed fine. She stayed up with Ben while I went to bed. Good thing too. She ended up going out twice more and vomiting twice too. Poor little girl. They came to bed then I was up with her twice again. So, once again I am working from home to keep an eye on her. So far she seems fine, but I don't want to take any chances. Unfortunately, I don't think she will learn from this experience. Oh, well.

We Are Family

This past weekend was the August Schell's Family Reunion in New Ulm (150 years!). We drove down to spend Saturday there. It is amazing to think how many people I'm "related" to. I think the official RSVP count was 375 people. And the seventh generation is just getting started (Baby Roy will be in that generation).

It was a perfect day for an outdoor event. The sun was out, but it wasn't that hot. We got there around noon and had a lunch of brats, German potato salad, fruit, and chips. And all the beer or root beer you wanted. (Side note - the last time we had a reunion was in 1995 and I was too young to have beer. This time I was old enough but still couldn't have any. Oh, well. 1919 root beer is so yummy!!!).

I took a tour of the family "mansion." I put mansion in quotes because it's not that large of a house. But back in the day (1885) it was pretty nice sized, I guess. The tour was pretty cool. In each of the rooms a descendant was there to talk about the room. The guy in the kitchen is the grandson of the last people that lived there. He remembers visiting Grandpa and Grandma in the house. The front parlor guy remembers being chased out of that room by the aunts and uncles because kids weren't allowed in that room. It was neat to have first hand stories of that house. They are working on restoring it. That should be pretty cool.

This family event was so different than the Storm Lake trip. I think mainly because it is so big, but also the people there are mostly so far removed I didn't know hardly anyone. My two great aunts that are still around made it. And a few of their kids I know. And that was about it. So, I just soaked up the history of the place and the chance to hang with my family. All in all, not a bad way to spend the day.

Twist and Shout

Last night we had a huge line of storms come through Minnesota. It was a little crazy. The storms were as far south as just 20 miles north of the Iowa border and as far north as 3 hours north of the Twin Cities. The weather people were commenting on the size of the storm. The storm produced thunderstorms, hail and tornados. The amount of activity really kept the weather people busy! Thankfully, the TC was pretty much untouched by the activity. We got some rain, but that was about it.

Here's one story on the storms.

We're From Ioway

Last weekend we went to Iowa to help celebrate Ben's aunt and uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary. About an hour away from Storm Lake we realized we left our camera at home. :(

We got to the resort and checked in and then walked down the hallway to the suite that the family was hanging out in. Elenore (the aunt of the hour) was so completely surprised that we were there (we hadn't RSVP'ed since we didn't know until last minute that we were going to go down there). It was fun to be able to surprise everyone.

We hung out in the suite until everyone started to get ready for the dinner. We went and changed too and then headed out. Dinner was fun. We sat with one of Ben's cousins and her family. It's still a little strange to me that some Ben's cousins are closer in age to his parents than to us. The result is that their children are closer to our age. But anyway.

After dinner we went back to the suite. I was feeling pretty tired, but figured I could hang out for a little bit. Boy, am I glad that I did! We had so much fun! The family was busy swapping stories and everyone was laughing so hard. I thought maybe I would laugh the baby out. Thankfully that didn't happen, but I did have sore muscles for a few days.

Sunday morning we once again went to the suite and had breakfast and said our good byes. Then Rick took us on a tour of the town to show where he grew up. Up until then I always thought he grew up on a farm. Nope! In town. Then it was on the road again.

Amazing Life

A few months back we accidentally left the water on in our main fish tank. We didn't discover it until the next day. (Once again thankful that the tank isn't on our wood floors or carpets!). The tricky part is that since the fresh water was added slowly, you can't just remove water and add more salt as that will shock everything (re: possibly kill). So, you need to slowly adjust the salinity. We thought that the water would evaporate more quickly than it did, so we ended up waiting a week before intervening after about a week by slowly removing water and adding salt (over the course of another week or so). We were really scared that we would loose everything. Our poor little urchin give me a scare a time or two. Amazingly, we lost very little. We did loose our serpent stars and some of our coral. But the fish all made it. And some of our coral is making a comeback. I really was surprised at how much survived! Just goes to show how good life is at adapting to change. Life is a pretty amazing thing.

More Like Labor Day

No, not that kind of labor. :)

This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend. Ben and I decided to try and make the most of 3 1/2 days off of work by getting some stuff done. Friday and Saturday we ran some errands. Saturday afternoon we went to a friend's 30 birthday party. Sunday we had a bunch of things we wanted to get done. But sometimes plans are just not meant to be. I think we were both discouraged about the lack of progress made. But then Monday rolled around.

Our one project was to build a retaining wall around the front "sand pit." This area has been on our list since we moved in. Monday we went to Menard's and found some great bricks that we both liked and also as important - allowed us to make 90 degree corners (most bricks for whatever reason aren't made that way). Poor Ben had to do all the lifting... all 2100 pounds. Twice (load and unload). But it worked out perfectly! We didn't have to cut any of the bricks. And it looks fantastic. And after all of that Ben mowed the lawn (that takes about 2 hours).

At the end, we were both happy about the progress that we made and the results. We are doing the lasagna method of gardening, so in a few weeks we should be able to plant some pretty flowers. So excited!