Stupid Truck

Yesterday I had a date to meet my husband at a movie theater after work. I waited all day. He got preview tickets from work to go see Funny People and I was really looking forward to it. I decided that I would wait until 4:30, then go to the thrift store on the way. I wanted to look for mens dress shirts for cheap. I use them to make quilts and I have been needed some new ones for a while. Well, I looked around a while and found some I liked as well as a pair of shoes, ballet flats from the gap, and a cute shirt for myself. I paid at the register and happily went out to the truck. I looked at the time on my phone to make sure I hadn't wandered to long in the store. I had plenty of time to make it to the theater to meet Darling Husband. Putting the key in the ignition I, but not starting it, I situated my bag and purse on the seat next to me. Then, I turned the key. The truck whined and whined, but would not start. So, I wait a few minutes and tried again with the same result.
My night was shot. I called DH and he came and got me, then we went home for the tow rope to tow the truck home. We got back to the thirft store and tied the truck to the SUV and followed all the backroads to the car repair shop. Unfortunatly, we were about to turn into the parking lot of the shop and the tow roap broke. Ugh. The people behind me were upset because now they missed their turn light and gave me a glare on the way past. I guess the didn't see my hazard lights flashing the whole time. Anyway, Jerry was able to get a good knot in the rope to at least get us into the parking lot. Thank heavens.
Now, I am waiting to hear what the estimate to fix it will be. I think this is all my fault for jinxing us. Just the other day I was thinking how the truck has been really good and we haven't had many problems with it recently except for the rusty bumper, but that's to be expected after 11 Minnesota winters.
So, we missed the movie I had been waiting to see, and now we get to look forward to a repair bill.

Family Picnic

There was lots of fun things to do, like: Pinatas with candy and whistles

Paddle Boats and Fishing

Throwing balls around the grassy areas

And playing with babies, which was my favorite.

We ended up having about 30 family members showing up, which I think must have been a miracle, this being the first year we tried to get this done, and having ony a month to put all the plans together. We are planning on doing it next year with a game, food, and park commitee to put together some fun things. I can't wait.

Connecting with Family across the pond

(my great-grandmother Britha Hambre Larsdatter, second from the right)

A few years ago I was fortunate enough while doing some family research to happen upon a distant cousin in Norway. He's from my maternal great-grandmother's side of the family and I am so happy to have found him. Recently we have been trading a lot of documents and photos. I went searching in the lock box that was in my grandfather's office when my grandmother died. I have looked in the lock box before, but this time with a purpose of finding things that would be of interest to my Norweigen cousin. I found a newspaper article with a photo of all my great grandmothers brothers and sisters which I immediatly sent to him. Since I cannot read Norweigen I asked him to translate it for me. I cannot wait to hear back what it says. It's also been helpful to determine the names of the people that I have pictures of, but don't know who they are.
I am so thankful that we were able to connect. It's been great getting to know a little about my great-grandmother who died when I was a baby. I have a photo where she is holding me on her lap when I was not even a year old. What a blessing it is to get to know about her and her family even if it's long after she took her last breathe.

I'm Glad

Today I did a little bit of research and found out that I will be able to continue my unemployement. It's a relief to know that I can, however I hate relying on the state to bail me out. I have always thought poorly of those people that let the state or fedral government pay their way, but fortunatly I am not often unemployed and feel that I have paid a lot in taxes over the past 17 years of employement to deserve some help now.
I am waiting to hear back from the company that I had the interview with last week, I really am hoping that I get this job. Then I won't have to continue as I am now. It's a terrible feeling not having control over your finances. Jerry can support us both, but it would make life a less comfortable. Since I suffer from anxiety issues, I would rather have a bit more control over my life. Therefore, a job is a number one priority right now.
I am a bit glad that we don't have kids right now, because it would add to the stress of the situation. Although, it would be lovely to spend that summer with them going to the park and the beach and things like that.

Weekend Review

This has been a busy weekend. On Friday I helped some friends move into thier first house. It's a cute little place, and they didn't have alot of stuff, so it was a cinch to move even though I was warn out at the end of it all. Darn arthritis of mine.
That night I went to sleep early. On Saturday we went to a housewarming party for someother friends of ours. They have a really great place by a popular lake in our area. It's a great starter home and even though it's older you would never know because of all the updates done by the previous owners. While I was there I got a stomach ache that I couldn't get rid of. So, the husband went to a birthday party that I was supposed to got to as well and I stayed home and read a book on my stomach. Thank goodness I was feeling better around midnight and was able to get some good rest last night.
Today, we are waiting for the kidlets to get here to visit for a bit, then it's off to watch the husband play softball. It's their last regular season game, and they need to win both games tonight to win the league championship outright. Exciting, exciting. After that we are off to a BBQ with some friends.
It's kind of a blessing that I don't work during the week, because at least I have time to recover from all the things going on during the weekends.

Interview

I've got an interview this morning! Wish me luck! I would love to actually get this job and be working by August. My unemployment is going to run out in 3 weeks and we can't afford for DH to pay all the bills by himself.

UPDATE:
The interview went great. I will know by next week if I get a second interview. I really hope so. It seems like my kinda job as well as my kinda company. It's a small office of about 6o people and the atmosphere seems really great(like one big family). Wish me luck.

Homemade Pretzels

Last weekend my little sister and I made homemade pretzels. They turned out really great and I didn't know that they were so easy to make. So, here's the finished product.

These are the ones that I created.

These are my sisters. As you can tell she didn't think that here's were that great. But, I think they were just fine for our first try.

Here she is stretching her dough. It was a pretty fun time and something I had never done before either. I really like baking with my sisters. It's a lot of fun. It's more fun then baking alone, even though I enjoy that as well.

Adoption Update: Got an e-mail from our SW which stated that she got my message and would get back to me soon. Ugh.

Cody loves the Water

Yesterday we took the dogs out in the boat for a little fishing. Before we knew it Cody was in the water. He jumped from the front of the boat while we weren't looking. Crazy dog. It's the first time we have taken him near the water and it appears that he likes it alot.
I was surprised that Tullah didn't follow him in. She follows him everywhere. We did have a bit of trouble getting him back into the boat however. It took some coaxing to get him to the back of the boat, but once we got him there it was a bit easier. He looked so happy though, it was hard to be mad at him for enjoying his swim and now we know that we should watch him a bit more closely when we take him on the boat.
As for Jerry and I, we had a great time relaxing on the boat. I didn't catch anything, but Jerry caught two northerns. They were small so he threw them back into the lake. The weather was lovely. It was a breezy 75 degrees and sunny. That's my favorite kind of weather. I did manage to get a bit of a burn on my back, but that's to be expected on the water.

Happy Birthday Jerry

Today is my husband's birthday and I won't be spending it with him. He's got a softball event today that he does every year that he looks forward to. It feels a little weird, but if it's what he wants to do on his birthday I can't complain. We celebrated last night with friends and family and had a great time. Now, today I have to myself. I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do. Since I usually have days to myself while not working it feels like any other day. Hmm. I thought of a movie, but I have seen everything out that I want to see. I could mow my lawn, but that's no fun. I dunno what I will end up doing, but I am sure it will be relaxing. Maybe I will call my mom or my sister and do something with them.
It's too bad my sister in law doesn't have a phone. I would call and see what she and the kids are doing today. It would be fun to spend some time with the kiddos if I could.

Just Another Thursday

Today is a rainy day, and all I want to do is sleep. Tomorrow we have Jer's birthday dinner and concert and I will be running around getting things together, but today is mine. Here's my plan...
Read, Eat Lunch, Read, Make Dinner, veg out!
Jerry could have gotten us tickets to Bruno tonight, but I don't really wanna see it. I didn't really like Borat all that much, so I am sure Bruno will be the same kinda thing. I would rather just stay in and spend some quiet time with the hubbins.
Tomorrow I have a phone interview that I am looking forward to. Pray that it goes well and I get an actual interview out of it. It's been a few months since my last in person interview. It would be great to actually get this job, because I am running out of unemployement. Only a few weeks left of it. On the plus side, I do have some weddings to shoot in the near future so if my unemployement does run out I won't be high and dry.
I left a message with our Social worker on Monday. I have heard nothing from her yet. I will call her again on Monday. Hopefully, I will get a response before that, but I won't hold my breathe.

I went Tubing...Can you believe that

This weekend was really fun. We went up to a friends cabin on Friday and Saturday. We didn't stay up there because it was only an hour from our home, and we didn't have anyone to take care of the dogs, but the trip was short so it was no big deal and we got to sleep in our own bed.

So, on the 4th of July I went tubing. And it didn't even hurt. I thought that when I woke up on Sunday morning I would be sore, but I really wasn't. I did have a really large bruise on my arm, but that wasn't from tubing. That was caused by my two left feet causing me to trip into the casing around the boat windshield. Figures, right, that I would get hurt inside the boat and not on the tube.

The fireworks were really great too, because we were on a lake and could see several displays going on off multiple shores, but the best were put on by the lake association with an honorable mention going to Don. He brought some with him to shoot off the shore.