Long time no write

Hope you've all been having a good new year (you know, now that its March and all).  Here are some pic's to update you on stuff going on since my last post in November (yeah, I'm bad--like I say to Dan a lot when I don't get something done that I meant to do--"It's because I'm a terrible person.")

Ummm . . . big thing, I guess--we went to Mexico with my brother and sister-in-law back in the beginning of December)

Us in Tepic

Dan and our family's old exchange student, Michele in Tepic

With my brother and his wife on his birthday!

The street in front of our hotel

Me in the water on Stone Island

Restaurants on Stone Island

Olas Altas Bay--from our hotel room balcony

Fun was had by all (and we left on the day of a snow storm and arrived back . . . ummm . . . two days later than expected due to the snowstorm that took down the Metrodome roof)

But--we do like the snow--we love the snow!


Sooo . . . snowy wintery scenes around the farm . . .

Tinkerbell and Rowdy eating in the snow

Rowdy eating in the feed bunk

Dan added this divider so that the cows could no longer stand in the feed bunk to eat--while it makes an adorable picture, it causes quite a mess (as cows don't care where they do their business) and we weren't quite sure if the bunk's 2 x 12 boards were really able to handle pregnant cows day after day!

Sleeping out in the snow--Dan and his cousin slept out one Friday evening in early Feb.  Meanwhile, I stayed in the house and watched a movie and some old episodes of Bewitched with my sister-in-law.  Woohoo--sorry, Dan, I know that couples should do things together, but sleeping out on the frozen ground is not on my agenda--love camping--I've even camped out in well below freezing temps, but that was in a Teepee.

Wheat in the field where Dan and his cousin slept--would this be considered winter wheat?

Me last week in front of a mongo drift that formed in front of one of our old buildings.

A last look at the cows on a snowy, foggy day!

 Well, hope that catches you all up! 

A title should go here

Just a few pictures of the fun going on around here!

Last week was our anniversary, so we both took the day off and went down to the Como Zoo and Conservatory in St. Paul!  (And following those pictures are embarrassing photos of Norman and Bernie that I took this week--I know, I know--who really needs to see these photos, but golly these animals make me laugh!)

The Animals

Pink flamingo!

Sleeping polar bear!

Giraffe and baby!

Gorilla!

 The Plants

Pretty flower!

The fern room!

Light through the leaves!

Now how about those embarrassing photos!

Norman & Bernie-the misfits

Can you do this?  And be comfortable?

You can just play with his paws and he barely slits open his eyes!

Bernie yawning--if you are any kind of vet could you tell me who Bernie's teeth are soooo small--he's got really short whiskers, too and his front claws are only little claw nubs (his back claws are normal, though)

 Well, those are the sights I've seen this past week!

The Fall of the Year

One of the maple trees in the pasture

Gorgeous weather this past week has led to gorgeous color and temperatures perfect for walking through our pasture!  (It has also led to thousands of boxelder bugs congregating on the south side of our house--the side with our main door, the side our bedroom window looks out on, the side our big dining room and living room windows look out--thank goodness for beautiful fall color in the outdoors!)

I love red maple leaves

I also think these vines look beautiful--they are considered bad as they can kill off trees eventually, but golly they're pretty as they do it?

Yep, fall is pretty!  I love fall--I got married in the fall--Our 8th anniversary is next week--Happy Anniversary, Dan (though, you don't know how to find my blog--I'll bring you in and show you this post, though, so I guess I can make sure you'll see it!)

Happy October, everyone!

Happy Birthday Dan!

Dan doesn't go on the internet--we don't have internet at home--he doesn't quite know how to turn on the computer we have at home.  Perhaps if we get the internet someday (hmmm, someway needed to convince Dan that this should become a monthly household expense--difficult to do with a person who doesn't care for computers) he would actually spend many hours just browsing all over at things rather than working on the house and making it nice.  Hmmm . . . scrap that, 130-140 year old houses need work and we need to finish off projects.  All that being said--he won't read this--he won't see how happy I am for him that it is his birthday and that we are going out to eat at Applebee's tonight.  (and getting spicy wings--I am sure).  BUT . . . I will let him know that I wrote up a little something about his birthday and I'll even let him know that I think he's kinda cute.

Anyone else want to send my wonderful husband well wishes?  Just leave a comment and I'll let him know that somebody, somewhere out there that he has never heard of or might have heard a few words about at some point, but won't remember because he barely remembers that I have a blog because the word "blog" means nothing to him (except that Pioneer Woman has one and we stood in line for 5 hours to get my cookbook signed not to mention the 3 hours round trip in the vehicle).

Soooo . . . anyway Happy Birthday to my Dan.  The one that takes the gross things out of the refrigerator for me, plows out the driveway, does the heavy lifting, does pretty leatherwork and remembers that I love wild flowers!

Hey! and Shingelles and Eye Camel Friday/Monday

Well, I was so going to post again on Friday because I still have all sorts of cool pictures to show you. (Taken by a Canon Digital Rebel with a Tamron Zoom Lens, Isela) I didn't because I woke up on Friday morning with the left side of my face all swollen and had to go to the doctor. I have Shingelles :( Sad, sad, sad. My face remained swollen through the weekend and I have a rash on my left eyelid. It really looked like Dan had done a number on me. Now, I look much better (although my eye is still a bit swollen). Anyway, since I can only post from work (no internet at home) I had to wait until now to post anything.

So I have an eye camel Monday post for you

Here is Oliver in a bowl made by Zac Spates

Close-ups of kitties

Haystack

Cleopatra

Now for knitting content (because I got to stay home alllllll weekend, for once. Yippee!)-

1. I wound the hanks of cherry blossom sock yarn (I don't have a ball winder or swift or anything, so it takes a lot of time) while watching part of the first season of Bewitched (while we were watching this Dan told me that if I was a witch, he would be perfectly happy for me to use my powers to do things-snap-the house is clean-snap-we're on vacation in the mountains-snap-he doesn't have to go to work anymore---okay that didn't happen and I am not a witch. I guess it is for the best)

2. I also finished the thumb on the blue whale and started the second one. (I was really tempted to start making a pair of knee highs, but was able to restrain myself)

Well, that's the knitting content. I also read two books this weekend. One called Blackbird an autobiography Jennifer Lauck (heartbreaking and warming) and the other The Postcard by Beverly Lewis (about an Amish woman). I'm a sucker for those kind of books. I like to cry and all that with books.

How'd it happen?

Well, Maya got engaged in February and she just wrote about how it happened in her blog, so it got me to thinking about how my husband proposed to me.
We've been married for going on five years now, but I remember it anyway :0)

So here goes--we were already pretty much figuring on getting married the next fall, but Dan's kind of a slow guy sometimes. (I recall that he compared us getting married to selling his old truck (not when we got engaged-I promise)-meaning that even though he knew he wanted to sell his old truck he just hadn't been ready to do it right away, but then he ended up selling it-what a romantic guy, huh? (this was is the summer before he proposed to me-I still tell him that he should never again compare me to an old truck, but I digress))

Anyway, on a very cold and windy day in January (the 19th) he came over to my parent's house (the one we live in now) to take me on a date. We had been planning to go for a walk in the snow, but it was nasty cold. Instead I played something for him on the piano that I was going to play for church the next day. He sat on the couch across the room from me with my cat, Cleo. When I had finished with the song I turned around and then got up and walked over to him. He got off of the couch, knelt down and proposed to me. I said yes to my most romantic man. (He said to me later that he had been asking the cat whether or not he should ask me) Then we went up to St. Cloud to go pick out a ring-he was nervous about picking one out, so we got it that night and even though we would have liked to have gone to this fifties diner that we had seen up there once or twice-for whatever reason we couldn't find it and ended up eating out at Pizza Hut.

Ahhh, the memories. Well, what my Dan sometimes lacks in romantic notions he makes up for in boundless kindness and forgiveness for all of my faults. I will be able to show our children someday the place where their dad proposed to me . . .

Us on our wedding day outside the church

So that, in my long-winded nutshell is how my husband proposed to me-Anyone else?

Someday soon sometime once again there will be knitting content, but, eh, there isn't very much to talk about on that subject.