Patio Enjoyment

I love this small window of seasonal opportunity that affords outdoor dining. Food and drink are always much more delicious when enjoyed under the stars!

Last night I seized the moment and had my parents and grandpa over for an impromptu patio dinner.

It's Great to be Home

Finally home after over a week on the road visiting three different places (work and pleasure). Ooodles of yard work awaited me but I happily accepted. Oh yeah also did a lil of this....

Any guesses?

Dating Country Style

I am quickly learning that dating in the country is quite different than dating in the city. In the city a date usually involves dinner/drinks and high heels. In the country it may amount to something like this.



Drinks, a drive, and a lil cattle work.


I did clean the mirror to get these pictures and yes I actually took pictures of the cattle moving process, I am sure this was entertainment on many levels for my date.

No More Husker Bathroom

Our cabin is quite 70's. I am not a fan of the 70's. Our Guest bathroom was not only 70's but also Husker red which was always good for a few jokes since our family are Hawkeye fans.



Amazing the power of a lil paint, new sink, and hardware.

Much much better. Looks clean, inviting, and fresh. Don't you think?

April Showers bring May flowers – but what do May showers bring?

Rain rain and more rain this month. Ol Mighty Mo is about to burst at the seams…Hopefully this means all kinds of green grass, pretty flowers, fresh veggies, and sunshine for the summer months!


I seem to have a slight flower/plant addiction. I can’t pass a plant store without wanting to stop and buy a thing or two. I get excited to plant, mulch, and get dirty. I get even more excited when my creations start to grow and bloom. Anyone else have this obsession right now?

The Gambler Race Report

I don’t think I can rave enough about how great The Gambler was. Packet pick up was very smooth and the free pasta dinner was excellent. Race day was very organized. Great instructions with where to park, plenty of restrooms, etc…The individuals that ran the race this year did amazing. My favorite was the many water stops; I don’t think I ever went more than about a mile and a half without water. It was great having water available so often on the course. Even better was that I ended up knowing someone at almost every single water stop! It was so fun to run into a friendly face and have a few words of encouragement before tacking more miles. The police officers also did a superb job and offered up a friendly smile throughout the race. And of course my amazing family that shows up to support us crazy runners.

Just a great great race day and the weather was perfect as well (although quite windy at times)! Thanks to everyone that volunteered to help with the race and to all of the spectators that cheered us on. My race time was very similar to the Lincoln Marathon a few weeks ago – a tad bit slower (probably due to all my chatting with the volunteers along the way) I ended up with 2:09:58 so right under 2:10 which was my goal (wishful thinking would have been 2:05 – someday!).

Our next half marathon won’t be till fall. Right now I need to work on speed for an upcoming 5k and recover from the last two half’s. After the race we rewarded ourselves with Harrah’s buffet as seemed legit – and found out my lovely sister-in-law placed second in her age division! Great job Christine!!!

The Promise of Summer

It’s a cold rainy day and hasn’t been a very “summerlike” week. These images - snapped in my backyard - have me hopefully for what summer has in store.


It’s the blooms of pretty new flowers, the green grass, and the fun new green chairs for my patio.

These images have me hopeful for what is sure to be the Best Summer Ever as my sister-in-law and I keep calling it. We have many fun concerts and trips lined up, the promise of cocktails on a patio, the top off the jeep, long runs, and suntans ….Isn’t every summer the best?? I think so as does Aeisha!

Please Don’t Rain on my Parade

Rain is in the forecast for the next few days. We need rain and I actually want a lil rain to help all my plants grow.

Once I started gardening I gained a new sense of appreciation for rain. That being said I would prefer said rain takes a vacation Saturday morning. I have a parade (Celebrate CB) to participate in and really don’t want rain messing things up! Weather Gods are you listening??

Weekend Dress Code

I spent a good portion of my weekend looking like this and loved every minute of it!

Shocking I know as I usually prefer to stay clean and despise rain. But somehow when working in the yard I let these tendencies slip away and trudged onward. Hoping all the hard work pays off and I get to enjoy a pretty yard this summer!

Happy Mother’s Day Times Two

We celebrated Mother’s Day a little late this year so that the whole family (unfortunately minus my dad - darn work) could be in attendance. I whipped up a strawberry rhubarb pie with cut out hearts to show my love for my mother.

And cut down the final few lilac blooms (sadness over the short life of lilacs).


So we could have a table that looked and smelled pretty.

It was a great evening full of fun and laughter with family over fresh and tasty food (almost everything we consumed was either picked from my parents home or purchased from local sources).

Blackberry Farm Cookbook

I have raved before about Blackberry Farm and how it’s my dream to go there – well really its my dream to own a Midwest version of Blackberry Farm but I’ll be happy to start with a visit!! I just bought this cookbook:

Can’t wait for it to arrive. Guessing the photos alone will have me even more anxious for a visit! Hopefully it will also inspire some tasty summer meals.

Memphis Cotton Museum

Stumbled upon these photos from our visit to the Cotton Museum in March. It was actually a very cool museum located in the Cotton Exchange Building.

It was a glimpse into life for those in the industry, especially before modern technogoy and practices.




The Cotton Exchange building was one a very exclusive members only “club” where cotton farmers and traders would meet and make business deals.



Slaves were used for most of the labor on the cotton farms.


Quite the hard life for those working the fields, I tried to imagine carrying bags full of cotton day in and day out and it would be back breaking labor to say the least!

I would recommend this museum if you are visiting Memphis, great for kids or adults as sections that appeal to all age groups.