Santa Came!

Christmas Eve was spent with my family at one of my daughter's.  After we ate our evening meal and had just started to open our White Elephant gifts we heard a noise at the front door.  What to our surprise, in came Santa, Mrs. Clause and two elves.

They brought gifts for those that had been nice.   The rest of us must have been naughty as we didn't get any.  Two of my daughters got to sit on Santa's lap and get their gifts.

Then my daughter, Norma and her boyfriend were asked to sit by Santa.  Norma opened her gift of chocolates.

Then Randy opened his.  Inside was another box and he said, "oh, this one is for Norma"

Then he opened the box, got down on one knee, held out a diamond, and asked her to marry him.  We were all so surprised, looking at each other and saying "is this for real"?  Yes it was for real and no one knew about it except Randy, Santa and his helpers.  I didn't even get a picture of him as he was proposing.  Santa brought champagne and we all toasted the happy couple.

Here is the happy couple with Santa and his helpers.  

After all that excitement we went back to opening the White Elephant gifts.  In addition to that, I got some wonderful gifts from those amazing daughters of mine.  They gave me a new pair of PJ's, a gift certificate to a bed and breakfast, subscription to Lake Superior Magazine, and a gift certificate at Amazon.  I am going to use that to buy the book, "Are We Walking to Alaska" a true story written by my blog friend, JoAnn, at Scene Through My Eyes

I also spent Sunday and Monday with my friend, Eugene, and his family at the farm for their Christmas.  What a fun time that was and lots of good food!  My gift there was a gift certificate to the nursery for plants and flowers next summer.

I hope you all had as an amazing Christmas as I did with a few surprises too.

This will be my last post until 2014.

Wishing you all the best for the rest of this year and a Blessed 2014!

Until next time, thanks for visiting!

Barb

Merry Christmas!

I didn't do much Christmas decorating this year but here are a few pictures of what I did do.

Kitchen cabinet I repainted last year.

Arrangement on the Kitchen table

3 of my lighted houses

My Nativity  Scene with a drawer as the manger.

Oops. I see one of the trees was tipped over.  

This will be my last post for this year so I want to wish all my followers a Very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.  Thanks for all your kind comments over this past year.  I appreciate every one of them!

  See you in 2014!

Hugs,

Barb

My Christmas Tree

Good morning everyone!  Yes, I am alive and well and thought it was about time to post something Christmasy.  I have been so busy.  I spent several days with my daughter over Thanksgiving.  Ever since I got home it's been one Christmas party, dinner, luncheon, tea, etc. Fun but tiring. Today I finally have a day at home so will show you my Christmas tree.  I did a very different tree this year.  I used one of my tall skinny trees and  my lighthouse decorations and some antique ornaments.

This Lighthouse was sent to me from my cousin in New Hampshire.  She got it at a garage sale for $2.00 and knows how much I love lighthouses.  Isn't it pretty. Thanks Cindy!

These are a couple of the antique ornaments.  They are from when I was a child so they are really old.

I have been visiting some of you but just have not been commenting.  I hope to visit you all soon.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend.  Now I'm off to finish my cards.

Until next time

Barb

p.s.  Don't ask how I got the lights to twinkle.  Google just uploaded them like that.

Giving Thanks

With Thanksgiving only a couple of days away I would like to give thanks for my family and friends, including all of you, my blogging friends!  I would also like to give thanks for my cozy little home, food on the table, and the relatively good health that I have for someone my age.  I'm also thankful for computer techs that could fix my computer and retrieve my photos and documents.  The only thing that I lost was my contacts and the emails still in the inbox that I hadn't saved.  So that's not too bad.  Thanks for all your kind comments.  I was pretty bummed but then I thought it's only some photos and documents.  Nothing compared to all those that had lost so much in the tornadoes a week or so ago.

Wishing all of my US friends a Blessed Thanksgiving and safe travels and the rest of you a great weekend.  I'll see you after Thanksgiving.

Barb

Computer woes

Good morning everyone.  I hope you are having a better day than I am.  I seem to have lost Microsoft Office, my  personal email, my photos and who knows what else.  I am able to get on the internet using Firefox so I can get email on my gmail account and get into my blog.  I will probably be taking the computer to the doctor today so it may be a few days before I visit you.  I may go to the Library and use their computer to visit you.  But who knows when I will be back.  I sure hope they can restore it and find all my photos.

See you when I can.

Barb

Random 5 Friday

Here are 5 random facts from this week.  When I say random, that's what they are.

1.  Last weekend I took my friend to Onamia for his grandson's confirmation.  On the way home we stopped in Spicer, MN to see the Olde Mill that I had heard about.  It was getting quite dark so I had to lighten these photos in PicMonkey.  The mill was built in 1862 on Green Lake.  In 1914 it was turned into an inn to accommodate tourists.  You can read more about the mill here.

2.  On Tuesday I had a big old molar pulled.  It was beyond saving.  I spent most of the day resting.

3. If you live in this area there is a lot of eating going on.  Wed night the youth at my church put on a spaghetti supper to raise money for a mission trip.  Last night there was an education banquette to honor students, teachers, and other school personnel.  They also honor citizens of the community that have been influential in the school and the community over the years.  The father of one of my classmates was one of the honorees.

4.  The weather has been on a roller coaster.  The first snow has melted and then it snowed a little again Sunday night.  Yesterday the temps were in the 50's so I did a little garden cleanup.  The grass is still green.

5.  Tomorrow I am taking an all day watercolor painting class.  It is with the same teacher I took the class with at Senior Collage.

Well that's a wrap!

Thanks for stopping!  Have a great weekend!

See you next time

Barb

I forgot to say, please visit Nancy at A Rural Journal for more randomness.

Shoveling Leaves and Snow

Have you ever heard of shoveling leaves and snow at the same time?  Well I hadn't until Wednesday when we had our first snow and then the leaves fell.  Here is what it looks like.  The 1st photo is my first pass down the sidewalk.

This next one is my second pass with both leaves and snow in the shovel

The last one is when I finished and the leaves kept falling.  Notice how many are on the street at the top of the photo.

You can see more leaves and snow pictures in my previous post.

Thanks for stopping and have a nice weekend.

See you next time

Barb

Orange and Gold

While out for an evening drive a week or so ago I took this shot of the farm site with the windmill backed by the orange sky.

Leaves on my Maple tree

My lawn yesterday

My lawn today.  What a difference a day makes in Minnesota.  

We had about 4 inches of snow overnight.  I have to dig out my boots and go out and shovel snow and leaves.

Linking to Rurality Blog Hop

Orange You Glad it's Friday

Sky Watch

I did get the living room cleaned.  Now I am pricing Christmas items and decorating my space at the lighting store.  I'll show you a photo when I get done decorating.

I hope you are all having a great week and I'll see you next time!

Barb

Rurality Blog Hop

When I posted about the life of a bean field, I forgot one important and expensive step in the process.  That is spraying of the fields to get rid of the weeds.  Either the farmer does it with a tractor and sprayer like in the photo below.

Source Internet

Or they hire a crop dusting plane.

While I was out taking photos of this old barn the crop duster was buzzing around spraying a nearby bean field.  He was flying so fast that it was hard to get a photo of him.

After many tries, I finally got a photo of him coming down to spray the field.  They fly so low that it is scary. No, that is not the bean field in the foreground.

Linking to Rurality Blog Hop #38

I have decided that I am making cleaning this dirty house a priority so I won't be posting and commenting as much for the next few weeks.  I will visit you all when I can.  I may or may not comment.  I am also getting things ready to decorate my space at the lighting store for Christmas.  Thanks to all my faithful and new followers for all your visits and nice comments.  They make my day.

Until next time

Barb

The Life of a Soy Bean Field

I thought it would be fun to show you the life of a soy bean field.  I know many of you are from big cities or other countries and may not realize what goes into raising soy  beans.

Here's the big tractor waiting to plant.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of the planting.

Here is what the field looks like in July or August...nice and green

The middle to late September...Almost ready to combine

Here is one farmer combining the beans.  Some farmers load the beans into this kind of wagon and then it is hauled to either their farm and put in bins or to the elevator in town.

Other farmers use these huge wagons and then they are emptied into the big grain trucks below

The farmers work well into the night.  Sorry for the quality of this photo.

This is what the field looks like when they are finished.

It costs a lot of money to grow the beans.  The huge equipment is expensive.  Then there is the cost of seed, the fuel to run the tractors, combines, and big semis.  Plus the hours of work that goes into it.  The soybean harvest has pretty much wrapped up and now the farmers are onto picking corn.

I hope you have learned a little about what goes into growing soy beans.

Linking to Rurality Blog Hop 37

Thanks for stopping.  Have a great day.

Until Next Time

Barb

Mondays Barn

This barn was right across the road from the church I posted yesterday.  Fun taking a detour when you get to see more churches and barns to photograph.

Love the stone foundation

Pretty fretwork in the gable and I love the cupola and weather vane

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Monday

Until next time

Barb

Emanuel Lutheran Church

I have often seen this church off the highway a ways when I drive to and from my daughter's at Waconia.  The last time I was there I had to take a detour that took me right past this church so I had to stop and take a photo.  It is the Emanuel Lutheran Church and School at Hamberg, MN.  I thought it had such a pretty church and spire.  Around back of the church was a large cemetery.

Linking to InSPIREd Sunday

Thanks to Beth and Sally  for hosting this meme.  Stop over to see other churches and spires from around the world.

Thanks for stopping and have a wonderful Sunday

Until next time

Barb

Rurality Blog Hop and a Fence

Just a couple of photos I took this morning while driving down a country road.  I'll be sharing them at
Friday Fences #101 and Rurality Blog Hop #36.

Thanks to everyone who left such nice comments on my Note Cards!  You are all so kind.  This is the most comments I've ever had on any  post.

Please stop over at the memes listed at the top to see all things country and fences.

Thanks for visiting today!  Have a great weekend.

See you next tine

Barb