Fun 4th of July...Late Posting!

Erickson Family

Goofy Erickson Family

Rick, Cindy, Jamey, & Megan

Rick, Cindy, Jamey, Kate, & Megan

Rick & Cindy

All having way too much fun together! Yay!

Jamey & Kate all pooped out from the 4th of July Festivities!
Annual driveway "Death Scene" - Even Grandma got in on the Fun!
4th of July fireworks!

How I Spent My Weekend...

Yep! This pretty much sums up how I spent my weekend. Sighhhh! It was Lovely!

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This Folks!

Beautiful Scenery in my own back yard! I am so at peace in my garden!

Kate's birthday party...silly kids!

A Brisket, Friends, & Me...All on a sunny day!

Summer Fun!

Thank you all for taking the time to come and visit with us! The food was great! The company was fun! The weather was perrrrrfect!! Now this is SUMMER!!!! I was so busy I forgot to take pictures, so if you weren't here, you'll just have to imagine all the fun we had. Let's do it again sometime. Thanks everyone for making our day complete!

Fiesta Time!!

Rick got a new Smoker (meat cooker) for father's day (Thanks Jamey & Kate!). We're gonna try it out on Sunday and have a party! You're all welcome to stop in!! Aren't the chairs AMAZING?!!

READY...SET...CUT!

So I was all set to update my blog. I've been waiting for a week or more to take a picture of the beautiful patio chairs that Rick painted for me! I got Rick's camera ready, positioned the chairs for their photo, & Wah-Lah! Camera doesn't work! Now we have NO CAMERA in the house that works!! I'm frustrated to say the least! You'll all just have to stop in to see them I guess. Anyone interested in a grand fiesta party complete with comfortable/gorgeous chairs should stop by! I wanna have a fiesta party. I think I may just have to do that. Only thing is I need the weather to cooperate and it doesn't like to do that here in Minnesooooota! So until we figure this camera thing out...you'll all have to anticipate the beauty or come out yourself to take a peek.
That's all I got! Have a great week!

Graduation and open houses

Another weekend of graduation open houses. At least the weather was a little nicer than last weekend. It's so amazing to go to these parties to celebrate a new beginning for all these former dancers. You know the ones I mean...all those little girls who danced in Just For Kix and later danced with all the passion and desire I had dreamed they'd have for dance team in High School. This year was the smallest group of open houses I had (only 6). I think it's because I haven't been coaching for 2 years and the girls tend to forget. I still wish them all the very best! They are all girls who exceed expectations in everything they do and worked soooo hard to git-R-done! I'm so proud of all of them. Tears well in my eyes at this very moment just thinking about the little pink tutu's or cute little blue and white sailor suits ! Oh yeah! The memories! God Bless you all. Now show us all What Ya Got!

Feels Good!

I finally had an evening that had no expectation or committment. It was sooo nice. A couple glasses of wine...my favorite program...my kitties by my side...Ricky Dean wandering around doin' his thing. It just felt good. Knowing I could sleep in tomorrow morning. Knowing we are going to fumble around the house and just do what we want to do. It felt good. I am happy with that. It's been several months since I felt this way ...maybe the last time was in Manzanillo,MX in February. I just hope the weather cooperates so we can work outside. Hopefully I can post a few pics. I don't have a camera anymore (one that works) and Rick has his camera set for too high dpi so I can't upload them. Oh well....we'll see if I can figure it out. If not...you'll have to imagine. But that's what we used to do anyway, right? Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Mole poison and Jelly Beans!!

Happy Birthday Ricky Dean!

My Honey Bunny!

Love...needs no words.

A Memorable Day of Recognition!

Congratulations Meggie Loo Hoo! We are Soooooo Proud!!

Congratulations to my beeeuuuuifullest daughter on her graduation from St. Mary's University!! Ok...so she really graduated in December but her ceremony is tomorrow. Complete with cap and gown. I will have pictures tomorrow! Way ta go girl!!!

Monday...Already Can't wait for the Weekend!

Ok...it's Monday and I am already looking forward to the weekend! Is that wrong? I have to say I had an exciting past weekend. I was invited by my lovely sister-in-law to go to a Kentucky Derby party in Minneapolis where the host has a poker tournament every year. I originally said I would be the cheering section for Michelle and her friend, Sherry, because I have never played poker in my life! After much discussion, persuasion (ok, ARM TWISTING) I was coerced into participating. So I laid down my $20 and told the 17 other players that they would have to help me because I had "No Clue" how to play! To top it off...I only knew 2 people at the party (Michelle & Sherry)! We start playing and things are looking good. I'm getting instructions, asking tons of questions, and generally BS'ing my way through the first few rounds. Within the first hour I was well on my way to holding my own little pot of gold. With utter amazement I continued to generate a ton of good luck (& chips)! As the players left the table, and more filled their vacated seats, the competition became harsh. My hands began to shake and my stomach felt queasy. I was doing my best to appear confident and in charge. How does one do that when they have absolutely NO IDEA what they are doing?! Hmmmm? I continued on and blazed a mixed trail of excitement and anxiety! Even Michelle and Sherry were kickin' butt and laughing up a storm! The three of us made it to the final table and round in the tournament. Every time I would take someone "out" I would grin and try to stack up my accumulated chips. By the end of the game...someone just brought me 2 plates and I threw half of them on the plates because they kept tipping over...hee hee! Fun! I can't even begin to tell you how surprised everyone was that I was still winning! Most people thought I was lying about never playing before. The finale was great! I was feeling pretty confident. In the end I ended up winning the entire "Texas Hold 'Em" tournament with a winning pot of $200! I completely forgot that there was a cash reward! I was too busy having fun, learning, laughing, and playing poker! I think I missed my true calling! Ha! Ha! I let the party host keep the trophy because I didn't know if I could make it up again next year. Michelle will have to play in my place (the winner has to come back next year). We arrived back at our hotel and ordered pizza and finally fell asleep at 3:30AM! uuuugh! I was dragging at work today! That's why I can hardly wait for next weekend already! Funny huh? Livin' life is such a good thing! No regrets! That's my motto. I hope it can be yours too.

Dining Outdoors!

Come on over and have dinner with me! :)

My Silly Son!

This is the intersection in Amsterdam that my silly son, Jamey, and his girlfriend Kate will be waving to the camera on Saturday, 12:00pm central time. You can visit his website and click on the link to go to the live camera in that intersection. They should be there waving to all of us! Check it out! It's truly amazing! Leave it to Jamey to come up with such an unusual event. Set your alarms!
Jamey's website address is www.sevnthsin.com/randomnotes/ You can click on the link there.

"Holla Out!"

A big "Holla" goes out to my Auntie Bev and Uncle Danny who brought this beautiful weather back with them from Arizona! Yeah!!! Thanky, thanky, thanky!