500 Miles!

Since I got my Nike+ last August (first recorded run on 8/21) I have put on 500 miles!!! I started up my running career in July of 2009, so there weren't a lot of miles that aren't on there - unless you count the times the Nike+ refused to work in the cold. ;) Today's run was down to the folks' in Rural - 11 miles - and it went pretty well. I postponed it a bit, as it was storming at 5:00, but headed out the door just before 7:00am. I made it in 2:09:26, so right on target for doing the half in 2.5 hours. I ran the entire distance today, as I did the 10 mile run last weekend. If I feel the need during the race, I will take a walk-break, though. The Gopher-to-Badger Run is on August 14th and runs from Stillwater, MN to Hudson, WI. It starts at 8:00am, so I hope it isn't too warm a day! ;)
I just want to thank all of my supporters again - there are many! - but especially the folks who did the AZ Rock 'n Roll with me in January - you ROCK! I rely on your encouragement more than you know! It means alot to have the support of my husband, Dan, too! ;) He checked up on me at mile 8 (by Golke's) this morning, and picked me up at the folks' after I was all done and showered and breakfasted. ;)
It's great to be alive!!!

July 18 visit to Baldwin, then on to Stillwater, MN

Panoramic view of the Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater, MN. Not sure of the official name of the park (Scott knows), but Teddy Bear is in the name. Fun, family-friendly park with lots of stuff for kids to climb on, plus ample sitting/shade for the adults.

We headed for Stillwater, because I wanted to check out, in person, the route for the half-marathon that I will be doing on August 14th. It takes the runners from Stillwater, MN to Hudson, WI, so we will be running across the St. Croix - fun! My training is going well so far - 3+ weeks to the race!

That we got to spend time with Sam, Ryan and their parents was frosting on the cake! ;)

Nothing too exciting....

For those of you who think I should be posting more.....here goes! See that picture above? That is our screen door to the front porch from the dining room - after Jack tried to come through it in a thunderstorm last week. To his credit, it was a bad storm, and we weren't home to rescue him in his hour of need. We were heading back from returning the sawdust wagon to CIC in Plover when the storm hit - it hailed pretty bad where we were - lots of damage to standing corn. The worst damage we saw, though, was north of us by Peterson Mills on Co. Rd. V - the soybean fields looked like harvested snap bean fields, and the corn was pretty well shredded. They must have felt singled out, as it seemed to go right down the road past their place and mostly in their fields. We had some very minor damage to a corn field about a mile north of the farm. All else seems to look pretty good. The corn is all tassled out now and starting to set ears - I can smell the silks as I run/bike past.

Because of Jack's insistence on our replacing the front door, we ended up getting two new screen doors for the front porch entrances. The one Jack went through was there since long before we moved in here, 34 years ago. The other one was a full screen door that we had put on a few years ago - never did fit very well. The new ones are mostly installed now.....hey - we live on a farm! ;) We think there were already pawprints on the one by the dining room, though....hmmm. There were a couple of nights that we had dogs in the bedroom with us again. Not ideal, but better than having them tear down the half-door on the utility room in their fright.

Tomorrow is our Sunday off - yay! If it works out on the other end, we will go up to visit the Baldwin Boys, and check out the route for the half-marathon I will be doing in August (Stillwater, MN to Hudson, WI). That is less than a month away! My training is going much better this time around, with a 10-mile run scheduled for tomorrow morning, early. I have to try and beat the heat, and also to get the run in before we want to head to Baldwin.

Farm-wise, we are keeping an eye on the weather, trying to outsmart the rain to get second crop hay in. Nothing is cut, so far.

Hopefully later this next week we will get the folks hooked back up to the internet - thanks for the footwork, etc. Heather! We are hoping that it will help the folks, Mom especially, not to feel so isolated. They really enjoy hearing from family and friends. Dad continues to do pretty well, even though a visit to the VA Clinic this past Monday found him unqualified to take Plavix, according to their guidelines. For now, he will be going on a regimen of baby aspirin, every other day. Oh, and we just got an email yesterday that my brother Mike will be coming for a long weekend in August to visit the folks - they are thrilled! ;)

[There, how's that, Mike S.?? ;P ]

Miscellaneous meanderings of early summer.....

I haven't been very good about keeping up the blog for some time. The spring and early summer have just flown by! First there was the whirlwind of trying to get the crops in, then the kids were here from Germany and then we played the game of trying to get first crop hay in - what a circus! We finished it up, finally, this past Sunday - should have been well into doing second crop by now! It was: cut hay one day, rain the next, rake the hay and hope it dries out enough to bale, rain again, finally give up on that field and chop it back. Repeat. Way too much hay went to waste, and a lot of what we managed to harvest didn't look all that great. Again - who needs to take up gambling when you farm??? On the other hand - the corn and beans look fantastic! And we haven't had to irrigate yet.....

I had the special joy of getting to see my good friend, Suzi Sannes, from South Carolina in mid June, too! She and her husband David, along with Bryan and his family had come for the Sannes Reunion, but also to meet their newest granddaughter, Chloe Susanna! What a beautiful baby! Suzi and I were able to have a good chat at our house, and then we met up with them and some other friends for lunch. It was really nice and a good break from our farming routine. And rumor has it that Suzi will be coming again in August! ;) Will definitely need to get some pictures then - Suzi looks fantastic!

On June 12, I did the Bellin 10K. That was a fun run, and Dan was able to come with me. :) We went on Friday, so we could pick up the race packet - what a crowd of people! There were over 18,000 racers registered! We then went over to Alice and Steve's for a cookout and spent the night with them. We had a lot of laughs with Sara and her family joining us as well as Rachel. Dan got his first taste of what an event like this involves - I'm not sure just what his reaction was.... We'll see how anxious he is to go with me for the half-marathon I am signed up for on August 14th. That is the Gopher-to-Badger run, which goes from Stillwater, MN to Hudson, WI.

On June 27th we had off, but hung around the Amherst area. Dan had his grade-school reunion at the Pipe School. It was actually alot of fun. While there, I spoke with Becky Towne (who owns the Pipe School with her husband, Trent) and we decided to sign up for the United Way Duathlon on August 28th, as a relay team: I will do the two 2-mile runs and she will do the 13-mile bike ride. I decided trying to do the whole thing only 2 weeks after the half might be a bit much for me. I have to pace myself, right?? ;)

This past week, on June 29th, my Dad had another episode that took him into the ER. It was a TIA, and the CT scan showed that he had had a small stroke sometime between the major event last September and last week. He was able to come home later that evening, and is doing okay. It was a scare for the folks, though. My Mom is hanging in there, but is seeming more fragile...

On Friday, July 2nd, Dan's brother John had his battery changed (whole new unit installed?) on his pacemaker/defib. It was done out-patient, but he needed to take it easy for a while. Last night was his first time back at chores. I don't think it went too badly for him. So, this morning was our first morning off since last Wednesday. I realize that alot of farmers don't have the regular time off that we do, but when you get to have every 3rd morning in you get used to it. The fact that we had high heat and humidity for most of that week made for a couple of tired puppies....me, too. :)

There, I think that pretty much catches you up on everything that's been going on around here.

Sam's Birthday Weekend!

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We were overjoyed to have Sam and his family here for the weekend of Sam's 3rd birthday! Not only was it fun to have them here, but Boppa put Scott and Sam to work on Sunday, helping to get the hay bales moved inside before it rained. They made it! I didn't get any pictures of that, but Sally did, so check out their blog for those. It was a really nice, relaxing weekend. ;) For the occasion, Ryan poked his second tooth through - he was a really good boy, even so! Sam got his fill of farming in - real and imagined!~We keep the Fisher-Price barn on the coffee table with assorted farm equipment, and he had 'another' farm set up in by the toybox with the larger tractors and equipment. He came down with his folks several milkings, in time to help clean up. Sam is a good worker, and so is his Daddy! Thanks guys! Ryan keeps his Mama occupied, for the most part. ;) He seems to be busy taking everything in with those big blue eyes, though. It won't be long and Sam will be showing Ryan the ropes! The next time they come this direction, I will have to do some baby-proofing, I'm sure. We had a small party for Sam on Saturday, with my folks and Dan's brother, Roger coming for dinner and cake. It was a really yummy cake, Sally!
They headed home Monday morning, which was 'actually' (one of Sam's favorite words!) the day of his birthday. He had another party to attend at his other Grandparents' - what a lucky boy to have so many people who love him! I hear that he had a fabulous time there, too! ;)
Happy Birthday to our oldest grandson, Sam-I-Am!

Doin' Daycare for the Aho Boys and Gabby's Visit!

On Monday, June 28th, I got to do daycare for Sally and Scott's boys - Sam, who would be 3 in a week, and Ryan who was just 8 months old. I think I had forgotten how much work two little ones can be! I don't know how you Grandmas do it that take care of your grands on a weekly/daily basis! I was worn out after one day! I ventured a trip to WalMart in Hudson with both boys, to pick out something for Sam's birthday. I had thought to let him pick out a bike helmet, but he said he had one (Sally had gotten a used one at a garage sale) and didn't need one. So we looked for something else for his bike that Grandma and Grandpa Aho had bought for him. Wouldn't you know, he saw the bike horns and fell in love! Somewhere along the line, I had vowed I wouldn't do that to the kids (his parents), but those big blue eyes are hard to resist! (besides, his bike lives in Baldwin....) Fate would have it that it rained that morning, so he had to be content with riding circles in the garage, where the bike horn resounded, delighting Sam and giving me an excuse to go and check on Ryan, who was miraculously sleeping through it in the living room!

After lunch, my friend Gabby from school came down from Barron to visit - it was really great to see her! She has been busy teaching summer school, but was free in the afternoons, to my pleasure. We hadn't seen each other since school, so there was a lot to talk about, and we only scratched the surface! Thanks to Facebook, we had reconnected so I had been in touch with her for awhile. A lot of folks grouse about Facebook, and I know the younger ones sometimes feel that us old fogeys have trespassed on their territory, but I think our generation uses it differently than they do - like reconnecting with good friends from another lifetime! ;)

Sam quickly got over his shyness with Gabby and proceeded to demonstrate just about everything that he knows. He had to sit by her for supper, after we convinced her to stay and eat with us, and also to get into the picture I had Scott take of the two (3) of us. He was a good little host, too, when she got there. We were sitting out in the back yard, and it was warm, so he went and got bottles of water for all of us - one at a time from the fridge in the garage. Ryan was in 'stranger/danger' mode, so he wasn't too sure about Gabby. He did warm up, though, and shared some of his million dollar smiles with her before she had to leave. (safely, from Mama's arms, of course)

I headed home around 7:00, as I had to milk cows the next morning. It was a long drive home, but so worth it! Thanks for the opportunity, kids!