Monica's Musing....

where do fruit flies come from??? Don't tell me fruit! I know that...but like magic, millions appear overnight! I love fruit in the summer, my kids love fruit in the summer. We do not like to share with fruit flies! So here is my tip for you: set out a small container with applecider vinegar and a few drops (little) of dishwashing soap. In the morning you will have your very own fly cemetery. Works like magic. I just keep a little dish on my counter all summer long. Hope it works for you! Do you have any tricks to get through the summer?

Protection?

I often wonder how screwed up my children will be when they are grown. Although we try really hard to teach them right from wrong, treat others with care, be helpful, etc. I know we make TONS of mistakes. Last night we were preparing for a baseball game and we had a "situation" come up they may have scarred them for life..... {Back story}We had been playing ball earlier when my oldest son pitched to my middle son. He swung and hit a line drive right at his brother. He immediately dropped to his knees and I was imagining the worst. The ball missed the really tender spots but hit him in the leg which now has a lump and a bruise. SO I ask my husband "When do they start wearing cups?" Trying to be prepared and to see if I needed to run and get some when I run errands next week.... He replies, "Soon" ( ok like tomorrow, next year, when they move up an age group?????? I so love this man of many words!) My oldest son then asks, " What is it?" Of course I answer first, "Honey, it is a little hard helmet that you wear so you don't get hit in the privates.' HORROR, looks of fear, eyes rolling.... The boys look at each other, then their father who is doing the eye rolling. I thought it seemed like a good answer at the time but I think they are picturing mini bike/motorcycle helmets! Oh well, I will let dad talk to them about the jock strap too.....maybe by then they will have recovered from this frightful conversation!

I love it when a plan comes together!

Oh, I loved watching the A Team! We have been very busy lately with vacation, ballgames, work and building a deck ( YAY!), so for dinner tonight I wanted to do a fix it and forget it deal. We just butchered a pig and have a freezer full of meat, so I reached in a pulled out a roast. My favorite way to fix it and forget it is to throw something in the crock pot so out came the crock pot. I found a marinade packet in the cupboard from Weber, Mesquite flavor , but didn't want to take the to marinate it so I just dumped it in the crock pot on top of the roast. I added a splash of water and set it on medium and walked away. A few hours later I went back and turned it to low. I also found some hash browns in the freezer ( trying to use up what we have) and whipped up a quick batch of cheesy potatoes. Add some green beans and we had a great meal. The meat was juicy and full of flavor! We made pulled pork sandwiches and each added our favorite condiments~ bbq sauce, mustard, pickles, etc. There is enough left over for some BBQ Nachos as a snack. Quick, easy and everyone loved it! What do you do for a quick meal?

Minnesota Mishaps....

One of Minnesota's most sought after critters..... the extremely elusive Croc!

The cast ......

.......and the miss.

The drama and heartbreak.....

The big catch of the day! Elation!

A quick dip in the drink...fully clothed. Poor baby, it was cooolllddd that day!

Other honorable mentions:

Burnt cheese bread....black, smoking, even the beggin' dogs wouldn't touch it! Oh, and the smoke alarm went off!

The Sony Digital camera also went for a quick dip in the lake. The above child was running with it to capture big brothers fish on film when, you guessed it, he tripped and landed about 6 inches to the right of the dock with arms outstretched...right in the water. Of course I was running back to meet him and yelled "NNNOOOOO""" and grabbed it as soon as they landed. He wasn't hurt and the camera is working so far....lost the scan disc while we were drying out, minor in comparison to what could happen!

Paul Bunyan~ the largest man alive!

To get to our vacation spot we drove I-29 North to Fargo and took a right. Once we were into Minnesota it took a little zig zag action to get to Cass Lake. If you have not been to this area you may not have heard of Paul Bunyan. And his Big Blue OX, Babe. I can remember reading about him in school. The legend says Paul and Babe made the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota~especially Lake Bemidji, which looks like Paul's footprint. Paul gets a lot of mileage up north with huge statues and many business named after him. Of course we had to stop and get picture of the little darlings in from of Paul and Babe.

Paul in Bemidji, MN

Paul in Akeley, MN

Of course who can pass up a trip to Paul Bunyan's Animal Land???? Not us! We drove past the last time we were here but they hadn't opened for the season yet. It was moved to the top of the list so we were sure to make it this time. Sold as Minnesota'a largest Wildlife Park/Petting Zoo, it is easy to get your hopes up! We are very spoiled because at home we are just a short drive away from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. So if this is the LARGEST in Minnesota it must be great!

The entrance is designed to look like an old town with store fronts and the park is located behind it. As we entered, the first animal we encountered was a baby kangaroo...in the gift shop. It was kind of cool to see a 'roo this close. While my husband waited in line to pay the boys and looked around at all of the treasures in the shop. It was your regular t-shirt, stuffed animal, wooden bird, army guy (? at a petting zoo) items. Of course my children where begging for one of everything. They also had treat bags for sale to feed the animals. We grabbed up three of those and with out any directions from the workers were allowed to enter the "zoo". The first display we came to was the large trout pond...large if it was in my back yard, not so large at a "zoo". And there were no trout. Next up were the "exotic" animals in cages. Really ugly small cages... It was kind of sad. There was a raccoon, a bob cat, bears ( we dropped snacks to the bears through a long pvc pipe), lions, lemurs.....as we rounded the end of the cages there was a large gate where you enter into the deer pen. This was worth the price of admission. The deer come up and eat out of your hands. They have 3 different types of deer: Whitetail, Sika, and Fallow. One of the whitetail momma's had just given birth to a fawn that morning. It was beautiful to watch her care for the little one while it learned to get his legs going.

Overall, not the best thing we visited, but seeing the deer up close was cool. I think it must be like Wall Drug....the anticipation is the best part. Here are a few more pics from the day:

Waiting for some food to come down the chute.

Bear sticking his nose up the chute and snorting

Hello, Joe Camel.

Video~ feeding the deer Lonnie, being the great outdoorsman that he is, made friends with this deer. He would not go away....it was pretty funny!

Vacation's all I ever wanted....

vacation's havin' to get away.....

and there is no better place than Minnesota! We are enjoying a week by the lake.

After much anticipation we have finally arrived. We left early Saturday morning and we made it 16.2 miles (about 15 minutes) before the dreaded question was first uttered "Are we there yet?" Not bad. The journey continued for another 11 hours and took us through Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. Beautiful sites!

In the Pool

We saw Eagles on the drive up. Magnificent!! The kids couldn't wait to swim and fish. The resort we stay at is called Sunset Cove Resort . It is a great family run resort right on the banks of Cass Lake in a fabulous little cove. We can swim in the indoor pool on cold rainy days and catch fish off of the docks on the nice days.

On the dock

This is a wonderful area of the country with the Chippewa National Forest, Lost Forty and Itasca State park just short jaunts away. If you didn't know, Itasca is home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It begins as a beautiful little stream you could wade across. A must see on your bucket list.

The wild life is fantastic too. Each night I have heard the call of the common loon. For an Iowa girl it is anything but common. We have a woodpecker feeding her young next door and an oriole tending her young in the birch tree in front of our cabin. It is awesome to look up at the wonder of a nest she has created. Heron, pelican, goose, finch, chipmunk, each day is a new wonder to behold. I will share a few photos with you and call it a night :

Pelican's ~ 3 feet off shore!

Oriole's nest

Heron

Canada Geese with 6 chicks!

How Cozi are you?

Ok, so it has been a little bit since I started this crazy blog. I have had a little trouble remembering my log in/password...duh! And since you aren't supposed to write them down for "security" reasons...well, you get the picture. This morning I had the pleasure of taking the time to reset my password since my oldest is off to school, my middle guy just left for his first morning of Kindergarten Round-up and I have no extra little monkeys in my pseudo day care. So it is just the little guy, the dogs and me. A little quiet, a little weird, but very calm. I think I like it! Have you heard of Cozi? I just found it ( well, it was on my new computer). It is a FREE program that is designed to keep you organized. And it is soooo easy! Easier than remembering your password! So far I love it. I can enter all of our commitments on the calendar~ which is color coded and can be pulled up for the whole family or each individual member. It will also send reminders to your phone, email or both. There is also a section for lists~grocery, to-do, etc. This too can be sent to your phone. When I am not using it is goes into "collage" mode and does a picture display of all of the digital photos I have yet to do anything with. Very cool. I am hoping with a little effort I will use the early part of summer to get more organized and that will free up time to play the rest of the summer. How do you stay organized?