We had a late night last evening as we didn't head off to bed until the worse of the storms passed through our area. Today has been heavy rains, high winds close to 40 mph, and dropping temperatures. One good thing is that our windows and siding on the west side of the house are getting a good cleaning from the pounding rains. Hopefully we won't lose any shingles or suffer any structural damage from the winds.

This morning John worked down in the shop. He has been busy making sofa server parts and when their completed, he'll start assembling the servers. This should keep him busy over the next few days. This morning I got some birthday cards ready to be mailed and worked on the computer cleaning out emails and paying a few bills. After lunch we went to Bemidji to do some banking and picked up a few groceries. Tim and Mary Ellen Miner are coming on Thursday, so I needed to restock the pantry.

This evening the heavy rains and high winds continue. We are just staying cozy and comfortable inside watching a movie and hoping we don't sustain any damages outside.

It was a good thing we held our Memorial Day party yesterday--this morning we woke up to cloudy skies and rain. John's back is much improved, so he spent much of his day down in the shop building a new chair for our deck. I did several loads of laundry and some cleaning up around the house.

Around 7 p.m. this evening the clouds broke up and the sun came out. John decided to mow some grass. With the warmer temps and rain, our grass is growing so fast it's hard to keep up with it. The first part of our evening was spent watching some old WWII movies. Right now we are in a tornado warning--heavy rains, hail, and strong winds are headed our way. We are keeping our eyes on the TV to see where the storms are heading. Looks like it's going to be a long night.

Our original plan for today was to get up, eat breakfast, and then head off to church for the Sunday morning service. However, once John was out of bed and got moving around, he felt it wouldn't be in the best interest of his back to sit on a hard per for an hour, so church was out for today.

We pretty much just lazed around for the day until it was time to go up to JD's house for our Memorial Day get together. The weather was fairly decent today, but rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, so it was decided to celebrate the holiday on Sunday. The boys got a basketball game going and the girls hit the trampoline.



Soon everyone headed inside for supper. We had a delicious meal of sloppy Joes, salads, watermelon and ice cream for dessert. The kids managed to eat the majority of the watermelon--there was not one piece left. We adults decided to play some poker while the kids were busy with the wii, drawing pictures, and just plain old playing together. Jenni and Hanna are very talented artists and drew a picture of me and a basketball player.

The poker game

Jenni and Hanna with their art work

Matt, Sara, and I all got terrible cards tonight and were out of the game fairly fast. Joanne ended up the big winner. After the game we all just sat around talking while the kids continued playing.
We didn't get home until way after 11 p.m. It's a good thing school is out for the year and everyone can sleep in tomorrow morning, including us.

It was another quiet day for us here in northern Minnesota. We had alternating sunshine and heavy showers--one minute the sun would be shining, and the next the rains were pouring down. If you walked outside at all, you didn't dare go far from the house in case the showers would start and you'd get soaked.

John spent most of his day resting his back--it's starting to feel a little better, but he is still very cautious when moving around. I spent some time working on the computer getting John's old hunting bow listed on ebay. I also hauled a load of trash to the dump and made a trip into town for a few groceries. We are all getting together at JD's place tomorrow for Memorial Day and I decided to bring ice cream and toppings for dessert. Our evening was spent baking bread, watching a movie and some more college softball.

Not much going on around here today--we had an all day rain which kept us inside the house. John spent much of the day laying on the sofa, resting his back, and watching college softball. I changed the bed linens and did some organizing in our bedroom's walk-in closet.

Matt, Sara, and the kids came over this evening to borrow some of our DVD's. Today was the first day of summer vacation and, with the rain, the kids were getting a little bored, so they decided to come over to our place and check out some of our movies. While they were here, Matt looked out the living-room windows and spied a muskrat swimming in the pond. He and Sam grabbed the 22 rifle and soon took care of that pesky creature. There are still a couple of them left in the pond, so hopefully John will be able to get rid of them before they can dig more tunnels in the earthen sides of the pond. Our evening ended watching more college softball--John is really enjoys watching these games as he used to play fast pitch softball years ago.

For some time John has been wanting to build a permanent storage area for our firewood--something with a roof to keep snow and rain off, but open on the sides to stack and remove wood. Matt worked up a plan and figured how much wood and steel sheets we would need. We decided to head to Menards first thing this morning and get all the needed materials. John wants to get the posts for the covering in the ground so then he can continue to stack firewood and not have to be concerned about trying work around the wood pile.

When you get wood from Menards, you order and pay for it in the store and then drive around to the warehouse where they have people to help load it. They were a little busy this morning, so John loaded most of what he needed. The only thing left to get was the steel sheeting for the roof. While helping the guy pull out the sheets, John's back went out--he has been laying on the ice pack since we got home. We did manage to stop at Burger King for some lunch before heading home.

This evening Julie had a dance recital at the Bagley High School, so I went in by myself since there was no way John could sit for any length of time. Julie has been doing dance for a couple of years and is really improving--she did a great job tonight.

Our dance star

When I got back home, John was still resting his back while watching NCAA Women's softball. I watched a little of while while working on the laptop before calling it a night.

John had a big surprise when he went down to the shop this morning--he didn't have to work. Since it was a beautiful day, he decided to take advantage of it and do some work in the garden. Our neighbor had dropped off a load of manure, so he spread it in the garden and then tilled the ground again. After that, he planted the green beans, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and onions. He thought about putting his tomato and pepper plants in, but changed his mind after the weatherman forecast a freeze warning for tonight.

After lunch we got cleaned up and headed up to the Clearbrook school to attend Julie's kindergarten graduation ceremony. The kids presented a program of songs and then received their diplomas.

Julie is standing on the right hand end of
the top row. She's wearing a blue dress
and white leggings.

Our proud graduate!

This evening John spent sometime down by the pond trying to hunt the muskrats. He didn't stay down there too long--the temps had dropped and there was a strong wind. He said it felt like sitting out during deer hunting. We ended the evening watching American Idol--Scotty was my favorite all season and I'm glad he won.