Make them stop!

Oh my goodness! I don't know what to do with all these tomatoes.  They just keep coming.  It feels like our last twenty meals have involved tomatoes!  I've made salsa, sauce, and three huge batches of soup.  I know I could freeze some but I still have tomatoes in the freezer from last year!  My plan is to make one more huge batch of soup and freeze that.  The rest are going to the neighbors.  Next year I think we'll scale down the tomato plot lol.

Fore!

We've had quite a lazy weekend, but we did play a round of mini golf.  There is a little course not far from our house that we wanted to try out.  It was a great day for it, and some how we had the course to ourselves.  I won't tell you who
won...I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings...lol.

Close to Home: Dayton

People travel all over, snapping pictures of beautiful sites along the way. But maybe we don't have to travel far at all.  Maybe we take for granted all the sites that are in our own backyard.  I've decided to pick a few cities 'Close to Home' and show you the simple things that make a town a town.  The things we drive by everyday and never really stop to appreciate.  (This will give me a chance to go out and shoot some cool pictures, which I really like to do - but it will also give you guys an idea of where we live)

What better place to start than in our town of Dayton, MN. 

Dayton is small suburb, about 45 minutes from Minneapolis.  It's population is about 5,000.  That is a small suburb out here.  (A large suburb is about 60,000)  Dayton isn't quite as country as where Jason and I grew up, but it isn't city life either.

Dayton is also home to Diamond Lake.  An 82 acre lake that is about a mile from our house.  Today the water was so calm its look like glass.  You can even see the reflection of the clouds.

Minnesota might be the land of 10,000 lakes, but it also has thousands of parks.  This state is crazy about green space.  Every city I can think of has at least two parks.  Most of the parks have lakes, paved bike paths, walking trails, and a playground.  Some have cross country ski trails and dog parks.  It's definatley one of Minnesota's charms.  In Dayton, Cloquet Overlook Park is the spot to go.  Aside from picnic spots, there is trail that takes you right down to the Mississippi River. 

And what town would be complete without a little history?  Check out St. John the Baptist Church.  The building dates back to the early 1900's.

I took all these pictures within two miles of our house.  Who says you have to travel far to find "picture worthy" spots?

Athletic or crazy?

In about two weeks, I'll be running 10 miles.  This will be the second year I'm partcipating in the Twin Cities 10 mile race.  The pictures are from last year.  As you can see the race starts before the sun is up!  Honestly thats a good thing because it's cooler in the morning.  Last year the weather was terrible! Three miles into the race it started pouring rain!  This year has to be better! (Now watch it will snow!) I remember feeling water sloshing around in my sneakers.  As you can see, I was soaked by the time I finished. 

I like the challenge of runnig 10 miles, and it does motivate me to excersie which is the good thing.  But running is not a glamorous sport lol.  Your body starts to freak out when you run long distances - or at least mine does!  I'll spare you the gross details - but it does make me wonder am I just plain crazy for doing this?

A welcomed change!

12 News is finally leaving the 1980's.  We're getting rid of this tired old set.  That's where we would tape the newscast - on that old, pastel colored set.  It even had sponge painting on it.  Apparently sponge painting was all the rage at one point. As far as I'm concerned its one of those trends I don't want to see make a come back lol.  The news desk sat right on the red carpet there....I think we were all quiet happy to see crews demolish this sucker.

And here's the new set!  Not bad huh?  It's modern!  And it's much bigger than the old set.  It will make our newscast look a soooo much better.  Crews are still working out a few kinks - the lighting has to be done and a few of the monitors have to be hooked up.  There is actually a dozen flat screen TV's on this set. It looks like we'll be ready to use it in a few weeks.  Right now our newscast goes live from our lobby, yea the lobby.  Even that looks better than the old set!  Needless to say, we're all pretty excited.

A bizarre day....

Yup, a lady on stilts.  I told you it was a bizarre day.  Jason and I went to the Maple Grove Art Fair.  Basically a whole bunch of artists lined the mall trying to sell their artwork.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and 80 degrees.  We were walking around, when this  lady on stilts came over and handed us a brochure about the art fair.  I couldn't help but laugh, and then I asked if I could take her picture! 

There was all kinds of art - paintings, pottery, twisted metal, you name it.  Most of it was way over priced.  So rather than buying art - we bought food. 

Can you guess what this sugar coated thing on a stick is?

It's a deep fried snickers bar!

Yup, I can't make that up.  The guy who sold us the lemonade was also selling deep fried snickers.  They were apparently a big hit at the MN State Fair too.  Jason and I had heard about them, and everyone said they were really good, so we thought what the heck, we'll try it.  We were quite suprised - It was pretty good! I told you - a bizarre day.....

Twins win!

We went to one of the last games inside the Metrodome.  Next year the Twins will be in a new outdoor ballpark.  The Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, putting them two games away from taking the division lead.  (This sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but Jason is helping here lol)
45,000 people packed the dome to watch the game!  It's actually the first time I've seen the Twins win in person.  Every time I go to a game,they seem to lose - but not this time they won 6-2.  I guess I'm not a curse after all.

Ah, here are my boys.  Sehnert has had season tickets to the Twins since 1983, and he took us along for the game today! Thanks Sehnert! It was a good time.

Go Twins!

The happy couple

It seems weddings are all around us.  While Jason and I were in NY, a good friend of mine got married. I went to school with Matt, and his twin sister Michelle. There are only a handful of people in life that I consider true friends and they are two of them. The kind of people who would help you with anything you need. I’ve shared a lot of good times with both Matt and Michelle and I couldn’t be happier for Matt and his new wife, Erin. They were married in Syracuse this past weekend.  We had a great time celebrating with everyone.  We even hit the dance floor...it looks like our dancing needs some work lol.

Wedding Plans!

Hello everyone –
First off – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We can’t tell you how much it means to us that you’re all going to part of our big day! I thought I would post some details for all of you who are wondering where this whole ‘shindig’ (as we say in the country) will be. Check out this map to see where you'll be in NY. The picture below is Sackets Harbor - that's where the reception and hotel are! You can find pictures of the church, reception area, and hotel in an earlier blog post 'Wedding Mania.'
Quick Travel Info:
Wedding date: June 05, 2010
Church: St Mary’s Catholic Church in Copenhagen, NY
Reception: The Boathouse (restaurant on Lake Ontario, in Sackets Harbor)
Hotel: Ontario Place Hotel in Sackets Harbor 315-646-8000 or 1-800-564-1812
Reservations: Under the Furgison/McEwen Wedding
Room rates: Range from $90-120 a night
Airport: Syracuse Airport (SYR)

Travel Info:
If you’re flying, you’ll need to fly into the Syracuse Airport. It's a small airport. There are no direct flights from MN, so expect a layover somewhere. The airport is about an hour and half away from the hotel. Depending on everyone’s plans, we should be able to pick you up at the airport. If we can help you avoid the expense of renting a car we certainly will. That said I know a lot of you will be either visiting family or are close enough to drive. If that’s the case, you can just check into the hotel in Sackets Harbor at 103 General Smith Drive, Sackets Harbor, New York 13685.

Hotel:
I would book your room as soon as possible at The Ontario Place Hotel. It's a smaller hotel, with only 40 rooms. The wedding party and close family will have first crack at the rooms. The hotel is within stumbling distance of the reception, so it should work out nicely. The phone number to the hotel is 315-646-8000 or 1-800-564-1812. The rooms range in prices from $90- 120. Most of the rooms are standard rooms around $90. Just ask for the rooms under the McEwen/Furgison wedding. Check in time is 3pm, checkout is 11am.

When to arrive:
If you want a ride from the airport, you should fly in Thursday night. But at the latest, everyone should be checked into the hotel by Friday afternoon (June 4). Check in is at 3, we’ll have the rehearsal in the evening and then have a little BBQ at my folks house for dinner. **And of course, everyone’s significant other is more than welcome to come along for all of this.**

Wedding day:
Saturday June 05
The wedding will be around 1 (1 or 1:30 we haven't decided) and the reception starts at 4. That morning the girls will obviously be off doing their thing...hair, makeup, etc. The girls will get ready at my folks house and probably have a limo take us from there to the church. The guys...well it's up to you what you do with your morning. I'm sure Jason will have some crazy idea - like frisbee golfing in mind lol. We'll be sure to have enough vehicles at the hotel to get everyone to the church on time. After that – we get the party started!!!! We don't want too much waiting around - we want everyone to enjoy themselves. Dinner is a buffet, and there will be an open bar from 4-9. Around sunset the wedding party and family will sneak out to the lake for a few more pictures.

Recovery day:
The day after the wedding, Jason and I will be around to get folks to the airport if needed. Keep in mind when booking flights it is an hour and half drive from the hotel to the airport.

Sackets Harbor:
The reception/hotel area is a cool little spot to visit – so if anyone is thinking about coming a little early and doing some sightseeing let us know and we’ll direct you to a few spots!! Here’s a link for Sackets Harbor.

Your plans:
When you guys get a second shoot us an email with your plans!

We’ll help in any way we can! Lisa: lfurgison@twelve.tv Jason: pepecase05@yahoo.com

When two families meet….

It was long overdue. Jason and I have been together for about three years now, and we finally got the two families together! Our parents are very similar – they are hard working, honest, country people who enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Since they have so much in common, we knew the meeting would go well …. But I’ll admit I was still a little nervous. I’m happy to report – we had a great time! The girls did a little wedding dress shopping, while the boys had a few drinks in Applebees. We met up, had lunch and then headed to the casino! We had mixed success at Turning Stone, Jason walked away with $65, some of us broke even, and well…others lost a few bucks lol. But we all had fun!

By the end of the day you could feel the two families meshing and I’m sure it’s just the first of many good times to come…
We love you all…..thanks for a great weekend!

What's a blog without a bulldog?

Here she is - our little Gracie Lou. Well, maybe not so little she is about 65 pounds. She's closing in on three years old and just as active as a Golden Retriever lol. She's a drooling wonder that gets so excited she looks like she could wiggle out of her fur!

Here she is in a canoe! Yes, we were quite daring at a recent camping trip and had Gracie hop in the canoe with us. The other picture is our favorite action shot - Gracie chasing a ball at the dog park.

The Great Kitchen Remodel of '09

Oh what a project! This is how we are spending our three day weekend - remodeling the kitchen. We started in March and have been working on it ever since. We've painted the cupboards, redone the floor, painted the walls, and bought new appliances. We even ripped out a bank of cupboards to open the room up. But this weekend, we're working on new molding.

The good news is we only made one trip to Lowe's this time - typically we make several lol. We've really come to hate those home remodel commercials. You know, some cheery person in an apron says, "You can do it, we can help." Yea, what they mean is - You can do it, it will take a ton of time and money!

We have a few more things to do - new lighting and new countertops but here are the before (top) and after (bottom) pictures so far.... It's coming along....

Harvest time!!

The garden is churning out all sorts of good stuff! We pulled most of this stuff out this morning. It's the first time we've grown potatoes and I would say they were a success! This part of MN used to be nothing but potato farms so I guess we have the right growing conditions for them!













Jason dug out two really big potatoes! The one on the right is a mutant potato lol. I think a few potatoes merged together underground. And the other one is just one giant potato. That thing could be an entire meal!!



Digging them out was like a little treasure hunt lol. We didn't know what we were going to find under there!
Now I just have to look up some recipes to start using some of these things up! I know the potatoes will keep for awhile, but I need to use up the tomatoes. I still have tomatoes in my freezer from last year! I think I'll make big batches of soup and freeze them. If anyone has a good soup recipe let me know! I could use it!