Last weekends trip to Powers Lake

This last weekend we had so much fun up in Battle View/ Powers Lake, ND.  I shot Lee and Lex Tande's Senior pictures and had a great time visiting with their Mom and Dad.  The Tande's are wonderful friends from past years, and we had lots of catching up to do.  The weather cooperated well, and just was an over all enjoyable weekend.

 Sunrise across the Tande Lake

 Todd looking out over the lake

My dear friend Lori.

Lex

Lex and Lee

I had to stand on a step stool to take their pictures, cause they are 6'3" or so. My 5'2" just didn't cut it, I felt like a total shrimp. LOL

Lee

Lee wanted his pickup all muddy so he drove it through lots of mud before this shot.  The mud was easy to find. Gumbo country!!

Both of the boys are volunteer fireman at Powers Lake

One of my favorite of Lex

Lee and Lex at the fire station.

Kristi's 15th Birthday!

This past weekend we celebrated Kristi's 15th birthday.  I couldn't be more blessed than I am to have such a wonderful daughter as Kristi. She a light and a joy to have around.  

I love you lots girl!

CELEBRATE!!!

My mom (Kristi's Grandma) went to the dollar store and picked up some fun party stuff to be silly with.

Kristi is really into archery, this is an arm shield. She was pretty excited to get one.

 Little True is trying to learn to smile on command. Ummm, this is her smile. LOL She's still got some work to do.

 I made a photo book for Kristi of her pictures from mission trip to Peru back in 2010.

 Her big brother Phil came home to surprise her, and really blessed her big with a pair of track spikes. She looks pretty happy about it.

 Phil said seeing the look of surprise on Kristi's face when he came in the house, was worth the drive on the icy roads. Thanks for coming and being a blessing Philip!!

 Little True had to play us a tune.

Birthday Party with her friends at the bowling alley on Sat. Morning.

Sweet Mariah

 Kristi has gotten to know some of the girls from Word of Faith Church. So they got together with her to go bowling for her birthday. They had so much fun. Not too many strikes, but sure a lot of laughter.

Kristi didn't want me to bring cake, she requested "Kenny's Muffins" ask us the story on those some day.

They all had to go get a bright colorful ball for the picture. 

Strike!!

New car (to us) and selling the old

There's always something thrilling about getting a new car, even when it's not really new, but at least is to me.  For the hunt if finally over, and paper work all done, now let's roll on down the road. So here's a picture of my new wheels.

 I'm back to the Subaru world.  Todd and I have own two other Subaru's in the past. An 1981 two door hatch back that we drove for over 15 years, then sold it to my cousin who drove it for several years till a snow plow hit it, and kind of finished it off. We also had a 1987 DL Station wagon.  We drove that for about 17 years till Tyson wrecked it.  Hoping this one will be just as reliable as those two were. Course we bought the other two Subaru's new (back when you could do that), this one we bought today already is over 100,000 miles, so maybe won't last quite as long, but still has some life left in it. 

Now to sell our 2001 Explorer

It's been a great vehicle for us, but since there's only one child left at home, we didn't feel we needed this big of a vehicle. So if you're looking for a great used SUV give me a call.

One of my favorite features in the vehicle. It's a little voice recorder. Think of something while you're driving you don't want to forget. Just push the record button and record a message to play back later. I loved it!

Flop Drops and Books

On Super Bowl Sunday, I decided to make some yummy Carmel dip for the apples we were bringing to my brother and sister-in-laws.  Somehow, when I copied the recipe down into my cookbook, I must have messed up something, cause it didn't turn out anything like I remember it before. In fact it turned hard as a rock. It could not be used as a dip at all, so I quickly made another kind of apple dip for the party.  But now what to do with carmel mess I had made?  

Years ago a very wise friend of mine said, I've never had a cooking accident or mistake yet, I just change the name and purpuse and we eat it (if it's still eatable).  So taking her advice today, I turned my hard as a rock dip into what Kristi has named "Flop Drops".  They really taste good too, kind of like those old SlowPoke suckers we use to get as kids. In fact, if you stick one of them on a toothpick (for a sucker handle) you can almost believe that's what you're eating.

In life, sometimes we think we're really blown it, and it can never be salvaged. But God make no flops, either. Sometimes the purpose just needs to be changed, and who knows, maybe your greatest mistake can be a wonderful new adventure. Something you hadn't thought of before can be the greatest thing in your life.

 the Flop Drops harding for use. Not a dip anymore, but a delicious candy.

 The Flop Drops all wrapped up for individual use, and also so they wouldn't stick together in storage. 

One of the daily photography assignments was "Books". My Dad has a huge collection of Reader's Digest books. Here's just a small portion of them.