Enjoying my Break...

I've not had much of a chance to workout the last week or two. My challenge was put on hold for a bit as my elbows were starting to get pretty sore. I really do not think it was from the actual challenge of building my strength to 100 consecutive push-ups but rather I worked the truck the other day... not as I usually do, but rather by being the one unstacking and throwing it all down the rollers. I think the repeated throwing of boxes took it's toll. Needless to say, I felt I had better take a bit of time to let my elbow heal up then I will be back at it.

We had a wonderful 4Th of July and I got some awesome pics! I only saw the fireworks threw my digital screen on my camera but that's OK, I was having fun anyway. :) I worked Sunday all day and came home to my in-laws being at my house for a week. We are really enjoying their stay. I had to go in for Training at work Monday morning early, and Tuesday night at 8:00 so my day's were still free to do whatever we wanted.

On Monday we gave them a tour of Minot since this is the first time they have been here... then just enjoyed the evening catching up with one another, and just watching TV.

Oh, and I received my quilt that has been in the making! It is so beautiful. My mother in law and I actually picked out the fabric about 10 years ago, she took the measurements of my bed and put them in the book with the pattern I wanted. Somehow, the book came up missing and she never was able to locate it, so she ended up picking out a new pattern she thought I would like and used the fabrics I had chosen. It turned out beautiful! I can't wait to put it on my guest room bed! My mother-in-law does the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen. When she hand stitches them, they look almost machine quilted since she takes so much pride in making sure each and every stitch is straight and uniform in length. My quilt is not hand stitched, which is what I requested because I just wanted something simple and didn't want to ask that it be hand stitched. There is some hand stitching done on it though, but mostly machine quilted.

Tuesday we spent the day doing whatever we felt like. Drew had a few things he needed to do so he and his dad took off to do that while Mary and I took off into town to find the quilt shops. Each place we have ever lived, Mary wants to look up the quilt shops. I have no problem with that because some of them are just really neat little stores. The first one we found in town, was just beautiful! She had the shop built on the back of her home and had it decorated with antiques. She had an old antique baby bed in the middle of the floor with bolts of fabric standing on end as a display, she had two really old cable spools stacked with bolts of fabric standing on end all the way around. Such clever displays she had with quilted purses, blankets, aprons, blankets, etc. tucked in all over the the store. I wish I would have taken pictures of her shop. It was just amazing.

Yesterday, we actually got a chance to sleep in a bit, got up fixed ourselves breakfast, Drew had more errands to do and Mary, Holly, & I hung out around the house until Drew and his dad returned home. Drew and I fixed BBQ beef/pork sandwiches for lunch with the leftover beef and pork from the last two nights dinner, then Holly, Mary, & I headed into town for their bi-annual photo session together. Grandma and Holly have gotten there pictures taken on the odd years every years since Holly was born except for when Holly turned 5. We've not figured out why that one was missed as we actually lived in Michigan that year...

The photographer did a really nice job. Mary was very impressed with the fact that she paid enough attention to the details that she would turn her wedding set so that it was facing upward... and she would fix Holly's hair in order to be able to see her eyes. The pictures turned out great... well, the one you would laugh your butt off at, as Holly wanted a "fun" picture too since they never get to have one fun. She couldn't convince Grandma to do a picture leaning toward one another with big fish kiss lips! LOL... so, they got one of them both laughing... it's a super cute picture of Holly, but Grandma doesn't like the fact that it shows her missing teeth way too much! LOL...

After the photo session, we came back to the base, dropped Holly off at the house were her friend was babysitting as she was going to help babysit, then Mary and I came back to the house so that we could join the guys on a trip to Rugby, the Geographical Center of North America. We had already taken pictures there when we first got to ND, so I didn't take pictures there, it was more so to let Tom and Mary say that they were there. While there we discovered something though which we had not noticed when we first arrived in ND and visited. There is a small rock on the sidewalk of the cafe which has Native American Engravings of an owls head, bears paw, & a human hand. It was pretty cool, though I did not take pictures of it so I'll have to see if I can get copies of Mary's pics. We also discovered that there was another exhibit just a few feet away. How we missed it' before is beyond me... I did get pics of that this time though.

We then drove around the little town of Rugby to see the old homes and such. It was just beautiful. And for such a small town (though large in comparison to most ND towns), each and every road has been or is under construction being resurfaced or torn up and totally redone. We were pretty impressed by that...LOL.

After our drive around, we stopped for dinner. They guys wanted Pizza Hutt so that's where we headed. The food was good, but the service was sure poor. I guess that's what you get when they hire young teenage kids to work. Most are there just for the paycheck anyway...because Mom and Dad say they have to work for the extra things they want.

After dinner, we headed back home. Watched a bit of TV before heading to bed. I was getting a headache and wasn't really sure why... until I work up this morning to yet another visitor... Aunt Flo. Sigh... was hoping she would hold off until next week.

Today we are heading to New Town. It's such a beautiful area up there. I'm really looking forward to seeing it again as Lake Sakakawea is 30 foot higher than it was last year when we went due to the excess amounts of snow we got over the winter. Last year, most of it was dry. They were actually able to reopen boat ramps this summer which had been closed for several years due to the low water levels.

We are also going to go to Four Bears Casino. I didn't realize until last night that we are actually going to go inside this time...LOL. We just stopped at the old Four Bears Bridge Museum last time we went, but Drew's mom wants to go into the casino for a bit. So, that should be fun! I've not been to a casino since we left Shreveport... and that must have been about 11 years ago or so.

Tomorrow we will be getting up and heading to South Dakota. Our plans are to see Mt. Rushmore, tour the badlands, and go to Deadwood. And of course whatever else we find along the way that peaks our interest. I've never been to SD, so that too will be fun and a large photo taking opportunity! I've just emptied my memory card onto my computer so I'll have plenty of room... :) Besides, Holly's taking her laptop, so if I need, I can have her download my camera to her computer and then transfer it all to a pin drive for me... Gotta love modern technology!

Well, I'm off to get ready. I hope all my blogger friends are having a great week! I'll be back to my challenge and posts by next week for sure!