Charity Challenge- Catch Up

I haven't forgotten to donate monthly to charities so much as I have forgotten to write about it.  I skipped writing about this for June, July, August and September.

Here's where my monthly donations for my Charity Challenge went for the following months:

June:  My monthly donation went to the American Diabetes Association.  Diabetes runs in my family on my mom's side.  I don't have it but I have to be careful as I'm susceptible to getting it if I don't watch my diet and I should lose weight to reduce my chance even further.

July: July's donation went to Minnesota Network of Hospice and Palliative Care.  This network includes Optage Hospice, the provider that was used for my dad.


August:  My coworker Jennifer's sister, Cicely Novy, suffered a brain aneurysm in May 2013. She's had multiple surgeries and setbacks with seizures but she's making progress.  She still can't speak but with huge support from her family, she'll get there. If you're interested in her story or donating, check out the link.  http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/the-novy-fund/58052


September: My dad's birthday is in September so I decided to donate to the American Lung Association for the second year in a row.


All these charities mean something to me in some way as well as all of these charities have very low administrative costs.

I'll post about October's charity later this month.

Two Weeks in Review

I've been slacking again with my blog. I made it a resolution of mine to post more often but I haven't so in order to get all caught up prior to this weekend, I'm doing a random schmandom-type post for my activities over the last couple weeks.

Friday, March 12:

It was my Mom's birthday so we had a get together at my sister's house in celebration of my Mom. They picked up fish from the VFW weekly fish fry during Lent and ate it back at their house. Because of my diet, I didn't eat any but wanted to! We played Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples afterwards but then my sister went into her living room and realized it was cold in there and saw that the window was broken. Hmmm...I wonder what could have broken it? A 6 year old and an 8 year old who has been told countless times not to play football in the house because they are going to break something? Yep. They were already in bed but because the window was open, that meant her white cat named Bandit HAD to jump out the window and for us to go searching for him. Jamie finally wrangled him up back behind her property in the woods, but not before my Dad lost his glasses. He wasn't sure where he left them but between helping get the window figured out and looking outside for the cat, they were gone. We spent about the next hour looking for his glasses, inside and out. Finally, yours truly found them in the grass in the backyard in the dark JUST before I was about to step on them. So...the night didn't quite go as planned but my Mom insists that it didn't affect her birthday and the time we had over there. It was definitely a Griswold Family sort of evening for us. And I didn't even take a single picture! And I suppose I should tell you that I'm going to be an auntie again. Yep, my sister Jamie and her husband Tom are expecting their 2nd child together. She's due on September 15th and she's really hoping for a girl this time around. I'll keep you posted when she finds out the sex of the baby around early May. They've already got a girl name picked out but I'll share that later.

Saturday, March 13:

M's been talking with his siblings about getting together once a month for a lunch or dinner for quite some time and finally the first one happened. Everyone besides Ray met up at our house and we drove to Pepito's in south Minneapolis. I had been strict on my diet and had not cheated up until that point but I decided that I was going to "cheat" and get the Lupitas, my FAVORITE food there. I skipped the chips and salsa but the chicken lupitas were so good. I've done my best to avoid sugar the past couple of months so it was weird to be able to taste sugar in the baked tortilla! I think everyone really liked the restaurant and a different sibling will pick the restaurant each month and everyone will do their best to make it.

Left to Right: Kelly (friend), Sister Lisa, Brother Ray, Sister Kim, Michael, Me, BIL Greg (Kim's husband)

Sunday, March 14:

The weather was so beautiful so M and I decided to go to Mounds Park in St. Paul and just take a few photos. The Mississippi River was flowing but you could still see some chunks of ice floating downstream.

St. Paul skyline

My shadow-the wind was blowing my jacket open

Tuesday, March 16:

I went to play Bingo with a group of girls from work after our work day. I've been wanting to go play Bingo a lot lately so it was fun to get out and play. We only had one winner in our group, Jenni, who won $99. I'll win one of these day!

Deanna, posing for me while she pretending to spin the wheel. It was her birthday the day before so she got to spin the birthday wheel for a prize, which turned out to be $3.50 towards a purchase at the concession stand. Woo Hoo!

Wednesday, March 17:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I had no desire to go out and drink but I did wear lots of green. Check out my green eye shadow. The green shadow really brings out my brown eyes.

Thursday, March 18:

I met Heather at Manitou Station in White Bear Lake for dinner for her birthday. Kristi was invited also but she has been working late at night and she was sick so she didn't join us. The weather was so beautiful today. I don't know what the high temperature was but it was at least 63 degrees.

Friday, March 19:

M and I went after work to the Wild Onion for dinner and a drink. We both hadn't been there for years and it was fun to reminisce about some of our old times there when were were in our early 20's. They have a small dance floor there and there wasn't anyone out there except for a girl that would go out by herself and dance every so often but then there was an old Asian man that went out there and was dancing up a storm all by himself having the time of his life. At first it was weird to watch him because honestly we didn't know if there was something wrong with him but then after awhile it was so cute to see him out there just doing his thing. When he got off the dance floor, there was a table of people that gave him a round of applause when exiting.

I'm all caught up except for yesterday and today so I'll be blogging about that early this coming week. Stay tuned!

July 1st-15th

I'm back! There is lots to write and show you for the first half of July. I can't believe we're in the 2nd half of July already. Here's what's happened in the past couple of weeks:

Fourth of July Weekend:

M and I went up to his parent's house in Isle on Thursday, the 2nd. It was a low-key couple of days up there as there weren't as many people up there as last year but relaxing.

Thursday the 2nd:

Me on the bike in the town of Isle

We had fun with fireworks and all the different settings on the camera

Friday the 3rd:

Ricci laying in the driveway

See my reflection in M's tailpipe?

That's M's last name---(I know, I know, I got used to it a long time ago)

I played my first game of Jenga made by M's Dad...and won

We went on a motorcycle ride around Lake Mille Lacs, which is about 70 miles with M's brother and Dad on Friday afternoon. We ran into so much traffic from all the people coming up for the weekend. We ended up stopping at the Blue Goose in Garrison, MN, about half-way since it started to sprinkle. The sprinkle turned to a heavy downpour so we waited until the rain passed and got back out on the bikes. We were about 5 miles from M's parents house on the other side of the lake when we hit the rain again. We rode back in the rain for those remaining miles. Here's what we looked like:

Chuck and his winning from the can toss. Every time you finish a drink, you can toss your empty can from a certain spot and try to get it into a 5 gallon bucket. It cost 25 cents to throw a can but if you win, you get the pot, which carries over from each holiday. There was $32 in this pot. I think the last pot was won on Labor Day 2008 so it had been building since then.

My curls! That's what the rain does to my hair

Michael concentrating on a Jenga game for money

Saturday the 4th:

We left M's parents house around 2:30 pm and heading back to the cities for a 4th of July party at my parents house. I didn't get many pictures but here's a pic of my G-ma and G-pa, Dad and sister playing a game of croquet.

We went to see fireworks in downtown St. Paul from the Taste of Minnesota. Last year's fireworks were fantastic but this year's were not as good, but still fun.

Tuesday, July 7th:

Alphabet Gang Members:

A-Aaron

B-Beth

C- Catha

Da- Dana

De- Deanna

I met gang member A at Harry's in Minneapolis for a drink before heading to see the Twins vs. the Yankees at the dome. A had an extra ticket and so kindly asked me to go. It was fun despite the 10-2 loss. At least we got to see Gomez rob A-Rod of a home run.

Wednesday, July 8th:

The rest of the Alphabet Gang got together the next day at Stella's Fish Cafe in Uptown on the rooftop patio. Aaron had to leave for another Twins game so it was just us girls for the majority of the time. They have really good food here. I had salmon. It was pretty windy up there so don't pay attention to my hair.

Catha striking a preggo pose

Deanna wouldn't be in the picture so she took it

See the Minneapolis skyline behind us?

Friday, July 10th:

We both had the day off and we went to the cemetary my grandma is buried in as it was the 1st anniversary of her passing. After spending a short time there, we were on our way to M's brother's house to go on a weekend motorcycle trip with their cousins Jim and Lorrie and friend Lynn.

Here's a fortune that M got 2 days before our trip:

We rode down Hwy 61 until and went across the Mississippi River to LaCrosse, WI. We traveled about 20 miles further south until we reached a small town called Genoa. We stopped at Rudy's Bar before heading another 20 miles or so south to Lynxville to where we'd be staying for the weekend.

I had to take a picture of the menu to show you the prices. Everything was so cheap here.

This "thing" was a device that the bartender pulls out every once in a while for people to play. 4 people grab a handle and it blinks in the middle and once it stops blinking, you press the red button. The last one to press the button gets a big shock. Only in a small town.

This is how cute your hair is when you ride on a bike all day

There were cliffs/bluffs like this all throughout our ride

Ok, we arrived at our "motel" type place for the weekend in Lnyxville, WI. As soon as we pulled up, M said it was the cockroach motel. We luckily got out of our reservation because M's brother Ray was told when he booked the room that it slept 6 when it really only slept 5. Note to self: Never let Ray pick the place to stay for the weekend and never book a room at a place called Hoochies II! Hoochies II? Where's the original Hoochies?

Here was another really good reason not to stay here....The Mayflies! You can see them all over the sign and on the wall of the building. They were everywhere.

We had to find a new place to stay so we drove back up to Genoa. There are rooms above the bar at Rudy's so we stayed there for Friday night but they didn't have room for us on Saturday night. The upstairs of the bar is kinda like the upstairs of a house. There were 6 rooms up there and 3 shared bathrooms. At first when I heard this, I was not too thrilled but it wasn't bad at all. And for the price of $11 a person? I'll take it! We ate dinner at a place down the road and then came back to Rudy's and spent our night there. We closed down the bar and our bartender Matt, (from MN) was awesome. He told us stories and gave us plenty of drink chips for free drinks.

I drank nothing but water on Friday night. All the others didn't!

M and I

Jim and Lorrie

Ray and Lynn

Saturday, the 11th:

I woke up to the click-clack, click-clack outside our room window. Look on the street and you can see what it was....the Amish in their buggy! We did see an Amish man and his son walking on the street the night before. I don't know much about the Amish but they are kinda fascinating so I just waved at them when I was on the bike and they nodded back.

M woke up earlier than all of us and took off on his bike some 20 miles east to a town called Viroqua. The Amish had all their goods set up to purchase. M said that one of the Amish boys was so fascinated with his motorcycle and stared at him drive all the way down the road.

We ate breakfast at the same place we ate dinner the night before. The town consists of a few hundred feet of businesses and that's it so there isn't much choice. We checked into our new place, the Genoa House. We rented the loft apartment. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves including a full living room and kitchen, a loft which had 3 beds up there, 2 other bedrooms, a bathroom and the whole deck. Again, not bad for $22 a person!

We headed south about 40 miles to Prairie du Chien, WI before heading west a little and going across the river to Marquette, Iowa. This was my Iowa debut! Yep, never had been there before and it's a border state! (20 states down, 30 to go) We stopped at Lady Luck Casino which is a riverboat casino. M and I got carded to get in!

The bridge we took across from WI to IA

A pink elephant at the casino

We went back to WI and drove further east and south to Cassville, WI. We took a ferry over the Mississippi River to cross back into Iowa and drove north up Hwy 52 to Guttenberg, where we stopped for dinner. M noticed a liver cancer bracelet on a man sitting at the bar eating and M told him of his sister passing from liver cancer. The man's wife had died and she was a donor and was able to donate her liver to someone who is alive and well today. He was very proud of being a donor and we were all proud to say that we were donors as well. He gave us each a green liver cancer pin.

A train going by while we were waiting for the ferry. We saw and heard plenty of trains this weekend, including at 4 am when we were sleeping.

Riding down the ramp to the ferry

On the ferry

After dinner, we headed to a place called Pike's Peak in McGregor, IA. It is a bluff that is 500 feet above the Mississippi River. It was so beautiful!

See that bridge in the background? That's the bridge we took over to the casino earlier.

We finally drove up further north until we got to Lansing, IA. We stopped here for a quick drink (1919 rootbeer on tap for me. Yum!) before heading back to WI. Here is the bridge in Lansing that we took to get to De Soto, WI, which is only 10 miles south of Genoa.

We didn't hit Rudy's until later in the evening but spent most of our time at Tuna's.

We went to a military surplus store earlier in the day. Can you tell?

Ray and M

M and his tie of tickets. The firemen were having a fundraiser and we bought up a lot of tickets

We left the area around 12:30 pm and headed home on Sunday. We got home around 6 pm and was exhausted but not before a slight accident on the bike. When we were just south of Alma, WI, a bird flew into the bike. Ok, not really the bike, but into Michael....his stomach to be precise. Of course it freaked us out and M was trying to get him off of him as he was still trying to drive. He hit his stomach then fell in between his legs and he was flopping around his lap when M looked up on the road then looked down and then the bird was gone. Our group behind us saw him fall off the bike into the street. Sorry, he was a goner. The bird might have been able to survive if it weren't for M's abs of steel. M did have a red welt on his stomach. I don't know what kind of bird it was but was bigger than a sparrow and smaller than a robin.

We rode 600 miles on the bike from Friday to Sunday. It was by far the longest trip M and I both had been on the bike. The scenery in every state was beautiful. Cliffs, bluffs, rolling hills, lush green trees, winding roads perfect for motorcycles and just beautiful nature. We could have done without the mayflies though. I got pelted in the middle of my forehead on the bike. They were so thick at one point we both had to duck on the bike behind the windshield to avoid them. The people in every state were so nice to us. When in WI, I couldn't help to think that these were Packers fans and we're getting along! It was also different to see the baseball team that they root for. I guess I thought it would be the Milwaukee Brewers but from at least Genoa, WI to Lansing, IA, it was the Chicago Cubs!

I had SO MUCH FUN this weekend. We are definitely in to do this again next year.

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of M with his gas station beef jerky on the way home. It was so gross looking that I couldn't eat a bite. It looked like it was thinly sliced right off the cow. Yuck!