Stefani- our new cat....

Here is our new kitty Stefani. We get her on Sept 24th:) Jasmine picked Stefani out at the Cat's Cradle Shelter yesterday- a present for her birthday:) We probably petted and held 50 cats and kittens- This is the one she picked:)) We were kind of sad because we forgot to take a picture of her yesterday when we were there. We just looked on their Facebook page and there she was!!! Here she is with her littermates: Gwen- the grey kitty, Stefani- the calico, Blake- top orange kitty, Shelton- orange/white kitty.

Labor Day Skate....

We thought there would be some people there from Jazzy's 5th grade class...or at least from the school, but there wasn't. She had fun anyway. Something to do on Labor Day!

First day of 5th grade

Independence Elementary. West Fargo, ND. New teacher is Mr. Schumacher. My crooked photo of Jazzy in front of the school!

Grandma's house....

This week we visited Grandma's house. We had Jasmine's lunar birthday party with Brenda, Margie and Tim:) Jazzy and Grandma did all kinds of fun stuff while I was at a seminar:)

Last Day at Shingobee Timbers!

I made the long drive to Shingobee Timbers to pick Jazzy up. She was hand in hand with her roommate from the "Turtle Room"- Helena:) I asked Jasmine what kind of cooking they did, since it was a "Cooking Camp". All I heard was that they peeled cucumbers, then helped make tacos one night. Here are some more crafts from camp: a tie die tee shirt, more "lanyards" and friendship bracelets, and a couple of "badges". I made a "deal" with Jasmine that if she completed the "Polar Plunge", she would get a "surprise". Apparently she did it:) I am quite certain that the water was not much colder than the middle of the day. She said they swam in the lake every day. I wanted to give her the incentive of a "surprise", so she would actually stretch a bit and do something different. Here is the surprise:--- a desk that I actually put together myself!!! Totally amazing- since I've had to pay the local handyman to put some other things together for me. Now she has a place to do homework! The favorite dessert:))

San Diego of the Midwest

This weekend, it was as if we were in San Diego!! Perfect weather, light breeze, seagulls all around. We had Sunday brunch at a place called Chase on the Lake- a nice resort on Leech Lake. We couldn't afford to stay there, but at least we sat on the patio and had brunch. After brunch, we drove back to Birch Lake to go "fishing"- which was kind of funny since we had no idea what we were doing. This is a funny picture. I don't know what happened to it so that the little boy is cut in half. These little boys were really friendly, talkative and helpful. They showed us how to put the bait on properly. The little blonde boy was really trying to engage Jasmine, give her fishing hints, etc. She kept her head down with her hair over her face the whole time and never said a word:(. After awhile, the little boy pointed over to Jasmine and said "Does she ever talk"? which was kind of funny, but kind of not. I am constantly having to make excuses to people as to why she doesn't talk:(, but it WAS funny in how he said it:))

Leech Lake today.....

We spent most of the day in Walker, MN around Leech Lake- a very touristy place- window shopping in every single store. We ended up getting a fishing pole and tackle box, then went back to our hotel at Birch Lake to fish. Jasmine didn't catch anything, but we didn't have the correct bait. We'll try again tomorrow.