Me again...

What's up?- I had a fun couple of days when my friend, Nola, and her beautiful daughter, Megan, came up north to get some senior photo's taken. It wasn't hard to get several good shots of Meg! Here are some of the one's I like. The three of us spent last night around the campfire while we watched movies on my computer. I think it may become my new favorite pass time!

Activity- Still...I got nothing. This is getting serious now! It's been so long since i've done any "real" exercise. I hearby pledge that before I blog tomorrow I, Candice Mae Cross, will do some form of exercise! There, a promise made is a promise kept!

Laughter- I had a few laughs while I had company this week and just in general I been having an overall peaceful feeling in my life...I really like it!

Kindness - It's sometimes tough to do kind actions when you don't see people everyday but everyday I do think of my family and friends and wonder about their lives and their ups and downs. I'm trying to always have kind and generous thoughts about them. Positive energy, positive attitude and all that!

Productive day

What's up?- I feel very accomplished today! I woke up with a mild case of the blues but I was determined not to waste the day away being lazy - like I did yesterday! I started by sorting through my gigantic pile of mail. It's an easy job so it's a good place to start when I don't feel like starting anything. Anyway, one thing led to another and before I knew it I had all my bills paid, my office organized, cleaned out the refridgerator and I was out the door. One of the things on my list was to get shelving and storage tubs for all the stuff I moved out of our Anoka house and piled into the basement at our new place. When I say piled...I mean PILED! I tried to take a shortcut to Menards in Duluth, trying to avoid some of the construction, but only managed to make it a VVEERRYY LLLOOOONNNGGG cut! There were a lot of cool, old houses along the way so it was okay. Now the shelves and tubs are in my truck waiting to be put to good use...maybe next week!
Activity - Don't want to talk about it!
Laughter - Nothing happened to make me laugh today...sad huh? I'm always a little disappointed when a day goes by without laughter so I decided to be proactive and make myself laugh by standing in front of the mirror and forcing myself to laugh while I made funny faces. I did manage to give myself a couple of genuine chuckles due to the general dorkiness of the whole thing!
Kindness - I talked to a nice, older gentleman at Menards about which shelving was better. He was also doing a shelving/storage project in his garage and offered some good advice. Then we helped each other load our 120# shelving kits onto our carts.

In case you were wondering...

... where Tanner gets his adorability from. . . Nana, of course!

Quick update

What's up? So much has happened in the last two weeks I'll just have to sum it up..trying to keep it short and sweet. I spent a few days at the North Shore with Cassie and her kids. It was a blast-and -a-half! I've already reserved some campsites at Temperance River State Park for next August. Went to Sadie and Mike's for a party.It was a hot weekend so everyone enjoyed the pool. Brought Jada and Niya to the cabin with me for four days. It was during the hot, hot weather so we spent hours swimming in the lake. When we weren't swimming we were either eating chicken strips and ice cream, watching movies, or reading fairytales...I loved it! I hosted Bunko last Thursday for 16 friends at Goose Lake Winery in Nowthen. They have winetasting and a great set-up for small gatherings. I'd love to make it there for a winemaking class sometime! I went to a summer party at Pam (Steve's sister)and Terry's but I knew I couldn't be at the party long on Saturday so we PRE-partied on Friday with Kim (Steve's sister)and Bob and some others...which in my opinion is always way more fun and hilarious than the official party. This past Saturday we went to a wedding reception at a refurbished barn...super cute...drank tequila and danced...awesome fun! The garter was caught by Dan - the most confirmed bachelor I know! Another long time bachelor, Doctor Tom, was also in the crowd but didn't really try too hard to get the garter...he's the one on the left stirring his drink. Steve danced to Wipe-out but he was the only one doing the dead cockroach , right next to the spilled drink puddle, which was TOOO funny! I spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up the construction sight at the new house. Things are moving along nicely and I'll get some new pics soon. I have a few days to try and get caught up on household stuff (bills, cleaning, groceries) until I leave midweek for the cities. I'm visiting Nolan and Jenny on Wednesday, helping my neice, Lindsey, move back to college on Thursday and Friday, babysitting Tanner on Friday night and then returning to the old homestead in Barnum on Saturday morning. Next week, I'll be helping my sister, Kristi , move to northern Minnesota. I think I've helped her every time she has moved (17? times) so I can't skip it - it's become a tradition! Well, that about wraps it up. It's been busy and it doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon.
Activity - Nothing structured - just a lot of living(swimming , hiking, cleaning, dancing, playing)
Laughter - Seriously, too much to even measure!!
Kindness - My overall impression of the last two weeks is that I've seen more kindness and goodness than meanness. Most of the family and friends I hang with are down-deep good shit! But before I can appreciate all the goodness in the world, and I know there is plenty, I need to have a little vent time about the crap that's out there. Unfortunately, and maybe because I've seen such a wide variety of people lately, there have been three times over the last couple weeks that I've seen the darker side of human nature - abuse - lies - cheating. Surprise, surprise...all men! Quite frankly - I know I'm sexist - men suck. As a species, I don't think very highly of them at all and I try to never expect much. However, I sometimes get caught up in my quest for brotherly love, giving the benefit of the doubt, blah, blah, f'ing blah, let my guard down and end up having to smack myself upside the head to knock off my rose-colored glasses! Thankfully it isn't Steve who has disillusioned me...this time anyway...but he is male so it's only a matter of time before he does something irritatingly full of testosterone! There...vented...moving on! Thank goodess...thank goodness...THANK GOOD-NESS for the women and children in my life, who offer unconditional love, hugs, kindness, thoughtfulness, gentleness, praise, compassion, acceptance, caring and laughter.

Beautitiful Yard

What's up? Carol made Steve and I an Anniversary dinner last night. Her homemade pies are delicious. Guest list: George and Carol of course, Steve and Me, Pam and Terry(Steve's sister and husband-they are also our neighbors from across the street), and Smitty. Poor Smitty was picked on endlessly. Grandma was busy singing cousin Allie's praises to Josh in hopes of getting Josh to marry her. I'm not sure Josh was falling for it. Today Nola and Wayne are coming to the lake to hang out. It's cloudy this morning so I hope the weather improves. This evening, Cassie and the kids are also coming in preparation of our north shore camping trip. We're all looking forward to camping along lake Superior for a few days this week.

Activity- I thought about getting out my bike...does that count? I don't know how people find the time to get formal exercise. It's not like I sit around on my butt all day...usually...but I know some good, sustained cardio would be awesome for me. I think I need to reset my priorities on this subject!

Laughter- There were many funny stories and jokes flying around the dinner table last night but here is the one that busted me up. Grandpa Cross was hauling some stuff on a trailer behind his wheeler...meanwhile Terry was pulling a mower behind his wheeler. They met each other on the road and Terry says to George, "Hey what happend to your trailer?' George had unknowingly lost the bulk of his trailer and was pulling around just the tongue. George looks at Terry and says, " Where's your mower?" It seems both dorks had lost everything they were towing except the trailer tongues! What a pair!

Kindness- I was over at Pam and Terry's the other day and I noticed how beautiful her yard is. She says it's her therapy and you can definitely tell it's her passion. Everywhere you look there are flowers blooming. I took some pitures on Friday while Pam was at work and assembled a scrapbook for her birthday. I hope she likes it. Here are some of my favorites.