Saturday!

I love my days off and know I am going to enjoy retirement. I am down to my final seven weeks, it has gone by so fast. I remember last summer. I was so ready to retire then but I needed to pay down my credit card. That said, I am almost to zero now! I wish I would have made my mind up to do this two years ago, but I have enjoyed spending on my family over the 15 years and now it is time to say, sorry, you will need to help me! Chuckle. Lets hope I never get into the type of a situation. I can't see it ever happening, thank goodness.

Today, being Saturday, we always have a nice breakfast together. this morning it was vegy omelet, toast ...

  and Skinny Hummingbird cupcakes, well they really are more like a muffins.

The muffins/cupcakes were something I made on Thursday. I was home for the day and decided to call my visiting teachers to come visit after I had made them. As an after thought I invited them to lunch. We had a wonderful visit. I made a macaroni chicken salad and we sat out on the deck, it was about 75 that day. Amazingly beautiful and we had a very enjoyable visit plus some spiritual thoughts along with it.

I took out the cupcakes for dessert. They were a wonderful hit, I was so happy that it made 23! We could take more than one if we wanted; and we did.

Here is the recipe and the info about the recipe:

"These scrumptious hummingbird cupcakes are super moist and light, full of pineapple, chopped bananas, pecans, cinnamon and spices topped off with a sweet cream cheese frosting.

Hummingbird cake first appeared in Southern Living Magazine back in 1978, originally submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina and is known to have won numerous blue ribbons at county fairs. This skinny version does not disappoint! The flavors are reminiscent of a carrot cake, without the carrots and make the perfect Mother's Day dessert!

Skinny Hummingbird Cupcakes Skinnytaste.com 

Servings:

 22 • Serving Size:  1 cupcake  • Old Points:  4 pts  • Points+:  5 pts Calories: 197.8 • Fat: 6.5 g • Carb: 31.1 g • Fiber: 1.7 g • Sugar: 21.7 g Sodium: 284.2 mg

Ingredients: I made some changes - Enjoy!

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour),1 cup sugar (I used raw), 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg fresh grated, 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I used ½ tsp Chinese 5 spice instead of ginner), 2 tbsp oil, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 2 large bananas she had just purchased that day), 20 oz can crushed pineapple in juice, drained well, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup grated carrots.

For the Frosting:

• 8 oz 1/3-less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 22 pecan halves - didn’t use on top.

Directions:

To prepare frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter and vanilla, add powdered sugar, beat until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir well with a whisk (I used a mixer from start to finish).

In a medium bowl, combine oil, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Add banana, pineapple and carrots.; mix well. Fold wet ingredients and chopped pecans with the dry ingredients, batter will be stiff and dry but keep folding it and it will all come together.

Spoon batter into cupcake tin. Bake at 350° for about 23 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Spread frosting over the cupcakes once they are cooled. Garnish each cupcake with a pecan half on top if you want.

Lots of satisfying work completed

It is finally time to rest and recouperate for tomorrow! I feel like I accomplished many things but realize that I actually only accomplished the major things, mowing the lawn, working on the information for the upcoming board meeting, and finishing a section of the Minnesota History Contest.  I am ready for a good night's sleep.
This past week and a half I have been sick with what I call a childhood problem, ear infections. I also have a sinus infection. It came as quite a surprise to hear the doctor say ear infection on Monday. He put me on a Zpak and I am feeling much better now. Not coughing so much either. It was not a good time to get sick but after all that has gone on the past three weeks, I am not surprised I ended up sick.
We had our annual meeting on April 20th at the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Badger. Wonderful program from Minnesota folk singer and story teller, John Berquist. I highly recommend him to anyone. He entertains! He also did artist-in-residence programs in Badger, Roseau and Warroad. I am impressed with how versitile he is. He taught folk dancing to the Roseau second graders, worked with the Jr and Sr. high choirs in Warroad and on Friday spent two sessions with the elementary children in Badger, teaching them about the insturments he uses in his repritore. He was well worth the $2,000 grant we received to have him here.



Badger Students with John Berquist

Well this has taken way longer than I thought so it is definitely time to go to sleep! Night all!

Empty House

We have never had family come to visit consecutively like these last three and a half weeks were.
It was such fun and work!! Now I need to get busy and clean the house!

Today I drove James, Ashley and Lance down to Fargo to "hopefully" catch an Allegiant Air flight to LA. We were so happy to find out that they were able to get on the plane!
They fly standby and when they planned to come on AA from LA the plane only had one seat left and of course they wanted to all go together. It took them two days of finagling to get to Fargo. A week later we had Lanced blessed at church. We do not believe little children need to be baptized until they are eight and only bless them after birth. It was a great experience for us, one of the few times we have been able to be there when a grandchild was blessed and we have missed one baptism.

Lance's blessing - April 8c, 2012.    
Grandpa and Grandma, James and Ashley

Ashley and Lance

James and Lance

James, Ashley and Lance

I am too tired to finish this tonight so will add more tomorrow.

Three Weeks of Company

It has been a very busy three weeks. Brian arrived to visit and do some Makeover Workshops with his cosmetic line, Workshop Cosmetics. He did two workshops in Roseau, one at From Head to Toe and at Sublime. Then the second week he presented classes at cosmetology school in Bemidji, two in Minneapolis and one in Fargo. It was wonderful to have him and hard to see him leave.

James and Ashley finally received Lances passport. they flew from Taiwan to Hong Kong then on to LA last Friday. After some maneuvering they were able to catch flights from LA to Chicago and from there to Fargo.
 I am looking forward to visiting our children and grandchildren after I retire.

Little Lance is a delight. It is so surprising to see his fair skin and blue eyes. Ashley said he was the only baby in the nursery with blue eyes and fair skin among all the Taiwanese babies.Must be something in the genes. The first night he slept with me so they could sleep through the night undisturbed, although they both woke up at 5:30 am when he woke up.

Lance will be blessed at Church on Sunday. I am so pleased to see we have that opportunity. We have not been there when any of Michelle's children were blessed.

When they get up to feed him in the morning, I also get up.

Grandma and Lance playing at 7:30 this morning.

Lance and I.

Lance started cooing recently so here he is talking to me!

This is the week that Michelle sends in several of her credential papers for her student teaching. She said it has been a very challenging month and she had to tell the music students she teaches that she was going to take the month off. She said it was so nice to be able to focus on the classes.

She is student teaching 5-6 beginning band and advance band. She has found this to be very enjoyable with much challenges with the beginning students. It has been a learning situation, to say the least.

One Woman 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you who are Irish and all those who take that claim today!

Here we are thirteen days after the 2012 One Woman event, one would think things would slow down for a while after we do something like that, but no, it doesn't. But the focus for today's blog will be on those special women in Roseau County who give so much to improve their communities and help others.
The twelve women, from all walks of life, included a store owner, teachers, a county fair treasurer, and a county fair office secretary. This years recipients are Eva Gregerson-Badger, Veronica Novacek-Barto, Sylvia Lisell-Falun, Dianne Churchill-Greenbush, Rose Strandlund-Jadis, Esther Sandstrom-Malung, Elvera Kvarnlov-Moranville, Irene Olson-Roseau, Jeanette Erickson-Ross, Sylvia Kukowski-Skagen, Addie Streiff-Unorganized, and Sunny Wilmer-Warroad. It has been so enjoyable to see the things these women do for their communities. Sometimes it has been utterly amazing! We talk about super moms, these are definitely some super women!

Roseau County Commissioner Glenda Phillipe cut the ribbon. We joking visited about how when I was doing a program in Warroad one noon, we had decided to have lunch together and I forgot. She jokingly accused me of "standing her up!" She is a jewel and we are very fortunate to have such a dedicated individual as a county commissioner.
Here are some of the photos of the day.

Over 160 family members and friends attended the exhibit
 ribbon cutting and program for the 2012 One Women event.

Dawn Johnson and Linda Vatnsdal were the coordinators
and program organizers.

Lloyd and Sunny Wilmer, Warroad 2012 One Woman; 

Carole Wilson, program coordinator
is pinning on her name tag.

Elvera Kvarnlov-Moranville is looking
at the 2012 One Woman exhibits.

Jeanette Erickson, Ross 2012 One Woman and her family

Charleen Haugen and Sunny Wilmer

Board members, Lola Grafstrom, Helen Wagner, Harriet Heinen with Harriet's granddaughter, Olivia

                         

City of  Roseau One Woman, Irene Olson, husband Joel, and daughter Nancy Anacabe.

Jeanette Erickson, daughter Carmen P. and great-grandson.

Rose Strandlund, Jadis Township 2012 One Woman and daughter Debra.

Beverly Torkelson, her mother, Eva Gregeson - City of Badger 2012 One Woman and daughter Jan Wollin

.

Marie Kompelien, Museum Research Center Specialist

ReNae Lisell Vagle in front of her mother's  and aunt Esther's exhibit.
Esther's husband Roger is standing with ReNae.

Sylvia Kukowski, Skage Township One Woman, is so deserving. Her husband died when their children were young and she raised them herself. Milked cows and did so much hard work.

 Sylvia's family gave some wonderful compliments to their
mother; so great stories too!

 Several musical selections were performed by the Guttorumson's.

A Month of Happenings

Have I really been so busy that I haven't accounted for one of the most important events in our lives, the birth of our grandson Lance? Lance was born on January 31 after a very demanding labor by our daughter-in-law Ashley. The doctor finally made the decision to take the baby by a C-section birth. Both did fine, as well as daddy, after the birth. They have a policy in Taiwan that if a family can afford to the mother and baby stay in the hospital for a month, Yesterday, Taiwan Sunday, they went home.

James was in Taiwan for about three weeks before he had to return to Hong Kong and then he had surgery and is on medial leave for a month. I am hoping they are able to get all of the paper work for the baby and Ashley's visa to Hong Kong completed quickly so they can be a full time family soon.

Our grandson, Bryce was here for a couple of days. He arrived on my birthday, which was good timing. He had spent the last four years in the Coast Guard and decided not to reenlist and is planning on going on to school now. He reminds me so much of our sons except he is a little quieter. His mother is going to be very happy to see him. He has lots of catching up to do.

Took Friday last week and spent the day cleaning and cooking. I did make some delicious blueberry muffins from the Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook. I love this cookbook, it is a combination of all the best recipes from just about every food brand. I don't always use the brand that is recommended, but often do. Thought I would share this recipe.

Blueberry Muffins
bake 400 degrees for about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on size of pan

2 cups flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix together in a bowl and make a hole in the center.
Slowly melt 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure 3/4 cup milk, add 1 egg and beat together, add melted butter and pour into the hole of dry ingredients. Mix until moist.
Fold in either 3/4 cup blueberries or cranberries that have been tossed with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts.
Measure evenly into the muffin tin size of your choice and bake as necessary until golden brown on edges. Serve with butter and raspberry jam!