My Boys of Summer

They call this babysitting...

I call it having fun!

Creepy

Yesterday morning we woke up to a foggy scene. Anthony was giving me his usual weather report before I got out of bed when he noticed something unusual through the haze. Of course we needed to investigate.
Grab the camera, momma!
I put on my robe while he put on his monster rain boots and we headed out the front door. We were greeted with an amazing creepy scene. There were spiderwebs everywhere.
In the grass.
On flowers.
Against the house.
EVERYWHERE.
Anthony was in love with the "haunted house" scene and couldn't stop talking about the spiders and how many there were and how busy they must have been the night before and how big they probably were and how he wants to see them and how we should take lots of pictures to show daddy and how we should call daddy to tell him all about this and how he wants to touch all of the webs to see if they're all sticky....
In his excitement he was one, gigantic, run-on sentence of happiness.
Oh, to be a three year old boy.

The Infamous Yellow Dress

Thanks to the wonders of technology, the social networking site called facebook and it's 500 million plus users I was tagged in this photo yesterday by another class of 1995 DRHS graduate.
I think I could have gone without EVER seeing this picture again.
Ninth grade Snowball...
I remember driving up to Bemidji with my mom and finding a yellow dress. Most people would have the common sense to know that a yellow, sequined dress would be a bad choice. Apparently everyone but me, that is.
Mom and I ate at Bonanza to talk over my dress options. She and I both liked the yellow one so that's what I went with. To top it off I got matching yellow shoes with a clip-on white flower to go on top. I honestly thought I was being fun, original and expressing myself with a color I have always loved.
Turns out I had made another fashion blunder.
For whatever reason I never quite got it right and I still struggle with making the right choices when it comes to clothes. This picture proves what I have been saying all along. I need Stacy and Clinton's help from TLC's show What Not to Wear!

Celebrating Baby Selly

On Saturday we joyfully celebrated Laura and Baby Selly. As soon as she had shared the news that she was pregnant we were all ecstatic and knew we wanted to do something really special for the friend we all love dearly. Thanks to Tracy's superb hosting abilities and the great time we always have when we're together it was a shower to remember.

We started off at Tracy's beautiful new home.

Gretchen pointing out our beautiful and pregnant friend, Laura.

Later the party moved to The Melting Pot for some serious fondue eating.
Our waiter was interesting, but made the night fun.

What's on the menu?
Shrimp, lobster, chicken, tuna, pork, steak...
YUM!

Fondue fun.
No search and rescue was needed for that mushroom!

The best part?
DESSERT!

We know how to clear our dessert plates!

Laura said it best in her toast --- I'm thankful for great friends as well.

Saturday was a beautiful day full of laughs and fun; I had such a good time with the ladies. We're all looking forward to October 4th and meeting the newest member of our Becker-amily.

On a side note, the guys "celebrated" too in their own way. It involved paintball, many welts, a knee injury, and lots of beer to top of their night.

MOMcation

According to Google a MOMcation is:
a vacation for Mom, away from the kids, with the goal of relaxing, renewing, and repairing mom so she can be an even greater Mom when she returns home.
I really dislike admitting this, but I needed a MOMcation. I think I needed it even more than I realized at the time.
Last week A went up north to spend some time with my parents while I spent a little Tonja time at home. The best part was that he was so excited to go. He woke me up at 5:30 Wednesday morning asking if he could go to Grandma Kathy's house now. Two seconds later he would ask again...and again...and again... It's nice that he's at the age now that he gets excited too and really wants to go visit loved ones.
G-ma and G-pa Johnson took Anthony camping for two days and then they visited Paul Bunyan's Animal Land in Bemidji with Uncle Airwick. When I met to pick him up on Sunday it was very clear that the animals were the highlight of his whole up north adventure. He was talking loud and quick about the camel and then the lions and the monkeys and the deer. It was evident that he had a great time.
Thanks to Uncle Airwick I got to see just what A was up to on his adventure up north.

The camel is seriously huge, but he loved it. YIKES!

I love this photo.
Maybe Anthony is a llama whisperer!

I've heard about the deer multiple times since being home.
He loved feeding them.

This is the face I love and missed.

Thank you dad, mom and Erik! I think I enjoyed my MOMcation just as much as you enjoyed having A around for a few days.

Summer Book Club

Becker Middle School's newly retired media specialist, Cheryl, always hosts the summer book club at her "cabin" on Mille Lacs Lake.
I love this place. It exudes comfort and welcomes you to a relaxing good time. Even though the structure is unbelievable she has been able to infuse her unpretentious outlook on life in her "cabin" dwelling. This year not only did I enjoy lengthy conversations in the screened in porch and deck area, but I also spent the night in the basement "cave" for the first time. The three moms downstairs who were child-less for the night found themselves sleeping in until 9:45. Amazing! Even though the chosen book - Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely - was awful, in my opinion, I had a wonderful time.

Cheryl's pantry is always stocked and she makes some of the best food. For supper that night she made an entree that demanded seconds. Try it and you will fall in love too.

The Whitcomb
(Okay, she called it "Tortellini with Peas and Ham" but I adjusted the name to something a bit more memorable.)

Ingredients:
10 oz. meat or cheese tortellini (cooked according to the instructions)
8 0z. sliced mushrooms
2 oz. Prosciutto ham (sliced and chopped)
1/2 cup frozen peas - thawed
1 cup heavy cream
5 oz. shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 Tablespoon butter

Directions:
1. Add ham, mushrooms and peas in a hot skillet with butter.
2. Add garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
3. Pour in cream and bring to a boil (it will froth).
4. Sprinkle in Parmesan cheese. Stir well unit sauce is smooth.
5. Toss in cooked tortellini