6 days and counting....

I haven't mentioned yet, the upcoming Halloween party that I'm having here at my house. My friends are helping by contributing food, drinks and decorations to make it better than ever. I have purchased a CD of music that will be playing throughout the evening as well. It's called Midnight Syndicate: Gates of Delirium. Check it out. I am listening to it now for the first time. Quite interesting! You can buy other Cd's from this collection. It will (hopefully) set the mood for a frightful ! night! I have been picking a few things up as I find them for decorating my house and outside. I have recipes picked out from a Halloween magazine that is from Taste of Home. It has party and craft ideas along with some easy and delicious recipes!
My basement will have scary movies playing for people to watch if they so chose. And it will be dark with only candles lit for the appropriate aura. I already have a plastic cauldron that will be sitting in the fireplace with dry ice for a fog effect. There has been talk of bringing a fog machine to set outside the front door to make the entry into the house a little bit more spooky.
The best part is, this is a costume party. It was decided to make it adults only so that no one would have to run after the little ones while they try to have a relaxing time.
Next week at this time, I hope to have a report and definitely pictures of how the night went! Stay tuned!

A little something new

I now have some new furniture on which to relax by the fireplace. It was delivered today. It's very cozy and quite comfortable. I will be able to read, nap or simply enjoy a fire in the evenings. The color is olive green and the material is suede. I was happy to see that it blends quite nicely with my green wall and green curtains. It was hard finding something comfy while at the same time, a decent color.

Last week I went to the Nebraska Furniture Mart and looked through the vast assortment of living room furniture that they have. I had a couple different sets in mind. But I also wanted to see what Mrs. B's had as well. This is a branch of the NFM. But the furniture is marked way down. This is where I found my set. It's made by Ashley. I bought a chair and matching ottoman and a loveseat. I didn't have the space for a couch. But it's ok because I like the coziness of the smaller area. Do you like it?

Love seat
Chair and ottoman
The living room

Crafty idea

Today I spent a few hours helping a friend, Cheryl, by working for her in a booth at a "Fall Home and Garden Expo." She has a booth here each year, mainly for easy advertising for the craft store that she owns. It's called Gallery of Crafts. She only has a sample of the many items one could find in her store at this show. I took a few pictures with my phone camera.

A few cute fall items

A few Christmas items

She had quite a few glass items as well that her Son and Daughter-in-law make. A picture just didn't look good to use. But it's clear glass: plates, wine glasses, salt and pepper shakers, butter dishes, candy dishes, silverware, serving utensils, etc., that they have decorated with colored glass stones. Very pretty! It's fun to attend these shows because it gives people ideas on how they can landscape, or you can see the new windows on the market, types of building materials or different kinds of cookware. There is also several varieties of food and drinks. The humane society is there every year as well. They make sure to entice people by bringing puppies to show off and make people say...."Oh, how cute!" And you just can't resist petting the furry little critters! ;)

But many vendors take advantage of the different crowds that attend by having home made foods. Jelly, corn cob spreads, jams, breads, etc. Some even have soaps and lotions. It's fun to mill around the arena and see what people have to share. It's also the time of year where you could attend a craft show or two or three every Saturday. I happen to love these too! I'll be attending the annual Omaha craft show on the weekend of November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It's huge and held at the Omaha Quest Center. Christmas shopping is about to begin!

Vacation add-on

I almost forgot that I had taken these photos. My brother, Kevin, and his wife Susan, their children Suzanna, Abigail and Hillary, and myself, were out to eat on Sunday after church while I was visiting them. We were at Sanfords. So I took each of their pictures with my cell phone camera. They turned out very good and a very natural look as well! So I just had to include them in a blog! They are my sweet nieces! Suzanna, Abigail and Hillary! What cuties!

Suzanna

Abigail

Hillary

A "cool" fire

Well, the time of year has slowly crept up on us, the time of year that a cozy fire in one's fireplace is very soothing. Especially after working outside in the chilly, fall air. Today, for the first time since moving into my house, I took advantage of my own fireplace and spent most of my evening reading my home town newspapers, eating, and just enjoying the warmth of the fire and the beauty of the embers. My two cats were quite intrigued as well. They have never been around the likes of a fireplace. One of them enjoyed laying on the ceramic tile in front of the fire for a short time. And the gray one, as you can see from the photos, just stayed cautiously nearby. I still need to find myself a fireplace set: a stoker, broom, shovel, etc., as well as a firewood rack for inside near the fireplace. Also, I will need to order a supply of firewood for the winter. But that will happen this week, hopefully.

The outdoor scent of burning wood was evident when I stepped outside for a brief moment, just to get a whiff of what I always relate to camping. Not to mention the fact that it always makes me think of family gatherings during the holidays. The cold air that envelops a person quickly erased by the warmth of a fire. I remember as kids, driving around Tioga, ND and smelling the crisp, night air (which usually hovered around the -20* mark or colder!) as the residents made good use of their own fireplaces. It seemed to be such a fresh scent. God bless my fireplace!

Yoda, enjoying(?) the fire

My vacation continues....

I had a lovely, short visit with my brother Kevin and his family: Susan, Suzanna, Abigail and Hillary. Upon arriving at their house on Friday night, I found them entertaining several guests! It was a farewell party for one of Kevin's bosses, Merri Jo(?). She is taking a new job in Iowa at ISU-Iowa State University. I had fun that night even though I had no idea of what I was walking into! I met lots of very funny people!

Saturday we spent lounging around at Kevin's house. The girls had a friend sleep over on Friday night.

Sunday we all went to "Family Sunday School" and then church. Afterwards, I was treated to dinner (lunch?) at Sanford's. It was delicious! Later in the afternoon, Hillary went to Happy Joe's for a birthday party. Susan, Suzanna, Abigail and I went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for Baked Beans. We had to get enough to fill a large roaster. Kevin and his co-workers were having a "work-farewell" on Monday for Merri Jo. He was to bring Baked Beans. And boy did he......Susan and I had alot of beans when we were done cooking! And they were very tasty! If I counted right, we had 25 cans of beans, 10 lbs of ground beef, and 3 lbs of bacon. Only a small pan of each was reserved for future use in the Moberg household. We didn't really have a recipe to follow per say but as it turned out, we didn't need it!

After cleaning up our mess, we relaxed a little bit and worked on the puzzles in the newspaper. Then it was time for supper (dinner?) so Susan set to preparing that. Kevin was busy working on some items on the computer for work the next day and the girls were occupied with a next- door-neighbor girl, Jordanne.

Suzanna, Abigail, Hillary and Jordanne

After our evening meal and of course, dessert consisting of Schwan's Ice Cream with carmel topping, chocolate topping and the marshmallow topping that I brought them (their grocery stores don't stock it in Dickinson for some reason), everyone played a game. It was called Apples to Apples. Very cute game! Then it was bed time for the girls. And the adults enjoyed some "adult beverages!" It was nice to see the girls and Kevin and Susan again. The girls grow so much in between visits. Thank you to my whole family (Dad and Beverly too!) for all the goodies and a bed to sleep in! (Thanks especially to Hillary!)

Kevin and Susan

I returned to Omaha Monday night around 10 PM after taking my time getting on the road in the first place. I shopped a little bit in Dickinson before leaving town. All in all, a very relaxing trip!

It keeps going and going.....

After leaving Dad's house on Friday, October 5Th, I headed south to Dickinson, ND, where my brother Kevin and his family live. It was rainy and very windy from the south. Thus my gas mileage wasn't the greatest. A lot of the poor mileage was due in part, also, to the winding, hilly and mountainous roads (taken from Kevin's blog) I had to travel to get to Dickinson. Along the way I saw the famous oil drilling rigs that are known so well in North Dakota. These photos were taken along what is referred to as the "Iverson Road," which is located just south of Tioga. It is actually a highway so don't let the name make you think it's off the beaten path! ;-) I didn't even have to get out of my van for these shots. It was that close to the road. These drilling rigs work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the job is done. My sister Cathy and I saw a couple other rigs on the way to Tioga (also known as the "Oil capital of North Dakota") the night before my Dad's birthday. One of them wasn't even standing. It was put together but it was laying on its side propped up on the end that stands in the air. Either the job was done and the rig was being taken down, or it was almost ready to be erected to begin the whole process. Regardless, these are monster size pieces of equipment!



My Dad has retired from the oil business. He, however, didn't work on these rigs. He had a business that used work-over rigs to make repairs to oil wells when they didn't pump the oil from the ground as they should, or when the pumps were broke down. (is this close to correct Dad?) After the drilling rigs were done, an oil well was built around the hole and when this unit broke down, the work-over rigs were brought in to make the repairs. His job each day, 7 days a week, sometimes 14-15 hour days, was to check each oil well and make sure it was producing oil. If it wasn't, it gave him headaches! It's a very complicated process that only my Dad can tell you about. But this gives you an idea of what brings the oil to our country in the first place! When driving around the state of North Dakota, you will see these oil wells all over the landscape. I remember as a child, either during the weekend or even in the summer, riding with Dad to "check his wells." This is what he called his job...checking the wells.

My vacation has started..

Today I spent my entire day on the road driving to N.D. It's where I grew up and to this day, I still call it "home". I was up at 3:30 AM and was on the road by 5 AM. The weather was perfect and considering the time of day, there wasn't any traffic to slow me down. After stopping a few time for gas refills, a bite to eat and a brief stretch, I made my way north from Omaha via interstate 29 to Fargo, N.D. and then headed west to Bismarck on interstate 94. Then I found highway 83 north to Minot and found my sister at the airport from which we drove to see my Dad and Beverly.

There is just no good way to explain the feeling I get when I drive into the yard of my Dad's farm. I feel like I never left. Oh sure, Father Time has laid his hand upon all the old trees. And occasionally Dad has done a little bit of work on the house here and there. But over all, it's still the same farm I remember from my childhood and teenage years.

The main reason I took this long drive to the north central part of N.D. revolves around one thing. My Dad's 70Th birthday. I think that last time I actually spent his day with him was when I was still going to travel school back in 1987. I was only 19 going on 20 at the time. OK, I've officially aged myself! The original idea back in the spring of this year was to maybe plan a party for him. But considering the fact that he's retired, he travels south for the winter. It was real hard to find a time that my siblings and I could agree on (because we all have busy lives) and so we couldn't plan a party. But this was OK anyway.

My sister, Cathy, whom lives in Oregon, planned a surprise visit to N.D. for this special occasion. So we arranged that I would pick her up at the Minot Airport on my way to Dad's on Monday the 1st. He was aware of the fact that I would be driving home this day but I conveniently left out the fact that I had another stop to make! And that wasn't all! We had one more stop to make in Tioga to pick up a specially ordered cake (by Dad's wife Beverly) to commemorate this big day. It was all planned.


And so it went. I had a beautiful drive home, arrived at the airport and found my sister waiting for her luggage, made our drive to Tioga, picked up the cake and drove the last 16 miles to my Dad's farm. After Cathy climbed into the back seat of my van to hide, I drove into the yard and found Dad, Beverly and their little Shihtzu puppy, Bandy, (see photo below) outside, enjoying the evening air. Thank goodness a small plan had been made on the part of my sister and I for her to hide and somehow get into the house without his knowledge. She snuck into the house while I was outside with Dad and Beverly admiring the latest work done on the house! She went in and sat down at "his chair" at the kitchen table. When we walked in, he was practically to the table before he actually looked up and saw, to his major surprise, Cathy! He literally was taken aback, and the look on his face spoke for him! Bandy had his attention enough, that he wasn't even looking up to notice Cathy sitting at the table. It worked perfectly!


After much discussion on how we pulled this off, we sat and ate ice cream sundaes before heading off to bed. Cathy and I had both had a long day on very little sleep.

The next day, October 2ND, was Dad's day. Beverly had an appointment in Bismarck at 11:00. So we were going to have to try to stall Dad after this appointment and get him to stay in Bismarck until the time that we could go out for supper. We had another planned surprise for him. My brother, Kevin and his family, live in Dickinson, ND. It's west of Bismarck and it only takes them approximately 1 1/2 hours to make the drive. We had decided to meet at the Texas Roadhouse at 7 PM. By this time, Dad was suspicious by our actions. We were stalling him by telling him that we wanted to shop! And we were all over Bismarck trying to make the hours go by faster. But he had made his guesses as to what may be happening later ( and he was correct!) but we wouldn't give in and tell him so.

After getting seated and having ordered and eaten, Cathy and Suzanna and Abigail, 2 of my nieces, went out to the car and brought in the cake and various gifts that we had for Dad. We had been driving all over town with these items in the back unknowingly to Dad. Dad was obviously emotionally surprised by this gesture! This was the "only" thing he hadn't actually figured out. We proceeded to watch him open cards and gifts, ate some cake and headed back to our vehicles to make our respective drives home.


Here are a few photos from our evening.






It was a great day and night! Happy Birthday Dad!