Weekend Assortment

We had a busy weekend with each day bringing something completely different.  It was crazy!  It started on Wednesday.  Justin had been dying to get back to Eastern ND to help my dad on the farm.  He was stalking the weather all week hoping it wouldn't rain the whole time.  We were going to leave on Thursday morning but left on Wednesday afternoon instead.  Other plans for the weekend included watching the Fargo Marathon, a bachelorette party (just for me, of course!) and my cousin's high school graduation.  It between those things was going to be a lot of farming.  So, I don't even know how tie all this stuff together since it is all over the place so I will just start telling. 

I reported to the finish line of the half marathon to watch my parents and sister finish the half marathon.  I had my camera ready to go and equipped with the zoom lens.  However, just when they were due to arrive Ben decided to get really antsy in the stands so I was wrestling with him while trying to take pictures.  Apparently my sister finished first but I somehow missed it even though I thought was paying close attention.  I caught some decent pictures of my dad but my hands were too full to zoom. 

 

 

He's in the blue.  I knew my mom was wearing a pink shirt and ended up zooming in on another woman wearing a pink shirt who finished at the same time as her so the pictures I got are of two pink blurs and some pretty decent shots of that other woman.  Haha sorry mother!  I don't think she minds not having a photo of herself after running thirteen miles.  Also, I'm sure they would have preferred not to have their grandson tumble down the concrete stairs of the stadium to having a fabulous finish line shot!

Oh, what else...we have big plans for our planters this year (flower towers!) and filled up these plastic tubs with Red River Valley field dirt.  Anything will grow in this stuff so these planters better yield some fabulous blooms this summer! 

 

First I guess I will have to break up those clumps...

 

I stayed in Fargo after the marathon to attend a shower and bachelorette party for a college friend.  Even though I couldn't drink, I had a great time.  After all these years I still have fun with these people regardless of what we are doing.  I hope it never changes.  Also, I got to sleep until 9:30 a.m. the next morning which is a very rare and invigorating occurence. 

 

The graduation party was in a small town about eighty miles southwest of Fargo.  On the way there, I passed through the tiny town of Nome, ND, where a sight to the left of the highway caught my eye...it was a large abandoned building set back in the trees!  I turned off to get a closer look. 

 

You can see the overgrown road leading up to it.  I thought it must be an old school and after looking it up I was correct.  It really looked impressive but also sad.  Sights like these are really fascinating to me but make me kind of depressed too.  A big school like this was a sign up hope for a town and now there is hardly anything left.  Apparently, Nome was a railroad town that lost the railroad.  It is referred to on a few websites like Ghosts of North Dakota (a very interesting site to read if you like history) and the comments are filled with people who attended or worked there.  There was a postcard from 1919 where a former teacher told her classmate about her new job teaching first grade and how happy she was there and she put an X over the window where her room was.  This all just makes me feel bad for the abandoned building and the people who had good times there.  I saw some recent interior pictures and it is not good...lots of collapsing floors and water damage.  The strange thing is that it has been left alone and the windows have not been broken and there doesn't seem to be vandalism like there is in many abandoned places. 

 

 

 

There it is when it was new.  I hope I can get another look at this place before it deteriorates completely or gets demolished. 

 

So, after that little stop, on I went to graduation. 

 

Kendra is my youngest cousin on my dad's side and has attended every party that I have ever had in my life.  Confirmation, multiple graduations, bridal showers, my wedding, and baby showers.  Now she gets her turn finally!  I am twelve years older than her. 

 

Every time we visit this house we have to play on the tire swing.  It used to be ours.  My dad made it for us and it has the longest chain I have ever seen on a tire swing.  We used to twist it up so high we needed a stool to climb on and then let it unspin until we were so dizzy we stumbled around like drunks.  This never got old.  We had years of fun with it until the aging and rotton box elder trees in the yard betrayed us and every good branch was lost to high winds.  We passed in on to our younger cousins.  My uncle said we should take it back for the grandchildren.  I don't think the grandchild is quite ready for it yet but someday I am sure he would love the "make yourself dizzy on purpose" game! 

 

Speaking of rotton old box elder trees...

 

 

Between farming and running and graduation my dad spent his extra minutes laying waste to the woods behind the house.  It is quite a sight to see a familiar landscape so altered.  I could hear the trees screaming!  Haha...I hate to see healthy trees removed but like I said before, most of these were not healthy.  Every time the wind blows you can hear branches crashing back there...or I guess I should say you could hear branches.... past tense... 

 

I have to mention, although it doesn't seem quite right after this light hearted post, that Justin flew to Oklahoma City this morning for work.  This trip was planned long before the tornado yesterday and he is actually working about 100 miles away but he texted me that he saw some of the damage from the air.  I am interested to hear what he says about his time there.  As everyone has been saying, it makes the weather woes that we complain about (snow in April, days of rain, etc.) seem embarassingly minor.