i've been in northern minnesota twice in the last 3 weeks and

you know what?

there's just something about getting out in the wide open spaces

that does your body good.

it's like a re-booting for your soul~

my new tattoo.

kidding! we do however have an entry rug with this

on it at the lodge.

: )

these are not my photos. i found them on the net and

they were all so beautiful i decided to re-post them for you.

we don't have any mountains where we live, but a whole bunch

of my family and friends have been to the mountains this summer

and hearing about it has made me happy.

i still love to swing, do you?

if you can't make it to the mountains this summer try to at least to take a weekend

to drive to the country. drive somewhere where for as far as you can see

all there are is fields.

bring a scissors. if you see wildflowers in the ditch get out and pick some.

if you see a small town diner, stop and order the truck drivers breakfast.

it's getting to be the season for farm stands. i love stopping at them

to buy produce from the people who grew it. makes them happy and

makes me even happier.

: )

in the blink of an eye it's the middle of july~

the dahlias i ordered from floret flower farm in washington state are

budded. the raspberries are almost done for this year. i picked 

quite a few times and then begged neighbors to come and fill a bucket.

there are bulging bags of them in the freezer waiting to be added to smoothies.

garage sale signs are everywhere and there was a fun carnival in 

chanhassen for the 4th.  i coerced lars into riding the 

ferris wheel with me. i loved being on top and seeing the

whole town down below and the river valley of shakopee in the distance.

summer, i love you.

b.

p.s.  is anyone else excited to see the new ghostbusters movie???

kristen wig. sign me up.

adele~

i crossed something big off my bucket list last night.

i locked eyes with adele in concert.

if you're not a huge fan~ you and i probably can't be friends.

(kinda of kidding, but how? why? would anyone not love her!)

 all day long yesterday, i had

a smile on my face and a song in my heart. getting tickets 

to her concert was nearly impossible and they sold out in like

1.5 minutes, so the fact that little old me was one of the lucky people

who was going to stream into that arena and hear her live was a 

dream come true.

my cousin anna got 6 tickets and she graciously offered

me one of them. (loved her before, she's in my will now).

*i wish every single one of you who love her too could have

been there, then my evening would have been complete.

i listened to her cd's all day and

i'm not exaggerating when i say that from the moment i 

walked into the xcel center in st. paul last night, i felt like

i was having an out of body experience.

it was like the best dream ever and i never wanted it to end.

while it's all fresh in my mind, i'm going share some 
 musings and favorite parts of the whole experience.

i met up with cousins, kim, anna, sue, nancy and barb and we 

headed to the great waters brewing company for a 

yummy meal before walking to the xcel center.

a toast to "our girl" adele



here's some things that stick out in my mind about adele, 
things that she shared with us and things
 you may not know about her.

* these grainy photos are from my cell phone and they're the best i've got.

here we are, in the arena, about to go to our seats.
we sat in two different areas, but all had grrrreat seats!

the big screen looked like this while we all anxiously waited...
those eyes. those mesmerizing eyes.

click on video to watch

we sat waiting and then we noticed security pushing a med. sized black box up an aisle right by us and
under the center stage and minuted later, up through the floor she appeared,
singing, HELLO.
on the screen her eyes opened and the crowd went
completely insane!!!

(she was in that black box.)

can i just say that it was hot in there?
adele told us that while touring in the uk she had
 big fans on the front of the stage to cool her off, but then
they blew her hair over her face. (then she pulled her hair all over
her face to show us why she stopped having fans and now she just sweats it out). : )

there were two stages and she moved between them.
she had 10 identical dresses made for her 50 US concerts and she
doesn't change outfits. she also told us at the start, that she can't dance,
so she wouldn't be doing that- just gabbing and singing.
she shared a lot of stories and interacted with the audience.
she talked about being in MPLS over the 4th and going to a parade.
(her 1st ever celebration of the 4th, she's from london ya know).

*while she was on the stage right in front of us, there were some cool effects, 
like this sheer tent that surrounded her and showed her image in
a large size in all directions.

*when she sang "set fire to the rain",
a circle of rain fell down from ceiling to floor all around the stage,
with her in the middle.



* she shared with us that she's gotten over her stage fright. now she
loves performing in these large arenas.

*she laughed a lot. she swears a lot too and would chastise herself
when the occasional f-bomb would slip out. she said "my concert is 2 hours long,
but 1 1/2 hours of it is just me chatting". 
*not true. i've never been to a concert where a star just gabs,
telling little antidotes about themselves, mentioning their bumm,
their postpartum blues, bashing their old boyfriends and talking about 
their baby etc... and also sings all their best songs!
*she felt like your friend.

*she told us that she knows her songs are a bit depressing.
said she wrote most of the album 25 during her last breakup.
she was in a bad place and couldn't write or perform for quite a while.
then one day, she wrote, "someone like you" and it all started 
flowing out of her again. she said that song "broke her heart, and healed
it at the same time".

*the thing that she shared that i loved the most, (in her thick english accent that was a bit
hard to hear/understand at times),
was that she was really struggling to be happy for quite a long time, and then
she met someone and fell in love again.
then they had a baby.
she said that baby changed her whole life.
she said, "now i know what i will be doing for every second of my life.
for the rest of my life, i will be loving my baby and being a mother".
and then she mentioned that she's waiting for "her love" to propose.
(what a dummy)!!! haha

*there were 3 acoustic numbers with just her and two guitar players that
were beautiful... she told us she's known one of the guys since junior 
high where they were in the smokers club. 
she was still smoking when her career took off, but she's
since kicked the habit.

* she took about 10 minutes to bend over and go around the entire 
circular center stage so everyone right there could take selfies 
with her... she wagged her booty through some of it.
God i love her!!!  : D

* you guys, this girl is only 28 years old,  (same age as taylor swift), but
she is an old soul. her voice is truly a gift from God. you know how 
sometimes you hear an artist in real life and they sound different,
kind off off key?
not adele. 
her deep, raspy voice is that of legend.

*girlfriend rocks false eyelashes and black eyeliner like no other.
she's gorgeous and expressive and hilarious and
we all left wishing we could go out
and have a drink with her and continue the fun into
the wee hours of the morning!

the concert ended and she said goodbye,
thanking us over and over and over for coming and for loving her, 
and then she left the stage and the big screens lit up with
PRINCE 
and his classic old video of raspberry beret.

the crowd went ka-razzzzzy and danced and sang along and just
when we were afraid it was really over, adele appeared back on
the main stage and sang 3 more songs, one of them my favorite,
*when we were young.

the final song she sang to us was 
rolling in the deep and all of a sudden
the skies opened up and a shower of white confetti
poured down from the ceiling and just kept coming and coming and coming.
i bent down to pick up a couple pieces that had
landed at my feet and every one of those little white
pieces of confetti had a note on it in 
adele's handwritting.

*i didn't think i could love her more.
but now i do.



~doesn't do it justice, but this was all confetti

it was an evening i will always remember and you know what?
i added it to my bucket list again...who knows,
maybe, just maybe i will get to experience that
magic again someday.


wish you could have been there with me,
someone pinch me.
xo, beth


oh and one more thing. in case you're curious about
adele's whole name, it's:
adele laurie blue adkins

hello~

hate me if you must, but i'm going to see these

mesmerizing eyes in person tonight!!!!!!!!!

OMG!

b.

(thank you Anna C. for making this happen!!!)

hello july~

how are you? this morning i looked back in folders and found a collection

of photos that are red, white and blue.

it's a little bit of this, and a little bit of that and it's all about

summer and the 4th of july.

 my sister painted this on their granary after 9-11

my brother's sweet grandboy on the 4th a couple years ago.

 my friend cheri and i cracking up about something

on a sweaty summer night. : )

my sweet baby girl in a sailor dress.

(i will always love nautical wear and it's very "hip" this summer, have you noticed?)

 two of my 3 on their grandpa's farmall tractor

 barrett... i think just plain over it all!!!

someone let that baby take his nap!

 oh wait~ he's all happy again!

cole the day he graduated from law enforcement.

(he had recently been tased and maced. his mom did not approve)

 fresh from my backyard.

 chan carnival

chanhassen mn. voted one of the best places to live in the

whole usa! 

**no dogs where harmed in the making of this photo. this silly, silly dog

just loved jumping through the fireworks barking his fool

head off.

(that's the only part that came off).

hope you have a nice long weekend,

*watch a parade and eat a corndog if you have the chance,

*lay in a lawn chair and nap * sneak up on someone and

spray them with a squirt gun!! hehe

*write words in the sky with a sparkler if you can

stay awake till after dark,

another year is almost half over. can you even stand it?~

GOD BLESS THE USA!

xo, beth