I Forgot a Really Cool Thing...

As I was writing the post yesterday about my wonderful weekend with old college friends, I totally forgot a really cool thing Chuck and Carol did for me.

Back in May Chuck and Carol represented the Ohio Pork Producers (they are hog farmers in Ohio) and attended an event with Guy Fieri (a Food Network star). I was excited for them and followed Chuck's comments on Facebook leading up to and during the event. I thought that would have been a fun thing to do.

Last week when we saw each other, Carol pulled Guy's cookbook out of her suitcase. They had gotten a copy of it for ME and had it autographed for ME! How cool is that? I think it was the sweetest thing someone has done for me in a long time. Thanks so much, friends!

Did they know how much I love cookbooks? I'm so excited to cook through this!

What a Weekend

I seem to be having this trend of writing weekend recaps. Maybe I should title them, "What I Did on My Summer Weekend." That's original and snappy.

Anyway.... I had one of the best long weekends I've had in a really long time. Last Thursday morning I packed up my suitcase, pillows and all, and headed to The Big Cities. Why? To spend a couple of glorious days with my old college roommate, Carol. (Well, not to say she's old.... she's only 16 days older than me.) We roomed together in lovely dorm-life for 2 years.  I will say she made dorm-life so much more tolerable. Carol listened to me talk and talk and talk and talk. Yes, I talked so much she would fall asleep in the middle of one of my epic stories. She was (as is) good at listening. She and I were both involved in a Christian college group. We prayed for each other. We supported each other. We had fun together.

It had been 9 years since I last saw Carol. Her hubby had some meetings in The Big Cities the end of last week and asked me if I would entertain his wife while he was busy. I jumped at the chance.

We had so much fun together. It was great to catch up on each others lives and kids. It was fun to shop together. It was fun to eat meals together. It was just fun to be together. It was truly a gift for me.

Carol left the sweetest comment on my previous post. (I am a bit slow at writing my recap...) I want to copy it here, not because I am bragging, but I want to remember what she said. (I have been printing out my blogs into a book form after each year and I don't print the comments.)

I had a blast visiting with my dearest college friend. Sharing stories and pics makes the years go pleasantly by. I learned that she has a deep love and admiration for her husband and he cherishes her. Her children bring her great pride and joy. Caleb & Amanda, Megan & Zach can rise up and call her blessed. Her deep love for Jesus has gotten stronger over the years and she sings His praises everyday. We laughed. We cried. We shopped. (MOA, IKEA, Crate and Barrel-LIKE!!!) "Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them....the welcome never ends....a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.". Love you. Thanks for the good times. -Carol

These are words I will cherish.  Carol, they are just exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

(Okay, wiping away my tears now...)

Here's a picture of the four of us:

Old friends are the best!

Sadly we had to say good-bye to them Friday night because they had a flight out Saturday morning. I sincerely hope it's not another 9 years before we see them again.

Saturday morning was filled with getting our cars worked on. Maybe I should rephrase that. Saturday morning was filled with Hubby getting our cars worked on. I showed up with his car about noon, only to be told that it would be 1 1/2 hours until lunch. This was not happy news to me, because I didn't have any breakfast. The free popcorn just didn't quite cut it. But I took it like a trooper with hardly any quite a lot of grumpiness.

Blessed lunch finally came around 1:30 pm. Supper was at 4:00 pm. Crazy? Yes! We met my parents for a quick early supper. They happened to be in the area for a wedding and I thought it would be nice to at least see them for a little bit. And it was nice to see them, except for the whole eating another meal two hours after we had finished lunch. Needless to say, Hubby and I split a meal for supper.

As if the weekend hadn't been good up to that point, it got even better. I learned that our former pastor, Dan, was preaching in a town that wasn't too terribly out of the way for us (50-60 miles extra? Is that too much?), so we decided to worship at that church. I think it's been over three years since I have heard him preach. It felt just like home. Worshiping with Dan was such a treat. We used to sing on the same worship team, so hearing him sing next to me was just perfect.

Crazy Excited

Tomorrow morning I am heading up to the Big Cities to meet up with someone I haven't seen for almost 10 years. I get to spend a day and a half with my college roommate! Carol and I lived together for two years. I married an engineer and have followed him all over the world. Carol married a farmer and has lived in Ohio on a farm ever since. We've had different lives, but I have a feeling we still have tons in common. I told Carol last night on Facebook chat that sometimes when I think about seeing her I almost cry because I am so incredibly excited.

I'll end this with a lovely picture that Carol posted on Facebook this morning. Please keep in mind this is 28 years ago.

I made that dress for Carol for her senior recital. (The buttons were supposed to be off-set.) I noticed that the necklace I have one is from Hubby. He gave it to me the first Valentine's Day we were dating even though we said we wouldn't exchange gifts. I accepted it, of course. (I never did or will turn down a gift of jewelry!)

Another Weekend Recap

We were at home this weekend.
And we had some fun together.
The End.

Well that's not really all of it. I'll fill in some details. (No snoozing allowed!)

Friday was kind of a stinky day for me. Hubby got news that a conference that he was scheduled to go to got canceled. I know it really doesn't have anything to do with me, I mean I wouldn't actually attend the conference, but I like to go with him and spend time in an actual Big City. So I was a bit bummed when he told me the news.

Being the thoughtful Hubby he is, he came home from work with the suggestion of a date night. That sounded good to me! We drove to a town about 50 miles away to eat at a steak place we had been to before. I ordered a T-bone. When it was brought to me I started to cut a chunk off for Hubby, and noticed it looked like it was cooked closer to rare than medium as I had ordered it. I cut into the middle of the steak and stuck my finger in there. Cold. Ugh. I don't eat cold/uncooked meat. Hubby flagged down the owner and thankfully the owner was apologetic and took it away to cook it more. The best part? He didn't charge us for the $25 steak! It tasted even better after it was cooked more and was free!

While dinner was pretty good, I must say my favorite part of the date was the shopping trip to Target. My all time favorite store, hands down! And yes, that was in the date night plan Hubby had made. He knows me so well. :)

Saturday we worked on a few projects around the house. Remember when I wrote about the bird nest outside our back door? When the birds had left the nest, Hubby went out to get rid of the nest and clean up the area. He used the power washer. And the paint around the door frame started coming off. Ugh. So today he scraped it some more and primed it. I felt bad that the nest clean-up job resulted in more work. At least it's only the door frame...

I worked on writing a post about our trip Up North and then on a sewing project.

Hubby and I watched a movie Saturday night we bought at Target for $4.75. Where the Red Fern Grows. Anyone read the book written in 1961 or seen the movie that was filmed in 1974 with music written by the Osmonds and sung by Andy Williams? Yep. Cheesy all the around. But hey, it was $4.75! But the movie did have a good message about keeping your word and working hard.

Sunday we skipped the church service that was at the county fair grounds.

We spent some time getting things ready for company.

Yes, you read that right. We had company!

A friend and her cousin and the cousin's boyfriend came to visit. The friend is 20. Can us old 50 year olds have 20 year old friends? Sure! She's part of a family that we went to church with in our previous town. She and our daughter were good friends. Her (5) brothers were friends with our son. In fact her triplet brothers were groomsmen in our son's wedding two years ago. (When we moved to that town 10 years ago I prayed for a good, solid Christian friend for our son. He was blessed with all three of them as friends!) It has been a couple of years since we had seen her and she wanted to see our new house, so she road-tripped here with some buddies. We had a good time together. A couple of them entertained themselves with reading some of my blog books. They seemed very interested in it. Hmmm.... maybe I should go back and read it...

So that was our weekend. Hope no one feel asleep during the recap.

Monday finds me on the road to our previous town to get a haircut and some fresher highlights and to "deny my age" as my son likes to say. In other words, I pay money to not look like I'm 50. And I'm proud of it. :)

Our Weekend Up North

Last weekend my hubby's company honored a group of people that worked on a project together that was quite significant for the company. Hubby and his co-workers were treated to a long weekend at a resort the company owns Up North. The best part? Spouses were invited too! Hubby had been to this resort before and spoke very highly of it, so I was excited to be able to go with him.

We got to fly up there on the company jet. That was way cool.

I always love the view from a plane:

The resort was beautiful and set between two lakes. The weather for the weekend was just perfect. I had fun taking a bunch of pictures with my new camera. I kept it with me the whole time.

 

 

Did they feed us well? Oh my, yes! We ate at this outside area for several meals. (See? I told you the weather was perfect!)

And because I like to take pictures of food, I prepared a collage of just some of the food.

Great. Now I'm hungry and I want to go back there.

Hubby and I got around on the resort property on golf carts. We could even take the golf carts into the woods and had a blast doing that. (Although maybe someone should invent a golf cart with shock absorbers. Those tree roots and rocks can do a number on the head.)

Someone we were with called the weekend Camp For Grownups.

We had field trips:

A pontoon boat ride.

And a trip to see the head waters of the Mississippi River. (That was pretty cool, since I've never seen the headwaters of any river.)

Yes, I know I look awkward. No, the water wasn't that cold. Maybe it's because I feel/look silly in the visor? I was just trying not to get a worse headache from too much sun.

And to continue with the camp theme, we had crafts!

A lot of pictures, I know, but it's hard to choose!

Wednesday Hodgepodge of August 17

1. Using what's in your fridge right now what sort of meal would you be able to make for guests who are knocking at the front door this very minute?
We just got home from a wonderful, wonderful four day weekend and there is hardly anything in the fridge. If I put the phone book in the fridge could I use it to order a pizza....? I think that counts, don't you? 

2. What is something about yourself that you hope will change but that probably never will?

My struggle to see the glass as half full. I'd like to be more optimistic.

3. What's something about yourself that you hope will never change?

My weird sense of humor and my ability to sing and my love for God and my husband.

4. Do you usually send serious or funny greeting cards? Why?
I like to receive cards that make me laugh, so I like to give cards that make others' laugh. I have an elderly friend (83) who gives the best funny cards. I wish I knew where she shopped. I like to send cards that say what I mean and not just something super-sappy. 

5. Bird watching, shell gathering, or star gazing- your choice for whiling away the hours?
Star-gazing for sure. The stars are just beautiful and I love to catch sight of a shooting star.

(Side story: A few years ago I was struggling with something and remember sitting out on our deck late at night looking at the sky and I asked God to show me His power and started singing out loud the words to How Great Thou Art and when I got to  "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed" a magnificent star went shooting across the sky. How cool is that? I laughed and applauded God!)

Hubby and I sat by this lake Monday night and watched the stars come out. It was amazing.

6. Do you double or triple check things? If so, what? 
I make sure I unplugged the iron (and we all know how often I use the iron). And a lot of times at night I ask hubby if the doors are locked. 

7. What's your favorite place for people watching?
The airport.

8. We spent a long weekend Up North at a resort that Hubby's company owns. He and a whole team of people were rewarded with a trip there because of a project they all worked on that produced really good results for the company. AND each member of the team got to bring a guest! Hubby had been to this resort before for work and ranted and raved about how wonderful it was. I was so happy to get to experience it! (I'll blog more about it later this week.) One thing I was hoping for was to see a loon (the Minnesota state bird) or to hear a loon. I was blessed to experience both! This is my best picture of a loon.

I found this video on YouTube so my readers can hear the call of the loon. It's just beautiful

Eight on 8/8

I thought I'd entertain my blog readers with Eight Random Thoughts on August 8th. Original, huh?

1. Last Friday I went antique shopping. Well, the majority of the time was spent looking, looking, looking. There are so many things in an antique store that are fun to look at! I saw these glasses a few different places and I know someone in my family (grandma? aunt?) had these, but cannot for the life of me remember who had these:

(My mom can't remember either.)

2. I saw this beautiful 1930s quilt on Friday and thought about it and thought about it. Saturday, Hubby and I went back to buy a gift, and I decided to buy my first antique quilt. I am crazy about this one. I love the block (Snowball) and it is in such good shape. A friend commented that she wonders about the stories behind the fabrics: Whose dress or shirt or child's playsuit was it from? Who was the woman who stitched it together?

3. Yesterday when we went back to the antique stores, we arranged to meet some friends for lunch. We had first met them in the late 90s at a family camp we were both at. Several months ago we realized we only lived a couple of hours apart and it finally worked out to get together. It was a fun time to get caught up and experience a new restaurant (for us).

4. I have been going to a summer Bible study at the country church we have been attending. We have been learning about the Fruit of the Spirit. Good, good stuff. During the video for Week 3, God graciously gave me some clarifications in an area I have struggled with for years. It has to with loving others. I have experienced quite a bit of heartache in the area of relationships that I believed God had brought into my life, only to end in disappointment. God showed me that it wasn't for naught. I was obedient to what He asked me to do. And that is what is ultimately most important. On the drive home that day, I just cried at God's tenderness toward me.

5. Yesterday after church we went out for lunch with a couple from that church! I have to read that again myself, to believe someone actually asked us to join them for lunch. No one, and I mean no one, has reached out to us in this town in the more than a year we have been here. It was a great time talking about our kids and how God has worked in our lives and their lives.

6. I decided that Mondays are good days to do laundry and hang out in my jammies all day. :) It's also a good day for going to the grocery store which means I'll have to change out of my jammies. A conundrum for sure. ;)

7.The Waltons has become my new favorite afternoon television show. I know it's not a new show, but I sure enjoy a TV show that is so different from current shows.

8. In two weeks I am going to spend a couple of days with my college roommate! I am beyond excited to see her! It's been at least 9 years since I've seen her face-to-face. Her husband has meetings in the Twin Cities and I am going to keep her entertained while he's getting a sore back from all that sitting. I can not wait!



I hope you all are having a good 8/8! (What have you been up to?)

Sour Cream Pancakes (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from Megan AND me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.** 

When Megan (daughter) and Zach (her hubs) were here a few weeks ago Megan and I made Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Pancakes. For Breakfast. Yes. You read that right. I actually helped make breakfast! It was great fun to work together with Megan. (I miss that girl very much.)

Anyway....

Back to the project. Here is Megan "approving" of the ingredients we assembled. :) (That would be sugar, flour, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, sour cream, and eggs)

We mixed together the dry ingredients with the sour cream. It was very thick at this point.

Next, the wet ingredients were mixed together and then added to the dry ingredients.

Here they are sizzling away on my very old griddle. We melted some butter first to grease the pan and to make it extra yummy, of course.

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in a picture of Megan and Zach's dog, Charley, watching the action outside. I think he just liked to have different things to look at. :) He didn't help with the pancakes, nor did he eat any. He just wandered around the table to see if any one would share. :)

Back to breakfast.... Here's the finished product along with some bacon. We all liked the pancakes. They had a bit of a different texture than "normal" pancakes. Megan says that that the texture was smooth and a little more dense since the recipe didn't contain oil or baking powder like most pancakes. (She's a pancake expert since it was a simple, quick supper for her last year during her first year of marriage and first year of Pharmacy school.)

(Have any of you tried baking bacon in the oven instead of frying it on the stove top? I did for that morning and it was quite simple. And I think it cut down on the lingering bacon smell afterwards.)

Vacation Recovery

Yesterday was filled with recovering from vacation. I was surprised at how busy I was with getting everything back in order.

The phrase that kept running through my mind yesterday was put away.

Unpack suitcases. Put away suitcases and shoes and unworn clothes.

Put away the things we bought while on vacation.

Pick up the mail from the post office. Put away the junk mail. (maybe throw away fit better here...)

Unpack toiletries, refill containers of shampoo, etc. and put away.

Go to the grocery store because there is no food in the house. Put away all the groceries once you haul it all into the house.

Wash the sheets (because you can't remember the last time they were washed) put away the clean sheets on the bed. (Okay, maybe that was stretching it a bit...)

Oh, and I can't forget the laundry! Wash several loads of laundry, put away the clean clothes.

It all took a lot of time and conscious effort to work through all those areas to get things back in order for living life here.

As I was thinking through all that, these verses came to mind:

Ephesians 4:31&32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (ESV)

 I think (at least for me) it takes a lot of conscious effort to put away all bitterness, wrath, clamor and slander and let God replace it with kindness, being tenderhearted and forgiving. A few verses before this read: 

...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (verses 22-24)

Thank you God, for creating me in Your likeness. For giving me a new self to put on.

(Just what was running through my head yesterday.)