It Was Simply Wonderful

All of last week I kept myself crazy busy cleaning the house. I haven't decided yet if the fact that I spent so many days on it means that the house was terribly dirty or maybe I'm just a lot slower at what I do. (I'll go with being slower.) I have made myself a modified version of a cleaning schedule I found on this site that I found through Pinterest. I don't always do all it on a weekly basis because with just two of us, things just don't get dirty as quickly. That and I'm not a persnickety housekeeper. But since we have been gone a lot this summer, it's been neglected more than normal.

(This is probably more than anyone wants to know about me. Just trying to think of more things to write about and frankly, I like reading blogs when people write about just their normal everyday lives.)

(So there you have it.)

Aside from my motivation coming just from the house being dirty, I was also motivated because we were expecting COMPANY FOR THE WHOLE WEEKEND!!!!

(All caps are necessary because we NEVER get company here. Our last overnight guests were last Christmas and then only other people that have been here this year were a friend who stopped by for an hour and a niece who stopped by for an hour.)

(I cannot express how much I hate that no one wants to come visit us here although I can't really blame them because this town isn't much to look at. Not much at all.)

Anyway....

My mom and dad came for a weekend visit! I am thankful my mom was feeling well enough to make the trip, although she isn't back to 100% after her few days in the hospital a couple of weeks ago.

We had a simply wonderful time.

I loved planning a menu and thinking about the things my parents like. The blueberry muffins I made for Sunday morning were a hit as was the pork loin I grilled for Saturday night. I can't even tell you how I enjoyed cooking for company. The fact that Hubby cleaned up after every meal and fixed the breakfasts (except the muffins) was a bonus!

Friday night we watched a movie. Parental Guidance. My new favorite movie! We all had seen it before, but some movies I can just watch over and over. Saturday afternoon we made a excursion to the local soft-serve ice cream place. Saturday night Hubby and Dad played a game together. Dad beat Hubby three times! (Hubby is really good at games and 99% of the time he wins.) Sunday morning Mom was too tired to make a trip to church, so we had our own church service in our living room. Mom said it was the first time she had gone to church in her pajamas! grin.  We sang a couple of hymns with Hubby playing the piano. (Loved hearing my dad's bass voice.) We listened to a sermon on-line from our son's church. (After we figured out how to play it so it was loud enough for everyone to hear. I connected my phone to our Bose radio/CD player.) We spent some time prayng together. (Sweet.) Lunch on Sunday was at our favorite restaurant in town.

Right after lunch my mom and dad headed back to Iowa. My dad had found out Saturday morning that his lifetime friend (as in since they were babies) had passed away. His friend had asked my dad to do the funeral service, so Mom and Dad went to meet with the family. The funeral is tomorrow and it will be a really tough one for my dad. I'm planning on attending.

Late Sunday evening our niece stopped by for a quick visit. She's in the area visiting friends before her college classes start next week. We had such a fun chat with her and felt so very honored she took the time to stop to see us. She's a sweetie, for sure!

Monday morning I woke up and realized the house was empty. I cried.

My mom taught me so much about cooking, keeping a house and being a good hostess. I love to have her visit so I can show her what she taught me.

Those 27 Hours

Twenty-seven hours last Friday into Saturday were some crazy busy and (mostly) fun hours for me.

Hubby came home from work a couple of hours early on Friday and we took off west to Sioux Falls, SD. Why?
First, to drop off my sewing machine so it could get some much needed cleaning.

I've had this machine for more than five years and have never had it cleaned or serviced. I recently inquired of Bernina how often that should be done and they told me the recommendation was once a year. Oops. The nearest place I could take it was an hour away and on the way to Sioux Falls, so we thought it would be great to drop it off as we went by last Friday.

The reason for the trip west was to see these guys:

Travis Cottrell

Beth Moore

!!!!!

Hubby graciously agreed to come along so he could lug my sewing machine into the store for me and to chauffeur me to and from this event. What a nice guy, huh?

I went to this event by myself. And I loved it. (I guess that's my introvert coming out.)  Beth Moore has events she calls Living Proof Live. She teaches Friday night and Saturday morning. Travis Cottrell leads worship. I just don't know what I enjoyed more: the teaching or the worship. For the Saturday morning session I managed to score a seat in the 4th row!!! I was so excited to be that close to the stage! (This was in an arena and there were something like 4500 people there.)

I loved being able to worship with Travis and his team. I admit to singing at the top of my lungs. Thankfully, the music was loud enough to cover my warbling. ha.

Through the teaching, God reassured me that He's not forgotten about us. That His purpose is being worked out. Just wait.

I am so thankful Hubby wanted to come along just to drive me around. Such a sweetie! While I was listening to Beth, he spent his time reading and doing some shopping in man stores. You know, places like Lowes and Home Depot. Stuff like that. grin. He enjoyed himself.

Halfway through Saturday morning I got a call that my sewing machine was ready to pick up! It was supposed to take 3 or 4 days, so it was way cool that we could pick it up on our way back home. Of course, I managed to doing a little fabric shopping while in the quilt shop. Of course!

In the first sixty miles of our trip back home we counted 322 motorcycles heading west on the interstate highway! That wasn't even counting all the motorcycles being pulled in trailers. They were headed to Sturgis for an annual motorcycle week. It's crazy how many we saw! We didn't count the rest of the way home.

After we were back home for a bit, I got a text message from my dad that my mom (81) had been admitted to the hospital for heart problems. She had atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) and fluid on her lungs. As of yesterday afternoon, she's back home. (Yay!) Her heart is still in a-fib, but the fluid is gone and she feels lots better. Our anxiety levels went up when we heard the news because my mom had a heart attack almost four years ago that resulted in by-pass surgery and lots of complications that resulted in almost 4 months in the hospital. None of us wants to see her (or my dad) go through that again. I thankful that she's home and sounded good when I talked to her on the phone.

We ate a pretty big lunch in Sioux Falls complete with chips and salsa and fries. I mentioned I just wanted a giant bowl of fruit for supper that night. Hubby fixed it for us. Just check out the presentation!
 

Show off!

 That was a packed 27 hours!

Recently...

This here blog has been pretty quiet lately. If I was actually home sometime, I might find the time to write.

There is no complaining coming from this blogger, though. I rather enjoy having my weekends full. But full weekends translate into a busy few days at home filled with laundry and other neglected house work and no blogging.

So.

What have we been up to?

In the last month or so, we've made a massive road trip, helped my in-laws move out some of their furniture, ran a half marathon, sat in road construction at 11:30 AT NIGHT, and helped our son and daughter-in-law with their new, 100 year old house.

Before any readers out there get the impression that I ran a half marathon... I did NOT. Hubby is the runner in this family. While he was running those 13.1 miles (and getting severe leg cramps, sadly), I was sleeping soundly. (Those races are early in the morning...and we all know I am not much of  morning person.)  But I did feel guilty that I was just sleeping and he was struggling with cramps in his calf muscles and feet.

After that half marathon race we went on a little road trip to take care of some family business (vagueness here on purpose...not everything that happens in my life is blabbed about on this here blog). Our drive back home started out quite late in the day and that is why we were sitting on the interstate for 20 minutes after 11pm as some sort of road construction was going on. Makes for a couple of grumpy travelers. We attempted to stop at my sister's house to sleep, but due to a power outage because of storms that had gone through earlier, we decided to not go in their dark house (they were gone) and decided to keep driving home. We arrived home at 3am. (!!)

Let's just establish right now that I am way too old to be out that late. Admittedly, I have been awake that late before, thanks to my (not) friend insomnia, but there is a difference between laying in bed and trying to sleep and riding in a car until 3am and trying not to sleep. It took me 3 days to recover.

This weekend we have been helping our son and daughter-in-law with all sorts of things around their house. A couple of weeks ago they moved into their first house in Kansas City. It's a bit over 100 years old and needs a little TLC. Yesterday I sat on my butt for way too long (my back is yelling at me today) and wiped down baseboards and door frames. Hubby has been a work-horse with painting, cleaning up the yard, washer and dryer hook-up, etc, etc, etc. Our daughter and son-in-law helped yesterday as well.

This is a brother/sister team working on putting a piece of IKEA furniture together.

(I just gotta say that I loved listening to them work together on this. Made my heart thankful and proud.)

Hubby and I are hanging around a couple of days to celebrate our 29th anniversary. We are upgrading to a fancy-schmancy hotel and enjoying ourselves. Tonight we are taking our kids out for a fancy dinner. I'm looking forward to that!

Okay. Done with my catch-up post.

The Day The Doorbell Rang Three Times And It Wasn't Even the Mailman Or The UPS Guy Or The FedEx Guy --or-- A Weekend Recap On A Wednesday

A Wednesday Weekend Recap? Works for me.

My in-laws are down-sizing significantly.  They are selling their house and moving into an apartment. Last Saturday we helped them with some of the moving process. They are generously giving away a lot of their belongings. Our daughter is blessed to receive their beautiful piano. She is a fantastic piano player. I am so grateful to my in-laws for gifting her with that. I can't wait to visit her house and hear her play.

Our son met us at his grandparents' house and filled up the back of a pickup with all kinds of furniture (including an end table my mother-in-law's grandfather made) and tools. My father-in-law loves his tools. He has made so many things around their house from handles on the door frame into the house from the garage (to grab a hold of to help climb the stairs), to a turntable on their table, to bookshelves, to modifications to almost everything, to a gorgeous clock. So there are a LOT of tools. He spent a considerable amount of time explaining everything to his grandson.

We came home with our back end of our SUV full of odd and assorted things.We are thankful for their willingness to give away so many things and grateful to be able to help in their downsizing process.

Just look at this clock my FIL made! It has yet to find a spot on a wall in this house. (We're working on it.) It seems a little surreal to hear it chiming in this house.

After we were finished at my in-law's, we drove an hour to the town where my parents live. They were flying home from their two weeks in North Carolina.  Since we would drive right through their town, we arranged with them a few days earlier to have supper with them after they got home.

As we waited for their flight to arrive, we wandered around town and the mall and hung out at Panera (of course). At the mall I ran into my childhood friend's mother. So fun to chat with her.

When my parents finally got home (delay in Chicago), we greeted them at their house (we know how to get in...) with a lasagna dinner all laid out. And no, I didn't cook it, unless reheating the garlic bread in the oven and warming up the lasagna in the microwave and dumping salad into bowls counts. (We picked up dinner at our favorite restaurant in town.) It was a super yummy supper and fun to spend a little time with my mom and dad.

We drove back home Saturday night and unloaded the car and crashed.

Sunday was a momentous day. As seen in the title of this post, I call it:

The Day The Doorbell Rang Three Times 

And It Wasn't Even the Mailman 

Or The UPS Guy 

Or The FedEx Guy

The first two times the doorbell rang, it was our neighbors giving us a piece of mail belonging to us and giving us some extra fish they had.

While both of those gestures were very kind, the third doorbell was the best. It was our niece! She was driving by on the nearby interstate her way home and stopped by for a quick visit and a bite to eat. So fun to have her here! Hubby helped me throw together a pasta chicken salad and some strawberry shortcake. He makes an awesome sous chef!

So we had an eventful and history making weekend! (The doorbell has never been rung that many times in one day.)

Saturday

Hubby and I went on a mini-road trip on Saturday to celebrate our engagement anniversary.

(This was a quite mini road trip compared to one we are planning for this summer.)

(That one will be about 3,000 miles.)

(This one was 200 miles.)

Anyway...back to Saturday...

Our destination was Lanesboro. A small river town that has tons of Bed & Breakfast Inns, some cute shops and a bike trail along a river. There are pretty bluffs along the river.

While we did poke around in a few shops (Hubby found me a really cure pair of earrings) and drove around the small town and had a very yummy lunch, we spent most of our time on the back roads in the area. For a measly $26 we rented a CD from one of the shops and followed its directions for a back roads tour of Amish country.

The CD directed along the roads with use of the car's odometer. We learned about the Amish people and made 9 different stops at 9 different Amish farms. These places had little shops of their own where the families sold honey, sorghum, small furniture, quilts, produce, baskets, eggs. It was so fun to look around at the goods at each place. One place had very beautiful child-size chairs and tables. The man there had also made some little barns for children to play with. The detail was so fun to look at. We wished we had some little ones to buy one of those barns for. ;) (Someday.) We did come away with a jar of honey and a jar of sorghum along with some homemade candy and a cherry turnover.

It was a pretty humid day, but being able to hop in and out of the air-conditioned car made it more bearable.
The trip was very interesting and fun to do together. I don't have any photos because we were told that the Amish find cameras offensive.

Thanks to Yelp, we had supper at a very good barbecue restaurant in Austin, MN, home of SPAM. (Seriously, Austin is where SPAM is made.) (Thankfully the restaurant was in no way associated with SPAM, although there was some on the menu.)

A Little Weekend Recap on a Tuesday

Friday Hubby came home from work a little early to mow the yard.

Riveting news, huh?

It's been raining so much around here he has to grab the chance when he can.

After he was cleaned up we jumped in the car and headed to spend the weekend in Iowa with our parents.

Hubby's parents are starting the process of getting their house ready to sell so they can move into a senior living apartment. Hubby wanted to help his dad with some jobs around the house and yard.

On Saturday while Hubby was hard at work, I ran off to have lunch with a friend from high school days. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook I knew she lived in a nearby town, so we were able to connect after many years. I know I saw her at our 20th high school reunion, but that was 14 years ago. It was very enjoyable to sit and talk and even more encouraging to know that we are both Christians. Truth be told, I was relieved that we were able to talk for more than two hours. I was nervous that it would be awkward to talk through a lunch now that we are in our 50s not teenagers any more.

Saturday evening we headed over to my sister-in-law's house for supper. A bonus was being able to see our sweet niece! She's in between her second and third year of college and we don't see her often enough.

Sunday morning we drove to where my parents live. I made arrangements with my mom to meet then at their church and surprise my dad for Father's Day. It was a success. Dad was surprised. :) He stopped short with his mouth hanging open when he saw us. (He was a bit curious that morning when my mom cleaned up a few things around the house. He wondered what had gotten in to her. Grin.)

We enjoyed a yummy lunch of grilled steaks, potatoes, salad and chocolate covered strawberries. That afternoon my sweet, serving husband helped out my dad with a bunch of yard work. Mom and I had fun just sitting in their sun room and talking.

The simply lovely day was topped off with my dad making an ice cream run and bringing home the best chocolate/brownie ice cream I have ever had. I'm glad the leftovers stayed at their house!

It was very enjoyable to spend Father's Day weekend with our parents. A plus for us was coming home with home-grown rhubarb, asparagus and horse radish. The rhubarb is cleaned and shopped up and in the freezer, the asparagus is on the menu for tonight and I still need to figure out what to do with the horse radish. Dad told me how to peel it, and prepare it. I just need to get to it.

Oh, and I got the biggest hug ever from my dad as we were saying our good-byes. :)

One Out Of Four Ain't Bad or A Weekend Recap

Hubby and I had a good weekend together.  I will admit, though that basically every weekend with my hubby is good. I never grow tired of hanging out with that guy.

Friday, Hubby left work a little early and we hit the golf course for the first time this season. The weather finally cooperated. Even still, it was a little chilly and my feet were a lot colder than I thought they were and took a while to warm up. :/ Sadly, Hubby didn't have a good game. Kinda rusty from the 8 or 9 month hiatus away from golfing. But I am happy to report that my golf-cart-driving-skills were not rusty at all. ha.

A good part of Saturday involved being lazy together. Sweet.

Saturday afternoon we went out together to run some errands.

On the list were:

Get cash from the ATM; Wash the car; Pick up a prescription; Mail some bills.

Result:

The ATM at the bank was "unable to dispense cash". So we drove across town to a convenience store and both the ATMs in there were "out of order".

Didn't wash the car because it was raining. Again.

The pharmacy was closed due to some emergency.

So then we headed to the post office which is in the "mall" here. (I say "mall" because it is really a sorry excuse for a mall. Really sorry.) It was an adventure just getting to the mail boxes between a semi blocking the way to the three bad drivers hubby had to dodge and all the ginormous pot-holes... we were just laughing by the time we got to the mail box to drop the letters in.

So all of that to do one of the four things we wanted to accomplish.

That was our entertainment for Saturday.

Yippee.

The rest of Saturday spent sewing (me) reading (Hubby) and watching some DVRd shows and eating popcorn.

Sunday afternoon we drove up to the town we used to live in and went to a high school graduation party. It is surreal to be in that town. Things look the same, yet different because it's not our town any more. Our house looks the same. We kinda shake our heads though. There was such a stink by inspectors, etc. about the roof. Three years later the shingles still haven't been replaced. Funny.

Hubby suggested we go out for supper before we hit the party. So we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and enjoyed a yummy meal. (We even ran into some friends who were so fun to see.) Turns out Hubby's idea was a very very good idea. The food at the grad party was a Hot Dog Bar. Hubby's least favorite food ever is hot dogs. Ever. So we were able to enjoy talking with the people and not listen to our growling bellies.

I always hate to see the weekend come to an end. Mondays are not my favorite because of that.

A Weekend Wash

This whole weekend was just a wash.

Hubby and I usually like to take off to somewhere else for a long weekend like this one, but decided to stay put instead. Hubby was expressing a desire to work out in the yard and we thought this would be a great weekend to do that. We also planned on golfing Friday afternoon and I expected the second quilt that I am making for my sister to be delivered from the quilter and I could get the binding sewn on.

And as you probably already surmised,  none of that happened.

Friday afternoon as Hubby was coming home early from work so we could golf....

(I must insert here that I really don't golf. At all. Hubby golfs and I drive the cart. And make snarky comments. And play Angry Birds on my phone until the battery is dead)

(Where was I?)

I checked the weather radar and saw that some rain was heading this way. So we canceled the golf outing. (Good thing... it started lightening and raining within the hour.) We went out to dinner and stopped at a Red Box to rent a movie. That night and Saturday morning we watched Anna Karenina. I've never read the book, but thought the movie would be interesting. I was wrong. It was hard to understand the flow of the movie. The movie was very theatrical and artsy for one thing. For another I think it left out quite a bit of the book. I was looking up the summary on my phone to try to understand what was going on. In the end, we were glad we only spent $1.28 to watch it.

Saturday afternoon came and my package did not. I did not get to spend the weekend working on the binding of the quilt. Boo.

We ended up driving to a little bit bigger town to poke around in some antique stores. We always enjoy that. Didn't buy a dern thing. But that's okay.

Sunday we were I was so bored with the rainy weather I suggested to Hubby that we play some games.

And we I even had fun! That may have something to do with that I actually won a couple of games. :)

Today we ventured to another town for some mediocre Mexican food (which is better than the bleh Mexican food we can get here in this town) and some more antique-store-poking-around. This time we found a couple of things including a neat copper oval bucket thingy. I'll have to do some Pinterest searching and see how I can shine it up.

One quilt shop had quite a few old quilts. I love to look those over. One that stood out to me was a zig-zag design. I stepped close to see how it was constructed. Later, I was describing to Hubby how it was constructed (more complicated than the one I made for my nephew's little girl) and realized that he had sort of a glazed look on his face as he wasn't understanding why in the world I was rambling about half-square triangles, rectangles and triangles for. I laughed and concluded with the phrase: Spherical Chicken.

Basically I was acknowledging that I realized that he had no idea what I was talking about. (Poor guy puts up with my endless babbling about quilting and all things quilt related.) The Spherical Chicken phrase came from this scene of The Big Bang Theory.



We ended today with watching Toy Story 3. I love those series of movies. I mean what kid hasn't wondered what happens with those toys when no one is in the room? I remembered that we went to see Toy Story 3 in the theater as our house was being packed up when we moved three years ago. I bawled at the scene at the end of the movie where Andy and his mom look at his empty room before he heads off to college. We were packing up our kids rooms for the last time. Ever. No other house of ours will have a room that used to be Caleb's or used to be Megan's. It's still really weird to think of it that way.

Looking back, maybe the whole weekend wasn't a wash. We did manage to find some interesting things to do, even if it was rainy and cold all weekend.

Easter Tuesday

I decided to declare today Easter Tuesday since this is the day I chose to write about our Easter weekend.

While we were on the cruise,

(Anyone remember I went on a cruise?) (ha ha) (I have one more post to write and wrap it all up... don't worry I'll get it done!)

Where was I?

Oh yea, we were on the cruise ship...

While still on the cruise, my mom asked what we were doing for Easter and invited us to come spend the weekend with them. Hubby and I talked it over and decided it sounded like a great way to celebrate Easter.

So Friday night we packed up the car and headed to my parents' house about 3 hours away.

We had an enjoyable weekend that started with some yummy appetizers and some basketball watching.

As I walked up the stairs to get ready for bed I got to see the newly remodeled bathroom. I walked in and looked around (I liked it!) and walked back out in the hall and asked my mom, "Did they move the door?" It was moved probably only 10-12 inches, but I sure could tell. It helped the layout of the bathroom quite a bit. When I was showering the next morning, I kept looking around me because it was so different. (I was eleven years old when we moved into that house.)

Saturday we mostly sat around and talked. I guess we didn't run out of things to talk about even though we had just spent a whole week together. :)

In the afternoon, we all trekked across the street to visit with the neighbors. They are the parents of my childhood friend who died about a year and a half ago. We had a good visit with them. I noticed they had several pictures of my friend around the house. Made me really miss her. Her sweet mom got tears in her eyes when I hugged her goodbye. Made me cry too. I'm really glad we popped over for a visit.

Back at my parents' house, I went searching through a drawer in the bookcase in the living room and found a treasure trove of cassette tapes. For many of the junior high and high school concerts, my mom would bring along a portable cassette player, much like this:

My dear mom not only sat through all those concerts, she recorded them and then subjected herself to having to listen to them over and over at home while I insisted on listening to them repeatedly and sang along or tried to pick out my violin part. (My violin career was only three years long. Thankfully.)

In amongst those tapes was one labeled Pam, Beth, Paul and Judy Nonsense. THIS was the tape I was hunting for! I wrote a post last October about eating peanuts and the childhood memories that it invoked. One of the memories was a song with the words:

Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now. 

Just now I found a peanut, found a peanut just know.

 

I remembered singing it into a tape player when I was 9 or 10 years old. One side of the tape is hard to hear much of anything on it, then a little of my siblings and me talking nonsense. The other side of the tape features ... ME! I had the tape player in my room and I was just talking about what clothes I was changing into, friends we had gone to visit, what was on the bulletin board in my room, who was in my Sunday school class, I sang some songs, read a couple of little books like this one:

 

and played a little plastic instrument I called a Keymonica. Mine looked a lot like this:

I laughed so hard as I listened to myself from 42ish years ago. (I told Hubby that it was my version of what our kids did with the video camera in the late 1990s.) I texted my kids to ask them if they have cassette players and told them I had a real treat for them when we visit next!

Easter morning was at the church Hubby and I were married in. I really loved singing a couple of wonderful traditional Easter hymns...especially because of the pipe organ accompaniment. Such a majestic sound to go with Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

We had a very nice Easter weekend with my parents.

Weekend Recap

A list from the weekend:

1. Friday night  I went golfing with my favorite-est golfer. (That would be Hubby.) Okay, I confess, I don't golf. I drive the cart. I've tried to learn how to golf. Hate it. But I love being with my husband and driving the golf cart is fun! So going golfing with him is a win-win.
We saw some wildlife out there in nature that was the golf course.

a turtle

The little guy was surprisingly fast when I walked up to it to take a picture.

5 racoons crossing the road. Yes FIVE racoons. All one after the other.
1 birdie
2 bogies


Then we watched the Olympics.

2. Saturday we decided to have a dinner date so we headed to a Red Lobster. Yum. We did a little shopping while we were in the bigger town that involved all the favorites: Hobby Lobby (me), a sporting good store (Hubby) and a book store (both).
Then we watched the Olympics.

3. Sunday started with a drive to church. In the rain! Sunday ended up being a pretty cool rainy day. We haven't had one of those for months.
Then we watched the Olympics.


(There is a common theme here. Olympics. We really enjoyed watching. But now I think I'll actually be able to get some things done now that I won't be constantly glued to the TV.)

My Head Is Mixed Up

I just can't quite figure out what day it is.

Last Saturday Hubby and I left town and returned last night. Since we typically come back from a trip on a Sunday, today should be Monday. Since Hubby will be home all day tomorrow and the next day, I'll be totally confused for a while. Great.

We enjoyed some time to celebrate our anniversary. We enjoyed some time along the St Croix river. We even explored a ski area where we had both skied. Well, I think the last time either of us skied there was 29 years ago. Good grief that was a long time ago. We must be old or something. There is just something foreign looking about a ski slope in the summer.

And then Hubby had some meetings in the Big City, so as usual, I tagged along. Even though Hubby is busy all day (and most nights), I like having a whole Big City with a bunch of options to entertain myself. You gotta know I spent time at Target and Panera. In fact, I discovered at the Super Target I was at that you can buy soup from Panera there! I wished I could have brought some home.
I had lunch with a friend (believe it or not), got lost in IKEA, and had a lot of time to read.

Back home now. Doing laundry and some cleaning. Today's excitement was trying this method for silky smooth legs I saw on Pinterest. It's a combo of sugar, oil, and lemon or lime juice. I rubbed it on my legs and shaved. Maybe too much information, for you. Go to this blog to read about it. It worked! I'd do it again. The only down-side is that it makes the shower floor oily. Because of that, I scrubbed the shower (which needed it any way). Because I scrubbed the shower, I hurt my back. Ugh. 

Sorry, but this is my life. Yippee.

A Sad Day and a Happy Day

That's what today was. Full of sad things and happy things. Kind of makes my head whirl.

Hubby got up early to run a 5K race and was happy to find out that he came in 9th in the whole race! (His time was 22:24) I'm proud of him.

After a lunch of some yummy leftover pizza, we took off west to meet the lady who used her long-arm quilt machine to finish the very first quilt I ever made. In 1999 I took a quilting class when we were living in Singapore. I'll post pictures and tell the whole story when I get the binding on it. But I will say I love how she quilted it!!!

When then drove north near the town we used to live in to attend the grad party of a kid who was a part of the same church as us when we lived there. It was a beautiful day for a drive through the country side. We drove through a lot of small towns we had never been through before. When we congratulated the graduate I said to him, "We're going to ask you the standard questions, but first, do you know the answers?" He smiled and proceeded to tell us what university he's planning on attending and what he wants to study.

We saw quite a few families from our old church at the grad party. That was an unexpected happy thing. Especially those two girls we saw that were only about 4 and 7 when we first knew them. They are now young teenagers and looking so grown up! Amazing how much they have changed in just two years.

We were struck with sadness when we went into the house to visit with the graduate's mother. She has had a recurrence of cancer and is on hospice care at home. Really rough to see her struggling and miss the sparkle in her eyes. Sweet to get a couple of hugs from her. She and I sang on worship team together and I always enjoyed our chats. She has been a faithful reader of this blog, but hasn't been able to for several months.

Our next stop was at a care center to visit a dear, sweet elderly friend of ours. She came to our Bible study for years. She's 85 and has been sick with pneumonia. She's very frail. It was hard to see her like that. None of her regular spunk. We enjoyed our short visit. I was amused to see she had her always present supply of chocolate in her room. She asked about our kids (who adore her) we talked about churches some and who all has been visiting her. When we left her room, I cried.

I told Hubby that was likely the last time we'd see either of the ladies we visited today this side of heaven. So sad to think of from this earthly view, yet reassuring to have that hope.

Hubby and I enjoyed dinner at a nice restaurant and then stopped by some friends for a few hours. We got to see their dog who I like to call a "not guard dog" because he is way too excited to see people when they come visit. But poor old Gunner is ooolllddd. (13) He didn't roll on his back for a tummy rub like he loves to do. When we left, we just got a tail thump. Gunner didn't want to get up.
Inside the house, we got the bonus of seeing two of the three kids. One in the flesh and one on Skype! The one that was on Skype lives in China, so that was a treat for us! (You can see their blog by looking for them in the Link's column on the right under Drew & Rachel's Blog. They work hard in China showing God's love to the people all around them.)

That was a happy time reconnecting with friends with sad mixed in as they talked a little about an estranged child. So heartbreaking to hear they haven't spoken to him (more like he hasn't spoken to them) since last August. I hope we showed a smidgen of compassion. I hope we were good listeners.

When we got home we had a letter from the parents of my childhood friend who died last November. It was their Spring Letter (instead of a Christmas Letter.) They wrote about my friend, Pam's, death to cancer. After I read it I just sat at the table and cried. Like her parents wrote, I still find it hard to believe she's really gone.

Overall, it was a good day. The weather was beautiful and I got to be with my husband. And Jesus stays the same. Jesus is enough.

I am reminded of a song we listened to on our drive. Kari Jobe has a song called, "What Love is This?". (Have you listened to her music? Such amazing stuff.) This song speaks to me. When things of this earth don't make sense, for me it all goes back to hope in Jesus and what He did on the cross for all of us. Jesus stays the same. Jesus is enough. The piano in this song is beautiful, the singing is full of passion, but the message is powerful.





You never change, You are the God you say You are
When I'm afraid You calm and still my beating heart
You stay the same, when hope is just a distant thought
You take my pain
And You lead me to the cross

What love is this, that You gave your life for me
And made a way for me to know You
And I confess You're always enough for me
You're all I need

I look to You
I see the scars upon Your hands
And hold the truth
That when I can't You always can
I'm standing here beneath the shadow of the cross,
I'm overwhelmed that I keep finding open arms

What love is this that You gave your life for me
and made a way for me to know You
And I confess, You're always enough for me
You're all I need

Jesus in Your suffering You were reaching Your thought of me
Jesus in Your suffering You were reaching Your thought of me

What love is this, that You gave Your life for me
And made a way for me to know You
And I confess, You're always enough for me
You're all I need

What love is this, that You gave Your life for me
And made a way for me to know You
And I confess, You're always enough for me
Always enough for me
Always enough for me

The Monday Review

This past weekend, we had company. Real live company. Hubby's sister and family spent the weekend with us. It was fun to cook for more than two people for a change. Hubby had a lot of fun playing games with our sweet niece. She has a few more competitive bones in her body than I do, so he was very happy. We also watched a couple of movies, couldn't get the Wii to work (faulty disc), made homemade ice cream and Chinese food, talked quilting and even got a couple of hugs from my sweet niece.

But if you come visit us, beware. You also have to work...

(My sister-in-law, niece and hubby)
(We really didn't force them...)

(really)

The Weekend

Let's see if I can crank out a half-way decent weekend recap.

(Half-way decent doesn't just depend on the words I write down, well maybe it does. I do need to find the correct words to make it sound like a fun weekend.)

Here we go...

I look forward to weekends so much. I love having Hubby around all to myself for a couple of days in a row.

Friday night we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having. I showed Hubby a trail along a lake that I like to walk along sometimes. Here's a picture of that spot I took last fall.

We thought we'd try to see a movie, so we grabbed a sandwich for supper  and went to the theater only to find a very long line out the door. Neither of us like to stand in line, so we punted the movie idea and went home. The rest of the evening consisted of the two of us flipping through the TV channels and playing Scrabble on out laptops.

I stayed up way too late Friday night work on a sewing project that my sister-in-law brought to my attention.

 She told me about a bunch of quilting/sewing YouTube videos that have managed to help me waste a bunch of time watching them and help me find a bunch a great ideas and help me to realize there are a few more tools for quilting out there that I don't have. Here is a (video) link to the receiving blanket I made Friday night. (It really takes longer a bit longer than 10 minutes, like she claims, especially if I cut one of the pieces of fabric the wrong size. I have no idea what I was thinking.) Now I just need to get to a fabric store to get some more flannel.

Saturday, Hubby worked outside getting things ready for summer. Due to quite a lack of rain last summer, one of the small pine trees in the front yard died and Hubby had to cut it down. I always hate to loose a tree. Now if it would just rain a lot more to revive the grass. While he was outside, I put the finishing touches on the receiving blanket.

Saturday night was the annual recognition dinner for the company my hubby works for. The company recognizes people for the years of service. No, hubby wasn't recognized this year, it goes in five year increments. But Hubby has to be there because he's the Head Dude in this area. And I have to go because I'm the Head Dude's Wife. Yippee. It's a difficult function for me, because I don't know any of  the people and I'm not very good at small talk. But, I plastered a smile on my face and brushed up my list of answers to possible questions and my list of questions for other people. Yes, it works best for me to think of these things ahead of time. I survived and really enjoyed the food. We even made it home in time to watch the last 14 minutes of the Final Four NCAA game. It was the best part of the game, from what I understand, and we were happy to see the Kansas Jayhawks win.

Sunday we tried (yet another) church about 20 miles away. After lunch, we drove 50 miles to a truck stop to meet our daughter and some of her friends who had made a road trip to Minnesota to visit another friend of theirs. It was totally worth the 100 miles total to spend 45 minutes with them and have some ice cream.

That about sums up the weekend.

(I might need to work on using better words to make our lives sound a bit more exciting, huh?)

A Weekend Recap -- on a Thursday

I've been working hard on getting some things done before this coming weekend, so I'm a little slow on the weekend recap here. Let's just go with a list:

**We headed to see the kids last weekend. I know Christmas is just around the corner... but

**Daughter Megan asked Hubby and I to come down and sing in a quartet with her and Zach.

**Megan helped organize a lovely evening of Christmas music at their church.

**The four of us sang It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.

**We were quite awesome. Well, we were okay. We all sang in tune (and that's important). I think it's cool how the four of us fit perfectly in the SATB ranges.

**Megan did a great job with the whole evening. She played the piano before, during a break and at the end. She even accompanied the kids singing a neat version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Here's a quick summary of the lyrics:

On the first (second, etc.) day of Christmas, Jesus gave to me;

Salvation full and free

Everlasting life

Peace in my heart

Love for all men

Joy for my soul

Power from on high

A body glorified

A robe and a crown

Mansions above

Streets of pure gold

A thousand tongues to sing

Eternity to praise

**Throw in a bunch of kids with 12 of them holding signs with each phrase and the instructions to hold them up as the phrase is sung and you get stinking adorable! Megan did an awesome job of improvising on the piano when there was the inevitable goof-ups.

**Hubby's aunt and uncle and cousin came to hear the evening of music.

**They enjoyed the performances and saw a lot of people they know at that church. (They attend a different church, but have lived in that community forever.)

**We went over to Aunt and Uncle's house afterwards and stayed quite late visiting. I should mention that Aunt is 80 and Uncle is 90. They are just adorable and we had a blast with them.

**Sunday morning we worshiped with Caleb and Amanda at their church in downtown Kansas City.

**We so enjoy their church. The preacher always brings whatever he's preaching about back around to the Gospel. Last Sunday was no exception.

**Zach fixed supper for all of us Saturday night. He fixed us Thai food. It was so incredibly good. That guy is a great cook.

**Hubby and I ate at a Chick-fil-A our way home. You are lucky if you have one near you.

**If you do have a Chick-fil-A near you run there and get yourself a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake.

**It was amazing. Seriously.

**This coming weekend we are celebrating Christmas with my side of the family

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.

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. :)

Weekend Recap

It's Tuesday, but I can still do a Weekend Recap can't I? Of course I can! It's my blog and I can do what I want!

Believe it or not, we had company last weekend! Real company. And the best part? It was our daughter and son-in-law (and their puppy)!

We watched Charley play in the lake. He just loves to swim! (and he did leave the family of ducks alone.)

We watched Megan and Zach and Charley play.

(This looks like Zach is holding Megan up with just his arms,
but he really is supporting her with his legs, too.
He's not quite that super-human!)

Megan cut these flowers in our yard! I didn't even realize we had so many varieties. They are so pretty.

I think the funnest and sweetest part of the weekend was when Megan and Zach fixed dinner for us all on Saturday night! Yes, they came to visit us and fixed us dinner in our house! How sweet are they? It was such a blessing to us. They made a totally Thai meal. I sat at the kitchen island and watched and directed Megan around the kitchen since we've moved and she doesn't know her way around this kitchen at all. This was the appetizer and my favorite part of the meal, even though everything they made was scrumptious! In the picture: Julienned Mango, Cucumber and Carrots, Frizzled Shallots, and Shrimp marinated in lime zest, rice vinegar and I don't remember what else. It was sooo tasty!

We went to church together on Sunday and I was able to introduce my daughter to a woman I have met through a Tuesday morning Bible study I've been going to! I miss worshiping on Sundays with my girl. She's the best. And she married a pretty terrific guy, too!

Having their dog in our house was a new experience for us  non-pet people. It was fun since he is a good puppy (except when he decided to not go outside and use the yard and used our living room carpet instead...) and Megan and Zach do a great job of taking care of him. I thought it was pretty funny watching Charley slide around on the wood floors and how worried he was when everyone else was outside. He kept pacing back and forth looking out various windows trying to find his buddy, Zach. Now we have nose prints on the windows. :)

A side note here. We don't like to do garage sales, but had some pretty big things we wanted to get rid of. So we (and when I say "we" I mean hubby, of course) put a coffee table, end table, giant speakers, lawn chairs, and an area rug on the front lawn with signs on them. We sold every single one! Now we are $74 richer! Woohoo! Now that's my kind of garage sale. :)

Potato Salad Memories

This afternoon I made Potato Salad. Not really earth shattering news. Not even Facebook Status worthy. (Although I considered it.)

There are a few things I won't order in restaurants because they aren't like my mom made, namely Coleslaw and Potato Salad. My mom made Coleslaw with Italian Salad Dressing. I like that so much better than the sweet creamy dressing on most Coleslaws that are sold in restaurants. And Potato Salad? I try to model mine after my aunt Johnnye's. My mom would make it and my dad would always say it wasn't quite like Aunt Johnnye's. (Tsk, tsk, Dad! Don't you know that the 1st rule of husbands? Don't compare your wife's cooking to someone else's.)

So anyway... this afternoon I made Potato Salad. When I make Potato Salad, I am flooded with memories. I realize that is strange. (But hey, if you heard me telling my hubby what I dreamed about last night and what I was fretting about at 5:30 this morning, you wouldn't be quite so surprised at how my mind works.)

Since I try to make Potato Salad like my aunt Johnnye's, of course I think of her. She passed away 4 1/2 years ago, although Alzheimer's took her long before that. Aunt Johnnye didn't have a recipe for her Potato Salad, so I have to guess at what she put in her's.

I also think of Charlotte's Web. Remember that wonderful children's classic book by E.B. White? I loved that book when I was little. I read it multiple times. I remember that the little girl in the book fed Wilbur the Pig potato skins. So when I peel the potatoes, I think of that wonderful book.

Another memory that comes back to me when I make Potato Salad is...

(I wonder if I'm setting the record for how many times the words Potato Salad are written in a blog post.)

Where was I? Oh yeah, memories and Potato Salad...

I think of when I was in 4H when I was a kid. Why? Because Aunt Johnneye's version has hard cooked eggs in it, of course! Back in 1973 or so I gave a short demonstration about How To Cook Hard Cooked Eggs at a 4H meeting. I have the little speech written up on a piece of paper stuck in an old cookbook. I refer to that whenever I make hard cooked eggs.

Every single time I boil potatoes, it boils overs and makes a stinky, burnt mess. (Anyone else do that?)

At last, but not least, I think of my grandma. One of the main reasons I decided to make Potato Salad is because I wanted the water from boiling the potatoes. My sisters and I are trying to recreate the yeast rolls that our grandma used to make. No one has the recipe (if she even used one). My dad seems to think that she used potato water in the rolls his mother made. So now I have four cups of potato water to experiment with. (I'll let you know how they turn out.)

The Potato Salad? It turned out very good. And it was yummy with the brat, grilled asparagus and watermelon. :)

What do you make that triggers memories for you?

Another Weekend Recap

We actually had a fun and busy weekend. And we (almost) didn't even leave town.

Friday night we enjoyed a nice dinner out. There really aren't very many options of restaurants in this tiny town. But last fall, Hubby was given a tip that we have really enjoyed. There is a golf country club here and for a mere $5, we could "join" for the winter months. They serve really good food. The waitress even knew what we like to drink the last time we were there. (Ice Tea.) It was a very enjoyable way to end the work week and spend time talking with each other. (My favorite!)

Saturday was a busy day of cleaning. Hubby is having a work meeting here at our house today, so I found that a good excuse for cleaning.

Yes, I admit it, sometimes, oh who am I kidding, most of the time I need the motivation of impending company to clean the house. It's either that or getting fed up with stepping on crumbs all the time or having to clear the dust away to be able to put something on the dresser. Okay, I'm not really that bad of a house keeper, but sometimes we all just need a little push, right?

It snowed on Saturday. But then, that's pretty much old news here in the Great White North.

Hubby spent a good part of the day Saturday putting together a book of photos from our daughter's wedding. We sorted through 900 pictures to narrow it down to just over 100. He used this website to make the book. I can't wait to see the finished product! There are a few pictures of my baby-girl-turned-bride that just take my breath away and made me cry. She looks so beautiful.

Sunday was an adventurous day. We got up early so we could go to the previous town we lived in and worship at our old church. We got about 30 miles away and decided to turn back home. The roads were getting worse and it was pretty foggy. We came home for about 45 minutes and headed the other direction to try a church closer to us that we hadn't been to yet. As soon as we headed east on a highway, the road was very icy. Sigh. Turned around again and ended up going to the church that's only a mile and a half from our house.

So, to recap Sunday morning: I woke up at 6am to go to a 10:45 church service a mile and a half from our house. Yes, there was a long nap taken Sunday afternoon.

Today I've sequestered myself in the basement while Hubby is having his Strategic Planning meeting upstairs. It's been a good thing for me because I finished the ironing. (We all know how I feel about ironing...) and I came up with an idea for window treatments in the basement.

Oh, and I wrote a blog post!

AND I discovered re-runs of Dallas on cable! Sue Ellen? Lucy? Jock? Miss Ellie? I do enjoy a 80s soap/drama!

What a productive day.