Whew!

We are home from a pretty whirlwind weekend.

Friday night we saw Bill Cosby in Ames, Iowa. I have always wanted to see him in person and I was not disappointed! That guy is so funny and has clean humor.

My mom and dad were supposed to be the ones who were sitting in our seats, but since Mom's stroke, they were not able to go. Through out the whole show I kept thinking, "Oh, Dad would have thought that was funny! Mom would have laughed so hard at that!" 

It was bittersweet to be there. I am thankful for Dad sharing his tickets with us.

When the show was over at 9:30, we zoomed out to the car (well, as fast as one can zoom with thousands of other people heading the same direction), hopped in and started driving to Kansas City. We arrived at the hotel at 1am.

After a not long enough night's sleep, we were up and dressing to attend the memorial service of my husband's uncle in Lawrence, Kansas. It was a very good service remembering Uncle Russ. It was sweet to see so many family members. A cousin of Hubby's flew from North Carolina, another from Mexico and many drove in. I even got to meet a second cousin that I had only heard about over the years. And as a mom, I was happy to see my kids. They all came to the service and it was so good to see them and hug them.

Then, just to add to the craziness of the weekend, we drove back to Des Moines, Iowa Saturday night arriving at the hotel there at 11:30pm. So not near as late as Friday night, but still.

I think sometimes we forget that we aren't 25 years old any more...

Sunday morning, Hubby was up and at 'em and ready to run 13.1 miles. He ran a half-marathon! He did a great job. He got a better time than he was aiming for, so he was happy. I got up with him so I could collect his jacket and long pants before the race started.

So. Whew! I'm worn out for sure!

My oh-so-exciting picture was taken on the interstate.

I suppose I've seen these trucks with this sign many, many times, but it struck me as kinda funny. I mean, I have never considered following one of these trucks for very long, let alone into a "work area." Are there really some who have followed the truck into the work area and thus the need for the sign?

I don't know. Maybe it was just funny because I was in the car far too long.

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!

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.

Some Things New

Last weekend Hubby and I experienced some new things.

Sushi.
Dog Park.
Settlers of Catan.
Doughnuts.

Last weekend we were in Kansas visiting our kids (Yay!!!).  No, visiting the kids isn't a new thing. That has happened before.

We went out for sushi with our daughter and son-in-law. Not a totally new thing. They took us out for sushi last November.

The new thing was this time we asked if they wanted to go out for sushi. They love it, so they were more than happy to accept. I have no idea what they ordered, but I liked it. This time I even had that big piece of fish in the front of the photo.

A totally new experience for us was to go to a dog park. They have these things in the middle of a big city so those city dogs can have a place to run off the leash. All six of us took the daughter's dog, Charley, to play with some friends.

 Charley is the black and white one.

 We decided to call this Dalmatian, Pongo. He was pretty.

Then there were these two. The little one was running around barking at all the other dogs. The black dog with the coat and the doggy shoes did a great job of just ignoring the little annoying one. He also made me laugh with all his prancing around in those doggy shoes.

The dog park was fascinating. I think there should be bleachers set up some where so I can just sit and watch the dogs and make up stories about all the dogs.

I will say, it makes me glad that I don't own a dog and have to think about things like when I should take them to the dog park.

Saturday night's new thing was playing  a game called Settlers of Catan. I had never played this game before. I was the only one who hadn't. We teamed up with spouses and I'm sorry to say that Hubby had no chance of winning with me as a partner.

And since I didn't really understand the game very well, I built things with the game pieces. I'm hopeless when it comes to games, it seems.

Stone Henge.

Sunday morning we were treated to homemade doughnuts courtesy of Daughter and her husband.

These are the last two doughnuts that were waiting for the oil. Zach was the fryer, the rest of us dipped in cinnamon sugar, sprinkled in powdered sugar and snarfed down way too many of them. They were scrumptious!

What a fun weekend with our kids!

I missed them the second we drove away.

I Feel Different

When my sweet daughter turned four years old, she was so excited about it. A friend of mine saw her the week after her birthday and commented that she looked grown up. She proudly announced it was because she was FOUR years old now. It was a cute moment.

By the way, here's a picture of Yours Truly at four years old.

My mom always made us shape cakes for our birthdays. I did the same for our kids.

All of that has nothing to do with much, except that I just celebrated my birthday last week. I've realized that when I turned Fifty a couple of years ago, it was no big deal. But now? Now I am IN my fifties. Sounds old and mature. Yikes. I just feel different, you know?

Hubby and I went to the Twin Cities for the weekend to celebrate and despite the stupid cold weather and the fact that our best friends went and got the flu and canceled our dinner plans, we had a nice time. We found a really nice restaurant for my birthday dinner and even enjoyed some yummy dessert.

Saturday we met up with Hubby's brother and he showed us around the new (to them) church building that their church is working on. It will be interesting to see the end result.

Our hotel had a DVD player and a lot of movies we could borrow so we took advantage of that a couple of evenings. We even saw a movie (The Guilt Trip) in the theater.

Whenever we are in a big city it seems as though we have saved up a lot of shopping. I guess that's the price of living in a tiny rural town. We managed to check several things off our list. And of course we managed to squeeze in a couple of quilt shops. You know, the important things.

Hubby did a great job of spoiling me with gifts like he always does. He got me some really pretty earrings, some beautiful cello music, a fondue pot (well, he couldn't find one in a store, so I ordered it on-line last night) and a Kindle! I've already downloaded so many free books on my Kindle I need to start reading (and finish the two real books I had started before). I look forward to taking the Kindle on trips.

(This post is taking me forever to finish because I keep getting distracted by all the other things to look at on the Internet: Pinterest, other blogs, free books on Amazon, Facebook....)

That sweet daughter (who has grown up, obviously) and her husband sent me some flowers for my birthday.

I took this picture and texted it to them to thank them for the flowers. Megan called me kind of in shock. I think she ordered "colored daisies", not really expecting such colorful daisies. Ha. I like them. They add a lot of cheer on these cold, gray January days.

My son and daughter-in-law sent me some music. Somehow it all happened digitally. I really don't know how. I just got an email, clicked, downloaded, un-zipped, extracted.... and POOF! new music in my iTunes and now on my iPod. I always tell them how much I love the music from their church and this CD has some songs they have sung during worship. So thoughtful of them and I just love it! Maybe I'll even figure out how to burn it on a CD...or is that too much fancy technology for someone my age? ;)

And my birthday isn't complete until I've had a phone call from my parents. They start out with a loud Happy Birthday! (usually with my dad hollering something or other from the background) and then my mom tells me about the morning she went into labor with me. Good thing she did early enough in the morning to stop my dad from traveling 90 miles for some meetings he had scheduled that day. I wonder what she would have done if he was already on the road. I have never asked that question. Hmmm....

I suppose I should wrap this up and get it posted.

A Little New Year's Recap

This was a New Year's for just the two of us. When we realized we wouldn't be spending it with the kids, Hubby did a little research and discovered that our college team was playing a home game on New Year's Day, so we decided to head to Iowa State for the weekend. Well, not actually the college itself, but the town. We drive by there whenever we go visit our kids and often stop for BBQ, but this time we stayed for the weekend. It was a sweet time together.

We saw the movie Parental Guidance and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like to see movies that just make me laugh and maybe even wipe away a tear or two. I'd see it again.

We had a BBQ lunch with a college friend and her son. We always enjoy seeing her and her family and are thankful to have been able to keep in touch through the years. She and Hubby knew each other from the Bible study that was made up of marching band people.

We spent a day in Des Moines doing some shopping and having lunch and a Peppermint Chocolate Chip shake fix from Chick-fil-A. I usually am not a huge fan of shakes, but this one is soooo yummy! It's a seasonal offer, so we try to find a Chick-fil-A a couple of times over Christmas.

I know this isn't sounding very riveting, but we enjoy being together in a bigger town with actual shops and restaurants.

One night at dinner I pulled up on my phone something I had saved in my email that had a list of conversation starter questions. It's not that we have a hard time talking to each other, it's just kind of fun to talk about questions we might not think about on our own. Here's a few examples:  

Think back to your childhood or teenage years. What do you miss doing the most? 
Can you name three qualities that attracted you when you met me/got to know me? 
My funniest memory of our dating days is when ...

I will say it was especially sweet to talk about when we dated in the town we fell in love.

We spent some time driving around town looking at the places we used to live. I spent a lot of years in this dorm. Fourth floor up, second window from the left.

When I think of it now, I just cannot imagine living in a dorm....shudder. I lived in the dorm longer than most because I ended up working 15 hours a week in the food service and it paid for my room and board. My last year there I would take the bus across campus to spend the evening with my sweetheart. He lived in this attractive building:

His apartment was the second floor on the right.

Oh college life.

Anyway...

New Year's Eve we discovered a sweet yummy restaurant with great atmosphere and enjoyed a  very delicious meal. We finished the meal of sharing this:

Yes. It was as good as it looks.

New Year's Eve after we switched rooms because the smoke alarm started malfunctioning and periodically beeping, we watched TV in our new room and enjoyed some treats I had bought earlier in the day.

Then, like I said before, we went to the home basketball game on New Year's Day.

These guys are not the Cyclone players. They are just a bit too short. :)

 Now these players are a little taller:

 

But this little guy next to us thought it was a good idea to bring his blankey to the game. (And with the headache I had, I would have loved to curl up with my blankey.)

Good Grief

It's January 7th and I haven't written a single blog post this year. Yikes. Not the way I intended to start out the year in the blogging world. I blame it on a headache. A headache that started on New Year's Eve with sharp pains in the back of my head and on the left side of my face. New Year's Day I woke up with a splitting headache -- the kind that makes you just want to crawl back in to bed. But that day I couldn't. Hubby and I were out of town for the long weekend and were checking out of the hotel that morning and going to a basketball game at the college we went to. Hubby had really been looking forward to going to the game, that even though he offered to skip the game and just drive home, I just couldn't let him miss the game. I sat through the first half with him and then spent the second half in the bathroom away from the noise. Pathetic, I know.

Sorry, I don't mean to make this a health report, but now my readers know why I haven't been writing.

I had that headache for two more days. Friday was the first day all week that I felt (mostly) okay. Then I had all that laundry to catch up on. And a new quilt to start. And Season 2 of Downton Abbey to watch. And the first show of Season 3 of Downton Abbey to watch.

I will write tomorrow about our New Year's weekend. It was just the two of us, but we enjoyed it.

Weekend Tidbits

Just a few tidbits to highlight our weekend:::

>>Hubby and I spent the weekend in the Twin Cities and conquered our Christmas shopping.

>>I like doing the bulk of our shopping together. I like that we can talk through ideas and come to some good answers. (I guess the gift recipients will truly say whether we came up with good answers.) I like that Hubby likes to shop along with me.

>>As far as doing shopping for each other goes, we have a good system. Hubby got up early on Saturday and went out shopping for me while I got to sleep in. Win-win! Later that day I dumped him dropped him off at a Panera for a couple of hours while I tackled shopping for him. It was a bit funny trying to hide the packages from each other. I wasn't allowed in the back end of the car and he wasn't allowed to look under the quilt in the back seat.

>>The movie theater in our teeny-tiny town closed last summer. Ugh. Now, in order to see a movie, we have to drive at least and hour to do so. So, while we were in the Cities (that's what all the cool people in Minnesota call the Twin Cities), Hubby and I saw two movies. Saturday night we saw Lincoln. My word for that movie is: SUPERB. It's a long movie, but it really doesn't seem like it. What an impossibly hard period of time to be president. The movie gave me a new respect for Abraham Lincoln. Go see it. The other movie we saw was Skyfall. You know: Bond, James Bond. I always enjoy Bond movies. I'm not crazy about all the shooting and chasing and oh-my-goodness-this-scene-needs-to-over-so-I-can-breathe-again moments, but Bond movies are always good. (That movie experience would have been so much more pleasant if someone from the family sitting next to us hadn't got up and walked in front of us TWELVE times throughout the movie...!)

>>We had sometime to kill before one of those movies, so we wandered in the mall and enjoyed a snack of ice cream. We had just eaten supper, but isn't there always room for ice cream? Especially with a name like:

Yum! Yum!

>>Hubby and I are on the lookout for a new artificial Christmas tree. We'd like one with LED lights and on that doesn't look obviously fake. We are weary of stringing the lights and then not having half of them light up. (And by we I mean hubby, cuz he does all that work.) We looked at a few, but there just doesn't seem to be many pre-lit LED trees, or maybe we don't know where to look. So it's looking like we'll drag out the old one and string up those lights again and hope for the best. Oh, and I am over having a real tree. I love the smell and I love the memories we have of going to a Christmas tree farm with the kids and picking out our favorite, but the falling needles and the watering and the fear of it bursting into flames isn't enough to make me want to continue getting real ones. I bet I could find a scented candle to bring in the fresh Christmas tree smell.

>>We just love being in a big city where we can choose from so many restaurants. Sometimes we even get a smidge overwhelmed with all the choices. Sometimes we try new places, sometimes we go for old favorites.

>>Sunday we were able to meet some dear friends for lunch. Always good to reconnect with them. We met in a place that had a large variety of ethnic foods. I enjoyed some yummy and just-right-spicy Pad Thai.

>>Hubby and I picked out some new drinking glasses at Target. Somehow in the last two years we have managed to break five glasses. (And we don't even have any kids at home doing the dishes we can blame it on!)

>>I am thankful for a wonderful weekend with my sweetheart. He's just a blast to be with.

(Wait, November is over....I don't need to end with the whole "I'm thankful" thing!)
(But it's still a good thing to focus on being thankful!)

Month of Thankfulness - Day 7

A couple of weekends ago our son and his lovely wife came for a visit. I can tell you I was quite excited to have some company and loved planning the meals for the weekend. I tried three or four new recipes. (And they all turned out to be yummy!) One of my son Caleb's favorite meals is my homemade chicken noodle soup and home made biscuits. So, of course, that was our lunch on the Saturday when they were here.

When Caleb was a little boy he would watch me cut out the biscuits and ask me for a piece of the dough scraps.

He still likes the dough scraps:

See how excited he is?

 Here's a collage of him enjoying the meal:

Despite the look on his face in the bottom right photo, he really did like the meal. He's just a goof. A funny goof.

Since they were here on a Friday, Hubby took the whole day off. Well, most of the day. He did go in for one meeting. In the afternoon we went to a historical museum in town here. It was pretty interesting, especially when we stumbled upon this:

This is a photo of my Hubby. Can you see him on the bottom right? I've attempted to blur the rest of the photos to protect the innocent, or something like that. This is a photo of all the Plant Managers. Hubby is the current one. I call this The Plant Manager Hall of Fame. Oooo! (Caleb took the photo of his dad at our daughter's wedding.)

Throughout the weekend we did several things together. We shopped for a plaid flannel shirt for Caleb (what better place than rural Minnesota to find one?) and some cute boots for Amanda. I watched them all play some of our new Wii games. (I didn't play because of my burned fingers. I couldn't really bend them to hold the Wii-mote.) I made them watch a couple of episodes of The Middle I had on the DVR, because it is simply my favorite sit-com. They even laughed. We watched the movie Social Network with them. Quite interesting. I'm glad we recorded it on TV because some of the bad language was edited out.

I am thankful for...
...cool days that are made for homemade chicken noodle soup and biscuits
...my mother-in-law's recipe for biscuits
...the visit with Caleb and Amanda
...laughter with Caleb and Amanda
...my son's hugs

Month of Thankfulness - Day 3

I liked this Saturday.

I didn't sleep much last night, but somehow managed to not be a total grump all day.

Hubby and I started our day out running errands. We went to a sale that was going on where he works. They were selling things that his company makes in other facilities. We could cram all we wanted into 2 bags. Pretty sweet deal. (I don't really want to disclose the name of the company for privacy reasons. You understand, I'm sure.) We found a bunch of stuff that our son had asked for and even more stuff to give to Hubby's cousin who runs a Bible camp. After hauling our almost overstuffed bags to the car we stopped at a couple of other stores and then had a lunch date.

If you are a regular to this here blog, you have heard me complain write about living in a very small town. There are not very many good restaurants here. We have narrowed it down to two sit-down restaurants we both like and one fast-food we can tolerate. We hit one of those sit-down places for lunch today and the restaurant had a new menu and therefore we were able to choose some new-to-us items that turned out to be very yummy despite the piece of paper I found in my wrap. (Whew! That was a doozey of a run-on sentence!) Yes, there was a piece of paper in my wrap. You know the pieces of paper that separates slices of cheese? Yep. The cook forgot to take that out. Thankfully I didn't eat any of it. The wrap was made with Naan bread and was difficult to pick up to eat, so I tackled it with a fork and knife. That's how I discovered the paper. I found it kind of funny. The waiter apologized and offered to bring me a new wrap. I declined. I figured the paper was food-safe to begin with so no big deal.

We spent the afternoon watching football (not me) and looking through a bunch of catalogs (me) that had come in the mail throughout the week. I was trying to get inspiration for a new look for our Christmas tree. After our kids were married and took the ornaments that had been given to them over the years, I realized how bare our tree was left. But for the last two or three Christmases I haven't done anything about it. Maybe I should just look at ornaments in stores and in catalogs and buy what appeals to me. I kind of prefer an eclectic look, so that may just be the trick. I keep thinking I'll see a whole tree decorated somewhere and have a Eureka! moment. Hasn't happened, so maybe this other approach will work. (Maybe I should talk this over with Hubby.)

Late in the afternoon we drove to an even smaller town about 20 miles away that actually has a movie theater (this town doesn't have a movie theater) that only shows movies on the weekends but still it's a movie theater and they happened to be showing a movie we've been wanting to see. (Yay! Another run-on sentence!) (I'm sure my journalist son is cringing.) On our way to the theater I realized I made a grave mistake. See, across the street from the movie theater is a quilt shop. I should have allowed enough time to so some actual shopping there. Phooey.

Anyway... the movie...

We saw Trouble With The Curve with Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake. We both really enjoyed the movie.


I am thankful for...
...a wonderful day of hanging out with my hubby
...a good haul at the work-sight bag sale
...catalogs
...an extra hour of sleep tonight

July Journal -- The Sunday Afternoon

I think that perhaps there should be an award for having the longest title ever for yesterday's post. Our internet has been pooping out late in the evening. Mystery. Frustrating when I have forgotten to write a blog post until late. At least the next morning the internet works. I think a conversation with the service provider may happen in the near future.

Yesterday Hubby and I headed off to church. It's a 45 minute drive, so we entertained ourselves with listening to a couple of CDs. Larry Norman. Good stuff. He is called the father of contemporary Christian music. His first album was produced in 1969. That album was banned in most Christian bookstores because no one thought rock & roll and Christianity went together.

Anyway...church was good. Good songs and great sermon. Again. Worth the drive.

After the worship service we did something pretty unusual for us. Well, the going out to eat part wasn't unusual, we've been doing that after church for years. The unusual thing was we dropped in on someone. We have thought that a friend from college lived in a town about an hour away. We haven't seen him for 28 years...since our wedding. Hubby found his address online and we just marched right up to his house.

Well, we hoped it was his house.

And it was!

We had a wonderful visit with Danny and his wife (whom we had never met). They were very gracious to us for dropping in with no announcement. Sure was fun to reconnect, catch up on each others lives, and talk about old friends. We were in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship together.

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)

It Was Better and Better

Have you ever had one of those weekends that starts off great and just keeps getting better and better and better? (And yes, I can still call it the beginning of a weekend even when it starts on Wednesday night.) Last Wednesday Hubby and I took off for a long Easter weekend in Missouri. Our destination was the city of Columbia where we used to live for 10 years. Our son was just a wee little one year old when we moved there and our daughter was born there. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, the memories, oh the memories. They flood back when we are back in the town where the kids were tiny.

On Thursday, I started the best weekend ever by out hanging out at the mall and at the Panera where I first learned to love to hang out at Panera. I used to go there on my nights "off" as a young mom. I remember reveling in the no-little-one quiet and read and read and filled up on Diet Coke. I used that time to re-charge. (Trivia: Panera used to be called St. Louis Bread Company. That's what it was called when I first started going there.) (Columbia is officially an awesome town in my book because they don't just have ONE Panera, but THREE!) While I was in Panera I silently prayed, "God, it would be cool if I could see someone I know." And can you believe that just two minutes later an old friend walked in? So incredibly cool!

Every day we spent in Columbia was just as good as the previous one. We were blessed to be able to connect with several old friends. Pizza with the the son of some dear friends. A four hour lunch with a couple I consider our mentors. Good Friday Service at a new church in town was very moving. A five hour supper with friends who we used to exchange babysitting with. (Our kids have so many great memories of playing at their house.) Meals at good, interesting restaurants. (Including a restaurant that a former co-worker of my hubby's owns.) Sunday Easter service at the church where we used to worship. (So good to see some familiar faces!)

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day and we celebrated Hubby's birthday by spending some time at a beautiful garden in town. We used to go there and let the kids run off their energy.

They've added some cute little statues all over the place.

Seeing the new green plants all over the place was just lovely.

Ahhh.... so peaceful...

We both remember watching our first-born walking some of his first steps on these pebbled embedded walkways.

We drove home with full hearts.

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?)