All dressed up!

When Justin picked me up from the airport Monday night, I noticed he had not taken the car to the car wash as I had requested him to do. He assured me he would pay for the car wash and even had a coupon to use for it, good for a dollar off! Plus, he has a plastic crate to give me for putting my Bible study stuff in to keep it organized in the backseat and not flying all over when we drive. 

Meanwhile, my car looks cruddy inside and out, covered with yellow pollen and bird poop. Inside is lots of grass clippings as he used my car while I was gone to WI, transporting his co-worker, Raymond, and himself in their work clothes. 

I noticed my passenger seat in back was tipped down and he said, "We picked up something along the road..." I guess Raymond spotted it and they loaded it in. Well, as I was setting the seat back up again, I found two small tears in the leather on the back of the seat's headrest.  Nuts! Whatever they picked up punctured the leather. Justin is going to look into getting it repaired somehow or another. I wonder if Superglue would do the trick...

Today I am going to a fashion show fundraiser at The Club, for the Republican Women's group. My friend, Jacquie, is going with me, as she's been a long-time member and is actually on the Board as an at-large representative. 

While she has gotten a new top to wear for the event, gotten her hair and nails done, I am pulling a garment from the back of the closet to wear. As I was talking to Linda about it, I told her it was the same top I wore for Justin's graduation in 2006. She couldn't remember it---imagine that!!! Going on 8 years and she's already forgotten! Ha! I owned this flowered jacket prior to graduation and since I couldn't find something else I liked when shopping, defaulted to that particular top. And, now it comes out once again. Thankfully, it still fits!

Back to business!

After experiencing a few terrible leg cramps yesterday morning, I got up and readied myself for the day. On the advice of several friends, I decided to buy some magnesium tablets to have on hand in case the leg cramps returned. A trip to Publix was expected that day!

My first order of business, however, before going on errands, was to start the washer. I had brought some pieces back which needed laundering plus I wanted to wash my sheets (should have done that BEFORE I left!) so had enough to make a full load. Once they were done, I could run my errands. 

There was a welcoming committee downstairs in the elevator lobby, quite by accident. It was funny! I had dropped off some cheese curds at my neighbor, Hugh's, place on the way downstairs and had some to share with Connie, our maintenance lady. She was glad to have them. 

I went to the bank and then to Publix for a few things. Got most of my stuff carried up by myself, leaving only a couple bags for later. In the afternoon, my friend, Judy C., came over to register for the Worship Conference which is in July. Just home from one trip and making plans for the next one! 

We had to register together in order to be roommates and had to decide which seminars to attend in order to sign up for them. One of the speakers, which I had heard from my young friend, David P., is the man who wrote a book I enjoyed a few years ago, "Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns". Looking forward to those two sessions!

Fortunately, Justin had a short day and was home before Judy left. We had made plans to see a movie together on Thursday, and then go to Koko's. Judy is going to join us, seeing "God's NOT Dead". For dinner that night I made a chicken dish which I had intended to make for my mom before I left Manty but didn't because she wasn't feeling well. It was good, but I think I will take the foil off about half through its baking in order to brown the chicken. The green beans were so delicious that we ate them up, and Justin finished off the chicken. Only baby reds left, which will not go to waste, I can assure you. We both went to bed early, and thankfully, no leg cramps. Must have just been one of those things!

Some more photos from my trip

 Saturday morning my mom treated us all to breakfast at the Fork and Knife restaurant. This photo shows David, Jill, and Lynn

 Here is a nice picture of Mom, Kerry, Lori, and David (who is chewing)

 An important task before us, since all five of Mom's girls were present, was to sort through boxes of papers and pictures. I got my report cards from high school (did I ever mention the fun I had in school???) and my baby shoes!

 My sisters are camera shy and so didn't want to be in the pictures...Lori is holding a triple frame with Kerry, Jill, and me in it, my freshman picture

I am not camera shy, and posed in the midst of my stack of papers and pictures

 The matriarch of the family, now that her sister has left this earth, is my mom, who supervised this project and was available to tell us who was who in some of the older photographs 

After we were done with the picture sorting, Lori, Jill, me and Jill's son, Danny, went to have an ice cream treat at Berntsens's Candy Store and Ice Cream Parlor on the north side of Manty. Kerry had to leave for home and Lynn didn't feel like joining us. Berntsen's is located in a building where my former spouse and I used to be partners in ownership before we moved to FL.  This treat was to hold us over until our group met two of my counsins for dinner at The Charcoal Grille. This photo shows Lori and David chewing their food!

My cousin, Jimmy, also not camera shy, is just a hoot! Our cousin, Barb, was not available for this dinner out but David and Jimmy were able to join us. Mom stayed home, not feeling well, so just the rest of us met. Such good laughs we had, both my cousins having amazing memories about dates and years. My, oh, my---remarkable! 

David, Lori's husband, took this photo of the rest of us: Lori, Jill, Jimmy, me (wearing a pair of Badger Spirit Fingerz David brought from work at WinCraft), Lynn, and my cousin, David. David Schipper wanted to take a picture of me wearing the Fingerz while pretending to watch the Badger basketball game which was on TV at the time. They blended right into my outfit and became hard to see in the picture. We had such good laughs and great fun with my cousins---must do this again the next time I go to Manty!

I'm bbaacckk!

It seems like I've used that title before, sorry if I am repeating myself here. Very shortly after I landed, ahead of schedule, Justin collected me from the airport. It was a bit chilly (yet, the last time I stood outside when it was 29 above zero!) and drizzly. The difference between this return and the previous one, besides almost 30 degrees, was that my coat was tucked away in the luggage. Even with all the cheese and my coat, I had still a half pound of wiggle room at the ticket counter scale!

Justin and I went to Longhorn on the airport frontage road for dinner. I told him I had Longhorn for lunch too, eating at the very first (and possibly only) airport Longhorn, in ATL. There I just had side dish of their Smokehouse Mac 'n Cheese, eating about 3/4 of it. There was two hours and 20 minutes between flights and was only a few gates down from where I got off the MKE flight. No worries, though, can always have room for a steak and baked potato. Yes, half of each came home with me!

He had much to talk about at dinner and on the ride home, and I let him. It was just so good to see him again! Their work schedules keep getting messed up due to rain and added assignments to their regular sites. Justin and Ray were looking forward to getting back to work full-time and now it's biting them in the butt!  It also seems he is becoming somewhat of a mentor to his young co-worker and hopeful these efforts are accepted by Ray. Funny how my young son is a mentor to an even younger man...Love it!

While I was gone, Justin was using my car for his daily driving. When we got back home, he had to transfer a mess of stuff into his car, and carried up several 12 packs of Diet Coke, still in there from our big shopping day at Target. We have over half of that bounty left, which is because I was gone and he was working. Makes a big difference!  

I got the luggage and my computer upstairs, plus my to-go box and the mail, glad to see my house again. Justin had the scented warmer going so the house didn't smell too much like boy (a little "Jack and the Beanstalk" humor there). Once the cheese was stowed in the fridge, I trundled off to my room to get comfortable, while Justin put my suitcase on the bench so I can empty it someday. I stink at unpacking once I get home!

One thing I must say is, for the most part, I slept very comfortably at Mom's. Prior to my arrival at her home, Amazon delivered a wonderful memory foam mattress pad to use on the day bed and it made a huge difference. As I told Justin, the first morning I was a bit stiff, but that may have been the after effects of my trampsing through the airports, more walking than I usually do. After that first morning, I was just fine. If and when Mom moves, one of my sisters can have the pad (only $30!) or Linda can use it. Ahhhh.....

For sleeping when there, I covered only with a crocheted afghan which I think Lynn made. Usually quite comfortable temperature-wise in the bed. The reason for this might be that the baseboard heater in the living room backs up to this bedroom, right 'under' the bed, as it were, and might provide sufficient heat for me. While normally a cold person, that afghan is sufficient for me.

My own bed welcomed me, and though the hour was still early, I got settled in for the night. Justin was exhausted after working all day, driving to the airport and back, and then dinner. He told me that he coaxed Ray along on the jobs all day, reminding him "I have to pick my mom up from the airport!" Even though I am a very good waiter, I appreciate his efforts to get me collected and home again. That is it now for trips, barring anything unforseen, until late July. I hope they finally get summer by the time I get back up there!

Filling in some more blanks

A few more things occurred to me which took place during my time here but weren’t recorded for posterity, including Linda and I having lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday before Ladies’ Bible study. I ordered the fried dill pickles to share and had chicken sliders as my entrée. Linda had the pulled pork, I believe. Oh, that Bible study is something else and when it was done that day, my second time attending this visit , I said to Linda, “I envy you…” because it is such a good, in-depth study. They are looking at II Samuel covering the decline of Saul’s reign and the ascension of David into the role of king over Israel. Kathy W., the leader, uses the notes made by her late husband, who was a pastor and missionary. No dozing off in this class or you’ll for sure miss something!

On Wednesday the weather was at last decent enough (i.e. not too cold!) for Mom, Lynn, and me to get our pedicures. It was too cold in December/January when I was there to have them done, Mom’s birthday treat to me, and we were running short on days this time, too. We had to suck it up and do it! Not exactly flip-flop wearing days but we muscled through. The place they like to go at ShopKo Plaza is called Sassy’s. Not a busy place but at least 10 chairs and no waiting for us. While we three were being worked on, the Travel Network was on, showing restaurants around the US whose specialties were Italian foods. Oh my goodness! I wonder if I get this channel on my TV. Our mouths were watering at the sights and sounds of Italian food being prepared, served, and enjoyed.

We went then to ShopKo so I could look at the shoes. They always have such cute ones there and I did find a couple pairs I liked. Sadly, only one of the pairs I liked came in my size, marked at $10 on sale. Cool beans! When I got to the register, they rang up at only $6.43, as there was another discount on top the sale price. More cool beans! That’s only a bit more than $3 a shoe!  Mom was not successful in finding the right type of shoe for her feet, as she needs a strap on them to secure her them to her feet. She is fixed with sandals but is always in search of better or different church shoes. Even though it snowed a couple times while I am here, the spring line of shoes brings more sandal-styled footwear. Mom will keep looking though.

At one point during our outing, Mom lost her sunglasses from her coat pocket. After the three of us ate our lunch at Panda Express, Lynn and I retraced our steps in search of the missing eyewear, inquiring at the stores we shopped in and where we had our pedicures, without success. Mom was devastated at the loss because Lynn had bought them for her as a gift, plus they did the trick in keeping the brightness in check. But, at least we tried to locate them.

That night was Lenten worship and the soup ‘n sandwich supper following the service (that’s a lot of S’s there!). The service begins at 4:00 pm which works great for the students of the school to attend, as well as their parents, with the evening meal taken care of. The next service begins at 6:30 so folks can come to eat before the service as well. We tried having a meal at GS on Ash Wednesday one year but it didn’t go over very well. This one at FG certainly does with various ‘groups’ in the congregation sponsoring it each week. A free will donation is taken which helps toward covering the costs and members donate desserts. This last time I had a giant chocolate frosted rice krispie treat with peanut butter in it for dessert, and I couldn’t even finish it! 

In these two weeks of my stay in Manty, I didn’t make as many meals as I’d done over the Christmas visit. I did make Mom and I grilled cheese sandwiches with blackberry jelly one morning for breakfast, plus prepared a pork roast Jill provided for dinner one night. Also made spaghetti and meatballs which we had two nights for dinner plus one meal of pork chops with au gratin potatoes. We must have had more meals at home but right now, I can’t think of them. When they come to me, and they are noteworthy, I can add them in!

Some catching up to do

I have fallen behind in posting, even though I have Internet access at Mom's apartment. Instead of writing on my blogsite in my spare time, I was working on the church newsletter plus something requested by the congregational chairman. With that writing plus keeping up with Facebook, the blog was lost in the shuffle. I can make it up now.

Let's see now---on Thursday evening Lynn came by with Angelo who was staying the night at her house. What a little character he is! For dinner we ate leftover spaghetti with meatballs, which he really enjoyed.

                                       

Also that evening, before dinner, my niece, Alayna, stopped by on her way back to college, so I got to see her for a little while longer. We had had lunch together at Perkin's one day which is different than time spent at Mom's, though she did arrive just as Jeopardy! began. She is a good sport and a good player as well. 

On Friday Lynn came back over to Mom's for a while before having to go pick up Gabe and Manny from MLHS where they were seeing a play. When they got back, Lynn, the boys, and I went to Pizza Hut to enjoy Personal Pan Pizzas, somewhat of a traditional thing to do with them, for me. The rest of the afternoon was spent at Mom's, with the boys watching cartoons while Angelo played with Grandma K's toys!  The boys stayed until their daddy came by after work to collect them.

Lori and David were driving over from Holmen, and Kerry coming from Oshkosh for the weekend. We went to dinner at Time Out. Jill, Danny, Mom, Kerry, Lynn, me, David, and Lori making up our group, all Mom's daughters. Before I even greeted Lori and David, I encountered my in-laws, Harv and Barb, and another Facebook friend, Margie (whose sister and mother were at my table at the retreat!). It was good to see all of them again. I hadn't seen Harv and Barb in well over a year, at the very least. 

It was great to have all the sisters and Mom around the table (and David and Danny), and the battered perch out of this world!  I think everyone enjoyed their meals and the time together. I know I sure did!  

On Saturday morning, Mom treated us all to breakfast at the Fork and Knife, again, all the daughters around the table. A couple of us went to Kohl's for a bit (more than a bit!) and then to Festival for a few items. I bought ingredients to make a chicken dish for us to enjoy on Sunday for dinner, with Kerry talking me into buying fresh asparagus to make for Mom. Picture my nose wrinkling at that...

Once back at Mom's, we girls got busy going through some boxes of photos and other memorabilia. Mom wanted us to take what we wanted from the boxes and ditch the rest. What a trip down memory lane that was! Some of the photos were fun ones, and others made me sad to see again, the ones of my family. We also got our report cards and similar items, including my baby shoes. What will I do with those?

For dinner that night, some of us (Kerry had to leave due to working the next morning) went to dinner at The Charcoal Grille with a couple of our cousins, David and Jimmy. Oh, how we laughed with them! Lynn was concerned we would be asked to leave, but I had no such fear. The rest of my family had seen these two at my aunt's funeral (their mother) a few weeks ago, and Lori suggested we get together again for dinner. They are so interesting and comical----great fun and great food!

Mom had opted out of the dinner due to not feeling well and she was wise to do so. She has a bit of a bug bothering her tummy. Might be from something she ate, or too much commotion, or just a bug. She said it's been years since she was sick like this and I must say, I don't like it! Hope she feels better in the morning, so she can enjoy time with David and Lori before they head back to Holmen. 

Time with Angelo today

 Here comes trouble!!

Trouble times two!

 My niece, Alayna, came by for a quick visit before heading back to UW-Madison

 A guy is having a great time playing with monster toys. This M & M bag was purchased by Justin and me when we were in New York City a few years ago

It's great fun to play with toys at Grandma K's house. Many of them used to be Justin's toys 

That little guy dived into his plate of spaghetti and meatballs, even taking seconds on the meatballs!

After he ate his spaghetti, Angelo got out some more toys to amuse himself at the table. Prior to eating, we prayed the common table prayer of which he could recite most of the words. Warmed my heart!