Good bye old friend

 It was a very sad day last Saturday when we bid farewell to our beloved red Taurus wagon.

It was time, she had served us well, but we will miss her dearly.

She took us to and from Florida thirteen times.

She made every trip to and from Knox and Wesleyan except for the very first one when we had to rent a cargo van to move Courtney.

She has been packed to the hilt with college stuff, a wedding dress, toys, luggage, sand, and even kids.

There was a seat in the way back facing backwards that we used at times.

 We knew it was time when we were no longer able to run the air conditioning and had to drive around in 100 degree weather just like the old days.

We knew it was time when she started nickle and diming us with problems.

When we traded her in last Saturday we figured we would have to pay someone to take her, but the dealer gave us $800.00 for her which is really a great deal for us.

I figure he saw some of the beauty in her that we had seen.

So good bye dear friend, we will never forget you.

 We replaced her with a 2005 Buick Rendezvous.

This is the vehicle that I drive to and from school.

So far, I like this "new" vehicle just fine and I think she will serve us well, too.

John also recently replaced his Kia with this new signal red Kia.

It is a great little commuter car and I think it will serve him well, too.

Exciting times for us with two new vehicles, but it all feels right.

We also bought a new TV.

We are done spending for awhile now!

More Thanksgiving fun

 After our nice Thanksgiving dinner and our very productive trip to K Mart or K Mark as Marge would say, we were at loose ends.

Should we go out?

Should we go to bed early?

Just not sure, but then I decided we should have a gaming night with some beers right in our own basement and that is what we did.

Now anyone that knows Lis and Nathan knows that they do not do games, but something happened on this Thanksgiving night, probably boredom and beer.

We played game after game after game and had beer after beer after beer.

It was a great, fun night.

 We thought the beer would taste better if we drank it out of my dad's old mugs/glasses.
Boy were we right about that!

We each chose one that we wanted.

I chose the little Leske's glass, I love beer out of a small glass.

John chose the Carroll College mug.  I think he liked it cause he needed two beers to fill it up each time.

Lis had the San Francisco mug with Ken's name on it.

Nathan had a small Gettlemen's mug, but for some reason it did not make the picture.

 We started our night with Trivial Pursuit and we were all really good at it.

The answers were coming out of thin air which always makes that game fun.

Then we moved to Dumb Laws, Srupples, (found out none of us have any), the Newlywed Game, and the favorite of all, $20,000 Pyramid.  Game is old with only $20,000 as the big prize!

Nathan loved using the special device to read the clues, he loved that special device.

We also had oldies playing which added to the atmosphere.

It was a great way to end our Thanksgiving Day celebration.

 On Friday, I started my decorating which is a whole new post in itself.

That night we went to On the Rock for pizza and more beer.

Nathan was in Milwaukee visiting a friend, so it was just my mom, Lis, John and I at first.

Later Kev joined us and still later, Vikki arrived.

It was a fun night full of laughs.

Lis and Nathan left on Saturday afternoon for home.

I finished the decorating, well is it ever really finished?

We also bought two new cars in the last week, but again, another post.

Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, too.

Another Thanksgiving is on the books

 We had a two wonderful Thanksgiving celebrationns this year.

Our first one was on Wednesday night when the Van Aukens, the Hunters, and Mallory all came for pizza casserole.  I made a very cute veggie turkey plate and some awesome cake pops.

I will post about my cake pop fiasco in the next post, but for now it is all good.

 Tiz had lots of fun hanging out with Alissa and Cheddah as usual.

 Soli was just a joy as usual.  She wanted to sit at the table and spent time just waiting for dinner.

 When she was hungry enough she tried eating the tap lights.

 Of course, she spent time with her favorite guy, grandpa.

Here they are signing that they love each other.

 Soli warmed up to her godparents very quickly on this visit.

 The cousins had fun visiting together.

 Before dinner Tiz led us in her superhero prayer.

 Courtney and Alissa wanted pie on a stick so that is what they got.

This is an inside joke and it was enjoyed by all.

 Soli finally warmed up to Uncle Cheddah's blanket game and she loved it and kept signing for more.

 The Van Aukens left early for Iowa and Thanksgiving with Paul's family.

I put our turkey which was purchased by Kevin (21 lbs.) in the oven at 5:30 AM

We used Nathan's recipe and it was the best turkey ever.

I used a brine for the turkey for the first time and I will never cook a turkey any other way.

 Here are the guests at our second Thanksgiving dinner.

 

  After our yummy dinner, Mal, Lis, mom, and I headed to K mart for some shopping.

Great Thanksgivings all around for all of us!

Facebook was full of posts about all the things that people are thankful for on this day.

I don't buy into all that.  I think we need to be thankful everyday for all of our blessings.

To try and be all thankful on just one day of the year just isnt' right.

So while I love the extra days off of school, the family time, the turkey, and the shopping, I think we need to thank God for his goodness everyday of the year!

Vintage treasures and Vintage Friendship

This Saturday my friend, Pam and I headed up to Oshkosh to check out the Homemade for the Holidays craft fair.  Courtney and many of her artsy friends had booths there.

It was such a fun day.

I loved spending so much time with Pam and getting to catch up on her life.

As I said in my last post, Pam and I had been very good friends for a long time until life got in our way and we parted ways for a bit, but we are back and closer than ever.

We spent two hours enjoying all the beautiful things at the craft show and both of us even bought a few things.

We ate a yummy lunch at Beckets and then did a little more browsing at the show.

After that we had dessert at Caramel Crisp, a favorite spot of our in Oshkosh.

We finished our day with some browsing at Atomic Katz which is a store full of vintage items.  When one walks in, it is like going back to a time when we were kids.  I love that place, it brings back a simpler time.

We ended our day at Courtney and Paul's, more visiting, some playing with the girls, and pizza for dinner.

Pam headed home and John and I babysat for Tiz and Soli.

It was such a good weekend all around.

I liken Pam and my friendship to something vintage, too.

Such a beautiful thing full of happy memories.

Old friends all the way around

 Make new friends, but keep the old,

Some are silver, some are gold.

There really is nothing like an old friend who has known you through many seasons of your life and still enjoys time with you.

That is how it is for my college roommate, Joan and me.  

No matter how much time passes between visits, we are able to pick up where we left off.

It is a gold friendship, for sure.

This is Tiz and Ava in Preschool last week.

Both of them are in kindergarten now, but were happy to come back and visit their old classroom.

Their friendship does not have the history of one as old as Joan and mine, (how could it, they are only five)

but they were still so excited to see another and they picked up right where they left off, too. 

They had left off in the house corner playing with the dolls, but soon moved on to the whiteboard, then the art center, then the puzzles...

This coming weekend, I will be going to Courtney's art/craft show in Oshkosh with another old, gold friend. 

Pam and I have been friends since before we were married when she and John were joining our church.

We raised our children together sharing birthday parties, trick or treating, and countless play dates.

We spent hours and hours on the phone in the afternoons while the girls were in school.

Pam had my girls the day my dad died.  She kept them occupied and busy while we made arrangements and dealt with funeral things.  I loved knowing they were being taken care of by their second mom.

When our girls went to different high schools our lives took different paths and we lost each other for years.

No one's fault, life just happened.

I wasn't with her when she lost her grandson or her husband.

I wish I would have been more of a friend to her then, but none of that matters now, because we have found one another again and it is as if we were never apart.

We picked up just where we left off because that is how it is with old, gold friends.

I am looking so forward to spending Saturday with her.  She has been going through a very difficult time lately and I am so happy to be there for her!

Grandpa's Girls-Take Two

 I have discovered that the blog posts work in Firefox, so I am using that when I blog.

So happy when I finally figured that out.

Anyway, last Thursday and Friday, Courtney and the girls came to Watertown.

Tizita had those two days off so she came to school with me.  It was fun to have her there to "help" me as well as to renew some old friendships from last year.

Courtney wanted to get some serious crocheting done, so I hope she was able to accomplish that while my mom watched Soliana.

It was a fun, unexpected visit.

 Both girls love their grandpa, but there is just something about the way Soli is with him.

She waited so patiently for him to get home from work.  She sat right by the window and when she spotted him coming through the door, she had the biggest smile on her face.  It is the sweetest thing.

She cannot get enough of him.

Tizita spent some time looking through toy ads and choosing what she wants for Christmas.

Seems she wants one of everything!

I am having lots of trouble posting on my blogs.  I will leave you with this picture of grandpa and his girls while I try to figure things out.  If anyone who reads here is a blogger and has had trouble posting, please let me know what you did to fix the problem.  I am beyond frustrated at this point.

Grandpa's Girls

Grandpa's Girls

Celebrating Mom's 84th Birthday

 We just had a wonderful weekend celebrating my mom's 84th birthday.

Soliana is so attached to grandpa.

She woke up on Saturday morning asking for him.

 This was Friday night and no, the beer is not open.

It does look like Soli will be following in all of our footsteps, we are all beer lovers.

 What is more fun that a big box?

We spent Saturday morning playing in this big old dryer box.

 On Saturday we had lunch at Fox and Hounds which was mom's choice.

It is such a pretty place and we all enjoyed our food.

Mom had a little cake for her birthday.

 Here are the girls before the gift opening.

 Mom got lots of nice gifts which included two very pretty scarves.

 Here is our self take family photo.

 On Sunday, it was warm enough for the girls to go our for a drive in their cadillac.

Soli had so much riding shotgun.

And there they go.

It was a great family weekend.