Weekend Recap

It's been a fun weekend.

John and I went our for pizza and a few beers on Friday.

We went to Shooters and were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Van Eskes were playing.

The Van Eskes are a band of older musicians that play our favorite kind of music, the oldies.

They only play until 10:30 so all of the old folk who were there could get home.

As I looked around at the crowd, I said to John, "These people are all so old."

Never mind that they are all about our age or a bit older.

I just never feel as old as my birthday tells me I am supposed to be.

At any rate, our pizza was yummy and the beers went down easily.

 

On Saturday we had a shopping day.

We started out at Northwestern Publishing House where we purchased a few items for school and then found a few nice things for the girls.

After that we hit up a Goodwill Store in Waukesha where we found a few items that we just could not live without especially at that price.

I was actually there looking for props for the play at St. John's but I did not have any luck on that front.

One of the best purchases was a table and two chairs for the girls.  They are the same blue tables and chairs that we used at Mary Linsmeier.  Sweet memories in those tables and chairs.  I know Soli and Tiz will enjoy them.

 

Then we headed to Kohl's where I found some purple walking shoes as well as two new shirts and some jewelry.

John also found some bright polo shirts for spring.

 

Then it was on to Best Buy where we purchased a laptop for John.

When we got home he was happily finding his way around the new Windows 8.

 

Today my kids marched into church waving their palm branches.

They sang two songs and made me so proud!

It always amazes me that those little kids can do such a wonderful job when they sing in church.

 

We cleaned the basement, getting it ready for Easter and that was the end of a very nice weekend.

Only three and a half days this week.

Those days will be full of Easter fun and I hope they go quickly so we get to the weekend when I get to celebrate Easter with everybody! 

 Today we remember our sweet little grandson, Natnael.

 Today he is celebrating his third birthday in heaven in the arms of Jesus.

 Even though we never even had a chance to hug him or see his smile in person, we had fallen in love with him on the photos.

Natnael will forever have a place in our hearts and our family.

Today, especially, we miss what might have been.



Countertops and Chuck e Cheese

 This past weekend, I enlisted the artistic skills of both Courtney and Mallory to transform our old, stained yellow laminate counter tops into granite looking tops with the aid of a kit that I heard about on FB and ordered online to the tune of $70.00.

I knew that I could not have anything to do with the project since with my "more is better" philosophy in anything artsy, I just knew those counters would turn into a disaster.

 My two workers did a great job and we are very pleased with the finished look.

 Best part is, they work for cheap.

All John and I had to do was treat them to dinner at El Mariachi.

 While they worked on the counter tops, John and I took the girls to visit his dad at the care center and then to Chuck e Cheese.

I love me some Chuck e Cheese, John not so much, but he played the part of a good grandpa and I think even he had a good time when all was said and done.

 We tagged teamed the girls since Tizita was interested in the big kid games while Soli enjoyed the little rides.

 Soli made a little friend who joined us on a few rides.  I think it may have been because I was putting the tokens into the rides and he was a bit of a free loader, but Soli enjoyed his company.

Tiz had her usual good luck and walked away with lots of tickets.

And as usual, $30.00 worth of tokens bought her two rings and a rubber bracelet, but she was beyond happy with it all.

Both girls were so much fun and well behaved.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

Is this a North/South thing?

 I have four nieces, one that is like a third daughter to me.

She has been a big part of my life since the day she was born.

We share many, many happy memories over the years.

The other three live in North Carolina.  Their parents (John's brother and sister in law) are divorced and we haven't seen the girls in many, many years.

This post is a comparison between Mallory, my niece here in Watertown and Natalie, my oldest niece from North Carolina.

Both girls are in college, Mal at Whitewater and Natalie at Appalaciacola State.

I know Mallory is a great kid who loves to have fun.

From what I know of Natalie from FB, she is a great kid who loves to have fun,too.

That is where the similarities stop.

Actually it is not a comparison between the two girls, but between the differences I see on their FB pictures.

I think it is actually a comparison between the ways of a Southern Belle and the ways of a Northern Girl.

The above picture is of Mallory much the way she is.  No pretenses, what you see is what you get.

She reminds me of me when I was in college, her photos are actually very similar to mine.

Nut doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess.

 Now compare that photo to the ones below.

They are pictures of Natalie and her college friends.

Everything is perfect down to the hands on the hips.

Just check out the scarves, makeup and hair.

Nothing wrong with it, just not the way you would catch Mallory.

I think it is a North/South issue.

And here again is Mallory in all her natural beauty.

There, now you have my take on Northern College girls and Southern College girls.

All very sweet girls, just with different priorities.

Springing Ahead

This is the weekend that we spring forward by setting our clocks ahead one hour.

This spring ahead comes with mixed emotions from me.

Just when I am getting used to the very, nice light mornings I now have to wake up and drive to work in the dark again.

Everything comes with advantages though because now we will see the light of day until 7:00 at night which means that John and I can finally get out and walk again.  We could have been walking all winter, but we had many lame excuses about why we could not walk, too dark, too cold, too slippery...

John will once again be driving to work in the dark, too.

I think this is too early for this time change anyway,  I think it used to in April.  Oh well, things are always changing, I guess.

One other thing, the kids will be very tired for the next week which is not necessarily a bad thing but I think the teacher may be tired, too.

4:55 tomorrow is going to come way to soon for me.

This has been a good weekend all around even with the time change.

On Friday, John and I did the grocery shopping and then spent our $90.00 credit at Menard's. The sheer size of that store scares me, but we took our time and had no problem buying that much crap there.

On Saturday while John visited his dad, I had a long overdue lunch with my friend, Pam.

We had a great catch up session and of course, we vowed to get together much sooner the next time.

Today after church I went to a gymnastics meet with Lynne Uttech and her family to watch Meghan compete.  

I love gymnastics and I really enjoyed watching the competition.

Meghan did very well.

Actually I think they all did very well considering I could never walk on that balance beam or fly around the floor like they do.

Now I am just relaxing, catching up on some school work and watching the rain take away our snow.  It cannot go fast enough for my tastes.

Spring ahead and take the snow with you!

Grandparents day for Tizita

 Tizita had Grandparent's Day at her school this past Wednesday.

Neither John nor I were able to take off on such short notice, so Courtney asked my mom, Gigi to come up for a few days and attend Grandparent's day with Tizita.

What a fun few days was had by all.

My mom just got home and she has been talking non stop about all the fun she had with her sweet great granddaughters.

What a blessing they are to each other.

The above photo was taken as they were both dropped off at school for the grandparent festivities.

 On Tuesday evening my mom was able to attend the science fair and chili supper with Courtney, Paul, Tiz and Soli.

Here is the robot that Tizita made out of recycled materials.

 Here she is showing off some of her artwork.

 Soli spent some time just hanging out in the gym.

 Both girls enjoyed some playtime in Tizita's classroom.

Here is the morning ritual otherwise known as breakfast with Gigi.

My mom said she actually rode Soli's little car with her and now she is feeling it in muscles that she hasn't used for years.  

She is a pretty spry lady for 84!

May all your days be Circus days

This weekend John and I survived our first (of many, we hope) trips to the circus with Soli an Tiz.

We went to the Shrine circus in Green Bay at the Memorial Veterans center which is right across from Lambeau Field.

The arena is small so we weren't bombarded by tons of people.

The girls were free since each child was free when an adult ticket was purchased.

There was ample seating in the general admission area and we found perfect seats in the front row which gave us lots of leg room and even space for the girls to stand up and check things out.  We were also right in the center.

Before the circus started we were able to walk all around the floor and check things out.

Tiz and I decided to ride an elephant.

We both thought it was an awesome experience if not a bit smelly.

What circus experience is complete without cotton candy.

Tiz was really enjoying her pink spun sugar.

Even Soli enjoyed cotton candy once she was brave enough to actually put it into her mouth.

Soli sat so well for the entire circus.  I think there is so much to look at and listen to, that she was in a bit of a trance.

This is just to document that John was indeed with us.

Here are the girls waiting patiently for the circus to begin.

 As soon as Tiz saw the snow cones in the lighted cups, she just had to have one of those, too.

 When Tiz had gotten all the juice out of the snow cone, Soli was more than happy to suck on the straw.

 The circus had great performances and lots of colorful costumes.

 We all agreed that the elephants were great.  Of course, Tiz liked the pooping elephant the best.

We were all very tense when it came time for the human cannonball.

We were worried that he might hit the ceiling or miss the net, but all went off without a hitch and he landed safely in the net.

Today as we were leaving Oshkosh, Tiz said to me, "This has been the bsst time, I will remember the human cannonball forever."

Elephant ride     $15.00

Snow Cone in light up cup   $10.00

Mandatory light up toys    $20.00

Memories of the Human Cannonball that will last a lifetime      PRICELESS!!!