A Snow Shoe Adventure while renewing an old Friendship

Yesterday John and I headed up to Wausau for a Snow Show Adventure with our "old" friends Connie and Paul.

Not exactly sure why, but we hadn't visited them for years up in Wausau and we used to go there so often when all our kids were growing up.

We always had such great times with them so it was time to rekindle this friendship.

Not that the fire had gone out, but it needed some extra wood to keep it going and it is going strong again!  So happy for that.

We only had the day to go up because my kids sing in church so it was a lot of driving but the time in between was so worth the hours in the car.

We got up there about 11:00, had a yummy lunch at their house, talked non stop and then headed over to a country club for some snow shoeing and beer drinking.

We snow shoed 3.4 miles and drank beer at all the little beer stops along the way.

It was fun, but I was really tired after that.

They had a buffet of chili, beef stew and bread bowls so we had dinner right there before coming home to Watertown.

It was a wonderful day and I know we will get together more often from now on.

In other news, I have stuck with my exercise and good eating and have gotten to my first target weight.  I still have at least 10 lbs. to go, so I hope I can keep it up.  I will keep you updated.

Tiz has opened a slime business and she has her slime in two stores already.

She calls herself the Ethiopian Slime Queen.

Gotta love that girl and her ambition!

Until next time...

Another weekend update

It's been an odd sort of week.

We had ice days on both Monday and Tuesday.  The roads were impassable due to the ice so schools were cancelled.

We already had a scheduled day off on Friday and half a day on Thursday, so my PM kids actually only had one afternoon of school last week.  I packed so much into that day, it was nuts,

The Packers beat the Cowboys last week, so now we are watching them lose very big to the Atlanta Falcons.  Not sure who these guys are, but  it is definitely not the team that played last week.

Oh well, it is time to pack the Packer jersey and leggings away for another season.

So glad we had a class Packer party two weeks ago or we wouldn't have been able to celebrate at all

I am starting back on my better eating and exercising program again.

The scale was at a larger number that it has ever seen and I needed to do something.

So far, it has been two weeks and I have been doing well.  I have only lost a few pounds but I feel so much better and I think I am sculpting my body a bit already.

I am hoping that by doing this faithfully for another week, it will become a habit.

I also hope to be down a few more pounds by my birthday.

John and I walked five miles today outside, the weather is unseasonably warm for January.  No school on Monday and Tuesday and then spring on the wknd.

Yesterday, John and I met Courtney, Paul, and the girls at the Todd Wehr Theater to see a play called Bronzeville.

It was an awesome play about an area of Milwaukee where many black families lived in the 1950's.  The area was called Bronzeville.

After the play, we went to The Water Street Brewery to eat dinner.  It was a nice day.

After they left to go home, John and I stopped at Binary Pub in West Allis.  I had learned about it online and was curious to see what it was all about.

It is a bar with all kinds of board games, so you can just sit around and drink beer and play games.

John and I played a few games that we had never tried before.  It's an interesting place and it would be fun with a group of people, I think.

Today we took our walk and then were hopeful as we turned on the Packers, but that was not to be today.

Oh well...

Oh, I almost forgot another little detail of this week.

The inauguration of Donald Trump happened on Friday and it was not without dispute and protest.

There was a big women's march on Saturday to protest Trump, although they will tell you it was for women's rights.  They all wore pink pussy cat hats to show solidarity.

It was crazy and certainly did not represent all women for sure.

Now, hopefully, we can move forward as a nation and see what this new president can do for us.

Hopefully it goes in a different direction than the Packer game.

On to a new week....

Birthday Celebrations, Done, Done, and Done

We had a great time celebrating Alissa and John's birthdays this past weekend.

Alissa and Nathan arrived on Friday evening.

After the goody box (Lissa got nine out of ten, by the way), we headed to Sweet Mullets in Oconomowoc.  It was Alissa's choice. John and I had never been to this little brewery, now we know we will return.

Alissa and I had fish tacos, so yummy.

The beer was very tasty, too and it was going down very easily.

Kev and Vikki met us there for a few beers, too.

Lots of fun conversation.

It was a great way to start the birthday celebrations.

On Saturday, we all, including Mallory headed up to Oshkosh to continue the celebrations.

Mal, Lissa, and I shopped in downtown Oshkosh while John and Nathan did the necessary beer shopping.

Courtney and the girls joined us when Tiz was done with her second cheer competition.

We did the cake thing and then headed to MaHoney's for dinner.  Again, the choice was Alissa's.

The food was so good.

After dinner, it was over to Beckett's to listen to Paul's band, A Solid Seven play.

John and I did our grandparent thing and took the girls home around ten.

It was a good night.

On Sunday, Mal, Courtney, the girls, and I headed to the Outlet Mall for some shopping.

I bought Tiz a cute little fur vest and a purse from Justice and I bought Tiz some chokers that she needed.

We all had lunch together at Johnny Rockets before we all headed home to watch the Packers and Dallas game.

Now it is Go Pack Go!  

Remembering our Sweet Natnael

Although we never met our grandson, Natnael, he will always have a place in our hearts.

We will never forget him.

We look forward to the day we see him in heaven.

Today, we celebrate his Angel Birthday.

So thankful for these precious photos that were shared with Courtney and Paul from the care center where Natnael lived.

Courtney and Paul were able to go to Ethiopia and spend some time with Natnael.  It was only a few days after they returned home that they got word that he had died.

Very sad days for all of us but especially for Courtney and Paul.

I am thinking of them today.

The First Week of 2017 in Review

The first week of the new year is in the history books.

Both John and Alissa had birthdays this past week.

I gave John his usual underwear, some slippers, and Alexa, the amazon gadget that answers questions.

We have been having so much fun with her.

Next weekend we will celebrate Alissa's birthday up in Oshkosh, looking forward to that.

On Friday John brought Soliana home for a sleepover.

She shopped with us at Walmart and Aldi and then we came home for TV and dinner.

On Saturday Soliana made us scrambled eggs and ham and then served it to the tree of us.

That was followed by playing school with Gigi.

By 2:30 we were on the way to Appleton to watch Tizita in her first cheerleading competition.

Her team did such a great job!

They got first place and it was fun to watch.

It reminded me of the days when Courtney was a cheerleader although her competitions were never quite the caliber of this one!

Today we will watch the Packers play the Giants in their first play off game.  I hope they do well.  Stay tuned to the results.

And we are Home

Yep, it is Monday night and we are home from our Door County adventure.

It was wonderful.

We had a great time, always do when we go to Door County.

That place does not disappoint.

We watched the Packers beat the Lions last night.  We decided to go over to Mojo Rosa's to watch the game. 

It was fun, but we left at halftime to watch the rest at our condo.

There was also an Alfred Hitchcock night on TNT, so we watched a few of his movies, too.

Great way to spend our last night.

Today we left about 10:00 and  met Courtney, Paul, and the girls at Beckett's for lunch.

The guys stayed there to watch Wisconsin win and Iowa lose while I went home to play with the girls.

It was a great way to end our little get away.

Tomorrow it is back to school.  I am not ready, but I am sure it will all be fine once i get there.

Happy New Year!

We made it to Midnight and beyond plus another Snow Shoe Adventure

We made it to midnight and saw the new year in.

We had our cherry drinks then had the buffet at the Landmark.

It was set up a bit differently this year, not so sure we liked it as much as other years, but the food was good.

After dinner, we were listening to a band, didn't know what to drink, such a dilemma, beer, another drink, wine...

Well, I had one wine, but the whole atmosphere down in the live band area was very weddingish and there were lots of little kids dancing around,so we were debating going back to our room at 10:30.

Luckily, we stopped in the bar area to check out the kareoke, what a good decision.

We had Miller Lites, when in doubt, I should always do a Miller Lite.

We met two couples from Illinois.

They were young and soon became out BFF's.

Our friendship all started over a Miller lite and a Bud lite.

Before we knew it, 2017 was ushered in by all of us.

We got to bed about 2:00.

It was a grand way to usher in the New Year.

We slept in till almost ten today, New Year's Day.

We had a great breakfast at a nice little restaurant here in Egg Harbor, called the Village Cafe.

After that we went on our second snow shoe adventure at Whitefish Dunes and Cavepoint.

It was another beautiful winter day.

Here are a few photos:

After our snow shoeing, we stopped at the little market in Egg Harbor and bought a few snacks to tide us over until we go to Mojo Rosa's to watch the Packer/Lions game.  Go Pack Go!

Stay tuned to see how they do.