38 years and still going strong

Thirty eight years ago tomorrow, June 12, John and I got married.

It was a hot, sunny day.

It is hard to believe that 38 years have flown by.

We have had lots of ups, some downs, and many in betweens on this journey of ours.

We have raised tow beautiful daughters, the best thing we did in this marriage, I believe.

Since they have both flown the coop, we are trying to find our place in this leg of our journey.

After being active parents for so many years, it is rather difficult to back off and let the girls run their own lives.

We are enjoying our new role as Grandparents, that is one role that is very easy to assume and it helps to fill the gaps left when the girls left.

We are learning to enjoy doing things with just the two of us again.

Biking, traveling, exercising, and date nights are some of our favorite "together" activities.

I look forward to adding to this list.

For now, I just want to thank John for all the things he does for me.

All I have to do is ask and he will do it, unless it involves an ice show.

It does not go unnoticed.

I appreciate it all.

I hope we have many more happy years together, but the future is promised to no one, so I don't want to wait for big moments, I want to make big moments right now!

Here are a few pictures from that day 38 years ago.

This is the same door in the place we had our reception 38 years later.

Time flies when you are having fun.

What Goes Around Comes Around

As most of my readers know, I have two daughters and a niece who is like a third daughter to me.

Mallory is all grown up now, she turned 21 in December.

When she was younger she was a big part of our family.

She filled an empty spot in John and my lives when both of the girls left the nest.

We enjoyed taking her to museums, zoos, restaurants, malls, and other places that our girls liked so much as they were growing up.

Mallory joined us on trips to visit my girls at their colleges.

Mallory taught me many things about technology.

We spent one whole summer playing Toon Town.

Mallory was so good at the video game and I would struggle with it

Then along came the Sims and I was hooked on that game after Mallory introduced it to me.

Mallory and I became crafters together creating some lovely coasters.  Too bad I always used too much glue for my projects.

Mallory has joined us on trips to Door County, La Crosse, the Dells, and even all the way to St. George Island, Florida.

Such wonderful memories.

I treasure these special times I have had with my niece.

Now, our relationship has evolved.

I used to be the one driving her around and now she is the one who comes and picks me up to go on a shopping trip or to go to our latest adventure, the Y!

Mallory asked me to join the Y so she would not have to go alone to some of the classes, so I did and now we are back together doing yoga, pilates, and exercise machines.

Making more memories, just in a different venue.

So thankful to have Mallory as my niece.

Comedy Clubs, Dance Recitals, and Bike Riding

It's been another great weekend.

It started out with a date to State Street to use our gift card from St. John's Gala.

We started out with pizza and beer at Tutto Pizza on State.

We had never been there before and not so sure we would go back.

The seating was great, outside on a beautiful  night, the service was very good, and the cheesecake dessert was to die for, but the pizza itself was not all that tasty.

Very cheesy, not much tomato, tasteless sausage all on a crispy crust.  The crust was my favorite part of the pizza.

Here are a few photos from the dinner

After dinner, we walked up to the capitol.

John wanted me to take that peace sign off that statue.  Some protestors had put it there, but I wanted no part of that idea.
Finally, it was time for our comedy club experience.
Our admission was free with our coupon, the only requirement was to buy two drinks per person during the show.  When we saw the drink menu, that was going to be difficult, there were so many yummy choices.
We finally decided on a flirtini for me and a mantini for John.
Great choices by the way.

The first two comedians were good and actually laughed, but the  headliner was not so funny, at least to us.
Lots of poop and fart jokes and, let's face it, there are only so many funny things you can say about poop and farts.
All in all, it was a very nice date night.
On Saturday we took my mom and headed up to Oshkosh to watch Tizita in her dance recital.
John, was not too thrilled about this, he ranks dance right up there with figure skating, but because it was Tizita, of course he would attend and he WOULD enjoy it!

We got to watch her do

Ballet

 Tap

and jazz.

 The two and a half hours went very quickly and the dancers were all really very good.
Not quite Dance Mom quality, but close.
At the end, all the dancers came out and sang, "God Bless the USA."
It was very moving and a great way to end the recital.

We took Tiz out for a treat after the performance.
When we got back to Watertown, we stopped for dinner at Bismark's.
Kev and Vikki met us for a few beers.
Great day and great way to end it.
Sunday was our church picnic.
The weather was perfect.
After eating lunch at the picnic, John and I took off on the Lake Country Bike Trail for a 15 mile ride.

I really like this trail, all paved, easy pedaling, and scenic.

It was definitely another great weekend.

Some memorable quotes from this weekend that I do not want to forget:
My mom to me, "Do you remember where you were on D day?"
and
Kev to me as we were leaving Bismark's:
"Watch out, it's glare ice out there."
 

Y not?

On Wednesday, Mallory came over to have lunch with me.

She asked me if I might join the YMCA so that we could do a few exercise classes together.

Well, I guess it was the push I needed because last night, John and I became members of the Watertown Y.

We had no sooner, walked through the door than at least five employees recognized us and welcomed us.

It feels like the right thing to do.

I have been faithful about walking with Leslie Sandstone each morning, followed by 8 minute abs and arms, but I wanted something else to keep me going.

I know that John will enjoy being back on an exercise machine.  He was a regular visitor to the HAWK (what the Y was before it became a Y) and enjoyed his time there, but after his first lay off, he had to cancel that membership.  He says he is looking forward to finding his arm muscles again.

We got a tour, paid our fees, and we were in.

Now, what classes to take.

I know for sure that I don't want anything to do with the Silver Sneaker Club, I don't feel that old yet.

Mallory asked me to do a Body form class with her that includes yoga, pilates, and toning.

I hope my knee holds up and that I don't have to balance on one foot for too long.  I am not a fond lover of yoga or pilates, but I will give it a whirl.

After the class which I will try next Tuesday, Mallory is going to show me how to use some of the machines.

I want to try a spin class with John.

I know we are really out of shape when it comes to a bike, but I am willing to give it a "spin."

I also know the instructor for that class and she assured me we can go at our own pace.

We shall see how it all goes and I will keep you all updated on our progress.

God can make Beauty out of Nothing

. 

Twelve years ago one of my students brought in a single leaf from his mom's cactus. "It fell off and was laying there" were his words to me. What does a teacher do? I put the leaf into soil of another plant I had in the room. Over the years it grew and was neglected at times. This morning it greeted me with this flower and more blossoms! Maybe it was saying, "Happy retirement! " I'm ecstatic!'

The above is a post from Mrs. Parker's Facebook page.

It really made me think and I felt it was worth sharing here with all of you.

Here are the pictures that accompanied the post.

Beautiful, isn't it?

This is what I thought about when I saw this post and photos.

I thought about how God can take nothing and turn it into a beautiful thing.

What if Mrs. Parker had just thrown that little leaf away thinking it was nothing worthwhile?

What if God had just thrown us away thinking we were nothing worthwhile?

Good thing Mrs. Parker saw the beauty in that little leaf and planted it.

Good thing God saw the beauty in us, even with all our sinfulness, and sent his son to take our sins away so we could go to heaven one day

Good thing Mrs. Parker took care of that plant so it could thrive and grow.

Good think God takes care of us so we can thrive and grow in his love, grace, and mercy.

Lesson that I learned from this:

God can take the littlest thing and turn it into a thing of beauty.

Nothing is too hard for God.

I am going to remember that when I am teaching my little ones, too, because God is not finished with them yet and he is turning them into things of beauty.

I am blessed to be a part of that transformation.

May I always treat them the way God expects. 

A New Summer Do

Today I went to Domani for some pampering, color, and a cut.

I took a picture I had found on pinterest under "Hair Styles for Older Women."

I figured I fit under that category and I thought the style was cute.

I printed it off and laid it on my dresser.

The other night John said to me, "What is Joan London doing on your dresser?"

Well, I didn't know it was Joan London, but I guess it was and I guess I liked her hair.

I debated even taking the picture along because I know that stylists don't really appreciate pictures because often the hair is of different texture, etc and they cannot work miracles, but I threw it in my purse just in case.

When I got to Domani, Rachel greeted me with a cute short haircut that I immediately loved.

I showed her the picture of Joan which she said was fine, but she doubted I would like the bangs since that style would be harder for me to achieve.

I am a wash and wear kind of gal.

In the end, I asked Rachel to just cut my hair just like her own and I am very happy with it tonight.

We will see how I am at actually achieving the look by myself.

 Here's Joan and her do which I still do like and I may try sometime, but I think Rachel was right in that it might be a bit high maintenance for me.

 And, this is what I ended up with.
I love how it is still ong and normal in the front, but I really love  how short the back is.
I think it will be a good cut for summer.

I hope I can achieve this look again after the first washing.

Another great part of today's appointment was that besides having two gift cards from Courtney and Alissa, I also had a $10.00 credit for recommending Domani to Angie Uttech and my discount punch card was full.

It was like winning the Domani Lottery!

I was able to buy two new products which Rachel assures me will help keep this style.

We shall see.

At any rate, bring on the summer, my head is ready.

Our Annual Trip to the Milwaukee Zoo

Thanks to Kev and Vikki we have another annual pass to the Milwaukee zoo as well as to many other zoos in the country.

It is such a nice gift because when we do not have to spend money to get into the zoo, we can do some of the other fun things the zoo has to offer.

It was a beautiful zoo day, almost too hot, but I will not complain after the long, cold winter.

There were also many, many people at the zoo.  I suppose after a long, cold winter everyone needed to get out and enjoy a fun day at the zoo.

We met Courtney, Paul, and the girls at Wisconsin Avenue Park which is about three blocks from the zoo and we found it to be a great place to park.

Courtney and Paul took off a day in Milwaukee to celebrate their tenth anniversary while we took the girls to the zoo.

 We always start out our trip with a picture by the entrance.

The above and below photo were from this year.

 These two are from past years.

 We always start out with a train ride.

We have always found in the past that if we started at the train, we could get on immediately, but this year was differest.

We had to wait for about a half hour, but the girls were so patient and it was so worth the wait.

Tiz is our tour guide.  She studies the map and lets us know where we are headed.

Here are some photos from past years on the train.

I so know that this cold trip was Soli's first with us to the zoo and we were just so thrilled to have two grandkids to enjoy.
We had talked so often with Tiz about having another passenger on the train and now we do!

After the train, it is time for the merry go round and then lunch.

After lunch we got to touch some stingrays and see the sea lion show.

After the sea lion show, Tiz wanted to have her picture taken with the sea lions, so that is what we did.

Soli even got on the picture.

Yes, it was overpriced, but it was worth the smile on Tiz's face.

Now Soli was not so excited to go on a picture with those big sea lions, but she did it, just without a smile.

We always take a photo in the snake house by the snake sign because I am so scared of snakes, so here are our photos over the years.

After the snakes we took in all the big animals which are always fun to see.

We enjoyed seeing lots of peacocks with their tails open which was cool.

Of course there was time for a snack and time to play at the zoo park.

We shut the zoo down at 5:00, that was one long day at the zoo, but such a fun day.

We stopped at Culver's on the way home for dinner.

The girls spent the night with us.

After church and some play time we took them back to Oshkosh.

Another fun zoo trip down in the record books or should I say, the blog posts.