sunshine, on my shoulders makes me happy

Hooray for nice sunny weather! I love it! And I love eating my lunch outside...

It's been quiet. Other than making a trip to Steak and Shake and Walmart and Culver's this weekend, we haven't been doing much. Which I love.

We discovered that our bathtub is really white. As much as I'm ashamed to admit it, I've never actually scrubbed it out. It gets wiped down regularly, but not scrubbed... I just needed to clean something on Saturday (work out all of my latent aggression... you know... haha) and the tub was it. Half a bottle of vinegar and 3 sponges later... all the hard water/soap scum/loveliness was gone and we have a sparkling white tub and shiny hardware. Now if I can just figure out how to get rid of mildew that's BEHIND the clear caulk that's replacing crumbling grout on the tile surround... ew. Note to self: tile looks pretty, but it's not worth the maintenance. :)

I get to do applesauce tonight. woot.
Blessings.

Father's Day

So, I had pictures to post and no time to post them...

Last Saturday we went to my parent's for homemade ice cream. And so I could raid their landscaping again. And so I could beat my siblings at John Deere Monopoly. It was a good time... haha. Mom has hydrangeas and cat mint and delphiniums (that I planted) and I have bedraggled looking plants that the rabbits are chewing on. *sigh* O well. At least they aren't in my garden, which has grown a lot!

The results of my thievery plus my new salt and pepper shakers that make me smile. I was in Pier 1 the other day and I just couldn't resist... good thing they were only $3 and I had a coupon!

As for monopoly, I don't think I've ever won that game.... we played K-berger rules, and it was taking forever. Bob isn't a big monopoly fan and I was getting tired so not all of it was my mad monopoly skills. There was maybe some selling and trading of property to try and make the game go a little bit faster. Plus I kept landing on free parking. When you play K-berger rules, every time you have to pay taxes or have to pay to get out of jail, etc. it goes to the middle of the board and who ever lands on free parking gets to take whatever money has accumulated. It's handy. Anyway, I'm the new JD Monopoly champion, woot woot.

Sunday we were in T-town for church for the first time in ages... And we went to Bob's parent's for Father's Day festivities with the Beutels. Dave and June had the Kochs next door and so there was a very large water fight after supper. It was very fun to watch... I got a little bit wet, but I mostly just took pictures and filled water balloons.

Blessings.

Kary Sue's wedding

So, when I'd tell people that my Aunt Kary was getting married, they'd say, "now, how is she your aunt?" Um... well... lets see, she's really my Dad's first cousin but their families were always super tight and they do everything with us and she's always just been another aunt. And lots of fun. And such a great example. Seriously, I was never EVER worried about life if I didn't get married because of Kary Sue. It would have been ok, because I saw the single life lived so well in her. Love you much Suz!

Festivities started pretty much right after we got back from Wisconsin. Literally. Scott and Ned were already in town Friday, so we unpacked and went to hang out with them. Bob brought along his crazy complicated game and they tried playing it. It takes forever.


It took over an hour before they could even do anything... check out the pages of rules and stats that they all kept referring to.

While they were busy playing, Shelly and I planned the "cousins supper" that we were in charge of Saturday. We were maybe a little bit lazy and got a bunch of family feasts from Michael's... It was a great night. All but two of my cousins were there (they showed up with the furniture around 11pm-typical *grin*) plus all the great grand kids. We laughed a lot.

Brent was entertaining us with tales from the nursing home.

After we ate, us girls went on a loooong walk. By the time we got back, Grandma and Grandpa and all the aunts and uncles that were at the rehearsal dinner had shown up to collect their children. Good times.

I think my favorite conversation of the night was when one of my cousins made a comment that he thought kids were 95% affected by genetics versus environment when it comes to their intelligence. Which was immediately countered 60-40 by one of his brothers (who has no kids), and again 50-50 by another brother... so funny.

Church was packed on Sunday. We were under strict orders to go from lunch directly to the sanctuary, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Us kids were fairly compliant... however, it took a while for all the family to get in (surprise, surprise). We tried to pass a note for Kirk to give to the bridesmaids, he lost it though. Bummer. It would have been funny.

It was such a good wedding. I maybe got a little teary eyed when they walked in (between laughing at my aunts and mom in their bridesmaid dresses... hehe).

The reception was quite nice too... good food, brownies, fabulous piano from Ned. :)


Shelly and Amor and Kayla. Kayla's hair was very pretty... the other bridesmaids didn't like the idea of getting their hair done like hers... I wonder why not. *grin*

Klopfensteins...

Staying out of the way and waiting for our shifts to start.

Lys chilling... such a great face!

Karen and Rita were at the guestbook, they were loving it because they got to talk to everybody and subsequently made the line that much slower. *grin*

Ron and Kary...

Kary and Pearline, I love it that Pearl has her shoes off! I think I got my dislike of shoes from her. They also weren't looking at me for this picture. Clearly.

Mom modeling the bridesmaid dresses... she really doesn't smile that cheesy normally... sorry I took such a bad pic Mom!

Getting ready to blow bubbles...

And they drove off into the sunset and lived happily ever after!

Coolness

Soooo... we have two window air conditioners. The one in the kitchen is great, turn it on low and the kitchen stays in the 70's even with the oven on. The one upstairs though, yeah, not much airflow, turn it on high and it barely keeps the computer room cool let alone the bathroom and bedroom. When the outside temperature dips below 75ish it freezes up, and if it's humid it freezes, so if we left it on overnight we'd occasionally wake up to ice breaking off and falling into the fan. woot.

Anyway, since we have no prior experience with such things (hooray for central air!), I looked online for how to keep a window a/c from freezing. First suggestion: clean the filter. So yesterday I pulled the cover off and discovered, surprise, surprise, an ice cube caked, filthy filter. After it thawed out enough to take it out, it got a much needed bath. And guess what!? It ran on high all night and there was no ice! And our bedroom was cold! And I needed a blanket instead of just a sheet! Much rejoicing.

Bob has had to kill two spiders for me in the last week. ickickickickick. I hate spiders.
Blessings.

Wisconsin

So, last week we drove up to Black River Falls, Wisconsin with Bob's family. We stayed in a cabin by a small lake.... it was super relaxing.



It was surrounded by tall pines... they're so clever...



On the shores of Serenity lake... the water was cold!



There were a bunch of snowmobile/atv trails on the property, but there were also a lot of ticks in the grass so we only walked them once. This is Sprout's new friend.


Bob and Matt taking a canoe fishing.

And fishing off the shore. I got a line wet a few times and was quite content to leave it at that.

Rustin fried up fish and onion rings and cheese curds... so good.

Grace and Susan being cheesy. Or ducky.

On our way back to Illinois we stopped at Circus World. It was really cool, they had live circus performers and elephants and museum exhibits and exorbitantly priced food, just like the real thing! :)

Our last morning we ate at Paul Bunyan's for breakfast...

And then we came home. I'm ready for a vacation again already.
Blessings.

random picture

Because I haven't gotten all of my pictures from vacation and Kary's wedding on my lappy yet... this is from last summer when mom and Shelly and I went antiquing. It's a mink muff thing, with mink heads and tails and feel still intact. ick. ick. ick. It's been trapped on my cell phone (hence, the poor quality) for a very long time and I just got it off because my brother has a blackberry and could email it to me. woot!

Blessings.

Feels like summer...

There's nothing like a warm afternoon in the berry patch. :) And two gallons of strawberries in your freezer.

I picked some strawberries at Greg and Mary's yesterday afternoon. It's always slightly frigid at work, so it felt really good to be out in the sunshine, on my hands and knees in the grass getting up close and personal with the berries and a few slugs. And eating strawberries warm off the vine is pure heaven.

This is my attempt at an "artsy" picture...

And then I went home and grilled supper. Steak, sweet corn, and potatoes (in the foil). This is the second time I've tried grilling sweet corn and I think probably the last. Last time I put them straight on the grill, this time I tried soaking them in the husk in water first. They taste ok, but the 'grilled' flavor is just weird with sweet corn. Plus, this time the husks dried out and burnt to a crisp from the grease flare ups from the steak, so there were little bits of ash all over everything and it was a big mess. I suppose I could put tin foil down, but then, what's the point of grilling? Next time I'm just going to boil it. It did look cool on the grill...

I made strawberry shortcake too of course. :)

Blessings.

Memorial Day Weekend

So... busy weekend. I'm tired this morning... :)

We spent lots of time with Bob's family since Rustin and Sharon and Grace were here for Sprout's baptism. They came to our house for supper Saturday before testimonies. And then we were up late at the singing afterwards... so good to see U of I people again! And amusing to get to say "sista sprout" now. :)

Yesterday, I slept in. I was going to get up early and be productive, but it looked like it was going to rain and nothing was that pressing so I went back to bed for a while. :) We went to G and G's for supper and much animated and opinionated conversation and wedding planning. Good times. Shelly and Kendra and I got to play with Kayla's hair to figure out how they are going to do it for the wedding. She looked quite cute. I'm excited for the wedding!

And then we went to Pinky's, which was amazing as always. :D

We didn't visit any cemeteries... or go to any parades... I don't think T-town even has a service at the cemetery! Which is kind of incredible... and disappointing, since there are lots of veterans in town and people that are currently serving. I did hum "In Flanders Fields" to myself all day. :)

Maybe next year. I do need to introduce Bob to the family tradition of spending the day in cemeteries. Haha... ok, not really, but when I was little we would go to the parade in Gridley and then out to the cemetery. Or we would take flowers to the Congerville- Goodfield Church cemetery. One year we went from Morton to C-G to Gridley... And in High School the band went to the cemetery every year to play the National Anthem or Battle Hymn of the Republic and the trumpets got to play taps.

I guess I kind of miss the quiet morning in the cemetery and the rows of flags flapping in the breeze and then, the 21 gun salute and taps...

Blessings.