Celebrate

I will celebrate being home and being able to sleep in my own bed.

I will celebrate that it is March 1st.

I will celebrate the fun I had this weekend.

I will celebrate the new friends I made.

I will celebrate seeing Bill for the first time in six days.

I wanted to celebrate that Jersey Junction officially opened today, but that celebration will have to take place on another day.

long weekends and projects around the house

The day has finally come, we replaced our upstairs hallway light fixture!

You may recall this happened:

It happened Aug. 16, 2013 as I was finishing the last bit of painting over the home office door. I backed up into the light fixture.

Even though I knew it was there and I had been carefully avoiding it every single time I climbed up or down the step-stool.

Until this time.

Since then, we just left the two bulbs hanging there. Greg moved in. Greg moved out. We didn't want to replace it during all of that in case there was another incident.

A friend of mine, Julie, works in a lighting store (I actually don't know if it's a store or something else, let's just go with store) and when I asked her if we could replace the globe she bluntly stated it would be cheaper and easier to buy a new fixture. Don't even try to replace it, she wisely stated.

As our anniversary present (fourteen years is animals/gold jewelry, but eighth anniversary is bronze so we're just six years late for that gift, you can read more here) was this:

Bill installed it today. Ta-da!

No more putting my head through it.

Also, because it's a holiday weekend, I'm having homemade ice cream.

I made a few days ago, but I didn't blog about it! Here it is.

Yum! Vanilla. I don't think I can wait any longer...

a trio of goodbyes

*sigh*

I just finished reading a very good book. It was the book I've mentioned, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany; a novel". At least in my taste of fiction; it ranks high up there. And, as many readers know, it's always sad and difficult to say goodbye to characters when you're that into a book.

Of course it was a completely different sigh of relief when I finished Anna Karenina.

There's another sigh of goodbye today. We said goodbye to Rosie. My steel blue 2011 Fusion. She got inspected this morning and we dropped her off at noon. I had no idea I would have this difficult of a time saying goodbye to a car.

I would say that Bill made me this way, but he didn't. He does appropriately describe my behavior as, "You feel too much".

So true.

The last goodbye was to our cousin Mark and his son Zach. They were here visiting while on a midwest college tour. It was sort of a whirlwind visit since they got here Tuesday from I.U., spent yesterday checking out U of M and headed off today to visit State.

Of course we made it to Jersey Junction. We wouldn't have missed that opportunity.

But that was pretty much all we had time for.

I guess it's time to go make dinner. Before I feel too sorry for myself.

ps: we didn't have internet yesterday, so that's why I didn't blog.

Pictures from Hell

Upon our arrival in Hell, we started exploring and taking pictures. Not that there aren't any good photo ops.

Here's one.

 Here's another one.

 And another one.

 This is inside the restaurant. Yet another photo op.

 The boys learned a lesson in Hell. Let the ladies go first when ordering ice cream. If you don't, then you have to open the door for them and bow as they leave. hehe

 And the last photo op, Pure Hell.

What a trip!

Wednesday

We wrapped somewhere around forty book covers (front and back).

We enjoyed a drumming demonstration and danced again.

We (the Jr. High) went and got ice cream at D.Q.

I had a meeting and then stopped at Subway to get our sandwiches for Thursday.

People don't pay attention to t-shirts. I was wearing ours from last year. It says "FUMC Jr. High Youth" and has hands in a circle around the city skyline. I think it's graphically eye-catching.

The man behind the counter, who was making the sandwiches, asked if I was a teacher. I said, no, Jr. High Youth leader. He kept asking questions about us. I always like to brag about our students so I didn't mind his questions. I just couldn't understand what about my t-shirt he didn't get. On second thought, he probably couldn't see my t-shirt from where he was standing. I'm sure that was it.

Even though it's neon green.

Oh well, we know who we are. And now they do too.

A Kentucky Tour

Like I said in my post earlier, Kim and I took a tour yesterday. Quota set it up and we were on a bus with about forty other Quotarians (and a few spouses).

We went an hour south to Old Friends, where former race horses go to retire. We got a tour of the facility and got to see many of the ninety plus horses they house there. We also got to pet and feed carrots to the horses.

I took pictures, so I'll have to post those once I get back home.

From Old Friends, we went to Midway. A small town full of southern charm along with train tracks that run straight down the middle of town.

We ate lunch there, I forget the name of the restaurant but I know it's in a picture, where we had Kentucky Hot Brown. If you don't know what that is I'll tell you. It's a piece of toast/bread (we never did figure out if it was actually toasted), covered with shredded turkey, diced ham, bacon, a rue with cheddar, mozzarella, and provolone, topped with a tomato and baked in the oven. It was delicious. This restaurant is also known for it's cobbler and we were all treated to apple cobbler a la mode.

From Midway we went to a vineyard called, Equus Run Vineyards. We got to sample a couple of their wines and then walk around and shop. The owner talked to us about her wines and her grapes. It was great; she was down to earth (she retired from IBM after thirty years to open the vineyard) and hospitable.

From there we came back to our hotel where we met up with other Quotarians to have dinner and ice cream. The local place to go for ice cream is called Graeters. I tried their Buckeye flavor.

In case you didn't know; there is a long running joke that between Michigan and any other state (in my case Indiana) the one thing we can agree on when it comes to sports and our universities is that Ohio State sucks, pardon my language. We have several friends who have lived in Ohio and have gone to schools in Ohio including my in-laws. But we are specifically talking about the Ohio State.

We also refer to Ohio as, "Land of Land". Have you ever driven through Ohio? You might agree. Especially after Kim and my drive down here Wednesday. We did not drive through the pretty side of Ohio.

So Ohio is the butt of jokes, at least around our house.

Which is why I surprised myself by trying the Buckeye flavored ice cream and then was shocked when I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that it may be my new favorite ice cream flavor of all time.

I know.

Okay, it could be my second because that Jersey Express with the chocolate fudge and peppermint that Hudsonville ice cream made a few years ago does take the #1 spot in my taste.

But still, second place. An Ohio named ice cream. Huh.

I told Shannon that statement because she had asked (or told me to) check out Graeter's. Her response is  very appropriate, "That is a statement with lots of research backing it!!!" How true!

My time is running short here at Panera where the lunch hour has arrived making it a busy place. Plus my laptop is going to die because I didn't bring my charger. I'll see if I can blog again while I'm in the expensive fancy hotel (wi-fi is free in the lobby I discovered). If not, you'll hear from me when I get back home.

Thursday & Friday with Skylar

Thursday we went Grand Haven. It was sunny and gorgeous. You can just make out the lighthouse behind us in the photo.

 Then we went to Jersey Junction.

We also baked cookies when we got home. Then we delivered a plate of them to our friend Jess who is nine months pregnant. It turns out she had been craving cookies that day!

Friday, we got up early and drove to Petoskey. Neither one of us have ever been there. It was a much bigger town than I expected. We shopped for a few hours and ate lunch at Parkside Deli which has delicious sandwiches. Then we drove over to Petoskey State Park and hung out on the beach.

It was a cloudy day, but the temperature was 75, so it was nice and warm. Skylar and I tried taking a hike, but we didn't have bug spray. About a quarter of a mile in, I looked over at her and her back was swarmed by mosquitos. She looked at me at the same time and said mine was also swarmed by mosquitos. We turned around and walked back out quickly.

Then we drove over to Harbor Springs. We walked around there, got ice cream at Velvet's, and sat down by the harbor to eat it.

Then we ate dinner at a place called Turkey's (named after the owner who got the nickname in high school after spraining both ankles playing football and was walking around the field like a "turkey" as the coach said). Later I sent Bill a text telling him where we had gone and he knows Turkey! Well, he met him once.

Skylar and I headed back to Grand Rapids.

We stopped to take a picture and another car pulled over to ask if we needed help. We found that to be Midwestern at its heart, but also funny because we counted at least twelve cars that were randomly pulled over to the side of the road in the course of the entire trip. No one else was stopped at the 45th Parallel to take pictures. We're awesome like that.

Here are some stones we found at the beach. At least two of them are genuine Petoskey stones, the rest are just stones we found in Petoskey. 

A week off

This is my week off.

Technically, I have the entire summer off. But that's from my job at the church as Jr. High Youth Director and Assistant for Adult Education. I'm still Wedding Coordinator which never has a day off. And I have my summer job with Heather doing landscaping.

I'm not working for Heather this week, I don't have any weddings, and I haven't volunteered to make anyone else's garden pretty.

Woo hoo!

Oh wait, I can't get too excited. I created a summer to-do list. I have to get working on that.

We're fixing up the guest bedroom (which I mentioned here), I have a couple of exterior windows to paint and scrape, I have that table for the guest room that needs work done to it, and there's just normal house cleaning that I didn't get done over the weekend. Not to mention there's a neighborhood ice cream social tomorrow night, a card-making (stamping) party Wednesday night, a teen's musical Friday night, and a wedding that we're attending Saturday night.

So much for the week off.

I also have a summer bucket list of sorts. Most of those things listed above are on it. I also have:
     finish reading Anna Karenina

Guess what?

I'm almost finished with it.

I may try to finish it tonight.

I also have:
     strawberry picking
     play with Lego's
     go to the beach (and not get burnt)
     frame artwork

It's not exactly a thrilling summer to-do list, but it will keep me on track.

Did you make a summer list?

summer's here!

Wait, it's only May 8th.

While the rest of the country has been experiencing above-average temperatures, here in the great lakes region it's been chilly. Ten to twenty degrees below average. Until today. It reached 84. Blessed every saint that ever walked the earth; finally. No one complained, but we definitely exclaimed, "it's hot!" Because it was. Our house is not prepared for this. I had to search high and low for our window fans. Thank goodness for window fans. Have I been thankful for that yet?

On a side note, we had dinner with some wonderful friends, Jess and Jake (and their girls, Yael and Avah, I've blogged about that cutie patootie here. It didn't take much arm twisting when venison steaks were mentioned (which were delicious btw). The menu also included pretzels (hey Jess, I need that recipe), an amazing couscous salad (which I know was super easy to throw together, but I'm not that creative), a bowl of juicy, fresh fruit (did I mention today felt like summer, perfect!), and apple crisp with homemade french vanilla ice cream. Would you like to guess which dish(es) I made? It shouldn't be too difficult if you were paying attention.

The apple crisp and vanilla ice cream. It hit the spot. Man oh man. It was so good.

I had given some thought to strawberry shortcake, but had apples that unfortunately aren't fresh enough for regular snacking. I figured baking them would be the best thing for them. And it was.

So maybe I'm thankful for apple crisp too. Served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Lost and Found

I don't remember if I told the story a few weeks ago how my earring broke. I had worn a new pair of earrings to church. I bought them in Chicago and they were handmade. They matched a necklace that was given to me from Pat. She brought it back from China. The necklace matched a bracelet I was given from Jen in college. Both are made of black pearls/beads of some kind.

I had gone into the building that Sunday morning and had delivered the attendance sheets. Then I went into the bathroom which is when I discovered I had the hook of my earring still in my ear, but the beads were gone! I retraced my steps through the building, but couldn't find them. I sent Bill a text, he had stayed home because Heather W. was visiting, and they both searched the house and the driveway.

When I left church to come home, I searched my car. Sure enough, there it was. The tiny loop had opened enough for the beaded part to get hooked on my scarf and fall out.

Guess what happened today? I realized I was missing my honeybee earrings. These were given to me from Jenny.

I had just worn them this week. I remember taking them off. I also remember putting them in a place that I noted was not where they belonged. Typically I keep my earrings in a jewelry box. Cats can't get to them, and they are easy to find.

I started searching when I realized I didn't know where the bee earrings were. I looked through the jewelry box and on the dresser where the jewelry box sits.

I looked through the bags I had taken on my short trip to visit Bill.

I looked through my purse.

I looked through my workbag.

I looked through the bag I had taken on the retreat, even though I know I saw them more recently than that.

I had to leave to go to youth group. Which was fun. Even though it's spring break, there were five youth. We walked downtown and got Jimmy Johns. We ate in the new Monument Park. Then we went and got ice cream at Jersey Junction.

It was a good night. Except for the missing earrings.

When I came home, I had sent Bill a text asking him to check the house in St. Joe. They weren't there.

He asked if I had prayed to St. Anthony (the saint that helps you find things when they're lost). I actually had, three times while I had been looking earlier.

Bill told me I needed to pray again and tell St. Anthony that Bill sent me.

I tried it again.

I kid you not, the next thought I had was that I put them in the Advil sinus box. I went and checked the box, and sure enough! Not only were my earrings in there, but so was the necklace I had been wearing that day.

Thank you St. Anthony.

winter vs. spring

Was I sneaky enough? I wanted to post the picture of the flowers Bill sent. But by the time I got home last night, I didn't have time to plug my phone into my computer and load the picture, and the post it to my blog. I did it just now instead and back posted (dated?) it. 

That really was what I was thankful for yesterday.

Today is the first day of spring! The first thing I saw when I looked out the window was…

Green grass?

No

Flowers blooming?

Nope

Buds on trees?

Not even close

What I saw this morning, freshly fallen on our deck, was snow.

Not a lot, just a dusting. Then the sun came out and melted it away.

The sun went behind clouds again. But that didn't stop Molly and I from walking to Jersey Junction (from her house) to celebrate her passing her driver's test and the first day of spring.

I'm thankful that it wasn't so cold that we didn't want to walk there. 

Just the facts

It turns out I'm Irish! Irish on both sides of the family. I was pretty certain there was Irish on the maternal side. My paternal aunts are red heads, I don't know how I didn't put two and two together sooner.

My guess on the fraction is also pretty close. It's something like my great, great grandfather on mom's side and my great, great, great grandfather on dad's side. So 1/128 sounds about right. Don't worry, my mom told me that she has all of this written down. Whew. I'm really not good at genealogy.

It also lends more weight/credence to my liking for warm beer (it has to be stout, I can tolerate a porter as long as it's not cold), meat & potatoes, and my temper. I've always blamed my strong German roots. Now I can blame the wee bit o' Irish and it's legit.

I'm still looking for Italian roots. Maybe that was in a former life.

In the meantime, check out dinner from Saturday night.

 Don't worry, last night we celebrated by eating the traditional Mexican Skillet. Oh, wait. That's not tradition for St. Patrick's Day...

Saturday also included my first official trip of the season to Jersey Junction. Yum! This means warmer weather is headed our way. And I promised Bill that we don't have to go back until Memorial Day.

Today I'm thankful that I'm feeling better. I have no idea whether it was the cabbage, corned beef, beers, ice cream, all the food I ate in Chicago, taking my vitamin on a less than full stomach, or what but it has passed and I am happy for that.

Two things

The Olympics are in full swing. Bill and I are anxiously awaiting Feb. 10th which will be the beginning of the curling events. We really got into curling four years ago. With all the different ways to view the Olympics, it was pretty easy to find a curling match. Before we knew it, we were hooked. It's fascinating to watch.

The other date that I am anxiously awaiting is March 1st. Skylar will know why. Molly Mo knows why. Bill, who will roll his eyes, knows why.

Jersey Junction opens for the season.

I don't care how cold it is. I will be there, and I will buy an ice cream cone even if I'm wearing my two layers of socks, two layers of tops, long underwear, a scarf, hat and mittens.

Except this year we are supposed to leave for the college/young adult spring break trip. Since we're only going to Chicago, I wonder if I can talk Sami into waiting until after I get my ice cream…?

If I can get her to do that, I know what I'll be thankful for on March 1st. For today I'm thankful that it's only twenty days until then.

a fresh dinner

My friend Alisha posted a picture on facebook of a dinner that she made.

It looked delicious.

Why hadn't I thought to make that?

It's Chicken Taco Salad. Here's the recipe I've roughly followed. Roughly, because it sounded easy enough to try without using a recipe.

So I tried.

Without the recipe.

Now if you know me at all, you know that I routinely follow recipes. Only on occasion do I branch out and try recipes with my own spin. It's not that I'm scared, or have a fear of ruining it. I am a rule follower. Plain and simple.

And it was good.

It's fresh.

It's flavorful.

It's perfect for summer.

I've made it two more times since then.

It makes a lot.

It's my go-to dish.

Here's how I make it:

I season a chicken breast with olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. I bake it like Ree does for her Chicken Tortilla Soup, at 375 for 20 minutes. I'm guessing you could also grill it, but I haven't tried that because I'm not turning on our behemoth of a grill for one little chicken breast. I think I made the first one our our Forman grill though.

While it cools, I assemble the rest. I use romaine, because it's hearty and has nutritional value. I just made the "sauce" using plain yogurt (as opposed to Greek, I'm currently boycotting it for its byproduct), before I had just used some homemade ranch and sour cream. The yogurt/mayo combo is SO much better.

I use all fresh herbs (I need to blog about that, I need to take some pictures of my potted herb garden on our deck); cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley and thyme (those are the same herbs in my homemade ranch, in case you were wondering) plus some dry herbs and spices like garlic powder, onion powder and whatever else Bill tells me is in taco seasoning. Plus the same things I used to season the chicken.

I add two roma tomatoes, the can of black beans and however much frozen corn I feel like adding. I also shred monterey jack cheese and cheddar. The avocado is like the icing on the cake.

Or the nacho chips are.

I can't decide.

I like a crunch, so the chips add something extra. Plus they take the place of needing utensils.

I hope you try it. Again, I think it's perfect for a hot summer night. Refreshing, filling, and healthy. Until you add the cheese. And the nacho chips. But healthier than ice cream.

But it's summer, so ice cream is necessary.

So is this salad. Let me know if you try it!

scratches, sunburns & spiritual satisfaction

Actually the weekend did not occur in that order.

It was spiritual satisfaction, sunburn and then the scratch. And more spiritual satisfaction thrown in here and there.

I was planning on the spiritual satisfaction.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and ended up being warmer than I thought it was going to be. I went down to the beach. I took a nice long walk with Katrina and Brent. And somewhere along the way I got the sunburn.

The scratch is a mystery. I discovered it today, after we got home and unpacked. I was finally getting around to cleaning up. Huh, where did that come from? It could have happened at camp. It could have happened while we were packing up the car. It could have happened while we were unloading the car. It could have happened when I picked up Juliette to give her some love.

The three things sum up the weekend nicely. It was a nice time, despite my lack of sleep (it was cold at night, I'm not being a wuss, think mid-40's). It's now time for me to head off to lead the last Girls' Summer Bible study. Ice cream will be involved.

Only Thursday

Oh boy, I am in trouble. I just titled this post, "TGIF". Obviously I changed it, when it occurred to me that it is not actually Friday. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, this has happened.

I already had two cookies at the reception after the Arts Alive performance, I think it's time for a root beer float. Because we have plenty of fixings for root beer floats.

And because for a few seconds I thought it was Friday.

Root Beer Floats

Monday was National Root Beer Float day.

Did you know that?

I didn't until they said so on the radio.

That meant action!

Like I need an excuse to drink a root beer float.

I started with nice frosty mugs (pardon the dark photo, it was evening and the kitchen is on the East side of the house, but I wanted to take pictures, so they're dark).


Then, to make a proper Root Beer Float (according the radio dude), you pour in the root beer filling the glass 3/4 full.

Then you scoop in the ice cream.

I've actually always made them opposite and you know what? This way does taste better!!!

things I made as a workcamp widow

I made homemade ranch dressing, yum!

I made vanilla ice cream and then made milkshakes.

I made "Alice Spring Chicken" only I used ranch instead of honey mustard. It's better that way, trust me.

I made Madagascar-shaped (the movie, not the country) mac and cheese with whole milk.

I also made the Mini-Italian club sandwiches. These are delicious and they're even good the next day.

This was a lot of food for me. I still have leftovers in the fridge! Partly because I stick to my yogurt/granola for lunch every day and partly because I had a Quota gathering last night. I met Molly for ice cream first. By the time I got home it was too late to eat dinner. I made popcorn and did indeed watch "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". I'm hoping to watch the sixth movie tonight. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I'll watch the Deathly Hollows Parts 1 & 2 as the grand finale.

Tonight's dinner is a steak and corn on the cob (steaks are a second favorite with corn in the summer). I may make a small batch of fries just because that sounds really good with a milkshake. And I worked hard. I did scrape the windows this morning and I'm heading out now for my walk.

I deserve the milkshake!

things I've done to keep me busy

Since I'm a "workcamp widow" this week (and I already mentioned I had saved the last six episodes of "Desperate Housewives" which I have already watched), I decided to have a Harry Potter marathon.

I hadn't mentioned this before because up until yesterday I had only watched the first one. That doesn't make it much of a marathon. Of course using the term "marathon" implies that I would be watching them non-stop.

Instead I use the term loosely. I'm watching them as I can, all while hoping to get all eight movies in by the end of the week.

I'm halfway through, having just finished 4 this afternoon. I will likely watch 5 this evening.

I had thought about having a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie marathon, but I have spent more time talking on the phone (a minimum of five hours split between two nights to Alex), so that is probably not going to happen.

I've also been scrapbooking. Finally. It had been quite awhile. I'm caught up on the scrapbook of Bill and me (I ran out of pages, so I either need to buy more or buy a new album and make one of our first five years and the other the next five; it currently ends in the middle of 2009), I'm working on the scrapbook of friends and I'm saving the Halloween scrapbook to work on next week.

I was not able to work on the windows because it was too hot and then today, it finally rained! I will try to work on them tomorrow and Saturday.

Tomorrow I will post the food that I've made and enjoyed as a "workcamp widow".

I just like using that term and wonder how many times I can use it this week.

Is it creepy?

I'm not trying to be creepy. I don't make it a habit of being creepy. I'm just trying to be funny. Because I'm lonely.

Okay, I'm going to stop now. It's time to go have ice cream with Molly. Of all the days we are going to have ice cream, it's the coldest and wettest it's been since June 18th. But I don't care, because I scream for ice cream!

ICE CREAM!!!

Thursday's adventures from Dayton to Dayton...

Having been born in Michigan and growing up in Indiana I have mixed feelings about colleges. My Dad went to I.U. (South Bend), so we've been I.U. fans. Cyndi went to Ball State so we also became MAC fans. Then I met Bill who attended CMU (another MAC team). When people ask me which Michigan team I like, I typically respond with, "I don't care, we're a MAC family".

There is one thing that we can agree on.

Ohio stinks.

Across the board, whether you're in Indiana or Michigan, we all agree to root against Ohio.

Now that you know that I can get to the rest of my blog.

Jerry's oldest son is Dayton. You saw pictures of him in the post about our trip to the Children's Museum. On Thursday, we went to Dayton, Ohio. Cyndi had a meeting there so Skylar, Spencer and I went along.

It was a beautiful day, which was good because the meeting was held near the Occasionally Yours store at an outdoor mall.

Skylar took a picture of Spencer and me because he was wearing his "Cool like Auntie" onesie and his shades.

It was cute, until he started crying.

He's still cute.

Later that day, Mom and I walked to the local ice cream store. They had a new flavor, "Buckeye Classic". Since I had been in Ohio, I asked about it. It's peanut butter ice cream with fudge swirled throughout. It also had those peanut butter clusters dipped in chocolate that look like a buckeye. 

Of course I had to try it.

I had a very Ohio Thursday.