It was SEW a McVal Vacation

Where has the TIME gone??!!  It's been almost two weeks since I posted anything here! and forever since I've visited you guys!  That will change!  Not immediately, but hopefully will get better.

We spent from Friday morning until Tuesday in Wisconsin and I've got the cheese curds to prove it!

Maddy and Matthew were the best hosts!

We got some frozen custard at the best little custard shop about 2 blocks from their house. 

Maddy introduced me to My Fitness Pal app on my phone and got me to start recording everything I ate over the weekend.  It's pretty cool!!!  However I binge ate chips and junk on the way home so I refuse to record that.  

What's eaten in the car, does not count...  ;)

I've started up again today keeping track of what I eat.  If I keep it under a certain calorie count, I'll lose a pound a week.  I could adjust the amount of calories to increase it to 2 if I wanted to.  If I did more energetic moving around, I could add to that loss.  If I dropped what I'm doing right now and ran around the block 45 times, I'm sure I could even increase the loss more!  But I'm not going to do that.

For now, it's definitely helping me define what a "serving size" really is. 

On Saturday, we hit up the farmer's market because it's awesome...  and huge.  and so much great food!  Add street taco to my app.  The app didn't have a setting for second breakfast.

We went miniature golfing later that day.  There is a rushing creek running down the middle of the course and of course, Leon hit his ball into it.  Could NOT find it... So since we were so far from the clubhouse, Robb gave him his to finish up the hole until we could get him another.

Leon hit it into the creek at about the exact same place...

S'mores around the firepit that night!

Yes, that's a marshmallow flambe...

The dog in the fenced yard behind their house kept barking and Duke would casually stroll over and pee on the dogs fence.  I think out of spite and to brag that he, Duke, is a good dog and is trusted to not have to be on a lease or behind a fence in his own backyard.  All it did was infuriate the other dog and as soon as her owners got home, they took her inside. 

I think my neighbors would complain like crazy if we left our barkers outside while we were gone for the evening!  It does give me more confidence to let the dogs enjoy our yard more.  However we're just down to Ellie now.  well, and two cats, but that number will even change by this evening.

Anyway, back to Wisconsin.

We told stories one by one around the fire.  Robb liked to use his cell phone flashlight under his face to give off a creepy vibe even though his stories were more gross than scary.

On Sunday, Maddy's school broke ground for a new addition!  

This time next year, her kindergarten classroom will have air conditioning!!! and a bathroom!!!  She's excited!  Over the weekend and through Monday, we helped her a little get her classroom ready for the new year.  Cutting things, sweeping, mopping, labeling, hauling in a cardboard pizza oven she made, hauling out things.

Her open house for parents and new students is tonight, so she wanted to have everything in tip top shape.  

 Later that day, Meri made it out there too!  She'd had to work and had a play to direct so she wasn't free to drive out until then.

Meri and I got a little time to drive around on Monday morning while Maddy was in a meeting.  Robb, Leon and Matthew stayed home to bond.  Meri showed me her favorite tree where she would come and read a book or contemplate her life decisions from the last time she came to spend time with them without us.

 

 This is her tree.

Well, not really...  

I suppose it belongs to the park...

So does this adorable chipmunk we found!  I have about 30 pics of it on my phone trying to capture the best shot as it darted around the lake rocks.

After that, Meri and I browsed around in all the little shops downtown.  I found some mold-able clay for Leon that never dries out.  Yeah, we'll see about that!  He's already made several Stranger Things creatures out of it and I think we left one there.

Monday night, we had one more fire that included S'mores and hotdogs.  

  Matthew is a master fire builder, you'd think he was a boy scout but nope...  But recently researched how to do it and figured it out.

The  neighbors were out again that evening and left their dog outside again.  Whew!  I was so relieved when I saw their headlights drive up and they called their dog in.

More ghost/funny stories.

So sad.  Maddy didn't like to have her pic taken much except for the groundbreaking where you can't really tell which one she is if you didn't know...  

So here are the only pics I got of her this weekend.

 

Tuesday morning came too soon.  Meri took off at the same time as we did.  Actually so did Maddy and Matthew, as they headed off to work and meetings.  

About the time Robb, Leon and I got to Dubuque, half way through our trip home, the air conditioner died again.  Well, it didn't so much die as the car started overheating.  So the windows went down and the heater got turned on full blast to suck the air off the engine.  I'm not sure WHAT is wrong with our van, but yuck...  I'm just glad it was less than 90 degrees out this time!  Yes, this has happened before...

We eventually got home.

In time to see that our yard really needed mowing again.  cripes.  AND the mower was down at Meri's house and she still hadn't used it...  AND she was headed straight to the Iowa State Fair and I knew she wasn't going to mow any time soon.  sigh...  Since Robb was heading out to pick up his mom, I went and mowed her yard and then drove the mower back to our place and mowed the front yard quickly before walking back down for my car from her place.  I plan to mow our back yard over lunch today.  maybe...

Meri called me from the fairgrounds to ask how many items I'd entered in the fair.  Ten, why?

She's found 8 of them with her friends and wanted me to rattle off which ones I'd sent.  sigh again..  Couldn't right then, but did tell her about Leon's chair that was in the nursery area.

She seemed proud of me.  and that's sweet!

I attended the free open house last week so I'd already known.  Just hadn't told her.

I got 3 ribbons!  Two third place ribbons and one second place.  

3 piece outfit category, 3rd place.

The pretty blue first place ribbon still eludes me.  Someday, I'll figure out what it takes to get that.

Children's section, 3rd place on Leon's jacket and 2nd place on the pants.

Anyway, that was my weekend. 

Now I'm back to work and wallowing in back log.

On to my week!