What I've been up to and a cliffhanger

 My goodness!  The last several weeks have been a rush!  And it hasn't slowed down...

I'm still hoping to finish up that wedding dress soon.  I'm sure the bride would like it back before the wedding...  There's hand work so of course I'm procrastinating...

I'm also dreaming of other clothes that I need to make for myself, as I made the mistake of putting some of my sewn knit tops in the dryer...  UGGG now the texture feels weird on them and some are pilling...  I'm a firm believer these days in hanging up handmade things to dry.  Well, not leggings...  But tops, yes.

Last week, we discovered that our little neighboring burg had a beach!!!  Who knew?!

Well, my girls did!  They apparently went swimming there many times during high school.  But I took Leon down to it.  It's more just a rapids area of the local stream thru town and some sandy build up on the shore.  But it's perfect.

and quiet.

Well, until we got there...

Leon spent part of last week with a mask of V for Vendetta that he'd got a while back.  He painted it all black, then added more color over the top of that.  He's going to have me make him a black hoodie sweatshirt and then wear this for Halloween.

You know... IF we can even trick or treat this year...

Last week, Robb, Leon and I went to a grad party for one of my nephews.  

They live out on the winding-est road of my old home town on several acres of land.  The kids have made trails through the woods below their house with a 4 wheeler.  Back in the day, my parents riding lawnmower was our 4 wheeler... ;)  

Leon and I went on a walk about down there.  Beautiful!

They have a shooting range, a huge pile of dirt to dig in, an archery area, everything. 

Well, except for an outhouse.

THAT would have come in handy...

They had a swimming pool too!  So while the family was greeting other guests, Leon went swimming.  It was a HECK of a time getting him to agree to get out after some other young ones were getting jealous.  HEY!  GET OFF THE POOL DECK!

Also, last week, on 7/24, I was on a walk.  I always listen to Flashdance or Full Monty or other sound tracks via Youtube on my phone while I walk(dance, run,whatever)... I heard a commercial about Conqueror events and a virtual walk you can do around the Ring of Kerry!!  It's 124 miles, but if you get some team members with you, you can divide that up.  Each of you gets a medal at the end.  So we've been walking to our hearts content in small town Iowa, but racking up miles in Ireland.

Some day, I want to walk it in person again.  Well, not the 124 miles, but just 1 mile.

on a beach.

Maddy, Meri and I are doing it as a team.  We're about 30 miles into it so far!

We've got until October some time to complete it, but I think we'll be done in another week or two!

The app is cool!  Whenever you log your steps/miles/etc, you can see exactly where you are on the walk, thanks to Google Earth!  

And you get a postcard in your email whenever you reach a milestone.

Currently, we are here.

I've been updating my background profile pic on FB with our progress if it's significant.

So I've been walking a LOT lately.  I hope it soon means that some more weight will come off.  So far this week, I'm still up 4 pounds from Sunday.  The "going home from college town" pizza is really taking it's time coming off...  So is the salt from too many car chips that day...

THEN Leon and I have been trying to play Bears vs Babies once a day.  We haven't so far today yet.  I need to remedy that.

Leon is having a blast creating the monsters.  We've modified the rules so that he doesn't have to wipe out a monster until the very end when we tally up the points.

Here is one of his that he was especially proud of...

 THEN the produce from our garden is finally taking off!  We picked a bunch of cucumbers Tuesday and I managed to get several jars of refrigerator pickles done.

Wow was THAT easy!!?!

Our garage fridge may just be renamed the "Pickle fridge".

 

They are delicious!!!  I've eaten a whole jar just by myself today...

It was a small jar...

And a good one of Robb and Leon goofing off one day after work.

AND I have some news but until it gets booked today, I'll wait to tell you another time.

Have a great Friday tomorrow!

Cruise: Day 5 Cruising to Iowa

Wow, it's been a while!  The days have been a rush.  Every time I think, Hey!  That would make a great blog post, I realize that I hadn't done the last day of my cruise story and then it all goes away for a while.  

SO...  let's get the last day of the cruise story out of the way so I can get on with my life.  right?

Day 5: Caribbean cruise.

After a grand breakfast in the grand dining room, Meri and I waltzed through the promenade one last time.  Meri wanted to act like she owned the cute little beach buggy that one of the stores was giving away.  Apparently we did NOT win it...

And we said our goodbyes to our home away from home and hello to land legs.  Not a fun feeling.  For the next few days, I still felt like I was swaying to the waves...

Some of the last palm trees we'll see for a while.

The kids in our car wanted to hit the beach one last time before heading to the airport.  

So we stopped at Cocoa Beach and got our fill of the waves, sea air and sea shells.  

I filled a bag with shells that I found and they're waiting to be made into a heartfelt gift someday.  I still have 10 pounds of Irish shells waiting for that same purpose...

Meri made me pose for this one.  I'm wearing a shirt that went to the fair and some shorts that I was able to complete before the cruise.  I wasn't VERY happy with them but they matched the top.

And I was running out of clean laundry.

And I caught her unawares with this one.

Cocoa Beach was beautiful!

And the waves crashing in were gorgeous!

and check out his beach skate board!  SOOO cool!

After the beach, we saw a Ron Jon Surf Shop!  Everyone needed souvenirs.

Meri was interested in a sweat shirt and head phones. But they didn't have any head phones there to fit her phone. 

I thought this would be  good shirt, but was vetoed.

She's an uncommon girl with non-standard plugs for her phone...

The gang opted to also stop at a Target to find either ear buds or an adaptor so she could use mine.  Also bought some snacks for the flight because our cheapo airline charges if you want to recline your seat... ;) just kidding, but not...

Isn't the shark cool?

As SOON as we were dropped off at our terminal area, Meri and I ran!  Got checked in and then grabbed some food for lunch, meeting up with Melanie and kids one last time by chance as their terminal wasn't too far from ours.

Since Meri and I were apparently the absolute last people to get our boarding passes, we couldn't sit together.  She was in the aisle behind me with a couple who couldn't speak English and I was in an aisle with a couple who didn't want to at all.

So without ear buds, I did cross words or Sudoku the entire way home.

It took a while to get onto a bus to the economy parking when we got back to Minneapolis and we panicked when we didn't remember that the bus driver on Thursday had given us a ticket on where to get our car.  I finally found it in a little known secret pocket of my purse. WHEW!

And then we were on the road!!!

And we made it home!!!!!

and our family was so happy to see us!

and us them!