CatchUp Wanna Be Irish Style

 I had a weird day yesterday.  A feeling hit me that I haven't felt in 20 years and it knocked me off my feet.  It was not a good feeling.  

So once I got home, I got busy with work, folded some clothes, got ready for a cooking class last night and the feeling subsided.  I felt "in control" again.  MUCH better!

If that's an anxiety attack, I'm going to do my best to avoid them.

Anyway, the cars have been in and out of the shop with major issues for the past few weeks.  I'll be glad when all cars are functional again without the engine lights coming on or weird noises from under the hoods or near tires.  

In the market for a new or new to me lawn mower.  My dear brother drove here from western Iowa and mowed my yards a week ago Thursday and they're about due again.  What an awesome brother I've got!

While I tried out his mower, finishing the back yard, he used his gas powered trimmer and started in around my garden.  He accidentally trimmed up two of my 3 tomato plants that I grew from seed before he realized there were "wanted" plants mixed in with the tall weeds! :) I asked him to leave the last one as it was my favorite anyway.  They are NOT being productive plants anyway this year.  I guess I don't know what I'm doing with the garden.

His mower is a zero turn and I think I may be sold on that idea now.  It was very awkward to figure out and I almost drove over him a couple times yelling, "How do I stop this thing?" "PULL BACK!  Like WHOA NELLY!"

oh!  Treat it like a horse, huh?  okey dokey.  I've always WANTED a horse!  I'll name her Nelly, of course.  Or Mr Ed.  It depends on what name hits me as appropriate when I finally pick one out.

Aggie turned 2!!!!  We had her party at the Des Moines Science Center with all the major players of her life in attendance.  So much fun!

Then cake with just the immediate family and grandparents.  Her other grandma made the cake and it was SO good!  It had a raspberry filling! mmmmm  I went off my pre-diabetic diet and enjoyed a half piece.

OH - my A1C got tested again this morning and it's 5.5!!!  Dropped from 5.9 in 3 months!  yay!  I'm still pre-diabetic though and will have to consistently watch what I eat.  Keeping it low carb as much as possible.  I think I'll wait a few more months before I bring a few more carbs into my food though.

I got 2 things entered into the State Fair that just started.  Thank goodness my son-in-law takes such good care of clothing I've made for him!  I've been out of the sewing mojo for some time now.  I've STARTED a ton of projects but haven't gotten very far in actually sewing them together.  

That might be my new hobby.  Dream up and starting projects.  I need a friend whose hobby is to complete unfinished projects and we'll be the dream team!

I've got several ideas for Christmas gifts and once I push all the already started projects off my sewing table, I'll get going on them!

Wednesday night, I attended a cooking class in town nearby and learned how to chop veggies properly with knives!  It was so much fun and I've got 2 quarts of chopped veggies that I'll eat tonight.

Thursday night, I attended the cooking class again with a widow friend and we learned how to make Spring Rolls!  OOOH!!!  Those rice paper rounds made it so easy!  However with 8 carbs per wrap, I only ate one and made two other rolls using lettuce leaves for the wrap.  They were messier and I should have had a fork, but oh well.  The peanut sauce was DELISH and the chef deliberately left out the brown sugar!  So now we know we can!  I was too shy to ask, but someone else did. Whew! Thankful for their boldness!

Oh!  Last weekend, Leon and I met up with Maddy and Meri in Waterloo for the Irish Fest!  

We watched knives being forged from railroad ties

Bohran, tin whistle demonstrations and Myth telling

Maddy and Meri were the only ones who enjoyed authentic Irish cuisine.  Leon ate up most of my Food dollar bucks on lemonade, corn dogs, gelato, burgers, fries and fried cheese curds.  No, I wasn't keeping track...  But I did end up with a burger and a few curds.

We saw the Trinity Irish Dancers from Chicago!  And reminisced about when Meri took Irish dance classes when she was really young.

Lots of quality time with my girls!

Leon climbed 3/4s of a wall!!!  The last time he'd tried this sort of thing, he only got a few feet off the ground.  So he's improving!!

Maddy wove some fabric and may have just struck on her NEW hobby!  She's got a lot of them too.  Like Mother, like daughter!

Enjoyed the Highland games!  They're throwing a 28 pound rock as if it's a discus throw!  Some got it as far as 34 feet!  Mine would have landed on my foot.

The girls got to pet some Irish dogs!

It was a fun day and I put in over 5 miles in walking. My watch confirmed!  Leon was beat!  And now he's thinking twice about attending the State Fair with me because of the walking...

:) Maybe I'll bring him in with a stroller! LOL!

Well, back to work.  Meri's car is in the shop today and I'm working from my bestie's nursing home library for at least the morning.  Trying to be inconspicuous and quiet.  She and I have lunch plans but I'm working and she's got her morning schedule.

I've got a mile in so far today just walking from the car fixing place!  

THAT should work off any carbs I picked up last night or decide to eat today.  sigh.  I have no idea how this whole thing works yet.

When Energy Levels Matter

 

Well, it's been a while since my birthday!  Seems like yesterday.

I met up with my favorite cousin Julie at the Zombie Burger!!

Oh my goodness, the fun talks we had!  It's so great to talk to someone without having to avoid certain topics and who gets me on every level of life!  I love that chick!

Afterwards, we thrifted a little and LOOK what I found!  Magnetic tiles for a road for only $5!  I sent Jen a pic and she said GET IT!  THAT'S A $50 toy!

No worries, it was already in my cart!

Got home and was playing with Aggie on it when Jen got home from work.

Um Val...  you should have saved that as a gift for Aggie's upcoming birthday! It's on her birthday wish list!

whoops.  Guess who's spoiled in MY household right now?...

but it was only $5!

:) Here she's taking care of her babies.  We sit on the porch with them a little every day and she fusses over them while trying to wrap them in a blanket and feed them. 

Then they fall on their heads on the floor.

Here's the banana tree I brought back from my Kentucky sister's house a year ago this past spring!  Isn't it lovely?!  They're not indigenous around Kentucky either, but Tammy has several pots of them on her deck, pulling them in each winter.  I'm going to try to keep that up with this one. So far so good!

Within the last couple weeks, I invested in a smart watch. It had been a while since I'd had one and the prices were a LOT lower than what I had been expecting. This one is amazing.  Besides counting my steps, it keeps track of a ton of different things.  The phone app even will keep track of my calorie intake each day.

Well, was I in for a surprise on Monday!  I had a horrible night that night, waking up half way into sleep in order to be sick for a while.  I was so miserable from several hours awake feeling icky,l that I slept in until 6!

Can you imagine?!!!

So I was sick and NO energy.  I sat on the deck with some bone broth for breakfast for over an hour before trying to start work.  Mostly lethargic.  A co-worker knew I was wanting to go take a nap but I had things that had to get done.

At 11am, my watch suddenly buzzed and said, "Your energy level is draining too fast!  You need to take a break and rest!"

Whoa.  Who are YOU to tell me what to do!?

My watch.

So I took a break and slept most of the afternoon.  Uggh.  I WAS drained. How did my watch know?!

Here's the graph from the app from when I went to bed around 7pm that night.

as opposed to my energy levels yesterday when I got a 1.5 mile walk in yesterday morning!

I guess I WAS sick, but seeing my energy all spelled out and what walks do for recovery is amazing!

So I walked again today and before work, besides the walk, I'd taken the garbage out, cleaned out the van, moved a bunch of framed stuff up to my new office and pulled some weeds!

On Tuesday even, just moving the frames would have zapped all my energy!  So I'm feeling so much better now!

Ok, so I spent the last two days working from Meri's house so that the excavation people could get into Meri's basement easily.  They didn't even come Wednesday but I was so busy with work, that I spent the entire day there anyway, working from her dining room table.

Here was my view.  We were keeping her cats in the living room so if the guys showed up, the cats wouldn't get lost under the house with the basement door open.

Reedus was roaming free with me in the dining room.  

Back to the yard issue.  The water line between Meri's house and the street hookup had corroded beyond repair and flooded her yard.  It was basically lake front property with a big water bill.  Her basement sump pump was running NON-stop and at one point couldn't keep up with 2 inches of water touching her furnace.  And the sidewalk was flooded.

Thanks be to God for other situations that made this a doable fix and His timing is always best.

They finally arrived to finish the job yesterday and her yard now looks like a missile testing site.

In that spot where the puddle is, later became a gaping hole and then buried again a few hours later.

Currently the rider mower would get lost or high centered in any of the peaks and valleys that is her yard, but they're coming back today to level it out a bit more. whew!  

It will be nice when things calm down.

Then at the local farmers market, Jen, Aggie and I went to last night. The food truck had this on their menu for a few minutes!  Yikes!  The food truck gal was scared to death of it but didn't know what it was.  It's roughly 2 inches long!

So I took the pic and did a google pic search. It's a Cicada killer wasp!

Sheesh!  I wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with that scary thing!

Oh and I need to enter some stuff in the fair a week from tomorrow.  I've started about 5 projects and don't have ANYTHING ready.  I might just enter one of the jackets I made for Matthew, but who knows what my energy level will be this next week!

Sharing a birthday with Minnie

 They say it's my BIRTHDAY!

It's YOUR birthday TOO yeah!
Ok, maybe it's not YOUR birthday too.

Each of my kids has either messaged, texted or called to wish me Happy Birthday!  My sisters have in our messenger group, I even had lunch with one of my sisters and her kids on Tuesday as she was passing by!  And then several of my FB friends are joining in with the well wishes today, so my birthday-tide is almost complete! Bwahaha!

I'm having lunch with my favorite cousin today at Zombie Burger!  and then perhaps some thrifting before I come home.  Hopefully I'll have the traditional Zombie photo with her by tomorrow.

Here was my morning with Aggie before she left for daycare.  She insisted on watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and as luck would have it, it's Minnie Mouse's birthday too!  or at least that's what the episode was.

Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse!

and I only know how to spell this because I always have the subcaptions on. I'm old now.

Here is the project that made me go get a tetanus shot a few weeks ago!  

I finally got the final spring IN!

Just about ready to start padding it out and covering it with Robb's jeans.  BUT I've still got those pesky state fair projects to complete.  I don't have a single one done yet. shoot.  I should probably get going on that huh?

Anyway, back to my birthday-tide!  It feels DIVINE!

Weekend Activities AKA I need a nap

Friday night, I went to Maddy's town to attend one of their free summer concerts with her!  They try to go every week but Matthew was out of town and Maddy didn't want to go alone.  She got more knitting in and we got a lot of chit chatting in.

The Death Stranding birthday party for Ryan and Jen, on Saturday night was a lot of fun!  

SO much pizza and goodies!  Leon had even made a cake.  I made the buttercream frosting for it.  Thank goodness Maddy brought a veggie platter.  I made a salad using lettuce and the toppings of a couple slices of pizza & said vegetables.  

mmm  and snuck a few boneless bbq chicken wings.  I need to knock THAT off!

Meri and Josh were there too and even Aggie joined in on the living room fun as Ryan forged his way into the sequel for the game.  Even though Matthew was several states away at a conference, he was able to connect via Twitch and watch the action too.  He texted several times about events going on in the game.

Sunday, after church, some church friends stopped by and helped me work on my rider mower to fix the bent wheel.  They ended up using the two parts I'd purchased after all and identified another crutial piece that got bent also. The front axle.  I asked a neighbor for a tool I didn't have and he came over and fussed over the mower along with Seth.  So much grease!  I felt so bad for getting them into the nitty gritty of it all.  I thought it was going to be a quick fix.

Seth will be back later this week with a pipe wrench to see if he can bend the axle back into place.  

In the meanwhile, I mowed the front yard afterwards and it handled SO much better than it had been doing!  Instead of a ten point turn at every corner, it was only 3!  PROGRESS!!!

Oh, plus they tightened the steering wheel!  So it's not so jiggly! Whew.

While Aggie and Jen played in the kiddie pool, I pulled thistle weeds out of my hostas and cement hill and finally planted my hydrangea plant that Meri gave me for Mother's Day.  It actually broke apart into two plants! So winner winner!

I opened a bag of mulch that had been sitting there all last winter to spread around it and low and behold there was a mass colony of ants living inside and they spilled out all over my tennis shoes and gloves!  Yikes!  and they were biters! 

That was about when I decided I'd had enough for one day.  Besides sweat was dripping off my face like a faucet was on.  I left my shoes on the porch so the ants could go find another home.  yuck.  

OH and I sprayed the air conditioner with the hose a lot!  I'm guessing that's why it's not keeping up very well with the heat.  It was pretty dirty.  So now we wait again to see if it made a difference.

Got a lot of weeding in this morning before work.  If I can get 30 minutes of weeding in a day, I think the yard will be good by Christmas.  You know.  Under a foot of snow.

above: dressing up with Mom
below: reading to herself.

I cried at church yesterday. Widows being given back their sons.  I'm not jealous but well, maybe.  It's a widow thing.  Always rehashing the actual day, wondering if I missed something or didn't pray at the right time or not do the right things.  And wouldn't you just know it?  The first service I hadn't brought tissues to the pew with me.  Even though I didn't get Robb back, God has been taking good care of us and Robb is having a beautiful time while he waits for me to catch up.

Well...

Back to work Mr Zook!  Thanks Dave!  * Robb always rolled his eyes at me for quoting that old Sioux City car dealership commercial!! * :)

Random Bits and Bobs

 I removed the last 3 posts...  because... if you know, you know.

Looks like a light at the end of that tunnel!  I may get to put my sewing room back together in April.

In the meanwhile, I worked out in my garage office where all my sewing stuff is, for all of 5 minutes the other day.  I was able to clear a small bit off my sewing table and hope to get a couple patterns traced out so I can get a fleece shirt back to Maddy and a pair of comfy pants back to Jen.

We celebrated Leon's birthday this weekend!!  I can't believe he's 13 already!  And he hates having his picture taken, so oh well.  He's a teenager!!

I'm double booked for activities on Saturday, a Sunday school teacher meeting and an ASG meeting.  I'll be late to the ASG thing but still plan to go.

Jen had some blueberries that needed something done to them and she discovered that pancakes with fresh blueberries are not well received, so I dehydrated them on Sunday.  She'll try pancakes with the dehydrated ones this week and see how they are.  I kind of like them for a snack!  

I also cut up 3 green peppers and dehydrated them also.  Impressive, no?

Actually, NO...  

I can't believe they shrunk so much!  I'll put half a teaspoon in each pint I can soup in.

And while I'm thinking of it, I may run a batch of broth in the IP today. Some chicken bones are burning a hole in the side of my deep freeze.

I can't wait until the weekend!

They grow up so fast!

 Do you see the cute little blonde girl completely enthralled with Robb's story?

:) She turned 30 yesterday!!!

Happy Belated Birthday Maddy!!  I love you!

* I did wish it to her in person yesterday! We ate ice cream. And we celebrated both hers and her husband, Matthew's LAST weekend as that fell right smack in between both of their birthdays.

It just occurred to me that each of my kids and their loves birthdays are right next to each other.  I couldn't have planned that if I'd tried.

Weekend with the grands

 Leon was home for the weekend and we celebrated his birthday!!  I can't believe he's 12 already!  AND he has a girlfriend now...  As of Tuesday.  

They grow up so fast.

Anyway, on Saturday, I took Leon out for the morning.  We stopped at Walmart first and I let him pick out his birthday present and a cake.  He opted for a store bought instead of me making him one.  And that's ok.

Then Pizza Ranch opened at 10:30 so we hit it up for a brunch/early lunch. And since the buffet wasn't completely set up yet, he and I hit the arcade where he made a killing on this one.  He came away from the arcade with a whole bag of prizes.  I didn't know they had bags back there!

The gift I gave him was a bike.  We weren't celebrating until Sunday but the weather was SO nice that I figured he'd want to get going on it right away.

He had resisted riding a bike all his life because he was afraid of getting hurt.

He took to it like it was 2nd nature and had it mastered in 5 minutes. SERIOUSLY!

He rode all afternoon and until it got dark Saturday and only spent about 30 minutes at the computer the whole day. WIN in my book!  Aggie and I went on a walk with him around the big block and every 50 feet or so, he'd circle back around us so we wouldn't be too far behind.

However, this bike COULD break my bank.  He rode up to Casey's for a treat at least 2 times. sigh.  Next time, he can ride to Meri's and ask HER for a treat.

We had a house birthday dinner for him that night.  Jen bought some fancy cupcakes and we played a game that he got.  I was surprised that I "got" the instructions after a few rounds!  Sometimes those newer games flummox me.  We played again with everyone else the next day too.

On Sunday morning, his legs hurt but after church and an Aleve, he was back on his bike until we celebrated with cake and ice cream later.  Ryan, Jen, Aggie, Maddy, Matthew, Meri and (bf) Ryan helped us celebrate and play the game.

Kevin acting like he owns the place...

Aggie on the yard with Jen, eating leaves.  I took her on another stroller walk with Leon on his bike, shortly after this pic.

So it was an eventful weekend but I still didn't get a chance to sew.  Maybe over lunch today!

Party Central

The last two weekends have seen me hauling drink dispensers, the same centerpieces, table runners and mints out to the car.  It's spring time and we've got the party goods!

The weekend before last was Meri's best friend's wedding shower that she and I threw.  It was in a lodge in the middle of a small town park and perfect for this.  Maddy's wedding table runners were Jess's colors as well as some lavender tulle, which Meri was brilliant enough to make as part of the centerpieces.

The little bowls with floating candles and flower petals in them (we still have over 1000 of each color left.:) ) were from Ryan's wedding in 2012.  I had found them on top of my cupboards when doing deep cleaning and Meri said "OOH PRETTY!"

Jen had bought some little milk bottles so we borrowed all 12 of them and put in flowers, placing them here and there at the shower too.

Meri made about 90 cupcakes and both girls and myself made gobs of mints.  We brought back a majority of both.

Everything turned out lovely and the young couple got lots of nice things.

Then THIS last weekend, 

My SIL Cathy threw a 82nd birthday party for my MIL.  A lot of nieces and nephews and grand nephews joined us.  It was a lot of fun.  I hadn't met ANY of these three grand nephews yet so this was a total treat!

My MIL loved it all and was even surprised by a cousin attending also as well the news that one of the nieces, her husband and daughter were moving from Minnesota to nearby that day!  Most headed to their new apartment right after the birthday party to help them move in.  

Meri and Gma

Maddy and Gma

I had been planning on helping with the move but plans changed and I headed back home with my ride. :)  Good thing too, because my knee is only at maybe 40% better from my mishap on Thursday and the niece now lives in an upstairs apartment with no elevator...   They had lots of help tho and everything got moved in quickly.  

Maddy and Matthew were the most gracious ride!  They stop at the best coffee/malt shops GPS can get them to. YumMmmM!

On the way home, we stopped at a fun book store where they have a resident dog!  Those two can spot a dog in a car, or a store from miles away! :) 

And then today, I THOUGHT that Leon had ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) today so he got up early and we headed to the campus town.  Found the empty conference room at the hotel and no one there so I read the instructions again and realized that today is NOT the 29th...  He'll have to get up early again tomorrow... WHOOPS!  Eh grownups are allowed to make mistakes too!  Online schools can be tricky

Twists galore

 Got the battery replaced!!!  There was a question because it had been installed but I emphasized that I'd JUST bought it that morning and the other guy said, ok. :)

Also got the tire and because this car is just a bucket of rust, I had to wait until Jen got home because the hydraulic jack was in that car and I felt safer with that one.  She and I got the tire off and inspected the junk behind.  I pulled out an exacto knife and cut off the rubber flap that got flipped all around.  She pulled off part of the front bumper and we used black duct tape to hold the bumper on. The handy woman's secret weapon!  Colored duct tape.

I drove it around the block and woohoo!  It didn't fall apart!  As soon as we have time tho, I want to get it into my car guy and have him check it over.  I still need to get the spare tire replaced too.  

Ugg...  the agony of being the remaining responsible one.

As for the new battery, it didn't work.  And when I plopped in the old battery again, it wouldn't even start with a jump start.  What is the DEAL?!!!  So I put in the new one and it probably needs new cable ends or some corrosion cleaned off or something.  I don't know!  Meri and Ryan (bf) will take a look next time they're here and see if they can figure it out.

Jen's car will be fixed by Friday and then I'll get my van back.

AND today is my darling's birthday!  2nd in heaven.  It's hard to believe that I'm older than him.  Even harder to believe that he's not ever coming back.

Whew!  Trust me to put a downer on a "I'm a woman, hear me roar!" post.

A Fishy Birthday Dream

 Leon is ten!  He had asked for sushi and mushroom replicas for his birthday and he got them!  

I made cupcakes the night before but didn't frost them until late yesterday.  Leon wanted them to look like mushrooms.  I had picked up little gummy frogs for him and he wanted to put them on the mushroom cupcakes to give them a real-ish vibe.  Did it work?

The frosting is chocolate frosting mixed with about 1/2 cup of purple food coloring.  The top part is a dollop of white frosting mixed with a titch of the purple frosting.  I've got lots leftover of each. mmmmm

When Meri was still shopping yesterday, Leon called her to ask that she buy caviar. ???  I guess he wants to brag that he had sushi AND caviar on his birthday.  Who wouldn't?!  She found a $5 jar of plant based caviar.  Leon would never know the difference.

Matthew had made 2 different types of sushi balls with salmon and spicy chicken. SO good! I think we can honestly convert Taco Tuesday to Sushi Tuesday.  Well maybe...

I had canned 5 pints of white rice (3/4 cup rinsed rice, bit of salt and water - pressure canned 15 minutes) and they were all used up as well as another Instant Pot of more rice.  Meri was busy!

Meri made about 5 different types of sushi logs, slicing them up on platters.  She was at my house making them from 4pm until the dinner started at 7.  Ryan (bf) helped her.  They made a good team!

Leon was pretty excited about everything and bouncing off walls, so Ryan (bf) took him outside in the bitter cold and they played down by the creek, also playing ball on the front yard.  They got sticky weeds stuck all over themselves.

When Maddy and Matthew arrived, they helped clear the table of the sushi stuff and set it with the china.  Since Leon is ten now, he gets a regular sized water goblet instead of the smaller one that we always used for him.

There was soy sauce, yum yum sauce and wasabi for dipping.

I'm just kicking myself for no pictures of any of the food!  Well, here are a few leftovers.

And yes, that is my fancy fakerware made of an old whipped topping container.  It works and I can scribble what's inside with marker on the lid.  Or not, if I want to hide it...

And since not everyone likes fish, Robb would have hated the entire meal because he can't stand the smell of fish..., I sautéed up some strips of marinated steak and made seasoned chunk potatoes and sweet potatoes for sides.  Not too many people dug into either of the potatoes, so I canned them this morning before work.  40 minutes of pressure canning for quarts of chunked up potato and 90 minutes of pressure canning for quarts of chunked up sweet potato.  Since they were already pre-cooked, they'll probably turn into mashed and that's ok.  They'll be ready for whatever I want them to be later.

The leftovers were divvied up after dessert and scattered to the far winds. and probably eaten as a midnight snack.

Leon got lots of nice presents and items pertaining to mushrooms, drawing, modeling clay, candy and Legos.  Of course I had misheard, and he had wanted a Tie Fighter set... :) But was happy with the X Wing Fighter set I got him.  sigh.  I need to start writing things down!

All in all, he was spoiled rotten on his birthday and at dinner, we all decided that his birthday tide should end when it's Robb's birthday next month.  He's ok with that!

Happy As Can Be Birthday!

 Robb's birthday was Monday and his favorite cousin sent money to me to celebrate in a grand fashion.  He and his wife are very generous.  We used it all up!

So Meri and I planned a day trip to go visit all of Robb's favorite places and a couple of mine, as well as visit where we first met and where we were married.

After stopping at Robb's grave and wishing a happy heavenly birthday, 

we drove a few hours to see my parents grave where Meri and I sang a hymn in their honor.  Then we sat and remembered things and cried a bit.

After that we drove to my hometown just over an hour away.  We decided to wait until hometown to eat lunch because no one in Nebraska wears masks.  Hometown is on the other side of the river in Iowa and hometown still has a mask mandate.  Meri felt more comfortable with that so as soon as we got to town, we stopped at a local candy shop and bought sweatshirts and hoodies all around.  Then stopped at another locale to get a couple other non-candy related hoodies for the menfolk.

So that was all before lunch which was around 2pm.  We were not exactly starving.  I HAD eaten a whole box of hot and spicy cheezits on the drive.  

Then we stopped at Robb's favorite pizza joint for a few pizzas to bring home with us.  Then with them in the back seat, we stopped at our old college and I told her stories about the commons and various places around campus.  Here's where the house Robb lived in used to be.  Here's where I was editor of the yearbook and now it's a bookstore.  Here's where Kim and I ate lunch while we watched Santa Barbara until our afternoon classes.  Here's where the bookstore USED to be and here is my mailbox that if you twisted the knob JUST right, it would open without having to know the combination.  Here's where we had our wedding reception.  

I realized I hadn't bought a sweatshirt for myself so I did here.  One that didn't have the new logo and mascot on it. Just the name of the college.

Then we drove about a mile away to the park where we were married and I told her that I'd tripped on my dress getting into the horse drawn carriage and started falling backwards.  

Robb caught me with his hand on my butt.  And then we rode back to campus past his car parked in a lot where all could see.  It was supposed to be hidden so no one would decorate it.

It's right there guys...

Then we hightailed it back home with the pizzas.  It started raining and so when we got back to town, we stopped at Robb's grave and poured Diet Dr Pepper on it as well as a half box of Hot Tamales candies.  His favorites.  The ants will love my husband, but not as much as I do.

We were hoping to sing there too but with the rain, we couldn't.

We'd been hoping to see my sisters and brother in home town while there, but time was cut too short and if we only saw one, that would cause hard feelings.  So oh well.  Just a quick round trip.

Ryan and the rest of the gang waited at the house for the pizzas and we had a proper birthday party for Robb there.  No cake, but that's ok.

Happy birthday my dear!  I miss you so much!  I'm planning a night to just watch home movies and remember everything I've forgotten and cry.