You WANNA go on a NUDGE today?

I feel like TODAY should be Sunday...  oh well.  

It's been busy this weekend.  You'd think I should just stay home and mope about nothing to do... but I CAN'T!  It's just not in my nature.  I have too many hobbies and things that have to get done.

On Saturday I did a little shopping in the morning.  Walmart was only letting in 1000 customers at a time, but I think my number was around 323.

That afternoon, I put together a care package for Meri, as she's still quarantining herself, and Leon and I walked over to her house to leave it in her garage.

Leon had gotten a used phone for his birthday.  Not for calling (no phone plan on it) but for gaming, face-time, etc.  He had Pokemon Go installed and the whole walk over, he walked at a snails pace catching Pokemon every few feet.  We're a BIG Pokemon community over here... *yay*

So it wasn't a WALK so much as a NUDGE.  I kept my hand on his back and nudged him in the right direction, the entire way.  When we left Meri's, we walked up to Casey's for a snack and then my phone died, in the middle of a talk with Meri telling her where we put the stuff.  I SHOULD have charged it more before we left the house but oh well.  But with my phone dead and no wifi hotspot to work his phone, Leon's game wouldn't work well so he put it away and we actually TALKED for the way home.

Got home and made homemade pizza for supper.  Leon face-timed with his favorite 2nd cousin for a LONG time.  He was really disappointed when he tried to call her back after supper and there was no answer.  Um honey... She's in Kentucky and an hour ahead of us.  It's after 8 pm for her.  I'm sure she's in bed by now.

On Sunday, I went with Robb to "small" church.  That's where my husband records the sermon to post online and I sit a little ways away from him and then two other people sit a ways from us, one being the pastor's wife.

After church, I did the Biolife thing.  I was excited to see that The Money Pit was on Netflix so I hyped it up to my daughters to see, as they're both home owners now.  I watched half while giving plasma.  SUCH a fun movie!  That afternoon I got a movie review of it from one daughter, who thought Shelly Long's behavior in the last 1/4 of the movie was uncalled for, but loved the house!!

And Tom Hanks is a hoot with the mosquitos and ah home crap home...

The other daughter had given up movie streaming for Lent, so she's got a list that she'll be able to watch next week.  

I still haven't finished it but did get another five minutes in last night.

OH, yesterday morning, Ryan's gf Jen sent me an article about our local JoAnn Fabrics asking for volunteers to make face-mask kits for their customers.  I had initially thought she'd want to do it with me, but nope.  She just thought it would be something I'd be interested in and yep I was!  So I called the manager and she got me in for that afternoon.

So after Biolife, I went over there with my serged face-mask and gloves and got to work with another volunteer.  Between the two of us, we made about 25 kits (each containing enough materials for 5 masks.)  It was fun to visit with a total stranger who shared the love of sewing.  Well... she was a quilter anyway...  and didn't have any kids...  BUT we still had lots to talk about.  Since we were both wearing masks, I would not recognize her if I saw her on the street so it was fairly anonymous.  I just gabbed and gabbed, blabbed and blabbed.  She did too, but I still think she was probably pretty thankful when we ran out of ribbon.

On the way home, I called a sister that is a truck driver.  She was on her way to Texas and wanted someone to talk to.  It was good to get caught up!  She is IN DEMAND these days!

I stopped at the nursing home to see my bestie and we talked on the phone through her window for a good long time until I needed to use a restroom.  Sigh... I can't use hers this time...

This nursing home isolation is really getting to her.  I guess we can mail her things so I might get a care package together today and ship it off.

I came home (used the restroom!) and saw my neighbors doing outside work across the street so I went over to visit for a minute.  A GOOD 10 feet apart!  The wife is a nurse and had asked on FB if anyone could make her cloth face-masks to wear over her surgical types for work.  She had already found someone but her husband was interested in me making him and his staff at the coop some and was willing to pay for them.  That's cool!  As I already have all the materials, whatever money comes from this venture can fund the local food bank.  Another sewing friend is doing that too.

So anyway, I went back to our house and seriously... our yard looks like no one has lived here for years.  Leaves and weeds everywhere.  I had given up on raking last fall and it looks it.  I had found out that our neighbor next door was moving and guess who's moving in?  Another yard aficionado.  

ah home crap home.

I better get to work now cleaning up our yard before they move in!  ;)

And since we're down to just one car with a hatch back, I lined the back end of the Edge with a tarp and started putting the branches from last fall's fallen tree into the back of it.

The neighbors across the street, that I'd just talked to, saw me and backed their trailer into my driveway.  "You really ARE putting sticks in your car! Throw them onto here!"  Wow...  Awesome.  I didn't unload the ones I'd already put in my car but the wife and I threw the rest onto their trailer while her hubs arranged them all and then I followed them out to the yard waste place to unload.

Then I raked two batches of leaves onto my tarp and I hauled them out too.  I still have more work to do out there but was worn out.  Plus Leon and his mom and brother wanted to do a face time call and he needed my help for that.  His mom is expecting twins any day now so they wanted to get together before they're suddenly 2 more.

I made carrot, pork stirfry for supper and then Robb and I attended our college reunion!  online of course.  About 17 people were able to attend and it was a lot of fun!  

I was getting feedback from Robb's call in the dining room on my laptop in the livingroom, so after our 45 minute meeting time out happened and we got back in, we sat on the couch together for the 2nd half of the talk.

So much for social distancing! ;)  I guess if I've got it, he does too...  And in the same house, it doesn't matter much.

It was fun catching up with the college gang.  So many weren't able to attend or the leader just didn't have their contact info, so we'll have to add more for the next one next month.  and I need more light in the living room for the next one...  The dimness made us look like we were in black and white and everyone else was vibrant and colorful.  

I just got off a DUO call with Maddy.  She had done a bunch of outdoor work this weekend too.  I can't wait until we can go see it!  

And I really want to make that whipped coffee thing that has invaded the interweb...  BUT not sure what that will do to my heart if I have to sit at the computer working all day.  I'll probably just go outside and clean up the yard in about an hour...  hmmmmm But NO.  I want to get a start on some face-masks over lunch today...  maybe tomorrow on the coffee.

But back to work.  Here's to a productive day!

Weekend Blast from 30 years ago

And then the weekend was suddenly over and snow covered the ground...  seriously...

but anyway, Friday night I got to sew!!!!  Robb had a high school bud here for the day so he had a friend to hang out with while I abandoned him for the sewing machine.  Leon even had stuff to do that didn't concern me, so I got some ME time!

Here's what I did.   Matched chevrons...

Sewed my tag in crooked...

And made this top.  It's super comfy and I THINK it looks good on me...

However I have my regrets and plan to use the seam ripper to correct a few things.  Plus, I'm not sure I like the sleevelessness of it... Especially with snow that we have.  I may add the thumbhole sleeves like below.  What do you think?

On Saturday morning, Robb and I headed to my hometown to see Mom and Dad!  We stopped by my sister's to pick up Dad but didn't get much time to visit with them.  We were hoping to get to the nursing home by 9.  shoot.  

I brought along a few years worth of blog posts in book form and they enjoyed digging through them for memories about them and when I was young.  And of course oohing and ahhing over the grandkids along the way.

They don't look too happy, but that's how they look when they're concentrating.  PLUS Dad just got cataract surgery on both eyes and doesn't need glasses anymore!  It really makes him look different!

Plus gave him bionic eyesight!

Then we met up with a couple of Robb's old college roommies!  He used to rent a house on campus and lots of people stayed there during the summer, even his sister!  It was great getting caught up with their lives and the stories were awesome.

So were the Buffalo hot wings!  Our old dive hasn't changed the recipe in 30 years...

and for that I'm truly grateful!

After lunch, Robb and I walked around on campus and checked all the things that HAVE changed since we were students there.  And there are tons of things...  So Robb started enjoying pointing them out.  LOOK!  They've even changed these steps!  Ummm... no they haven't, says me, that's the only thing they HAVEN'T changed.  Oh and they haven't changed the mailboxes either!  I couldn't remember my old box number but if I had, I'd SO be snooping on whomever it was now.

Then we went and got $12 ice cream...  Seriously...  Mine was over $6 for this bowlful and Robb's was even more.

Chocolate, cheesecake, pineapple, if you go around clockwise.

After stopping my another sister's work to talk for a few minutes, we got checked into our hotel and took a much needed nap before heading back to campus.  Another alum friend showed up and even my brother!  And he knew EVERYONE...  He didn't even go to this college, he went to a rival across town!  

As Mark and I were getting some treats, he pointed out one of the alums working the DQ booth, Hey, that's Dan ###!  Hey I KNOW him!  So I said hi and he didn't remember me.  But I mentioned that I was now married to Robb McVal and he was all over that.  I told him I'd send Robb to see him.  

A few minutes later, Dan caught up with us bearing 5 mini-blizzards for us and chatted with Robb for a while getting caught up.  Cool!  Literally, it was freezing there.

We kept looking around at the 20 year old people looking for people we knew, but then realized that we're old...  So we should be looking for greyish haired people or people who have swelled a little...

I guess the campus photographer came by before Mark and Dave showed up.  Oh well, we've got the above pic too.  I had to ask a total stranger to take the pic, but not really a stranger, because while they probably graduated a different year, they're still an alum...

family...

I can't believe it's been 30 years...

The tents started getting torn down around 7pm, so Robb, Dave, Mark and I went and crashed the closest Wendy's and Mark introduced me to grape pop foam.  OOHHHH... I might buy some and stick it in the blender for more of the foamy goodness!!!  

We talked for a long while until I had to say ahem!  I'm tired!!!  Many hugs later, Robb and I went back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we left at 4am again and headed home.  Got home in time to get a quick shower and then off to Sunday school.  We really didn't need to have rushed.  NONE of my kids in my class showed up, but how were we to know?

I spent the afternoon doing Legos with Leon and Meri.

Good weekend...  Can't wait to do another!

Friends with Jazz hands are the BEST!

 I got off of work slightly later than I was wanting to last night but hit the road as soon as I could.  Robb wasn't able to make it so I drove an hour away and met up with an old college friend who agreed to come with me to Meri's Jazz competition in her town.

I hadn't seen her for years!  So it was great to catch up on events in our lives and find out about the plans for her daughter's wedding as well as her getting stranded during the recent snow storm.  Her son goes to college in the town near us but our paths only cross very rarely.

Kim's kids went to this high school so I'm so glad she came along with me!  She got us in the closest door to the auditorium and we arrived JUST as our band was getting ready to begin.

Meri's band got the best score that they could get!  

I'm proud of them... and her!

Afterwards we collected Meri and got supper together before Meri and I had to head home.

She and her husband are empty nesters and in some ways I'm very jealous!!  In other ways, I want to hang on to almost everyone in the house and say DON'T LEAVE ME!!!!

It's amazing how so many years pass... ok 28.  but when Kim and I get together, it's as if we were back in college and nothing has changed, when in reality a ton has.  

We could have talked for hours, but Meri still had homework waiting for her at home.

We'll just need to plan another get together...

I am the eye in the sky!

The other day when Maddy played organ for the chapel service, I was watching for her closely and happened to see someone ELSE I know!  

The girls with the long hair in the middle is the twin sister of a new niece-in-law of mine from the last wedding in Wisconsin that we attended!  Small world huh? 
So I took a pic with my cell phone and sent it to my niece-in-law (NIL)

"Hey - I was looking for Maddy in last night's chapel service and happened to see your sister!  Here is the photo I took... I like to post pics of Maddy that I find on the webcams sometimes just to mess with her. Wondered if you did the same thing. Here you go!"

And WHEW!  My NIL (Niece In Law) thought it was FUNNY and not creepy, as I'm sure some of you guys thought it mght be...  And she posted it on her sister's FB wall!  Response - "Are you watching the chapel services now??"  "Nope - I've got my eye in the sky!" and NIL didn't tell her how she got the pic.  

So if your kid goes to Maddy's college, let me know and I'll add his/her name to my list of the "Where's Maddy?" game.

It'll be fun!

The Old College Try

After the parade on Saturday, on our drive to my old stomping grounds... Meri had the camera in the front seat. and Maddy gave her an opportunity to use it.
Then after our baby binge, we had a few minutes before our pizzas were done at my husbands favorite college pizza joint. We always grab one or two pizzas while leaving town for the drive home. He hadn't come with us, so we got him one to enjoy when we got home.

So we did a quick campus tour of his and my old Alma Mater. Maddy was duly impressed. She especially liked the old bench out on the front lawn that has been repainted every year since the beginning of time. Look at all those layers of paint!The library was locked, so we couldn't go in there. Can you believe it? Locked before 5pm on a Saturday? Lazy students... But the commons was open and I showed the girls where I lived when I wasn't at home. I was a commuter student and editor of the yearbook and seat warmer in the Wigwam restaurant, where my best friend and I watched Santa Barbara soap opera while talking studying at lunch time. Hi Kim!The commons building has changed all around now. Lots of improvements that left me speechless. Ummm... WHERE is the activity council meeting room now? But I still could find my old mailbox, but couldn't remember the combination.

We had a chat with the security director. Not because we were trespassing, but because he had a lot to say to Maddy to persuade her to attend there. Who knows? Maybe with both Robb and I having graduated from there, she'll get a full ride scholarship! But probably not.It was a blast from the past for sure and Maddy was especially impressed with the new fountain. It makes her feel like she's right out of the sitcom Friends! So they had to jump off it...

Words mean something...

When I was in college, I took a basic English class to get that credit over and done with. It wasn't in my major, so I just took the bare minimum. Apparently I lucked out, because half of the football team took this class too. =)

I learned a lot from this class. One thing being that dryer sheets are important. Once during class I realized there was a bulge on the inside of my leg, right about the knee. I casually pushed it down further until I could see out the hem of my jeans that it was a sock... A man's sock... I guess my dads... I very carefully pulled it out and stuck it in my purse as discreetly as possible.

One of the assignments was to write down the lyrics of your favorite song. Colleen at Cheap Wine & Cookies yesterday did an expose on her favorite song and what it meant to her, so that kind of inspired me today....

I was very boring then... as I am today. I picked "That's What Friends Are For" and listened to it line by line on my record player getting all the lyrics down pat. We didn't have internet back then or I could have just googled it and been done.

Those lyrics are so sugary sweet in comparison to others that I could have doodled hearts and flowers all over the paper along with the words.

*I still like that song... *

In class you had to read the lyrics out loud. Yep... I managed to read them all even with the redness rising up into my neck and face. I used to tend to do that quite a lot when talking in front of people, mostly men...

One of the football players then had the opportunity to read his lyrics. He'd chosen When Doves Cry by Prince (THEN known simply as Prince.) (Did I say I'm over 40?)

I'd never felt so embarrassed for someone before. This 6' 4" very muscular, big man was reading the lyrics of When Doves Cry. Do you remember the song? It starts out ok... but there are a lot of oohs and squeals throughout. He suffered through the entire song and included all the extra noises. His voice shook from nerves. At the end of the song, he read "when doves cry" about 20 times just like the song. He must have sat at his tape player and worked really hard at this... The teacher just let him read it all.

Yes - I'm laughing out loud as I type this... I'm past being embarrassed for him and can laugh about it now!

He should have stuck with hearts and flowers.

Determined to be independent

I was 18 years old. Freshmen in college. Living at home. But I really had wanted to live on campus... Financially was not able to do that. Since my college was only 20 minutes from home, it just made cents sense to commute. At the time gas was cheap. I carpooled with Kshotz, a cousin (once removed) of an ex-sister in law, confusing ain't it?! We alternated each week on who would drive. Having just met a week or so before school started, we became fast friends in our drives.

I was a very independent person outside of living at home. I had a good job, handled all my own bills, maintained had a car, bought or sewed my own clothes, took care of my own meals unless it was Sunday after church of course and that was with family. Or if I happened to be home when the rest of the family was having a meal I ate with them. My schedule was crazy, but I loved it.My only wish was that I could live on my own.

That's when I rediscovered the attic of my dad's garage. He had built a 2 story garage about 10 years before and the upstairs was huge. Mostly used for storage, but there wasn't much up there. After begging for permission to make that my space, I moved all the stuff to one side of the attic and moved in. Taking my antique full sized wrought-iron bed, record player, shelving, all my favorite books, I made that space my own!

Ahhh.

It was probably late September. I remember drifting off to sleep under several quilts and hearing the rain on the roof. What a great sound! During the time when I was home, I sat at my Grandpa's old huge walnut desk that he'd used in the parsonage and did my homework by lamp light. I still have that desk and it's being used as the computer desk in our living room.I still used the house facilities and it felt like camping. Rushing up the outside steps in a bathrobe and wet hair was getting a bit brisk. Then listen to my James Taylor album as I got ready for bed.

Since the room was unfinished, air blew in under the roof overhang, birds flew in on occasion and once a bat...

And then the weather turned. The first morning that I woke up and my nose was frozen and the water in a cup I'd brought to bed was now in solid form, I knew it was time to move back into the house.

Well, that and the fact that my parents kept telling me too...

It might have only been a few months, but I loved the independent feeling that I got from the experience. After that time, a younger sister and myself moved into the 1st floor of the house instead. The main floor was the 2nd floor. We had a living room, bath, 2 bedrooms and access to the laundry room and upstairs whenever we wanted. So I guess the next best thing to living on your own... and a heating vent right above my bed.

Ahhh.

The little pinto that could...

My first car was a cute little blue Ford pinto that I'd purchased from some friends at church for $750. My dad co-signed the loan for me. I was 16, had a good job in a nursing home kitchen. The world was my oyster...

Luckily the previous owners had put in the little upgrade so that if the back bumper hit something, the car wouldn't blow up, because every time I backed it out of my sister's driveway, I almost always hit their electrical pole.

I attended an extremely small church school (I was the lone graduate that year) and would buy a cold buritto at the convenience store in the morning, leave it on the dash and it would be piping hot by lunch time. Boy was I flirting with food poisoning, or what?!

That car took me thru the first year or so of college and I loved it. I'd named it Cruiser after Tom Cruise. And I never spoke ill of it when I was in it. I did once and got a flat tire that same day.

We lived on a gravel road and one day when I raced out to the car to make it to class, I jumped in and suddenly found myself laying in the backseat! The latch that keeps the seat up had gotten jiggled so much from the washboards in the road that it had broken. Well, I was desperate and late for class, so I dug into my dad's garage and found a 5 gallon bucket of plaster. It fit perfectly behind my seat holding it up nicely! It was there for 4 or 5 months until my dad was furious because someone had run off with his plaster! When he found out where it was, he stuck in a bent nail and fixed the seat. Problem solved.

I lost a muffler on that road, had several flat tires and replaced them with $5 used tires, ran out of gas, stalked a boys house with it, got stuck in any snow with it... slid it into our muddy garden during finals week... ah the good old days!

Since I was commuting to college, I carpooled with a distant cousin of a later ex-sister-in-law, who turned into my best friend. She was going to the same college and was a commuting freshmen right along with me. She had exactly the same car as me! I think the color was green tho...

Since I'm a space cadet when it comes to remembering to grab the keys when you get out, she taught me how to tuck a wire coat hanger under the back bumper. And then if you locked the keys in the car, she showed me how to unlock it with that hanger. That came in handy more than a few times! Unfortunately a guy friend knew about this little trick. One day I walked back to the commons for my car and couldn't find it! I was panicking and happened to notice my best friend and the "guy friend" peeking at me from the business class building... He knew I used to keep a spare in the glove compartment, so he had broken into the car and pulled out all the cr*p in the compartment, spilling all the extremely personal items onto the floor. I was never so embarrassed! Well, I guess I have been since then... But up to that point... ! All was forgiven when he pointed out where he'd moved it to. He was almost as embarrassed as I was.

That little car reached it's demise one sad Spring day. I was making a left hand turn in front of the college, clicking the turn signal manually because it wouldn't work otherwise. While pulling gently on the emergency brake between the seats because my brakes didn't work otherwise.
It also couldn't go in reverse unless it had warmed up a lot. So I usually parked on hills or at least parked facing out as often as I could. It was a wonderful little car and I couldn't be troubled with little problems like this. Nothing could slow me down back then...

So anyway - back to the left hand turn... sorry - I tend to ramble.... I was making a left hand turn. Behind were about 5 or 6 other cars waiting for me. I was waiting my turn. As I turned, suddenly a car came out of nowhere, passing the 5 or 6 cars behind me and drove "OVER" the front of my car! Seriously, he drove over the front of the car! I was in shock.

Plus, he kept on going! Monster car or something... I never got a good look at it. Luckily a witness to the accident followed them to their home a short distance away and came back with the address info for the police report. There are good Samaritans everywhere!

I was fine and in control of everything. I filled out the police report, talked with various witnesses and finally walked down to the commons building, which was my home away from home, and saw my boyfriend. I told him what had just happened, I was still stunned. He was late for a class and just said Oh that's too bad and then he was gone. ???! He dumped me on my birthday a short time later, so it all worked out...

I got a hold of my dad on the phone. As soon as I heard his voice, I fell apart. He couldn't understand a word of my blubbering until I calmed down a little. I think, looking back now... that as soon as I had my dad on the phone, I knew that he would take over and make everything better. He did. I'm so lucky and blessed to have a dad like that!

Well my little Cruiser was totaled. Insurance paid $800 for it. I'd had it 4 years and I'd made a profit! If you don't count the interest I paid on the loan... We had it sitting along the side of the fence in our meadow for several years with weeds growing thru the engine. Then one day someone was driving by and it caught their eye. They offered my dad $50 for it for parts and he said, "take it away!" They ripped it out, weeds and all and took away my first real taste of freedom.

The House.

Robb's last 2 years of college, he lived at "the house". It was a ramshackle house that some professor had once lived in right next to the gymnasium. The college rented it out to students sometimes. So Robb and several other people lived in it. During the summer, there were 4 girls, one of which was Robb's sister. During the school year, 4 other guys, 2 of which were in our wedding.
The very week after we were to graduate, the college had voted to tear it down and expand on the gym. BUMMER! But all the occupants were graduating, so there was no real need to keep it for housing... Robb had already graduated at Christmastime and wasn't even living there anymore.
So a dear friend of the house and ours was an art major and got the house ready for demolition. She painted the bulls eye on the front, so they wouldn't miss and everyone else joined in adding notes here and there.


This house held a lot of memories for me. I would park my rusty Ford Fiesta in front of it when I went to classes. I had bought it from one the guys at the house actually. I commuted from home since it was only 20 minutes away. One time, the guys of the house "moved" my car, up onto the lawn and around the back of the house. They didn't have a key to it, but it was pretty lightweight, so they moved just the front, then moved the back, zigzagging it across the yard. I thought my car had been stolen!
Another time, I was visiting Robb with my sister along. His cousin was there showing off his new Fiero. Melanie admired it so he tossed her the keys and said, "Take it for a spin!" As she drove away to drive around the block, he called 911 and reported his car stolen... hung up immediately. They called back to find out if it was a prank. Robb's cousin was so surprised they called back that he said he'd made a mistake and they had just brought it back. And yes, we still talk to him...
Lasagna night at "the house" was great! Robb makes great lasagna! He'd make several pans of it for everyone and guests.
Every day after classes, several friends would get together to watch Thundercats. Some fun, huh???! It was mostly a guy thing...