Peonies, cars and grands

Well, the peonies are gone again.  Those ants were busy early and I enjoyed the blooms for about a week.  Eh - the peonie bushes are nice too.

I've done a TON of landscaping this week too.  FINALLY doing something with the weed patch under the living room window, behind the garage.  I've rigged up some automatic watering but not sure if one of the soaker hoses is going to work.  Maybe dabble with it later.

Had some "what I thought was serious" car problems last week.  Turned out that the battery just decided to be toast all in a day.  It took me 2.5 days to figure that out, what with the charging and swearing over it.  I even used science to clean the corrosion off the positive battery post!  Thanks to my brother-in-law, who is a car genius, I was able to diagnose the problem and replaced it.  Also at his advice, I sprayed it down with some red stuff so that the corrosion won't happen again.

And now that the car was working again, I attended an Iowa Cubs game with the college gang on Saturday night. FUN!  The Cubs won!

I went to the pool with Leon over lunch one day this week!  The water was super cold but he didn't care.

And yesterday he felt ill.  He just laid around on his bed and the couch saying he had a cold and couldn't POSSIBLY make his own microwavable mac and cheese.  Um, your legs aren't broke!  For the most part, I gave him a pass as he's going through a lot right now.  But he DID make his own mac and cheese.

He's got some goggles coming today so I'm sure he'll be back at the pool this afternoon.

And then there's THIS girl!  *pardon my messy house*

She is squatting, standing from the squat and playing with washclothes, pretending to fold them.

adorbs!

I can't even do that!  The squatting, I mean.  I do know how to fold and don't just pretend.

AND able to reach the piano keys now!

My bet is that she'll be walking by next Friday.

What's your guess?

Kitchen Busies

It's been a busy week.  I got the tires all figured out.  For the moment.  The sweetness hasn't been looked at since Monday and that's ok.  Maddy and Matthew's car is doing just fine so no rush on the sweetness.  Jen's car will be fixed by tomorrow.  

Yesterday morning I got some saurkraut in the works!!  I found a recipe on a canning site I belong to that said how to do it with a seal-a-meal kind of setup and I HAVE that setup!!!  So it's fermenting nicely in a lower cupboard and I'll get it stuck in the fridge or canned on 4/20.

Speaking of canning.  Yesterday I canned 4 pints of corned beef, 1 jar of Mexican beans with meat, 5 pints of leftover leeks from St. Patrick's Day and got two Instant Pots going with various bits of meats, bones and veggies I gleaned from the freezer.  It made a ton of broth and lard, which I'll be canning both.  

Today I canned 4 quarts of corned beef, 5 pints of coleslaw and will can the broth and maybe lard this afternoon.  I've got another corned beef in the fridge and will make that into corn beef hash tomorrow if I feel like it.

I also have the leek ends that I'd cut off from SPD and they're sprouting nicely...  It'll be nice having some growing in my herb garden!

I'm so ready for spring, I can taste it!

I met with the bride's mom at JoAnns last night and she's getting the fabric ordered for the final dress.  Meri will be by later and we'll get the stuff ordered for the bridesmaid dresses too.  Then I'll be over the canning kick and back into sewing mode.

I haven't sewn for myself in such a long time, except for a pair of bell bottom leggings that I got for cheap and edited them into skinny leg leggings.  :)  I love them and have worn them a lot.

There are some days when I look down at my clothes and say, "wow, I've made everything I'm wearing!"  Today it's just the top, but I love that feeling.  I mentioned that "everything I'm wearing" bit to the bride's mom and she said, "gasp!  Even the sweat shirt?"

Well... not that.  It was Robb's.  But the top and leggings underneath were mine!  If I'd made the sweatshirt, she'd definitely question my sewing and fitting abilities... :)

Ok, back to work.  Have a great Thursday!  The weekend is almost here!!!

Potahto

So my potatoes were looking bunky.

I wondered if maybe they were done as it had been almost 10 weeks and then I saw a post on some FB group I belong to where someone was showing off all the produce from their garden.  

"HEY!..." I asked them. "When did you plant those potatoes and did they look like below when you harvested them?"

They confirmed that yes indeedy, their plants looked like mine before they harvested.  So chances were high that I had some potatoes in them there bags!

I was excited.

So I dumped them out.

I got 5 potatoes... for ten weeks of care...

 sigh...  I've discovered where I made my mistake.

I used grass clippings as the stuffing around the plants as they grew. 

APPARENTLY  too many grass clippings can create a gas that is toxic to the plants and could kill them, so be careful using too much in your gardens...

It's probably too late to plant anymore.  

Well... MAYBE not!  Ten weeks will take us to the end of September.

THAT could work!

hmmmmm

I'll replant them and buy a bale of straw instead of grass clippings...

OH!  And I bought a new to me mower!!!  The other is still getting fixed, but the guy who's fixing it sold me his old one.  Yay!  Once my old one is fixed, Meri can have one all the time at her house and mow her yard whenever she wants and not depend on my mowing schedule!

The new to me one mows so smoothly...  And the grass doesn't have an odd plaid pattern...

It's almost like someone else's yard!

Pouring it on

Little bit of this... A little bit of that...

Been sewing, been cooking, been doing yard stuff.

The front patio has been neglected due to other projects and hopefully the rain will hold off so I can get a weed whacker out there.

The rain just poured yesterday.  My lettuce plants are loving it and I think I'll make a salad today for lunch out of my produce!  

There was a ripe strawberry and after Leon picked it, he didn't want to eat it, so thank you very much!  It's mine.

He's at his mom's for a couple days, so things are quiet around here.

The rain pummeled a leak into our garage roof...  So I had to scramble to get a bucket under it when I finally realized where the drip drip was coming from that I was hearing.

sigh...

When it rains, it truly pours...

 And isn't this beautiful?!  Jen did this by pouring paint on the canvas.  She's a brilliant artist.

It's sitting on our porch because it smelled musty in the house.  We think some rain got to it and there might be mold...  I've been spraying the back when I think of it, with some either bleachy spray or vinegary spray.  It's too beautiful to just be "porch" art.

I started on a blouse that is being cloned off a top of Meri's.  The next challenge is to see if I have ANY of the fabric bits left because I forgot the neck binding when cutting things out.  Whoops!  

I'm sure I probably do somewhere...

Plus my challenge today is to put several button holes into it.  uggg..  My one true weakness...

I attended a ZOOM meeting for my ASG sewing guild on Saturday and then another one for our local Pattern testers yesterday over my lunch.  And while seeing everyone's photos of their projects and hearing their experiences with the pattern IS inspiring, it will be much more fun to meet in person with them and feel fabric as it hangs.

Our family has two birthdays this week.  Ryan and Jen.  Born just two days apart.  Shopping for gifts tonight.  We'll celebrate on the evening between the birth dates.

Anyway, that's enough for today.  Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Father's Day Weekend Extravaganza

It was a great Father's Day!

Since Meri and Shub were social distancing, they asked if we could serve lunch on the deck and they'd eat on their end of the deck and we could have the table.  I cleaned up the table, brought out a table cloth and china.  It looked beautiful!

Then the clouds parted half way through the meal and suddenly it got really hot out there.

We moved the party to the dining room with Meri and Shub outside the window.

Robb loved the cooler full of meat that I gave him and was so surprised that he hadn't seen all the packets of meat in the freezer!  I had hidden them all under a bunch of homemade chicken broth... :)

Meri and Shub gave him a really cool cooler  with lots of marinades and meat injector style marinades.  He's going to have a blast with his grill and smoker this summer...

Other happenings at the McVal residence.

My mini roses are in bloom!

ignore the weeds.  been busy elsewhere on the homestead...

I found an empty nest in my hanging basket on the porch...  So I pulled it out.  The bird came back apparently, a little perturbed that her nest was gone and made a quick one and laid her eggs.  Of course I didn't realize this when watering my plant every day and I think I've scared her off.  I took a pic of it then and then again a week later.  No development on the eggs.  I think they've been abandoned...  Darn.  

I got my lawn sweeper delivered last week and got it put together finally after several wrong turns.  It's not EXACTLY like LEGO instructions and I got turned around a lot.  sigh.  But it's together now and after I mowed down some hay mow in the back yard, I dragged this around to pick up the remains.  I probably shouldn't have mowed as low as I did as there is still plenty of hay mow out there, but I did pick up a LOT of grass.  It's on the gardens and in the composter.  Looking forward to a nice dry day to pick up the rest.  But not today.  Thunderstorms galore today.

Oh that's my new mini van btw!  

My MIL has enjoyed watching this little cutie out our back yard every morning.  Of course, when I was mowing I found a lot of deer poop back there...  Now that the big dogs are not living here anymore, I thought we were over that, but not so...

The gate got left open by me moving branches and this little one helped herself to our clover.

I got the gate shut in order to mow easily and lo and behold, the deer jumped the fence to eat more of our clover grass...  I'm a little worried about my grape vines back there.  But we'll see what happens...

 Oh!  I forgot to tell you about my composter!  I found one on the local swap page and splurged on it!  It was from two doors down from our house!  It's already full of house scraps, lawn clippings, etc.  Can wait to see what it will do for me this summer.  I'm trying to make sure it gets turned every day.  Supposedly if I don't put anything more into it, it'll be good dirt in about 2 weeks.  

I doubt that.  But we'll see.  Maddy gets my old one if she still wants it.  It's a square plastic box with a lid.  

We had Leon's brother Finn over for the evening and took him back to his mom's on Saturday.  My new mini-van has dvd screens in the back seat and he turned into a Scooby Doo Zombie...

 Next time I'll recline his seat a little more...

Found this on the siding one day when I arrived home.  Leon came out to look at it and gave me some good information on how it's able to stick to the walls with it's tiny feet.  Such knowledge from that kid!

My Clematis has given us one bloom so far this year!  I'm trying to encourage it to climb the post, but just realized that I should have painted it first...  Oh well.  I'll work around the blooms when I finally pull out the paint.

We had a nice DUO call with Maddy, Matthew, Meri, Shub and Robb on Sunday.  Maddy had Robb and I tell about early father memories of him and our own fathers.  Of course I only remember the times I got in trouble and Dad got after me...  When you put me on the spot, that's what you get.

But it was really sweet and we threw out lots of memories.

Then I went to see Ada and then stopped at the DQ for a Diet Coke Float.  I was hot and sticky from sitting outside her window.  It got hot...  I sat at a park in the shade to finish it off.

The DQ gal said that this was a first for her.  "What?  A Diet Coke Float?"  

Well, I googled it and the calorie count popped up for a small Diet Coke Float as 220 calories...

So SOMEONE else must have done it before me.

But you know what the BEST floats are?  Lemonade floats....mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Waiting for a day when I have a bunch of calories to spare....

Have a great Monday!

Potting around

Ugg - it was HOT yesterday!  The car's outside temp said 91 and Robb later said it said 97 when he was out.

Yikes!

I haven't turned on the air conditioning in my office yet but I may today...  So far, I've been taking advantage of the coolness of the garage with my new screen door, but the coolness is waning.

This morning, Meri and I worked out again after just over a week of me doing the workout routine alone.  She feels better now and we did the whole work out with masks on.  I think that adds to the effort and I have GOT to have burned at least twice as many calories.  The sweat around my mouth when I got to the car was incredible!  Thus is my hope.

Or at least sweat off my double chin...

When I got home, I repotted the strawberry plant in a BIG pot on the deck.  

That was my thought for that plant when I bought it.  I also repotted the leaf lettuce.  I had been hoping to have indoor leaf lettuce year round, but they were drooping in my office. So they're outside now and will hopefully do better in the sun.

I mowed both yards on Sunday and because of the clipping of our water main valve LAST week, I discovered that one side of the blades are super shorter than the other side.  uggg again.

JUST when I fixed the tires and the battery seems to be working without charging manually anymore.  It's always something...

Also the mower made more hay mow so I raked up the front yard and the grass clippings are  now covering more wool on the garden.  Will rake up some back yard grass and put it on the garden spots back there later today.

  Yeah!!!  As soon as I got all the tires fixed on the mower, it starts whenever I want it to now.  Who KNEW?!  Maybe an off kilter battery drains it?!...

hEAL!!!

Leon's cucumber garden is taking off.  Only one little plant is coming up, but if you know cucumbers, it'll be more than enough.  PLUS I've got other cukes planted elsewhere...

The potatoes are taking off too.  I need to keep putting more dirt in every other day these days.  I bought some soil from the store, but will use regular dirt from now on. It's pricy.  Especially when I have ordinary dirt around here!

And lots of it.

My nephew gave me some good tips on how to landscape the back yard hill but we need to reside the house on that side before we can get to it.  I may drive around in the country and find some field rock for parts of it... hmmm...

Anyway, have a great Tuesday!

Dreaming big

Meri and I worked out again this morning.  I'm beat.  But feeling productive, like maybe I am on my way to a better shape.  

Hope so.

Maddy and Matthew's dog Zola, ate the stuffing out of a dog toy and ended up at the emergency vet clinic last night.  We find out today if everything came out ok, but that poor thing!  She might need surgery.  Please send a prayer for her!

Isn't she a sweetie?  I can't wait to meet her!

Meri and Shub came over yesterday and played Frisbee in the back yard with Leon and me.  It's a heavy Frisbee, I guess for Frisbee golf.  

I kept not catching it on purpose because I kept thinking of the boomerang on the Road Warrior and thought I'd lose some fingers.

OH!  One of my garden spots is in!  

I agonized on how to use up some of my fabric stash to line it, instead of using the store bought weed barrier.  I mean... I have SO much fabric!!!  

Found that wool fabric is the best to insulate the ground and keep the weeds to a minimum.  

I'll probably spread the grass clippings on top of it so it won't look TOO odd in the neighborhood.  I've already put weights down on the edges to keep it from blowing off.

And it wasn't enough to make a wool cape out of anyway...  So it'd probably be made into scarves or a bag anyway.  And who has time for THAT?!

I'll let you know how it works. If it works.

Pay no attention to the pile of branches on the one side and the board that is out of it's hinges.  That'll be a next year project, fixing that up.

I've got 9 cherry tomatoes in.  And about that in mini sweet pepper plants.  I started them both in my mini hot house, the pepper seeds from an actual pepper that I got at Aldi.  

While Meri was in the back yard, she gave me some ideas on how we could finish up the area behind the garage.  The grape vine might go somewhere else.  Maybe the back of the yard.  Don't know...  Maybe let it grow along the fence?  Eh... we'll see.

And we need a stairway going down the hill.  I'm imagining something like this.

But then again, if I let my imagination REALLY go, I can imagine something like this...

So many plans in the works and ideas that need to be fulfilled before I can move on to the next one.

Do you have any plans that really need to be thought out well before the next phase?

DREAMING BIG

 Ah... I love this time of year!  The trees are budding and plants growing and everything has hope!

Even in MY yard!

I got the potato plants started.  Taking Practical Parsimony's advice, I did NOT put it in the hole, but rather raised them up a little with some posts that I had rotting in the yard.

I'll make do with ANYTHING!

The hole is underneath and I filled it up with the dirt pile from the front yard.

Lots more projects planned for that dirt...

And looking around my yard, taking into consideration the most difficult spots to mow, I have a huge project of fixing the yard this summer.  There is a LOT to do...  To start off with, (leaving the fire pit project off for a week or three) I need to plant two grape bushes!  Not sure if they're grape vines.  I don't have much experience with growing grapes and it doesn't say on the packaging.  I picked them up at Lowes for a smidge under $10 each.  One with seedless red grapes and the other seedless green grapes.

They will be planted to the right of these potato bags under my living room window.

I'll have my own little vineyard!!!

Not that I drink much.  

I guess I'll make a lot of grape juice or just eat them straight off the plant.

If for some reason they ferment, so be it... I'll eat/drink them too.

waste not, want now.

Eventually, I want to rebuild this area into a mini deck.

I've got lots of plans for this little corner of the yard/world.

And of course, all it takes is a wee bit of money.

Oh well.  I'll keep on the lookout for free bricks and mulch.

Talk to your plants

I sewed up two potato bags this week.  They'll be decorating the back yard covering up two of the holes that the dogs had been digging in, when they still lived with us.  I'll need about twenty more to cover ALL the damage...  But two is a good start.  I plan to plant some blueberries and other fruit bearing shrubbery out there too, but that might be later in the spring.

I used the covering that used to hold in our old memory foam mattress.  The memory foam itself was used up for cushions and dog beds, but the covering with the zipper sat in my stash for a couple years now as I wondered what to do with it.  I cut the zipper off for a cushion cover that I plan to do someday.  

The eggs and salt shaker are there to give the bags some size and shape images for you in case you want to make some. 

Or eat.

There.  Now it'll grow potatoes.  I used a cover over it with some tan burlapy stuff that I had in my stash.  Two big lined sacks, with darts on the bottom allowing a hole the size of my fist in the bottom for drainage. 

Now all I need is time to put dirt in them and plant the potato bits.  I bought some yukon gold potato starters as those are my favorite.  

Maybe today...

Meri's day care didn't start back up with the gusto she was hoping for.  Two of the families, (3 kids), are too afraid to come back quite yet.  Give them time.  With an arrangement with Meri, they were able to save their spots.  But with a mortgage to pay for...  yuck.  She had one 3 year old Friday morning.  Oops 4 year old!  M had had a birthday on the Leap Year day!  So really she's one...  But she's a cutie and has QUITE the attitude!  No wonder her mom sent her back to daycare! lol!  

I had a stack of things, including a rolling pin, to take to Meri's, socially aware delivery...  and as soon as I got in the car with everything, I accidentally poked the bag of flour with my keys.  

sigh...  

My car looks like a drug deal went south.  

Thankfully she has a flour container to dump it into so it won't fly all over her house as well.

The local schools are giving out free lunches to the school-agers and occasionally I've been picking them up for Leon.  I did Thursday at the tail end of their lunch time but got one for him.  I took it home and Leon had already had lunch.  oh...  

So I ate it.  There was no condiments on the bologna sandwich at all, so I put some horseradish/mayo stuff that I had in the fridge on it.  OOHOOHHH... it was good!  I might have to start buying bologna again!  But I really think it was the horseradish...

The yard needs to be mowed again.  The spots where the dogs peed on it are super tall...  

I think my yard is trying to talk to me and it's yelling...

Have a good one!

Breaking the laws of physics

The plants in my mini hot house are growing like crazy!  

It's been 5 days since the leaf lettuce was planted, 

4 since the cukes were.

They've germinated and grown like gangbusters, a LOT earlier than the packet said they would.

Not quite ready for croutons or dill, but give them a week...

Lego my Bacco

To be honest... I thought that just making those bacon masks out of real bacon would be awesome... 

Edible face masks.. mmmm

It didn't even OCCUR to me to find bacon fabric!  Now I need to go shopping... soon...

Anyway...  what I've been up to...

Because who needs extra coffee when you're me?!

Someone on Freecycle was giving away a seedling starter get up.  I have no idea what it's called but it has 4 sets of lights and a heating pad as well as a fantastic rack to hook it all up to.

On here it looks like a tanning bed, but it is an indoor hot house for little plants to start growing.

I have a bunch of little containers with leaf lettuce growing as of yesterday, some sweet mini pepper plants from some store bought peppers and an avocado seed going.  Then this morning I added some cucumbers to make pickles with.  

I'm going to grow as many in my hot house as possible this year as the garden is being used by Jen and Ryan.  I hope to start eating lettuce from my garden in 39 days. 

And with the hot house in my office (it's turned off while I'm out here because I thought I'd caught the Covid yesterday when I kept overheating...) it will remind me to water them all.

I wrote the date they were planted and what's in them in marker on each container.  The peppers and cukes are in apple juice (the 1/2 size) containers with a big hole cut out in the side and some drainage holes in the bottom side.

My sister would be so proud of me!  

And yep - that's a Burda pattern getting traced out in front of it.  No masks in the works right now but there could be if I need to.  I still have about 8 upstairs that need to get some elastic on them some day...

AND this was the boy this morning.  I've challenged him to find and build at least one Lego puzzle from his thousands of books.  The dinosaur that he's working on may have some discolored parts, but that's ok.  If he's missing something, it's either under his bed or in the vacuum cleaner.

A few years back, we all played with Legos at Matthew's parent's house like this.  Dump it all out in piles and start digging for pieces!  Matthew had done one Lego kit so many times, he could do it without the instructions.  I think it was a rocket or maybe R2D2.  Don't recall without asking him.

Anyway Happy Friday!  I hope it's a great weekend!

Planning Tomorrow's Nap and other Weekend Adventures

So Duke got to come into our living room one last time as a resident.  He'll be back as a visitor.

 Leon loved him up good and said good bye.

Meri and I took off as soon as she got home from work on Friday with Duke in the kennel in the van.  He rode the six hours really well.  We stopped half way through at a spooky rest area (it was getting dark) and each of us took turns walking him while the other ran into the restrooms.  

I gave Meri the keys and she was able to drive through the big city with the quirky turns without any problems.  It helps to be 11 pm and minimal traffic...  We hit TONS on the way back through.

We got to Maddy and Matthew's around 12:30 and they had stayed up to greet us.  We got the dog walked and settled down for the night.  Matthew has never had a dog before so they've both been excited for their new addition.  

The next morning, Matthew had to work, so Maddy, Meri and I went up town to the local farmer's market where the girls admired this dog.  

We love their farmer's market.  

It stretches for a LOT of blocks with entertainers here and there.  Got some authentic tacos and some crazy flavored, frozen fruit pops.  YUM!

Then hit up the Dollar Tree for iron wreath frames and Hobby Lobby for flowers to put on them.  Maddy was on a decorative mission and we were her partners in crafting.  We also went to Ross Dress for Less.  We love that place!  Meri got lots of clothes and even a cat dress...

We spent most of the afternoon making the wreaths.  Meri and I each made one large one, but Maddy had four to make.  Oh shoot.  I didn't get a pic of her trio of smaller ones...  They were adorable!  Then a larger one for her kitchen.  It's in the kitchen pic further down where they're making bagels.

I had asked Maddy if she wanted some of the plants from my landscaping before I'd left home and she said YES PLEASE!  Two of each!  I dug up three black eyed susans, several clumps of basil and a few tender shoots of lemon balm.  I was surprised to find the lemon balm!  I thought the basil had overgrown the whole herb garden!  Love that stuff.  It smells so good.  

So I got out her gardening tools and got to work on the side garden.  Digging out weeds and planting things.  The black eyed susans went out front of the house.  

While I did that, the kids all took Duke for a walk.  They went a LONG ways and on the way back, Duke was tired.  He stopped at each house sidewalk and looked up at each house.  "Is THIS it??!... pant pant"  darn.  Next house, stop, "How about THIS one?  Can I be done yet? pant pant pant." shoot.

By the time they got back to their own yard, he had saliva dripping from his mouth and he was dog tired.  He crashed as soon as they got inside and napped a good long time.

He excels at napping.

While they were gone a neighbor across the street had come over to chat with me.  He hadn't met the new owners yet and thought I was them.  He brought me a rose from his garden...  He also knew the previous owner and informed me that I was planting things on top of some tulips.  hmm  I hadn't seen any evidence of that and told him what I was planting.  He heard basil and lemon balm and actually scoffed at me!  "You can't eat THAT!"  and proceeded to go get me some tomato plants that he'd been gifted and a 5 gallon pail of mulch.  So Maddy has a couple tomato plants now too!

Then the kids got back and after he was introduced to everyone and chit chatted a bit more, he went home.  Maddy brought me something cold to drink and the girls dragged around chairs to sit in and helped me out.  It all got done and I hope the plants all survived the trip.  They looked pretty bedraggled.

I played a two player board game with the girls that afternoon.  What a fun game!  Klask.  We're going to have to invest in that one for home...

and Maddy and Matthew played with Duke a lot.  

Matthew was determined to get Duke to use the new dog bed they'd gotten for him, but Duke would rather just lay on the hard wood floors.  It's probably cooler...  

Matthew got him to "stay" but when we left him alone out of our sight, he went back to the floor.  They'll figure it out.

Maddy had burgers in mind for dinner so we all participated in the prep and made "juicy lucys"...  I'd never heard of them either, but you put a piece of cheese inside the hamburger before broiling.  Wow, was that good!  Also on the menu was grape salad, a favorite.

After supper was cleared away, they pulled out some board games and we had a great time playing Bears vs Babies and Exploding Kittens.  I'd never played the Bears one, but it was a riot!  And I'm terrible at it.  But I'll get better...  Meri has it at home too so we'll get some practice in.

We also walked a few blocks away to a wonderful little musically themed ice cream parlor and got their musical flavor of the day.  I don't remember the name of the one that we got, but Meri got the Elvis, which was a peanut butter ice cream.  Oh dear, that was good!  But I think she left the leftovers of it in Maddy's freezer...

After we got back to the house, Maddy wanted to make onion bagels for breakfast and a late night snack.  I sauteed the onions 

and the girls worked on the dough.

I'll post the recipe another day.  It was 10pm by the time the dough had risen enough to form the actual bagels and I was exhausted so I bowed out and went to bed.  They promised they'd wake me up for a fresh warm bagel, but they didn't!  Meri said she talked to me when she came to bed, but I don't remember that either, so maybe they DID offer me one...  Oh well.  We had them for breakfast and they were SO yummy.  Maddy had made bagels for a 4H fair project years ago and that knowledge has paid off!

On Sunday, after church, Meri and I headed for home, and I only took a wrong turn once!  Apparently we'd been talking and suddenly we're in a city with stop lights... I don't remember this from the way out.... Dig out the GPS quick!  We had to backtrack five miles.  Then Meri drove and we took a couple more wrong turns, but she's blaming my navigational skills of not repeating what the GPS says.  I'm blaming her for not listening to me or looking at the signs...  We got over it and enjoyed the rest of trip. Once we knew where we were...

We got back home JUST in time for a birthday party for Jen and Ryan.  Robb had knocked himself out cooking all the sides, making the cake and grilling.  The massive amount of dishes used just got done getting cleaned up this morning. 

Ryan and Jen's birthdays are just a couple days apart.  No photos were allowed, but I got one of the cake a split second after they blew it out together.

All in all, it was a good but bittersweet weekend.  Meri was pretty emotional at parts but is happy that Duke will be well taken care of.  

She's planning a friend's trip out there soon for a another weekend to see Duke again and of course Maddy and Matthew.  

They're well settled in their house by now and Maddy is having a great time with the decorating.  Owning is so much more fun than renting!  

Until you have to kill spiders or mow.