Dreaming of Cruises

 Aeiiieee!!!!!

The plans are in motion for the Mediterranean cruise!!!  The text came last night just before I fell asleep and yikes!  I was awake for the next 2 hours even though my alarm was set for 4:30am.

Yeah - barely 5 hours of sleep!  It wasn't the texting as that only lasted 10 minutes or so.  It was the excitement and then worry about "Who will get the boy off to school?" "Who will be Meri's verbal alarm clock?"  I know all these things will get worked out.  Meri is working harder at obeying her physical alarm clock and I'm sure she'll adjust to it soon.

I've got 4-5 months.  It's going to be ok!  But did my mind know that at 11pm?  nah.

Whew!  Barcelona, France, Italy.  So looking forward to it!  And it'll be somewhat cold.  I'll be doing my research for what to pack in the coming months.

AEIIEEE!

Win Win Mentality

I thought this was a bit of garbage, but it turns out it was a beautiful mushroom in the middle of my yard!  Bloom where you're planted and it sure did!

I took down the homemade awning yesterday.  Only found one dead spider in it. No live ones!! :)

And the major win I did yesterday...

The ice maker in the kitchen fridge had died.  It worked SOMETIMES if the door got left open a crack all night or if I put some ice trays full of water underneath it.  It's kind of like it would suddenly gain a conscience.  "OH MY!  Where's my head!  I need to be making ice cubes!"

Well that worked just a few times.

In my online research, I found that there is a little thermostat thingy inside of the ice maker and it may have gotten too much moisture on it and it broke.  I could believe that.  It cost $30ish on one site and $9 on another.  But then it occurred to me that I had a whirlpool fridge in the garage that we use for overflow for big meals.  The ice maker water line isn't even hooked up!

So I researched further and found that the garage fridge ice maker was the exact same model!

So I unplugged it and removed the ice maker, plugged it back in.

Unplugged the kitchen fridge and replaced it, plugged it back in.

Oh and I found one of the container lids that we were missing behind the microwave that I had to move!

So win win!

An hour or so later, I heard the first clattering of our first batch of ice cubes!

I threw them out.  Kind of like making pancakes.  But this ice maker hadn't been used for years.

But it's working it's little heart out now!!

Tumbling into Weddings

On Friday, I drove to my sister's house in Wisconsin and had a great evening and morning with them all!  We laughed into the evening and then in the early morning too as we had our coffees.  Her husband said, we "cackled".  I'm not sure it was to that extent but I'm not denying it. :)

I even attended a birthday party for about 30 minutes on Saturday for a grand-nephew before hitting the road again for South Chicago.  And when I say South Chicago, you could spit into Hammond, Indiana, it was that close!

That's where the church was.  There were NO gas stations anywhere near the church so nowhere to change my clothes.  One park's restrooms had all the doors locked. uggh.  I drove by the church again and saw one of my cousins outside.  She said I could sneak in the front door and into the restroom to change as that's what she had done. woohoo!

My favorite cousin's son was getting married.  Robb and I had been to the eldest son's wedding smack in the middle of covid.  There was no way I was going to miss this one's!

This is her and her husband during the intros at the reception.

The wedding was beautiful and half in English and half in Croatian.  It was so long that the bridal party got to all sit down for 90% of the service!  There were a lot of attendants.

The reception was in Indiana, about 45 minutes away.

I had a great time visiting with my aunt and all her kids, grandkids and extended family and friends. 

 I decided that I was going to indulge in the desserts and had half a piece of something that was super scrumptious!  I took my glucose later and it was in a range I could live with.  I'm back on target this week though.  Pre-diabetes starts again on Monday! :)

I danced the night away as much as I could, determined to stay as late as I could.  The groom even got his grandma, my aunt, out on the dance floor!

Oh and the very first song of the dance was "Do you remember? The 21st night of September!"  So clever!  but alas, it as September 20th but clever none the less!  It got EVERYONE out on the dance floor!  So fun!  My shoes were digging into the backs of my ankles so I ended up taking my shoes off and tucking them under the table.

They alternated between a DJ and a singer that sang in Croatian with a keyboard!  So talented and eventually I even danced with everyone as they made a super long train weaving around all the tables.

The calves of one leg had some serious cramps in the middle of the night, but it was SO worth it!  and I probably need to drink more dairy.

The bride and groom during the first dance.

Julie and the groom during the mother/son dance.  Yes, I cried!

And boogeying down into the night!

Julie and me

And us when we hit the photo booth!  I have another from when I posed with my aunt and her kids, but the pic I took of it turned out kind of blurry.

My aunt took this pic of me and texted it to me last night.  :)  I don't know what the smirk was on my face but oh well. That's me!  I was probably sucking food out of my teeth.

And I found out that my aunt had used the same wedding dress as my own mother for her wedding!  I loved the history!

I got back to the hotel around midnight and had my alarm set for 6am so I could get on the road in time to make it home for lunch with the kids.  I woke up at 4am...

sigh.  I doom scrolled on my phone until a gas station was open, then hit the road.  It's a 6 hour drive, which turned into 7+ because I got paged.  I worked from a Cracker Barrel for an hour. Nothing like 2nd breakfast and 2 glasses of diet coke to get you going for the day!

Oh and the girls weren't able to make it for lunch after all, so I rested a bit and then took Aggie to her tumbling class because Jen was feeling rundown with a cold.

I'm glad I got some Aggie time in!

So that was my weekend.  A whirlwind trip and a lot of fun.

Bathtubs and mandolines

 My mandolined finger is being bandaged a little less today!  Just one fingertip band aide and it didn't ooze blood when I cleaned the wound this morning.  

With less bulky bandaging, I'm finally able to type without making too many mistakes and hitting the O at the same time as L repeatedoly.

whoops!

Aggie is getting too big for her little bathtub in the basement and last night graduated to my whirlpool bathtub in the master bath.  As long as the water doesn't go above the blowers, it won't leak onto the table in the dining room directly below.  I put a blanket over the table just in case.

Potty training has been fun!

It was so sweet hearing her play while Jen tried to keep her from trying to turn on the hot water over and over.  I think it was a hit and I'm glad someone is using that bathtub again!  I only use it rarely, like every 6 months or so. I'm a shower gal, because who has time to sit in a warm pool of their own filth! HA!  

But wow, that sounds sweet.  I might take one tonight. If Aggie doesn't.

Catch Up

 Went on a Brine fest with Leon, Maddy and Matthew a while back.  LOVED it!  Pickles in everything in several shops around their town,  Pcikle flatbread was a favorite!

Maddy made a rubric scoring technique and we all filled in our scores after each shop/restaurant.

Even a furniture store joined in the fun!  A little pickly booze for the grown ups

And other pickly delights for everyone.  We even got a 5-10 minute massage chair tryout.  I got to try out the $10k chair, Maddy tried one around $7k and Leon fell in love with the $5k one.  He's the one that spent 10 minutes in it.  It was like pulling teeth to get him out of it.

A few of the more memorable statues we found! This one had a fish,

Jen and Aggie made me a stepping stone!  It's still curing until I can find the sealant spray.  I love it!

We make towers as often as possible and then wait for someone to knock it down with a maniacal laugh.  It's usually Aggie.

She and I pet sat for Meri one weekend.  5 cats, all curious about Aggie,

My car hit a milestone!

I started a new project!

Before

During

The after will be some time later,,,  I haven't gotten to the rebuilding part yet.  A friend is helping dig the holes for replacing two of the posts. and the stump is still there.  I'll chisel that out eventually.

Someone was giving away a little chicken coop!  So I couldn't help but snap it up!  Jen and my project next spring may involve chicks!

The Christmas stuff is out in Sam's Club already!  If you squint, you can see the Halloween stuff further down the aisle.

I found a hanging chair at the Goodwill while out thrifting one day!  Couldn't pass it up and glad I didn't.  Aggie loves it!

Dog sat for Maddy and Matthew last weekend!  I enjoyed some peace and quiet except for when a squirrel is in the yard or a neighbor is walking to his car. :)

From my project way up above about the downed tree, I burned a bunch of branches a couple weeks ago.  It was a very productive time!  

And my latest adventure.  Trying to type with a finger down.  I was attempting to be obedient in my health journey and was slicing zucchini on my mandolin slicer.  YEOW!

Ryan helped me bandage it all up and even cleaned up all the blood spillage.

It was throbbing most of the night and even after rebandaging, it still has its moments.  It seems like it doesn't hurt if I'm up and moving around.  NOT good if you're walking around the house at 2am.  But as soon as I sit down to relax and attempt to go back to sleep, the throbbing starts back up,  ick.

It just goes to show you...  A donut wouldn't do this.

Wednesday

 Well, Wednesday was a crushing day.  

I had thought that if Charlie Kirk would someday run for president, I was SO going to vote for him!  I loved listening to the campus conversations and knew that Robb would have loved them too.

It's been a bit of PTSD on this end.

Even though I knew that Rush Limbaugh was dying of cancer, his death, two days after Robb's, was still a compounded shock.   It was difficult enough losing Robb suddenly and then losing someone who reminded me so much of Robb and my dad in the same week. In my mind, it was as if the smartest and most common sense people in my life were gone.  Listening to Charlie was refreshing.

I stayed off FB the rest of Wednesday and part of Thursday. When I did venture back on, I was impressed by all the love but then dismayed by all the hatred.  So much evil in the world.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Jesus said that we would be hated because of Him.  

I hope Robb meets up with Charlie in heaven, as there is no doubt they're both there.

My heart goes out to Charlie's widow.  I can't imagine the horror she went through, especially since she and her kids were there and the horror she continues to go through.

But I do know how she felt that first night when she turned off the lights and tried to get sleep.

A Battery of Issues

 My crazy schedule with kids/energy/car issues this summer have been winding down so that last week, I actually made it to church for the midweek Bible study!  However, I'd missed the note in the bulletin saying that there was NO midweek Bible study last week.  sigh.  day late and a dollar short. That's me!

So I decided I would go LAST night.  I made it to town, dropped off the hard drive for my data recovery and when I got to the car, the battery was dead. ???!!!  I called Meri and she was thankfully close by.  She and bf Josh jump started my car and then I headed to Walmart for a new battery and possibly have this one checked to see if it could hold a charge.

Meri said to go to the North Walmart as she was headed there shortly. okey doke.  So I did.

Unfortunately, as I pulled up to the store, it didn't look like they had an automotive area, like the other one does.  So I called their service desk without even turning the car off. Because you know what trouble that can bring. They confirmed.  Go to the South one. uggh!!!  It was 6:20pm and their auto section closes at 7.

I headed there and realized that I didn't have the right tools to get that battery out.  I'd been planning on swapping it myself (hopefully easily). nope.  and the battery posts were heavily corroded over. yuck.

Not my battery but a close facsimile. 

I went inside and waited for someone to help me. Thankfully two young men in that department took pity on me and came out with the right tools to get that battery out even thought they're not really allowed to!  I got the new one swapped, didn't even take time to have them test the old battery.  It was 3 years old.  I decided to just wing it and assume that was the problem. 

Who can say?  Not me anymore.  oh well.

They helped put it back on for me and the car fired right up!

If it's the alternator, I guess we'll find out.  I do have a tester somewhere that can tell me that.

Do I know where it is? 

nope.

Oh and I missed Bible study again.  

I did use the Bible gateway app tho on the way into town and had it read to me for several chapters in Genesis.  Ooohh  Joseph and those Egyptians!  I guess THAT was my Bible study for this Wednesday.

Tonight, I'm picking up someone at the airport in the middle of the night.  I hope to get enough sleep before and after.  We'll see.  

I'm going to be dragging tomorrow.