{A BMW and Bears, Oh My!} Day Trip to Spooner

On Saturday I headed to Spooner for the day with two sisters and a niece. We went for a ladies luncheon at Mom and Dad's church.

The four hour drive to/from Spooner is not usually very exciting, but since Morgen got sick on the way we thought we had our share of adventure for the day.

Turns out there were quite a few sites worth mentioning. I was the driver, so I didn't get any pics and it would have been hard to anyway as we didn't really stop to enjoy the sites. Read through to the end - worth it!

• First up is the BMW we saw on the ice on a lake with a sign "Dunk the BMW"- apparently a contest...maybe guess the date it sinks...?

• A dozen or more bear statutes carved out of tree trunks also caught our attention. Must be a tourist gimmick. Tell me, who really needs a bear statute?!

• Oh, the bear cub crossing the highway definitely topped the bear statutes. The cub was cute and made it safely across. I can still hear myself exclaiming, "Bear! ...Bear! ...Bear!" as I was pointing him out on the side of the road. As we drove past I saw him in the rear view mirror get onto the highway and miss getting hit by any cars.

• And the stretch limo heading east. Wonder who was enjoying the ride?!

• A herd of deer in a field. Didn't know we were on a Midwestern safari!

• A jet streaking the clear skies made a big X.

• Then there was helicopter hovering above I-35.

• And lastly, the roof top of the fore mentioned BMW. Yep, by the time we were on our way home, it had sunk!

I don't recall such a site-filled trip to or from little ol' Spooner before. This was one for the books - or at least a blog post!  :-)

---

friends from far

Guam Danna and her 4 kids planned a 6 hour layover at MSP with some online friends. When I saw a fb status about it, I jumped in and said I would love to see them too! I hadn't seen Danna since I left Guam in '01, and that was when she only had one child! Her husband, Abe, was unable to make this trip as he was preparing for a work trip that would take him around the world, well, at least to Europe and Asia and a few other places, I can't remember!

Anyway, we met at the Mall of America and enjoyed dinner at Tucci Manuchi or something like that...it was especially yummy Italian food since I had skipped lunch to finish work early and meet up with them as soon as possible!! Danna's online friends were lovely and they brought some of their kids. Danna's kids enjoyed making new friends; it was fun to get to know her kids too!! Little Leslie warmed up to me after her brothers each found a buddy and she was left with no friend. She decided I could be her friend :0)

Jordan

Nathan & Steven

Leslie

changed plans

This weekend I had planned to be in Watertown for a nice weekend away. I had my last 1/2 day Friday to use for the summer and was very excited about leaving town. It just happens that it was also Maranatha's Alumni Weekend and being in Watertown for the event would have been fun! I say would have because I didn't make it to Watertown.

I left work around 11:45 about 15 min later than I would have preferred. I was hungry. I hadn't eaten anything that morning, not even my regular breakfast smoothie! Well, I hit the road and knew I needed fuel for my car as well, so I only drove out of the Mpls traffic before I stopped to get gas and grab a sandwich. I started down the road again and got another 15 min down the road when I heard a strange noise. As soon as I realized it was my car, I started to pull over. The noise was getting louder and louder too! When I stopped, I opened my door and looked back. This is what I saw:

I had pulled over as far as I could, but I could still "feel" the heavy traffic as they whizzed by me. I didn't even get out of my car. I started to making phone calls and sending texts to my sisters (I know, I know...). My knowledge of changing a tire is limited, to say the least, and it would have been best for me to have assistance while endeavoring to get my car back on the road.

Here are the some of the many reasons I didn't want to get out of my car...

When the sisterhood didn't produce immediate results, I began to look up nearby car repair shops/towing companies using my handy-dandy phone (HTC Hero). I found two: one exit up and one exit back. The first place wanted $85 to change my tire. The second place wanted $65. I went with the second place. They did state that they would not change the tire on the side of the interstate, but would tow it to the next exit and then change the tire.

While I waited for the tow truck, my brother-in-law, Luke, called to say he was on his way. Since there wasn't a whole lot he could do for me at this point, I was very relieved to know that he was coming and my spirits were lifted. It really was too dangerous for anyone to change the tire on the side of the interstate, and I knew I would need to be towed regardless of who was coming and when.

I was still on the phone with my brother-in-law when a State Trooper arrived to check out the situation. By this time I had been there about 30 minutes. Basically, he wasn't any help...

...but he did leave me a nice orange sticker on the back of the car to note that he had been there.

Help finally arrived in the form of a tow truck and my car & I got a short ride to the next exit which happened to be a weigh station about a mile away.

So $98 later, I had a changed tire. Luke arrived a few minutes after the tow truck drove off. We then spent the rest of the afternoon searching for new tires in the town of Hudson (exit 2). Three tire stores later (Tires Plus, Fleet Farm, Tire Proz), we settled on the "deal" of the day for four new tires. Two of the

While we waited for the new tires, we went to Wal-mart for some miscellaneous car items for Luke's car and then McDonald's for some ice cream. I found out that Luke had gotten out of work for me! It was very nice of his soon to be ex-manager to let him come help me! Of course, he only has two days left there before he starts his new job (praise the Lord!) so he didn't feel like he would be missing much, I guess.

Lesson of the day:

more miles, more smiles

This summer is turning out to have a bit of travel in it for me!

I left Minneapolis a week ago Friday evening and stopped at a friend’s in Watertown which is roughly half-way to my parents. I spent Saturday morning visiting a couple of friends and then headed East again. I detoured through Lake Geneva and took a picture or two of the lake. I love it there! but I didn't want to waste too much time since I had made this a two-day trip... :(

The first part of last week I was able to help my mom prepare the house for 14 people before my Dad had pilonidal cyst surgery on Wednesday. I didn't realize my parent's house was so big until I had to clean it! I took care of dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms, ceiling fans, etc. We also went to the grocery store...hmm, fun!

On Wednesday, the surgery went well and Dad made it home to recover in only a few hours. He did really great the day of and day after surgery as he still had lots of pain meds in him, but he slowed way down each day after that. Of course, there was a lot of excitement around the house as my new niece, Lily, came for a visit the same day. Anna had picked up Jake, Meg & Lily from the airport in Indy and they drove up and met us at the house.

Funny story about the waiting room...

Mom had gone back to sit with Dad before his surgery. I waited in the waiting room and when Mom returned, I headed out to get us some lunch. When I came back we left some of our things (bag of snacks, water bottles, and a book) on a chair and went to a kitchenette area to eat our lunch. We ate and chatted but didn't get a chance to go back to the sitting area before a nurse came to get Mom because the surgery was over.

I went to wait in the sitting area until she came to get me. I didn't go sit by our things because a lady was sitting next to the seat with our things and I didn't need them. I had my phone and was checking email, facebook, etc. I looked up a few times and noticed the lady had gotten interested in my book. No harm, I thought.

I didn't think much of it until I heard rustling of a bag and looked up to see her rummaging through our things and unzipping the bag with our water! Ok, I guess I should move the stuff out of her way... I walked over and very sweetly said, "I can move this out of your way."

As I had approached her, she had put her finger in the book and moved her arm across the back of a chair. She said something about wondering what it was and maybe something else, I don't really remember because I was eyeing the book. She was acting like it was hers... "I guess, I need the book, too." I said...and finished in my head, since it's a library book.

She very hesitantly said, "It was just getting good." I didn't explain that it wasn't her book because just then Mom came to get me to go back to see Dad. I just smiled and walked away. Thankfully she was gone by the time I came back out to go get the car to take Dad home.

Anyway, back at the ranch...The rest of the family trickled in each day for the next two days: Jen's arrived late on Thursday and Jess & Luke arrived late on Friday. All 14 of us were together so we were able to get a family picture on Saturday morning (I’ll be sure to post it when I get a copy! I think Jake's editing it for us).

I had to leave Sunday to make the 9 hour drive back and the rest of the family trickled out throughout the rest of the day and also today…except for Lily and her parents—they get to stay until Wednesday.

Hopefully my dad will heal quickly and then be able to have surgery for his herniated disc. He’s been in a lot of pain from that since Easter. He describe the pain that goes down his legs like a “220 volt”.

My trip home was mostly uneventful. I did stop in Watertown for a couple of hours and catch up with the Kurschner sisters. Oh, and when I arrived back in Minneapolis there was lovely construction greeting me when I was only a few miles from home! I was detoured downtown with no further signs of assistance. Now, I do work downtown, but not in the area where I was diverted from the highway...so my trip lasted a little longer than planned.

It was good to be back and sleep in my own bed!

miles of smiles & a few tears

I planned a last minute trip to visit a dear, dear friend to "get away from it all" and also to be an encouragement to my friend.

What I expected was a trip with a change of pace, a vacation from my work-eat-sleep, work-eat-sleep routine. I expected to catch up with my friend who I hadn't seen in 2 years, learn about her new life in Colorado, help with her kids, and just plain enjoy being with my friend Danna.

What I got was all that and more!

Saturday - woke up at 4:15a to get to my 7:05a flight. Arrived in Denver at 8:30 and we hit the ground running! Danna and Gang picked me up and we headed back to the "ranch". They're currently living with Danna's brother's family who happened to be on vacation for almost 2 weeks...leaving behind 1 dog, 1 cat, 12 chickens, and a huge garden that needed water!

We arrived at the ranch and the Dumplin' Gang scattered to their usual... Kelli, age 9, loves to read. She probably read 3 or 4 books while I was there. She also loves to swing on the tire swing that creeks with an annoying sound [kerr-erk! kerr-erk! kerr-erk!]. Karis, age 6, always heads for the chicken coup: she loves to carry "Fluffy" around like a sack of potatoes!! Ryan, age 4, just loves to bug and he's got 3 sisters, so he's good at it too! Little Selah, age 2, who acts like she's 3, she loves to sing. Whatever she's doing, she's got a song going while she's doing it. [You love me, You love me, We're a happy family...You love me, You love me, We're a happy family...] One more time, Selah-baby! :0)

That evening, after a delicious dinner of Danna's famous Calico Beans, we headed to the local fireworks to meet up with a group from church. We arrived a little late so we were lucky to find a parking spot. We found the group and were warmly welcomed! The fireworks were delightfully choreographed to patriotic and other fun music, but they were a little loud for Karis - she had her head buried under jackets and blankets. She made it through like a champ and then while we were waiting for the traffic to clear out, she enjoyed playing with a sparkler from some people we didn't know. All the kids had fun playing with their new friends.

Sunday we were all exhausted from our late night and swooped into church right as the preaching began. Kelli took the two youngest down to class and Danna headed to the cry room with Karis. There wasn't a seat for me in the cry room so I slipped into the auditorium to hopefully get a blessing.

To my surprise, I not only got a blessing, but a challenge to my thinking! The speaker was just getting into his message about work. Work?! I don't want to hear about work, I thought. Here's the outline:

Get...to Work
Proverbs 6:6

I. Work is given to us...
A. As a good gift from a loving God.
B. As an opportunity to serve others.
C. As an opportunity to partner with God.
D. As an opportunity to be like God.

(Work was hard before the fall. God cursed the ground which brought thorns & thistles.)

II. In your service of others...
A. Thorns and thistles are produced easier than wheat.
B. Thorns and thistles drive you back to dependence on God.
C. Thorns and thistles train and prepare you for future service.

Application
- Some jobs are not for Christians.
- Choose work carefully...don't choose for what it can do for you but what it can do for others.
- Retirement is not a biblical term. There's only a change of service.
- Trust God to place you in the area of service he wants you in.
- Trust God to place you in the perfect timing in your work.
- I need to change my thinking from "work is a necessary evil".

Sunday late in the afternoon we headed to downtown Denver. Neither Danna, nor I had been there before so we weren't sure what to expect. We found directions online for something called 16th Street Mall. Turns out it was a fun, outdoor mall with street vendors in the middle of the road. Also turns out there was a Jamba Juice, which Danna claims Kelli is made out of, so that was our first stop! Our second stop was a bathroom for 2 of the kids. We then started to explore the mall but were quickly distracted by Karis' interest in a horse & buggy. After a short inquiry, we all climbed aboard and had a half-hour tour of downtown Denver! Everyone enjoyed the ride so we decided to end our trip downtown on this high note. Side note: as we were heading out, Danna mentioned she hadn't started to water the garden yet (this usually takes most of the day). My serious reply was, "It's Sunday! God will provide!" Even though I meant what I said, I truly did not know I was speaking as a prophet! On our way home from downtown, it began to rain, pouring rain!! Jehovah Jirah, God will provide!

Monday was possibly going to be a trip to Garden of the Gods and Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, but a call from church friends with an invitation to hang out at a pool easily changed our plans. We were all excited to get a little extra vitamin D, especially me!! That evening Kelli had a friend over and we made a little campfire and s'mores in the cool of the evening. The ranch has several pine trees in the yard, so there were plenty of pine cones to add a little extra spark!

Tuesday was the last day of my visit, so we were all a little sad. I did have a college friend come by and take me to lunch (thank you , Jeni!!) so that brightened the day for me, but not so much for the Dumplin' Gang. They wanted to go with me, of course! :) Jeni and I had fun catching up on ol' times and what we've been doing in the 12 years since we last saw each other.

Back at the ranch it got a little crazy before heading out by 3:15 to get me to the airport: little Ry Guy got his feeling hurt and spent a while in a room...; Karis collected "berries" from a bush outside to make a smoothie, but that didn't that didn't end well; and Selah ended up in tears, but I can't remember why... Kind of made it a little stressful for the Gang's mama, but somehow we made it out the door on time! We even had time for a couple of detours: Gap & Wendy's!

I was definitely sad to end my visit. I miss them all already!! I hope it's not 2 years before I see them again!! MSP to DEN seems to have decent ticket prices, so we'll see...!!

this & that...time to catch up, continued again & again

Back at the end of June, I started to work on catching up on my blogging. So for the past month, along with keeping up with current events, I've been getting caught up. I did not realize it would take this long!! This marks the final entry for my catch up phase (not to be confused with ketchup!).

In April the church ladies hosted a shower for Jess. Here are a few pics:



My mom was able to come up for the shower and here are a few pics from her time here with us:



Not to be left out, Dad came up for a police chaplain conference and was able to be my first guest in my new apartment (arriving just in time...he didn't have to move anything or help unpack!). He stayed at the apartment with Luke, who was my 2nd guest. Here are a few pics from back in May:

escape to wisconsin - WTTN trip

Recently I mentioned that I took a trip to Watertown to do a PartyLite Show. Here are a few pics from the trip (note the captions):



I enjoyed visiting with many friends during my weekend away. My friend Sue even took some time off from the Pie Shop to go to Milwaukee to the Domes with me. Here are a few pics:



**You can click on a picture to view the entire album in a larger size in Google Photos**

moving day = many blessings!

My most recent move was due to the fact that Jess got married.

We started the loading at 9:00am and thanks to everone's* efficient help, my stuff was moved in an hour and I was unpacked by 3:30pm!

Most of the unpacking was done by Liz Charpie and I, but if I remember right Jen and Lindsay unpacked half of my kitchen before they had to leave.

*Attempt to list everyone: Jen, Morgen, Heidi, Eric, Lindsay, Liz, Mr. Charpie, Cynthia, Ruth, Phil, Doug, Deb, did I miss anyone?!

Here are few pics from moving day:

Move to Virginia Ave N

And in case you're curious, here's a moving summary - 11 Addresses in 11 Years:

1. May '09- - Virginia Ave N #1, New Hope -my own place, hopefully for a few years!


2. Aug '07-June '09 - Condo, New Hope - Jess bought the Condo when I moved here so we could share the cost of living near the City of Lakes!


3. June '07 - July '07 - Markgrafs, Hanover (A.K.A. Canada) - lived with Jen & Co. for 6 weeks when I first moved to Minneapolis.


4. Jan '07 - June '07 - Western Ave, WTTN - lived in small one bedroom apt (1 of 4 apt in an old house). Creepy old guys lived in the other 3 apts...but it was my HOME for 6 months.


5. Aug '06 - Jan '07 - Eighth St., WTTN - lived in 3rd floor apt of Spencer's huge mansion-house. Good times with Michelle, Dennis & Co. when I'd stop by the Kitchen on my way to do laundry in the basement :)


6. Aug '03 - Aug '06 Lafayette St., WTTN - lived on the "guys side" of campus with Betsy & Linda; got to walk to work!


7. May '02 - Aug' 03 - Cady St., WTTN, WI - lived with Sue, Lora, & a few cats for a little over a year when I found housing without cats...


8. Jan ' 02 - April '02 - Burnsville, MN - lived with Anna while we worked temp jobs to support ourselves and finished a lease on an apt for Jen & Eric.


9. Jun '01 - Jan '02 - McPherson, KS - lived with mom & dad until I "found myself" - haha! :)


10. Jun '00 - Jun '01 - Imperial Apt 1, Barrigada, Guam USA - had apt by myself, but spent most of my time with Brenda & Cristin...they called me roommate too!


11. July '98 - Jun '00 - Guahan Apt A1, Barrigada, Guam USA - had different roommate each year, Christa & Missy.

road trip

Watertown, WI. I spent my formative years in the town of water. It's a nice place to visit and a fine place to live. If I won the lottery*, I would buy the nicest house in town and live there for, oh, just 6 months out of the year (obviously, the winter months would be spent somewhere warmer...). *You gotta play to win. Too bad I don't play!

So since I'm not living in Watertown anymore it's fun to visit once in a while. Last week I drove down on Thursday and spent the afternoon with my friend Sue. She snuck away from the pie shop just long enough to venture to Madison for dinner. We had fun catching up on each other's happenings. Our meal at BD's Mongolian Grill was interrupted by a power outage (for the entire East Towne area!), but since we were the only customers in the restaurant, the servers were very attentive. Good thing the grill was gas!
That evening we stopped by the rehearsal for The Music Man, a production that MBBC was putting on this coming weekend. When I was young I think we watched the classic movie every year and I loved it! It was disappointing to hear they wouldn't be performing the song Shipoopi...well, not really... My real favorite song & choreography of the movie is Marian the Librarian.

Friday I spent part of the day on Maranatha's campus visiting with former co-workers and seeing the changes around campus. Then I went to lunch with two friends, Sue and Donna. We too had a great time catching up on each of our life happenings. Donna's sister has cancer and it was sad to hear about what's going on with her, but it was good to find out how to pray more specifically for Donna and her family.

After lunch I chatted with a few more peoples on campus and then headed over to see my old OSM boss, Doug. I say "old" because he was at home recovering from shoulder surgery. This man has had more surgeries on his joints then I've had...well, I can't think of anything funny, but he's had a lot! His whole family was home so I was able to catch up with everyone! I can't believe how big the kids are getting - including Nic who will be graduating from college and getting married this summer! It was especially good to see Kris who's also had quite a challenging year as she had cancer.

My visit with the Richards family was a bit long-winded so I had to fly across town to get back to Sue's house where I was staying. She was cooking dinner for me and my Watertown family: Kurschner's, Lawson's, & Chowanec's. (That reminds me of my Guam family. Anyone remember what we named ourselves when we combined our last names to make one big new name?...hmm...Traucht, Flaming, Nixon, Thompson, Clodfelter...how'd we do that?!)

Anyway, Sue cooked a delicious meal and we all got to catch up and also be entertained by the two little munchkins, Noah and Leah. I've included a few pics from that evening below.

Click to Enlarge

On Saturday I met my Watertown family at the pie shop for breakfast before I headed back to the City of Lakes. Wait! this is a town of water, too!?!


All in all it was a great road trip! Beautiful weather. Safe driving. Wonderful fellowship. Believe it or not, there were plenty more people that I wished I would have had time to catch up with. So if you're one of the people I missed hopefully we'll connect next visit! See you soon!

bright bling!

Just in case you missed the news flash/bright light coming from the Minnesota sky...my sister, Jess, she got engaged this past weekend!

This happened Friday night when Luke flew in from Pennsylvania to surprise Jess. Thankfully he gave me a heads-up on Wednesday so I could secret-clean the house. (Didn't really have to do it secretly, Jess wasn't home much to notice b/c of two basketball games and practices.)

So how did Luke propose, you ask? He was waiting at our condo for her to come home after she coached a high school girls basketball game. Jess's friend Liz had picked Luke up at the airport and helped him run a few errands. Then I got the text message that he had arrived safe and sound. "The Eagle has landed" would have been appropriate, but since Jess was busy with her basketball game we didn't need much code-talk. (Well, except when the sisterhood was trying to discuss over the head of one 4-year-old niece..."Who's leaving the airport, Bekah?")

Thankfully her team won :) and she only stayed through ½ time of the boys’ game. We (those of us "in" on the plan) were getting nervous that she wasn’t going to go home! It all worked out, and we didn't even have to come up with too many scenario variations to get her back to the condo. She said, "Yes!" he tells us. You can see the ring really is lovely!

Now we’ve already had a party to celebrate their engagement and the date has been set for May 30, 2009. Yep, this May! The sisterhood of Mpls has already purchased her a wedding planner and have plotted for the first dress-shopping excursion. Also, the NC-sisterhood has claimed a win: read more here. The youngest of the sisterhood is being tapped for her photography skills...

So this little event of last weekend actually changes two significant things in my life:

1. I will be moving, really soon! Jess owns the condo in which we both live and
   they've (almost for sure) decided they'll (probably) be living here... So
   apartment hunting has begun!
2. I’m going to postpone my trip to Romania scheduled for earlier in May. Tickets had not yet been purchase, but my passport was recently updated. A dear college friend, Kim, is getting married to a Romanian fellow on May 17th, but with these two weddings happening so close together and with a move on my horizon, I’m needing to plan the trip at another time. My friend is still going to live in Romania after they get married and they are planning on a state-side celebration in June. Fortunately my travel companion (another college friend of mine), Tricia, will not have to travel alone. Her sister is still planning to make the trip with her. I do plan to get to Europe sometime in my lifetime though! Maybe next year!

Congrats, Jess & Luke!

2 0 0 9 travel WISH list

Did you know I had a travel WISH list? (Emphasis obviously on WISH.) The following is where I'd like to go in the next two-three years (listed alphabetically by location; the dates are mostly just preferences; the people hopefully want to see me):

California
October 2009 Visit my Guam friend/roomie, Cristin and her husband Steve in LA.

Europe
May 2009 Go to Kim's (college friend) wedding in Romania and stop by Paris or London on the way. Travelling with former college roommate Tricia.

Florida
February 2010 Visit Madrigal friend Beth and catch some rays @ the beach.

Georgia
September 2010 Visit Danna and the troops in Atlanta.

Illinois
November 2008 Visit former Guam roommate, Christa, and her family in Pekin.

Indiana
November 2008 Visit mom & dad for Thanksgiving
March 2009 Visit mom & dad for Easter (not sure what day this is though).
November 2009 Visit mom & dad for Thanksgiving
March 2010 Visit mom & dad for Easter (again, not sure what month this is though).
November 2010 Visit mom & dad for Thanksgiving

Kansas
July 2010 I think we're due for a family reunion in 2009, but not sure if anyone is planning this yet. So I decree that 2010 would be a good year for it. :)

North Carolina
December 2009 Yikes! I haven't seen Jake & Meg's beach yet!

Washington DC
June 2010 Visit former Guam roommate Missy. Catch up on some historical sites.

Wisconsin
April & July 2009 Visit Watertown family.
April & July 2010 Visit Watertown family.

Believe it or not, there are more people and places I'd like to go to but these are the most realistic possibilities...I hope!! :)

I've been perusing www.kayak.com and am signed up to get weekly price-alert emails for some of the places I won't be able to drive to.

Where do you WISHto go?

life on the lakes

Edit: A few email updates from last summer that I found...

Weekend Trip#1
To quote my sister quoting a favorite quote: "Let me 'splain...no, let me sum up!" --- Sun. Driving. Rain. Catching up with friends from far and farther. Alumni Weekend. Hanging out with the Chow's. Coffee Shop. Thoroughly Modern Milly at Fireside. More sun. Church. More driving. Sleep!

To be more specific my weekend started around 11:15 a.m. on beautiful, sunny Friday. Using my 2nd free, summer 1/2 day, I headed out of downtown Mpls going the wrong way! Never fear, I found my way out of the city and on to WI. The trip was relatively uneventful until it started to rain about 10 miles from the WI Dells. I made it safely to Madison and joined Kim and Tricia, two college friends, for dinner at TGIF at East Towne. Kim just got back from Romania and Tricia is transitioning to a new job, so we had lots to catch up on. When I reached Watertown it was quite late -- for a working girl -- after a long week.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day as well! I headed up to campus to check out Alumni Weekend. If you remember, the football and soccer games were cancelled so not a lot of action was planned. Mr. Davis welcomed me to campus and gave me a tour of the new, very up-to-date coffee shop. I'm so glad I had a part in it! After the tour I was off to the volleyball game. The alumni had a good showing, but the Crusaders won. I had fun catching up with Pam and Mark. Little Noah made me smile when he greeted me with a huge smile and said my name! I was able to catch up with several more people at the Alumni cookout. I think everyone enjoyed the snow cones best! I hung out with the Chowanec crew for a while after the cookout was over. I left them planning to take a nap and then get ready for my evening. I made a quick stop at Speedway to fill up for my trip home and then got a call that my good lunch buddy was at the new coffee shop. I headed back up to campus to enjoy the atmosphere of the new coffee shop and catch up with my friends the Hibbs. I stayed until it was time to get ready for an evening at the theater. Sue and I headed to Fort Atkinson to watch a musical at the Fireside. Last Christmas Sue's mom had given us a gift certificate but we hadn't found time to go and/or a show we wanted to go see. Dinner was a five course meal and was very delicious. The show was amazing! I loved it! The evening was kind of long after such an eventful day and the long drive the day before.

Sunday I thoroughly enjoyed visiting my home church, Calvary. It was very refreshing to see everyone and participate in awesome congregational singing! I can't believe how well Calvary sings! Over the years I've heard people say that we have some of the best singing, but it really was evident to me this visit. Pastor also preached a great message that was both encouraging and challenging to me. After church I headed to the Upper Krust for lunch with the Lawsons, Chowanecs, etc. My long drive looming ahead, I decided to get on the road, but not before I contemplated a nap. Not wanting to get home too late, I decided to skip the nap and just drive. I made it to Madison before my weekend caught up with me...I had to pull over for a short rest. After dozing off for just a few minutes, I felt refreshed enough to finish the rest of my drive...4 more hours! Thankfully I made it back to the Cities without incident. I got back in time to meet Morgen and Carsten at McDonald's after church. Oh, Jen and Eric were there too :)

Weekend Trip #2
Because Jess and I have great bosses we were able to head out of town for the long weekend by 3:00 pm on Friday. Traffic in the Cities was not bad so we thought we could make good time to Indiana, maybe 9 1/2 hours instead of 10. We got on the road and were on the east side of Mpls when I remembered that I was in charge of brining the I-Pass (Jess loaned hers to a friend). Nope, I didn't bring it. We discussed how driving through Chicago without an I-Pass could add quite a bit of time to our already long trip. Then we had a revelation...I thought I had read online when I first set up my I-Pass about paying for missed tolls online. Of course I set up my I-Pass almost 2 years ago and couldn't remember exactly. We called one of Jess's friends who had Internet access right then and found out we could go through without our I-Pass and we would be charged later. Whew!!

We made it to Amish-ville, as we fondly call the area where my parents live, without incident, but it was about 2am. My mom greeted us with a yawn, a hug, and "Hi, glad you made it, brunch is at 10:30. Good night!" and we all went to bed. My dad was still out on his weekly ride-a-long as Chaplain (Nappanee Police and Elkhart Cty Sheriff Depts). He got in about 3am. We didn't hear a sound.

On Saturday Anna was there when I got up and we ate a delicious brunch prepared by mom. Sometime after noon we headed to Goshen to see Anna's new apartment. She got a sweet deal because she's an officer. She drives around the complex before and after her shift and gets a lot of money off her rent each month. We were all impressed! After the apartment tour Anna had to work so the rest of us headed to Warsaw to pick up 11 gallons of paint for the new condo (mom gets a deal from work at Sherwin Williams). We stopped at Lowe's and Walmart to complete our shopping experience that day. When we got back to the ranch we opened up the Flaming Salon: Mom and I highlighted each others hair. We think it turned out great! :) Mom then prepared us another great meal...lasagna.

We enjoyed a great Sunday: Church, Lunch, Nap, Church. It was good to be home! Monday was travel day and back to reality! Tuesday morning came too early!

Currently, no trips planned until Thanksgiving. You're welcome to come visit me in the Cities!