Weekend Recap!

Sometimes when the weekends come to an end, I am just grateful to get back to a normal routine and schedule. This was one of those weekends.

This was a weekend filled with tears and sorrow, joy and fun and lots of family.

Saturday morning, after the boy got off to drills, my niece and I woke up, I fixed her hair in a pony with sparkly clips and curls and we set off to get my sister so that she and I could attend a funeral together. We sat with my parents and while very sad to have to say good-bye to such a wonderful person, we were all comforted by a beautiful and very personable service done by the priest at the parish, who also happened to be a long time customer.

We saw lots of old friends that we had not seen in a long time and got caught up and reacquainted with others. We got to hear some funny stories about our mother and the hi-jinx that they got into during their younger years as well as getting caught up on current happenings in friends lives.

After the luncheon, my sister and I headed to Costco to pick up a few last minute items for "The Mystery Beer Party". She was really excited for the party and we were both really looking forward to just kicking back and relaxing for the evening. The boy and my brother in law headed to the store for our beer for the evening as well as ice to ice it all down. It was a REALLY hot and humid day here, in the high 90's most of the day and barely dipped into the 80's that evening. Guests started arriving and we settled back and got caught up with friends, neighbors and all of the kids.

It is a really great party theme that all of her friends and neighbors really seem to enjoy. Everyone brings a six pack (or more in some cases) of a beer that they would like to drink for the evening and it gets dumped into a big garbage can full of ice.

The lid has a hole cut out on top large enough for your arm to reach through and grab something, you have to drink what you pull or do a shot. Luckily this year there were no chile beers, those were pretty bad last year. There is also a can for malt beverages and she does one with drink boxes for the kids. Everyone brings an appetizer or snack to share and we all just kind of hang out. The kids all played really well together and didn't really bother the adults. At one point I did sit down and read Corduroy and another book to a bunch of the kids that were there, that was fun and it was cool inside, so that gave me a break as well.

The boy and I left around 11:30, with drills and everything, 4:30 comes way too early. I guess my sister had to kick people out at 4:00 am and she had about 4 or 5 of the boys along with my nephews spend the night. I went over at 11:00 the next morning to help her clean and she and I were the only ones awake. My brother in law surfaced around 2, I hung out for a while and then went and waited for the boy to get back from drills. He is still undecided about whether or not to re-new his contract with the Navy. It is up in September and he has been undecided. They did make him an offer to go to a school for a year to become a chief. This is very enticing for him, but I just don't think he is looking at the big picture, knowing that in order to become a chief he will have to go through a mobilization. We will see what the next couple of days hold in regards to a decision.

We went and picked up some steaks and mushrooms and headed over to my sisters where my parents met us and I grilled up some steaks, sauteed some mushrooms, steamed some corn on the cob and warmed up a raspberry/rhubarb pie that we bought. It was a great way to end the weekend, a nice dinner with my whole family.

There is a lot on tap this week. I am hoping to have a restful Monday evening, like we both enjoy, but there is laundry that never got done this weekend, a lawn that never got mowed this weekend and errands that never got done this weekend. I have fall tennis league that I need to register for by tonight, I have decided to sign up for Junior League of Minneapolis, this needs to be done by Wednesday and we have plans every night this week and are leaving for a long weekend trip with the boys siblings and their families on Friday morning, so I have that to prepare for as well. Better go get to that Ta-Da List now! Hope you all had a good weekend and that you are having a good Monday!