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!

Week in Review!

It has been a week. In a lot of ways I love Mondays. I don't like to make plans for the boy and I for Mondays and I like to use Monday evenings for recuperating from the weekend usually. Catching up on laundry, making a nice dinner for us and going for a walk. It seems to be a good way for me to ease into the week as well so that is usually what we do and this week was no different. In fact this past Monday night I made this as you may have discovered. This past Monday night though on our walk, I also discovered that the boy had made the decision to re-new his contract with the Navy when it is up this September. I was not happy, at all. He has been on medical hold for almost a year, so whether or not they would even let him re-new who knows, but still, I was a little put off by the fact that he would make this decision on his own. So needless to say after a walk, and I am not even going to say nice walk because there were a lot of comments from me to the effects of, I am so not happy with you at the moment and I am really angry. We got back to my house and I had a glass (or two, okay maybe three) of wine to calm my nerves. This was all very unsettling to me because he had been told a while back that if you have not been mobilized at this point, it was not a matter of if but when. So basically what he was doing was volunteering to go overseas. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for what these men and women are doing for our country and such, I just don't know how I feel about him going over there for 18 months voluntarily and leaving me back here alone. He has drills this weekend, we will see what happens when this weekend is over.

Tuesday I made tacos which we had not had on a long time, so that was good and we went for a long walk. It was National Night Out and my whole street, every block was doing something but my own block. I guess they put it off until September. I don't really know anyone on my block anyway and there is a huge church across the street, so oh well. We also had a close family friend pass away this morning. He lost a long private battle with prostate cancer. So my sister and I will be attending services with my parents this weekend.

The boy has been on the hunt for plaid madras shorts. Everywhere. He actually ordered the ones from JCrew, but they only had them left in a 36 and he though, oh what the heck, MAYBE they would fit, ummm, he is a 32, so not sure why he thought this, but needless to say they were too big. I turned to my sister for some suggestions and she came up with three. So we spent Wednesday night running around doing errands and we finally came home with these.

I really like them and they look nice in him. I did find one other pair online which I ordered for him, so at least he will have a couple to choose from.

We had sneak preview tickets to go and see Moliere Thursday evening. So we headed out, each had hair appointments to get our hair cleaned up, I had two inches cut off, which was hard, but I needed it. We grabbed some dinner at this place called Pepitos by my house which we had not been to, very good authentic Mexican, I had fish tacos and loved them. After that we stopped into Melly. Melly is the ONLY Lilly store in the state and I happen to be a regular. It also happens to be right across the street from the movie theater where we see our sneak previews. Every time we go in there the boy says it is like taking a tour of your closet. I picked up a couple of items and we headed to the movie. It was a very good film, we both enjoyed it and if you get the chance please check it out.

Friday was a very busy day for me. Meetings all morning, my sister brought the kids to my house in the afternoon and we took them to the beach for a swim which was a lot of fun and since it was in the 90's, much needed.

It is also nice that the beach is within walking distance of my house, but like my sister says, I must have forgotten what it is like to have short little legs because four blocks can be pretty long to little legs.

We had a good time anyway.

The kids know where all the candy is at Crazy Auntie Jilly's house, so they got into that while my sister and I got ready for the visitation. The boy was baby sitting. For his first time ever. In his life. He had never been alone with children before. My sister and I were enjoying that one. It all worked out great and we hit The Malt Shop afterwards for some dinner. My niece Gracie spent the night with us which worked out fine since my sister and I were attending the funeral together Saturday with my parents. Saturday late afternoon is my sister and brother in laws 2nd annual Mystery Beer Party. I am really looking forward to that, it is going to be a hot one, but I have the perfect Lilly ensemble. Have to get these in before the last days of summer are over. I hope you all have a great weekend!