What's Been Goin' On?

I have some thoughts running through my head begging to be blogged, however, I have not had time to put more than 50 coherent and cohesive sentences together. Although I'm blogging today, it will be to write down what's been going on using bullet points and perhaps a few pictures. Hopefully, I'll soon have time to get rid of the sentences in my head about watching a teenager learn patience, while thinking back on times when patience has served me well, despite my trying to fight against it. Until then...here's what I have:

I was driving Kate to Westby yesterday and thinking about how many times our guest room has been used since we've moved into this house on March 25th. Just from a quick count, without the aid of my calendar, I've come up with 31 nights. Yes, 31 nights out of the past 116 days we've been in the house, we've had overnight guests. Sure glad I went ahead and bought that bed for the guest room! For those of you interested in visiting, we'd love to have you, but the Hartberg Hotel is booked until August 9th. We do have the option of putting you on air beds in the Peace Room or the twin bed in Drew's room.

(Note to self: I must use bullet points for my thoughts from here on out or I will run out of time!)

Speaking about driving, we have a new, but used set of wheels in our garage. After a painful and long search of looking for cars on the internet, looking at dealerships in every city we've passed through, and test driving many vehicles, Michael is now driving a silver 2002 Honda Accord that we bought in Minneapolis this week. Michael and I have cosigned a small loan on it so he can start building his credit for the eventual purchase of a home. (I hate to bring this point up again, but how did I get to this place? My son will be leaving home in a year...only a year...and I am cosigning loans to build his credit? Seriously, where did the time go? It seems like yesterday I was holding him in my arms and wondering what kind of person he would be, and here he is, grown up into a real live person!)

(Note to self: Seriously stop writing so much. You have to be out the door and ready to go in 1.5 hours.)

As mentioned above, Kate (from Ironwood) spent a week in Cresco. We thoroughly enjoyed her company. I felt like a daughter was leaving us when I dropped her off with Michele in Westby. I rushed back from Westby to have dinner with David and friends at one of Decorah's new restaurants, Rubaiyat. Great food. Great company.

Speaking of Michele, Pete accompanied Michele over to Cresco last Sunday so we could play golf, grill out, drink wine, and eat the delicious German Chocolate Cake that Michele brought for David. He is still smiling from eating that cake. (See below for recipes from the grill out.)

I took the kids tubing on the Upper Iowa River this week. Each kid brought a friend, and I was the chaperone. It was a blast. We saw cool wildlife and laughed and relaxed for nearly 2.5 hours. A great way to spend $50($6. per tube, plus $1 to transport rider and tube to the drop off point upriver.)

In my spare time (giggle) I've been working on a quilt for the Hospital Auxiliary Quilt Auction. I finished cutting in out this week and I've now started sewing the blocks together. I've decided that the fabric I purchased (a bunch of fat quarters that were put together by a quilt shop for this particular pattern) is ugly. I'm not thrilled with it at all. I hope it looks better once I put it all together. Otherwise, I may donate it with a fake name on it.

While I quilt, I like to have a TV series playing in the background. Since my quilting room does not have a TV, I've found a way to still watch my series. I watch video on the laptop from the Netflix website, where you can "Watch Instantly". I'm currently watching Season 1 of Friday Night Lights. This is one great show. I hope it continues into another season. The acting is fabulous, the videography or cinematography, or whatever you want to call it (I'm not into the technical differences) is wonderful. The storyline is great. I love it! And I think people who don't even like football would love it.

Since we're on sports....Rachel heads to basketball camp tomorrow. She's very excited and hopes her arm recovers in time to start ballin'. Drew and Rachel were given shots at their sports physicals yesterday. Michael got a pass since he's in a basketball tournament this weekend. He'll have to go back to the clinic to get his sometime before football camp.

We're starting college visits. Sunday and Monday we'll be looking at Iowa State. I'm excited about where our lodging will be. We are staying at the Memorial Union. I thought it would be a great way to get a feel for campus.

Friday I will be leaving for a week in GB with the Littles. Michael and David will have to remain in Cresco and work. My visit will include dinner at HuHot Mongolian Grill on Bob, who owes me because the Kansas Jayhawks won the NCAA Basketball tournament. Remember that wonderful day? I still do!

On August 1, we will meet David and Michael in Minneapolis for another campus visit. This time we are visiting the U of M. From there, I will fly out of MSP to San Francisco, where I'll spend a few days with Tina, Josh, and Justin, and then fly back to MSP with Justin. We're excited to have him spend a week with us. We love exploring with younger kids. You see a whole other side of the city, like Art in the Park, and other fun activities for little kids.

I have 45 minutes to get out the door. So much for bullet points. Got to run!

anne