Tuesday, September 22, 2009

away I go again...

Yep, today I'm packing for yet another trip. This time I'm going out to my mom's in Madison for a week. Just me. Chris will be home holding down the fort. I'm flying, of course. You know, I used to LOVE to fly. I remember back when people actually used to get dressed up to fly. These days, you might as well dress comfortably because they're gonna squeeze you into that plane like a sardine. Not to mention you better wear shoes that come off and on easily, because you're gonna have to take them off to get through security. And, now that I have a hip replacement, I get the pleasure of being set off to the side and "wanded" each and every time I fly. They don't feed you a crumb and on some flights you even have to pay for a drink - of any kind. Oy. Nope, it ain't fun anymore at all. It's just transportation. I try to always get an aisle seat as close to the front as possible so I can 1) stretch out at least one leg and 2) get up and OUT asap after we land. But still, I do try to make the best out of the situation and look at it as at least some free time to read if nothing else.

My week home between trips has been pretty busy. We got home late day Monday and on the next Tuesday I had a hair and pedi appointment as well as a visit to my chiropractor and a trip to the grocery store. It made for a long day. Wednesday was all about cleaning up the house because I hosted our women's bible study that night. Just before the study began, we found out that Emily was going to the ER and didn't want to take the baby and could we come and babysit the girls. Time is suspended in the ER, you know, so we knew that meant pretty much an over-nighter and then getting Eva off to school the next day because Dustin had to work at 6:30 a.m. So Chris headed down and as soon as my study was over, I went down to relieve him since he had to work the next day. Dustin was working late and I wanted to stay so he could get some sleep before heading out so early the next day. I slept on the couch and tuned in to the baby. I hadn't seen Maggie for about 3 weeks (that's another story) so at least I had LOTS of sweet Maggie time. Emily got in around 5 a.m. and, of course, wanted to go straight to bed. Gary came over to help get Eva off since Dustin had to leave so early. After Eva left, I got Maggie back to sleep and grabbed another hour of sleep myself. Dustin got home around 2 p.m. and I stayed until around 4 p.m. so he could go get some food and pick up Eva from school and etc.

So - that was my Wednesday night and pretty much all day Thursday. Since I wasn't able to do my church and personal financial stuff on Thursday as I usually do, I had to do it all on Friday. And, believe me, after being gone for 9 days, doing 2 weeks of finances for both the church and myself is a huge task. But, I got 'er done and Chris and I were able to eat out (at Joy Thai - YUM!) and then see a really good movie - "Away We Go". Loved it.

Saturday, I had to run some more errands and get the song service for Sunday ready and then Chris brought Eva home and she spent the night and went to church with us Sunday. After church, we took her to get some new sneakers and a few other things we wanted to stock up for her at our house. We wanted to bestow our Vineyard gifts on D&E when we took Eva home, but Dustin was working and Emily, who had been out with Deborah wasn't home. We waited about 45 minutes and by the time she got there we couldn't stay long because we had a business meeting at church. M&M came over after that for a much-needed time of relaxation and spades (in which we, ahem, killed 'em).

Monday, yesterday, I hosted our monthly card "club" - we play pinochle - so I had a bunch of cleaning and prep to do for that. But Emily asked me if I could come and watch the girls while Dustin took her to an early (and I mean EARLY) dr.s appt. So I got up at 6:30 a.m., got down there at 7:20 p.m. and stayed til around 10 a.m. Chris did come down and help with Eva, so I wouldn't have to wake Maggie to take Eva to school. By the time I got home I was so tired. I did squeeze a little nap in between all my cleaning - which I did a lot of. There were some things that just really needed deep cleaning. And then I had a great time with my card gals.

So, today, I must do the church finances before I leave again tomorrow. And pay a few of our own bills so nothing is late. And then, I have to pack because we'll be leaving around 8:30 a.m. in the morning for the airport in H-burg. Chris is going to drive me so I don't have to leave the car there and pay for that and deal with the shuttle. And I have to get to the office so Chris can adjust me. He says he might be able to do something for my hip which has just been killing me lately. Especially when I'm in bed (trying to sleep). That will be later, then I anticipate some crash time in front of the tube this evening.

Maybe it's a good thing I am going away tomorrow. Because maybe I'll get some rest! After this trip, the only other trip we have scheduled is our little get-away to Cedar Run in October for 2 nights and 3 days. And that is always like a big, collective sigh of relaxation.

We've had some gorgeous weather this week. Very fall-like with chilly temps at night and only reaching the lower 70's (if that) during the day. But beautifully sunny with those gorgeous blue skies. When Eva came Saturday, she had spied the little squirt gun that I'd been using to keep the kitty off the counter and she wanted to play with that so I sent her out the back door to sneak up on Chris and squirt him. Which she did with GREAT delight! And, of course, Chris - who can't do anything half way (remember, Mr. "Invincible"?) got out the super soakers and filled up a bucket and they went at it with each other. I just love hearing Eva's squeals of laughter. It was kind of chilly out, but that didn't stop them from completely soaking each other. Afterwards, we plopped into the freshly cleaned hot tub and she loved that, too.




So, back to Martha's Vineyard... We all decided to take a lovely stroll down the beach - we were at Abel's Hill Beach this day - practically all by ourselves. It was fabulous. The surf was fantastic. Well, for boogie-boarding, anyway. I would stand at the edge of the water and when a wave came in, it just pulled the sand out from under my feet. So, we were all walking along quite a ways down beach from where we had set up our chairs and stuff and Katy (Martha's mom) sees something get washed onto the shore, so she picked it up. It just happened to be a watch. Chris's watch, in fact, that he had lost into the ocean about an hour earlier and that we never thought we'd see again. And we wouldn't have, had we not been walking by that particular spot at that particular moment, because it would have been washed right back out again... Amazing!

Okay, so I'm off to do that banking stuff. And pack. See ya on the other side! :)

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

to Martha's Vineyard and back

Chris and Martha and Matthew and I headed to Martha's Vineyard (to stay with Martha's mom, Katy) for 9 days. And I do feel like we had a proper farewell to summer. We had four beach days, three of them just stellar. And I even can say that I got me a pretty nice tan. Yeah, so it's already starting to fade. But I know it's there and that's all that matters. Geesh. I don't even know what that means.

First things first. I was just barely able to complete a digi layout for One Little Word's current prompt: invincible. Even though we were gone and I've been crazily getting caught up since our return Monday night, I really wanted to do this layout. Because invincible just makes me think of Chris and how he's always doing crazy fun stuff - or just plain crazy stuff. In this case, I just happened to catch a photo of him boogie-boarding while on the Vineyard, so I just thought it all tied in so well - and what a great memory to save, too. Here's the layout:


As always, you can click on the image to make it larger. Credits: Patterned paper by Patricia Christensen; Fonts – Tiza (title); Century Gothic (subtitle and journaling); Wave, stitched frame by Audrey Neal; Swirl stitching by Kristen Cronin-Barrow; Stitched journaling strips by Katie Pertiet; Swirls paper by Gina Marie Huff


Here's the original photo and a few others from the trip - and I mean just a few - I took over 250 pics. And I apologize to Matthew for cutting him out of the photo on the layout. He's pretty invincible, too. But not as much as Chris! :)


This old boat was "parked" just down the road a bit from Katy's house. I thought it looked so cool sitting there in the field amongst the wildflowers.

This is the lighthouse at Gay Head on the east end of the island.



And these last two are on the beach at Gay Head. I'd have to say it was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.

We had a great 9 days. We ate a ton of seafood, pretty much drove from one end of the island to the other, played some games, relaxed, read, did a little shopping and had a lot of laughs.
I've had a lot going on this week as well including hosting our women's fellowship, appointments to keep, babies to watch and cuddle and 2 weeks worth of church and personal bill-paying and checkbook balancing to catch up on - and I'm only halfway through my week home before I head out for another week to visit my mom in Madison.
It's late. I'll try to post again before I leave. I have more to say. But I'm too tired to say it right now...

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