Author: althea

Aug. 16: Grace and I had a great time in Vermont at Jennifer’s wedding.  Vermont is such a beautiful place.  I was there several years ago with Wes and Sarah.  This was a very short visit, but it reinforced my opinion that I would get along very well living in Burlington.
Pictures from the wedding are now in the gallery.
Grace and I met on Friday late afternoon at the Burlington airport.  We met up with Jennifer and her friends and family at a park on Lake Champlain for supper.  We were all staying at the same hotel, and our room was a nice suite, so after putting Sylvia down for bed, Lara, Reid, and Jennifer came over to watch the Olympics and hang out.

On Saturday morning, we met up with Jennifer, bridesmaids Amanda and Lara, and Do’s sister to watch Jennifer get her hair coiffed.  Afterwards we ate breakfast at a delicious creperie called The Skinny Pancake.  Thumbs up for nutella and strawberries on crepes!  The wedding was at 2:30, so we headed back to the hotel to get dressed and then drove about a half hour south of Burlington to the beautiful park where the wedding was held.  I had fun taking pictures as the wedding party got ready.  Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wedding began…and about 10 minutes into the ceremony, the thunder and lighting got close enough – everyone headed to the backup indoor location.

I thought it was pretty cool that while having a wedding rained out mid-ceremony could be a worst-case scenario, in this case everyone was calm and happy and it didn’t seem to be a problem one bit.

After the ceremony, I took loads of pictures while a) grace took care of Sylvia b) some other interested person took care of Sylvia or c) Sylvia was happy on my back in the carrier.  She did splendidly for the whole trip.

On Sunday, Grace and I met up with the bride, groom, and bridesmaids for a breakfast at the Penny Cluse Cafe.  Again, VERY good.  Afterwards, Grace and I spent a couple hours wandering around the Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian mall with some really great shopping.  Some of my favorite stores were Hatley, Sprout, and a cool camping store called the Outdoor Gear Exchange.  Then Grace and I took a tour of Lake Champlain Chocolates and partook of some hearty samples.  We also left with chocolate to take home:)  I prefer dark, Grace prefers milk chocolate.
We had a late lunch at Vermont’s Culinary Resort before running back to the airport.  And the whole time, Sylvia did great!

What a great trip!  Grace, I hope you didn’t come down with whatever I got sick with on Tuesday!

Aug. 15: I’m doing a huge amount of posting these last days.  I’d like to dole it out more evenly, but that’s not how my life works:)
On Sunday, August 3, Maretta drove down from St. Paul to spend the week with us.  She stayed at our house, and we spent a lovely, full week together.  I’m so appreciative that she sacrificed a week away from her new husband to play with us.  And just so you know, she has scored a job at Penumbra Theater company working on costumes for the show Fences.

I’ve decided that my life would be notably calmer, happier, and more fun if an adult whom I love and who has no kids could hang out with me at least 12 hours a day.  No Kidding.  Having Maretta around was awesome.  And that’s just from a child care and mental health perspective.

Maretta and I went down to Janesville to visit Mum early in the week.  Speaking of Mum, I got a call from Debbie, one of her friends, the other day that she had fallen and Debbie had taken her to the hospital.  Another friend was spending the night with her.  X-rays showed that she hadn’t broken anything.  Debbie’s increased the assistance she’s receiving at her assisted living home.

Maretta and I spent a couple days clearing out her room at Dad’s house.  It’s a small room, but there was a lot in there!  We packed up four garbage bags to take to Good Will and filled the minivan with things for her to take back to St. Paul.

We didn’t end up getting to go shopping together…that’s one thing I really like doing with my sister…but we had lots of other good times.  We got together with Michael and Joe for lunch – one of the first times I can remember that the four of us kids have been together sans significant others or parents.  Andrew and Sylvia were hangers-on.  Maretta, Sylvia, and I had dinner with Terry.  I think he liked going out with his three girls.  Then on Friday night, Maretta, Bryan, and I had a get-together with Terry, Dad, Becky, and Joe to watch the opening of the Olympics.  We ordered Chinese food, and I made peach shaum torte and peach ice cream.  Good stuff!

I was sad to see Maretta go on Saturday, but I’m so glad we got to spend a whole unstructured week together.  Now that she really, truly lives in a different state, I appreciate these times we spend together even more.

PS.  LuAnn or Melanie, if you’re reading this, “sister” can be replaced by “mother” or “sister” if you’re interested!

Aug. 15: Two weeks ago, we had a wonderful time at our annual pilgrimage to Jack’s house near the Wisconsin River in southwest Wisconsin.  We had 12 adults attending this year.  Maretta and Kyle couldn’t make it because Kyle’s sister Pam got married that Saturday.  Tom was able to come…he’s doing really well post-surgery.  Michael’s friends Matt, Josh, and Betsy also joined us.  Lisa stayed home this year, but Becky came.  So we had a full house.
Pictures of our weekend are in the gallery.

Joe and I did the menu planning early in the week.  Then Michael, Joe, Matt, Sylvie, Andrew, and I went grocery shopping on Thursday (eating is, after all, one of the major activities of the weekend).  We stayed pretty traditional with the menu, only adding home made chocolate ice cream as a new dessert item on Saturday night.

We all converged on Jack’s house on Friday evening. Sylvia and I rode in Terry’s car, and for the first time, Sylvia did not cry most of the drive to Jack’s house (this is her third time to Woodman).  Thank heavens!  We all tried out the Harry Potter-esque Jelly Bellys, which were disgusting, played night frisbee, played some games, and went for a late-night walk down to the boat launch – the stars were absolutely amazing.

On Saturday morning, for the first time in memory, we all got organized pretty quickly.  We ate breakfast on the patio, got the canoe out (so I could go along with Sylvia), and drove upstream to Bergum Bottoms to put in.  Tom stayed back at the ranch, but the rest of us floated down the Wisconsin River for a few miles, stopping to crack open a watermelon and hang out on a couple sandbars.  Andrew had a blast, and Sylvia (for the most part) did really well.

After the mid-river gorge (which we noted involved somewhat less gorging than normal), Jack, Bryan, Joe, Michael, and Matt re-did the float down the river again.  Meanwhile, Josh did dishes and Becky and I prepared the Jambalaya, corn bread, ice cream, and bread.  The evening was filled with game playing (the fogies beat the youngsters soundly at Trivial Pursuit).

On Sunday, Jack took Terry, Matt, and myself on a hike up to see his prairie.  He’s been working to restore the pasture to native prairie plants for the last 10 years.  Jack’s recently received several grants to help (a tiny bit) with the restoration work, and he’s put tremendous numbers of hours in to his restoration work.  It shows.  The prairie is beautiful.

We left Sunday afternoon, wishing the weekend was longer.  At least I have pictures to remind me of the lovely times!

Aug. 14: Boy am I behind on posting pictures!  I just added captions to the pictures I took when we went to Texas in late July.  Here they are!

A couple fun things that happened in Texas:  the kids took their first bath together, Sylvia had her first solid food, we went swimming at a nearby pool (SO FUN!), we played charades and poker, we ate lots of yummy food, we mostly stayed cool indoors but ventured out for a walk and some backyard splashing, and we basked in our time together.

I’ve also uploaded pictures from the last couple weeks and some pictures from an art group we did in late July.

Aug. 14: I love when I get comments on my website.  It’s like a hug or a piece of chocolate or a nice piece of mail.  And it makes me smile.  Unfortunately, my comments have recently been targeted by spam.  LOTS of spam.  Like dozens every day.  I’ve tried to find a new security system to use, but I haven’t been successful.  So I now have it set up so I have to approve comments before they are posted.  And I delete oodles of spam each time I log on.  It’s really annoying.
But it’s less annoying when I have some real comments in there (thanks Lisa, Sarah, Karen, and Julie!).  So if you’re considering commenting, please do.  It’ll make me smile.

Aug. 14: My husband is so sweet.  Thanks to him, this post is coming to you live from JavaCat.  I’m playing with pictures from Jennifer’s wedding on my computer and sipping on a frappe.  And unless my cell phone rings, I have no one needing me right now.  It’s absolute bliss.

We’re all recovering from our adventures with virus.  Andrew has a runny nose and a bit of a cough, but for the most part, he seems back to himself.  Sylvie is crankier than normal and has an occasional really rattly cough.  On Tuesday, we watched about five hours of PBS and movies.  All I wanted to do was sleep and all Sylvia wanted to do was be held and bounced.  Yesterday afternoon I showered and got dressed and felt much better.  Joe came over in the evening and we hung out and watched the Olympics together.  He had the same cold, so we could spend time with him without worrying about transmitting…that already happened last week!

Then today I attempted to take part in a conference call for Carleton’s Alumni Adventures.  It didn’t go well.  We went to lunch with Gathering Waters to celebrate Joe’s last day there.  And I was adventurous and took the kids to Woodman’s to stock up on food.  By 3pm, I was more than ready to crash.  CRASH.  But the kids were not.  We limped through until 6 when Bryan came home.  He walked in the door and said, “Get thee somewhere else!”  I’m almost never not with Sylvia, and it’s pretty nice to spend an hour without her company:)

So that’s what’s happening in our world.  Our illness is on the mend.  I’m loving watching the Olympics.  On Tuesday, Bryan brought me home sherbet, Dove bars, and a Glamor magazine.  What a wonderful guy.  It’s kind of fun to get pampered when a person isn’t feeling well.  Or when a person is feeling well!

I took about 400 pictures at Jennifer’s wedding, so I’m going to return to my post-processing.
xoxo
~Althea

Aug. 12:  Sylvia and I returned home from Vermont late (1am) last night.  We had a wonderful time at my friend Jennifer’s wedding.  Grace and I spent a fun few days together, and Sylvie did an absolutely fabulous job being a cute kid.  She turned six months old yesterday!
Andrew came down with a coughy, snortily cold while we were gone, and Sylvie and I both woke up this morning feeling rather cruddy.  My throat feels like sand paper, and I feel achy and like I could crawl in bed and sleep for about four hours. Oh well.
I took about 400 pictures at Jennifer and Do’s wedding.  And I still have pictures from Jack’s to post.  Soon, soon!  We’re home for the next two weeks, and then on the 23rd Andrew and Sylvie and I fly to DC.  Good to be home for a while:)