9/1/21 Team Dinner.....43ish boys came! (not 100% sure, they were moving targets)

Team parents....helping out:

Some of Joel's good buddies (Evan and Joel (to Joel's right) went through all of Boy Scouts together, next to Evan is Will, Joel's good buddy since he was in kindergarten)  sniff sniff, now they are seniors.

note the beautiful porch furniture pads (ha ha)

Post-dinner Football....oh my....made me a little anxious since they weren't entirely in our yard.  I decided I could be a bad neighbor once every 11 years.

Post football quiz game (such a smelly basement.....20ish boys after cross country practice and pick-up football game)

and ping-pong.

Everyone was gone by 9.  whew!

 

8/28/21 Johnston Twilight Race

 After the first Cross Country race had to be cancelled (106 heat index) , the boys were able to run tonight!  

It was a tough race.  Joel (and his team) were not very happy with their runs.  The course was a bit of a mess, with some overlap between the fastest and slower runners at a couple of places, even really close to the finish.  Normally there are at least 2 races, JV and varsity, but today they all ran together which caused some confusion.  Two of our freshman weren't directed to the final loop and finished in 18 minutes, only because they hadn't run the whole race....The course monitors didn't separate  them from the super fast kids who were finishing at that time.  

Worse still 2 of our boys went down with Heat Stroke.  It wasn't really extremely hot and the race was late in the evening, but of course that was the perspective of a participant and not a runner.  It being the first race, I also think the boys didn't have their usual race perspective.  All the boys were sweaty sweaty, but these two boys passed out near the finish.  One was Joel's best buddy and in talking to his mother, he had not eaten enough that day and didn't drink anything but water before the race, so he didn't have enough calories or sodium.  It was scary, he really pushed himself to go fast (he is one of our top runners), but it was too much for his body.  He didn't race the next week to be cautious.

Back porch furniture

BEFORE:

Many years ago we inherited my parent's furniture cushions.  But over the years they had gotten flat and sun bleached.  I went to find replacements before our big party, but of course this is not the time of year for porch cushions....so I folded these cushions to make one pillow and tah dah...

AFTER  

(the little pillows were from my older-still cushion set that I also recovered....the furniture originally came with similar to shown below large square pillows with no back cushion.)

I love the new look!

 

Applesauce

My friend Joelle has had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, so Anna and I walked to her house to pick some of her shared bounty!  It was then that we found out that one of her apple trees were so full of fruit that one limb broke.  So we went and picked mini-apples and made applesauce with the help of our new (to us) Pampered Chef Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

It was like magic and so satisfactory

We used the Instant Pot and the apple sauce is so great that I have been using it like jelly on my toast!

 

8/15/21

 My sweet Aunt Rita died earlier in the week.  So on Sunday of our crafting weekend, Mary went to pick-up my Dad in Burlington.  Leslie and I crafted for awhile longer, then I left for Dubuque to meet Mary and Dad for the funeral (to be held on Monday).

We met at my Aunt Bernice's house.  This is my Dad's oldest living sister.  I think she is 96 and still lives alone and bakes tons of cakes and cookies.  (see cookies on the table that she sent home with Dad)  She also is mostly blind and her house is immaculate.  Wow!  

Later that night we stopped by to see my Uncle Russ and Aunt Joan.  I don't have to say that Russ is Dad's brother....pretty obvious.  Russ is 93 and recently had lung surgery and is doing great.  I still remember the time I went to their house and their kids took me ice skating for the first time in my life!

Here is the dinner after my Aunt Rita's funeral.  (Rita was my mother's brother's wife.  She gave me my first permanent.  We normally stayed at their house when we went back to Dubuque to visit my Grandmother, once she was living in the nursing home.)  Here are some of our favorite cousins:  Jerry (Rita's daughter) and Jerry (her husband).

(Dad....I will print you copies of these photos)

First Post vaccine visitors! 8/14/21 - 8/15/21

I haven't seen my sister since Thanksgiving weekend 2019.....until today!

She and Leslie came for a crafter's weekend.

Mary and the girls designed t-shirts to be printed using Mary's Cricut when she went home.

Ann received her shirt the next week!  So cute.

Leslie and I mostly sewed, making this wonderfully large carry-all bag.  We also made another Christmas stocking and a cute froggie pillow for Joey (using a former favorite shirt).

 

First Day of School 8/23/2021

Anna's Freshman Year

The sophomores started school before juniors and seniors this year so they could get acclimated to the high school....so Joel slept in on the first day of school.  I told him to take a selfie, but when I just asked he said, "uh, that didn't happen".....so here is Joel, first day of school.  Senior Year