Plans? What Plans?!

Today is one of the first cold Monday's of the fall. The kind where you just wanna stay in bed all warm and cozy. At least it was a high school power Monday which means an extra hour of sleep.

Instead of a do-nothing day off, I had on my itinerary yet another visit from the AC company that services mom's 1 yr old unit. Honestly, it's one of those companies that make you want to pull out your hair. There should be nothing wrong with an AC unit that's a year old! Why oh why have they been out several times already? Oh wait, I know.... because they're idiots. Installation errors, call back appointments that accomplished nothing, parts ordered again, and no-shows. So today I was to hang around for a valve to be put in the AC which is now on HEAT. They will eventually put in the supposed fix-it but who knows if it works because it'll be winter! Luckily, mom says the warranty is 2 yrs. Oh goodie - another year of these bozo's getting nothing done in 3 visits or more.

So from 8-12 today I was grounded. I decided to make the most of the time by getting an early start on a crock pot roast for dinner. Then I decided to roast a bunch of veggies - especially the kohlrabi from the CSA farm share that needed to be cooked asap. Those are scary looking little things. I kept giggling thinking of Sputnik and alien life forms while chopping them. I roasted them with peppers & tomatoes because I had to use those up or toss 'em too.

While it was cooking I decided to find a recipe to use them in or I was just going to toss 'em in the roast in the crock pot.  I found an interesting Kale & Roasted Vegetable Soup recipe on simplyrecipes.com so I switched gears and started on that. I got very brave and decided to taste the roasted kohlrabi before puree-ing the whole thing. Wow! Now that was tasty. Who knew?! I kinda got excited for the soup then. I couldn't follow it exactly (mostly because my carrots & onion were already in the crock pot) but it was great! Mike came home for lunch as I was taking snickerdoodles out of the oven and had soup ready to ladle into a bowl! Score! It was so good it could have been ordered at a restaurant! Somewhere in between all that, I also cooked a pound of pasta, and hardboiled some eggs - all for use later this week. By the time all that got done and the kitchen cleaned up for the 3rd time today, the AC man missed his window of opportunity.

Too bad the AC guy didn't show up. Or answer his phone. If he had come somewhere in his 4 hr window and wasn't as big of a bozo as the last guy he might have scored a few cookies.

Now I'm going to pick Mariah up from school. She's been on quite the soup kick lately so she should be pleased with me today... IF she doesn't realize she's eating weird vegetables and beans until after the first bite. All is forgiven then.

Kale & Roasted Vegetable Soup
 - a hearty winter soup recipe with kale, white beans, and roasted veggies.

Preheat oven to 400 - brush a baking stone with olive oil. Chop into large pieces veggies to be roasted and toss in the oil then sprinkle with salt. I did kohlrabi, peppers, tomatoes. I would have done more if I'd had known before roasting what I was making. heh heh.  Roast veggies for 30-40 minutes, tossing occasionally. Puree them in a food processor. 

Put in a soup pot with the rest of the ingredients: bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes.  Note: I made about a 1/2 size recipe, loosely based on the recipe below which I'm including for you rule-followers.  While it was cooking I was making other things and decided to toss in some bow tie pasta. That's when I thought to myself (pasta fagioli?!) and served it with parma cheese. Yum!

The Real Recipe (vs. Chrissie)
3 medium carrots, peeled & quartered lengthwise  (didn't use - carrots were cooking in another dish)
2 large tomatoes, quartered (I only did 1 - would have done 2 if I'd known)
1 large onion cut into wedges (didn't roast any so I didn't use)
1/2 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut lengthwise into 1/2" thick wedges (didn't have - wow what a shame)
6 garlic cloves (I used abt 3 tsp store bought minced)
1 TBSP olive oil
6 or more cups of broth (I used 2 cans of chicken broth)
4 cups of finely chopped kale (or less... I think I used about a cup. It had a pungent smell so I went with "sparingly")
3 large fresh thyme sprigs (I used dried basil leaf)
1 bay leaf
1 15oz can Great Northern white beans, drained.
*  (I used southern style which is spiced up deliciously and doesn't need to be drained).
*  (Add pasta & parmesan cheese - trust me!)

SUB!

First day of the school year that I subbed today. It was in the 4's room, where we have a new teacher. I was pretty certain it would be a bit of a hardship since her routines are not as familiar to me as the teacher's for whom I've subbed many times over the years. Also, 4's are notorious for their weird speech-habits and I pretty much have to guess at what they are saying most of the time. Luckily, I had the chance to bone up last week (haha nod to Halloween skeletons everywhere) and the extra study paid off.  I even forgot to take my preemptive ibuprofen and do not have a headache.  Now, the real test will be when I try to get up and walk after sitting down for the first time all day.  On Thursday, I get to go on the annual Pumpkin Patch field trip with 27 kids and 15 chaperones. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we'll either get super muddy when we go or it'll be cancelled. Ya never know which it will be!

One of my favorite things to do when I sub is to surprise the teacher and go off track from the carefully laid out lesson plan for the day. Either the other teachers told on me or this gal was all like "ehhh, just have fun!" I came in to find CDs set out with a list of songs the kids like, a couple books to read, and an art project to paint 2 plates each orange to become jack-o-lanterns tomorrow. As I told my director, "I would've liked to SEE a lesson plan so I would know exactly WHAT I was disregarding!" So to surprise her, I took an informal lunch-time poll of what we thought their teacher should be for Halloween. Note: Lunch-time polls are written down on a paper plate and taped to the door. The boys' responses: a carrot (it WAS lunch); a train engineer; a beanbag, a bad guy (as opposed to what it sounded like the first time he said it - a black guy....a what?!). The girls' responses: a unicorn; a butterfly; a dragonfly; Belle or Ariel. The difference between the lovely artistic imagery that comes from the girls thoughts vs the boys looking around the room and yelling out something they see just cracks me up. Then I added my answer: a teacher. To which they all said NO!!! she already IS a teach-cho!

I was exceedingly happy to discover that one little guy dropped the word POOFY from his vocabulary after last week (or he just forgot it today) when we had a talk about how I knew he was really using poofy as a potty word and that calling a friend poof-head was still rude. Since he had been yelling poofy at the top of his lungs for a couple weeks I told him no more. I gave him a new word to use - SUPER because I knew he was a super kid who could take those inappropriate words for school and "zip it, lock it, put it in your preschool pocket". Then all the kids wanted a new word too.  I went down the line giving them words of reaffirmation (except for one little guy who we both knew WILD was the premier choice). With Super, Awesome, Brilliant, Amazing, Kind, and Wild...the last little guy holds up his hand and goes, "I'm COMPLICATED".  I am still laughing at that one!

We enjoyed our weekend because for Gib & Mariah it was Fall Break. Gib came home late Wednesday and returned Sunday afternoon. He enjoyed sleeping in his bed and playing Xbox. For added excitement Gib went to the dentist, the chiropractor, got a haircut, and got his 2nd Hep A shot! He also added a nice little message to the box I was mailing to Taryn with some halloween candy in it. Before leaving on Sunday, we loaded the car with bags of food & candy, some new clothes, and the dude's clean laundry that Grammy did for him this time. The only bummer was that the Titans played at 3pm and so the guys couldn't watch the game on TV together.

Mariah had her Fall Break with days off on Friday & Monday. That makes today feel like a Monday. Tomorrow she has to take the PLAN test so doesn't really have any classes. The entire week is just going to be odd. Mariah also spent her vacation in exciting and exotic locales such as: the doctor (Flu Shot & Hep A), the chiropractor, the dentist, and getting her hair tip-dyed blue! Amazingly enough, despite the similarities in how Gib and Mariah spent their Fall Break they did NOT visit any of the above mentioned places on the same day!

While the dude was here, Indie made arrangements for the guys to bring home her bday present: a new sofa! Now we can visit with and everyone can sit on furniture, and she can read, study, watch TV & have 2 cats settle in with her. Her little loveseat was not doing it! They all stretched out on the 7' sofa and had room to spare. Aussie has claimed the armrest on one side of the couch and Lillie gets the middle or under the sofa!

The Difference of Days

Oh what a difference a few days makes! Between one weekend and the next I'm back to nearly 100%!  My eyes are still a little red and they itch a bit, but otherwise driving went fine the past 2 days! It felt good to get out of the house. Tomorrow I return to work.

Gib has a fall break coming up so he will be home for a long weekend. Mariah will also be on fall break. Gib is off Thurs/Friday and Mariah is out of school Friday/Monday. Since Gib doesn't have classes on Friday he doesn't really have more than an extra day off, but luckily for him I filled it with exciting things like chiropractor and dentist appointments. Maybe we'll get him another haircut too while he's here!

Mariah had a brutal end of the first quarter with all sorts of big assignments due at once. It really wiped her out and when she came home last Thursday she went straight to bed. We spoke briefly later than night and she went back to sleep. Early Friday morning she was still feeling exhausted so she stayed home from school. She's doing well in school though and it's good to learn to pace yourself and that all-nighters are not as glorious as some people lead us to believe. I kind of wish her English teacher had assigned the essay for the independent reading project at the beginning of the year when she finished it. I also kind of wish he had sent the email stating a deadline had been extended BEFORE Mariah stayed up until 2 am to finish it.

I spoke to both Taryn and Gib on the phone Sunday! Considering I also spoke to Indie and Mariah in person, that was like a mini-mom's day for me! It was good to hear their voices and catch up on their lives.  Taryn is doing well, has a lot of homework! Gib is doing well, has a lot of fraternity homework! He went to two dances over the weekend - his frat dance and then her sorority dance. But he reports that there is no girlfriend. Taryn has the month of October in our family gf pool and he says no way -  no time.  Mike is hopeful that during the January explorations term he has the time. It's amazing what people will do to win bragging rights around here.  We won't get to see Taryn until November. I know she will love meeting Lillie.

I can't remember if I posted about Indie adopting a new kitten....  Taryn asked how it happened. I saw her at the pet store - she was 1 of 3 kittens rescued with their 3-legged momma. She was the only one left and had a very sad look on her face. She and I had a discussion about how I just knew she'd get a good home and not to worry. She just kept looking me straight in the eye. I thought about her all day long. Mariah and I were nearby that evening and I told her about the kitten and we went to see her. I later found out that she had actually been adopted with her brother but the people decided adding 2 kittens to their house was too much so they kept the brother and brought her back. :(  So anyway, we texted Indie while we were there that I had fallen in love with a kitten. She came and decided to think about it. Indie adopted Lillie the next evening.  Aussie loved her the very second she came out of the kitty carrier. She is very social and had no fear whatsoever. He started off right away teaching her to chase him. They have that down good now and he's working on teaching her better defensive skills. He corners her, and if he gets her down he puts a paw on her until she figures out how to get out from the pin. She doesn't like these games much. But Aussie feels it's important to have excellent wrestling skills and therefore Lillie has no choice but to be little Grasshopper.  Otherwise, they both play, play, play!!! They are both chirpers and it's fun to listen to them "talking".  Since Indie is gone for long hours it will be good for both kitties to have companions.  Aussie is having a sick day today but I don't think it's major - sure  hope not! We love that kitty!!! He had a rabies shot last week so maybe that is causing him some problems. Or maybe he ate a bad bug. Who knows. He saw the vet on Tuesday and was 100% fine so hopefully this works out in by tomorrow.

Better Each Day

You know you're old when you enjoy talking about your medical issues. Or when you have to have surgery because of your medical issues.  This is super interesting and really enjoyable. Kind of like the last 6 days were for me. If you'd like to stop now, the best parts were gummy bears, Munchos, Coke, and feeling better each day... and then the meals brought in which balanced out the nutritional needs vs. comfort food!

Last Friday, bright & early I had both eyes operated on to fix a muscle issue that was causing me to need an ever increasing amount of prism in my glasses to supposedly prevent double-vision & what felt like looking cross-eyed at times, especially when driving. The prism lenses are very expensive - hundreds of dollars, and I felt like since my ability to safely drive was definitely compromised at times, it was something I had to do.  I was NOT looking forward to the surgery. I saw what it looked like when Taryn had it done - and thinking about it gave me the heebie jeebies. Honestly though I was a car wreck waiting to happen, so I bit the bullet and went through with it.

Friday: Got all set up in pre-op, a nausea patch behind my ear, IV'd, and gassed. They told me to breathe in super deep 5 times. I made it to 1.5.  Next thing I know I'm in recovery and some nurse wants me to open my eyes so she can put in drops. I'm thinking that might have worked better when I was still out.  I wasn't feeling too good so they added some anti-nausea to my IV. I kinda wanted a painkiller but the only one they were going to do I was pretty sure I couldn't take. I told them to go ask Mike. He nixed it - remembering the times better than I when I took it and the results. Hey, the other times I took it I had been operated on - I can't remember stuff after that!! I vaguely remember getting discharged - Mike & the nurse wheeled me out to the curb. I did the "TRUST WALK" and kept my eyes closed. Should've brought sunglasses. The nurse goes "you've got to open your eyes sometime" and I replied "NO I DON'T!"  I used Siri to text Mike when I needed him.  She read me my messages but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Siri to read status updates on facebook. Geez!

Saturday: I was able to squint a little bit.  I spent all day in bed listening to Pandora with my eyes covered. A couple times I peeked thru very blurry vision to use the iPhone long enough to maintain contact with the outside world.  I was downing Tylenol extra strength every 3 hrs and my eyes looked like fish gills.  Y-U-C-K!!!  But I had to put in ointment so I had to deal with it. Taryn said the ointment would feel wonderful. It kinda does and it kinda doesn't, but I faithfully administered it 3-4 times a day. Taryn also told me to get an eye mask - which I did - and I got a head wrap to keep my bangs out of my face too. It's a stellar look and I so wish I had a picture to show you but alas....  Taryn was SO RIGHT on the eye mask. It helps prevent you from touching your eyes as you sleep but it also just helps you rest so much better - the dark is a blessed relief but when the mask is on I noticed that my eyes just feel better - like they stop moving, no blinking, much more relaxed. At night I sleep with it on even though it's dark so I don't accidentally rub my eyes. Thank you Taryn!!  I had dad mail you some treats in a package you should have received by now. Maybe a gift card is in order too. You let me know.

Sunday: HATED LIFE 100%  I was uber-cranky! There was a very real danger that someone could have been hurt had they gotten close enough and I could see where to swing. I was in so much pain, my eyes felt like glass shards were in them. I hoped I could just sit in the living room and listen to football but no way. The only thing that saved us all from me was that I was able to open my eyes if I stayed in the dark. I could check facebook, read messages, email and play bejeweled if I anticipated the bright flashes and closed my eyes during that. I whined my misery on facebook and that made me feel slightly better. The distractions hurt but were worth it. I couldn't take any more Pandora - I just don't listen to music that much although I enjoy it - it's weird. So I tried to listen to 3 different audio book excerpts; utter fail. The narrators voice - ugh!! I guess I just don't like listening to a story at all. I gave up when the male guy with a probably fake British accent attempted a woman's voice. Sheesh. It almost made me laugh, but I was too frustrated!

Monday: Mike took today off too. Sometime around 9 I put on a hat and collected cat dishes from the back patio. That was exciting! I wore the hat all day so I could tip my head down to avoid light. The pain alternated from burning to a gritty feeling that something was in your eye. Very annoying. I put a warm washcloth over my eyes which felt good but I'm not supposed to get water in them so I had to be careful. I decided to try watching movies on my kindle. Success!  Avengers was a lot of fun to watch and I just had to look away during bright fireballs. My boss from preschool stopped by in the afternoon with dinner from Honeybaked Ham. There was enough for 2+ days! I watched Hardball and started Message In A Bottle which I finished the next day. When Kevin Costner's character died it was so sad I cried a little bit, but wowza did that hurt!

Tuesday: Mike went back to work. You know that feeling of soap in your eyes? That was Tuesday. All. Day. Long.  But more time awake, moving around the house, a few minutes outside when it was cloudy, able to sit at the real computer! and I watched more movies -  Life As We Know It and Happy Accident. I almost shut down Happy Accident - it was sooo boring. But I powered through and that was pretty much the theme of the day. My VT came by for an hour. The light bothered me but I enjoyed the visit. Afterwards I had to put in ointment and lay down but it was worth it! We used a generous gift card from my preschool to Macaroni Grill for dinner. Indie went and picked it up and brought it home. Salmon & Orzo - it tasted sooo good! A big highlight!! Late night flick was Admission. I enjoyed it mostly because of how much work I put into college applications :)

Wednesday: Today my eyes felt horrible when I woke up and I was worried at first. I could barely open them. I had wondered the day before if I was overdoing it on the ointment. The box says 3-4 times, so I decided to stick with 3 for today. Once I soaked them for awhile they felt better and the whole day was a HUGE IMPROVEMENT. Except for occasional stinging and the feeling of dry eyes, it's been really good. Light doesn't really bother me much.  I can't see comfortably at a distance but I can tell it's getting better. The double vision is improved - as in I don't think it's been a problem today. I was starting to worry that the whole surgery was a bust, but then Mike told me the dr said it would take a few days to balance out. Today I enjoyed two movies in a row!!!! And it didn't hurt!  I watched Waking Ned Divine and Stand & Deliver.  I think I have maybe one more movie in me and then I will be done for a good long while. I'm glad I found something that was mostly free to occupy my rehab time - two of the movies had a rental fee, the rest were free.  Tonight another coworker dropped off dinner. She brought her youngest who was at our preschool a couple years ago so I got Indie's kitten Lillie and Aussie, and we played with her for awhile.

Tonight: I am so excited X Factor is on!  I hope I can watch TV. Looking out and upwards is harder. I am glad that looking straight ahead and down a bit about as far as your arm stretches out has been pretty do-able.

Tomorrow: I have my post-op appointment. I am hoping the excursion goes well and that I get a good report on the success of the surgery. 

ATO and Homecoming Week

 

 

Fraternity bid to Alpha Tau Omega for Gib!
Gib was invited to a preferential dinner to ATO and was issued a verbal invitation that night to join. It was awesome to be amongst the first asked! So now his Pledge Class of 14 guys get to wear suit & tie every Monday, learn all the brothers names, hometown, bday, major, etc. plus a bunch of fraternity stuff. And, yes, there IS a test!
ATO is a leadership focused fraternity; the BSC chapter supports the American Red Cross and supports local philanthropic service as well.

Homecoming Week for Mariah!
What a fun week for Mariah. She dressed up for spirit days, worked about 6 hrs a day after school on the Sophomore float, got to ride in the parade with FCCLA, went to the football game in pouring rain, rushed the field when the team won to remain undefeated, and went to Sky High, a trampoline place, to celebrate afterwards.
 (The best part for me was another mom drove there - whew it was a long week).


Enjoy the pics of homecoming game & parade that I got from the local news site

 

 

Mariah's Class 2016 float.
 (Mariah is in the white shirt)
Mariah was recruited for the Easy Bake Oven but ended up making the head of the
Raptor Football player! They say it will be preserved and used from now on.

The design team for the raptor football player

The winning float for the Seniors

 

 

 

My VT friend & I watched the parade
Mariah rode in the FCCLA truck
(Family Career Community Leaders of America)

Speaking of trucks.... this is Mariah's pic from her parking practice.
It really helps to not have any other cars around.

Checking In

It was so nice to have Gib back in the house for a couple of days. We sure missed him. One of the things I notice most, miss the most, is their laughter. I can't decide which word describes best the happiness I feel when I hear one of the college kids laugh from another room in the home. I just sit there and smile. It feels soooooo....... fill in the blank!

Gib returned yesterday afternoon. I don't care for the goodbyes at all and feel quite blessed that he is the closest college student we've ever had. This is do-able!!!  We ran errands all Saturday morning together - hair cut, Sonic, Target, flu shot, Costco, etc. We had a steak dinner and then Gib and his friend went to the movies.  We went to church Sunday morning, and then enjoyed football, wings & pizza with more friends. Mike drove him back to BSC with all the stuff in the trunk we had loaded him up with. I found his Nalgene bottle today so I guess that will be mailed to him since he needs it for Ultimate; and since he hinted that he was out of candy I guess I will fill the bottle up with something tasty to make the package arrival more exciting. Gib arrived back on campus with 20 minutes to spare for a dinner thing at several different fraternities. I'm looking forward to hearing which fraternity appeals to Gib the most and how he does with bid day.

We had a nice email from one of Mariah's 10th grade teachers today.

Hello,

I am Mariah’s AP Human Geography teacher.  I am writing today because I wanted to brag about your daughter.  Usually parents only hear from teachers when there is a problem but I wanted to take a minute today to share some good news.  Mariah has demonstrated great participation, diligence, and effort in APHG.  She is a joy to have in class!  I see her growing to be a leader and example for the other students.  You are truly doing something right as parents!


It's really great to hear good things about your child! When I replied to thank her teacher I mentioned that it's all Mariah - she is 100% responsible for knowing about her homework assignments, following instructions and getting everything done on time.  I guess if any credit can be taken by us as parents, it's that we have never hovered over assignments - we have always been there for assistance but expected our kids to do their own work independently. I consider school to be a full-time job for them and try not to allow us to be so overburdened with activities outside of school that the wheels have to be constantly greased to stay in motion. My biggest support for Mariah has been to drive up folders, posters, lunches, meds, etc to school when she has forgotten something! Hahaha we are still working on Pieces of Mariah but she is getting there! Actually, I have to say I've noticed great improvement in this area already, so Way to Go Mariah! You are an impressive young lady for many, many reasons.

TGIF!

Football season is back in swing.  Mike is happy.  Gib & Mariah are on his fantasy team. I'm not. I was too tired to remember to join in time. Preschool is back in swing. And I am pretty sure I know what the defensive linebackers feel like after hours of brutal offensive rushes. And that sums up the past few weeks for me.

The upstairs is undergoing a facelift. Hundreds of pounds of STUFF is gone and just knowing that makes me feel unburdened. I need to say a big thank you to Indie for a major clean out in the other "closet of no return".  After a few weekends of decluttering and reorganizing she has a cute little apartment going on up there and I don't have an apartment worth of boxes in the dining room anymore! The plan was to see how it worked and decide to stay or save up for a few months and then get an apartment of her own. Some of the feedback I've heard is 1) "it's not as bad as I thought it would be" (moving back home) - always nice to hear that. 2) having a "nice en-suite of the parents' house" saves her a ton of money and is really convenient! This is where I point out all this comes with a lovely personal chef who prepares dinner most nights & makes tasty nutritious lunches ready to grab & go, a gorgeous backyard, a handyman at the ready who also moonlights as her personal financial planning consultant, and a primo parking spot. What's not to love? Maybe she'll stay on for a bit.

Aussie decided that although it's very disappointing to be an indoor kitty with that backyard beckoning to him night and day, he does like having another bedroom to hang out in (or two). He has claimed a corner box with Taryn's extra comforter on top. Indie says there is a permanent Aussie indentation in it! He promises to share with Taryn when she comes home, and in fact, misses his snuggle-Taryn quite a bit, otherwise he wouldn't be on top of her comforter so much! I know Taryn says she wants to stay in the room down the hall, but I'm not changing it around again, so she and Gib can wrestle for it over Christmas break when they'll both be here at the same time. Aussie also adores the other usually-empty bedroom. Somewhere, there's always a sunny spot with a view to enjoy. He gets to hang out downstairs with all of us in the evenings and play attack-thru-the-window with Pixie, chase the bobtail with Chino, and finally, curl up on a blanket under the ottoman. Diego hasn't made known his feelings on the subject of another kitty in the territory. I think he's pretending    it doesn't exist unless it gets in his face.

Mariah is enjoying her new space as well. Pixie also figures she has two rooms - her old one and her new one! If only she and Aussie would make friends with each other! Working with the gunmetal gray walls wasn't a challenge at all for our little decorator. She simply added yellow and light gray bedding with lime green accents. We still have some work left to add some beauty to the walls with a big corkboard project and we hope to find some affordable artwork at a consignment store nearby.

Gib's room - I am having a hard time keeping it clean! Every time I go by, another item is being "stored" in there. One down: an extra bed and frame has been loaded into the truck ready for delivery tonight to a friend & a good cause. The portable A/C was in the middle of the room too. It is being temporarily "stored" in the bedroom closet now, along with suitcases, fans, off season clothing, etc. Our closet of no returns have downsized but they still exist. Maybe someday..... Finally, and I hope it's the last of storage challenges - Grandpapa's old desk. It's going to the Goodwill this weekend. It's a space hog and not all that nice too look at so we are unloading it. Someone will be thrilled to have it, and if they hang onto it for another 20 yrs or so it'll be a 100 yr old antique.

I'm glad we are getting those last few things removed from the room, because Gib is coming home tonight!  I will leave for Birmingham after I get Mariah from school today. Gib will drive us home and I expect, depending on how long we stop for dinner, to be home by 9 or 10 pm.  I'm excited that he'll be home for the weekend.  There are a couple things he needs to take back with him that we forgot about. And Gib will be glad to hear that there are some Ribeye Steaks thawing in the fridge for a bbq on Saturday!

Now that I've updated the blog, it's about time to get ready to go!!