What a weekend.   Let see where to begin. Well our 10th Anniversary came and went.  Not much happened. We both worked. After work Eric went to class while I cleaned the car and went grocery shopping. Very romantic, eh? Saturday was much the same. I made Monster cookies (and broke another spatula), cleaned the house and picked up a few things at Costco and Eric had class.  

After Eric’s class, we drove down to Mankato and meet my family. We went out for dinner. I had an awesome steak!  It was delicious.  And of course Mike and Mom and to tell them we were celebrating our 10th anniversary so we got a cake and champagne. It was also Bradley’s birthday so he also got cake…but no champagne for him.

After dinner we went swimming at the hotel. When we got sick of that, we played Dirty Clubs…a card game that would never end.  I think Mike ended up winning. Bradley had over 40 points (not good!). Eric and Bradley finished off a bottle of champagne. They were definitely “feeling” it. 

Sunday after breakfast we went to Flandrau State Park in New Ulm.  This is one of my favorite parks because it has a nice sand bottom pool. We try to visit at least once a year. It was the perfect day for it…hot and humid!  We had a picnic lunch and then went swimming for an hour or so.  After swimming we gathered around the picnic tables and played some lawn games.  After everything was packed up and we were ready to leave…Bradley popped the question!  Danielle demanded a soppy story first and then said, “I suppose.” Yep, Danielle is engaged! I couldn’t be happier for them.   I’m very disappointed in myself.  No picture of the ring…I’m not a very good photographer…I should have been all over this.

Well the last two post have been wedding related.  Hmmm...

The next one will be travel related...we leave for our vacation in 32 hours and 24 minutes... 

:-)

With annual traditions, like the Sts. Peter and Paul Fall Festival, I feel like I’m a broken record.  But I did so much more this weekend than usual. 

Saturday morning, I met Mom and Aunt Bev in Eau Claire.  We went to my cousin’s baby shower.  She is due Sunday, she was joking with the host that she wasn’t going to make it to the shower, but she was there. 

After that we drove to Independence and dropped off my stuff and headed to Arcadia to Mike’s house.  We went to the Ashley for the Arts at the Memorial Park in Arcadia. Every year Ashley Furniture puts on this event as a fundraiser for various charities.  It is quite a big deal.  Anyways we went to the 3:30 performance of the Memories.  They were good. They have been preforming in the area for over 40 years! After that we went to Mike’s house for a grill out.  My cousin, Paula and her boyfriend Tom came by.  After that we went to the 7:30 performance of Matt Nathanson.  I’m not exactly sure who he is, I guess he is famous or something.  I didn’t really enjoy that so much so I took Shelly, Mike’s friend, for a walk down Soldiers’ Walk.  I love walking down this timeline of historic events. I showed her the sculptures for all the wars and the beam from the World Trade Center.  It was a nice getaway.  We made it back for the end of the concert and then the fireworks.  For such a small town, they were really amazing. 

Sunday morning started our normal tradition. Go to church to drop off mom’s pies and cakes and turn in her tickets. I’m not sure the last time she did this herself! LOL!  I got my verbal abuse from Becky Maule at the cake walk/sucker pull.  I know it is in good fun. This year she told me she dreamt about me all night and then fell out of bed. She blames me for that.  I spent $15 and didn’t win a damn cake.  They rig the game!  I got my cheese coffee cake and we turned in mom’s raffle tickets.  Something out of the norm for us, we went to the Polka Mass on Sunday morning.  It was nice, as nice as can be.  After church we had Chicken and JoJos from East End Bar. It was good but I really wish that we had the dinner at church. Smelling the meatballs cooking in the church basement during Mass was hard to handle. :(

After lunch Mom, Bev and I went back up to church for Bingo. We didn’t win of course. Never do! We left after Bingo so Mom and Betty Jane could go to Aunt Vina’s wake at the funeral home.  Bev and I went to Anna’s house to get a picture of Mickey as the “wheelchair super hero.”  So during Bingo I get a random phone call from our niece Beth. She is doing some scavenger hunt thing and need a “wheelchair super hero” in purple and white with a “G.” I told Eric he was crazy if I was going to do that.  But I told Mom and she said that Mickey would love to do it. So here he is:

After picking up Mom and Betty Jane at the funeral home we went back to the Festival for the polka music.  Bev and I stayed about an hour and then we headed home. We stopped at Culver’s for a burger and I dropped her off and made my way back home. It was a nice, busy weekend. 

So where was Eric you ask?  Well he was in Mankato working with DJ on his paper. 

I was sitting in a meeting on Tuesday and all of a sudden I was extremely tired, my throat started to hurt and I got the chills. I thought to myself…CRAP, not again!  I just had a cold 3 weeks ago and was finally over it. I had chills the rest of day and couldn’t wait to get home. I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep.  I had a volleyball game at 9:15pm so I had to stay awake.  I struggled playing. I had enough energy for one game. The other 3 games were a struggle.  I had a rough night sleep because I ached all over and I had a splitting headache. I finally called in sick. My first sick day since Eric had surgery a couple years ago. I’m so glad I did. I slept in until 10am and did nothing all day except play Candy Crush.

Thursday I went back to work and visited our Health Services.  I thought for sure I had strep throat.  Typical symptoms, sore throat, couldn’t swallow, swollen/painful glands, white spots, headaches, fever.  Well they took the strep test and it was inconclusive. The nurse practitioner, aka the “quack,”  told me I had bronchitis. HUH?  I was not congested, I didn’t have sinus pain, I wasn’t stuffed up, I could breathe just fine and I wasn’t coughing.  Where the heck did that diagnosis come from? So I left there questioning the staff my company has hired for our Health Services.  Even the people I work with thought she was a quack. Well the quack got it right. Thursday night I had sinus pressure, stuffed up noise, it hurt to breathe and coughing. Great! The other weird thing about the visit…the measured my waist…what is that about?

Today was an exciting day.  I got my new stove.  I know this is just a few weeks after my exciting new toilet. But the last time I cleaned our stove, I practically died of the fumes from EZ-Off. I told Eric “I’m never cleaning this stove again; next time it needs to be cleaned, I’m getting a new stove.”  Well that was a while ago, and the old stove desperately needed to be cleaned. Eric wouldn’t let me go back on my proclamation so we bought a new stove. This new stove is great.  It is so much better than my old one.  It is glass top, it has self-cleaning, a timer and a LIGHT!  No more trying to find my little flashlight to see if the cookies are done. I’m so excited!   I christened it with a pizza of course.  It worked great. I also made eggs, browned hamburger, fried bacon and made twice-baked potatoes. Tonight I’m making a cookie/brownie recipe.  It is getting a work out on its first day of service.

I also bought new cookware from Kohl’s.  It is Bobby Flay’s (whoever the heck he is) stainless steel set.  So far, so good. I figure, new stove, new cookware.  Plus my old set is non-stick and the Teflon is starting to flake. It is not cool when I’m eating mashed potatoes and I see black flecks of Teflon.  Can’t that stuff kill you?  So anyways, I went for a high quality stainless.  I fear that my food will stick to it but so far neither the hamburger nor the bacon stuck.  I guess the true test is the next time I make eggs.  I hear those can be tricky.

It has been booked...ok not Hawaii!  How about "Da Plane, Da Plane" from Fantasy Island? Anyways, we are off to the white sandy beaches and turquoise waters of Jamaica.  We are leaving Christmas Day and coming back New Year’s Day.  7 days of sun, water and relaxation.  I’m so excited!  Hopefully I won't get bored! I have been dragging my feet on purchasing it and the price went up $400 yesterday!  I was so pissed.  But today I got a Delta Vacation code and saved almost $500.  Yes!  I’m spending another Christmas Day at the airport.  This is becoming a tradition.

I ran 4 miles on Monday and 5 miles today!  5 miles!!  I was so happy.  It was slow but 5 miles!  I was only going to do 4 again but I went to the preserve by the river and the out and back is only 3.8 miles.  So I had to turn around and when I did I thought what the heck I can do another mile.  I’m not sure what is going on here but I really like running. I celebrated by going to Kohl’s and to buy new running shirts.  I’m getting annoyed by baggy t-shirts, I want something that wicks sweat. 

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week.  Yippy!  I have Friday off to prepare for Milwaukee and to go to Abbie’s Confirmation.