Fun Weekend

Hi All,

This weekend was a fun time for both me and John, but we were separated and in 2 different places.  On Friday night John went Up North so he could attend Fish Fry Fest at the Lake of The Torches casino in Lac Du Flambeau.  Our ATV Club had a booth set up there and John and Dewey sat there handing out ATV information.  Captain Sig from the Northwestern Crab boat on the TV show "Deadliest Catch" was there and he was sitting/standing about 15 feet away from the ATV booth.  He was taking pictures with anyone that wanted one (no charge) and John got a a signed picture from him.  When Sig was done with the picture taking, he came over to our booth and chit chatted with John, Dewey, Pat & Sharon.  Dewey won a boat paddle from the Leinenkugels drawing and Sig then signed it.  Here is a picture of him & Dewey:

Captain Sig told them after he was done there he was getting ready to take off to go to Australia on Sunday.  COOL !
While John was hobnobing with celebrities...I was over visiting Sean at Chris & Holly's new house.  He was dog sitting for them and Holly's sister Heather's dogs while they all went up to Minnesota for a wedding.  I brought over some lunch and then he showed me their new house.  It's really nice.  We then sat and watched some scary ghost haunting shows until I had to leave at 4:30 because I had to go let Bailey out.  I couldn't bring Bailey over there because Zoe (Chris & Holly's dog) does not like Bailey.

On Sunday, I went to the Renaissance Fair in Bristol, WI with Sarah, Kaylin & Shane while John drove back home from Up North.  He got home around 1PM.
The Renaissance Fair was really fun, we got there around 10:30AM and already there was a line of cars to go into the parking lot (field).  Kaylin dressed up in one of her princess dresses.  Next year (yes, we are going again next year)  I am going to dress up too.  You wouldn't belive the amount of people that come dressed up in medieval clothes and there were people dressed as fairies walking thorugh out the fair.  Lots of kids get dressed up in costume too.  I took some pictures with my phone, so hopefully they are clear enough.
Kaylin got a butterfly painted on her cheek

Kaylin & Shane

Some people in costume

Here is the Queen's throne, you can go and sit on it when the Queen is not in residence.

Here is a little girl with wings

The Queen riding by on a horse in a parade



In the Kids Kingdom area playing on the pirate ship



One of the many performances in the fair

Eating Gelato (it's Italian ice cream)-The kids were pretty tired at this point and Kaylin was almost falling asleep.

The band anouncing that the Queen is coming

Walking through the crowd-The women dressed up behind them was carring a sign that said "Kisses".

We had just left the Fair and there was this little platform that the kids climbed up on.  Notice Shane practicing with his sword !  

  



So that is the end, we had a great time and are looking forward to going again next year.  Maybe Matt, Sean & John will come with us..HUH ???

Have a good week

35 Year Work Anniversary Party

Hi all,
Today I had my 35 year work anniversary at the office.  My real work anniversary date is May 19, but because neither my boss or family members were able to come until today, that's why I had my party at a later date.  I invited just my immediate co-workers, which now is a much smaller group than when I started in this department 10 years ago.  Before I came here I had a variety of postions with the company which were: Directory Assistance Operator, Telephone Repair Clerk, Payphone Coin box Collector, Credit & Collections Rep & White Pages Directory Clerk.
John, Sarah, Matt, Kaylin, Shane & Audra were able to come also.

Here are a few pic's from the party:

Here are the flowers that I received as gifts:

I had a real nice day.
Have a great rest of the week

Kaylin & Shane Sleep Over

Hi All,

Last Saturday Sarah, Kaylin, Shane & Audra came over for a visit, and got to our house around 10AM.  We had lunch and had a nice visit with Sarah.  Sarah and I also were talking about going to the Renaissance Fair next weekend.  I love going to that fair!  It is so fun if you are into that type of fun.  It's all about the Queen of course and there is also a kids kingdom that has alot of kids activities that would have been played during medieval times. The employees dress up in medievel costume and stroll the grounds playing some role for the day and try to make you feel like you are in that world for a few hours. 

Shane asked me if he and Kaylin could sleep over when he talked to me on the phone last week so they were all excited about their sleepover and helped me get their beds ready in their bedroom.  I have a trundle daybed in there and they helped pull the bottom bunk out and make their beds. Sarah & Audra stayed until around 3PM and then left to go home.  Matt was at a golf outing in Illinois with his family. 

We had tacos for supper and then I, Kaylin, Shane & Bailey went for walk.  We got back and then cleaned up all the toys so we could make the favorite POPCORN and watch a move before bedtime. 

Shane picked the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks".  I made 2 big bowls of popcorn with our up north popcorn seasoning (butter salt)  from the popcorn store.  Shane and I shared a bowl and Kaylin & Papa shared the other one. 

We got through about 1/2 of the movie when I saw that Shane was starting to yawn and get real snuggly.  So I thought we had better get PJ's on & brush teeth, before they fell asleep.  So we paused the movie and hurried up and got ready for bed.  Then we started the movie up again and watched it to the end.  Both bowls of popcorn were eaten.  Both kids are popcorn fanatics as am I.  Sarah is too.  She took some unpopped popcorn home with her so she didn't have to stop at the store to pick some up.  After the movie, they said goodnight to Papa and I took the kids upstairs to go to bed.  We read 2 Bernstein Bears books, and then each got tucked into their beds.  We sang Silent Night 2 times and by then both were asleep.  Bailey was curled up down on the end of Shane's bed too. I had to wake her up to go downstairs.  The kids slept through the night just fine.
Sunday morning I awoke just before 5AM and I heard some talking.  I think it was Kaylin talking to herself.  Then she stopped and I thought she went back to sleep.  I got up and went downstairs to get my coffee.  As I turned around to go downstairs to the family room, there were both kids sitting on the stairs going down from the bedrooms.  They definitely were awake and ready to play.  I asked them if they wanted anything to eat or drink and both said no not right now. We went downstairs and I turned on the TV and found on Nickelodeon a kids show for them to watch.  They did get some toys out too to play with.  Bailey had to go potty outside so I took her out, it was sprinkling a little and she didn't want to go off the deck.  I shooed her off the deck and tried to hurry her up so we all didn't get too wet.  Both kids were outside too standing underneath the overhang of the house trying to stay dry.  Bailey ran off the deck finally and did what she needed to do and ran back up.  By then it was coming down pretty hard and Baily was pretty wet.  We all got in the house and then all of a sudden, it started lightening and thundering and it started rain so hard that you could hardly see outside !  The rain gutter outside the patio door was overflowing.  We took Bailey upstairs so I could get a towel to dry her off.  Kaylin wanted to help me dry Bailey off, but Bailey didn't want anything to do with that.  I think she was scared as to what Kaylin was trying to do.  So I held Bailey while Kaylin dried her very soft and gentle and then Bailey was dried enough.
John got up later and then made some pancakes for the kids.  I took my shower as Kaylin laid on our bed waiting for me to be done.  She helped me go through my earring drawer in my jewelry cabinet finding earrings to throw out that I don't wear anymore.  She also picked out a pair that she wanted me to wear for the day.  She ended up picking out and old pair from my Grandmother that I had picked out from her jewelry box after she passed away.  I don't think I've ever worn them, but there is always a first. After we were done there, Shane got dressed, I ironed Kaylin's dress that she wanted to wear today and then we went outside to play and ride bikes.  By that time the rain had stopped and blue sky was peaking through. After we did that for a while, Kaylin found the croquet game in the garage.  I got 2 of the mallets and the kids picked out the color of the ball they wanted to play with.  They played with them hitting the balls up and down the driveway. 

I didn't want them playing on the grass because it was so wet.  Well, after someone (Shane) got hit in the head with a mallet as she (Kaylin) was swinging to whack her ball, we decided that we should just roll the balls back and forth to each other.  He was ok, just took a few kisses from Grandma and just a little crying and he was ok and started playing again..WHEW! He does have a goose egg to show for it though.  Tough little guy....
I stood in front of the garage and both kids were rolling their balls toward me to roll and/or kick back to them on the driveway.  We went into the house to get a snack and then I brought out a box of leftover toys I had bought for the little kids at our family reunion last year.  I still haven't found a place to put these luau decorations yet, they are still sitting in my living room, the result of still putting things away from our remodeling project this past spring.  Oh well, it will get done.... Anyway, in this box there were some squirt guns and thank goodness there were 2 of them.  Both kids wanted theirs filled with water, so I filled up a bucket of water outside and then they could fill them up themselves instead of coming in the house every 5 min for more fill ups.  There was also a toy that had 2 little spinning wheels that you put on a gun-like part and then you pulled a string and it makes the spinner fly off into the air.  Well,  I didn't think ahead about this and had the kids standing on the deck playing with it.  Shane had his turn and guess where it went?? Yes, you probably guessed...up into the rain gutter.  So both kids ran into the house yelling "Papa help, Papa help, we need you to get it out of the gutter".  Unfortunately, John was in the bathroom taking a shower, so the kids had to sit patiently waiting for him to get done.  FINALLY......he came downstairs and they went out with him to get the ladder so he could get it out.  While he was up there, he also looked at the gutter so see what he had to do to fix it to stop the leaking right in front of the Patio door.  In the Winter/Spring time ice cycles form there and one of these times they may pull down the gutter. 
We sold our water heater that we replaced with a power vented one to Sarah & Matt.  Theirs is an older one and ours is only 5 years old.  So John loaded it up on the trailer and we then left around 1PM to take it over to Sarah & Matt's house. 

The kids fell asleep as soon as the truck started moving.  We got to their house and Kaylin woke up right away, but Shane still was sleeping.  John & Matt unloaded the water heater and then Shane woke up.  We visited awhile and then left for home around 4PM.
It was a wonderful weekend with the kids and a nice visit with Sarah, Matt & Audra.
One more pictue....Bailey relaxing after the whirlwind of having the kids here.  And if you can believe this...John is the one that covered her up..... LOL

Sean did not come down this weekend, he wanted to get Leo & Axel (Ax for short) LOL ....acquainted better with each other.  I had mentioned in earlier posts that he was getting a room mate,  Plans changed since then and that did not happen.  Sean became a volunteer at the human society, and the 1st day found this little kitten that he just couldn't resist taking home with him.  He has always wanted to get a friend for Leo so now he's trying to get them to know each other.  It's going ok, there has been some hissing and a few swipes at each other, but nothing drastic. 
Have a good week.

Exciting Time Up North

Hi all,
John, Bailey & I went up north this past weekend and had a very nice time for most of it.  We got up there Friday night around 10PM with an uneventful ride up.  Our neighbors Ron & Lynn were up too.  Seems they are always up there now that they are retired..lucky  for them!!!

Sat.:
I got up at my normal 5AM, got my coffee mug filled and with not having a book with me to read, I sat and did some Sudoku puzzles until Bailey got up needing to go outside.  Then John got up around 7AM.  He sat and had some coffee too and then got ready to go to town to get his hair cut.  He left around 9AM and I then took my shower and got dressed for the day.  It was to be a very nice day in the 80's and sunny.  John got home around 11AM after his haircut he stopped by Dewey's and then they both went over to visit Pat Harkins who is the Vice Pres of the ATV club.  They chatted for a while about ATV business and then John came home. We decided to go get a salad for lunch and then go to the wooden boat show that was being held at Matt Morgan's (the old Bosaki restaurant).  So we went to Perkins first and ate our salads and then went and found a parking spot in town.  There were alot of people there with the Beer Fest going on at Torpy park and the boat show.  We walked down to the boat show and all of a sudden the wind picked up and you could feel the cooler air coming.  To the west you could see these very dark clouds coming, but the weather man said it wasn't supposed to be rain in the forecast (yeah right!).  John and I went through all of the boat displays and walked down all of the piers.  WOW, some of these boats were built in the 1930's and are very pretty.  See pic's

As we were getting to the last pier, those clouds got darker and darker and the wind was getting very strong.  I was getting very uneasy and at times lost my balance.  Some of the piers were floating piers and with the waves coming in they were bouncing all around.  I grabbed onto John a few times to not to fall in the water.  We decided to start walking back to the truck and we got there just in time when it started to sprinkle.  We had to go to the dollar store to get a table runner for the table Sean gave me for the cabin.  It only took about 5 min. to get there and we got into the store and it just downpoured.  You could hear the rain on the roof and the wind was whipping.  We took our time walking around the store and when we left it had calmed down.  As we drove back to the cabin, we were seeing alot of tree branches on the roads and all or most of the stop and go lights were out.  Lights were off in the stores and homes too.  We thought, oh no, we are for sure not going to have electricity at the cabin.  It always goes out when there is any type of wind.  As we turned onto Squirrel Lake Road and made our way to our road, there were a few trees that had blown down across the road  where we had to go around them.  We turned onto Bo-Di-Lac and you could just tell there was a wind storm.  Branches and parts of trees and leaves were all over the road.   Sure enough, we got home and no electricity !!!  This was around 2:30 in the afternoon.  I tried to call WPS, but I couldn't get through to them.  The message kept saying that because of the high volume of outages, they are not able to take my call right now and to call back.  We called Sarah to see if she could check for us on the WPS website as to how extensive the outage was.  She pretty much said every city above Merrill (north of Wausau) was out.  They said at least 30,000 customers.  Yeah that's the count of who could get through to them.  There were alot that couldn't even report that they were out of service.  It was getting to be around 4:30PM, so John and I decided to go out to eat for supper and hoping that the electricity would be back on by the time we got back.  We needed to get some gas, but couldn't find anyone that was open.  Most of them were out of electricity.  We drove to the south side of Minocqua and found the Shell station open so we got the truck filled up.  We then went to eat at Perkins again.  They were crowded because alot of the other resturants were out of electricity.  We ate and went home.  Still no electricity, so we got the flashlights and candles out.  Then John thought of a real cool idea.  He said we would have to run back into town to Walmart and get a inverter box so he could use the boat battery to be able to have lights on.  So we hauled back to Walmart and bought that and also some ice and water.  At this time we've been out of electricity for 6 hours and the refrigerator & freezer were gettting pretty warm and I didn't want our food to spoil.  We got back home and John rigged up the battery in the house and got to have lights on.  We also wanted to make sure we could have coffee in the morning...ha,ha.     It was around 10PM at this time.  I finally called WPS and was able to get through to report us out of service.   Needless to say when there is no electricity, there is no flushing of the toilet either.  So going to Walmart helped out for that part too...ha,ha.  Anyway, we went to bed soon after and then it had to be around 2 AM the electricity went on and something started beeping.  John told me he thought it was the phone, but then it stopped.  We could hear the refrigerator kicking on and the ceiling fan started going. What a relief to know it was on...
Sun:
I got up not knowing what time it was, (the clock was flashing) but it felt like my normal time of 5 AM.  I got up and it was 5:15AM.  My body clock was right on time.  John got up around 7 AM again and we had breakfast.  We packed up up and left around 11:45AM.  We got home around 4PM.    Sean was down to help Chris & Holly move to their new house this weekend.  He brought his new little kitty down with him and kept him in his bedroom at our house.  Here is a pic of him. Sean hasn't decided on a name for him yet. 

Hope you all have a great week.


 

Just a little note to catch up…

Hi All,



On Sat., July 9th we were invited to my niece Lindsay’s high school graduation party at my brother Duane’s house in Jefferson. We had a nice time and were able to visit with both friends and family. The food and weather was great, the kids got to go swimming along with a few dogs in tow. I can’t believe that Lindsay is old enough to graduate from high school….Where have the years gone? The next one in line is Jenna (my brother Dwight’s youngest girl) and she will be a junior this fall. Then that’s it….next will be the grandkids. WOW!!! Here are a few pic’s of the event.

Lindsay (in hat) on the couch ride

There they go.....



Graduation Cake

Time to eat !

My brother Dwight (and his sister-in law, Tammy)

Swimming at the pond (see the person in the air just leaving the rope swing ?)

This is where the swimmers start off from, they climb up the rocks and then jump onto the rope swing and swing out over the pond.

Left to Right....My sister Denna, Sister in-Law Tracee (Dwight's wife), Nick, My Brother-in Law Tom (Denise's husband), My sister Denise

Checking out the new ride (My sister Dawn & Brother-in Law Jim's bike)

The following week was uneventful. John and I are going through withdrawals because Sarah, Matt and the grandkids are in MI for the week on a family vacation and have come home this past Sunday. Can’t wait to see them again ! Haven’t seen Sean in a few weeks either he’s been helping his new roommate move slowly into his condo.

This past Saturday, I went to Maxwell Street Days in Mukwonago. I am looking for a quilt rack and didn’t find anything there. I did buy a pretty top and some headbands, but that was it. I met Dawn and Jim there as I was on my last vender aisle. On Sunday, we were trying to figure out what to make for supper. John suggested making meatloaf on the grill because it was too hot to have the stove on. So I went grocery shopping at 8:30AM to get the ingredients. It turned out really good. Here is a picture.

As you all probably know, our little dog Bailey can be a challenge at times as for not listening when told to do certain things like DOWN (jumping on you when you come over) & QUIET (barking at ANYTHING that comes into the yard i.e. squirrels, gophers,chipmunks & rabbits) ! John has been suggesting that we get one of those dog training collars that has the tone and then if needed…the vibration option. I’ve been putting it off and quite frankly a little scared of something like that for Bailey. But….I tell you, it’s been trying at times with her barking. So, at Lindsay’s party, my brother Dwight brought his dog Sassafrass who is still a puppy and is in training yet. He had one of those collars on her. He said they’ve only had it on her for about 2 weeks and what a difference it has made. I saw it work in my own eyes, so I relented and ordered one for Bailey this last week. It arrived last Thursday and OMG! I can’t believe the change in Bailey since she’s been wearing it. I admit I have used the vibrater button (It feels like a shock, but it’s not) on her and it really has gotten her attention. She knows that when she has the collar on, she needs to listen. She comes to me when called and when she sees a animal in the yard, she still gets herself wound up and starts to bark, then she looks back at me to see if I’m going to say anything. When I tell her “Bailey, NO”. She usually stops. If she doesn’t, then I hit the tone button and she will stop ! I call her to come and she comes !  unbelievable ! Before the collar, she would just keep on barking until I go and grab her tie out cable and pull her back to the deck and hold her there as she's jumping and barking and carrying on until either the animal goes away, or I go and chase it out of the yard. I just can’t believe the attitude adjustment in a few days. The instructions say to work with one part of training at a time. Once she get’s this down, then we will work on the jumping problem.

So that’s it for now, John and my 32nd wedding anniversary is on Thursday and will be going out for dinner on Sat. to celebrate.

Have a good rest of the week

Up North For the 4th

Hi all,
Well we just got back from our long weekend up north for the 4th and boy was it hard to leave.  We had a great time and the weather cooperated beautifully.  Here are the highlights:
Sat. Morning:
We left the house around 7AM and arrived up at the cabin around 11AM. There were no problems along the way until we got to Wausau.  Then the traffic picked up and by the time we got to Tomahawk, it was bumper to bumper all the way up to Minocqua.  Evidently, alot of people thought the same thing to leave on Sat. morning instead of fighting the traffic on Friday night. We got unloaded and I then took off to Walmart to go grocery shopping. We took up the riding lawnmower to get the grass mowed quickly.  There were alot of ticks the last time we were up here so we thought with the rider it would help John not to get any on him.  It worked ! Actually, we did not have any ticks on us the whole weekend (including Bailey). Walmart was crowded as usual.  All the checkout lines were open and it was wall to wall people.  I hate grocery shopping anyway and I was fit to be tied when I left.  I got home (almost hitting a deer on Squirrel Lake road), so I was ready for a drink when I got there.  We unpacked the food and got things ready for supper.  I made a low carb, low fat taco bake casserole.  It tasted really good!  We then took a walk down to the lake and met Skip Boehm & Ron & Ryan Mihm down there.  Ron & Ryan were cutting & trimming the grass around the boat launch. Our neighbors Ron, Lynn, their 2 grown kids (Ryan & Tracy) and their spouses and their grand kids were up for the week.  Ron & Lynn are the couple that back in March we went to their retirement party.  They are loving retirement alot.
Sunday:
I got up at 5AM and I started reading my new book by Ann Coulter called Demonic.  She is right on the money and I wish she would run for President, I would vote for her for sure....Anyway....John soon got up and then Bailey decided to make an appearance.  It is to be a beautiful day today, in the 80's.  We had our annual Ponderosa Homeowners Association meeting to go to at 11AM.  It was held at the Secretary/Treasurers home (Diane & Jim Slade).  We got there and were the 2nd people to arrive.  So on after everyone else showed up and the meeting started.  It was nice to see everyone again and to catch up on what's been going on with them.  The meeting ended around 1PM and John and I went home to get the boat launched.  We did that and then went home for a while.  We had supper and then went out for a leisurely spin around the lake. So relaxing!!!  We got back in around 9PM and then settled in for the night.

Monday: HAPPY 4th OF JULY !!!
Another beautiful day starting this morning.  Sunny and in the 80's, not a cloud in the sky.  We got up and got ready to go to St Germain today.  There is a Christmas in July craft fair/Flea market being held at the Community park.  John wasn't too enthused about going, but he tolerated it.  I bought a "Up North" decoration for the cabin and I bought 2 more hand fans that I need to replace the ones that have fallen apart from overuse (my hot flashes..ha,ha). We got back to the house a little after 12 noon and then we ate lunch.  We stayed home to just relax there.  Bailey then was a naughty girl.  I tied her outside and then a chipmunk was jumping around in the leaves on the side of the house that faces the neighbors house.  I went outside to stop her from barking and what happened then almost gave me a heart attack !!.  Behind me the chipmunk had jumped up onto the deck and Bailey went crazy.  She ran around me and the chair and pulled so hard that her collar snapped and broke and off she went after this chipmunk.  They went towards Ron & Lynn's place and I yelled for her but she was really after this chipmunk !  I had no shoes on, but I went after them (sticks, pine tree boughs& pine cones really hurt on bare feet!!)  I got around to the front of their house and Bailey lost the chipmunk, but was sniffing around the front porch. I got Bailey to start to come to me, but then Ryan's wife Jill heard me yelling and she came out of the house calling to Bailey too.  Being the social butterfly that Bailey is, she went right to her to say hello.  I thanked Jill for helping me catch Bailey and I then picked up Bailey and walked home through the leaves and such.  I did have Bailey's old collar still in her bag.  I just never threw it out.  It was still good, just a little faded and some of the pink sparkles had fallen off..  After all that I read some more of my book and enjoyed the great weather. We made supper and then got ready to go watch the fireworks on the lake.   They are put on by Musky Shores bar.  They were very nice but the mosquitoes were very bad.  We had repellent, but they still very very irritating.  We stayed until we couldn't stand it any longer and the fireworks were almost over and then left.  As we pulled into the pier, the fireworks ended. 

Tuesday:
I got up and had my coffee at 5:30AM and again read some more of my book.  I looked out the window and saw 2 little fawns.  The doe must have already gone into the woods.  By the time I got the camera, just one of the fawns was still standing there...See the picture:

We have to run into town today to drop off our septic card at Ray Burnett's so he can come and pump it out. We did that and then cam home again.  We went out on the boat for one last time.  It was a little cloudy out today, but still warm. 
We pulled the boat out and put it in the barn for another day.  We then got ready to go to our annual steak fry ATV meeting we have for the July meeting.  It was held at Northwoods Work-N-Sportz who is owned by Tom Lynn. He is the Treasurer of our ATV club.  We had to be there at 6PM.  We got there and alot of the members were already there.  They were cooking 2 different kinds of steaks, rib eyes & tenderloins.  There were baked potatoes, 2 different pasta salads, coleslaw, cheese & crackers for snacks & strawberry shortcake for dessert.  We ate and then had our meeting.  We didn't get home until 10PM.  We had a nice time.
Wednesday:
Well, it went too fast, but it's time to pack up and come home.  We left around 10:30AM and got home at 3:30PM.  Not to much traffic to contend with.  Back to work for 2 days and then off for the weekend. 

We have to run up to Sean's place early Sat. morning to help him get his old big screen TV to a recycling center and take a few things to goodwill. and then back home for Lindsay's graduation party on Sat afternoon.  Looking forward to seeing the family again.
Take care....

New Blog for Matt & Sarah

Hi All,
Sarah has started up a new blog, here is the address....
http://www.zomboraczfamily.blogspot.com/