Monday Morning

Good morning. Today I am going to talk about the football game and the cheerleaders and the fact that I am a couch potato and my kids and grandkids are all athletes. But first I am going to talk about tariffs and that idiot in the White House.  

Oh, is that another counter full of green peppers for the food bank? (They are all sweet peppers, just a fancy shape). 

I will start at the end. My oldest daughter completed the marathon and came back to my house to take a shower before heading home. She was very impressed by my shower head and asked me to send her the link.  Imagine my surprise when I sent her the link and it is currently priced at $649.

In November of 2024, after the election, we quickly ordered the remaining materials to complete our bathroom remodel. I was able to find the price we paid for this unit two years ago. $301.86

Yeah.  Don't tell me American is winning. The prices of the products we purchased have doubled and tripled.  And by tripled I mean the acrylic walls of my handicapped accessible shower which came from Canada.  It would now cost three times as much for those shower walls. When I pointed this out to my husband he pointed out to me that his pension has not increased. 

Okay. Rant over. (not really but I will move on). 

We made it to the football game on Friday night with no problems. We were there to watch the cheerleaders and the mini cheerleaders and they were wonderful. Unfortunately a player was injured horribly, he was screaming while a limb was splinted. I have not hear how he is doing. 

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn for a marathon.  I was the cheerleader.  We watching one of my grandsons run by in the 5K, he led for most of the race but lost to 4 adults who passed him at the end. 

My oldest daughter competed in the actual half marathon which means she ran for 13.1 miles which is just not even part of my comprehension.

My youngest daughter was "cheering" with us, we do cheer for all the runners, and brought a special beverage for the second time she passed us. 

 

She places 5th in her age group which somehow is the age group I think that I should be in. 

I can't skip the person who crosses the finish line first each year. My youngest son the cop serves as the "rabbit" leading the racers.  He laughingly complains that he never gets a medal. 

I took the cheering section plus those who spent the morning in Sunday School out for breakfast.  

I contacted my farm family to see what date in October I should expect my beef quarter. Somehow I got lost in the shuffle but she can provide a quarter in December. This is actually going to work out better for us since I have lots of odds and ends in the freezer and we won't have to eat tomato sauce and squash every day from all the tomatoes and squash I froze. I can space them out.  I might even do one of those freezer challenges (where you cook from your freezer instead of shopping) that I have seen around. 

And speaking of tomatoes, how did I just learn about tomato flights? I will be planting beef steak tomatoes this spring! 

Not my photo

And I guess that is my weekend. 

And we got our final pictures from the Witches Wander. This store had a photographer that edited the photos so this is as good as we get, lol. 

Doing My Part!

We have had a busy week. Early voting started here on Monday and we didn't make it in until Wednesday, but we have voted!

The postcards I signed up for finally arrived.  I wrote them all in one night and signed my name and my daughters names to all of them. I thought their names sounded more youthful than my old lady name. They went in the mail last night! 

I also sat through two hours and forty five minutes of poll worker training. I think it is an endurance test. 

Now I am off to a football game about two hours away. One granddaughter is a cheerleader and the youngest granddaughter is joining her as a mini cheerleader.  I don't mind the drive there but the drive home will need coffee. 

Happy Weekend. 

Witchy Women

It was the third year for my town's Witches Wander event, but our first time attending. It was so much fun!  We were among the first 200 registered which qualified us for a "swag bag".  I bet around 250 total attended.

Our bags were filled with gift cards and coupon cards, a decorative purse scarf, a gift box with perfume and nail polish, a skull shot glass which could be used for a free shot of alcohol at a participating bar (we did not take advantage of this), a recyclable dishcloth, candy and a pen shaped like a witch's broom.  My daughter won a $10 gift card on her scratch off. I was a "loser" but won a $20 gift card to a salon on a chance to spin the wheel. 

We set off on the scavenger hunt. We visited all kinds of tiny boutiques that we have driven by but never stopped in to see what they offer.  All were decorated and offered snacks, many had photo booth walls. 

We stopped in for a refreshing Apple Cider Mimosa and a Drunk Witch Sangria.

Every participating business had a letter hidden in the store to help solve our word scramble. This business offers environmentally friendly projects and you can refill the containers too. 

The places serving adult beverages had their own word scramble. Purchase was not required (thank goodness). We would not have been able to complete either puzzle if we imbibed at every opportunity. 

A line at a carryout window for another bar. 

We stopped here because the previous place was having problems with their Stumbling Witch slushie machine. We tried the Boo Levandar and the Witching Hour Cosmopolitan, despite the price. They were so strong we dumped them in the bushes, lol. 

Another shop. 

There were street musicians. These are very talented high school boys. The witches were very supportive and they had lots of donations in their case. 

Characters

Hanging out with a few friends. 

There were two photographers offering photos at sidewalk setups.  Here is one of them. The other hasn't posted the photos yet. 

I have lived in this town all my life and I was in places I have never been before! 

Below is a fun one. A dive bar that was hosting a letter but had no themed specials. The group sitting here had designed a drink they called Enchanted and the bartender was game. They told me it was very weak but he would make it stronger. I said, thank you - I would love it very weak! 

The Enchanted drink is on the right, an Octoberfest beer on the left.  We solved our word scrambles "Enchantment" and  "Bats". I think I know where they got the name for the drink they designed, lol. 

We turned in the sheets for a raffle (we did not win) and headed over for the group photo. 

We texted my daughter in laws to see if anyone would like to join us for something to eat. My daughter in-law Amber joined us.

I went all out with Bloody Mary's Last Meal with 4 quarters of a grilled cheese sandwich, pickles, cheese, tomatoes, olives and summer sausage. (and 99% tomato juice). It was fabulous.

My partner in crime chose the Spellarilla Spooky Margarita and crab cakes. 

And my daughter in-law got an Apple Cider Mimosa since she wasn't there for the first round. 

We didn't enter the costume contest - I will share pictures of the winners if they post them. There were some pretty outstanding costumes. We visited so many clothing boutiques, I bought one sweater but can't wait to go back. It turns out there is a second hand clothing store that I never knew moved in.  

The stores had invited other small businesses and crafters to sit in at their stores so there were bakers and jewelry makers and face painters and more. Everyone was having so much fun and laughing. 

I did get my steps in! (I strive for 2 miles).

I dont' even remember where this was, lol. 

I introduced my daughter to my cancer thrift store. I will be going back with my 20% off coupon. I didn't want to carry anything delicate or too large.  I did photograph price tags (as usual) so that I could see.  She is off school on Friday so I will check the date on the coupon to see if we can wait that long. 

If God wants me to have this set of 4 sandwich plates with matching tea cups, they will still be there on Friday - along with some beautiful lamps. 

We can't wait to join them all again next year! 

The Great Pumpkin Patch

It's another "busy season".  The temperatures have dropped to tolerable. And the grandkids have returned to school and extra curricular activities.  We have been busy helping out with rides to practice and cheering for tennis, cross country, flag football, and soccer. We are in a medical appointment era and we did get our flu and covid vaccines.  And we already had our first teacher in-service for one of the elementary schools (cue the trip to the park and Bob Evans breakfast). 

Yesterday (Sunday) I was free during the day and two other grandchildren and their mother invited me to tag along to the amusement park. My job is to hold hats and purses and enjoy the scenery. I hope you enjoy it too! 

I can't imagine the work to create these wonderful displays and also the constant maintenance.  We saw several squirrels nibbling on the pumpkins and I am sure many will be replaced over the next month. 

I did buy all the grandkids and their parents passes for next year for Christmas. And I bought one for myself but skipped the meal pass since I only made a few visits this summer.  I did use this year's pass to get the special fall menu item - lobster bisque - for lunch. And had a steak and potato dinner at a log cabin. 

The weather was absolutely perfect and by the end of the day I had walked over 11,932 steps which is about 5 miles. Which is crazy. 

Just noticed the daughter cut herself out of the selfie. 

The kids rode rides and posed by all the decorations. Sunday was the perfect day for their ages, they only do the scary stuff on Friday nights and Saturdays. 

I do want to mention these are two different pairs of grandkids since they do all resemble each other.  Sometimes I have to look twice to make sure who is who.