Wednesday Blahs

I think we were just tired from our trip to Spokane yesterday, but today was just a blah day. I did get the sheets washed and the bed remade, but that's about the extent of my ambitions. I did cut the tags off of the shirts I bought Forry yesterday - plus all of those nasty little plastic ties.

We had a bunch of little visitors today in the trees around the motor home as well as at the feeder. Some of them were little Oregon junkos and the others some little warblers that we weren't able to identify. They had pale yellow breasts with white wing bars and tails.

Tonight I drove into Moses Lake to join the rest of the Menno ladies for our weekly Bible Study. It's always good to get together with this group.

Spokane

We planned a trip to Spokane today. One item on my list was a haircut. The impulse I had four months ago to cut my long hair has one major drawback. In order to have "wash and wear" hair that settles into waves all by itself, it has to be cut again every couple of months! Otherwise it gets about an inch too long and the weight pulls the baby fine stuff straight again.

I had called yesterday to see what days Becky was working this week. Since today was one of her workdays, that's the first stop we made. There is something just plain nice about having someone else shampoo your hair.

Our next stop was Costco. I got a couple more long sleeved shirts for both of us plus took a couple back that didn't fit well. It was a VERY busy place today! Forry did replenish his supply of hearing aid batteries - much to my relief.

We stopped next to pick up Son Sean, then went out on the Spokane Pullman highway where we have a storage unit. We were hoping to haul some of the stuff down to the RV, but after looking it over decided we didn't have room in Toad II. It may have to wait for another day and perhaps borrowing or renting a pickup...

It was still fairly early, but we went up to Gordy's Szechuan on the South Hill in hopes they would be open. They were and we shared a great meal of apricot chicken (a little on the sweet side), while Sean had peppered beef, which was also very good.

A stop in Moses Lake for gas and ice cream, but we finally made it back home on this very chilly but productive day.

Monday Blahs

I saw a meme this morning that said something to the effect that the only people that don't dread Mondays are those who are retired. I know that I was very thankful this morning that I didn't have to get up and go to work. It was a beautiful sunny morning. It actually got up to 65 degrees early this afternoon - and it's almost December!

We drove over to Ephrata about two pm to spent an hour or so with Vic. I had emptied out his mailbox at church yesterday and brought the contents over for him. Vic was sleeping in his chair when we got there, but he soon woke up and we had a nice visit.

Not really being in a mood to cook, we stopped by Mike's Place, the clubhouse for the nearby golf course, for a hamburger on the way home.

Quiet Sunday

The first thing I did this morning was check my iPad to see how our friends Leslie and Bill were doing. They are in Florida, walking in the 45th Space Coast 1/2 Marathon. The first post I saw was a picture of Bill at Mile 12, so they were almost finished. They had actually started at 6 AM Florida time. This is the first marathon they have done since Bill's near death experience at Epcot last month. His cardiologists okayed him doing the half marathon, but only to walk not run.

Knowing our friends were doing okay, we headed for church at Menno. We had to make a quick stop at the Chevron station for gas as we hadn't refueled on the way home last night. It was a beautiful day  for a drive in the country.

I think our busy week caught up with us by the time we returned home. We both napped through most of the sad Seahawks game.

A Visit With Vic

We took our time this morning getting our showers and putting stuff away from our overnight trip to Touchet. The batteries for our car fobs finally arrived in today's mail - only three weeks after I ordered them and four days after the projected arrival date! They came from Brooklyn, New York. It said on the envelope:

Surface Mail Only, Primary Lithium Batteries. Forbidden for Transportation Aboard Passenger Aircraft

 This package contains lithium metal cells or batteries. This package must be handled with care; a flammable hazard may exist if the package is damaged. Special procedures must be followed if the package is damaged, including inspection and repacking if necessary. Damaged batteries or cells should not be transported except under appropriate conditions.

From the mail box, we headed for Ephrata and spent an hour with Vic. He was up in a wheelchair when we got there and looked a great deal better than when saw him last Tuesday. It was good to see him alert and coherent.

From Ephrata, we returned to Moses Lake and a quick grocery stop. Seems like we're always needing something from there. I bought a frozen pizza to cook for supper when we got home.

 

Cookies!

When I got up this morning and came downstairs about seven, Sister Sherry was already mixing cookie dough. We had decided yesterday to make Mother's wedding cake cookies, bourbon balls and one with chocolate kisses. Sherry had checked out several baking sites on the internet and had also hauled out her old recipe box. It was sort of funny to see all the different variations there are of the same cookie.

The prize of the day was a recipe Sherry found for the kisses that used a peanut butter cookie for the base. You baked the little balls of dough for nine minutes; removed the tray from the oven; quickly and firmly pressed a kiss into the center of each cookie; then popped them back into the oven for two minutes more. They turned out to be delightful little morsels.

Sherry mixed dough and I sat at the table and made balls - lots and lots of balls! All the recipes we chose had you make balls of the dough. Even the bourbon balls, which weren't baked called for making them into balls that were rolled in powdered sugar before they were chilled. The bourbon balls were good. But we decided they needed to age for a few weeks to become their tastiest.

We had leftover roast beef sandwiches with the au jus we made from the roast drippings yesterday along with leftover crab cocktail. Forry and Sherry had pecan pie for breakfast! All in all, it was a very pleasant day, even though the Cougs didn't win the Apple Cup!

We got home just before dark, tired and full, and thankful for family!

Big Dogs and Roast Beast

And Creme Brûlée, and crab cocktails and popovers and mashed potatoes! And now we're eating pecan pie made with maple syrup and bourbon! Sister Sherry and I totally vetoed having turkey, she bought a standing rib roast instead. We also decided we would "graze" instead of having a big sit-down meal. There are some distinct advantages to being old ladies! And to not having a big crowd around!

We drove down to Strohmaier Farm this morning with pecans, walnuts, crab cocktail and a bottle of bourbon (strictly for the pie of course!) in the cooler. We were met by the gate by Sister Sherry and Keiko San, her 230 pound plus, five year old mastiff. The other two lady mastiffs were waiting in the house.

We've had a good day. We worked off a wee bit of calories walking out to the shop and then to the chicken house to do chores. The chickens were already up in their roosts for the night when we got out to shut them in.

Tomorrow we've got the makings for roast beef sandwiches with au jus we made from the roast drippings. We're going to make some Christmas cookies as well. It's fun to just work together in the kitchen with my sister!

Cocktails

I wish I knew the story behind the seafood cocktails that were a tradition in my maternal grandparents' home on holidays. I don't know that the family ever lived near the ocean. They emigrated from Bohemia and settled in Minnesota. My Grandmother Mary, a 25 year old spinster in the federal census report, followed her brothers out to Washington Territory to take up a homestead. The story was that her brothers wanted more than the 180 acres they could claim. She was supposed to "prove up" a claim so that they could have more land.

But she met another man of Bohemian descent, my Grandfather Matthew, and married him. Her brother married Nettie, Matthew's sister, so all of their children were double cousins.

There were always two things at each place setting on the table at her house on holidays. One was a  hand-turned wooden nut cup made by Great Uncle John. They always held some nuts and a few pieces of candy. The other item was a glass of cocktail sauce with green onions, celery and seafood - either shrimp or crab. As a child, I never thought to ask where the tradition came from and I was only eleven or twelve when my grandmother died. My mother continued the tradition with both the nut cups and the cocktails and my sisters and I do the same.

Of course, over the years, we have been fortunate enough to have fresh Dungeness crab, but I can remember opening the little cans of shrimp or crab that you used to be able to buy...

I thought about Grandma today as I was mixing up crab cocktails to take to Sister Sherry's with us tomorrow. I just wish I knew the rest of the story.

Another Trip to Ephrata

I did the last load of laundry this morning, then picked up a few things and got a bit more organized. Then we left for Ephrata and Columbia Basin Hospital to visit Vic. They had moved him down the hall to a room closer to the Nurses' Station. He's not had the strength in his hands to use the call bell, so they moved him closer so that they can hear him call out.

His daughter Pam was already there when we arrived, so we had a chance for a good visit with her. Vic was so much improved today from when we last saw him on Saturday. He was much more alert and cognizant of what was going on. I told him we were leaving for Touchet tomorrow, so would not be back over to see him until Saturday. He told me that that was an awful long time!

We stopped in Moses Lake on the way home to have dinner at Denny's. It's one of those places you just go to eat, nothing special. We order off the Senior Menu, which is plenty for us.

Papers!

I spent a good share of my day working on paperwork for my meeting tonight. I am chairing the Search Committee at Menno as we look for a new pastor. Unlike many more centralized church denominations, Mennonite Churches do not get pastors assigned by from a centralized location. Each church chooses and recruits their own pastor(s). We do get assistance from the area conference.

Our District Pastor Gary Jewell is serving as interim pastor for the church in Albany, Oregon. He was on his way back to Spokane today, so agreed to meet with the Search Committee on his way home. Since it was dinnertime, my dear friend Katherine sent a crock pot of beef vegetable soup and a basket of bread along to the meeting with her hubby! So along with our meeting, we had a feast as well.

The good thing about having to get agendas and other stuff printed is I got my printer working again. Ever since I used my laptop at the auction in early October with a different printer, my home printer has been refusing to communicate with it. Today it must have quit pouting and the two of them worked together with no problems (fingers crossed as I type...!).

Church & Seahawks

I did not want to get up this morning. Forry wasn't any better! I had to encourage him to get up and get going!

It was very foggy as we drove to church, especially along the dam. It was pretty thick, but fortunately it thinned out as we approached Moses Lake and headed to Menno. There was a nice turnout for church this morning. Pastor Matthew had everyone file to the front after the service to say a few words to Vic. His daughter-in-law held up her laptop and made a video that he could play of everyone expressing their prayers and good wishes.

Just to see some different country, we drove home through Warden. We got home just in time to see the start of the Seahawks versus the Eagles football game. It was a really good game even though Forry slept through the best part of it!

Visiting

We had two goals today. One was to go spend some time with Vic and the other was to get groceries. We weren't up terribly early. It had rained off and on during the night and it was quite dark and overcast when we got up.

We headed for Ephrata in the early afternoon. I took my iPad along, figuring if Vic was sleeping, we could just sit in his room with him. When we got there, the nursing staff was in his room getting him settled in his bed. They came and got us when they were finished. He didn't get to rest very long as the Occupational Therapist we had met last Wednesday came in with a nurse and a Hoyer lift to get him up for some therapy. We followed the wheelchair down to the PT department where Harmon put him through a series of exercises, both leg and arm strengthening stuff.

After his therapy, he was resettled in bed. I shared with him the members of the Search Committee and our plans for meeting on Monday. He was quite interested and talked a bit about previous pastors.  But he was tired and soon dozed off...

We left just before five, heading back to Moses Lake to get groceries before we headed home. Having no desire to cook dinner, we made a stop at KFC for chicken...

Company

This afternoon, Ron and his wife Mikki came for a visit. Ron was a classmate of Forry's through high school. They used to do a lot of things together -  hunting, bowling, golfing - that kind of stuff, when we lived on the ranch near Ritzville. Ron had heard that we were living over by Potholes State Park, so they came for a visit. It's always good to see people you haven't seen for a long time and catch up on their lives, their kids and their grandkids. They stayed for an enjoyable couple of hours.

It wasn't quite as cold today. The sun never did come out. The skies were very overcast, but so far we have had no more rain. We've pretty much decided that our two little electric heaters that were more than adequate in Arizona are just not going to be enough to do the job here. After looking at several, we went ahead and ordered a small electric fireplace from Camping World.

Forry had been snacking on peanuts this afternoon and wasn't very hungry for supper. I had planned to make some hearty nachos, but ended up just making some hamburger patties with grilled onions. We definitely need to make a grocery run tomorrow.

Hmm...

Some of the ladies of Sun Desert get together at the Clubhouse every Thursday morning at nine in the morning for coffee and chitchat. It's been a fun way to get to know some of the neighbors. Between ten and twelve of the ladies are usually present.

I was a bit late this morning. (It was cold and I wasn't anxious to climb out of my warm bed!) I arrived about ten after nine and almost turned around and walked out the door! There was quite a shouting match going on between two of the women. One was the neighbor who lives directly behind us in one of the mobile homes and the other was evidently her neighbor on the other side. I wasn't sure if the argument was about their dogs chasing each other or infringement upon parking spaces. Seems they were both angry and were throwing in everything that irritated each other!

One of them finally left and things settled down and it was back to the usual discussions of projects and grandkids. It did bring home to me how much I dislike dissension! I don't ever recall getting into it with neighbors, not even the kid in Spokane who led his dog over to do its business in our driveway because his Dad made him pick it up if he did it in their yard! I just told him we expected the same in our yard as his Dad and that was the end of that!

It was COLD when we got up this morning! Forry said it was 30 degrees when he got up this morning. It's been a beautiful, though wet, fall. We've only had frost one night more than a month ago. Everyone's flowers are still blooming. But, I think that this is the end of our nice weather.

A Visit..

After a fall that left fractures in his pelvis, our dear friend Vic was moved from the hospital to the rehab facility at Ephrata yesterday. I haven't been in the Columbia Basin Hospital facility there for over thirty years - not since a clinical rotation there as a student LPN at Big Bend Community College. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised when we got there this afternoon. It has been extensively remodeled and is quite nice. The rooms are all single person rooms with private baths.

From Ephrata we traveled back to Moses Lake; got Forry a burger; then went over to Monroe House for our Woman's Bible Study. Forry sat in the lobby and read the newspaper while he waited for me.

Earlier today I had put together both an email group and a text group for the Search Committee for our new pastor that I am chairing. Not being certain if the email addresses in the church directory were still accurate, I duplicated my message. One of the first things we'll have to do when we meet next week is to figure out the best way to contact every one.

Finally, A Quiet Day

As much as I like and enjoy many people, my introvert's soul definitely needs down time! We slept in this morning. After listening to rain most of the night, it was nice to wake up to sunshine.

I finished up the last load of laundry that I didn't finish yesterday when Forry needed help outside. I think I did a few other little things like go after the mail, but that was about it. I curled up in my chair with my iPad and read most of the afternoon away.

I made a batch of stew for supper with carrots, parsnips, turnips, a sweet potato, a Yukon gold potato and an onion. For a change I tried thickening it a bit with corn meal instead of flour, but I don't think I like what it did to the taste. I made biscuits to go with - I think Forry would make a meal of just biscuits if he could...

Winter Prep

It was cool today, but at least the sun was shining. I heard rain during the night, but the clouds were gone this morning.

We've had the materials to freeze-proof the water standpipe at our site for a couple of weeks. I think the weather forecast finally convinced Forrest that we needed to get the task done. We bought the shortest heat tape we could find. It is three feet long, but the pipe is only about two and a half feet above the ground. The instructions are very explicit about not over-lapping heat tape. Forry dug down around the pipe far enough to be able to secure the tape straight down the pipe.

Then we wrapped 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation around the pipe and over the heat tape with a vapor barrier over that. Again the instructions were very clear about using no more than a half inch of insulation. Then we secured a couple sections of stove pipe around the whole thing; plugged in the heat tape; connected the heated water hose to the water standpipe; plugged it in; then put a five gallon bucket upside down over the whole apparatus to keep the rain out.

We didn't have to do any of that when we were in Arizona!

While we were out there messing around, we disconnected the sewer hose we had been using and connected a little short one. Less to freeze! Hopefully it's not going to get so cold that we'll have to worry about it.

A Very Busy Sunday

Figuring we'd be going out to lunch today, we skipped breakfast. Might not have been a real good idea, as I could hear Forry's stomach growling during the sermon! We met Leslie and Bill at the ParknRide lot, they left the Yellow Taxi there and rode out to Menno with us. We didn't stay for Sunday School, but headed back to Moses Lake for lunch. The breakfast place we ate at the last time they were here on a Sunday morning has new owners and the reviews aren't very good, so we ended up going to Michael's On the Lake. They weren't serving breakfast, so we ended up eating lunch. Their lunch menu had an apple tart with orange syrup and ice cream under desserts. Forry decided that came as close to the pancakes he was hungry for, so that's what he had for lunch while the rest of us were more traditional. But, he raved so much about his choice that we ended up getting another one to share for dessert!

Bill and Leslie picked up their car and headed back to the west side while Forry and I went up to the hospital to visit Vic. Old Flying Farmer friends, Nina and Jerry, were there when we arrived, so we got to visit with them a bit as well. We stayed for quite a while, then Pastor Mathew showed up. We all talked a bit longer, then we finally headed home. It was after four o'clock when we got back to Auntie Violet.

It was already getting dark, so Forry worked on his Suduko while I read the newspapers on my iPad until it was time for the Seahawks game. It was definitely a back and forth battle with the New England Patriots, but the Seahawks won!

Walking?

I will be the first person to admit that we have some interesting friends. It does make for fun times.

Our friends Leslie and Bill are planning to walk in the Space Coast Half Marathon in Florida the end of November (after he had been cleared by his cardiologists!). Their training regimen called for them to walk four hours (10-11 miles) today. Leslie did not want to walk in the rain predicted for Bothell today, so last night they drove the four hours over to Moses Lake. This morning they drove out to Sun Desert, I fed them some eggs and bacon and they started walking. Forry rode his cart along with them for the first couple of miles, then he came in and they kept going.

By 1:30, they had walked 10 1/2 miles around and around the RV park and called it a successful day. It actually turned out to be a really nice day. The wind blew hard enough to blow the fog away that had hung around the last couple of days and the sun came out.

Bill and Leslie then went back to their motel and took cold baths to ward off leg cramps - and to shower! While they were gone, I browned some pine nuts in butter to add to the Brussels sprouts, gave the steaks a dry rub with lime pepper and stuck some Yukon Gold potatoes into the oven to bake. So all I had to do when they got back was put the steaks on to grill.

Bill and Leslie picked up some butter for me on their way out and also got a gluten free chocolate cake and strawberries - just in case we might have room for dessert! What a delightful day we have had.

Birthdays!

My Sister-in-law Cindy's birthday was yesterday and her Granddaughter Kiera's (my great-niece) was today. Tonight the family had a birthday party for both of them at Cindy and Brother Pat's home in Moses Lake. What a zoo! All four of our nieces and nephews were ther with their spouses. Well Nephew Nick's girlfriend. Plus all seven of the grand children! Plus Kiera's other set of grandparents and great grandmother and assorted cousins.

A fun time was held by all. The kids led Cindy on a scavenger hunt to find her birthday present from them all - a ring with all of their birth stones - with room for a couple more! The cousins all "helped" Princess Kiera open her presents. It was a kick to watch this one year old know immediately how to push the buttons on her new toy cell phone!

It is so enjoyable to see all of Pat's family and to be close enough to be part of their celebrations.

Vacuums and Groceries

It was another very nice, very warm day. There is over a forty degree spread between night and afternoon temperatures. We took advantage of the warmth and went outside and re-leveled the coach. We needed to put the jack pads down and put the extra jacks under the large living room slide on the passenger side. It's a bit tricky as the jacks have to be set so that the hydraulic slides for the basement bays don't hit them and they can still be opened. While we were outside, I gathered up the two hoses I had used to water the flowers and stored them in the shed.

I was so glad to have the house vacuum working again that I got ambitious and finished the vacuuming. I think the Chinese rug in the living room could be vacuumed a couple more times and you'd still get more hair and dirt picked up. I took all of the throw rugs outside and shook them well. I don't think they need washing again yet...

Then we decided we really needed to go into town and get groceries! I haven't done a heavy duty shopping trip for several weeks (we've been traveling too much!), so we were really out of staples. I bought lots of ingredients for making soup and stews: carrots, parsnips, turnips, noodles etc. I must have had the slowest ever checker in creation - he literally moved in slow motion. He was a young guy and I don't think his mother must have ever cooked anything from scratch. He didn't know what anything was and kept asking me what I was going to do with it. He asked what the Brussels sprouts were. When I told him, he said he had heard they "tasted awful!" He rang my head of cabbage up as iceberg lettuce. When I corrected him, he wanted to know what the difference was. Poor guy.

Tired, we stopped at El Rey for supper. Forry had some really good shrimp and I had a dish called Mexican beef steak. It was delicious!

A Strange Day

It was a strange day indeed. Waking up to the news of Trump's election was tough. I am very saddened by this man's election. It didn't help to hear a couple of people say they only voted for him to make a protest statement - they never expected he would be elected...

Forry drained the tanks this morning and I finished the last load of laundry. I started on the vacuuming, getting the bedroom and the bathroom area done. Neither of us does well with vacuuming. We've both had back surgery and vacuuming quickly starts painful backs.

I went into Moses Lake to go to Women's Bible Study this evening. It seemed strange to go to Monroe House and not visit with Vic before the study session. He's been moved to a Group Home where they offer more skilled care than Monroe House can provide.

It's Fixed!

After almost two months of putting up with extension cords all over the place and no power in any of the outlets, it is finally fixed! I called Chris this morning to remind him he was scheduled to come out today. He said he'd be out as soon as his wife got back to the office and sure enough he showed up about one thirty with our heated hose in hand.

He said he had been dreaming about our electrical problem and playing around with the old inverter he had removed. He realized some of the wires were reversed. He took care of that, then rewired the GCIF switch in the bathroom and voila!  there was power in the outlets.  Best of all, he didn't charge us anything more! He said he should have figured it out the first time he was here!

Anyway it is nice to be able to put all the extension cords away and to be able to fully close the window screen that had cords going to the outside power pole. I had to also remove the duct tape I had used on the screen opening to keep the flies out. And even better, the built-in vacuum cleaner works again! (You know what I'll be doing tomorrow...)

The USPS truck showed up as it was getting dark with both my package from Costco and our prescriptions from Group Health. (Now I know why I have found packages by our steps instead of in the mailbox!)

We are watching the voting results on TV as they come in. I am somewhat surprised at how close the vote is in some states. I guess we probably really won't know for sure until in the morning...

So Good to Be Home

With the change in time this past weekend, it gets dark so terribly early. The trade off is not waking up while it is still dark.

I spent a bit of time emptying out the little suitcase we took with us this past weekend. I need to return it to its place inside the bigger suitcase and have Forry store them both back in one of the basement bays.

We didn't do much of anything at all today. I did drive up the hill to check the mailbox and I filled the very empty bird feeder, but that was the extent of my ambition. I did grill a steak for supper and oven roast the last half of the butternut squash I had used for my stew last week.

It was really nice to sleep in my own bed last night. It seems like we haven't done much of that lately!

Home Once Again

After a quick stop at Tonnemaker's Fruit Stand for some tomatoes, a couple of D'anjou pears and two acorn squashes, we arrived home a little after five pm. Of course, with the time change this weekend, it was already dark with almost a half moon guiding us home.

Our GPS unit was suggesting we drive home via Goldendale and Yakima rather than going all the way back to the Tri-cities along the Columbia River. It may be a bit shorter coming that way, but I don't think it saves any gas as there are some pretty steep ridges along the way. Lots of ups and downs. Nonetheless, it was a very pretty drive with lots of color in the hills.

Yesterday was a fun day. Daughter Dawn and Granddaughter Havela had no idea how many people might be in attendance, but they had prepared plenty of food. We went over to the church in the morning, setting up tables  and chairs and decorating. We used the same collections of red and clear marbles and little tea lights in bowls to decorate the tables, along with red roses they had used at their wedding reception. The center of the serving table had a bouquet of red roses and the silver initials that had decorated their wedding cake in Illinois.

It poured rain all afternoon, but rain does not stop Oregonians! There was a nice steady crowd of folks who came and went. I was delighted to see some of my good friends arrive. Margaret is in her nineties now and just recently got a pacemaker. She is such a delight to chat with. Warden and Pat came with their granddaughter and we had a nice visit with them. We also visited with a couple who had worked with us for MDS. I was proud of my granddaughter and her new husband. They did a nice job of circulating and visiting with their guests.

 After cleaning up and vacuuming, we headed back to the house, then changed clothes and headed to the home of their friends, Mark and Hallie, near Canby for the after party. Many of Havela's high school friends came over and we played a hilarious game of cards until after midnight. No wonder I'm tired tonight!

Oregon!

It took a while, but we got ourselves organized and on the road again. This time we were heading for Keizer, Oregon. Todd and Daughter Dawn are hosting a reception for Granddaughter Havela and Ben at the Salem Mennonite Church tomorrow afternoon.

It was a beautiful day to drive through the Columbia Gorge. It was probably prettier a week or so ago, but there was still a great deal of autumn colors. There is also a great deal of green grass showing along the cliffs. There has been so much rain as well as warm weather that the grass is sprouting!

We made a detour to the little town of Boring, Oregon to visit the Boring Brewing Company. Forry's Sister Grace's son John opened this small brewery a few years ago. He's been wanting to stop and visit ever since Grace's husband Les told him about it.  John was not there when we stopped at the tasting room, but his wife was. She texted John and he soon arrived with their son, Bo. We had a very pleasant visit - and even sampled a few beers. We ended up taking a growler with us.

By the time we got back to I-5, we were fortunate to be just in time for rush hour traffic. It was a slow trip, but we finally got to Dawn and Todd's house. Just in time for spaghetti dinner! It was so good to see everyone again.

Errands

We had a few errands to run today, so headed for Moses Lake. We stopped at the bank, then headed out to Menno to pick up the package that Dennis and Coleen had left with Pastor Matthew for us. After a short, but pleasant visit with Matthew and Shawna and the kids, we headed back to Moses Lake.

We stopped at Safeway in Moses Lake for a few groceries - and snacks for the road trip to Oregon. We also went ahead and gassed up the car. Forry will need to check the oil and water in the morning.

We are watching the second night of the PBR Finals in Las Vegas. The bulls are rank tonight!

Nasty Colds

I thought colds were only supposed to last 7-10 days! This one seems to have decided to stay for a while. We must have caught them while we were in Illinois. I thought at first I was just getting hoarse from all the talking, but it soon turned into this nasty cold. We decided I shouldn't go to Women's Bible Study tonight so that I don't spread my blogs to the folks at Monroe House.

We spent a pretty laid back lazy day at home today. I did get a chance to talk with Sister Sherry who is celebrating her birthday today. My goodness, we are getting old!

At Last!

At last we had a quiet day at home! I would not have even gone outside if I hadn't needed to go out to the shed to get one of Brother Pat's onions for the stew I was making for supper.

The sun was out today and it was gorgeous. Many of the trees in the park are turning red and orange and yellow. They are so pretty. They are rapidly shedding their leaves and there is a colorful carpet on the patio. It warmed up to 72 degrees this afternoon.

We have lots of sparrows at the bird feeder, but they are very jumpy, flying away at the slightest noise. We saw this afternoon why they maybe are so flighty. A small hawk, possibly a Merlin, flew into the patio and perched on one of the overturned lawn chairs for a while. It was about a foot long with a striped breast, yellow feet and eyes.

I have been playing with different combinations of ingredients for beef stew. Today I added onions, a sweet potato, a Yukon Gold potato and a portion of a cutup butternut squash. All this was added to the base of braised beef cubes, covered in red wine. It was very tasty.

While my stew was simmering, I once more turned to the laundry. I cannot believe how it piles up so quickly! I suppose a goodly share of it is from all the gadabouting we've been doing.