April 18, 2005

• Fantastic, Whirlwind Weekend

  Picture Day!!!!

   

  I had a fantastic weekend.  Rather than try to describe it all in words, I will use the pictures I took to illustrate what a whirlwind it was.

   

  First of all, the fundraiser/talent show on Friday night was a huge success.  There was a packed house, and the confirmation class raised over $1200 for Heifer International…enough to buy 2 cows, a goat and several chickens, I’m told.  Since their original goal was to buy one cow, they succeeded far beyond their expectations.  My two singing numbers went well, except that the microphones weren’t turned on for our women’s quartet .

   

  Hubby’s skit with his 6^th grade SS class was a hit.  Here he is in his goofy costume, checking his ear for an infestation of “Irresponsiblity Rattlers” (it was a humorous skit to illustrate the 5 character traits that are emphasized in our school district and re-inforced in our church…they are respect, responsibility, honesty, compassion and self-discipline).

              

   

  His character’s name in the skit was Dr. William Ullyses Tumuch (Dr. Bill U. Too-much)   I had to leave right after the skit because I had to pick up Mark and Grant.  They had been performing in another town with the boy’s choir on Friday evening, and unfortunately missed out on all the fun at the “Black Cow” coffeehouse and fundraiser.

   

   

  Moving on to Saturday…after dropping my choirboys off again in the morning (they had another gig in Wisconsin Saturday evening, it required an overnight trip) I headed to the Mall of America to meet my three sisters.  It was pouring down rain the whole way there, which made the driving a little stressful  But I managed to get there in one piece and relatively on time…in fact I was the second one to arrive!  I snapped this picture out of my car window as I approached the Mall:

                 

   

  The first store on our agenda was DSW Shoe Warehouse.  My sisters and I have pretty much gotten our routine down when it comes to our trips to the MOA…it’s much too huge and overwhelming to attempt a shopping trip w/o a plan, and our plan is well-honed from our 1/2 dozen or so Annual to semi-annual get-togethers.  At DSW, we all head straight to the back of the store to the clearance racks (the only way to shop, in my opinion).  I found two really fun pairs of sandals for this summer, and a couple of pairs of more “sensible” shoes…a pair of black, sling-back pumps and some black leather loafers.  Here are the sandals:                              

      

   

   

  Once we got the shoe shopping out of the way, we headed for the café at Nordstrom’s.  We discovered this on our last trip to the mall and it’s now on our permanent itinerary.  Here we are waiting for our yummy food to arrive…(I’m the one in the green shirt). 

    

   

  This picture shows my sisters pouting because our sister who lives in Indianapolis couldn’t be with us (We missed you, Rhoda!).

                

   

  Next stop for me was Archiver’s.  My sister Mary Lynn came with me, while the other two headed to Bare Essentuals.  I found some more great scrapbook papers and embellishments that I will use when I scrapbook the events of the boy’s Choir from this season (’04-’05). 

   

  The 4 sisters met up again at the “QVC at the Mall of America” store.  I didn’t buy anything there.

   

   

  After QVC we decided to stop at Starbuck’s for a “pick-me-up”.  I had a Java chip  Frappuchino…mmmmmm, cold and delicious! 

   

   

   

  The last store that all four of us went to together was the Atlantic Book Warehouse.  Another great discount store, my favorite kind!  I only bought one book, Anita Shreve’s Sea Glass.  Don’t know for sure when I will get around to reading it, but I have read several other books she has written and found them enjoyable.

   

  By this time we had been shopping (and snacking, laughing, and generally enjoying each other’s company) for about 7 hours!  Time DOES fly when you are having fun.  Two of my sisters were staying overnight at a hotel in the area, so they had to leave to meet their husbands for supper.  I was still full from lunch and coffee, as was my other sister so we decided to make one more stop before heading home. 

   We went to Marshall’s , where I found some t-shirts for the boys for summer.  

   

  As it so often turns out, Marshall’s was on the exact opposite side of the mall from where I had parked and entered, so I had to walk all the way around to the other side, dragging my packages, which by this time were starting to get very heavy, and head home.  I stopped and took this picture on my way out. 

   

    

   

  (Sorry it’s so dark, it was getting late in the day)

   

  

  For anyone who has not been to the MOA, it’s hard to imagine the immensity of it.  Pictures do not begin to convey the size of the place.  If it were not such a convenient meeting place, and if it did not have such a suitable selection of stores, it would not be my first choice of places to spend the day, shopping or otherwise.

   

  On to Sunday.  It was very foggy when I woke up Sunday morning.  All the rain from Saturday, combined with warmer than average days and cool evenings produced a misty, grey blanket for the dawning of a new day and a new week.  I have to drive over the river on my way into town.  It looked so cool I thought “I should take a picture of this”, but I was past the river and in town before my camera was ready, so I took this picture instead.  I’m about 2 blocks from church here, not really much to look at, but you can tell how foggy it is, I think.

            

   

  By the time church was over, the sun had burned away the fog and we had a glorious day in store for us.  We did get out in the yard to do some cleaning.  We also had a band concert to attend at 3:00 in the afternoon…it was hard to leave the backyard to go sit in a dark auditorium, but it was an excellent concert.  The high school Symphonic Band (the top band) was playing, and also a community “Grad” band, which is made up of people who have graduated, but still want to play their instruments.  There are all ages in the grad band, some recent grad’s all the way to retiree’s.  I’d love to play in it someday, but my embouchure is shot from years of dis-use (playing oboe requires some pretty rarely used facial muscles), and besides, for now I really don’t have the time.

   

   

  Here is Nathan coming onstage for the band concert (he is the one just left of center carrying the huge bari sax).

                

   

  Here is the whole band, standing for recognition after they finished playing.

                

   

  Here are some pictures of the yard.

   

  This morning:

   

   

   

  A couple of months ago:

   

   

  My front entry, this morning: 

   

  

                                

  One month ago: 

  

   

                                

  Here are my dogs out enjoying the nice day today.  I wanted them to come closer so I could get a better picture of them, but they were standing guard against the evil squirrels that like to attack the bird feeders, and wouldn’t budge.  They are sitting at the base of the big clump of oak trees.

       

  Here is my cat, Royal.  I’ve never shared a picture of him before.  He really does think he is royalty (as do most cats).  We don’t call him by name very often…mostly he gets called just cat or “fat-cat”.

       

   

  Time to get busy, my messy room downstairs still awaits…I haven’t touched it since last week, I guess I’d better try to make some progress today.  Here You can see the mess inside the room and also all the junk I moved out that eventually needs to get moved back in or discarded/sold/re-distributed (in otherwords moved somewhere else!)

      

   

  Happy Monday, everyone!

                                            ~~Leah~~      

   

   

   

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