September begins

Labor Day weekend. The end of summer. The annual Labor Day party at Mark and Cath's. Thank goodness for that party because it makes this holiday weekend (i.e., back to reality time of year) bearable.
The party was fantastic as always. Mark and Cath are amazingly generous and hospitable. This year the party was even more special than usual because there were FOUR grandchildren, double the number from last year :) Baby boom! Cathy and Mark's son Jeff and his wife Andi have two children, Mason (4 years old) and Lila (16 months). In February, Adam and Kristin had a baby girl named Savannah and in April, Chris and Krissy had a boy name Casey. How blessed are they all? And they know it which is the best part.
We had fun passing around the babies and enjoying each other's company. And some amazing food and drink.
So thankful to spend time with folks like these wonderful friends.

Kids and grandkids :)

love my girlfriends

Sally, Matt, Julie and Wayne

Mason having a serious conversation with Mamps

Showering our Britt

Last Sunday, a week ago today, we celebrated the upcoming wedding of Brittany and Chase. It was a such a lovely afternoon and the culmination of weeks of planning with a fun committee. Sally and I co- hosted the event with Ellen (Britt's grandmother), Colleen (Brittany's aunt) and Robin (Brittany's godmother). We had several Saturday morning meetings at Starbucks and many email exchanges. The planning was fun because of the ladies involved and we were all there for one reason...to shower our bride with love.

The hostesses arrived at 10am at the country club where the shower was being held, with guests scheduled to arrive at 11:30. It was such fun to watch the planning come to fruition. The room was beautiful, the food delicious, the flowers exquisite and the mood light-hearted. We had a cocktail hour, then a toast by Colleen followed by  a buffet luncheon. We played a game that Sally suggested between lunch and dessert. It was called "The Brittany and Chase Game". There were 11 questions about the bride and groom and each table had a white board and marker. Each table wrote their answer on the white board and then shared it. The final question was "What piece of advice would you give Brittany and Chase...about the wedding, marriage or just life in general?" We started opening presents and then used the pauses to have each table share their answer. It was awesome. Lots of wisdom in that room. My favorite piece of advice came from my friend Deanna's table. Deanna said a proper older woman, married 40 years, had given it to her at her own bridal shower many years before. The advice? "Pick one room to be good at and stick with it". Pretty profound and fun.

It is hard to put into words how special it was to be part of this celebration. Brittany and her whole family have a place in my life that cannot be defined by just friendship. What a privilege it is to have shared so many of life's milestones together.
Here are some pictures from the shower:

Sally, me, Colleen, the bride, Ellen and Robin

Chase and Britt open presents

beautiful MOB and bride

game time 

MOG and groom...such wonderful people

Impromptu Pizza Party

Jack and I hosted a pizza party at our house on Saturday. It was about as impromptu as it gets. It started with Wayne and Julie making plans to spend the night at our house on Saturday. I mentioned this to Sally and Matt on Friday and invited them to join us for dinner. Sally asked that I make homemade pizza. Jack and I called Bucky Friday night and asked if he wanted to join us. Sally was texting with Lauren on Saturday and invited her to come over. Lauren then relayed the info to Brendan and Sam, who ended up coming by to hang out, but not for dinner.
We had ourselves a party!
There is nothing like the younger generation to make an evening fun and full of laughs.
Oh my gosh, they are so much fun!
I wanted to get a picture of Bucky and his grandkids. Then Wayne began doing his imitation of me and my (what he calls) random pictures of unlikely combinations of people. Not true! I always have a reason as to why I want certain folks in certain pictures. It's just not always clear to other people what the connections are!
Here are some pictures from our fun night:

Matt, Julie, Wayne, Sally, Bucky, Lauren, Brendan, Sam

one of the groups Wayne called out

I also need to add that the newest member of our family, Otto, Sally and Matt's Welsh Springer puppy, joined the party, too.

party puppy!

By the end of the night, Otto was out like a light at Matt's feet. Adorable.

can't keep up with us :)

We were way past due for family time and it was a fabulous way to spend a Saturday night.

Northwoods

I enjoyed my first trip to the Northwoods this past week. Matt's folks, Bob and Mary, have a place up near Minocqua and they have been asking Jack and me to come visit. Well, we finally made it happen. It did not disappoint!
Jack and I left late Wednesday morning. Our first stop was for lunch at a cozy little restaurant named The Weary Traveler in Madison WI. We pulled into Wausau around 5 pm and had a relaxing evening. There was a restaurant next to our hotel named The Great Dane Pub and Brewery...which of course we had to go to because of our Dane.
On Thursday morning, Jack googled the best breakfast place in the area, like he did when we were coming back from Georgia earlier this summer. We ended up at a cute little place named The Mint Cafe.
Hmmm. There seems to be a theme to this post. It's all about restaurants! I don't want to give you the impression that all we did was go to restaurants. That is not true. We also went to pubs :)
We checked into our hotel, The Pointe, in Minocqua, around noon on Thursday. The Pointe has slips for boats and Matt rented one for his family's boat. Matt, Sally, T (Matt's brother), Bianca (T's fiancee) and Matt's Uncle Brian sailed over to pick us up at the hotel and we began our traveling lunch.

here they come!

 Bob and Mary met us via car at our first stop. This is where I got to experience my first Spotted Cow. I liked it. A lot.

me, Sally, Mary and Bianca

We sailed off to a few more places and then got dropped off at our hotel. For dinner, we went to a supper club named the Red Steer  and had a phenomenal meal.

On Friday morning, Sally and her puppy Otto met Jack and me at the hotel and we walked into town. Jack enjoyed hanging out with Otto for many reasons, not the least of which was all the attention they got.

We had lunch with everyone at The Shamrock. One of the things that is cool about this place is that my parents used to go there with their close friends back in the 70s and 80s. I even have a picture of my mom and her friend Char standing in front of The Shamrock. I just need to find it.

After lunch, we went boating for a while, then rested up for dinner at Norwood Pines. Another fantastic meal!

a little indoor shuffleboard

sailor Jack

A little blurry, but aren't they cute?

We are so grateful for Mary and Bob's hospitality and for our thoughtful and kind son-in-law that they raised. We are blessed!

I'm baaaaack!

Wow, this might be the longest I have gone without blogging.
I have missed you all, my faithful readers :)
Here is what has been happening in my life the past few weeks-
My sister Sue has been dealing with crazy awful back pain. Not the run of the mill pain, but the kind that makes it hard to move for over 2 weeks. I hate it when someone I love is in pain and I cannot do a thing about it. I do not want to violate her privacy or anything (though I just did!), but it has been quite a trial for Suz. I think things are on an upward trend for her, but please do pray for my dear uncomplaining sister.
I also have been winding up the summer, with Institute Day just two days away. Really.
In addition, Jack and I just returned from a three day vacation in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. That will be its own post.
Thanks to all who check in here. I appreciate your patience in between posts.

Clark Lake weekend

Sheila invited the Birthday Club girls to her house on Clark Lake, Michigan for this past weekend. Only five of the twelve were able to go. We missed those who weren't there, but managed to have a great time anyway :)
Sheila, Jean and Carol left Friday morning. I had committed to doing a presentation at Midwestern University with my coworker Kristen on Friday from 11:30-12:30, so I couldn't leave until later. Christy and I left around 2 and arrived at Clark Lake around 8 their time. We made a quick stop on the way at .....where else?? Schuler's! I hadn't eaten lunch and decided to hold out for some Schuler's meatballs. It was a fun adventure! Schuler's is only about a mile off of I94. We went into the Pub section, told our waitress that we wanted to split an order of meatballs and then take two orders to go for our girlfriends. We were in and out of there in less than 25  minutes.

meatballs + barcheez+ crackers=yum

When we arrived, the girls had dinner and drinks waiting for us. Sheila made a 24 hour salad and Pam's cheese bread. We sat on the porch and ate and drank and talked. The highlight of Friday night was hearing all about Sheila and Marty's trip the previous week. They went to Fort Drum NY to welcome home their son Jack from Afghanistan. Praise God that Jack made it home safely! We were all praying for him. We so appreciate Jack's service to our country and know how hard it was for his family.

coffee cake and brownies before bed

Saturday was all about boating, eating, drinking, chatting and relaxing.

hanging out on the boat 

a view of Sheila's house from the lake

I had the most relaxing weekend. I have realized that is difficult to fully relax unless I am away from all of the distractions of all that needs to be done at home. I appreciate that it could not possibly be as relaxing for Sheila since she is the hostess, but she never makes it seem like her guests are a chore. Sheila creates such a cozy and welcoming environment. It is special that her lake house has been in her family since the early 1970's. In fact, the check that her dad wrote for the house is framed and is hanging on the wall. Family pictures and memorabilia, all beautifully displayed, capture some of the happy days spent on Clark Lake. 

Such a great place to relax and renew.

Sheila's dad's golf clubs are at the foot of the stairs

Summer Time Fun!

July 22nd. Already. This summer is going by so quickly and seems so much shorter than most. That may be because school was out late due to making up snow days and Institute Day is August 11th. That is a mere 20 days away, but who's counting? I guess I am.

The previous two weeks were crazy busy with the summer evals. I did 7 the week of July 15th, then had 8 MDCs last Tuesday and Wednesday. That meant many hours of thinking and writing. I love doing the group play-based evaluations with the school psychologist, occupational therapist, sometimes the physical therapist too, and the social worker. And I like the MDC (multi-disciplinary conference) when we sit down with the parents, the team, the school district representative and give the results. What I do not enjoy is all of the writing!!! That post I wrote about the cheesy potatoes? That was just to avoid working on reports. That weekend I wrote reports all day on Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. Luckily it was a rainy weekend which made it a bit easier to be indoors. 

I thought I was done with my shift of evals, but am picking up one more tomorrow to help out another SLP. Only one more report to write this summer!

Since last Wednesday, I have felt like I am on summer vacation since I am just doing 4 private speech therapy sessions each week. Those are so fun and only involve about 4 hours total over the course of the week. I have been trying to maximize my feeling of summer fun. 

I started with a fun sushi dinner with Mark and Cath and Jack on Thursday night. Super relaxing and so great to visit. Definitely felt like a vacation night.

Cath and me

On Friday, I did a speech session in the morning, then Jack and I had a late lunch with Sally and Lauren. We went to Gibson's and sat in their outdoor area. That was like being on vacation for sure. We sat in the sun and enjoyed catching up on life. After lunch, Jack and I went home to nap (I really can't have a glass of wine during the day if I have any hope of being productive afterwards). Lauren and Sally went back to Sally and Matt's so Lauren could meet Otto. And that's when Lauren got a call from Northwestern U saying she had been admitted to their accelerate MBA program for this fall!!!! So proud of her! Lauren is such a hard worker and smart and focused. She is also incredibly loving and caring. What a dynamite combination! 

love me some Sally and Lauren  

That made for a fun summer Friday. 

On Saturday, we had Abbie and Nina for a sleepover. Arne and Beth had a wedding to go to, so we picked up the girls at 1pm then took them to Matt and Sally's to meet Otto. While we were there, Jenny and Jay stopped in, too!

We left Matt and Sally's and took off for a grand adventure... pony trail ride! It was quite the escapade. Great low key farm and lots of animals and nice people and beautiful trails. I have this one piece of advice: have one of the workers walk with you. Let's just say that I am not the best pony handler. 

Abbie on Rocket

Nina on Daisy

Wayne surprised us Saturday night and came out to spend the night too!!! Between Wayne teaching Nina how to do a coin toss and Wayne starring in a play with Abbie, it was one fun night. 

coin toss

Saturday night creativity

On Sunday morning, Jack fried up some bacon (no one does it quite like he does) and I made Lynn's famous pancakes (they are SO good! Abbie wanted to make sure that I share the recipe with Beth). The girls and Wayne all slept til 10:30!

Abbie helping with the pancakes

After Arne and Beth picked up the girls, Wayne, Jack and I worked on wedding "stuff" and got tons done. We ended the day with dinner with Bucky at Ken's. Awesome. 

three generations of Vonder Heide men, checking out the technology

Summer livin' at its finest!