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!

Welcome to the family, Otto!

Matt and Sally have a new puppy! His name is Otto and he is a 9 week old Welsh Springer Spaniel. They stopped by our house tonight so that we could meet him. Otto is adorable! Full of energy and inquisitive and innocent. It will be fun to watch him grow. 

there's my grandpuppy!

Sally and Otto

I heart Cheesy Potatoes

If someone told me that I could only have one food for the next week, I would immediately know what I would request. Cheesy potatoes. No question about it. I first tasted cheesy potatoes back in the 1980s when my mom made them after she had them at a dinner at Janice Flora's house. (I like to trace the history of favorite family recipes).  It is the easiest, fastest, most fattening and delicious recipe EVER. I made them last night to take to a dinner at Chuck and Teri's house (along with my other go-to recipe, Blue Cheese Spread). There were leftovers. Teri made me take them home.
They are gone and it's only 2pm.
I am powerless over them.
If leftover cheesy potatoes are in my house, I have to eat them until they are gone.

I feel better that I am not alone in my addiction. It is one of my most often requested recipes. I posted a picture of my bowl of deliciousness on facebook and had a request from Becky for the recipe. I thought the easiest way to share would be to put it on this blog.

Cheesy Potatoes (or "Cheesy Pots" as Teri calls them)
one 2lb bag of frozen hash browns, slightly thawed (I use the chunky ones- southern style, as opposed to the shredded hash browns- but I think Christy has made them with shredded and it worked)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pint sour cream
2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese (Kraft, of course, since that's where Wayne works)
**Lawry's seasoned salt** do not substitute or leave out...it makes all the differnce
crushed corn flakes and melted butter

Mix melted butter, chopped onion, sour cream, cheese, and seasoned salt (I am not sure of the amount, but it is about 2-3 teaspoons. Really). Add the potatoes to this mixture and spread in a 9 x13 baking dish. Combine 1 cup crushed corn flakes and 1/4 c of melted butter and sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
Because they are so rich, one batch feeds at least 8 people.

Enjoy!!

Fourth of July

It has been a different kind of Fourth of July weekend. Not a bad one, by any means, but definitely different. A year ago we had Sally and Matt's wedding and that made for an exceptional holiday weekend. In previous years, we have always had a pretty full plate on the Fourth, but this year? Not so much! Both kids are out of town for weddings this year- Wayne and Julie are in Cincinnati for the wedding of the daughter of Wayne's old boss and Sally and  Matt are up in northern Michigan for the wedding of Sally's high school friend, Libby. In addition to that, Teri and Chuck and their kids were out of town and we are often the beneficiaries of their hospitality on this weekend, as it is Teri's birthday weekend. You can go back and read on this blog about our Fourth of July escapades in the past few years (not that it is that interesting, but if you are really bored, that could fill some time!). 

This year, Jack and I went to the parade, as usual, and stood right where we always stand with Christy and Steve. Christy's sister, Patty, is in town and was with them, too. We always enjoy the parade. We have attended 27 parades in a row. It doesn't really matter how great the parade is; we love it anyway.

Christy, Brad and Steve cheer our arrival at the parade

In the afternoon, we made plans to do dinner with Jack's dad. We weren't sure if any restaurants were open, so we decided to make dinner at his house. We picked up a pre-made, but uncooked pizza at Whole Foods, along with a market salad and an Achatz blueberry pie. We threw in a couple bottles of bubbly and we had ourselves the makings of a nice evening. We had a great time. We talked Bucky into joining Facebook, using his new iPad which we all gave him for Father's Day. It was fun! Within five minutes, he already had two friends who Jack and I did not even know. Bucky is pretty connected!

And it is amazing how quickly he has learned to use the iPad. It's not surprising because Bucky is very good with technology in general. 

Mr. Technology

We got home around 8:30, but did not go to see fireworks. I felt like a bit of a party pooper, but not enough to make Jack venture out with me. 

All in all, time well spent on the Fourth of July.

God bless the USA!

Birthday Club Brides

The Birthday Club, which consists of 11 fabulous women and me, recently honored two of our daughters with bridal showers. It is our tradition (so far!) to have a mother-daughter shower for our brides.

(NOTE: I should qualify that by saying we do this for the brides who are inviting all 12 of us to the wedding. Last year, several of the ladies offered to throw one of our mother-daughter events for Sally. We declined since Sally and Matt were not able to invite all of the women. Their venue was small and only held a certain number. I still feel badly if anyone felt left out, but these women are pretty mature and have been gracious about not being invited. I so appreciate that.
Also of note, we have not yet had a son getting married who invited the whole group, so I am not sure what we will do when we encounter that!)

We have three blushing brides this year and so far have celebrated two of them. 

Trish, daughter of Kathy, is getting married the first weekend in October. Her shower was June 8th at Teri's house with cohostesses Carol, Sue, and Mary K. It was a beautiful day and we dined outside. We played a fun wedding trivia game created by Caylen (btw, I was one of the winners and took home a lovely planter for my front steps!)

Carol, Sue, Trish the bride, Mary and Teri

beautiful tables! and that is the planter I won in case you were wondering

This past Sunday, June 29th, we celebrated Sarah, daughter of Mary B. Sarah is getting married the second weekend of October in South Carolina. Her shower was held at Ruth Lake Country Club and was hosted by Pam and her daughter, Julie. Sally was able to come to this shower, after having missed Trish's because she was in Europe with Matt. 

Pam, Julie and our bride, Sarah

the moms

some of our daughters

We did a group picture, minus Teri and Sheila who were out of town. I love the outtakes almost as much as the good picture of our group.

we were just trying to get a good picture and had cooperation issues!

At both showers, I was reminded how awesome my girlfriends are and their daughters as well. I love to watch the next generation of women and see how they interact with each other and their moms. I am so very blessed to be in the company of women who are encouragers in my life.

Next up....Brittany!