Happy Halloween!!

 Happy Halloween. Monday and it's going to be 66*F!! It sure doesn't feel like October 31st today! 

I didn't get a photo of Celina and Don dressed up and not sure they took photos either. I did phone snap Instagram pix of Logan and his college friends. 

Kendra made some cute bats to hand out. 

We went to watch Celina's fun soccer team play Sunday. I even got to run after the ball a few times. 

We also had a river side picnic and soaked up the late October sun of 69*F sunny, no wind day! 

Wine, cheese by the river. 

Saturday night, Poor Boo Boo!

 Saturday night and we were at the Vet with Boo Boo (Zoey). We noticed her eye ball was swollen and looking strange. Celina pulled an enlarged tick off the corner of her right eye the night before. There was a pea size lump where the tick bit. Off to the emergency vet we went in Prior Lake. We waited outside in the car, filled out on line forms and they came and got her 2 hours later. The appointment lasted only 5 minutes, but then waited to get her back, pay the $171 bill and off we went with eye ointment and give her Benadryl last night. The swelling is already down a little and her eye is looking better. Thankfully, it wasn't serious, just an allergic reaction to the tick bite saliva. 

At least we got to enjoy the nice 69*F day outdoors on October 29th! 

We washed windows and I swept the garage. Steve had cleaned up and put away all the camping stuff in the rafters. I can now park in the garage! 

We also went for a bike ride at Hastings Spring Lake Park 7 miles. 

It felt great in the sun, and a little chilly in the shade of the trees. It's going to be another nice day today in the 60's. I'll have to go biking again!

I did some shopping for b-day gifts. Found some Christmas disposable plates and silverware for Christmas. Now to find some for T-day! Also got Kendra and Logan some b-day gifts. I'll be mailing a care package to Logan for his birthday and having Kendra over for a birthday pasta dinner around her birthday! 

We had a little wine and cheese. The neighbors were coming over to join us and then we had to leave to the Vet. Go figure!!! 

This is the temps for all week!!! Look 70*F on November 2nd!! I'm wearing a skort today and it's going to be 63*F, but already feels nice outside! 

Going to watch Celina's fun soccer game this morning and a bike ride for me this afternoon. Not sure what else our plans are today. 

I'm cutting back on drinking, Tuesday 1 beer, Friday night 1 glass of wine.. is that cutting back? sure! 

Trunk or Treat!

 We were invited to come along to Trunk or Treat at Madelyn's and Evan's schools. First stop was Madelyn's school. Kendra set up her truck in Pirate theme. Super cute idea with walk the plank! 

I took Madelyn around to the other trunks to collect candy. It was fun seeing all the different decorated car trunks. Very creative!! 

Then it was on to Evan's school. Sooo many kids!!! Wow! Evan a donut food truck and the fire department showed up too. Steve and I walked around and checked out all the other trunks and again so very creative with a game to play at every car. 

While we were at Trunk or Treat, Celina and Don were at Timmy's house carving pumpkins. Here's Celina's pumpkin. 

So cute!! 

Happy Friday!!

 I went over to be with Evan until school started Thursday morning. I go over around 8 and he leaves for school at 9a.m. 

We made lemon poppy seed donut/muffins with lemon icing. I brought over all the items to make the donuts. Evan helped make them which is a good skill to have. I'll have to find a kids cook book and have him pick out other things to make in the mornings for his breakfast. 

We also played some cards while we waited for the donuts to bake. 

Tonight is Truck or Treat at Madelyn's and Evan's school. We won't be handing out candy on Halloween, so this is the next best thing! 

October is coming to an end

 All the months seem to go by fast with the exception of January and February with March and April too. I'm always waiting for summer. Seems maybe we should be somewhere there is always summer if I'm in waiting mode. My whole life seems to be in wait mode. Wait till the kids grow up and we can travel. Wait till the car or house is paid off. Wait and more waiting till the next thing we wait for. In between I need to enjoy life now. Now that the kids are grown, I miss the little stage. It went by far too fast. Our house now is old 24 years, no longer new. House almost paid, but is this where we want to stay in an old house? A few more years Steve can retire, but will he can he? Sounds like retirement life is getting more and more expensive. We most likely will continue working at least part time. 

Just a cute Zoey pix with her favorite moose baby. She no longer rips the eyes out of her babies. 

She is now calling to be fed. Off to take care of her, and I'm also cat sitting/feeding one more time this morning. Going to be with Evan and drive him to school. Working later today too! 

Tuesday Bingo!

 We again went to bingo last night. I'm kind of getting tired of it, but Steve wanted to go. It's something to do and only $13 each for the night with of course drinks and food for dinner. I stuck to only 1 beer! Drank water the rest of the night. Also remember to bring our own taco sauce as they never give you enough salsa. Taco's are also cheap at 2 for $6, so we shared those and added on some chips/queso. Maybe next time I'll skip the chips and have zero beers. 

The maple next to our house in the back yard finally turned bright yellow. It was green until we got home on Sunday night. The leaves are all dropping fast now and soon gone. That will be a sad day. Ugh, not looking forward to being inside 24-7,. with cold winter! Lucky for us, we have extended nice 60*F weather days starting this Thursday - next week Thursday. Got to like those temps going into November!!

Lettuce wraps I made Monday night for dinner with leftover yesterday for lunch. It kind of hurt my stomach, all the onions, but tasted soooo good! Now I'm out of lunch options for today since I already ate up all the soup. We need better quality rice too. The brand I like wasn't unstuck so I opted for some regular  rice till I can find the type I like again. I think they have the Rose brand at Walmart. It's a bit more sticky and fluffy. 

Halloween Memories of the kids.. 

Logan always liked being something scary. 

My grandkids dressed for Halloween. We are going Truck or treating this Friday with them. It wasn't a thing back when our kids were little. Guess they do that at school, after hours instead of having a Halloween or fall party during school. Kind of sad they don't dress up during school hours any longer. At least they plan something fun for the kids! 

Getting back to doing weights and planks every day. I do skip a few days, but trying to do 7 days a week! Always a work in progress! 

I'm also cat sitting tonight and tomorrow morning. Just stopping over to feed the cat tonight and tomorrow morning. It's extra cash so that's always nice! Easy todo and helpful to my customers. 

I also picked up an extra job this week, which is always great to get more cash. We decided to have Celina start paying her cell phone and car insurance bills once she gets paid. It will be nice to turn those over but we still won't charge her rent. I want her to save up to eventually move out and buy a house. 

We have a huge college bill for Logan that needs to be paid before he can register for classes this winter. Ugh! We will also get another huge bill in the spring. I'm hoping he works this winter and summer to help with some of the costs. 2 more years left of school after this year. 

While I picked up jobs, being self employed is always up and down. So Steve is waiting to get jobs, but still has a few left before they need to come though or start advertising again. He usually goes years without having to advertise. Fingers crossed the jobs all go though. Just waiting on people to sell their house! 

Milwaukee /Dells trip to Visit Logan at college!

We had a great visit with Logan in Milwalkee! Talk about perfect weather!!  

Day and night view from our hotel room

Our Friday night was spent in the Dells, camping. We made a stop after dinner to do a little gambling. I donated my $20 for entertainment. 

We had a nice weather weekend in the 70's which is warm for the end of October!! Our last camping trip of the year. I didn't take any photos of our camping set up in the dells. We stayed at Bananza camp ground right in town. The noise from the road was a little loud, but in all a nice camp area since it wasn't crowded! Only a few other campers and one other tent. It had electricity, so that's why we stayed there. We needed heat for the temps at night getting down to 48*F, we stayed toasty at 68 in the tent. We only brought one heater, but should have just brought both since I like it around 70! 

We had time Sunday morning before picking up Logan, so we went down to the lake to wait. 

Its always nice putting my feet in powdery, soft sand! 

On the way home we stopped in La Crosse on French Island for a late lunch/stop at the brewery. Had another 2 hour drive home. 

Baking with Kendra!

 Kendra and I spent the day baking from 8am to 4:30pm. She still had a few more trays of cookies to bake after I left. It was a wedding order for her gluten/dairy free business. Glad I could help out and it was a fun day. 

She didn't make a whole lot of profit on this, but I'm sure over time she will figure it out. You have to start some where and figure all out. 

Everything turned out perfect with zero oops batches. 

Zoey and I had the house to ourselves 100% last night. Steve was out with his brother, Celina and Don were visiting Logan at college in Milwalkee. We just ate dinner on the couch and watched TV till Steve came home early at 8:30pm.  A nice quiet evening after a busy day of baking. 

Our tree out front the leaves are all red and dropping fast every day. There is my old cell phone case. I finally got my new one. I ordered silver and got gold instead which I'm not happy about! Oh well, I'm sticking with gold for now. 

Other news, Celina had a good interview with GM. She is hoping to get this remote working job. She will find out today! Fingers crossed she gets the job!!! She really wants this job too. 

She still has not heard back from the other job she had an in person interview. So that's still a possibility too. At least she has a back up plan in place for the winter if nothing comes through on the job opportunities. I'm hoping that doesn't happen but it's good to have a back up plan. 

It's booked!

 I was trying to find a Hipcamp with electricity to spend Friday night in the Dells. Nope, nothing! So we are at a campground smack in the middle of the Dells. At least it's off season and I was told, not many people just in cabins and campers. So we will have electricity for our tent in a more secluded area, at least I hope! I don't care for camping surrounded by people where everyone watches everyone. I'm just happy this camp ground was still open as a lot have closed on the 15th. We will spend one night in the Dells since I'm getting a late start on our drive. Its just 3 hours away, so we should make it before dark if we leave around 2pm. Just enough time to set up the tent, and then go have dinner. We won't be camp cooking , just bringing everything to stay toasty in the tent for the night. 

I did look into hotel rooms in the Dells, but would rather just sleep on my own air mattress, use my own pillows/blankets/sleeping bag. We will be staying in a hotel in Milwalkee for Saturday night by the river in the middle of down town. I got a school discount at the Hyatt, so it was only $95 per night which most are around $300 to $400 per night. It doesn't come with Breakfast or parking so that will be extra. 

I'll do a Costco trip today to pick up Logan's requests of La Croix, water bottles, big bags of popcorn, RX bars and beef jerky. We will stock him up on more food too before we leave and take him out for a few meals. Not sure what our other plans are and how much time he will want to visit with us. I do want to check out more breweries and maybe the Harley Museum if we have time? We will see him again over T-day for a week and again on Christmas break for a month. While I'm not looking forward to Christmas, I am wanting him home for an extended time. 

The kids all applied for the college loan forgiveness. Fingers crossed they get all wiped clean. My kids didn't end up with much owing, but it will be nice to start life not owing money for college. I'm not sure Logan will be so lucky since he still has 2-1/2 years to go and I think only one year of loans will be forgiven. Wish he could get up to $20K in free money to help pay for college. We have an outstanding bill of $4500 to pay before January 1st. Yikes! He will own about that in spring too, which his loans don't cover. I'm hoping he works this summer. I did look up Architecture internships and there seems like a lot of them out there. I hope they are paid! So he needs to apply asap or over Christmas break! 

Celina still hasn't heard back from the job interviews. Fingers crossed she gets something! There aren't many jobs for her degree. She didn't like my other job suggestions either so I suggested a back up plan of maybe applying to get a masters degree or a certificate in personal training. I don't think school is something she wants to do right now. I just want her to be doing something productive with her time. Start her own business or do something!! 

Monday!

 I did do a whole lot yesterday. We got our shots, covid booster and Steve flu. We went shopping to make a Sunday dinner. Steve wanted to make chili. Dinner was super good. 

I watched Celina and Don's fun soccer game. Their team won 5 to 0, with Celina scoring the first goal. Don also almost scored. It was a good game to go watch as I've miss most since we usually are out of town. 

Today is super cold, 29*F with the high of only38*F today! Thankfully, it will warm up little by little all week to 73*F on Sunday. Of course that's with lots of wind and some rain/thunderstorms. Not exactly a perfect weather day! I'm actually not working this morning. I do have a quick meeting around 3pm today. So I have the entire day to be maybe productive? I did awake up around 2:30a.m last night and never went back to sleep. Instead I was on my phone all night searching jobs for Celina. She needs to find something todo soon! 

What do I have planned? I have so much I could do, organize the house, clean our bathrooms, mulch the leaves. I need to workout as top priority. Probably will need a nap! I'll stop at the store on my way home after my 3pm meeting, so no need to go run errands anytime soon. 

Redwing

 Not starting off healthy! Should have skipped the pancakes! 

Saturday afternoon we did a mini road trip to Redwing to do some bar hopping along the Mississippi River, going across to the Wisconsin side. First Stop Hawg bar, A quick drink and we were off to the next bar with a few from the windows. 

River Biking/walking Bridge in Redwing by Kelly's restaurant. 

Before going on our mini road trip to bar hop, we took Zoey for a walk at the local park. 

She loves going for a walk. We should bring her every day! 

Beautiful fall colors! 

I also found my favorite beer right now. This nut brown ale. Alesmith! I need to go purchase this for home. 

Today, I just made breakfast, not sure what we will do today since the high for the day is only 44+F. I need to mulch up the leaves in the yard, clean the garage and always organize the house. 

We do plan on getting our covid shots today and Steve a flu shot too. I need a few supplies for work Monday. Isopropyl alcohol and Hydrogen peroxide. That's about it for our Sunday. 

Happy news too, I have a new customer estimate on Monday afternoon. I most likely have the job, so it added more money and takes the place of two of my customers that leave for the winter months.