It was a "Yahoo!!!" sort of weekend, but it's more of a "Geh" kind of Monday morning.
The weather has been so great! For our picnic on Friday, we had turkey and cheese sandwiches, cheese bunnies (they are some crackers that my mom gets the kids), and cookies. And we had the old owl salt and pepper shakers that my grandmother used to take when she and I had picnics that involved boiled eggs. We ate, and then we ran around in the front yard.
Friday night we went to Culvers in Wentzville as our fancy eating out adventure. We wanted to eat on the little patio, but wouldn't you know - it started to rain just as we got there. The food was still good, though. Then we went to Wal-Mart and I got some lotion and Josh got new shorts and shaving cream and deodorant and some other random stuff that I don't remember.
Saturday was Zoi Sherman's first birthday party. It was so funny. We were all excited because it was so close to us. Even the people who live "by us" live in Wentzville, and it's a 30 minute drive. We laughed when we found out just how close to us it was! As the crow flies, I'd say it was about a mile from my back door. The Shermans (Shermen? Hee hee) have a friend of the family who owns some land back there. There is a large, well kept lawn with enormous trees, giving a very park-like feel, and children's playground equipment for the owner's own grand kids. Plus, a pond/lake with dock, slide, paddle boat, and small sand area. Oh, and a terrace with picnic tables for grilling. Add the great weather and you couldn't ask for a better setting. (Unless it was a winery in Augusta, but I'm trying not to dwell...)
Chris Sherman, for those of you who don't know, is an old, old friend of Josh's. They were roommates when I met Josh. Their apartment was so gross, that someone walked in one time and thought they'd been robbed. Josh blamed Chris for the housekeeping at the time, but I know better. Just the memory gives me the urge to arm myself with Lysol spray. Chris and his wife, Alena, live in Florissant, but we have only seen them once since we moved back to MO. (And none before that, so really it's once since I lived in Columbia.) But now that they know where we live (they passed our neighborhood on the way), maybe we'll see more of them.
Abbie and Grant love babies. And they are sweet to babies. They like to hug them and talk to them and bring them toys. So, Abbie and Grant were a big hit with the mommies of the babies. There were also lots of other little kids around, so they pretty much had the time of their lives. Alena's family is Russian. They all speak it. It was kind of nice to be around that again. It must be so neat to be bilingual.... The food was really great, too. They were going to make kabobs, but ran out of time, so they just grilled the marinated meat, and we ate it like finger food. There was a great recipe for cucumbers that I got, and the potato salad was just like my mom's, so I had to ask what was in it. Miracle Whip. Hee hee! Yep. Sounds like my mom.
Zoi was a good little birthday girl. She appreciated all her presents, and even wore her little pink crown for the cake. She was getting tired at that point. Her mommy had a terrible time trying to get the candle lit. It was really windy. And then she ended up blowing it out herself, because Zoi just sort of stared at it. At first, she thought the cake icing was very neat to play with, but when she shook her hand and it stayed on there, it was all over! Well, even if she didn't think so, we thought the cake was yummy.
We were blocked in with about a zillion cars, so we stayed longer than we had planned. Even waiting as long as we did, we had to ask someone to back up so we could get out, and still ended up driving through the grass.
Then Josh's grandparent's called to ask why I never go and see them. Sweet, don't you think?
Sunday was practice. Josh and the kids dropped me off, and then went to feast on hot dogs from Quick Trip. At practice, we re-learned one of our old songs the way it was "originally" done by the Japanese group. I think it will be easier for us new kids to re-learn it, since the way we did it before is still tentative in our impulses. And we learned a completely new song! Sadly, I can only remember the first line, now. I knew it would be like that. Well, after a few more practices I will have it down. I had to leave just before the end, and I accidentally ran off without my Omiyage bacci. Oops.
We got to the grandparent's place over on Hoover, and Grandpa was there, but Grandma was in her room avoiding us, and I never saw her. Grandpa has this routine where every single time we go there, he kidnaps Josh to the basement or the back yard and I don't see him for sometimes an hour. So...I can't say the visit itself was any fun. When we were leaving, Grandpa went into his other routine, which is to try and give us two or three carloads worth of stuff. He gave me a punch bowl with 12 cups, two extra coffee cups, the vintage clear glass kind, and a fancy pen set. He gave Josh a pen set, too, and two board games (one of them is the original 1977 War of the Rings) and the kids got a stack of books, Abbie got a little plastic Marvin the Martian (she loves it), a tan pound puppy with floppy ears, and a 5 foot long snake-like dragon. Grant got the Batman car he left over there a year ago, a remote control CAT dump truck that plays loud music and that Mommy can't wait for the batteries to run out on, and his birthday presents: a tackle box with real hooks that we have put in the garage, and Batman: The Sunday Comics 1943-1946. It's hardback. We also got a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, a dozen bagels, two long Italian bread sticks (2 1/2 feet each), 3 asiago cheese focaccia from St. Louis Bread, a box of tomatos, and about 10 mini bags of chips. I swear we tried not to steal half the house, but that's just the way they are. You should have seen how much stuff we didn't end up taking. (Stuffed bears, wall art, whole bags of potatoes, dishes, boxes of Christmas angels...)
I wonder why that is. Do you think that people who lived through the great depression have a tendency to horde? My grandmother has a pantry with canned goods ceiling to floor in her laundry room.
Sunday night, I can't remember why we were so late getting back. I was going to run out and do the grocery shopping and Josh was going to stay home and do calculus, but instead, he ran off to Popeye's and got chicken and biscuits. YUM! It was exactly what I wanted, but I didn't know it until I took my first bite. I got some milk and stuff and returned that library book at last.
Abbie's been having nosebleeds again, but otherwise, we are all happy and healthy. Well, I guess. I saw a picture of me from Saturday and you can see big purple bags under my eyes. Maybe I'll get good sleep tonight. You never know.
YAWN!
I need to go investigate the kitchen and see if there is anything I can make these energetic children for lunch. Oh! I got grapes again. They are huge and sweet.
Hope you are about to start your week off right! Good luck to all of you!
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