In the Crib

It's always nice to have surprise visitors -- especially the long-distance type. And by long distance, I mean from Colorado.

Today, an old (using term nicely) friend and classmate of hubby's stopped by our "crib." He flew into Minneapolis today, drove to central Wisconsin for a business appointment, then stopped here to say "hello" and, of course, play a game of cribbage.

We figured Jim and Pete have probably been playing cribbage for some 30 years. Lots of beers around the board when they played during summers off from college, I've heard. We won't guess at their record, so we'll call it tied. I also won't reveal who won their game this evening. They both enjoyed just sitting opposite each other with the board between them.

By the way, Pete made that beautiful cribbage board by hand and gave it to Jim eons ago. It's gorgeous!

Speaking of gorgeous, I promised Pete that the next time Jim goes out to see him in Colorado, I'm going with! After seeing the pictures from when Jim went out there to see The Who with Pete, I knew I'd have to add it to my short Bucket List.

Well, my List isn't short, but there are things on it I'd like to get to in a Short time from now!

Next summer might be a good time to fly on out to their crib. Pete could use the home field advantage.

Not that that is telling you anything.

Random Acts of Blog-ness

Time to get off the Proud Mother topic. And cover all the other ones randomly traveling through my mind.

Ground Cover: While it rained here all last evening and through the overnight, my friends and family to the northwest got a little more solid precipitation. Some call is snow. I call it "way the heck too soon." Those caught in the line of icy/snow mix fared the worst. One of my nephews got into a minor fender-bender with a a tree. His mom sure posted a pretty picture of the snow, though! I am completely not ready for it so I hope it doesn't find its way here.

Errand Day with Dad: When hubby picked up Carter after school, he had a few errands to run. Since Carter wisely had his permit on him, he got to do the driving. All over town. Guess he didn't do too badly.

Errand Day with Mom: During my errands in town after work, I went by myself. Just a quick stop in a parking lot to drop off some stuff I sold online, then popped into the pharmacy for a refill, stopped at the library to check out an audio book to listen to on my commute, then just happened to swing by Dairy Queen. When I realized Pumpkin Pie Blizzards are back AND our DQ is closing for the winter in 10 days, I figured it was my duty to stop.

Animal Attraction: As much as we love our cat, we get doggy envy any time we are hanging around our neighbors and their adorable little guys. We know, though, that our princess will not share the pedestal with anyone or anything. Especially not a mangy ol' dog. Tonight Murphy stopped by and poked his head in the front window. He was animated and wanted to meet our girl, but Sylvester was not a fan. She just backed away slowly and waited for his departure.

Still, we absolutely adore our little neighbor boy. Shhhh... Just don't tell kitty!

Music to Our Ears

Not that I am trying to turn this into "brag about my kid" week. It's just turning out that way and we'll run with it while it lasts!

We learned a few weeks ago that Carter was named to the All-Conference Band for the entire Marawood Conference. That's 15 schools! Yesterday he told me there were just 6 from Assumption High School selected.  Wow. Very cool.

This evening, on our way up to Spencer High School for the concert, hubby tells me Carter is the only non-senior chosen from AHS. Officially really proud and impressed now.

The Honors Band (and Choir) kids actually spent the whole day up in Spencer (about an hour away) to practice.

Before the concert started, they showed scenes from the day. Carter made the big screen at least twice!

We got there early,  which was good, because it filled up quickly.  I did manage to get one concert picture of Carter and then I was there to listen.

The approximately 90-member band sounded awesome! Very loud but right in tune. Carter pointed out on the way home that it was kind of crazy to spend all day practicing and have it all over in 18 minutes. It was a quality 18 minutes, though.

And he had a good time.

The Honors Choir sounded excellent, too, with one of our AHS girls getting a solo part in one of the songs. How awesome. Much to be proud of in our little corner of the world.

So glad it just happened that we could be a part of it.

Burnin' Daylight

Don't ask me how I would know such a thing, but in the John Wayne movie The Cowboys, he always tried to get the young 'uns on the trail in the early morning and he'd grouchily say, "C'mon, we're burnin' daylight!"

That's how I feel with the Daylight Savings transition. Get out there early because we are burnin' daylight. It won't last long!

I was a bit screwed up this morning with the change, but I think it's worse in the spring. The rooster at the farm around the corner is way off schedule. He was crowing this morning an hour late at least. I never hear him after 6:30. Maybe he just had a long weekend and overslept (like we all want to do on Mondays).

It was nice to have it be light out for my morning commute, though. Especially when four big ol' turkeys decided to cross the road in front of my car, apparently preferring suicide over death by hatchet in a few weeks. Don't worry. They lived to gobble another day.

When I last saw them, that is.

On the way home, darkness starting to fall around 4:30 p.m., I saw no less than a dozen deer in a field by the road. Three had crossed in front of me -- but thankfully a good quarter of a mile ahead of me. This is that fun driving time of the year.

When it's dark by 5:30, I am thinking bedtime thoughts by 7 p.m.

Hey, we've already burned daylight, might as well save the "midnight oil" for another occasion!

Not Bad, Not Bad

It may not be a very saintly bribe, but I told Carter if he made sure to get up and go to 8 o'clock church with me this morning, he could drive home.

It must have helped to have plenty of time to pray about it ahead of time, because I was somewhat at ease.

I said somewhat, not completely.

We had to stop to get gas so he learned how to do that. And then we were on the 4-lane for awhile but did not get anywhere up to 65 mph, thank God. Then home. He really did pretty good.

In fact, he was concentrating so hard, he did not even know I snapped a picture! That's good.

He got a chance to drive some more a little bit later, too. After hubby got home from church, the three of us went over to Appleton to visit a dear friend who is in a nursing home recovering from surgery. She and her husband used to babysit Carter once in awhile way back when he was just 2 years old and living on root beer and Popsicles -- when he could get away with it. So they've seen him grow up and it was good we could bring him along.

On the way home, he got to drive the final 5 or 6 miles. He needs to slow down a bit around the corners (two-wheeling won't be good in winter time), but otherwise did just fine.

Tonight we had the end of season cross country banquet. I use the work "banquet" loosely. It was just a sort of potluck collaboration with good food and the coach's awards. The coach was very proud of what our young team (5 sophomores and 3 freshman) accomplished this year -- as individuals and a team. Carter lettered again so that was nice.

The MVP award went to one of the freshman who consistently finished first among our team AND with really good times. The MIP (Most Improved) went to a kid who managed to shave off more than 4 minutes from his PR of last season.

That kid was Carter Austin.

Proud parent moment, that's for sure! He says it's probably because last year he was just that bad. But we think part of it is his dedication and commitment this year. He really wanted to do well, and tried. He definitely is going out again next year.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Seeing our son drive. And seeing him driven.

Fallin' Back

When I created this cartoon, I had the intention of doing just that with the overrated extra hour we get tonight as we "fall back" the clocks one hour during our transition to Daylight Savings.

I was looking for this extra hour all day and never managed to cross paths with it.

Part of it, I suppose, was that I stayed in bed until after 9 a.m. Hey it was a late night. Then I really eased into Saturday chores (wow, on a Saturday even) and got in a walk. Carter spent most of his day at the State Cross Country meet, conveniently located just 5 minutes away from home.

Since he was unavailable to work in the German Club booth at a church arts and crafts fair in Nekoosa, I drove down there to take his place. Since they had an adult and enough kids on hand for Carter's shift, I ended up not having to help much more than a half hour.

After that, it was a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up beverages for our cross country banquet tomorrow night, then home to get ready for another date night. This one wasn't quite as intimate as last night's. And by "intimate" I mean small and cozy in numbers. There were 11 of us in all.

We ate at the Branding Iron Supper Club and I am still stuffed from the yummy stuffed shrimp I ate. All the food was good and the company was GREAT! Had a really nice time there and at our followup "session" at the bowling alley in town.

The cool thing is that we got home in plenty of time to set the clocks back before turning in -- And, perhasps finally getting to that Book!

Where to Start...

In my book, November is Gratitude Month. Thanksgiving should not be the only day we give thanks, should it?

I challenge each of you to take a moment each day and find something for which you are grateful. It can be big or small or serious or silly. Just pause and thank God for it. Then, if you feel like it, share it with others -- especially those who give you that attitude of gratitude.

Today I whipped together a little GRATITUDE collage of some of the first people who came to mind...

It's a mix of family mostly and some longtime friends. If you are not pictured, please don't take offense. I grabbed whatever photos I had handy.

If I had a wall size to deal with it, I could fit even more family on both sides, my awesome Assumption family (Brenda-squared and more), my church friends and running friends and work friends and scrapbooking friends and golfing friends and ... wow. I have like 30 things to be grateful for right there and it's only Day One. I better pace myself.

I think you get the idea.

Specifically today, on All Saints Day, I am grateful for time I was able to have with my dad -- and thankful there is more time yet with my mom.

I pray for the victims of the shooting at the Los Angeles Airport and so grateful, by the grace of God, it happened hours AFTER my sister and brother-in-law flew out of there to Hawaii.

I am thankful that our love as a family can be readily seen by others. The photographer for the church picture session tonight says, "You guys are fun." Yup. We do have a good time.

I think I am grateful that Carter -- officially 15 1/2 years old today -- aced his tests at the DMV and got his temporary driving permit. Yikes!

Right now, I am thankful that as soon as I sign off, hubby and I have a movie date! We're seeing Last Vegas and expect to have some good belly laughs... and a belly full of scrumptiously buttered movie theater popcorn.

Good night. And thank YOU for reading!