29 Again

I think Mother Nature misunderstood me. When I said I wanted to be 29 again, I wasn't talking about the temperature.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised. It's the last day of September. (I know. Already?!)

If you're a baseball fan, you don't need a thermometer to know we're heading into October. It's pennant race time!

This week is an exciting one for the Twins, who sit 2 games behind the Tigers and play in their "house" 4 times this week. Due to rain Monday night, they played a day/night double-header yesterday and split the difference. So we start today in the same place -- 2 games behind. I don't think I have any fingernails left but I am looking forward to the rest of this week. This is fun baseball!

Not as fun as date nights, but still pretty exciting!

School Night

It's not often we do something on a school night because, well, it's a school night (work night) and we have to get up early and all that. But when hubby asks you out on a rare date, you say "Yes!" no matter what night it is.

Jim and I went to the movie Extract, which looked funny because it is a work-place comedy by the same people who created Office Space. I think Jim wanted to see it because the preview showed a married man determined to get home each night before his wife changed into her comfy (chastity-belted) sweat pants. As someone who likes to slip into something comfortable after work myself, I tried to look past that story line!

Our hope during the day today was that the 6th-grader wouldn't have too much homework and muck up our plans. I pretty much determined that even if he did have a lot, he'd have to fend for himself. I was not missing my date (tough love, right?).

As it turned out, we're not the only ones who rarely have date nights on school nights. (Or the movie has a reputation we weren't aware of. Or the $17.50 for 2 tickets was too much sticker shock.) We actually had the theater to ourselves! Ooh-la-la!

The movie was OK -- not bad but not great. Only a few laugh out loud moments. But that's fine with me. It was time alone with my hubby, away from all the other drama life has to offer. And believe me, that's not always that entertaining either.

Thanks for the date, Jim!

Hang 10 ...er, 12

I guess if it was my great-nephew Anthony's 12th birthday, I should say hang 12 instead of hang 10, but our day at the water park was really more of a surfer dude's day. Here are some hang 10 highlights....

A three-generation photo op: Anthony with his new cell phone, his mom (my niece Caryn) and his grandma (my sister Renell).

Carter and the girls take a break from the action after riding the Master Blaster.

Anthony tries to ride the waves on the Flowrider. The funny thing about watching people do this is the boys more often than not, lost their pants once catipulted up to the top of the "wave" (hill). Both Anthony and Carter held their pants tight before standing up when they were done!

OK, dude. Carter takes some instruction from the lifeguard.

And here is Carter attempting to surf (he was really too light to keep his board in the middle, but at least he gave it a try)...

Not a bad way to hang on a Sunday afternoon!

To a T

Reasons Sundays (this one at least) fit me to a T...

Twelve: Miraculously, my sister, niece and I managed to pull off a surprise for Carter and my great-nephew Anthony, who turned 12 today. We met at the Kalahari indoor water park in Wisconsin Dells to celebrate. (Pictures and video will be coming.) It's tough to get away with taking pre-teens anywhere these days. They're all concerned us moms are taking them somewhere lame, you know.

Tubes: While the cousins and my sister floated around on their tubes and swished down the slick slides, I wisely refrained from risking any further back trauma this week. So I parked on a lounge couch in front of the boob tube. There was a bank of 4 TVs so I was able to watch the Packer game for my sister Renell and watch the score ticker for Viking highlights for the rest of us. Now that game would have exciting to watch. Next week outta be a good one!

Twins: I can't believe I've had to cheer on the White Sox this weekend. But I do thank them for their efforts in taming the Tigers enough to keep the Twins in the run for the Central Division title. This is going to be a fun week! I hope some network (a plea to ESPN) is nice enough to air it for us fans too far from Minnesota television coverage. Go Twins!

Tumbleweed: We are under a wind advisory in central Wisconsin. What does that mean exactly? Well for us, it meant the drive home from the Dells felt like I was in the middle of some sort of video game, dodging tumbleweed and leaves flying at the windshield like snowflakes in a snowstorm. Surreal experience. Glad we're home safely and the only "T" left today is Temperature -- as in, what a nice hubby I have to warm up my blanket for me before we got home. That suits me to a T, too!

Reciprocity

Reciprocity: A mutual exchange or interchange of favors.

One of the magical characteristics of a true friendship is that there is no score card. Two people are simply there for each other -- with a listening ear, arms to hold, a shoulder to cry on and sometimes just a vehicle for a ride. Whatever the need, a friend fills it.

It would be selfish to keep track of each favor, each measure of support. In a deep, long-lasting relationship, it all works out in the end, don't you think?

I was privileged today to spend some time with two longtime friends.

One friend was in the hospital. Thankfully nothing life-threatening. Mainly she's fighting pain and boredom so hubby and I trekked up to Stevens Point for a few hours to help her pass the afternoon. It was the least we could do. She's done that and more for us. We're just thankful she'll be seeing some specialists at Mayo next week. It is always tough to see a friend in pain. We feel so helpless!

A second friend was someone who lived in Rapids when I first moved here 14 years ago and has since moved away (some 5 or 6 years ago). She was in town for a conference, called me up and we met for an evening chat and walk along the river. Isn't it funny how you don't see an old friend for years and your conversation can pick up practically where you left off years before? This friend is in pain, too. The emotional kind. Again I feel so helpless.

What I learned from both of them today is that prayer is still the most powerful answer and display of support when we're apart. I also was reminded how fortunate I am. Between a loving family and friends and my health, I am extremely blessed.

And when I'm not, I know I have friends to call on to be there for me. That's what friends do.

Neat, huh?

Shivers

There are two definitions of Shivers. One -- my favorite -- is the ice cream shop in Iola. The other -- more applicable tonight -- is the twitching of the body after "chilling" out at a sometimes rainy high school football game. B-r-r-r.

Today was really dreary. We pretty much waited for the rain clouds to burst open at any time. Didn't happen at noon so I went running at lunch. Didn't happen at 3:30 so we left work to get home for Carter's soccer practice.

It did happen right before we had to drive him into town. I didn't know how hard-core his coach is this year, so I took him to the practice field just in case. Turns out, not so hard-core. Only one other kid there. No coach. No practice.

So we went to Family Video to get some flicks for a potentially chilly and rainy weekend.

When it looked like the rain was done (according to my professional interpretation of the radar), we decided to accompany hubby to his homecoming football game. Assumption (his alma mater) was playing Loyal. Both teams are just OK this year. It was back-and-forth scoring to begin with, then Loyal ran away with it. Assumption seemed to cut into their lead in the third quarter, but never got any closer than one touchdown difference. They lost 42-28, I believe.

I was paying attention, but -- after a constant breeze and occasional sprinkles -- I was getting chilled by the end. Still fun to watch. Honest. I love football!

Now if we could just get our cat trained to turn on my electric mattress pad about halftime, I'd be all set to catch up on some cozy sleep now. That's OK. Carter insists that we have to stay up late tonight in order to sleep in tomorrow. I can see how that seems logical. But only to someone who must have a good SpongeBob or iCarly re-run coming on at 10...

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Apparently all I needed was a dose of Doctors McDreamy and McSteamy to get myself out from under the weather. Just knowing the 2-hour season premiere of Grey's starts in less than an hour has me feeling better already!

I do have to give some credit to the fact I went to bed early last night. Nothing was on TV to hold my interest. I actually found myself watching Dancing with the Stars. I knew less than 5 of the alleged "stars" but stayed tuned to it because they promised a Patrick Swayze tribute. I know, I couldn't believe my good luck. (Too bad it didn't carry over to the Powerball. Oh well, there's always Saturday.)

My back felt better today and my stomach was only a bit queasy compared to yesterday. I decided to distract myself by doing two things.

One, I went running at lunch. Call me whacko (and people I live with already do), but when I'm feeling crappy, a run tends to make me feel better. I know. All in my head, blah, blah, blah, but it worked.

Two, I emailed random Grey's trivia questions throughout the day to other McFans at work. The contest (with no prize) actually certainly helped the day fly by -- and got us all psyched for tonight's premiere.

I had to whip through my grocery shopping and get laundry going so there will be no distractions. Not even the Schwan's man can drag me away from the TV tonight.

But I may be up for an ice cream break.

See? Getting back to my old self already.