The Return

On the one hand, the "return" happening today was my golf league foursome finally starting our league at SentryWorld!

Obviously with a large company combined with this stellar course, there are a ton of employees signing up for league! So our group gets the 4:40 p.m. time slot for 8 weeks. And everything is at the peak of bloom!

My game wasn't, but who really cares?

Especially because it was a pretty good distraction for us – tomorrow is the first time back in the office in 6 weeks. I might add "the office" is a temporarily a different one than I've spent the last nearly 9 years. So it's like the first day of high school or something... and this girl will probably sleep 4 hours!

I couldn't even finish our 9-hole round because I had simultaneous obligations. Let's just say announcing your score when you know you only did 8 holes is so much more satisfying! 

We are just days away from our grand production of Yee-Haw so practice was happening in Rudolph, which was thankfully a pretty straight shot from Stevens Point. Missed a good chunk of it, but the songs I needed practice on were after the "intermission" segment anyway. The timing worked out.

Also, for you non-local readers... this rock outside of Rudolph is probably painted a minimum of 50 times a year. Every IMPORTANT event from weddings to pancake breakfasts make it (if someone is willing to paint it, ha). Now our event is "Rudolph Painted Rock" official!

We're so cool in the corniest of ways!

I can't believe I have to conclude the blog early. But my body really has forgotten how to wake up to a 6:20 a.m. alarm clock! I'll take prayers! 

P.S. Let us know if you need advance tickets to Saturday's. Yes, rain is predicted. But yes, there's a big ol' tent to keep y'all dry!

Barefoot Hotdog

What the heck is a "barefoot hotdog"? Well that would be a talented teenager who can waterski barefoot and be a hotdog (aka one-handed hot shot) while doing it!

Love this kid! 

This is Baby Aiden ... aka One of My Waterski Boys ... aka About to Start His Senior Year!

Had such a fun photo shoot tonight for senior portraits. Obviously senior pictures have moved way beyond the traditional one pose in a studio! I had the pleasure of capturing his brothers' photos and his sister's. And now it's his turn.

Of course I took some nice "portraits" but we also needed some action shots.

Beautiful night for a boat ride! Had to make sure we were facing away from the "backlit" sun while going over waves and holding my camera steady enough to capture some action shots of flips and other tricks. Looks relaxing but it was challenging that way. Can't wait to look at all the images, but I knew I for sure got that good barefooting one!

Afterward, on the way home, the sunset colors off the lake continued to be amazing in the woods, too. Just a treat for sunrise/sunset-loving me! Absolutely no filter or photo editing here! Additionally, I will not disclose if I trespassed to find a good angle. Sorry, town of Rome!

May we all find delight in childhood/teenager enthusiasm and the beautiful colors, textures, and waves in nature!

 

This Really Is My Father's World

I love this weekend each year in August because we have our "Worship in the Park" combined with our church picnic. But when I was awakened by thunder this morning, I realized this wasn't going to work out as planned. 

At the same time, of course, a lot of people were saying thank God for rain!

So we used our plan B and had worship and picnic food in the church basement – not because of the rain, but because of the lightning! When we're talking about Jesus walking on water this week... you kind of don't want to press your luck. Even if the message was all about having faith to do so!

But because we are normally in a park setting, we sing hymns like "This Is My Father's World" and " For the Beauty of the Earth."

So after eating way too much good food and having some really good visits, I decided to detour on my way home to our downtown park. 

Because of the rain, I saw a puddle for the first time in ages and captured a reflection.

And then a few more blooming flower photos... 

My conclusion was that life is not a "walk in the park" but we can purposefully take a walk in a park and find the beauty amongst the ugly.

And by weird happenstance, this was the daily quote from one of my daily guides...

So fitting. It's been a tough weekend for friends and loved ones. But even if your heart is breaking, shattering even, believe that beauty is there. Somewhere.

Oh Gosh, Forced Togetherness with Co-workers

Today was our company picnic, but it felt pretty awesome when it came to connecting briefly with higher ups.

For many events, though, we are ready to add a few administrative and random brave acts of "boldness."

Our theme for today's picnic was cowboy/cowgirl related.

Had a good time but did not win big prizes beyond a golf tournament hat. But it was so fun to get into the yee-haw spirit of things!

Surprising Accomplishment in the Kitchen

Anyone who knows me (well hubby mainly), knows I am an undomestic goddess with no/limited skills to cook up a decent meal. Thank you to boxes of mixes or frozen microwaveable food that has helped me fake it. (Side note: I was devastated when Schwan's went out of business!)

But last week, after having a deliciously spicy shredded pork sandwich at book club, I asked for the recipe and that got me on a tangent yesterday when I had to travel to Point and Plover. They have some pretty good grocery stores and meat markets.

When I got to Metro Market in Plover, I had some pork loin thoughts in mind, but then I saw all their options. Go there!! 

So this is my step-by-step of a Korean BBQ Pork with Goat Cheese Sandwich. Yes, I literally invented this last night! (Maybe??)

There were a lot of choices, but when I saw this one I was reminded how we both loved our spicy Korean "infusion" restaurant experience last year. So I decided that was a good place to start since the baking/cooking directions seemed easy enough.

Then, since we both are big fans of King's Hawaiian everything, I got slider buns, too.

The star of the show was the shredder I ordered on Amazon that just arrived on Monday. I keep getting recipe feeds on social media (do they even know me?) and many times they are using this tool. It says "chicken" shredder but I think it's just any kind of meat shredder.

Since the pork loin was much thicker than a typical chicken breast (that's me guessing) I sliced it down the middle and tried my new "twist-twist-twist one more time shredder".

That worked!

And when I had all the shredded pork in a container, I poured on any remaining juices from the oven pan.

While I piled the pork on a slider bun, I decided it needed some cheese maybe. As a new fan of goat cheese, I threw on some crumbles and nuked it a bit in that slider bun.

Oh wow. I'm not saying it was good because I came up with any of it, but it is a good combination of flavors.

P.S. I had it two nights in a row and it was perfectly delicious!

Commute and Construction Do Not Mix

There's more than one reason I haven't missed being in the office for the past month. But I was reminded today of a few more as I see the only "light" at the end of the tunnel is a fluorescent one when we return to the office next week!

Today I had a special occasion to return to Stevens Point as the mentor for our summer intern. The interns compete in a special challenge each summer – ideas they come up with as a team that could streamline or grow business at our company. So today's presentations were at SentryWorld – since our headquarters building across the street is under construction.

As I headed out after lunch, hubby asked: "Do you remember the way?"

Ha. But he had no idea how that would shape the day. While I did get to SentryWorld easily. Afterward, the state patrol had the entrance to I-39 south closed. An accident, I assume. So I went north, back to the next exit and realized traffic was backed up some 3 miles at least. Oof.

I figured I would just go south on one of the main streets and connect with Highway 10 since I had errands there. But that street was closed quickly for construction and it took me a minimum of 3 detours to get to the all-important Target store. Ugh. I realize I have forgotten my way around Stevens Point!

But I did find a few of the items I was seeking at 4 stores I haven't seen in 4 weeks. So glad they're still in business! I am so influential, you know!

The only other challenge I faced was showering, putting on my face AND curling my hair! Oh, and wearing grown-up clothes instead of shorts and your favorite t-shirts. I'm gonna have to step up my t-shirt game for the next 4 home-office days!

Just a Little Corny

Two things that go together in summertime – besides salt and my watermelon – are corn on the cob and dental flossers! If you know, you know!

Growing up out in the country, we had maybe a third-acre garden that felt like the size of three football fields when we had to weed it. But we had fresh corn on the cob, green beans, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, you name it. Very helpful with a family of 8 kids!

I was talking at lunch with 2 girlfriends the other day and wondered wasn't it weird to have Mom say "We're having corn on the cob for supper," and that was it. Our meal. We didn't grill up steaks to go with it.

We just picked it and shucked it and boiled it up for dinner. I think this picture is more like prepping Mom for her canning phase. We were not preparing to have 4-8 cobs per person for supper. Ha. 

But Mom would wield that electric knife and can bags and bags of fresh sweet corn that still tasted good in the winter! (Side note: The 3 siblings on the left of the picture all had braces at some point so she also did that cob-clearing for many meals over the years! Even the best dental flossers are no match for braces!)

And while we were talking about corn on the cob – because that's what you do at lunch when you're over 50 – my friend said she had some really good honey-dipped corn recently. I could not grasp the concept. Do they dip the cobs in honey?

No. I'm sure you can but it seems they can "engineer" the corn to have that extra sweet taste like it really was dipped in honey.

So then I was on a farmers market mission! We do buy good sweet corn from the neighborhood farm but I wanted to see what the honey hype was about.

Saturday I scored a half-dozen cobs (let's not be greedy until we taste test it) at the farmers market downtown. I shucked it yesterday and tonight after my much-needed chiropractor appointment, I cooked up a cob. (If you don't want to grill or boil, you can microwave for 4 minutes. I also learned that at lunch. LOL.)

Then I cooked up a second cob!

So sweet and good. Just a different summer treat that also doubles as a VEGETABLE!

Look at me, Mom. I had corn on the cob for supper and was completely satisfied! Miss you. Again.