A Pirate's Life for Me

Well I made it safely to and survived Camp Crop-A-Lot without having to walk the plank! Am so grateful I headed to Rosholt on Thursday night because when we woke up Friday morning, our cars were covered with snow with a layer of thick ice underneath. Would not have been a fun morning commute!

My high school friend Julie also went up on Thursday so that was a fun little slumber party.

Every year at camp there is a theme. This year the confirmation letter simply said "Ahoy, Mateys" with some pirate-themed clipart and we all took it from there. Thanks to some friends at work and the dollar store, I had some gear for Julie, my twin sister Raylene, and me to wear.

For the most part it was for group pictures. Not all weekend. That be too much!

Raylene and I as smiling pirates with our plastic swords.

And giving our best "ARRRRGH!" impression. We're not that intimidating, are we?

This is our table group with Becky (scrapbook consultant on left) and Tami and Julie on far right. What a blood-thirsty lot!

As a group, we pretty much hit our capacity at 40+. How awesome! And most of these scoundrels have been coming for years like me!

Of course it was not all swash-buckling fun and games. There was more scrapbooking than sleeping, that's for sure. Always the case. And as usual, I overestimate how much I'll get done. 

My goal was to finish 2018 family  chronological album and start 2019. I did not finish 2018 and have several pages to go. In the end, I want to be happy with my pages, though. So if I spend too much time putzing, I won't feel bad. 

I captured a few random page pictures....

This is 100% Sylvester in love with Jim... crawling in his clothes, watching him mow the grass, and waiting for him to open his office door!

Our preparations for our trip to Scandinavia!

Just a glimpse of our scandi-hoovian sisters' trip to Norway and Sweden. I have a pretty thick digital scrapbook already done on this trip!

It just happened I was working on nephew Colin's win pages on the same day it was his birthday!

This might be my favorite. The page representing Carter and the boy os 465 (Division St.) moving into their first college house. Cheers!

Today it took a minute to brush off our cars, etc., in the blustery wind and then pack up and leave. But what a great weekend. I just have to figure out when it's legal to go to bed on a Sunday night!

Have a good week, everyone. Make some memories!

Have Trifle, Will Travel

A little change of plans for my scrapbooking weekend. My friend Julie (coming up from Madison) and I are heading to camp tonight due to a forecast change. It looks a bit sketchy for Rosholt tonight and tomorrow. When they add "ice" to the forecast, I shift into precaution mode, that's for sure.

But of course, I still had things to get done after work. Finish organizing (bwaahaa), pack (just finished) and whip together a chocolate-mint trifle for the scrappers! That's the only thing I better not forget!

So for this one, the bottom layer is crumbled brownies, next layer is white chocolate pudding using Kwik Trip Mint Milk, then it's a combo crunchy layer of Thin Mints and Keebler Mint Stripe cookies. Then repeat and top with some whip and Andes Mints – pieces and grated.

I'm 99.9% sure I will not be bringing any home on Sunday!

Gotta hit the road soon. Be careful in the dang non-spring weather!

The Eagle and Fake Spring Have Landed

As a purely self-proclaimed photographer, I am the sort of person who is beyond irked when I see an eagle while I'm driving – and I don't have my good camera. Just my phone. So while I realize I should just enjoy the majesty of our national bird and (for me) a sign my daddy's watching over me, I still get a bit ticked. 

They are just so majestic and beautiful. Of course tonight on the way home from work there were two of them and one was flying while this guy was parked for a minute in the field. First photographer thought: OMG this will be awesome to catch them both! First eagle thought: What is that lady thinking? I'm flying off and out of here!

Still for me, when I hear random birds in the early morning hours, I have false hope that spring is near!

Of course when I got home, the warm temps and rain (not snow) today had my front yard also thinking spring is here. Sorry, yard, it's fake and this is just a reprieve. There's a meeting at 6 tomorrow night in our living room. We can all grieve together.

The weird weather thing is that it's supposed to snow Friday a.m. when Camp Crop-A-Lot commute time happens. Obviously nothing will stand between me and my scrapbooking weekend, but I will continue gathering my stuff tonight so I am ready to heave-ho at 8 a.m. Friday. Top priority!

It's Ash Wednesday. Never forget your priorities this Lenten season. 😄📖

 

The Current Version of Fat Tuesday

After organizing a little pre-Super Bowl tailgate potluck at work I kinda alluded to a Fat Tuesday treat buffet. And halfway to work this morning while thinking about singing for Ash Wednesday service tomorrow evening, I realized... shucks. It's Fat Tuesday.

I failed everyone, ha.

What I did say a few times was "Hi, I'm fat and it's Tuesday so feel free to celebrate me!"

Got some chuckles, but no good food. 

I did get some goodies today after realizing Camp Crop-A-Lot is 3 sleeps away and I need to create a delicious trifle by Thursday night bedtime. So I stopped at Festival Foods in Stevens Point and now am down to two ingredients, I think.

But when I got home, I realized I better create a "staging area" for what I have ready for camp so I can figure out what else I have to organize the next 3 evenings.

This is only a fraction of what will be jammed into Black Betty, my compact Honda HRV. But it will all fit and there's a good chance not all of it will be used. Very realistic good chance. Still, that's how we roll in the scrapbooking world. The only thing we'll be giving up for Lent (mostly) is sleep this weekend! 

So happy flipping Fat Tuesday! 

Buckeye Book Babes

Tonight was our monthly book club meeting. This time at Perkins (still in business thankfully) with 6 of us discussing Brenda's book Buckeye.

Buckeye is a 2025 multi-generational novel set in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, spanning from the 1930s to the 1960s. It follows two couples, Cal and Becky Jenkins and Margaret and Felix Salt, as their lives, secrets, and relationships become intertwined, navigating WWII, societal changes, and personal crises. 

A lot to unpack.

And of course, it was just nice hanging out with the girls for nearly 2 hours.

If you do further research on the book and are interested in reading it, I have the hardcover available to lend. 

That's what's nice about this amazing book club. Just chit-chatting for awhile and also having very different types of books each month. World War II saga this month and a murder mystery next month. Almost always books I wouldn't have known about (and therefore chosen) on my own.

Plus, even though I have a personal connection with every member, they didn't all know the others at the beginning. So it's enjoyable to see us deepen our bonds each month. 

That being said, I need to shut down the books conversation and go watch the TV for today's Olympics highlights! Happy reading.

The Family Lucky Genes

 

When my sisters hit the road when I was heading to church today, they made sure they gave me the good luck vibes from our Grandmas Flossie and Mom – both legal gamblers, naturally.

Of course, when I did get to Assumption and I was one short of a BINGO a few times, I thought for sure there was no luck on my side. But then... there was also the 50-50 raffle fundraiser for the hosts. Today was the Assumption baseball team. A cause I'm quite fond of.

Thankfully a few others were supportive too, because when they drew the winning ticket there was a $300+ prize for the 50-50. And yes, that was my ticket! The very last number of my string of tickets!

So even though I didn't dob my way to any BINGOs, I still had some luck after all. I may have to figure out a way to play it forward in this house!

A LOVE-ly Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We currently have a lovely floral display in our kitchen – thanks to the tulips from the girls last night and the roses from hubby this morning! Smells great. Now just gotta keep them all alive!

Sometime this morning, my sister Rachel texted me to see if we had plans for the day. Turns out that she and our sister Rayna were not anxious to get home to Wisconsin after a month-plus in Florida so they wanted a detour.

So they came from St. Louis and made it here to have a tasty Valentine's dinner at The Ridges. Rachel got her hair braided and beaded when they hopped over to the Bahamas last week. How fun!

After dinner, the four of us played cards – competing like it was an Olympic sport, naturally – then watched some real Olympic recaps so we could see our Wisconsin boy speed skate to another gold! That's so awesome.

My sisters are staying here tonight at the Bloody Run Creek Cabin and we'll figure out the mayhem of church choir and pancake breakfast and BINGO in the morning.

For now it's just nice to have a house full of love. Hope you can say the same!