Monday Sports Report

It was a Monday sports day! I gotta say I wish all football games were playing during daylight hours. Perfect lighting and great focus. This switching to 8-man football also brings me a few yards closer to the action! 

I stopped at our Royals' JV game after work. It started at 5 p.m. and book club started at 5:30 so I knew I had time to shoot pictures of one quarter at the most.

It was just enough time for me to catch a long kickoff return for a TD!

What made it special is that the varsity squad had finished practice and were watching from the end zone. Loved to see their excitement and support for JV!

Jim was actually officiating at the game. He said it ended in a 22-22 tie. Since it was 90+ degrees out, everyone was fine with ending it in a tie. I don't even know if they keep JV stats/records anywhere to see how they compare to other schools in the conference!

Put me in the right frame of mind for book club since the main character of the book also played some football. If you get a chance to read Life & Death & Giants, do so. A brief synopsis:

Shunned by her Amish community in Lakota, Wisconsin, Rachel Fisher lives on her own and gives birth to an 18 lb., 27" baby boy. Orphaned at birth and not knowing who his father is, Gabriel Fisher ends up being raised by his older brother, his Amish grandparents, and the local veterinarian who delivered him. Over the years, Gabriel rapidly grows to become a giant in height and weight. He spends his entire life trying to fit in; both literally and figuratively. However, no matter his size or where he went, he was loved by animals and people alike.

It got high marks from us all! As I've said many times, I love my book club. We rotate picking out the books so there's always something I never would have thought to read! 

And yes book club is a SPORT. We're exercising our minds! 😀

Comfortable Sunday

Today was our "Quilters' Sunday" at church. (Photo way before service!) Not only did we have a loose change offering to support their work, but we got to see all that group accomplished before we ship those gorgeous quilts around the world in a few weeks.

I'm always jealous of their work because it's the same thinking pattern as me (as a scrapbooker)... What colors blend well and how can we keep the patterns different enough to make it interesting?

But do I need another crafty hobby? NO!

Since Jim was golfing with a buddy at Lake Arrowhead this afternoon, I focused on a different hobby. I realize Crop-toberfest is more than 6 weeks away, but I figured I better order a few more prints so I ordered a few prints to be sure have enough work to do!

Very low-key day other than that. I got some steps in – not 10,000 but I could go outside and be ambitious after this! 

I can hear your laughter. Since I only have 5,101 right now. I can see why we'd be both be hesitant!

I'll fill you in tomorrow. With an honest report. Promise!

Rainy Day To-Do List

I woke up listening to the rain and it was just cloudy/dark enough outside, I snuggled deeper under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. Which of course I can never do. But it sounded like a good plan. 

All these wonderful Rainy Day choices and I chose the cleaning one? Something's not right. But I had to tackle my Oh My God room, which is also my office, which is also my Scrap Cave (and all things crafty). A lot is packed into this 10x10 room. And it is not organized!

So I got the "office" work space looking a bit better – even ran out of Lysol wipes! But I have so, so far to go with everything else. Things just accumulate. Anyone need any random note pads?? This old newspaper reporter thought she'd always take notes on paper, I guess?

If I find any goodies that need a new home, I'll be sure to pass those along.

Of course, I did find a loose screw and wonder what's going to fall apart next. Probably me!

And yeah, yeah, I know. I've always had a screw loose. 😜

A Loony, er Lunar-y, Night

When we saw the early evening moon outside our Yee-Haw party shed last night, I was sure to capture it. Then I got totally confident about catching the "deep partial" eclipse later ... with the BLOOD MOON.

Give me points for trying!

Full disclosure: This just my phone. Not my "good" camera. But I could see the "blood red" with the naked eye AND when I didn't zoom in too closely.

When it was close to peak viewing just before 11:12 p.m., it was just (to my phone camera's opinion) a dark side where it was getting eclipsed.

Then the clouds moved in and I don't remember anything after that! 

Thank goodness I do remember our Yee-Haw cast party! It was beyond positive. Everyone reported they'd received countless feedback – all 100% positive, that's for sure! How exciting and also fulfilling that we could give people some entertainment, kindness, humor (sort of), and a teeny bit of inspiration.

We came to the conclusion that – like the rare Blood Moon deeply partial eclipse – some things just can't be replicated!

Please share any decent shots of that darn eclipse last night! 

Your Long-Awaited Yee-Haw Review

Finally home long enough to go through photos, etc, for my version of a Yee-Haw recap! Why does it matter? Well take a look at this graphic and see what our summer of work – and a 2 1/2-hour show – accomplished.

Our fundraiser benefitted St. Philip's Church in Rudolph, the Portage County Power of 5 organization, and the Parkinson's Foundation. Thanks for your support! SALUTE!!

A couple months ago, I think we probably started with twice as many jokes and way more verses to the songs. But it seemed it was going to be a 4-hour show... and we didn't want anyone to suffer through that. Gradually we cut jokes (even though they were all hilarious in a corny way) and reduced the number of verses in a lot of songs. It was quite a process!!

And we did not coordinate what we were all wearing to look like cast members of the old Hee-Haw show...

But Amazon has everything! Search for Hee-Haw outfits and they've got 'em! Probably made in Hong Kong, but it fit!

And look at our uncoordinated coordination! It's like we could all be cut from the same cloth – picnic table cloth, that is!

The night of the show we were amazed at the growing crowd! My biggest surprise was my twin Raylene and hubby driving 4+ hours to attend. We were kind of into Hee-Haw when we were young!

Her son, my nephew Tony, came over from Green Bay and knew but kept a very good secret!

There were a few co-workers who attended, too. I mean I've been hounding them for months about this!

My "co-writer" Tom and his wife – who Jim and I have known for 20+ years in various publishing roles.

Dalen, my current graphic designer, was there with his mom. Not to see me necessarily since his dad (who happened to be Carter's grade school band teacher – small world) was playing with the warm-up band! His mom insisted on a photo because all the moms think I am their child's "work mom." True in many cases, but not all. Ha.

Our "picnic table cloth" selfies were plentiful. Here I am with my friend Sara, who married into the OG Yee-Haw family.

And her beautiful daughter Lydia, who've I've adopted as my own forever!

Our pre-game warmup – a.k.a. pep talk and the Lord's Prayer. Let's do this! Yee-Haw!

We had so many friends there, too. My friend (and golf partner) Molly was there and close enough to the front I could motion to her to try and get a picture of Jim and me together since I wasn't always next to him on stage. This was the best we could do because that darn microphone stand was in the way!

In the end, it was like, WOW. What a crowd! And a standing ovation! Every one of us on the stage had a minimum of half a dozen people tell us we need to do it again. One lady from my church was there and the next morning she gushed on and on about how wonderful it was. Her daughter's like, "She won't stop talking about it!"

Too bad we didn't set up Yelp reviews!

Tomorrow night we're gathering again to celebrate the successful show. I wonder if we should have our swinging barn board on hand to kick us in the butt for a bad joke or very bad idea of what we're doing next. LOL.

Love our HA-HAs family. We're so grateful they "adopted" us Austins into the fold!

Land of the Lost :: Office Version

This was our second week of the every-other-week schedule of being in office. For the next 40 months. Nothing quite seemed natural yet since I parked on a different level of our parking ramp and had no idea how to get to my desk!

Sort of a maze to get to the only set of elevators in the building!

I was thinking in the morning that I needed something to identify my "street" to turn down... aka row of cubicles. So I brought in my two purple Carter beanie bears to sit on top of the tall cabinet. But they weren't tall enough. (For my height anyway.) So I ran to Hobby Lobby at lunch and was tempted with a lot of beautiful fall decorations and even Christmas stuff.

But you know Hobby Lobby has everything so I found the sign above in their Big Foot/Sasquatch section. Totally appropriate for our situation. So I found the ribbon row and the scissors row to be able to hang the sign at the end of our "intersection."

It helped me and a few others.

I also reached out to the employee I'm sharing a desk with. I realize he must be a tall person since I had to lower the desk, lower the arms of the chair so I didn't look like I needed a booster seat, and lower the height of the seat so my feet could touch the floor. I apologized that we'll both have to make adjustments when we come in for the next 3-4 years. 

And asked if I could keep some items in one of our shared locker drawers since I didn't want to haul stuff back and forth constantly. I mean important stuff like my birthday fairy supplies and well, signs to hang on the cubicle. 

I am so used to personalizing my space, I know this will be an adjustment. So I'm grateful he said take all the space I need.

Do you know what I didn't have trouble finding today? SentryWorld!

It was so fun after doing our United Way outing yesterday for our foursome to get back together for league (which is just 9 holes, by the way). We just kept the same running jokes and laughs going from yesterday. For those who don't know, that's the cure for a stressful day at work!

Got home in time to blog... and start to edit those senior photos from Sunday. Have a good, relaxing night y'all! If you're lost, ask someone to help you find the way! 

FORE! the Kids

I love working for a company who is so committed to philanthropy and charitable giving on all levels. And we employees are invested in it, too – especially our annual United Way campaign. (Which of course benefits far more than just kids.)

Since our golf outing is consistently a popular and successful fundraiser, we hold it in August (across two days due to the high interest) as sort of a pre-kickoff to the official kickoff in September. So today was not a bad day at the "office." 

Our organization's theme this year focuses on the magic of giving so naturally we had some Magic Kingdom vibes going. This is our golf league foursome and I think we've done this several years now. Going with the theme, our team name was It's a Small, Small SentryWorld!

I call this one "Channeling my Grandma Minnie's spirit!" She's been gone too long! 😟

They tied in some unique activities, too. On the first hole for every Disney trivia question we got right, we'd inch closer to the hole for our first shot. We rocked it so we bypassed Pluto, Goofy, and Minnie to start at Mickey – just 50 yards from the hole! Nice.

The weather was perfect and views were stunning, per usual. So much fun!

Our scorecard looked pretty, too. We finished 5-under par, which we're pretty sure is our best finish yet. No prizes for us. The leading team was magically 25-under!! That's why we focused on having fun in the sun!

It's going to be tough to return to the real office tomorrow. Thank goodness it's our golf league night right after work! 🏌🏌

Birthdays, BINGO, and Beloveds

Hit the road pretty early yesterday to help my oldest sister celebrate her 75th birthday!

First stop was the Sundown Saloon in little Lewis, WI, just north of Luck. Daubing for Dollars as a cancer fundraiser. For you non-BINGO people, we mark our spots with daubers now. Using field beans was so 1970s.

You know me and BINGO. Probably 20 minutes in and I already was yelling BINGO with hands raised in the air. Nice $100 cash prize. I won a second time later but so did 2 other people so I picked a local gift certificate I'll let one my sisters use!

Nice turn out. Our sister Rachel was also there so was our cousin's wife and family. Fun. From there it was onto an adventure at Adventures in Siren.

Had a late-week thought that Carter living in Duluth means he's less than 90 minutes away from family fun. So he joined us. Six of my R siblings were there along with 2 nieces and spouses plus 4 great-nephews and a great-niece! 

Can't celebrate a milestone without frosting. I mean CAKE!

Raylene was the only sister who couldn't make it since she and hubby had a booth for their seed business at the Burnett County Fair. So most of us ventured down the road to Grantsburg to say hello and check out the entries two of my sisters entered – Rayna photography and Renell drawing/painting.

Second Saturday in a row my twin and I are in a cornfield. Yee-Haw!

Drove Rachel home and stayed at her place in Luck last night. Long drive home today. So much road construction and detours.

Got home in time to get a few things done before going to a senior photo shoot at a farm in the Rudolph-Junction City area. I mean the kid was cute, but look at these kitties! I miss Sylvester!

Anyway, need sleep. Catch you tomorrow!

Here it is :: Fall sports season

 

Fall sports season 100% sneaked up on me. I mean Royals tennis started yesterday and cross country started this morning. Thank goodness hubby does stats for football so I knew game time was tonight!

This year is a a little different for Assumption football. We are going to 8-man teams. So that was really different to look at and photograph tonight.

In the end, they beat Rosholt 49-0 so I guess we're getting the hang of what we're doing.

I'm just hoping I can capture all these other fall sports!

Why IT starts with SH

So there's this weird thing in our house where I can answer all IT-related questions. Beats me why. Especially when I use a Mac for my photos and creative stuff and hubby and I both use PC laptops for work.

Usually it's no big deal....

Assumption football starts tomorrow and Jim needs to keep stats. Suddenly I cannot print his freaking sheet of defensive players to mark stats on. I have been trying for 90 minutes and have no reason why this isn't working!

I mean it's an Excel spreadsheet but I can't print it. I think I'll have to take a screen shot then print it out.

Oh gosh. Sorry! No one really cares about this crap. I'm just so frustrated!!

This is why all IT issues shout be spelled SHIT!

Talk To Yourself –– Nicely

 

I love this sentiment. I mean why do we talk to friends and "sisters" so supportively, but knock ourselves down?

I am so not blaming my mother. But I just can't pinpoint when this started. At what age did I think I was too fat, too poor, too unworthy, etc?

When we use the term "mental health" we mean anything and everything about our self worth.

We realize that isn't enough!

Last week, we were so saddened to learn that one of our neighbor boys (well one who grew up across the street for 20+ years) took his life. It definitely gave us all a renewed focus on what mental health needs mean. 

This happened more than a week ago and the funeral was Saturday. I just haven't wrapped my head around the fact that he's gone. To realize he will never show off his skate bording or bicycling skills on a ramp again. 😟

It's not just random 80's and 90's song lyrics when when we tell you to don't stop believing!

Believe in YOU! 

Random Pokes of Color

Not sure who thinks of "these rose-colored glasses" when seeing the sunset. But suddenly that is me.

I do want to talk more about my post of many colors and sounds but I must confess it was a quite a Hee-Haw related engagement!

A lot of friends are gathering photos and feedback -- and I love that we're so POPULAR  -- just hoping to share it all with you and, according to rumors, invite you to the next one if you missed it!

Like I said the other night, "We'll see you next tine on Yee-Haw!"

Yee-Haw Ha Ha!

OMG! I think that most of the descendants of the OG Yee-Haw group from 40 years ago thought "some friends" would attend Saturday Night's "revival" show. Turns out there's a pretty loyal community when it comes to Rudolph, Wisconsin!

I (and hubby) were right in the mix and loving it! 500 some attendees? We'll take credit. LOL.

Full disclosure: Jim and are not from there. But we have friends that we've joined in community fundraisers and, well, productions some people needed to resurrect after 40 years.

I know I spent too many blogs promoting the Yee-Haw show, but I'll take credit for a few extra tickets. Of course.

The best surprise for me was my twin sister coming from 4+ hours away to surprise me – and her son, my nephew Tony in Green Bay – coming over and knowing the whole time! Sneaky! 

But the show itself was amazing.

I have yet to process all the photos and videos other people took. That doesn't matter as much as the fact there were 20-30 folks on stage trying to tell the best corny jokes and sing the best songs! A standing ovation from 500 people at the end of the night might prove we succeeded. 

If we can actually share a wrap-up, I will share. I feel bad if you missed it because I often times thought people were like, "That's nice. You do your 1970 music thing." Well we did and I'm glad hundreds of people enjoyed it.

The best part really is that Jim and I – and well most of us – weren't even nervous. We had so much fun singing and telling jokes, it felt like a night hanging out with friends. 

 

Can't wait to see what images/videos shake out.

Thanks for coming, y'all!

Pork Barrel of Laughs

Tonight was our last rehearsal before tomorrow's big Yee-Haw show. If you were a fan of the original Hee-Haw show in the '70s, rest assured we tried to include at least some part of every element of the show.

Remember when some jokes were really funny – or perhaps super corny – and the animated pigs would dance across the bottom of your television screen? Well it's 2026, folks. And ours are 3-D! Actually 4-D since little humans are carrying them, ha.

So many things I'd love to share but we want the mass of humanity attending (fingers crossed) to be surprised. 

We had our final rehearsal under the big tent tonight. Even if the show is not perfect tomorrow, our large crew will know how far we've come. Tonight was a great feeling to realize we were arranged just right on stage and had enough microphones so everyone could be heard when telling their incredibly hilarious jokes. So incredibly hilarious. 😁

As a group, of course we're great singers. (And so humble.) But we have some pretty cool duets (father/daughter and uncle/niece) along with a classic solo NO ONE else in the cast could do. Plus we have this random 16-year-old phenom on the steel guitar! We've adopted him now and he can't escape.

Seriously, if you like good classic country and gospel music plus jokes that make you both groan and laugh simultaneously, stop on out. 

It's 7 p.m. Saturday at Feltz Dairy Farm outside Plover. You can't miss the big white tent!

And full disclosure: I don't make a commission on ticket sales. This is a fundraiser to benefit St. Philips Catholic Church in Rudolph (where this show originated with members 40+ years ago), the Power of 5 in Portage County (a non-profit community group that pools small $5 donations from local residents to fund families in crisis, local charities, and community projects like school supplies drives and free pantries), and the Parkinson's Foundation (in honor of the mother of half the cast).

I just can't help myself from promoting it because of how much fun we've had putting this together and really just want to share the joy. 

And give you a pork barrel of laughs. No offense to our dancing pigs! 🐷🐷🐷

A Pleasure To Have In Class

Of course my grade school teachers would write in my report cards that I was "a pleasure to have in class." Not sure I was, but it was pretty much a standard phrase they used – back in the 1900s! Was it sincere? I'm going to say sure since I have historic documents stating so. Ha.

But this summer as I was a "teacher" of sorts, my star pupil was definitely a true pleasure to have on our writing team. I mentored a college-aged intern again and she was amazing! 

It happened that I've known this "tiny dancer" and her parents for years, but that didn't automatically get her the position. She had to – and did – rock her way through all the interviews! It wasn't the summer we promised her since we were working remotely for half of it. But she enjoyed it. We made it work.

Since tomorrow is her last day already (sob, sob) that means today had to be Trifle Thursday! Naturally.

I texted her mom for ideas of flavors and was pleased to hear she liked chocolate (who doesn't?) and mint, too. My favorite!

For this delicious concoction: Bottom layer is crumbled up brownies. Pudding layer is white chocolate pudding with a touch of mint extract and green food coloring. Crunchy layer is crushed Thin Mints. With a little Cool Whip layer. Repeat. Then garnished with Andes Mints, naturally. So good.

My mom would be so proud of how often I use her rolling pin! Never for pie crust or anything as domestic as that. But I have crushed a lot of cookies for my trifle crunchy layers! Just put them in a gallon Ziploc bag and vent your frustrations. Trifle making is 100% therapy!

When I texted the picture of my completed masterpiece to Jim last night. He happened to be golfing against my intern's dad. He said, "She better be bringing some of that home!" So like a good mentor, when I realized there was about one large serving left in the early afternoon (they go fast), I got her a to-go container and told her "You better scoop up the rest and take it home to your dad!"

Not only was she a quick learner and very professional, she's obviously very considerate. 

(You're welcome, Mr. G. Enjoy your trifle!)

The Land of the Lost

I could have titled this blog "Land of the Lost" or "Somebody Moved my Cheese" and both would have been appropriate.

First, the 6:20 a.m. alarm is jarring after setting it to 7:25 a.m. to walk across the hallway and login at 7:30 a.m. for 6 weeks. Secondly, weather conditions were strange.

I feel like I was literally trying to find my way back to the office. And Mother Nature was saying, "Why? Just stay home." LOL. Wishful thinking.

My new digs. Of course it looks impressive. We happened to open it just before COVID. It's modern and also so foreign in layout that I felt everyone was quite lost finding our way around – from where to park, how to enter the building and how to set up our work station to where are the meeting rooms and what's the cafeteria like.

Summary: Confusion overpowered Productivity today.

Also our is on the 6th floor so my fear of heights/falling ramped up any time I was in a meeting or near the ground-floor indoor "courtyard" area. Uff da. I gotta buck up for the next 4 years. Feeling grateful we share a desk with someone so we're only in office every other week for this transition period!

Look up to stay positive about change. Don't look down! 😆