New Year's Eve :: 2022 in Pictures

I saw a neat idea today to share "A Year in Review" through pictures – basically one picture from each month that represents that month. Here goes...

January :: We saw our first death in our immediate family when my brother-in-law Paul died. He had been battling heart issues and other health problems at the end of 2021 and just couldn't go on. He was the sweetest. We had many adventures over the years and we all miss him!

February :: Jim and I joined a group of about 20 friends and went down to Milwaukee for the weekend to see a up-and-coming country artist named Cody Johnson. Later in the year he won an award for best country video so I guess we were onto something. Mainly, it represents a year of getting to some live music and entertainment from Marshall Tucker Band and The Who to The River Dance, Pentatonix, and Book of Mormon.

March :: My mom went out to Phoenix to stay with Rayna after Paul's funeral. I had the privilege of going out there to spend a little time and be mom's much-needed travel companion on the flight back. Later in the month, we celebrated Mom's 90th birthday. She's doing pretty amazing.

April :: After 2 years of successfully dodging the 'rona, the virus caught up with me in late April. While it was a mild case, it still forced me (well, us) to miss two weddings of our friends' children. Darn COVID. I had the bouts of tiredness for a few weeks after, but otherwise it wasn't terrible. We're all caught up on all shots and boosters for that.

May :: Rising inflation was most evident in gas prices but we quickly noticed it in groceries and everything else. Thankfully, gas didn't reach $5 a gallon here. But it's still been quite a few years since we've seen it this high. Yikes.

June :: After 823 days of working at home, we returned to the office in June. We have a permanent hybrid schedule of working at home Mondays and Fridays and in the office Tuesday through Thursday. The exciting part, besides seeing coworkers I missed, was the return to golf league at SentryWorld. Jim golfed in a league in town so we both definitely got a lot of swings in this summer!

July :: We celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss and later in July, Casey and his fiancee Emily visited from Portland so we could see their wedding venue (and take in a Twins game). They'll be married this September over by the Durand-Lake Pepin neck of the woods in Wisconsin. Exciting!

August :: The month was basically booked with senior photo sessions. I got spoiled and got to sit behind the wheel of some awesome cars – including this Mustang and a replica of the General Lee.

September :: Nothing can really top seeing a president in person. For work, I attended a marketing conference in Boston and heard some amazing speakers, including Jane Goodall and Viola Davis in addition to Barack Obama. Pretty amazing!

October :: Per usual, one of the highlights of autumn is my sister weekend – this time up by the Spooner area. We can't take for granted how blessed we are that all 7 of us can take the time off – and actually want to spend it with family!

November :: In a word, the month was heart-breaking. First dealing with the sudden death of my long-time friend Cindy, then the next week losing my Aunt Gwen, then the following week losing Jim's mom the week of Thanksgiving. It made for some quiet holidays. But we have been so blessed beyond measure with the support of friends and family.

December :: Yes, we've had a ton of ice and snow already. But this picture also represents how helpful our neighbors (and many others) have been while Jim recovers from his two knee surgeries. He had the left one replaced in October and the right one in December.

He's doing well and we were both able to celebrate New Year's Eve singing in the guitar choir at Rudolph church and sing (and eat and laugh and whatever) with the guys for a few hours afterward, too. It was the type of fun, uplifting evening we needed! 

Here's to a year of many more blessings than tears in 2023. Happy New Year!

Sunday Day of Rest (Mostly)

Wasn't too buzzy or busy of a Sunday. Had a nice relaxing day with my sister. Pretty much. I mean we went to church, then scouted a few senior photo shoot locations.

She was my designated senior (citizen, that is). Beautiful, right?

Since it was a gorgeous day – not too hot or muggy thanks to a breeze – we headed out to Anchor Bay to enjoy lunch by the river. Yummy food per usual and nice scenery!

And breezy! Did I mention that?

After lunch we relaxed around the house and the neighborhood – visiting the ones Rayna's met before – and it was after 6:30 p.m. when we both realized we forgot to do something very important during her visit.

Yup. Go to King Cone!! How that slipped our minds, I'll never know. But we got there before it closed and tried to resist eating it on the way home since Jim was bringing us supper. Spoiler alert: We didn't completely resist. But did enjoy some pizza for supper and had room for the rest of our dessert!

Priorities!

Rayna heads out tomorrow on her way to another sister's house in Minnesota for a few days. I'll still get to see her again in a few weeks before she heads back to Arizona. Was awesome having her here even though it seems like the weekend flew! 

Guess we'll have to visit her in the desert. Sometime when it's 10 degrees here and ice cream honestly is the last thing on my mind!

Special Visit-R

Got a special visitor for the weekend. In attempt to escape the Arizona heat, my oldest sister is spending a month or two in the Midwest. Today was my turn on her tour! And it was hot and muggy, sorry.

She rolled into town shortly after noon. Oh not in this truck, thankfully. This was part of our afternoon agenda. A party at our friends' place in rural Rudolph (if that's a thing), where they have a ton of Americana-type memorabilia on display. 

When we saw the milk cans – which always remind us of Dad – we thought, here's an example that some people who hoard, er collect, things actually do something with them! 

Well done, Lars and Ashley! So glad I finally got to see it! And you and the family of course. And Rayna got to meet Carter's FORMER babysitters (not OLD sitters) as well. Turns out they went to high school with Rayna's friends who she was just visiting in upper Michigan. Small world all around!

From the party, we continued up to Marshfield to watch Colin race. Glad I took a few pictures of his car during the early heats because it was after 10 p.m. before his feature race was going. Crazy. He had a hard-fought finish for 6th. Like by a nose (or less)! Pretty exciting.

Made for a long night, though. It's midnight and we need rest IN CASE we want to do something tomorrow. Or we can just sit around and relax. My oldest sister has threatened to sit on my lap to keep me in place if I try to do too much.

NeveR miss with an R sisteR!

Howling and Prowling

As we drove through Sedona last week, we had our fun identifying shapes in the rocks. Make that, shapes we THOUGHT we saw in the rocks. So look closely above at the coyote howling at the moon. Then tell if you can see a coyote in this picture...

How about now when we drove further down the road and it was more in shadows?

How about now?

Or maybe now??

If you can't see the coyote there, I can tell you where else to look – our back yard. 

Yup. Our next-door neighbor saw one prowling around and walking from our yard into his the other night. I guess it's mating season so the male coyotes are kind of aggressive now. Don't know if it's pure coincidence that a bone was found in the ditch. Somewhere there's a three-legged deer I think.

So watch your little dogs and other fur babies that you have outside all the time or just for walks. I know I'm not taking any chances. I'm gonna WOLF down a lot more ice cream so they don't stand a chance trying to drag me away.

Be careful out there.

No Rest for the Wicked

You know it's going to be an interesting weekend at Camp Crop-a-Lot when the first sight that greets you is the outline of a dead body.

Oh yes. Like they say: What happens at scrap camp stays at scrap camp!

Just kidding. No way 2 dozen women can keep a secret! Not this group anyway! In truth, every year, the two organizers have a theme. This year it revolved around the game CLUE. Which I am clueless about. Never played it. Never saw any of the movies based on the game either.

But of course I solved the crime because I'm competitive that way! It was a fun little distraction but mostly I just scrapbooked pages for my 2016 album. I realized sometime Friday that I made a rookie mistake and forgot to print out some pictures. So I put an order into Walgreens and ran into Stevens Point Saturday morning to pick up pictures for myself and two other veterans who made the same rookie mistake!

It happens to the best of us. I still got plenty of pages done – including lots of kayaking ones from that first summer of paddling! 

I also managed to watch the Assumption girls in the regional championship game Saturday night. It was a stressful nail-biter to have to watch on my phone and try to see the tiny score! In the end – the very end – they won by 1 point and are regional champions for the second year in a row. Well done, Lady Royals! I'll miss their sectional game this week but hope they make it to the final on Saturday.

If you wonder why I talk about "packing" for scrap camp for so long, it's because we all bring a lot of NECESSARY stuff! This is my work station for the weekend.

Pretty much all look like that, as you can see from my friend at the facing table. It's a sign of a creative mind.

And a tired one. Very low on sleep but managed the 50-minute drive home with a much-needed pit stop in Plover.

Yup. King Cone is open there! What a nice treat for a hard-working weekend! Got home and unpacked. And then packed again.

Leaving tomorrow for Arizona. Will be staying with my sister Rayna this week. My mom is there visiting, too, so I'll fly back with her to Minneapolis on Friday. It just happened that this is back to back. For once, I may actually sleep on the plane! 

Or on her Mr. Deck Chair. That's one thing I have a clue about!

Out Walks Elvis, In Walks Mom

We all know Elvis has left the building. Or has he? 

Since I'm suffering from old-timer's disease, I forgot that the reason I was talking about SHAKES the other day was not just because of the Shamrock Shake I had, but because my mother is shaking things up out in Arizona.

After my brother-in-law's funeral last weekend, Rayna flew back to Phoenix area and took our mom with her for a mini-vacation from winter. Apparently warm weather does the body good. Especially the hips.

Yup. Just a month shy of 90, here's Mom shaking her hips and playing air guitar with her cane! I told my sister this picture is wonderful and hilarious at the same time! Love, love, love it.

It just reminds me that you can find joy anywhere. Just have to let go and seize the moment. And not care what others think. My vacation, my fun, my memories.

Deep down, she's always cared what people think, but thank god I got the "let's make some fun out of this" gene from her. Bless you, Mom (and Rayna). Your children – and the spirit of Elvis – are impressed!

Move Over, St. Peter – St. Paul Has Arrived

Heaven not only gained an angel today – but a saint! St. Paul to be specific. And our hearts our hurting.

My brother-in-law Paul was a saint – and not just because he's put up with my sister and her crazy family for more than 3 decades. (Well I guess that is mostly it.) And on his way to sainthood he became one of my favorite humans on the planet.

As you can see from the top photo, he was my sister Rayna's adventure partner in everything in life. They traveled near and far, covering all the states in the union, more tropical islands that I can count, and several European countries to boot. 

He knew my sister's love for taking pictures (I got that from her) meant a 10-mile drive could take a good hour or so. "Paul, pull over!" "Paul, stop here!" You see the sainthood mounting, don't you?

Over the years (yes, we're both young here), I've gotten to share in some of those adventures, too. Here we are in the mountains of Georgia with a new friend. (I hope it was a statue.)

And in South Padre enjoying Carter's first trip to the ocean! There was also...

Hanging out with Uncle Paul across the border, too. A little shopping in Mexico can be quite an adventure!

Drinking green beer (or just root beer) with 100% Irish Uncle Paul at Pepe's on St. Patty's Day. 

And seeing the Grand Canyon together when Rayna and Paul were just "wintering" a bit in Arizona before moving there in 2020.

Through the years, Paul and I have had a healthy rivalry. His Braves versus my Twins. Above we're with a college friend of mine at a Braves game in Atlanta in 1990 – the year before we beat them in the World Series (and Paul gifted me with a Braves World Series Champions t-shirt accidentally printed before the Braves lost in 7 game). 

While he may have turned his wife to the South side, I've held firm to my convictions all along. And we've had a lot of fun with it. Jim, too, since his Reds don't exactly like the Braves either! And we know if the Braves stomp all over the Twins and Reds this year that someone up above is pulling some strings.

One game we could always agree on is golf. We agreed it's both fun and frustrating! He was fortunate, in his retirement years especially, to be near golf courses year-round and able to swing a club. I'm pretty sure heaven will have the best course imaginable and he'll get his share of birdies.

But all along – during all the adventures and blessings in life – he had his share of health issues, too. Like a cat, he had 9 lives. Was saved a number of times when his ticker didn't want to tick anymore. Sadly, this last time around was too much. 

Our family has been praying hard for him while he's basically been hospitalized since Thanksgiving. God bless the doctors and nurses who have saved him and helped him all these years. We know that this time there was a lot stacked against him. They just couldn't fix him.

And can't fix our broken hearts, either.

I'll miss you so much, dear brother. I'm convinced God must be planning one helluva St. Patrick's Day party this year and He needs your help.

Love you forever, Paul. I'll always be your Bynski.