The Sweetest Thing

You might think the sweetest thing is this Monday Night Football cookie – and the fact the lowly Vikes lead the 5-1 49ers at halftime. But nope.

The sweetest thing is seeing Sylvester enjoy her belated Sweetest Day present – a heated bed from Daddy. Oh her human spoils her! But she deserves it. We've felt guilty since our heated bathroom floor – her favorite place – crapped out on us. We weren't sure she'd take to something different from her corner chair, but so far she's enjoying her spa-like treatment. As she should be.

As for the Vikings, I don't know. Today is Dad's birthday and even though he's in Heaven, I can't imagine he'd project any niceties toward the Vikings. Guess they'll have to do it on their own.

Keep your sweet powers to yourself, Dad. Unless you want to do a favorite for your favorite 7th child! That'd be sweet!

Spooky Sweetest Day :: Redheads, Black Cats, and Witches

I noticed a pop of color in our backyard yesterday before we left town. Sauntered down there this morning to take a picture before the trees got naked.

When I realized it was two redheads back there, I definitely had to take a picture! I told hubby (a redhead fan) that I got these for him for Sweetest Day, but he insists his hands are already full. Ha. I'll keep them that way!

We had company today anyway. 

My sister Rayna came down to visit. She has now officially moved from Arizona to Wisconsin, living in Siren again – close to two sisters and our mom. She was visiting friends the last few days and made our house part of her tour! So great to see her and catch up.

To get some fresh (but crisp) air, we walked over to the neighborhood Pumpkin Shed and checked out their fun decorations and inventory. Lots of neat stuff. Get there if you can – Deer Road and 70th Street.

Decided to take our picture by one of the inflatable decorations. Are there 3 witches or just that 1? No need to answer. But we do have a family joke from when we were young and our dad would say, "Get to bed with yas." And it sounded like "Get to bed, witches." Maybe we were hearing it wrong. Or maybe right?!

I bought a black cat pumpkin that could be Sylvester! Perfect pumpkin – it's cute and I don't have to carve it!

After Jim got home from singing up at Rudolph church, we went to eat nearby at The Ridges. Saw a few friends and had a great meal. Now we're all so stuffed we could fall asleep.

Almost time to get to bed, witches! 

The Sweetest Things

In case you didn't know... purple is one of the colors of fall! Ask Viking fans and we know this. But for everyone else, there's the magical combination of my favorite colors in the M&M's Halloween Ghoul Mix – purple, orange, and lime green! 

The perfect touch to the 10 dozen Little Monster Cookies I had baked before noon today. And that's a half-recipe! Just needed enough to send some with Jim for his boys weekend in Portland next week, plus some for my sister weekend next week, plus some for a few others. They do freeze well if I have any leftover for that nonsense.

But that wasn't the sweetest part of the day.

Hubby got me this sweatshirt for Sweetest Day plus some other goodies. Obviously after a quarter-century together, he knows me pretty well.

Tonight I returned the favor and took him to dinner. We decided to go somewhere new – for us anyway. We tried out Avocados, a relatively new Mexican restaurant in town, and it was so good! Super delicious so we'll definitely return.

Since we were already on Highway 54, we headed to Plover for dessert!

Oh yes, King Cone is open one more day for the season and then it'll be back open on the next romantic holiday – Valentine's Day. Go there Sunday if you can. I had the Pumpkin Pie ice cream and it was amazing.

What a sweet way to end the day with my sweetie! 

The Sweetest Things

I don't mind cold, rainy, Samhain Days (read above) as long as they start with Pumpkin Spice coffee.

Then you throw in a day-long Church Council retreat to nourish our minds and souls – and tummies, too, with some pizza and brownies.

Then you come home to the sweet smell of love...

A.K.A. Roses to celebrate Sweetest Day. 

Yup, cold and rainy Saturdays can offer up the sweetest things. Countin' my blessings!

How Sweet!

I swear that not one calendar in this house has "Sweetest Day" on it. Yet, somehow hubby knew it was today. So I was surprised not only by the holiday, but the gift.

In the category of "Don't judge a book by its cover," this is what greeted me this morning.

I could have told Jim where there was more wrapping paper, but that would have spoiled the surprise. And the unique presentation.

Needless to say, I had no qualms about ripping the paper right off to see what was inside.

Oh wow! I was speechless. Other than my squeals of delight, that is! Not a big deal for most people, but I have wanted one of these magical coffee machines since oh, last summer when we were on our mission trip to the Ozarks and one of the other adult leaders brought his from home. Yup, been coveting for awhile.

That was reinforced when visiting my nephew in South Dakota who has one and our friends in Denver who have one. After that, I had pondered begging for one for Christmas. Had no idea Jim was paying attention. How could I have doubted?

So that was a great surprise! I said that counts for Sweetest Day, Christmas and Valentine's Day if he wants. Especially since I didn't even have a card for him. I did treat him to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings when we were out running errands in Stevens Point today. So that counts for something.

Tonight, I took him out to a surprise silver anniversary party for some friends of ours. That should count, too, even if the beer and pizza was provided. Ha. It did make for a fun evening out and a great time to catch up with some friends.

Carter, my other sweetheart, was oblivious to all. He had cross country teammates over last night and they went to an 8:30 a.m. practice today. Then he did his laundry this afternoon, some homework, then headed to a friend's for the night.

Maybe I'll actually see him one of these days when our schedules mesh. By then, he'll probably be old enough to drink coffee, too. I might even share my Keurig with him.

It's darn sweet, I tell ya!

RIP June Cleaver

When I found out this afternoon that the actress (Barbara Billingsley) who played June Cleaver had died, I thought it appropriate I was having a June Cleaver kind of day...

I guess the key to having a productive day at home is to be home. I know we had one weekend in August that we didn't have much going on. But other than that, this was my first weekend totally FREE since oh, I don't know, April maybe. Crazy, I know!

So last night we enjoyed a campfire next door and today I slept in past 8 o'clock. Unheard of! I wasn't in the mood for domesticity just yet, so we went to the Cranberry Pancake Breakfast in the nearby village of Biron. Good pancakes and lots of other breakfast stuff. Plus dessert. Gotta love a place that serves dessert with breakfast! They also had locally grown cranberries for sale so I had to lay claim to 5 pounds of those.

We took the long way home, going along the Wisconsin River and seeing where there had just been massive flooding a few weeks ago. How quickly things change! It was a nice little side trip. Sort of like a Sunday drive on a Saturday.

When we got home I directed Carter to wash windows, hubby was already hitting the laundry pile and I went for a run. Hey, I had to get that out of the way before transforming into June Cleaver.

It was actually sort of a "fall cleaning" day since we were all home and could chip in. Carter did the inside of the windows and Jim got the outside. He did most of the laundry, too. I got my dusting and vacuuming done, then mopped the kitchen and dining room floor. Stupid mop busted not even halfway through so that turned out to be a much slower process than I anticipated!

After housework, it was Carter's turn to be June.

The reason I needed to get my hands on those fresh cranberries was because my guys love this new recipe I stumbled upon last year for The Best Cranberry Bars Ever. That's what they're called. And they are. So I divided my 5 pounds of berries up in to 2-cup bags and put them in the freezer. All but 2 cups' worth, of course.

I told Carter that if he liked the bars so much, maybe he should make them. He has always been my kitchen helper. Since he was probably just 2 years old. Helping decorate cookies or emptying cups of chocolate chips into a bowl or pouring vanilla or cracking eggs. You name it. Today I had him do the whole recipe while I sat across the counter and supervised. I made him wear an apron and he wore it only if I promised not to take pictures. Figures.

He did very well. He mixed quite thoroughly and realizes it is not as easy as it looks. It takes some muscle! Tonight we frosted them and taste-tested them and dang, if they still aren't The Best Cranberry Bars Ever! He did an awesome job. I told him he could make them all the time (and he probably would if we had all the ingredients).

After supper and after Jim got home from church, we enjoyed some family time for Sweetest Day (which I do not consistently remember like hubby does). We played some cards, ate cheese balls and drank some beer.

Root beer, that is. Would June Cleaver have it any other way?

The Sweetest Thing

Today is Sweetest Day. Sweetest what? Yeah, I know. It's totally a Hallmark holiday... created so people spend their money on more cards just to say the same thing they do on Valentine's Day -- and hopefully every day in between.

Don't know too many people who actually "observe" it, but for some reason hubby and I always have. Well, he has. I don't always remember.

My biggest excuse, and I do have one, is that I have usually been off on my sisters weekend on Sweetest Day weekend. I'd come back from that to a special gift from him and all I have to offer him is a hug and maybe leftover chocolate (but c'mon, there's rarely chocolate left after a Wild Women's Weekend). This year WWW was in September so I actually remembered this romantic non-holiday.

I actually got a card ahead of time and a new book about the 1975 World Series (with hubby's Reds) that he is very excited to read. I didn't even bother with chocolate.

What did I get? I'll tell you.

This morning was our turn to put in our 2 hours in the concessions stand for soccer. I am almost always the one who does concessions -- mainly because I sign Carter up for the sports but sometimes because Jim is coaching or assisting.

Today we wake up and it's something like 32 or 33 degrees out. My sweet, sweet, sweet hubby says he'll go work the concession stand this time. I can just stay in the warm bed. What a gift! Seriously, it wasn't a whole lot warmer at game time (noon) so I knew it was a chilly morning for him. What a sweetie!

We enjoyed some time with our other sweetheart, too. We watched Carter make 2 goals today in a tough 4-3 loss against the best team. Later, the 3 of us played Monopoly on our special edition Vikings board. Now that's sweet. But wait, it gets better. Those 2 were so sweet, they actually let me win for the first time ever. Trust me, that's probably their story but I'm here to tell you I honestly kicked some butt today!

Tonight Carter has a friend sleeping over so I don't expect they'll be any more romance happening. But we gotta spread it out you know. Valentine's is still 4 months away.