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!

Keep Up Your Immunity

As cold as it is, the cold still can't kill (or freeze) all the germs floating around out there. So this is my Public Service Announcement to eat citrus or do what you have to boost your immune systems! 

There's me middle front. I look healthy, right?

Just happened to come across this silly childhood picture and needed a reason to share. Thanks for indulging me.

At least I'm not talking about the weather. Orange you glad?!

Take your vitamins, wash your hands, and be careful out there!

Those Picture Boards

After talking (well maybe whining a little) about scanning photos and designing the picture boards for Mom's service, I thought I should share what we had on display yesterday. For the main picture boards, I  used my graphic design program to fit them to be printed out as 20- by 30-inch posters. (You can get those printed same day at Walgreens!)

This reflected Mom's growing up years with her parents and three sisters.

This was a representation of Mom and Dad's 63 years of marriage before he passed 11 years ago.

The 8 R's in the early years and then some. Plus at least one fave photo of each of us with Mom.

The treasured grandchildren!

A reflection of some of Mom's creativity and her desire to have fun!

My sister Romey also put together a board displaying some of her many fair ribbons, plus poetry and other writing samples.

We had a framed picture of one those rare moments all 10 of us were smiling at the same time!

And my brother Ron put together a picture book with very nice photos of Mom.

Like I said, I am sure she looked down and was very pleased that we took such care of representing her long and full life!

Goals, right?

P.S. I slept in today and am pretty much exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally drained. I'm sure we all are. Olympics are done so this girl is hitting the hay in short order! Have a great week!

So GR-8-ful

We're on my favorite letter! Alphabetical gratitude month continues today with the letter R which means Robyn is rockin' the gratitude attitude.

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging out, passport, phone
Q = Quiet

R People: Well maybe R is more like my mom's favorite letter. Why did she name all 8 kids with R's? She said she was in a r-r-r-rut! And that's how she says it. Ha. So yep, if you missed it before, we've got Rayna, Romey, Renell, RoAnn, Ronald, Rachel, Robyn, and Raylene. Each as unique as their name! So blessed to have such amazing siblings. So loving, creative, talented, and giving.

Like sending this surprise to my mailbox today! "I just want to bake stuff and watch Christmas movies" and "Cookie baking crew." Somebody knows me! Thanks R2! It inspired me to bake AND watch Christmas movies after I got all my running around and chores done! How relaxing! And now I'm going to do some reading. 

I mean, it would be rude to say anything equaled the 8 R's when it comes to blessings. Right?

So, g'night. Be careful out there!

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet