Back to Choir

Despite being 7 (yes 7) years removed from the school year calendar, it's still kinds of drives our schedule.

For hubby, it's keeping stats at the Assumption High School football games. For me, it's senior portrait sessions – and the return to church choir practice.

Tonight's agenda? Jim golfing again while daylight cooperated and me attending church choir practice. And no, I'm not an amazing singer like my husband. But dang, it's fun and  – as Charlie Brown and Schroeder attest – brings me joy.

We had a small group for our first night. But it was so fun to be back with "my people" and joke around a bit and sing, of course.

I applaud all of you who find "your people" in some hobby or group. Keep doing it. I think it keeps us all positive and boosts our self-esteem.

Frankly, no matter how many notes we sing (or not), we're all pretty amazing. Remind yourself!

Different Kind of Fall Colors

I'm ignoring the sporadic fall colors popping up before it's even mid-September. But today I got to enjoy some different fall colors. First it was the 44-degree wake-up temperature accompanied by fog on the way to work.

Fog and a sunrise that is. So that was pretty cool!

My mid-day color was a bit more conventional. As part of our two-week United Way campaign, King Cone made an appearance in our parking garage. Yes!!

After work, the clouds were a dark gray before opening up just about our tee time on our last night of golf season! So we commenced to meeting at the 19th hole and enjoyed a little time together. When the rain stopped, we all headed home.

And there was more color on my way home. Just over the businesses on Division Street in Stevens Point. 

Then, when I turned onto Deer Road to make my final leg home, there was more color.

When I got home, I thought I'd share one more color scheme from my visit to my hair artist last night. Definitely can't compare to nature's beauty. But also definitely not boring.

Find the color in your week, my friends!

Where Were You?

Hard to believe it's been 22 years since 9/11. Like we can't ever say Sept. 11 of any other year. Just 2001.

Not sure if this video even works but it's Alan Jackson's "Where were you when the world stopped turning."

It's strange today to think of that day. Losing my aunt just hours before. Losing a distant cousin in the Pentagon. And producing at least two daily newspapers per day for a few to keep up with the most unusual and traumatic thing to happen in our lifetimes. 

They always say NEVER FORGET. Probably best we don't. 

Maybe it's best we don't act like those "arrogant Americans" anywhere overseas. Maybe it's best we all recognize we have flaws – individually or as a nation – and never rub our superiority in someone else's face.

Maybe it's best we just be kind.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Nap Hard

Today was our annual "work day" at my church. And a lot of Lutheran churches. We call it God's Work, Our Hands and we spend the morning doing service work at a few locations. 

Today we had teams at two elementary schools doing indoor and outdoor improvements, doing yard work at an elderly member's home, painting and cleaning at The Family Center, and a team putting school kits and hygiene kits for Lutheran World Relief, along with some quilters boxing up their donations. Lots to do and lots of hard work. Proud to be a part of it – even though I was just the roving photographer. 

Before I left church, I thought taking a picture of our Viking color-themed stained glass window would bring some luck to the season opener. That didn't work.

I even had a pregame huddle with Mr. Skol Man on the front deck and that didn't work either. 

We probably jinxed it since we could actually watch it on TV because the Packers had the late game. And I couldn't stay awake the whole game. I know – it was a noon game! At halftime, I tipped back my recliner and put a blanket over my head to shut out the light and just like that, I was out like a light.

I woke up and it was the 4th quarter. So I can defend my team's outcome today since I'm not sure what all went wrong. I sure needed that nap, though!

After the game, I worked a few hours (still behind from being out of town a week), and shed my purple clothes for black.

We had some friends in town and we met them for dinner at Ida's at 5:30 p.m. Didn't realize that was such a popular hangout for Packers games. Ugh. Pretty loud in there with all that cheering. But we had a nice visit with Jim's former college roommate and his wife. And hopefully we'll connect with them again soon.

Home by dark (which comes way too early) and I may have to turn on my mattress pad. It's definitely football weather!

Hang Man

Remember Hang Man? It was my generation's version of Wordle. We had to guess the letters and ultimately the word before each wrong guess meant a drawn round head, stick body, two stick arms and two stick legs.

My version of Hang Man this summer has been Hanging Flower Baskets Man. Every 100 degree day, they get closer to their death. Every day without rain (a lot), still closer. Now, they be pretty much dead.

Did I kill them or did they just not have what it takes?

Oh my. This could be what inspired Crunchy Crunchy Day. I won't confirm or deny if this was part of my recipe.

Darn two black thumbs!

To my credit. I kept my son alive 18+ years at home. And Jim's still tickin'! 

Power Play

There's a surprising amount of clipart images related to squirrels and electricity.

In reality, this what it looks like when Mr. Squirrel says "Hold my beer and watch this!" Then runs into our transformer.

And then it was lights out for us and the next-door neighbor at 9 a.m. On a day when I'm working from home of course. I managed to use my hot spot from my phone but that was sketchy. Thankfully they restored power in an hour! 

After work, it was golf for me and my neighbor and football stats for hubby on the road at Marathon. For the record, Marigene and I had more fun. The Royals were losing by 40+ last time I checked. 

Hopefully our Friday night "games" for all of us improve!

Crunchy Crunchy Day

Leave it to a creative marketing team to come up with a Crunchy Crunchy Day. In other words, bring anything – breakfast or lunch or dessert – that you could easily call "Crunchy Crunchy."

I brought my chow mean noodle-peanut butter-butterscotch concoction that has been called everything from Hay Stacks to Bird's Nests. But now we'll call "Crunchy Crunchy" obviously.

But there was a lot more... from crunchy pickles and fortune cookies...

To apple crisp and several varieties of Chex Mix...

So delish! (And crunchy, of course!)

After work we ended up at Belt's ice cream for a final cheers and salute to our co-worker David leaving our team. Side note: He worked in Iola with me for a bit but at our current workplace, he's become my "work son" and I will miss him terribly!

After the ice cream treat, I had two photo shoots on my docket. One was a "save the date" shoot, which I better keep hush-hush, and the other was the son of a former co-worker and friend who I've watched grow up. 

It was an amazing shoot because Nate was grown-up and carried on a conversation with this old lady who knew him at birth. Also, he was willing to jump off a little bridge and go out on some rocks for a good picture. Or two or twenty.

Kind of an up and down day in terms of emotions. But how cool is it to have special people in your life?!