Livin' the Dream

Because of the illustrious cooling program, the days leading up to our weekend away were stressful, crazy, fun and exhausting. In the middle of all the madness, Robert got a job for Midas. I was actually at the Robinson office when he called and said he had to quit Parklanes and I was like, "WHY????" Well Duh Mom, "Mom, because I got my job!" He has been there since Monday and loving it. Of course, he gave a two week notice at Parklanes so he is pulling a couple of crazy weeks. Working normal people hours are going to be unreal for him. Looking forward to all the things that happen next for him.

We left for St. Louis at 2:30 Friday afternoon, I got to sneak out a little early because we had spent all the money that was designated for our agency by noon on Friday.

Our Friday night was going to consist of going to Joe's Crab Shack, hitting the hot tub at our hotel and then going to Ted Drewes. By the way, before we even start this. I gave myself permission to take the weekend off from counting points. I gained a little and knew I would but man, it was good!  And YES, it was worth it......especially eating Imo's Pizza at Midnight. We felt like a couple of teenagers.

So......Joe's Crab Shack...

The guys love the Steampots at Joe's, so of course, we get bib after bib. I had crabcakes, fish, scallops, and calamari, very, very good.
I may have already mentioned that we got one night free at our hotel because of having Gold Key Points, yes, we are Drury addicts and this particular Drury is our favorite. When we got there, the manager was checking us in and she said Rachel and somebody else would be there to take care of us, I said, "Rachel's here, she's usually here on Saturday nights?" She said Rachel was in the back eating dinner, when Rachel heard her name, here she came around the corner, saw us and immediately came around the corner to give us both hugs. The manager asked if we knew each other (new manager) and I explained just through years of coming down here and then we were in Louisville one time and she was working there. Anyway, that was the only time we got to see her but it was still good to see her.

So then we got to our room and look at what was waiting for us....

It had bottles of water, cheese and crackers, mini candy bars and mints....as well as a little note about how happy they were to have us back. Talk about making a person feel important!



I tried to take pictures of Ted Drewes, but the lights were too bright, look it up if you are ever in St. Louis, it is a must!

First night, we were in bed by midnight.

Saturday morning, we slept in, well, I was up at 7:30 which believe me, is sleeping in for me. My normal wake-up is around 5-5:30, earlier if I am being good.

We did a little shopping---Andrew needed a jacket to wear to the Muny as it was supposed to be cool that night. So first stop was Burlington Coat Factory. We then took in the US Grant home, Whitehaven. What a nice place and what a cool story. We always hear about Ulysses Grant, the war hero but let me tell you, Ulysses Grant, the husband and father was a very important part of his life too. I love the fact that Julia, his wife, was truly his helpmate through life. I picked this place for Andrew but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well.

The next place we went was to Adrianna's, an Italian deli on The Hill. Before there was an Andrew and Mindy, Andrew ate on The Hill a few times, I never have--you can easily buy an entire week's worth of groceries for what it costs for one meal on The Hill. As much as I would love to see inside some of the restaurants and "do" the experience, I have never been able to do it.  The Deli is a little crazy priced too but not as bad as some of the other places and you still get to have the experience of being on The Hill. We had homemade Italian sausage sandwiches, olive salads and cheese bread. It was a good thing we had a fridge in our room because we had leftovers.

We went back to the room after our late lunch to take a nap, I know us old folks and my normal bedtime is 9 at the latest. The show started at 8:15--so yep, we needed a nap.

We left for the Muny about 6 p.m, got a fantastic parking spot and enjoyed the live entertainment while waiting for the gates to open.

There are rules against taking pictures during the show, but here is what I did take.

Mary Poppins was great!  This was a Muny first as Mary was going to fly over the audience. It was the very last scene and it made me cry as she left. I love the Muny and already can't wait until next year's trip.

After the Muny was over, we went to Imo's. If you have never had Imo's pizza, this is another St. Louis MUST. We had toasted raviolis and pizza and yes, we ate every last bite. It was WONDERFUL!!!

Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the pizza before it was gone, but here's the ravs...

Scrumptious!!



Sunday came way too quickly but was a wonderful end to a great weekend. We started out by doing a little shopping (again) this time for Andrew some shoes....the one thing we intended to shop for over the weekend. (I ended up with quite a few purchases too over the weekend). After that we hit Fitz's Root Beer for lunch. This is a favorite of ours. We were hungry for Black and Bleu Burgers, they were fantabulous. Of course, they bottle their own soda, right down to Diet Root Beer, which of course, we had.....to surely help discount some of the burgers.

Our original plans were to go to the Jewel Box and the Art Museum in Forest Park but it was crazy there and we were wanting relaxing, not chaotic. So, we headed south, to Mastodon State Park, it was nice, they have a little museum of all the fossils they have found and they have natural trails.







This is the only picture we took there, I was sitting because we had hiked about a mile and I had to sit because I didn't take my 10+ lb purse to the car and I didn't change my shoes. I deemed it more of a workout that way.

Our last stop before heading home was to Jefferson Barracks, this is where Grant was stationed when he met Julia Dent. There is a national cemetery there. National Cemeteries humble me in a way nothing else does.  Please just take a moment and look:

Yes, there is tombstones as far as you can see, it's like an ocean....all of people who gave their all.  As I said humbling.

We stopped in Highland on the way home at a really nice Chinese restaurant. It was nice too. All in all, it was a perfect weekend.





Long week, short weekend...

Seems some things never change, no exceptions here.

Lots of updates on the house.

The good news is we have our a/c/ heat pump sitting outside in its spot. Bad news, there is no furnace hooked to it so it is worthless right now.  I don't know exactly what happened but my furnace was sitting in the warehouse with everyone given strict orders that it was mine and nobody was to touch it. It was sitting there until the crew went to get it that is. I have another one on order, but no promise of when it will make it here. So, we went and bought another room air conditioner. When the old a/c wasn't working, the fan still at least worked, but of course, it had to run through the furnace. My house is truly 100% furnace-less right now, the old one has already went away. Anyway, we can give the room a/c to Robert when he moves to the farm so it wasn't like it was a waste.

Friday evening, our contractor came and went over specifics of our roof and siding. Hoping to have a price by next week at this time.

 I need to check on my gravel this week too but things going on at work puts me in a position to absolutely not be able to take off so it may way a couple of weeks.

So, progress is being made, slow but sure.

We are working on Mom's house too, her new floor is in, it needs painted, then a new screen door put up and then install a new ceiling. I am thinking Andrew's next two days off should do it. As I said earlier, I get to be 0% help.

Then we start on Robert's house.

Starting Monday we have two weeks of cooling, I think I mentioned it in the last post, nothing short of craziness. I honestly hate cooling. I know that sounds bad but truthfully, in most counties, we have at least 400 people who qualify for cooling (over 60, disabled or has a child under 5). Most counties get to do around 150 applications.....see the problem??? I will get no less than 10 cussings this week. The next week, I am working in Robinson for the week, at least it will be harder for the ones turned away to find me! 

I talked Andrew to going ahead and leaving for St. Louis the night of the 26th, as soon as I get home. He said no problem so I called Thursday to extend the reservation and ended up having enough rewards points to get the extra night free!  I will be SO ready to get out of here.

Today was a comedy of errors, at least my lunch and my impromptu shopping trip was good. Yesterday evening, I decided to at least get the front and side yards mowed. The mower was dead, so Robert stuck the charger on it. I went out this morning, still dead, so decided to just push it. Came in, changed shoes and out the door again, only to not be able to get the push mower started either. Put it back in the garage and went to shut the door, and the door wouldn't shut. So, I didn't mow.

I did have lunch with Kathy Houmes today, that was really nice. She was one of my "other mothers' growing up and we had a wonderful visit. After I left Parklanes, I went to work, only to find that the system I needed to use was down, so as I stated on facebook, when the going gets rough, the tough go shopping!  I ran to Tuscola because I was out of several B&BW things. Earlier this week I had put on size 16 pants and they fit so I was anxious to buy new clothes. That also did not go as planned. It seems I didn't fit in the regular 16's yet, the 16W's were just, well, WRONG and 18W were too big. I ended up buying a new swimsuit, which I did need because my other one is a size 24W and the last time I wore it in the water, it turned into a balloon. I have every intention of finding the hot tub on the 26th so this was a necessity, and at 50% off, it was a bargain to boot. I honestly realized I relaxed more on my little trip to Tuscola than I had in weeks. Another one of those things, God knew what I needed to do today better than I did.

So, home this evening, fixed me and Andrew salmon and baked potatoes, tried a new dessert recipe, 3 points plus, we will see if its good. Today went way too fast though and tomorrow will be just like it. And I am not about "bringing on Monday".....it will come though.

That's life right now, Happy Saturday!

Happy 4th of July!

Wow this year is flying by!  Can't believe its the 4th of July already! Just a "touch base" post here.

Our house:
We had insulation put in, and since I thought we were getting siding pretty quickly, I told the guys not to worry about camoflauging the disks, well, sidings gonna take a little longer so we officially live in the Bumble Bee house. No biggie though. The person I had asked to do the siding, weighed the pros and cons and with the size of his crew (only 2 of them) and the miles to drive (from north of Greenup), he decided it wouldn't be cost effective for either one of us, and I totally appreciate that. He said with just the two of them, he thought it would take them months. Which is EXACTLY why we didn't do it ourselves, we live on the main drag, I don't want torn up for months. So, plan B has now turned into plan C and I THINK we have a guy coming next week to look at both the siding and roof. His comment to me last night was, "I hope we can agree on a price". I think that's code for "it's gonna cost A LOT!" I hope I'm ready for this. We want it done so badly!

Our furnace, a/c. heat pump and humidifier are all in, they just need non-rainy days to put it in. Hopefully next week. Basically the same goes for our gravel.

I am thinking of all the money we are saving right now not having A/C. It hasn't been really hot so that's good.

So today, we spent at my mom's, working on her house. We are putting a new floor in her back porch. When that is done, she needs a new ceiling. We got a few boards past half way today. We will work on it Sunday afternoon and then Andrew will finish up on his next day off.

We are waiting on a letter of recommendation for Robert to put with his resume for his job hunt. He is hoping to start looking next week.

On the Weight Watchers front, I was down 47 lbs on Monday, so I am working feverishly to get that 50 lb mark. I have it here at home, but it honestly takes two pounds down from that for it to hit it at Weight Watchers. Andrew was down 8.7 lbs. This morning, he was down about 3 more lbs here. Hopefully, we both have good weeks! I have set a series of goals. One for our getaway weekend the 27th of July, One for the Ameren meeting the 28th of August and one for our trip to McAlister September 12th. If I make all of them, it will take me down another almost 25 lbs. It feels so good to be back in the swing, my UC isn't misbehaving at all which opens the doors for me to really concentrate on exercise and staying on program.

So tomorrow, I head for Charleston to install a network printer. It is going to be a big job and I am a bit concerned over it. I am praying it all goes the way it is supposed to.

Tonight, we stayed home, we were all so tired from working at Mom's that we came home, cleaned up and sat. We did watch a Capitol Fourth. It was good to see some, eventhough, I felt guilty about not going somewhere. I went out on the porch a little too late and realized if I would have went out with the first boom I heard, we probably would have had a full show.

That's our weekly nutshell. Sorry nothing more interesting. It's been a crazy week. We got told we are doing a cooling program at work (starting July 15th). The worst part of this is I haven't taken a vacation in well over a year, I haven't even taken a day off that I haven't made myself available to work. I had planned on taking the 22nd-26th and turning my phone off. Well, cooling ends the 26th, so that blew vacation. I have enough projects for Head Start after that to keep me busy until the beginning of LIHEAP. I may try to stuff a bunch of stuff into a few days and at least take a few days but it can't be a whole week. Oh well.....such is life.

Maybe at Christmas this year.... I normally take a week at Christmas but last year, it was Brenda's last week, so I didn't. Not complaining because I love my job, just a bit disappointed.

Happy Friday everyone!