Its been a while...

Hello all...

When I last wrote...we were looking at a pretty busy week. It was busy...but...we did have a good time. Monday the 9th I baled hay with dad. We got about 222 bales. Dad was pleasentely surprised; he thought we would get about 100 bales. Tuesday night we had potluck at our house. We served ham (the big band ham Katy sold me earlier this year!). It was delicious. The next night we had ham loaf...and...there is still some in the freezer! As I said...it was a big ham! Wednesday night we went to church. After church we went to Rob and Marcia's as it had been quite a while (too long in fact). On Thursday night we had dinner at John and Heather's house. We tried to play a small game of baseball in the front yard...but Grace and Elisabeth were more interested in jumping on my back than trying to catch or run down the baseball. We had delicious food and a delicious cherry pie! Very enjoyable evening! Friday we got up very early and headed north. Mom, Laura S, Katy, and Mary & I, piled in the Lexus and went to Dwight, IL to pick blueberries. When we arrived, the blueberry farm was just as I remembered in my childhood...except...it was about 10 times busier. The place was swamped. Once we got out to the blueberry bushes...we were delighted to see that the blueberry crop was heavy this year. Some of the blueberries were nearly the size of a half dollar. Many were quarter sized. We picked and picked and picked and finally stopped. When we stepped up to the scales....our six buckets totaled a little over 75 lbs! It was quite fun to relive childhood memories. The blueberries tasted as good as I remembered! Friday night we had some of Mary's friends from high school over. We grilled burgers and played some games...quite fun eventhough I was pretty tired. Saturday morning I worked on freezing the blueberries. Then I returned some picnic tables from the Rassi reunion. In the afternoon Mary and I did some sweet corn for the freezer. We got 16 bags. Then we did Dad's chores and Marv's chores. All these vacationers....
We got done later than expected and were 1/2 an hour late to potluck. We had called at least!

Sunday we went to church...I had to lead....uggg... After church I had to do chores once again for Dad, U. Marv, and also U. Vernon! I was all over the place. In the evening we had the monthly singing. It was hosted by the Dave Beutel Family so we helped with that. It was very nice. Monday (16th) I worked and then had a Rescue Squad board meeting. Its always a fun time...its basically a bunch of old men, and a few other middle aged persons and me...the kid. Tuesday I worked...and then we had Sheila and Erica over for supper since Sheila was home alone all week. Mary made her delicious taco meat in the crock pot! Yum! Wednesday night we went to church.

Thursday night Mary and I went on a date! It had been way too long. After work we drove up to Peoria and took in some dinner at the Olive Garden. After dinner we went to Bergners to spend the rest of our wedding gift card. After that we went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a volleyball net, once again, with gift cards (mostly!). Then we headed over to Borders where I bought Ronald Reagan's Diaries and Mary bought a Fox Trot Cartoon Book...I will probably enjoy both! All in all...it was a great evening! Life has been so busy and it was great for us to be able to spend some quality time together!

Friday we had dinner at Mary's parents house...we had enchiladas and a great cherry dessert. We also played Star Wars Monopoly with Nic and Caleb. It was a great time and Mary won the game around midnight.

Saturday we babysat preschool/nurseryschool age kids from 9-3. About 18 of them. Thankfully we had about 8 adults to do it. It went pretty well although by afternoon we were pretty tired. After we woke up we got a call from Mary's parents inviting us over for supper again...we had already been invited to Mike and Carmen's for supper...but thought we were going to just stay home and chill. So we told Mike and Carmen that we would just come for the evening. Well, when we woke up from our nap we realized we didn't have supper to eat anyway...so we went to Mary's parents...b/c we hadn't been able to get ahold of Mike and Carmen to see when they were eating. Anyway...we felt kinda dumb going to supper to eat somewhere else when we had already declined an invitation...but...ya gotta eat...and things just turned out different then we thought they were going to... Anyway...then we headed to Mike an Carmen's for the evening and had a lovely time. Topics of conversation ranged from deep theological discussions on loving people to stories about Phil's anger as a child when siblings would steal his glasses! Quite fun.

Last night we went to my parents' house for supper. They just returned from Door County. Delicious meal...then over to U. Marv and A. Paula's to visit. Beautiful weather and we just sat outside most of the evening.

Great weeks....looking forward to Colorado next week!

Greg