Catching up!

We're on our way home! We went to church with Mom on Sunday - it was great! Rick played drums, Greg and Pastor Mike played guitars and Ces sang a beautiful solo. The sermon was good, too! We spent a quiet day, got packed up, spent a little more time with Pat & Bill, then picked Mom and Rick up for supper. We went down to Greg and Ces's to say our good-byes to everyone - the part I really, really hate!

We got up at 6:00 this morning and picked Mom up, said our good-byes to Rick (it was so good to see him), went downtown for a quick breakfast and were on our way by 7:30. We stopped in Rugby, ND (the geographic center of North America - really!) for lunch and arrived here in Grand Forks around 5:30 local time. Mom and I walked over to Michaels, which happens to be in the same area as our Holiday Inn, just to get the kinks out of us and then we met Bern back in the hotel lobby. We walked over to the restaurant for supper and came back here. It's 9:15 p.m. and the senior citizens are snoring away soundly. I guess we will be up bright and early to continue our journey home.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

We went to the rodeo last night - it was so much fun! But, get this - we were freezing! July in Montana - freezing? Just doesn’t work in the same sentence!!! The wind was blowing so hard all day long that they even cancelled the parade. Bern and Uncle Rick got their picture taken with four wild west women who didn't seem to mind the cold at all - neither did the girls!!! The rodeo itself was great, though. There’s one event called the wild horse race. There are 9 groups of 3 guys who have to hold, saddle and ride a wild horse across a finish line to win. It’s the craziest, most insane thing I’ve ever seen. But, everybody just loves it - and I have to admit it was exciting to watch. Nobody got seriously hurt, but there were lots of close calls. The only disappointing thing was that there were only three bull riders. Apparently, the other three guys opted out because the purse wasn’t big enough. Anyway, overall it was lots of fun. Arnie and Mary Jo came over to Mom’s in the afternoon and we looked through more pictures and I got a chance to visit with Mary Jo. They weren’t able to go to the rodeo because MJ’s knees are so bad she would be suffering for weeks if she’d tried to climb the grandstand stairs. Here's a little film clip of the action.

This morning we picked up Rick and Mom and were going to go to Cowboy Church, but because of the high winds, they relocated it to the church Mom used to go to. She wasn’t keen to go, so we just took her home reminding her that the little dessert open-house (really her surprise birthday party) at her church was to start at 12:30. It was a good opportunity for us to go down to Ces’ to help load up her car with lunch stuff, pick up the cake and balloons, and help decorate for the party. Ces left for 5 minutes to pick up Liz and Brady, when in walks Mom and Rick at 12:00 on the dot - surprise foiled!!! She never likes to be late for anything and had thought I said 12:00 and when she phoned Liz and Liz said she thought it started at noon, that was enough for Mom. Anyway, after she settled down, she really enjoyed herself. She got lots of cards and $$$, which was great for her going away on vacation with.

Bern’s back is really hurting - it was probably playing horseshoes with Bob (Ces’s Dad) at the picnic that did it. We’re just relaxing for awhile. We just got back from the parade. As cold as it was yesterday, it was as hot today! Just bizarre weather! We’ll probably pick up some supper and go up to Mom’s later. I think Arnie and MJ are going up there, too. Ces said she and Greg will probably BBQ something and just sit back and watch TV tonight. She must be exhausted - I don’t know how she does it!

Friday, July 11, 2008

I have a lot of catching up to do. We had the reunion BBQ at the bridge park on Wednesday evening. It was great! I didn’t count, but I’m sure there were probably 50 people and kids there. My cousin, Bev and her husband Nick arrived with Aunt Laura and Will. I just love that girl!!! We had a little visit and then Ces started the BBQ and cooked the burgers, brats, polish sausages and hot dogs and Bev and I set up the tables with desserts, salads, buns and fixings. Linda and Arnold arrived and later Arnold gave us a few tunes and Ces sang a couple of songs using his guitar. It was great! Friends (who are family we chose) like Mike & Amy Neutgens, Larry and Carol Neutgens, Pastor Mike & Julie helped round out the party. Bern went off with Ces’ dad, Bob to play horseshoes. I think Bern said the score was 21 to 3 - Bob won. They had fun. After taking lots of pictures and eating far too much, we all packed up and went our separate, exhausted ways.

Yesterday, after Bern and I went for breakfast, we arrived at Mom’s to find my brother Bill, his wife Lynn AND their whole family!!!! We were so surprised and very, very pleased! Angie was absolutely glowing and fresh, and it was so good to see her. She brought her husband Marty and son, Cash. The last time I saw Cash he was just a baby. Their other son, Sage is at Bible camp this week. Levi is tall and handsome and a very nice person all wrapped up in one. He brought his wife, Ivy who is 6 months pregnant with their first baby. We had such a great visit. We all decided to go downtown to get a Catholic burger for lunch. A Catholic burger is the name everyone in town started calling the burgers that the Catholic Church people sell at their stand at stampede. There are several food stands set up every year during stampede weekend and theirs are the BEST burgers - you can smell the frying onions all over town. Of course, my brother Arnie calls them “holy cows”!

The next bit of good news was that my brother, Rick was on his way up from Nevada. So, as we all waited for him to arrive, Mom and I dug out all her boxes of old pictures in the hopes that people would want to take some home with them. They all looked but there are still boxes and boxes of pictures for Mom to get rid of. I’m taking some, of course. Rick finally rolled in around 4:30. We all decided to go out for dinner together and then Bill and his family had to leave to go back to Glasgow for the night before heading back to Laurel. Greg, Ces, and we went back up to Mom’s with Rick and visited for awhile.

I’m having a wonderful time. Mom is a bit stressed out and is kind of snappy with us. She doesn’t want to be treated like the little old lady she is. Bern has trouble not “helping” her, but we’re trying to give her space. Ces says she’s probably just over tired with everything going on. She’s going to really be ticked off tomorrow at her SURPRISE birthday party. Oh well!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

We had a lovely day yesterday. First off, Bern and I went for breakfast and then over to the train station to see if we could get a ticket for Mom to come back here without having to get someone to drive all the way to Regina to pick her up at the airport. The trip entailed switching trains in Chicago with an overnight stay in Chicago - not a good plan! Then, we went over to Greg & Ces’ office to use her internet connection for awhile. She said she would go to the court house to find out what the border-crossing requirements were for her to go to Regina to pick her up, as we were all under the impression whoever did it needed a passport to get back into the U.S. As it turns out, they are so backlogged with passport applications, that they’ve postponed that requirement until 2009 - HURRAY! So….there will be no problem with Mom’s return trip. If we hadn’t been able to come up with a firm plan, she would have had to stay home.

Pat and Bill had invited us and Mom over for brunch at 11:30. She had a beautiful fruit salad with spinach, all kinds of fresh fruit including blackberries and peaches, with feta cheese, toasted coconut, slivered almonds and cream-cheese/whipped cream dressing - Yum! As well, she made an egg, cheese & bacon casserole and croissants with almond butter! We had a really lovely visit with them. Bern drove Mom home and Pat and I took a look at her printer - it had just stopped working and, as it turned out, I couldn’t find out why either. It wasn’t that her printer drivers were out of date or anything - we checked. Anyway, she’s going to phone HP before chucking it out and buying a new one.

We went back over to Ces’ office and spent the afternoon checking email and stuff and then went back to get Mom to go to dinner at the Chinese food restaurant with Greg, Ces and Kristal, who had just got to town. It was really nice to see her! The food was surprisingly good for a small town!! We were stuffed when we left. We made it an early night as my throat has been really scratchy and sore all day. I’ve been gargling with salt water and it seems to provide temporary relief, but it’s still very uncomfortable.

The family BBQ is tonight and I’m looking forward to seeing everybody - Arnie, Mary Jo, Billy & Lynn, Bev & Nick, Linda & Arnold and all the rest. I’m planning to take movies, too. Although, I’m not sure how I can share them with everyone unless I make CDs for everyone - I’ll put on my thinking cap about that.