I'm Still Alive!

I haven't posted on here in weeks, largely because I've been away from home and was busy. I'm back...at least for awhile!

What should I write about? How about the fact that I went up to my daughter's, north of Chicago, in order to watch the grandchildren for a couple of days off due to teachers' meetings, etc. That would have been Thursday and Friday, Nov. 10th and 11th. Then my grandson's birthday was the 13th. And in my feeble senior mind, Thanksgiving was the following Thursday. If that logic followed, I would have been home by Friday, the 18th. But no! When I got up there, my daughter made me aware that there was yet another week to go before Thanksgiving. Huh?? The trip up there is a good five hours. There was no way I was going to go home and go back up for the turkey holiday. My biggest quandary was that I didn't think I had taken enough medicine with me. Thanks be to God, I had thrown all of my pill bottles into a box to take. Don't know why, but it saved me!

Let's talk about the medicine deal for a minute. Before I left for Lake County, IL, I was aware that I was out of BP meds--like, the day I was leaving. The mail order place had already called that the meds were processed and being mailed but hadn't arrived yet...so I took yet another trip to Walgreen's to see what they could do to help me. They called the doctor's office and were awaiting a call back. I waited awhile, but since I was in a hurry to get errands done, I left to do a few things before I went back. When I went back, I heard that the doc's office hadn't called yet. Hmmm... So I went home to continue packing. The instant I got in the house, I was aware that the power was out. This is not good! It was out all over the neighborhood (because of high winds, I think) but I had no intention of leaving for IL before it came back on. I loaded the car and talked to the neighbor gal. When I went back in the house, the power was back on. Whew! I called Walgreen's and found out that my meds were ready. Got those and departed. Another crisis averted!

I arrived at Megan's just after dark on a Wednesday. Thursday and Friday, the children and I did stuff. Nothing special--just enough to stave off boredom. Friday night, we all went to Meg's place of employment--the College of Lake County--for their yearly (free) Harvest Fest. This consisted of a turkey dinner, and family activities, such as face painting, crafts, and a balloon artist. Robin got her face painted. Both of the kids then got in line for the balloon artist. She was good! It was a long wait because she would provide anything the kids wanted. Robin got a Pegasus horse; Ryan asked for Santa on a surfboard. They were both works of art!

When all of that shut down, there was to be a family movie: Transformers. Denis and Ryan wanted to stay for that, but we females didn't want to...so we left the guys to watch while we went home to be veggies. By the time the guys got home, it was bedtime...in fact, Robin and Mommy had already hit the sack.

On Saturday, the children went home. The rest of the weekend was spent getting caught up on laundry, etc....and resting some.

When I go up there to visit, I largely stay busy with laundry, dishes, and planning/cooking the evening meal. I take my laptop computer so I can stay in touch with my own world, in the meantime. I'm never bored, although my daughter keeps thinking that I will be. Hasn't happened yet!

Thanksgiving was most pleasant. My former son-in-law and wife invited us all to join them for the feast. We took food, as assigned. Present were: Us (Megan, Denis, and me), the grandchildren (Robin and Ryan), the Heffelman grandparents from Plainfield (Judy and Phil), the hosts (Nathan, my former son-in-law, and his wife, Kendra), Kendra's brother, wife, and three kids from Wisconsin, Kendra's father from Tennessee and Mother from Muncie, IN, and Kendra's daughter. Seventeen in all. Both before and after the meal, there were euchre games going on. My son-in-law got suckered in--never played before--but caught on and enjoyed it! The food was good (lots of it) and the company equally as good. We had a very nice time!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Megan, Denis, and I caravanned to my home in Plainfield. It's a 5-hour trip, no matter how you cut it. We arrived, after a stop for supper, at about 9:30, Indiana time. Found out via text that the Illinois faction got the heebie-jeebies. They were asking if we were sick. Thankfully, no one from here--including Nathan's parents--picked up the bug!!

Saturday and Sunday at my house were spent cleaning out gutters, raking the rest of the yard leaves, doing some minor household repairs, and putting up my Christmas tree. I fixed a crock pot roast on Saturday and a turkey dinner on Sunday (largely because when you have Thanksgiving at someone else's house, you don't get leftovers!). I sent enough food home with Megan and Denis for their next day's work lunch. And so it goes...

That basically catches you up with my life, in case you care. My next excursion will start on Monday when I trek to Springfield, IL, for my sister's 70th birthday. I'll be gone about a week. Lots of things happening in the meantime!

God bless you all!