Life Lessons

IF YOU GET A CHANCE, TAKE IT! IF IT CHANGES YOUR LIFE, LET IT!

Friday, August 29, 2014

Roots and Wings

                                         Happy18th Birthday, Baby Grown Up Pig Nose!

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings.”

― W. Hodding Carter
Our girl is eighteen today!  Time has flown too fast, and I'm not going to blog much about it, because this has been the "Summer of Ashlyn" already.  ;)  She moved into the dorms at St. Scholastica yesterday, and classes start next week.

My darling girl, as you begin your journey, know that you are in my thoughts always.  What a blessing you have been in my life!  I know that you are worried about how it's all going to go, but it's time to let go of that, and enjoy the ride!  In this life there are things you can control, and things you can't.  The sooner you figure out which is which, the happier you'll be!

Today you go from being a child of my heart, to a woman I call a friend, but I will always be your Auntie Pig Nose. ♥

I love you first.         FLY!



Saturday, August 16, 2014

Ice Cream (The Horror)

I don't even really care for ice cream that much, but apparently it is now the topic of three blogs.  In order to understand this one, you might want to check out:
http://www.queenie930.blogspot.com/2013/06/ice-cream.html

Which will help explain this one:

http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2013/08/ice-cream-rest-of-story.html

Which brings us to yesterday afternoon. 

Picture it:  It's a Friday afternoon in August, the temps are a little over eighty degrees, and it's about as humid as it can get up here.  I am dressed as cool as I can be while working in an office, and said office does not have air conditioning up front.  It is roughly three o'clock in the afternoon, and the week has been LONG.

Suddenly, through the open front windows, along with the humid hot air wafts in the distant tones of the (Can it be??) ice cream truck!  Yes!  Saved!  Again, I'm not a huge fan, but I was actually thinking more along the lines of a snow cone or popsicle.  I was so excited that I did almost blurt out ICE CREAM!!!!!  Which would have been hilarious.  I did text my youngest brother, whom I would always scream it with, and ask him if it would be wrong for me to scream ice cream loud enough for them to hear me down the block.

Then the hunt for cash began.  Well crap.  Looking in my purse I realized that I gave the last of my cash to The Brown Eyed Man.  He and his buddy did some work on my car and I sent it along to buy them a thank you lunch.  No good deed...........

The truck was almost upon us.  What to do?  Do they take debit cards/checks?  I was about to shout across the hall to my boss that I was grabbing a ten from the till and would write him a check when I got back inside, (He's cool like that. Of course offering to grab a treat for him, and the patient he was with too.) but the music stopped.   Stopped?  What?  The ice cream music never stops........

I ran over to the window, and there it was, in the back parking lot of Dodgie's, right where I park, turned around and heading the other way.  I'm sure my mouth was hanging open, and I tell you that in that moment I was eight years old, staring in horror as the ice cream truck drove away.  I slugged my way back to my desk, but stopped when I got back into the front office area and just stood there.  Defeated.  The Doc finished up and came up to where I was.

Doc: What's up?   (ha, ha)

Me: It went away.

Doc: What?

Me: The ice cream truck.

Doc: (chuckles) OH.

Me: Not funny.

So I went back to work.  Now, we have another ice cream/ ices truck that comes through town too.  It plays tropical music, not the usual ice cream truck music.  I'm actually much more interested in catching that one, since I would rather have an ice.

Picture it:  It's about a half hour later.  It's just one of those afternoons where you see every minute go by on the clock.  The Doc is in the waiting area near the open windows, and I am at the front desk.  All of the sudden there is tropical music!  Going about 45 in a 25mph zone and it zooms on by.

Me: YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Doc: (Looks startled by my outburst..... and he should be used to it by now.)  What??

Me: THAT WAS THE OTHER ICE CREAM TRUCK!

Doc: (laughter)

Me: NOT FUNNY!

(It was kinda funny)

So after work when I went to "The Walmart" to get Tater's birthday present I got myself one of those pop in the freezer alcoholic beverages.  Pina Colada.

SO THERE.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

One Excuse (and) New Downtown

Is that Mrs. S eating a coney?

Today I met some of my gals for lunch at the new donut shop in town!  Yes, they also have a small lunch menu.  I didn't (just) have a donut for lunch.  The business is called "A Dozen Excuses", but let me tell you, the only excuse you need is that the donuts, and the coney's, are amazingly good!

Last week I tried their maple bacon donut.  Now, I don't really care for bakery items with maple, but it had bacon in the title, so I couldn't help myself.  Very light on the maple, so yummy, filling, fresh, and of course there was the bacon.   Today I tried a zebra twist, which is a twisted glazed donut with chocolate drizzle.  It was so light, but I think the freshness is what I love the most!  That and the price.  $1 for regular donuts, $1.50 for specialty.  My lunch was the #1 coney, which is a coney, chips, and a beverage for $4.00.  So for five and change I walked away full.  Plus, MOST importantly, the coffee is good.  You just can't have a donut shop with bad coffee!
I have honestly never had a coney before.  I made a pretty big mess with it, but it was really tasty!   I also must say, I did not get one drop on my clothes.  Anywhere.  REALLY!  Yes, I have witnesses.

Here is where I could break this off into two separate blogs, but I haven't been the best at keeping up with my writing lately, so I will link them together.

The city of Superior has been working at revitalizing its downtown for a few years now.  New road, new look, new businesses.  If you had asked me two years ago to spend an hour sitting outside downtown, I would have said no.  Even if you offered me money.  Dirty, nothing to do, and honestly scary.  In the daytime, and especially at night.

Today I parked a little farther away than necessary, just to enjoy the walk along Tower Avenue, and to see what people have been talking about.  It was so nice to see the area cleaned up, and it's a gorgeous day to be outside.  It's warm, but that ol Lake Superior breeze is keeping it nice.  My friends weren't at the donut shop yet, so I took the opportunity to just sit at one of the outside tables, and watch the world go by.  A few ladies stopped just to take a picture, and I asked the gal if I should move out of her shot, to which she replied, "Oh no!  Stay right there.  That makes it perfect!"  So if you see a picture of "A Dozen Excuses" with a lady in a red tank top trying to look nonchalant, that's me.  I hope I didn't wreck her pic........ (I'm pretty good at it.) 

When my own ladies arrived we ordered our food, and chose to go back outside.  It's always good to be able to catch up!  Girl time is so important, but that would be another blog!  So all in all I spent a good hour sitting outside on Tower Avenue.  We almost saw an old lady back into Melanie's car, but that was the most exciting thing that happened.  It was nice to see the steady flow of people, a lot of it families, into the new business.  Now it would be nice if more small businesses decided to start up, or relocate to that area.  I did notice that another new shop is opening a few doors down in October.

 In the 70's my Mom drove out to The Billings Park Bakery every Saturday to buy bread/buns/whatever for the week.  I could never see myself doing that.  I wonder though, if we are trending back from the Superstores to the Mom and Pop.  Recently we stopped buying meat at the big chains and have given all of that business to Superior Meats in South End.  It might be more expensive, but the portions are bigger, and more importantly, fresher. ( It tastes better too.)

I have lived in this area my entire 44 years.  I shopped the downtown with my Mom when I was little, and watched it die off when I was in my teens. What a nice change for the better! 

Friday, August 1, 2014

Tater Tot

Happy Birthday Tater!!  The littlest Goover is NINE tomorrow!  Time has flown so fast.  Tooooo fast.

This summer I had hoped to have lots of Goover adventures, but Tater had one of her own, and that has curtailed things a bit for now.  She's still her spunky self, just with a new scar, and another story to tell.  When she's all healed up we'll see about a birthday sleepover.

One thing about the youngest ones getting older is that we can play more games!  I really enjoy teaching them how to play different card games.  We learned Skip Bo a couple of weeks ago, and a rematch should be on soon!

 Tater has been a bit confined this summer, so she has turned a lot of attention toward her artwork.  She is absolutely amazing for a nine year old, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her Aunt.  I'm saying that because she is a better artist than I am at forty-four.

Caitlin's art (A Dryad....she'll have to tell me what that is.)

This year Ashlyn and I picked the Goovers up on their last day of school.  We had to wait for Tater to watch the buses go around the "circle" and wave to everyone.  (three times)  Then we headed off to the Ice Cream parlor, and the Library.
Last day of third grade.

Cooking at Auntie's
Hopefully the girls will be able to come over soon and we'll cook up some more delicious treats!  Although I have a sneaky suspicion that Tater is after my "man friend" whom she just loves to pieces.  He thinks she's pretty neat too. Until then, I will go over and visit at their house.  We will have to get a library trip in soon though, I can't renew the books any more. :)  I also wont put the kids in my car til it's fixed.  (hope next week)  Definitely not the summer I had planned, but we'll make the best of it.  Just so thankful that Tater is alright.    



Happy birthday to my Caitibug.  So sorry that you are having a "bummer summer".  We'll try to make up for it when you are all healed up!  Love you to pieces!  I will be over for another Skip Bo challenge soon!

                                                                          ♥ Aunt Joanie