Weekend fun?

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and write about my weekend. Today is a typical drizzly fall day and I'm off work. As soon as, I finish, I need to get to the store and stock up before the kids get home from school.

I apologize now. I did not get my camera out of the bag!! If the weather is nice, I promise to do it this weekend as the leaves are quickly changing and it will be beautiful.

We took off around 10:30 on Friday morning after packing up our bags and taking Eddie to the vet for boarding. We find it easier to do that than try to get a babysitter for him every time we are gone for the weekend. Although, I wish he didn't have to be in a kennel most of the time. And, I'm sure he doesn't like it either as he is used to moving about freely. So, we get everything loaded and head off for a beautiful ride. We mapped out our route, taking some roads we haven't yet been on. We have found that going to central Iowa, especially north central, is not one of our favorites. It is just too flat and windy. We arrive in time to take off and do some errands before our friends have to play in a coed softball league.

This couple is so busy. I really think they have too many irons in the fire because they are always meeting themselves coming and going. She was planning a 70th surprise birthday party for her mother, meanwhile also trying to keep up with their busy schedules. After the softball game, which was entertaining, and luckily they just play for fun, because their team really wasn't very good, we head to the other side of Ames to meet up with my friends brother. He has flown into town from Las Vegas to attend the birthday party. We visit with them at his friends house for a while and then decide we need to get back to their house and get to bed at a decent time as we had a lot planned for the next day.

Bright and early the next morning at 6:30 am, Dan and Brian head out to meet the mother of his oldest daughter's boyfriend to pick up his daughter. They have about an hour and a half drive to meet him halfway. She lives up near us, but since we were riding the motorcycle, we couldn't very likely bring her along with us, which we have done in the past. Meanwhile, JoJo and I are getting up to go to her gym for a workout. We spend a killer (for me anyway) hour working out and then spend half an hour in the sauna. I haven't sweated that much in ages. Whew! Ok, so you gotta understand that my friend's clock does not run the same as anyone elses. She is forever misjudging time and crams everything she can in, with no sense of how long it will actually take to get it all done. So, we are about 10 minutes late for the workout and then as we are finishing our sauna she looks at the clock and says we need to get home take a shower and be to Ames by 9:00 for her facial appt. The clock says 8:45. Now mind you, it is going to take us a few minutes to get home, take a shower and then it is about a 10 minute drive to Ames. She is thinking we can accomplish this. Yeah, right. So. nevertheless, we are 20 minutes late for her appt. I have some errands to run, but, I really don't want to go out in public with no makeup on and not having had a chance to do my hair. So, I decide to wait. I also have a facial appt but not for another hour and a half after hers. I'm not really sure why hers took so long, mine only took and hour. The facial is alright, but I much preferred the massage she gave to my face and shoulders. I caught myself dozing a couple of times as we had such a short night the night before. So, I get finished and find that my friend is nowhere to be found. I give her a call and she has gone shopping!! and getting her nails done!! Ugh. I'm starving, because by this time it is noon and I haven't eaten breakfast or anything all morning and she has ditched me. So, I decide if she is going to be a while, I'll walk over to a coffee shop that is not too far and get a sandwich and wait for her. I finish the sandwich, use the bathroom and buy a drink and she is just pulling up.

Then it is on to run around and pick things up from the party. Luckily she has gotten most of this while I was getting my facial. So, we are rushing around and she is brainstorming on what we have to get yet. She gets a call from one of her daughters who has a softball tournament of her own to go to. So, she arranges for another mom to pick her up and we also have to arrange to get another girl picked up. Meanwhile, during all of this, her other daughter also has a fishing outing for girl scouts, which her husband has to attend in between lining up the keg and doing some of the other errands for the party. See what I mean about meeting themselves coming and going. So, we have picked up the odds and ends, drop them off the party location and now it is midafternoon. She has to attend at least one of the softball games for the first daughter and Brian and I are worn out by this time. So, we lay down for a nap before we have to get ready for the party. Oh, and it felt good too. I could never spend every weekend on that schedule. Weekends for me are supposed to be relaxing.

The party is a hit. Her mother is thoroughly surprised and is elated that her son and his wife also showed up to surprise her from Vegas. Everybody pitches in for clean up and we head out of there to their garage where a bunch of us hang out and have a few drinks and share stories.

The next morning we get up late. The youngest daughter of our friends, she is 10, has decided that she wants to make us all french toast for brunch. It turns out really well. By then, noontime is closing in on us and the weather is not looking so good. We decide we had better hurry and pack up to go. The sky is overcast and cool and looks like it could possibly rain on us. Luckily, it did not. The further we got north, the more the sun came out to warm us. Luckily we had our heavy leathers on too. The sun was warm, but the air was much cooler than a couple of days before. I was wearing a sweatshirt and then just a tshirt that day. But, this day was long sleeves and warm jackets. I hadn't brought my heavy leather jacket though, which would have been much warmer. We took a different route home, which I enjoyed much better than the few days before. I think we will use that route again. It was 4 pm by the time we reached West Union and dropped off Dan's daughter. By the way, Dan rode his motorcycle with us to take his daughter home. Too bad, he had to ride his home alone. At least the weather, was nicer than when we began.

Since, we were in town, we had to stop by his daughter and her boyfriends place for a short visit, then it was on to home, where we warmed ourselves with a pot of chili. Brian ate then fell asleep as he had to work that night. I busied myself with doing up the laundry and catching up on stuff on the computer. I never did get on to do this blog. Figured I'd save it for today. Which brings me to a close since I have to get that grocery shopping done. My list has grown quite long.

I'd really rather stay in today, since the weather is drizzly and cool. Oh, well, it's gotta get done. Catch ya next time.