Weekending

We had a nice late summer weekend here in Ohio... linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday.

I worked on Friday and when I came home I relaxed for a couple of hours until I had to face the arduous task of picking up pizza for Donnie and me for dinner. Yes, I justified my relaxation for a couple of reasons one of which was the class that I subbed in was very unusual- the students all had severe physical and/ or intellectual disabilities. Almost all of the students had one on one aides and the aides did most of the work since they know their students- I was more like a body in the room that probably by law had to be present but even not having to do much was draining- more so emotionally than anything else. Alyssa went to the school's homecoming football game while Donne and I cheered the Panthers in spirit at home... while watching Netflix ;).

Saturday morning, Alyssa had a cross country meet in nearby Mason. It went pretty well all things considering. Among those things for consideration was that the course had runners going through a creek with water around ten inches high! Her team did this meet last year but the creek had much less water in it. There was also a steep hill and there were bales of hay (short, not like the bales you see on farms) they had to jump over. Only one girl on varsity improved her time from last week (it was not Alyssa!); though the course impacted all runners from all the schools the same, her team is still plagued by injury and the Lady Panthers did not place high in this meet.

When Alyssa got home she started getting ready for the homecoming dance. This would be her first homecoming dance that was not outside (thanks to Covid and the *unique* decisions that the pandemic engendered). One of Alyssa's friends picked her up to take her to a park in Centerville for pictures. Donnie and I went to the park, too, to get pictures of the girls. 

Alyssa and her bestie

...always shenanigans

We left Centerville and went back to Springboro to eat at a newish restaurant. We'd not been to it before but had been wanting to try it. 

The food was really good! And the owner was super friendly and explained to us about some of the differences in Latin American foods. The restaurant wasn't busy at all (which is probably why we got so much personalized attention); hopefully it was only because there was an Oktoberfest going on in town over the weekend and that always draws large crowds. I want this restaurant to make it! Good food and prices and it is in walking distance (a long walk, but still) of our house. 

As we were getting ready to leave the restaurant, I received a text from a neighbor friend asking if we wanted to watch football outside in their beautiful covered patio area. Yes, please! We went over there and had a good time catching up with several neighbors who were over. When our kids were younger, we spent hours together watching them play in the cul de sac. Now all of our kids are older. They don't need watching in the cul de sac and they are all involved in so many activities that we neighbors turned friends are pulled in a lot more directions and don't get to see each other nearly as often as we did in the past. 

Sunday was church followed by going to the store, working on this post, watching the disastrous ending of the Bengals game and then I headed back to church. It was the youth group's kick off to fall and the youth pastor organized An Amazing Race themed activity. The kids were in it to win it which was great- they brought their A energized game. It was fun but tiring! Youth group kicks off this week (I help with the middle school youth) and I am looking forward to it.