Weekending

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Had a nice, pretty relaxing weekend.

Friday, I got to see my brother for a short while in the late afternoon when he drove down to visit us. I subbed so I couldn't see him until my school day ended. I subbed at an early start school (which means, all the praise hands, that it ends fairly early in the day) so there was still plenty of day left by the time I arrived home (and I live less than a mile from the school- it's a two-to-three-minute drive to and from the school I subbed at). We watched a movie at the house, No Country for Old Men. We didn't care for it much- it was gratuitously violent. Donnie came home from work, and we had pizza for dinner. We are going through a Jett's pizza phase and had Jett's for dinner. My brother hadn't had it before. We went on a walk after dinner as the weather was glorious. It had been cold earlier in the week but Friday was fairly warm and beautiful. My brother started to not feel well so he left earlier than he'd planned.

Saturday, we'd had plans with some friends. They were somewhat tentative, but they sounded fun. Then on Thursday, Abby asked if we were going to see her on Saturday for Parent's Weekend. Um, yeah? Of course, we were going to see her on Parent's Weekend! We are about three years past reading emails that we receive from the university, so we had no idea that it was Parent's Weekend. Obviously, we don't consider this a cherished event. In our defense, Abby's birthday has always fallen (is that the correct verb tense? I think?) near her college's fall break in early October and we have always seen her then. Also, since her freshman year, she's gone on a fall retreat for one of the organizations she's involved with at the very end of October and the location happens to be a few miles from our house so we've seen her at some point over the fall retreat weekend. With seeing her in the beginning of the month and the end, Parent's Weekend in the middle of October has not been a huge priority...

But since she mentioned it this year and it's her last year of college, of course we said we'd go. We told our friends we wouldn't be available until Saturday evening and Saturday morning, set out for Oxford, Ohio. I am used to driving this route, usually alone, to pick Abby up or bring her something, but on Saturday, Donnie drove. I have mentioned this before but the quickest route from our house to Oxford is a bit of an odd one. A decent bit of it is in the country and that’s all pretty and good. But the route skirts us around Middletown which has a large number of industrial facilities including a huge steel mill and many factories. We see these along the route and we cross about seven railroad tracks in the approximately one hour drive to Oxford. I snapped a few pics since I wasn’t driving...

I originally thought something was on fire when I first saw this, but it from a smokestack.

One of the mills we passed

Once in Oxford, we met Abby at her apartment and then walked to a breakfast/brunch hosted by one of the organizations that Abby is involved with on campus called CRU. The food was so good- all made by students and we got to meet one of Abby's good friend's parents. Had a nice time eating and chatting and then the three of us walked uptown to go to the farmers market in the adorable square and to some of the shops in the uptown area. 

These pumpkins were at the place where we had the breakfast. I thought they were crazy cute/creative.

Abby and one of her besties, Ava

The day was a beautiful one and the area was swarming with parents and students. Yes, we were part of the problem, so I am not complaining, per se, just saying. 

The cobblestone streets add a lot of charm to the uptown area

I love this picture! Donnie and Abby have an inside joke about rats and while these little ornaments were obviously mice and not rats, Donnie and Abby had a good time looking at each one and of course Donnie insisted on buying one for Abby. He loves to buy the kids things- many times it’s just small things that don’t cost much. The kids have been the recipient over the years of many tokens of affections. They are also lucky that Donnie is a big kid at heart. He loves buying “toys” for himself and is always on the look out for fun things that the kids might like to surprise them with. And though all of the kids are now adults, that doesn’t stop Donnie since he has been an adult for quite a few years and still likes toys :).

After shopping, we went back to Abby's apartment and chatted with her for a while. We see the world as Abby's oyster but that's a little too opaque for Abby... With many decisions to make about her future, it's both an exciting time and a stressful time for her. One day at a time- she has such a good head on her shoulders and is of sound faith- we are confident she will be fine.

Did I mention that Donnie has more common sense, practical advice and wisdom than anyone I know? He is a solutions guy through and through with a heart that wants to help those around him. Abby is a daddy’s girl and I know she appreciated time spent with him and advice more than the ornament mouse he bought her. But I hope that the little mouse always reminds her of time spent with her dad on her last Parent’s Weekend at college.

We said our good-byes and drove back home. Were only home shortly before we headed out to meet our friends at the movie theater. Our friends wanted to see Smile 2. Oh man, not a good movie at all. Two thumbs down all the way!! Our friends felt badly about it- they'd seen the first one and liked it pretty well- they said this one was way worse. It was not that big of a deal to me. I got popcorn out of it. Speaking of popcorn...

I normally get an extra large popcorn at the theater, the reason being you get free refills on extra large refills. It's a good deal (well, not good because the price is high but if you’re going to get popcorn at the theater, it's the best deal there is) but you tend to, well, overeat popcorn. (I do take the refill home and eat it usually the next day- I don't down two extra large popcorns in one setting, lol). I was determined to get a lesser deal to order to force myself to eat lesser popcorn! Was proud of myself for getting a medium popcorn though I did spring for an extra-large drink which got me a free refill. So after the movie, I went up to get my free refill of pop and what does the young lady say as she's getting my refill, "Would you like this popcorn?” She nods her head towards an extra-large popcorn filled to the brim and glistening with butter. She said it was made erroneously and would be THROWN AWAY if I didn't want it. So much pressure! And there went my willpower and not overeating popcorn. Of course I took the popcorn! I ate a small amount before going to bed and finished it the next day. Well, mama tried.

My free bag o’popcorn

Sunday morning I ran first thing. Not long, not fast; nonetheless, it was the first morning that I'd run outside since the spring and before my surgery in early April. Then got ready for church. The sermon was a bit disappointing if I am honest- will not get into it here but I did not agree with a lot of what the pastor said. Politics came up. That's all I am going to say about it here... Our good friends were at church- the same two sets of friends whom we'd seen the movie with the previous night. We all decided to go out to lunch together which was fun. We hadn't all been to eat together in a few weeks; it’s always a good time with these friends. 

Yummy breakfast at Scrambler Marie’s

Came home and watched some of the Bengals/Browns game- it was looking good for ‘Nati before we headed back out to our church. Our church was having a Fall Festival/ Trunk or Treat and needed lots of volunteers to pull it off. Donnie and I worked the information center. The weather was perfect, and it was fun to see so many kids dressed up. I thought about wearing my costume- numerous adults attending and volunteering wore costumes, but I stayed in my Evan McPherson Bengal's Jersey that I put on after church for the game. Donnie wore one of his jerseys, so we were both in jerseys and since the Bengals colors are black and orange, we looked Halloween festive. 

Just a good fall weekend!

I got these Jonathon apples at the farmer’s market in Oxford. They could not taste better and they were a great deal to boot.