Weekending

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Friday at school was fine- was happy to hear that final bell ring at 2:20. 

Once home, I relaxed for a few minutes before going downstairs to run on the treadmill. I'm so behind on  my podcast listening and wanted to listen to one of my favorite podcasts while I ran. (Work puts such a damper on doing not just fun activities but ones that enrich your understanding and knowledge of current events... two more weeks... I've got this.) Alas, the treadmill was malfunctioning. Grrrr, ain't got time for this! Thankfully, the weather wasn't stormy or otherwise inclement so I ran outside.  Came home, showered and got ready to head out again.

Alyssa and I drove to The Greene- a popular shopping destination in Greene County with restaurants and shopping. She and I had just been there the weekend before (it's one of those places that I don't go to often- maybe three times a year so it seemed a little funny to be there two times in less than a week!). The reason to go there was to drop Alyssa off with a friend who works at one of the businesses in The Greene after we ate. Her friend was going to drive them to their next destination from there. Anyway, Alyssa and I had chosen a restaurant to eat at the Greene and that was The Pub. It serves traditional British (likely Americanized but the intent is there...) food and I channeled my inner Kim and was chuffed looking at the menu and recognizing some of the words/terms from the menu that I've learned from reading Kim's blog :). Donnie met us at the restaurant- he had been north of town but the timing worked out pretty well for him to meet us at the restaurant. 

"Best Fish & Chips in the US" is an ambitious menu item name...

I decided on the Cotswold

Our food turned out pretty good. I subbed the chips for mac and cheese and I probably shouldn't have. Not sure if the mac was a miss by the restaurant or if it's traditional to have mac and cheese like this across the pond but the cheese sauce was almost like a broth? 

We parted ways with Alyssa after dinner and then Donnie and I went into one store together before we parted ways. Donnie had been gone from home since 7:30 am and it was now approaching 6:30 pm and he had at least a half hour drive home. I would have gone straight home but I'd parked in the Nordstrom Rack parking lot (because it happens to be close to the The Pub) and before leaving The Greene I decided to go into NR and do a little shopping. I ended up being there way longer than I'd hoped but I got a few things at what seemed like good prices so that was good.

The green item on top is not for me! It was a birthday present for our friends' dog....

The guys were watching basketball when I got home so I just read and went to bed.

In the morning, I ran and then showered before beginning my day. I had to go to the bank. Before I left, I softly said Alyssa's name outside her door to see if she was awake. She made a noise but nothing else so I decided to leave without her so that she could keep sleeping in (she's my errand runner with me provided she's awake).

On my way to the bank, Alyssa called me to ask me where I was. She had been awake after all! I explained that I was on my way to the bank but I could pick her up after the bank if she wanted and she said that would work. Ok, yes, I go to the bank for banking that could probably all be done without setting foot in the bank but 1) I'm old and 2) well, I'm old. I know the youngins deposit checks electronically in the year of our Lord 2026 and honestly I would consider doing that except that I like to have cash on hand and I don't use ATM machines so going into the bank to deposit checks gets the checks into our account and I can get cash at the same time. Had a nice discussion with the teller who helped me- I actually know him outside of the bank as well as from the bank so we chatted for a long time.

I went home to get Alyssa and then picked her up to run a very important errand- getting gas and Big Gulp's at Speedway :). 

Once home, I spent the next few hours cleaning the house and doing two loads of laundry. I had to do laundry because I'd not been doing much laundry during the week. I had to clean because I'd not been doing deep cleaning during the week and people were coming over on Mother's Day. 

In the evening, we went over to our friends' house for a special birthday celebration- Tito turned one!

We had a great time with our friends. We ate Mexican food, chatted and watched a movie. We didn't get home until after 11:00.

Sunday morning, I got up and made brownies. Then we went to church and Alyssa's best friend came with us too which was so nice. After church we stopped at Dickey's for a small bite since we were planning on eating dinner early.

Alyssa's friend left after lunch and shortly after that Alyssa, Donnie and I drove about half an hour to Cedarville to see Cedar Falls. I've been there a few times and it's always really pretty in the spring and after rain- our area had a decent amount of that last week. 

Just Alyssa went with us. Jacob had strep throat and was at home resting. 

We hiked a short distance around the gorge and were able to descend steps to get near Massie Creek. 

You can't really see it here but there was a huge drop just behind me. I wanted to get to the edge but I knew I needed to be careful!

The weather was perfect- upper sixties and sunny!

I'd prepared fixins to have brownie sundaes for dessert. Donnie's sister and her husband and Donnie's mom and her husband came over for dinner- Donnie picked up pizza for us at Marion's and brought it home. We had pizza and then sundaes. We had a really nice visit!

Donnie, his sister and his mom



...and Alyssa