First day of back to school

Fall is in the air!!!  i can’t believe that school has started again this year.  Erick is in school.  He is doing online college classes with Ashford University in San Diego, CA.  He is going for his BA in History and minor in Sociology.

Me, nothing.  I did go to Luther College and I have a BA in History Education and minor in Psychology.

Too much rain!!!

We have had way too much rain!!
My brother & sister-in-law are homeless. They live in Rushford, MN at least they did. They were at my house Saturday so they were not home when the town flooded. They got a voicemail from their neighbor that the neighborhood was evacuated at 3:30 AM. Their neighbor hardly got out before the street turned into a flood. We didn;t have a clue what was goign on with the town and their house, and their dogs and cats until Sunday night when they finally heard from their neighbor. Their dogs were rescue by the sheriff who came in on a airboat to rescue them. By the time they got to them the black lab/St Bernard mix was treading water. The sheriff gave the dogs to their neighbor and then was take to anmal control. Then my brother & sister-in-law went down to Rushford Monday to rescue their three cats. And Tuesday they moved the dogs to a kennel in Canton, MN. Their cats & my brother & sister-in-law are staying with us for awhile. My brother & sister-in-law went down to Rushford to see what was going on with the town and their house. They were told it was not safe to step into the house. They will inspect the house tomorrow to see if is habitable.
Please pray for them. They are not sure what is going to happen to their house and where they will live.

New York City/Brooklyn, NY

10 days road trip to New tork City and on to Brooklyn, NY for a misison trip with Youth Works.

events & highlights from the trip:

Going through a toll in Illinois, oops!!! Getting lost in Toledo, OH. Driving in Pennsylvania, seemed like forever!!! Seeing the skyline of New York City, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island for the first time. Staying at a hostel in Manhattan near Central Park. Parking ramp where we parked our three vans and a trailer. Manhattan houses.

Driving in NY City and turning right on a red light, oops didn't know about that law until later.

Spending time on the ferry and almost falling down from the waves on the ferry. The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Manhattan skyline from the ferry.

China town/sweatshop , purse experience.

United Nations

World Trade Center Site

Times Square, eating in a nice restaurant, because we were tired and hot and hungry!!!

Church in Manhattan

Central Park, waiting in the subways forever.

Youth Works site in Brooklyn, NY in Chinatown

rain all day!!!

Kids Club that didn't exist because of the rain

Brooklyn Bridge

Puerto Rican Senior Center

Kids Club and the view of the Manhattan skyline, very pretty!!!

drip, drip, drop

a shower, finally only it was about 5 minutes long!

Costco parking lot!!

parking!!!! and trying to find a parking spot

Sanitation dept rules, parking on one side of street and waiting until 10AM for parking spot on other side of street

Senior Center, bingo, new friends!!

Cultural diversity, especially in Brooklyn, NY

Dunkin Donuts, best coffee!!!

Coney island, the rollercoaster, which i went on!!! ocean!!!

BBQ with community and meeting New Yorkers!!! my new friends!!

the drive back home-long!!!! back to Toledo, OH

YMCA and showers!!!

God is awesome and Amazing!!!

Back home and was exhausted. Slept forever!!!!

Wicked Weekend

My trip to Chicago was awesome!!!, but it was a whirlwind trip. I went to see the musical Wicked in Chicago on Saturday with a bunch of friends, Janet, Sarah, Beth, Brandon, Nate and Anna.
Friday, after having a half day off of work. I went to Toreys for lunch with Kim. lunch was good, but we were late getting to the movies. We saw the movie "Knocked Up" a pretty good movie and it was pretty funny. I then came home for a little bit and headed to the country club for the Federated picnic. I was late getting there, since I had to walk forever from my car. I decided to have the outdoor meal. This was a mistake since the meal was not as good as other years. I decide to go indoors to eat my meal and I sat with a few coworkers. After visiting with them and eating with them I headed home.
Brandon came to pick me up and then we picked up Nate and we headed to Janet's parent's house, the Youngers house. We watched part of the Twins game and then played a few games. We played Guitar Hero and lynch mob, Lynch mob is a fun game, but I am not very good at it. ( at least I wasn't that night).

Most of the group headed into town to buy scratch off tickets. I decide to stay back and so did Anna. I was tired and just wanted to get a little more sleep then the rest of the group. (Sounds like I missed a good time though)
We were off to Chicago the next morning around 8AM, the time we wanted to leave. We were on the road when Janet receive a call from parents that they wanted to chk tire pressure so ewe headed back to house and then headed out again and then Janet's dad was barreling down the road letting us know that he wanted to fix the chains in the back because they were dragging. We finally got going and headed out around 8:45, oh well it was a pretty good time to get going. Beth and I sat in the back. I didn't mind sitting there, we had plenty of room, but we were pretty much hot the whole way there. We kept asking Janet if she could turn up the air and everyone froze while we tried to cool off. we played a bunch of game, Smarty Party, which was a pretty fun game and 26 Words or Less and some Trivia Pursuit. We then stopped in Edgerton, WI at A&W for lunch. I of course had to get a root beer float, which was very good.

We finally got to Chicago. The traffic was insane and was bumper to bumper. This is normal for Chicago. and don't forget those awesome

We finally made it to Navy Pier, thank God it finally stopped raining and we were able to walk down to the end, pretty much hustled there and back. I got a call from my friend Pat, who lives in the Chicago area but was in WI for the weekend. She was just checking to see if we made it to Chicago yet and what we were doing. We had to see the big anchor, which was very huge. We got a few pics of the pier and a group pic and headed back to the vehicle. We changed in the parking garage, which was really funny!!!

We then headed to the other parking garage where we were leaving our vehicle for the night. We then headed to the ItalianVillage trying to stay dry. It had started raining again. The Italian Village was fun. The food was ok. Nate decided to get dry pina coladas, which were really good, but they charged him for alcoholic ones. :) and we were charged for our refills. a $4.50 pink lemonade was not worth it.

We then headed to the theater for the musical Wicked. We were all excited to see it!!! We took a few pics of the "adults", "kids" and the group without Beth and the group with Beth. The theater was awesome!!! Really cool stage. I was amazed on what an awesome and amazing musical!!! and such a twist. I don't want to give away any part of it. I would recommend it if you haven't seen it. I have never seen it before, just heard the sound track a few times. The effect that they did, the rain on stage, the lighting, the powerful singing. I loved Defy Gravity, That was my favorite scene. Elphaba and Glenda were wonderful.

After the musical we headed home, to the Younger's house. Getting out of Chicago was nuts!!!! It was bumper to bumper all the way out of the city.

We stopped in Janesville, WI to change. I think we all fell asleep after that, except for the driver & the co-pilot. Brandon and Nate drove the rest of the way home, changing drivers in MN or WI, I'm not sure where they did. We got into the Youngers at @5:45. Time to sleep. Brandon got up first @10:30 & he was my ride. I told him that Janet could give me a ride home so he left. I couldn't sleep after that so got up and showered and waited for the rest to get up. Janet and Nate headed to O-town. I got home chatted with my friend Pat for awhile and then fell asleep, pretty much all day. And then the week became crazy!!!!

You will have to read Sarah's or Janet's blog to get the top ten highlights from trip

This was a crazy week!!!

After having an awesome weekend, going to Chicago to see the musical Wicked. The week after was crazy. It all started with leaving my bag in Janet's vehicle, which I did not notice until 10:00 Pm Sunday night, after sleeping most of the day. (I left two pairs of shoes, cell phone charger & camera battery and charger and my laundry in the bag). I called Janet & couldn't get a hold of her so left message and then noticed my cell phone was dying and needed to be charged, but my cell phone charger was in my bag in Janet's vehicle. Good thing I have a cell phone charger in my car or I would not have had a cell phone. ;(

Monday, work day went fine. Monday night I helped out with Bingo at Infinia, a nursing home in Owatonna. By the way this was this was my first time helping out. One senior high kid<>

so I dropped off the gift and ended up hanging out until 10:30 that night. I had a hard time getting up the next day after that. I was still tired from an awesome Wicked weekend.

Tuesday, I was cleaning my glasses that morning and broke them. Yikes!!! after looking for my spare glasses for awhile I found them and had to wear them to work. There is nothing wrong with them, I just have never wore them before. anyway , since I had to look for my glasses I was late to work. And I get to work-no parking spot, so I had to park out in the boondocks, at least it felt like it. Tuesday night I had a dinner date with Janet, in Rochester to get my bag. Because I was early I headed to mall for a little bit and then went over to Fridays. We had a nice dinner, but my ribs were not good, they had no flavor, so I rated my supper a 6 because of it. I headed home and went to bed.

Wednesday nothing special, except we got a storm that night and I took some awesome pics of the clouds. and then was awoken to the storm at least twice. the second time to hail.

So the next day Thursday I was very tired, the rest of the week was a blur. Work has been busy this week with a lot of different stuff. Thursday I had to do 3 duplicate policies, and two more rushes. not fun!!! then I had another one to do Friday. Then my cat escaped, because I wanted to go outside int he front to chk out the sky and I took Max with me and he got out of his leash. Good thing he didn't go too far, just in the bushes. He came right back in to the house.

Friday I was on the phones all day helping the phone team, since most of the team was gone.

TGIF and the weekend is upon is. I have nothing planned this weekend.

I will probably work on our bathroom, since it is a mess. Mom and I have to scrape the shower walls. We took out the walls and want to paint them before we get new walls. Sounds like so much fun!! Think of me when you are all playing outside in the wonderful sunshine.

Anyway I felt like this was a real crazy week and I am glad it is over!!! but,I'm sad that our Wicked weekend is already over!! :(

Wednesdays

Wednesdays is usually youth group night. Well now that is is the end of the school year. There isn't youth group. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my time. It's kind of weird not to be at church tonight. Even though I know it is good to have a break from volunteering, I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids on Wednesday nights. I also liked eating out with Anna for supper on Wednesday nights.
I shoudl be thankful that we have a break before youth group starts in again in the fall.

So now the challenge of finding new things to do on Wednesday nights. This Wednesday I went to a Lia Sophia jewelry party at my supervisor, Pam's house and then got pizza at one of my favorite pizza places, A Taste of the Big Apple in O-Town. And then I chatted with my frined pat on the phone for awhile. All in all not a bad Wednesday.

Anyone have suggestions for next week? The tv programs are very boring in the summer, all reruns so that isn't always an option.

Maxwell

I know some people do not think that their pet is a part of the family, but Maxwell Simon Johnston is. He is my pet cat.

Max, short for Maxwell scared mom and I on Monday morning. We woke up and he came from the basement and he was bleeding on the side of his face.

I'm not sure what he did. I cleaned his wound and decided to wait and see how he would do during the day. I came home from work and he was not himself. I called the vet and made an appointment for Tuesday after work. I looked later that night and he had a big hole in the side of his face. Gross!!! Gave me shivers!! I was really worried!! I said a little prayer that he would be okay. He seemed really tired and sad.

The next day, Tuesday he seemed better. :) I left for work and met my mom at the vet. The vet thought he had been in a cat fight. He has never been around our other cat, Itty. Not sure what he did, but the vet thought that he had an infection and may have hooked his claw in it and because of that punctured it and he cleaned out the infection by doing so.

Good news!! He is going to live, the sore just needs to heal.

I'm so thankful that he will be okay. he is such a joy to have around. I would be really sad if something happened to him.