Oscar Party

It's my favorite day of the year: Oscars day! I am a little bit obsessed with movies and watch between four and five hundred per year. One of my favorite parts of the movie industry is awards season. And the biggest award of them all is, of course, the Oscars.

I spend the months leading up to it watching all the movies that are nominated for Best Picture so that I can vote along with them. I've been obsessed and watching them for decades; I remember demanding that my parents let me stay up to watch them when I was in Middle School- and the did!

Typically watching the Oscars was a solitary event, I didn't really have any friends or family who was at all interested in them like I was. I've been able to rope in Diana to watch them with me every year since we got married, but she is always more interested in the dresses than the awards... A couple years ago Barbara and James joined us for my first ever Oscar party and it was a blast- finally people to share it with! Last year they were not able to make it, but this year they were all for it. Barbara came even though she was feeling sick so she wore a mask the whole night- now that's real love! I felt seen and supported like never before! I took the night off so I could enjoy it fully, and printed out ballots for everyone. I even made a booklet with summaries for all the different nominated movies so everyone else could be familiar with all the films in the show.

We had gotten a bunch of food and had a whole delicious spread to enjoy through out the festivities. I wasn't rooting for any particular film this year, so I was happy with whatever the results were. It was a really fun night. Now, only 12 more months until the next one!

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Hospital Visit

Papa's not feeling so good. The doctors found something on his lung and he had to go in for surgery. Due to his past health issues, he had to have the surgery in Ann Arbor, so that meant the extended family took a little trip. The surgery was on a Friday, so I got home from work, took a little nap, and drove down there to spend time with him. I got there late afternoon and got to spend time with Mom, Chad, Miyuki, their son, and my lovely aunt Marline! A bunch of other family members were there before he went in to surgery but had to leave before I got there.

Soon after I arrived, Papa was wheeled into his recovery room. He was pretty out of it, understandably, but he got to be surrounded by loved ones after a successful surgery. After a bit of visiting, we let him get some rest and made our way to the hotel for the night. All of us met up in Mom's room and had a nice sandwich dinner together.

In the morning we went back to the hospital and saw Papa, this time he was a little less loopy from the drugs. We had a good laugh because he didn't even remember that we saw him the day before! We spend some good time with him and found out the mass was benign- what a relief!

When it was finally time to go I had the absolute pleasure of bringing aunt Marline home! We got to spend the two hour trip together chatting and catching up. She is so wonderful- I love her so much! The trip back was filled with so much laughter, and her favorite part was when I asked her if she wanted some special sweets. She said 'of course!' so I surprised her with a little visit to Sweetwater's Donuts! We each got one to eat and she even got a dozen more to give to the rest of her family.

By the time I dropped her off, we both decided that we need to go on road trips together more often!

Restaurant Night

Sunday nights are Ledger's favorite night of the week. Seems strange that he would love that one so much, right? It means its the end of the weekend and he's got to go to bed on time again with school starting in the morning. So why does he love it so much? Well, because it's restaurant food night!

For many years now, Sunday night has been the one night a week that we get restaurant food. It goes back to when I worked the weekend shift at Haworth. I would come home Sunday evening from work, exhausted from three 12+ hour shifts in three days, and I was not at all interested in trying to think about what we should have for dinner. Diana, having just come off of three 12+ hour shifts of being a single parent while I was at work, doesn't want to think about preparing food either! Our solution? We would always get restaurant food that night. It became such a habit that we got to expect it every week. Ledge would ask if we could get restaurant food though out the week and we could always say 'we'll have some on Sunday'.

Even though I don't work the weekends any more, its become such a tradition at this point that it would almost feel weird not to get restaurant food on Sunday night! Ledge's favorites at the moment are Pizza Hut and Wendy's (the two most expensive, of course...).

Jeopardy!

For some reason my son got really in to quiz games. I'm not sure what brought this on, but suddenly he wanted to ask us trivia questions and wanted us to make up questions for him to answer. He really wanted to play Jeopardy, which is weird because he's never really seen the show. He didn't actually want to watch the show, just recreate it at home for all three of us to play. Ok buddy, lets do it!

He still has the white boards up on his wall from when we first moved in, so we took advantage and grabbed markers and made our own game. As you can see, he didn't go with the traditional spelling, instead spelling it 'Jeapurdee'. Makes perfect sense, right? We each created three categories and took turns asking and answering them. We didn't do much planning, so the questions were just from the top of our heads. We had so much fun doing the first round that we played another. I love game time with the family!

Stan Is Back!

The snow came down really hard earlier this week, but now the temperatures are rising. You know what that means: the perfect snow for making a snowman! Each year Ledger and I make a snowman together and play out in the snow. Ledge spent all morning lounging around watching TV and playing on his tablet when I peeked around the corner and started singing the Frozen song 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?' He gave me a sly look and said 'Of course!' So we bundled up and grabbed the snowman building kit from the garage.

We headed out there, with the dog in toe, and had ourselves a little snowball fight. The snow was absolutely perfect for packing! We let the dog back in because he was shaking so much from the cold, but then we got to work building our annual Stan the Snowman. It was a bit of a challenge to even get the three big snowballs stacked up because the snow was so heavy! Finally we got him looking good, shaping him just right. When we were satisfied with how he looked, we walked into the backyard to find some branches in the woods that would work for his arms. The facial features were put on next, his hat, and finally the red scarf. Ta da! Stan is reborn again for another winter! After standing back and appreciating our craftsmanship, Diana called us in for hot chocolate and marshmallows. Ah, now this is what winter is all about!

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Snow Day

Now that I'm working night shift, I have the responsibility of getting the boy up and ready for school. I get home about the time he needs to get up. It works really well and lets Diana sleep in a little bit until she needs to get up for work. This winter though, we have had a few snow days so that means I don't have to wake him up at all and I can climb into bed early!

This particular morning I got the alert that school was cancelled which puts Ledger in a good mood because he doesn't have to go, and it puts Diana in a good mood because she doesn't have to go to work! This will probably be the last snow day of the year, so I figured we aught to take advantage of it. I quietly slipped into our bedroom and gently woke up Diana. Informed her that she had the day off and asked her if she would, instead, like to go out for breakfast. She was up now, excited for the free day, so she said yes. I woke up the boy and told him that we were going to go for breakfast and he was just as delighted! We all got ready and went to Village Inn restaurant. We got there and sat down, delighted by the unusual start to our day. We got our food and laughed and talked when suddenly Ledger piped up and said 'Oh no, I forgot my backpack!' Diana and I were stunned and then started laughing- Ledge didn't realize that school was cancelled and thought he had to go to class after breakfast! When we finally broke the news he was shocked and so happy!

Afterward we headed back home and had ourselves a delightfully lazy day together. Who doesn't love a good snow day, right?

Lakeside Lunch

I guess Mom and David hadn't had enough family time over Christmas, they invited all of us to join them at Schu's Bar & Grill in St Joe for an amazing lunch together! It had only been a couple weeks since we last got together, but that didn't stop us from having a fun time. It had been a while since we went to St Joe. Last time we met up there it was also with Tavish and Alanna and we went to the children's museum back when the Ledger was only about 5 or 6! This restaurant was just down the street from there and had a great view of Lake Michigan. The restaurant was filled with awesome lake themed decorations, including a canoe hanging from the ceiling. The seafood was really good and we had such a nice time. Thanks, Mom and David!

Cabin Trip 2023

Pure joy fills my heart as we finally get to the event I have been waiting months for: It's cabin time, baby! Every year I get to gather together with my favorite friends and head up to that most beloved of towns: beautiful and lovely Balwin! We met up Friday afternoon at Aaron's house, as has become the tradition. After taking a few minutes to catch up, we pile into one vehicle and begin our trek up north.

Man, it's been too long since I spent time with these guys! The unfortunate reality is that we all have such busy lives that, for some of us, this is the only time each year that we get to see each other.

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's in Big Rapids, filled our bellies, and finally arrived to see a beautiful newly (partially) redecorated cabin! Apparently there have been some issues with little varmints getting in and making themselves at home, so my cousin (who owns the place) has put in the effort to strip it and rebuild much of the inside. We walked in and felt pretty fancy with all the upgrades! With it being so warm outside, building the fire wasn't as urgent as usual. We took our time and settled in. 

After our standard visit to Sporty's bar and grill, we came back and got up to no good, as is our way. We forgot to bring up some of our favorite games, so we made due with what we had. It was an uproarious night, as always, but eventually we all tucked in for the night.

Like I said, this is one of my favorite events of the year, a time to play and chat with some of the guys I've known the longest of anyone on Earth. And Jon. We always have a rowdy time as well as heartfelt conversations. It's the best of both, really. We've been doing this for over twenty years now, and I hope we never stop!

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Oh Deer.

All was going well with our Christmas celebrations in Indiana. Diana and I planned to head home and leave Ledger with his grandparents for a couple extra days. On our way home we were excitedly talking about how we get to have a couple carefree days with just the two of us. Unfortunately, a deer had other plans for us... We had made it almost the entire way home, we were about 10 minutes south of Allegan when it came out of someone's backyard and straight into the front fender of our new car! We hit that thing pretty good, I tell you what. I immediately pulled off the road to check the damage. Unfortunately I couldn't because the driver door wouldn't open! So Diana got out so I could shimmy out through the passenger side door. I got a look at the damage, and it was vast. the biggest problem was the wheel well had broken and made it undrivable. We called the police and they arrived quite quickly. We explained the situation and they got a tow truck on the scene. It took about 15-20 minutes for them to arrive and take the vehicle away. The cops asked if we had anyone who could come and pick us up. It was the day after Christmas and everyone was still doing holiday things, so we told them no. So guess what? We got to have a ride in the back of a police car! A first time experience for  both of us. We grabbed our stuff, and to make it even more awkward, we also had to grab our dog! The three of us piled into the plastic backseat of the police car and took a quick ride home. We laughed about what the neighbors might think, seeing us pour out of a police car!

Now comes the headache of trying to get it fixed...

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