Getting Caught Up

I'm afraid this post is long overdue, but I've been so busy with everything that I just haven't had time to sit and do fun stuff.

First, thanks to all who sent me birthday greetings. I've always loved my birthday and I had a great day, filled with gifts and hugs from the kids at school and surprises from Mark and "the kids" as well. Mark took me out for a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant in the small town of Monticello where two of our very good friends were waiting for us. It takes about 40 minutes to get to this place from our house and the drive is really pretty with rolling farmland and lots of little streams along the way. We were supposed to just stop at a place for burgers, but Mark was sneaky and took me to The Dining Room...although I did figure out what he was doing by the time we drove past the 3rd road sign for Monticello.

Next, I would like to show a couple of pictures from a few weeks ago when Mark and I were up north. I spent the time in Rhinelander but he was in Tomahawk with his dad and brother for their annual fishing trip. The pictures were taken when I picked Mark up before heading back south to Cross Plains. One is a view of the lake from their cabin and the other shows the particular cabin they always rent (lots of people kind of come and go during this trip, so sometimes they need a lot of room because 8 or 9 guys might be up there). I tried to post these pictures on my last blog but they wouldn't go on for some reason...

Finally, Mark and I spent the day after Mother's Day driving around with our hounds, doing some errands on the east side that needed to be done (I probably go to Rhinelander more often than I do the eastside of Madison), visiting a dog park, and swinging around the Columbus area where brother Bob resides. It was a beautiful day and really nice to "relax" after serving over 675 people on Mother's Day. I hate to say it, but this was the first time I had been to the little city of Columbus, but as I mentioned earlier, we just don't get over to the east side. Columbus was really really beautiful with lots of red bud trees in bloom--hence the title "red bud city".

We also happened to go there on a day that they were filming a scene for the new Johnny Depp/Christian Bale movie "Public Enemy". I wanted to stop and gawk and look for Johnny (he's dreamy), but Mark was driving and put the kabosh on it. Although he loves "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Edward Scissorhands," Mark is not real fond of Johnny Depp the man and not because I think he's dreamy.

Well, I'm still behind in events, but as least this gets me a little caught up.

Jojo's Birthday and Fishing Up North

This past Saturday and Sunday was dedicated to what is commonly known as "relaxing". Mark drove up to Tomahawk Friday night after he was done at the restaurant for the traditional opening weekend of fishing season with his father and brother and other friends and family members who can join. The Valaskey's have been doing this for many years and sometimes Mark can only make it for a night or a day or a couple days...Since there was no wedding or major party scheduled at the restaurant, he was able to plan to fish with the guys for a couple days.

I, on the other hand, left Cross Plains Saturday morning with the dogs and drove to Rhinelander to visit my folks. It was really nice because Bill was home and John and Jim were also visiting and then my sister, Lisa, and her family arrived too! Saturday started rather cool, wet and dreary, but we had the good luck of a weather change, and by the afternoon it was a beautiful spring day.

We all had a great time playing with the newest member of the family: Oscar. Oscar is a 9-week old Golden Retreiver puppy. He is adorable, of course, and has one of those sad, droopy faces that make him simply irresistable. Mingo and Lily didn't seem to be too interested in him (I think they get too distracted by the fact that they get to run around so much at mom and dad's and there are all these little birds and chipmunks to chase), and initially, Oscar seemed a little intimidated...but by the end of our visit, he was bounding after them (stumbling quite a bit) and gnawing on Mingo's fluffy tail (he tolerated it pretty well).

It was a wonderful visit, filled with an all-day debate on what to name the puppy, a 2 hour croquet game, Stratego, a bon fire, Scrabble, eating and lots and lots of walks in the pines.

We celebrated John's 34th birthday on Saturday (his birthday was Sunday). Mom made a delicious meal and had 2 different kinds of birthday cake. Yum. We also let Jojo win the croquet game (heeheehee). Happy Birthday Johnny! We love you.