While I had big plans first thing this morning to make a cake and lasagna for tomorrow, I didn't follow through. I woke up late, then we decided to walk since it was such a beautiful morning. The only problem we should have arrived a good hour earlier as it was already warm outside.
Once we returned home, it seemed like I was busy all day long, laundry and cleaning. I worked on updating our budget for May, making a list of things I needed to get done in the upcoming week and taking care of a few minor things on the list.
By late afternoon I made "Mexican Fruit cake" and a pan of lasagna for our family reunion tomorrow. In the morning I'll make macaroni and cheese. I have to say I was really glad when everything was done, and I could set down for awhile. I had over 22,000 steps on my exercise bracelet today. I felt like it too! But things are in order here and I am ready for tomorrow.
Sunday, June 2, 2019 - Blackledge/Duncan Family Reunion
I was up at 5:30 this morning, took my shower and was soon ready for the day. I gathered everything I would need to take with me to the Community Center, then I headed to Parsons to pick up Kamron and Jaxson. When we got back I quickly put together the macaroni and cheese, with Jaxson's help. His dad always liked to cook too.....like father, like son?
The grandkids and Dean helped me get everything loaded in the car and we headed to the Oswego Community Center. My sisters started showing up within minutes. Our first duty was to setup tables and chairs before turning our attention to making tea/lemonade and getting the ovens turned on. At 11:45 we had the ovens full of different dishes that needed to be cooked or warmed before dinner at 1.
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| My sister Jody getting the ovens turned on. |
Our cousin, Steve Blackledge showed up, as he does every year, to fry fish. We sure do appreciate all the work that goes into doing it for us. (I think the fish is the real reason people come). Lol!
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| Our ninjas - Dempsey & Jaxson Dempsey is my sister Crystal's grandson and Jaxson is mine. |
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| My Great-Aunt Naomi Blackledge Kay, with my grandchildren Jaxson Kamron. Aunt Naomi celebrated her 96th birthday this past March! We are so blessed to have her attend. |
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| Patty Blackledge Clower, Cindy Wade, Wanda Wade, Gary Clower, and my sister Jody. |
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| My nieces Melissa Overman Lewis, and Nikki Overman Lewis. Nope, their husbands are not related. Patty Blackledge Clayborn. |
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| Aunt Crystal (my sister) always brings something fun for the kids to play with - the balloons were a hit! |
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| L to R: My cousin Dave Elmore, his wife Irene, his sister Jane Elmore Becker, and my Great Aunt Naomi Blackledge Kay. My paternal great grandparents were Elmer Blackledge (Aunt Naomi's and my grandfather Merle Blackledge's dad) and Mary Maude Elmore Blackledge (sister to George Elmore, Dave's dad). |
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| Cousin Steve Blackledge's boys - Keegan in the corner and brother Kaden. |
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| Neices Nikki and Melissa's children: front: Nikki's - Kass and Dani; back Melissa's - Kennedy and Hannah. |
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| Jody's middle son - Wade, wife Devon and their cute daughter Peyton. |
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| Jaxson saw us taking pictures, he stepped right up and included himself! |
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| Aunt Naomi's family - granddaughter Kristen, her son Jacob, her daughter Linda, Linda's husband Keith and Aunt Naomi's youngest son Joe Mike. Standing is my Great Aunt Mildred who was married to my Great Uncle Bill Blackledge. |
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| These two see each other once or twice a year and they have such a good time together. Crystal's grandson, Dempsey and my Jaxson. |
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| Irene and Aunt Naomi - with Brian (Aunt Naomi's grandson) in the back. |
We failed to get family pictures together this year - so here are a few that Kristen took. She said I could share them:
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| Jane Becker, my sister Jody Nading, Nikki Lewis, my husband Dean, me holding Jaxson, my cousin Jim Wade with Melissa at the bottom of the picture. |
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| Irene, Aunt Naomi, Reva (leaning in) and Aunt Mildred. Reva is Aunt Mildred's daughter. |
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| Cousin Linda Wade Moody and her daughter Kristen. |
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| Linda & Keith's son Brian and grandson Hayden? I hope I have that right. |
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| Sister Cindy on the left, Patty Blackledge Clower, Gary Clower & my husband Dean, in front with backs to us are Janet Blackledge, Nikki & Ty Lewis and I'm just barely in the middle of them all. |
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| Tim and Melissa Overman Lewis |
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| Keith Moody (Linda's husband), Wanda Wade (Jim's wife) and Aunt Mildred Blackledge |
After cleanup, Dean and I took Kamron and Jaxson home, where we enjoyed visiting with Jennifer and Marc for awhile before we headed back home. We spent the rest of the evening in our chairs relaxing.
I think Cindy said she counted 47, which is a really good sized group for us. Oh my, the food was great. Our family has some wonderful cooks - no one should have left hungry, that's for sure.
It was fun to watch the younger kids - now several generations from our Great Grandparents. Kamron, my granddaughter enjoyed visiting with my Great Aunt Naomi. Kamron has what I call an "old soul". She loves older people and visiting with them, and Aunt Naomi who turned 96 in March, was enjoying it. As we were getting ready to leave, Kamron said just a minute, and she hurried back in to tell Aunt Naomi goodbye. It really touched me and I got a little teary eyed that she took the time to do that.
We left around 4. Dean and I took Jaxson and Kamron back to Parsons. We visited with Marc and Jennifer for quite awhile before we headed back home.
It was a wonderful and fun day. I'm tired, but it's the good kind, that made everything we did worthwhile, spending it with family.
Monday, June 3, 2019 - Busy Day
I was up early to make a trip to Parsons this morning. After taking care of some business there I made a stop at McDonald's for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit - only to be very disappointed when I got sausage instead. I'm not a big sausage fan, but rather than wait, I took it. Back home I got busy tackling the list of things I wanted to get done today.
I had a stack of clothes from my closet. I told CIndy I'd bring them by for her to go through, before I take them to storage. Speaking of storage, while Dean was there the other day he discovered water had entered our storage unit. We do not believe it came from the front because everything was dry there. There was water sitting in the back of the unit. We found it when Dean noticed some unused packing boxes (not yet folded) had soaked up water. When he moved a few things around - fortunately most everything is in plastic tubs, he found some wood he had stacked on its side was also damaged. An old 8' table we bought my mom years ago, was sitting on the floor, and it damaged the end of it as well. It appears the water may have ran in from the unit on the other side of us, as there was no apparent water damage to anything at the top - like it came from the roof. For the most part it's not huge, but I really am not fond of having stuff sitting in water - plastic tubs or not. I hope the roof goes on the garage this weekend so we can move it here and stop these trips back and forth out of town to put things in or take things out of the storage unit.
I found my list from Monday, gathered all of the different things together (papers, for the most part) that I needed to address this week. We had to straighten out a prescription for Dean (not using your proper name causes lots of issues). His real name is Carl Dean, and because the insurance and the doctor were using different names, one had Dean and the other had Carl they cancelled his prescription. However, it's all "fixed" now.
I am considering a change to my health insurance so I made an appointment for tomorrow to discuss the plan with an agent.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019 - Another Busy Day
Yesterday evening Misti asked me if I could take Haleigh to Parsons this morning for Trio. She originally planned to take her but had a conflict with her PTA clinicals. I didn't mind because I needed a couple of things from Walmart, and I love getting in and out of there early in the morning! I picked Haleigh up at 6:00 and delivered her to the college where the bus was leaving from.
From there I headed straight to Walmart - picked up the few items I needed; and I was headed home before 7:30.
After having breakfast and doing a quick cleaning, I set down at my desk and got busy. One thing I've been wanting to do is get our Health files sorted, in order by date - individual files for both Dean and I and the info we receive from the doctor each time we visit. I try to do this annually, so we can go back to look something up if needed. I also sorted all of the information we needed for Retirement/Social Security/Medicare and Medicare Supplemental. What a bunch of paper!!! That file was packed, but has a little less "stuff", and there is now a separate file folder for each topic!
The next item on my list was to gather the remaining information we need to get a letter out to our classmates for our 45th reunion. Of course, you can't manage to reach everyone on the same day - right?; but I made a big dent in it.
I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with an insurance agent, discussing the health insurance plan I am considering. Afterwards, Dean and I headed to Pittsburg to pick up our mail. The title to our car and a prescription is waiting for us.....and once we got it, yep, the rest of it was junk.
On our way home we took a drive through the park to see if the water has dropped anymore.
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| The river is still very high but has dropped quite a bit. |
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| A close up of the road that has been underwater for close to two weeks, if not more. It is in bad shape and will definitely need some work once it dries a bit. |
After we returned home Dean grilled pork loin steaks and I saute'd vegetables inside --- what a wonderful dinner. I went to the golf course afterwards. Misti is working evenings and weekends while she completes her clinicals during the day. I visited with her for thirty minutes or so before heading home. It was time to relax for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019 - Wow! I'm Caught Up
Dean and I walked this morning. There was a nice breeze and it felt wonderful this morning.
Once we returned home, I ate breakfast, showered, and made sure everything was put away, bed made, etc. I couldn't believe it was already 9:15. I was starting out the door to attend a Bible Study, when my phone rang. It was Dean's sister Ruth Ann. She had tried to call Dean a few times with no answer so she was wondering about us. Not sure what's up with his phone as she was calling his number. We had a nice visit. We'll actually get to see her in a couple of weeks when she visits Garnett, as we plan to be there as well. It will be good to spend time with Dean's siblings.
I left the Bible Study a little early this morning as I had made an 11:00 lunch date with my friend and former co-worker last week. I picked her up and as always we had a nice visit. The time just passes so quickly.
Dean was already home from playing golf when I returned. After eating lunch, he left for the garage. I followed him out of the park, but made my stop at the courthouse to get tags for the Prius. Afterwards, I picked Isaiah up at his grandpa's and took him to the swimming pool. Isaiah is our cousin's (Scott's) grandson. Haleigh & Misti help out with watching him when he is here. Since Haleigh's gone (she usually watches him when she's not working) I filled in. I don't mind because he's a great kid and a lot of fun.
I noticed Cindy had called me earlier (probably while I was at the courthouse). I was headed back home, when I met her. We talked a minute, and I ended up following her back to her house where we visited for an hour or so. As I pulled up to the highway on Main Street, as Dean turned south toward the RV Park, and I followed him in.
It was time for me to pick up Isaiah at the swimming pool - he was having a lot of fun. He looked disappointed I was there but he hopped right out to gather his things. The pool was still full at almost 5. I was thrilled to see such a wide range of ages enjoying the beautiful day.
Back home, Dean and I visited for awhile before he grilled hamburgers for dinner. We followed a bit of the Country Music Awards on TV, or at least Dean did, while I only looked up occasionally, since I was trying to concentrate on completing this blog post that will finally bring me up to date.
Sometimes I want to do too many things and I overwhelm myself, but today I am feeling pretty good. I've cleaned almost all of the cabinets, closets, etc.; have all of our paperwork up to date and filed; have done most of the deep cleaning I wanted to do (one more room to focus on) and my desk area has been completely redone. I finally used the museum putty to attach a couple of items to the table so I don't have to store them every time. I still want to get my pictures permanently affixed to the wall so I don't have to take them down each time we move. I only have three so it's not been too bad.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy day!
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