Early Thanksgiving visit with John and JT

We had a great visit with John and JT Thursday evening through Sunday noon. Elizabeth and Brent came down on Saturday and we had a wonderful meal together at Big Muddy's. Brent's mother and grandmother came as well as my mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, John and I, and of course, John J and JT. Thanks to Elizabeth and Brent for thinking of this as it was a lot of fun. Obviously JT enjoyed himself a tremendously!! :-)
JT also enjoyed all his time with my mom!!
John J and JT left here and went to George and Beth's. An early Christmas present for George was tickets to the Bears game!! He and John rode bikes to Soldier Field and back!! I know this was a great present for George!!
Charles started basic training yesterday. I've been thinking of him so much that I've decided to make cheese soup tomorrow in his honor! John C's family is going to help serve the community Thanksgiving meal in Burlington. John and I had planned to have a quiet day at home (and I DID help with Elizabeth's meal at the Ronald McDonald House) but we'll see.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, it's another birthday! :-)
I had a good time this weekend at Elizabeth's. We each had a Dr apt on Friday that went pretty well. Then, Friday night Elizabeth was in charge of organizing a meal by her ODK Honor Society for the Ronald McDonald House. That went really well. LOTS OF GOOD FOOD. My mom sent a huge sweet potato casserole. In between everything, Elizabeth and I did a lot of shopping. :-)

Pensacola

We've had a great show at The Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival. We walked on the beach Thursday afternoon and every morning before the show, getting up about 5:30 so we'd have time for a nice walk. With the rain coming in before the hurricane, tomorrow is just not going to be a good day for shelling. We hope to have time to get in a morning walk before the rain starts. We'll be heading home later in the morning. John C doesn't find shopping in Pensacola to have the same appeal as playing in the waves!

Friday at Pensacola

We had a very successful Friday. Sales were great and the weather was awesome!!!!!!!!! I don't think we've ever had a prettier day here.
I wanted to share the photo of the tatting/smocking/French hand sewing booth next to us. It makes me drool. I can tat and smock, of course, so I don't need to buy anything there. But, I LOVE to look! :-)
I also enjoyed watching the spinners for awhile. One of them was spinning her dog's hair. He wasn't overjoyed about getting brushed. :-)
And here's a photo taken this evening from the bridge to Pensacola Beach.

Hello Pensacola

Our trip to Pensacola was smooth and uneventful, except for driving so far yesterday because there are so few places to stop on 45 in southern Mississippi. We arrived at the show at 9 am, a record. However, we couldn't set up until 12:30 because of a tour. So, we put chairs out beside the car and enjoyed the warm breeze for awhile, walked around awhile (I found a great consignment shop!), and had lunch. We still had lots of time for a long walk on the beach and visits to some of the shops. There's much less in all of the shops this year. The rates at all the motels seemed down. BUT, there were more people here on the beaches today than we've seen for a long time.
We really enjoyed the Kia! I can't believe how much room it has. The seats were taken out and left at the rental place in Burlington. We got the workbench INSIDE and had plenty of room for the suitcases and the large cooler. I suppose John C has less for sale this trip, though, so there may have been less boxes. The gas mileage was about double that of the Suburban. We really like the doors, also. It's easier to load and unload with the door alongside the car instead of sticking out at an angle. Hmm. What else? Oh, there are separate temperature controls for the driver's side and passenger side. The seats were REALLY comfortable and there was lots of leg room.
I'll get better photos later and we'll send postcards to all the little ones.
Thinking of Ft. Hood tonight.

Weekend in Chicago

We had such a fun weekend in Chicago!
Elizabeth picked us up Saturday morning and drove us to George and Beth's. A great advantage to having a college age child with a car is having a chauffeur! We had a smooth trip over and arrived in time to relax and visit before heading out for Trick or Treating. We went to the same wonderfully fun street as last year. I noticed a lot of homes for sale on the street this year. Lots of yard displays making political commentary again this year, and one had hung an effigy of a real estate agent! :-)
John and JT arrived later in the evening, after JT went Trick or Treating with his mom in Kenosha.
Sunday morning we had time to visit and get ready for Gabe's birthday brunch. YUM!!!!!! Lots of great food! Gail made a quiche and a spinach casserole, and a wonderful pumpkin bread with chocolate chips! Beth and George did home fries with Iowa potatoes, buttermilk pancakes with Iowa raspberries and Michigan blueberries as well as apple pancakes. The birthday cake was a Winnie the Pooh design.
Gabe got lots of great presents but probably favorites will be the town rug from Mom and Dad and the scooter from Grandparents Dunlap!
Monday morning we got up EARLY and John C drove us back to Iowa City for Elizabeth's check up at the oral surgeons office. Her dry socket appears to have healed sufficiently to leave the packing out now! YEA! We did some quick shopping afterwards and then I drove home and Elizabeth headed back to Iowa City and the rec center for work. BUSY DAYS!!
Tomorrow we leave for our show in Pensacola. We'll rent a van this year and we'll be going through Mississippi again. I probably won't have internet access in Pensacola.