Mother's Day

It was shaping up to be another hot Mother's Day again this year.  The newscasts we saw shared that our area could get up to 85 degrees.  Since Erika was getting closer to her due date, I asked her what kind of food she wanted for her almost first Mother's Day.  She did not hesitate, hamburgers!  I made a menu, assigned everyone an item to bring and emailed them with the info.

The Friday before, I had taken off a half day so I could work on my wedding dress with Mom, we also went shopping for our Mother's Day gathering.  We thought we'd hit two birds with one stone.  It was nice to get that task out of the way so I could focus on cleaning, mowing the lawn and putting away stuff the next day. 

On Saturday, I got some much needed sleeping in time, got up, ate breakfast and did a couple chores.  I went outside and did some yard work and got the lawn mower out and did the front yard first, followed by the back yard.  I am so glad it doesn't take very long to mow the yard.  Rhonda was out in her yard, so I went over there for a bit and chatted it up with her.  She said she was having a small Mother's Day gathering with her family later on that day instead of on Sunday.   

I finished up the yard work and put everything back.  Ben got ready to head to his shift at the racetrack.  He wasn't too thrilled into going because he's always the person who steps up and volunteers his time when people are needed. I still don't understand (to this day) why they didn't make it a requirement for everyone to pull a shift at the racetrack.  I will never know why.

I spent the rest of the day and evening organizing the house, cleaning and finally relaxing.  I spent some time blogging, working on wedding stuff and watching my shows.  We were almost two months out and had so much stuff left to do.  I made several lists.  It seemed like it was never ending but I knew we would get everything done before go time. 

That morning, I got up around 9 and started finishing up everything.  We got the tables outside, Ben brought out the chairs and we set up everything and had to tape the tablecloths down...for some reason, the wind knows when we're having a party outside.  As it got closer to food time, Ben got the grill going and I went inside to get the hamburger condiments and veggies all cut up and organized.  I had to wait for the tomatoes and the onion because Grandma and Mom weren't there yet. 

Everyone showed up around noon, but Grandma and Mom still weren't there. I called to see what was happening and Mom answered and said they got distracted but they were almost to Lacey.  I told them to hurry because I had to finish getting the food ready.  I had Ben set up a couple extra card tables outside so we could put the Mother's Day presents and the desserts on them.  Ben and I provided the burger, beans, cheese, lettuce, pickles and condiments, Mom made the potato salad, Erika and Zac brought the Oreo cake, Doug brought chips, Trish brought fruit and as always, I had everyone bring their own drinks. 

Once Mom and Grandma got there, I was able to get the onions and tomatoes cut up with the mandolin, assembled it on the platter and got a large spoon out for the potato salad.  As the burgers got done, I had everyone help me take out the other food to the tables.  Ben said the burgers were done so we all dished up and found a place to sit down.  As we ate, we all realized that some of our burgers were still mooing.  I asked Ben, are you sure these are done?  He said, they should be.  They weren't.  I ended up eating mine, but Mom, Erika and Amy had a hard time with theirs.

We finished up and ate the delicious Oreo cake Erika made.  The mom's and mother to be, opened their gifts. Erika got a bunch of baby things while the rest of the mom's got flowers and other fun things.  I got my mom a new Mariner shirt. I was so happy the weather was gorgeous for a fun day with our family out in the back yard.  I asked everyone before they left, to get a group picture in the front yard in front of the Rhodie.  Everyone agreed.  They gathered up all of their stuff and started getting ready to go.  I grabbed the selfie stick, got everyone together and snapped a picture.  This could be our last family picture before our newest family member arrived!

Everyone thanked us for hosting and some hugs were given out.  Everyone went home to get ready for the work week.  Ben and I spent some time cleaning up the kitchen and putting everything away from the back yard.  It went quickly with both of us working on it.  The rest of the day, we relaxed, did some laundry and worked on some more wedding stuff. 

Next Adventure:  Memorial Day Weekend:  Good Food, Wedding Dress, Errands, Zac's Birthday and Hanging Out with Josh and Heather

Yes to a Dress, Errands and Some Northern Lights!

A few weeks ago, Mom and I were talking about what we were going to do with my dress situation.  I wanted to incorporate my dress with Mom's dress and Erika's veil. We were running out of time. Mom suggested that we go take a visit to the place that she and Erika went to last summer in Centralia.  We booked an appointment online and waited for the day to come.  I asked my supervisor if I could take a half a day, and she said sure.  I put in my leave and gathered up the stuff we needed for the appointment. 

I logged off at 11:30 and went to go let Murphy out.  I don't normally let him out on Fridays, but Rhonda and Brad were on their way to New Zealand for his several weeks-long hunting trip.  I drove out to Rainier and picked Mom up.  She was actually ready to go this time when I got there.  We drove the back way through Bucoda because I didn't want to drive down the freeway on a Friday.

We got down there super early so we took a detour to Fort Borst Park to see if we could find the cache, Borst-ing with Love (GCABWXH).  We parked as close as we could inside the park, got out and walked to ground zero.  The coords were so bad.  We didn't end up finding it because we ran out of time to look.  I will have to go back soon and look for it when I have more time.  We walked back to the Escape and headed into downtown Centralia. 

We found a place to park, at the many free areas near the train station, grabbed the dress and walked to Doria's.  It was locked.  We looked at the sign and it said they were with a client and to call to have her let you in.  We were super confused because our appointment was at 2 and it was literally minutes from 2.  Mom called the lady, and she let us in.  It was a weird exchange because she acted like we weren't supposed to be there.  We explained that we booked an appointment online for this afternoon at 2.  She went to look at her computer and she said, you're right, you have an appointment at 2.

She asked what we were looking for and we explained.  She looked at us like we were crazy, and we probably were not allowing that much time for her to do anything with the dress I was holding.  She added that it was not going to happen because she was going to be on vacation most of June.  We thanked her anyway and she gave us a refund on our consult visit with her.  We decided to try elsewhere, and Mom called another dress altering place.  The lady was out running errands, and we didn't want to wait.

We took the dress back to the Escape and Mom said she was hungry.  I asked her where she wanted to go.  She said the same place on the corner where she and Erika ate last summer.  I asked her, which is?  She pointed it out and I was like, they have an O'Blarney's in Centralia?  Apparently, they do.  We walked over and went inside.  We were immediately seated, and our server was eccentrically entertaining.  We both ordered strawberry lemonades, burgers and fries.  We talked about a bunch of stuff we still had left to do for the wedding while we waited and ate.

As we sat there, I saw a man and a women sitting a couple tables away and she looked super familiar, but I could not figure out why or how I knew her.  She kept looking at me too.  We both finished eating about the same time and paid.  Mom and I got up and I noticed the man and woman also got up.  She was on her phone, and we walked out the same way.  She got my attention and showed me her phone.  She asked me if I was Cougarcach24 and showed me a recent picture I posted in Instagram.  I said that is me.  She follows me on Instagram, and I follow her on Instagram.  Her geocaching name is Dovekc (Karen), and she geocaches with Nicsac (Nikki).  I met them years ago during geocaching events in Thurston and Lewis County.  I haven't seen her in years and I kinda felt like a celebrity that afternoon, especially when people know me in random places. 

Mom and I decided to check out the Goodwill and get some gas at the Arco while Mom used the restroom.  I bought a Pepsi Zero while she was inside the store.  We got onto I-5 and drove north towards Olympia.  We went to JC Penny's, Macy's, the Seattle Sports Store (obviously not for a dress), and other places before I settled on a dress from Macy's for $40.  They were having a Mother's Day sale, and my dress was originally $50 but with the discount, it was $40 and some change. 

Mom wanted to go to JoAnne's, so we drove over there.  Mom found some fabric she needed.  Afterwards, we went to Tumwater and did some grocery shopping to get it out of the way.  We hit up Walmart, Costco and Fred Meyers and then afterwards visited Grammie and Grandpa at the cemetery. We went the back way to Rainier to drop Mom off.  I drove home, showered, did some laundry, other random things, did some blogging, listened to some of my podcasts and ate some popcorn.

I remembered that the northern lights were supposed to be visible that night.  I went out around 11 that night and it was awesome!  You could see it with your naked eye during some parts of it, but you could actually see the vibrant colors if you took pictures of it with your cell phone.  It was an amazing experience.  I've always wanted to see the northern lights from Alaska or Norway, but to be able to see them from our backyard in the Pacific Northwest?  Utterly amazing!  I told Ben to get off his butt and to come outside to see it.  He was glad he did.  He said it was a memorable night!

I went outside off and on for the next couple hours to see if it looked any different.  It wasn't as vibrant as it was at around 11-11:30 that night. It was definitely once in a lifetime from Washington State.  I eventually went to bed after a long day of choices and watching the northern lights!

Almost two more months until the wedding!

Next Adventure: Mother's Day

Trish Finally Retires!

Last May, while we were at a geocaching event, Trish called Ben with some exciting news.  She is going to try her best to retire from 25 years at Korum in Puyallup. She has been working most of her life and she knew this was going to be a huge transition.  Ever since I've known her, she was not able to take a lot of time off, when she did, she came back to work severely behind because the management would not hire a team of warranty specialists to help her.  She did the job of three or more people for years.  She missed a lot of family memories as well because she worked some of her weekends away.  Memories we won't get back.

Of course, I couldn't help myself and we NEEDED to have a retirement party for her.  She was reluctant but she eventually agreed.  I asked her to think about what she wanted to do with family to celebrate her on her special day.  She tried to downplay it, but I told her that retiring is a huge deal!  

We had a little bit of drama right before we were supposed to celebrate it.  I was on the calendar first, but she let her co-workers grab the same day.  Luckily, they ended up doing something the Friday before so it wouldn't conflict with our day.  She wanted to do a family thing at the Olive Garden in Puyallup.  I let everyone know and decided to meet up around 2.  Yes, we made sure to get there relatively early because the Olive Garden is always so busy! 

Ben and I stayed up way too late the night before.  We had Josh and Heather come over for dinner.  We had BBQ chicken, potato salad and rice.  We played Most Likely and marbles. Heather struggled staying up since she gets up at like 4:30 to go to work.  We all had fun.

I got up around 9:30, fed the cats and took a shower.  Ben stayed in bed, and I had to bother him to make him get up and get ready.  He finally got up, shaved and showered.  I did my hair and make-up and wore jeans.  Since Covid, that is super fancy for me.  Ben got dressed and I told Erika that we would be over to pick her up around noonish.  Zac was in Vancouver with his brother helping their mom, Nancy, with some stuff.  We didn't invite Doug for various reasons. 

We picked Erika up and we all went to Fred Meyers to get Trish a gift and a card, yes, we waited until the last minute.  Erika ended up getting a Starbucks and had a hard time with the barista.  Then we had to wait for Erika who was getting impatient with the barista.  She eventually came out; we drove around and picked her up.  She was getting closer to her due date and had a hard time waddling around.  We got onto I-5 north and the freeway was super busy.  We got stuck in Dupont/JBLM traffic for a while.  The weather was really poor, and it rained a lot.

We got into Puyallup around 1:30, found a parking spot and Ben went inside to make sure we had a table.  Erika and I got organized and went inside.  Mom, Dad and Grandma arrived about the same time we did.  We all waited in the lobby until our table was ready.  Ed showed up shortly after we did, and Trish and Amy were late.  It actually was beneficial that they were a little bit late because then I was able to decorate the table with a few retirement decorations.

They arrived just after 2 p.m.  Our waiter got our drink orders and then the food orders.  We spent the time waiting to talk about random things.  Trish told us about her last day of work and how she was celebrated the day before.  We ate a lot of breadsticks and salad and then got our food.  I got the chicken alfredo, and it was tasty.  I am glad I remembered our gift card we've been sitting on for over 5+ years.  It came in super handy.  We paid for Trish's dinner, and she opened some gifts, cards and received some flowers.  She appreciated all of us and thanked us for coming. 

Mom, Dad, Erika and Grandma went home, and Ben and I went over to his mom's house to visit for a bit.  We hit some poor traffic on Hwy 410 going up the hill into Bonney Lake.  When we finally got there, we chatted with Trish about her last day more in depth, talked about the wedding and everything in between when it came up.  We got talked into playing two rounds of dice...I lost.  We chatted with Amy about some of her issues, more about the wedding stuff and asked Trish about Ben's grandparents' personal items.  She was able to find a couple things for me.  I stuffed them into a bag and took it out to the car after we said our goodbyes.

We headed home.  The traffic was light, so we were able to get home quickly.  Ben wanted a Blizzard, so we stopped at the one near our house.  I got an Oreo, and he got a peanut butter cookie party.  We got home, changed into comfy clothes, Ben played his games, and I worked on my wedding vows.  We went to bed after 1 a.m.

May the 4th be with you!

Next Adventure:  Yes, to a Dress, Errands and Some Northern Lights!