Riding With the Top Down

 

Riding with the Top Down

Mr. Tennis a/k/a the Rickster has a convertible!  

Yes, he bought it a number of years ago without consulting me -- generally his MO when buying vehicles.  

One year, he and two salesmen showed up at the house -- he had bought an old used pickup and needed to get a check!!  Yes, I was surprised! I didn't know he was in the market for a small pickup! 

 It was a great little pickup and everyone in our neighborhood borrowed it to get mulch for their yard each spring.  

Sadly, most who borrowed it brought it back with the gas tank empty. 

One neighbor even told him when he brought it back that it needed gas!  

Hey, thanks dude and you're welcome!  :0 

Walt (age 9) and Rickster

Anyway, I digress - back to the convertible.  

As you might guess, it has a limited season of use and it's 2020 time is nearly up as the temps get cooler. 

 So, he decided to take each of the Little Grands for outings the last two weekends,

 except the baby - she's only 1-1/2.

Jane (now 10) was first and somehow missed the photo op!

Harry (age 7) and Rickster

They had so much fun riding in the convertible with him.  

They each went to some different places including to the zoo, to see a horse and each got lunch or a candy bar!  Those were 4 very successful outings with Poppa and they were only gone for 2 hours.

They are all requesting repeats already.

Dorothy (age 4) and Rickster

  He also gave each one some foreign currency!  

One received Canadian dollars; one got some Filipino cash, one some Chinese Yuan and

 Dorothy got some money from the Bahamas -- 

probably none of it worth more than $1 -- but very, very cool!  

I'm not sure what the next adventures with Poppa will be next time.

Of course, we're now having a warmup in temps so riding

with the top down can continue for a couple more weeks!

This and That and Whatever

Hello Friends!

Oh my word -- how did it get to be the end of May already?

Sorry to be sooooo slow to update.

Happy to report Mr. Tennis is recovering well from his ailments 

and hospital stay.

Online learning during this covid time

of life and final semester of senior year has been challenging
to put it mildly.
Imagine your final high school semester and all the fun stuff
cancelled all of a sudden!
Meanwhile, teachers loaded on the homework assignments!
Not fun!
But, Maddie focused and finished strong even
with the challenges of at-home learning.
One of the hardest parts (besides the excessive classwork)
was not being able to see classmates and friends.



She really enjoyed the TCA learning which involved half-days at her
home high school (Pius X) and half days at the
community college. She would highly recommend that to any
students who have the opportunity.  Great chance to get out of your
home high school and expand horizons and learning!
Graduation is currently scheduled for early August.
We wish they would have it sooner - like in the football field?
That would allow for ample social distancing!

Our city had a fun neighborhood grad walk last weekend
and I will tell you about that next!

Oh . .. and our pup Frannie has been growing fast!
More about her later too!

Happy Birthday Mr. Tennis!

Last week we went out for a birthday dinner for

Mr. Tennis . . . also known as

The Rickster

Ricardo

Ricky!
How does he do it???
He gets better looking every year!

My sweet Dad and he had special names for each other!

Rickster called Al  -- Alberto and in return
Al called him Ricardo!
Perfecto names for those two!

Besides playing tennis (hence the name Mr. Tennis),

he likes to ride his horse and do a bit of

golfing too.

Somewhere he fits in working! :)

We had a fabulous meal and shared

a delicious birthday dessert

Chocolate Excess!

What is Chocolate Excess you ask???
We have it every chance we get!
It's a triple fudge brownie covered in walnuts and
shards of chocolate.  It's served warm
with the finest French vanilla ice cream,
ribbons of hot fudge and a splash of Kahlua!
It is divine!

Catching Up ... A Little

Hello there -- Yay -- it's Wednesday -- my third favorite day of the work week,
just behind second place-Thursday and first place-Friday!
Oh my word, I've gotten way behind on blogging, haven't I.

I will be attempting to catch up a bit.

We had the Best. Time. Ever. on our spring break trip

to Walt Disney World!
The weather was perfect and so nice to 

have warm sunny skies while
winter continued into its 96th week in Nebraska!!

The only downer (do people still say "downer?") was that Mr. Tennis was unable to go with us.
He has not been feeling the best and that's putting it mildly.  OY!!
Truth be told - I was worried about leaving him at home!
Back in November, he was in the hospital for a Crohn's flareup and meds were changed,
which helped a teensy bit for a little while.
But, he was feeling quite poorly before a pre-surgery checkup, and it was discovered

he also has rheumatoid arthritis (another auto-immune disease)!

Right after we returned, he he had surgery and just starting some new meds to fight the
auto-immune issues.  He is doing better lately and we are so delighted
to see him feeling more like his usual self.
He's such a trooper and has been working at least half days or

more and finally able to get out and see his beloved horse -- not ride her -- 

but visit her and that has brightened his days!  Yay!

Love the castle!

But, let's put all that stress and worry behind us and
talk about Disney -- our favorite place!
The weather was absolutely heavenly!
Warm and sunny and not even humid!!
After such a long and dreadful winter - we were
definitely ready for sunshine and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse!



Maddie and caught a flight to Orlando at 5:15 AM!
Oy!!  Why do I always think that the first flights are the best and we have
to be at the airport by 4 AM!!  Yikes!
But . . . the best thing about those early flights is an early arrival -- we were at our hotel
by 12:30 or 1 PM!
We visited Epcot and Magic Kingdom that day and planned our strategies for days to come.
Of course, we couldn't leave Magic Kingdom without a Mickey ice cream bar!
Stay tuned!

Weekend Update

Hello Friends!

Wow -- the month of May is going fast already, isn't it!

Last weekend was the marathon here in Lincoln as it is

in many cities.  

No, I didn't run.  My training (ha - what training!) is not sufficient for me

to attempt to run a marathon, but my son, Philip, ran the half-marathon.

The route goes about a block away from my house so I ran up to watch 

the runners and look for him. 

 Out of the the 10,000 runners, I wasn't

too sure I'd see him. 

 But after about 10 minutes of scanning each runner who went by,

 I spied him running along at a good pace!

Later, his family found him at another spot in the marathon.

I think it was his 4th half-marathon

and he got a personal best time.

Congrats PTB!

Too adorable that Janie dressed up as a kitty and Walt as Darth Vader!

Later, Catherine and the kids came over for muffins and chocolate milk!

After that healthy snack, Mr. Tennis gave them all a lesson in 

flower planting and watering!

Such a fun start to Sunday!

An Update

Hello Friends!

Modeling a dress she got for the choir concert in May.

Thought I would do a quick mid-week update to let

you know that prayers were answered and 

Mr. Tennis is feeling so much better!

Out of the hospital last Friday and

even though the docs, nurses and staffers

are fabulous, we're going to try to avoid that place!

In other news, it was 90 degrees here yesterday

in Nebraska!

Holy cow -- it's still winter!

That was hot.

Today, we're back to a balmy 34 in the AM with later-day

highs in the 50s.  Perfect!

And flowers are popping up and thinking about

getting ready to bloom!

Ours are not quite to this stage just yet!

I am so ready for the trees to get some buds and green up already,

aren't you!

And that's about all the news I have -

some times . . . 

no news is good news!

When It Rains . . .

Have you ever had one of those weeks 

that you just want to erase from the calendar or at least your memory bank?
Kind of like "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?"

Last week was one of those!

The week started with Mr. Tennis not feeling well and 

ending up in the hospital for a couple days for tests.

Miss Maddy had a ton of homework!

Seriously -- what's with the math these days??

I thought all numbers were rational numbers -

I felt irrational and cranky after trying to decipher that homework.

Stress and anxiety made me wake up around 3 am every day

so I could worry in peace and quiet resulting

in a huge killer headache and neck ache.

Advil and some old muscle relaxers to the rescue!

On a better day for Muffy -- ignoring those pesky cats!

Even our pup Miss Muffy got ill and had to see the vet!

Still not sure what is the matter with her right front paw 

causing her to limp and cry. 

 Have you ever tried to soak a dog's paw???

No more pity party here.

This week is looking much better,

 the sun is shining, the temps are not freezing

and we all seem to be feeling pretty good!

A highlight from the week  --

while waiting in the hospital, the piped-in music changed from 

the usual Muzak to a Brahms lullaby!

So sweet - they play that whenever a new baby is born!

A little reminder - life is precious -- 

treasure every moment.

Happy B-day Mr. Tennis

It's the Rickster's b-day! I try to ignore my birthday and certainly do not add to my age -- in fact, I seem to be getting younger every single year!! We had a great vacation at Hilton Head! It was fun to see everyone and Maddy and Rick made so many new friends - I was already friends with everyone. He had a blast playing tennis and living up to his "Mr. Tennis" moniker! Since we just got back home late last night/early this morning, a slight change in plans. Maddy and I were going to whip up a quick cake for him, but we're rethinking that and decided that a dinner and cake at our favorite restaurant sounds good (and much easier too)! Happy Birthday Sweetie!

On the beach at Hilton Head!