Friday – Monday Recap: Catchup Blog

Okay, let’s tell a tale through words and pictures that will recap my last few days. 

Friday was Studley.

Friday was a long workday (as are all Friday’s I think).  Once 4:00pm hit, I hit the roads.  I was headed to the craft store and to Target.  Mom had requested NCIS Season 2 for her birthday.  We really enjoy crime dramas and refer to them often in our real lives.  “You should touch that, you know they will dust it for fingerprints”, “Remember that one episode where the wife got away with it because she buried the husband in the backyard…. Remember it well”.

After acquiring the crime drama series, I headed over to Michaels to get crafts for our much-anticipated Paint + Wine = Awesomeness party next Friday at Amy’s house.  We are to bring 1 canvas, 1 fun paint, 1 bottle of wine and some snacks to share.  We are also to bring an inspirational piece of art/jewelry/saying, etc that will help to spark our created flair on that day.

I find that Michaels has Canvases on sale, so I get 7… because that’s how I shop.  Then I find the paints… and get about 8 of those.  They are so pretty and now I’m imagining all the stuff around the house I can paint and “up craft” in order to meet my current visual stimulation needs.  I also get some new brushes because the 12 I have at home might not be enough.  I finish it all up with push pins in order to complete my 007 (as in secret agent) coaster making project at home.

I got done with my craft-a-licious shopping and headed home to meet Jason.  We had a date night and were headed out to Hooker’s Resort to grill ourselves some Ribeyes.  Well, he’d be grilling the steaks and I’d be grilling the bread.  It turned out that he grilled it all and I just sipped on my very summery rum drink.  Che sara sara.

We headed over to the Thirsty Moose where our roommate, her bf, her sisters and friends were all having dinner and a couple of beverages.  Also there was our friend’s Sarah and Mike.  We met up with everyone and had a drink down by the lake at the tiki hut.  Jason’s back was bothering him so we decided to go home and relax there.  Which was fine with me because I knew I had a chocolate bar waiting in my purse and crafting supplies for the weekend.

Saturday I get up and do my normal morning Zumba routine.  50 minutes of jumping and salsa-ing my way into an extra slice of pizza and 2 brownies when necessary.  I work out so I can eat more of what I want.  And look sexy while I do it.  I ate some cinnamon raison toast for breakfast and then grabbed the husky and took him for a walk.

Tyson: Losing his mind as usual on the beginning of our walks. OMG, OMG, I’M FREEEEEEEEE!!!! SQUIRREL!

After our walk, which is 3 miles long… consisting of 1 mile of Tyson trying to walk me, 1 mile of him walking nicely besides me, and the last mile of him looking at me with something along the lines of doggy disdain.  I lead him to water after and let him pass out on the cool tiled kitchen floor.

I head over to the Piggly Wiggly (grocery store) for some much-needed lunch items and get a text from Dad and Jean that they are headed into town for the Farmer’s Market.  This is great news as I was trying desperately Friday to wrangle some friends to accompany me there, since Jason had to work all weekend, and much to my dismay it just didn’t align with my friend’s schedules.  So, I practically skipped out of piggly wiggly with (Jason’s) Mayo and (My) Kiwi’s and ran home to get ready to head out.

The Farmer’s market was wonderful.  We walked around, soaked in the beautiful weather, got to see and hear all the local Madison flavor and culture.  Got to spend time together.  It was just great!  Dad picked me up some fun food goodies.

Spicy Cheese Bread from Stella’s (the 6 mini-loaf pack), 2 quarts of organic strawberries and some cheese made for grilling/warming and serving with Wine. (Okay, maybe that’s not what it’s for…. but that’s what I made it for).

After the Farmer’s Market, we headed to Quivey’s Grove for lunch.  That was delicious.  I had a large salad and then their mocha fudge ice cream dessert.  A-maz-ing.  We stood outside afterwards and watched a wedding while we talked and plotted about my future wedding. 

The fact that Dad and Jean are so on board about talking “weddings” with me makes me happy.  They have high expectations and expect me to be with the best partners.  That they approve of Jason and our life together, while not necessary, really means the world to me.  Especially because Jason also means the world to me.

After this we headed to West Towne mall for some more chocolate, courtesy of Godiva, and some sparkly shopping.  I got some wonderful shoes, a pair of earrings and a few bracelets at Charming Charlies (aka best store for accessories EVER).  I also scored a seriously lovely set of rings from Swarovski Crystal.  They are called, “The Double Wide”.  I know that sounds like trailer, but they look like mansions… so I don’t care.  Plus it’s fun to tell people who Dad bought me a double wide.

Behold… the double wide.

We parted ways after the mall and I went home to make Jason and I dinner with my farmer’s market finds.  I made sandwiches and strawberries, and accompanied them with the cheese I fried up, some venison sausage and crackers… and wine.  Gnarley Head, Pinot Noir (As Jason would pronounce it, Peanut Norway).

Classy Ingrid Dinner Creation. Complete with Paper Plates and Flowery Wine Glasses.

I ended the night with some much-needed crafting time.  I finished up my 007 coasters.

Sewing the batting to the coasters.

28 Random Coasters made with Love… and a little blood because there was a lot of sewing pins in there.

Sunday I woke up with my normal Zumba routine, and then woke Jason up for a breakfast of Lunch with Elvis coffee, eggs and toast.  All courtesy of me.  So, they eggs were a little goofy looking, but the toast and coffee turned out great.  I went to work with him at my friend’s house in Cottage Grove.

Picture from Work Van side mirror. Notice I’m wearing the double wides. Oh yeah.

I spent the morning pulling nails out of baseboard that had been removed in order for him to install their new wood floor and was now needing to be re-installed… sans nails.  I’m not going to lie, after a couple of blisters and uncooperative nails, I was a little grumpy.  However, he did just gorgeous work. 

New Wood Floors in Foyer and Hallway. Courtesy of Jason.

We got done around 1:00pm and headed home to rest and relax by the pool.  Our roommate had family over to enjoy the pool and their children.  We all ended up hanging out, splashing, sun bathing and eating by the lovely pool.  Jason makes a good pool boy too.  I took about a 1.5 hour nap after that and Jason made some phenomenal Chicken Parmesan.  Mmmm Mmmm Good.  With squiggly noodles, which are my fav.

After dinner I found some old quilt(ish) projects that I had started and decided Sunday evening was as good a time as any to finish them.  So, I had at it and completed them.

The yellow backing on the pretty kitty quilt is super soft. I think Jason almost cuddled up with it.

Shortly after finishing these projects, we trotted off to bed like good little boys and girls to be well-rested for our Monday.

Monday was an uneventful day at work, but I got to leave early to go get my retainer which I have to wear for 6-8 weeks until my invisalign aligners arrive.  Goody goody.  I wore it last night, until we started drinking wine.  Yeah, wine on Monday… it just seemed like that kind of day.  We re-heated the chicken parmesan leftovers… equally as delicious on the second day.  We went for a quick shopping trip to get brownies, because not only was it a wine-monday… but I really needed it to be a brownie-monday also.  So Jason drug his tired butt with me to the store and we were able to fulfill that request.

I finished the evening off while Jason watched the Stanley cup with some crafting.  I had gotten the idea to create cube decorations inspired by another fun blog I follow.  I gave one to Mom in her birthday gifts… which was almost (but not quite) a week late.  I’m sure the anticipation made it totally worth it.

 

Cube-Flags of Awesomeness

Probably the best (most adult) decision we made was to NOT finish the bottle of wine and go to bed at 9:00pm.  We were both exhausted from our Monday’s and needed a fresh start for our Tuesday (Terrific Tuesday as Jason often texts me in the morning). 

 

It’s been a good few days.  Tonight is Vince’s first baseball game of the season.  I’m super excited to get to cheer him on and watch him progress in this endeavour.  I’m proud of him.  He’s a pretty cool little dude.

Vince and Ingrid Take Downtown

We started our Saturday (5/19) at 8:00am by heading downtown Madison.  Vincent and I were spending the day together because Jason had to spend the day working.  Vince was given the choice between hanging out with me and going to work with his Dad.  He chose me.  Or rather, he chose to NOT go to work with his dad because “work is super boring”. 

The farmers market is an event held every saturday and it happens on the large sidewalk that surround the capital building.  All around the sidewalk is vendors of cheese, veggies, flowers, and anything else local and delicious.  It is an event that is well attended and revered in this area.

I gave him a heads up about what time we would be leaving and he was ready and walking out the door with me right on time.  We parked in a ramp and starting our walk around the perimeter of the farmers market towards starbucks.  At this point Vince is eyeing me up and wondering if I have tricked him into a day of walking long, long distances.  I assure him that starbucks is only about 4 blocks away. 

There is a long line when we get there, but it goes fast.  He reluctantly enjoys his decaf Mocha Frappuccino.  He was trying to make a strong argument for caffine, but I wasn’t having it.  We were going to have enough treats today… I didn’t need a tasmanian vince whirling about with thousands of unsuspecting people milling around.

The lady behind the counter made some smart comment about Vincent having a starbucks beverage in her hand.  A note to her: if you don’t know what you are talking about… shut your hole.  I probably would have tipped you if you hadn’t insinuated that I’m a dolt that would get a child a large caffinated beverage and parade him around town.  You ma’am, are judgy wudgy.

Vincent wasn’t totally sold on the hot and spicy cheese bread.  He asked exactly how hot it was, how spicy it was, etc.  I tore off a piece and he gingerly placed it in his mouth and chewed like he was waiting for some kind of brocoli sprout to come out of the bread… then he broke into a huge grin and asked for more.  When I told him I was glad he liked it, his response was, “I don’t like it.  I LOVE IT.”  That was worth every penny of the spicy cheese bread.

Stellas Hot & Spicy Cheese Bread

After devouring a good portion of the cheese bread, we rolled up the leftovers and went inside the Capitol.  It was nice and cool in there, the bathrooms were clean and there wasn’t that many people roaming about.  It was the perfect day to take the little Monkey in there.  If there was a railing he slid on it, a stairwell he climbed it and a window he peeked out of it.  

He had a great time and I was truly content to watch him explore and marvel at the freedom we had to roam the capitol building.  It was a pretty fun experience and I’m glad I got to share it with him.  We took the stairs up until we were pretty sure we were in a section we weren’t supposed to be in.  Everytime I approved our ascent up another flight of stairs his eyes would light up and he would say, “thank you”.  

We took the elevator down, which caused some anxiety for him and I because it sounded odd in there and he was sure for a half second that we were going to get stuck in there.  Luckily he regained his composure as we exited unharmed.  We gathered up our stuff and headed back out into the sunshine and chaos that is the Saturday Farmers Market.

If this doesn’t say mischief, I don’t know what does.

Vince showing off the Liberty Bell

Posing by the Big Ol Bell

Vince Standing Tall

If you look SUPER close, you’ll see me at the bottom :)

 

Next Stop was the Veterans Museum and luckily they had bathrooms too as we both needed to stop again to relieve ourselves.  Vince was pretty impressed with the Museum and spent most of the time naming off all the guns in the display case.  I was appropriately impressed by the accuracy at which he went about naming the guns. 

He seemed disappointed at one point when he thought they were wax guns, but I told him they were real and once probably used to shoot someone.  Coolness factor went way back up.

Guns…

More guns…

Cannon Ball – In case you were wondering, there is a sensor under these and they will come and give you a talking to if you pick one up. Just FYI.

After the Veterans Museum, we decided to go see the Hunger Games.  We had some time to kill though so we stopped by Shopko and walked around there.  We picked up some pool supplies for later as we were fully intending on un covering the pool and taking a dip to celebrate our amazing day.  We stocked up on some floaties and goggles and felt fully prepared for wherever the day led us… as long as it led us to a pool.

No pool excitement here. Nope.

We got to hunger games and had to wait 45 minutes for the movie.  We grabbed our “lunch” of popcorn, pretzel bites and soda and sat in the hall waiting.  Vince spent the time running up and down the hall, investigating nooks and crannies and finding some 3d glasses to confiscate for himself.  He waited really well for being full of soda and eagerness for a movie. 

 

Lunch

Happy Camper

 

We found our seats and watched all 2 hours and 20 some minutes of the movie.  He had not read the book and spent most of the movie asking what was going on and why.  It wouldn’t have been so intense, but I think the caffiene affected his volume so what would start as a whisper would end up a normal level conversation.  I would gently remind him to be quiet which would last about 38.7 seconds. 

After having to pee for the 2nd time during the movie, he turns to me and sincerely notifies me that he is going to pee in his soda cup so he doens’t miss any of the movie.  (I can’t make that up).  I stare at him and let him know that is absolutely not an option.  He is truly upset that I don’t appreciate his ingenious idea and stomps off to go to the bathroom after making me swear that I would fill him in on everything he missed.

We enjoyed the movie… and when it was done we were off to the races to get home.  He slept most of the way home, cradeling his new Tom Sawyer and the Undead book. 

Tired him out :)

We got home and he woke up, ran inside, and ran to the pool.  We uncovered it and he stood there staring at the water.  He was a little leery about the temperature and was trying to make a case for me to jump in first. 

I really just wanted to sun bathe, but I decided to take one for the team and did a running jump into a perfect cannon ball.  He was a little swimming machine after that.  He did take the time tolet me know that he would be peeing off the deck periodically and I shouldn’t be alarmed because that is just what he does when he goes swimming.

Swimming machine

Lesson learned: Vince will take any opportunity to relieve himself and does not have any qualms about when, where or how.  THAT is one of the things I missed out on by having a sister instead of a brother.  Noted for future reference.