grandpa pete

A week ago Sunday (17th), my Grandpa Pete passed away. It's one of those times that it's sort of a blessing since he hasn't been doing well for the past year. Even though it kind of felt like we lost Grandpa a while ago, it's still sad that it's final. He just turned 89 the day before he died. I always hate when I read obituaries of people who died one or two days before their next birthday, so I'm glad it was in this order for Grandpa! Plus, I hear he had a pretty good celebration with Grandma and his sister, so that's a nice last memory for them. The service was really, really nice...I usually don't have many feelings one way or another on services, so that says something. The pastor asked me right before the service — and I mean just as the family was gathering to enter the sanctuary — if I would read the grandchildren's memories (the original plan was for the pastor to do it) and I said I would. Even though I didn't make it through without crying, I'm glad he asked me to do it and I did. The family had some good bonding the night before at the funeral home when, after visiting hours were over, Mark broke out a cooler of Schmidt beer in the back of mom and dad's minivan and we all toasted Grandpa. Unfortunately some of the family had already left, so it wasn't all of us, but it was good times. I don't have the group pic, but here's this one.

tiniest kitten ever

Brian's aunt rescued an abandoned kitten from where she works. Yay! Brian got to see it when he went cicada collecting there, and when he told me about it, I was definitely, "Email her and ask if I can come see it!" So we went the next day, and they even generously fed us supper. Mmm. Since I didn't grow up around many animals, this is the tiniest kitten I've ever held. So precious. He/she? didn't stop moving the whole time I was holding him except just before we were going to leave, he fell asleep. Little buddy. Here are a couple of pictures. Unfortunately earlier in the week I was messing with my camera under the influence and failed to return it to its usual flash setting, so the pictures of kitten night didn't turn out as well as they could have. Mary's hands are the ones in the feeding pictures, and she's a petite woman, so you can imagine how small the kitten is. He's about two weeks old in these pictures.

fashion report

After hearing a fall fashion report on the radio yesterday, I decided there are about two things I might adopt: the velvet jacket and the purple handbag (this is not specifically what's in -- what's in is the color, but I thought a handbag might be nice). Maybe a jacket like this, but I'll most likely spring for this one. This handbag is pretty cute, though I'm not sure if the tassels are me. It's pretty much at the limit of what I would spend on a handbag, but this one caught my eye too. In reality, I will most likely see what Penney's has to offer! And, actually, I want my next purse to have only one handle and a zippered top, so that will be part of my next shopping goal. Also, I accidentally discovered the Crocs of handbags.

my, my, my

title has nothing to do with my post; I just noticed that all of my August posts started with an "M" and when I thought of "M" words, "U Can't Touch This" for some reason popped into my head. So I went with it.

I know I don't tell you often enough how much I like Pioneer Woman, so I wanted to share that we made this recipe for company on Sunday, and it was A. Maz. Ing. And easy (if you do it in a crockpot like we did). So good. Mark, this is what you have to look forward to next Monday for supper! (At least that's the plan.)

music hits me so hard!

miracle treat day

Not to be confused with the official Miracle Treat Day, which was yesterday and which we did participate in, we named a particular day last week miracle treat day after seeing the name on our DQ cups and having no idea what it actually was. This is our story.

We went to an area DQ one day last week for cool treats. I was pretty sure I was going to get a Peanut Buster Parfait, but the advertisements I've been seeing for the Girl Scouts Thin Mints blizzards kept tempting me. Odd, you might think, since I don't really like mint chocolate. A combination of things led to my temptation: 1. I do, strangely enough, like Thin Mints; 2. I like mint ice cream; 3. it is precisely my dislike of things that sometimes makes me want to try them. As much as I wanted to try it, I was pretty sure I didn't want a whole Thin Mints blizzard. So I decided I would see if there was any way I could get a sample. What the heck, right? I asked, and the guy was like, "Sure" and proceeded to make up an entire small Thin Mints blizzard. I thought maybe I had inadvertently ordered one by asking for a sample, but, no, he just gave us a small blizzard for free. We each tasted a spoonful, ordered what we really wanted, and put the rest of the Thin Mints blizzard in the freezer for the next day. Miracle Treat Day!

market street

In my post about Wichita Falls, I forgot to mention our visits to Market Street. MS is a cool grocery store close to Mark's apartment. It has a wide selection, some bulk goods, a large deli, a coffee shop, nice kitchen wares section, and a good wine/beer area. I think Mark likes to hang out there sometimes; I would too. My biggest excitement was that it carried two coffees on my Amazon wish list, so I could just buy them there! They also do milk in glass jars, which I love.

mhs class of '98!

At the end of July, Brian had his 10-year class reunion. I never disliked going to a 1000-student high school, but I do think a small class is pretty cool. His was a class of 36 (the exact number I learned from a trivia game played at the reunion). There are some pretty cool people in his class, and I know a good percentage of them from college, so I had a good time. Perhaps even more fun than I might have at my own next year, who knows? :) If I go. So the only pictures we got of the night were of this awesome double rainbow. The pictures don't do it justice, but you could see the full double rainbow, which, in my experience, is pretty rare. Oh, wait, we did get a person – Lindsay, sporting one of the sweet alcohol-themed prizes from the trivia game.