What a last week (or two? I have no idea anymore.) this has been! I logged more miles in five days than I have in a long time. Some of those miles were happy miles, sad miles, and contemplative miles. I would not trade them for anything, but this girl did not know what end was up for a few days after.

I started out on the 1st of February driving to Dubuque for the state speech contest courtesy of one of my sweet friends. She wanted her son to go and I offered to drive him over. She did not think we should get up at 5:00 am Saturday morning to go so she booked a hotel room for us to go. I really did not think this was necessary, but in hindsight this became a terrific idea due to the weather. On Saturday we watched Shali and her friends perform in the state speech contest and received a I for their efforts!

From Dubuque, I went to Rob’s house in Minnesota on Saturday after state speech. Another 3 hour drive, but with beautiful scenery. We had a great time together watching the Super Bowl and hanging out together. During that time, I found out my grandmother in Burlington passed away.

I came home Sunday night very grateful for the people in my life for the help they give. The kids were packed and ready to go for Monday.

Monday morning involved driving to Shali’s doctor appointment in Emmetsburg where Dr. Slattery declared her perfect. She has no pain from the sports hernia and she played as normal as she can. Although I still haven’t figured out how she twists and moves like she does, she plays hard and loves it.

Monday afternoon and night got crazier. We drove to Eagle Grove for Shali’s last regular season basketball game as a senior. I think every milestone this year is making graduation more and more of a reality. A bit sad and excited for the future at the same time.

From Eagle Grove, we drove to Burlington. We arrived in Burlington around 11:30 pm and we all crashed hard at our hotel. If you are staying in Burlington, I recommend the Comfort Suites. The rooms were clean and the beds comfortable. I booked it off Priceline and got a decent price on the room.

Tuesday morning we were up, showered, dressed, checked out, and at the funeral home by 9:00. I don’t know about anyone else, but to me that is impressive. I was a pall bearer and, as a family, we got our chance to say our last goodbyes to my grandmother. She was ready to go to heaven and be with my grandfather. I am happy that she gets to be with him again.

We got our family pictures taken because we were altogether and that does not happen very often. After a short prayer service, we drove to the church for the funeral. Then to the graveside service at the cemetery across town. Then back to the church for the lunch. We had a good time catching up with everyone and letting the younger cousins play together. Then back to my grandma’s house to hang out with the family some more. Then we headed home, getting there around 9:30 pm.

We unpacked the van and went to bed. Dane woke up Wednesday morning sick with stomach troubles and a fever which took him a good deal of the day to get over. I got another day to get caught up with laundry, dishes, baking, and mail.

Thursday was back to work and a bit of normal for me and my schedule. I can handle normal. Most days.

Shali’s last high school basketball game was Thursday. We lost the district game to North Iowa and that is all I will say about that.

On Friday, I worked and took Jordan to the doctor on a follow-up for her stomach. We got some good news, caution news, and not-so-good news. Time will tell there. Friday night, we had great friends over for cards and general kid craziness.

To make up for being gone so much and because my sanity required it, I stayed home all last weekend.

It was great.

If you notice in the blog title for this week, I left off the frugal. There was nothing frugal about my last week or two. I did try to stem the flow of money leaving the pocketbook, but five tanks of fuel did nothing to help that. Oh well, it was all worth it!

I do find staying home and not buying anything to be one of the best frugal activities. I do things around the house, use up things in the fridge, and make what I have on hand.

Last weekend, I tried a new recipe for the slow cooker, tried a new yogurt recipe, made two loaves of bread, made a batch of cookies, tried to make Meyer lemon marmalade, watched some shows on the DVR, took some naps, read, and cleaned house. Whew!

I think I will end the post here because reading all that over again is making me tired!

Have a great day!
Erica

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