Treasures from John’s basement…

Some original LPs of the New Christy Minstrels.  Julie and I loved listening to these on the way to trips like North Carolina when we were dating or early in our marriage.  It was cool to find them as record albums.  We are looking forward to hearing them in John’s nerd corner!

Speaking of pranks…

…I think we passed the tendency on to our kids… Savannah got John great while they were both at work the a week or two ago… hahahahahaha.  She was quite proud of herself and we all got a good laugh!

Never trust your mother in-law…❣️

As we are going through some of the stuff from their old house, I came across (and saved) this old mug of hers… I remember when she treated me to a nice cup of coffee during a Buckeye’s football game at there house.  She’d made a big deal about waiting on me hand and foot and presenting this “appropriate” mug… Well, imagine my surprise and horror when I got close to the bottom! She always loved a good prank on me!  I deserved it as I was always jump scaring her… 🤪

Johnny gifted me my backpack

We started working on cleaning our combined collections out of their basement a couple weekends ago.  I had given him this backpack for high school after I was done with it.  He’s done with it now, and gave it back to me.  I needed a “new” one for my recovery gear and supplies on the little ATV.  I good third home for it.  It’s already suffered a lot of abuse and survived so we will see how well it holds up in this application.

Cutting, drilling, and setting railroad ties…

The work at Camp Jabez is always interesting and different.  The week before last, we were tasked with getting these ties in place to keep the sand in the arena.  

The nerd corner!

John and Savannah are fixing up their basement so they can enjoy it.  She’s made a craft area and Johnny made this nerd corner for audio, instruments, etc.  He’s enjoying putting together our old systems and pulling out all our old CDs, cassettes, and even some LP’s. We’re discovering and re-discovering all kinds of past music and technology. Those are my speakers from college, Julie’s dual cassette deck from high school, and Steve’s phonograph.  Mixed in is an Amp I used to have, a DVD/VHS deck, and zillions of our old CDs and even some mix tapes🤪

Complete…

With this final hour or so, reading with my mom by the dock, our quick trip to lakeside was complete. We left with full hearts and tears of joy on our faces.  So blessed…! Thank you Lord!

Love this sailing pic I grabbed.

It was a beautiful day for it.  But a little bit of a quick trip to try this time. Too much other Lakeside wonderfulness to make sure we fit in.

Ian, Caroline and Laura took great care of us for meals!

They treated mom and me like a queen and prince! Here we are eating taco salads out back.

Cameo by Heather (Perry) Lutz who enjoyed her first Lakeside visit.  She’s Laura’s dear friend from high school.

I’ve run out of sick days…

…so I’m calling in dead!

This has to be my favorite Lakeside t-shirt.  It’s been around for about twenty years.  It’s faded, thin, and has holes, but I still hold onto it and wore it up there recently.  

Another options is to retire and not have to worry about sick days…! 🤪

I’d change it to I ran out of sick days so I called in retired! hahahahaha. 

Buzzed by a baby dear….!

As we were fixin’ to leave, a fawn read right past me from behind.  He was within a couple feet of me as he zoomed past.  We turned around to see his sibling and the mama trying to find him and get him back with the group.  Typical kid! Hahahaha.

A few rousing games of pickle ball

Caroline pretty much smoked all of us…! At least I held my own and scored a few points.  I enjoyed sitting on the wall and getting a break while watching her and Ian (he lost too) duke it out.  

Enjoying Patio donuts on my four step bench

The bench was about four steps from where we parked the golf cart haha. What a nice way to enjoy the morning. 

Cool mayfly colors and pic

Enjoying a Lakeside sunset with the gang❣️

Perry’s Monument and the sunset on Lake Erie❣️❣️

Wow!

I liked the gold lining around some of the clouds as the sun set behind them!

Cool sunset

That’s Ian and Caroline out on the left edge/corner of the dock.  We all enjoyed watching the sunset together.

Cool shirt

It has the names of all the north-south running streets in Lakeside including our old cottage’s street❤️ I got a sticker with the same graphic.

Once a mother, always a mother❣️

I tried a couple new sodas from Marylin’s of course!

We each tried a few sips.  Green apple was the winner by far.

And yes, we had lots of mayflies!

We payed several close/exciting games of shuffleboard.

I didn’t know this street existed in Lakeside haha

Fun crew hanging out at Lakeside

I got a “book bag” for my bike 🤪

It’s nice to have a coffee cup holder too! Haha

Looking both directions from my rock

I took a few minutes to reflect on the blessings in my life from the Lord while the rest of the crew went down to where Mom and Dad had their last picture taken together.  

Always great to walk out on the dock!

Fun to see the changes…

…and what’s still the same.  Of course the glider! It’s fun that the lighthouse made it into their decor.  We even saw some of dad’s handwriting 🤪

And Ian and Laura spotted this funnel cloud the night before we arrived!

Chillin’ on our old glider

It was nice to enjoy the view and the screened in porch again after all these years.  We sold the place 20 years ago…

Surprise surprise❣️ ❣️ ❣️

My mom knew she was going to Lakeside, but she DIDN’T know that she was going to be staying in our old cottage.  Laura managed to rent it for the week.  When we arrived, these three were sitting outside to welcome us.  My mom was overwhelmed with joy and happiness.  Speechless.  

What a great opportunity.  So many memories there!

The lightest trip to Lakeside ever?!

I had the privilege of taking my mom up to Lakeside to join Laura, Ian and Caroline for a day or two last week.  At least I still found a use for my trailer hitch.  My dad would have been proud ;)

I guess I made a good impression on Pebbles?

She even jumped up into my lap and laid there for a bit!

When I showed this to the kids, Andy said, “Are we just gonna ignore the fact that dad created a new CheezIt flavor?! Hahahahaha 

A weekend of hard work

We pizza and a game of giant Scrabble with John and Savannah after wearing ourselves out helping them get their basement useable again all weekend last weekend. I even won the game; probably only because Julie joined late 🤪

A pretty view from John and Savannah’s kitchen

Especially with her stained glass projects.  Janice would be happy to see that Savannah is cultivating her gardens.

100 years when Janice was born

We uncovered this Bible Janice bought when she found it was 100 years old when she was born! 

We’re digging up good memories in John’s basement

I netted a Minion during our dump run! 🤪

Fun seeing John working with his Grampy’s tape measure❣️

John has a cool jelly fish lava lamp!

Cool Journey pics

Ok, today’s post is just some cool pics from the Journey concert Julie and I saw a weekend ago.  I hope my camera did it justice.  We were all the way at the opposite end of the arena from the stage.  We liked our seats, enjoyed the show, and relived memories from the mid to late 80’s when we first met 🤪

They even broke out a Cincinnati Cyclones jersey at one point hahaha.

The Journey beetle is always cool

The backdrop to their entire stage was an LCD screen so they could make it look however they wanted.

Julie and I got to enjoy her Christmas present!

We saw a Journey concert in Cincinnati last weekend.  Lots of old people… hahahaha.

I guess you needed an ammo box sticker update too…?!

I rolled my trailer over my wheel chuck block…

…and buried it in the ground!

I found this old shadow box Julie made.

Her mom fond the things to put in it.