Whirlwind Work and Wedding Week in Wisconsin!

I am so sorry, fellow blog readers, about ignoring you the last 7 days!   It's been exhausting with trying to get everything done with the horrible heat and humidity in Wisconsin (as is the rest the of the country, I know)  The house will be closing on Tuesday, July 31 at 1pm.   The heat has been taking it's toll on my health, and I am struggling to keep up with the rigorous schedule we have set for ourselves.  But the finish line is in view, and we will be crossing it on Tuesday at 1 p.m.!

Loads of furniture have gone off with our grown kids... each destined to be put into use again for a while with them.  I can not count the number of loads that have went to a foster family, the woman's shelter, the local St. Vinnies store, and of course, the DUMP!!!!   The house is now almost cleared out and only a few small things remain to be sorted and stashed away in the motorhome.

Everything going into the motorhome is now loaded and mostly stowed away.  I still have to hook up the mulitple DVD players and recorders, and the VHS tape player because I am still not done transferring over the rest of the family videos...   shame on me.

We tried to get as much done last week before the weekend--- because on Friday the 20th we left the house AND the motorhome behind, destined to head to Marquette Michigan to the Ramada Inn for my nephew's weddding!   We attended the rehersal dinner, and then on Saturday the 21st was the wedding.   Christopher and Lyndsay have been together for seven years and we are sooo happy to see them join together in marriage.

They had a lovely ceremony outdoors in Presque Isle Park, just north of Marquette, MI.  Lyndsay's 9 year old daughter, Allison, was an integral part of the ceremony.  Christopher pledged vows to both her mother AND then to her.  After presenting his wife with a ring, he also presented little Allison with a necklace and placed it around her neck.  He is now Her Daddy, through and through.   When they combined their colored sands into a vase as a sign of unity, little Allison had her own sand to add to the vase too. Their cup truly runneth over....

Christopher is the only child of my sister, Linda and her husband Mike (Fuzz) ...  Wow, my sister sure looked sexy hot momma in her fancy dress, and Fuzz looked dapper dandy do in his tux! 

Here are some links to more photos if you wish:

Photographers slide show

Public FaceBook album of my photos

The reception was held at the Ramada in the banquet room...  after an elegant meal of carved roast beef and baked chicken, the party began!   During the garter tossing antics, the best man and ushers hauled out a mechanic's creeper and a toolbox!  (Christopher is very mechanical)  He proceeded to "get to work" under that dress and remove that garter!   What a hoot!!!!   

Dancing was next up on the order of things for the evening.  Little Chelsea and Jameson had a blast cutting up on the dance floor, and we sure enjoyed ourselves.  Little Clayton watched from his stroller for a while, and then dosed off, amid all the noise and lights and frivolity.

About 10 pm, the little ones were tuckering out... so now it was Granmuddah and Granfaddah's turn to take over.  We took them back up to our adjoining hotel rooms, and began the next phase, BABYSITTING!   That way the moms and dads could keep on dancing and partying well into the night (which was about 2-3 a.m.!)   We got in our jammies and cuddled up till they konked out... which was in about 2 minutes after we snapped this photo.  LOL

Of course, the next morning, the grandtots were wide awake early and ready to bounce off the walls.  Little Clayton woke up all revved up and ready to ramble in his portacrib.   We let them stand up on the air conditioner unit and look out from the 7th story window (closed) out over the city and out across Lake Superior as the sun rose.  They were amazed to be up so high, and even looked down on birds as they flew past underneath the window.

Then... then... of course.... Granfaddah started a PILLOW FIGHT!!!!

After breakfast, we all hopped into our swimming suits and spent a couple of hours in the pool at the hotel.  Even Granfaddah and Granmuddah.  Lots of good clean family fun!

After hotel checkout, we all loaded up into our cars and headed south - about 140 miles back to our homes in Wisconsin.

On the way we stopped near Wallace, Michigan at the Deyoung Family Zoo!  http://thedeyoungfamilyzoo.com

It's a wonderful privately owned zoo that depends on donations, and volunteers to help out.  The zoo gives an up close and personal look at over 400 animals.   Many times the zookeepers take various animals out of their cages and allow petting and close up contact with animals.  Here I am playing with a young wolf pup!!! Chelsea was amazed at how fast a big turtle can come when there is food put into his pen!  Jameson saw the black panther and said that he missed his kitty cats, which one is all black like the panther.

Many areas of the zoo are placed among the tall trees and rustic woods of the U.P. of Michigan.  The shady cool woods was a God-send because the heat and humidity was quite oppressive by mid afternoon.  I was fading fast and took some rest breaks on the benches and picnic tables scattered throughout the woods.

(The Locks-  Mark, Erin and grandtots Chelsea and Clayton)

The grandkids trooped along all the way through the zoo, and made it through more loops and animal areas than this Granmuddah did, that is for sure!

(The Wades- Jesse, Heather and grandtot Jameson) 

Towards the end of the zoo travels, there was a setup with a large petting zoo of domestic animals for the kids to feed.  The kids bought a bucket of feed and we were surrounded by hoards of hungry animals.  What fun!!!

 Little Clayton even thought this was great fun, from the shady position in his stroller.  

More zoo pics on this Facebook public link:

My pics of the Deyoung Family Zoo

Our son and daughterinlaw, Dan and Heather with the grandtots Allegra and Mason were not able to attend the weekend. We sure missed them and will see them this upcoming Sunday at Jameson's birthday part at Bay Beach in Green Bay.

After we got home from the wedding and zoo, it was time to get more serious about moving out the rest of the things in the house.  Our bed, the livingroom furniture, and many other things went down the highway in Steve's brother's trailer towed behind our Tracker.

Yesterday, Steve had to go in for an MRI on his knee, he has a torn meniscus from a work-related injury, and is now going the route of workman's comp and gathering medical documentation.  He had already damaged the other knee some years back at work, so he knows the drill.  He is icing it up each night, and hobbling around work as best he can during the day. Standing upright is causing trouble, plus the bending up and down is the real killer on it.

Last night we hauled three tv's and my other kettles and kitchen utensils up to my dad's house and we got one set up for him where his older tv was not as nice.   That took up the whole evening to get up there and back, and we still got more things done last night before heading to bed. I think we collapsed in bed about 11pm.

I now have 10 totes of fibers stashed and photographed and labelled for storage and 4 totes for in the motorhome compartments.  Then I have 4 huge plastic garbage cans of loopers that will be stored for weaving more rugs.  This will all be hauled down to our son Dan's house on Saturday morning.   Then I can take a tote at a time to knit or weave up the contents before moving on to the next tote.  I will be working on socks and towels while staying in the motorhome, and later I will weave rugs again when I reassemble the rug loom at our next destination.


I finished weaving up 2 more rugs this week, and now I will be dismantling the rug loom today.  I have to ship out 2 other rugs for a customer today too.   Plus, I sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay and am shipping all those boxes out as the payments come in.

In between all of this, the car is over at the mechanic's shop for new tires and alignment today, so I am car-less till Steve gets home with the Tracker.  The trailer is loaded up to the hilt with stuff for the dump today--- and Steve is leaving work an hour early because the dump is only open till 4:15 and he usually gets home at 4.  This "should" be the last load!!!!


The week has already been a flurry of activity, and soon to wind up with a successful closing on the house in five days.  We have called and double checked and triple checked with the title company and the buyer... so all is set for a closing with hopefully NO glitches!

Then we will be moving our rig and all it's contents to it's new location till Steve is done with his work-a-day world and on to retirement!   More on that later.........
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