***Senior WW Challenge*** SUNDAY, April 14th

Good evening, friends. It is Saturday night here. I am totally wiped. I went to breakfast with my group at First Watch, then accompanied Tom to his tax accountant. I filed an extension and am looking for a new accountant. DD has found two others I want to interview. Since I got home I have basically vegetated. I have not caught up with my immense sleep deficit so am going to bed right after I post.

The boyfriend of my ex-friend Bobbie has asked me to help out with a memorial to her. I said I would think about it, but I am going to decline. I might attend, but this woman hurt me terribly with her behavior. There are some who maintained a relationship with her but she ended ours. I have so much to do for other organizations and classes that it would create a lot of stress and everything would suffer. It is hard for me to say no, but I am going to.

There will be two family reunions this summer in Philadelphia, one on my mother's side and one on my father's. I have been thinking about them and about the two high school reunions I went to. This is my focus for today's question.

QOTD: Share with us what happened at one or two reunions that you attended in your lifetime. High school? Family? College? Work? Friends? All would qualify. How did it go? Did it make you want to go to more in the future? Did you discover anything you had not known before? Did you make any new connections with those who attended? What feelings about family, school, etc. did you leave with? Did the event change any of your perceptions about the group?

Tomorrow the only thing on my agenda is my read-aloud class. I have not been in a while and hope I can get my chores done in time to attend.

BBL 

Good morning. It will be mid 80s and sunny today.  Then cooler in the week ahead plus possible storms.  Ah midwest life!  I see the plant nurseries are all stocked with plants.  It’s still too soon to do much though because of the unpredictable weather.

Geri how exciting to be moving today.   She posted on FB the moving van was coming soon.

My first reunions were family and that was a fun time playing with cousins and all the good food shared.  My 25th high school reunion was with the 3 classes behind us because our school was so small.  In twenty five years all the freshman and sophomores were grown and I didn’t recognize many of them.  But they all recognized me and I tried to be gracious.  At the birthday party yesterday there were many former bank employees.  We ended up sitting together and I rounded up a few strays alone to come join us.  It was a sort of reunion.  There were no new revelations or new connections but I will recognize a few other people next time I see them.

Today is an open book.  Who knows what will happen.  I do seem to have gotten tired of the on line puzzles so I’ll take a break from that.

I do pray for peace in the Middle East and that it won’t spread to a larger wider war. There will be so many innocents affected.  

Question - what is a go to quick meal for unexpected guests?  I’m thinking some of my family might drop by today or soon.

Hello Sunday morning. My day started with a welcomed bang. The tree I have complained about for over a year is now cut into chunks and son in law will bring back a dump trailer load it up and haul to their cabin spot along Des Moines river. Bryon and another guy cut it up this morning. Was interesting to stand in my TV room and watch them work. Jobs like that never go as planned and at one time they had both of their chain saws stuck in the tree and had to get a bar to pry the stump to release tension to get the saws out. Another branch leaning against another tree would not fall so they hooked a chain onto it then the pickup and pulled it down. I wondered if that was a smart move but it did eventually work out.

My sisters and a brother, brother in law came yesterday for lunch bringing more KFC ( more salt and fat) I did so enjoy their company so will be very food selective the rest of weekend. After the left I went out with my supposedly Deer deterrent granulars to sprinkle on Hosta’s, phlox and other things they LOVE to eat. Deterred to my mushroom patch and there I found 10 mushrooms. They found 2 more this morning cutting the tree. Had a very good day yesterday.

Rob also came and measured for board length to repair the area by the deck. I am not sure of stringer boards yet till they tear out the old . Sister dug up peony starts to take to her new house. Plus some Lambs ear and a few yellow iris. Last night I noticed a raccoon under my bird feeders so glad I that I do put feeders away each evening. Going to buy me a B B Gun next. Not that that will kill them, would have to hit them first but would at sting them.

The branch’s and stick I have picked up in yard and are in my little wagon I will place on the piles of branches from the tree and Bryon can haul them also so I won’t have to worry about burning them.

QOTD: Share with us what happened at one or two reunions that you attended in your lifetime. High school? Family? College? Work? Friends? All would qualify. How did it go? Did it make you want to go to more in the future? Did you discover anything you had not known before? Did you make any new connections with those who attended? What feelings about family, school, etc. did you leave with? Did the event change any of your perceptions about

Steven would never go to school reunions so nothing to report on that. Many families reunions. When younger we would go to both mom and dad’s family reunion no usually in a park in summer. Lots of great food and always a fun day seeing everyone. Kind of sad when those ceased happening. Each fall our huge family has a family picnic in a city park we get to see all the new babies if their parents come and bring them. Three more this year. You know I love family.

Just saw a post that humming birds have been sited so will get my feeder out and get some water ready.

Karen E, how wonderful that that tree has been taken care of!

I just finished my read-aloud class. It is a very interesting group. We were talking about how the risks of nuclear war has kept world-wide battles at a lower level than it had been in the past. I am beyond worried about the Middle East, but am hopeful that that holds true. So far Israel has not responded to Iran.

Thank you all for sharing your reunion stories.

AOTD: I have been to two high school reunions. I moved so much that no one knew where I was for others. I loved meeting up with old friends and talking about what HS--and life in Brooklyn--was like. I discovered things I never knew about people. One woman who had been an adorable petite blonde told us that her mother had physically abused her all her life. Another who was a gorgeous young lady and is still stunning told us that what we thought was her "uppityness" was her poor eyesight and shyness. I also found out about what others had done with their lives. One woman had become very successful in tennis. One of our group who did not come but sent her regrets was Lainie Kazan (Lainie Levine in HS). I am not good at keeping up with people, so these reunions were special.

I have also been to a number of family reunions. We are spread all over now, so different from when I was growing up. We all saw each other often then. There aren't many people left who knew my parents and grandparents and I feel a special connection to those who do. Both at my dad's family's reunions and my mom's, people have brought old photos. I look forward to the two I am going to this summer...one from each side of my family. I will search for photos to bring as well. 

My hummingbird feeder will go up tomorrow. And Don has considered a BB gun for the squirrels nd rabbits.