The Gang's All Here

Trevor came home Monday night, working from (our) home on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Holly came in Wednesday afternoon.

This is what feeding five looks like!

The humans feasted on corned beef, red potatoes, carrots, and brussels sprouts. 

We decided to check out Christmas lights down in Roanoke. A wonderful treat on this street, all the homes lit up, some with families gathered around firepits in the front yard, people walking on the sidewalks admiring all the decorations. So much cheerfulness in the middle of a crazy world.

We swung by Chick Fil A to check out their impressive set up . . . 

and left with milkshakes!

Great Weekend

A wonderful December weekend, partially because ALL Christmas shopping has been completed! 

It was warm enough Friday night for Robert to bbq steak in a t-shirt--and with his handy clip on bbq light, perfect in the dark.

We went to Macy's and braved WalMart on Saturday. The stores are busier but definitely not packed with holiday shoppers.

We went back to church on Sunday for the first time since March.  It.was.wonderful. (They've been opened since May or so, or whenever churches were able to.)  75-80 people in the sanctuary, with just a handful masked. Chairs are separated out into groups of two and three; so, so, so good to be there, and we stayed an extra hour and a half I think visiting afterwards.

 A stop at Krispy Kreme. Ahhh! Hard for Sundays to get any better.

 

We did a bit of grocery shopping at Aldi and headed home to enjoy sitting on the deck in the sunshine--notice my SHORTS!

A perfect weekend, did much to distract me from anxiety about the latest round of mask mandates. I needed all of this!

Trevor's Big Move Out--Part Two

Alternate Title - The Craziest Day

Robert, Trevor, and I drove up on Saturday to move a few things in before Trevor moves in. We rented a U-Haul Truck to pick up a new mattress, along with the *perfect* couch that Trevor found on Craig's List. As their U-Haul was following me back to Trevor's, a bunch of my brake warning lights lit up my dashboard, and I was able to make it the last few blocks to Trev's.

Meanwhile, Robert and Trevor managed to manuever the oversized sofa up Trevor's stairs and over to his landing. Unfortunately (understatement), the sofa was too long, too wide, and too tall to fit through the door even with the most expert pivoting. 

While the couch was stuck at Trevor's door, I arranged for a tow truck to take my car to the Honda dealer, which was the only place where I could get a loaner car at 4:45 p.m. on a Saturday. The only other option was Ubering to Dulles Airport 12 miles away. So I went with the tow truck driver, who got me to Honda with minutes to spare. And I asked him if he believes in Jesus. "Yes, ma'am!" I told him Jesus sent him to take care of us.

At the dealer, I met the wonderful Jasmine who'd helped me on the phone. She was wearing a "GREAT LOVE--Ephesians 2:4" t-shirt. This prompted another conversation. 

While I make arrangements at Honda, Robert and Trevor got the couch back in the U-Haul and headed to Salvation Army to donate his perfect couch.   The donation location had closed, but the manager told Robert he wouldn't see anything, so they unloaded the couch and left it.

Thank You, Jesus, for showing Yourself when we needed You. Not the best of days, but really, all is WELL.

I picked up my guys at the U-Haul store in my loaner car--a brand new Accord with less than 200 miles and all the bells and whistles. We found comfort in a yummy pho restaurant before heading home.

Trevor's Big Move Out--Part One

 Trevor's focused his job search on the Fairfax, Richmond, Virginia Beach, and Roanoke areas. He has had a surprising number of good prospects, been a top candidate several times, and been disappointed a time or two when an offer didn't pan out. 

But in October, he was hired for a Technical Writer/Editor position for Leidos up in Manassas. With all of the strangeness of the pandemic, he was interviewed over the phone twice, yet never even on video, and was offered the job! So a super exciting time for us, with a short turnaround of just over two weeks to get set to begin the new job.

He'd already been studying apartments online, and he and I went up on a Monday. Before his leasing office appointments, we stopped to get a good look at the Manassas H-Mart and grabbed lunch to eat on the go later in the afternoon. The first apartment he looked at was PERFECT! We toured a similar apartment, since "his" wasn't available to view, and once he signed all of the papers, we parked in front of his new building to eat our lunch. When we saw the maintenance guy leaving the apartment, Trevor asked if we could get a look inside. The guy was SOOO nice and welcomed us in! It was gorgeous, second floor, lots of windows, light, and trees!

Balcony looks over a wooded area.

His balcony is the third from the left.

 

A super sucessful day, an encouraging start to his new life, with a stop at Kung Fu Tea for a perfect ending.

 

 

 

Quote for Posterity

Text from Trevor tonight, after I forwarded him a Grandma Linn boating update:

Grandma saying wtf is somehow more innocent sounding that the infamously cutified "fuckles"

Best.family.ever!

A Couple of Birthday Weekends

Robert and I went to Richmond on Saturday and visited Holly.

 

My birthday was on a Monday, so I took the day off work.

 

 Teddy and Moe relaxing

Trevor was so sweet, checking to make sure he kept me as busy as I wanted to be, playing Yahtzee and Mario Cart with me, watching tv, etc. Robert, Trevor, and I went miniature golfing, and it was a travesty that they both beat me (ha!). Sweet Trevor told me that he considered throwing the game so that I would at least place second. I didn't need a pity win (at least I say that now).

 

We went to the fancy ice cream store down in Roanoke, got double scoops, and sat on the covered patio overlooking the river. 

 

 

For dinner, we had the always-amazing Sam's Club steaks and baked potatoes, and I completed a killer puzzle that Trevor had bought me over Fourth of July. It was the longest I've ever worked on a puzzle, but I knew if I broke it down right, I'd be able to do it. Victory!  

 

 

Trevor's birthday was the following Sunday. I celebrated the slightly cooling weather by finally walking the dog when everyone else was asleep. It's been months since we've had her out, it's been really hot, including a record-breaking July with all 31 days 90 degrees or warmer.

 

We went to Mellow Mushroom. It's only the second time we've eaten out since restaurants opened back up a few months ago (because the state still requires masking while walking to/from a table, and they are open only to partial capacity). (And for the record, I did not wear a mask.) It's not a surprise that the first restaurant we went to was also Mellow Mushroom, back on the first weekend restaurants were opened! 

Trevor has been so nice and willing to take pictures whenever I ask. We have dozens where I have an awful face and he looks great. No exceptions today!

 

 

We also celebrated with eclair cake at home and presents.

 

And sweet Teddy, who adores Trevor and happily snoozes on him when Teddy isn't chasing Moe or playing with his toys.

We've been waiting for good weather, not burning hot, not after tons of rain, and a day without thunderstorms threatening. On Tuesday, Trevor and I finally went tubing on the James River. So relaxing, as always, and no crowds.

We came home to change before heading off to Barnes & Noble; a great afternoon.

An Almost Normal Weekend

I left work a bit early Friday; Robert and I grocery shopped on Saturday morning. We went back out later to get alcohol, gas, and make a Goodwill dropoff.

Jim and Peg came for dinner. (Peggy's quote: "It's so nice to be able to give someone a hug!") After the last giant dinner we had, someone mentioned that all we needed were appetizers--so we made a complete dinner out of just appetizers: Very Veggy Guacamole (such an awul name!), tortilla roll up, Jalapeno Popper Dip, and little ham and cheese Hawaiian sandwiches. And margaritas and beer. It was perfect, small group with just the four of us, and after eating, we sat on the deck until well after dark.

Lounging on the couch this morning, I heard a noise and felt a rumble. I looked at Kota, thinking maybe she'd bumped against the wall while laying down, but she was already just laying there. A few minutes later, I began seeing FB posts that we'd had an earthquake, a 5.1 centered 90 miles away in Sparta, NC. Robert had felt it too, while he was still in bed, going back and forth. This is the second one we've felt here.

Robert and I watched church from the couch.

I worked quite a bit on my playing cards puzzle, definitely a challenging one.

Trevor and I found old Survivor seasons that he'd missed through Amazon Prime, so we've been watching through those.

He and I played Yahtzee. Years ago, Holly memorialized the lowest score ever by writing on the box lid. Each game Trevor and I play, we know our score isn't *that* bad when we beat that low score. Until today, when I scored even less. Worth noting here!

A mostly slow weekend, but for once, I didn't mind. It seemed pretty normal, in a halfway decent kind of way.

I probably should have noted that this is the 13th anniversary of our move from Colorado to Virginia. We moved this week. Crazy how time flies; I seem to say that all the time.

COVID Craziness

In the middle of the craziness of COVID, I came across this photo in a news story. I was shocked--how did they get Holly's photo? Did she know it was taken? Where was she?

But this IS NOT HOLLY!

 

In fact, she was offended that I could have thought so. The glasses, the hair pulled up, the eyes, the coloring . . . it was eerie how much this woman is her twin!

Just a strange photo that I wanted to memorialize for some reason.

Teddy joins the crew

Moe is two, and Robert and Trevor (and me too!) decided it was time to add another kitty to our mix. Robert searched local shelter websites and found this little guy out in Floyd County. He'd been raised by hand, bottle fed, and his two siblings had already been adopted. Robert and Trevor got him on Monday.

He loves hands, being held, and people. Trevor's been taking care of him 20-22 hours a day (and losing a lot of sleep!). After several days of discussing names, Teddy/Theodore came out the winner.

Teddy loves Moe--and Moe actually enjoys playing with Teddy! They like the tunnel, pawing each other with Teddy under the couch, and wrestling. Kota likes him, but I'm a little more wary with her. She's sweet and curious with him though, just like she was with Moe.

 

He's a sweetie, and we feel so blessed to have this guy! 

Testing!

Testing a Blogger app on my phone . . .

A Very Good Weekend, which included:

Going through some basement things and taking a large carload donation to Goodwill. It finally looks like a basement!

Plenty of deck time.

Chile rellanos for dinner.

Church on the couch. 

Roaring Run with Trevor.

Pizza and beer dinner on the deck.

Cashew Chicken

A blend of recipes! Prepare everything ahead of time, because it will go very quickly once you begin.

3/4 c. cashews
1-1/2 c. water
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 c. to 3/4 c. hoisin sauce
6 T. soy sauce
1 t. ground ginger
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut in 1" pieces
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 T. oil
6 cloves garlic, sliced
4 - 6 green onions, sliced
1/4 c. rice vinegar
2 t. sesame oil

Preheat oven to 350. Place cashews on a baking sheet in a single layer. Toast in oven until fragrant, about 6 mins. Set aside; they will crisp as they cool.

Meanwhile, prepare sauce. In a small bowl, whisk water, cornstarch, hoisin, soy sauce, and ginger. Set aside.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 T. oil in large skillet over very high heat until hot. Add half of chicken to pan and stir fry until lightly browned, about three minutes. (Don't have to cook all the way through yet.) Transfer to bowl. Add second half of chicken, and as it cooks, add garlic and scallions, again until chicken is lightly browned. Be careful to not burn garlic.

Return first batch of chicken to pan. Turn heat down to medium, and add rice vinegar. Cook until evaporated, about 1 minute. Add sauce mixture to chicken, cook and stir occasionally until chicken cooked through and sauce is thick, about 2 minutes. Add cashews, remove from heat, and add sesame oil.

Serve over rice. Makes 5-6 servings.

Grandma Jean's Carmel Rolls

Our longtime holiday favorite!

18 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1/2 package regular butterscotch pudding ("regular" meaning not instant)
1/4 c. sugar
1-1/2 t. cinnamon
6 T. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar

Spray a Bundt or tube pan with cooking spray. Scatter rolls evenly in pan. Mix nuts, pudding mix, sugar, cinnamon and sprinkle over rolls. Melt butter with brown sugar in microwave and drizzle over rolls.

Cover loosely with foil and let stand overnight. Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes, let cool for a few minutes, and turn over onto serving plate.

Visit in Richmond

I left Thursday after work and drove to Holly's. We dropped her car off at the dealer and then hit Wegman's to find dinner to take home: Soup and chicken pot pie! It was a little late by then, so we slipped into our pjs, turned on HGTV, and enjoyed loving on her two new kitties, Ghost and Mousie.

I dropped her off at work on Friday, and made my way to Trevor's. His kitchen--which is shared by two other guys--always looks like this.

Quite the opposite of the girls who lived in this apartment last year--it took a team of cleaning people four hours to make it livable for Trev, Eric, and Jackson. It had been completely trashed.

We've long wanted to visit Maymont, and the weather was perfect! It wasn't my plan to tour the whole place, but we did! We started with the herb garden, the Italian garden, the waterfall,

the Japanese garden,

meandering over to the bears and eagles,

 up around the farm, past the nature center, eventually finding our way to the mansion, where we toured the basement, which were the original servant living quarters.

It was 100 acres of fascinating, relaxing to just walk the grounds and visit, before going to Kokonut Grill for lunch (delicious!). Trevor's tracker counted 5 miles of walking for the day. We ended up hanging out at his place for the last hour before I picked up Holly from work. We picked up her car, and I was home just as it was getting dark on Friday.

A wonderful way to begin the weekend, and it was a special treat to have a short work week, spend Thursday night with Holly, Friday with Trevor, and the weekend with Robert!

The End of Ballast Point

My gosh, it's been such a great run. This place opened two years ago, and we've spent a few dozen nights here with friends, family, and date nights. $10-$12 Monday night specials with amazing burgers, sour beer for me, Black Marlin Porters for Robert, and when weather permits, sitting on the patio enjoying the view.

Nostalgic spur of the moment dinner this week. I could not tap the photo button to save my life; I was laughing so hard that I was crying! Robert finally leaned over and poked it a few times.

Followed by an amazing sunset from, of all places, the Food Lion parking lot.

Fourth of July week

Holly took off a few days and came home for the entire week. Pumpkin has not been eating well, quite concerning for a 14 year old cat, so they went to the vet here. Everything checked out, and she's acting fine in every other way, playful, curious, etc., so Holly and Robert have just been working on getting Pummy to eat whatever she will eat. So far, steak and deli turkey meat are the favorites.

We've had quite a bit of tumultous weather, unpredictable showers/storms in the late afternoons. While we really wanted to go tubing, we went kayaking at Carvins Cove instead. I wasn't brave enough to bring my camera, I wasn't sure how steady I would be on the kayak. BUT SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  Trev, Holly and I all had our own and quickly got accustomed to paddling. We hugged the shore up the first part of the reservior, watching fish splash in the water, and coming close to a deer along the water. It was hot, almost 90?, but we were comfortable. We started to make our way across to the other side, and then cut back toward the dock. Trevor was goofing around, paddling hard to catch up to Holly, and SPLASH!!!! ended up in the middle of the lake. But it was SUPER FUN, and he and I have plans to go back this summer. I truly can't wait, and I was super proud of myself for bring brave enough to do it!!

Holly and I went shopping at Goodwill and got great deals on shorts (me!) and work dresses (both of us). We sat around and played board games. Robert and I cooked up a storm--fried fish, chicken souvlaki, ribs (for July 4th), a full German meal of weinerschnitzel, potatoes with mushroom gravy, sauerkraut, and sweet and sour red cabbage; chile rellanos are on the menu tomorrow. We went to Ballast Point (Holly's first time).

Last night, we headed to Fincastle for fireworks. As we left the house, the storms began rolling in. We parked at the elementary school and waited in the car as it sprinkled and thundered. We waited for more than half an hour and made the decision to head home. As we left, the lightning intensified, and we watched it as we drove. Turning down Glebe Road, the sky opened up and it began pouring to the point that I stopped on the road because I could not see it in front of me for all of the rain.  It was kind of eerie, but we were so close to home that I wasn't concerned. (We were focusing on the fact that our power would surely be out!) But the power was on, and we all played LIFE and snacked as the storms continued. Truly crazy rain, like nothing we've experienced before. Not the night that we planned, but still fun. It's been a nice week, and I'm glad there is still another day and a half.

A Best Day Ever Kind of Day

Trevor's been home for three weeks, finishing the semester with 4 As and a B, the same grades he pulled last semester. It's been a great year!

We went up today to clean out his room, as it looks like he found someone to sublease for the next few months.

On the way, we passed this milestone, 200,000 miles. Just two months short of ten years old, my car looks great. I love my Toyota!

We picked up Holly and went to Trevor's apartment. He and Robert had mostly cleared it out a few weeks ago. We moved out the remaining stuff and did some minor clean up. It's been a nice place for his first year away at school.

We celebrated with lunch at CAVA--perfect full circle, as this is where we celebrated last summer after his VCU orientation!

It was a hot, hot, HOT day (90!), but we had great luck finding shade to park in. Holly wanted to go to ULTA, which was conveniently next door to Trader Joe's, and then we stopped at World Market to check things out before taking Holly home.

Such a great, great day--perfect, really, the best.

A Wedding! Day Two

We woke up to a beautiful morning and headed across the street from the hotel for breakfast at Darto's, a little hole in the wall I found online.

Robert willingly agreed to hit the old Slovak cemetery with me to search for the graves of my great-grandparents. Although the cemetery is still in use and not very large, there were some decrepit sections, some with stones fallen over, others off in parts of the woods. We wandered through for almost an hour to no avail, although I did see several other names familiar to me--very cool. We have a bit of a history with cemeteries, I suppose. Waaaay back in the early 90s, we wandered through Littleton Cemetery just reading the headstones and wondering at family's stories. We have pictures of 3-year old Holly playing in the Forestville cemetery where Robert's grandparents are buried. Shortly after moving to Virginia, we came across an old cemetery and wandered through it simply because we had the time. We spent one of our anniversaries at the Bedford cemetery where many of the Bedford Boys and their families are buried (and we went there specifically for that reason). A year or two ago, we found a local cemetery where Mrs. Howell's husband and family are buried--I think her brother who was killed at D-Day is there too. (I would know this if a was still a faithful blogger.) Robert cleaned up the family plot and we then went to Mrs. Howell's house so she could see pictures on our phones. Anyway, cemeteries are fascinating.

We went back to the hotel to get fancied up, because it was WEDDING TIME!

Aunt Loretta and Aunt Barbara right in front of us.

Moms lighting candles.

My favorite! Tommy came out, a little nervous, turned and looked around at everyone. I snapped this picture just as his eyes landed on me, and he gave me the GREATEST big smile. Precious moment for me; made me all teary for this wonderful guy!

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Motko!

Barb, Loretta, Marie, Casey

:)

There was a several hour break between the wedding in Easton and the reception in Nazareth, so we headed over to Joe and Kathy's with Barb and Loretta to snack a bit. The reception was at a lovely country club along the Delaware River.

Kathy and Joe--awesome picture of two truly wonderful people!

Tommy and Loretta.

It was a beautiful wedding, a lovely reception, a wonderful time. It was such a privilege to be able to be there and share in Tom and Nicole's special day.