Elliot's 1st Vacation

Michigan Mini Vacation

We traveled to Traverse City, Michigan to See our Nephew Brant and his son Jaiden and to meet his newest son Maddox who is just 2 months old. Marvin's sister and brother-in-law Lois and Dan traveled from Pennsylvania to meet us all there.

We left Friday morning, 11/21, with our first stop in Ames to load up Erin, Petey, and Elliot's belongings before heading to Des Moines to pick up our niece, Dawn, when she left work at 11:30. The Peat family headed to Coralville to park their car for the weekend as Elliot had an eye appointment back there with his specialist on Tuesday. We picked them up and headed down I-80 hitting Chicago as it was dark and rather busy. Of course, it's always my turn to drive then, purposely planned by hubby, but that's fine. We had very good driving weather all the way. We stopped for supper somewhere shortly after Portage, and didn't realize there was snow on the ground until we got out of the car. We stayed in Holland, Michigan for the night...they had measurable snow on the ground.
Elliot was in four states today: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and, Michigan and got to see his first snow!!!


MORE TO COME :-)

29 & Counting.......ANNIVERSARIES

Happy Anniversary to us!!
It really is hard to believe that we have been married for 29 years already....yes, I do say already. Obviously not every day has been the best day of our life but we have gotten through them; I'm sure because of the commitment we made to each other when we decided to spend the rest of our lives together when we stood before God and said our vows. It can't hurt that we both grew up with a strong foundation and can thank our parents for that. Marvin already gave me a card this morning before he headed to the field....I can't remember an anniversary that he hasn't given me one-take that guys!!!! He really is good at remembering...almost better than I am. Sometimes he doesn't get his card until the next day-I just let him think I'm spreading the cheer out a little longer. Every year we are reminded on this date though of what did happen on our anniversary -- the Americans that were taken hostage in Iran. We weren't even aware of it until we returned from our honeymoon and paid attention to the news so it's always been our little tidbit of trivia from 11-4-79. So remember that- it might come in handy some day. It will be a treat to get to see Elliot for a little bit today as Erin is coming up to do her civic duty and vote. Grandma will get to have lunch with them and Grandpa may get to have some supper with them. I voted early this morning on my way to work. Thinking back....the weather was about like this, too, as some of Marvin's uncles were still picking corn and sent the Aunts to the wedding. We got married on a Sunday afternoon as my brother, Charlie, was running in the State Cross-Country meet on Saturday. Erin asked why we got married this time of year as we both come from farm families....I really had to think because that was kind of a crazy thing to do but we were both through college and just ready to get married I guess....and besides my grandparents always went to Arizona for the winter and we had to get married before they left!!

Grandpa comes for a ride

Grandpa (my father-in-law) came out this afternoon and rode with Marvin since he was combining his corn. I was riding in the combine with him when his dad drove his old trusty pickup into the field, right up to the combine, stopped, got out carrying a package of cookies....we both started laughing and he had a big grin on his face, too. When Marvin called him he kidded him about bringing treats since they have so many apples and if he was going to come ride with him he should bring them something....so he did!! He was ready to get up there and ride along and sent me on my way with his truck.

I'm so glad he came out today since the weather was so nice. It's a miracle that he's getting around like he is with the episodes he went through this year. For 87 years old everyday you have is a gift to share and we got to share some smiles with him today. He talked about how he used to pick corn as a boy going from one farmer's place to another and how long that took compared to the size of the machinery we have now. We can only imagine the changes that have taken place over the years.

Last night when this field was done Marvin started moving dry corn out of the bin at home to another bin. Here he is watching his 'big' vacuum do the work for him. I sure wish I had a vacuum that worked like this in the house!! This thing is LOUD though - I really think he needs to wear ear plugs. He says that's why he stands farther away from it...right.

Here's Lucky and Me just hanging around enjoying the nice day. Luck got to go to the vet Saturday morning to get part of her cast cut down and a wrap on it. She is also on antibiotics for another week again - started chewing a hole in her cast and the top of it so her leg is sore.

Corn Harvest Lunch Time

John, Marvin, & Steve taking a lunch break

It was another absolutely gorgeous fall day for November standards in Iowa. The guys don't normally work on Sunday morning but this year's harvest is proving to be a bit taxing on them; already having some long weather (rain) delays, the corn moisture staying wetter than they would like before harvesting, higher yields (a very good thing) which means more time in the field and then more drying time with the higher moisture anyway. With the time change last night the days will be getting shorter for them, too, so they did get started earlier today. I was able to take lunch out and join them.....Maidrites, Chips, Peachy Keen Salad, and Pumpkin Bars.

Finally - I'm a BLOGGER

I've finally taken the plunge and started my own BLOG...wow, I can hardly believe it myself. I hope I don't stay up all night doing this, even though we do get an extra hour of sleep tonight. Today while I was mowing the yard one last time on this beautiful November 1st day when the temperature was probabaly 70ish (I never did hear or look for sure) these blogging thoughts just kept going through my mind the entire time as I drove back and forth across the yard and later as I made pumpkin bars and peach salad to take to the field tomorrow for the guys. So.....here I am typing my first blog entry!!! I had good intentions to start blogging some time ago, several times really, and then when we got the news that we were going to be grandparents last winter I thought oh, I should keep track of my thoughts more now....since grandparents are old people aren't they and don't remember everything??? :-) Obviously, that didn't happen, and then when Erin was hospitalized all those weeks before baby Elliot was born I could have been blogging, too. I guess it's kind of how I remember when I was younger and would keep a diary going so well for a while and then take a break for a couple days and those days would stretch for more days and so on. Hopefully that won't happen with this blog. What I'm hoping will happen is that I can share with you, family and friends, bits and pieces of what is happening in our part of the world and our lives. The added bonus for me will be the jounaling I can use in my scrapbooking as I work on preserving our lives through pictures thoughts. As time allows I may go backwards a bit and catch up on some of those thoughts with pictures and words in this blog so keep checking up with me.