Out to dinner

With Andy out of town on business, Mayu's tour of American fast-food restaurants continued at Raisin' Canes for chicken fingers.

Spring and a show

More flowers are blooming. Maybe spring is here!

L and Mayu went to the Lyric Opera this afternoon with the youth group to see "Jesus Christ Superstar." They said it was good even though it was a bit hard to understand the words to some of the songs.

Wedding day

This afternoon we went to a wedding at church. L's friend, R, took this family photo of us after the service. At the ceremony, each person received an individually addressed envelope. We were told not to open it until told to during the service. It turned out to be a handwritten note from the couple telling each of us what we mean to them. Awww. I'd never seen that done before.

On the way to the reception, we saw this tavern that we drive by all the time --- on fire! There were so many more emergency vehicles there than you can see in this picture. The girls were pretty excited.

Mayu, L, and friend R get seated at their table.

Posing for some pictures with church friends.

Mayu, R, friend L and L.

The happy couple. One of the brides was L's confirmation sponsor.

The girls hit the dance floor. L was moving so fast she's blurry in the photo. Andy and I took Mayu home a bit early - she wasn't feeling well - but L stayed and danced the night away and hitched a ride with friends. She got home a little after 10 p.m. and said she had no idea weddings lasted so long. I have a feeling the party went well into the night.

Two years and counting

Lives of leisure

Hole in the Wall

It's getting warmer and in our neighborhood, that means the local custard shop, Hole in the Wall, has opened for the season. L couldn't wait to take Mayu there.

Beautiful hymn

So this print I ordered came in the mail yesterday. It's the song we played at mom's funeral. I heard "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" in church after mom was diagnosed and thought it summed up what she was going through and what she was facing. Then, when I found out Elvis had recorded it, I thought it would be perfect for her service. He was her favorite performer.

Cranes everywhere

L has moved on to another craft to raise money for her upcoming trip to Japan. She's been folding origami cranes. I asked if she could make a chain of 1,000 cranes like I saw at U of I, but instead she's making a decoration with 50 cranes. Here she is photographing it to put on Facebook.

She's going to find something other than my emery boards to hang the cranes from, but this is the finished product. It's pretty labor intensive folding all those little cranes. We went to Michael's to get more origami paper yesterday and couldn't find solid colored paper so she bought printed paper.

Those are going to be so pretty. She had received orders for seven before the day was done. The ones at U of I were selling for $140 each (I thought they were $40!). L is selling hers for $20. She'll be skipping all the way to the bank.

Earth Day

Andy took some time this morning to clean up the back yard. We're ready for spring!

At church, we had a vegetarian potluck to celebrate Earth Day. At first I thought the food had to be vegan and since I can't cook without cheese, we were planning to skip it. However, the friends I met up with Friday night said it's just vegetarian. Hmmm. I decided to make a potato salad with a lemon vinaigrette. I ended up with not enough potatoes so I added some fresh green beans I had in the fridge, as one person who reviewed the recipe suggested. It tasted OK but it's not something I'd make again.

Sampling

A shopping trip to Costco at the right time means there will be lots of samples. Andy and Mayu tried the chili.

Girls' night out

Meeting three friends for dinner and drinks and I was the first to arrive. Looks like the chips and salsa are all mine, at least until they sat down.

Snow again?

Andy shouldn't have to shovel slush off the stairs before he goes to work!

Barbecue

Mayu's tasting of American food continued tonight as we took her to Russell's Barbecue. She had a beef sandwich with fries and potato salad. We hadn't been there in years. The area was under construction and now they've renovated the inside to include a bar and slot machines in the rear of the building.

Arghhh!

This squirrel really needs to stay away from my bird feeder.

More snow?

The girls walked through yet another snowfall this morning for their ride to school. It is April, isn't it?

My daffodils don't like the snow either.

Prom dress shopping

L and I helped Mayu find a dress for prom ...

... while Andy relaxed. She found the one she wanted at the second store we looked at. Of course, she did a little research online before we went to the mall and she knew what she wanted. That helped a lot.

Moms Day and she's 21!

Andy and I (we left L and Mayu home) went to U of I today for Moms Weekend (Day for us) and our first stop was E's apartment. She's 21 today! I gave her a little bag with a few adult beverages, an Apple watch band and a microwave cake.

Then we picked up B at his dorm. It's so nice to have them at the same school!

E took us to the sorority's office to pick up our Moms' Day shirts. I got the corsage for free at one of the bookstores.

Andy and B went to walk around and E and I went to a craft show in the Union. I bought this ISU magnet. Probably not a big seller at U of I, lol.

Then we drove out to the school's Japan House. They were hosting tea ceremonies which we didn't stay for. There really wasn't much to see except for these cranes.

These were pretty cool. These bundles of 1,000 itty-bitty cranes are for good luck. I think they were selling them for $40 (I didn't have my glasses on so that could be wrong. On Etsy, I saw one for over $100.) Wish I had a place to hang that. Good luck never hurts.

And this cardinal was right outside Japan House as we started to go through the garden. It's said a cardinal is a visitor from heaven and if that's true, I'm starting to get spooked. I've seen cardinals on Mom's birthday, Dad's birthday and now E's birthday? A little creepy.

For lunch, Andy and B went to a restaurant while E and I attended her sorority's event at a Champaign restaurant. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was a sign that said "Welcome Mom's." The apostrophe was killing me. Are we in a college town, or what? Not a lot of English majors, I suppose. And, of course, I was seated to be looking at it the entire time.

After about an hour we got our food! It was OK. I had the three little pig omelet - ham, bacon and chorizo with cheese. The iced tea was $3 a glass! The one good thing about the incredibly slow and disorganized service was that I was able to have enough refills to get my money's worth.

Flowers finally!

Temperatures got into the 60s yesterday and my daffodils started blooming! Nice spring day four days after snow?

Pikachu comes to life

L couldn't wait to try on this Pikachu costume. She plans to wear it to an anime convention next month and to publicize the bake sale for the school's upcoming Japan trip. Now we're on the hunt for yellow knee-high socks.

My new toy

Muffles is a little skeptical, but it does keep the cat hair off the floors.

I spy...

... a cat.

Where's spring?

Yup. That's my daffodils covered with snow this morning. Just when they were getting ready to bloom. And the weather forecast predicts 70-degree temps by the end of the week. It can't come soon enough for me.

Souvenirs

And she's back

Can't wait to hear all about her trip!

Night out

We went out tonight with Julie and Kevin and Allison and Pat into Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. We had a Mexican dinner at Taqueria Sabor Sazon before heading over to a local craft brewery.

My pork and steak tacos.

Here everyone is at Moody Tongue. Julie wanted to order a piece of their famous chocolate cake for her birthday but they were sold out by time we got there.

It was quite a trendy place. You can tell because the beer was served in wine glasses.