THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Highs and Lows

It has been a busy few weeks. Here's a little recap:

Hubby and I celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary at the end of August.  We took a little weekend getaway to Galena, IL (about 1 1/2 hours from home) and stayed at the Goldmoor Inn.

We stayed in the Turret Suite - the two story tower on the left hand side of the previous photo.

We had an amazing dinner at the hotel restaurant our first night where we shared a grilled shrimp appetizer, salads, beef wellington and peach stuffed pork chops - absolutely divine! - with a bottle of wine.  Afterward we admired the views around the property and got very silly

It felt so nice to just play around and act goofy and young for awhile.  After this we retired to our room to finish off our bottle of wine, soak in the hot tub and feed each other chocolates.  The rest I will leave to your imagination.

We also enjoyed massages, sight seeing and LOTS and LOTS of shopping.  I bought a gorgeous yellow jacket and a little black dress.  Spent a huge amount of money on those two items alone - I felt spoiled and a bit guilty too.

We also stopped in this place filled with hot sauces, salsas, jams, sausages, etc., most of it being offered for sampling. 

The place just SMELLED hot...oh my, it was overwhelming.  We ended up buying several varieties of sausage here, elk, pheasant and venison and a couple others I don't recall, and some jams.

We bought some guacamole seasoning, some handmade soaps, some caramel/cheddar popcorn that is so good we want to drive back JUST to buy more, some caramel apple varieties, 21 lbs. of peaches, chocolates, sandals and, yes, even some scrapbook supplies. 

We also stopped in for the "World's Best Mojito".  It was good, but for $9 a piece it was way overpriced.  Guess that's what you can charge when you're the "World's Best" (I should have known...and was very thankful we each only had one!)

Before we left we stopped at Durty Gurt's for a burger.  It was DELICIOUS!

It was a beautiful place to walk around and we want to go again soon.  We didn't get to tour Ulysses S. Grant's home or the Belvedere Mansion or take in any other historical monuments besides a trip down the Mississippi River which was rather disappointing.

But at the end of our weekend we felt like this:

It was an amazing weekend and much needed.

The next week was my birthday.  I took the day off and spent it with my friend Sherry, stopping for coffee and then doing some dreaming at Anthropologie.  This is one of the outfits I tried on, and I ended up buying the skirt.

It was a great day!

I also had a little get together at our house with a few girlfriends.  Diane, Kathleen and Debra came and we enjoyed chips & guacamole, homemade pizza and an assortment of wine coolers.  I made brownies for dessert.  We played Things and Apples to Apples.  It was a nice night.

The weekend after was a little different.  Hubby had a little accident bending down to pick something up and smashed his forehead on the half wall in our bathroom.  I missed the part where he was rolling around on the floor writhing in pain.  Unfortunately he had to go to work a short time after this happened. 

And then the next day I took a fall down our stairs to the basement while holding a full cup of coffee.  Thankfully I was okay but my stairs did get a coffee bath and I got several large bruises.  This is the worst of them, a day and a half after my fall.  (It actually looks much worse since this pic was taken.)  It is about 5-6 inches across. 

The day before this happened, I got to visit with both of my brothers and their wives, and my younger brother's new baby who is 3 months old.  She is absolutely GORGEOUS and so sweet and content.  It sure made me miss having a baby around at least once in awhile.

Laughing at my brother.

Enjoying some munchkin snuggles.  :o)

There is a ton of other things I've been doing around the house.  Organized both kids rooms and got some of their outgrown clothes packed away, I reorganized one of my drawers and a closet, and then started to reorganize my closet.  Between these efforts we came up with 7 grocery bags of items to donate.  I also managed to put my Disney photos in an album (almost a year later...eek!).

And, my daughter just lost her last baby tooth!  The tooth fairy brought her $5 for each of the last three molars she lost.  (She knows we are the tooth fairy but is happy to play along...love that!)

Until next week...enjoy the good times!