A Good Sunday

Almost every Monday, I exchange emails with my friend Val about what we each did over the weekend. Sometimes we have spent time together the weekend before, but most of the time we just exchange stories about the various events. She's one of the only people I know that truly and genuinely is interested in even the most mundane things I've done. I've even gone into detail with her about what excact chores I did, how many pages I scrapbooked and how many hours I slept each night. I love hearing about her weekends too...So, please excuse me if I go into detail about things that may not seem so significant in these posts...

Jay & I had a good day on Sunday....we both got some much needed rest and "slept in" until after 8:00am. We had some breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen and went to church and to Sears. We thought about renting a movie but decided against it. When we were just thinking about watching some TV, Jay suggested playing The Farming Game. This game is something he played with his family when he was younger...I had played it back in high school at a friend's house, Dawn Duppong's house, to be exact, with her family. Even the mention of this stirs up our great debate over the "correct" pronunciation of the name "Duppong." In Glen Ullin, it is pronounced "DU-ppong" with the emphasis on the first syllable. In Bismarck, it was always "Dup-PONG" with the emphasis on the second syllable. I avoid telling that story and saying the name for the purpose of avoiding any disagreement prior to playing the Farming Game. It has been too enjoyable of a day to get into a debate over that!

We know there is a storm brewing but become lost in rolling dice and "purchasing" cattle, farm equipment and acreage of fruit, grain and hay. The Farming Game is set up on a square board, much like Monopoly, and is divided up into months/seasons of the year. Of course, you start in January. I make it around the first time without too much trouble. Then, I got caught in a cycle of rolling the dice and landing on the same square where I (as the farmer) hurt my back and have to go back to the 2nd week in January. How disheartening! Don't I have any help at the farm to get us through my back injury? Eventually I break out of this cycle and through the course of the next hour and a half, I accumulate over $300,000 in assets (perhaps I missed my true calling somewhere along the way?). Jay put up a vallant effort in accumulating somewhere around the $200,000 mark in assets. He had a rough couple of years in there...

It just felt good to do something different together, just Jay and me, interacting and talking, joking, laughing. In a couple months, there will be no more "just Jay and me" and I think we are becoming more keenly aware of this as our baby's due date gets closer. It has been a long, hard winter for us all - and it's not over yet. Then, after a glimpse of spring, the Apocolypse seemed to be upon us with massive flooding and furious storms. In the midst of all that, it was so nice to have a day all to ourselves. I guess I felt compelled to write about it, to memorialize it in some way...

After our game, we cleaned up around the house a bit and made some walleye (just caught last weekend) and potatoes for supper. I got my Scrapbooking Central area organized in the basement. We watched some TV together and eventually went to bed. Jay does not like going to bed early on Sundays because he says it's like "giving up on the weekend" once you go to sleep on Sunday nights. I have to agree with that...

Monday morning we packed up some clothes and the beagles and headed into town. We did not return to our house until last night (Tuesday) after work. We have resigned ourselves to giving up on staying at the house during the many winter storms/blizzards we have had this year - the first year, actually first months, in our new home. Who would have seen this winter coming? I believe we are around 2 inches away from the all time record in snowfall for a winter currently. Our future son will hear many stories about this winter and spring I'm sure!

Our friend Missy had her baby girl on Monday, naming her Kaylee Mae. I guess Kaylee wanted to make her debut on the snowiest day of the year!! I got to visit them Tuesday over lunch hour. Missy was upbeat as always - telling stories about the delivery and how she cracked jokes with the nurses and doctor in between contractions. A beautiful, proud new mom! Kaylee was just so sweet and beautiful....thick, dark, wavy hair and such a sweet face...soft skin and tiny features. I can't wait for our little guy to meet her - to grow up playing with little Kaylee at the softball diamonds while their moms play softball together!! A little over 10 weeks until the due date...it seems so soon and yet so far away all at the same time...

We are back into the old grind at work. Jay's foot was causing excruciating pain and so he went to the doctor this morning to get it checked out. He got some medication for gout, which was likely onset by him injuring himself by his fall down the steps while sleep walking a week and half ago...We're hoping the medication helps ease the pain for him...

We also found out on Monday that Tom & Candace are expecting twins - a boy and a girl! What incredible news!!

So, it's been a big week since our nice relaxing Sunday and it's only Wednesday!!

We shall see what the remainder of the week brings us.....