Well, I managed to survive yet another St. Patrick's Ham Dinner! I think it went rather smoothly. There didn't seem to be any hitches. We fed over 800 people in two hours without any major snaffoos. It is nice to see the parish pull together so successfully each year. It is also great to have the community show its support through its attendance year after year. It has really been an eye-opening experience to see all that goes on behind the scenes and know the work that goes into organizing such a task but many hands make light work and so by 2:30 on Sunday we were arriving home. I climbed into the whirlpool bath and relaxed before contacting my children to tell them that I did indeed survive. What a relief!



Monday morning came quickly enough and another day of work was upon me. This particular Monday was special though since I was heading to Cedar Falls to spend the night and following day with my daughter! I packed my bag Sunday evening and threw it in the car on my way to work. I took off a little early from work, making sure I had the day's charges entered and the payments posted and the deposit ready to go to the bank. It was a beautiful day and I came home first and changed into some comfy clothes and headed off to Cedar Falls about 3:30. Of course I had to reset the car's computer to see what kind of gas milage I could get vs. the kind Mike gets with his crazy driving! I got just over 25 mpg on the way down which was a lot better than we ever got with the Expedition. I arrived at Gabby's around 5:30 and she was just finishing up her chores. I bravely went into her apartment (I really had to pee!) to wait for her to get done. While I waited, I swept the floor and threw her throw rugs into the washer -- no sense sitting idle! Once she got in, she showered, got the rest of her things together and off we went to check into the hotel. By that time we discovered we were also very hungry so we headed to Pizza Hut for some bread sticks and mushroom pizza (every day is Ash Wednesday with Gabby!). On the way back to the hotel, we had to make a stop that only females can understand. We swung by a Casey's to pick up a supply of Tampax and 6 assorted chocolate candy bars -- we were girls loaded for bear! Upon arriving back at the hotel, we were off to the hot tub --- aaaahhhh! Once we got done there we went back to the room, watched the movie 'Date Night' (very funny movie) and pigged out on some chocolate. During all this, Gabby received a text from her dad asking if we had found the surprise he placed in my bag. After digging in my bag, Gabby found this nice note with .... MORE CHOCOLATE! Good thing I didn't give chocolate up for Lent!


After a night's rest, we got up, showered, got dressed and headed to the Jiva Spa and Salon in downtown Cedar Falls. Gabby was first with her hour long, hot stone massage. After she was done, it was my turn for the massage and Gabby got a haircut and eyebrow wax. She really got a lot cut off...I was surprised that she would go that short again, but it really looks nice on her. Our massages felt soooo good. I did decide that I would not like to be a massage therapist because that music they play there is just tooooo weird. It would drive me absolutely up a tree if I had to listen to that all day. After we were done at the salon, Gabby was starving so we headed out to the car to make our way off to lunch. When I got to the car though, I had a little surprise waiting for me. Apparently I hadn't guessed close enough as to how much to feed the parking meter and I got a PARKING TICKET! I was shocked and apalled and extremely pissed off (mostly at myself!). I have NEVER received a ticket in my life...I have never even been as much as pulled over!!! My pristine record is tarnished! Oh well, I'll just have to get over it and suck up and pay the $10. Anyway, once the shock wore off, we were off to Olive Garden where we had a deeeelicious lunch.




After lunch we walked thru the Crossroads Mall but since neither one of us needed anything, we didn't buy anything. I take that back...I got some plug-in fragance refills at Bath and Body and Gabby picked up a mop at Bed, Bath and Beyond. How exciting!!! We then went back to Gabby's to use her mop, clean out her closet a little, watch some TV and play cards before heading off to Raymond to Stations of the Cross and mass. Afterwards we ate supper with dear Fr. Huber and visited and joked, shared some old memories and made some new ones. That reminds me of a song we sang in Girls Scouts..."make new friends, keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold." We had to pry ourselves away from the table since I had a good 2 hour drive yet ahead of me, Fr. had to go home and further prepare for a 13 Hours presentation he is doing this weekend and well, Gabby just had to go home and veg out. I gave Miss Gabby her birthday hug and we all said our good-byes and hit the road.

As I had shared with Fr. and Gabby, this is really the first time I have driven on a long road trip like this since I got my license back. I have tried to plan a little road trip a couple of times but Mike doesn't seem to want me to go off on my own. I know it is because he worries for my safety and I don't fault him for that, but it was so nice to just be able to drive off on my own, at my own pace, stopping when I want to, listening to what I want to on the radio, etc. You really don't know what a treat it is to be able to do something like that. I really find it difficult to listen to some people complain about "long drives" (and one of those complainers is aforementioned in this blog!) Driving truly is a privilege that you don't miss until you are denied that privilege.



After a good night's sleep, it was time to rise and shine and head back to the workplace. It has been so nice these past few days and the forecast was for temperatures in the upper 50s so I felt like Spring was definitely in the air. I put on some pink and wore my open-toed shoes to work. It felt so good not to have my feet all smothered in my boots all day long! I don't know how long this will last but I'm taking advantage of every minute. An Iowa girl doesn't get to expose her toes in March too very often.



My college boy has come home for a few days and he brought a moustache with him. I'm not particularly liking it, but as Michael pointed out, Micah probably doesn't like my nose pierce so I should keep quiet. I just hate it when he makes sense!