Over the meadow - yes!

We made it! Sister Patsy kindly drove out of her way to pick me up for the long drive to mid-Iowa. We both agree that having someone along makes the hours fly by. After starting mid-morning, for her (lunchtime for me), we had dry roads most of the way there. Coming back on Sunday was fairly safe too but we were aware we had done our driving on the "good" days. Apparently Saturday (the one day we didn't drive) other cars had some horrendous experiences. We saw at least 4 cars along the interstate that were completely upside down. In addition, many more cars and semis were stranded in the snow, having run off the road and left there to be towed away at a later time. The challenge to driving on Sunday was the bitter cold accompanied by blowing snow across the road. The cold made the snow so dry it blew across us and created a fog-like effect which made visibility poor.

Our time in Indianola with Mom, Darrell, sister Jacquie and her hubby Jim went so well. We played lots and lots of games, taking turns choosing which game to play. My favorite was an old game we had not played in years: Password. Darrell's favorite was Circle Rummy. Jim liked Wizard (I think?). Mom and Patsy were happy with anything. Jacquie's favorite activity though was not the games (although she is an avid game-player). Her favorite thing was when we three sisters and Mom sat in front of the computer web-cam and sang "Sleigh Bells" into the camera. Mom had a solo part you really should hear, singing the words of Parson Brown with much feeling and drama! It was quite funny. The award-winning performance is on Facebook for public viewing. Groan.

Goldie, the cat, has come out of her shell a bit. Mom and Darrell had her new last Thanksgiving when I was there and she just plain irked me. She wouldn't let anyone get near her! She was no better than a ferral cat, in my opinion. But this time she has developed a slight bit in the social graces area and actually jumped up on my lap a few times. Poor Goldie, or I should say, poor Jacquie. The cat was constantly wanting in and out the door and Friday night did not come back to be let in by the time we all wanted to go to bed at 1 am-ish. Since Jacquie had let her out, she felt responsible to wait up for her - not so the rest of us - "good night all!". Well, Jacquie tried to go to sleep but would get back up again every so often to see if Goldie was cold and meowing at the door. Finally at 2:30 am Goldie showed up. When some of us got up at 6:30 the next morning, Jacquie thought the night went way too fast - and that the kitchen floor above where she slept needed more insulation to block out creaking foot steps.

On Saturday night we exchanged some gifts and it quickly became a pajama party as sister Patsy had gifted us all with brand new pj's! We all donned our new duds and took pictures! That's how we are - we'll take pictures of any occasion - even new "intimate" night apparell!

Now I'm home having been greeted by my first-born who arrived home from college while I was away. He actually bounded down the stairs to greet me - and that is probably the highlight of the weekend for me. I guess I'm a very "needy" mom - he loves me!