Getaway Package includes: For Amish Acres

Guided Amish House & Farm Tour*
National Register of Historic Places Farmstead
Documentary Films covering Four Centuries of Amish History and Culture*
Farm Wagon Tour*
Complimentary Amish Horse & Buggy Ride**
One Room School House*
Domestic Craft Demonstrations*
Award Winning Family Style Threshers Dinner*
Blue Ribbon Art Museum*
Live Musical Production in The Round Barn Theatre *** This weeks musical is LEGALLY BLONDE....OMGosh a fav of mine!
(Celebrating 31 Years of Plain and Fancy)
One Night's Lodging at The Inn at Amish Acres or The Nappanee Inn
Complimentary Breakfast at the Inn
Valuable Shopping Coupons (Worth over $50 in savings)*

Good morning chickies,

First of all a Very Happy, Happy Birthday to Miss Susie :celebrate::bday2you::celebrate::hb::gift: How WONDERFUL that you can actually spent the day celebrating and not buried under a pile of desk work. I saw your gifts on FB - hubby sure does know how to pick out some nice stuff. Are you wearing your new birthday shoes??? Have a great time - sounds like you will get to see some neat stuff.

Annie - sounds like you will have a jam packed day yourself at Amish Acres. Have a great time, take pictures too. And since you might be away, HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY to you also. I know today is a sad day for you - as for the tears just remember that grief is love with no place to go. Now that you got that out of the way, smile and thank him that he was in your life and a very good brother to you. Perhaps he is up there "brothering" someone else who needs it now. :hug: I guess the best part of losing weight is putting on a swim suit and feeling pretty good. Yes, I think we will always have that distorted image in our heads of what we look like. Just bask in everyone telling you how good you look AND BELIEVE IT! You worked hard for it and all without exercise!!!! :lol3:

Shad - I beg to differ about you being a sloth. On your "laziest" day you still get more done than me. ;) We will let you into this country - hair or not - just be careful of your choice of head coverings :lol: After hearing of your ordeal to dispose of the hedge clippings, I am glad we can just load up the cart and tote the stuff to the back of the lot to make new homes for the woodland critters. However we do have an awful lot of downed trees out there - THAT will be a job and a half to figure out how to get rid of that. More than just a big bonfire. :eek: Don't work too hard today.

Laura - how was dinner last night? You might enjoy the aqua fitness classes now that the weather is getting warmer. Will you go right from the train to the recplex? That will certainly be easier on your foot. Yes, the shrimp still have shells on them and need to be deveined. But no heads thank goodness. The crab which was frightfully expensive (and will be savored) is lump crab. You still have to be mindful of the occasional speck of shell I discovered, so I spread it out on a platter before I mix the ingredients together. I found a recipe for crab cakes that have a pistachio avocado aioli which sounds very interesting. A rift on guacamole they say. Will be grilling shrimp for dinner tonight. Yum.

Hi Ceejay :wave:

I have laryngitis - started yesterday. The pine pollen and birch pollen too I guess has been really bad this year. My throat is raw and that's making my voice craggy. I feel it a bit in my chest and nose but mostly my throat. DH took me out to dinner last night because he felt sorry for me even though he was exhausted from staining half the deck. I almost didn't feel well enough to eat but I knew he had to so I went along with it. He really enjoyed his dinner so it wasn't a total loss. I have to run into town shortly and while I am there I might stop and see if they have tomato and arugula plants so I can finish off the garden. First I have to shower though as I went in the hot tub last night and feel like I smell like chemicals. I didn't shower because it was late and I have to change the sheets today anyway.

So I might as well get on with it before the whole day is over with. Have a good hump day or vacation or early end to the week - however it works out for you!

Evening all.

Susie - Nice to be celebrating your birthday on vacation & I just love those sneakers your dh gave you! :) ==Why did you rent a car for the trip? Don't want to put the miles on you own cars? == Sorry to hear that an AC repair or replacement is in your future at home. Our older car's compressor needs to be replaced & bf may do the job himself in the fall. For now the recharge us sufficient.

Happy - Sorry the pollen is giving you throat issues. Hope that passes soon.== Yikes, hadn't even thought of the heads of the shrimp!! Glad you don't have to deal with that!! == really the aqua classes, I'll have time to get home & change before the 645 class, so I'm good, unless there's a train delay...like today, left the station late today. Grrr, and after I rushed from the office to get there in time. :mad:

Annie - I hope you have a fabulous time in Amish country. That's a great package!

Better post now, almost home!

Shad - You, a sloth , not by a long shot I'm sure. :lol: Hang in there with the hedge removal, and I'm looking forward to the after photo. : D

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all so very much for the Happy Birthday message here and on Facebook.It has been a great birthday.

We did the Trolly Hop on Hop off tour. The tickets is good for two days and tomorrow we will utilize it again as we will be spending more time down town. Today I wanted to get a feel for all the places you can hop off and on and get the lay of the land so to speak. I am glad that I did because tomorrow I know where I want to spend my time.

The tour this morning took about and hour and we learned a lot about the town and such.

We then headed over to the Biltmore and it is just breathtaking. We did the self guided audio tour. It took us to 35 of the rooms and everything is just beautiful. There are other side tours you can add to the tour that we took, they cost additional money and take time. We have decided we will come back to Asheville again and spend a couple of days doing some of those tours. Beside the house tour, we toured the gardens...again beautiful.

I took all my pictures on my camera so I will need to post some of those after I get home and download them down to my computer. I don't have the cord with me to download them.

Annie: I hope you have a great time at the Amish place. Your new bikini sounds very cute and i bet you rock it!

I will accept your 1 lb loss challenge! :D

Happy: Sorry to hear about the sore throat and laryngitis. I hope that all goes away soon.

Laura: I didn't realize you are taking a water exercise class. How do you like it?

Shad: Now that I understand about the bathroom re-do and all it takes I understand. It is fun to plan and look at materials for a room re-do. What all do you hope to do?

Ceejay: I think I read that you are going back to your previous location for a visit? I need to go back and re-read.

Ok. I'm heading to the hot tub for a bit before they shut it down at 10 and then into bed for me.

TTYL

A belated happy birthday Susie.

Finally went to the doctor on Monday and got some antibiotics. Feeling a lot better today. Nephew is now sick but with a different ailment. I'm going to the store today for Lysol. :lol: Since he didn't feel like it I mowed the front lawn on Tuesday and on Wednesday did the back yard.

-------
Annie
I didn't know that about NA beer. He's been very good about all this.

Quick post to say hello.

Susie - Sounds like you're having a nice vacation. I'd love to see the Biltmore estate, especially the gardens. == I bought my aqua class pass last night & my first class is tonight. I've done classes before at Bally's, so I think I know what to expect.

Ceejay- Glad you're feeling better. Great exercise doing the mowing!!

Annie - Enjoy yourself this weekend! Hugs to you, I know the memories can be hard to deal with. :hug:
==

Ok, better post. Keeping up with the plank challenge, starting the aqua class tonight. Boss is back tomorrow, oh well ...

Hello Everyone! My last night in Asheville, we drive home tomorrow.

We had a fun day today using the hop off and hop on tour bus to stop at all the shopping places all over downtown Asheville. I didn't buy to much, just a few souvenirs here and there.

One thing I plan to do when I get back home is to go to the library and check out Thomas Wolfe's " Look Homeward Angel". I have never read it or really anything that he has written.

Ceejay: I'm glad you went to the doctor and are feeling better and I hope that your nephew doesn't share whatever he has going on. Lysol sounds like a good idea!

Good job on mowing the lawn and getting in a good workout.

Thanks to everyone for all my Birthday wishes here yesterday.

Laura: I am looking forward to to hearing all about the aqua class tonight.

Good morning all,

Took the entire day off yesterday. This allergy thing turned into bronchitis and I am trying to nip it in the bud before I wind up in the emergency room with asthma. So I had DH call and cancel my senior center morning slot. The person I was working with answered the phone and had no idea who I was when DH said my name. She was confused as to why he was calling until he told her "she's the person who's been helping you out in the office" DUH. :dizzy::dizzy::dizzy: Apparently she failed to learn my name even though I have been helping her 3 times already. :shrug: I also cancelled out on bingo last night - you know I must be sick if I skipped bingo work. :lol:

I just took it easy, took a nap, did some light housework, we ate leftovers for dinner. I did make a warm crab salad from one of the recipes I found online. Hated it. Waste of ingredients and of course even though I made half a recipe, it was still too much. Anyone want 2 cups of crab dip? :lol:

Debating about making a pot of chicken soup - the temps are supposed to soar into the upper 80's touching 90 this weekend which means we will be all about melting. We are supposed to have high chances of storms as well as windy days so no boating for us. You don't want to go on the water with winds more than 8mph - otherwise it's too choppy and the winds push the boat out. So I guess today I will finish planting the last of the veggies I bought the other day - DH has the lawn to mow again already and bought fencing to cover my strawberries that are growing rather quickly. I also need to figure out what to do with the leftover shrimp and crab that I have. Will probably make crabcakes and freeze them from the one pound of crab and perhaps a bisque with the 1/2 pound of crab meat I have left. I might just boil the shrimp and make a cold shrimp salad. DH had a taste for a lobster tail so I bought him a big one at the store. It was frightfully expensive and was more than I wanted to spend for myself so I can just have salmon, crab or shrimp. We will have to make it today if he wants to grill as they are talking afternoon thunder the next 2 days.

Susie - glad you had a good time on your vacation. I have not read anything either by Thomas Wolfe that I can recall. Apparently you have been intrigued by something from your trip?

Laura - how was the aqua class?

argh - DH is walking around me slurping his cereal again :p:p:p Good - he just turned the tv on so I don't have to hear that. :lol:

Ceejay - glad you are feeling better. Hope you and the nephew don't pass things back and forth because sometimes those summer bugs are hard to kill for good.

Hi Shad :wave:

Well onwards with the day before I blink and it's all over. Have a good weekend.

Afternoon all. Another lovely day out there. It’s been a very nice week for weather here. Of course it’s heating up over the weekend. I need to get myself busy doing outdoor stuff early in the morning – it’s so nice in the mornings.

Susie – I hope you have/had a good drive home from NC. I looked up that Wolfe book you mentioned – call me lazy, but from the reviews, it sounds like a challenging book to get through. Let me know what you think.

Happy – I’m sorry you’ve been sick with the allergies and bronchitis. Good that you stayed home and got some rest. == LOL that the lady you’ve been helping at the senior center MULTIPLE TIMES didn’t even know your name?!?!. Shaking my head. == What bummer that the crab dip was not to your liking. Nothing you can do to make it taste better?? Enjoy the rest of the crab and shrimp.

Hellos to the rest of you! Have a great weekend.

==
Now a long ramble about last night’s aqua fit class.

This one was called “Pilates and Gentle Movement”, and the park district catalog classified it as “light” and described it as “move through the water with controlled strength building exercises”. My general opinion was “meh”.

The instructor was just alright – not much of a personality, thought she showed concern about my foot, which I told her about when she asked if I’d taken the class before. That was a positive. I was dismayed when she said there could be pressure on the foot. And she advised me to go in deeper water to avoid it. Which of course makes the arm movements more challenging – not a bad thing, actually. She also advised me of modifications on some moves to protect the foot. Anyway, about the teacher – she mostly just shouted out the movements in a monotone, and gave form instruction for the in-place moves. But I guess the noisy environment of a pool makes it hard to be heard, so I understand why there wasn’t much dialog beyond the minimum.

As for the movements – there was a lot of movement across the pool, and some movements in place for strength and balance. I didn’t even think about wearing my water shoes. :doh: And the ones I have are really REALLY old, and are more like water socks, so no cushioning or support anyway. By now the elastic is weak and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do much for me except protect my feet against the rough bottom of the pool, and they’d probably fall off at some point, lol. Even so, I wished I’d thought to bring them. So overall, it was very ho-hum for me, since the instructor counts for a lot IMO.

I suppose - in spite of the class description - I expected less of the across-the-pool movement (marching, jogging, ski-type strides, both forward and backward, also more challenging in deeper water) and more in-place movements. That’s the type of class I took back at Bally’s several years ago, and I thought it was easy on my foot. The across-the-pool movements required using my feet, so not so much of a rest for the foot, but better than a regular floor-based exercise class. We used the pool “noodles” and also the foam dumbbells. I’m slightly sore today and expect it could increase a bit by tonight. The water offers great resistance, so it’s a good workout. Just not one of my favorites.

The class that started right after the one I took is called Aqua Challenge, and it was described as “Hop in and challenge yourself to be the best you can be.” Yes, rather vague. :rolleyes: And the same instructor taught it. I’m thinking that if the same instructor teaches a lot of these classes, no matter how many different classes there are – the catalog shows TEN of them! – they might all seem the same.

Anyway, my pass was for 11 classes and now it’s 1 down, 10 to go. I’ll go to a class next week on Tuesday called “Light Circuit”, classified as “light”, and described as “Build strength with this fluid motion class.” Huh. We’ll see how that is. Next time I’ll make a point of asking the instructor which classes would place the least stress/impact on my feet.

Enough of that.

I came home after class and looked at the Lands’ End catalog that had come in the mail that day to see if they had water shoes in there. Yes, and they’re on sale. :carrot: And there’s also 40% off all swim stuff to boot. :carrot: So I guess I’ll spring for some water shoes, since I’m sure it’ll make a big difference in doing the movements across the pool – better traction, for one thing.

No special plans this weekend, but I still have to plant my veggies and the rest of my flowers!! And plenty of other things to do around the house, as usual.

The tree people are coming to remove the trees along the back on Tuesday. No plans to plant replacements anytime soon, besides, I think fall is the preferred planting time for trees. Need to take a "before" photo. The "after" is going to look very bare! :(

The garage door guy came a couple days ago to measure and check out the setup. It’ll be a few weeks for the door to be made, and then a couple more to set up installation after that. Plenty of time for a "before" photo.


That’s about it for me, so I'll get this posted. :wave:

Laura
I sure was happy to get my new garage door. Sorry that you weren't to happy with the pool exercise class.

Happy
Good for you in taking the day off for being sick. Some people like myself are not good with names.

Sus

I'm beginning to this this sight doesn't like me. it's frozen twice on me.
I went to Branson last night to spend the night with sis and bil. We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday's then went shopping to Michael's and Pier! I bought some flowers at Michael's and a chair for the deck. I need another one to balance out the other side of the deck.
Bil lost his car remote last night but I found it today in one of my sacks of purchases. He was happy when I text him.
Nephew finally went to the doctor Friday and they told him that their was a virus going around and he had all the symptoms. Their wasn't anything they could do. Told him to get some over the counter stuff. This one would last 7 days. At least I'm prepared for it mentally if I should get it. I did gets some Lysol.

Susie
I started a comment to you while ago but this sight froze. Will you have the week end to recoup?

Annie and Shad. Hello :wave:

Happy Birthday Annie!

:bday2you::celebrate::bday2you:

Good Morning All....

Oh what a busy 4 days it has been.

Amish Acres was wonderful. Relaxing, did things on our own time and the play Legally Blonde was excellent. Got a few pics I will try to post in a bit. Got LOTS of cheese too. I should be bound up for two weeks. lol. Our buggy ride was great and the driver was chatty about the amish life, even let me take his picture with me which is very unheard of for the Amish. We stopped at the Mennonite Bakery and bought some cinnamon rolls and things for the family.

Saturday was Jacob's ballgame, then breakfast with my brother and SIL. He bought me my breakfast and they gave me several nice little gifts. Then I went home changed clothes and went to a wedding of a friend. Very busy day. Sunday was church then a baby shower for a friend of Samantha's that used to hang out at the house. My son came up while we were gone to surprise me for my birthday, I missed him. Bleh.

Here I am at work. My old boss, Paul stopped in for a minute to visit. He looked great. He said whatever I was doing it was working. Congrats. Of course I ate that up. He did not realize it was my birthday, he heard it through the office grapevine. Kook.

CEEG...steer clear of nephew this week. That stuff is nasty. Glad you got your organ. It looked nice on FB. Congrats. Make some recordings and email them to me. :)
Ruby Tuesday's is one of my favorite places to eat. Love the salad bar.

HAPPY...hope you are feeling a bit better by now. When you start getting those feelings of ill wear, i.e. scratchy throath, drainage...it is your body telling you to stay home till you feel 100%. Call off sick. Not like you are going to be docked pay. lol. We are having 90 degree weather also with no rain in site. Thank God for air conditioning. Bummer on the winds and the boat. Doesn't seem like you are getting much use of the boat either. hmmmm.

LAURA...ugh on the water classes. Hopefully they will get better. Is there anywhere else you can take the classes? Have you decided on the garage door and entry door yet? Did you get your planting done?

SUSIE...you vacation sounded wonderful. And DH sure got you nice gifts for your birthday. That is so sweet. Have a good week back to work! ugh.

SHADDIE...Did you get all the hedges taken out. Sheesh what a job. How are you feeling?

Make it a great day all. Hugs

AWW thanks LAURA!