A long, Emotional Weekend

It has been a long, emotional and eventful weekend. On Thursday we packed what seemed like the whole entire house into the Ol' Mitsubishi (AKA Mitch) and headed north. The day started out as usual, the car needed an oil change because I forgot to do it earlier in the week, a screw impaled itself into the front tire which required immediate repair, the garage door stopped working (again) as we were trying to leave the driveway and Clark started to scream bloody murder as we were leaving the neighborhood. However, 30 seconds into the car ride both dogs and the baby were passed out...and stayed that way for the entire 3 hour car ride. Everyone looks comfy--except poor Krum.

Grandpa Towner passed away this week. The funeral was a very bittersweet day for us, emotions were all over the place, high and low. Grandpa Towner is no longer with us and Grandma lost her life partner, it makes us both cry just thinking about it. On the brightside, Grandpa Towner went to heaven without having to make amends with a single person or with a single ill feeling in his heart because he lead such an honest and kindhearted life. It was hard to see everyone so sad because they had just lost a spouse/dad/grandpa, but at the same time we were so happy to just see everyone. This was the first time Clark was introduced to the family--we didn't know the photo protocol for funerals so all the memories are preserved in our heads. We would like to give a warm Worcestershire shoutout to cousin Kelly! Matt has agreed to try a Sloppy Joe, but only if it is renamed The Neat and Tidy Matt.

After socializing and saying the usual extremely long Towner Goodbye--which cracks me up everytime--we all packed back into Mitch and went to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday. I told you this weekend was full of emotional ups and downs--a funeral followed by a birthday celebration. We started the Birthday Extravaganza at my grandparents' house where we took advantage of one of my Papa's old cars.

We then went to Tree-Mendus Fruit Farms to pick apples. We picked so many apples that we will be eating apples in every meal until February. Today's Menu: Warm Apple Cinnamon Pancakes with Maple Syrup for breakfast, Honey Ham on Wheat with Apple Slices on the side for lunch and Apple Infused Pork Chops grilled to perfection with a side of warm Applesauce and Apple Pie for dessert!

Apples as far as the eye can see



The Apple of my Eye--Come on, you saw that lame pun coming!

We also hit up a million garage/barn sales and antique stores. I came away with some dishes, a shelf and candle sticks. Matt used his awesome bargaining powers to score me 2 antique D-handle Jadeite coffee mugs for 5 bucks--the for pair!!!!!. 99.9% of you have no idea what those are, but they retail for 45 bucks a piece. The lady wanted 30 dollars for the set--which was a steal in itself-- but Matt said he would give her 5 big ones for the set, I actually laughed out loud when we said it and looked at him like he was a nut job, but the lady said SOLD. I grabbed them and took off running before she could realize the loss she just took. Sucker.

Sunday we went on a carousel ride downtown St. Joe, those things go a lot faster than I remember! Notice Clark in his carseat in the background, the kid falls asleep whenever we go to do cool stuff.

Happy 50th Birthday Mom. 50 is the new 40, which is like the new 30 and 30 is really the new 21. So to celebrate your youth I got you this clown. Enjoy.