Saturday with Karl

A quick announcement:
Quilted Twins had sold out of the kit for our quilt Azure Skies. They are back in stock but there is only a limited quantity. If you missed out the first time, order quickly while they still have some in stock. Here’s the link.

Now to today’s post:
Karl and I had the best day on Saturday…

Kalissa had worked the overnight Friday into Saturday and wouldn’t be home until 9ish on Saturday morning.  Craig had to be out to work by 7:30 am so they had about an hour and a half Saturday morning that needed an adult for the boys.  I volunteered to be the adult and through osmosis, Karl did too.

You might remember a year ago, Carver was having a little difficulty controlling himself.  He pushed easily and grabbed toys away from others while he was in my childcare and even as a three-year-old, regressed to biting.  Carver is and has always been great with adults…not as good with kids.  We didn’t know if it was because he was in childcare at my house and I was grandma so he was territorial over that or what, but it was a struggle.

Now he’s gone on to three-year-old preschool and is doing fabulous.  Kalissa debated over sending him or not due to COVID but in the end, decided to send him.  It’s a decision that at this time, we are not regretting at all.  Carver has blossomed.  He is doing so well.  If you would tell me he’s the same kid as the kid he was a year ago, I’d be sure you were lying.  He will still snitch a toy from Gannon from time to time and still can get a little rough with Gannon wrestling, but all of that is normal brother stuff.  I am so pleased with the change.  He really had me worried at this time last year.

Anyway, one of the things school does is give “Pride” tickets.  If a kid does a kindness act, they give them a ticket.  That ticket is put in a bucket and once a week a name is drawn and that kid gets a simple toy.

Carver was being so good at my house on Saturday morning while we waited for Kalissa to arrive that I said to Carver he was so helpful and if we were at school and had “Pride” tickets, I’d have given him one.

Well that’s when Karl jumped into Uncle Karl mode.  He ran and got some supplies and the next thing I knew, Karl was teaching Carver print making.

It was a 45 minute session and two of them had a blast.  You can see the stamp they made on the right and where they stamped both the paper and the board with the word PRIDE.

It was so fun watching the two of them.

From there we..
all went and looked at a house that Karl is considering.  There are two houses that Karl currently has his eye on.  He is working with the bank and with the owners to negogiate a deal.  So if it goes the way I like, I’ll be losing my roommate.

I’ll miss these inpromptu Uncle Karl moments.

From there Kalissa took the boys home and they had their day.  Karl and I decided to go on a get away.

We went to the Amish south of us.  We really didn’t need a thing…we wanted HAM.  (More on the ham story in Saturday evening’s post)

We had so much fun.  It’s been years since Karl has went shopping to the Amish with me.  As far as safe places to shop, it sure was.  We stopped a the general store and there was one other couple in the store with us and one clerk.  Same for two of the other stores we stopped at.

Before we had left Kalissa and the boys we had a request from them to get whoopi pies.  If you aren’t familiar, they are like two cake cookies sandwiched with frosting in between.

We were about 20 minutes from home when I realized that I forgot my purse.  DANG.  Karl had a debit card but the Amish don’t have ATM machines.  Dang.  We ended up driving to another town where Karl got $100 in cash.  I dug and dug through the truck and found two check blanks.  We throught we’d be good.

My phone was in my purse so I didn’t have that either and we had asked Kalissa to send us a grocery list to my phone.  I ended up messaging her on Karl’s phone and she send a list along with this message, “Carver says his Whoopi pie is taking too long ”   At this point we had only been gone for 20 minutes!!  He’d have a long wait.

We went to the bakery first.  It is tradition to always go to the bakery first.  The best selection is always there early.  YES, we got whoopi pies for Carver and family..rolls and bread for us.  From there the grocery store, the general store, and another store.  We had so much fun.  It’s been awhile since I’ve been to any other stores except the bakery and grocery store.

It’s so hard not to eat rolls in the car.  SO HARD.

Karl and I would laugh at each store we went to.  Would we use some of his cash?  Would we use one of my check blanks?  We were carefully calculating our money.  I used a check at the grocery store as we figured that would be the largest purchase.  We found canning jar rings at the general store and we were out so purchases a 14 1/2 dozen roll for $36.  We didn’t do a ton of canning this year but had used all of ours up and we heard it’s hard to find them so thought we better get some while we could.  That took a bigger chunk of Karl’s $100…as did the bakery.

From there we were ready to head towards home when Karl said, “Mom, we never did get a coffee.”

I said I’d rather eat Mexican than coffee.  That’s when we both squealed.  There is a new Mexican restaurant in West Union (kind of but not really on our way home).  YES, we’d go.  We didn’t have to worry about money there as Karl had his debit card.  We had been wanting to go but didn’t know with COVID if we should.  Well it was 3:00 in the afternoon now and surely not a lot of people would be eating then.

We were right.  There was one other group there.  The food was SO GOOD!!  There was a lot of it…but it was pretty expensive.  We didn’t realize when we ordered but Karl’s margarita was $10.  UGH.  We would have never ordered drinks had we known.

The food was SO GOOD!!  Karl and I put 1/2 of the food away in our bellies and the rest we took home in two take out boxes.  I was careful when I set mine aside so I could share it with Kalissa as germ free as possible.

Karl and I had so much fun eating our day away first with breadfast at home, rolls from the Amish and Mexican from the new restaurant.

Before long we were headed back home laughing our way there.

We stopped at Kalissa’s on the way home.  We had a mission to deliver the whoopi pies…

Kalissa and Carver were just awake from their naps when Carver heard us pull in.  Kalissa said that Carver said, “I think they are here with my whoopi pie” and flew down the stairs to see if it was us.

The two of them ate their whoopi pies.

The we turned and looked.  Carver had snuck off his chair into the kitchen and had a big donut too!!

Kalissa ate the rest of my Mexican food while we chatted about our trip.

I said to Kalissa the only bad thing about the day was that I didn’t have my camera so couldn’t get any pictures.  She said well I’ll take one now…and so she did.

It really was a great day to get away.  We never did see Gannon.  He was still sleeping.

Later, Kalissa sent some pictures.

Gannon was eating his whoopi pie.

He is crazy about whoopi pies just like his mommy and brother!

I have made whoopi pies in the past but I don’t think I’ve found the perfect recipe…or the right filling.  I think that’s one of the next things I need to try to perfect!

Obviously, my family would love it if I could figure it out!!

What a fun day….It’s one that I would love to repeat again and again..but next time I really hope I’d remember my phone and purse.