Watertown Weekend: Before the Play

My trip to Watertown started out with a brisk early morning drive to Mom’s. For some reason, my car takes FOREVER to warm up! I thought I was being smart and taking the short route to Mom’s, but I ended up in horrifically slow moving traffic on Rockton Road, due to the new Super Walmart construction. It was really nasty – very slow and lots of toxic blacktop fumes!

When I finally DID get to Mom’s, I realized I had totally forgotten to eat breakfast. Thankfully, Aunt Linda had brought some butter croissants! Yum! Candice and I still talked Mom into stopping at a gas station so we could get Coke (her) and Diet Coke (me).

Aunt Linda had brought some of the photos she’s taken over the last couple of months. She wanted us to have something to look through during the trip.

Well, they were very convicting! As I looked at the photos, I saw a totally different person looking out at me. I’m very glad Mom and I are starting back to Weight Watchers on Tuesday!

It’s funny that I don’t see that same face in the mirror. I was honestly shocked at some of those photos. I think I’m going to post one at work and one at home, so I’m constantly reminded that I need to work at getting the weight off!

Anyway, so the four us piled in Mom’s car and headed up to Aunt Jan’s. Mom and Aunt Linda sat in the front and talked about (I’m sure) much more mature things that Candice and I discussed.

Actually, we mostly discussed the lyrics to “Sante Fe” from Newsies. She swore the lyric “save the world” was in there, and I swore it wasn’t. Guess what? I just looked it up on Google – and I was right! Ha! So there! We also talked about BJ moving to Tennessee this Sunday, and Candice’s love life – oh, la, la!

We also enjoyed driving with Mom – well, actually we laughed about it a lot. Mom’s in love with her brake pedal and tends to stomp on it every couple of seconds, and so we knew all of our seatbelts were functioning properly!

Eventually, s-l-o-w-l-y we got to the Johnson Creek Outlet Mall. Aunt Jan met us there. It was SO good to see her! She’s so sweet. She even let me and Candice use her coupons to get new lotions from Bath and Body Works.

Candice got Winter Candy Apple, and I got Twisted Peppermint. Mom said she knew I would pick that because – and I quote, “You’re twisted.” From my own mother!

We went to Harry David (yum freakin’ yum) together, and then broke off into two groups. Candice and I went off together and “the aunts” went off together. We visited the Welcome Home Store where I got a candle screen (only $10!) and a piece that matches a tea light holder I got from Home Interiors forever ago.

We also went to Aeropostale, Gap, The Paper Factory, The Children’s Place, Dress Barn, and Nike.

It was so fun in Nike! We just walked around and held up various athletic attire and said, “Darn it! They don’t carry this in an extra small.” Then, of course, we’d ask if they had anything in the 0-2 size. Ha! Ha! Ha! SO funny!

Aunt Jan had coupons for Arby’s (actually, she had coupons for everything we did!) – enough for the five of us AND for the complete party of people behind us. We were all passing out coupons! They loved us at Arby’s.

After that, Aunt Linda and Candice went back to Aunt Jan’s to sleep. Aunt Linda always has to take a nap, and Candice worked the night shift, so she hadn’t had any sleep yet.

I went with Mom and Aunt Jan to Kohl’s. We found great Christmas gifts for Linda and Molly Sturgill. I also discovered a good gift idea for Colleen. I’ve thought about it for a while, and I really think I’m going to get it!

Mom and Aunt Jan are SO funny! They kept asking for my opinion on certain clothes, and when I said I didn’t like them, they were like, “Well what do you know?” I told them they shouldn’t ask for an opinion if they knew they weren’t going to like it! Ha! Ha!

Aunt Jan could have shopped FOREVER, but Mom and I were exhausted – and my feet HURT! So, we went back to Aunt Jan’s and took naps – in very uncomfortable chairs, since our sleeping partners were hogging the beds. The NERVE! J

At 5:00 p.m., by the time Uncle Darryl got home, we were all up and gussied up for dinner before the play. Dinner was DE-licious. Aunt Jan made Chicken Chalupa Casserole, Cornbread Casserole, Strawberry Jello Salad, and Chocolate Mousse-with-a-graham-cracker-crust-Squares. Mmm-mmmm-good!

My cousin Jonathan, a graduate student at Maranatha, joined us for dinner. He also brought his friend Leeanna (I’m guessing on the spelling of her name) to dinner. He is SO thin! You could almost SEE his bones! I’m not entirely sure he’s a Rehfeldt! Ha! Ha!

Well, in spite of being SO tall and SO thin, he’s still very, very handsome. And what a GOOD guy! I was very proud to be his cousin – he probably wanted to crawl under the table with the lot of us Rehfeldt women talking the whole time!

Leeanna seemed very sweet. Although I did stick my foot in it during dinner! Somehow, we got around to talking about education and the topic of home school came up. And I said how I’ve noticed some home school students lack the social interaction necessary for normal development.

Well, turns out, Leeanna was a home school student! Ooops! Thankfully, the word “some” saved me. She regaled us with tales of her parent’s successful experience with home school. She laughed about it being her “high horse,” but I don’t think she was ever dogmatic about it.

And judging by just the few hours we spent with her, I must say her parents did something VERY right. She’s an accomplished, well-spoken woman. And we could all see why Jonathan would be smitten!