Peoria

Saturday night in Peoria, Jon's home (really, Brimfield, IL, is his hometown, but it is just outside of Peoria and his dad and stepmom live in Peoria currently). We are staying with Jeff, his dad, and Mariola, his stepmom.

This morning we spent some time with Jon's mom, Judy, and his aunt, Dreme, out at Dreme and Max's house in the woods. They are the same woods that Jon grew up running around in, playing with his cousins and brother. He grew up just down the drive from Dreme. His childhood home has been for sale for a while now, so when we pass it on the way to Dreme's, I think it makes him feel a little sad and a little bit nostalgic. He's more sentimental about some things than I am and was very fortunate to have had a very happy childhood, so he looks back on his childhood home as a very special place. Out of all the people I know, his childhood was probably the most idyllic. Really. He hung out with his grandpa next door, played in a pool all summer long, he ran about exploring the woods, he had an amazing dog that saved his life, he was surrounded by family that he loved being with and they loved being with him. He has great recollections of being a young boy.

His mom and stepdad, Win, came to Peoria for Josh's, Jon's little brother's suprise 30th birthday party that was this afternoon. Was good to see them, as they are on their way to Florida with a load of things from their Wisconsin home that was recently sold. They will be back in a week to go back and pack up more and have a garage sale to sell all that they don't wish to keep. Then will travel back down to Florida. It is a lot of miles of driving two completely packed Dodge Caravans.

The party was great--Josh really WAS surprised, which I thought was really quite a feat, considering how many people knew about it and didn't let it slip! There were many people in attendance, Kate and family made great food AND grilled too, and their new deck and newly remodeled and updated home hosted everyone very comfortably. The kids all had fun playing in the yard with bubbles and on the kid-sized John Deere Gator, just like Grandpa Zinser's--Kate's dad--big one. Josh had just finished building the deck this week, so it was just in time! It so nice to get to see everyone that we don't get to see often, including Jon's Grandma B and her husband Gene, who drove down from Knoxville, IL, near Galesburg, to come to the party, too. We also enjoy visiting with Kate's parent's, Doc and Christine Zinser. Doc was instrumental in Jon's decision to pursue chiropractic as a career. They are really fun people to be around.

Still sick. Today is Day 3 of my z-pack, so hope I am feeling much better tomorrow. Dartagnan is on Day 4 of his antibiotics, but he is still not feeling much better either. Maybe Sunday will be the turning point. Tired of coughing all the time. Tired of feeling tired!

Tomorrow morning we'll get to spend more time with Jeff and Mariola and hopefully see Jenni and her husband, Ed. Jenni is Mariola's daughter, Jon's stepsister. We didn't get a chance to visit with them yet.

Friday's Toggle mid-term exam was a killer. Wow. The CD that is included with the text is a good taste of what the questions on the exam will be like. They were definitely tough. I took 1.5 hours to complete the test. There was a matching section that gave the listing and then there were 5 possible statements that may or may not apply and you had to decide which statements DID apply and mark all that DID, so you could have A, B, D or B,C, E or other combo on your answer sheet. That was very challenging. I'm glad I spent the time that I did spend on studying that.

Spent some time today reviewing Rad 2 for the exam on Tuesday and reading some about water-soluble vitamins for Nutrition. I need to put some more time in to reviewing...