Happy Birthday to me!!

Another cycle around the sun! Yikes... 47 years old this year.  My vision has definitely been reminding me, let's just say - my lack of youth. LOL!!

My lovely hubby decided to take me out for breakfast.  I'm always such a sucker for these orange carrot with ginger juices.  And it's so funny, because we have a juicer and I could totally just do this myself!

But it's always so much easier when someone else cleans up the mess, isn't it? The juicer is definitely a pain in the butt when it comes to cleaning because it has so many parts!

Yummy breakfast!

I guess I will let Bobby sneak a few bites as he has been really good with his new diet/lifestyle. He has lost 25lbs since Spring Break (end of March).

Oh, and then we go pick up some free mulch.  On my birthday??! C'mon!

And seems that the boys have been busy with some Legos!  This is probably the only way I'm approving more Legos in this house:

And as the boys were handing this nice bunch of Lego flowers to me, Charlie imitated my voice and said, "It's only going to collect dust!".  So, he was listening to me.  LOL!!

I felt like fried chicken for lunch and of course, wish granted :-)

As for dinner, Bobby surprised me with a drive and dinner to Lake Geneva.  It's the Baker House!

Wait, that tow-away sign was blocking the house.  Here it is :-D

Our last trip to Lake Geneva (we're in Wisconsin, actually!) was during the Ice Sculpture festival in February.  It was so cold then! Crazy to think we were walking on the lake then.  One of these days, we may rent a boat to go fishing, but gosh - the rates are a bit higher than I had expected!

Fancy silverware!  One of the boys was the first to notice:

Some old decor that Charlie had to take advantage of :-)

Some cool patterns on the hardwood floor! I guess no one really cared about matching too much back in the days. Ha!

Giant mirrored mantel above one of several fireplaces:

Oooooh, I love this door knob :-D

Family we-fie! Thank you to my boys for a lovely birthday surprise XOX

I decided to have a bowl of clam chowder and some crab cakes.  Yummy!

Unfortunately, there was a little issue with our bill. Bobby wanted some protein with his salad but they didn't have any chicken. And when the bill came, the salad was $31!!! Anyhow, it was taken care of although no free dessert. Ha!

So we decided to head over to an ice cream shop for dessert.  Well, actually - Bobby forgot to bring my birthday present to the restaurant as well:

Oh la la... exciting birthday gift!!

Thank you, honey, for the lovely birthday present! Although, we just exchanged it for a different watch. H he... not the first time doing something like that :-P  But it would be so nice to finally have a watch that doesn't need any batteries to change. Yay!! 

First ever golf Couple's event

Bobby and I have been married for 16 years and this is the very first time that we've participated in a golf Couple's event!  We both were able to get our handicaps through the club and so we figured, why not!  AND, we were also able to get a babysitter for the boys. Yay!!

O M G... we couldn't have picked the worst day (weather-wise) to play golf!  It was cold, windy, and cold. Wait, I did already say cold, right? And oh, it started to rain about halfway through the round too.  My personal meteorologist a.k.a Bobby was totally wrong on that one! Thankfully, we did remember to bring our own little personalized propane heater:

You can see it set in the cupholder of the golf cart.  Although, I think we had missed bringing a part in the bag because the heater was sort of wobbly in the cup holder. Just glad neither one of us got burnt. Ha ha, yeaaah - maybe not so funny!

Well, we played the Best Ball format and shot 66 Nett! (i.e. with the handicap allowance - although mine was a zero. Ha ha!).  We beat the team/couple whom we were playing with by one shot.  Well, funny thing is - majority of the couples that played in this event chose to play in the Scramble format, for fun.  And the winners all won credit for the Golf Shop! And we got nothing! Zilch! Nada!!... except the honor to represent our Golf Club in another Couple's event.  Oh boy! I'm not sure if we are ready for that!!

Well, we might not even be around so I guess we should probably just let the other couple who came in 2nd to play in it.  But if we do, we'll keep y'all posted on how we do! 

But hey, not too shabby for our first Couple's event. And we were still in speaking terms after the round.  Bonus!! ;-)

Quick visit in Geneva, IL

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Geneva (not to be confused to Lake Geneva in WI).  This Geneva was about an hour south of us, very near St. Charles.  We were there to pick up a compost bin. Yup, another one! We had one in CA but it didn't seem to work very well. So I'm determined to make this one work!

We all thought that Geneva was a very pleasant town.  Here's the courthouse in the middle of the town:

Who knew JFK was at these very steps in front of the courthouse during his campaign for Presidency, in October of 1960!

Getting a tad warm - Graham decides to take off the lower half of his pants. Ha! He has definitely embraced wearing these pants vs. his usual jeans:

Quite the canon here:

Definitely don't want to be on the wrong side of this thing!

Some cool stuff in the window displays:

Ended up buying a dress and also stopping at this store.  Doesn't seem like anyone is interested in shopping with me.  All the boys are on their phones!!

Oohhh, I definitely love this store! :-)

Yup, bought some stuff - for the house! So it's all Bobby-approved. Yay!!

Found an ice cream placed named Graham's, so of course we had to go in there!

Geneva is definitely quite lovely.  Not too shabby with a street musician playing her violin from across the street too:

Took the scenic route home:

Hmmm, might need some work but there's already too screws in the brick there:

And as for the birdhouse, I decided to put it in this front yard:

But I also really wanted to grow some corn over here.  Soooooo,... 

Win-win!! :-D

Hopefully some birds will "check-in" some day:

We had another birdhouse that has been up on the other side of the driveway, that no bird has inhabited.  So I've moved it into this area as well.  Will update a photo next time.

Geneva, IL was definitely a good little town to come visit.  Lots of fancy restaurants too, it seemed. Only thing is it's 1-hr away! Maybe drive to on the next special occasion or if I find something else to buy on Fb Marketplace. LOL!!

First family bike ride

We finally have bikes for everyone and with the new bike rack put together, now that real task was actually trying to get all 4 bikes up on it! It definitely took a while - probably almost like 30 minutes. LOL!!

And we're off!

All the boys are looking good with some new helmets.  So glad we were able to get these fancy ones at a discount:

Why is mommy stuck with the cheapy helmet then??! Hmmm...!!  

We went to a preserve not too far from the house. What a cool little spot this is! 

I figured this preserve would be a good start for us... just in case we can't fit the bikes back up on the rack, the boys can just bike home. Ha ha!!

And looks at this cool treehouse we found:

So neat!!

And a lovely park not too far from the treehouse:

It seems that this marsh was meant for some agriculture way back when but since it failed, the land was restored and reforested with 80,000 trees!!

Tired Charlie! LOL!!

Thankfully we managed to get all the bikes back on the rack.  Actually, mine - being the last one, almost couldn't get on that rack.  And so Graham quickly chimed in, "Well Mommy, looks like you're the one that has to bike home."  Ha!! Little stinker!!

A successful outing for sure!  We will need to keep practicing on putting those bikes up on the bike rack and hopefully venture further out. There are so many preserve near us. With all that effort getting the bikes on and off the rack, we should definitely be spending more time on our bikes and perhaps even packing a lunch :-)

Charlie loves to fish

Charlie is totally hooked on fishing.  He said his goal this summer holiday was to fish 7 days a week!  

I was out on the lake kayaking with a few women/neighbors last week.  At the end of the evening, I went to visit Charlie who was fishing on the other side of the lake.  And just as I was approaching on the kayak, he caught a fish!

I thought it was funny how he didn't reel the fish in just a little bit more so he could reach the fish more easily with his net.  But what do I know about fishing. I've yet to actually catch one!

Charlie is doing much better at taking the hook out of the fish. It's funny how he is able to do that without actually touching the fish with his other hand. I'm just glad he has learned to use those pliers especially after hooking himself with a fish hook at the end of last summer.

Charlie in action!

It's a big one!!

Oh, see his stainless steel cup on the rock - he actually made himself some tea to take with him.  Ha! It's so hilarious because I drink a lot of tea in the afternoon and he totally picked up on that!

Time to take a photo for the books!

There's the one-hand release with the pliers:

There will be a fishing derby in the neighborhood during this upcoming July 4th weekend celebrations.  Maybe that is what he is training for! :-D

US Women's Open Qualifier (June 7)

I was all excited when the LPGA decided to return with a new sponsor back in Malaysia this year.  The Maybank of Malaysia will be hosting again at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club later this October!  It got all my golfing juices flowing again, so I decided to sign up for the US Women's Open qualifier. Coincidentally, there was a qualifying site 20 minutes down the road in Palatine. 

But first, some final prep work.  My club head cover needed some mending.  This one was a gift from my caddy way back when during the 1994 ASEAN Games in Hiroshima, Japan:

Much better... considering it already has some prior mending work done and it's almost 30 years old!!

My caddy then was this cute little Japanese lady and she knitted an entire set of 4 of these headcovers in green. And right before I left on the last day, she knitted another set of 4 in yellow!

Also prepping by some practice rounds.  Check out all that white cotton/fluff that's all over the fairway!! It's like it's snowing.  Seems that it's from the female cottonwood trees:

And practicing mentally - never too late for some last minute "mind practice".  My putting has been so bad lately!!

Here's the day of the qualifier!  Palatine Hills Golf Club is actually a city-run club and it's been in good shape for the qualifier:

So there are only 2 spots available for grabs for the qualifier, out of 78 players.  And we played 2 rounds on the same day. I'm glad I had asked Bobby and the boys to come by the club to order lunch for me and my caddy because we only had 20 minutes between finishing up on #18 and going back to #1 tee!

And here are my scores.  Rather embarrassing!!

Despite all those practice rounds, my body just did not react to how my mind wanted it to. I was very hesitant and tentative with a lot of my shots.  If I had to guess, it's probably due to the lack of competitive golf. My last event was back in Long Beach, CA in 2018!! 

It was great to see Bobby, Graham, and Charlie though - as I exited the 18th green (36th hole at this point): One with a bag of gummy bears, another with a bar of 70% dark chocolate, and finally one with a cactus plant with purple flowers.  All of my favorites! 

If anything, it was great being back in some sort of competitive play again. I had a local kid as a caddy, although it probably would have been better to have a familiar face on the bag. Maybe that would have calmed my nerves down a bit more.  This really made me think about whether I want to continue playing "Pro" or reinstate my amateur status. I was actually planning on going back to an Amateur right before I signed up for this qualifier.  The good news is there are a lot more professional events to play in the Midwest. And with both boys being back in middle school, perhaps I will have more time to practice?! Decisions, decisions!!  And of course, I can always keep my Pro status so I can play in Senior events when I turn 50. Ha!!