Casual Friday Challenge & Updates

First off, a post for the current Casual Friday challenge which is a Back to School challenge. I’m really grateful that I’m not going back to school. As much as I loved teaching, I love retirement more. I needed one more thank you note for friends we visited while we were away, and thought the notebook paper and pencil filled the bill for both the challenge and the card.

Card:  Hero Arts; Stamps: Happy Trails (PTI) and pencil (Judith); die: Fabulous Frames (PTI); punch: Knock-outs (American Craft) and Copics.

And now for a bit of an update and a few projects I finished before the trip. We got home a day earlier than we planned, and it was a good
thing. Tracy’s stepfather was admitted to the hospital a week ago. At first it
appeared that an ulcer was causing the difficulty and some medication and new
diet would be the answer, but then he suffered a heart attack in the hospital. It
was touch and go for several days, but he seems to have turned a corner in the last
36 hours. My mother-in-law is sleeping here as it is closer to the hospital
than my sister-in-law’s where they have been living since their bed and breakfast
burned in February. The family has gathered round and is providing almost 24
hour coverage at the hospital. That and getting ourselves back into some
semblance of a routine has taken up our time since we’ve returned.

Before we left, I wanted to prepare a hostess gift for the friends we were staying with, and I wanted it to be local products. A friend had given me a bottle of lemon olive oil and honey and garlic balsamic vinegar from a shop in East Rochester which we have loved. They encourage you to taste whatever you’d like, and are ready with all kinds of suggestions. It was wonderful! I ended up buying myself a bottle of the basil infused olive oil and have used a good portion of it already. Next on my list is a bottle of the raspberry balsamic vinegar.  These bags have the basil olive oil, a white balsamic vinegar and homemade pasta in them.

And a closer look at the tags:

One of the friends we’re stayed with is a young couple with a new-to-them house, so we picked up a Home Depot gift card for them as well. Staying with them was so much fun. Dan’s parents (also friends of ours and from Rochester) happened to be there for some of the time as well, so it was a great get-together.

It will be a few days before I make the rounds of all the blog entries that you’ve posted while I’ve been away. I’ve read many of them, but I hope to be back into the familiar routine by the end of the week.