The Fields I Used To Roam

Today is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. For most of my life this has meant one thing - watching or listening to the Indianapolis 500. I lived in Indianapolis from the ages of three to thirteen, and returned to Indiana for college. Living in Indy, the 500 was blacked out locally, so we listened to the 500 on the radio. Its hard to describe what the 500 meant for us back then. It was kind of like listening to Ernie Harrwell call the Tigers games on the radio - except that the entire baseball season happened on one Sunday.

I love the tradition of the race - the Purdue All-American marching band, the national anthem, the invocation, Taps, Jim Nabors singing Back Home Again in Indiana (not that I also have that song on my iPod), and a member of the Hulman family saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"

It's been twelve years since I lived in Indiana, and as the years have passed and after the split of IndyCar and Champ Car, I no longer follow IndyCar racing, and I don't care very much about the actual race. But I still put the race on the DVR, if for no other reason than to watch the pre-race ceremony. I still love some Jim Nabors. I love my life in Detroit - I don't dream about the moonlight on the Wabash nor do I dream about my Indiana home. But I think I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the tradition of that Sunday in May.

Shop at Kroger??

Many of you know that I sit on the board of Judson Center www.judsoncenter.org, a local nonprofit that provides services in the areas of adoption & foster care, autism, mental health counseling, supported employment, family preservation, respite and residential living for children and families in 10 counties in and around metro Detroit.  If you shop at Kroger grocery stores and use a Kroger Plus card, please consider registering your account to provide Judson Center a percentage of Kroger profits from your purchases as a part of their community rewards program (see below for the easy instructions).  Thank you for your support!!

Register an existing card:
-Log into www.krogercommunityrewards.com
-Sign in at the top of the page right under the "welcome" link
-Click on the "my account" link near the top
-Scroll down to "Community Rewards information"
-Click "Edit community rewards information"
-Under "Find your organization" type in Judson Center or enter organization #90406
-Click the button (2) to select Judson Center then click (3) save changes

Register a new card (card must be used once before registering):
-Click on "register" at the top of the www.krogercommunityrewards.com page right under the "welcome" link
-Register your card under "New Online Customer"
-Complete registration and log back in following the directions for existing cardholders.

Lucky me

This is what I was thinking about this weekend, not just because we got possession/keys to our new house 3 weeks earlier than originally expected, but because last night after I had passed out on the couch after dinner simply beat from two days of loading and unloading a Uhaul truck (and that didn't even include anything from the condo, just stuff being stored in our friend Sarah's basement and a storage unit! luckily the movers will do the rest) I discovered that my equally tired husband had unloaded the dishwasher, washed the sheets AND remade the bed - as a bonus I woke up to him watching a Star Wars movie - boy, do I love this man! :) And this picture is from last week one evening when he offered to make the banana bread after I set out the ingredients because I was still feeling sick, this was his second attempt at following my recipe, and it was even better than the last time! Thanks, hon.