We have so many wonderful memories from those two years living together. Since the day we met in our first college class she has been a dear friend of mine. What is even more enjoyable is that whenever the four of us get together, it's always a great time. I cherish our lasting friendship.
While we were living together, we collected our cans and deposited them, storing the money in a plastic zip-lock bag. By the end of the two years, we had collected about $40-50. We decided we would spend the money the next time we got together. Then life happened.
Robert and Lisa got married, we got married and well, we moved away from each other. That plastic bag of money stayed stashed in the console of Justin's truck.
We still got together every once in a while, both having season tickets to the Iowa football games we spent many games together, tailgating and cheering for the Hawks. When we would get together in Oskaloosa or Des Moines, we never seemed to remember the money we had stashed away so it never got spent.
One particular tailgating experience, we were with the Nelson's and some of their friends from Oskaloosa. After a few cocktails, we decided to order pizza from Wig and Pen, (delicious pizza by the way!), because we were tailgating across the street from the restaurant. Justin called in the order and surprisingly we had the truck with us so decided to finally use the money we had been saving all those years.
He walked across the street to the restaurant and came back with two large pizza boxes, a grin on his face and ALL the money left in the zip-lock bag.
Apparently the pizza order was ready for "Dustin" when he got there but nobody came and actually collected money from him. After waiting at the restaurant for a while, he just walked out. (It's always a joke of ours that his second name is Dustin). So we weren't able to spend the money that day. It went back into the truck console for another time.
Then Robert and Lisa started their family, followed a couple years later with Justin and I starting our family. Then, life got busy.
We would still get together every few months, attending our little one's birthday parties, meeting each other at the Tulip Festival or just going out to dinner. We never seemed to remember the money. It moved with us from Iowa City to North Liberty to Clive, (where we lived with my aunt and uncle until we bought our first house). Then it came with us to Urbandale, back to Clive, up to Ames and now Granger.
Last Summer the Nelsons moved into a beautiful house in Oskaloosa. This house is perfect for them and I know they are very happy there. We ventured down for a day/night and remembered to bring the money along. We ordered pizza and finally used some of it as a "congrats on your new house" party. We decided that after our house was completed they would come up so we could spend the rest of the money.
This past Saturday we finally made time to get together. It was a beautiful afternoon. We spent a ton of time at Jester Park which I love more and more each time we go there. The kids were entertained on the playground for a while and then enjoyed the natural playscape before we decide to do a little hiking on the trails (we have never done this). We may have gotten a little off the trail, (does that surprise you?), and Alena got a little poison ivy on her leg but it was a fun adventure.
For dinner we really wanted to do Texas Roadhouse but even at 4:30 PM the wait was nearly 2 hours (seriously!?), so we tried out a place my cousin raves about. It doesn't have a great selection for kids but I loved the salad I got. I was in such a hurry to get hydrocortisone cream for Alena's leg when we stopped at home that I forgot to grab the bag of money...
So the money remains. I guess we will try to spend it again next time...
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| The 5 Kiddos |
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