Friday, September 27, 2013

It's Fabulous Friday...

I might feel a little more excited about it being Friday if I worked full time and the kids were all still living at home and young. I remember those days as if it were yesterday. Scrambling around to get everyone breakfast, dressed, make lunches then get them off to school, getting ready to be at the office by 8 am, missing some of their school plays or soccer games because I had to work. With all 3 kids doing something after school, whether it was gymnastics, soccer, band, school dances and or projects due (most of the time I didn't learn about the projects due until just a day or so prior...even though the kids knew for weeks!), Friday always felt like it took forever to get here, and I cherished those Friday's and the weekend to follow. 

Now that I'm semi-retired and my secretarial job doesn't take me away from home for those 9 hours a day, it's still great to have Friday here and the weekends are STILL fun!

A little recap of this past week, which turned out to be another random week (and that's wonderful)!

Logan making a spider

Emmy wearing her Kitty mask she made
Wendy and I went to Mitchell's and had ICE CREAM! 
I got Stephen this cute little cookie jar as a housewarming gift  for his new condo! 
And what would a cookie jar be without....

Homemade COOKIES! 
We went to an Indians Game...

with Steve and his girlfriend Sarah. We won..GO TRIBE!!!!!!! 
I had some good 'ol fashioned Cracker Jack at the game. Brought back a flood of memories! 

Since Paul brought back a bunch of apples from his sister Sue's house, I decided it was about time I got an apple peeler. I would not have been able to peel and core and chop 18 apples with my arthritis! This little machine worked great! 
Applesauce in the making. 
Yummy Applesauce! 
Wendy and I took Dory to Menchies for the 1st time. She loved it!
So, that's it for this week. I'm going to get started on another knitting project. The Blue Angel Shawl wasn't my cup of tea so I'm off to make the 2nd fingerless glove to match the one I made last year. I'll post pics soon.

As always...

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Random...

Yes, it's been kind of a random week.  Random-

Proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern. Yep, that sums it up!

Officer Jennifer Scherry dressed in full gear and ready! So proud of her.
Little Charlotte! My new great niece, so precious!
Hemming pants for both Dory and Chris.
Wonderfully delicious Peach Salad at the Tree House with Dory and Jenn!

It warms my heart when I pick up Logan and Emmy on Tuesday's and Thursday's and they are ALWAYS excited to see me! What a great feeling!
Mini Blizzards at Dairy Queen! 
Toby loves the new rug!

Dory and I took Winston and Dora for a little walk.

As always...

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Our Michigan Trip

Well it's over a week into September and I'm just now getting to write. Life is crazy hectic here! Paul and I did get to take a nice 4 day vacation and drive up to Michigan. We just couldn't get over how BEAUTIFUL it is there!! Michigan has always been a huge rival with Ohio in sports and everything but I have to tell ya, I have a whole new outlook with a lot of respect for that place!! We got to enjoy our little vacation with a couple of friends, Joe and Diane. First we went to Mackinaw Island and rented bikes to use to explore. The 4 of us at first got tandem bikes. We thought that would be really FUN! NOT! The tallest person has to be in front so that meant Paul and Joe were the "drivers". Joe & Di took off first and when we caught up with them Diane said "THIS IS NOT FUN! I WANT MY OWN BIKE!" I was thinking the exact same thing and I was so glad she said that because if she hadn't, I was going to. We went back to the bike rental place and all got our own bikes. We rode around the 4 mile island and it was truly delightful.
A few pics out of the mass...

Diane & Joe
Mackinac Bridge

I'd like to paint this (if I ever learn how to paint)

The island...no cars allowed


Our first hotel (I think it was a Comfort Inn) had a great view out the back. Paul and Di went for an early morning run and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and got some great sunrise pics...


We had some great food at little local pubs and cafe's....
My first try at White Fish...it was yummy!

This was a delicious steak concoction

We went to Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Charlevoix and Traverse City. We climbed Dunes, ate fudge, and walked around quaint little towns. One of the things we noticed was how crystal clear Lake Michigan is. Absolutely gorgeous!! 





One of the beach locations had a huge 450' drop down and we saw some people climbing up as well as going down. Paul was contemplating going down and then Joe and Di also thought about it. It never even crossed my mind, not something I would want to do. The 3 of them took the plunge. I didn't even see them after they went down about 1/3 of the way because it was steep after that point. I didn't see them until about 1/2 an hour later coming up the grassy side to my left. 
These people are close to the top.
The grassy side they came up. 
When they finally made it back up, Paul said when he first made it to the bottom his stomach had that pit feeling and he had thought to himself, what the hell did I just get myself into? I'm just glad they made it back up and safely.

On this trip I found my first Geocache!!! We also searched for and found a couple more.
Yes, it was around here somewhere :)
We visited some wineries. That was a lot of fun! 




One of our favorite places to visit was the Meijer Gardens. The sculptures were amazing!! 


We couldn't believe this statue was bronze!!!!!!

It sure looked like wood to us! 
We saw lots of flowers but not a lot of wildlife. It was a little strange since here in Ohio there are critters EVERYWHERE. Had a great time though. 

As always....