Sunday, November 23, 2008

A prayer answered................

I am thrilled to tell you that my 13 year old grand daughter, Amber, is living with me at the present time. I have been given temporary and emergency guardianship of her while her mother is incarcerated in a county jail. We will hear tomorrow for how long this guardianship will last. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the judge will demand that she take some parenting classes and anger management classes as well! And until those classes are completed satisfactorily, that Amber remain in my guardianship or that of her daddy's!

We went to visit her daddy this afternoon and stayed for dinner. Then Amber talked them into letting us bring her newest brother, Zaidyn who is almost 2 months old, home with us for the night. It really didn't take much talking on her part. They haven't had a full nights sleep since he was born back in September, so this could really be a welcome relief for them! And I know that I can do it for one night anyway. I don't have to work tomorrow, so it won't be too hard and I suspect that they will be here fairly early in the morning (probably around 9 at the latest) to pick him up. I don't think they will be able to stand not having him much later than that. In fact, I suspect that they will come as soon as all the other kids get on the school bus and are headed to school!

Bumpa called tonight and still no deer for any one up there. Makes me wonder what the big attraction is to going deer hunting in the U.P. if the majority of the deer are down this way and are corn fed and taste much better than the ones from the U.P. anyway! Perhaps it's just a 'MAN' thing!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

OMG!

Amber told the police her mom smokes pot and all shit has hit the fan! I am fearful for Amber even though when I speak with her she says she is fine. I have my doubts! She told me they are going to be moving back to a city that is only about 40miles from us and live with her mom's mom again. Then she told me they aren't. Now she tells me her mom wants to move out of state. I don't think she can legally do that without Amber's dads (my son) approval. Wish lawyers didn't cost so much! "Dad" will never give permission for that..........not in a thousand years! Yet, I don't believe he has the room for her in his home either. He and his fiance are living in a small 3 bedroom apartment with 5 children, ages 2 months to 12 years. The bedrooms are small and I'm not sure that is the best place for her either. She is always welcome to come and live with us, but that probably won't happen either. I think legally if her mom moves out of state, custody would be given to her father....not her grandmother!

Sometimes situations suck!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Just popping in...............

........to let everyone know I am fine. I am working 3 full days a week now and am busy with family obligations.

The header on this blog shows my second oldest grand daughter, Amber. She is going through some tough times in her mother's home. For those of you who believe in prayer, I would appreciate all the prayers you can manage for her. I can't explain more than that right now. Hopefully, in the near future she will be living with us or her daddy.

Thanks in advance for those prayers!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I'm fine...........

just taking a break from blogging, but wanted to leave a notice so any regular readers don't worry about where I have gone. I will get back to blogging eventually, just don't know when.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

MY TIME

Okay, it's Wednesday, Sept. 17TH. Summer is gone, over, and I missed most of it with working and being busy with extended family obligations. It's a new month and I am declaring it 'My Time'!

I'm gonna make time for ME! To read, relax and just do some of the things that I want to do. I will have to relearn the word "NO" in order to accomplish this, but I'm sure I can do it. After all, it used to be a word I used every day when my children were little. In fact, they probably grew up thinking their nickname was "no"!

Today I will vacuum and dust and make supper and clean up afterwards and the rest of the day I am going to do anything I want or nothing at all. It's the new me.......I think I will enjoy it! And tomorrow will be more of the same. And Friday.........
well, Friday I am filling in for one of the gals at work. Guess I'll learn that "NO" word beginning next week!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Not enough hours in a day.........
to get everything done! I've been working extra hours at work, filling in for the gal that got married and thinks she needed a honeymoon. Imagine that!!! Trying to keep up with all the normal housework and meeting extended family obligations has not afforded me much time to do anything else or anything for myself. I was barely able to fit in a haircut a week or so ago!

Hub's 90 year old grandma has been in the hospital since sometime last month and was not expected to make it. She has since been moved to a nursing home temporarily so she can get some physical rehab to regain some strength before she returns to her home to live out what ever time she has left. Of course, the entire family is being asked to make adjustments in their daily life's in order to accommodate and have a family member with her at all times. This will prove to be a difficult feat to manage. Those of us who have always been there to help, will continue to do so, but those who haven't taken the time to even stop in for a short visit the last few years will be absent as usual, putting the responsibilities on the rest of us!

And if that isn't enough, hub's uncle who has been in the Veterans Hospital in Ann Arbor is coming home today. He's been there since May 12Th. I went to his apartment last night and cleaned it once again, so he would have a clean environment to come home too. They actually wanted me to go to Battle Creek and pick him up today at 3 PM, but I told a little white lie and said I wouldn't be out of work in time to get him. Truth be told, I didn't have to work today, but didn't feel I could go and help him into my car, fold up his wheelchair and walker and put them in my car without hurting my own back. But I think I've really done enough!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Lots going on! Working way too many hours for my liking. Hubby is back to work days, have been busy with follow up doctor appointments and so far all has checked out fine.

His 90 year old grandmother is in the hospital with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and gallstones. Not doing so well and not expected to last very long. They are thinking of sending her home with round the clock care provided by us the family and hospice. Taking it day by day. One of her sons is in the Veterans Hospital in Ann Arbor with congestive heart failure and throat cancer. Busy, crazy, hectic time and future daughter-in-law is having irregular cells on cervix and must go in every two weeks to be checked. Baby is due October 20th.

I will try and write more later when I have more time! It is late here.......11:41 PM and I must get to bed as tomorrow I have my mammogram early in the morning!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Just a quickie!

This is going to be short and to the point. I had to take hubby into the hospital today as he was not feeling well and I thought it was probably his heart again. I was right. He has been admitted into the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit for the night. His cardiac enzymes are not elevated yet, so we don't believe he has had a heart attack. He had a major one back in November of 2005, over 800 miles from home, and it took him 12 hours to get to a hospital and they immediately took him to the heart cath lab and put a stent in.

We don't know what is going on at this point. All we do know right now is that there are significant changes in tonight's EKG than the EKG he had done in January after his stress test. He takes a 75mg Plavix every day and at the hospital the gave him 600mg more Plavix, plus they are running an IV Heparin drip. They are planning on doing a heart cath Monday morning and we will know more after they see the results of that as to what kind of intervention is needed if any.

Please keep him in your prayers!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Short Lived!

Just a quick update since Drew is here spending the day and Amber is here also, and I promised her I would take her shopping.

First shift for Bumpa was short lived......about 3 weeks. He must return to second shift again beginning Monday. Neither of us is very happy about it because they told him this first shift job would be for a long time. They didn't say the gal whose job this really is was off on disability and due back soon. Bosses are very tricky and lie to you in order to get the job done. We are both pretty upset by this, but since there isn't anything we can do about it, we will just have to deal with it. I will be returning to being a married woman who must attend all family functions that are in the evening hours as a single woman.......a fifth wheel you might say! Hub is ready to start acting like all the other employees though, and just do what he has to in order to get by. He says he is done busting his butt and working any overtime they ask when it is not mandatory just to help them out. If they treat their employees like this, he doesn't feel the need to go out of his way to be overly accommodating for them either!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Well, I think I am finally done working so many hours. The gal they hired and trained worked today all by herself and only called me 5 times.............not too bad for her first day alone. I will have to cover for Katie when she gets married in August and goes on a cruise for her honeymoon. I will be doing extra hours in Aug. Three full days per week and I need to figure out which weeks they are. Our adopted daughter needs me to come to Texas the end of July and stay for a week or two. Can't go into detail, but she REALLY needs me. If I'm not covering for Katie at that time, and if they will give me the time off, I have to figure out a way to have enough money to fly there and back and still have enough money for car insurance (purchasing a newer vehicle certainly raises ones amount of car insurance) and summer taxes that are due in the beginning of September. Hubby and I have been talking and so far we haven't been able to come up with a plan, but are not willing to give up on that yet! Anyway, I need to see if I can get the time off work first!

Just found out that my brother-in-law that has been so very sick with some auto immune disease also has Histoplasmosis, which in turn, triggered the auto-immune disease called Sarcadoesis (spelling may be wrong on that one). He is going this Wednesday to some medical center in Novi, Michigan that specializes in the auto-immune disease that he has. If it isn't treated in time, I understand that it will be fatal. Not a very pretty outlook! The only good thing is that we are finally getting answers to all the questions.

On a much brighter and cheerier note.......hubby and I are loving his being on first shift again. Although he has been on overtime ever since he went back to first, which means that he needs to get to bed by 8:30 PM 'cause he gets up at 2:30AM (all overtime is done in the mornging when it is cooler) I still spend most of my evenings alone. But at least we see more of each other this way. And I don't have to wait up until 1:30 in the morning to spend time with him!

Well, that updates almost everything. Except for my flowers, they are very beautiful outside this year. I will try and take some pictures and get them on here for you to see for yourself!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

July 6, 2008 -No Photos to Share!

I awoke sick on the 4Th. Attempted to get moving and did manage to walk down the street and sit in a chair in anticipation of the parade, but couldn't wait until it started. Had to return home to be sick again. Climbed into bed and slept until they woke me up after the parade was over and the food was almost ready to eat. It looked like they were all enjoying it and I tried to nibble a bit, but found it very unappetizing. I visited with them until they all left to go and give the little ones a nap and then I went back to sleep and slept the rest of the afternoon.

When the arrived back for the bonfire, s'mores making time I was feeling somewhat better but sure didn't want to eat any s'mores. Fireworks were able to be seen from our back yard again this year, but Drew was scared to death of them and kept crying and yelling 'go in Mema's house'............so Drew and I came inside and watched the movie 'Happy Feet' ONE MORE TIME! After the fireworks everyone left and I went to bed and slept all night. Today is the first day I feel really good.

I hope the rest of you enjoyed the Fourth............it was pretty much of a blur for me!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Tom began working in our yard today and was doing a good job of it and I was working in the house..........you know, the usual stuff, laundry, dishes, vacuuming and general picking up, etc. when Tom's mom called all frustrated because she had a bat hanging on the side of her garage in broad daylight. She was afraid he was going to fly into her house if she opened the door. Tom told her that bats don't like to fly in the day time as they are nocturnal creatures and then she got even more freaked out thinking that it probably had rabies if it was out during the daytime. Here is a picture of it before Tom knocked it off and killed it.



But once it was dead and buried, he noticed this big beautiful moth sitting on a flower pot near the front of the garage. I took a picture of it so that one follows also.


So that's our eventful Sunday afternoon............and we still didn't get the things accomplishments that we had wanted to do!

Gotta go for now, I'm falling asleep sitting in front of the computer and I have to get up @7:30 AM to get ready for work, hopefully I will get it done!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Part-time work?

I was scheduled to work all day Monday and Tuesday of this week and from 10:00AM to 1:00 PM Friday. I actually was going to be covering for a gal so she could take her ongoing training for her afternoon job. Well, when I got there Monday morning, there was in envelope in our transfer basket to go to corporate headquarters. The transfer envelope didn't have a name on it, so we opened it up to see of we could ascertain who it was meant for. The name on the small envelope inside was address to Jan.......the gal who does the hiring and places them with someone to train them. I called her and told her that there was an envelope for her and it looked as if a key were on the inside. She asked me to open it and it was the key. She had me check to see if it was the correct key to the entry door. When I confirmed that it was, I then told her about the letter in the envelope with her name on it too. She asked me to open that and read her the letter. I told her I wasn't comfortable doing that, but she repeated her request so I complied. It was a note of resignation for the morning gal. She also does the 3 hours on Friday too. You see, Terry did Monday and Tuesday mornings, I came in Monday and Tuesday afternoons and Katie was there all day Wednesday and Thursday and Terry covered the 3 hours on Friday. And when one of the people who job share quit, it places extra burdens on the other job sharers.

Tuesday a very nice gal came into the office asking if we were taking any applications. I spoke with her for a while and explained that we did have one open position and gave her a brief description of what the job entailed and the hours involved and that it was a job share position but needed to be flexible in order to be able to cover when the other gals needed the time off. She said it sounded like just what she was looking for. I gave her the name and number of the gal to call at corporate headquarters and took her name and number too. After she left, I called the gal at corporate headquarters and told her about this gal who was looking for work. Anyway, to make a long story short, the gal went in to interview on Thursday morning and was offered the position. She accepted and is supposed to begin her training on Monday at the office that I will be filling in at. I'm so excited and I really hopes she works out. She seems very pleasant and outgoing and eager to learn. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one............I think she will do a good job! And I need to get someone to fill this spot so I can go back to part-time work!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

# 19!

Those of you who have been reading here a while, know that my 2ND to the youngest son is engaged to be married. He is marrying a gal with 2 children, a girl 11 and a boy 8. Son has three children, a girl 13, a boy 6 and a girl 4 1/2. They will be blending these families into one. It is not easy and I speak from experience. Hub and I did the same thing 18 years ago. I brought 3 children and he brought 2 children, but with a lot of hard work, and it is hard work, we were able to blend everyone into one large group who truly love and care about each other. They are expecting their first baby together. Yes, I wish they had waited until they were married for this happening to occur, but it is what it is. and I don't feel that any baby is a mistake. She is due between the middle and end of October......the actual date is the 20Th, but we all know that babies have a way of showing up whenever they choose. The decision doesn't seem to be up to the carrier of the child unless a C-section is planned. Anyway, they now have 3D and 4D ultra-sounds of these babies in utero now. Following is one of the first photos of my newest grandson. My son was very proud to point out this important piece of equipment to me! As if, having had several children of my own and viewing many ultrasounds, I would not recognize it unless specifically pointed out to me. I acted properly impressed! However, I chose to show the picture of the baby's face......it is hard to recognize unless you are familiar with ultra-sounds. It is a profile and the baby is looking off to the left in the photo. You don't have to oh and ah over the photo. At this stage, they still are not very beautiful to look at. My feelings will not be hurt!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Things found!

This weekend, although very busy, was very nice. We entertained our daughter and her family from Kentucky. While spending so much time outside, we were able to see some things we might have missed otherwise. Like these marsh marigolds that are blooming at the edge of our property.



Or my Iris that have begun to bloom!

We might have missed these lovely 'Bleeding Hearts' that are in full bloom now!

We would not have found this baby rabbit that our dog was chasing and was rescued by our Kentucky daughter. She also found and held a tree frog for all the kids to see, but it was so fast, we were unable to get a shot of it. See, it pays to get outside and smell the fresh air and enjoy nature!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A House..........returned!

I know, strange title, but that's the way I feel. Like my house has been returned to me! Not that our guest was a bad guest. Just not a close friend that I would have enjoyed having stay with us for 2 1/2 weeks. I think I mentioned before that we really didn't know him very well. His wife was one of my dearest friends and she passed away in Illinois last November. He showed up out of the blue April 30TH. He drove here because the company he worked for went out of business and he no longer wanted to stay in Illinois. He wanted to return to Michigan, the state where he was born and lived most of his life. He did call when he was about 3 hours away from where we live to let me know he was on his way......TO.MY.HOUSE! Needless to say, I was a little shocked and surprised but managed to make the most of a difficult situation. He left before 9:30 AM Saturday.

I am now breathing a sigh of relief.....for a few days anyway. Thursday, Rachel and her family arrive from Kentucky for the long holiday weekend. It will be nice to see them and it will be different than our last guest........she is our daughter and it will almost seem like a homecoming!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

What next? Maybe I shouldn't ask!

I am bone tired tonight. I still have my out-of-state company and today I spent the entire day taking my hubby's uncle to the Veteran's wound clinic in Grand Rapids. He has an open wound on the bottom of his foot, and several new sores on the top of the same foot. He is in poor health to begin with having congestive heart failure, remission of cancer in his kidney, has suffered a stroke in the past, was in a farming accident and has lost all fingers and thumb on his left hand, had the big toe on his right foot amputated due to an infection in the bone, neuropathy, and they are still doing tests to see if he has cancer of the larynx. There was no one else to take him so the task fell unto me.

After arriving there at 11:00 AM, we waited until after 1 PM to get in to see a doctor. They took the dressing off and it began to leak and ooze fluid onto the floor. It was extremely swollen and the swelling was spreading up his leg. He was running a fever of 101.8 degrees. They evaluated the wound and decided he needed to be hospitalized. They asked if I could drive him to Ann Arbor to the Veteran's Hospital. When I told them I could not because I had other commitments and wouldn't be back in time, they arranged for him to be transferred by ambulance. I waited with him until the ambulance arrived and he was safely inside before I left to go to his apartment and remove all the old bandages and dressings and take them to the dumpster provided by his apartment complex. I then removed all his soiled bedding and bagged it in plastic bags to bring home to wash. I then cleaned the refrigerator out of anything that had already spoiled or wouldn't last until he was home again, locked his check book and money he had given me up in the safe and came home. Upon getting here, I called the Grand Rapids Press and had them stop service until further notice. I then called the US Postal Service to have them hold all mail until further notice. Then I prepared dinner for me and my company, cleaned up the mess and went shopping for the items my hubby wanted before the sale ended. I am now doing laundry, our own and hubby's uncles and am waiting for hubby to arrive home from work so I can see him for a bit. It is now 11:26 PM. I have been up since 6:30 AM. I need to rise at 6:00 AM to go to my sons home and get his children on the bus as he has a court date at 8:00 AM and his fiancee needs to go with him due to the circumstances of this particular case. I need to turn in as soon as hubby gets home and I talk with him for a few minutes. So, on that note, I will sign off. Hopefully, I'll be back soon!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Update on my guest!

I was able to talk with him and discovered that he is very fearful of his future. He knows of no place that will hire a man of his age (60 in a few days) and after his economic stimulus check is gone, he will have no money and no place to live. A light bulb went off in my head and I asked him if he filed for spouse's survival benefits through the Social Security Administration. His response was 'no, I didn't know there was anything like that.' So we looked online at their site and found information on all the paperwork he needs to take to them since they don't allow this to be filed and applied for online. The good news he is going there on Monday and is even thinking about and considering my suggestion as to going to the Veteran's Administration too, to see what help they might be able to provide. I feel he is making some important decisions in his life and is showing a willingness to make an effort to work through this and recover and join the real world again. I think it will be a long rough haul for him!

Friday, May 2, 2008

An unexpected suprise!

Little did I realize when I awoke yesterday that I would be hosting my late friends husband and her dog. He showed up at my house, after a quick call telling me he was almost here after driving from Colorado Springs. Seems he decided he couldn't take that job he went out there for after all. He is too depressed to begin life again in a different place, and the altitude made him and the dog sick. So I now have a homeless, unemployed man and his dog in my home. Am I happy about it? Not really. Tom and I talked about it and I said "What would Jesus do?" Tom said 'I don't know', but I have to go to work, good luck! He wasn't trying to be funny or sarcastic, he really had to leave for work so he wouldn't be late!

Well, the dogs are kind of adjusting to each other. The other dog is also a girl dog and is close to 10 years old. She has longer hair than Prancer and is also shedding. And is used to sitting anywhere in his house, on any piece of furniture she wishes too. Prancer is only allowed in her chair in the family room or on the old couches in the upstairs living room. I have tried to encourage the dog, whose name is Lady by the way, to use the floor for stretching out on!

I think Del (that's his name) is only planning on staying until his economic stimulus check is direct deposited in his checking account. And according to the schedule, he should be getting it my no later than tomorrow. One can only hope! He is down to $20. in his wallet and $112. in his checking account. He is a veteran, and when I knew he was coming, I called the veterans' administration to see if they could possibly be of any help to him. They told me that as long as he was honorably discharged from a branch of the armed services, and he was homeless and had no income and no job, they need to get him into the system with the paperwork first and go from there, but they should be able to help him. I think he is in need of some counseling for severe depression. He seems to have many reasons why he can't go fill out the paperwork. I think he may be contemplating suicide, but he hasn't brought that up at this time. It just seems from the way he talks about having nothing to live for, that it may be on his mind. He does own a shotgun that he brought with him, but is locked in his trunk and unloaded (he says) at the present time. I do fear for his safety. Does any one have any helpful ideas. What do you suggest? Will you pray about it? "What would Jesus do?" I'm patiently awaiting an answer from HIM on this one

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A Suprise from a Friend!

This is my first Birthday Card for this year. It came from a very dear blogger friend of mine. I don't think you are able to read the words under the cupcake .......... they say "100% Sweet"! Inside it says "That's You Happy Birthday". There is a personal note from my friend too which makes it even more special. I don't know if you can tell, but the cupcake is crocheted. I love the card my friend, thank you! It was very sweet of you to think of me! I'm not naming her here, she likes to keep a low profile and is a very private person. She knows who she is and she will know who I am referring to! Thank you again, my friend!!!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Some family member stress me to the MAX............

.........and here I am referring to one of my sis-in-laws. I've written of her before. The one who calls with nothing to say and will call 3-4 times a day just to see what I am doing! Arrggggghhh! Well, Tuesday evening, Doug called to see if I could file an extension for his taxes online since he has not been able to contact Hunter and Harley's mom to see if she filed and claimed them. Each of them had them for 6 months last year. While in the process of doing that, this sis-in-law calls to tell me she needs help. She is trying to file her Dad's 1040A form, just claiming his Social Security in order to receive the Economic Stimulus check. I tell her to go to the IRS site on her computer and look for that particular information, find a company that offers that for free filing and following the instructions and she will be able to complete it. I hang up and resume filing for Doug's extension. She calls at least 5 more times, telling me she can't find it and she needs help. She has to come over this way anyway, so how about if she just stops in and I show her where it is. I say "fine" in a tired, sarcastic way. She shows up, with both her girls, they follow me to the computer room/office and I bring the site up and write the info down on a piece of paper for her, turn around to give it to her, and they are all sitting in chairs and on the floor. She says, "as long as it's right there on your computer, why don't you just do it for me?" I'm steaming inside......I have other things to do, like clean house as I've just worked the last two days and I have to work Wednesday also. I need to do some laundry and take a shower and I would like to be able to relax a little before it is time to go to bed. To make a long story short.........I say 'give me the info'. So she hands me this 1040A form that is all filled out already and just needed a signature. I asked her why she just didn't go to her dads and have him sign it. Her reply, "he wants it filed online and have direct deposit so he can get the stimulus check faster". At this point in time, I'm beginning to think that she told her dad she could do it for him and then after trying, realized that she didn't have a clue as to how to do any of this. I'm furious by this time as it has taken up more of my time than I was willing to give! I begin to enter the info into the online form and get to the part where they ask for the routing number and checking account number. I turn and ask her for it.........and she looks at me with a surprised look on her face and tells me she doesn't have that information. By now, I'm amazed that the steam is not spewing forth out of the top of my head because I am ready to blow a gasket! She makes a quick call to her house and has her hubby get the checking account number and hangs up. I tell her I also need the routing number and she says that he banks the same place that both of us do and all routing numbers for that bank are the same. I tell her they are not, but she insists that they are. In order to get rid of her I enter her routing number in and shoo them out of the house as quickly as possible. I'm sure that this will probably screw up the direct deposit of the stimulus check, but it isn't my fault, I tried to tell her, nor is it my responsibility nor do I even care at this point!

There...........done with rant and vent!!!!

Thursday, April 10, 2008


Well, it's Thursday and my stress test is done for another year! I passed with flying colors............all stents and bypasses remain opened and unblocked at this time. Everything looks normal for a heart that has had stents and bypass surgery! And the doctor said I don't have to go back for a whole year. His actual words were, "I'll see you next year for further torturing!" Gee, thanks doc, I can't wait.....NOT!!!

The above picture is similar, but not exactly like the scanner that I went through yesterday. The round end was partially opened and it was shaped like a sideways V and it circulated around my chest very slowly, stopping sometimes to take a scan before moving on. The whole procedure of the scanning takes approximately 20 min. Do you see how wide that table is? That is it! Not very comfortable to lay on for 20 min. with your left hand strapped over and above your head and the right one strapped tightly to the right side of your body. But it is over for another year and since I had my yearly physical in November or December of last year, along with my mammogram, I have a clean bill of health! This is not one of my photos, but one I found on Flickr, so I want to make sure to not take credit for it. I forgot the name on the pictures that I was looking at and I don't feel like going back through the hundreds of photos I had to look at to find this, so that will have to suffice

Friday, April 4, 2008

INSOMNIA


It's 5:22 AM, and I am wide awake. I think Bumpa woke me, inadvertently, when he crawled into bed after getting home from his second shift plus working overtime. I stayed in bed as long as I could but the clock shows what time I got out of bed. I tried to get back to sleep, but I can't see much sense in just tossing and turning and keeping him awake too!

Amber has been visiting this week..........she is on spring break but all the other grand kids don't start spring break until tomorrow. She will have to return home at least by Sunday in order to go to school. She has been with her Daddy for the last two nights.........she doesn't get to see him as much as she would like to. I don't like having to share her either, but after all, he is the Dad! And she does need to spend one on one time with him and that's what today was for her! I'm sure she had a great time! I still have some things I would like to do with her before she has to go home, but we'll have to talk to her Mom and see how much time she has left to stay with us.

Our youngest daughter, Rachel, went to the hospital last night with symptoms of a heart attack, but all turned out well and she has a follow up appointment with her regular doctor on Friday.

And Doug's fiancee, Virginia, has just been told by her doctor that she has an enlarged thyroid and her blood work shows that something is amiss. This is not a good thing, especially when one is in the first stages of pregnancy. I don't know exactly what is wrong, but am hoping that whatever it is, they are able to control it with medication. She is very concerned and upset that something will be wrong with the baby. She has a book that says thyroid problems can lead to all kinds of deformities and problems. She needs to talk to her doctor and not jump to conclusions.........but I'm sure that's easier said than done!

I think I'll go and read a while and see if I get sleepy. I know I'm going to be dragging all day if I don't get some more sleep!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Escape!


Do you ever wish you could just run away from all responsibilities? Or hide under a blanket and hoped that everyone would leave you alone? Usually I love people and love being around them. But since starting work, it seems that the only time I have to myself is the evenings because the hubster works the night shift. But he's the one I would like to see and never do.

I have a sis-in-law that bugs me constantly! She calls for the most silly reasons and keeps me on the phone even after she has run out of things to say. Sometimes, with caller ID, I don't even bother to answer her calls. But then I feel guilty and end up calling her back within a few hours. She doesn't have many friends and she is plenty different. A lot of that is her upbringing and I do feel sorry for her, but why am I stuck with taking her under my wing? It seems to me that I should be able to choose my friends and not be chosen by someone who can be such a pain in the a$$!

Hardly anyone in hubsters family likes to be around her. She lies and you never know if what comes out of her mouth is the truth or not. And I don't tell her anything of importance because she repeats everything she hears to all other family members. And when I know she is coming over, I have to go through the house and make sure all and any paperwork that is regarding our finances or medical histories or any communications between my children, sisters and friends are put away in a locked cabinet. She has a tendency to pick things up and read them with no thought that they are none of her business! Really bugs me when she does that! And the sad part is, she has two daughters who are turning out just like her. Very needy and overly touchy feely!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Winter Wonderland on Second Day of Spring!

Photo by Ahren Hildenbrandt

Well, it is now the third day of spring according to the calendar. Obviously that means nothing to 'Mother Nature' as she has played a very early April Fool's Day joke on us here in southwest Michigan. Yesterday, Good Friday, we received about 9 inches of new snowfall. Beautiful......yes, of course! Welcome........not so much! There was supposed to be an Easter Egg Hunt in the local park for the little kids today that had to be canceled and re-scheduled. It was re-scheduled to Sat. March 29TH. What fun is an Easter Egg Hunt a week after Easter? I'm sure there will be some disappointed kids today. Perhaps they're not tired of the snow and can get outside and build one last snowman for this season!

But I know that Easter is about other things than springtime weather and Easter Egg Hunts. It is about our Lord, dieing on the cross, being buried and rising from the dead to save us all from our sins. And what a gift that is! This is a special time of year for all of us to celebrate the verse John 3:16: "That God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Praise God for this gift to us and His promises!

I wish you all a Blessed and Happy Easter!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008




This is Amber trying to light the candles on her birthday cake. A most difficult task as her Dad, Doug, was blowing out the lighter before she could get them lit. It ain't easy being 13 and dealing with a Dad who is a prankster! She managed to get them lit...........lucky for her we had a number one and a number 3 to make the '13' or she never would have gotten them all lit at the same time.

There were only 3 pictures of her party on my camera. This working stuff doesn't leave much time for anything. Yeah, I know it's only part-time, but I worked all day today and half days Monday and Tuesday, so it isn't feeling like part-time right now. They wanted me to come in tomorrow too, but Tom has to take my car tomorrow so I won't have transportation. Besides, Doug dropped off Harley and Hunter and asked if they could spend the night. I think he has an appointment this evening (or maybe it's both of them) with some one who is working at helping him gain custody of Hunter and Boo. And it will be a late appointment.............too late for them to stay up after being in school today so they will spend the night here and he will pick them up in the morning.

I do like my job. It is not boring and it is very interesting. This week I was able to see the results of some ads in the Southwest Advance that I helped prepare the paperwork for in getting them placed in the classified section or the display section of that newspaper. I had no idea what all goes into the preparation of the Advance Newspaper before it is delivered to my door. Except, I get the Pennasee Globe which is what the paper for the region I live in is called. Cascade and Ada and East Grand Rapids get the Cadence; Wyoming, Byron Center, Jenison, Hudsonville get the Southwest and I can't remember who else gets what. They produce 7 papers in all. It used to be 14 but a few years ago it was cut back to the 7 editions. And I believe the Advance Newspapers is owned by the Grand Rapids Press...............but don't quote me on that one!

Anyway, I still have to wash supper dishes. Harley and Hunter have had baths and are in bed sleeping already and I also am in my jammies. I need to build a fire in the fireplace and make me some French Vanilla Coffee and relax.............as soon as the dishes are done and the morning coffee is made and on the timer. Oh.........and the laundry is all done. I am washing the kids home clothes in case they don't have time to take them home and change them before dropping them off at school in the morning. See, I don't know how you working moms do this day after day after day! I think you all ROCK!!!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

All's well that ends well!

Update at bottom of this post:

Well, Boo is set to have her sutures removed today and her lip has healed up quite nicely. I haven't seen her for a few days, but last time I did see her, the swelling was way down and she said her teeth didn't hurt much anymore either. The dental x-rays showed no damage to her permanent teeth........thank goodness.

I spent Monday and Tuesday afternoons sitting in a Sec. of States office trying to get titles and plates transferred to different vehicles so Doug and Virginia can purchase my '91 Chevy Lumina and have decent transportation for a while. They can't afford to pay all at once for it, even though we are only asking $500., and we are willing to take payments from them. It really gives them the break they need right now. They are trying so hard to blend this family and make things work, while fighting for physical custody of Doug's two youngest children. Virginia has two also, and Doug has one older one, Amber who will be celebrating her 13th birthday on St. Patrick's Day. I can't believe that she will be a teenager already! And Doug and Virginia are expecting their first child together this fall, so I will have grandchildren ranging in age from 19 years to newborn. And the funny part is, it will be our 19th grand child! Quite ironic, eh? But I got way off track here, I was talking about cars and how everyone will now have a working vehicle. With that said, I'll move on.

I have applied for Social Security. I can take the benefits at age 62 and it will be a reduced monthly amount from what it would be if I waited until I am 65, but who knows what will happen with the Social Security by then. So I opted to start receiving it as soon as I'm eligible in May. Of course the first check won't arrive until July.........you know how the government bureaucracy works. And wouldn't you know it, after applying and being accepted, a job I had applied for months ago and didn't get (they hired a younger gal) is going to be open again. Seems she isn't working out well.......not enough experience! Just goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's cover, eh? It is only part time which is all I want at this stage in my life, but they do have to offer the position internally first. So I should know something by the end of this week or the beginning of next. I'll be sure and write about the outcome when I hear something.

UPDATE
March 5, 8:28 PM: Boo's sutures were removed and the doctor wants to send her to a Plastic Surgeon for follow up work. Perhaps that piece of skin should have been taken off. In any event, Medicaid does not cover Plastic Surgery as it is considered cosmetic. Please pray that they find a good doctor that will take small monthly payments from them so they can have it fixed. I haven't seen it, but from what they say, she will feel very self-conscious about the way it looks as she gets older.

Friday, February 29, 2008


Doug called me Wednesday to tell me that his car was broke on the side of the road. I asked what was wrong with it and he told me that with over 300,000 miles on it, it finally gave up the ghost and threw a rod through the side of the engine block. I'm not a mechanic, but have heard the guys talk enough about vehicles to know that what that means is that the engine is shot! Will never run again. It was the only running vehicle they had. Needless to say, he was very upset. And Virginia had an appointment in Grand Rapids to have Alissa's cello repaired. It seems the man who repairs the cello's is only there on Wednesdays. I told them that I could give them a ride, but I couldn't just drop what I was doing and go right then. I needed to finish making Tom's dinner and make sure his clothes were out of the drier and ready. I suggested they call and see how long the cello repairman was going to be there.........they did and found out he would be there until 5PM. GREAT. Gave me plenty of time, but then only 1 of them could go with me as the other one would need to be at home since some of the kids would be getting of the bus before I would make it back. They decided that Doug would go since Virginia had a headache and still wasn't feeling totally recovered from the pneumonia.

Fast forward to Thursday evening about 7:30 PM. My phone rings and it's Virginia all upset........I can hear it in her voice. She said that Harley had fallen in the house and hit her mouth and put her teeth through her lip and there was blood everywhere, and she needed to go to the ER. I told her I was on my way. While driving there I'm having flashbacks to the day when Doug was about 6 and fell off the neighbors porch and bit his tongue half off and they had to sew it back on and stitch the cut in his chin. I get there and Doug brings Boo to the car and she is holding this washcloth with ice inside to her mouth. As he is putting her in the car, the washcloth gets moved away from her mouth and I see this chunk of top lip skin hanging down and notice that her top teeth are pushed in and one is partially behind the other. I'm thinking......'oh, this isn't a good thing at all'!

While driving to Plainwell to reach the nearest ER from their house (it's called Borgess-Pipp Hospital, btw) Doug starts explaining to me how she fell. She was running and Hunter accidentally stepped on her sock that was coming off her foot causing her to fall forward, face first onto the top edge of the coffee table. Poor little girl. She was being so brave. She would move the cloth away from her mouth every so often and say "Daddy, my mouth hurts." But you have to hear it come out of a little 4 year old girl who can't say her ''r's" and is talking funny because her lip is more than twice the size it should be and her teeth have been pushed into her mouth. Very pathetic. We got her there and had a long wait. There was an elderly man with chest pains, an elderly lady who was in a diabetic coma, a baby with seizures, so we certainly understood why we had to wait. They had to deal with the more critical patients first. By the time Boo is finally seen by a doctor, he informs us that it is going to take at least 1 stitch to close the area, but there is a chance he might have to clip some of the lip skin away as it was already turning black. They brought in the suture kit and a needle and some med to numb her lip and gave her the shot. There were really 3 times that he had to poke her to make sure it was all the way numb. She cried big alligator tears, but that's okay. Once the shots began to take effect she was quiet again and holding Daddy's hand. The doctor was able to close it with two stitches and didn't need to clip any skin off............whew, we were glad of that. Then he decided he needed to take a good look at her teeth. Her gum above her two front teeth is terribly swollen and bruised already and he tried to move the one tooth from behind the other one. He was able to accomplish that, but feels that Harley should see a dentist as soon as possible. I finally got them to their house at 10:30PM and left and got back home just around 11:00 PM. It was a very long and frustrating evening. Ones that I thought I was all finished with. Some things never change, do they? Gosh, I hope they can purchase a vehicle soon!

FF, once again to Friday morning. Doug calls and has scheduled an appointment for Harley for 11:30 with the only dentist in the entire area that had an opening. Remember, it's wintertime in Michigan and I don't like to drive when the roads are slick and icy. And after receiving another 4 inches of wet heavy snow overnight, that's exactly how the roads were. So, for the second time this morning I wake Bumpa up. The first time was when...........now please don't laugh, I feel out of bed landing on my hip with a rather loud thud. I had been sound asleep and rolled over and out. Mind you, our bed is a pedestal bed with six drawers underneath it so it is quite a ways off the floor, much higher than most beds. It was a modified waterbed frame if that gives you any idea of it's height. And I am very sore and am having trouble getting around today. But I digress. So, good ole Bumpa gets out of bed, quickly drinks a cup of coffee and leaves to drive 16 miles southeast to pick up Doug and Harley and turns around to drive 10 miles back north to deliver them to the dentist office. He then drives 10 miles back south to return them home and drives 16miles to return to our home so he can get ready for his second shift job and drive 27 miles to work. He didn't even get his dinner today. But he said it doesn't matter as long as the grand daughter is going to be okay and no damage was done to her permanent teeth. Bumpa said she asked when she had to go see another doctor with a worried look on her face and her daddy told her not for a while. I think he will take her sutures out himself rather than try and arrange for another ride back to the ER which is another 10 miles south of where he lives.

So in spite of all the drama of the last couple days, things turned out okay and all will be back to normal before we know it..........maybe even by spring!

Monday, February 25, 2008

I found a treasure!

While searching through some of my personal files today looking for copies of birth certificates and old copies of tax returns, I came across this letter or report that Rachel wrote to her Dad several years ago. I'm sure she wrote it because she knew of his fascination with and love of eagles.

If you read this, Rachel, please don't be angry or upset. I am not making fun of you, sweetie. I think it is wonderful and I saved it all these years because to us it is a treasure and a gift of love to us from you.



I know I have many more of treasures like this from some of the other kids too in my files, and when I locate them I just may post some of them too!

Friday, February 22, 2008

We are expecting a new grand baby come this fall. That will bring our total to 19! I'm thinking that is enough. I wonder if I will live long enough to see great grandchildren and how many that number will be. Even if all 19 just have two each that would make 38. WOW! The expectant mom is sick with pneumonia right now though and is feeling awful. Fortunately, she hasn't been experiencing morning sickness, just tiredness and with the pneumonia, I'm sure she is feeling exhausted and probably a bit overwhelmed with her two and Doug's two already. Doug has another daughter, Amber, but she lives with her mom, but does visit on a regular basis.

Bumpa is sick today and I've talked him into going to the doctor. He usually won't give in and go, so I know he doesn't feel well. I think he has the flu even though we both had the flu vaccine last fall. From what I've been reading it is only 40% effective because of mutations of the viruses this year. Which means that I will probably catch it too. Last few times I had the flu, it went into pneumonia or bronchitis, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't catch it.

I am supposed to take care of Drew all day tomorrow, but if Bumpa does have the flu or is sick with something contagious, I'm sure they will want to find another sitter for him.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008




What Marcia Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.
You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.
You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.
You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.
A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.




What's your name mean?

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Winter is beautiful in Southwest Michigan







These are some of the landscapes as we took a drive through some areas not far from where we live today. The man driving, is of course, my hubby.......who is my wintertime chauffer and will drive me where I need or want to go (when he is not working) when the roads are too bad for me to feel comfortable driving on them.

Most of the photos are of frozen Lake Michigan. The large humps are frozen waves covered with several inches of snow after they froze. Some people are brave enough to walk out on these frozen chunks of waves, but many have gotten in some serious problems because of their foolishness and had to be rescued by the Coast Guards. We just admire the beauty of them from afar and stay safe. Today while we were there, we did notice two people that were quite a ways out on the ice. We left and they were still there, I hope they remained safe and dry............with Lake Michigan and the weather here, one can never tell what might happen next.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

How I long for the weather to look like my header picture!



But this is what it looks like instead. Notice in the bottom photo, the snow is half covering the slide on th swing set. And the trees in the first photo don't really hang on the ground. It's just the heavy, wet snow weighing them down today. We probably received a total snowfall of 5-8 inches last night when the forcast only called for 2-4. I guess lake effect snow is very hard to predict. Our temperature has climbed to a balmy 24º and the windchill is 18º. Much better than last weekend when we had below zero windchills and temps only around 0 to 5 above! The trailer way in the background is what we use for our wood shed. At the beginning of the season there was a huge covered wood pile in front of it too, between the swing set and the wood shed. But as you can see it is gone, or what's left of it is so buried in the snow, we will have to wait for the spring thaw to find any wood on the ground there. Thankfully, we have a large pile of it stored in the garage now (thanks to hubby's hard work) and although it is still cold to go to the garage and get it, it isn't as cold as if we had to walk outside for it! We burn a lot of wood up and we don't even heat the house with wood. It is just for our fireplace, that I abolutely love. I always wanted to live in a home with a fireplace and when we bought this old house 3 years ago, it had two of them. How lucky can I get! Although we have never used the one in the formal living room, we do have a fire in the fireplace in the family room almost every night. The only bad thing about having a lot of fires is the glass doors get really sooty, and we need to clean them every day in order to keep them clean and clear enough to be able to see the fire. We have struggled with this job for the last three years. Tried everything on the market made for cleaning glass doors to fireplaces. And you know what we found just a couple weeks ago that really works good and makes the job a LOT easier? Krud Kutter! You can buy it at Wal-Mart, Meijers, Menards, Home Depot and other stores of that nature. And bonus, it's cheaper than the stuff they make specially to clean them. So, I'm headed into the family room to build a fire and feel cozy!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Too much drama for me!


I've been very busy with grand children lately. Two of them came late one night and ended up staying for 3 days. They are a little girl Harley, 4, (aka, Boo) and her older brother, Hunter, 5. It was only supposed to be for one night, but we got another one of our famous Michigan snow storms and we were basically snowed in since I refuse to drive in that kind of weather. School was closed once again for a couple days. That was last week Tuesday when it all began. Doug and his fiancee went to the neighbor in the upstairs apartment to see the new baby they had brought home that day. Everything was fine. The dad asked Doug and Virginia to toast the birth of the baby with him and they did. Only problem was neither of them has had much to drink besides an occasional beer in a very long time. The baby's dad offered them whiskey. Doug can't handle whiskey........makes him mean. Virginia can't handle anything except a couple beers. Makes her a nag and very impatient! They went back downstair and put the little ones to bed. The older ones were talking with their dad on the phone.

Doug and Virginia began to argue and Doug decided it would just be better if I could come and get the little kids and keep them for the night so they wouldn't hear any disagreement if one were to pop up. He went to his truck and called to see if I would pick them up for the night. I told him yes, but it might take me a bit to get there depending on the road conditions. We were expecting a freezing rain/sleet storm followed by lots of snow. I hurried as fast as I dared. In the meantime, Virginia saw Doug loading the car seats into his truck, thinking he had had too much to drink and was going to take the kids with him driving somewhere. She locked the door and refused to open it to let him come back in and get his kids. He yelled that his mom was coming for them and to unlock the door so he could get them. She didn't believe him and yelled back that no she wouldn't because he was in no shape to be driving those kids anywhere. The more she told him 'no', the madder he got. Whiskey will do that to you, I guess! So he proceeds to kick the door down, breaking the lock and the woodwork around the lock. Remember her children are talking with their dad on the phone in the other room and hear the screaming and tell their dad what has happened and begin to cry saying they are scared......as well they should be by this time. Their dad tells them to hang up and he will call 911 and get the police out there. When I arrive, the police are cuffing Doug and placing him under arrest in the back of a police car.

Now I am totally confused because the last I knew, I was coming to pick up the kids just in case there was an arguement and they wouldn't have to listen to it. I was pretty shocked and asked the officer if he couldn't just release Doug to my custody for the night and I would take him home with me and keep him until he was calm the next day. Anyway, I was told "NO" and he would have to remain in jail for 24 hours on a domestic violence charge. Virginia spoke with the police officers and said it is not, nor was it at any time a domestic violence event. If anything, it was a big misunderstanding and she was just trying to keep the little ones safe by not letting them ride with someone who had too much to drink. To shorten the story they hauled him off to jail and kept him until around 1 PM the next day and released him in the middle of a blizzard without a coat or gloves or hat or proper foot wear. He called for a ride, but I couldn't go and get him..........the roads were too bad and I wasn't going to take his little ones out on the roads while they were in that condition. So he began to walk............22 miles. A truck driver picked him up and gave him a ride almost all the way to his house. His truck wouldn't start so he couldn't come and get the kids and like I said before I wasn't going to drive in it. The next day he called and asked hubby to come and give him a jump, thinking it was his battery. WRONG......it was his alternator. Hub lent him $100. bucks for a rebuilt one and told Doug to find his own way back because he had to get to work so he wouldn't be late. Doug managed to find a ride home and put the alternator in, but by that time it was freezing rain/sleeting again and too dangerous to come and get the kids. The next day he had to go to work early in the morning and arranged for a ride and Virginia came and picked them up by aroudn 9AM. Hunter made it to school, a little late, but at least he made it. Harley didn't have pre-school on Friday so she got to spend the rest of the day with Virginia, whom Harley says is one of her best friends.

The go to court on Feb. 15th, Virginia's birthday. I'm praying for a good resolution to this huge misunderstanding and hoping the judge is a compassionate man.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008


My two-year old grandson in Kentucky, Cayden broke his arm. They are calling it a buckle fracture. It doesn't seem to be serious and I'm sure it bothers the parents a lot more than it appears to be bothering him from the looks of this photo! They had it splinted at first, but he kept trying to take that off and when they took him to see the orthopedic doctor today they opted to cast it. It should come off within 3 weeks. Little ones sure heal a lot faster than us old fooggies do! If that was one of us 'over 50's bunch', we would probably we wearing a cast for months. Sometime it seems youth is wasted on the young!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Monday hub took a vacation day to go to his heart doctor for his annual stress test. We don't have any results yet, but I'm sure they will be fine. After the test, we headed up to Pentwater where our 12 year old grand daughter, Amber, lives and plays on the Jr. High School Girls basketball team. With hub working nights we don't have any opportunities to go and see her play as it is 102.3 miles from our home to hers. And I don't drive in the winter weather if I can help it and especially at night. This first picture is Amber warming up in the gym before the game.

And this one is of her running down the court during the actual playing of the game. Although they lost, Amber did get a couple shots in but the ball bounced off the rim. It was nice to see her play and spend a small amount of time with her anyway. We are hoping she comes down for at least part of this coming weekend. Keep your fingers crossed everyone.



And this is a picture of Amber and her coach after the game. I didn't catch the coach's name because I think all the kids just call her Coach!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

THE QUEEN OF EVERYTHING



Just thought it was time to reaffirm the fact that I am the "Queen of Everything" around here. If you are a female grandchild, you are the Princess of quite a lot. If you are a male grandchild, you are the Prince of hot wheels and matchbox cars. If you are the adult male in the household (interpretation - Bumpa) you are the King of NOTHING!!!!

Any questions? I didn't think so!

Disclaimer: The hub and I have been joking around, so please don't anyone email me and tell me how awful you think I am. We have been having a lot of fun with this!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Do any of you remember the photos I posted of my new deck this past summer after it was completed. It was a wonderful place to sit at the end of the day and relax and unwind and watch the birds and wildlife and view my blooming flowers. Well, this is what it looks like this evening!



Considerably different and not very inviting looking is it? I think I'll pass on sitting out there to watch any wildlife for quite some time. The worst part is that many of our roads still look like this even though they have plowed. When you live in a rural area and the wind gusts to 35 or 40 mph it appears that the plows haven't been out at all. This is one of the reasons I don't like winter and I don't drive in this kind of weather unless there is a dire emergency of some sort. My entire family knows I refuse to drive in it. Some of them laugh at me. I don't care. Most of them have not rolled a new vehicle over on these kind of roads and hung upside down while a bunch of people stared into your vehicle talking about the best way to remove you from said vehicle. Hub tells me this was not the best way to rotate the tires! Funny, funny man. Of course this happened back in 1990 and maybe I should be over it by now............but I.Am.Not! End of explanation, beginning of hibernation! See you in the spring!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Spring? Fall? Winter? Who knows?




Just a few short days ago, all the snow we had was gone and the ground was bare. These pictures are what it looks like today after a couple days of almost non-stop snow flurries and blowing snow. Southwest Michigan had been under a 'Winter Storm Advisory' for 2 - 3 days now. They have let that expire as of 10:00 AM this morning. We probably have about 5 inches of new snow in areas that the wind hasn't been able to reach. In some areas, the wind has blown it away to make deeper drifts than 5 inches....some places as much as 10 inches!

The above photos are what part of the back yard looks like this afternoon. And after Bumpa (Hub) has taken his John Deere lawn tractor and plowed and hauled more firewood to store in the garage for our fireplace. In this kind of weather we seem to go through a lot of firewood. But that's because I love to have the fireplace glowing with a toasty warm fire on cold days and nights. It does help with the heating bill too! Bumpa was dressed in layers as the temperature outside is only 10º with a wind chill of -8º.

That would explain why I am still in the house in front of the fireplace drinking hot coffee still dressed in my fleece pajama's! We're not going anywhere, so I couldn't justify getting dressed today. But I do want you to know that just because I am in my fleece pj's, I have not been lazy today. I have cleaned the glass fireplace doors before Bumpa was even up today and had a fire going by 8 AM and the coffee brewed. And I didn't even suck it all up...........I saved some for Bumpa!

And I made some homemade bread already and it is cooling on cooling racks in the kitchen right now. And, I will be making a big dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, a vegetable and of course some homemade bread. See.........I can do all my stuff in my fleece pj's. I know, you are only shaking your heads at my failure to get dressed today because you are all jealous that I am still in my pj's at 5:00 PM!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I miss Amber!

Amber was such a big part of our lives for a number of years that I really miss her since she has moved to Pentwater. We don't see her near as much. Of course she is getting older too. Which means she is busy with school activities. She has just been asked to join the Jr. High School Girls' Basketball team and she is in the 6TH grade. Now I know that she is a pretty good little player and can make some really difficult shots, but I suspect it is more from coming from a small school and needing more players to make a full team. That's not a put down of Amber............I would never do that! But I do have to be honest too! Of course, I think she is wonderful at what ever she does, but I am a little bit prejudiced on her behalf!

I'm really hoping that this summer she will be able to spend a lot more time with us. And it probably will happen since we won't have to deal with snow, sleet and icy rain come spring and summer. Still it is over 100 miles one way to pick her up so it would be easier if she didn't just have a weekend to spend here. It seems like she just gets here and it is time to turn around and make the 100 + mile trip back up to her house. And at the price of gas it gets a little expensive............not that she isn't worth it........she is! All my grandchildren are worth it! All 18 of them! I have 5 of them that live even further away. Three in Kentucky and two in Texas. If only I could come up with a plan to get everyone to live withing a 50 mile range of me, I would be in HEAVEN!!!!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Feast One Hundred & Seventy Four


Feast One Hundred & Seventy Four
January 11, 2008

Appetizer
When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it? I received a 'Tower of Goodies' from my youngest sister at Christmas time this year.

Soup
If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be? I would have a winter home in Texas and a summer home in Michigan or Colorado.

Salad
Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry. Pineapple

Main Course
Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own. It would have to be the dress that I wore in the last family wedding. Our youngest son was married two years ago this past September and the dress was bought for me as a surprise from my oldest sister. It is not your typical 'mother-of-the-groom' dress and yet is very dressy but I have worn it for many other occasions.


Dessert
If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory? I would wipe away November 15, 1975. That is the day I had to tell my three young children that their Daddy had died.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

What month is IT?

The weather has been very confusing. Yesterday we were under severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches and tornado warnings!!! This is Jan. for heavens sake! That kind of weather belong in April through September............NOT in January!

Our snow is ALL gone........notta, zip, nothing left. Just standing water on the grass and dirt. Which means for muddy floors when the dog comes in from doing her thing outside. It's been raining a lot........and she doesn't like going out in the rain, but hey, sometimes she just has no choice. Last night though was a different story. It was thundering and lightening like crazy and she took a look outside, placed one paw outside the door and turned and high-tailed it back to her comfortable chair and curled up to snooze some more. She did go out later after hubby got home from work but it had stopped raining at that point and thundering. She made sure he was going out with her though...........never mind the safety in numbers saying; in her eyes it's 'safety in Daddy'!

The meteorologists are predicting winters return by the end of this week. Yesterday the temp was over 60 degrees and already today it has dropped to 51 and I am hoping that it stays above the freezing mark until I am able to get back home from taking hub's uncle to his eye doctor appointment this afternoon. If all this rain begins to freeze on the roads they will be nothing but black ice. Keep your fingers crossed for me........thanks!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

First Post of 2008

My first post on this blog for 2008! A new look to it. What do y'all think of it? I only just recently had enough time to sit and figure out how to make changes and make it more 'mine'. I know, I know, I'm a little slow....but what do you expect from someone my age anyway? Hopefully, not a highly technical individual. After all, when I was a kid, televisions only came in black and white and was only on a few hours each day. YES, I am one of the first viewers of the original Mickey Mouse Club all those many years ago!



I received the web cam for Christmas from hubby and it is now hooked up. Problem is, I don't know of anyone else who has one! LOL..............and I'm not sure I want my picture to appear on someones computer and have them laughing at me without me being able to do the same thing back! I was just on line with Rachel in Kentucky and she could see me, so she called her three kids around and she said they were waving at me, but of course I couldn't see them since they don't have a web cam! Must have been fun for them to see the "Mema" though. Rachel said her youngest (will turn 2 on the 12th of Jan.) kept asking to see Bumpa. Maybe we will have to connect with her tomorrow before Bumpa leaves for work so little Cayden can 'see' his Bumpa!