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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!!!

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.

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!

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!