TEXAS!!!

I'm here and it is wonderful!

Ame and her girls are such a blessing! Love them all.

This is just a quick update.

I will tell you all about my visit when it is complete..........I am tired, but happy!

Confusion

Traffic Light Tree
Originally uploaded by zakgollop

Did you ever feel like this? Totally confused? Usually I am a very organized person. And yet I just can't seem to pull it all together. Usually I am so organized it is unreal. But my excitement over my upcoming trip to Texas has me in a most dis-organized state.

I spent yesterday cooking......preparing meals for hubby that I can freeze and he can remove from the freezer and warm up in the microwave when it is his dinnertime. Before any of you women who consider yourselves liberated get your panties in a bunch, know that he didn't ask me to do this. It is just one of the small ways I can show him how much I love him, and assure that he has good nutritional food to eat while I am gone. At least that is one thing I can check of my 'to do list'!

Today I had to make a visit to my doctors' office ensuring my flu shot would not be late since they want me to have mine early Oct. Now I just have to put up with a sore arm for a couple days.

There is still last minute laundry and cleaning to be done. And shopping. Can't forget to make sure hub has everything he will need in the house while I am away. He isn't a shopper....in fact, I don't know when the last time was that he was even in a grocery store. Can't have him running out of paper plates and toilet paper.......two essentials for a man when being a bachelor!

An Extraordinary Gift!

I have been given a most wonderful, special, extraordinary gift! Paid airfare to visit someone very special to me. Actually three 'someones'! They are extended adopted family. I feel guilty accepting this wonderful gift knowing that she probably could put the money to better use than paying to have an 'old woman' visit, but it is what she wishes to do and I have prayed about it and gotten my answer. And I am going! My flight out leaves Sunday, September 30th at 5:55 AM and I return Thursday, Oct. 11th at 3:05 PM. I will even be attending the Texas State Fair! Woo-Hoo!

Thank you dear Ame for this wonderful gift!

Not much happening..........

except for a minor trip to the ER Saturday night to easy my family's fears. They all thought I was having some kind of cardiac event but it was only muscle spasms.....I get them all the time. Sometimes are worse than others and that was one of them. So after a short visit I was able to return home (in a fog from the medication they gave me) and I'm fine now.......REALLY!

So since nothing much is going on I thought I would list some little known laws that may or may not be in effect anymore. Here goes:


It's A Crime! (or at least it used to be) to:

.........eat a snake on Sunday in Kansas!

.........wear cowboy boots in Blythe, California, unless you own two cows!

.........get a fish drunk anywhere in the state of Oklahoma!

.........go to church in Georgia without a loaded rifle!

.........to wiggle while dancing in a bar in Stockton, California!

.........to buy a beer in the state of Maine unless you are standing up at the time!

Hope you get a chuckle out of these useless, silly laws.

Tuesday, September 11 ~ Six years later

This isn't going to be some lengthy post regarding 9/11. We all have our memories of that day 6 years ago and need no further reminding of what occurred on that fateful day. I just want to say that I flew my flag today, as I have done every day since then. Not just in remembrance of them, but because I am patriotic and I love the USA! I think that who ever has the opportunity to fly 'Old Glory' should!

On to other things.

I went on a tour today. It was at the new Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming, MI. This new facility is due to open on Sept. 30. It is a beautiful and modern and new and updated with all the newest technology for caring for those who are injured or ill or recovering from surgery. I'm sure that some time in the future, I too, will be a patient in this facility and I wanted to see what it was like. I went there not knowing exactly what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw. They even have a 'green roof' that several of the patient rooms overlook for a lovely view while they are there. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a 'green roof', it is not a normal concrete roof. It is a one-acre green roof made of living plants that changes with the seasons and provides great insulation. I forget just how many plants they said are planted there, but the brochure says there are over 100,000 plants and they were all planted by volunteers and hospital staff. They are all small now, but by next spring, they will be beautiful. This sustainable feature is easy to maintain and cost effective, but more importantly, it offers therapeutic scenery for patients and visitors.

This is the same hospital that I have applied at for a new position that they will be starting when the hospital opens. I have heard nothing yet from them, but hopefully either this week or next they will contact me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. At this point, it is a temporary position that will run from the end of September through the end of December. There is a chance that it could become permanent. It could be full time or part time. And one of the nice things about it, is it is only 11 miles from my house and very easy to get to!



And I wanted to tell you about my dear friend at A Place I Call Home. She is a full time RN and has just returned to University to learn more. She is bright, witty, intelligent, caring and one of the nicest, kindest women I have ever met. And she gave me this badge: with instructions to pass it on. She has already passed it on to one whom I would have bestowed it to so I will pick a few others who make ME smile.

Clew

Hobess

Renee

Rebecca

There is one other that I would like to give this too, but she prefers to remain hidden from only a select few. You know who you are so feel free to grab it and post it on your own site. ;)

Things That Are Done!

Do you remember the picture of my Morning Glory. It was blooming and I was surprised it was still doing so well. Hubby fed it some plant food a couple weeks ago and this is what it looks like now!!!



They are just going crazy! I love looking out first thing in the morning and seeing them. And they stay open until close to noon, so by the time I get dressed and out on the deck to drink my coffee I can still enjoy them.

And speaking of my deck. I never put a picture of the finished product up. That's because it only got finished this past weekend. Hubby was working overtime and then he got placed on second shift and it was hard to adjust too. So he only had the weekends to work on it and last weekend he had to work so that left this weekend. So, without any further suspense, here is the finished deck:



The grass will be there next year, even if we have to plant more. Building and draught have taken their toll on the vegetation here. All except for my flowers that I so painstakingly dragged hoses in order to keep them watered.

So, the deck is finished and so is the summer. But I look forward to many fairly warm fall afternoons and crisp evenings sitting out here watching the birds. It's a nice ending to the busy day!

Face behind the blog!

This is the face behind this blog!

MaryAnne from A Place I Call Home tagged me for this meme quite some time ago and I am just now getting to it. Sorry MaryAnne. It's called Face behind the Blog. The idea is, I tell you a little something about myself and show you a picture of me...I then get added to a blog roll......I pick some bloggers to participate there it goes. Please check out Dreams of border collies for more information as to how to play along. Like I said, it's been quite a while so you may have to search her archives to find it. Sorry 'bout that!



Most of my regular visitors know what I look like and a lot of the things I do. This picture was taken back in June of 2006 near Denver when I went to visit my sister for my nephew's wedding reception. With me are my baby sister and a cousin.



My garden......I love my flowers.
And the last photo is of the entire group, or as many of them as we could get together at one time (only 2 are missing) on July 4, 2007 after the parade.

I'm not going to tag anyone for this since I was tagged back on August 15 and am just now getting around to doing it. But if you want to join in anyway, feel free and let me know so I can see the 'Face Behind the Blog'.

Lunar Eclipse - August 28, 2007

This is what I saw at 5:20 AM today! Last night as I watched the clouds moving in, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to see it. But the clouds cleared and I could see just fine until shortly before the moon was getting ready to set and then the trees obstructed my view. Still, at least I got to see some of it and that's better than nothin'!

Middle Name Meme

Okay, I've been tagged by Rodeo With A Twist of Suspense and played along. Now it's your turn.....see the bottom of this page to see who has been tagged and please play along. And after you play, be sure and notify the person who tagged you so they can read your answers!

What's in a name?

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

L -- Loyal! I'll stick by my friends through thick and thin. Once I know I can really count on you if I need you and you feel the same, we will remain friends forever.

O -- Olive Branch! I will more likely than not, be the first one to try and make peace after a disagreement or altercation with a family member or good friend.

U -- Understanding! Doesn't mean I will always agree with where you are coming from, but I will try my hardest to understand and I usually can accomplish that.

I tag:

MaryAnn

Janet C

Rebecca

Well, this is probably one of the last photos I will take of Amber this summer. This one was just before she left to go to the beach with her dad! We took her back to her moms on August 11Th and haven't seen her since then. She called me yesterday and invited us to meet her in Muskegon for her first time as a cheerleader at her game for Hart Middle School. So, we are going to try and make it. That's a lot closer than driving all the way to her house.....not that she isn't worth it! Hubby has to work tomorrow, so I'm hoping her dad doesn't and is free to go along. I hate going alone and trying to find a new place without a navigator with me! But, if he can't make it, I will still go.....I need to see her!

I'm starting to make the adjustment to hubby working a 2ND shift although it has been difficult. I think the silver lining (if there is one) in this is that we now have our big meal in the middle of the day so I have time to burn off more calories and eat much lighter at supper time! The evenings do seem awfully long and to drag on though and I'm sure they will seem even longer once fall and winter arrive and it gets dark much earlier than it does now. But, I'm sure I will find something to occupy my evenings with.....I can always sit by the fireplace and stay toasty warm and read some good books or do my counted cross stitch.

Okay, I can't believe it's been a year already since I went for my........... "mammy mashing"! But it has been that long and my doctors office called me last week and told me that they have scheduled my mammogram for Aug. 20Th at 10:30 AM.

But I'll bite the bullet so to speak, pull up my big girl pants, and once more do what I know is good for me! Do you see the picture of the machine at the upper right? That's what they look like. The clear plastic tray is the one that the breast is placed on while the smaller box jutting out on the front comes in contact with the breast, flattening it and takes the pictures. And they aren't happy until your breast is almost totally flat on the tray! I wish there were other ways to check on this stuff than putting women through this torture machine! I bet it was invented by a man!

And as if that isn't bad enough, they have also scheduled my 12-hour fasting cholesterol blood work for a ½ hour before that. Which means that as of now, I am done eating, snacking and/or having anything wonderful to drink until after the blood is drawn tomorrow morning. I must once again go without my COFFEE! That makes for a very cranky ME!

I'm thirsty so I'm off to get a bottled water.....hey, it's better than nothing!

This is what I saw as I opened the blinds this morning and looked out into the back yard. I love morning glories........they are bright and beautiful and can almost certainly bring a smile to my face as I look at the delicate way they flutter in the slightest breeze.
The only colors that were opened this morning are the pink and the purple, but I have a blue variety too. They are all pretty much planted in one area so they can grow and curl up the trellis as they reach for the sunlight. A much cheerier picture than the clouds of yesterday!

The sky reflects our mood!

I don't mean to complain but............today is hub's first day on 2nd shift! He hates 2nd shift! Me too! But, we need to be thankful that at least he didn't get laid off. And with 2nd shift comes more pay.....night premium always bumps his pay up and he is due for a cost of living raise in September too. I guess that may be our silver lining....more money coming in! Still, when all is said and done, I'm not sure the little extra money he will bring home each week is worth it! Although he had no choice in the matter, he was pretty unhappy when he had to leave for work this afternoon just a couple hours earlier than he would be getting home if he were still on 1st shift.

We took Amber home on Saturday. I had originally thought that where she had moved to was just a little over 80 miles one way. We checked our trip mileage and it is exactly 103.1 miles from our house to her house, so round trip is 206.2 miles. I'm not sure I'll be driving that very often with the price of gas and Michigan winters now that hub is on 2nd shift. He wouldn't get home from work until about 1:30 AM if he is on overtime on Friday night so he would have to sleep in Saturday. If we left at noon on Saturday, we wouldn't get home until around 4 PM and we would have to take her back on Sunday so she could go to school on Monday. Not very practical to pick her up for one afternoon and have to return her right away.

Okay, gotta go now before this turns into a total rant and rave and vent session!

Contests.....

Hey, I found this on a friend's site. You can enter this contest too by visiting Ashwin's Blog


Over at Ashwin's Blog you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Check out my friend's site too, as she has links to more contests. Besides, her site is great!

Night flowers.

I think I may have posted a photo last year of my 'Moon Flowers'. I couldn't find it, so if I did, then I apologize for repeating this years photo.

I have no idea what the real name is for these flowers. They look like a giant morning glory, only white, and they only open in the evening. They remain open all night long, close in the morning, and then curl up and fall off within a day or two. But when they are open, they are beautiful. They are especially pretty when a lot of them open on the same evening. This picture shows three of them open when I took it, but as the night went on, more opened. I missed them.....I only knew that they did when the next morning I saw about eight of them closed and curling. That's probably the most that I have ever had open at the same time.....and I missed it!

The seed pod on this baby is WICKED. It reminds me of the size and shape of a chestnut inside it's protective covering, but the spikes on this seed pod even frighten the grown men in our family! If you enlarge the photo and scroll down, you can get a peek at the seed pods hiding under the leaves.

Drought Stricken

We finally had some rain last night. I don't know exactly how much we got here, but it was a nice, steady, gentle rain for about 45 minutes. Hopefully it will rain again sometime today.

See that window? That's the room I sit in while on the computer!

This is what my backyard looks like,even after the rain last night. You can see the hoses there that I have been dragging around just to keep my flowers watered. These bushes by the house are usually green with little yellow flowers on them and the grass next to the lilies is usually thick and green!

We live in the country and don't have to pay for our water, but still we have to pay for the electricity to run the pump that pumps the water through the faucets. I don't think that cost is terribly significant, but because of the pump running so much and since it is older, we do need to be careful that it doesn't burn up. It would be quite costly to purchase a new one at this point, not to mention how terribly inconvenient it would be to have to go without water, even temporarily while a new one could be located and installed! And then, with hubby on overtime, it would be hard to find the time for him to run around searching for one to purchase and finding the time to install it wouldn't be easy either. The man needs to sleep sometime, right? He does have Sundays off, but that day is usually spent sitting in his recliner in front of the television, with his eyes closed.....checking his eyelids for leaks (his words, not mine). I can't tell you how many NASCAR races that man has claimed to watch while checking those eyelids! But it is hard to keep up with sprinkling to keep the grass green. And hubby broke our best sprinkler last week.....the one that looks like a tractor and runs along the hose so you don't have to go out and move it every ½ hour or so. He thinks he can fix it, but then we have the same problem of finding the right part to do so and the time it takes to repair it.

See why I want it to rain more? If any of you in Texas or Canada or anywhere else are getting way too much rain.....feel free to send it this way! Thanks!

Time Flies!

I have no idea where the time has gone. It has just flown by...I have been busy, but it still has flown by faster than I realized. My cousin was here from Oklahoma and that had me busy but only for a day or so. Yet, I cannot account for where it has gone. It's almost as if I've been sleeping or in a coma or something!

I know that I have still been busy taking care of grand children and enjoying every minute of it, but it certainly hasn't taken up all my time. Perhaps I have been busier than I thought just catching up with housework and laundry. Unless I am behind because it is taking me longer to get everything done since I injured my foot! I don't really know how I did it for sure. I think I fell off a backless shoe and landed on the hard edge of the shoe with my heel...the doctor says it's plantar fascitis. He took x-rays and said there are no bone spurs which surprised him. He also said it is terribly painful.....that much I already knew and didn't need to fork over a $20 co-pay for that piece of information. He says he has it too and he prescribed 800mg Motrin for me with one refill. I must remember that this med is a pain reliever not a 'pain killer'! It does help some, but I guess I must be a baby, because I am tired of it huring all the time!

On a sad note, my little Amber has moved to Pentwater, MI. It is over 80 miles one way from where I live. I know we won't be able to see each other as much as we are use to and she cried quite hard the last time I spoke with her on the phone the night before they made the move. I'm sure she'll adjust fine......me, not so much! :(

A Day at the Zoo!

The zoo we took them to is in Grand Rapids. It is called "John Ball Park Zoo". It was a very hot and humid day to go, but we were working within a time frame before the Kentucky Bunch had to head back so it was Thursday July 5th or not at all!


This picture is the two adult bald eagles they have there. The kids were impressed with such a large bird and huge nest!


The zoo has an aquarium that you can go in. That is where we found the penguins....lots of them!



Here we are, under a small waterfall. I think this must have been the coldest spot in the entire zoo that day! Sure felt nice.


One of the many varieties of fish in the aquarium.


And this Siberian Tiger was lying very quietly until we showed up to bother him. When he looked at the kids with us is when he decided to lick his lips. Do ya think he was trying to tell us that any one of those kids would have made a great SNACK!!!! LOL

Before I forget, today is Darian's 7th Birthday....Happy Birthday Darian!!!!

Empty Nest ~ Almost

It's Saturday, July 7, and everyone has left but Amber. Doug is taking his little ones back to their mother, and Rachel and her family are on the way back to Kentucky. The house is quiet now with just Amber and us here. After 6 little ones and five adults in the house for the last week the silence seems almost eerie!

We had such a good time with everyone here though. Brian decided not to camp out in the back yard with his two boys and they only came for the one day.....July 4th. The parade was long and the weather was great. Not too hot but sunny just the same. No rain either! Not any that day, so the fireworks went off without a hitch!
Waiting for the parade to begin! Most of the people on the left are kids and grandkids!
Family friends driving their old car in the parade.
Our family portrait! Only Brian's wife and 1 ½ year old daughter are missing.Left to right, Steve(holding Drew),Michelle, Glenn, Emily,Jeremy(holding Ty), Heidi, Trenten,Doug,Amber,Hunter,Harley,Mema & Bumpa, KeAira, Rachel(holding Cayden),Trenton,Darian,Brian,Elijah and David. Missing are Brian's wife,Vanessa and his 18 month old daughter, Rebecca.
Our oldest son, Brian, pushing several grandchildren on the swings to entertain them until the food is ready!
And one of the many fireworks that we could see right from our backyard. All the kids and grand kids that stayed for the fireworks walked to the local park to watch the fireworks. Bumpa and I thought we would just stay home and see if we could see them from the back yard. Boy am I glad we did! We had awesome seats on our lawn furniture and didn't have to walk anywhere! I hope they shoot the fireworks off from this same place every year!!!

On Thursday Bumpa and I and Amber, Hunter, Harley, Rachel, Trenton, Darian, KeAira and Cayden all went to the zoo in Grand Rapids. I'll get those photos up soon. Maybe tomorrow or Monday.....I desperately need to catch up on some rest and housework!

An Early Arrival!

Okay, it's Sunday at 12:49 PM and my son, Doug's two youngest children, ages 5 and 3 ½ have arrived for the holiday festivities. The only thing is, the festivities don't really begin until Wednesday, the 4th. In order for Doug to be able to have them for the 4th of July and the big family get together, he had to get them today and keep them through this coming week. We had originally planned on picking them up Tuesday evening around 6 PM and keeping them until Friday evening or Saturday morning. So I guess I will just be a little busier than I had anticipated Monday and Tuesday, while I make preparations for the arrival of the Kentucky bunch and prepare what food I can in advance of Wednesday.

I will be dragging 3 kids with me to the grocery store instead of just Amber who is 12 and not much work anymore at all. And I will have to plan around the schedules of small children's hunger pangs and needing attention while trying to pull everything else together. Daddy and Bumpa both have to work Monday and Tuesday so I hope Amber is up for a challenge and will be willing to pitch in just a little more than she usually does and help, at least with her little brother and sister.

Wish me luck!!!!