Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Closest to Germany I will ever get

Thank you stimulus check! Frank and I decided to spend the day at Frankenmuth, Michigan. Frankenmuth is a little german town tourist attraction. As a treat we invited my mother and suprisingly my father wanted to come. He has never been to Frankenmuth in all of his 61 years! It was a beautiful day until around 2 in the afternoon then it poured on us.

There is so much to look at there. Mom was prepared with her wheelchair for all the walking that was involved, dad wasn't. His legs started to bother him so we did not get to check out all the stores that we wanted too, including world famous Bronner's.

We did get to eat at world famous Zehnder's known for their fried chicken. It was a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. Here is some pics and not necessarily in any special order.





Darin thought it would be funny to act like he was punching the mouse.
We did get to ride on this paddleboat! It was awesome. Look at the sky. This was just after the rain stopped. We even saw some hail earlier in the day!



Mom is enjoying herself! You can see the look of "can you put that camera away" in my daughter's face.


We visited the museum in town. They had some hands on stuff to do. Can you imagine fetching water?





Same museum...these are german settlers on the boat over.







A beautiful water fountain with statues all around it.










Me and Darin having a little fun.





Amber and Frank getting into it.
LoL...Frank was not as tall as Darin to get into it.








Mom, Dad and Darin.










Frank, Amber, Dad.
I just wish Dad was able to do alot more. Like i said there is so much to look at.


Dad was going crazy over the horse drawn carriages! Not something he has seen to often.


Now, after all thos pics...some updates.
Mini finally got her beauty treatment! It took me forever to get these pics because for some reason pointing a camera scared her and she kept running away from me...I finally trapped her in my laundry room.


We celebrated with a new collar! She is so pretty. Does she remind of a dalmation now?
The kids are loving summer vacation! Me too..lol...Sleeping in is always good!

Monday, June 16, 2008

POTLUCK

The kids are out of school! Hooray! Darin is officially a high schooler, 9th grade here he comes! He managed to get his grades up. Amber managed to save her butt! All the grades that she needed to impove so that she would not have the most boring of summers, she did. Yay! Otherwise it was no friends spending the night all summer, no computer, and whatever else I could think of, would have happened! Don't worry, I have pre-warned her of next year. Good grades thru the year or NO wrestling, NO trips to Washington or any other special field trips. I am not going to waste my money for no effort!

My weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. On Friday Frank, Amber and I went bowling with church for a fundraiser. We had a wonderful time, Amber bowled a 137 in her first game and I bowled 138 then it was downhill after that. It's been a long time since we bowled.

Saturday was the absolute best day to have a picnic in the church lot. Our church is set on 5 acres of land. Everyone brought dishes to share for a potluck and we grilled whatever meat we brought. (mostly hot dogs and hamburgers quick and easy). The dishes were amazing. taco salad, potato salads, tuna salads, I brought a special dip that i make for crackers made out of cream cheese. Amber LOVES this stuff and people at the church raved about it. After our special meal all the kids headed outdoors and began playing all kinds of games. I even got Darin to come with Amber and I. Darin played football with the teenage boys and ended up having a ball. Then everyone played kickball, then they played hackey sack, and even threw the Frisbee. Us older people pulled up a chair in the shade and just watched the children play all day. It started at 2:00 pm and we all stayed clear up to 9:00 pm. I really hope they do it again soon, everyone had alot of fun.

Sunday, father's day was pretty laid back. I really did not have anything planned. The neighbor's invited us over to BBQ. It was pretty much just thrown together. I had some ribs out so we cooked that up and I had some potato salad and cole slaw left over from the church picnic and whatever my neighbor thru in,. and there you have a father's day BBQ.

What was really cool was that i had a Saturday and Sunday off for the first time since I started working in the hospital back in August. It really felt nice to stay home a couple days.

On Monday I thought i would sleep in and ended up waking up at 9 a.m. (not my choice but it happened...kinda glad it did tho) I did my usual cleaning for a Monday and I am home. Like stripping the beds and putting clean sheets and pillowcases, vacuuming, laundry, sweeping, garbage...well your getting the point. Just when I finished and wanted to watch a DVD *poof* no power, the whole block went out. All the neighbors went straight out the door and we all asked "you got power?" the answer was "nope". When we called the electric company we were told that we may be out of power till midnight. The power outage happened around 10:30 a.m. and around 1:45 p.m. I decided to go and get some ice and put my parishables in coolers, just in case it was going to be a long wait. I had to be at work at 2:30 p.m. so I was not going to take chances.

I found out that power had been restored around 4-4:30ish. Thank God today was a gorgeous day to have the windows open. And tonight is just heaven! I will sleep good tonight!

My dog Mini (the big fury one) has an appointment for the groomers this Saturday. She will be happy to get rid of her fur coat for the summer. Poor girl, I usually have her shaved by the end of May, but with my schedule the last few weeks it's been hard. Then when i did make her appointment I could not get one till this Saturday. She's the reason I had to run the central air maybe a few more days than I needed to...just so that she would not get sick.

Well here I go babbling again.
It's just that I have had a great weekend.

Happy Belated Father's Day

Monday, June 09, 2008

IF IT WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY RAISE YOUR HAND!





Sunday June 8th was a beautiful day to have a picnic Birthday party in a beautiful state park called Stoney Creek Metro Park.

It is covered in big beautiful trees.













More trees.







Here was one reason to celebrate!!!
38 years ago I was brought into this world by my wonderul mother.



It was a windy day...so excuse the rough hair-do.






Here is another reason to celebrate...
My father turned 61 years old!!!

Yep..I was my father's biggest/smallest gift!

Not many people get a baby for their birthday.

This man is not easy to shop for! But he is very proud to be a grandfather. And usually I buy gifts for him to announce it.






He loved his cards.










My wonderful mother who put the picnic together....she loves us!

Oh and another reason to celebrate...see the dog...her name is Bunny.....
Yep it was her Birthday too!!!!! 1 years old.

They got her at the pound and her birthday is in June also...so they just celebrate it with all the rest of us. :)






You know you taken too many pictures when you get this look...lol












Or this one..LOL










Swimming, eating, fishing, and talking was a great way to spend your birthday!
We did all this from 9 in the morning till about 6:30pm ish and then.....Out of nowhere a storm like no other came out and dumped a huge amount of water on all of our heads! I guess the party was over! So we just moved the party back to my mothers for that famous "Birthday Song" and some birthday cake!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Monday, June 02, 2008

I'M A GRANDMOTHER!!!


Because of child development class I have a granddaughter named Jennifer. This kind of grand parenting is right up my alley for now!
It's some kind of flour baby they call it.
Darin is really not interested in this class and is only doing it because the school is making him..lol

His shirt says Oakwood class of 2012!!!
Amber is a proud auntie! She's offered to babysit and everything!

Look out world...Amber in a dress!!!!!
Today was honor's night at school, she received a certificate for her participation in wrestling.
She is so beautiful!