Memorial Day Parade 2010

Our heat wave broke on Thursday or at least the humidity went down from 80%'s to a more comfortable 40%'s. We met some family members on Wednesday to plant flowers at our parents grave.

Our local cemetery

passed some very strict rules this year and I think in the end it will make the place much more attractive. I have a problem with people planting flowers the week before Memorial Day than never returning to water or take care of them. Would look much better to never plant flowers and let the grounds keepers be able to mow up the the head stone.

Larry and I make a daily trip there to water the parents, niece's and a few special friends since we aren't that far away. We'll either walk or ride our bikes which gives us a reason to get out and do some exercise. Of course it's been known to happen that once we have our little job completed we ride to the other side of town to

Our favorite place

They have the best choc cones and once the high school kids get to know us the amount of ice cream seems to get bigger. Gota love those young people. I'm sure they all figure they are giving those old people a special treat - what the heck - there are some advantages to getting old.

Today (Saturday) we walked downtown to watch the Memorial Parade (slide-show) this morning. This is the first time in many years that we've been around to see it. Not too many participants but there was a nice ceremony on the bridge.

A great turn out from our local High School Band

Have to give the parents credit for staying in town for this hour performance.

We ran into some of our family waiting for the parade so of course I had to take a picture.

This happy group are my brother Larry's kids and grand-kids. Larry wasn't able to make it (farm stuff again) but our sister-in-law Stint is in the back row center of the picture. There will be more family pictures taken this summer and than I'll do more introduction with names.

Almost forgot that gr-son Darrius was over the other day after school to have a cool off time with his cousin Sydney.

This one kind of makes you wonder
what they have going on in those little heads. Ah - TROUBLE!!

Guess that's it for today. Hope everyone is enjoying this Memorial Weekend and be careful out there. Till next time........................................

Family Time

Last Friday we had a good old fashion thunderstorm here with heavy rain. It hit about 5pm, so I bet it was fun trying to drive.

I tried taking a picture out our window to show you how hard it was coming down but
this is it. Can you believe it was 5:00. Look close and you can see the pools.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and warm temperatures. We had a graduation party that afternoon for our niece Kira Moore who completed her BA in Social Work at Michigan State Univ. It was also a double celebration as she was excepted for her Masters there. Kira is a single mom and this has taken her some time to complete so we're all proud of her. Congrat's Kira!!!

Sunday was another family thing. Our nieces Sierra and Mariah (Kira's girls) dance class put on a breakfast and while we ate they entertained us with some Spanish Dancing. The ages are from 4-17 and all of them did a wonderful job.

Here is a picture of the girls
in their costumes.

Some of the family was able to attend

The guy sitting next to Larry is his brother David and the woman in the front is Gail, Davids wife.

Here's one last picture of the group of kids. It was fun watching them

and the breakfast turned out to be really good. Also it was nice hearing some Spanish music again.

Monday was pretty quiet. We helped David (nephew) put rocks around the front of the house. When Larry and I sold the farm in 1995 we swore we would never pick up rocks again. Well guess the old saying is true "never say never". Afterwards we tossed some hot dogs & sausages on the grill and they really tasted good.

We actually turned the air conditioner on. The temperature isn't that bad, mid/high 80's but the humidity (currently 95%) has been high and there hasn't been any wind. They say we are having July's weather this week, just hope we don't have Sept's in July when we are up at Houghton Lake.

Guess that's it for today. Welcome - Davison MI, New Castle DE, Brooklyn IA, Mt Rainier MD, Buford GA, Elk Horn IA, New Franken WI, Kent WA, Waterford MI, Havertown PA, Commerce Twp MI, Till next time..........................................

School night with Gr-ma/pa

Wow, where did this week go? Can't even say we were all that busy or did anything really exciting. We went for a drive on Tuesday, no place really special but that took up a good part of the day since we didn't decide to leave until after 10am.

Oh, Larry called the place back on Wednesday about the remote starter for the generator. Luckily someone different answered the phone and this guy must of went to the school of Customer Service. As it turned out it was a easy fix, something about one of the wires wasn't right and in no time we could be inside the trailer and start the generator. How nice this will be when we stop at a Walmart for the night and Larry doesn't have to go outside before day break to start it. I may even move this job over to the Pink Side of jobs. Na, my luck it would quit the first time and once you move a job from blue to pink it's hard to move it back.

We picked up the grandson after school yesterday to spend the night. Mom was out of town so this was a first for us to get Darrius ready for school. Things were going good, Darrius and Sydney played outside with just a few "tiff's".

David decided it would be a good day to get the pools out

Meet the Moore's - Sore Muscles

I haven't introduced you to anyone lately so thought you would like to meet the relatives that are kind enough to let us park our wagon train in their back yard.

Meet the other Moores.

This is Dawn, David and Sydney our niece/nephew/great-niece. Dawn works for Merrill Lynch in Lansing, David is a self employed contractor and Sydney is finishing up kindergarten. We really enjoy spending time in their back yard and are lucky that they put up with their trailer trash relatives. Little Sydney comes every morning to give us a hug before going off to school and every evening for a good night hug.

OK, so I learned something this weekend. Great idea's turn into work that turns into aching muscles. Dawn and I were talking about replanting a area on the side of their house with plants and flowers. Than it was stretched to all along the front of the house. So Sunday the cleaning out began than David sprayed round-up. This will take a few days before we can rota-til that area but in the mean time I took the weed-wacker around the trees and bushes. Did I mention they have a huge yard with lots of trees and bushes. But it was a perfect day for working outside and it felt good (at the time) to get some exercise. That night was a different thing but the aspirin helped.

Larry purchased a remote control for the Honda generator and worked on installing that. Everything worked good until he started blowing fuses when he tried to start it with the remote. So a call to the manufacture on Monday was made. He wasn't impressed with the person he talked with and is still waiting for a call back (this is Tuesday).

Monday I got the back yard mowed and did laundry. With using the washer in the trailer it only takes about four pair of jeans and a couple of sweat shirts and it's a full load.

Guess that's it for today. Welcome - Cropsey IL, Laguna Woods CA, Chico CA, Paw Paw MI, Ottawa Canada. Till next time.............................

Last soccer games - Renee & Brian

Friday Larry worked on replacing the antenna that goes to the bedroom TV. It went fairly well on changing it until it came time to raise and lower it. He found out that the logic to control it isn't the same as the old one. So a call to Braund (company) and they are sending him a new control board. But the good news is I can now get one of the local channels that I've missed. Hopefully when he installs the new board I'll get more. While he was doing all that I went and got groceries at the local Meijer store. For those of you that have never heard of Meijers, it's basically like a Walmart and has been in Michigan since the 1930's. In fact one of Larry's first jobs when he was in high school was at the newest Meijers on the West side of Lansing. My first job was being a car hop at the local A&W. And no I didn't do the roller skates but it sure was fun working there. My mom would call down to the store (when she could get thru on our 10 family party line) and order the 10 Coney Dogs for a $1.00. OK, the age is showing, time to change the subject.

Saturday was soccer day and lunch with part of our kids. We got to the field early so we could watch our great niece Adrienne. She's the one with her arm up. That's her mom Amy in the pink jacket.

Once Adrienne's team was done than it was time for Darrius's. Such concentration.
But they finished the season as undefeated.

He even had his own cheering-leading group.

Our daughter Renee' and son-in-law Brian were able to make it to the game. They live near Cleveland and this was the first time we've been able to see them.

Once Darrius team was done than it was Sydney's (another great niece) turn.

It was a good day for soccer and a whole lot warmer temperatures than last week. We went to Bennigan's Grill for a nice lunch and catch up time of what Renee' and Brian have been up too.

So guess that's it for today. Welcome - DePere WI, Moscow City Russian Federation, Corning NY, Fort Lauderdale FL, Davenport IA. Till next time.................

Lunch with the Garvey's

Well we had one fairly decent day Wednesday, or at least it wasn’t raining.

We drove over to Ionia Michigan

and met Lon & Pat Garvey (sorry this is only picture I have of them)

at the Lamplight Grill for lunch.

The Garvey’s purchased a lot

in our park in Mission last summer. As it turned out they have a summer home in Belding MI. I tried to find a ariel picture of the town but couldn't. So here is one of the Library. Sure is neat looking.
So after a good lunch and conversation we left each other with promises to meet again.

On the way home we stopped at Larry/Stint's (brother & SIL) and picked up a toy bench that I bought at the nieces garage sale last week for

our grandson. When we moved to David's (nephew) the back of the car was full so we had to leave it in their garage. So until we get over to the daughters place this weekend it's riding in the back of our car.

Thursday, I was awaken to the rumble of thunder, crash of lighting and heavy rain. Not what I really wanted to hear. I thought about just burying my head under the covers and see if I couldn't totally by pass this day but about that time Larry came up and asked if I was ever going to get out of bed. Duh- no - was what I was thinking (among other things) but I did get up. The day was spent doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom and listening to the rain. See should have stayed with my first thought of the morning.

OK, I am cheating and putting a blog on before Sunday. It's hard to set certain days of doing this. Sometimes there is nothing to talk about and then other times I can just go on and on. Now if you would ask Larry he'd probably say - well never mind -we won't go there.

He did have a idea yesterday and if this weather keeps up we just might do it. As some of you know we have another lot and trailer at Hidden Valley RV Park that is rented out. It's pretty much furnished with everything except your own personal items. Well Larry mentioned that we could be back down there in that trailer within 24 hours and be where the sky is clear and temperature's are in the 90's. Luckily we are suppose to see a end to this crappy weather after today or I might just take him up on that.

So that's it for today. Hope some of you out there are enjoying decent weather but from those of you I have talked with in the last few days that's not the case. So to the Retama People, and all Winter Texas & Snowbirds, let us unite and swear we will not leave our winter homes next year until at least the end of May or first of June. Till next time..................................

Have I mentioned COLD

OK, I realize you may be getting tired of hearing about the cold temp's we're having to put up with. Especially the family here in Michigan as you have pretty much made it clear we are wimps. Well let me make this very clear - WE ARE WIMPS - ALWAYS WILL BE WIMPS AND ARE PROUD OF IT. That being said I'll move on to what's been happening the last couple of days.

Sunday morning we went over to my sister Nadene's and had a nice breakfast with her family. I forgot (I know hard to believe) my camera but did have this picture taken from last summer's family picnic.

Here's Mike & Nadene with Marcey, Phil, Quinn and Kelden.

Marcey and her family live in Albq. N.M. They flew in for the weekend to help celebrate their gr-ma's 90th birthday. We just don't get to see nearly enough of them.

That afternoon our daughter Brandi and gr-daughter Anissa came over.

We enjoyed a good dinner with family here. Again forgot to take pictures but will get them before this summer is up. Darrius went home with mom and sister and I was beat. This little guy has more energy than three kids should have.

Monday Larry had to get some propane and run to a Kendal Electric. While he was gone I decided to get the riding mower out and get the back yard done. We have a small push mower that we use around our trailer and he needed to get gas and oil for that before I could use it.

Finished the mowing so thought I'd take a picture of where we park in the summer.

Still no Larry so decided since it was suppose to start raining the next day I'd get the front yard mowed. They have a pretty good size front yard so even with the riding mower it took about a hour.

Tuesday brought on just what the local weatherman called for. Cold and rainy. Never got out of the 40's. Oh did I mention that there was frost Sunday morning. We pretty much stayed inside all day. Or I should say I stayed inside, Larry had to go out once when a huge gust of wind knocked over the satellite dish. I did open the window a inch so I could tell him when we had a connection.

We watched the National News with all the broadcast about the tornado's near Oklahoma City along I40. We spent a night at the Casino there a couple of weeks ago. Had to be scary at that Love's Truck Stop that took a direct hit for the people caught there.

That's it for today. Welcome - Reading PA, Paradise CA, Tappan NY, Denver CO, Draper UT, Olds Alberta Canada, Hatley WI. Thanks for joining us. Check in on Sunday and see what exciting or not so exciting things we've been up too. Till next time....................

Moved-Soccer-Bday-COLD

We made the big move from the farm to the nephews in town last Thursday.The weather forecast didn't sound very good over the weekend (windy, rainy and cold) so we pulled out of brothers about 9:30 and got to nephews at 9:45. Rough trip ha but it doesn't matter if your driving a thousand miles or five you still have to pack up - hook up and test everything the same way. Larry needed to dump tanks and we had to measure to see how much hose we needed for the fresh water. Each year we get a new set of hoses for here, you would think we'd remember we need a 100ft. I do want to get two of the concrete blocks like we had in Retama so we can put the awning up and leave it out. That will be next weeks project.

Friday the skies opened and did it rain. And the temperatures kept falling all day. I needed to get out and do some errands and luckily it stopped for a couple of hours in the afternoon so I didn't get soaked. That night I had a baby shower to attend for a niece on Larry's side. This will bring the count up to 15 great nieces and nephews between both our families.

Saturday just before daybreak the old wind just roared thru here. I'm so glad we made our move to town. Love being out at my brothers but it's wide open space all around us and with winds at almost 30mph and a wind chill of 31 degrees it would not have been nice. I did get a call from Linda Cypcar Friday and they had snow where they are parked in ND so guess I shouldn't complain -but I'm going to anyway.

Saturday morning was the big soccer game between our grandson's team and our great nieces team. As you can see from the one and only post Larry will be allowed to do it was so unbelievably cold out on that field. We went in the closet and pulled out any clothing that would help to keep us warm. Just so everyone understands I wasn't the only wimp there, many other people were wrapped in blankets just like our granddaughter and I were.
And here is Larry and I. He may look like he's tough but he's the only one who had long johns.
Here's Darrius during a break. Only five year olds can run around outside in that kind of weather with light sweat shirts and ask for cold water. Brrrr
After a quick trip home to change we went to a friends 90th Birthday party. If I'm still around when I hit 90 I sure hope I have as much energy as Mildred does. There was over 100 family and friends there to celebrate her special day.

Darrius came home with us for the night so the rest of the day was spent entertaining him and his cousin Sydney who was here shortly after we got home.

Guess that's it for today. Hopefully this weather will break and things will warm up. Everyone out there try and stay warm and we'll see you again on Wednesday.

Welcome - Fowlerville MI, Rapid City SD, West Frankfort IL, Bismark ND, Boise ID and Galston New South Wales, Australia. Till next time..................................

Dang it's cold

This is going to be my first and maybe my last post to the blog after Linda see's this.

This is our Sat. morning trip to the Gr son's soccer game,

YES - This will be his one and only post - password is being changed.

At the Farm

We have really been enjoying our time here on the farm with my brother Larry and SIL Stint. Don't think I ever mentioned that Larry is not only my brother but also my twin. He's much older than I am and I don't let him forget it. That and he was a pig and stole all the nourishment by weighing in at 6lbs where I was only 3lbs.

With the weather this spring much better than last Larry B (brother) had all the corn planted by the time we got home. He has a few hundred acres of soy's to do but it's still early. So Stint and I went to Lansing on a shopping trip yesterday. We left about 8am and was home by noon. OK, I know you Retama ladies are thinking this isn't a shopping trip, this is just going for bread and milk. But to my sister in law going to the mall during planting season is few and far between. We had a good time and some day if they ever retire I'd like to get them down to Texas and show them just how life should be.

Here's our view out the dining window

This is looking out the living room.

Those pictures were taken the day after we arrived and we had a little shower.

Here is Larry & Larry moving soy bean seed.

Here they are loading the planter.

My sister-in-law Stint with one of her grand-daughters.

And here is little Lucie. She just loves sitting on her gr-pa's toys.

It's been fun here but I think we will be pulling the rig down to the nephew's tomorrow. They are calling for rain the next few days and since we have to drive across grass we need to do this when it's fairly dry. Our big truck is a wimp when it comes to wet grass. We'll come back out here before leaving this fall. The weather hasn't been the warmest for having any happy hours and my nieces and nephews are expecting at least a couple of relaxing social hours.

Guess that's it for this Wednesday. Welcome - Nassau Bahamas, Abrams WI, Killeen TX, Denver CO. See you Sunday................

Grandkids & Family

Our surprise showing at our Grandson's soccer game was a hit. I was given that special hug I've been waiting for, well at least the hug a 5yr old boy will give to a girl even if she is his gr-ma. But like any gr-ma we take what we can get.

Here's Darrius at his favorite spot

The game was over and his team won. They are now 3-0. Good job Darrius.

Next Saturday should be interesting. Darrius plays against his cousin. Already a little family rivalry has started.

Here is our grandkids, Darrius (almost 6yr) and Anissa (almost 16yr)

Aren't they just the most precious things.

After the soccer game we met David (nephew), Dawn (niece) Sydney (great niece) and Yvonne (friend) at the local A&W for breakfast. These are the relatives that are kind enough to let us park in their back yard during the summer.

Here's Darrius and Sydney from last summer.

We've had some rain since arriving but has cleared up some by afternoons and warmed up enough to take the sweat shirt off for awhile.

Guess that's it for now. Welcome - Temperance MI, Colorado Springs CO, Recife Brazil, Mountain View CA, Abrams WI,

I'm thinking about going down to one or two posts a week while we're here. We really don't do much here to write about. So maybe start looking for them on Wednesday & Sundays.

Till next time......................

Home Again

We left Eby's CG around 8:30 yesterday morning. Had a very uneventful two hour drive which is always the way we want it.

Here's a picture of M43, heading to brothers place.

Here we are pulling up to the farm.

And here we are, 1800 miles later. Our parking spot by the tree.

We found out we could never try to surprise the family. SIL Stint got three phone calls from people telling her we were on our way to their place.

The rest of the day was spent catching up with happenings of family and friends. We were able to see Larry (brother) & Stints (SIL) kids and grandkids. You forget how big these kids get when you don't see them for 8 months.

We are suppose to surprise our gr-son at his soccer game this morning but since it's been raining they will probably cancel it.

Guess that's it for today. Welcome - Birmingham MI, Cibolo TX, Mexia Tx, South Bend IN, Tinley Park ILL, Till next time.............................................