Soccer Game–Warm Weather

Now this is one of the reasons I wanted to come back to Michigan. The day started out a little cool (can’t believe I’m saying 45 degrees is cool) but it started warming up quickly with the clear skies and know wind. The trees are starting to bud out, tulips are opening up and I love the smell of a clean fresh mowed lawn.

Our grandson had a soccer game this morning (Saturday) so off we went. Boy what a difference in the way Darrius and his teammates play. In the years pass it was like watching a swarm of bees gathering around this round hive, everyone wanted to be near it but didn’t want to get kicked in the shins. Today they all pretty much stayed in their position they were supposed to be in with only a few times of swarming. But I have to brag as every Grandma has a right to do and tell you our boy made four of the seven goals to help win the game 7-1.

Here’s our proud guy

Last weekend I was reading my favorite flyer – Menards Advertising Sale – and saw the washer that we purchased was on sale for $100. So I took my sales receipt in and they gave us a in store credit. Course it still cost us $350 to get out of there. Must keep those employees payroll filled.

Not a lot happened during the week as most of the time it was either raining or snowing. Each afternoon I’d find something to bake or a new recipe to try. But that type of eating needs to stop.

So with the weather breaking we spent most of the afternoon working in the yard. Of course we also had to have a happy hour which feels like it’s been ages since we’ve had one. But Pepper sure remembered it, all I did was asked Larry if he wanted to have a Happy Hour and Pepper was right there with her toy and ready to go outside.

I have one last picture to share. Here’s Pepper doing guard duty to make sure all those puppy squirrels don’t come in her yard.

Till next time……………………………..

Weather–Garage Sale-New Phones

The week has given us flooding from all the rain, a day of warmth with tornado watches and a covering of snow. Temperature’s ranging from in the 20’s to in the 70’s. I wasn’t happy to see this when I opened the drapes this morning.

We finally had to bite the bullet and get new phones this week. We’ve been putting it off for a couple of years as I just couldn’t get excited about Verizon’s super great Share Plan that was going to cost me more money a month with less coverage. But our old flip phones were really starting to bug us with not having messages show up for hours (or days) after being left and not ringing. So we ended up getting a couple of smart phones and I have to admit I’m enjoying the texting with the family.

Even with all the cold temperatures there are some diehard’s that had garage sales this weekend. And of course if they could stand being out in those cold garages the least I could do is support them and go to it. Which I did yesterday and I came home with a neat bird bath for $8.00 that will be perfect in one of the flower gardens, if I ever get them done. Not sure if I’ll paint it or what but will do some before/after pictures later on.

I’ve spent some time doing research on the family under the 1940 Census. Ancestry.com (for those who would like to do this) has this census free for the time being. It’s interesting the information available under that Census. You can also go to this site that has lots of information and all of it is free. https://familysearch.org/search But just a warning, once you start (as Larry calls it) chasing dead people you can’t quit.

That’s about it for this week. I will share another picture I took of Pepper.  Rough day for the puppy

Till next time……………………….

I prefer black snow verses white snow

For those who aren’t familiar with black snow it’s what happens in Texas when they burn the sugar cane. It’s long pieces of oily residue that floats down from the sky. One thing you don’t do is try and sweep it, it really makes a oily mess. You either use a blower or wait for the wind to take it away. But today we have been experiencing white snow and we really do not like seeing this. It’s not so much the snow it’s the cold temperatures that come with it. I for one prefer seeing pictures from the family members rather than seeing this in person.  We’ve also had a lot of rain this week. Our rain gage had 3.5 inches the last time I looked. All in all we have had enough of this crappy weather and ready for spring.

Larry’s been working on installing the washer/dryer most of the week. Seems like every time he tried to do something there was a problem. But yesterday he finished it up and today I’ve enjoyed doing laundry here and not having to go to the laundry mat. He still has to finish putting more foam insulation on the walls but that’s next weeks project.

He also has been working on the Lionel Train set and has gotten it running.  Lots of little tiny pieces that had to be taken apart and cleaned.

I finally found someone to come and roll the yard. There seems to be a awful lot of so called “lawn care” people advertising but they all must really be busy out there cause trying to get someone to return your call is something else. But I’ve found that seems to be the norm this week on calls I’ve had to make.

Guess that’s it for this week. Till next time………………

First full week back in Michigan

It seems like we’ve been here for a month and it’s only been a  week.

We’ve gotten into our habit of visiting what I call our summer home Menards at least every other day. For those of you who haven’t heard of this store it’s like Lowes or Home Depot but much better than either of those. Anyway this week Menards was running a special of getting a 11% rebate visa card on any purchase’s. Since we planned on fixing a area in the basement for a laundry room we decided we might as well buy what we need now and get the rebate. So the first thing was finding the washer/dryer. Have you ever tried to find appliances that don’t do everything but talk to you. Good grief – I don’t use all the fancy buttons, I’m a simple woman who does laundry the old fashion way – hot or cold, I don’t care that it can air dry, steam dry, sensor dry – I just want it to dry. But we finally found one that I didn’t have to worry about it yelling at me cause I didn’t push the right button. And they were delivered the next day.

Of course Larry had lots to do to get the area ready before he even thought about hooking anything up. When he re-wired and plumbed the house that first year he did run everything over to that area so that’s done. But he wanted to put this flooring down called DRIcore. Here’s a picture from an ad showing the top and bottom and the floor in the basement that Larry did.

It only took him less than two hours to do the main area and it really looks good.

Next he wanted to put this spray foam installation on the walls which is also suppose to help with moisture and keeping the basement warm.

In between all this we had our grandson Darrius for a few days. I just can’t figure out how so much energy can come out of a eight year old. Luckily he and Pepper could spend time out in the back yard racing from one side to the other. So by evenings they both would crash.

The temperatures haven’t been the best here. Lows in the 20s and 30s and I’m sorry but Larry and I just can not get all excited because the forecast was calling for 55 degrees. Come on, we’ve been use to lows in the 70s and highs in the 90s with a couple of 100s tossed in. So while people are out walking without coats, windows down in cars and people stopping at the local ice cream shop we will continue wearing our winter coats and gloves and probably look a little foolish – but who cares – we want warmth any way we can get it.

That’s it for this week. Till next time………………………