A Wedding Success

The day took a long time to come but than it came so fast. Too all eyes it was a total success with only a couple of panic attacks that now that it's the next day we can laugh at. Some time this week I will re-post another blog with more details -

Brandi's aunt Elaine posted a few pictures on FaceBook that I'll share today with more to come later.

Daughter Brandi and our new son in law Darrell

Dar-Relle (our new 16yr old grandson) and Anissa

Here's new gr-daughter Aaliyah and Anissa

Doesn't this picture of Darrius say it all about mom/dads wedding

But even a wedding can't keep those MSU fans from watching the game. Just takes a little extra thought to make it happen.

That's it for now. Once I get some pictures I'll put a link on our Webshots. But as for now, we both are going to do what the kids say and Chill Out today.

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

A Quiet Week

So this will be a pretty short blog this week. We didn't do much other than wedding things.

We were going to go down to daughter Renee's this morning to take Pepper to a end of the year swim party. A local pool park lets Love a Stray (where we got Pepper from) have the pool the Sat. after Labor day when they close it up for the season. We thought it would be fun to take her down there and play with other dogs in the water. But the weather forecast called for cloudy, rainy, high in the 60's and 15-25 mph winds. Did I mention this is by Lake Erie in Ohio. Nope, not our kind of weather and since Renee' had to work a booth there and Brian (SIL) wasn't going to be around all day we backed out. But as it turned out the weather (although still only in the 60's) turned out pretty good. Should of known.

We're in for a some cool nights this week and days will feel like fall around here. I noticed the other night on Pepper's and my walk that the trees are starting get that tint before they turn color.

Our niece Dawn called this afternoon and invited us over to their place to watch the MSU game and have some dinner with the family. So we went over and spent some time with them, had a good dinner and watched the game. Actually I didn't watch much of it but it was fun.

So that's it for this week. Till next time...............(after the wedding)``

Flowers - grandson - barns

Finally the construction is almost completed and they opened the main street going into town, which I have mentioned is a half a block from us. Now maybe I can get the windows washed and some of this grind off. Dust and dirt have been bad all summer and of course we've had to have all the windows up.

I took a couple of pictures of the front/side of the house showing my flowers. They are starting to die out a little so thought I'd better get some quick.


The weeks are just flying by and only two left before the wedding. Things are going good except for one panic attack by me the other day. I went to laundry mat and took my note book of all the wedding stuff to go over some things. Well the next day I went to get it and couldn't find it anyplace. Luckily someone there took it into the Quality Dairy (attached & own both) and they had it in the drawer. Talk about heart failure. Even tho Brandi has her's, mine has a mothers to do list, not to mention who's been paid and amounts still owed. Will not be taking that outside the house again.

Darrius stayed over night last night. I don't no where all the energy comes from but between him and Pepper I was ready for bed early. Pepper gets so excited when Darrius comes over and they are just about inseparable the whole time. This morning they were curled up together, both sound asleep, so I have a feeling it was a late night of watching TV together. At least after Darrius left this afternoon there was one tired puppy and peace and quiet around here (for about a hour).

I need to start finding a route back to Texas by way of heading north. The plan is to go thru the Upper Peninsula along Route 2 and down to Door County to see our good friends Gary and Marilynn who have a lot next to us in Texas. Can't wait to see them. Than we will head to Brooklyn Iowa to stop and see Larry and LaVila. They too have a lot down in Texas in another park but we first met them out in the desert in Quartzite AZ. Another couple we can't wait to see. After that, it's up in the air. It's a little different traveling with a pet and having to find a motel that allows them. Plus some charge a fee and could be as much as $25 a night. I have a couple of web sites that will help us find them on our route.

Still no takers on the sale of the Kenworth. We found a website for horse owners so we listed the ad on there. Have had several calls but they all seem to be over a thousand miles away. Last time I looked we had over ten thousand hits on the web shot photo's. Larry said he is about ready to "raise" the price. It seems when ever his father couldn't get something to sell he would start raising the price and it always sold.

I shared a picture a few weeks ago of the roof being painted at the old farmstead that I grew up on and that my twin now owns. He had a hard time trying to decide what to do with these barns as they haven't been used for livestock since Larry and I lived out there in the 70's and had cattle and pigs. He thought about having them torn down but than decided the history of these barns and the fact there are so few of these left he hated to do that. So he found some Amish gentlemen and are having all of them resided. This picture shows you one almost completed and the other to be done yet.
I would of hated to see these buildings go down. Not only did I and my siblings spend time wandering these barns but so did our kids and grand kids. Its fun to read on FB our kids and their cousins talking about the memories they have.

So guess that's it for this week. Till next week.......................

Accident-Elevator fire - Furniture

Can you believe only one more week of August. Usually by now I have our route figured out heading south for the winter but without having to find a football field to park our rig in I haven't thought to much about it. Other than we want to go through the Upper Peninsula and stop to see some friends that's about the extend of it. I don't have to worry about football fields but do have to find motels that allow dogs. Some places don't charge extra but others it can be as much as $20 a night so I need to do more research on this.

The construction that closed the main street (1/2 block from us) going into town , since June is finally getting close to the end. Completion is suppose to be before school starts the 4th of Sept and it looks like they will make it. Weather wise this summer hasn't delayed them except for maybe one afternoon and these guys have been putting some long hours six days a week. It was a major over haul of the road plus new water/sewer pipes. I swear you would think we lived on a dirt road with all the dust. Windows (outside) are horrible but refuse to do them until they are finished. Special note here - I found that if you want a great streak free window cleaner take a spray bottle, fill 3/4 full with water, add 3-4 drops of Dawn (blue) dish soap and have at it. I give it a good spray where Pepper likes to sit and look out the front door and it cleans it right up.

I have a few pictures to share this week. The first one is of a accident near here that closed down both lanes of a major highway for over 12 hours. Luckily it was a one vehicle accident and no injuries. But some company is going to be hit with a huge clean up bill.
Nothing like thousands of gallons of liquid asphalt spreading across four lanes to put a damper on someones day. Kind of makes you wish you didn't get out of bed that morning.

This one someone posted on Facebook while they were in the UP of Michigan. Pretty awesome ha
There was a major fire at a local grain elevator this week. There aren't many elevator's around here left for farmers to take their crops so this is really going to make things difficult. There are already long lines at these places and with a major one possible not being open and farmers having to drive farther this could be costly.
Yet another garage sale/estate sale purchase that I have to share. I decided that I really would like to have a Secretary Desk in the the living room where I had a hutch. The hutch just didn't fit in there once I put furniture in so I've been watching Craigslist and going to sales and I found the perfect one the other day. After a little negotiation (you know me, can't pay asking price) we settled on a fair price and brought it home. It needed a lot of clean up so I worked on that. Here's the finish product.



If you click on the picture and enlarge it you can see the little drawers and cubby holes. Well while I was cleaning it Larry said to keep a eye out for secret areas. There are these decorative carvings beside the little door in the center and when I started to clean the second one it move. Guess what, both of these pull out and when I peeked inside I could see something. There was a $20 bill stuffed way in the back. So that just sweeten my purchase a little better. I'll admit I thought about taking the $20 back to the place but than who knows how long that's been in there. One other paper we found stuff in another area was dated 1985. Larry did look the numbers up that are listed on the back and found it was built in Flint around 1940.

So did you really think you'd get away without seeing a picture of the grandson. Of course I have two to share.

First I need to introduce you to our soon to be grand baby Dar-Relle. We were at Darrius's football game this morning and of course it was hot and sunny. Thanks to Dar-Relle I was able to have a little shade.

In case you haven't guessed Dar-Relle is a Senior (high-school) this year and plays defensive line. He was just chosen the Coach's pick for best Defensive-men in the CAAC Blue Division.

Again Darrius's team won 14-0. Our little guy is pretty competitive and does not like to loose in any sports he's playing. Wonder where he gets that from.

But it really helps to have a big brother to go over all the plays after the game.

Guess that's it for this week. It's suppose to cool off tomorrow so maybe I'll get ambition to get back upstairs and finish painting the bedroom.

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

Football - School - Anissa's 1st car

Well we've gone from hot and humid to cool and wet to beautiful fall days. All within a week. Our rain gauge topped out at just over four inches in a 2 1/2 day time frame. Of course we (or I should say I) won't let a little rain stop us from grilling out.

I swear we could sit here and watch the grass grow. But it sure has greened things up. Last night it was down in the 40's and today we about froze our backsides off at the grandson's first football game. Which by the way they won.

Here he is all ready to head out.

This is just a little harder to watch now that he's actually in a tackle league. Poor guy has been wanting to play football the real way for so long but boy it's hard on a grandma to watch.

With school starting in just a few weeks we stopped off and picked up the school supplies that's required. Not sure how some of these families handle it when they have a bunch of kids. But at least our guy is ready to begin a new year.

Soon grandpa and Darrius disappeared and look what ended up in the cart.

That night this was posted on daughters Facebook

:::Sigh::: the point in his life where a Teddy bear has been replaced by a football...

I did get a little painting done upstairs in the hall. With the weather next week looking good I'll try and get the one bedroom prime and painted.

Grandpa has been helping Anissa look for her first car the last couple of weeks and today one was found that meant Gr-pa's "approval" and Anissa's "cool" look. She is so excited which I can't blame her, we all remember our very first car. Since she starts this coming Thursday at college it was good they found this.

I didn't get a picture of her and the car but here's the one on the advertisement
It's a nice vehicle and like gr-pa told her "you keep it maintained and it will last a long time".

Four weeks from today is the wedding. Daughter isn't in a full panic mode yet but I dare say within the next few days she'll hit her peak.

Guess that's it for this week. Till next time........................

Special Day for our Grand-daughter

Well I said I'd try and take some pictures of the parade for the Stanley Cup but since we had a down pour pretty much the full day they had to cancel the parade. From what I understand each player only gets one day with the Cup. It was on display at the local high school but we had know desire to fight the crowds to get to see it. So the only picture I have is one from the local newspaper.
Speaking of rain we ended up getting just over four inches on Friday and Saturday. It was a fairly nice all day/night type so I'm sure it helped. I know we could almost sit on the back patio this morning and watch the grass grow, hence Larry's out mowing since they are calling for rain the next few days,

My brother is having the old barns at the farm painted and resided. Niece Amy took a picture of the painter on the roof. Any one out there need a job, pretty sure they don't have a long waiting list for this type of career.
One special event this week was our Grand-daughter Anissa's 18th birthday. Grandpa and I took her out to lunch along with making a stop to look a car. She starts at the local college this month and she'll need some transportation.

So here is a special Happy Birthday to our girl

Afraid these posts are pretty slim on information. Not much happening except for wedding plans. We've gotten some good use of our new grill except for the days it was rainy. Today since it's a little cool we have a big pot of stew in the slow cooker and it sure smells good.

So guess that's it for this week. Till next ........................

Our town - football in the back yard

Another week and after a few days of cooler weather the heat returned. Right now there are some watches out as some nasty storms work their way across the Lake towards us. I will admit watching these storms heading towards us is a lot easier to handle when I'm sitting in a sticks and bricks than when we are in the trailer. But after high 90's the last few days I'm ready for the cooler temp's on the way.

Today we walked downtown (a whole 4 blocks) to check out the Island Art Fair event. They say it draws about 10,000 people, which I believe. It's always packed. The Grand River separates our town right in half and there's a island on the river. Each year there are several events held on the island and this one is all vendors. But it seems every year it's the same ones, with the same items, with just high prices. Of course when ever there is a major event such as this in our small town (at least 4 during the summer) everyone and their brother has a garage sale. And again, it seems to be the same places with the same junk (opps treasures).

Next Friday there will be another event with a parade. Have I mentioned that it doesn't take much of a reason for this town to throw together a parade. Anyway one of the local's here named Matt Greene will be bringing the Stanley Cup here and of course that's the star of the parade. OK, I'll admit I had to ask Larry a who/what/why/where question on this trophy, but in my defense I DO NOT watch/listen or for that matter care about sports unless my grandson is involved. And than it's more I know when to cheer (when what ever kind of ball he's carrying goes where it's suppose to) and when not (he misses). So I will try to remember to take my camera that day.

Our small grill died on us the other day. We thought about not getting another one until next spring but with the end of the season sales it didn't make sense to wait and pay full price. Besides we use the grill just about every night. So off to our favorite Menards Store (we've started to call this place our cottage) to see what they had and the all important costs. As it turned out they had a nice three burner with a side pot burner and temperature monitor on sale, plus this is also the week that anything you buy you can send in for a 11% discount credit card. With all the savings it didn't cost much more than that little table top one we purchased three years ago. And Larry really likes the way this one grills. He has grilled fish and steak so far and found out how bad that old grill was.

Only have a couple pictures to share with you. Darrius brought over one of his foot balls the other day and while he and grandpa played catch in the back yard Pepper wanted to play too.

This is called keep away

But this one is my favorite

Doesn't that smile just melt your heart.

That's it for this week. Till next time.....................