Thursday, September 30, 2010

Beautiful!

 The other night we had the most fantastic rainbow in Michigan.  It was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen.  The colors were so deep and dark and clear.  And, you could see it from one side to the next.  And then it became a double rainbow!  My daughter and I were "chasing" it around town.  I just happened to have my camera in the car and got some pictures out my window.  These are nothing compared to what we saw with our own eyes.  There were people stopping on the side of the road taking pictures of it.  I have never seen that before.  Wonder if they were remembering God promise with the rainbow just like my daughter and I were......


 



Genesis 9: 8-17  Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:  "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.  I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."      And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,  I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
     So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

Monday, September 27, 2010

Tired

After a weekend home for my sweet grandmas funeral, I feel like this.  Tired.  We had such a nice time visiting with family and friends at the funeral.  Why is it that it takes something like a death, to bring people together?  It is a shame that we are all so busy that we can not get together more often.  

My daughters and I drove into our driveway this evening to find our yard freshly mowed.  We knew right away who had done it.  Our sweet neighbors next door had mowed our yard while we were gone!  Isn't that such a nice thing?  Tears came to my eyes right away.  Kindness at its finest.  :)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Grandma Ginny

My sweet precious beautiful 98 year old Grandma went home to be with the Lord today.  Oh my how my heart misses her already.!! I know that is the selfish part of me talking.  I want her to still be in her little blue chair in the nursing home back in Illinois so when I go home, I can see her.  But, on the other hand, she has been wanting to go "home" for several years now.  She and I would have talks where she would ask me why the Lord was keeping her here.  She wanted to go to heaven and be with my grandpa again.  She was tired.  I did not have a good answer for her except that The Lord was not finished with her here on earth yet.  She did bring a lot of joy to a lot of people.  Today The Lord was ready for her.  :)

I took this picture of her last summer.  I have so many memories of this special lady snapping green beans from the garden.  She taught me how to do it!  On this particular day, I came carting into the nursing home a BIG bowl of beans.  She took them from my hands as soon as she saw them and began to snap away.  She was so excited.  This is the way I want to remember my precious precious grandma.  I am jealous of her that all the questions she had here on earth are now probably answered for her.  I am jealous of her because she has seen Jesus and is probably sitting at His feet right now.  I am jealous of her because she is worshiping The Lord for eternity in a place so beautiful I can not even imagine.  Oh....I love her so......and I miss her.  But, I have Hope that we will see each other again someday.

Monday, September 20, 2010

My Sweet Gal is 15!


My oldest daughter turned 15 on the day our company arrived.  My sister informed me that I did not put any pictures of the big day on here yet.  Whoops!!  She wanted to open her gifts early before school.  You can see the clock.  6:43 a.m. and she was ripping them open!  :)


Cute new shoes for school....


The birthday person gets to choose whatever they would like to eat for their birthday supper.  She chose the same thing she did last year....fired chicken (she likes legs), mashed potatoes and white gravy and corn.  She also requested an ice cream cake for her treat.   Here the food is all laid out to be devoured.



Our friends bought her this to cute hat!  Doesn't she look darling in it?  I have bad hair.  Mine would never ever look that cute in it.



I have seen these little cake banners on other ladies blogs.  I did not have the smaller wooden sticks like they did, so I just used pop sickle sticks for hers.  It worked just fine.  And, she was happy with the Oreo Cookie Concrete Cake from Culver's.  It was really good. 



She and our little house guest getting sung to and getting ready to blow out the candles.  I don't think he knew what to expect with the singing and fire on the cake.  She blew out every candle.  I hope her wishes come true this year.  I love you sweet girl!!  Mama

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Girage Sale


Our subdivision had a fall garage sale this Saturday.  We decided we would participate in it since we had things from our move in the basement that have not seen the light of day in the nine months that we have lived here.  My hubby asked youngest daughter if she would make the sign for the yard.  She loves making crafts and is very artistic.  This is what she came up with.  Little girls with bows in their hair, very colorful design, very cute design.  She did a great job!  I did not get to proof read the sign before it got placed in the yard.  That is why we had ourselves a Girage Sale!  :)

Dear Friends

Our dear friends from Ohio came last weekend for their first visit to Michigan.  We were so looking forward to spending time with them again.  Our weekend was full of food, laughing, catching up, food, bubble blowing, church, food and smiles.  Did you catch the food theme?  :)  Here they are frying pickles for our rib dinner.

Liz got the recipe off of the Food Network website.  We dipped them in ranch dressing.  Oh my were they tasty.




Shelby and Elijah blowing bubbles.  We did this a lot with him.  He love them!  He would laugh and say "Oh big!" when we would blow them for him.  Goodness, do I love this little fellow.




The men were taking care of the ribs on the grill.  Can you smell them?  :)



More cuteness from our little visitor.


He and I would spend time on the computer looking at You Tube clips of Playhouse Disney and Sesame Street (my favorite.)


 

I was introduced to this show.  Handy Mandy.  It was very cute.  And, I got a little lesson speaking Spanish as well. 


The guys like the show Diners Drive Ins and Dives.  My hubby thought he would do some research for their trip up to see us and see if there was a place Guy had visited close to us.  It was a very rainy cold day...but we set out to find....


this place.  Joe's Gizzard City.  Yes, their speciality was gizzards.  Um...yuckie!  I did not have any.


  


 
 

The men had the "triple D" burger.  Can you see that this thing was deep fried...bun and all?????  I told them their arteries were screaming out for help after eating this thing! 



Can you tell what this is?  It is a deep fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  Sounds gross, but golly was it yummy.  One was enough for me.  I think this place was know for it's batter.  :)



We went bowling while they were here and had a lot of fun.  Laughed and laughed with each other.



Spent more time looking at this little cutie patootie......


And playing peek a boo in the car on the way to church.  Fun fun times with dear people.  



Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hello High School and 7th Grade!

Off they went today.  Butterflies were still there.  Smores last night did not do the trick.  Trying to tell your kids they are going to be fine and them believing you is hard.  I tried to tell them that no one has ever died on their first day of school.  I believe they both thought they were going to be the first victims.  :)

Monday, September 6, 2010

So Long Summer

Well, it is officially over for me.  Summer 2010.  My first official Summer living in Michigan.  It was a lovely summer with the weather.  Not very many 90 degree days like I am used to in my old place.  Also, not many 100% heat index days like my old place.  Can't say I missed that stuff!  

My sister and nephew and big lovable doggie came up for the weekend to bid summer good-bye with us.  Want to see some of the fun we had?  OK, I'll show you.  :)

We started off with Oatmeal Bake for breakfast with some of our lovely Michigan blueberries that are in my freezer all ready to be eaten this winter.  I hope I have enough to last until next summer when we can pick them all over again.


We went to the downtown farmers market to show my sissy all the wonderful foods they have there.  We got some tomatoes for roasting.  I thought these little yellow pear shaped ones were fun.  And, they were very sweet!  Yum!





Oh dear was this bread good.  Cheese herb bread with onion, tomato and pepper.  The smell was divine!


Fresh sweet peaches.

A sweet tiny set of glass vases that were attached together with wire.  Very cute.  Can you see the daisy I put in there?  After all...daisies are my most favorite flower.  :)



Whoopie pies.  Um...these did not stay around long.




The tomatoes all ready to be roasted.  They are all decked out with olive oil and fresh cracked pepper and Kosher salt.  Oh yum.

Our kiddos on the sand dunes in Saugatuck Michigan.  Our first time there.  It was so nice and the shops were wonderful.  Next time we will go with no kids.  They just don't appreciate shopping when they know there is sand to be buried in!  :)



My sissy and I on the beach. 



Two little clams playing in the sand.


I have no idea how this girl of mine could stand to put her feet in that water.  It was so cold when I tried it.  And, there were people actually swimming in it!  Makes me shiver just sitting here! 



It was a very windy day and there were plenty of kites flying on the beach.


Crashing waves.  Oh the sound....it was lovely.  Wish I could of taken a nap laying in the warm sand.  How wonderful would that of been???  :)


Good bye sand.  I enjoyed my time with you this summer.  Although, it is never enough.  I will look forward to your soft warm self next year.  Thanks for making my feet so smooth this year.  :)





I must let you hear the sounds I did this weekend.  Maybe we could just put this on replay and take ourselves a little nap while listening to it.  Just a thought.  :)


Tonight we fired up the grill to have ourselves a little smore before school starts tomorrow.  I was hoping that it would take care of some of the butterflies that are in the kids tummies.  I think it may of worked for a little while.  I have one going to high school tomorrow for the first time.  She is scared to say the least.  I know she will be just fine.  Younger daughter will be in 7th grade.  She is a bit worried as well.  There are new clothes laid out on their floors all ready for the first day.  School supplies ready.  We are set.  Here we come Fall.  Thanks again Summer for being so wonderful to us.  Love, Us  XOXOXO