50th Wedding Anniversary

Pat's cousin, Mary Ellen and her husband, Dale celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary tonight. It was such a nice event.

Pat's parents were dancing up a storm! Dale's band was playing. They played at our wedding, too.

It is always nice to celebrate such a devoted couple's life together.

After School Fun

Last Time!

This is the last time Sheala has a school picture to add to the picture frame! Next year only Robbie! Oh time goes so quickly!

Olympia

We went to Olympia's for dinner. She made yummy pasta with Alfredo sauce and ham. Mixed greens salad and angel food cake with lemon sauce and whipped cream. It was all delicious. Hands down, she is the best cook anywhere.

Pat put together a little roll cart for her Kitchenaid mixer. It just fit in her closet! We painted it to match her kitchen. Attached a tray to the top for the mixer to fit on and coasters to the bottom.

We had a nice evening with Bill and Amy and Olympia. Friends. They make our lives so interesting.

60th Birthday Bash

Most everyone from my high school class turns 60 this year.Tom Price had an idea that we should celebrate. So I asked a few locals over for a planning session. Judy and Don, Cathy and Howard, Mary Beth and John and Pat and I. We had a surprise visitor when my sister-in-law Cindy dropped off tv trays to us. Since my brother was playing euchre I asked her to stay, too.

I don't know why we call it a planning sesssion though. We told Tom we would love to have it at Fandangles' and he comes up with a menu, and a flier, takes the reservations, Steve cooks and we just show up! At least I offered to do the mailing!

It was fun catching up with everyone.We chose Saturday, August 4th. Hope lots can make that date.

Play Time

The ball season has officially started. While practice is going on Javie and Ayva play with Nana. They found Sweet William, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Ayva says the other dog is Ayva, too.

We have blocks to make castles, pirate swords and treasures. We are watching Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Javier just found the Cheez-Its and the chocolate Goldfish.

Then Ayva gets out the Millie and Tillie doll and looks at the sad side and says, "Why is she sad? Didn't she eat her dinna? Did her Mommy yell at her?" Then she turns the doll around to the happy side and says, "Milly is happy, she made her Mommy happy!"

Life is good!

HOSA Gold!

We just picked up Sheala and this is her Gold Medal! Health Occupation Students of America. They are tested in competition. Then they perform. It is all about Robert Rules of Order.

They will be going to Nationals in Florida in June. Great job Health Tech!

Old Mission Peninsula

What a nice day! Old Mission Tavern for lunch. Mmmm. . . The best whitefish ever!

We stopped at Peninsula Cellars and Chateau Grand Traverse. Bought some great wines.

Went to a few estate sales and bought some cute dishes.

Ayva at the Zoo

All Tuckered Out

We have Ayva today. We went to the zoo. She loved the bridges and rock steps in the water. She went on the carousel - just tolerated that. The train - it was okay. But those bridges - she had a blast! We are at the park - Papa and Ayva are sleeping. We'll play when they wake up! And I will post pictures when we get home. This is a good day.

Great Idea for Pie Crusts

I wanted to make a pie crust for the top of my lasagna dish - I was making a chicken pot pie for company. I made a double crust recipe. Put cling wrap on my cookie sheet that doesn't have any sides (or like this picture you can do it on the bottom of a regular cookie sheet). Patted the crust out to the length of the lasagna dish. Then refrigerated it.

When I was ready to use it I rolled it to the width of the lasagna dish. Used flour on top and sprinkled underneath so it wouldn't stick. Then I slid it onto the top of the chicken filling. It was so easy. The crust looked beautiful. I think I will do this for every pie crust - even regular sized pies.

1st Motorcycle Riders Without Helmets

Just about four hours ago, Michigan Gov. Snyder signed to repeal the motorcycle helmet law. We just saw a couple in Mt. Pleasant, weaving in and out of traffic going over the speed limit, with no helmets. Say prayers now.This is so stupid. I will look to see what legislators passed this before voting next time.

Green Beans?

Yup. I had a ton of roasted green beans left over. I cut them up and put them on the pizza. It was so good!

We love the pizza crusts from Roma Bakery in Lansing.

Nice way to spend the afternoon, watching the Tigers while munching on pizza.

Robbie and Papa

Getting ready for softball. Robbie and Papa working on softball throws. A sure sign summer is just around the corner. We had a nice day today with Robbie. He and Papa went for a walk at the tridge. They found a huge snake. Robbie chased it and made it strike at a stick! Glad I was writing in the car! No Hammacher Schlemmer catalog so we went online and looked at one!

Dinner at Jesse and Caroline's

Pinch me! I must be dead! I just had the most delicious dinner ever! I must be in heaven.  Chiles Rellenos, rice, carnitas and gorditas!

And they had the most delicious, buttery, Chardonnay!

What a nice way to end Easter.

Happy Easter

Through the inspiration of Gabriel Dawe the Art and Environment team at SS Peter and Paul Catholic Church of Saginaw, Michigan has created a thread art backdrop for the cross.

It was a great experience. Filled with LOTS OF PRAYERS, wonder, stress, awe, uncertainty, even a Baptism of one of the team falling in the font!

It took so many hours - probably about 70. There were over 800 nails to string three times each. Six boxes of ten spools each of Neon thread - orange, red, magenta, lime green, and yellow green. We purchased enough 3/4 by 1 1/2" wood to make three 12' x 7' frames.

Gabriel Dawe has unbelievable thread art twisting and turning without much structure, ours had to have frames. We knew we could not start and finish this work from 3:00 pm on Good Friday to Saturday evening Easter Vigil. We weren't even sure how to do this. So we built frames, pounded nails, and wove the thread through the nails. The biggest problem we had was the thread seemed to sag a few times after it was done. So we just kept tightening each piece at the nail head. Which caused another problem. The wood bowed. When we finally put it up on Good Friday, it looked bowed. We took them back down and nailed spacers at the top, middle and bottom to attach the three frames together which made them more even all around. Put them back up and then secured them to hooks on the back wall.

We are very pleased that the bowing actually looks as if we intended it to curve slightly around the cross. We added spotlights to the bottom, found a riser to elevate the cross, and then Erica did her magic placing the flowers.

Pat made me promise not to try something this big again. I'm going straight to you know where because I'm already trying to figure out how to have him let me take that promise back! Sometimes, my heart swells when I see something like Gabriel Dawe art. The moment I see it - I know we can use it to create an environment of worship and praise. I never know how we are going to do that - I leave that up to Pat and Bill, and they have always been able to figure it out.

Happy Easter everyone.

Go Kroger!

Kroger has a promotion going right now. Buy gift cards and get 4x gas points. We bought Outback gift cards and we are going back for more! We bought $150 worth of gift cards because we have an upcoming dinner where we have to pay for Jim and Cindy. We take turns taking each other out for birthdays. Pat just saved .60¢ a gallon! YAHOO! I am not sure how long the promotion goes for so I'm going back today. They have everything, Barnes and Noble, I tunes, lots of different kinds.

Holiday Series

I finished the first draft of the last book in the Holiday Series. This was an incredible journey. I asked my sister Jane for some suggestions for the fourth book. She said, Home schooling and zero tolerance! How was I going to do that? Well, I did. Being a new writer, I wondered how I would forget the characters from my first series and focus in on new ones. I found that I didn't have to forget the first ones. Some of them sort of pop up once in awhile in the new series. Seriously, how could you not have Bertie's Bakery: Heaven Sent in any book about Saginaw! And yes, there is a wedding. I just love including a wedding in the books. It gives a joyous reason to gather! Anyway, I'm done with the drafts. I'm still waiting to hear from the publisher on the first book. So continue your prayers.

Too Cool

I was talking on the phone with Pat's sister, Cathy, when I saw two Scarlet Tanagers in the tree across the street. In the past we have only seen them up north by Atlanta. They are such an incredible shade of red. Great way to start a week!