Fun Day at School Section Lake

We had such a good time at School Section Lake on Saturday that I decided to load some pictures onto the blog.

Sweetest Story Ever

We went to a graduation party on the Shea side. We were at Patty and John's house. I heard the sweetest story ever.

Uncle John was so happy that their nieces were coming to visit from Florida. The last time they visited they picked tomatoes. The girls couldn't wait to pick Uncle John and Aunt Patty's tomatoes. Well, with the dry spell we've had - no tomatoes!

Uncle John went to Hemmeter's and bought several Tomato plants, all bearing fruit! The girls picked the tomatoes and took them in to Aunt Patty. They were so excited because there were so many tomatoes!

Nothing better than a loving aunt and uncle!

And Grandma Shea Enters the Van!

Driving down I75 and Caroline asks us to close the windows a bit. We did. Then I laughingly told Pat, "There was a time we would have told her to cover her head with a blanket." (Just so you know I am laughing typing this, too!)

Caroline says when she was walking the path at School Section Lake she had a flashback of whining to her dad about not wanting to walk anymore. He always told her to "Suck it up."

We laughed and told her it made her a strong woman. Then her dad said, "You can thank me later!"

An automatic response was a kick in the elbow from the back seat. Caroline said, "Grandma made me do it!"

Probably true.

Yes oh yes, we'll try our best!

Sheala was quoting one of her favorite books I used to read over and over and over. The dog caught the rabbits and wanted to make rabbit stew. He would leave them alone, but before leaving would tell them to stay in the pot. Every time they said the same thing, "Yes oh yes, we'll try our best!" Then they would escape!

Sheala Blue Tongue Revisited

We were at School Section when I took a picture of Sheala and Robbie with blue tongues. It was probably about 11 years ago.

When I get home I will find that one and post it with this one.

What fun. Playing in the water. Ice cream from the stone house, playing on the playground. I love Michigan!

Yahoo

Just returned home from Dr. Richardson's office.  All labs are improved! Lost 8 pounds! It looks like things are going well. The exercising and staying home to eat is working.

The books are completed. Just waiting on the covers to be done. I am so anxious about getting this first series online.  Say some prayers that Dan is inspired to finish the covers.

Oh Goodness! Puke City!

I'm not sure how well you will be able to see these pictures. But we are at Bud Lake and there is a speedboat pulling something like a hampster ball. It spins all around. The person in there has to be dizzy!

Back in the car. I found it on the Internet. I was right. It is called O'Brien's Barf Ball!!!

Pat and I were just laughing saying how Janet would have loved being in the speedboat driving like a bat out of hell. She would have had that quirky devilish grin, too. Goodness, I miss her!

Are you a man or are you a wus?

Robbie was about 2 and a half. We were camping at Bud Lake in Harrison. It is quite a walk from the end of the campground to the public beach.

All the way over I asked Robbie if he was going to go swimming. I said, "Are you a man or are you a wus?"

He answered proudly every time, "I am a man, Nana!"

We got to the water, he stuck his little toe in and said, "I'm a wus!"

Eventually he did go in the water. But that walk is one of my favorite memories of Robbie.

Such a Great Article

5 tips for creating civil discourse in an era of polarization | Opinion | The Seattle Times

My niece, Theresa posted this on Facebook. It is such a good, short and to the point article.

Church sign

We're not Dairy Queen,
But we have great Sundays!

Some things never change

Sitting here watching Robin relentlessly bothering Robbie. I was watching Robbie get a grin on his face each time before turning around and threatening his father.

Then Robin started really bothering Robbie until provoking him to attack. Within seconds they were wrestling on the floor.

Robbie is literally twice the size he was when they last wrestled in this duplex living room!

Another Generation

Ayva and Javi are having fun in the tub. I wonder if Sheala and Robbie will be a little sad they are all grown up.

And Elise Shows Up!

Last night fireflies were all over the backyard. The first time I ever saw a firefly I was in Owosso.

Elise has been on my mind all day. Miss you sweet cousin.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I found a great blog, Michelle is the Brown Eyed Baker. She had a great idea for making the top of the cookies look great. There is a good explanation on another recipe on her blog - just follow the link from the oatmeal cookie recipe.

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/02/24/peanut-butter-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies

I was looking for an oatmeal cookie recipe that would be less sweet than I have made before. I used the handy recipe blog search (look on the right hand side of this blog.)

I decided not to add chocolate chips. I also was out of brown sugar so I put a few squirts of maple syrup instead, added more oats to compensate for the liquid and I cut down the white sugar a bit.

The result was a thick, chewy, not too sweet cookie that really may be the best cookies I ever made.

Yum!

This is so cool

I want to go to Kansas City, MO just to see this library! Don't you just love it when someone thinks outside of the box?

This is from their website:

Community Bookshelf

Central Library parking garage

The Community Bookshelf is a striking feature of Kansas City's downtown. It runs along the south wall of the Central Library's parking garage on 10th Street between Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue. The book spines, which measure approximately 25 feet by 9 feet, are made of signboard mylar. The shelf showcases 22 titles reflecting a wide variety of reading interests as suggested by Kansas City readers and then selected by The Kansas City Public Library Board of Trustees.


The 22 "Community Bookshelf" book titles (in order from West to East on 10th street):[1]
Kansas City Stories, Volume I Kansas City, Missouri; Its History and Its People 1808-1908 (Carrie Westlake Whitney) 1908
Tom’s Town, Kansas City and the Pendergast Legend (William M. Reddig) 1986
Goin’ to Kansas City (Nathan W. Pearson, Jr.) 1987
Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer (Rhodes) 1989
Mr. Anonymous, the Story of William Volker (Herbert C. Cornuelle) 1951
Kansas City, Missouri: An Architectural History, 1826 - 1990 (George Ehrlich) 1992
Journeys Through Time: A Young Traveler’s Guide to Kansas City’s History (Monroe Dodd, Daniel Serda) 2000

Kansas City Stories, Volume II Virgil Thomson, a Reader: Selected Writings 1924-1984 (Thomson) 2002
Mrs. Bridge (Connell) 1959
I Was Right on Time (O'Neil) 1996
The O’Donnells (Peggy Sullivan) 1956
Independence Avenue (Eileen Sherman) 1990
Stella Louella’s Runaway Book (Lisa Campbell Ernst) 1998
PrairyErth: (A Deep Map) (Least Heat-Moon) 1991
Messages from my Father (Calvin Trillin) 1996

Catch 22 (Heller)

Children's Stories Goodnight Moon (Brown, pictures by Hurd)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (Johnson)
Winnie the Pooh (Milne)
Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss)
What a Wonderful World (Weiss, Thiele, pictures by Bryan) 1995
Little House on the Prairie (Wilder)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum)
M. C. Higgins, the Great (Hamilton)

Silent Spring (Carson)
O Pioneers! (Cather)
Cien Años de Soledad (Marquez)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston)
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
The Republic (Plato)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

(Building Entrance)
Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu)
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Hughes)
Black Elk Speaks (Neihardt)
Invisible Man (Ellison)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
Journals of the Expedition (Lewis, Clark) + Undaunted Courage (Ambrose)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
Charlotte's Web (White)
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Truman (McCullough)

Amazing, Spectacular, Fabulous

Bay City's 50th Anniversary of the Fireworks was so much fun! 50 minutes of 50,000 fireworks. We kept thinking it was the finale all the way through! We were several blocks away in a parking lot but it was beautiful.

Heaven and Hell in One Afternoon

Carolina Moon, who says she is my favorite daughter, is giving me a pedi! My feet feel so good!

The heaven part is the massage. The hell part is putting those toe thingies between my ticklish toes! You can tell she was enjoying my discomfort - look at that smile.

I just asked her to do my fingernails, too.

Thank you so much sweetie pie!

A Day at Sand Lake

Fran is in Sand Lake this week so we went to her party this afternoon. I can't tell you the memories that I was filled with.

Sissy, Daphne and Mary Ann were talking together. When I was little, so many times I would run over to Fran's house knowing I would have a baby or two to hold! One of the sisters-in-law always had a baby or was pregnant!

I remember going to Mary Ann and Patrick's wedding. She was so beautiful. I danced with my Dad at that wedding. I would have never danced with him if we weren't invited to their wedding.

Mary Ann brought a box of old pictures to the party. It was fun watching them go through the box. I'll have to remember to tell John the cousins looked at his Uncle Tom's wedding picture and wanted to know who the George Clooney guy was. It was John's Dad!

It was a fun day. Thanks for the invite Fran.

Church Sign

This church is prayer conditioned

I know, I've Posted B4

Pat and I went to the Saginaw Historical Museum to try to get some facts about Andersen Pool. (I didn't get what I needed even though they were very helpful.)

While there I asked if I could go inside the exhibit and take pictures of Grandpa's harp. Grandma's quikt wasn't there. They said it was too fragile to have it out all the time.

The detail on the harp is amazing. All I have to say is it looks a lot heavier than I thought it would be. Knowing he carried it on his back to the Lumber camps.

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Go into Sarah Beara's Bakery Story and go to my bakery.

SURPRISE

We are having a surprise birthday party for you! I bet you didn't have a clue.

Grab a piece of watermelon cake.  Head on over to the ice cream shop to get a scoop of ice cream then go sit in the birthday room!

It took several days of planning. I had to get to level 55 in order to bake a watermelon cake. I was only at level 51 when I thought of it. It took days of baking other things to level up. Since the cakes took 12 hours to bake I just finished this morning! Perfect timing!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday. Love you.