The Brenda Photo Challenge-Emotions

Wow, this was a hard one for me.

I have to go back to a picture I posted a few challenges ago..I believe it was the yellow one! These guys cover a couple of emotions!



Well, this picture is backwards but I think you get the hint that you can get emotional sometimes seeing this flag and all it represents!



Then a memorial to honor our troops past and present




A big thanks to Cindra of Knits & Pics & Favorite Things for hosting this fun photo challenge!

Halloween and Fall Back

Today is Halloween already! Where did this year go?

Here at work we decorate Halloween bags and fill them with candy. Here they are all hanging on the wall waiting to be filled.



Some people are so imaginative with their decorating. This person just used a glove stuffed with kleenex and red and black magic markers. See the one on the right side of the picture...the one with the stickers on it? Yeah, that's mine..real original I know!



Anyway, Happy Halloween to everyone and don't forget this weekend Daylight Savings Time ends!

Halloween House

It's 10:30 I am just chillin' here in my jammies. I can hardly stand these exciting Saturday nights!

Marie and I went to Costo this morning. I needed to buy some candy for my department to sell at work for our holiday charity. Every year we have all kinds of different fundraisers to help the families of some patient's being treated here at the hospital. Each area of the department has their own fund raiser like a bake sale or a jewelry sale. One department even had a yard sale at someones house last weekend! We also can wear jeans for the day if we pay $1 That's a popular one! We are selling candy this year. I was able to get a pack of 30 candy bars for less than $9. Anyway, Last year we made $17,000 and we were able to give 17 families $1,000 each. It's always nice to hear about the different families we help.

We took a short walk tonight and saw this (click to make it bigger):

This house actually looks pretty cool with the huge spider hanging on the front and the gravestones have funny names on them like "Justin Pieces". But that thing hanging in the tree is just creepy! It's a skeleton with a white wig and some kind of shawl on. It's a little breezy tonight so it was turning and swaying and with the way the light is shining on it and...well, like I said...it was creepy!

I didn't take many pictues but there is a couple of houses that have pretty orange and green lights up and cute little ghosts hanging on porches, or those blow-up pumpkin heads or black cats or whatever! Some people sure do like to decorate for halloween!

Beautiful Fall Day

Rich and I went to Island Lake Recreation Area today to take some pictures and to do a little metal detecting.

It was cool but nice to get out in the sunshine and enjoy a beautiful fall day.

Some of the trees are changing or have changed; others are still very green.



We had heard that because of the weird weather we had this summer that a lot of trees will just stay green until the leaves fall off! There is some pretty ones though.



We walked around and stopped by this dam.



Someone wanted to cool their feet while having a picnic or maybe they needed something to sit on while they were fishing!


We had a nice day and our metal detecting take was a whole 11 cents! We did find a bullet in the sand by a volleyball net which was not good considerig the recreation area has a shooting range close by! We could hear the gunshots the whole time we were there!

Coco says Happy Fall!!

The Brenda Photo Challenge-Old

This is a picture of my grandparents on their wedding day. They were married on October 15, 1927. Do those headpieces look like roaring 20's style or what?

And this table was one of their early pieces of furniture!

I don't really know how old this box is. It belonged to my maternal grandmother and I remember seeing it in her house when I was little. It's well-used and I love it!

This pocket watch belonged to Rich's grandfather when he worked on the railroad. The date on the coin says 1883, but I don't know if the watch is that old. It is probably sometime in the early 1920's.

Taking these pictures made me realize how precious these family heirlooms are and I hope that my children will appreciate and cherish them as much as I do.


A big thanks to Donna at Made In Heaven for hosting this fun photo challenge!

I've Been Tagged!

Seems I've been tagged by Donna at Cottage Days and Journeys.


The rules of this tag are to list 5 things about these 5 things. And then “tag” 5 more people.

OK I love doing these things but I have a strange issue with tagging other people. I don;t know, I'm too scared or shy or something! Anyway, here goes:

10 Years Ago:

1. I had just graduated from college.
2. My daughter was still in high school.
3. I was working as a medical transcriptionist.
4. We were starting the process of selling our house
5. I got my very first brand new car!

5 Things on Today’s “To-Do” List:

1. Go buy the wood for the new floor (done)
2. Order the new cabinets (done 2 1/2 hours later!)
3. Go to breakfast with my best friend (done)
4. Clean my poor neglected house (sort of done!)
5. Sleep in!! (didn't happen)

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Popcorn
2. Nuts
3. Ice cream.
4. Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi
5. Potato chips

5 Things I Would Do If I Were Millionaire:

1. Share the wealth with family
2. Travel
3. Not work
4. Give to charities, especially for animals and children.
5. Volunteer.

5 Places I Have Lived:

1. Detroit, Michigan
2. Farmington Hills, Michigan
3. Wixom, Michigan
4. Redford, Michigan
5. Canton, Michigan

5 Jobs That I Have Had (or still have today, in some cases)

1. Theater concession-stand-worker (whatever that is called!)
2. Dental Receptionist
3. Medical Transcriptionist
4. Church Secretary
5. Administrative Assistant

OK Since I am so shy when it comes to tagging people, if you are reading this consider yourself tagged!!

Thanks again, Donna!

Sleeping In Is For Sissies!

Damn! I can NEVER sleep in on a Saturday! It is now 6:15 a.m. and I have been awake since 5:00! Actually, I like being awake early. I like the quiet and the beginning of the day, but the problem is tonight at 9:00 I will be totally ready to crash! Nothing makes you feel older than going to bed at 10:00 on a Saturday night!

It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend. I am going to try and get some pictures of the leaves changing. They are not at their peak yet but it is starting to look pretty. Next week I have to remember to bring my camera to work with me because I drive along some pretty roads and there should be some good picture-taking opportunities.

Last night we went to dinner and Rich ordered salmon. I have to make note of this because he is the original meat and potatoes man! There was a time when he would only order a hamburger, even if we were in a Chinese restaurant! He's come a long way as far as eating new foods, but the salmon last night was a shock. We all looked at him like HUH? And then when the server left I said, "Who are you and what did you do with my husband?" At least he's trying to eat healthy and that's a good thing!

Today I am going to order the cabinets and the floor for the kitchen. I really would like it to be done in time for Christmas so I can have everyone over! According to the contractor, it will be the 2ND week in December! Yikes! It is going to be a busy next few months!

That's all I got for now. Here's a picture of Zoe I've titled "Suspicious"!

Monday, again?

Boy, these Monday's sure do get here quick anymore!

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Marie and I did not walk this Saturday. Rich and I went to Lumber Liquidators and then to breakfast. We need to pick out a floor for the kitchen. There was several choices and in the end we decided that I need to pry off a piece of the molding and take it with me to compare. If the molding is red-tinted oak then the floor needs to be red-tinted too! Know what I mean? Anyway, some time this week I will go back there and buy the floor.

We moved the guest bed from the basement to a upstairs bedroom. I wanted to put my treadmill back in the basement room because winter is coming and it will soon be too cold to walk outside. We have a lot of junk to get rid of downstairs. I need to get it together and donate it before the end of the year for the tax deduction. It can be pretty overwhelming of a project at first but you just take one piece of junk at a time!! When we had the wallpaper removed from the living room I took all of the pictures off the walls, and probably 10% of them are going back up. The rest of them I will donate! Plus wooden shelves and a lot of country-looking stuff!

I have not felt good all weekend. I don't think it's a cold, more like sinus stuff! I woke up this morning with a sore throat and I still feel like crap today.

This weekend, Rich and I watched a documentary called Grey Gardens It's about these two women, a mother and daughter, who lived in East Hampton in the 70's. The mother, Big Edie was the aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Grey Gardens is the name of the dilapidated mansion that they lived in with a bunch of cats and a couple of raccoons. It was pretty good and I felt kind of bad for the daughter. You could tell she had been and still was a beautiful woman. Her and her mother were both a little crazy.

OK that's it for now. Got to get back to work!

Brenda Photo Challenge: Yellow

One of the cup and saucer sets that were my grandmothers.

This little bird sings every time you turn the light on or off!

This is my infamous parking permit!

Just some goofy magnets on my downstairs refrigerator.

A big thanks to Tabitha at Twinkle Twinkle for hosting this bright photo challenge!

Good Food, Good Fun and The Kitchen

Last Saturday Marie and I went to breakfast and then shopping, which is our favorite thing to do! We went to Home Depot so I could look for cabinets and stuff for my kitchen redo. I decided to go with white cabinets, wood floor and a dark counter top. It's a big project and the house is going to be in disarray for a month or more, but it will be worth it in the end and I am getting excited.

On Sunday Shauna came over to do laundry. Actually, she was playing with the Wii so I did some of her laundry for her! I'm a good mom! Also, she started a blog of her own called Sassy Sharing . She's having a lot of fun with it. Go say hi!

Sunday night Rich and I went to a dinner given by the head administrators of the department that I work for. It was at a fine dining establishment in a little town called Dexter about 30 minutes from where we live. Here's the menu!



The food was really good. There was a different wine with every course. The atmosphere was wonderful. The service was excellent and the whole thing was free, including the drinks, complements of the administrators. It was awesome and it was so nice to socialize with the people I work with. Even Rich had a great time even though he was with a bunch of people he didn't know!

Although I love my comfort food, I could get used to eating like that. Fine dining is all about blending flavors, and although the portions are very small, after 5 courses and the best. dessert. ever., I was pretty full! I took a ton of pictures of all the people I work with.

The contractor that is going to redo our kitchen was over with his plans on Tuesday night. Now I am getting excited. My kitchen is a U shape and he is going to open it up about 6 inches, which doesn't sound like much but should make a big difference. I chose white cabinets and I plan on having a dark counter top to go with my black appliances. We also decided on a wood floor, which will go in the kitchen, dining area, front foyer and 1/2 bath because it's all one area and right now it's all the same linoleum floor.

Last night Tom and Judy were here and we went out to dinner.

Today is Friday!. Woo hoo!!