It's Been Too Long

Well, someone (Mz. Sally) pointed out to me that it's been almost 2 months since I last posted so I figured I would catch you all up on what's going on in my life!

In a nutshell, not much!! Working and spending as much time as I can with my grandsons! 

Maxwell is talking up a storm and it's such a pleasure to listen to him tell his little 3-4 word sentences: for example pointing to his dads guitar "Daddy sit down and go briinnng , brinnng, brininng"! I love it!

We got him a water table for his birthday in January and finally got to break it out over Memorial Day weekend! He loves it and plays with it every chance he gets!

We all went to the zoo over that weekend, too. Shauna, Brad, the boys, me, Rich and Brad's mom Sandy. Maxwell wasn't too interested in the animals, though. What he did like was walking through the puddles and pushing the button on the water misting machines they had all over! Oh well, he's 2! Maybe next year!

Levi is almost 9 months old already! He's about thisfar from crawling and will scoot and roll all over the place. Last week he just started sitting himself up from laying down and babbles and babbles all the time! And laughs at the slightest thing. And he LOVES his big brother. His little eyes light up whenever  he looks at him!

Anyway, I'll stop babbling myself and just get to the pictures!

Time to start using the potty!

Hanging out at Nonnie and Bonk's!

The very popular water table

Be still my heart!

I'm on vacation next week.  We are not going anywhere this time but I do have a couple day trips planned, Frankenmuth and stopping at Bronner's Christmas Store to get the ornaments for the kid's without most of the population of Michigan being there at the same time! 

Greenfield Village because we haven't been there for about 15 years!

And hopefully a Detroit River Boat Tour, which I've heard is really nice.

I'll try to have lots of pictures to share!

Until then...….

This 'n' That

It's beginning to look a lot like Spring around these parts! The sun is warm and the temps are warming up daily! It's nice to open the windows once in a while now!

About a month ago we traded in my 2008 Dodge Avenger for a new Chevy Equinox. I felt a little verklempt when we walked away from it because in all my driving life, that had to have been my all time favorite car! It was peppy, loaded with all the extras and to me represented a better, more lucrative time in our lives. I loved it and drove it for 6 years until I got a new car. Then Rich drove it for a few more years but it was definitely showing it's age. 

The passenger side window would't go up anymore and Rich duck taped it shut!

It got into a fight with a gate at Rich's work one day and lost! Seeing as it was paid for we didn't have good insurance on it so it never got fixed!

The leather seats were cracked and falling apart and the motor was showing signs of needing some work.

So we said goodbye and got this instead.

It's nice but it's no Avenger! 

A few weeks ago we drover to Tawas and spent the day with my brother Tom and SIL Debbie at their trailer. We walked a lot, ate a couple good meals and then headed home after dinner. 

Other than that we've haven't done much. We did take a short anniversary trip in March which I'll tell you about in a later post. 

Rich started driving for Uber Eats a few weeks ago to get out of the house and make a little bit of money. So far he likes it! He even got a little thank you package from one of the McDonalds he delivers for!

And no post is compete without these guys!

Levi is 7 mos old already and Maxwell is talking up a storm! He calls me "Nonnia" and Rich "Bonk" for whatever reason! It's completely adorable!

Until the next time!

Getting Through

It's been almost 2 months since I last posted! So much for trying to post more. You would think with the weather being so crappy I would have more time to post, but the crappy weather has also sucked out all of my ambition and it's everything I can do just to get the day to day done!

Anyway, we are finally into March and looking forward to this winter being over! It's going to be in the 40's later this week every day so that's a start!

So enough about the weather.

My car blew a rear main seal in the engine and was at the dealers for a week getting fixed! Luckily it's still covered by the 5 year/100,000 mile  warranty so it didn't cost anything! It did however, blow engine oil all over our driveway! Nice mess for Rich to clean up!

While we had the rental car we decided to take a short road trip to Port Huron, about a hour and 40 minutes from our house.   We went to Lakeport State Park first but it was closed so we ended up at a community park with lake access. We wanted to see Lake Huron in all its frozen splendor!

 It was frozen indeed and ice was piled up along the shore.

See how thick it is?

The ice pushed the sand up forming little frozen caves. They were all over!

We hung out for a while but it was pretty cold! Then we had lunch and drove home!

Work is work and I am living for November when I can finally retire from there!

Don't know what I'll do yet, though. Probably get another job if I can. Not sure I'll collect SS and supplement it with  a part time job or just work full time somewhere else and put off collecting SS for a few more years. I just know I will be leaving U of M regardless!

My babies are getting so big!

Maxwell is 2 and well....he's a 2 year old! He hasn't played in the snow yet because he absolutely refuses to put boots on! But he is such a good boy and such a joy!

Levi is 5 months old already! He's rolling over from his tummy to his back and smiles and laughs all the time!

He loves his brother, too! His little face lights up any time he looks at Maxwell!

That's all the news for now.

Until the next time!

Dog Days of Winter

We are thick into the worst two months of the year, January and February. We got our first significant amount of snow, about 5 inches and it's been very cold the last few days! Come on Spring!

One good thing was Maxwell turned 2 on January 8th. Shauna and Brad had about 25 people over for a party. He's kind of shy and not used to a lot of people being around but he did ok though and warmed up after a while. He spent a lot of time watching all the other little kids there play with his toys!

Between Christmas and his birthday this guy has lots of toys!

Levi just laid around being his cute self and hanging with his brother!

He's almost 4 months old and has two little teeth in the front

In sad news, we had out beautiful cat Zoe put to sleep on January 2nd.

She was our loner cat.  She didn't care too much for the other cats and spent most of her time in our bedroom. She would rarely come to us for affection, but if you went to her and gave her love, she was very sweet and affectionate, and she had a very loud purr!

She also had the most gorgeous, sea-green eyes! I miss her a lot!

Until the next time.....

Christmas 2018

Christmas of 2017 I started a tradition of getting personalized ornaments for Maxwell and Levi. We just had Maxwell last year and went to Bronner's Christmas Store in Frankenmuth sometime over the summer to get his. It's huge store with thousands of ornaments and other Christmas decorations.  There was hardly anyone there and it was easy to find a cute one and have it personalized with Maxwell's name and the year. We even walked around and looked at all of the other stuff they have there.

This year between selling our house, buying another and moving we didn't get a chance to go until a week after Thanksgiving. Big difference! We got there about a hour after they opened on a Sunday and ended up having to park at the very far end of the parking lot. Then it was wall to wall people and you could hardly move. I was able to find the identical ornament I purchased for Maxwell to have personalized for Levi and a cute one for Maxwell's 2nd Christmas. Then it was a hour wait to have them personalized! Anyway, here they are:

I don't know why this is sideways!

And here is Maxwell and Levi's First Christmas ornaments hanging together!

This year we are going again in August! If we don't get a chance to I will order them online!

Christmas was nice. I didn't take a lot of pictures. We spent Christmas Eve at my oldest brother Jim's house and Christmas Day we went to Shauna's because they were hosting Brad's family.

That's about it so far. Tomorrow is New Years Eve. We are going to dinner and them maybe the casino and will probably be home by midnight! I'll leave you with some random pictures!

We got Maxwell this teepee and a rocking horse for Christmas. He was not impressed with either one! 

This is my favorite picture of Levi! All ready to go look at Christmas lights with his mom, dad and brother!

Maxwell playing with one of his many, many toys he got!

This little cutie is 3 months old already!

I can hardly believe Maxwell is going to be 2 in a few weeks! Time sure flys!

Until the next time......

Settled and Decorating for Christmas

We are pretty much settled in our new home now. I love that everything is on one level, especially the washer and dryer. No more trudging up and down stairs with laundry!

I do wish this little house of ours was on a piece of land we owned instead of in a manufactured home community but for now, there is nothing to do about that. We'll see how things are in 5 years when our lot lease is up.

The weekend  after Thanksgiving I pulled out all of our Christmas decorations.  I had six totes worth and after I put out everything I wanted to keep the rest of it went  to Shauna and a couple things to my DIL Marissa. I got rid of half of my decorations!

Last year after Christmas I threw away our 7 foot Christmas tree that we would put up in the family room, so all we have now is the small 5 foot tree I used to put in the front window of the Canton house.  I had more ornaments that I could put on both trees so I put all of my favorites on the smaller tree and gave the rest to Shauna!

I never realized how freeing getting rid of stuff can be!

Anyway here are some pictures of the decorating I've done.

This wreath made of bells has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I hung it on the pantry door.

Ceramic Christmas tree that my mom made along with some of the kids santa pictures.

My 5 foot tree that is being held together by the lights strung on it. It will be going in the garbage after this year!

So nice to have this built in. We strung lights and garland above...

And put my snowmen collection on it. 

We put these shelves up to hold pictures but for now they hold my Christmas Tree collection. 

We even decorated our little porch, which we plan on replacing with a deck in the Spring.

We watched Maxwell and Levi on Saturday night so Shauna and Brad could go out. I had to sneak this picture of Maxwell because if he sees my phone he wants to play with it! He was having chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner, and keeping a couple flashlights close by!

Levi is getting cuter and more alert every day! Such a smiling little guy, too! 

Those too boys have me totally wrapped around their little fingers!

Until the next time.....