6 weeks?

Just popping in to say hi and in case you are not friends with me on Facebook, I am still around..

Just busier than I ever want to be!

To catch you up:

Shauna and Brad moved into their new house last week. We worked from 7:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m. There is new meaning to the work exhausted but it looks nice and they are over the moon happy! More details later!

Work has been crazy busy but I also am taking my share of time off. I have to work through Christmas but I have New Years Eve off and don't go back to work until the following Monday.

I had 27 people at my house for Thanksgiving and trying to get a house with 5 cats ready for company is always monumental...but I loved it and we had a blast. It was so nice to see my four little great nephews runnning around!

I have the day off again tomorrow to go with my Dad to the VA hospital. I want to meet his new doctor and make sure they are taking good care of him!

I'll be back before too long with a proper post!

Until then...

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Random Stuff From Here and There

Bye bye summer...it's been a blast!

The weather is definitely fall-like now and some areas north of us have even had some snow, although we haven't seen any here yet. I'm totally not ready and praying that we don't have a repeat of last winter!

The cats can always find creative ways to stay warm though!

I saw this house on one of my walking routes. Apparently they can't bear to cut any flowers! Even if they do grow in the middle of the driveway!

And I saw this guy one time!

That was a nice surprise! This was literally a quarter mile from our house, in a small patch of woods that runs along a creek. In all my years of walking around here this was the first time I ever saw a deer! We both had a staring contest as I crept slowly closer. This was as close as I could get before she dashed into the woods!

This was a not so pleasant surprise I had recently! I hears a noise coming from the front of my car on my way home work one night and pulled into a parking lot to see what was going on..and this is what I saw! So I called Rich to be sure it was OK to drive it home like that. He said it was but to keep an eye on the tire pressure. Well, the bolt fell out while I was driving and I watched the pressure go down..down..down, so I pulled into another parking lot and ended up with this!

So I waited for Rich to come and change the tire for me! And by the time he got there it was pouring rain! He's my hero! LOL! I have no doubt I could probably change a tire myself and I do know how, but I don't know if I have the physical strength to get the spare on tight enough to drive on safely.

 We can't have tires flying off while we drive now, can we?

Finally, we booked a venue for the shower! It's is in a wonderful Italian restaurant called Antonio's Cucina Italiana! I've been to a shower there before and the food is really good and it's reasonably priced! We're excited! Less than 7 months to go before the wedding!

Until the next time!

 

Good Hart

We took a drive along the Tunnel of Trees, which is a pretty,  windy drive along the lake and it's literally a tunnel of trees. It was a nice drive but the colors aren't peaked so it was nothing special.

Anyway, along the tunnel of trees is a very small town called Good Hart. When I say small I mean the downtown consists of  a few small stores and an outhouse!

The post office is part of the general store.

This little cabin store is so cute but everything inside was ridiculously expensive. I saw a Petoskey stone Michigan shaped charm I wanted to get but at about $25 for a 1/2 inch charm I decided to pass!

In this store we met this little guy.

His name is Rocky and he belongs to the owner. He waits at the door and greets everyone who comes in, escorts them around a little bit and then goes back to wait at the door again! So cute!

Everyone was worried he was trying to get out, but the owner says he never goes out, just stands at the door!

All in all it was a nice trip and it was great to spend quality time with my oldest friend!

Currently I am waiting to meet Shauna and her future mother-in-law so we can check out a venue for the bridal shower in April! 

Until the next time....

Petoskey and Me

On Tuesday we spent some time in Petoskey, which is a small town close to where we were and right on Lake Michigan.

 

I didn't take any pictures of that actual town so I took this one off the website. 

We wandered around the various shops looking at the quirky things they sell. 

Like these cool Michigan oven mitts that had the LP on one side and the UP on the other. I should have bought one but I was being cheap and did not want to spend $12 for one! I wish I would have, though!

One store had an olive bar which I definitely took advantage of. I love me some olives!

We had lunch at a cute little sandwich shop called the Roast & Toast. I love how they had cups and plates embedded in the walls. 

They were on the inside, too! All around the menu. 

After lunch we decided to take a stroll down to the water. 

We thought it would be fun to take pictures of each other standing by those rocks. So I walked over to them, intending to climb up and sit on top, lost my footing and fell right on the rocks, right on my face! I have a small scrape over my left eye, scrapes on both of my hands and a large scrape on my right shin. Plus I hurt my right hand from the impact! It's still pretty sore. I'm just glad I didn't break my wrist or my glasses! I scared the daylights out of poor Karen! After she was sure I was OK she sat down next to me on the ground and we had a good laugh! 

Then we took the pictures! 

Here's Karen (it was sort of cold and very windy by the lake)

And me, smiling through the pain!!

Next time the really tiny town of Good Hart!

Until then.....

Week Off

I have had the past week off of work so of course, the week went by fast! At least it's Friday now and I am happy for everyone who had to work this week!

I spent a few days in Harbor Springs MI with my friend Karen but before I get into that the big news is that Shauna and Brad bought a house! The better news is that it's in Canton, only about 4 miles from us!

 

Its a quad-level.

With an awesome kitchen! Shauna and Brad are over the moon excited!!! They should be moved in and settled before the holidays hit!

Anyway, last Monday I went up north with my friend to celebrate our 50 years of friendship.  Her and her husband own a condo in a resort called Bay Harbor right on Lake Michigan.

This is the front of the condo. Their entrance is on the right. There is 4 units per building, two on the lower level and two on a upper level.

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This is the view of the lake from her porch.

And this is the view towards the parking lot. As you can see we didn't have clear skies most of the time. It didn't rain, though so that was good.

  

It's really nice inside, too. Even though they own the condo, they are in the rental program so the resort company rents the condo out all summer long. They keep the maintenance on it too. 

It's very clean and comfortable.

This was my room.


We basically just hung out, ate a little, drank a little and walked around the shops in Petoskey, the closest town to Harbor Springs. Every night they have a fire on the beach and they make smores. We took advantage of that both nights!

The colors weren't all that brilliant because it's a little early yet but there was some color here and there. 

 
Next post I'll show you more of the little town of Petoskey, tell you how I fell on my face on the rocks, and also show you the really, tiny town of Good Hart!

Until then......

Busy and Uninspired.

It's been almost a month since I last posted. I always intend to post at least once a week but I only seem to get inspired once a month!

Anyway, here's what's been going on lately:

Rich and I took a little trip for one night to Traverse City last Sunday  I don't know if you have ever watched a show on Animal Planet called "The Incredible Dr. Pol" but it's about  a country vet and his adventures in mid Michigan. I love it and we decided on our way up to Traverse City to take a little detour and find his clinic.

It was a rainy day (of course) but we managed to find it.

It was a Sunday so the clinic was closed. There was a horse in a stable in the back and he was wondering why we were there!

 

That's his jeep that he drives all over on the show, too. I thought someone may have been there or I would have peeked in the windows!

This is where we stayed in Traverse City. They sent a coupon for a cheap room so we couldn't resist!

This is the check in desk...all lit up!

It's a very beautiful hotel. Our room was really nice too, but I didn't get a good picture of it.

This is a view of the gaming floor. The hotel is kind of on a hill so the gaming floor is two stories below the hotel.  We had fun and won enough money to pay for the trip! It was nice to get away and have an extra day off of work!

In other news, Shauna and Brad are house hunting and his mom and I have been going with them! It's been a lot of fun! They have looked at a ton of houses and may be closing in one one! We will see!

I work next week and then I am off for a week so I can go to Harbor Springs with my friend Karen for a few days. Her and her husband own a condo there.  We are celebrating 50 years of friendship!

The colors should be really beautiful up there! I'll be sure to get lots of pictures!

Until the next time.....

Miscellaneous Summer Stuff

I can't believe it's Labor Day weekend already. This summer went by much too fast for me!

Not much going on right now. I have been working some overtime these last few weeks because I've been so busy so I am so glad to have the next few days off!

The birds are loving the birdbath!

This house on one of the routes that I walk has tons of rose bushes planted around it. Besides lining the driveway that you can see here the also go all along the front and the side. They were all in bloom and looked so pretty!

A couple weeks ago we got lots of rain in a short amount of time, and there was flooding all over the place! The worst of it was Northeast of us but we had our share!

 

I slowly drove through some pretty deep water at about 4 miles per hour. I was determined to get home and all the roads leading to my house had floods at various areas. This picture is at the end of our street!  The water was running past our house and to a lower spot down the street. Those houses had flooded basements. Thankfully, our basement didn't flood!

The reward for our troubles was this beautiful rainbow!

 

I've never seen one so bright!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Until the next time!!