New 25 Year Old Furniture

We have spent the last 3 weeks cleaning out my dads apartment. As of Friday we are done and the keys have been turned in. It's sad but he only lived there for 4 months so there wasn't much of an attachment to the place. 

After much discussion Rich and I took his bedroom set to replace our old one that we bought when we got married almost 40 years ago. 

We hauled the old set down the stairs and later put it in front of the house. 

After a few hours someone stopped to pick it up. 

That's Rich helping them load it into the truck. They are retired and restore furniture to sell. 

And our wonderful son-in-law Brad helped us get the newer set from the apartment and haul it upstairs. 

Not brand new but nicer than what we had. I love it and am glad we decided to take it! 

Until the next time....

My Dad

If you're not friends with me on Facebook than you probably don't know that my father passed away on September 9th after a short battle with cancer. Actually, I can't really say battle because by the time he was diagnosed it was too late to do anything for him.  After 2 1/2 weeks of tests and two hospitalizations, he was put under Hospice care and passed away peacefully 2 days later.

He had time to make his wishes known, what funeral home he wanted ( Heeney-Sundquist, same one that we used for my mom and my grandmother ), what songs he wanted (It's a Wonderful World,at the funeral home Prayer of St. Francis and Ave Maria at the church)and that he wanted a military funeral, minus the 21-gun salute.

He also had plenty of insurance and money left from the sale of his house so everything was easily paid for.

Like he had done for us our whole lives, he made sure he had our backs!

Funeral Home

My dad was very proud to be a Korean War vet. I had never seen a military funeral before and it was touching.

US Army logo on the side of the hearse

Two military personnel were standing at attention when we pulled up to the grave site .

I didn't take a lot of pictures, obviously because it would have been tacky. I really wanted a picture of his flag draped casket sitting at the grave site but no one took one.  This is as close as I got.

After the service and taps was played, the flag was folded and handed to my brother as the oldest son.

Then we hung around until he was buried in the grave site he bought next to my mom when she passed away in 2002.

It was as nice of a service as it could be and a wonderful send off to a special man.

I will miss him a lot but I am comforted to know that someway, somehow he is with my mom again.

Until the next time.....

Lately....

I had a post up about my dad a few days ago but I took it down. It was depressing and I don't like my blog to be depressing.

We'll just leave it at my dad has stage IV lung cancer and the prognosis is not good. As of today, Sunday, he is in the hospital for the 2nd time while they try to get his oxygen levels good again and figure out what treatment, if any, he will get. I will keep you updated.

Anyway, so far this weekend has been absolutely gorgeous! I took Friday off so I had the past 3 days off.

Brad's mom and dad had a little birthday party for Shauna and Brad a few weeks ago. They're birthdays are only 6 weeks apart.

Her clothes are getting tight an she's getting a tiny little belly! She said the baby was sapping all of her energy and I told her he's storing it for when he's a toddler!

This was the sky one morning when I was leaving for work. One good thing about late summer is the sunrises and sunsets are absolutely glorious!

Top to bottom: Toby, Smudge, Max, Coco (left) and Zoe.

Even though the cat hair generated by 5 cats is enough to drive me up a wall, I love my kitties!They are such a comfort to me when times are stressful!

Until the next time....

Seeing The World In Blue Colored Glasses

We found out last week that Shauna and Brad are expecting a boy!

I thought for sure the baby would be a girl because we already have 5 boys born to the family and we are overdue for a girl, but not this time I guess.

That's fine by me! As soon as she said "a healthy baby boy" all thoughts of a girl flew right out of my head, and my excitement amped up about 100%!

Little boys are so sweet!!

Anyway, I finally allowed myself to do some shopping and last Friday I stopped at Buy Buy Baby (which happens to be right on my way to Shauna's house, how convenient!) and bought this

Teeny little newborn onsie!

I also bought these!

I couldn't help it! Who doesn't love a teeny, tiny pair of shoes?!

It's going to be hard to restrain myself from buying just about everything I see for that little guy!

Coming up...not so exciting news.

Well

Well, it's been a while but a lot has happened so let's do some catching up!

My nephew Joe got married to his beautiful fiance, Michele, a few weeks ago at Island Lake State Park.

It was a rainy day but the worst of it managed to hold off until the ceremony was over and we were all under the shelter.

After the ceremony while we were eating the rain poured down but then it stopped and it was just very humid!

Instead of a cake they had a s'mores bar and cookies!

And later in the evening when the sun was going down the sky over the lake was pretty!

It was a nice wedding and I think they will be very happy!

Up next...exciting news!

Call Me Nonna

So as I mentioned in my last post I am going to be a grandma!

My daughter Shauna and her husband Brad are expecting a baby February, 2017.

We've known since Father's Day but they didn't want to tell anyone else until she got past her first trimester. Now she's 13 weeks and feeling pretty good. Thankfully she hasn't felt a lot of nausea, just very tired!

This is the first grandchild for us and also for Brad's parents so you can imagine how excited we all are!

The excitement will get us through the next winter, anyway!

I was off of work this last week.  I didn't have too many plans and we didn't plan a vacation anywhere yet, but I needed a little break!

Took my dad to the casino which was fun, although I couldn't find him for about a hour! Turns out he was in a completely different area than I thought he would be!

I met my friend Karen for breakfast one day, too.  I also did boring stuff like cleaned out the pantry and the refrigerator.

I spent several hours shopping for new auto insurance. On a side note, next to Florida, Michigan has the highest auto insurance rates in the country! I blame Detroit!

Oh here's something funny. Our dryer stopped heating and we had to replace a part on it.  Or I should say, Rich had to replace the part! When we took the front panel off the dryer this is what we found!

That's coins! Talk about the mother load of laundry jackpots! There was $4.85 total!

Next week my nephew is getting married at Island Lake State Park. Hopefully it won't be too humid but I'm not getting my hopes up! It's been a hot, humid summer so far and every day seems to be a bad hair day!

Until the next time!

Ain't No Cure For The Summer Time Blues

Just kidding. I really don't have the blues. Just kind of been in a funk lately. Not eating good, not exercizing enough, just not very motivated right now I guess!

This summer has been pretty uneventful so far. 

We went camping a few weeks ago. We borrowed my brothers tent. It's a two room tent with lots of room. We also borrowed their blow up bed.

I made it as cozy as I could!  The only mistake we made was thinking that, because it had been such a hot summer so far that we would be hot at night. We brought lite covers and a fan and ended up freezing both nights! It never dawned on me we would be cold!

That is the end of tent camping for me anyway! I love camping but we plan on getting a camper in a year or two. I need a bathroom, shower and comfy bed!

We were with 9 other people camping, including Shauna and Brad. Our tent is the one with the orange top.


We did go tubing down the Rifle River which was a blast. I don't have any pictures because I did not bring my phone or camera but picture 11 round tubes all attached in a circle with three smaller tubes in the middle holding coolers with food and drink! We floated for over 3 hours! There was a ton of people and it was a blast!

Rich and I went to Kensington Metropark one day and rented a kayak. We enjoyed that, too! Brought my phone this time sealed in a plastic bag.

Other than a wedding shower for my nephew and his fiance, that's about all we did so far this summer.

I will leave you with this though.......

I'm gonna be a grandma!

I'll tell you all about it the next time!!