Off My Phone

Here are some random pictures off my phone:

This is a fan that my coworker has on her desk. For some reason it didn't show up good but when the fan is on there is a clock lit up on the blades!

 This is a bamboo plant I got for my other coworker, Katie, who has moved on to another job.

This sign for Fowlerville Farms has been there for as long as I can remember. We used to always stop at that restaurant with my mom and dad anytime we would head up north!

This was in the hotel we stayed at in Grand Haven last weekend. They say that the remote control is one of the dirtiest things in a hotel room. I assume this means they cleaned it but I cleaned it off anyway!

This was a interesting sculpture that  I  saw in a  hotel lobby.

This is the sunset on Lake Michigan in Grand Haven. The pier you see was closed for construction so we couldn't walk out on it.

Just grabbing a hold of all that beauty!

This is a sign by a bar/restaurant by where I work.

This is the musical fountain show in Grand Haven.

And last but not least is this cute little guy who is soon going to be 6 months old!

We watched him Saturday night so Shauna and Brad could go to dinner. This was one of his few happy moments. He was pretty fussy the whole time we were there! He is having some skin allergy issues and he was pretty itchy I think!

Rich and I drove out to Holly Michigan today because they were having a open house at Camp Wathana, which is the camp I went to several times when I was a Camp Fire Girl 1966-1970.

I'll tell you all about it next time!

Until then.......

Well!

Well it's been a little over a month since my last post. Seems to be my pattern now, once a month!

Work has been stressful but that's nothing new. My coworker got another job and will be leaving after next week. Thankfully we have a float who can cover until they hire someone. My coworker actually has been trying to find another job for about 2 1/2 years so it's almost a relief to not have to wonder anymore when she'll be leaving!  I wish her luck!

My lilac bush did fantastic this year! I think it's the best it ever has been!

They finally laid my dad's headstone a few weeks ago.

I miss him . It's still weird to go out to dinner on Friday nights and not have him there!

But, this little sweetheart has completely stolen my heart!

 Shauna went back to work and her mother-in-law is babysitting. I am so thankful that he doesn't have to go to daycare right now!

Shauna misses him though and I think he misses her, too.

Giving her the look of love!

Here he is passed out after being at a Memorial Day barbecue! Love his little plaid shorts!

Anyway, we have a little trip planned in a few weeks just for a couple nights. Hoping to see a glorious sunset on Lake Michigan.

Then we get to babysit for the weekend when Shauna and Brad go camping! Looking forward to that for sure!

Until the next time......

Big Project

About 3-4 months ago we ripped the old, crappy blue carpet out of our living/dining room. It was there when we bought the house and after almost 17 years and 5 cats it was pretty worn out and gross! 

Every time I had to clean that room the carpet caused me stress, and since I am trying to eliminate some of the stress in my life, we decided to rip the carpet up. I have no pictures of that process but here is the room after the carpet was gone and we had it painted. 

That was several weeks before we went on vacation!

After we got back we needed to get serious about doing something with the floor. 

We decided on  laminate and we also decided to install it ourselves. The color we picked is called Hometown Hickory Sable.  We tried to match it as closely as we could to the wood floor that is in the kitchen and front foyer.  After we measured the floor so we knew how much we would need,  I ordered it online and in a few days we were picking it up from H⥁me Depot. 

It took us a while and several youtube videos to figure out how to start, where to start and how to actually install the floor. We started on Sunday and worked all day. By the time we were done for the day we had about 1/3 of the floor installed. We were taking our time and trying to do a good job.

I went to work in Monday but Rich took the day off and continued to work on the floor. By the time I got home he had the floor abut 2/3 done.  Then we worked on it together on Tuesday, Wednesday (except I dropped my phone and shattered it so I spent a few hours at the phone store getting a new one!), Thursday Friday and part of Saturday! 

Believe it or not we were having 20+ people over for Easter Sunday! Here it is with the floor laid and set up for Easter. There is no shoe molding yet but it wasn't very noticeable. 

Here you can see the wood floor (bottom right) that is in the front foyer. I think we did a pretty good job matching the color, although the light shining on the wood floor makes it look a lot lighter.  Also the boards go in opposite directions but it looks fine. 

Last weekend we finally finished the shoe molding. We had to buy it on Friday night, Rich cut it  and I stained it on Saturday and Rich installed it on Sunday.  Believe it or not we still have the thresholds to go but we're having a hard time finding the right transition molding that will work between the two floors.

It was a lot of hard work but totally worth it!

 I'll leave you with a picture of Maxwell getting a bath before making his first family holiday debut at our house on Easter.

He was a hit!!

Until the next time.....

Anniversary Trip part 4 Primm Nevada and A Bullet Ridden Car

I've had this draft sitting here since April 2nd! This poor neglected blog!! 

On Tuesday of our trip we decided to drive to Primm, Nevada.

Our drive there took us in and out of California, where there was no state line signs, and we only knew when we crossed the border because our navigator would say, Welcome to California or Welcome to Nevada"

Our destination was a casino called Whiskey Pete's.

This is a statue of Whisky Pete! People throw money at him.,,apparently for luck!

But the real reason we wanted to come here is that they have this car there:

Yep, it's the real one (so the sign says)

Can't imagine dying in a hail of bullets but I guess they deserved it!

We had a great vacation celebrating our anniversary. In the airport on our flight home Delt@ airlines was offering $1,200 per person flight credit for anyone wanting to give up their seats!

We would have taken advantage of it but we wanted to get home.

Shauna had asked us to babysit Maxwell the next day.

We have our priorities, you know!

Until the next time!

Aniversary Trip Part 3-Cousin time and Oatman AZ

I have a cousin who has lived in Arizona for the last 30 years. She actually is my dad's first cousin so my first cousin once removed or something like that.


Anyway, when my dad passed away she flew in for his funeral. It was the first time I had seen her since she moved! In fact,  I had completely lost touch with her until we reconnected by the miracle called Facebook!


When we planned this trip, we knew we would only be about 4 hours from Phoenix so I messaged her to see if she wanted to meet us somewhere half way between Laughlin NV and Phoenix AZ and she did us one better. Her and her son drove to Laughlin and spent the day with us before heading on to Las Vegas.

It was sure great to see her again!

The next day we drove about 45 minutes to Oatman, AZ.

Oatman is a abandoned government controlled  gold mining town on old Route 66 that was shut down when the government needed other metals for the WWII. When the miners left town they left their burros and they have been wild there ever since,  That is the attraction to that town. When we first got there there was not a burro to be seen, though!

Another attraction is the Oatman Hotel and Bar,  Here is the reason why:

Everyone who visits signs a dollar bill and staples it on the wall! The whole place is coated with them! I don't know how thick they are but there must be thousands of them!

Here is the one we left with the pink lettering. We put it in a particular spot so my brother and sister-in-law can find it when they go there at the end of May!

There was a small gun-fight show in the street while we were there so we watched that, walked around a little, bought a few souviniers and then decided to head back to Laughlin! It was hot and crowded and there were no burros anyway!


Until we started driving out of town and look who was headed down the street!

So we pulled over for some pictures!

They were looking for food and walked away if you didn't immediately offer any!

The were so cute!

There was probably 10 or 12 of them!

So we got to see the burros after all!

Next time: Primm Nevada and bullet-ridden car.

Anniversary Trip Part 2 Hoover Dam and Laughlin Nevada

After getting breakfast at McDonald,s right across the street from Mandalay Bay we drove down the Las Vegas strip and parked at the Bellagio to see their fountain show. We always try to see it at least once whenever we are in Vegas because it's pretty impressive. 

I didn't take any pictures of the water show but I did get one of the beautiful glass flower ceiling inside. 

Then we took off for Laughlin NV with a little side trip to Hoover Dam.

 This is the bridge they built to keep a lot of traffic from going over the top of the dam. The picture doesn't really show how huge this bridge is but take my word for it, it was huge!!

The Colorado River is the boundary between Nevada and Arizona. It's kind of hard to see but Nevada is on the left and Arizona is on the right.

The last time we were there back in 1997 I remember looking out over the edge of the dam to see the bottom. Not so much this time, I could barely walk up to the edge so looking over it was not going happen!  I was slightly freaked out the whole time we were up there! Can't handle heights any more I guess!

From there we drove South for about a hour and arrived at our destination for the next few days, Laughlin Nevada.

Laughlin is a small strip of casino hotels right on the Colorado River. 

We stayed at the Aquarius Hotel and Casino on the 17th floor. This was the view from our room.

I took this panorama from the other side of the river so you could see the whole little strip of hotels. Ours was the second from the right. 

This was the view at night. Kind of bright like Las Vegas but much, much smaller and less crowded. We really enjoyed out 4 days here.

Next: Cousin time and Oatman, AZ

40th Anniversary Trip part 1

I have been off of work since last Friday so Rich and I could take a anniversary trip.

We decided to spend a few days in Laughlin, Nevada.

First on Friday we flew into Las Vegas arriving at about 5:30. I hate to fly so I was a little anxious. I hadn't flown since 2009. Anyway, it was almost a 4 hour flight made a little easier because we had screens on the seat in front of us.

Rich watched our flight:

I watched Gone with The Wind

When the plane was almost landed it suddenly took off again! The pilot came on the intercom and said there was an issue on the runway and we had to circle the airport.

I was glad to get on the ground!

 We grabbed our rental car and headed to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where spent the first night. Beautiful room and grounds but huge so we did a lot of walking around.

It's kind of hard to tell from this picture but this was a two story wine tower. This picture is taken from the second floor. When someone orders a bottle of wine the bartender hooks to a harness and get carried up to retrieve the bottle! 

If you look close you can see the harness wires on either side of the tower. 

We didn't get to see anyone do that unfortunately! 

 

We only stayed one night in Las Vegas but I was happy to catch a beautiful sunrise over the mountains the next morning.

That day, the 18th , was our 40th anniversary.

We had time for breakfast and to take a picture before we headed out of  Las Vegas.

Next: Hoover Dam and Laughlin Nevada