On My Phone and On My Mind

First I want to say that I am so thankful that my friends that live in Florida came through hurricane Irma OK. Especially my friend Celia who lives in Southern Florida and was one of the hardest hit. I will keep them, as well as everyone affected by Irma, Harvey and the awful wildfires in Northwest in my thoughts and prayers as they continue to suffer the effects of these natural disasters.

Never been so glad to live in Michigan as I am now!

Anyway, here are some things on my phone lately.

Rich and I went and walked around the State Fair a few weeks ago.

This cow belongs to the Michigan Milk Producers Association, where my mom worked and retired from. She was a lab tech testing milk from the local dairy farms for bacteria and antibiotic levels. She loved it! Speaking of my mom, today would have been her 85th birthday. I miss her so much still!

This cow and calf made of butter. I wonder if its solid butter or just butter smoothed out over a form?

In keeping with the cow theme, all of the cows were tied so close to the fence that they could not move. I know next to nothing about cows so I assume it was to keep them calm, even though this one looked anything but!

It's a little hard to see but this is an entire miniature farm built on a wagon.

 Last Saturday we went to the Eastern Market, which is a gigantic farmers marked in Detroit. All of the produce you see above cost less than $25. I love going to the Eastern Marked but usually only make it there once a year!

These jack fruits are so intimidating looking! I have never bought one but I hear they are hard to work with and taste something between a pineapple and a squash!

I had to do some patient chart training at work and I just had to take a picture of this part of it. It may be hard to see but in the first red outlined box where you are supposed to mark the patient's gender identity is  the usual man-boy, woman-girl, trans man, trans woman but also it says "Two-Spirit". What the he** is a Two Spirit?! I wouldn't even want to guess! 

I'm only going to say that things are getting beyond ridiculous any more! 

Lastly here is a picture of my all-boy little grandson, Maxwell! He's starting to know me really well and gets excited when he sees  me!

He's totally captured my heart!

Until the next time!!!

Summer Marching On

Between working and trying to spend as much time as I can with Maxwell the summer days are flying by!

When we moved my dad out of his house I kept a few things that had some meaning to me. One of those was my moms old hand mixer. I have many memories of my mom making cakes with it and licking the frosting off of the beaters.

When I took it from my dads house it worked just fine, but when I went to actually use it to make a cake the motor seized and that was that! I took a few pictures for the memories and off it went into the scrap pile!

Last weekend I flew to Florida to celebrate my friend Celia's 60th birthday with her. I flew to Ft. Myers, rented a car, drove from Ft. Myers to Cape Coral (only about 11 miles), rented a hotel room all by myself. My friend Karen, who knew Celia as long as I have was going to go with me but changed her mind because her elderly mother is in and out of the hospital and she didn't want to take the chance she would buy a ticket and then not be able to go.

When I checked into the hotel this gift bag was waiting for me.

It had snacks, sunblock, aspirin, sunglasses, candy and a sea shell. It was a nice surprise!

Friday night there was a party in a hall and on Saturday she had a bunch of people over her house for a luncheon. It was good to see her as I hadn't seen her in 25 years! As a matter of fact, she lived in Houston at the time and after I visited her there we lost touch. Thanks to FB we reconnected!

On Sunday morning before I headed to the airport to fly back home I went to a local beach so I could stick my feet in the ocean!

The water was so warm I wish I would have had time to go swimming!

I really enjoyed spending time with my friend and traveling by myself for a short time. I would have like to spend more time going places but I had to get back, plus Florida  in the summer gives humidity a whole new meaning! Jeez!!!

Lastly but most important is my little Maxwell!

He's 7 months old already! He rolls all over the place and in just the past few days  learned that he can motivate himself forward by tucking his legs under and then pushing his body forward! Plus he laughs and sings and yells, and also is developing a little bit of a temper!

I am watching him on Thursday and Friday next week while Shauna and Brad work and I can't wait!

Until the next time!!

Maxwell Grayson

My little grandson Maxwell is already 6 months old!

He's got two teeth.

He loves green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches and apples!

He hates peas!

He's a perfect combination of Shauna and Brad.

In the above picture he looks a lot like Brad.

But in this one he looks just like Shauna!

He's been rolling from his stomach to his back for a while not but he just learned to roll from his back to his stomach.

He's drooling like crazy right now so we expect those top teeth to break through anytime!

He's totally got me wrapped around his cute little finger!

Until the next time....

Off My Phone

I'm on vacation this week so I figured I probably should post something, and there is always random pictures off of my phone to show so....

I made a rotisserie chicken in my slow cooker that came out really good!

Saw a group called Magic Bus at a outdoor concert in a park by my house. The play 60's music if you can't tell that from the stage. The singer in the black dress got over heated half way thought the concert and had to leave. It was pretty hot out!

Giant hippie at the park!

All my sibs went along with some friends! Here we are waiting for the concert to begin. You see how crowded the park is? Those Friday night concerts are very popular!

Spent one night in Tawas just to get away for a bit. This is a scenic overlook of the Au Sable River. It was so pretty! We have canoed a few times down this river.

A bird landed on the windowsill and about drove Zoe nuts! You can't see it well but it's right above her paw!

This pretty porch Marie and I walk by every Saturday morning.

Lastly, remember these old things? This was in a restaurant we ate at on our way home from Tawas.

I want to tell you all about my grandson but I will do that in the next post so I can devote the whole thing to him!

Until then......

Camp Wathana

Back when I was a small girl I belonged to the Camp Fire Girls. My mom was a group leader. A few times a year our group would go to our camp , Camp Wathana, for a weekend.

Camp Wathana is located in Holly, Michigan. We would drive there from Detroit. Back then there was no expressway going out that way so it seemed much farther away than it actually is.

Anyway, I have great memories of the times we were at that camp!

Last week they had a open house so Rich and I decided to drive over there so I could see all the places I remember being.

I remember one weekend we went for a conference with several other groups from Detroit. We stayed in this lodge and I remember rows of cots that we slept on.

I remember being a little scared of the big windows because they looked out into the woods and it was very dark!

And the big fireplace that was so huge! Still is actually but to a 9 year old girl it was gigantic!

And the balcony we weren't allowed to go on!

A few of the signs on the walls. I don't remember them but I'm sure they were hanging there when I was there. If you look closely at the bottom of the sign above you can see a faint outline of the word Girls,  because we were the Camp Fire Girls. Over the years they have become gender inclusive so they took the word Girls off. I think they should have left it, personally. 

There is a huge screened in porch on the back that overlooks the lake. I actually didn't remember that until I saw it again!

And of course the lake!

Don't remember this dock either but I may not have been there back then.

This totem pole says Wo He Lo, which if I recall means Work, Health and Love. 

A few times we went with a smaller group of girls. Then we would stay in these little cabins.

There were bunks on both sides and slept 8 people per cabin. 

Ug! I wouldn't want to stay in any of those now! I don't know how my mom did it!

I am glad we went there and I enjoyed seeing all those places. They are having another on in the Fall and I want to go back with Karen because she was also a Camp Fire Girl. 

Until the next time.....

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.......