Photo Dump

I went to 3 estate sales in 2 days last weekend but before I tell you about those, I need to do another photo dump!

Last Saturday Rich and I went to the Ronald McDonald house again with the Baking Buddies from our church. 

This time we made 

Chocolate chocolate chip muffins and

Sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies. They get put into these baskets for families to grab on their way out to the hospital.

There is a wall in the Ronald McDonald house dedicated to all the people and companies that have donated. 

It's called Doors of Hope. Each doner gets their own little fairy door. 

Downtown Ann Arbor is known for their fairy doors all over the place. It's actually kind of neat to go around Ann Arbor looking for them. If you are interested, you can read all about it here.

Getting back to our church, they did a little tribute to the 9/11 25th anniversary. 

It was very touching and Rich and I both had tears in our eyes. Tears are nothing new for me as I am always tearing up during the service anyway, especially during the singing!

Here's another picture that popped up on my work computer. 

Such a gorgeous creature! 

Lastly, and back to our church again, Rich and I are going to attend a bible study there called Rooted. It meets every Tuesday night for 10 weeks. 

I'm looking forward to it. It's been a very long time since I went to a bible study. In fact, it's been almost exactly 24 years. I know this because the last one I joined the first class was the evening of the day we buried my mom. I only went one night, and then I called the leader of the class the next day and told her I would not be participating. She was a little miffed until I told her the reason and that I could not keep my mind clear enough to get anything out of it! Then of course she was very sympathetic and a few days later I got a card that they all signed. 

I never tried to go to a bible study after that. In fact. we left that church a few months later. 

I'll leave you with this picture I saw at an estate sale recently 

Kind of silly but cute, too!

I'll be back soon with some estate sale posts. Until then take care and thanks for reading!

Random Photo Dump

There has been an odd lack of estate sales in my target area lately and I'm going a little crazy. I do have a bunch of photos on my phone to dump so now is as good a time as any to do just that! 

Here they are in no particular order. 

While driving down a side road on my way to Walmart there is a huge retention pond that attracts a lot of wildlife. There must have been 50 Canada geese that were just crossing the road when I drove up!

Of course I stopped and waited for them, and they took their sweet time, too! By the time the last one crossed there were several cars behind me!

My friend and I walk this trail by my house frequently and this is the first time we have seen a deer on it!

We stopped for pictures but they didn't stay around long! 

This is Phoebe. 

I occasionally go and spend time with her when her mom and dad are working long hours. She loves to get belly rubs! 

Speaking of deer, Rich and I were driving down a back road and saw this guy standing guard at this gate!

He looks like he's saying, "yes? Can I help you?" There were several other deer behind him (or her)!

I took this picture of a tree in a park in Tawas City. 

It's not one tree with many branches; it's a cluster of trees grown together! 

Driving back from Tawas City we stopped at a truck stop to use the facilities. This was in the bathroom. 

I pushed the green button because the restroom was very clean! 

That same trail I mentioned earlier had a tree down across it when we tried to walk it last Saturday.

We had some wicked storms come through on Thursday night and a few tornado touch downs in different areas. Not close to us but we did lose our power from Thursday night to Saturday night! I can't tell you how many times I walked into a room and flipped the light switch! I brought all my frozen food over to Shauna's so we wouldn't lose any of it and the rest we kept covered in ice in a cooler. 

I was at work when the storms happened. The sky was so dark it looked like nighttime at 4:00 in the afternoon! There was a tornado warning, so we had to get all of the residents into the hallways away from the windows. 

They weren't very happy, but the kitchen staff went around with lemonade and cookies and that helped. It took about an hour for the all clear.

I found this recipe for a protein salad a few months ago. 

It has chickpeas, cucumber, black olives, red pepper, red onion and cottage cheese. The recipe called for olive oil and fresh lemon juice but I just use an olive oil vinegarette dressing. It's so good! I make a big batch and it lasts me three days. 

That's all I got for now. Hopefully I will be back soon with another estate sale to tell you about! 

Until then take care and thanks for reading!

Latest Estate Sale

The latest estate sale I went to was at this house. 

It's a 4 bed, 2 bath, 2800 sq ft colonial in Northville. It was not for sale, but Zillow estimated it at $647,900. I can't imagine having a $4,900 mortgage payment! 

This was the kitchen. 

Family room. 

This was one of the doors to the pantry. 

So pretty!

This was the main bedroom. 

This particular estate sale company always has clothes hung randomly around the house. 

Love the shiny wood floors. 

I thought this was pretty. 

Everything was 50% off so this was $14.

 

I thought these glasses were interesting with the scalloped rims. 

They were priced at $20 for the set and they weren't even glass!  

I liked this vest with the chain closure. 

It was priced at $15. Too small for me though or I may have bought it. 

A couple cast iron irons! I thought the one with the horse was interesting. 

They were $4 for the small one and $9 for the horse. 

I liked this milk jug. I've seen a lot of them at estate sales. 

It was $9 and I might have bought it if I had a fireplace hearth to put it on! 

These were hanging all over too! All the jewelry was either hanging like this or in dishes around the house. 

These were 50¢ each. 

Cute little purse. Some little girl might like it. 

I could not find a price on it. 

I liked these bookends. 

 $20 for the set, dust included! 

I see a lot of wolf pictures at estate sales this year!

There was no price on it. 

Here's what I bought at this sale. 

I think every fan we own came from an estate sale! It was filthy so I had to take it apart to clean it but it works good! 

Total paid: $4

In other news: The boys had orientation at school Friday and started yesterday 

Maxwell is in 4th grade and Levi is in 3rd. This is the first year they went back to school before Labor Day. It's early but they cancel school at the drop of a hat so they probably need the extra 4 days! 

That's all for now. 

Until the next time take care and thanks for reading! 

Quick Getaway

Earlier this week we took a quick getaway to Tawas City, MI to visit with my brother Tom and sister-in-law Debbie. They have a 5th wheel there in a RV Park that they stay in from May thru October. Then they have another 5th wheel in Myrtle Beach, SC that they stay in from November thru April.  

I snapped this picture while we were driving up. 

This is the Zilwaukee bridge. I always say that you are not "up north" until you cross the Zilwaukee! 

We stopped at a really old restaurant in Standish for lunch. This was at the table. 

This may be the only table juke box in existence!

My favorite part of our little trip besides seeing my brother is the walk I take along Tawas Bay/Lake Huron in the morning. 

You can usually catch a beautiful sunrise here too but I did not get up early enough to do that! 

It was nice to get away if only for one night. 

In other news:

This bear picture pops up on my computer monitor at work. 

I just love this picture! I just want to give him a big hug!! LOL!

That's it for now. 

Until the next time take care and thanks for reading! 

Miscellaneous This and That

As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided not to keep the White sewing machine that my friend gave me. It's a nice machine but it definitely shows its age. 

After I found the Singer and had a chance to mess around with it, I decided that this is the one I wanted to hang on to! 

It was built in 1977 which makes it my newest sewing machine!  I don't think it was used very much. I cleaned it up a little and oiled all the moving parts and it works like new! It does some super fancy stitches which I'll probably never use but will have fun experimenting with them! 

I decided to put the Singer in the cabinet that the White was in. I won't go into too much detail, but we managed to get the old sewing machine out and the new one in and it fit perfectly!

Here's Rich doing the final tightening of the screws. 

And I put the White machine in the Singer case for donation. 

There is a tomato plant at work that grows the tiniest tomatoes I've ever seen! 

I think it's called a micro dwarf tomato plant but I'm not sure! All I know is they are super tiny and taste really good! 

My friend and I went to an estate sale that really wasn't worth posting about but I wanted to show you the mailbox. 

Fancy! 

Also, this particular house had a very nice walk out basement and sunroom! 

I wish I had taken more pictures of the basement. The rest of the house was nothing special.  I also didn't buy anything. 

Finally, when you go to a mega church like ours the children's choir is no joke!

They were so cute and did a good job! 

That's all I have for now. 

Until the next time take care and thanks for reading!