Two-fer

Be sure you go back (scroll down) and read yesterday's post. I wrote it today. I just didn't post-date it.

Today, after church and Bill's Big Breakfast, I worked on the gardens. I weeded the garden on the south side of the house.

Then I went behind the garage.

Yikes.

 This is the before.

I have completely neglected it. I don't see it, so it doesn't exist, right? This is partly why we want to move the garage back closer to the property line. We don't need this garden. It's not a secret garden so much as it's a jungle.

It's Atticus' hunting spot.

It's a tree farm. Want a Redbud? We'll sell you one. Or several.

Since we probably need a permit for selling trees on a small, urban lot, I just attacked the wild garden with a shovel. 

There were plants in there!

And lots of weeds. And lots of vines. Aggressive, thick vines.

It's also our dumping ground for large limbs (since the neighbor behind us doesn't like it when we burn dry wood in a container). Those large branches, etc are still back there. 

As you can see I did get a lot of it cleaned up.

Now it's time to relax. It's a holiday weekend!

Saturday

This is where we were on Saturday:

 We were at the Gilmore Car Museum.

You can read more about it since I linked it for you. I won't bore you with history or how many cars they have. What I do want to share is that for as long as it's been around Bill and I have never been there. And we've been back in West Michigan for eight years and this was our first visit.

It was amazing. Particularly if you like/appreciate cars. More specifically classic cars.

We went with Nancy and Dave (who live in Kalamazoo). Nancy has been there with her parents because they are MG owners. Dave was also a first-timer. Although, there are so many cars, Nancy pointed out that she did not remember seeing many of them.

We definitely got our value (we had buy one get one free admission coupons) and were there for about three and a half hours. We didn't make it through the entire exhibit but we had to leave because they were closing.

There is a new exhibit opening in three weeks, the Cadillac Collection. I guess we'll just have to go back.

By the way I took many, many photos of cars. These are just a few examples.

on time delivery

Have you ever looked at the blue post office drop box and wondered, do they really pick up the mail at the precise, posted (ha, pun intended) time?

I dropped off my Jr. High mailing at one of those boxes today. That is what I wondered as I walked away from the box. It was about ten after five. Did they already pick it up?

Will it still go out tonight?

I'm not in a rush. The mailing can wait until tomorrow. It was just a thought I had...

Would it be suspicious if I sat outside the post office one day waiting to see if they really do pick it up at the exact time?

Probably.

If not suspicious, perhaps weird.

I won't do it. But I will continue to wonder, is the service prompt?

Lego crazed

For our anniversary we went to the Lego exhibit at the GR Public Museum. Here are a few pictures.

It was an exhibit on tall buildings. This one was so tall I couldn't even fit the entire thing in the picture!

And famous architecture.

Here's Chi-town!

Each building had its own history as well as a fun fact. But since it took me two days to get the pictures from my phone to my computer, I don't remember any of the fun facts. I do remember that Grand Rapids is ranked number 1 in its size for the number of LEED certified buildings. 

These were mighty impressive. I enjoyed going. 

It makes me want to pull out our Lego's but that means losing our dining room table. 

Oh the dilemma. 

#icebucketchallenge

We were nominated and we accepted.

Bill gets "Best Husband" award.

Today is our anniversary. Last night, he came home with a dozen roses, participated in this challenge (which I did not ask him to, I was taking one for the team), and took care of the dead mouse in the attic.

We're not keeping score, but he's the BEST!

Happy 14th anniversary to my hubby.

And thanks to all the ladies from high school, college, and after who didn't give Bill a chance because I have him now. (If you know us at all, that's perfectly acceptable for me to post…)

behind the screen

I've mentioned a few times that Atticus is a great hunter. He gets mice, birds, the occasional rat… and they all stay outside.

We hope that if there was ever a mouse inside the house that he would also catch it. I don't want to think about that.

I prefer they stay on the other side of the screen doors.

This morning I cleaned up a few things and found a few things that needed to go up to the attic. We have been keeping the door closed to the room that has the attic access because that is the guest room currently under construction. I went into the room and headed up to the attic.

There are a few things sitting on the stairs to the attic, one of them being the vacuum cleaner that we just used on Saturday.

Mere inches from the vacuum was the body of a dead mouse.

I happened to spot it as I was halfway up the stairs.

I typically check for bugs.

Not mice.

There was a mouse.

I got to the top of the stairs and did my I-just-found-something-bad-and-don't-want-to-walk-by-it dance. It involves shrieking, moving feet around in an odd sort of tip-toe dance, and flailing of the arms.

Peeking back over the edge of the stairs, I made sure it hadn't moved and was actually dead. Then, risking life and limb I ran back down the attic stairs, jumped into the bedroom, slammed the door shut and sprinted out into the hallway closing the bedroom door behind me.

Someday I will have to take a picture of the attic stairs so you can understand just how risky that was.

When Bill got home, after a different risk involving ice buckets (I'll post that video later), he took care of the mouse.

I hope that if a mouse ever ventures inside these walls again, Atticus finds it and takes care of it.

I'm still a little shaky from the escapade.

 I'm very thankful for Bill.

good books and lazy days

Lazy Sunday afternoons.

They are good for reading a book. I'm about to pick up "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". I started reading it a few days ago. I saw the movie way back when it came out in the theater. I never read the book. On our trip to Hell my co-leader, Jen, said the book was better than the movie. Since I am continuously looking for new books to read (and trying to do a better job of it lately), I checked it out at the library. So far so good.

So forgive my short post. I would rather be reading.

Cruisin'

We went out for a ride in the Corvette. It's the Metro Cruise!

I didn't blog about it last year, but I did the year before.

Here are pictures I took last year.

I guess I was too busy with my fancy camera and I wasn't blogging every day.

It seemed as though there were fewer classic cars out this year. But we still got waves, and compliments, and fingers pointing at us (in a good way). It's always fun.

It was the first time I've ridden in the 'Vette this summer.

While we were headed west, toward home, through my sunglasses I spotted a rainbow between two clouds. I pulled my sunglasses down to see if it was visible without them. It was. I pointed it out to Bill. He saw it too.

I marveled at how small it was and how it was barely visible. If we hadn't been going slow because of all the traffic, would we have seen it? How many other people noticed it? 

It was a rare glimpse of beauty in an evening sky. 

It was a reminder to stop and smell the roses. 

It is something to be thankful for.

better blog now

I'm enjoying my morning coffee before I enjoy my morning run. Or something like that.

Just last night someone asked me if I enjoy running. I guess I do. I enjoy it more when I'm finished. I enjoy it more when the scale and I agree. I enjoy it more when the humidity level isn't on "soaking". I don't loathe running. I don't have to make myself do it. I get more antsy when I look at my schedule and can't find time to run rather then being relieved that I can't find the time to run. I'm already planning on what I'll do this winter. My choice is an indoor track (bor-ring) or a treadmill (which I do loathe).

Huh, so I guess yes. I like to run. Outside. Rain, snow or shine. I do not like running inside on a treadmill.

Bill told me that the Farmer's Almanac was published yesterday. It is calling for a bitter cold winter with more then normal snow.

It's going to be another long winter. I better adjust my treadmill attitude or live with the consequences.

Or stop baking so many darn delicious cookies.

Ha! That is not going to happen. I may be facing death by treadmill. Has anyone ever died because they were running on a treadmill? I may be the first.

Have I finished my run yet?

card-making part two

The other card I made was for Shannon's birthday which is today. I didn't want to post it on here until I knew she had received it. She has! Here it is!

 The orange strip was stamped with happy birthday. I don't know why I took the picture before I stamped it. My world is a mystery. Even to me.

That's my super cute owl stamp. I'm very excited to use it for other things than an owl.

I made a frog (but I didn't take pictures of that card). I can make a sheep. A ghost. A cow. Probably a pig. It has endless possibilities. Yay for the owl stamp!

I got my craft on

I have made a couple of cards. But I didn't want to post pictures of them until the recipients had received them for the very small chance that they read my blog and I didn't want to spoil it for them.

Card #1
For Lindsay and her mom for running and cheering me on at the 5k.

outside

inside

Card #2
For Jessica and her family for the loss of her grandmother.

 outside

inside

I wasn't going to post pictures of the insides since I wrote personal messages, but decided it wouldn't do any harm to share them.

I have taken to using the internet and a certain card making catalog for simple style ideas. I do the best I can with what I have (which is more than enough, I just don't have the fancy thing that imprints patterns on paper but I can cut out almost any shape).

I have also taken over the dining room. Maybe when the guest room is finished I can move my scrapbook stuff to that desk. For now all of it is conveniently located at the dining room table.

I can see the tv from there.

I can listen to music.

I can stop by the kitchen for a bite to eat.

I am trying to keep it cleaned up when I'm not working on something.

I've given it a lot of thought and have decided that a sideboard/buffet would be a valuable piece of furniture. Until we go shopping to buy one of those (and I convince Bill that we should have one to hide my scrapbook stuff or finish the guest room pronto) I'll just make do with my piles set off to the side. (The table is a great work surface because there's so much surface space, I really don't want to move to a desk, I like the dining room.)

cat scratch fever

Last week Atticus had a vet appointment. He went out that morning, like usual. But instead of coming back six or seven times which is typical, he didn't. He knew.

I had to call the vet and change his appointment. They had an opening this morning, so I changed his appointment.

This morning, we did not let him out. Again, he must have known. He zonked out on the couch. He was fast asleep until I put his harness on him.

He cried the entire way there.

Have you ever heard a cat cry?

There's no consoling a cat.

We finally made it, he got his two shots, and we were headed out the door when he decided he had had enough.

Unfortunately it was raining. I tried to put up my umbrella, while holding the cat, and my purse, and I was trying to get my car keys out of my pocket. I'm not sure which of these was the last straw, but something in Atticus snapped. The next thing I knew I was being scratched across my back.

I wrestled Atticus to the car and we made it home.

I have two scratches each about three inches long along my back, off to the side. Thankfully Bill was home to dress them.

Atticus doesn't have to go back to the vet for a year and a half. Next time he'll go in the carrier. I was trying to be nice by using the harness. I'm done being nice cat lady. Of course that could be the cat scratch fever talking.

Remind me of this in a year and a half please.

the results

My official time was 30:58. My pace was 9:57. Under ten minutes. That is so great. I couldn't be more proud.

The people who did it in fifteen or twenty minutes, good for them. Don't rain on my parade though. I ran it in thirty minutes and that is good enough for me.

I was going to go back and look to see if I ever wrote about why I started running in the first place. I didn't get the chance, so in a nutshell I'll recap.

In high school, I could run the mile in twenty minutes. Mind you that was something like twenty laps around the gym and was the most horrendous task I had ever done. I would have rather mopped the floor.

Twenty minutes, I knew I could walk the mile faster then that.

Before I turned thirty, I had been walking almost daily. One day, I felt like running. I started out just running to the corner. But quickly added blocks. I finally came to the conclusion that I should try running a mile since I couldn't really do it in high school. After I could run one mile, I sort of kept going.

Then I made it my goal to run 5k. For a year I have been running that distance. Now it's official and I ran my first race.

That is why I'm so proud.

Sorry for gloating, but it is my blog.

One hundred Gifts and counting

I thought I'd write an update on my one thousand gifts.

I feel as though it's been a year since I wrote that blog.

It's been almost a year since Greg moved in. And it's been two and a half months since he moved out.

It has only been seven months since I started my list.

I have reached one hundred things for which I'm thankful. That's in my journal. I've blogged 176 times about being thankful. If I put them together I'm almost to three hundred. That's much better then the one hundred.

I have a long way to go.

I'll have to add my math skills to my list. Ha!

That's my update. Have you been keeping track?

just out for a run...

Today was the BIG day. The 5k. The Mitchell's Run Through Rockford for Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. Lindsay ran with me. She has run in awhile. I told her not to worry that I'm pretty slow. My goal was to run it in 45 minutes. Yes, I can walk it in that time, but I had no idea what to expect. 

Would there be so many people that by the time we started it would take that long? 

I am not familiar with the course, would it feel longer and drag me down?

The only way to find out was to just do it. We registered, used the port-a-potty, and waited for the race to begin.

Which meant we took pictures. 

 Here's Lindsay. This is her, "I'm ready to run a 5k with no training recently" pose. 

I'm ready to go! 

 So was everyone else! Yikes.

We placed ourselves behind the 9 minute mile sign and ahead of the strollers and walkers (which always makes me think of actual walkers, the kind elderly people use, yet I know it means the pace at which people will be going… too funny). We decided not to stand too close to the 9 minute mile sign. Who were we kidding? 

The Michigan State women's volleyball team was there. That's not at all intimidating.

Along with cross-country teams from local schools. Good for them. We'll be back here. Pacing ourselves.

And so it began.

I started my FuelBand to keep track of our time. Of course I started it before we got to the start line. 

We started off strong, at a good steady pace. The State girls were in our sight for the first mile. We were passing people! I felt good. Around mile two, I asked Lindsay how she was doing and she said her stomach hurt a little, so we slowed our pace a bit. Mile three is along the river and is scenic, but it felt like a long stretch.

I checked my FuelBand. My normal pace is 42 (Fuel, I really don't know what that equates to… my arm movement???) and we were running at 45! Oh wow! 

It felt like a long time. 

And then we were at the end. I stopped my FuelBand. 32 minutes!!! Holy Cow! How did that happen? It felt so long, yet it did go by quick.

Deanna was great, she cheered us on at several spots along the route. She got great video. 

We did it. We survived. I have run a 5k. I will let you know my official time when that gets posted.

Then, after hanging out with Lindsay, Deanna, and Gary, I came home, showered and headed off to church for a wedding.

Just a typical Saturday.

a trio of goodbyes

*sigh*

I just finished reading a very good book. It was the book I've mentioned, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany; a novel". At least in my taste of fiction; it ranks high up there. And, as many readers know, it's always sad and difficult to say goodbye to characters when you're that into a book.

Of course it was a completely different sigh of relief when I finished Anna Karenina.

There's another sigh of goodbye today. We said goodbye to Rosie. My steel blue 2011 Fusion. She got inspected this morning and we dropped her off at noon. I had no idea I would have this difficult of a time saying goodbye to a car.

I would say that Bill made me this way, but he didn't. He does appropriately describe my behavior as, "You feel too much".

So true.

The last goodbye was to our cousin Mark and his son Zach. They were here visiting while on a midwest college tour. It was sort of a whirlwind visit since they got here Tuesday from I.U., spent yesterday checking out U of M and headed off today to visit State.

Of course we made it to Jersey Junction. We wouldn't have missed that opportunity.

But that was pretty much all we had time for.

I guess it's time to go make dinner. Before I feel too sorry for myself.

ps: we didn't have internet yesterday, so that's why I didn't blog.

one mil

I hit one million "fuel" points with my Nike Fuel Band today. (Disclaimer, Nike has no idea who I am and they are not paying me to say any of this.)

Yup. I guess it was a bigger deal when it happened.

Of course if you think about it, one million points is a lot. Considering I started earning points on Christmas Day, and here I am just over six months later at one million, that rocks! Also, consider that my daily goal is 2,500. At the rate of earning exactly my goal each day, it would have taken me four hundred days to hit one million. Instead it took me 222 (according to my Fuel Band). Does that mean I'll hit two million by day four hundred? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Pictures from Hell

Upon our arrival in Hell, we started exploring and taking pictures. Not that there aren't any good photo ops.

Here's one.

 Here's another one.

 And another one.

 This is inside the restaurant. Yet another photo op.

 The boys learned a lesson in Hell. Let the ladies go first when ordering ice cream. If you don't, then you have to open the door for them and bow as they leave. hehe

 And the last photo op, Pure Hell.

What a trip!

What happens when you give the youth your camera

You get lots of selfies. And shadow photos. And really, really good pictures.

I'm impressed.

I'm also surprised that there are so few selfies. I expected more.

These pictures are from our trip to Meijer Gardens on Thursday.

Now I have to chose which ones to share since they took 97 really good pictures!

Shadow pictures with the plants.

 Everybody around the Marshall Fredericks fountain.

 Drew, Brian, Caleb, Jasmin and Taylor with Fred and Lena Meijer.

Drew and "Mad Mom"

 Pippa, Jasmin, and Francine.

 Can you guess which three took the shadow picture?

 Checking out the sculpture from all angles (this is from the ground, they all went and laid under it for a new perspective).

 Anyssa and Francine.

Checking out the koi in the pond

 Can we roll down the hill?

All together! Three, two, one… roll!

I really did enjoy seeing the gardens from their perspective. I wish they had taken more pictures! 

Very little

Maybe this is why I don't normally blog on the weekends; I got nothin'.

It hasn't rained in weeks. Bill hasn't mowed the lawn since I was in Cincinnati.

We've kept my flowers alive, which I've shown you here.

I'm working on my running. The 5k is in one week. My goal is to run it in under 45 minutes.

We've been working on the guest room, scraping and scraping paint. There are three double hung windows in the room. Bill pulled off the sashes of the two that are ganged together and striped those. He'll pull the third one off, strip it, and then take them to the hardware store for new glass.

See? It's a little dry on the writing front.

I'm really enjoying my book, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany". I especially enjoy looking at the Tiffany window in our church. I know the book is fiction, but when the author talks about the glass detail, I have to assume she did her research. Or I'm just being a romantic. Either way, it's good.

That's about all that's happening here. I'm too lazy at the moment to get the cord and the camera and show you pictures from Hell. I promise I will. Just not today.

Oh Hell

Michigan that is.

Yes, there's a Hell, Michigan and that's where we went today.

Hehe

But my pictures are still on my camera, so Hell won't be seen by anyone else tonight.

Instead I'll tell you about our Hell-ish adventures.

Hey, the people who work there are all about the jokes. Maybe it's their version of being in Hell.

There is a lovely diner/ice "scream" parlor. That's where we ate lunch because the only other place to eat in Hell is the Dam Store.

The dam in Hell created Hi Land Lake from what appears to be the Portage River (based on the map I'm looking at). The entire town is encompassed by the Pinckney Recreation Area. The state park is 11,000 acres. It was a lovely drive on the highway to Hell.

It wasn't too hot in Hell today.

I'll stop until I post the pictures.

I'm just glad we made it out of Hell in one piece.

Thursday

I'm working on our playlist for tomorrow. While I wait for my phone to sync, I'll tell you about today.

We went to Meijer Gardens! (The Arts Alive Campers and the Jr. High.)

I let them take pictures with our camera. I haven't even looked through them yet to see how many selfies there are. That's going to be interesting…

We walked around the sculpture park before eating lunch. Then we had a workshop and we explored the wetlands. We found all of the things on our scavenger hunt. The things we were to look for were:
butterflies
birds
duckweed
turtles
feathers
footprints
muskrat
dead wood
dragonflies
frogs
cattails
ducks

Yes, we saw all of those! Plus a few extra (see photos below). I don't know which student found the muskrat, but it was happily chomping away at some food and we (thirty or so 4th-9th graders plus adults) managed to check him out. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was a pet and they planted him there.

I snapped a couple of pictures on my phone.

 Here are the swans.

And here are a few of my students rolling down the hill en masse. Until they all crashed into each other. At which point they all got up, stumbled around for a few seconds until one of them yelled, "let's do it again!" and they all ran back up the hill.

Wednesday

We wrapped somewhere around forty book covers (front and back).

We enjoyed a drumming demonstration and danced again.

We (the Jr. High) went and got ice cream at D.Q.

I had a meeting and then stopped at Subway to get our sandwiches for Thursday.

People don't pay attention to t-shirts. I was wearing ours from last year. It says "FUMC Jr. High Youth" and has hands in a circle around the city skyline. I think it's graphically eye-catching.

The man behind the counter, who was making the sandwiches, asked if I was a teacher. I said, no, Jr. High Youth leader. He kept asking questions about us. I always like to brag about our students so I didn't mind his questions. I just couldn't understand what about my t-shirt he didn't get. On second thought, he probably couldn't see my t-shirt from where he was standing. I'm sure that was it.

Even though it's neon green.

Oh well, we know who we are. And now they do too.

drumming

Our Mission Week of Giving is at the same time as the Arts Alive Camp which is our church's version of Vacation Bible School. There is art, music and of course Bible lessons.

Last year, the Jr. High youth saw the younger kids learning African drumming. They asked why they didn't get to do that. I didn't realize they would want to, so I didn't ask.

I asked this year.

Yesterday we ended the day with drumming and dancing. The youth didn't realize we'd be dancing.

It was so much fun.

I love African drumming/music. I feel it deep within. Like it's in my core. Like we all came from a place where drumming and music wasn't taught, it was known.

I cannot drum.

I played the flute in marching band, pep band and concert band.

I can march to the beat of any drum.

Today we just had drumming lessons. It was a different director and he took care to give us clear instructions. We actually sounded good today. Yesterday we were just loud.

We will not drum tomorrow. We will watch a group drum instead. I think it will be most impressive.

let's volunteer

It's our Jr. High Mission Week of Giving.

I picked a short title. It's easier for everyone to remember.

We worked with various local non-profit groups last year. I don't want/like to repeat activities for a number of reasons. One of which is that, at this age specifically, they will remember what they did and how they felt last time. If it's different, which we all know it will be, and they don't like it there is no coming back from that. So if I just do something different, I don't have to deal with obstinance.

I've learned a lot over the years.

The other main reason we do different things is because it shows them how many different agencies there are just in our city.

This week we are working with the tutoring program that is at one of the local GRPS elementary schools. The tutoring program is run through our church. We staff it, we send the majority of the volunteers, we support it financially. When I asked Jer (the woman in charge) what we the Jr. High could do to help, I think she almost cried.

Today, before lunch, nine youth unpacked, counted, and "stuffed" 135 pencil boxes. Each box has two pencils (which two girls spent time sharpening), two pencil top erasers, a pencil sharpener, scissors and a box of crayons.

It took them less than two hours.

Our next task is wrapping book covers for the tutoring program's book writing activity. Fortunately, there is no specific number. They also need to be neat. It should take up tomorrow and Wednesday's time.

I can't brag about these kids enough. It gives me great encouragement to know that our future is in their hands. They will go far and do well. For that, I am very thankful.

The flora and fauna

I just watered the flowers and realized it's time for an update. The last time I posted pictures was here, on June 24th. I guess it was time for some recent photos.

The flowers, they have grown.

 The petunia is really happy. This is just from one plant!

 The overall front garden, from the driveway. 

 Osteospermum.

 The lavender is blooming!

 Here's the front garden from a different perspective.

 Let's see... there are four petunias, a dahlia and bee balm in there. 

 An artistic shot of the daisy.

And here's the back bed. The dahlia is blooming! Again, that is only one petunia. Those things are really happy this year.

Run, Emily, Run

I signed up to run a 5k.

What was I thinking?

I know what I was thinking, I've been running that distance since last summer. I may as well go for it and make it official. I'll get the sticker to put on the car and maybe even a t-shirt!

It's also for a very good cause. It's to raise money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is the same cause as the .1k we "run". If you click the link above, you'll go to the race page. Once there, click on "Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy" and you can donate directly to them. I don't have a fundraising page. You can send me money if you feel moved. But I'm not doing it to raise money, that's what our team for the .1k is for. This is really just for me to run a 5k. I picked one that means something to our family.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Gulp.

tacos, topiaries, and Tiffany

We had tacos for dinner. Actually we had nachos. But that doesn't work for alliteration.

We had shredded chicken, avocado, garlic cheese sauce, lettuce, tomato, homemade salsa, more shredded cheese, lime juice, sour cream…

They were loaded nachos.

We took a walk after dinner.

Earlier, I was with Nancy in Kalamazoo. There is a topiary display throughout the city. It just went up today. We noticed a couple of them and walked around looking for more. I have pictures… they'll get posted later. They're not just ordinary topiaries. I'll leave you in suspense.

The real reason I went to see Nancy was to go to the K.I.A. (Kalamazoo Institute of Art, which by the way when googled comes up with Kia, the car. I was just telling Bill and was saying that art institutes have to be easier to find and that you don't need the periods. The example I then gave was Chicago Institute of Art. Or CIA. Sure, google that one…!)

I digress. We went to the K.I.A. to see the Tiffany exhibit. Louis Comfort Tiffany. There was a painting, lots of lamps, vases, and jewelry. It was impressive. I mentioned it in Wednesday's post. Unfortunately they did not allow photography. The lamps were incredible.

Those are the things I'm thankful for today.