Not Much to Blog About...

I guess that's why I haven't updated for a couple weeks. There's not much going on, just life in general. Things are going well at school, just busy. When I get home at the end of the day I'm beat. I'm working in mostly 5th grade this year, mostly math and coaching a computer program that's supposed to help kids read better. And up until the end of last week it's been hot and sticky in the building but all that is going to change soon. Fall is finally upon us and a change is coming. This weekend was cooler and the gray lasted all day Saturday. Today was a little better and the sun peeked in and out. The weather man says the big change is coming tonight with high winds, rain and thunder storms and cooler temps. Some forecasters are even saying the "F" word (frost)! No, say it ain't so!!

We went out to the garden today and things looked bleak. My tomatoes were rotting on the vine. We managed to harvest 20-30 Romas that I brought home and got into the freezer and two huge zucchini and a couple little sprigs of broccoli. If we have a frost this week as predicted, whatever is left in the garden will be toast. I may try to get out there tomorrow or the next day after work and snip off the Rosemary and see if I can pull up some onions. There's really not much left after that, just the mess to clean up. At this point I'm wondering if I'll try to have a plot next year, if they'll even let me since I never worked my 10 hours like I was supposed to. But then again, next Spring I'll be itching to grow something and might be ready to try it again.

Amber and Andy are doing well. They are starting to get the nursery ready for the big day which is only about 3 months away now. They ordered the dresser and crib and were spending the weekend putting them together. Look how great Amber looks and how cute her "baby bump" is looking. The Dr. says things are going well and everything looks good.


Tyler has started his final semester of college. In just 3 short months he will have that diploma that he has worked for for 6 years! I just pray nothing goes wrong. Already the University has waived two labs he has to take but they don't offer this semester. How lucky is that? And after living in Hawaii for almost 3 years he has finally purchased a car. He bought a very used Jeep yesterday and hopefully he won't have too many problems with it. Up until now he has relied on public transportation and friends to get him where he needed to go. The bus ride has been up to an hour sometimes but at least Oahu has a good system. Now he won't have to worry about that and when he gets a job in a few months he won't have to ride the bus. I had hoped to put a picture of it on here but apparently he didn't get it to me in time. It's a '97 Jeep and as the Craig's list ad said, it isn't pretty but it runs good!! Let's hope that's true!

Scott has also started school and seems to be hitting the books pretty hard with lots of homework. He is also getting used to his insulin pump he got about a month ago. So far things are going well with it. He's hoping to get his blood sugars under control and bring his A1C down under 7. The transition has been so easy I'm sure he's wishing he hadn't waited so long to try it.

I took the pups to the park yesterday and today. They really needed to get out and run. After being home alone and sleeping all week while the rest of us are out in the world wearing ourselves out, when the weekend comes they are ready for some fun!! Today I wore them out good with lots of frisbee.



Charlie caught it a couple times and flipped right on to his back. I think it stunned him a bit because when he got up he just stood there for a minute trying to figure out what happened. It was a good time at the park.





This week I have a baby shower to attend at work. One of the teachers who was due in October had her baby 5 weeks early. I hope she's bringing him to the shower. Then Friday night we have bowling again. I'm hoping to do better than last time.
And tomorrow H and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. Wow, 35 years! That sounds like such a long time. We don't have anything special planned. We are both saving all our vacation time (I'm saving my personal days) for when the baby comes. Maybe I'll put the candles out on the dinner table tomorrow night, if I remember.

I'm looking forward to this season's Amazing Race. It started tonight and there are some interesting people on there. Right now they are in Vietnam, covered in mud. Yuk!

Another Beautiful Weekend in Michigan!

It was a spectacular weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect. One of those weekends you desperately try to remember in the middle of January. Sunny, warm, no humidity, simply perfect.

Saturday morning we took the Mustang, top down, out to the Farmer's Market in search of their delicious organic, free range brown eggs. Unfortunately I had spent too much time lounging around in my pj's so my favorite egg lady was all out and I had to settle for the "egg man" whose eggs aren't nearly as good as egg lady's! We also picked up some potatoes and a couple nice mums to replace the petunias that were spent and recently removed.

Later in the day we went out to my garden since I hadn't been there in over a week and we haven't had any rain at all. I was also hoping to harvest my corn which the garden manager said should be ready mid-September. And just look at it! Isn't is gorgeous? We had it for dinner tonight though we could only find 2 ears that seemed ready. I was so anticipating that first bite!

Let's just say, it was a letdown. Apparently the worst happened and the corn was past it's prime and not sweet and crunchy like I had hoped. This corn will have to go down as one of the failures of the garden this summer. It looked great but couldn't live up to the hype. I guess I'll have to stick to the farmer's market corn which is cheap and delicious. For the room it took up in my garden I would say it really wasn't worth it. Live and learn.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, were fabulous! I had lots of cherry, Roma and those ping pong ball size ones whose name I can't remember. I still have plenty of green ones on the vine too so we will be eating tomatoes for a while yet. Today I blanched the Roma's and will freeze them for use later in a sauce.


Today while sitting on the deck I noticed the first little bit of fall leaves. It will still be another month before Fall really comes on with the changing in full swing, but we will begin to see glimpses here and there in the mean time.


The pups got a trip to the high school both days which they really needed. I was just too tired after work this week to take them. They do so need to get out as often as possible and I wish it could be every day. These pictures were taken after dinner while they were waiting around in case there was anything left for them.


So, another weekend is over, another busy week is ahead. We have curriculum night this week so things will be busy tomorrow. I still don't have a final schedule as the teacher's don't have one either. I've just been dropping in on classes as needed. It looks like I'll be spending a lot of time in 5th grade math. I hope I'm as smart as a 5th grader!!

Have a great week!

What a Weekend!!

We had a very busy weekend! I had to work Thursday but thankfully was able to leave early to get home and start baking the cookies for the shower! It's always nerve-wracking to decide to use cookies as a party favor, just praying they turn out ok.





Thursday night Howard picked Amber up at the airport and we all met at Mr. B's for dinner. It was a late evening so from there we just headed back home and off to bed as this would be the beginning of a very busy weekend.

Friday morning Amber and I did a bit of shopping, picking up last minute things for the shower on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we celebrated Scott's birthday with a nice dinner. I was hoping that the corn from my garden would be ready but it was not to be. Instead we bought corn at the grocery store and had steaks and a caprisi salad. We did get the tomatoes from the garden though. After dinner we all enjoyed this delicious ice cream cake that Amber made for Scott. It was so rich, ice cream topped with Snickers bars and a chocolate graham cracker crust! Yum!!


Saturday morning Tyler was busy gathering his stuff and getting packed up for his mid-day flight. I'm sure he was more than ready to return to the beautiful island of Oahu and his friends there. School starts for him tomorrow, his last semester before graduation! WoooHoooo!! We will miss him but hopefully he will be able to come back home again at Christmas time.


After Tyler left the rest of us got into serious shower prep mode and were busy cleaning and preparing the food for the shower. We mostly kept it low key but there is always that stress factor before the guests arrive. Did I remember to fix everything, is everything clean enough. You always notice those little things that have been left undone 15 minutes before the guests arrive. Thanks to Amber's best friend Nicole, I had much less stress than normal. Nic cooked most of the food and helped with the decorations. Everything looked wonderful and the food was great!




Sunday morning we got up early so we could make the 2-1/2 hour drive to the West side of the state to visit the Porter's. Andy had flown there Saturday to visit his family and we joined them for a lovely lunch of ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad and other goodies. Andy's sister and her family were visiting from Wisconsin so we had quite a group. Later in the afternoon Andy took us on a tour of his little town and we headed to the beach.






Finally it was time to head home and we were all pretty tired by the time we got home last night around 10:00. Well, except for Scott. He had decided that since he was going to be 21 at midnight he would gather his closest friends and celebrate by having his first legal drink. God, I don't have enough gray hair! Not being a drinker myself, I could never understand this stupid tradition. I would worry anyway but with his diabetes I think drinking is a risk he shouldn't be taking. All I can do is express my disapproval and pray that he won't do anything stupid.

Amber's flight was at 9:00 this morning and since it's almost an hour's drive we had to get up pretty early. She took what she could pack of the shower gifts and the rest will have to be brought to her on our next trip to Virginia. She got lots of nice things for the baby.

This afternoon I took the pups for a nice long walk all over the high school property. I didn't want them playing frisbee as Charlie injured his foot chasing a toy the other morning. He tore a toe and was limping. Today he ran and ran and it didn't seem to bother him at all. They really do need to get out every day. They enjoy it so much but I'm having a harder time finding a good place to go where there aren't too many people and no other dogs. I only saw one person there today but she did have two dogs, luckily on leashes, and I called Zoe and Charlie to me before they had a chance to see them, hooked up their leashes and walked to another spot where I could let them off to run again.


To finish off the weekend we took Scott out for dinner at a really nice Mexican restaurant called Sagebrush Cantina. Howard and I had tried going there this summer for lunch for there was over an hour wait and we didn't want to stay. At school last week I had heard that you could call this place ahead of time and have a spot saved so that's what we did. We called at 5:15 for a 6:15 reservation and when we got there at 6:10 we only had to wait 10 minutes. I love Mexican food and this was the best I have had in Michigan. It's not easy to find. Everything was fresh and good quality.

So, the long weekend is finally over and school starts tomorrow. It's after 9:00 and I still have things to do to get ready for tomorrow. Thankfully the kids will only be there for a half day so we can ease into things! Summer is really over. As always, it's gone too quickly.

Good News Today!!

Why is Tyler smiling?

Ok, he's smiling because I said "smile, son" at the Tiger's game the other day. But if I had taken this picture today he would be smiling because the Dr. said he doesn't need to have surgery! They have decided it's colitis and can be treated with medication and diet tweaks. That was such a relief.

Now he can return to Hawaii on Saturday, finish his last semester of college and graduate in January!! Yea!!!