Happy Birthday Andy - 29 and holding...

The Mitchells in Michigan are wishing our favorite son-in-law Andy a Happy Birthday today! It will be just another day at the office but hopefully he will find some time to celebrate this weekend. I hear turkey legs and maidens and knights might be in store?? Sounds like your kind of party, Andy! This is also Andy's last birthday as a non-parent, fancy free young married guy. This time next year he'll be up to his elbows in diapers and spit up. Good times to come Andy!

This picture was taken on the day he found out his first child was going to be a little girl. A little girl who will have this big guy wrapped around her little pinky at first sight, I'm sure.



I hope you have a wonderful day Andy. Your present should arrive just in time for the weekend, when you'll have much more time to enjoy it! Sorry.

Have a bite of that wonderful ice cream cake for us! We'll be thinking of you, with love! Hugs!!

Fall...

It was a beautiful, Fall day here today. It was much appreciated after a week of gloom and rain. Friday it rained pretty much all day and yesterday it was gray and rained off and on. It was a good day for some shopping, and that's what I did. I've officially started Christmas shopping. In fact, I really started last weekend when I went to a craft show on Saturday. I won't say who I was shopping for but I think they'll like what I bought.
This view is from the back deck, out onto the pond.


This tree is just about done for but the yellow was really spectacular this year. In fact, all the yellows in and around the neighborhood have been spectacular this year.


Another view of the pond, more a side view.


While I was out front taking a picture of the yellow tree I noticed that the house was looking nice too so here's a picture of that.


This is toward the pond from the family room window and I just noticed how it captured all but the reddest of reds of the fall colors, all in one little window view.


Last Sunday we took the Mustang for a little ride out to an apple orchard. It's quite small and so is the store that goes with it. We picked up a bag of Rome Beauty apples and an apple loaf. Howard said the apple loaf was so bad that I decided to bake him an apple cake last week which was really delish. It's a recipe I have had since Scott was in preschool and in fact, Scott's class made this cake when he was in the 4 year old class.



I'm not sure what the orchard does with all these tractors but they were on display so I took a picture of them.


Amber and Andy (with lots of help from Nicole) got the nursery all painted. It's being occupied by Andy's sister, Molly for the time being, while she hunts for a job and an apartment. Amber looks so good. She'll be coming for a visit in a couple weeks, one last time. Her pregnancy is going well and everything's going along as scheduled. Only a couple short months now until the baby is here.


I haven't talked to Tyler in a while. I'm assuming his last semester of college is going well. Still no pictures of that jeep. Hi son. If you're reading this, give me a call sometime. And send pictures of the jeep!

With all the rain we've been having, today was the first day I have been able to take the pups to the park. It was a little soggy but thankfully just wet, not muddy. They had a great time playing frisbee.





I've been taking Charlie to obedience class again. A friend at work has been telling me about a class she attends so I thought it would be good to get Charlie out and around other dogs again. I'm not crazy about the instructor. She likes to hear herself talk and she talks on and off for about 40 minutes out of the 60 minute class. Charlie has been doing fabulous! Since many of the dogs are puppies or younger, he at least has a jump on the basic obedience stuff. He can sit, lay down, stay, all that good stuff. He likes socializing but doesn't quite know what to do when the puppies approach him. My friend is in the class and she has a goldendoodle. She's definitely the star student and can stay and then come, all off leash. I doubt Charlie will ever be able to do that stuff. He's having a good time though and getting out, which is a good thing.



H is going on a business trip this week. He hasn't traveled in ages. He's lucky to be going some place warm too, Atlanta. It's supposed to be another crappy weather week around here. I don't really expect any other kind of weather week until maybe May. It will just be measured by degrees of crappiness, unfortunately.

My week will include taking Zoe for her yearly check-up on Tuesday, after work. Wednesday night is obedience class for Charlie. Friday we have Halloween parties at school. Special Ed always dresses up together as a theme. I made my costume today but I can't say what it is. It's apparently a big secret and I can't let the cat out of the bag yet. We also have bowling Friday night. Things should be getting back to normal at school now that conferences and MEAP testing are behind us. I like normal, normal is good.

Have a good week!

It's Time to Break out the Long Pants...

It's finally happened, for me at least. It's finally gotten cold enough that I can't wear my capri's and sandals any more. This weekend was really chilly!

But first, look at these beautiful roses H bought me for our 35th anniversary. One red one for every year and a white one for next year. He brought them to work at lunch time but since I couldn't find a vase he had to take them home again. I enjoyed them for over a week. They were gorgeous! Other than that, we celebrated quietly at home.


I hosted Bunco last week and thanks to H and Scott, I was able to pull the night off without taking a vacation day as I've done in the past. It was down to the wire as I just finished putting everything together by 7:00. Five of our regulars couldn't make it so we ended up with 4 subs and a ghost. I actually won "most wins". It rarely happens that the hostess wins anything! It was a late night as the girls didn't leave until 11:00 and then with clean up and all I didn't get to bed until about midnight. Thankfully the next day was Friday and I just had to get through that day.

Yesterday I put my little garden to bed for the winter. We've been getting emails from the township asking for help in getting the big garden ready for winter but I didn't get there early enough on Saturday. It didn't look like much had been done though. I harvested the few onions I had and my Rosemary. I trimmed the onions and will probably chop them up and freeze them in a couple days.



Everything else had been zapped by frost. The onions were small since we planted them too close together, a valuable lesson learned if I decide to plant again next year. Some of the share gardens had nice pumpkins in them, waiting to be picked. That takes up a lot of space with the vine winding around the whole plot. I'm not sure if I would want to take up that much space in a small 10x10 plot.

Before clean-up


After clean-up


I was able to take the pups to the park both days this weekend. They really needed to get out and run after a long week in the house. Friday we had rain all day so it was a little soggy out there on Saturday but at least they didn't get muddy. We saw some pretty trees starting to turn too.




I also saw these cool looking clouds, thankfully not bringing more rain.


Look how patiently they wait for their dinner.


I thought these pictures were funny since they are about the same pics, just different pups!


Although clearly Charlie is more adept at actually catching the frisbee! He keeps his eye on it while Zoe tends to luck out most of the time rather than watching where it's going.


I have a busy week ahead. Monday and Thursday nights we have conferences so I will be at school about 12 hours both days. Then Wednesday night we (Charlie and I) are taking another obedience class. I'm hoping it will help ease his anxiety about other dogs and maybe I will pick up a few tips on his behavior. A girl at work has taken her dog to this class a couple times and says the trainer is really good so we will see! Sometimes I think there is hope for him yet. At Bunco the other night they were both good as gold. Charlie barked a couple times to tell me people were here, pushed his nose in a couple crotches and then settled down nicely. Every time I rotated to a new table they would both get up, follow me to the new room and then lay down until I was finished. I was happily surprised at their behavior.

Then Friday night we have bowling. I don't like having so much to do so many nights in a row but it is what it is. And apparently "it is what it is" is one of the most annoying phrases that people use. I was shocked to see that "like" wasn't even on the list since I hear more people saying "like" than many of the words or phrases that were on the list and it's really annoying. At least I think so.

It's supposed to be a chilly week with temps only in the 50's. Today at the park was quite cold too and the wind was blowing pretty good. When I got back into the car the temp said 46! It doesn't look like we're gonna get an Indian Summer this year. I guess it's time to make some chili.

Have a good week!