Memorial Day Weekend - 2016

Wow, it's the end of May already. Where did the time go? We went straight from winter to summer here in good ole Michigan, as sometimes happens. It was a very gray, cold winter. I thought we would never warm up, even a little. A couple weeks ago I was still wearing sweaters, though the really heavy winter coat went to the Salvation Army at the end of March. That was one thing I promised myself, once the temps stayed above 30 degrees it was a goner! Some "people" (dogs) don't really mind the cold!

January is a bit of a blur and I don't remember much of anything we did then.

In February I flew to VA to spend a couple days while Amber and Andy had a little vacay time in Mexico. The girls and I had a good time though there was snow there in VA too! I was guest reader in Quinn's class. It was fun to meet some of the kids she talks about every night at dinner and also her teachers. I read a few favorite Jan Brett books!

At the end of March, the week before Easter, Amber and the girls came to Michigan for a visit. We took them to the Rainforest Cafe one day for lunch. We tried not to sit too close to the animals that were a little scary. Quinn was fine but Berit wanted nothing to do with the big cats. They were a little scary.

This beauty turned 12 years old on March 30. Some days she still seems like a youngster. Food makes her very excited. But I notice how stiff she is when she gets up now, a little wobbly too. Still a sassy lassy though!

Quinn lost her big front tooth. She must have been wiggling it for weeks and weeks!

On April 3 Scott got engaged to his beautiful girlfriend, Emily. So happy for them and the ring is beautiful. No date set yet. They kind of go back and forth between September 2016 and September 2017 but nothing definite.

A couple days later we celebrated with Emily's family. Her sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew were at the restaurant but couldn't stay because of the little ones so it was just us, Tyler and Jessie, Emily's folks and her brother, plus the happy couple, of course!

A couple days later Howard and I were on a plane to Tampa. We went down the week after Easter to look at a few houses and meet with a new realtor. The few houses we looked at were either too small or needed extensive upgrades that we just weren't interested in. We also dog sat for Howard's sister since she was out of town in South America. The weather was beautiful while we were there. It only rained once, for a couple hours early one morning, and this was the beautiful site after the rain stopped.

This was our lunch view one afternoon. The weather couldn't have been prettier.

The house has been on the market since the first part of March. It was For Sale by Owner the first couple months with no interest and now we've had it with a realtor for about 3 weeks and still not much happening. We've only shown it once and their only real comment was concern about "the swamp"!! Ha ha! We love our "swamp". Oh well, hopefully that right person will come along soon. In the meantime we are enjoying the sights of spring.

We won't see this next spring in Florida, that's for sure.

The trees have leafed out with a vengence and the pollen is thick!

I wonder if they have gold finches in Florida? If not, I will miss them.

We are winding up the school year. Only a couple weeks left to go now. There is a retirement party scheduled for June 13 for 4 of us who are leaving. Well, actually 2 have already left but will come back for the party. It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone and while I know it's necessary, I also know it will be sad and I don't do sad well.

The house will sell eventually. We'll have to keep lowering the price until it does. Then it's onward and southward, and the big move will be on! Love these beautiful Red breasted gross beaks. They are ony here for a couple weeks, travelling north I guess.

I'll try not to wait until December to update. Really, I'll try.