Happy New Year!

May this new year bring more prosperity and good things to all our family and friends



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A little bit of Christmas, happy kids!

Our dog, Bunny is learning to open her presents too! She loves the squeeky toys.

The kids put in their requests ahead of time, but couldnt open until Christmas. They were so glad to get the games systems of choice. Matthew got an x-box, Darin a Play Station 3, Amber got a new camera, a MP3 player and some movies she wanted, Sarah got a DS-i system and accessories. Matthew challenged Darin to get the highest scores first in their games!

The game/ match is on!

The kids playing games at the games table.

Aunty Sally, Uncle Ed, and cousin Steve joined us for dinner also. They enjoyed Galumpkys, Kielbasa, chicken, and ham and specially the cream pies for desert! They wrestled for first pieces of banana cream pie! LOL! Lordy so much left overs! We are freezing some of the ham for soups and eating the Galympkys and sausages for the last couple of days.

Today, Tuesday, Amber had spent the night with us after her Mom and Me went to Bingo together but didnt win anything. Caroline gave me a bingo bag for my daubers and a cushion for my bony butt when sitting throught Bingo. It worked too!

This morning Amber helped me put away my tree and my singing Christmas dolls so there is only the outside lights on the porch to put away this weekend. For New Years Eve we plan to buy two party pizzas and have the family over again in the evening to celebrate, but I doubt if anyone makes it to Midnight! No cooking involved! YAH!

Merry Christmas to All !!!

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Hoping that you and yours enjoy the food and gifts for the holidays and have good health! Enjoy and treasure the days to follow!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

After Thanksgiving leftovers then to the Christmas band concert for Sarah

The family came over the day after Thanksgiving for seconds on the dinner leftovers. The kids played pool after dinner. Sarah, Amber on left, and Darin and Matthew on right.
















I stopped to pickup Amber, then went to Wendy's house to take Sarah to her band concert at school. Here's their new kitten, its about 2-1/2 months old. Sarah, Amber and Matthew.




















Here's Sarah going to her station with her coronet to play in both the Jazz band and then the concert band. She loves playing and is really good at it. She even writes her own music, then plays what she wrote.

Our Thanksgiving Feast with the Family!

We got it all done, with the help of Frank, Darin, and Amber doing some of the prep work. Dinner was great, we killed one turkey, and have one more to finish later today. Even our elderly Aunt and Uncle were able to come and share with us!

Sarah, Wendy, and Amber on my decorated front porch.

Matthew and Darin Chillin on the couch.

Amber taking self pic.

Caroline waiting for the feast!

Cousin Steve hamming it up for the camera!

Uncle Ed, waiting for the dinnner!

Aunty Sally , my (other) Mom.

Grieving for a son we wont ever get to know!

The last few days we have been doing research to find my husband's son from his first marriage back in 1968. We found an address, but it mentioned dec.2005, on the internet. We knew that after the divorce, the grandparents had adopted him and changed his name. He was born Barlow Kenneth, but they renamed him Kenneth George, with their last name of Corona. The grandparents had never told Kenneth that he was adopted. We know, because, years ago, we got their address and phone number and tried to call, once he was grown up, Kenneth answered, but the grandfather grabbed the phone and would not let us talk to him! The grandfather protested that Barlow was not the real birth father of Kenneth.



We hoped that one day that he would seek the truth, and look up his birth father.



We did some reseach and found the obituary in the Macomb Daily saying that he died April 1st, 2005. A memorial in the internet told that he worked for the city of Frazer, the later with the city of Troy, with EMT's but didnt say how he died, only that he was on Life support in Beaumont hospital when he died. Others on the memorial book said that he was pictured on Fire trucks. He last worked for the city of Troy. He was 36 years old at his death.

We wrote to a police officer who commented on Kenny's Memorial page, to ask how he died. He commented back, that Kenny had health problems, and that his blood sugar had reach over 1000! and that he went into a coma, and never came out of it.

Kenny left a wife named Jenny, and we are trying to find her. Maybe she can shed more light on the life and times of Kenny.

Last Sunday was a great day for the Cider Mill!

Sunday morning Caroline called us to go with them to Yates Cider Mill and they brought their two pups Toro and Hershey. Caroline, Frank and Amber standing in the cool shade by a picnic table.

















Darin held on to our Bunny for us. It was a cool and brisk day, but was okay once we got into the sun.


















Barlow brought some GOOD bakery donuts with him for all of us. But it was too cool sitting there in the shade. We later wondered over in the sun to eat and drink our cider. Barlow even treated us to a hot dog!







Here's Amber standing near a carved bear that a guy was demonstrating in a tent. Wow are these nice! You can see the Mill in the background.










Here's the guy actually carving a bear for the crowd. The little bears are so cute! They said that the small bears were going for $150.00!
He had some done in front with cute signs. I wish I could have had one.

Another view of the carver, making another bear.

There was a lot of cute dogs with their families, we saw so many pups and big dogs, Amber was in her glory wanting one of each! LOL!

Amber's 14th Birthday Party

Amber waiting for cake and ice cream.
Doesn't she look older than 14?










Amber getting ready to serve ice cream.

















Blowing out the candles.














Happy girl! Age 14 now!













Caroline in the kitchen prepping to serve cake and ice cream.












Darin is happy to eat banana cake and ice cream!









Because Caroline and the kids were gone for the weekend to visit her girlfreind up North, we had the cake and ice cream on Monday.night.

5 Years Posting!

I just noticed that my counter says that I've been posting to this blog for over 5 years! It almost slipped by me. It all started the months following my stroke in May - 5 years ago. I was home and wanted to write about the proceedures I had to go through following that. What a great 5 years this has been. I've met a lot of nice people in the blog world. Here goes another 5 years if all possible.

Ambers 14th Birthday = Saturday!

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Happy 14 th BIRTHDAY AMBER!

Since Amber is up North with her Mom and Brother visiting Caroline's best girlfriend, there is no pics yet. Hopefully they will be back tonight and we'll have cake and ice cream later. Maybe some pics will be forthcoming. Wishing the best of the year for Amber's 14th year. We LOVE YOU SWEETY!

Danny and the Juniors Play at City Hall concert!

Caroline, Barlow, and Amber joined me to see Danny and the Juniors in concert at City hall this Saturday. They rocked the concert with hits like, Rock and Roll in here to Stay, At the Hop, Teenager in Love, and many more old time hits! We had a great time! This was the first concert that Barlow had attended, and he loved the music, brought back old memories of the 50's. Most are still popular today as well.












































Danny and the Juniors - Today and in the 50's



Here is bits of some of the music they played.




Some people were dancing in the street in front of the stage, and we know they all had a great time. Even Caroline got up to dance on the grass with Amber, (who was too embarrased to dance) ,but I got up and danced with her to one song! ( I have no shame) LOL!

Caroline grew up listening and dancing to our old time rock and roll songs, she used to rock as a baby to Babysitting Boogie and she would sing the " Boogie, ung-a-ding!" at the right chorus. TOO CUTE!

I was showing Amber how to do the "BRISTOL STOMP" the other day when we heard a song she was playing with the same similar beat, she just laughed at me.....LMAO! She thought it looked like the charleston! Remember Line Dancing! Those were the days!

A bounty of flowers in my front garden

This is my biggest one, its a Hybiscus bush with big dinner plate sized flower on it. It the prize of my garden in my front yard. I want to get others with different color flowers also. Im slowly trying to replenish the flowers in my front garden that my hubby accidentaly killed last summer.

This is a closeup of the flowers, beautiful!

These Black eyed susans I dont know the name of the plant, but they glow so nice.

I think these are Gerbera Daisies, not sure, but they are colorful!

This is a suculent plant in front, with a baby Hybiscus behind. The baby was planted I think by birds in another place in my front yard, so I moved it here. The suculent plant gets purplish red in the fall.

Here is one of the two snow ball bushes in the front yard near the house. I have a different type of snowball bush that blooms early in the spring, but its just green now.

This is the new Greek type statue that my hubby bought me last month at the nursery on sale. Because of Caroline having her lighthouse stolen last month, I got a metal cable and tied it to the large porch bench, so nobody will be able to steal mine so easily. She looks so nice on the porch.

Happy Birthday Darin!

Happy BIRTHDAY DARIN! Turned 15 on SUNDAY!

Here's a little interview I did with Darin for his birthday, he acted a little shy, but look at the 5 oclock shadow he is wearing. His Mom will make him shave that for school pictures the end of the month. The hats he's wearing was his gifts from his Mom for his birthday, we gave him money so he can buy more books or games or whatever he wants. We had banana cake with ice cream. MMMMmmm good!

We are so proud of Darin and wish him all the best with his future! With a loving and caring personality like his, he will go far in anything he does.

Another Free concert -THE COACHMEN

Sunday Caroline and I went to another free concert and saw The COACHMEN at city hall. They say that they've been playing for 41 YEARS! They played some Big Band music, as well as Frank Sinatra, and then played more, recent music, they played the twist, they played Margaritaville and many more favorites. Great Fun! I know Ive heard of the name of the group before, but just dont remember where Ive heard it from.

Its was a beautiful, breezy day when we watched the show, but it got really cool after the sun went down over the horizon.

Notice the older guy dancing in the forground with the white and black shirt. He appears at all the concerts and gets on the stage steps, dancing the whole evening long at each show. Hes a riot to watch. He even had a younger guy, dont know it their related, but he was asking a bunch of ladies to dance with him, also, or dancing by hisself.

Some of the audience was dancing on the little side road in front of the stage also. It was so cute to see what looked like a 70 year old man dancing every dance with a young teen aged girl who might have been his granddaughter. Got to hand it to him, I wouldnt have had that much strength! Caroline and I were just glad to Bee Bop in our chairs! LOL!

Concert at City HALL. The As Is Band

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On Sunday Caroline, Wendy the grandkids and I went to another free concert at Warren city hall. We saw the As Is Band for the second time since last year, and they Rocked THE HOUSE! They are THAT GOOD! There wasn't a song we didnt know. Sorry if the sound is a little garbled, as we were sitting front row in front of the giant loudspeakers. We thank the city for all the great entertainment we are getting from them.

The city has a big fountain with jets of water that shoot out of the floor in sequences and the grandkids had fun running through the waters before the show. So much fun for them! We cant wait to see what they have scheduled next. I promised the kids that I would take them to the city pool during the week when its not too busy because they have a playscape a regular pool, a hot tub thats huge, and a water slide and tubing in a flowing river in it..!

check out the band's website at : http://www.theasisband.com/news/

My Tree's Fallen and Cant get up! I got a Boo Boo! And Friday Night Concert in the City Hall

As you can see, our trees have been leaning for years at a 45 degree angle towards our neighbor's yard, but now with the rain the one tree is leaning on top of the neighbor's swing. The roots of the trees are coming out of the ground. We are waiting for our tree guy to come and cut them out for us. None the less, when we called our insurance company they told us that the neighbors insurance should take care of it for her, but, since she called the city, we are facing a fine if we dont remove it. Luckily, our insurance did reconcider and made us a check for the cost to remove both trees. THANK GOD!

This is the base of the trunks showing the roots coming out of the ground. I hear from the tree man that Box Elder trees do this quite often.

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I got a boo boo! My dog, Bunny has a tendency to guard the area near our desk and doesn't like anyone to approach the area. I was serving dinner to my hubby on Wednesday and got a little close, and Bunny came at me with teeth showing. I stood my ground, and was going to tap her on the side like the Dog Wisperer does, to calm her down. Well.... she caught me on the hand with her canine tooth and ripped my skin open. Like Caroline says, she spend 5 hours in her hospital with me getting two stitches and antibiotic shots to make sure I dont get an infection. I dont know why she does this protection. She is great otherwise. She is food agressive when she has a bone she's protecting. But she is not agressive otherwise.

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One Friday Caroline, Amber , and I went to a free concert at City hall again. We saw a band called "Stewart Franke and Band" . We liked the band, but they played more jazzy /rock type music and didnt play any songs that we knew well. We are looking forward to some great bands coming up this summer, we hope!