It beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Yay! I got the decorations out front for Christmas just in time before todays first big snowfall. The milder weather earlier last week was a good time to get it started. Red flashing lights are on the pine wrapping around the porch rails and decorate the front window. We got a good inch of snow this afternoon and more is scheduled to later tonight and the next few days. AND I'm still working on getting our Thanksgiving dinner planned and purchased! Well hope your Holidays are beautiful and everything is as wonderful for all of you!

Carousel and Santa - lit trees on porch with a lighted wreath.

A Nice Day for the Cider Mill

Saturday was a great day for going to Yates Cider Mill and Amber was staying over while Darin and Frank went small game hunting and to try out Darin's new gun we got him for Christmas. They didnt get anything, but Darin got a little experience with the gun. Amber is our animal lover and is great with the dogs, so she helped us take the dogs for a walk and ride there.

I was really shocked that the leaves were falling so much at the place, while ours at home havent even turned color yet, much less fall! Yates is only about 15-18 miles North of out house but there was much more color up there. Im NOT looking forward to Winter! Amber took the dogs for a walk along the beautiful river and watched the ducks swimming. The dogs liked walking the trails in the woods and were tuckered out after. Amber even ran into two classmates on the trails in the woods, seems that a lot of people had the same idea for such a beautiful day.

Bunny and Knight were glad to relax in the car after the excitement of seeing other dogs, and so many people walking around. Lots of people stopped to pet the dogs and remark on how cute they are. We agree.

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION TO A LOVELY YOUNG LADY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER !

Amber turned 13 this Friday and for her birthday I took her and her brother to another Concert at Warren City Hall, which included carnival rides, and concerts, including the Polish Muslims a comedy band who use Polish names and foods in their very funny act on stage with current songs, and for the final act we saw Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, singing their famous songs like Jenny Jenny and Shake a Tailfeather. The kids just enjoyed the shows and being out with Grandma.

Amber's here waiting for the show to begin. See the stage on the left.

Grandma and Amber, what a great girl she is.

Darin wasn't feeling very good but he said he really did enjoy the shows.

The Polish Muslims band.

Mitch Ryder on stage. on the right.

After the show the city had fireworks for the crowd, but it was late after the show, so we left early.

It was great to spend Amber's Birthday evening with her and her brother. I thank God that the still like to hang with an old lady like me.

A new BABY in our household!

This is our new baby, Knight, on the right with our 15 month old Bunny on the left. Knight is a 6 month old Black Lab mixed puppy who my son-in-law found as a stray at his work last month. Of course, since they already had 3 dogs, he asked my hubby if he wanted him. (hubby hid it from me until the dog arrived) He is very shy, but playful with Bunny. In the last few weeks we got him his first puppy shots and last week had him neutered. (although Bunny was already fixed when we got her from the shelter., but just in case.) Knight is just learning his name now and has only had a couple accidents in the house so far, but we put him in a dog crate during the night for safe keeping, till we are sure we can trust him. Poor Bunny continually catches him playing with all her toys and eventually takes them away from him, and once in a while they get into a fight when Knight gets a little rambunctious with his play biting. Amber caught a few shots of both dogs licking and rolling on the floor together. Let me tell you, they both keep us busy watching out for them, and seperating them when they get too ramuctious with their running around.
We're a two dog family now !

<---This is Knight , I had to chase him down to get this pic. LOL! He's got floppy flippy ears!

Sometimes I think Bunny wonders what do to with this little kid we brought her to play with. ----->

This is the two kids licking and rolling on the floor for our entertainment. Bunny has the pink collar, Knight is in blue. i hope that eventually they will be good friends as they grow up. Time will tell.

Construction is FINALLY Finished!

Finally this summer we had our contractor who beautified our house come and finish our final work on our garage and he built us a nice big shed to add to our storage.

This shed is 12'x14' and we plan to paint it light blue like our house siding with white trim.

We had the contractor cut down the garage to a 1-3/4 size to allow us to get the mower through between the house and the garage, (there used to be only a 2 ft. path between the garage and house),leaving a little carport to drive the riding mower through the carport. He had to use metal poles to support the roof.

The contractor built a nice white gate to keep our dog(s) in the yard. He even used the same blue siding on the front of our garage. Looks nice- dont it? The carport will add to our patio in the back of the yard.

A new gate was also built on the far side of the yard to contain the dog (s) in the side yard. This used to be the only way we could get the mower into the back yard.

Here is a little peek at some of the flowers blooming in my front yard at this moment.........Love them. Daisies--->

<---Snowball bush

<------ My Easter lillies flower bloomed AGAIN!

Some Sedum flowers----->

Another Concert in the park

Yesterday Caroline, Amber and I went to another concert at Warren City Hall, and saw a band called Michael Quatro and Band. It was okay but they didnt play much songs that we knew well, and he and his band were loosing their voices from other concerts that they did this week. They also had a few electrical problems cause his keyboad amp was burning out the plugs in the stage area and they had to do some switching around of pluggage.

Well, at least it was free, and we heard a lot of good keyboard playing, even though the sound was not that great in the singing end.

Michael is the one on the keyboard, his band playing Detroit City Blues in this one. His Sister, Suzie Quatro went up to also sing in this number.

It was a Happy Birthday for Darin- 14 !

Singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Darin yesterday our BIG Young Man turned 14 ! We can't believe how big and smart a young man he is, and we are SO PROUD of him! May he be successful in everything he becomes.

Momma Caroline cant hold him in her lap on one arm anymore. In fact he could probably hold HER on HIS lap much better. LOL!

Amber and Caroline at the Birthday party, Amber is the next one to have a birthday coming up next month. She will be 13! A TEENAGER! OOH MYYY!

Grandma and Grandpa are really proud of these two! What a day!

A Free concert at City Hall

This Sunday, Caroline, Amber and I attended a free concert held by the city at Warren City Hall. It was a little cold and windy, so instead of outside on the lawn they had it inside the hall in the atrium and it was great! The band was named " The As Is Band" they played top 40 hits. See their website Here: http://www.theasisband.com/music/
Here is Amber showing her enthusiasm for the band.

Here's Me in front of the garden beside the atrium.

Caroline and Amber sitting through the break from the music. Many other Warren residents were there also. We really tapped our toes and clapped to the music.




Here is a pic of the band. I recorded some of their sound, but the sound didnt come through so good on my camera. The one singer played several instruments including a huge sax, and a clarinet.




There is more concerts scheduled for the next few Sundays to come with Country music, a Concert band, and top 40's rock and Oldies bands. We plan to attend more of these in the next few weeks, it was so great, AND FREE!

My New and Renewed Flower Beds and The Pond

These are my new and renewed old flower beds that are finished with a lot of hard work from my daughter, Wendy. I got some new plants and stone to edge the new beds, and Wendy did a lot of weeding and putting new mulch into the existing beds to get my front lawn back into shape. Too bad the weeds grow so much faster and prolific than any thing else!

From the side drive looking over the front lawn. Wendy stacked the white stone into a oval around the center bed, and then added more stone to edge the bed along the house. Too bad the flowers are not all in bloom at this time.

'This is along the side drive, the big plant next to the little pine tree is a hybiscus bush that is getting buds ready for BEAUTIFUL white and red flowers!

This is a new water fountain I got for the front beds. Really cute little guy! Very soothing sound of water.

This is the new bed added on to

the new addition in front of the new added bedroom we had built. To the far left is a new purple lilac bush, right of that is a yellow and green bush and then a hosta then another new bush with white little bell flowers then, my old snowball bushes.

This is the new park bench we got for sitting on the new front porch, so great for watching what goes on in the neighborhood, and the flowers, when they bloom.

This is the canopy with screens that we sit on the patio and watch the kids swim and look at the pond

This is my little pond, and a great place for my little fisher guy that Caroline got me for my birthday. It has fairies and a lighthouse.

Perfect place for him to sit and fish! LOL!

Well thats it for now, sorry that lots of things were not in bloom at this moment, but I'll catch them after they open up later.

This our 15 ft round swimming pool - the kids begged us to reopen for another season.

Thats it for now. Just a peek of things to come.

IM back! Mothers Day was great!

Please forgive the small pics, but blogger wont make the pictures any bigger, I tried, but thats all it would do right now.

These are the great gifts my girls got me for Mother's Day/ My Birthday this year. The fishing guy statue for next to my pond, and a bouquet of red roses were my Aniversary/Birthday and Mother's Day gift from Caroline. The beautiful floral cabinet was the same gifts from my Wendy. Thanks GIRLS! I just love both of them. I know that having an aniversary, birthday, and Mother's day within a short time is a burden for my girls, but I do appreciate it a LOT! You both never cease to amaze me with your great surprizes!

I was away a little bit trying desperately to get my Kodak easy share program to work without all the errors. I tried re-downloading and re-using my disc, but still ending up with errors and the program not opening. Finally I got online with a Kodak representative and he set me up with a URL to finally erase all the previous downloads and then to re-download the program again, and its FINALLY working, (Somewhat) and Im back in business. (for the moment) Don't you hate it when things dont run right in your computer?

My Niece got MARRIED in BALI!

This is my sister's daughter, Amie who just got married in a traditional wedding to Hendra in his native home near Bali! Look how beautiful she is.

And this the husband she married - Hendra.

These are Hendra cousins who attended the wedding. Pretty girls.

This is my Sister, Nancy, Amie, and Nancy's husband, Rob just before the wedding. Proud Parents! Hendra's parents had traditional costumes custom made for Nancy and Rob. Beautiful! Rob doesn't have his costume on in this pic.

Both familys visited Monkey Mountain to feed the monkeys after the wedding.

_

Amie met Hendra while working on a cruise ship for the past two years. Amie has been learning to speak the language and they both translated for my Sister when she spoke with Hendra's parents. Amie wants to also stage another wedding in the U.S. when they come back here in the fall or late summer. Her sisters and brother could not make the trip to Indonesia for this one.

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In other news:

May 1st was my hubby and mine 38th wedding aniversary, my daughter Caroline bought me a beautiful bouquet of roses and Wendy bought me a beautiful display cabinet for my collectables with decorated painting of flowers and vines across the front and top.

Wednesday, May 7th will be my 59th birthday, lots of celebrating in this month with also Mothers Day coming next weekend. Where did all the year go? In my mind, Im still a 30 year old, but the old body tells me otherwise. There is still much more to come.

I've been having my daughter Wendy helping me weed and restart a new flower bed for the front of the house, as soon as we finish, I'll take some pics to show it off. I've bought some new bushes and plants to fix up the beds, and white stone to decorate the new beds in front of the new addition. More to come soon...