HAPPY NEW YEAR

This year has not been so good for our family as mom died in February and I had to move out of our old home in May. It has been a roller coaster ride ever since. I look forward to 2012 being a better year for me. Hoping that 2012 finds you and your family having a healthy and prosperous one too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!

glitter-graphics.com

GREEN CHRISTMAS!?

                      
DID you see the news last night? Most of the country will be considered in an  area for a GREEN CHRISTMAS this year, weatherwise. Should that be a bad thing? Well for retailers selling winter gear or for ski resorts YES! The rest of us..well it could be worse.. I do remember some Christmas mornings digging out of a foot of snow, so GREEN is okay by me, just fine!

GREEN..can mean other things too..like buying products that are environmentally safe. Every little bit helps. Those LED lights are really neat..never get hot and last for years.  I really like them.  They are easy to care for and make the trees and homes just glow because you can use so many of them. Green can mean so many things including MONEY..Yes the almighty dollar and what people are spending could really make an impact this year too. If the weather is not bad then more people can shop.

More shopping means, more economy for the country. Me.. I wait until the sales AFTER the holidays. One can really make your GREEN go far. I am on the bandwagon this year to spend your GREEN  on all AMERICAN made products. I have been following those reports from ABC about putting American companies and workers back in business. I think it is a wonderful plan and hope it really takes off in 2012.

Keeping the GREEN in our own communities sure will help us all in the long run.

Hope you all have a great day today..make it a GREEN one!!  

TWO ANGELS FLEW

Two very dear bloggers are suffering today over the loss of their dear furry companions. Some cannot understand the loss that it is to have a companion who
only is there to love and be with them.. leave them. Having experienced it myself I know all too well the empty and heartache it is.

 So to MO and Carole I place this poem I found here and hope you know that all of us here in blogger family feel your loss too.
  
God Asked the Feline Spirit

And God asked the feline spirit

"Are you ready to come home?"

"Oh, yes, quite so," replied the precious soul.

"And as a cat, you know I am most able

To decide anything for myself."

"Are you coming then?" asked God

"Soon," replied the whiskered angel.

"But I must come slowly

My human friends are troubled

For You see, they need me, quite certainly."

"But don't they understand?" asked God,

"That you will never leave them?

That your souls are intertwined, for all eternity,

That nothing is created or destroyed,

It just is... forever and ever and ever?"

"Eventually they will understand," replied the cat,

"For I will whisper in their hearts - that I am always with them

I just am... forever and ever and ever."



— Author Unknown

LITTLE TREE

My little tree this year. I used some of our old ornaments from our tree we had last year,talk about recycling. The angel has been on every tree we ever had..it's been re-wired so that the lights will glow. They didn't work for years. Oh the power of 

a Christmas tree. Memories last a lifetime,if you take their picture.

                                    

NEXT BLOG PLEASE!

Blogger has had this feature on the top of it's page for as long as I can remember. I never had time to bother clicking it though. WHAT a surprise I got. I clicked it over and over last night traveling throughout the world to other people's blogs. RANDOM blogs of all kinds. I found the number one thing was that people are NOT blogging like they used to. Some had not been updated since 2009. Some only had ONE entry, some were about families and some were only about photos. Some were about the universe, politics or crafts and cooking.  I liked this kind of BLOG surfing, just to see "what's out there." Sad though that not many kept up the good writing, poems and thoughts that they should have. LIFE got in the way. I understand that all too well. We just don't take the time we used to to talk to one another using the blog format like we did in the past.

http://collageoflife-henrqs.blogspot.com/

Photo courtesy of this blog

 Facebook has kind of taken away a whole lot of that. It is a quicker way to keep up. I think that helped the downfall of blogs.  I ran across some nice blogs that are pretty interesting. I wish that some of them had the translator embedded in them also. Some you have to look at the photos and figure out what it is all about.
Here is the link to one from Hungary that clearly is creative and the work is very nice.
Not sure what this country is.. but the jewelry they make  is really nice HERE too..

I haven't run across one person that I know by hitting the NEXT BLOG button. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there and the chances are pretty slim.
IF I DID I sure would be surprised. There is one I miss though most. It's HERE and well worth reading again..  When you get a minute try NEXT BLOG..you might just be surprised like I was and when you comment they might visit you and check your blog out too.

CHANGES!

WELL bear with me I am making changes here and have tried to get things back to normal some. In the past when I changed the theme here my music playlist went with me. This time I have had a lot of trouble getting it just the way I want it. I can't seem to delete the playlist that is displayed on there and hope the songs don't offend anyone. I deleted it completely and started one over again hoping it would reset itself.. for the record..
it supposed to be playing CHRISTMAS SONGS.. LOL

                               
Reminds me some of putting up a Christmas tree and then moving all the ornaments around on it until it is just right. I have been known to change them for weeks after the darn thing is up. This year the tree we used is in storage, and I have a tiny one I brought with me. Not much changing I can do with that.  Thought I would put up my tree here on the ole blog though.. it's a real nice one from last year. I can still see mom sitting in her chair just staring at it. How she loved a tree and all the lights at Christmas time. I must say the one we had looked great for it's size. 
No snow here yet but they say some is coming..all I am hoping for is that it isn't the kind that piles up and makes moving around miserable.
Hope where you are things are all decorated up in holiday style! 

LIFE IN HER YET!!

There is life in the old house again. Seems someone moved into our old home before the first snowflakes fell. Neighbors reported that curtains went up and the mailbox

was being used again. Seems weird after 56 years to have another person or family roaming around our old house. She's a real handful I must say. Sis and I both thought we should leave notes for any new owner. We told the realtor about the quirky way
the furnace works and how the oven is so old there are no longer parts for it. 
Guess they will just find out on their own. Gave the old neighborhood joy to see
the walks shoveled after this past weeks storm. The new owner is keeping it up
well. I hope it serves them as long and as well as it did our family.

Here, a Christmas Cactus that Dad bought mom years ago. It is still surviving despite being  moved,  and even trying to bloom. It may not make it for Christmas itself, but might get a bloom soon.  There's a story about that cactus. Seems Dad never was one for giving flowers or plants much. He went to visit someone and saw one in their house with so many blooms on it. So the checked out the local florist and they only had a few. None of them had a lot of blooms on it, but they offered to give him a discount if he bought one. Well Dad, loving the discount, bought the cactus and brought it home. Mom loved the surprise and fed it and cared for it and it eventually bloomed lovely dark pink blossoms. Over the years it got damaged and almost died. Mom repotted it at least 2 times and was nursing it still, right up until the time she passed. The plant was then passed to me to keep it going. I carried it to my apartment and it started to get a bloom in March.  The bloom promptly fell off  when I moved it one day. I was crushed. I was sure that moving it in the car would shock it, but apparently not. It seems to like where it is now.  Guess where I go maybe the plant will follow me. I can always try to keep it alive as long as possible. 

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!! 

WINTER UPDATE

Updating here as winter rears it's head a little bit and says hello..I'm back..

Just a dusting, less than an inch and melted right away as the sun came out. I love that. Kinda like a preview of coming attractions. I have been through some rough Thanksgiving holidays before where we could not even get out of our driveway so this was just nothing but pretty. I am trying to keep up in the blogosphere with both of my blogs. Had some trouble with the wordpress one posting to Facebook. They finally sent me a message telling me it was a Facebook problem not a Wordpress one. I seem to like Blogger a whole lot more now that it has not had the difficulty that Wordpress has. I am not cancelling it though as there is over 5 years worth of entries there.

I have been really busy here trying to get things in some kind of order so I can put my hands on things when I need it. Since the many moves I have made in the last 6 months things are just so hard to track down. I  think a full inventory is called for, just haven't gotten around to it. I'm no Martha Stewart who labels things and has a place for everything, but sometimes I wish I did. Did turn up some items I thought were totally lost though and that gave me some joy over the Thanksgiving break. These were mom's she bought them in a dollar store awhile back.. I liked them and put them in storage, I thought.  Guess not.. they ended up on my table for myThanksgiving dinner. 

Guess I better keep track of them from now on! ;-) 

Hope you all have a great week!! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

             HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

SIGNS

Having moved to another place recently I keep looking for signs ofthe season changing. Back at home I looked for the wooly worm or the behavior of the wildlife I knew so well. Here..it's all new. There are seagulls and I still don't know their habits. They seem to congregate on the ground in all sorts of parking lots and open spaces.
I ask around about how long they stick around. The  people here tell me they are sometimes here all winter long sticking close to the places where they know they can get food. If it is a really bad winter they will leave and go farther south and sometimes inland. YIKES... if I see them all leaving I think we are in for big trouble.

We are pretty much done with fall leaves turning here now..trees are somewhat bare in places. I noticed a lot of people remove leaves and can be fined if they leave them in the street. Snowplows cannot plow with leaves stuck to the curbs. BIG NO NO! With the amount of snow they get here, I guess it would be quite a problem in the dead of winter.

 Being pretty much a city girl I sure am getting a taste of how it is out in the wild. Not a very far ride from where I am is the middle of a state forest for miles and miles. It amazed me that some people were actually living in homes in the middle of the forest. The land was sold years ago and so they got it at a great price.

 Little did they know that years later, their would be a big road in the middle of it and traffic night and day. Talk about snowed in. I bet they keep an ample supply of wood and food in the winter, because some of the little side roads are not paved and are wayyyy back in the woods. Hope they have a plow handy. Up here, the local lodges like ELKS and MOOSE really do look like lodges. I see I have a lot to learn yet.

"DOWNSTATERS" is a word I heard I had never even thought of before. Imagine that we "downstaters" had a nickname. Going to be a lot of  getting used to living differently. YES, the stores here have much more winter clothing than "downstate", who knew?

HALLOWEEN FUN!

If you haven't seen this photo it is quite something.. I had to look twice as I thought it was a baby but it wasn't. It was a mom having one!  So creative and from what I see it must have been done in a hospital by some ingenius workers there. Cute!!
The next one, well what a waste of good candy..LOL..you decide.. it is different

for sure and must have taken a long time to do. This one is pretty elaborate in the carving but neat design. MEOW!!  Well whatever you do this halloween, I hope you have fun doing it.  Here there are parties and trick or treats by going to the local shops downtown and it all starts on Saturday and runs all the way until Monday. Three days of fun. Kids love it!  I am sure I will have some neat pictures to include here by Tuesday, weather permitting.

 
                                

FALL PLEASURE

On my walk I passed a giant oak tree surrounded by a white picket fence. Inside the yard was a garden oasis and a swing waiting for it's next passenger. The tree was so large it took up one whole area in the backyard.

Tall and strong grows the mighty oak

TWO MORE

Two more photos worth posting.. I sure take tons right now as around every corner is a more stunning shot. Hope you all are enjoying some warm days too!
                                   Click to enlarge..

ASSORTED PHOTOS

I have been taking tons of fall photos lately.. the colors here in Michigan have been

very brilliant this year. Lake Michigan has had some calm and warm days too. Beaches are pretty much deserted by now. Ships are coming in every day and the car ferry is almost coming to an end. Fall is here and the tourist season is over. Sun setting over the lake. We appreciate so the warm breezes and dread the winter cold coming.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL FALL WEEKEND!

I AM ON A LEASH!!!

Most of you blog readers know that when I use a product and find it works well,
I love to endorse it and tell you all about it so today I tell you that...

YES I am on a leash!! I got this new tech thing called a ZOMM from my Sis. It works great..
it connects your cell phone to your keyring by bluetooth technology. When you get too far from your cell

or vise versa it will go off. Now sometimes it is annoying because it is sensitve and wants not to be separated from it's partner, but it can be turned off. If you go on line you can also program it to your specific needs.  I can push the button on the key ring and talk on my phone hands free. It works really great when you are driving.                       
I can hold the button down and an piercing sound will start and warn others that
I am in danger or there is a problem. If you hold down the button long enough it will
even call help for you. I cannot tell you the relief it is to always KNOW where your
cell phone or keys are all the time! It can be charged by cord like a cell phone and will beep and tell you it needs charging. You can read more about it here .

Now for the reason I needed a leash.. I am always leaving my cell in the car or my keys some place and having to take time finding them. If I have one and get separated from the other I just wait for the alarm to go off. Sure helps tons at night when you can't see where you dropped your cell in the car. I get teased a lot by others that my purse is beeping, but it is worth it for sure. I am moving soon and so it is hard to keep track of everything, this makes life much more simple. Well that's my new helper...hope you
are able to check out the technology.
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

LAUNDROMAT LESSONS

Our laundromat is not fancy, half the washers don't work, and there is no tv, radio or internet to entertain us.It's very old and the only one in town.The change machine works on occasion and is very picky on what dollar bills it will change.God forbid you get a bill that has too many creases or has anything written or stamped on the face of the bill. There is an attendant present some of the time,when you need him, he is no where to be found. Typical of a  small town,some patrons, however, do leave their newspapers and magazines behind for others to read.

Some things you take for granted. You just know other people already KNOW this thing or that. You figure they have taught their children over their young years how things work in this world.Recently on my visit to do my weekly chore I came across a young mother and her little boy. I asked the boy how old he was and he held up three fingers. Oh, I love that age. They are so cute and are into everything. I sat waiting for my rinse cycle,when the 3 year old asked me "where the plug goes" on

the magazine I was reading, I just had to shake my head. Had he never seen a magazine before? I smiled and told him there wasn't a plug because it was a magazine. He looked puzzled so I showed him the pages. He looked so shocked when looking at it. This purely was a child who had never been acquainted with magazine reading materials, only the computer type displays. I gave him the book and let him flip through the pages. This magazine was nothing he had ever seen before.  I asked him if he had some books at home. I was almost afraid to hear the answer.

In his little world there were no magazines yet, but a computer or game box, yes he

knew what those were. He knew that the big big machines at the laundromat were for big big loads of clothes and you had to put "tons of money" in them to run them. He

knew that his mom would not let him go outside the door of the place unless she was with him and no matter how hot it got in there he was NOT to play with the big fan that was on wheels. Getting back to the books, he told me he had some small books but nothing as big as that magazine was. I asked him if he had ever been to the library?

Did he know what a library was? No, his mom had not taken him to the library. My heart just sank. He was missing so much and would be so behind other kids when starting school. I sat and told him all about the library and all the things the library had to offer him. His mother came and sat beside me staring at her blackberry phone. I wanted so badly to be able to tell her what the boy and I had been talking about. Turns out, I didn't have to because in a minute or two the boy came back from his "walk" around the inside of the building and asked his mom about the magazine. I took the opportunity to tell her I had showed him the book. I told her there were all types of magazines and books for kids at the library for him to look at. She told me that she was new in town and had no idea where the library was. I told her where it was,and that I was sure her boy would love to visit there.

The mother of the boy thanked me and as she gathered up her baskets, piled high,

smiled back at me as they left. As she strapped the boy into his car seat I heard him

tell her he wanted to go to the library. The seed had been planted. I can only wonder if the boy will ever really get to visit the library. I can only hope so.

The more that you read, the more you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

Dr. Seuss

RECENT PHOTOS

I haven't been taking a lot of photos lately. The recent heat wave has kept me pretty much in cool places. Today the air was less humid and a lot cooler. I snapped this

picture of some guys working in the heat of the day. Sure was glad I wasn't doing their job. It looks hazy and it really was. They were working frantically to get that side of the roof done while it was still in the shade. Takes talent to walk on a roof..I sure wouldn't do it for a living. The next photo was taken today..two BLOCKS from my apartment.

We are three blocks from downtown. A very busy wide street runs right in front of 

the home where this deer keeps showing up.She takes big chances crossing it, and always seems to be alone. The yard is lush with bushes and I think they may just be feeding that doe something really tasty to keep it coming back over and over again. This is the third time I have seen it there in the last two weeks. The neighbors watch for it and the kids have to be so quiet when it shows up to eat. This summer has been a bad one for food and water for critters. Just glad it is NOT a skunk!!

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT COOL WEEKEND!!!

LOST

Again..in what seems like only a short time, I have lost another “parent”. He sort of adopted me and included me in his family outings and daily life.I gained so much including another sister and brother. It seems like he was always there. He had been ill for a while now, but I always had hope that he would again beat it and rise to good health. He will be missed in more ways than I can count.

                                        

REST IN PEACE "DAD"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Well after a long 9 months wait..my niece's baby finally arrived today. He was really "ready" according to the doctor to arrive. I guess they had the due date pretty much correct when they tried to figure it all out. THEODORE was born at 11:15 AM and is 19 inches long.. 8 lbs and 5 oz. Mom and baby are doing well. The family are  hovering as usual, and spending many hours ooohing and ahhhhing over him. We've taken about 300 pictures between us all and at least 3 hours total of video. This kid will have a video picture diary of his whole first day of life, well doesn't every newborn nowdays with all this new technology?? So..that's about it from our little neck of the woods. Tomorrow the new Grandma and I will head home and take all the photos with us to tide us over until the next little visit. 
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

SUMMER DAYS!!!

Imagine my surprise when I went to take out the trash. I came around the corner and saw this "creature" hanging out of the top of the bin. YIKES.. I was glad it was not dark out or I think I would have yelled! I ran back inside to get the camera as the shot was just so funny.  Now why in the world would someone throw out a perfectly good pool toy that still held air?? Well upon lifting the lid I saw that  the other end of said "creature" was missing it's tail. Seems "creature" got into a fight with a mean little dog and well, the rest is history!!

                                                                               It's been quite hot around here and yesterday the local swimming park was sure full of eager kids ready to get cooled off.It used to be an ice skating rink but now it was re-made into and pond or swimming hole for the enjoyment of the community. They even added a beach area. There are plenty of trees for shade too. Locals are wondering why this wasn't done years before? Winters have not been near cold enough here, long enough, to use it as a skating rink. The ice never got thick enough. Kids sure are happy it is here now, because this summer sure has been a scorcher so far.  

I hear the rumble of thunder again..storms are not far behind. Hope you all have a great day today!!! STAY COOL!!

WHAT IS IT???

I certainly have learned a few things from all my years of blogging. If I cannot find the answer on google because I really have no idea what to look up..then I can ask the family of bloggers I know to help me out. Recently on one of my walks I found this huge tree with huge leaves. I thought it was a castor bean tree, but when I googled it the pictures just did not match. So I am kind of stumped. I really think this tree is amazing. I can see it from my apt window and when a storm comes it stands its ground wonderfully.    The leaves are huge, the size of my hand. Some fall off but they remain green when they do.

It appears to have some kind of pods or something on the branches too.  So if anyone out there knows what it is..let me know..the suspense i killing me. I don't see that kind of tree very often around these parts. Most of our trees are elm,oak,maple,chestnut or birch. Will be interested in what you have to say about it.

My feeble attempt to take pictures over the holiday with a camera WITH a setting for fireworks ( yes it does), went horribly wrong.. I think I just could not hold the camera still enough. All the excitement you know.. Oh well at least it was colorful. Hope your holiday was a good one at least the week will be a lot shorter! 

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!  

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

It's a bittersweet holiday here,we had hoped that Mom would be with us to await the birth of her third great grandchild. My niece is due any time now with her first child, so we are playing the waiting game. Mom was just so adamant that my niece would have twins, a boy and a girl. She may have been talking out of her head, but she said it in such a way, that we just believed her. She even made us promise not to tell her because it was a big secret. Well after 6 sonograms, it is definitely NOT twins! Only one baby in there and I will leave the gender as a surprise later on. I know my niece is more than ready for this to be over. Summertime is  hard time, but I think winter is worse. Traveling in the snow is not my favorite thing at all. We will be traveling when the time comes. I just hope it is not in the middle of the night.

No real plans for the holiday here. The town has a fireworks celebration that is awesome to view from inside your vehicle. Near and over looking the local river, one has to be really ready to fight off those large mosquitos that could practically take you away. Think I will view from afar. We might have rain but we certainly will have heat..90's and more. It truly is summertime now!
Well...I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND

ODDS AND ENDS

Thought I would post some odd and ends pics that are in the camera. Some are new some aren't.  These are of the old church. Most of the stained glass was removed, but these remain. Reminds me some of a castle. The lights still work and all that is wrought iron work.  Very old church but haven't found the age yet.  Next few are photos before the whopper storm we had.

He sat there a long time before the storm, but didn't catch a thing. The kids were having a great time. After the storm the banks were up to the top..hard rain at least three inches. Lots of tree damage too. Leave you with two more...