This Years Wedding

    As you know, I am w-a-y behind in posting about things in our family. . .  

    April 9th, 2016 was the date. The event was Byron and Paige's wedding.

    They had a small immediate family only wedding. Originally, it was going to be an outdoor wedding, but we woke up to cold temps and s_ _ _ that morning, so we moved indoors. We used the lodge. Moved the couches into rows, which turned out to be a trumpeted win.
                                                       

     Byron's new family -
        Byron and Paige, Paige's son Marcus is 8 1/2. Byron's kids - Analyse is 7 and Elliot is 5. Rylee is Analyse and Elliot's sister and she is 3.   LOVE all the smiles.
                                                                           

      We had picked Analyse and Elliot up from their mom's on Friday, stopped at our house to change clothes, then went to the rehearsal. We had said that we would take all four kids home with us from the wedding, but we sent them home with Byron and Paige after the rehearsal so they got in a bit of time with their daddy. In turn, we'd go and get the food ready, etc. Sat. am.. Brian and I decided to do a surprise for Paige.  We pulled out china, linens and candles and set the tables. (Her mom loaned the cloth on the mantel, the candles are mine.)  Thankfully, Paige was literally THRILLED with our surprise.
                                                             

  Close up of a guest place setting -                     

  and of the head table -                     

                                                                           

        The pictures of them were taken by their friend / photographer Karen Veltman.
        The pictures of the tables were taken by Brian. 

         Welcome to our family Paige and Marcus ;-]

at Brent and Kayla's

   Last Saturday we took Papa Honey up to see Brent and Kayla's new home and property.

   They have acreage. A garage, a shed and a small barn. Four goats, three dogs and two cats. Apple trees. A field of alfalfa. When they moved in they had millions of rabbits, their dog Ariel has since made them scarce.  A creek. Deer. And from the pile they found in their woods, there must be a bear.
   After the tour and lunch, we set to peeling and cutting up apples -

  Kayla was so thrilled to be making applesauce out of apples off their own property.

    

   We had to head home before the process was finished, but she posted  a picture of the finished process.
                                                               

   While it is a bit of a daily drive for Brent to get back and forth to work, we're happy that they were able to get out of the city and hope that they are able to fulfill a lot of the 'plans' they have for the place. 

Last week Wed.

   Our 'back yard neighbors' moved out last Wed. evening.  Yes, you read that right.  See, Brent and Kayla found a house in time to put a bid in on it before it was already off the market (that happened a LOT!). Their bid was accepted. :-].  The very next day, they received notification from the company they had been renting from, that they had to be out by the end of the month. The company was going to take advantage of the current housing market and put the house up for sale. It could have worked out just fine, seeings how the people they were buying from had already put an offer in on another house and wanted a quick flip.

    But you know how 'could have's' and 'should have's' go. Especially when your dealing with any branch of the government. While Brent had been pre-approved for a mortgage, it was a government backed one... sigh. While he had been super careful to cross every 'T' and dot every 'i', it seemed that the line on the 'T' must have gotten too close to the dot on the 'i' or something. (Insert eye roll). It was one delay after another.  Crazy things. Such as, even though all of the money for his down payment was in one (1) account, the proof of where every dollar of it had come from wasn't in the proper order of deposits for them. Such as, the guy from the county who did the lot survey, didn't fill out his paper work to their (the governments) satisfaction. This ended up having to be redone more than twice. Like I said, crazy things!

    In the meantime, or should that be 'in reality', time had passed and they had gotten to the end of when they could live in the rental house. The cost of living in a hotel for an extended time was either too high, or at a location you wouldn't want to do so at.

   Seeings how they DID have a new house lined up and even if the deal on that place didn't go through, they were going to be buying a house; and it is summer, we said "yes" to their request of moving into our back yard. They came inside to get water for dishes or to use the bathroom, but other wise, by their own choice, mainly stayed outside.

    It worked out just fine. We'd had concerns about their dogs and barking, due to where they were set up and neighborhood traffic, etc., but were very pleasantly impressed with how well they have trained and controlled their dogs! :->

    They ended up living out back longer than they had hoped, but not as long as they had feared.  Last Wed. we helped them load up, and move their stuff to their own new house. With 17 acres. And a garage. And a barn. And tons of wild life. A perfect 'Brent'  and 'Kayla' location!

    I snapped this picture early Wed. morning.   The picture of their dogs in yesterday's posting was taken then too.

4 generations

    So, I took this idea I came across on Pinterest, and with the guys cooperation, did this version of it. 

Started out with this picture Benson had taken for me, of (then) 18 months old Elliot.

   2013/07-001

then Brian took this picture of Byron, holding the picture of his son Elliot.

    2013/07 - 002

then Benson took this picture of Brian, holding the picture of his son Byron, who was holding the pictue of Brian's GRAND son Elliot.

     2013/07 - 003

and we all love this picture of Grandpa 'Honey' (it so captures 'him' :->), holding the picture of his son Brian, holding the picture of g-pa's GRAND son Byron, holding the picture of G-pa's GREAT GRAND son Elliot.

     2013/07 - 004

Each time we took the pictures to Wal-Mart and had them made into 16 x 20 size prints (available under 'poster size prints') 

The finished framed prints were 'Fathers Day' gifts to all the guys. Cyndi got a copy to hang in her house too.

Fall 'stuff' ~

    Well hello there :-D  How ya been? How ya gonna be?  Us? Oh, our ever eventful life continues on. As usual, I have many things to share with you. And now that I have the all clear to go ahead, or is that back to?, I will again be sharing things with you. (Don't ask.)
    Seeings how I just finished down loading a slew of pictures off our camera, I decided I should start right up with the blogging. But instead of immediately going back and playing catch-up, I want to share a couple of more recent things with you first.

    First off - our front door on Halloween

     Pict. #519

    I get ever so tired of hearing the doorbell, or pounding on the door, so I put up this type of a sign every year. "Don't Knock.  Don't ring doorbell.  HOLLAR 'Trick or Treat'!"  It is amazing to me how many kids do not 'get' why they are suppose to hollar that! [Come on parents!] Some kids enjoy proving just how loud they can hollar and I'm okay with that. It's all part of their fun on Halloween!

    If you look close, you will see that there is no window or screen in the top part of our screen door. We do that on purpose! That way, it is real easy to just lean out and put treats in kids bags, without missing any kids, or bumping any of them with the door, etc.. The next day, the screen that had been in there, gets replaced with the storm window. After all, the heat is already on in the house anyways.

   We had decided to do Kayla's B-day dinner one Sunday afternoon and chose to do so at the lodge. Yes, it costs a little bit of money. But seeings how we belong to the church, it's really not that much. Besides, we just love the place. The dogs can run around (so can the grand kids when they are here). We can build a fire in the fire place. The adult kids set video games up on the big screen. And yet the place is cozy and nice.
   Seeings how our Kayla is a girlie girl who likes 'special touches', I wanted to decorate the place just a little for fall. But I ran into a challenge, seeings how I had just loaned her most all of my fall stuff, for her brother to use at his wedding. Hummm... I thought and I thought, and I walked around the house thinking, and I scrolled through my fall boards on Pinterest, and came up with 'a plan'.
    I had Amy (remember my 'chauffeur/neighbor' Amy?) take me to the store, where I tried to buy dried beans, etc.. The problem became, they were out of some of the ones I wanted, as was the second store we stopped at. Amy checked a different store a couple of days later and hit the jack pot. THANKS Amy! :->
    The lodge has a old 'side board' that you see the minute you enter the front door. So I wanted to put decoration on there. This is what it looked like -
    pict. # 183

   close up's -     #189 + 190

    For the record, the brown 'cloth' is actually one of Elliot's baby blankets and the multi colored cloths are linen napkins. I had picked up the tall red 'flowers' to use on a wreath, but they just didn't fit. Sure glad they didn't!

    We put two of the white 8 ft. tables side by side to create one large square dining table. The burgundy 'cloth'  bottom layer, is actually a twin size sheet. The top cloth I picked up at Goodwill while I was out with Amy.
       Pict. #184

     close up - #186

    The lodge has neat old plates, which I used for colorful place settings -
    #187

    I had carried all of the beans and some of the other stuff to the lodge, in a picnic basket. I then used that in an arrangement on a small side table.
      #188

    While the red flowers didn't work on the wreath, the rest of the stuff I had picked up for it did! I ended up taking a picture of it out on Benson's car, because the house just had too many shadows that day!  The wreath was the wedding present Brent and Kayla gave her brother and wife as a wedding present. They in turn are doing a certain task for me, that is driving me crazy, but still to much for this 'Ms. Vertigo' to tackle. Double win right there!

      #514

    Speaking of Brent and Kayla, this is a picture of them taken at the lodge that day -
      #398

    It's been good to chat at you again :->

it's been a year...

   It was one year ago this week, that Byron and Elliot moved in. What a year it's been! Sigh. Having your children go through a separation, that's headed to a divorce, is hard! You never want anything to hurt any of your children. No matter their age. No matter if they were born into your little family, or married into it, or arrived as grand children. Sometimes that means that you want to wrap them up in plastic wrap and protect them from 'life'. Other times, the mother bear in you needs reigned in. Oh how you want to hurt those who are hurting yours. Yet you know that's not the right way to feel, let alone act. So you vent to your husband and dear friends. Asking for comfort. Asking to be held accountable. And you pray constantly for strength. And wisdom.
    And you proceed forward. Striving ever so hard, to make sure you dot all your 'i's' and cross all your 't's'. You really don't want to be responsible for adding any fuel to any fire.
    And apologize when you keep going on about something, when you need to 'drop it'. After all, they are adults. While yes, you do have the right (so to speak) to add input and insight,  they  are  adults.  And must make their own decisions. Just like you wanted to be allowed to make your own.
   And you strive ever so diligently (and hard), to let all involved know they ARE loved! Period.
   So it's been quite the year. Man has it. In many ways, a very l-o-n-g year. And this coming year shall be too.
   And of course, that's not the only struggles we've had this past year. And I know this coming year shall hold struggles else where in our lives as well. That is after all, 'life'.
   'Lord, thank-you for your never wavering love for us! Thank-you for being my strength. Sure couldn't keep going on my own! Thank-you for being in charge of all of the 'details'. Help me to remember it really is 'your will not mine' that I want. I really do! It's just hard to keep in focus at times. And thank-you for these kids. All of them. I am so-o blessed!'

Words

    Benson and I got to discussing words last evening. We both love them. He has a far better grasp on how to properly use them than I do, but that doesn't stop my continuing attempts.
    We love how putting certain words together, can create all types of sensations. Sometimes the combination is made up of words that suddenly make you hungry. Sometimes they make you feel all nostalgic. Other times they cause you to feel totally frustrated. Occasionally they create the sensation of great excitement. I could go on and on with the examples, but my guess is that the words I chose to use, helped you get the idea I am trying to convey. ;->
     We talked about how slippery of things words have a tendency to be. You can have your thoughts all organized, start talking, then suddenly a word or two just totally disappears out of your line up. And of course the now missing word is always one of the majorly important words to getting across what your trying to say. Or it's a person's name. Often the name of the person your talking to! We both agreed that that is the most frustrating disappearing word scenario! Your mind starts racing trying to come up with the now missing name. It reminds you of their kids and or spouses name, or how many kids they have. You remember what foods they do or don't like. Or types of books. Or movies. Etc. Sometimes you remember something you did together, or some time you were both at the same place. Often all kinds of other information about them will suddenly pop to the forefront of your brain. Everything except their name that is! It can be so frustrating. And embarrassing.
     We talked about how some people seem to have a real gift / knack for using words, while other people seem to have no real flair for it what-so-ever. And why was it that during our school days, too often teachers assigned reading written by people that lacked greatly in the flair department? Did they feel sorry for the authors and thus want to give they sales a boost or what?!?
     That then lead us to talking about poems. I shared that I swear I had to memorize a couple thousand poems over the course of my schooling, yet only a couple still easily come to mind. My favorite being one of Robert Frost's.
     "Who's woods these are I do not know
      His house is in the village low
      He will not see me stopping here
      To watch his woods fill up with snow..."
     Benson's voice had joined mine by the second line.
    He then went on to share what he pictured every time he heard it. He always envisioned a man with a sleigh, all decked out in Christmas greenery and laden down with packages. He thinks it is due to how we always seemed to have to travel through lots of snow, to get to Christmas. Sometimes so much snow, that we would have stayed home if it had been any other day of the winter.
     I, on the other hand, always envisioned an adult male, stopping along the road at dusk. He was trudging up the road/hill on his way home from his shop in town. The town where the man who owned the woods lived. He knew the man and knew that he was of a high enough good character, to not begrudge somebody else the pleasures of observing nature in his beloved-ed woods.
     The man who had stopped, was enjoying the rest from his daily hike up the all too familiar road. He had always enjoyed the woods along the road. But there was just something special on this particular night. Maybe it was the first real snow of the season. Perhaps it was the way the star light was being reflected in the falling flakes. Or maybe it was just simply that his weary soul needed refreshed by the beauty in front of him.  After all, the poem did end,
     "and miles to go before I sleep,
      and miles to go before I sleep."
    Was he referring to actual miles yet to travel, or the seemingly miles of tasks awaiting him?
     I told Benson that I think my rendition has to do with my love of being at summer camp. The camp I attended was literally in the middle of the woods. And I LOVED it! I loved the long paths leading through the woods to the various sections and camp fire. Even at night. I wasn't scared of the 'unknown' in the woods. My fear was always that somebody I knew would be hiding to scare me. And I hate being scared. To tell you the truth, I have no idea if it ever happened. That part is irrelevant to today's topic anyways. I LOVED those woods and I had often wondered what they were like in the middle of winter. I bet they were/are beautiful!
     I'm curious. Do you too like that poem? If so, why? What have you always envisioned when hearing or reading it? If not, why not?
     For the record, no, we were not discussing said poem due to missing winter, seeings how we've been experiencing multiple days in the high nineties with high humidities. That part was totally consequential. Honest!!

We seem to have become the 'partying' type -

    For the past month now, we've been 'partying' every weekend.
    But the 'partying' actually started back on April 28th, when our nephew James married his Lauran.

            June 2012 # 047 - (sorry it's a little blurry)

     Dear Boo had passed on May 5th. A short time later, Brent and Kayla adopted "Brain". A cute little puppy who was so fun to watch interact with Elliot!!! Brent named him "Brain", so that when people asked if he had a brain, he could answer 'yes'. :-p!   They had been told by the rescue place they adopted him from, that all of the little bumps on his head were 'puppy acne'. But it kept spreading, over more and more of his body. And the different vet's they called and asked advice from, never once mentioned the possibility of it being mange. Which is what the humane society diagnosed it as, when they took him there. The humane society also wouldn't let them keep the puppy, declaring 'animal cruelty', even though they had been doing ALL of the treatments that the other places had recommended they do. I had so-o been looking forward to Elliot and Brain growing up together...

               June 2012 - #084

    On May 20th, the partying started up again, when Byron picked the kids back up. Within five minutes of them being here, we headed to the pond.

           A. -  #106   (Grammy has since purchased a larger sized swim suit for our growing girl :-D)

           E. -  #110

    Sadly, two hours later when was Brian injured his Achilles Tendon. He is progressing well. He'd like to be "all better" right now. Then again, he gets to stay at home in front of a fan instead of being at work in this heat.

         #249

    On May 27th, we attended the 80th birthday party for (our legal) Aunt Billie. Here is a picture of her with Grandpa "Honey" at James and Lauran's wedding.

         #033

    June 10th, Cyndi and her family came to MI, to do their own little birthday party for Analyse. Different things we did while waiting for them to arrive -

           #125 headed to the swings with Uncle Benson

        #128 playing with Poppa

        #132 tossing stones into the creek

        #138 learned to fly a kite

     After they arrived, we ate. Then Analyse went swimming with her daddy, mommy and aunts and uncles.

        #139 - Cyndi and Analyse. Grammy hadn't yet got a new suit and the old one was now too small.

        #146 - Auntie's Kayla and Emma

       #147 - Auntie Emma's Steve and Uncle Brent

       #144 Uncle "Bubba"
     While they swam, Elliot took a nap.

       #158
     After swimming, Auntie Jammie said it was cake and presents time.

    

        #161

     Elliot liked the brownie cake too!

           #177

     The party we gave for Analyse, was on Saturday June 16th. I'm going to be doing a whole posting about it later. So for now, I'll just share but one picture. It's of Analyse and Byron during gift opening time.

     #442

     Saturday June 23rd, we helped do the graduation open house for our neighbor Erin.

     June 30th our niece Jenelle married Simon.

       2011 - 06 - 24 - random pictures        (This picture was copied off of Simon's mom's facebook pictures. THANKS Ranita ;->

      I took this picture while we were waiting for other pictures to be taken. I found the shot irresistible ;->.

       June 2012 - #536

   
    This past Friday (July 6th), we helped do the reception for Crystal's wedding. It was 107 degrees. 'Helped' as in, grilling chicken and vegetables and working in a small kitchen baking lasagna, heating sauce for the chicken, etc., then running in and out to keep the buffet filled, etc.. We couldn't keep pouring the water in us, as fast as it was sweating off of us. Right out loud we thanked God when he did send a small breeze our way.
     Sorry, no pictures to share, at least yet. Might need to 'borrow' some from Crystal after she puts them on Facebook. It was a BEAUTIFUL outdoor wedding ceremony (wooden folding chairs out under the trees, facing a custom built arbor), with a custom built (by her father-in-law) greenhouse styled dining tent. Then dancing inside the beautiful wood lodge. Dreamy!

    Next weekend is Elliot's first birthday party. :-D

    After that?  Your guess is as good as mine.

'How hot was it?'

   I have always talked about how hot it was the year our Brent was born. "I never did figure out which was worse, being so huge and hot / miserable while pregnant in that heat, or trying to comfort and nurse a newborn, who was miserable in that heat." 
    I've talked about it sometimes since then, when others were bemoaning how hot of a summer it currently was. I always insisted that the summer Brent was born, it was even hotter.  Often it resulted in rolled eyes from others.
    Last night during our local news, the weatherman said that he hadn't predicted this high of heats, since the summer of __ . The year he mentioned, was the year Brent was born! :-D
    Brent was born on July 1st. Thankfully, that year the days fell so that Brian brought us home from the hospital, at the beginning of a three day weekend for him. Brent attended his first fireworks that weekend. Brian found an empty lot, sort of close to down town and we joined a few strangers whom also had brought along folding chairs and blankets. It wasn't crowded. We had amazing views of the fireworks. We felt the slight evening breeze that night. And to a one, everyone on that lot declared we'd stumbled upon the best spot in the city for fireworks watching!! (By two years later, it was no longer an empty lot :-[ )
    I mentioned being thankful that our arrival home from the hospital, coincided with a three day weekend for Brian. Brent (obviously) was a newborn. Brandon is fifteen (15) months older than Brent. Benson is two and a half (2 1/2) years older than Brandon. Byron is twenty two (22) months older than Benson. It was a record breaking heat filled, ever so busy, summer!!!

A "New" Movie Review Site

    Brian and I use to laugh at the previews certain well known movie critics gave movies. It often seemed like, if they didn't care for it much and thus gave it low ratings, that meant we were going to really enjoy the movie! One prime case in point, was the movie 'Six Pack', which started Kenny Rogers and Diane Lane. I was pregnant with our first born when we went to see it (yeah, a 'few' years ago. ;-p). They gave it the lowest ratings possible. We thourally enjoyed it!
    Over the years, that trend seemed to continue. To the point that when our sons got old enough to start choosing their own movies to watch, oft times they felt the same way.
     It really did not surprise us then, that while our oldest son was attending tech college, some of his classmates, a teacher they had, and him,  often talked about starting up their own movie review web site. They talked long and hard, but the site never actually got made.
    Until recently that is. Our eldest, with the encouragement of that same teacher, whom he still has contact with, started such a web site.  Together they chose to stick to the original name the group had come up with - "Rude Ushers".
     The funny part about the name is, that is exactly what some movie patrons dub my son, when by sitting in a hallway after the movies start, he ruins their plans of sneaking from the movie they paid for, into a movie that is rated above their age limit. He gets a kick out of their dubbing.
     You are hereby invited to visit their movie review web site and get a "real" persons rating on the movies. I should warn you, a E+ rating, is a REALLY GOOD rating. ;-p
      I ask, that if you have nothing nice to say about their site, or a review they have posted, that you don't even bother leaving a comment. Thank-you!
     You are welcome and even encouraged to submit your own reviews of movies you have seen. No, you won't get paid for doing so. They aren't getting paid to do so either. And no, yours won't immediately show up on the site. It will instead be sent to them for review and approval. That helps them keep it (the site) reader friendly.

      http://www.rudeushers.com/

Currently in our house -

   As I had mentioned HERE, Byron

   and Elliot

were now living with us.
    Ms. Analyse

has been too, since late Tuesday night, November 1st. 
   I have become a full time grandma. Oh the stories and chuckles I have stored up to share with all of you. Hopefully I'll be able to really return to blogging starting next week. Currently it's been ever so challenging, due to the mixture of 2 and 1/2 year old Ms. Analyse and her  'Go Go Gadget' Arms, which she never fails to use every time she ventures into this room when I'm in here, and the fact that currently this is also her bedroom (thus I can't go on line during her nap).
    But HOPEfully, all of the bedrooms will get switched around this weekend, and I will once again be able to enjoy our internet service on a regular basis.
    In the mean time, I'm enjoying my blessings called grand children, and working on adjusting this house hold of adults and younguns, to living harmoniously together. Nap and bedtime schedules and routines mean adjustments, for all 7 of us!
   Well, it only took me a half hour and six interruptions to get this typed up... ;-p   let's see if I can actually get it posted WITH pictures....