Class Reminder

If you haven't already done so, head on over to jessicasprague.com and register for the free Stories in Hand class. I'm really excited - it should be a lot of fun! Have a great day, everyone!

Skywatch Friday

My friend Jeanne has been participating in the Skywatch Friday meme for quite a while now. I've checked it out a couple of times, and I thought that it was time for me to get in on the action. I can't promise pictures every week, but I'll do it as much as I can. This week's pictures are some that I got recently. The moon on Tuesday night was really cool; full, with wispy, mysterious clouds all around it. The top picture is the moon itself, but what I thought was really neat was the middle picture. This was the reflection I saw in the window of our building when I pulled up to go into work. I was very excited that the picture turned out, because to me, the reflection is almost more interesting than the real thing.

I got this picture when we were at the pumpkin farm with the nieces and nephews this past weekend. I love the way the corn is almost silhouetted against the sky, and again with the wispy clouds. What's up with that?

That's all I have for right now. Have a great day!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

We had another busy weekend, but a fun one. On Saturday, I took senior pictures for my coworker's son, and if I don't say so myself, I think they turned out pretty well. If she gives her permission, I'll try to post a few of the better ones later on. On Sunday, we started out making some jewelry after church, then went to the pumpkin farm with Roger and Sherrie and the kids. We had a great time exploring the farm, feeding the goats, watching the trebuchet catapult pumpkins (OK, I didn't actually see that, but Roger, Brian, and the boys did), going through the corn maze, and of course, eating the yummy cider doughnuts and drinking the homemade cider! I've attached a slideshow of the pictures I took below, but be warned - there are a LOT of pictures! Have a great day!

Exciting news...

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. I LOVE Jessica Sprague. She's an awesome blogger, a great teacher, and her digital/hybrid scrapbooking tips and tricks are to die for. So when I saw this on her blog, I had to share it with all of you. In November, she is offering a new class for FREE. That's right - no charge! The class sounds totally awesome, and it's open to as many people who want to take it, which is great as well. I'm definitely signing up - I've been wanting to take her digital scrapbooking classes for some time now, but time and finances haven't lined up together, so I haven't been able to. I can't do the justice to the explanation of the class, so here's the link to the information. If you've never visited, take a minute and read more of her blog - she's a great writer!

http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/2008/10/10/new-class-stories-in-hand.html

What would you do?

Did anyone watch Deal or No Deal tonight? The person playing tonight was a guy from Michigan. He started out with five million-dollar cases. When he had four cases left, there were still two with a million in them, as well as $200 and $1000. His offer was $448,000, and he ended up taking it. Of course, we got to talking about it. My philosophy is "go hard or go home." I would have kept going until I knocked out one of the million dollar cases, then taken the offer. Brian probably would have taken an offer before the one the player took. That's the main difference between us. I told him tonight that I wouldn't take him as one of my three advisors because I know what he'd say. The joke between us is that he would open the first six cases and take the first offer, no matter what it was. He might go a little further than that, but I'm not so sure. I figure that I came with nothing, so anything I win would be a bonus. As it turned out, after the offer was accepted and they asked what cases the player would have chosen next, he would have knocked out both the $200 and $1000 cases and have been left with two million-dollar cases. What would you have done?

Monster-iffic!

Just saw Rita's blog, and she linked to the most awesome giveaway, and a blog that looks like it's going to be one of my new favorites. I'll post more later, but while you're waiting, check out Cally's blog here: http://cally-cruze.blogspot.com/2008/09/monster-friends-givey.html. I'm in awe of the little bit of her talent that I saw.

Quick update...

Good news on the medical fronts. My nephew's kidney biopsy didn't show any rejection issues, but they think there may be some scar tissue where the kidney connects, so his bladder isn't getting fully emptied. We're hoping and praying for a non-surgical solution, because it doesn't sound like a very fun surgery if it becomes necessary. My mom's biopsy came back clean, so we're thankful for that. In other news, my brother-in-law got a church out in Minnesota. That's kind of a mixed blessing - on the one hand, it's nice that he found a church to pastor, but I'm going to hate having them so far away from us. I've been really glad to have the chance to have the family here near us instead of out in Iowa (where they were previously). It's been nice to get to know my nieces and nephews and to see them grow up right before our eyes.

Prayers needed...

The next couple of days will be kind of scary for our families. My nephew, Cole, is having a kidney biopsy done tomorrow. He was born with only one kidney which functioned at about 25% capacity and had a kidney transplant about a year and a half ago. He has been doing quite well, but lately one of the levels they measure in kidney patients has been rising, which isn't a good thing. I'm praying that they'll find out that the problem is something that's easily corrected.

The following day, my mom is having a lump removed. It's an outpatient surgery, and the doctor thinks it's just a calcification, but it's still surgery and a bit nervewracking. So if you're a praying person, please take a second and remember Cole and my mom as they go through their procedures.

Have a great day!

I knew it was coming...

I got ambushed at church today. I knew it was going to happen, just not this soon. I had decided to drop vocal choir while we're so busy at work, so Thursday was my first day of semi-freedom. This morning, Lila (our director) caught me and asked about the Christmas concert. Nothing much - just one or two solos. Hopefully I'll be able to scale back to 50 hours by November so I have some extra time to get these ready. Why, oh why, did I ever decide it would be fun to play bell solos?

Maybe I like 80s music a little too much...

A while back, Rita had this quiz on her blog, and of course, I had to take it. I don't know what the range of scores is, but I scored a 166.5. Now I have to confess, there were a couple that I guessed at, but there were also several that I thought were quite easy and the person who made the quiz gave more points for because he/she thought they were difficult. Anyway, give it a try and see how you do.

What a weekend...

We, or at least I, have had quite the weekend. It started off as my weekends usually do, with work on Saturday morning. After I got out of work at 11, we took off for South Higgins Lake State Park for my family reunion. We've been holding it there the weekend after Labor Day for as long as I can remember - I think it's been going since even before I was born. I convinced my sister-in-law to bring the kids up, even though she's on Brian's side and not part of the family that was reunioning, we usually always have at least one friend join someone, and I wanted to be able to show the kids where I've been going for years and years. They had a blast - we ate lunch, then went down to the lake to swim - one of the best things about this park is that the lake is always clean and you can walk out for probably 1/4 mile before it's even up to an adult's knees, so it's great for kids. Anna and I walked out and she giggled all the way. After swimming, the kids played baseball with some of my cousins and some of the other kids whose families were camping there this weekend while the adults sat (or stood) around the fire.

In what seemed like no time at all, it was time to pack up and head home. It was great to be able to see all the cousins that we only see once a year, and I had the added bonus of sharing some of my memories with my nieces and nephews.

Today, my friend Heather had complementary tickets to the Michigan Renaissance Festival. If you live in Michigan and you've never had the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it. There are all sorts of shops selling things like jewelry, art, leather goods, period costumes, woodcraft, and much more. While you're shopping, you can attend different shows. Probably the most popular and well-known show is the Ded Bob Show. I've seen it several times - so many, in fact, that I could probably do the show as well as the entertainer. It's always fun to catch it, though, and this year was even better, because Heather got picked on to be one of the audience volunteers.

One of the new things they had this year was an area where you could feed lorikeets. We went in and were immediately rewarded with birds on our hands and arms. After they finished the food in my cup, one of them decided that I might taste pretty good and started nibbling on my arm. It didn't hurt, but it was kind of funny.

I'll close with a few pictures I took at the Zucchini Brothers, Ric Roc, and the Rogue Blades shows. Have a great week!

Guess what came today?

That's right! Now I can read books two through four!! If you don't hear from me, you know what I'll be doing...

My Best Friend's Wedding, or How I Ended Up Wearing Slippers

I promised, and I aim to please. So, without further ado, here is the story you've all been waiting for (or not, but here's the story anyway). Could I have a drum roll, please?

Almost a year ago, my best friend of 27 years announced that she was engaged. A while after that, I was asked to participate in the wedding. Of course, I agreed, and the planning went on as you would expect, complete with dresses and shoes, flowers and rehearsal dinners, but not things like showers and bachelorette parties, because that's just not Kate. Our story, however, begins with the flowers.

The flowers, which were alstroemeria, also known as Peruvian lilies, were beautiful. There were also half a ton of them. Because we were making our own bouquets, Kate had ordered a LOT of flowers. We picked up three buckets of them from the florist's shop on Wednesday evening, which pretty much filled the back end of my car with lilies. We then stored them in her back room to keep the cat from eating the leaves before we were even ready to use the flowers. Fast forward through our girls' night out on Wednesday (complete with Jello shots we didn't end up eating),

through the (totally not worth it) manicures and pedicures on Thursday morning,

and through our lunch at the Greek restaurant (complete with saganaki - OPA!).

After all this hard work, we went back to Kate's house to assemble the bouquets before the rehearsal. We managed to get the flowers to the dining room without incident, and got the bouquets pulled together and taped. As we were putting the bouquets

and the bajillions of extra flowers back into the back room, I managed to catch my pinky toe on the vacuum cleaner. It hurt, but I didn't think that much of it - after all, I've stubbed my toes many times and been fine. Unfortunately for me, I had to put shoes on to go out to the car. At this point, I realized that this may not be just a stubbed toe. The minute I put my shoes on and attempted to walk, I was in excruciating pain. Knowing that I would never make it through the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and the afterparty at the pub like that, Kate and I made the third of four Meijer's runs of the week. I found a pair of flip-flops that were my size, as well as a pair of Dearfoams bedroom slippers (like these, only in black), because I feared the worst - that I wouldn't be able to wear the pretty shoes I bought to go with my dress. As it turned out, I was correct. It seems (and I have not gone to the doctor, so I may be way off base with this) that I have broken my toe, and so, instead of these: I ended up with these:

because my toe looked like this:

In the end, however, everything worked out. The cake and the bride were both beautiful,
Jill and I made her cry with our toast, which included a letter and picture from her sister and brother-in-law, who weren't able to make it to the wedding, and a good time was had by all, even Aunt Rose.

Congratulations, you two. I couldn't be happier for you.

And the Brillante goes to...

A very, very long time ago, when I still knew what a computer was and how to access it, Jeanne bestowed upon me the award above. The rules for the award are very simple:

• Display logo and link to who gave it to you.
• Nominate at least 7 blogs.
• Add links to those 7 blogs.
• Leave the nominees a message that they received the award.

Now that I actually have half a minute to breathe, I wanted to share with you my nominees. Without further ado, I'd like to present the Brillante Premio 2008 awards to the following wonderful ladies:

• Jayne, who is always my go-to person for the strange, unusual, and just plain weird side of the Internet. How she finds these things is beyond me... and I'm not quite sure I want to know. Don't look at the post about the Sour Toe Cocktails - that one is just scary.
• Jayne's sister, Nancy, who I wish would post more. She always has cute anecdotes and cuter pictures.
• Rita absolutely cracks me up sometimes. She is a gifted writer and has a knack for getting to the sweet side of the story. She also shares my passion for 80s music - does it get any better?
• I love to read Dawn's blog. Her creativity (as evidenced in the layouts and other projects she posts) is amazing! She also has great pictures and experiences to share on a regular basis.
• Suzanna's stories about her boys are so cute to read. She also has an amazing store at Etsy with beautiful wall decor - check it out.
• Last, but certainly not least, I have to give this award right back to Jeanne. I love the fact that she posts every day, not to mention that what she's posting are the most beautiful photos and layouts and the best stories. This woman is amazing, and I'm so glad to have found her blog.

That's it for this post, but watch this space. Coming soon: My Best Friend's Wedding, or How I Ended Up Wearing Slippers. I also have the results of a fun little music quiz to share with you, so don't touch that dial!

Check this out...

I know - two posts in one day, but I had to share this picture. Brian and I went to explore the wildlife refuge nearby, but since it started raining, we couldn't go on the trail. Before the rain really got going, I got out to take some pictures in the parking area, and caught this one. I've cropped it down to showcase the reflection in the water drop - I think this might be the neatest thing I've ever captured on camera.

Photo time!

Ok - I have a lot of news/updates to share, but don't have the time to do so right at the moment. I do, however want to leave some pictures from the past week in the form of not one, but two slideshows!



Brian and I took the nieces and nephews (including my sister-in-law and our newest niece) to the park one night last week, and of course I had to take my camera. These are some of my favorite shots from our trip there. We decided to check out the park near my parents' house, as they had just installed a new playplace. The kids had a great time, and so did we.



I've been meaning to get out into our backyard and take some pictures of some of our flowers and of the neighbor's hollyhocks, so when Brian told me the $.99 rose that I got from Menard's earlier in the season was blooming, I thought it would be the perfect time. While we were out there, we saw the two bunnies by the fence on the far side of the yard, and I was able to sneak a few pictures of them. Way cool!

In other news, my very awesome Cottage buddy Jeanne bestowed an award on me recently. I'll write more about it and pass on my compliments when I have time to do it justice. That's all for now, but watch for updates in upcoming days! Have a great day!

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 4th of July to all my friends out there! We (as in Brian and me, along with his brother and sister-in-law and their 4.9 kids [she's due any day now], and my BFF Shelly) went to the Saginaw fireworks tonight - they were great as always, and we were able to get really great seats thanks to my having taken pictures at a parade earlier today for a friend who is running for sheriff. Evidently some of the people working with the campaign had planned to go to the fireworks, and one of the ladies that I talked to at the parade and her husband had been camped out there since 6:30pm and were saving spots for more of the volunteers. As we were walking up to the bridge where we were hoping to find seats, the husband saw me and told me they were saving space in the center of the bridge and to go on up and sit with them. It was very, very awesome - one of the things that I really like about Saginaw is that they don't just do the up in the air fireworks, they use a nearby bridge and shoot lower things off of it, and we were in a perfect spot to see everything. I took half a million pictures, but most of them didn't turn out so well. Some of the ones that did are in the slideshow above.

That's all for now - here's hoping that your day was wonderful, and your weekend is even better!

I was scrappy today...

With the June commitment club looming over my head at Cropper's Cottage, I realized that I had to get busy and do some croppin'. Without further ado, I present to you my two pages for the month.



This is a layout of some of the pictures I took at Kate & Kevin's engagement/bachelorette/friends and martinis party this weekend. We went to MGM Grand in Detroit and had dinner at the very good, but very pricey buffet, then gambled the night away. It looks like some of the gang hit the bar for martinis later, but Brian and I left early-ish in order to make it home that night, so we missed that.

These are pictures from Emily & Alaina's birthday party a few weekends ago. The kids had a blast playing with balls that were meant to be soaked in water, then put in a slingshot to throw at your friends and enemies, but we found they were easier just to throw. A good time was had by all.

That's all for this episode. Stay tuned for more wacky antics... when I have time to have some, that is...

Update on the squirrel...

So, I was talking to a coworker who lives in Town A, where I saw the very scary sign advertising ground squirrel the other day. She thinks that the store is not a meat market, but a pet store, which still makes me say "Huh?", since I don't think you're allowed to sell squirrels as pets, but does make me relieved, as it's not quite as scary. Whew...

In other news, Go Live is upon us. I probably won't be around much for a while, but I'll try to write as much as I possibly can. Have a great week!

Random miscellany...

So, if this works, this slideshow will show the long-promised pictures from the baby animal farm. If it doesn't, there will just be a big black box in the middle of my blog and I'll feel really dumb... Be forewarned... The last two pictures in the slideshow are from Cascade Falls Park in Jackson. Brian was able to come hang out with me in Jackson a couple of weeks ago, and we got to visit the falls. They are a man-made, concrete structure about 80 years old that are lit every evening from 8:30 - 11:00pm. There are steps all around them and you can walk up and around if you so desire. We went up, but came back down the same side, since the wind was blowing quite strongly and making the other side rather wet. I would definitely go back to the park - it was really interesting and very pretty.

And now for the next edition of things that are just plain wrong and/or disturbing. As I was driving home today, I decided to take the more rural route instead of the expressway that I normally take. Now I know why I take the expressway. The first thing I saw when I arrived at the first little town I passed through was a sign for a meat market or something like that advertising "Ground Squirrel". That, my friends, is not a market I would like to shop at. I have this mental picture of a meat counter with signs for ground chuck, ground round, ground turkey, and... ground squirrel?? What the heck!?!?! Anyway, after that incident, I continued on until I reached the next little town I had to pass through. In this town, they are apparently going to do some updating and will be conducting a "Sanitary Sewer Project". Excuse me??? What other kind of a sewer project would you have?? Luckily, I made it home without further incident, but the squirrel thing still weirds me out.

Sad, sad news alert... I've been battling a pain in my forearm for the last couple of weeks that was apparently set off during softball practice with some kind of weird throw, so I haven't been able to play in our games, although I did go in in a pinch the first game. However, when I throw the ball, it really hurts, which was my first clue that maybe I should go see the doctor. Well, I went yesterday, and she diagnosed me with tennis elbow. I have to wear a tennis elbow brace (which turns out to be a hard foam half-circle that goes on my forearm just under my elbow and straps snugly around my arm to keep the inflammation in one area) for the next 4 to 6 weeks while it heals. Oh, and no softball, either. HUH?!? I'm very disgusted with this - I played with a broken foot last year, but a mere muscle is laying me low this year? Humph! So, I'm on the disabled list for most, if not all, of the rest of the season. Sad, sad news indeed.

I'll leave you with a picture of Amanda on the rolly slide. She teaches with Mom and will be sharing the disabled list on our softball team with me this year, as she is recovering from back surgery. This picture was taken at the park we went to for lunch and playtime after the baby animals. Have an awesome week, and avoid the ground squirrel!