Birthday Weekend

Last weekend we celebrated a couple birthdays--Dale's and Kate's. Jeff's and Betsy's families came up for the weekend. We had a great time and a lot of laughs.

Here's Massage Therapist Kate 'relaxing' on her birthday. Feast your eyes on those fancy slippers of hers!



Jeff and Josh got in a bit of snowmobiling.

Saturday night, we all went bowling. It was the first time bowling for the 4 little ones. I don't know if they ever realized that the object was to knock over the pins at the other end of the lane, but they did have great joy in taking turns rolling the ball down the lane! Sometimes that ball crawled so slowly that it just stopped midway. The attendants were starting to look the other way when they saw the ball creeping, I believe! Sorry, no pictures of the little cuties.








See the little bunnies on the cake? Kate always had them on her birthday cakes when she was growing up. They were even on her wedding cake behind the flowers on one of the tiers, so she could see them when they cut the cake.

Chocolate Chip Cake

I tried a new recipe today to take to our birthday fellowship tomorrow. It's called Chocolate Chip Cake. I hope it tastes as good as I think it will. It has chopped up chocolate chips in the cake itself. The filling between the layers is butterscotch with nuts. The glaze topping is chocolate. Doesn't look very pretty, does it? I think if I ever make it again, I'll make a little more filling and glaze so it drips down more.

Jeff's Birthday

We spent Monday and Tuesday with Jeff, Karen and the kids, celebrating Jeff's birthday. When Jeff was growing up, almost all his birthday cakes had clowns on them--so that's what he got this time. I'm not sure it was his first choice, but the kids liked it. LOL

Jeff does love cake!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey, Look!

Does this picture look familiar? They took it from my blog (with permission). Half of the front page--neat, huh?



Also in today's newpaper--Kate's advertisement:

From My Valentine

Aren't they beautiful?

Building Update

I was just looking over my previous posts and realized I left ya hanging with the church stairway pictures, so here are some newer pictures. We still need to get the chair lift in.

Looks like we need some paint touch-ups here:

Special Treat!

One of the men brought a gift for every lady that was at church Sunday. A big box of chocolates! Wasn't that nice?

Valentine Goodies

I made these goodies to take to our Valentine Potluck at church tomorrow.

These are Petit Fours:

(Last Spring, I took some of these to our Ladies Tea. I overheard someone say that those Little Debbie cakes were really good. Oh, man, all that work and people thought they were Little Debbie cakes!)

You can't see these very well, but they are finger jello hearts:

(several layers--maybe that's why it's so hard to discern)

In Loving Memory

...Of my Uncle Normie who passed away last evening.


This is a picture of my uncles Norman (waving) and Furman watching over 'Furman's Hot Dog Stand' at one of our family reunions.


I think this picture was taken the last time I saw him:


A couple pictures of Uncle Normie as a little boy.






Uncle Normie was the one who took me fishing the first time I caught a fish. (He had to throw it back because it was too small--something I didn't understand for many years. When I asked why he threw my fish back, he said that it was too small. I remember thinking that maybe he thought it was too small, but I thought it was a nice fish. Didn't yet know there were rules for fishing.)

Good-bye, Uncle Normie, with love.

How Sweet It Is!

This evening I went to a really neat program, "How Sweet It is" at the Devereaux Library in Grayling. Chef Larry Meyer was demonstrating special chocolate desserts--just in time for Valentines Day. We had the opportunity to participate and sample!

How about this for an entree? It's fettucini especially for chocoholics. The fettucini is actually made of chocolate crepes cut in strips, arranged on a platter, drizzled first with chocolate, then with raspberry sauce. Instead of grated parmesan, he grated white chocolate over it. After this picture was taken, it was garnished with whipped topping.

Now that we've covered the main course, let's get on to the desserts :) Here the chef is preparing Black Forest Torte.

This chocolate mousse was so light and tasty.


Every well-balanced meal needs its fruit, so here we have strawberries dipped in chocolate.
Shirley and I helped with the dipping.



Everything was so good, but I think these chocolate ice box cookies were my favorite.

By the time we got to the chocolate mocha truffles, even this die-hard chocoholic was feeling like she'd reached her limit--but still, Yum!



The chef's son wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become a chef, too. Here he is assisting his dad.

Sweet Success!

Had a fun day in the kitchen. I made banana pineapple muffins, cookies, homemade pizza and homemade bread. They all turned out. Amazing the difference fresh yeast makes! I needed to bolster my confidence after that other bread I made recently. Thought I'd lost my touch. LOL

Now I need to work on my photography skills. This picture makes the bread look too dark. Sure tasted good!

Catching Up

Here it is, the last day of January. One month done of this new year, and I'm already feeling two months behind.

Definitely behind in this week. We headed downstate Monday and first visited with my folks (and pigged out at the Golden Corral--Thanks, Mom and Dad!) Then we went to Anthony and Betsy's house to celebrate Caroline's third Birthday a couple days late. Ben, Lori and their kids were there, too. We had a real nice visit. That evening, Betsy, Lori and I went to Michael's where I was trying to find certain components to make some more of these little houses:








I was hoping to make some for three of my little granddaughters for their sixth birthdays this year. They are each made of two small Michael's hutches, glued back to back. They are only about 6 inches tall or so. One of these little granddaughters just loves mine, so I thought it would be a good idea. Doesn't look like it's going to happen, though.

You'd never the believe the ribbing I received in my quest for these hutches. A perfectly normal excursion, IMHO.

We stayed that night at Betsy's. The next morning, most of us went to the mall until it was time for Dale and me to head back home. We really enjoy being with our family.

For any of you who are worried about the misplaced snake, you'll be happy to know I returned it to its rightful owner. However, it seems the little critter took up residence under Betsy's dining room table instead of leaving with its master for warmer climes.



Stay tuned for the further adventures of The Snake!

Meet my Boss...

This little furball is my pet, Zebadiah. She (yes, she) is getting old and has mellowed out a lot since her younger days. She's still a little thing; no bigger than a minute. Sadly, my children don't like her. (Please refrain from mean comments about her, kids.) I've had a lot of fun with this little rascal over the years.

Can you believe it?

Some of my kids will be surprised--and pleased--to know that I finally broke down and bought a new pan! They've been making comments about my worn out old-faithfuls. I've been wanting one of these for a long time and KMart has them on sale this week.

Success and Failure

Success: I did it! I got all the flannelgraph pieces cut out and ready to use!!! What a job.

Failure: I made homemade bread this morning--something that usually turns out beautifully. Well, today it flopped. It was edible, but not great. I'm trying to figure out what happened so I'm making just one loaf this afternoon to see if it goes better. Already, I realize I forgot the sugar this morning. Ugh. I'm thinkin' maybe I need to get new yeast, too.

My Beautiful North

Here's a picture I snapped as I was driving down the road the other day. I love to see the snow on the pines.

Here's what we have right near the door.

The Stairway

The new stairway is finally built in the church. Here they are nailing the last step in. Of course, there is still the finishing to do--carpet, rails, chair lift. Hopefully, we'll soon be able to use the basement classrooms again!

The Beginning of a New Year

Ben, Lori and their kids arrived on New Year's Eve. We had a nice relaxing week with them, just enjoying being together, eating burritos, going to thrift shops, playing games (Clue and Dutch Blitz) and watching Ernest movies. Kate and Josh were here with us some of the time, too. Josh rode his snowmobile to our house; our little southern grandsons thought that was pretty neat! They also enjoyed playing in the snow. We had some decent-sized hills in our yard where the snowplow had piled the snow. Just right for youngsters to sled on.

For some reason, Austin, Caleb and Chloe are very hard to get pictures of. They move so quickly! Here's a picture I snapped of Austin and Caleb. They were right there when I looked in the camera and started pressing the button, then poof! they disappeared before the picture was taken.

This next picture is of a little gem we seem to have acquired during their visit. Caleb bought it at Dollar Castle, and Ben is sure they took theirs back with them...so how did it get in our car??? There it was, cosily slumbering on the driver's seat when I went to get in. Yikes! I about jumped out of my skin. It looks too real. Maybe not in this picture, but believe me, it looks altogether too real.



Well, now all the holiday family gatherings are over and it's back to getting caught up with life. Sure did enjoy these last couple months of fun!