For All You "Cool" Moms and Dads

For all you "Cool" Moms and Dads that are keeping it "Cool". This is too cute.

Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

Hannah once again reveals the fragile ties that bind a family in transition, as two people choose to escape the limits of their ordinary lives and reach for the extraordinary promise that lies on Distant Shores.

Elizabeth and Jackson Shore married young, raised two daughters, and weathered the storms of youth as they built a future together. But after the children leave home, they quietly drift apart. When Jack accepts a wonderful new job offer, Elizabeth puts her needs aside to follow him across the country. Until the sudden death of her father changes everything.

Grieving and alone, she retreats to an isolated beach house where she packs away the last remnants of her parents' lives. There, the pieces of a past she never knew unfold to reveal a tender story of lasting devotion, the kind of steadfast commitment that Elizabeth admits is missing from her own marriage. Faced with her own disillusionment, she makes a terrifying decision, risking everything she has for a second chance at happiness.

Enriched by soul-stirring emotion and an appreciation for the simple joy of everyday miracles, Distant Shores is an exquisite reminder of the most precious gifts in life: friends and family, children and lovers, the strength to change, and the courage to forgive-all flawlessly captured by the graceful hands of Kristin Hannah.


I don't know if you've had the opportunity to read any of Kristin Hannah's books, but if not you need to get on board. In 'Distant Shores' she once again speaks to the heart of every woman. As you get older you wonder if you took the right path, if the choices you made were right, what would life be like if you had taken another path??? She just speaks right to my heart and actually gives the answers that are sound. When we made the decisions we made as young adults they were the right decisions and as we go along we make the best possible decisions with all the information we have at the time. And all of those decisions lead us to today and we are usually living the best possible life if we made the best possible decisions along the way. Wrapping your head around that answer is sometimes hard as we struggle with lifes changes, but this book helps to put it all into perspective.

I am so glad my daughter had a book house party featuring Kristin Hannah. And yes, to the publishers that sponser those parties.... it's working, a friend bought the book and we're all reading. Oh yeah, we'll be buying more.

Photo Tag

What a fun meme. Tammy over at Crazy Mom with 4 Boys tagged me on this one.


This is Muffin crawling all over Papa. With the Christmas tree in the background I'm guessing around December 2009.

Now the rules:
1) Go to your photo files, select the 8Th photo folder.
2) Select the 8Th photo in that folder.
3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

Now for my dilemma - I don't think I can come up with 8, but here we go.

Wendy from the Rambling Vagabond

yup, that's it lol I need to make more friends lol Anyway, this is a fun meme please feel free to grab it and have fun.

Whew! No Frost Damage

Okay, last Sunday I was getting very anxious to get in the garden (yes it was raining, but just a drizzle) and I planted about 3 dozen perennials. I was real concerned last night when they were calling for a frost/freeze. The temperature this morning at 6:00 a.m. was 30 degrees. I was afraid to go outside... but here you have it... I am truly blessed and my plants survived fine. Here they are.. making great progress, let's take a walk around the yard. Only have a few minutes, but don't want to miss anything.

The tulips in the front are a double petal variety and are beautiful. Notice the couple of blooms on the Magnolia tree.


The color is true red, sunlight just glistening, but look at the pretty petals.


Here at the 'garden gate' we've got Clemaitis starting to climb, Coral Bells (in the lower left), a little Coreopsis Moonbeam (to the left and bottom right) and kind of in the center are some new Coreopsis.


Hope the Hollyhocks come up ... I remember them from when I was growing up.


Some Forget-Me-Nots in white... and a volunteer day lily is starting up behind it.


The Bee Balm is really raring to go. Hope we're in town this year when it blooms.


Don't remember the exact name, but I think it's some kind of Coreopsis. I had good luck with it last year and I'm taking full advantage of it if it wants to grow in my yucky soil.


Look at all the buds on the Peony.


And the Peony bushes are really bushy.


The Scottish Bluebell caught my eye. Can't see the blue too much, but they are really pretty.


The Sedum I planted last year did well.... time to get another :)


And another Clemaitis that still needs to be planted in the tire. Need to get something for it to climb on too.


This is a cool birdhouse I found last weekend at a craft bazaar. Can you believe only $10.00!! The guy that makes them said that he sells them to boutiques in Travis City and Petosky and they sell them for $39 - $59! For $10.00 I got two lol


Another view. It even has a nice finish that can withstand the elements.


And look what we spotted on the Trumpet Vine wall.... a robin's bird nest.


This picture shows (not too clearly) that there are three eggs. I was balancing on a chair that shouldn't be stood on and holding the camera over my head lol. Hope no squirrels get them. We'll all have to try to stand guard.


So there you have it, one of my favorite times of year coming to life. Tomorrow the mulch will be delivered and my weekend is full of 'fun' exercise.

Surprise! Surprise!

We've been shopping lately to take advantage of all the rebates and credits on energy efficient appliances. Well, today was the day that the new LG Refrigerator, and front load LG washer and dryer were delivered. I was really surprised when they called at 7:00 a.m. and said they would be there within an hour!! Do they know that MM is retired? If he was still working then for sure the delivery would have been between 12:00 and 4:30 p.m. and someone would have had to take the afternoon off lol. But I'm wandering here, the guys were there by 8:00 and gone by 8:30!! They were very efficient and everything was there and there appears to be no damage. What a great start to a great day. Oh yeah, another reason we got the new appliances is that the ones we had were on borrowed time. The other fridge was purchased in 1984 (yup, that makes it 26 years old) and the washer and dryer were about 20 years old. Definitely borrowed time, and we decided to do the replacing on our time instead of having to scramble and deal with spoiled food blah blah blah.

This first picture is of the LG French Door refrigerator/freezer. With just the two of us there most of the time I don't know when we'll ever fill it, but it'll be nice to not have to go to the garage for a can of pop because the fridge is full of stuff for a particular event. The freezer on the bottom appears to be really big too. There is a small basket attached to the top front of the drawer that will be good for single pound packages of meat, and there is an upper small basket that has the ice (dropped from the ice maker) and shallow basket for smaller bags (maybe vegetables). I took a picture of the outside, but somehow it disappeared from the camera. Anyway it's stainless steel and BIG.


Here's the new front load washer. Never had one of these, but I'm thinking it should be a lot more gentle on the cloths. And look at all the storage space I acquired by not having a lid on the top. Gotta tell myself "no". No storing on the top.... keep it clean.


And the dryer. Don't know what's special about this, but this too has a clean top because the lint thingy is inside the door. If nothing else I've acquired more folding space.



So that's my big news for the day. Can't wait to load the fridge back up and possibly go shopping. Oh yeah, and do laundry that has definitely piled up as I waited for the new machines. Never thought I'd say I was looking forward to two things that I hate most in life - grocery shopping and laundry lol.

Lots of Budding Going On

I've been anxiously awaiting Spring so I can get outside and get dirty. Still isn't time to plant, but things are coming up. One of the local nurseries had small perennial plants on sale for $.99 and I really took advantage of that. The only bad thing is that they are not hardened off so I've been taking them in and out of the garage for the last week and plan on doing it for at least another week.

(Why is it that I took the picture 'landscape' and it showed up 'portrait' I turned and saved it 'landscape' and I can only get it on here 'portrait'?)


The two tall thingies are Clematis to climb on my new garden gate. I also had good luck with this type of sedem last year so I got another one.


We were watching Magnolia trees all over the city blooming like crazy and this is our first bud. There are a few on there and I'm very happy to see them. We just planted the tree last Spring so it's really working on just adjusting to the new space.


We planted lots of Daffodils and Tulips last Fall and they look beautiful. There could be more to make a statement, but it's a start. Do these multiply?


The Beebalm is looking very healthy. Hope we're home this Summer when it blooms, we've missed it the last few years.


All three Peonies are looking good and growing with a purpose.... blooming!


MM attached this birdhouse to this sink and anchored it to this stump last year. This year it will house a beautiful flowing plant. Pretty setting for a plant isn't it?


This is the Neon Sedum that I planted last Fall. When I saw how well it was coming up I decided to get another one. It obviously likes my backyard.


And last but not least are the beautiful Hostas. Yep, the deer or rabbits have already started nibbling on them, but we got out the repel stuff and hopefully have halted the little buggers.



I just love this time of year to see all the little pretties and signs of 'new life'. One of the best things about Michigan - the changing of the seasons. It is so pronounced and we anxiously await each one.

I'm Movin Now

Okay, so I got lots of suggestions on how to get moving and I'm moving now. I went to the plant nursery last night on the way home from Mom's and got a tray of perennials for $.99 each (each plant that is). They haven't been hardened off yet, so I need to take them in and out of the garage for about a week and make sure they stay watered. They were closing as I got there so I just grabbed some and paid. I plan on going back tomorrow during lunch and get more. I just love gardening... wish I had more time.

I made a list of things to get at the store tonight and what I need to get ready to pack into the RV for our first weekend of camping (it's going to be cold so I need to get some knitting or something).

The sun is shining and all is right with the world. Gotta say though that all the ideas that I've been giving to my loving family and friends all came back to me at just the right time. Thanks to all of you. You mean the world to me.

Need Motivation

I don't know what's with me lately, but I just can't seem to get motivated.... to do anything. In the evening I sit and think of all things I want to do 'tomorrow'. Tomorrow comes and I think 'I'll do that later'. Later comes and then I begin to think 'tomorrow I'll do that'. Need I say more, it's vicious! Hope I get with it soon, because there is a lot to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm doing what has to be done (laundry, cooking, shopping), but just not my usual of doing lots of stuff.

I have a few quilts started, need to make a Christmas mitten for Pumpkin who will have a first Christmas in 2010. Still need to order some stuff for the garden this year. You get the idea... I can't even work out in the morning... I'll do that later lol. Only later it's tomorrow.

I'm hoping I snap out of this soon, because I'm even getting tired of it.

Any suggestions? I'll even consider drugs (I mean meds). Snap out of it girl!!!