Cream of the crops

The farmer's market started up a few weeks ago in Lawrence. I finally made it up there this morning. Here's all the goodies I came home with. It's one of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings. It usually sets the tone for the rest of my day. I lay it all out, clean and trim it all up and put it in the fridge all ready to cook or eat when I am ready for it. I love this time of year when all this heavenly stuff is available. I got this whole lot for only $10.
"Mom, what are we going to cook first?"

Here's the first thing I cooked. Eggplant Parmesan. It was YUMMY. Unfortunately no one in the house likes this dish except me so I took some over to Mom and Dad. They loved it.

For no particular reason, here's a picture of my beautiful Seadra. I love my Boo-Boo.

It's been a great day. I'm enjoying a relaxing day at home doing whatever I want at my leisure and even at that it's been productive. Hope you are enjoying your day as much as I am.

Picture of the day

Jordan decided to give Daddy some hair tonight.

Silver Lake Dunes

Finally, I have a minute to do some blogging. We got home late Sunday from Silver Lake and this is the first minute I've had to sit down. I've been swamped at work this week. The new surgeon that we have been highly anticipating for many months has finally arrived. This has been keeping me very busy in the OR but that is another post. Anyway, here are some pictures of our weekend up at Silver Lake. We had a great time, great weather, and great kids having a lot of fun. Here's all 3 of the vehicles in the dunes. Craig and I usually drove the truck around, Josh drove the Jeep and of course Caleb mostly drove the dune buggy.The whole gang, minus me. I'm always behind the camera. Jordan, Shane, Josh, Caleb and Craig.Craig playing in the Jeep. This poor Jeep always takes a beating and just keeps on going. At one point I was riding with Craig in the Jeep and he jumped a dune without realizing what a steep drop off there was on the other side. Had it not been for my seat belt I would have been stuck head down in a sand dune. As it was my back got jarred so hard that I couldn't turn my head to the right for the next 24 hours. Doesn't that sound like fun to you!!! It did get me two really good back massages. Caleb and Jordan in the buggy with Craig following in the Jeep.Another buggy picture. Craig in the Jeep and Caleb in the buggy getting ready to drag race.

Josh and Shane enjoying the buggy.

Here We Go.....

We are leaving for Silver Lake Sand Dunes in the morning. It's the big debut for the dune buggy. Here is a picture of what the dune buggy looked like when Craig and Caleb bought it last winter.

Before.....

During.....

I will have to admit I was thinking this was another one of those projects that would sit around for years without any progress. I never dreamed that a few months later it would look like this.....

After......

I'll Post some pictures of the buggy in the dunes after we get home.

This picture was taken last year when we were there.
Jordan at the lighthouse beach on Lake Michigan close to Silver Lake. We love this lighthouse.
I picked up this book to read over the weekend. Looked like my kind of book.

Jordan and I have been grocery shopping, cooking and getting things ready all day. We've rented a house this year so I don't have to cook in the dirt or sleep on the ground. It's going to be a great weekend!! See you when we get back.

Our week, so far......

Sunday afternoon we picked up Jordan from Drum Major camp at Michigan State. She had a great time. It's gotten her all fired up and excited about marching season starting up. They had their first marching season practice Monday night and the first thing Jordan said when I picked her up was "I forgot how much I love band!!". That is so cool. So Sunday night we headed out to the cottage to spend the week. Craig's parents are out west vacationing so we had the opportunity to have the cottage all to ourselves. It's been very quiet, and peaceful. I took the week off work but Craig has continued to work this week.
These last few pictures show that the kids have had their friends out all week. That's the way we like it. The kids have been blessed with the most awesome friends.

We take the pontoon boat for a ride every night. Here's two of my favorite girls enjoying our evening boat ride.

Another evening boat ride photo.

Caleb relaxing ......

Friday morning we are heading up to Silver Lake for a weekend of playing in the sand dunes. We have rented a cabin and a few of the kids friends are going with us. More to follow....

Reasons why we love Gram and Pa-Pa (Mom and Dad)

Because Gram and Pa-Pa, especially Pa-Pa, are always so excited to see Zoe and Seadra. Pa-Pa spoils them as if they were grandchildren. He's always sends them home with bones and treats.
See how happy Seadra is to be there. She starts squealing about a 1/2 mile down the road because she recognizes where we are going.
We love the walks through the gardens.

Dad picking us tomatoes. They share it all.
Even Seadra gets to eat from the garden. Pa-Pa gave her a mild pepper and she ate it.

And there are always beautiful things to look at.

And more beautiful things......
And still more.......

And this is our favorite!! This was the dinner that I got tonight. Everything you see on my plate came fresh from the garden, except for the chicken. There was okra, tomatoes, squash, egg plant, & cucumbers. It doesn't get any better. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

These are just a few of the reasons why we love Gram and Pa-Pa's.

The Cottage

Because I am such an awesome photographer and because these are cool pictures, I'm just going to post some pictures today. All these pictures were taken Sunday at the cottage. This is Kay's (my mother-in-law's) hand. Isn't this dragonfly beautiful? Click on the picture to enlarge; the wings look like a stained glass windows.

I couldn't believe my luck. I was sitting on the end of the pier and this Blue Herring landed on the raft right in front of me. It was one of my goals to photograph one that day.

Another Blue Herring shot.
Time to fly away.

Caleb showing off.

Catching some air.

Yahoo......

OK, I'm done showing off.

Having a great time...Wish you were here!!

Jordan and Lindsey are having a great time. They come home tomorrow after 8 days of fun and sun at Disney World. I got this email picture from then that they sent from an exhibit at Epcot. The picture is somewhat grainy but you can see that they are having fun!!

I'll post more pictures after they get home.

OK, it's time....

OK, it's time to fess up. At the risk of making myself the laughing stock of anyone who ever looks at my blog I am ready to make myself very vulnerable. I decided that today I would confide in you that Seadra and Zoe also have their own blog. Stop laughing!!! It's true and it's real. Since April Seadra and Zoe have joined a network call "Dog's With Blogs" or DWB's. I am not the only person that is crazy for their dogs who also happens to like blogging, this is a great way to combine both pleasures. There are hundreds of us out there.

It happened just by accident. I was doing a search of the blogs one day on "Boston Terriers" to see if anyone out there blogging was talking about their dogs. That's when I can across Ike's blog. Ike is the coolest Boston Terrier with his own blog. I found it so intriguing that a dog could share his thoughts and feeling and have a bunch of friends that do the same. I found myself going to Ike's blog often and also clicking on all the links to his doggie friends. These people, or "dogs" I should say, were having so much fun communicating with each other. And it was all good wholesome clean fun too.

That's when I found myself wanting Seadra and Zoe to have a blog too. I even went so far as to create a new account and get a blog set up for them. I even did a first blog entry for them. I'll have to admit that I was feeling a little foolish so I deleted the whole account. But this didn't stop my yearning to want to join in all the fun that they were having. I still kept visiting the DWB's daily.

So....back in April I decided that if I wanted to do this to just do it!!! I set up their blog and then went to a bunch of the other doggie blogs and introduced ourselves. Before long we had a lot of friends and we all were having fun talking about anything and everything. We actually get to know these dogs personalities. Some of the blogs are hilarious, some are serious but all are fun. We are all dogs except we have one hamster Friend named "Girl Girl" that plays along with us.

The first person I confided in was Craig. I was preparing myself to hear what a nut I was from him but much to my surprise his first comment was "You should have a lot of fun with that". Jordan enjoys looking at the blog and visiting other dog blogs too. I will tell you that Caleb thinks I have lost it.

So here's the link to Seadra and Zoe's blog. If you would like to visit feel free to stop by and see what all this craziness is all about. I decided to make Seadra the narrator of the blog since she is the dominate dog in the house. Be sure to click on the comments to see how we all communicate with each other. And if you are so inclined visit some of the other dog blogs too. Seadra and Zoe's blog pales in comparison to how creative and funny some of the other dog blogs are. But Seadra and Zoe are working on trying to be creative too.

It's been fun..........

8 Days In Disney!!!

Jordan had the awesome opportunity to go to Disney World with her girlfriend Lindsey and Lindsey's grandparents. They were on the plane at 6:00 this morning. All day long I kept thinking of her....."OK, it's 9:45, they are landing in Orlando; now it's noon; I wonder what park they are in", etc,etc. I hope that they all have a wonderful time.

Jordan called about 5:00. They were already making the rounds. They had spent the first day at the Magic Kingdom. She said the resort pool was right outside their room and they were getting ready to go swimming. She called again tonight about 9:00 and talked to Craig. They were heading back to the park again tonight for more rides and fireworks.

Sounds like they are off to a good start.

Beautiful!!!

I just picked up Jordan's dance recital pictures from the photographer. I wanted to post them because she is the most beautiful human being in the world. I can say that because I am her mother and because it's true!!

Perfection

Every once in a while you catch that perfect pose!!!

A Wanna Be....

For those of you that you know me, you know I am a wanna be photographer. Only for my own pleasure and because I enjoy it so much. Here are a few shots I've gotten of some wild life in the last few weeks. Granted the pictures are not of elephants or tigers but until I can travel to Africa the chipmunk, rabbit, robin and wren will have to do. If you click on the pictures they should enlarge for better detail. Check him out. He's eating a little nut. I found this little guy at the cottage.
This baby bunny I found at the cottage too. There is a whole nest of them running around.

I didn't think this was the most handsome robin. He looked pretty skinny to me but he was willing to pose so I took advantage of the opportunity.

This is the same robin sitting on a fence in our side yard.

You might have to look close. There is a wren sitting on top of the bird house.

I think she has a nest in there.

Here she's peaking inside.

I've got hummingbird feeders all over the yard so my goal is to get some cool hummingbird pictures. I've been trying but I haven't been very successful yet. Maybe soon you will see some hummingbird pictures.