foodies

Food plays such an important role in our family relationships. Whenever we get together there is always an abundance of good food. I love to cook and my husband loves to eat making us the perfect (snickering just a bit) couple. Our kids were introduced to solid foods at a young age and I'm not talking commercial baby food either. They ate the same foods we did including a lot of fruits and vegetables. To this day they still go heavy on the fruits and vegetables. So it isn't surprising when they are encouraging the same food philosophy in the grandbabies.



cartoon courtesy of Tom Fishburne

Oldest grandbaby (age 22 months) has a healthy appetite and while she gets the occasional sweets, she really likes fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and yogurt. There is very little she won't eat since her parents have made sure to introduce her to a wide variety of foods. She is very inquistive over food and loves to stand on a chair to help mommy cook. The stand and hand held mixers as well as taste testing are her favourites. She has her own little play kitchen (in the big kitchen) complete with fruits and vegetables (pieces joined) with velcro) that she can put on cutting boards then cut then apart with toy knives. Grandma really has to get some of these for the toy kitchen at her house too.

Youngest grandbaby (age 5 months) is now eating solids. She isn't fussy about sweet potatoes but loves spinach. In true form she is not eating commercially prepared baby food. She loves cucumber slices and raw carrots. This little one is destined to be a foodie as well.

And the cycle of good food bring family and friends together continues...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

sharing

We decided to celebrate our Thanksgiving* early this year as expectant parents of oldest grandbaby have a wedding to attend that weekend. It was easier for us to travel there where everyone with the exception of the kids in Wisconsin met on Saturday. The guys went golfing while the girls went to the apple orchard and plant nursery. Then we returned to the kids' (parents of oldest grandbaby) house for a lovely turkey dinner with all the fixings. It was a wonderful weekend!

cartoon courtesy of Tom Fishburne

Youngest grandbaby is now sitting up and reaching for toys, much to the dismay of oldest grandbaby. Sharing with adults is fine but another baby? It was quite amusing to watch, very much like the cartoon. Youngest grandbaby was not to be deterred from reaching for toys or oldest grandbaby. The adults of course encouraged sharing and rewarded with praise each time she shared. She is a very attentive baby with huge dark eyes that twinkle when she smiles. It was quite apparent that she wanted to play with oldest grandbaby. Oh and the cutest thing is she sits on her daddy's lap and appears to read, very focused on the pages and getting quite excited over different animal pictures! Towards the end of the day oldest grandbaby had warmed up to youngest grandbaby. These two are going to be a real hoot when youngest grandbaby gets a bit more mobile!

*Canadian Thanksgiving - Monday, October 13, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Wordless Wednesday

Landfill
July 22, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

BYBS - Tenacity

Tenacity
Aug. 6, 2008

tenacity - persistence, stamina, chutzpah, determination, endurance, fortitude, grit

Have you ever stopped to observe spiders or weeds? It doesn't matter what obstacles arise both will come right back and try again. Seriously, you can knock down a spider web and by morning it will be rebuilt. You can kill off weeds and they come right back. You can pave yet a weed will find a crack or the smallest amount of soil to root. Now that's tenacity! Whatever synonym you want to use one of my strongest character traits is tenacity. Over the years this trait has served me very well. It has been a true blessing.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

toddlers

As anyone who has had children can attest this cartoon is so true! Hmm, the cartoonist seems to have left grandparents out of the picture.


cartoon courtesy of Tom Fishburne

The weather has turned cool. Yesterday we were going to go boating and stop for dinner but changed our minds opting to drive instead. The kids who married in July left early yesterday morning on their honeymoon and being the worry wart that I am, I insisted on putting a bit of just in case money in their account. That meant we had to take a trip to the US which we would have by boat except the bank we needed did not have a branch where we would be stopping so we drove. My husband went in to make the deposit while I browsed in a discount store. Sure enough I managed to buy play dough, crayons, baby socks and three outfits for the grandbabies. This grandma simply can't resist the cute little kids clothes especially the fabulous prices in the US. Each adorable outfit was only $4 on sale for a top and bottoms so I got them large enough to fit the kids next summer. We left the little mall to look at a couple of boats my husband is interested in then we stopped for a scumptious dinner at a seafood restaurant in Harrison Twp. Michigan where the dinner conversation centred on our kids as well as the grandbabies. Our kids and grandbabies are the centre of our universe!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

the nose

Unlike Mrs Smily I have a nose with a wicked sense of humour and I do mean wicked! Mrs Smily is ever so lucky to be noseless. I have a love hate relationship with my nose! It serves absolutely no useful purpose that I can immediately think of. Oh sure its rather cute. It does hold up my glasses but heck without it the ears would still hold them up or I could just wear my contacts more. It can be entertaining for the young ones when I wiggle it but honestly with their attention span I see no need to keep it hanging around for the 2 minutes it can do that on an annual basis. Why do I hate my nose?

The simple reason is my nose is either stuffed or running. There's no in between. I play the allergy roll-over game at night. Turning from one side to the other just long enough for one nostril to clear while the pressure builds in the other. During the day if it isn't stuffy I'm racing for kleenex before drips hit the floor. Oh yes, my nose has a real funny bone! I'll bet I have more boxes of open kleenex in the house than anyone else. Each room has at least one box but some rooms have multiple boxes! Of course when the nose tires of dripping it goes into sneezing fits. Let me tell you after having kids that is just not a nice thing for my nose to do. I told you it had a wicked sense of humour!

I need a nose job. Seriously I do. I'm opting for total nose removal including sinuses. That will surely teach my nose who's boss! We'll see who has the last laugh. I tell you my nose's days are numbered...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Wordless Wednesday

Wind Power
July 22, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

BYBS - eye candy

Double Rainbows
August 9, 2008

To often our lives are so busy we forget to appreciate the beauty around us. Even in times of dispair and turmoil there is beauty. My digital camera is always within easy reach when I'm home and I never leave home without it. Why? Knowing that the camera is right there brings an awareness of my surroundings, always on the look for that special photo opportunity. What I've come to realize that even the simplest things can present a great photo opportunity. Even something as boring as a brick wall can form the basis of a great picture. I think that I am very blessed to be in tuned to this kind of awareness. It allows me to not only enjoy life through my eyes but also through the camera lens!

The photo of the double rainbows was taken from the end of our driveway through the wooded area. We had cut an event short when a horrid storm blew up threatening to blow over the huge outdoor tent. Everything was wet but what was worse was the sudden drop in temperature as the storm unleashed its furry. I shivered the entire trip home even though the heated car seat was set to high! As we neared our small road off the main road the double rainbows suddenly appeared! Despite being cold and wet I just had to get pictures. The rainbows were over the field on the other side of the main road and unlike a lot of rainbows, the colours were very vivid as the formed a full arc. For a few brief moments it was just me and the camera drinking in the beauty of the rainbows. Nature's eye candy is one of those true blessings!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

early fall weather

Fireplace
Sep. 11,2008

This has been an abnormal year of funky weather if you ask me. Spring was cold and wet causing many farmers and gardeners to complain. Summer was cooler and stormy with many days of humidity rising in the morning followed by rather nasty thunderstorms in the late afternoon or early evening. We had our air conditioner on all of about five non-consecutive days the entire summer. After Labour Day weekend the temperatures seemed to plummet to the point that Thursday morning I put the gas fireplace on to take the chill of the lower (main) living level. Honestly! It is way too soon to have to be doing that.

Our floor to ceiling fireplace is massive taking up about half of the wall. More pictures can be seen here. It is a natural fireplace that has been crudely in my opinion converted to a gas fireplace. I would dearly love to revert it back to wood burning however my husband is not quite so agreeable on this. Hmm, it could be from heating solely with wood over a period of about 17 years and two houses. So what we will be doing is looking for a gas fireplace that fits the space better and something that isn't quite so fussy looking. What I really like about the gas fireplace is even if the electricity is out the fireplace still works. This is a huge plus during the winter! Our last two houses didn't have any back-up heat source if the power was out so I always worried about this.

We are hosting a larger event tonight with family down for dinner and activities going on into the wee hours of the morning. I have a turkey in the oven so the house is smelling good! I'm trying to get a few online activities done before it gets busy but the weather is not co-operating. It has been coming down in sheets! This is playing havoc with my internet connection so it's slow going. When the effects of Hurricane Ike hits it will be worse. Ah well, maybe I'll get some much needed knitting done.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

no it doesn't end

Oh Be Careful Little Feet
July 6, 2008

I was doing my daily EC (Entrecard) dropping this morning when I happened upon the blog of a single mother who's child is four years old. She questioned whether being a parent ever ended. Here's the comment I left on her blog:

As a parent of now grown children who are now having their own children I can safely state that no, it does not ever end! Once a mother and you are a mother for the rest of your life. Even when they are grown you are still parenting, leading by example, supporting and loving them. You worry about them, laugh with them and cry with them. You cheer them on and comfort them. It never ends and that's not such a bad thing :)

Parenthood doesn't come with an on and off switch or a manual. I firmly believe that parenting begins from the moment you get the news you are expecting and continues until the day you die. Being a parent defines one of the most importing roles you can have as a person. Parenthood gives you the opportunity to learn about yourself and see the world through the eyes of another. It becomes part of your very being. There is no end, only more growth and discovery along your pathway of life.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

satellite beams

Somewhere
Sep. 6, 2008

Somewhere up there is the lovely satellite that beams down the magical world of the world web web to us. Satellite internet is our only high speed option where we live. There is no DSL or cable. Two houses ago we had DSL then went to dial-up for the last house. We started with dial-up here then went to satellite. Let me start off by making it quite clear that even though satellite internet is called high speed it is not high speed as normally applies to internet connection. All satellite internet providers have what is called FAP (Fair Access Policy) which means if you exceed your bandwidth threshold that hour, they will cut back your speed to 40% for an hour. Now this one is hard to explain given you are paying a pretty good dollar for the bandwidth to begin with. Finally weather conditions can greatly affect whether or not you get a signal.

We've had speed issues with our connection right from installation a little over a year ago. Last weekend we were down to crawl in speed with pages refusing to load or taking as long as a half hour to load. We made yet another call to the provider to yet be told once again that it was weather related and were reminded that we were on a problem beam. Hmm, the skies were rather clear. The problems continued through Monday. Finally I called them again to be told I had been FAPed! Say what? Considering I hadn't been able to do anything online much of Monday I somehow had exceeded the bandwidth threshold. I don't think so! The lovely tech told me I must have a virus or trojan. Hello! I'm running on a Mac that is so squeaky clean it's almost embarrassing and besides viruses currently do not affect Mac. I ran MacScan to be sure there was no spyware. I found 2 tracking cookies of which were cleared out but nothing on my end would account for exceeding bandwidth. Out of frustration I pulled the plug to the modem. Tuesday morning I called again while the modem was unplugged to find I had been FAPed with the modem unplugged. Hmm, no way of any signal getting from our house to the satellite and yet I still exceeded bandwidth? To me that clearly said there was a problem on their end. The nice tech had me plug in the modum but not connect it to the router and leave it for four hours then call back. At the same time he told me I was somehow managing to get FAPed every 20 minutes, 7 days a week since at least August 11, the furthest he could call up! So days we were away and everything was powered down I was still getting FAPed! I called them back and they said everything was fine and I could plug it in. I plugged in, got online and immediately the speed went down to a crawl. I was FAPed again simply by connecting! I called them back and the tech had me once again unplug the ethernet leaving only the modem connected for an hour and told me to call back. I did and finally got the ok to connect again with a temporary boost to the next package (increased bandwidth) only to be immediately FAPed again. By now not only was I extremely frustrated and close to tears but my temper was starting to boil. I called them back to sit on hold waiting for a second level tech for 34 minutes! He told me to disconnect the ethernet yet again and leave the modem sit overnight then call back in the morning. I made a huge pot of tea then sat down to get a few pictures ready for blogs and do other offline computer work then settled into bed at 2 pm for watch Flipping Out. Even my most horrible days can't compare to his (Jeff Lewis)!

This morning I called and they patched me through to a second level tech. Apparently there had been no FAPs through the night so he had me connect the ethernet then go online to do a speed test. Immediately I saw the IP was different than my normal IP address. He said that was because the modem had been reset. Fine. Then he asked my location and using aerial location found our house. Surprise, surprise their co-ordinates for our house actually put our location a good 30 km southeast from where we are! So he corrected the co-ordinates so I now have a new IP meaning I'm in a different user's pool. I asked him to keep us at the higher bandwidth package as well. We had been on that last winter while three computers were often connected but had decreased it for the summer months.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Sorry about that. My head is pounding but so far today the speed has been holding fairly good. Our little problem beam is actually able to find its way through the clear blue skies to bring the world to my fingertips. Today is good :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Wordless Wednesday

Rebel Cloud
August 17, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

St. Ignace Mission

July 21, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Huron Indians

July 21, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Star Line Ferry

July 21, 2008

edited: Sep 12, 2008
The Star Line Ferry service is privately operated by the MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) to transport people from the mainland to Mackinac Island. What makes these ferries distinctive is they are hydro-jets shooting an impressive 35 foot roostertail spray. It can be a bit pricey at $25 per adult (13 and older), $12 per child (5 - 12), and $7.50 for bike or cart rental but it is a pleasant way to spend the day. Mackinac Island prohibits the use of personal motorized vehicles. You can enjoy carriage rides, fishing, biking, hiking, shopping and special events on the island. There are over 40 places to stay and many places to dine. During the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August a sunset cruise under the Mackinac Bridge is offered as well. Reservations for the cruise can be made by calling their reservation line.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Michigan State Ferry

July 21, 2008

The Michigan State Ferry service was established in St. Ignace in 1923 to transport vehicles from St. Ignace to the Lower Peninsula. Cost for the hour long trip was $2.50. In the first year of operation the ferry transported 10,351 vehicles! In 1956 with five ferries were running almost a million vehicles were transported with as many as 9,000 vehicles being transported on summer weekends. The wait times were as high as twelve hours. In 1957 the Mackinac Bridge replaced the ferry service.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

St. Ignace Historical Sign

I just love historical signs especially when they relate to my family history. My French Canadian ancestors came from France and settled in the St. Lawrence Valley (Québec City 1608, Montréal 1642). These founding French ancestors, my great greats, appear in the Fichier Origine database. Many of them were fur traders or involved in the fur trade in other capacities. Father (Père) Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit named the mission after St. Ignatius Loyola founder of the Jesuits. A military fortress was built shortly after becoming a military strong point however, in 1701 the garrison moved to Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit under the control of the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Why should this be of interest to me?

Père Marquette appears in my database but not as an ancestor. I know some of my ancestors were in St. Ignace and some of their descendants still live in the area. Cadillac was in St. Ignace then came to establish Fort Pontchartain in 1701. My sixth great grandfather was the first white man in the area of the fort. He was an interpreter for Cadillac and was a highly respected individual in the fort. Cadillac granted him land in the fort yet he chose to live in the Miamis village beside the fort with his wife and children. He was buried under the original location of Ste. Anne's Church in Detroit which speaks to his importance in the fort. Ste. Anne's Church was moved to it's current location to accommodate the Ambassador Bridge spanning the Detroit River connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

how much is that doggy in the window?

The Dog
July 21, 2008

Now this is a real fitting picture! This dog (and yes it is a real dog) was sitting in the window of a store is St. Ignace, Michigan. I want a dog oh so bad yet my husband doesn't want one. According to him and since we have a boat any dog had best be able to swim from the middle of the lake. I still want a dog! It doesn't matter that I have allergies, I want a dog! Not a huge dog or a fancy dog but a dog. I had a dog for 18 years of my childhood and I had multiple dogs that also shared our home. I need a dog! We tried one of the oh so cute spaniels from the Beanie Baby® collection. I'm not kidding he used it to turn out the light in our room! He could whip that stuffed dog across the room and hit the light switch every time. So I figured out he didn't really like spaniels even though they are oh so cute. And this really comes as a surprise since he actually allowed the kids to keep Tiger (a tabby cat) for over 20 years! Men are so complicated sometimes. Here's the deal I will cook, clean, entertain, quit complaining and in short your life will be heaven [much the same as it is now] if you just let me have a dog. Man! I won't even complain about him having to control the tv remote 24 hours a day 7 days a week or his belching or even when he laughs because he toots (what's with that anyway?). And when the scary parts of Law and Order or Criminal Inten come on I won't have to run to the washroom because my dog (aka my dog) will make it ok. From my perspective, that seems like a pretty good deal :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

Wordless Wednesday

Sunset
Aug. 6, 2008

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

gnomes

Michigan State Spartan Gnome
July 21, 2008

We play the gnome game when traveling. That means I spot gnomes but because I tend to be a bit on the frugal side I will take a picture instead of buying unless the gnome fits in with my collection. We spotted this cute little gnome in a gift shop in St. Ignace, Michigan. This one didn't fit my collection even though my husband watches their games. He stresses is a fan of Go Blue Wolverines! Now if they could just get a Detroit Redwings gnome he would be a real happy camper and the gnome would have been invited into my gnome empire :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

parasailing

Parasailing
July 21, 2008

Back to our summer vacation: If you recall we went to Wisconsin for one of our kids' wedding then travelled to St. Ignac, Michigan before heading home.

We stayed at a lovely Day's In in St. Ignace in Michigan. The balcony overlooked Lake Huron and had it been a little nicer weather we would have seen some gorgeous sunrises! We woke to threatening clouds and misty rain the first morning. That did not stop some daring folk from parasailing. This is something I would really love to try however my stomach is just a tad prone to being sensitive. The prospect of hitting the ground covered with stomach contents is not quite appealing not to mention I have a healthy dose being a chicken. Seriously, I can handle being off the ground on my kitchen step stool as far as the first step and it is a two stepper. On a very good day heavily dosed with anti-nausea medication I might actually be able use an elevator. When we were dating my husband pooh poohed at me not being able to handle fair rides including the merry-go-round. Not less than 3 minutes into the Zipper, he changed his mind and tout suit! He has never asked me on a fair ride since. At the time it wasn't funny but now it is hilarious. Anyway, I want to try parasailing. I'm thinking if I had a tank of nitrous oxide strapped to my back along with a lot of other medications I could do it. Nope, I'm thinking I just want to try it anyway. What is the worst that could happen?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008