Where Has the Time Gone?????

22 years ago today, at this time, I was cradling my son in my arms...new to this big world...breathing in his newborn smell...kissing every inch of his face...admiring his white hair and long blonde eyelashes...and dreaming of what kind of man he would grown up to be.


Today...he is that grown-up man (even though secretly he will always be my baby boy) and it is so much better than I ever thought it would be.

Even though I yearn to hold that little baby again and hold him close enough so he can feel all the love I have for him...I am so proud of who he has become and how he is choosing to live his life!

Happy Birthday, C.J. 

Enjoying

Enjoying our time in the north woods of Michigan again with the parents.

Enjoying walks

swimming

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sight seeing at the tip of the peninsula

and watching bunnies from the window

resting, seeing movies, and more.

A bigger update coming once we get home on Friday

Independence Day

Our Flag

Confession time: 
Up until about 10 years ago I thought July 4th was the day that the War for Independence formerly known as the Revolutionary war) was won.

Instead, July 4, 1776 was the day that the Declaration of Independence was signed and America, still fighting the war at the time, assumed its independence from England at that point.



Unlike last year, when temps soared into the 90's, today was a perfect day...80 and sunny.  Zack and I went to the Omro park in the morning to work the novelty booth for our friends while they walked up and down the parade route selling the same items.

The parade is basically a joke - fire trucks, John Deere tractors, horses, and donkeys.

One of the many John Deere tractors in the parade

Ah... the joys of living in a rural area!

This year, our friends added this little gem to the novelty items they sell:

Zack posing with the dog drink holder

Not Zack ---- that little thing hanging around his neck.  It holds your beverage and is also insulated so it will keep it cool.

Zack drinking from the dog drink holder

I bought one for Zack as a joke and he plans to bring it to school and maybe even use it for basketball.

We are home now on a break and for dinner and then need to go back tonight to sell glow in the dark items before the fireworks.

Time to hear, "Glow Lady" again.

A Cloud Obsession

Two of my three boys have, at one point or another, been obsessed with clouds and cloud formations - as in obsessed that they will lead to a tornado. 

So, Zack was interested in these clouds the other day and took pictures.

I must add that he then ran in the house to ask me if I saw a "wall cloud" or a "funnel cloud" in the pictures.

Impressive looking but we did not get even one drop of rain from these clouds.

It is another summer like last year where all the rain simply goes right around us - either missing us to the north, south, east, or west.

A Beautiful Day

Today was gorgeous! Just gorgeous!

It was actually a carbon copy of yesterday but yesterday I spent most of the afternoon running errands so I wasn't able to enjoy the day.

Today, however, Zack and I went to enjoy the local pool.  We had gone one other time this year but it was so cloudy and windy that time that we didn't enjoy it - or stay long.

One of the reasons I love going to the pool is that it gives me an excuse to just sit around and read.  If I'm home, I always feel like I should be doing something like laundry, cleaning, mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, trimming trees, etc. 

But at the pool I can just sit and relax and read without the pressure of feeling like I should be doing something else!

Later, after dinner, I took Ollie out to Terrell's Island for a walk. 

After the initial "excitement" where Ollie trapped a little innocent chipmunk and then pounced on the poor thing when he tried to make a run for it!  (I made him drop and I think the chipmunk was okay?)  We enjoyed our walk.

I don't know why...but these birds made me think of Finding Nemo..."mine...mine...mine"

 Looking forward to more beautiful days this week.

Remembering Doug

Today would have been Doug's 47th birthday.

To celebrate his life we all gathered at the cemetery to bury his ashes.

The headstone was beautiful but it was hard to get a good picture of it because the blue platform was blocking the way...as you can see in this picture.

After that we had a luncheon and then released balloons

All our love to you, Doug.  Forever 46.

ER Take Two

After getting home from our "exciting" visit to the Emergency Room yesterday, Hubby slept.

And after getting up and ready to go to work for his 5:00 pm shift and vomiting twice, he decided to call in sick.

And he slept some more...

Until - he got up at 11:00 p.m. and informed me that he hadn't how-shall-I-say "relieved himself" since about noon.

What?  No urine output in 11 hours?  After a bag of IV fluids AND 3 bottles of water?

You can imagine the fun I had trying to convince him that we needed to return to the ER at midnight! 

But I can be pretty persuasive when I need to be and off we went.

The good news is that the stone was NOT blocking the tubes so no need for a catheter and/or surgery to blast the stone.

Instead, he was so completely dehydrated that the fluids he had on board were quickly being absorbed by his body and not entering his bladder.

So we hung around the ER until 2:30 in the morning while he received 3 HUGE bags of IV fluids.

The great news is that it seems as if the pain is gone as he hasn't needed any pain medicine since last night - so, hopefully, he has already passed the darn thing.