Gearing up for Paris

Well it surely has been a while since I have posted. Sorry for the delay. I was off to Michigan for a long weekend for my Aunt's funeral. Strait into three days of softball and a night of bowling for charity. Finally the long weekend to get ready to go off to Paris. Checking itinerary, hotels, exchanged rates and watching the French Open that started this weekend. The funeral went fine. I was glad that I was there for Mom. There are some good things that come from a funeral 5 months later, you don't do nearly as much sobbing and crying as it has pretty much already set in. Above is a picture of all of us. My grandmother (little on in front in flowers) is awesome. She had us all pretty crazy! I can see where we get our controlling "always on top of it" nature. Go figure.

This week it is going to be short...sorry about that. Darrell is wonderful...hummm I think I said that last time. Last week we celebrated our 15 year "togetherness" anniversary. Friday we leave for Paris. I don't even know where to go first while there. Top of the list is a trip to their open farmers market. Cheese, bread, and a glass of wine! Too bad I don't know a lick of French. This is going to be fun, either way. Darrell knows the sites and the language so I am going to take a vacation and not worry about any of it! If possible I will try to post while there. Love you all. Stay tuned for some great stories.

Ta Da!!!!

I take no credit. well...ok, maybe a little. Once again, Al comes to my rescue! I was half way there with Jen's blog and some help on line but I couldn't have gotten there without Al- Thanks little buddy.


First off we have to say Happy Mother's Day to all of you- since you are all Mother's..Amanda I count us too since we have creatures & husbands to take care of. Not quite the same but in my book it counts! Thought you might like to see a photo of our gang above. Taken last year on a trip to see my family. Thought it spoke to our personalities pretty well! She's such a nut! I remember some great things as a kid. Weekend mornings walking to the Swedish Bakery and then taking the day down the road to Harbert Beach on Lake Michigan. Sitting out all day and then going home to BBQ and play in the trees. All within in walking distance. Then there was the only time I was hospitalized. The neighbor boys and I were trying to swing from tree to tree. Below us were old mattresses in the event that we fell. I did, only not on the mattresses. I never even started swinging before I let go of the rope and landed on the maple tree root with my head. Mom to the screaming bloody murder rescue. I tried so hard to be one of the guys. Still to this day, I suppose, I am doing that. I currently have the biggest black and blue knee from trying to catch a softball- and missing I might add. So sexy, I can't even tell you. My revelation for this week is that I just treat my body as a tool not a sacred vessel (until I have a reason to, that is). As long as it still functions, I am good to go. As D always tells me, I fix up well! Ha! Cool stuff. Poor Mom who wanted a cute little pretty girly girl. She got that in Erin, not me. Laura (my half sister) was somewhere in between. More like me, I think, than a girly girl. It's good that we are all different.

Mom has had a tough life, no doubt, but she has come such a long way in the last 5 years. Re certified Nurse, Church Board, Every one's friend, and recovering from two years of loosing some of this world's greatest people...Dad, Aunt Sandy, Mr. Jernigan (mom took care of him for years), Mrs. Pryor (our neighbor), Dr. Peterson (A long time family friend and colleague) and two of her dear kitties (hit by a car following each other). It has been a rough time but through it all she has stayed positive.... and sober! We love her and some days it so hard to be all the way across the country from one of your best friends!


All- Enjoy this special day for one day your kids will speak so proudly of you as well.

Getting There

Alright...Thanks Misty. I am not quite there yet but still working on it. This is a little different than I had before but soon I will master my own background. This is the view from our top deck off the back of the house. A somewhat clear day...you can see most of the harbor. To the right is downtown but not very visable here.

Cheers-
Steph

I used to think I was tech savy, not any more

Well, I decided that it is time for a change. I searched on the web for like an hour, found a great background of flowers and leaves. It fit my mood perfectly...then..for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to change mine to it. I tried reading the help thing...hummmmm not a good idea. That was like trying to read french. I, at one time thought I was fairly smart computer-wise, although nothing compared to Big Al or even Darrell for that matter but enough so that people in the office would swing by my cube to ask for advice, of which nine out of ten times I could help them. Now I am stuck. Any advice? I just want flowers on my backgound. Is that so hard. I'll cut and paste it, I just don't know where. I tried once and had a whole page of flowers, just nothing else!
Cheers..it's too nice outside to monkey anymore, I'm going to get some sun!

Pals having fun

Thinking of you all hanging out, talking, playing games, ect. So sorry I couldn't join up for the girls weekend but it actually worked out fine. All caught up after a busy earth day, more like an earth week. I have switched to a wash cloth to do dishes with and I only ran the dishwasher one night this week. Well that is primarily due to the fact that we were out of half and half so I had coffee at work like three days, rather than make it at home. And we had softball on Monday and Tuesday night. Either way, little by little, I am feeling a little better.
Big news!!! We got our tickets for the French Open. So excited. The exchange rates are getting out of control so it will be a lot of farmers markets and crep stands. Bagettes and Cheese, you can't go wrong. It is real. One month to go. I am so excited. Our tax return will go for paying 1.5 times the amout for everything but you only have one 10 year wedding anniversary (actually last Oct) but in May will be together for 15 years so that is a good enough reason for me. Love this guy more and more everyday. The other day he was off to a meeting in his suit and I just smiled. Such a cutie and he is all mine!
Love you all.

Save my planet!!

Can you believe that 75% percent of every household's trash can be recycled? Think about this every time we take out the trash can. How long will it take for this disposable plastic cup to degrade in the landfill. Why would I not just use a cup that I can throw in the dishwasher or rinse out and use again in two hours. We throw so much stuff away that can be reused! Did you know that between Thanksgiving and New Years American's generate an extra Billion pounds of trash a week! Most of which is wrapping paper. While I am a terrible offender of buying my favorite cute wrapping paper from the kid down the street, it kills me to think about killing trees to get it. We should use reusable bags, baskets, ect. or reuse the paper itself (of course this is hard when it is torn into five million pieces in the excitement of it all). There are so many friends that don't even recycle cans, bottles, and plastic containers. We should all just take an extra two minutes everyday to think about the number trees killed when throwing any paper into the trash rather than the recycle container or the water wasted when running it while brushing your teeth or shaving in the shower. While I am sure we have enough dishes in our households to run full dishwashers but why would you waste the energy (ie oil used to generate the power) to run half loads of laundry or dishwashers.
Alright, there you have it. My rant for the week. Sorry I missed out on last week and have no great shots for this week. We are all over our colds, ect. Although we were pretty sure that Darrell had walking phenomia this week but the Dr. just said he was generally broken from allergies and stress. He will live just fine. Will post photo's later. For now this is my rant.
Remember Earth Day Tuesday, April 22nd. Do what you can to change your life now to protect the earth and it's natural resources for our children!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

The sound of rain tapping on the roof. Birds chirping. I hear a dove call. It is finally the time of year when we can sleep with the window open and wake up to such beautiful sounds. Cough, cough, sniffle..(ok more like snort), the beauty is gone. Lovely, just lovely. I have a cold. Tuesday afternoon Darrell came home from work with what I had cracked up to be allergies, however, two days later with a sore throat, then a runny nose and now a full on head cold, I am miserable! Oh well it will pass. Monday's O's home opener in the freezing cold was probably not a great idea. We were dressed well but again it was raining. Dry and underneith the overhang, three flights up we watched them loose. Shocker! Actually I shouldn't start in on them so soon. They have started out not half bad. The A's are 3 and 3. I'll take it- Boston and Cleveland are no joke to beat.
This week starts the first of one of our softball teams. I will miss the first game due to customers in house. Gen Mills...what's new! Week after will be a busy one with city softball team on Monday, my work softball on Tuesday and the last of the Volleyball games on Wednesday. They actually asked me to be on a beach volleyball team but honestly, while I love it, I am just not as good as everyone else. Darrell will play for them while I play on the work softball team instead. While my skills are likely not that much better in softball, I do enjoy it more and it is a good opportunity to get to know the McCormick crew a little better.

Big news of the week is my sister got married on the 14th in St. Lucia. Here is a beautiful shot of her and her new hubby. Long engagements are our thing. They have been together now for something like 8 years. Yikes we like to string those guys along!
Enjoy the rain.