Went to Petosky.

Learned that sometimes… things just aren’t as good the second time around.

Isabelle skipping stones.

More barns.

I have a plan for all of these barn pictures.

Really I do.

Just having fun.

There is beauty in everything.

I know it’s corny,

but I have to believe it.

Hope your all having a great start to your week.

Ang

Went for a wonderful drive today. Didn’t get lost once. Took many, many pictures.

I don’t know what to say except that  everything here is just peachy. The kids have three half-days next week and then they are out for the summer. This is a mixed blessing. It means sleeping in once in awhile, going to the beach, parks and taking nature walks and bike rides. But it also means carting three monsters every where, grocery shopping and errands, things that they hate. That or going to the store myself late at night after they are in bed. Which is okay once in awhile, but it gets old fast.  I mean shopping at Meijers at midnight and watching people shuffling the isles in their pajamas once a year is my limit.

Do I sounds like I’m whining? I feel like I’m whining… I feel like that a lot lately… I hate it when I whine.

We are going to Detroit next weekend! I can’t wait. I love where I live. Actually I would be happy any where I had to live… I believe very strongly that your home is where you are in the moment. As long as I can get out and explore where I am, I’m a happy girl… oh and I have to be able to talk to my Mamala at least once a week.

Once again I am RAMBLING… at least I veered away from whining… where was I?

Oh I love where I live. I love nature, but once in awhile I want a city. I can’t wait to take some pictures in the city.

I make Traverse sound small… but actually it is quite large, 150 thousand people at least and in the summer that number triples. That’s part of why its a gem  it feels like a small place but it isn’t.

SO I am looking forward to Detroit.  So that I can take pictures like this…

of my favorite sushi place.

Ahhh… good food.

My little sis, my nephew

My family

Artomat (hopefully)

It’s going to be a grand time.

Ang

The other day when Cooper and I were out driving taking pictures, I got lost.

I like being lost, I love the wandering around and the looking and trying to figure out where I am, especially if it’s a beautiful day like it was the other day. There are two times I don’t like being lost, one is when I have to be some where.

 I hate being late, with a passion. I would rather be fifteen minutes early for something and sit outside waiting to go in then ever show up late. Just something about me. So where as I?

Umm… Oh! I I don’t like being lost if I’m late, or if my gas tank needle is on empty. That is just no fun because I worry about getting stranded, which wasn’t horrible when it was just me, but with the kids in the car I worry and it sucks all of the fun out of being lost.

We were lost the other day and I realized something. It’s a little harder being lost somewhere you’ve been lost before because everything looks familiar.  

It was still fun being lost.

Ang

WAITING…

for something…

Don’t know what…

Ever had that feeling?

What do I do when I am tired beyond belief but don’t want to sleep?

Well first I drink the one bottle of caffeine that I will allow myself today.

Then I get out of the house so I don’t take a nap.

Cooper and I took an early lunch to Ben.

We sat outside and enjoyed the sun and the flowers.

I love Iris’s.

Then on the way home we take a side road along the Boardman River.

We took a walk along the river.

Found some beautiful wild flowers to go with the planted ones.

I took a ton more pictures by the river but I’ll spare you those… for now…

We drove by the Circle H Ranch and Ranch Roudolph.

Took pictures of the horses.

Of course I had to take barn pictures.
So here are a couple of those.

And you all know if I can get a picture of a barn and of flowers…

So much the better!

Which do you think is better?

Left or right?

I’ll leave you with a field of poppies.

Mrs. Grouleu planted these a LONG time ago…

I wish I knew how she did it.
It is Poppies now and in a few weeks it will be the most GOURGEOUS hollyhocks.

One of my all time favorite flowers.

So you know where I’ll be when their in bloom taking pictures of the barn with Hollyhocks.

For now I’ll leave you with a field of poppies.

Which picture did you like the best?

Why?

I know two posts in one day… I told you I’m trying to stay AWAKE…

Ang

Reno 911: Dungeons And Dragons Nerd Arrested – Watch more free videos

EDIT**************** 2:30 somethig inthe A.M.**********************************

Can’t sleep. I finished my book. I’ve watched television on my computer, every episode of the CSI’s I haven’t seen, I now have. I have no new movies here to watch and nothing old I’m interested in.

Oh what to do, what to do…

Normally I would do a channel surfing post, but I can’t find the code to reprogram the remote and it isn’t working… Hence the television on the computer. it’s good, television on demand, but there’s no paid programming to mock or Mr. Universe contests to watch… those things are essential to late night television flipping, especially if you want to make fun of it…

I guess I will just lay here and stare at the ceiling. I’m getting really good at that…

I could run plot lines in my head… what kind of plots? I’ll never tell…

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

EDIT*******************************************

Better question… what do you do when you can barely function the next morning because you haven’t slept?

Drink copious amounts of Caffeine!!!!

Ben is teaching me to use photoshop

I like it!

Seedsower took first place in the Cutest child catagory!

Thanks to everyone who voted.

Ang

My friend seedsower is in the (unofficial) Xanga video contest.

She has entered a video of her little niece and the first quilt that she made for her coming sibling… It is so SWEET!

  <~ click the link… you know you wanna…

 I promise, her’s really is the cutest… check it out and please vote.

Today is the last day, so get your votes in now.  Thanks you guys. ANG

Now back to my regularly scheduled post!

********************************************************************************

We last left our monsters at the dock, running towards a waiting boat and Grandpa.

The fog drifting slowly through the harbor, sailboats anchored in the background.

Life jackets were donned and off we went into the FOG…

The tall ship Manitou at dock.

Usually I’m on the shore and she’s in the Bay.

We crept slowly out of the harbor.

Then away we went!

When we got out aways Pop said “Here Ang, steer towards the buoy.”

To which my response was “WHAT buoy?”

I’m not good at steering normally, I need a land mark to steer towards.

SO in the fog I was worse, much worse.

See the pink lines… all of the straight ones are when Pop was driving, all of the crazy circles…

Yup, that was me.

My Pop the Captain.

 He is taken ladies, hands off!

He and my Mamala have been married for 38 years…

No wonder he fishes…

Just kidding MOM!

The rods were in and we were trolling. Four poles in the water.

Pop played pick a number between one and five…

To see who got to real in the first fish, just in case… 

Major childhood flashback since that is how my Pop used to settle anything between D and I.

Finally the Buoy!

No bites here.

We went to a different spot.

Remember this picture?

Well this is from the other side.

No matter how nicely we talked to them, the fishies weren’t bitting.

So we headed back to the harbor.

Me driving the boat while Pop reeled in.

I can hear him in my head saying

“No wonder she couldn’t drive straight… She was taking pictures! ”

I wasn’t!

Only like two… maybe three…

Back in the harbor the kids read the boat names…

We were only out a couple of hours.

No bites at all, we had a great time though.

We entertained ourselves by making faces at the camera

(I’ll save those for another day.)

and just enjoying being together.

We all LOVE fishing with Pop.

Can’t wait until next time.
Ang

The kids called Pop this morning to see if the trip was still on because of the rain.

Pop was going to say no but I think he didn’t have the heart to cancel.

Okay, Xanga is doing something funky with their pictures… and only tiny dots are showing up.

To be continued.

Ang

I like cemeteries.

When I was growing up we had a cemetery down the road from our house called Circle Hill Cemetery. We would ride our bikes around the dirt road surrounding the hill that gave it it’s name. On bright nights in the summer, we would sneak down there with our large group of neighborhood kids and play sardines among it’s well manicured lawns. There was just something about stooping behind a headstone that made the whole experience that much more thrilling.

As I got older, I enjoyed rubbing headstones. NO! That isn’t a new kind of fetish…

I would take a stick of graphite, some paper and masking tape and make rubbing’s’ of the stones I liked. I haven’t really found any that are great though. I keep looking. Some day I hope to visit  a few cemeteries in Europe, maybe stop by and pay homage to Jim Morrison… They haven’t kicked him out of there yet have they? I have seen some beautiful rubbing’s’ of stones from England and France. I can’t wait to go some day. It’s on the life list. Of course there are so many cemeteries here in the States I’ve yet to see.

Its enjoyable for me to see how people choose to memorialize a loved one. The statues and bits and pieces that are left behind. The words engraved on the stones, Mother, Father, Beloved Friend, Wife, Husband, Son, Daughter, Sometimes words from a beloved hymn or a quote, years of service and the war served.  I wonder what mine will say. When I was a teen I wanted it to say ‘She’s not sleeping, she’s just dead.’ It was that whole teen angst thing I’m sure.

When Charlie was younger, he was going through his DEATH stage, We were driving past a cemetery when  he asked about headstones and why people put them on their graves. I told him it was so they had a place to go to remember the person they loved. Usually the stone reminds them of who that person was and what they meant to the world. He pondered this. I could see the little adolescent cogs turning in his head. Then he took a deep breath. “A Transformer Mom… That’s what I want put on top of me, a Transformer and maybe a bulldozer, but definitely a Transformer.”

Remember The Bird Girl?

 So many people fell in love with this statue they had to remove it from the Savannah cemetery it called home. 

This fellow seems to be popular.

I’m not really in a morbid mood, these are just things I’ve been thinking about. I guess that once again I’m entertaining myself at your expense.

Have you ever taken the time to write your own obituary?  

That would be a great way to reflect and evaluate a life. Why not do it before we’re dead?

What would you like your headstone to say?