Annabelle

How did A get my frog purse?

Annabelle loves the big froggie!

"Take me! Cheeeese!"

Saturday morning...

Saturday morning, Bill made blueberry pancakes for breakfast! They were scrumptious! What a great send-off!

Paul and Amber

We did not see a lot of Paul, even though he lives just downstairs. He was fighting off a nasty bug. By Friday he was beginning to feel better.

Amber is always ready to play! She brought her stuffed duck to everyone, to try to get something going, but Paul is her favorite!

Around the house...

The picture of Mum and Dad was taken at Annabelle's wedding at camp many years ago. It is probably the nicest photo of the two of them together.

This is the bed where I slept very comfortably in Carol's sewing room. Carol made the beautiful quilt on this bed!

The living room window is prettier than any painting, especially when you look through it to the lovely winter scene in their front yard! That is Charlie, of course, no doubt watching Corner Gas!

Little treasures...

Grandma Best's Victrola and Carol's fern. The fern was given to her by Jo Leino, who is now in China.

Uncle Georgie's medals...

On Friday, since the weather was not nice for being outside, we stayed indoors. Bill brought out the little black box pictured here, which he said was damaged a bit when their basement flooded. It contained Uncle Georgie's medals [George Best] including his purple heart. What a treasure!

Lake Michigan shore...

Charlie and I wondered if they were dumping snow into the lake, but Bill explained that the piles of "snow" were really the result of the water spray from the waves freezing as the waves rolled into shore. Pretty amazing!

Brrrr - It was cold!

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is about 40 miles from Bill's house. That is not the moon in this picture. It must be a spot on the lens, because it is on all the pictures. We were there in the mid to late morning.

Glenn's Market

We stopped at Glenn's Market where this sign was hanging above an aisle near the front of the store. Glenn's Market is not a terribly big store, but it has everything - a sort of mini Wal-Mart. Bill bought some beef mesquite jerky. They had all kinds of exotic jerky including kangaroo, and alligator, as well as the more ordinary varieties. It was very good, not tough and impossible to chew. It would be good, I think, as a base for a stew as well as being a pretty good snack!

Carol

We are just getting ready to go sight-seeing in the area. It was pretty cold and there was a lot of snow on the ground - about a foot! Bill said that a lot of it had melted off...

The Michigan Trip

Charlie and I went up to Michigan the last week of February. It was a wonderful time! P2 loaned us his GPS which proved very helpful. The car battery seemed to die when we got stuck in a traffic tie-up in Ohio near the Michigan line. An Ohio State Police Officer came by and gave us a jump which enabled us to continue. We were afraid to plug in the GPS after that lest it drain the battery, so we just turned it on when we needed to know where to make the next turn. When we were nearly to our destination we were detoured to a country road. It was getting dark, but the GPS got us back on the right road without incident. Without it we would have been panicked.
It was so good to see Bill and Carol again! Good to see Paul, too, but we kept our distance from him as he was recovering from a nasty bug.
The next day we went to Glenn's Market and then on to Lake Michigan. We had a delicious lunch at a Chinese Buffet in a little town beside the lake.
The weather was not good for site seeing on Friday, so we stayed in and were treated to selections from Bill's vast collection of radio and old tv programs. We especially enjoyed watching Corner Gas. I miss being able to watch it on tv.
Our trip home was relatively uneventful. It was nice to see the snow disappearing as we neared home. Bill had about a foot on the ground, but at home it was all gone, except for where it had been piled up from cleaning the parking lot.
Going through my pictures, I realize that I never took pictures of Paul's apartment. He did a fantastic job of building his private retreat in the basement. It is just beautiful!

P3 turns 10

We got together in the community room for P3's birthday. Valentines made it a very special day for all of us.

Keyboard lesson

Wendy gave me a lesson on the keyboard when they were here in February. I am having so much fun using what she showed me - not that I am doing it very well yet.

Snowmen Wreath

Each child contributed one snowman to the wreath. It amazes me that their individuality came through so clearly in this project. Can you guess who made which snowman?