These are the pictures that turned out the best. It sure was a good time! We saw a lot of people we know, some we haven't seen in ages, you just never know who will turn up! There are even plans to get together with people and see them again. The band was smokin' hot, and although I didn't get a good crowd picture, the dancers were out in full force, and even sang along with a couple of Val's songs. Good times, good times....

Warning: NO CARE BEARS ALLOWED

Well, when it comes to kids things change fast.

So.

I bought two (very inexpensive) toothbrushes for the twins. After an elaborate ritual of unquestionable fairness to both, which included guessing a number between one and ten and which hand it was in, Paige got the purple toothbrush, and Brooke got the yellow one. See the broken-hearted expressions above!

The yellow one (Brooke's) sported the dastardly, evil Care Bears, while the purple one (Paige's) flaunted a very edgy and much desired Bratz.

The situation was resolved when a Garfield toothbrush happened along to replace the unwanted, rejected Care Bear toothbrush and the teeth appearing in Brooke's now happy smile were finally brushed. Lesson learned.

The Luau!

Family tradition: When the Squire boys' birthday month rolls around, it's party time. This year Margie and Mike hosted a luau, and if you don't think those grass skirts and bras looked cute on the guys, take a look! ! I would've taken more pictures but there were people there I didn't know very well. Val and I did a royal fire dance for the chieftains (Michigan legal fireworks suck, by the way. They wouldn't even set dune grass on fire...) and we also enjoyed a cozy bonfire outside with sparkly patio lights as a backdrop. Margie made frozen Margaritas, and we had fun telling jokes and scary stories. Oh, did I mention the food? It was great! Kudos to the cooks!

WSDA Recital

Emily posed for us after the recital.

Hip Hop Happiness!

Up in the dark balcony, it was hard to get a good video but I think Emily (front and center most of the time) did a great job, it was fun to watch!

Birthday Memories

I found this note from Jamie. She had a great 21st birthday party, by the way! The "fish" part on the bottom is what Ray wrote when he read what Jamie wrote.

As I said, I have been going through some old pictures. Be afraid!

AWW!

The year was 1973. We were living in a trailer on my stepdad's property in Whitehall, on a dirt road near a small lake. The trailer was next to a pine woods where the kids loved to play. This would have been in December, Laura just turned two. Awww!

Getting A Cast

That's Dr. Moulton putting on the first layers of my cast. The grandkids said I should get a purple one, except for Paige, who said I should get a glow in the dark one. Hmmm....tough choice, but I went with purple.

Fun With Blogs

Okay, here we go again, another "Did I or Didn't I?" The winner this year gets something special made by me.

1. While living in California, I once walked to a Dutch restaurant and ordered a cup of coffee. At that time I took cream and sugar in my coffee. They gave me a fork instead of a spoon and I was so mad and disappointed because I couldn't spoon the sugar out of the container!

2. I went dump-picking as a child, when my Dad would take our monthly load to the dump. I found and ate mints that had a candy coating (wrapped.)

3. I once used a floor tile I found to stick down the front of my tailored shorts to make my tummy appear flatter.

4. My English teacher in 7th grade was really mean. So I wrote a bunch of insults on a paper napkin and when the students filed out of the room, I made sure I was last and stuck it in a file drawer so it hung out. Then I lingered outside the door after she went back in. I heard her crying when she read it.

5. Urged on by a friend, I once ate an already chewed piece of gum that we found frozen to the bottom of a teeter totter. My friend said she would give me two dollars, but she never did!

6. I hid under my sister's bed so I could hear her gossip with her friend. After a while I had to pee, but they were still awake, so I had to pee on myself and the stuff that was under the bed, including a school library book. A few days later when my Mom made us clean our rooms, it was obvious what happened and my sister got blamed for it and got yelled at.

7. I once skipped school in a school bus that was parked in back of a repair shop. My feet got cold so I took those rolled gauze bandages out of the first aid kit, and used it to wrap my feet in and took a nap.

8. My cousin and I were asked to babysit for a neighbor who had a 5-month old baby. It was so pale and ugly, we put mascara on it's eyes.

9. I made this blog post because I lost my good camera and haven't had the desire to take any new pictures with my new camera because the last ones didn't turn out very well. So I lost my photographer's confidence and don't have any cool pics to put on here.

10. I like the smell of rank weeds and muck.

A Few More Wedding Photos

Getting used to a new camera resulted in some of the pictures not turning out. These are some of the better ones, in no particular order...my apologies to the ones who aren't shown due to the extreme darkness and/or blurriness in some of the photos. Editing helped, but not all the pictures could be fixed. I'm also still having trouble getting the pictures to load evenly, so scroll down, there are gaps.

We had an absolutely wonderful time, the wedding went off without a hitch, and the excitement and joy were obvious in every smile and hug! Congratulations to Mike and Margie, who are a great couple, fun to be around and always so good to us. They worked hard to make this day special, not just for themselves, but for all of us, and it couldn't have been better!

Facebook Tragedy

Got a great laugh out of this cartoon, as I recently joined Facebook to keep track of the grandkids, and found so many friends and friends of friends. I wonder if I am the only one who feels a little overwhelmed!?

Before I was able to discover all the features and how to use them, I found pillow and food throwing fights going on, got a pop-up that tried to fleece me by telling me someone had a crush on me and someone else thought I was an idiot, and got some bewildering requests....when all I really wanted to do was say "Hi" to a few people and keep in touch! I am still a blogger at heart, but one thing I do like about FB is that it's very current (new messages everyday) and you can keep in touch with more people, not just the ones who are patronizing the blog.

So I do apologize to anyone when I am unresponsive to FB requests, I am mostly a commenter as I don't know how to do much of anything else and have no great desire to learn.

20 Things to do With Chopsticks When You're Bored

When Brooke and Paige come over, they always entertain themselves as if life were a game and they are the tokens. Here, they have their toys spread on my bed. What is the game? The strewing of the toys may look random, but trust me, each one has it's place and purpose, and they play the roles assigned to them by the girls. If you ask them, it might be a school for animals but the teacher is getting married to a Barbie, or the elf keeps trying to run away and the animals are going to cook for a picnic....whatever the game is, they laugh and play together all afternoon.

Recently, they spent the night. We met Bryan and Pam at a Chinese restaurant for dinner that evening. After watching a prickly sea urchin and a clownfish in the fish tank, and reading the astrological signs on the menus, they asked the waitress for chopsticks while we waited for our food. Thus began the game.

They practiced picking up things like the straw wrappers and the pepper shaker. The chopsticks were stuck under the nose, and in the hair like devil's horns. "And you act like a devil," Paige explained. They twiddled and fiddled with the chopsticks, and used them like drumsticks. They poked each other and tapped each other. They put them through buttonholes and later, used them like flagpoles for their fortune cookie slips and stuck them in the leftover boxes so they stuck out fortress-like. I can't even remember all the uses they found for the chopsticks, but I could hear them laughing and commenting on them all the way home in the car.

We adults, we just visited. Why does being grown-up mean you lose your fascination for everyday objects, and the creative uses to which they can be put? I always enjoy spending time with the twins, and listening to their chatter as they build their fantasy worlds around stuffed animals, dolls, or chopsticks. I love to see them having fun, and I hope when they grow up they will never lose their sense of fun.

No More Monitor Bag

What is a monitor bag, you say? Well, it's a white cotton bag you wear around your neck when you go to cardiac rehab. It has your name on it, and when you get to your cardiac rehab class, you put your numbered heart monitor in the bag, place 3 sticky electrodes under your shirt (2 on upper chest, one on ribs) and connect the heart monitor's 3 leads to your electrodes. If all goes well, a large screen tv will then display a readout of your heart rate as you exercise, and you can then slough off or increase your efforts as needed.

Today I graduated. I still go to cardiac rehab, but I'm off the monitor, baby! No more white bag around my neck! No more having to get there extra early to fumble with wires and sticky pads! No more turning to the wall and hunching to connect my leads so that the men in the class can't see my tubby tummy when I pull up my shirt! No more sticky shlepping when I take off the electrodes, which have the gummiest gum known to mankind on them!

When you are a recovering heart surgery patient, progress is measured in these small steps. What it means is that after so many weeks of exercising with a heart monitor, the exercise gurus have determined that the defibrillation paddles and oxygen tanks (which they keep on hand in clear view of you as your heart pounds during exercise, inevitably increasing the fear factor) are probably not in my future as of this time.

They still take my blood pressure, but now they put paddles on my chest twice a session to check my heart rate. One more small step for me in a journey of a thousand small steps.

For those of you who have yet to "enjoy" being the center of attention during a heart event, let me just say that it is like being born again. When you first come out of the operating theater, you are like a baby. You aren't even breathing on your own. A tube in your bladder is an adult substitute for a diaper. You can't even get out of bed without help, and someone has to give you your first post-op washing up. So as day follows day, many of them quite dismal, you measure your progress in tiny steps. Opening my own juice container was a small step. Being able to button something made me feel almost grown up again. Going off Lasix and potassium supplements was step that made me feel like I really was getting better. I even remember the first time I was able to creak my aching arm across my body, reach up under the opposite arm, and put on my own deodorant! And so on, and so on.

So as you can imagine, taking off that white bitch of a bag felt mighty darn good! I am just about back to normal. Other than finishing cardiac rehab, getting off Coumadin next week, and getting a stress test in March, I am officially over the surgery. And I do feel good! A lot better, anyway. Just thought I'd mention it.

Stopping by Woods by Robert Frost

We live in Michigan, and right now it is cold and very snowy. Ray's Beatle tune ("Little darlin,' it's been a long,cold, lonely winter...") reminded me of the joy of nature, thus inspiring me to take this video out by the sand dunes today. As you read the poem, one of the loveliest ever written, imagine the sound of the wind in the trees.

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

And miles to go before I sleep.

Who Hates Penguins?

For Emily's birthday she wanted 31 of these penguins for her class, so I had to make 2 cake mixes. I had several cupcakes leftover, and luckily I remembered a certain Dad who hates penguins and has a birthday coming up. So....

Cat Dork