Got up and out of curiosity checked to see if there were any school closings.  Wow, every school in Saginaw, Midland, and Bay City was closed.  This was great for Jacob, Adam, and Kenzie since now they aren't going to miss any school on the Georgia trip.  Bill and I headed out to our Tuesday morning Breakfast and boy was it slick out.  Our road was a sheet of ice.  The main roads were salted already and were good. So glad Kimmy and her family left yesterday instead of today like they were going to.  Everybody showed up for breakfast except one couple.  Bill had a VA appt. so he went to that when we got home.  I got suitcases down from the attic to start packing for our trip to the Shack tomorrow.  So excited to go there again!  Wes and Gayla and Charlie and Sue are going too.  Packed up Mocha too as I am dropping her off to stay at Melissa's.  Bill and I moved the tv and some other furniture around so we could make room for our Christmas tree.  We will be putting it up when we get home.  Love my easy movers!

11/25/13  Jared dropped Truman and Norman off at 7:10 am.  He took them to the basement and brought their stuff in that was going with them to Vikki's.  The dogs were really good here and were good at going outside and then back to the basement.  They really liked it when I took their canvas cage down for them.  They were so funny!  They both got in at the same time.  When Kenzie got out of school, Vikki picked her up and brought her to our house so Jared could pick her up to take her with them to Georgia.  Peyton and Isaac came in and Vikki told them to leave their coats on because they weren't staying long.  Pey Pey came up to me and said, I want to take my coat off and off it went.  She sure talks plain!  Vikki helped me get rid of some leftovers from Thanksgiving as Bill and I were getting pretty tired of them.  Vikki packed up the kids and then put the dogs in her car.
She called to say the dogs were being really good at her house too.  Kimmy texted me before I went to bed to let me know they were 1 hour from their hotel in Kentucky.   I was so happy to hear from her. 

11/24/13  Went to church and were happy to see Billie Egsti there.  Asked her to move and sit by us so she did.  Then Kenzie and Maddie came and sat by us too.  Vikki and Rody took the babies to the nursery and then sat at the end of our row.  After church, Vikki, Kenzie, Maddie, Peyton, Isaac, and Misty came over for leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a nice visit with Misty and were so happy she came.  The kids had fun and it was so cute when Isaac took the empty toy bucket and turned it over to make a chair for him to sit at the little piano to play! 

The toy bucket works pretty good for a piano bench!

This is what the girls are up to....share a chair!

Aren't these two just so cute and precious!

Peyton and Isaac didn't cooperate for this picture but Beautiful Mykenzie did!
 

Kenzie sure loves her Mocha dog!

Isaac's getting his boots on while Pey Pey is just feeding her baby!
 

The boys having fun looking at toy magazines!
 

Cutie Eli!

Thanksgiving with all these wonderful grandkids!  Thank You Lord we are so Blessed!

11/23/13  Today we celebrated our Family Thanksgiving!  I got the turkey and stuffing in the oven by 8am.  Listened to the Christian Radio Station and was so blessed by how it encouraged my heart with all God has done for me and His Greatness.  Peeled potatoes and waited for everyone to get here.
Vikki and her family were the first to get here.  In a little while, Kimmy and her family got here.  We were going to eat at 2 because Bruce was on 3rd shift so then he could get more sleep.  Melissa and her family got here at 1:50.   Kimmy and Jared got at mashing the potatoes (there official job at family dinners) and Bill carved the turkey.  Everybody else helped set the other food on the table and then we gathered for prayer and thanked God for His goodness and blessings.  Enjoyed our meal together.  Vikki looked over and noticed there were no kids at the grandkids table.  Then we realized they were all under the table.  Leave it to the kiddos to think of that.  We quickly had them get out since there were drinks on the table.  They went to the basement after eating and all had fun playing together.  Melissa, Bruce, Hailey, Maddie, Kenzie, Jared and I all played Apples to Apples!  While we were doing this Kimmy and Vikki surprised us and rearranged the basement for us!  It looks great and was such a nice surprise!  They even hooked up the TV that was down there so the kids can watch videos!  A big thank you girls.

Today we got to watch Eli while Kimmy did her shopping.  He sure was papa's boy!  They were so cute with Bill on his smart phone and Eli on the I-pod.  I made 3 batches of rolls, grandma's orange jello, and a choc. banana pie and a banana cream pie.  Excited to have everybody over tomorrow and have fun family time!

11/21/13 Today I started preparing for Saturday Thanksgiving Dinner with our family!

Cooked the squash from the garden, made my cranberry relish, got homemade applesauce out of the freezer and into the refrig.  Put on my worship music and enjoyed preparing things for the special day of thanks.  Bill and Charlie went to the show and you can see in the picture the surprise that was waiting on the cupboard when I came down from cleaning upstairs.  Bill got a big kiss for being so thoughtful and I immediately took a break.  Later on Vikki, Kenzie, Peyton and Isaac came over for  visit.  I made up a Little Caesars Pizza I had.  So nice spending time with them.  Bill and I watched a movie and stopped it half way through.  Went to bed and will watch it tomorrow night.

11/19/13 Had Fun Watching Jack and Evan today and having Hailey come to our house after school! Then a great surprise when Kenzie surprised me and drove by herself to come see us.

Went to our Tuesday morning breakfast this morning.  We had 15 people there and we celebrated Charlie's 74th birthday.  Had our devotion and prayer time and good fellowship.  I went to Kroger's to get our turkey for Thanksgiving and free batteries and other items, then went back to pick Bill up.  He dropped me off at Melissa's and I got a wonderful greeting of big hugs from Max, Jack and Evan.
Grandkids hugs are the best!  I watched Jack and Evan while Bruce and Melissa took Max to an appointment in Ann Arbor.  The boys were so good. Jacked loved it when I would catch him and tickle him.  Kept asking me to do it more. Evan plays really good by himself now. Evan used the potty himself, and Jack helped pick up all the toys while Evan napped.  When Evan woke up, we picked up pizza's and came to my house. Drove Melissa's van!  Papa had picked up Hailey from school and took her to get a slurpy.  He was giving her money to give to the Salvation Army Bell Ringer and set his phone up on top of the car.  When he got home he saw his phone still up there.  Thank you Lord!  That's amazing that it didn't blow off on the drive home.  God always watches over us! 

Hailey wanted to play cards so she picked UNO.  She beat me bad.  We both had to draw lots of cards, but all of sudden I had a huge hand full and she had one.  Out she went!  Good thing she didn't want to keep score because I probably would have to have gotten the calculator out.  The boys wanted to watch the movie Homeward Bound II so I put that in for them.  Then we got a great surprise!  Kenzie drove over by herself and paid us a visit.  She just got her license so this was so special for me.  She had gone shopping too.  She had a piece of pizza and yogurt and then had to head back home.  We had some snacks and then Bruce and Melissa came.  Bruce left with Max right away because Max was reading a book he bought on the way home and got car sick and threw up all over. Poor Max.  Bruce took him home so Max could shower.
   Melissa said they took him to a reptile museum to do something special after his appt. and he really loved this book.  He could have spent his money on toys, but wanted this book.  He had so much fun at this museum.  Melissa packed up the kids and went home so she could help Max get at his homework.

Dad and I watched Ozzie and Harriet, then the news.  Mocha always runs to me when she hears me put the foot rest out on the recliner.  Loves to lay down on the footrest by me.  She's so funny.  A good little doggie for sure.

11/18/13 Headed home..still windy but no watches today!

We slept in today which was great.  Usually when we are at a hotel, we are up early and on the go.  Today was very relaxing.  We got ready, read our Bibles, watched TV to see the storm damage and then headed to Bob Evan's for breakfast.  I had eggs, hash browns and banana bread.  Bill had the big breakfast and shared a pancake with me and a piece of bacon.  We were stuffed when we left.  Called Kimmy to let her know we were coming to get Mocha.  She didn't know if she would be home when we got there as she was getting water and traffic was slow because of workers taking care of downed trees.  We went on a long route to Kimmy's so she was there when we got to her house.  She still didn't have power.  Eli was as cute as ever and was so nice to Mocha.  Kimmy said Jacob loved having Mocha and made a nice spot on his bed for her to sleep.  I just know Mocha loved that.  We visited for a while and Bill looked at their generator to get numbers off of it for Jared so he could fix it.  Praying their electricity comes back on quickly.  We left and came home to unpack and relax. 

11/17/13 Fun Get A Way in Mt. Pleasant with my sweetie Bill!

We went to church in the morning.  It was my day to teach Sunday School.  In my class we made cards for 3 guys from church who are in the military to thank them and let them know we are thinking of them.  We also made cards for wounded soldiers to be delivered to them.  The kids loved making the cards and working together.  It was camo day so most of us were in camo as you can see in the picture below.  Love these kids!  So much fun!  After we got home from church and ate, we headed to Mt. Pleasant for our free get-a-way.  We got our room 2043 and put our things away in it.  Walked around and checked out the pool temp.  The wind really picked up and it started raining lots.  Signs in the parking lot were blowing down.  There was a tornado watch in much of Michigan and bad storms in the mid United States.  Tornados did much damage in Indiana.  So sad for the people there.  I called and checked on all the girls and families to make sure they were ok.  When the rain let up, we went to Olive Garden for dinner.  Bill got a military discount there so that was great.  We had a wonderful waiter.  He even let me have salad and bread sticks for free with Bill while I waited for my pizza.  Bill got spaghetti.  So yummy!  We headed back to the hotel.  We decided to get exercise swimming so headed to the pool.  Swam for a while and then got in the hot tub.  Had a nice conversation with another vet who was from Saginaw, had served in Viet Nam with Bill the same time, and was the same age only 2 months older than dad.

Bill did a wedding at the Light House in Tawas today. 11/16/13

We had a very nice trip to Tawas today as Bill married a Christian couple at the lighthouse.  It was beautiful and Bill did such a good job.  I sure am proud of him and the way he lets the Lord use him.  Afterward, we went to a restaurant in Tawas and ate with the Bride, Groom and family.  While we were there we went shopping in my favorite store (the Ben Franklin) and also Normans as it was going out of business.  The weather was cloudy and breezy, but in the mid 40's so very nice for this time of year.

Fun with Grandkids 11/15/13

Peyton and Isaac spent the night last night.  They slept great and really ate lots for breakfast.  Did such a great job feeding themselves their cereal.  Then they loved brushing their teeth.  After we got ready, we headed to Kimmy's.  We took Mocha too since Papa and Kenzie went hunting and we didn't want to leave Mocha in her cage that long.  Kimmy blessed me by grooming Mocha for me.  She does such a great job.  We had a nice lunch their too!  At 1:00 I left to go to Jacob and Adam's school for Grandparent Day.  I went to Jacob's room first and he read me a wonderful story he had written about his Grandma Russell coming to visit and how excited he was.  I sure hope he reads it to her too when he takes it home.  Priceless!  He did a great job reading it to me.  He showed me some math papers and other things he had in his desk.  I was going to go to Adam's room for a while and come back to his, but he really wanted me to do the math games.  Nick did them with us and they did really good at them.  I left for Adam's class then as I wanted to spend half of the time with him.  He was waiting and was so excited when I came in.  He read several stories and show me the bracelet he made that he then turned into a ring.  The teacher than announced that we were going out to recess so they could show us the playground.  Much to my delight, Jacob's class went out too, so I got to watch them all play together.  While I was in Adam's class I told him I was going to take them home and he said "Remember last time you picked us up you took us to McDonald's."  It was so cute.  Of course, then I decided to take them to McDonald's after school so they could play.  We had a fun time!  Love making memories with my boys!

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Peyton and Isaac Brushing their teeth at Nana and Papa's

11/11/13 Mykenzie's 16th Birthday!

It was our oldest granddaughter, Mykenzie's 16th birthday today.  I picked her up from school and we stopped so she could get a slurpy.  Then we headed to our house for a while until Rody's mom could watch Peyton and Isaac so Vikki could meet us at Teppanyaki's Grill (Kenzie's favorite place to eat right now).  We all got so full we couldn't even eat dessert.  We had so much fun with this 16 year old sweetie.  Love this girl so much!  Happy Birthday Kenzie!

11/8/13 Jacob, Adam and Eli helped Papa lots today!

Papa asked Jacob, Adam and Eli if they wanted to help him outside.  They said yes right away.  Did they ever work hard.  They loaded and hauled wood up to the porch, helped blow leaves, and they went up on the roof with papa (that made their Nana very nervous) while he cleaned the eaves.  Peyton and Isaac had fun playing in the leaves and playing on the slide.

11/7/13 Nice seeing Bill and all the other vets honored with a special dinner tonight.

Tonight Bill and I went to the Trillium for a dinner to honor the vets.  Many were there and when we got there only one empty table was left.  We sat there because Bill said others would be coming and would probably sit with us.  Well no one else came, so we decided to move.  We asked the people next to us if we could sit at their table.  After talking to one of the couples there, we found out Bill and him went to school and played sports together.  He and his wife were also Christians.  Had a very nice time.  The food was excellent, they had a really nice group playing music and there were no speakers.  The last songs done by the group were for each military group.  They had them stand if they were in the branch of the service that the song was for.  We had one from each group at our table.  Nice to see our vets honored.  I was am so proud of Bill and the way he served our country!