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!