Summer Continues

Let me get my complainin' outta the way first.......It is SO FREAKIN' HOT!!! Window air conditioners can only do so much. And it's not cutting it. Feels just like Florida summers, but at least there we stayed indoors in the a/c and didn't notice the heat so much. I am SO looking forward to fall, although dreading what comes after :-/

I have so much I'd like to do in this 'new' house, but way too hot to attempt anything right now. Darrell, however, has spent most of the last week in our flooded basement. We had some heavy rains over the past few days and at it's worst we had 4" of standing water in the basement. There is no sump pump down there and not even a drain. Darrell bought a pump, then he and Mailia spent hrs. and hrs. down there trying to suck up what they could with the shop-vacs. Darrell has found a couple of leak sources and repaired them. So hoping there aren't more.

Took Mailia to check out her new school this week. She liked it all except the uniform policy. It is much, much stricter than her school in Kissimmee. But overall she came away with a good feeling and we immediately headed out to start shopping for school supplies. She's excited about going back to school now, but school here doesn't start until Sept. 7th. About 3 weeks later than Florida.

We spent another day last weekend on the water with my sister and brother-in-law. Applied sunscreen liberally! We finally got our own boat running and hope to get it in the water maybe tomorrow. After all the work on the basement this week, Darrell wanted a down day...so today was it.

We took Mailia to our local drive-in movie theater last night. She thought that was the coolest thing ever! We took our own popcorn and stopped at the local rootbeer stand for a gallon of the good stuff. We saw Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me and Mailia laughed through both of them. She can't wait til we go again.

It's not Daytona (not even close) but Michigan Int'l Speedway is only about 40 min. away from us. So guess where we'll be on Aug. 15th? :-)

Will try to post an assortment of pictures. We had 2 fawns in the backyard this evening and I was able to get some pretty good pictures of them before Mailia opened and slammed the backdoor. :-/

Mailia is fascinated by the Amish, as we see them in stores and on the roads. I took a picture of one of their horse and buggies parked next to us at the boat launch site last weekend. None of them were in the water, so I guess they just came down to watch the boats.

And my newest niece was born this past Mon. Dannica Lynn arrived weighing 10# 2 oz.!!!

Do you have the Obama Countdown Widget?

Do you have the Obama Countdown Widget?

4th of July Weekend

We had a great holiday weekend. Lots of water and sun. And no sharks or jelly fish or even gators to look out for. lol
Mailia went tubing for the first time and LOVED it. I see skis and wakeboards and kneeboards in our future.
Saturday was very relaxing with a bbq and paddle boat rides. Sunday was tubing day, accompanied by sunburn (me). But it was all worth it.
Spending time with family and making memories is priceless.
Today, Monday, is a day of rest. We're staying home. I think.

A Final Win for the 3

Wish I'd been at Daytona last night.
Jr. took the #3 to Victory Lane for his Dad... the very place that his Dad lost his life in the #3. A fitting tribute and emotional ending to one of Nascar's greatest, from Nascar's most popular.

Wish I could be at Daytona today too.
Love, love, love restrictor plate racing.
Love and miss the sights, the sounds, the smells of Daytona Int'l. Speedway.
All the best to the 24, 48, 88 and 5.

Sweet Sixteen

My oldest "little girls" are sixteen years old today. Andi and Kinker.
I found them abandoned on the side of a road back in the summer of 1994. They were maybe 4-5 weeks old, hungry and nearly emaciated. Someone had cut their whiskers off and Kinker's tail was broken.

They are both still very active and almost 'kittenish' at times. I love these little girls. We'll celebrate with tuna fish later today. lol

The Long Road Home

We have finally arrived in the Great Lakes State. The land of pine trees and corn fields and apple orchards, as well as frigid winters, the highest unemployment rate in the country, and Amish horse and buggies on the back roads. I remember it all, but after nearly 20 years away........culture shock is an understatement.

We left Florida late on a Sat. night, leaving most everything we own locked in a trailer in the driveway, but the most important 'things' were packed tightly and securely into the vehicles...our 6 cats, 2 dogs and the five of us. Your travel prayers went with us and we were very grateful. A normally 18 hr. drive turned into a 24 hr. road trip filled with many, many stops for potty breaks and dog walks.

We arrived late on Sun. night and then woke on Mon. morning to our new world. Hot and humid with NO central air. We took a trek around the property, investigated each room's nooks and crannies and then started work. The trailer with our things would not arrive until the weekend, but every room including the garage and basement still contained all of my mother-in-law's things. The sorting began.......keep, sell, donate, pitch. It took all week and we're still not finished today.

The carpet in EVERY room was all circa 1960 and I knew I could not live with it for long. We pulled back a corner of it and discovered gorgeous hardwood floors. So we began tackling the carpet removal as the sorting continued, with temps near 90 and 3-4 fans blowing hot air around in each room.

The trailer arrived on Fri. and on Sat. family arrived in droves and worked until it was all unloaded. All those nooks and crannies we had just cleared were soon filled up again, this time with our things. Boxes upon boxes, bins upon bins were everywhere, and they still are, but there are fewer of them each day.

I now know that this is where I will die one day, because I don't EVER want to go through this moving process again. It has however made me realize how much 'stuff' we had that we don't need.

What happens from here is anybody's guess. Still so much to do........scraping wallpaper, painting, some remodeling.......but we need to find jobs too. I'm not too worried about it tho, the good Lord brought us here so I'm guessing He has a plan.

Mailia loves it here. She loves her room, the freedom to be outside to roam, and the many, many cousins to play with. Darrell is exhausted and although he doesn't say it, I think he is missing his mom quite a bit. I too find it a little difficult at times, as I keep thinking she'll walk into a room any minute now. It doesn't feel like 'our' house yet, and I sometimes wonder if it ever will.

The 90 degree temps gave way to 70's yesterday and today and it is WONDERFUL. We found a window ac unit in a closet and then 'inherited' 2 more just yesterday. So when the 90s come back this weekend, we will be a little more comfortable.

I'll close this time with a few pictures from the move as well as our old and new houses. I miss many, many things already, and the list will probably only grow. But family is here. We can drive to each other's houses in 30 min. or less, and when we say good-bye it's so nice to know it won't be another year or so until we see each other again. Time will take care of the rest.

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Well blogger seems to be having issues with photos so I'll have to try to load those later. It's time to get back to work. We had the internet, our new phones and satellite tv all hooked up yesterday. It's so nice to be in touch with the world again.

Sports Award

We were invited to Sports Awards night, so we had a good idea she would win something.
She won the first place trophy for most miles ran by a 3rd grader.
64 Miles!
Those 7:30 am runs really paid off, along with the Smile Mile and the 5Ks.
Her coach is very proud of her (as are we) and is going to miss her on the team this fall.
Today is the last day of school. I'll be going over to pick up her records this afternoon. Still feels so unreal. But the moving truck will be here in just 6 short days.
Hoping God will sustain me.......I'm going through the motions in a fog.