As Per Bekah's Request...An Update...

Well, I'm alive...lol Work is keeping me pretty busy these days. It's nice to be back on a more regular schedule and things are going swimmingly at the work place.
My family are all doing well. Will and Renee are going to be having a baby next spring and my parents are getting more work done on their farm to get to the point of milking their own cows. I'm happy to see their progress on that because it's a dream for them and that's so nice to see one coming true. Christine and Arlexis are pretty much the same, work and school are keeping them both quite busy.
My health is in an eh... place right now. I've found out that my cholesterol is out of wack and that I'm prediabetic...fun times! I've made quite a drastic change in my diet and exercise and I'm hoping to get it under control without having to go on drugs. It's a little stressful but I know that I'll get through it no matter how things turn out. I've got a postive attitude and am willing to make almost any change I have to to get back into good health without having to go on meds. As you can see I am not a big fan of drugs and I'm not a big fan of my dr right now because of that reason so I'm looking for a new one and may end up going to one back north because I know they're recomended by my naturopath. My bosses got a new eliptical machine at the nanny house and I think I'm in love with it...lol I worked out on it the other day and in the same amount of time I'd be outdoors walking I did an extra mile and burned over twice as many calories...how cool is that. I won't give up my walking outdoors but I will be adding time on that machine to get some bonus calorie burning!
I'm looking forward to the holidays...I don't care for winter weather all that much but I really do like this time of year leading up to Christmas. It's so crazy to be hearing Christmas music on the radio full time already...seems so wrong but I can't stop myself from flipping over to it every now and again.
So, I think that's all for now. I'd appreciate any thoughts and/or prayers with this health situation and the strength so that I don't let it overwhelm me and freak me out too badly like I like to let things do from time to time.

Aprons

I'm heading up to my parent's tonight after I get out of work. I have a dentist appointment up that way in the morning so I figured I'd take the two days I've got off and spend them up there. After that it'll be at least 2 weeks before I can go up again because of my work schedule.
It's a beautiful day today! Clear and sunny but with that almost-fall bite in the air. I love this time of year when I get to pull out my sweaters and sweatshirts, I like to feel all snuggly.

Here are three aprons that I finished over this past weekend. I've got about 5 more cut out just waiting to be put together but that probably won't be done for awhile because I'll be working alot the next two weeks.

My Darling Niece

Her name is Arlexis and I often call her "A Piece of Work". She is funny and amusing, annoying and sarcastic, loving and imaginative. Arlexis is an 11 year old farmgirl living in the city. She has always lived in the city but has spent the majority of her summers, and many weekends during the school year, in the country on a farm with her grandparents and that's shaping much of who she is. I read over her first assignments in Language Arts the other day, telling about herself, and it was neat to see how she made sure to add her experience showing cows in 4-H and how cows are her favorite animal.

Those are some photos with her cow from this years 4-H Fair. His name was Prancer Pants and she loved him so much! She'd taken a cow to the fair the summer before and didn't have much of a problem when it came time to sell him, partly because some family friends bought him but even when she knew he was going to be butchered she was okay with it and even wanted some of the meat from him. When it came to time clean up her stall area and to see Prancer Pants for the last time she became very upset. She cried while she finished cleaning up her things and gave him several big hugs.

Here she is working hard on the farm...

And all clean and pretty...

Above all, she's my darling!

Rewind...Chicago

I'm going to back up a little and do a few posts about things that have already happened but either I haven't posted about them or I haven't posted pictures. These posts probably won't be in any particular order but I should be able to give an approximate time just in case anyone wonders...lol

This past May, a group of us ladies took a train trip to Chicago. I don't think that any of us had ever been on a real train trip so it was quite an experience. My mom, my sister and I left eariler in the day than the others and we had a very nice train trip. When we checked in to the hotel we relaxed for a little bit, had a little lunch and then we went to check out the area near our hotel.

Christine and Pam at Cloud Gate

Pam and Liz at Cloud Gate

Garden in Millennium Park

We checked out Cloud Gate and Millennium Park and then took in the Museum at the Art Institute of Chicago. The day we were there was the day you could get in for free so that was an added bonus. After that we went out to dinner at a bar just down the street from the hotel and then went back to the hotel to wait for the other part of our group that were supposed to be arriving shortly. Turns out they didn't get into Chicago until well after midnight because their train had some major problems! After speaking to some other people a few days later it seems that it's kind of common for the last train of the day to have mechanical issues and since it usually doesn't come in until after 10pm it takes longer to get the train repaired and going again.

So the other set of ladies arrived quite late and wanted to sleep in the next morning. My mom, sister and I had a free architectural tour planned through the Chicago Greeter Program, http://www.chicagogreeter.com/ , and we needed to get around and get going so we could make it on time. I would highly recomend that anyone who is intersted in learning more about Chicago choose one of the many tours this group does because our tour was spetacular. We had a woman named Maureen showing us some of the neatest arcitectural sights and taking us into the lobbies of buildings so we could see all of the interesting touches inside as well as out. I think the best part was that it was just the three of us that she was showing around and it made the tour more personal and informative because we could ask her questions and didn't have to strain to hear her speaking over a larger group.

When we were finished with our tour we called the other group of ladies and found out that they'd headed out to do some shopping on the Miracle Mile. We weren't interested in doing any shopping so we got ourselves some lunch and decided to take the train out to The Garfield Park Conservatory to see "Niki in the Garden". This exibit had several sculptures done by Niki De Saint Phalle placed in and around the conservatory. The conservatory in alone was very nice but it was also very neat to see all of these large mosaic sculptures in and among the plants and flowers.

Here we took a little break in our sculpture viewing to play in the children's section...

Christine going up the stairs to the slide

Pam under the big leaf

Liz after going down the slide

After our play time indoors we went outdoors to look at the rest of the sculptures. Little did we know that we'd get to play a little more...

Liz inside a sculpture

Holy cow! It ate Christine!

Awwwww...now they're friends!

Liz and Pam inside the kitty

If you are in the Chicago area by October 31st of this year I would suggest a visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory to see this great exibit!

After our fun visit to the conservatory we took the train further out to Oak Park to view some of Frank Loyd Wright's architectures. He's well known for Prairie Style architecture and we got to see some amazing looking houses, such a distinctive style. We did a lot of walking and then caught the train back to our hotel where we were to meet the other ladies to go out to dinner.

Sarah with her new ipod

We had a great dinner at one of the restaurants in the Italian Village. After that we split up...my mom, my sister and I went back out to do some walking around the city after dark and the others went to the Coyote Ugly Bar.

The next morning they slept in again while we checked out, had our bags stored and took off walking. We headed toward the lake, it was such a beautiful morning!

We also went to Shedd Aquarium and then took the train up near the Miracle Mile to get Arlexis a few things at the American Girl Store. Finally we met the other ladies back at the hotel to retreive our bags and headed to the train station for the trip home. The train was delayed an hour or so but once we got on and got going it was smooth sailing.

So we made it home and had had such a great time that we're looking forward to another trip soon!

It's Just The Beginning...

Last Friday we squared up the area where my parents are going to be building their new barn. They are also going to build a milking parlor and they'll be getting Jersey cows. On Saturday my brother dug the holes and put in the poles to get the building started.

It's pretty exciting to get to see this happening for them. They've been talking about it for years so now it's their dream coming true. I'll post some pictures when I am able to get back up there.

The wedding's over! All the planning and issues they had with vendors came together in the end and everyone had a great time. It was a hot day, the church was stuffy and the barn was too but it cooled off some so there was dancing by all. I've only got a few pictures to share but will hopefully have more when they get their professional ones back.



The Rehearsal

The Waiting

The Reception

The Gift of Goats

It's almost over!

We're getting to the end, about one week until the big day! I can't wait for the party...lol

Weather

I'm really hoping that the weather we've been having this spring isn't an indication of what's to come for the summer! Last week it was in the 80's and humid, not our typical spring weather here in Michigan. The beginning of this week it's been cooler but I just saw that Thursday it's supposed to be 90 and for the week after that it showed temps in the 80's everyday. That's just nuts!

My bosses picked up two kittens to keep their dog company. Anyone that knows me knows I'm not a big animal person but kittens aren't too bad...we'll see how I feel when they're all grown up. I don't know what it is with me not really liking animals, I guess I just don't like things climbing all over me and licking me-especially when I know it just came out of the litter box, not very appealing to me. No biggie though...

I'm off from work tonight for two weeks, I love my job! We've got the bachelorette/shower mayhem this weekend and that should be all sorts of fun. Saturday we're supposed to go to line dancing lessons and then out to lunch (part of the bachelorette party), that evening we've got an open house for a family friend's "make your own wine" shop, and then gathering at Will's house for food and games and then to the bar for the rest of the bachelorette party. When we get up north on Friday I've got to plant the flowers for the table decorations and finish the aprons because the sewing machine here seems to not want to work. We've also got to pick up a few more things for the shower, cut up watermelon and some veggies, make tea and punch and decorate the church hall for the event. Should be a crazy busy weekend...good times!

Winding up...

Will's wedding date is fast approching and it seems tha things are getting busier and busier! Renee's bachelorette party and wedding shower are this weekend...it must be said that we had the shower planned before the bachelorette party so it's not our fault if many of the girls show up hung-over...lol We've got a few more things to get ready for the shower-planting the flowers for the table decorations, putting together the prizes for the games, I've got to finish sewing aprons for one of the games and for the prizes, and the list goes on and on...good times!

I've gotten to be a bit crafty lately with scrapbooking and sewing. I put together a dress that I thought I was going to wear to the wedding but it turns out it didn't work so well on my body shape so I think my sister is going to wear it now. Thankfully I found another one I really liked and ordered it quick, it came in this past weekend and it will work perfectly! I had most of last week off from work so I was able to do a bit of scrapbooking and that was fun. I finished up what I could for the book I'm making for Will and Renee and did some on the family scrapbook. I wouldn't say I'm the most creative scrapbooker but I really have a good time putting pages together and remembering all the good times from the pictures.

Today is a rainy day, perfect for sewing which is good because I've got two days to finish three aprons for the shower, shouldn't be that hard because they're fairly easy to do and once they're finished I love looking at them because it's a very neat pattern. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures to post when I get them finished.

Things have been going quite well all around right now. I've been working fairly regular, well regular for my job, and it's not been too bad. My family are all doing good-everyone is working to get ready for the wedding and it's been interesting to see how much time it consumes. My parents have been working hard at the farm with the change over to new ownership. They're working longer days and more days in a row which I know is hard on them but hopefully it's paying off in other ways. They got corn planted at their own farm and they've gotten some information about where they may be able to purchase some calves for the start of their dairy. Busy times but it seems that everyone is happy and that's a good thing!

Wine Charms

I made these wine charms for my brother's wedding, they'll be gifts to the bridesmaids from the bride. I got the heart charms from a great lady at http://www.bunnysdesigns.etsy.com/ They turned out great!