Halloween 2008

Thought you would enjoy

seeing our 5 little goblins!

This is our good witch Megan.

This is our Minnie Mouse Sydney.

This is Karsten the scary bat.

Kaitlyn is dressed as a little kitty cat.

And little Charlotte wonders what

all this is about! She has on her

1st Halloween suit.

The kiddies all went to see Grandpa

at work - they had to see if he had any

special treats for them! And

of course he did - thanks to Grandma!

This evening they all enjoyed a little

trick or treating fun - and

it was the best weather I can remember

for Halloween! As the evening began it

was about 70 degrees here!

It is Time To Vote!

I have agonized over posting

this - and then decided

if it can be in my yard

then it can be on my blog!

The Law of the Garbage Truck

A little analogy for you...

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.

We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped

out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and

just missed the other car by inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head

around and started yelling at us. My taxi

driver just smiled and waved at the guy.

And I mean, he was really friendly!

So I asked, "Why did you just do that?

That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

Then is when my taxi driver taught

me what I now call

"The law of the Garbage Truck".

He explained that many people are like

garbage trucks - they run around full of garbage,

full of frustration, full of anger,

and full of disappointments. As their

garbage piles up, they need a place

to dump it and sometimes they'll

dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave and

wish them well and move on. Don't take

their garbage and spread it to

other people at work, at home, or on

the streets. The bottom line is

that successful people do not

let garbage trucks take over their day!

Life is too short to wake up in the

morning with regrets, so

"Love and pray for the people

who treat you right and

love and pray for the ones who don't."

Life is 10% what you make it

and 90% how you take it!

What a great philosophy!

Addition to original post:

Check out the comment section -

Please read the comment from Chris -

had no idea of this web site or that

it is actually a true story! I had received

the story on an email and thought I would

share. Glad she commented - the site

she talks about is great!

Another of the comments is from my

sister - who works for a

different garbage company than the

one pictured! If she sends me

a picture then I will post hers! ;-)

Utica H.S. Homecoming Parade

Friday, October 17 was

the Homecoming Parade for

Utica High School.

For many years, Jeremy Norris has

been part of our family.

Now he is attending high school and in

the marching band!

We thought we should go see

him play and march!

Jeremy is the nice tall guy in the row in

front of the cymbals. If you

look at the front door of the house

he is just to the left and has the

saxophone in his hand.

I remember when he was 6 weeks old

and we began babysitting after

Wanda returned to work!

He was so tiny - and now so tall!

Michelle holds Kaitlyn's hands while

the loud fire/police cars begin the parade.


Sydney was excited to go to a parade!
You rarely see Sydney outside without her
sunglasses on! Miss Hollywood!
Karsten was thrilled to see all
the bands playing and the Army
truck too!
Michelle, Laura, Wanda and Karla



L Laura, Gaylon, Wanda (and Tommy who
was still at work) and Russ & I
have been friends for many years. We all met in
our days at Dequindre Road Baptist Church.


Sydney and Karsten enjoyed going
to the parade and getting so much candy!!
And a flag to wave from a soldier and
new sunglasses too!

We all had a great time - and it was
a pleasure to see Jeremy all grown up!

What a Pain!!!

We are being audited by the

IRS for the profit sharing program

we provide for our employees.

Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Have several calls into the IRS - do

you think they can respond??

NO!!

I have told them repeatedly that I am

not available for tomorrow and give

options for another date -

but no response. Guess the auditor

will get a surprise if she shows up!

I have spent the morning printing -

more than 300 pages so far -

the documents that they are requesting.

We know that all is fine with this -

we just give the wage detail and how much

we have decided to invest for the employees

to another company to do the final

reports and investing.

Just a big pain!

Recipe Exchange

I have had several requestes recently

to do "Recipe Exchanges". I have

not taken part in them - hate to put my

other friends emails out there in

web-land where they could be hit

with too many virus'!

So, thought I would stop sounding like

a big party-pooper and list a

recipe here instead!

This is a recipe given to me by Karen, my stepmother.

She knows I am a big chocoholic and

served this to Russ and I when we were in FL last

February. Immediately we began deciding

it needed a little more chocolate - so this

recipe is hers with a little more chocolate!

Chocolate Cream Desert

1 1/2 sticks cold butter

1 pkg. Chocolate cake mix

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

4 cups whipped topping divided

4 1/2 cups cold milk

3 pkgs chocolate pudding mix - INSTANT

2 tbs. chocolate curls - optional (or grated for ease!)

In a large bowl, cut the butter into the

cake mix until the mixture resembles coarse

crumbs. Add the egg and mix well.

Press into a greased 13x9x2 baking dish and bake

at 350 degrees 15 to 18 minutes, or until set.

Cool completely in the dish on a wire rack.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese on medium

speed until fluffy. Add confectioners sugar and beat

until smooth. Fold in about a cup of whipped topping.

Carefully spread over the cooked cake mix crust.

Cover and refrigerate until set.

In a large bowl, combine the milk and pudding mixes

by whisking with a wire whisk for 2 minutes.

Let stand for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Spread over the cream cheese layer. Top

with remaining whipped topping.

Garnish with chocolate curls or grated chocolate.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cutting.

Not a hard recipe - just a little time consuming since

you have to wait between each step.

Very rich - and yummy!!

Run and do!

The last weekend in September Russ and I took

off for the U.P. to meet up with 3 other couples.

As we traveled we got a call from Michelle and Mark.

They were enroute to Houghton Lake to get

their new boat settled into the cottage.

They hired a retired man with a big trailer

to come from Houghton Lake to Port Huron

to transport the boat. We ran into them at

a Wendy's along I-69.

This is their new boat.

After a quick bite to eat we continued on to the U.P.

When we got into Mackinaw City the temperature

dropped from 82 to 52 and the fog was

so thick you couldn't see past 20 feet in front

of you. We missed the beautiful scenery of going

over the bridge - but when we returned it was beautiful and sunny!

This picture was taken by the Tahquanemonon Falls.
We had hiked about a mile and then climbed up and down
tons of steep stairs - and surprise of all, I could
still breathe!! haha



One of the partners of each of the couples that
we met went to elementary school with Russ.
This is Russ, Pam and Leonard.
Melodye didn't make it down the last set of stairs.

We had a great time visiting and seeing beautiful

scenery. On the way back to the bridge a very

pretty Michigan State trooper decided to stop

and talk to Russ. She was so nice to give him

a warning to slow down - and not to give

us a hard time since we didn't have a current

registration! He made the comment later that

it was a good thing we were in a mini-van and not

in the Spitfire. We would have probably been given

a ticket for that one! lol By the way - no he

was not going that fast!

We visited the Petoskey area on the way home. The most

beautiful colors of the trip were between the

bridge and Petoskey. Love that area!

Always good to go - and always good to get home too!