Fabulous Friday

Today is just wonderful.

Strawberries, Fudge, HGTV.

Laundry, Organizing, Cleaning.

Practicing, Playing, Projects.

Hillsong, Fingernail Polish, Purging. 

Sunshine, Lilly, & Ironing.

Thank you, Jesus for this lovely day.

Somebody's Birthday...

I hope today treats you well.

Love ya brother!

Loc La Belle, MI

 The End.

Happy Birthday Mom!

googleimage

Happy Birthday 

to my wonderful mother, Peri!

I love you!

Happy Birth Day Owen!

 Owen John was born June 1st, 2012. 

This little guy has the best hair do goin on and the best family for him to come into. 

Congratulations to my big brother Kenney and his wife, Candace, 

and their two little ones, Isabella and Wyatt.

The whole family. And Candace, looking beautiful on the same day! Look at Wyatt's face!

Owen's awesome hair-do.

Bella all exited to go visit Baby Owen in the hospital.

Precious

Daddy just fixing Bella's pony-tail.

Goofy picture!

It's a Boy!

Gentleman

Grandpa and Grandson

Two wonderful guys!

Bella's face! What a goof ball!

Mr. Wyatt

Hospital Room Toss

Playing with some crazy new toys from Grandma

This. Melts. My. Heart.

He's adorable!

Love

The end.

Wedding Worth The Ride

 Congratulations to Jim & Rachel! 

You are awesome people and I am so happy for you both! 

Your wedding was lovely and unique. 

The Story of a Bus Ride

 My husband and I are blessed with one vehicle. It gets us to work and school and back and to where we want to go. We are very thankful for this said car.
Having one car does make it a little difficult however when one wants to travel, oh say, 10 hours to go to a wedding. Means of transportation are expensive and difficult to come by when you live in the UP.  For example, the closest place to rent a car that we are aware of is about 2 hours away. Not very convenient. Flying is too expensive. Train is not an option neither is renting a car.  I haven't mastered the method of Beaming, but Scotty, we're getting there. And when I do figure that out I will let you know.
Well then, looks like I will be taking the bus.
Not all that bad. Nice bus, comfy seats, bathroom in the back, and not too crowded.
And even through the first transfer things were looking good. Got my choice of seat for each ride and it was a red eye trip so things were quite and dark. Get over the Big Mac and the sun decides to join me in my travels. I find things to keep my hands busy as the bus gets a little noisier. Next stop, I can just sit back and relax because I don't have to transfer. I am getting pretty comfy and pleased with the way things are going. Smooth, easy, relatively pleasant minus the lack of sleep.
I am starting to see familiar City names like Traverse City, Petosky, Grayling. We even got a 20 minute lunch break in Grayling at a quaint little local deli. Nice.
Or so I thought.
As the bus loads up to head out from our lunch break, the bus driver notices a problem. One person too many. I thought it was a bit strange he didn't take my ticket at the last stop, but I didn't see a problem as my destination was not mentioned for the last transfer. Just as he was about to put the bus in gear a breeze of panic flew by my gut. I walked up as his hand was on the shifter and I asked, "Am I the extra person?"
...........................
He looked at my ticket and let out a disappointing breath.

"You were supposed to get off at the last transfer."

Adrenaline. Panic. "Are you kidding me," I thought. No Way. This kind of stuff doesn't happen to me.

Not to mention rushed. He was about to take off.

About 11 hours on the bus at this point and about 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I asked what can I do. He said he can't really help me. My options were to remain on the bus to the other side of the state, LANSING, or stay in Grayling, stranded. The thought of being on the bus and riding all over the state to completely miss my date of arrival made me want to cry, and the thought of hopping off the bus and not knowing what was going to happen made me want to cry. But I chose to stay in Grayling. I was already off course, and that would put me even further off if I stayed on. So I could barely speak, "I'm sorry," to the bus driver as I grabbed my bag and got off the bus because I was so choked up and a fountain of tears was about to bust loose.
The bus took off and there I was, 11:00 AM, drizzle, and my ticket for my last transfer. 
I started crying. Like really crying. Face all screwed up like a baby crying. I screamed out in my head a cry to God. Desperate for His help. I didn't know what was going to happen, but as soon as I turned my thoughts towards God and chose to trust Him in my desperate situation I knew it was going to be ok. I was still scared, very scared and frustrated, and mad at myself, and crushed, but I knew I was going to survive.

Next I called my dad. You see, he was going to pick me up in Reed City at 2:00PM that day which was about 2 hours South West of Grayling. Basically he was going to have to just come farther to get me and he was very caring and ready to rescue me. I called him right away because it was an emergency that I contact him asap, the only problem was that I was so choked up and sobbing, I couldn't really speak. You know those types of cries, that are basically uncontrollable. Those types of cries where you are at the mercy of the waves. Eventually I got my point out as passerby's offered help and demonstrated concern for this poor girl balling her eyes out.
After I could breath, I gathered my wits. My dad was going to get me at the Grayling McDonald's. I didn't know where that was, but I had a while to find it. So I spotted a gas station and walked to it in the now rain. With my bags. One nice thing about the rain was that people wouldn't be able to obviously tell that I was just crying, because everything else was wet too. The lady at the counter was very helpful telling me that the McDonald's was on this side of the street one, no, maybe two lights down. I thanked her and hurried out trying to hide my tears and fear and desperation. As I mentioned earlier, it was raining, and I was carrying my bags. And I was crying and all wet and I was lost. Praying in my head and mumbling to myself I decided to call my mom. I called her as I paced down the sidewalks in the rain. I updated her on the situation, and as I began to speak, of course the sobbing started again. Because when you are that choked up and you try to speak you end up crying. She went to work and started to help in any way she could. I got off the phone and kept walking. Wait... second light. No McDonald's. Well, I am just going to keep walking because it must be close. Another light, no McDonald's. The rain and tears continued and I decided to call my husband to let him know what was going on. The most he could do for me was pray and tell me it was going to be ok.  Sobbed through that phone call not trying to hide my panic as I was still walking and there was still no McDonald's. I was walking on the side of the highway now. Lots of traffic and only a mud path on the side of the road.
When I came around a curve, glowing before me was the wonderful McDonald's, I saw my safe haven. I walked in, expecting everyone to look at me like a fool for what I had just done. But, thankfully, I went unnoticed. After hours and hours about 20 minutes after I stepped off the bus and making contact with my dad, mom, and husband I sat and took a deep breath. Resting from my five or six light jaunt in the rain, with adrenaline, rain, tears, panic and a nap's worth of sleep. Then my phone rang, and it was my mom. Good news. Come to find out she was only an hour away from me, and she was on her way right now. She had already contacted my dad and things were righted. Things were going to be ok. And even though it was still raining just as before, it got brighter outside. Things were going to work out pretty decently.
How convenient that I happen to be at a McCaffe with deliciously warm hot cocoa. I made friends with a cup and thanked Jesus that I survived this life crisis. My mom came, I made it safely to where I was going and it was a beautiful wedding.

This really isn't a bad situation. It all worked out, nothing was lost or hurt. Everything was ok and way worse things could have happened. Stuff like this happens to people all the time. Just not me. And I have never been in a situation like this. My life is pretty simple and easy and I don't really have difficult situations to deal with other than my emotions that sometimes take me for a ride (like any other lady).

I can laugh now and share this story with ease, but this was a serious matter for me.
I learned and I owned the bus ride back. Let me tell you. I was all over every transfer. And the bus ride back was about 50 times better. I even got closer to 3 hours of sleep and things worked in my favor instead of against it.

THANK YOU, JESUS!

 The end.