Almost Christmas

Well, it's almost Christmas....I haven't posted since I went to my niece's wedding, which was just beautiful. You can see some of the photos in my scrap gallery (link is at right). It was wonderful to spend time with family and I celebrated Christmas with Amy and Jared and the babies while I was there.

I have been sick for a week (a cold that turned into sinus infection) in spite of the fact that I got my flu shot on 12/4.....guess it was too late! Anyway, I'm on meds and on the mend, feeling much better.

Mike is going to his mom's for Christmas weekend, I'll be home.....things are really confusing in my life right now so I'll be lonely and probably depressed...lol....I have no idea why I chose to spend the holiday alone, but I made the decision so I'll be fine. I think I will try to find a Christmas Eve service at a nearby church, and I'll find something to do over the weekend (probably sleep and finish recovering from being sick)!!!

Love to all, and to all, have a blessed holiday!
xoxoxoxox
Gail and Mike

Old Time Rock and Roll

Tuesday night........Mike and I saw BOB SEGER in concert. Nosebleed seats.......but the music was awesome. Sat with a great bunch of people and had a rockin good time!!!













Off to my niece's wedding in Illinois........have a great weekend all!!

XOXOX
Gail and Mike

Git-R-DONE..............

On November 10, Mike and I went to the Orpheum to see Larry the Cable Guy. Little did we know he was taping his next comedy show over the weekend at that venue......I was so bummed out, since we had awesome 7th row seats, which was cool, but because they were taping the show, no cameras were allowed. He was very funny anyway, and I guess in the end, who needed the still camera......I'm going to have the whole show on tape! You might even see us in the video :)

Wow...it's November!?!

Well, we've been busy with our usual pile of leaves the past couple of weeks. We've even endured a few snow flurries (the first was Oct 14!)

Mike and I did take a trip to the Minneapolis Zoo - my first visit there - on September 26. It was a gorgeous day and a wonderful visit. Here is one of the three SHARKS we saw at the aquarium there:

We also saw the Dolphin show...I absolutely loved it! I'm so glad Mike made me go ;)
Not much else going on, I've been working on opening a new store which should go live next week. More info on that later!!

Love to all!!
Gail and Mike

Eric Clapton and Cold Weather!

Well, the usually nice Minnesota September weather didn't make it this year. It's been unusually cold...brrrrr....only in the 40's today.

Mike and I went to see Eric Clapton on Saturday the 16th. He really rocked - I liked this concert much better than the one I saw two years ago.

Not too much else going on...Next show we have planned is Larry the Cable Guy in November :)

Love to all!
Gail and Mike

Minnesota State Fair

In September, Mike and I went to the State Fair. It was a lot of fun....we walked around, grazed on fair food (corn dogs, fries, chicken on a stick, uffda treats, and sno-cones). We didn't do any of the wild rides (finding our way through the crowds was wild enough!), but we did pay to go into a butterfly room, which was really neat.

Oh and I did get to see Lori and Julia, a couple of my favorite radio personalities here in the cities :)

Trip to see the Grandbabies

At the end of August, I went down to Illinois to see Alex and Ambyr, Amy, Jared, Hayley and Raven. I drove down, it was a long trip, but worth it! We got to celebrate Jared's birthday, made a side trip to Iowa to see the Mississippi River, played Clue, and got to spend a lot of wonderful time together! Here are some pictures from the trip!















This is Raven....she has grown SO much in the last six months!! She is such a happy, cute little thing!!



















Here's a photo of Hayley. She's grown up a lot too...she says all kinds of words, eats by herself, and pretty much lets you know who the "boss" is !!! She has her mom's temper :)

She was so much fun to watch and play with. She definitely has her favorite things.....cookies and brownies among them!
She likes Nemo and Dory (finding Nemo) and Dora the Explorer. She had a hard time deciding on a name for me, started off with Mommy Mommy (Mommy's mommy) and in the end just settled for Ammie. I love it :)















A picture of the whole family....Hayley wasn't too keen on the family picture thing!

College Buddies

At the end of July, our guests for the weekend were two of Mike's college buddies, Mark from Wyoming and David from St. Paul. We attended a Twins game on Friday night, and basically just had a great visit for the rest of the weekend. Here's a couple of photos of the guys from the party!

This weekend we went boating down the St. Croix river with our friends on their boat. It was hot, but nowhere near the 100+ degrees it was a week or so ago! Got some fun and sun in!

Here I am beachin' :)














And here are the guys "hangin out" (no pun intended!) ;)





















Have a great week!!
XOXOX
Mike and Gail

Bunny Update

The bunnies are still here. They moved around the corner of the house and found a new home under the house. I'll have pics to upload later!

Race Weekend

Mike and I went to Grand Forks this weekend for a sprint car race. It was a hot, cold, wet, dusty weekend :) Here's a photo I took of of the cars coming around the track.

Bunny update

The bunnies have grown so much over the last week. These are the most recent - and probably the last - photos of them. They finally left their nest last night, and this morning they were gone. If you click on these photos you can see them bigger - the one on the left is from Tuesday...the batch of them napping. The one on the right is from last night - one bunny still in the confines of the garden bed, and the other is just outside of it, in the rocks.


We hated to see them go, but nature will take its course. It's just as well with us since we will be in Grand Forks this weekend and not able to keep much of a close eye on them.

Have a great weekend!!!

Family Reunion scrap

Here's another scrapbook page I made for a challenge we are working on at DSP. This one isn't due until Thursday, but I liked it so much I decided to do a sneak preview here until I can upload it.

These are some of the best shots I took when my Mom met her new family in Michigan in 2000. The bottom picture of my mom with the rose her sisters brought her is cut off because that's the way the photo came out - but at an angle - so I had to straighten and crop it...and was pretty pleased with the result. I love this picture of my mom...she just looks so happy here!!!

Bunnies and Fireworks

I went out to water my mums on Friday - and AFTER I was done watering, I found these:
Baby bunnies!! Well....here they kinda look like drowned rats. They are only a few days old here - their eyes weren't even open the first day I found them. The only reason I was able to spot them was because - bad me - I must have filled their nest with water so they had to stick their little heads out to breathe. Fortunately (or not - depends on your point of view) - they all made it. So I've been careful watering now. They had their eyes open Saturday and are getting bigger already. So far I've counted three for sure and maybe four.

On Saturday, we went to Taste of Minnesota in St. Paul. In addition to tons of junk food (including roasted corn, ribs, gyros, shrimp-on-a-stick and spiral spuds), there was live music (they have three stages) - we saw Los Lonely Boys (pretty good band, we saw them with Santana last year) and The Association (do NOT pay money to go see them - ever! They can still sing the songs, but believe me...they do NOT sound the same! LOL)
Finished off with fireworks - here's one of the shots I took.

No huge plans for the fourth here....working today, and planning on going to the lake in Bloomington tonight to see our city's fireworks display. Hope you all are having fun and have a safe and happy Holiday!!!

XOXOX
Gail and Mike

This week's news

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks. Still fighting the critters in the yard - we have a new one, a little groundhog we've named Topper. I think Topper is the one eating the tops off all my verbenas. Not happy here.

Mike and I went to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tuesday night! THEY ROCKED!! What an awesome, awesome concert. I was in awe!! He played two full hours and we didn't get home til about 1 AM; had to work the next day, but it was worth the five hours of morning misery (until I had pumped down three cups of coffee and a sugar donut).

The weather has been great. Looking forward to the holiday weekend (I have to work Monday), then we'll be in Grand Forks for a Sprint car race the weekend of the 7th.

Have a good, happy, safe holiday weekend!!
XOXOX
Gail and Mike

A little Sad News..... and Happy Memorial Day!

Mike and I both left town for the Mother's day weekend. When we returned, Henrietta and her babies were gone. There were some scattered eggshells laying around, so we hoped for the best that she had hatched her eggs and left the nest (they do so within 12 hours of hatching).

The neighbors told us that on the Monday night that we were gone, that a flock of about 50 crows had attacked Henrietta at about 9 that evening - around the same time that she usually left the nest each night, presumably to find food. We continued to hope for the best and that we would see her again - with her babies.

She came home yesterday afternoon and sat under a tree just a few feet away from her nest - which we haven't yet had the heart to clean out from under the bush - without her babies. So it looks like the predators got the eggs. We are hoping that she decided to try for a second brood, but it doesn't look like it.

On a happier note, it's Memorial Day weekend - the official kick off of summer! A/C is on for the first time today, going to be 88 and muggy today. My garden is pretty much in and growing...here are some of the pics, including the beautiful garden fairies my mom gave me for my birthday!


















Here is a picture of Mom and me, and Chip and Mom, from Mother's Day in Florida:










And some new pictures of Hayley (left) and Raven (right) that Amy sent me on her cel phone this past week:










Well, we are off to a barbeque at the neighbor's today. Love to all and have a safe and happy holiday!

love,
Gail and Mike

Babies to Be!

Mike was out in the yard yesterday trimming and mowing. He went to attack the bushes in the front yard......fired up the hedge trimmer...and instead got attacked himself when our resident duck, Henrietta, flew out of the bushes and right at him! Needless to say, he dropped everything and backed off.....she hung around a few minutes hissing at us then flew away, but knowing she and partner Mort have been hanging around, I peered into the bushes and found out why - there are 11 babies-to-be in her nest!

Here is a picture of the nest - what we could see without disturbing it. I'm sure there will be more pictures soon - duck eggs take 28-32 days to incubate and we think she's been there a week or so nesting. Looking towards the end of the month before the whole brood appears.

xoxox
Gail and Mike

50th

Today was my 50th birthday.....had a wonderful day, and the weather cooperated. Mike got me two dozen gorgeous roses....took me out for breakfast...and didn't complain (much) when I scrapped my special day. Here is the scrap page I made to commemorate my birthday.

Nothing new is going on other than flowers and yard work....I bought some perennials so hopefully I won't have to go through all this again next year :)




Love to all!!!!
XOXOX
Gail and Mike

Spring has Sprung

Been in the high 70's here and doing lots of yard work, things are growing, the sun is shining, life is good :) Got to open windows over the weekend (always my favorite part of the year) and Mike dethatched the yard yesterday and today. I still have to get all my garden babies out. I planted some tulip bulbs last week but the rabbits dug them all up (it's war around here!)

Our ducks Mort and Henrietta have re-appeared and I am awaiting the arrival of a new brood waddling around in the yard. Hope she brings them over again this year.

Well....back to work....Mike's birthday is tomorrow...HAPPY BIRTHDAY EARLY if you see this!!! :) No plans as of yet, but I imagine any we make will involve me cooking :)

XOX to all and Happy Spring!!!
Gail and Mike

Spring !!

Spring has officially arrived!!

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks....Mike and I got our new DVD player hooked up over the weekend - went nuts at the video store yesterday and rented 5 movies!

A rough couple of days for me. My very good friend Bobby (from MA) passed away on Feb. 16 from lung cancer. I had spoken with him a few weeks before and he had sounded so good....so it was quite a shock when I found out. (I miss you, my friend!) Here is a picture of us at the airport in Chicago in 2002.



Taking my car in for it's checkup this weekend and working on scrapbook pages. Waiting for our 20" of snow (!) from the last week or so to melt so I can plant my tulips and start my garden shopping :)

That's it for now........love to all!!
Gail and Mike

A new month.....................

OK, so, the month of February almost pretty much didn't exist for me.......come home from Mexico with the trots, then I'm only good for a couple of days and pull my back out of whack for two weeks. Geez!!!

So..........I DO have belated good news to share!!! I was feeling so crappy I didn't even realize that I didn't put this up! On January 28, the day before we left for Mexico.........new granddaughter Raven Paige Smith arrived! 6 lbs, 18 1/2 inches. Here she is at 4 weeks :)



As for the rest of February, other than laying around on my ass for three weeks, I did get to go to Illinois and see the babies this week. So of course I also have pictures of granddaughter Hayley who is now 16 months old!

Hayley and Mom
Hayley and Dad at Chucky Cheese

Raven and Hayley
Cutie Patootie

Anyway, I got home Tuesday and it's Friday. Back is feeling better (2nd day in a row)...so I've had my two good days........If I make it through tomorrow (Saturday), then maybe the jinx will be broken and March will be a good month for me....except for taxes...yuck!!

Love to all!
Mike and Gail

It's true what they say.....DON"T DRINK THE WATER!!

OK OK so I decided to be real smart and not worry about drinking bottled water this year. Why?? because last year I drank the water and it didn't bother me. Well. Let me tell ya, Montezuma's revenge is a bitch! Anyway I feel a bit better today, not well enough to travel far from my bathroom but better just the same.

So I'm going to post a few more pics from our trip.

Here's a picture of a trained seal we saw on the marina. He was clapping and putting his flippers around people.

We went on a day trip and stopped on an island for lunch. I got to hold this iguana. He was heavy and squirming. His name is probably Montezuma.









This is Mike on the horse he rode on our trail ride up to the waterfalls - part of our day trip.

Our hotel - Holiday Inn 

Puerto Vallarta

Our "Shrimp Guy" on the beach. The best shrimp ceviche and shrimp cocktails you can get anywhere. I miss him already :( 

Puerto Vallarta

The beach at our hotel.