7 Things You Might Not Know About Me

Seedsower   had this on her site and so I decided to put it here too...not that mine are going to be nearly as interesting as hers!! ( Having never been hit by a car I am at a DISTINCT disadvantage!!!)

1. I met my husband at William Jewell College, he was the Army Recruiter on campus...I like to tell him HE was the one who ended up being recruited!!!

2. I was raised by parents who were actually old enough to be my grandparents...and I think that goes a long way towards explaining why I am so "old fashioned" about a lot of things.

3.  When I was young, my Dad and I went to the Golden Gloves Boxing Matches in Kansas City Mo. every year, I used to think I was SO cool...we would always get ring side seats because Daddy know so many of the trainers...I still love watching a good boxing match!!

4.  I Wish I had finished college...gotten my music degree and been a church music director!!!

5. When I was in High School I participated in Music Contests every year...I can still remember the horrible fear in the pit of my stomach as I waited to go on stage and sing...yike!!! Later in life I played the piano to accompany my oldest daughter when she played the violin in Music Contests...I always felt SO empathetic for her..I Knew EXACTLY what she was experiencing!!!

6. I have been blessed to be present at the birth of both of my youngest grandsons...such a blessing it was to be there and share that special moment with my girls!!!

7. I am related...by marriage...to Robert E. Lee...one of the great military men of our country.

The Upper Peninsula

We have arrived in St. Ignace, Michigan. We spent Saturday night in Grand Blanc at Kathy and Derek's house...what an adorable place they have!! We slept upstairs in a gabled room that any little girl or boy would ADORE to have as their room...all sorts of little nooks and crannies to hide in!!! After a hearty breakfast at a local restaurant on Sunday morning we headed North. We spent Sunday night in Alpena, Michigan, after spending a few hours in a great little German town called Frankenmuth. They have the worlds largest Christmas Store  we didn't have time to explore the entire thing...that would have been an all day adventure...but we did manage to find some special Christmas ornaments for the girls....and a special one for "Boo"...our soon to be new grandbaby that will be arrive in late November!! I was glad to find a gender neutral 1st Christmas ornament because Boo's parents' aren't giving up ANY details...lol.

Along the route between Alpena and St. Ignace we stopped at several light houses... The Old Presque Light House   and The New Presque Light House  of course Pat walked up to the top of both...and took tons of pictures. There was a bench out at the Old Presque Light House that the rest of us sat at and waited for Pat and enjoyed the beauty of Lake Huron. Derek said that the sound of the surf was what lulled them to sleep each night that it was warm enough for them to have their bedroom windows open in their beach house in Northern Michigan. Wouldn't that be a little slice of heaven??  We also saw a couple of Bald Eagles while we were driving the back roads...such wonderful, majestic birds!! I know we were thrilled to see them!!

We have stopped at the Colonial Michilimackinac Fort....just got a taste of what to expect by wandering through the gift shop...because it is a time consuming trip through the fort and we didn't have time for that today. Then we drove across the Mackinac Bridge  which is just 28 feet short of being 5 miles long!! We are staying at a Days Inn right on Lake Huron....in fact we have a little patio right outside our door with chairs so that we can sit outside and enjoy the view. The only thing that I am unhappy about is that they say we can't feed the sea gulls and geese that are everywhere...silly people don't want the mess...lol.

I don't think we will be lacking for things to do here...besides the fort and nautical museum there are tons of stores to check out, a boat ride to take over to Machinac Island and all of the things that there are to see and do there. There is also a casino...maybe we will check that out and see if we can make a little money to finance our way back home!!

Now I am going to go and sit on the patio and enjoy the view...we are having a wonderful time...but of course we always do when we get to spend time with Kathy and Derek!!!
Ruth Ann

Annual Autumn Trip

We are on our way for our annual Autumn get together with Kathy and Derek. It was a late start from home yesterday since Pat was playing in his Kansas Senior Olympics golf tournament and , as usual, the other golfers in the tournament were slower than molasses in January. Pat says some of them act like they are playing in The Masters....they have gizmos that tell them how far from the hole they are at any given point, so he has to wait and wait at each tee....which meant I was waiting and waiting at home...lol. By the time he finally got back to his car and turned his cell phone back on ...he called me and said "WHY did you call me FIVE times?"...lol. Silly man..he should have expected it...I mean..how many years has he been married to me??

We are now in Hannibal, Mo...an interesting town but we will be on the road before the sun is high enough in the sky to see much of it.  Which means I don't have anymore time to fill in any of the details of this adventure....we need to hit the road!! Everyone have a good day...Kathy and Derek...we will see you soon!!!

Did you notice I was MIA?? lol

Good morning...and Happy Labor Day to you...I have been MIA for quite a while...Facebook is just SO much easier to jot a quick not...keep up with everyones' coming and goings....and so many of you link to FB so I am able to read your blogs from there.  But SOME of you ( yes @grannyhummingbird I am talking about YOU!!! and @SewWorthIt) don't use FB so I haven't been able to keep up with you.

We are having wonderful COOL weather in fact it was almost too cool to be outside when I slipped out to put the bird feeders back out a few minutes ago!!! It only got up into the mid 70's yesterday which has been our LOWS  the last few weeks!!

The birds are loving this cool weather almost as much as we are...I think they are gearing up to start migrating South and they are really keeping me busy restocking the bird feeders, humming bird feeding stations and the grape jelly for my orioles. I put out the feeders about 5 minutes ago and I can already hear the Cardinals out there...they love to come early in the morning and late in the evening, when no one else is there to harass them. The hummingbirds have also been CRAZY in the back yard, I know we had at least 25 of them buzzing around the 4 feeders the last few days. They are desperate enough that they occasionally stop fighting with each other long enough for 3 or 4 of them to be eating at the same feeder all at once!! Pat tried to take some pictures for me but our camera just doesn't zoom in enough to really get the hummers in detail.  It is so relaxing to sit out on the deck and just watch them chasing each other around the feeders. I am sorry that they will be heading south in the next few weeks and wont be here to entertain us anymore. Jasper ( Tammy's crazy cat) will miss them too...he spent HOURS yesterday sitting on the piano bench that I set up at the open window in the dining room...watching the humming birds that were zooming around. I even have one humming bird feeder that is hooked on the window right next to him..makes him NUTS!!!! heheheheheh

We went to Independence, Mo on Saturday to meet Pat's folks for a day at Santa-Cali-Gon Days, an annual festival there. Mom loves and adores going there...so even though it isn't exactly our cup of tea...we always go with her. Pat doesn't complain...he gets one of his much adored Turkey Legs to munch on as we wander around looking at all of the vendors and their wares. Our outing got cut a little bit short this year because the much anticipated cold from moved in and brought dark clouds and when we started hearing the thunder we knew it was time to head back to the car. We were parked in the parking lot of 1st Baptist Church, the church that I grew up in as a child...about 8 blocks from where we were at the time. I had managed to develop a blister on my foot because I had foolishly worn sandals instead of my tennis shoes...so Pat left me waiting in a doorway about half way back to the car and he got the car and came back for me...my wonderful hubby!!! We no more than got in the car and the skies opened up and it poured BUCKETS and BUCKETS of blessed rain!!! We had to drive really slowly because Pat simply couldn't see well, the rain was coming down so hard.  Dionna, Tom and Kieran were coming home from a different direction, where they had been at a family reunion for Tom's family and she said that everyone was pulling off on the side of the road because of the rain. Unfortunately Topeka didn't get the rain...so we have had to continue watering but at least the heat has broken!! Thank you Lord!!

And that is enough to bore you with for now...I hope some of you haven't forgotten me completely...since i was gone for SO long...I have missed you all!!!
Ruth Ann

Booo!!!

I will basically be offline for the next few weeks...my poor little laptop is in the Computer Hospital....seems a combination of Bad RAM ( HOW do you catch that I wonder???) and some malicious malware that I picked up someplace have been a bit more than it can handle. Luckily it is still under warranty...so it has been shipped off to Hewlett Packard for new RAM then back to my trust Geek Squad to be debugged. I am being told it will be 2 - 4 weeks before I get it back. I am able to use Pat's trusty laptop when he isn't hogging it to play solitaire or trivia (heheheh) ....but he is going out of town ( again!) in a week or so for a reunion at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma...which will leave me computerless.

If for some reason you REALLY need to get in touch with me....use my Gmail account or rely on the really old fashioned telephone!!!
I will do my best to catch up with everyone when I get back online.

UPDATE: My wonderful hubby went out and rented a computer for me to use!! SO I am NOT offline afterall!! Yeah for wonderful generous husbands!!!!!!