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Has anyone seen this yet? You can design your own handbag.  The possibilities are endless. I’m going to have to save up for one now. How original, to have my own self-customized handbag.

Design your own at Freddy & Ma.

Yea, yea, I know. I’ve been a horrible blogger. But hey, it’s summer. Lately the only thing I’m sitting at the computer for is to clear out my photo memory card in my camera. I try hard to avoid the television during these summer months too. The first week of July we took our yearly summer vacation. We toned it down a bit this year. I told Dave that I’d have no problem giving up a huge vacation this year and even next year if it helps us save to get into a new house this time next year. Dave said he really needed the vacation this year, so instead of scratching it all together, we just kept it mild, so to speak.

On Sunday, July 2nd, we hit the road. And headed north to visit my great-aunt in Levering, Michigan in Emmet County.  She’s about 13 Miles south of Mackinaw City and the Mackinaw Bridge. I’ve been going up there since I was a kid and have always loved it. Took us about just under 4 hours for the trip including pit stops. I’ve always loved the drive. Taken it by myself a few times. We arrived at Aunt Marylins at about 7:30pm. Dave showed Gavin around and took him out for a ride on her 4-wheeler. Monday we basically stayed there at her place. The view from her back patio is simply beautiful. We took a drive into Mackinaw City for a short while and also Cheboygan for some light shopping.  Tuesday was the 4th and that was the big day for us during our stay with her. We let Gavin sleep in, since we knew he wouldn’t be getting a nap in through-out the day.  So then early afternoon we went back into Mackinaw, and got our tickets to board one of the Arnold Line ferry boats over to beautiful Mackinac Island. We had our honeymoon on the island 3 yrs ago. It is quite a romantic place for a honeymoon or even a wedding. The infamous Grand Hotel is absolutely stunning. Although we didn’t stay there during our honeymoon, they to offer tours into this historical and famous hotel. One thing great about the island is that there are no cars. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island. When we stayed for our honeymoon, we were right on Main Street. Each morning you could hear the clop, clop of the horseshoes on the pavement, it is very nostalgic to stay there.  So this trip we spent a good portion of the day on the island just walking around. Took a carriage tour of the island. Stopped and spent some time in an awesome butterfly house. Early evening we took the ferry back to the main land to get ready for the fireworks display. We found a great spot to sit right on the shore near the Mackinaw Bridge. Gavin and Dave played near the shore while we waited for dusk. It was a great fireworks display. Though quite a few people thought it was a bit short. After they ended I overheard several comments "that was the shortest fireworks show I’ve seen." Afterward we went back to my aunt’s for the night.

Late morning on Wednesday, we said good-bye to my aunt and started to head south again. We had reservations for 2 nights in Frankenmuth at the new Zehnder’s Splash Village hotel and waterpark. That was a lot of fun. Gavin always enjoys the waterparks. We checked out of the hotel on Friday then spent sometime walking around Frankenmuth. It’s such a cute and quaint little town. And no one can visit Frankenmuth without making a stop at Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the worlds largest Christmas store; where it’s Christmas everyday.  They have tens of thousands of Christmas ornaments. So many themes, knick knacks and collectables. One section alone is just for stockings. You literally can get lost in this place. Being July, it’s wasn’t very crowded. Last time we were there in late October and the place was packed. We got home late Friday evening and spent the rest of the weekend at home. You can see all the pictures from our vacation here.

I promise to do much better at this blogging thing. I’ve got so much more to write about.

What a busy time this has been.  Things have been nonstop since before Memorial Day.  Memorial Day weekend, Dave took Gavin up north with his best friend and his daughter who’s about 6 I think.  Anyway, with husband and child out of the house for 3 days, my mom and I redid our bathroom.  That was ajob and a half.  We scraped the walls, pulled up the carpet, replaced the lighting, faucet, all door/drawer hardware, we spackled, we chaulked, and yes we painted.  There were 2 particular challenging areas. These were the areas of the wall next to the tub.  The original chaulking around the shower door was not doing it’s job and as a result the wall was water damaged pretty bad.  It was bad when I moved in with Dave 5 years ago and had gotten worse and worse. My mom and I tackled it with gusto and I have to admit we did a pretty darn good job.  But of course, you can be the judge.

The right and left side of the tub is seen here as it was before:

And the after pictures as seen here:

You can click on the pictures for a more up close view. I still have some minor touching up to do, some new chaulking on the floor and cleaning up some paint off the tub, but you have to admit it’s quite an improvement.  In the before pictures, those are gaps next to the tub, at least an inch gap.  We bought some of that expanding foam and sprayed that in the gaps. Once the foam hardens, you can cut away the excess, even sand it, then we spackled over it.  And who knew I had such beautiful custom tile work under that old nasty grey carpeting.  I spent over a good hour scrubbing and scouring and the result was some pretty nice tile work that I think goes wonderful with my new "Gothic Amethyst" paint color. I put some black floor rugs down and got black and white towels.  I feel so much better walking into that bathroom now.

And now for the reason of my post subject.. "All Grown Up"  That is referring to Ray, my first born, my baby.  Last week was his graduation commencements.  I can’t believe he’s all grown up.  It was such a proud moment.  He was a great student. Made the honor roll several times, he was in the ROTC all through high school. He often got straight A’s in his card markings.  Wednesday was also special because his grandfather (on his dad’s side) graduated with him.  He was in the Marines and after he finished high school was called into the Korean War, never recieving his diploma.  So in the beginning of the commencement ceremonies, the principal gave a wonderful speech about how he served our country, fathered 10 children and that this evening he was to finally recieve his diploma with his grandson.  Ray joined his grandpa onstage and everyone cheered.  He recieved a standing ovation. It was quite a tearful moment for me that’s for sure.  I had no idea Ray’s graduating would affect me so much.  I see a man now. Sure he turned 18 back in January, but now he’s done with high school.. his juvenile days are gone. Here he is when he was 18 months:

And here at 18 years, a high school graduate, that’s me in the first one and the second one he’s with his grandpa.

Sorry for my lack of posting lately.  As I mentioned, things have been quite busy.  I’m throwing Ray’s graduation pary this Saturday, and then next Saturday his dad is having a party for his side of the family.  We even had a huge weekend garage sale in between all this, it was quite a success.

This entry comes thanks to my blogging friend Shea and what she calls "Secret Single Behavior."  Most women probably know what that behavior might include.  It’s those things you do for yourself in the solitude and privacy of your own home, when you are single, that is.  I say that because in commenting on her entry, I mentioned that secret single behavior should be treasured while it lasts.  I can’t remember the last time I took a long relaxing bubble bath, surrounded by candles and a glass of wine that I wasn’t worried would be knocked over should some 3 year old come barging in on my Talgon moment announcing that he has soiled his diaper.  Or when was the last time I walked around the house nekked?  And oh the thought of having a linen closet all to myself once again. A place to store all my secret single behavior paraphernalia.  Now I’m reduced to about 12 inches of shelf space right next to the Desitin ointment and baby wipes.  The loofahs and aeromatherapy bath oils in my tub have been replaced with Winnie the Pooh splash island and Cookie Monster bubble bath.  Romance novels in my bedroom have been replaced with Curious George and that man with the yellow hat, who is he anyway?  Weekend afternoons are now consisted of park playdates, fingerpainting and playdoh instead of a quiet stroll of window shopping or curling up with a good book.

On the otherside of the coin, I get daily butterfly kisses, eskimo kisses and the security that my future beyond being single has arrived.  I guess what’s next is Secret Senior Behavior, huh?

I went out of town to visit my sister in Indiana.  Our last day there, Gavin was up early running around all day with my neices, never got a nap in.  Needless to say, this is what happened during dinner.  More soon.

The hedges that line our backyard are budding.

The daffodils in my frontyard are blooming.

The stores are stocked with fresh Easter flowers.

And hotdog stands are popping up everywhere.

Now this would truly make that time of the month all the more bearable.

Busy, busy, busy.  Seems as soon as you get one day that remotely says that Spring is here, the buzz starts.  The house seems less gloomy, curtains are opened wide, winter cob webs are removed and the world wakes from it’s winter coma.  We’re suppose to get in the 60’s tomorrow and I can’t wait.  It’s my day off and I’m looking forward to taking Gavin outside for some much needed fresh air.  Unfortunetly, Spring also means.. the dreaded spring cleaning.  We need it bad.  I swore that over the winter I would spend just 15-20 minutes each day in my basement, and figured I have it cleared out by spring.  But did I follow through? Nada.  For starters, my computer is in the basement. So I may start of going down there to organize, but then end up "taking a break" and sitting at the computer.  We want to house shop this year, so I know we’ve got to get it done eventually.  I’d love to just have a few days alone at home to get it done.  I don’t know why, but I hate trying to clean or organize around Dave.  He turns into this General and ruins my whole motivation to want to get organized.  Kind of like how when you were younger and you had to do chores.  You knew you had to do them, but when your parents remind of those chores, it maked you want to do them even less.  It’s like this extra little dig that really annoys me.  Plus, I keep imagining getting into these little tiffs with Dave as we’ll probably disagree on several things regarding the whole "keep-toss-donate" scenario.  Ugh, I just don’t want to deal with it.

This past weekend was great.  Dave was off Sunday and Monday.  My normal weekend is Saturday thru Monday; and ordinarily, when Dave is off the same days, I end up going crazy.  I can’t be around him 24/7, I just can’t do it.  But this weekend was quite pleasant.  Dave called home Saturday to say that since he is off, why don’t I book a room at the Sterling Inn.  The Sterling Inn has a little indoor water park.  So that’s what we ended up doing.  We took off mid-Sunday afternoon, it’s only about half an hours drive, and we spent one night at the Sterling Inn.  We truly enjoyed ourselves.  The water park there is, of course, much smaller than say those at Great Wolf Lodge where we go at least once a year, but we really needed this little get away, even if for only a night.  Gavin had a blast. He just loves the water park.  It was his naptime when we left home, thinking he’d take a little cat nap during the drive, but he faught it the whole way.  At one point he drifted off and in his sleep was reciting, "I wanna go to the water park."  We were cracking up.  Pictures here are just promotional pictures I found on the net, but I took several while we were there, I’ll post some this week.  I know I still need to post pics from date night last weekend.  Dave and I were pretty intoxicated and got pretty silly, it shows in some of the pictures.  I’ll try and get those up tonight after Gavin is in bed.  My sisters visit 2 weekends ago was great. She was here for my neices birthday. It was great to see my neices again.  They’re growing up so fast.

I’m still here.. still alive. My sister was in town last weekend, and I had 2 "date nights" out with the hubby.  Got lots to write about, but it’ll have to wait till I get home (I’m at work) so I can post pics to go with it.

Traffic has been down, probably cause I’ve been a bad blogger lately.  So often I think I’ve got nothing to write about, then once my fingers start typing, it’s likely that I can just keep going and going, like now.  All I have to do is find the time to actually sit down.

Okay.. more later, I promise!

Thanks everyone for the comments and private messages of sympathy.  Things have gotten better, but I do miss her every day.  Last Wednesday (2/22) I ended up taking her remains to a pet crematory to have her cremated. The fee included your typical vase-looking urn, but I plan to buy something that’s not so.. what’s the word I need?… morbid? Something like this is what I really have in mind for my Nikki. Something I can put on a shelf as more of a keepsake for her ashes.

That aside, things are going well.  My mother-in-law is watching Gavin Saturday night so that Dave and I can have a much needed evening out.  However, what is it with men?  We’ve been planning this night out for a couple weeks now and yesterday he informs me that he’s taken on a couple hockey games to referree that afternoon and that he’d be home by 8pm for us to go out.  Now am I out of line for being a little upset with him on this?  He says 8pm gives us plenty enough time to go out.  Is he kidding me? By the time we sit down anywhere for dinner it’s going to be close to 9pm. Forget a movie by that time unless it’s a midnight movie which would leave us no time afterward to stop for a nightcap.  I’m just a little perturbed that he would take away from our time together for a few extra bucks.  Mind you, the extra cash he makes as a referee is what allows us to take an extra vacation each year, have dinner out a few times a month with Gavin, or to splurge now and then on something fun for the house (last year we bought a new gas grill).  As much as I know that extra cash gives us those things.. I also like to be able to spend some time alone with my husband. We don’t get that time very often and it upsets me that it was, in my opinion, underminded.

On another note, I am really really behind on Gavin’s blog, I’m so horrible.  I haven’t even updated it for Christmas or more recently his 3rd birthday that was almost a month ago already.  I hope to bring it current this weekend and attempt to keep up with it.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.