Honor Roll

Just wanted to take the time to honor my dad. It would have been his 90th birthday.  He was a great man, passionate pastor and wonderful father.  I miss him so much!  Here's to his memory!

<3 Gracie

Grand Dansk and More!

Well, Danish Festival weekend has come and gone and there might be a light at the end of the repair marathon!  The carpets are being cleaned, which added to my working and moving of things most of the morning.  According to the professionals the carpet should be dry in 4-5 hours.  For the Wilhelm's though, it will be 4-5 days! Hahaha. I am the only one allowed to laugh about this, since I am the one enduring all the craziness!

DANISH FESTIVAL was a lot of fun.  Friday Mary, Brandon, Vicky and I went to walk around downtown. We enjoyed abelskievers (Pancake balls) together and then looked at all the crafts for sale. Before heading back home, I bought a large chocolate chip kringle to share with the Cory's.  It was delicious! Matthew was at work, so after picking him up we went shopping and then back downtown for the Fairy Tale Parade and dinner.  I really wanted a chicken pita, but didn't have cash.  The only place that took my check was pizza hut. It was good and hot too. Mary and Matthew went to watch the stretcher races and I listened to the Danish Band concert. They did a nice job. Mary met me at the stage for the Flat River Big Band Concert. It was amazing as always. Mr Ayres can sure make that trumpet scream!  Wish Dan could hear him play. Got home pretty late, played some band hero and went to bed.

Saturday's GRAND DANSK parade was a bit of a disappointment.  First of all, Jeff wasn't here to march in the band and Sarah wasn't here to take her awesome pictures.   We did have a good crowd from church to watch. We even had a bit of a parking issue.  It got cleared up and we were all in place for the parade.  Much to dismay, when the  carriage with the 2009 Queen's court went by, no one representing Miss Danish was in attendance.  Young Miss and Junior Miss were there waving happily.  Now it is my understanding that if Miss Danish cannot fulfill her duties, then 1st runner up would ride in the carriage, and if she couldn't, then 2nd runner up, Mary, would.  Neither happened.  1st runner up was dancing on another float and Miss Danish won Miss Stanton 2010 and was on their float.  So even after Mary offered to ride for Miss Danish, she was turned down.  That wasn't a good feeling at all. She did enjoy sitting at the parade with Brandon and his family and then having lunch together. As much as I DON'T like clowns, I really missed the clown band this year.  They are so good, and funny as long as they keep their distance from me.  Later in the afternoon, Matthew went to work at the high school auditorium to work crew for the evening concert, Centerville, and country rock group.  Mary and I went to the concert and it was very good. They played "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" at the very end and it was so awesome!  The lead violinist can really play that fiddle.

Sunday was kind of a lazy catch up on sleeping day.  We watched some TV, played Band Hero and Matthew and I went shopping for food.  Mary had lunch with her favorite english teacher before napping for a few hours.  It was a nice day.

Monday was  CARPET DAY.  I took pictures of our hardwood floor so we know how it looks underneath, but the carpet looks so nice too.  Henry helped me move the furniture back in my room and I even slept there last night! It was so wonderful to have my own bed back. I still have lots of stuff to put back in place, and I am going to go through it slowly in case I can throw some of it away.  Brandon came over Monday night and grilled some rib eye steaks and did a great job.  They were delicious.  I made salad, mashed potatoes and brownies! I attended the post-season SOFTBALLcoaches meeting and for the most part had a productive agenda.  The silly 1 +1 rule will stay for another year! I don't like starting with one ball and one strike before I even see one pitch! Boo!

Today we worked most of the morning and early afternoon cleaning out the downstairs so the CARPETS could get CLEANED. There is stuff everywhere! The kitchen in packed full, 3 season room is full, the front entrance room is full and so is Jeff's office! The carpets are clean and look nice, drying pretty good.  The steps are the most wet.  Poor Sammy has to stay in the kitchen.  He has been a good trooper.  I hope he doesn't get mad tonight and chew something up.  He likes to sleep in the den or living room.

Tomorrow we will start putting things back should the carpet be all dry. I WORK at Hailey's tomorrow for 4 hours. It will be nice to see her again. She has been in the hospital the past few days. She had her trach out and needed to be observed to make sure she will be fine without it.  So far  so good!  Hurray!

Guess that catches everyone up for now..have a good day! Lots more picture posted on the Photo Album, take some time to look~

Gracie

What's Next?

I was hoping that I could get a little more "breathing time" but this summer has been quite a challenging roller coaster for me.  It has been quite a while since I wrote last, and even though I wanted to blog a good diary of my vacation, I have decided that Florida highlights is the way to go followed by everything else that has been going on lately. Get comfortable because this could be a long story.

FLORIDA TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Day 1: Mary takes us to the airport at 0530 and we are in Florida before noon. Chil-Fil-A for lunch.  Sarah and Matthew's favorite. Jeff's evening flight was delayed, picked him up at 8 pm and then had a late night supper of our favorite pizza, Papa John's.  Both we don't have in Greenville.  Mmm it was delicious.

Day 2: Matthew woke up with a bad stiff neck.  I iced it for a few minutes until our AT student got up and gave him so good therapy.  Jeff worked his magic too, and although delayed, we were off to the Polynesian Hotel. It was magical to walk in and feel like you were on the islands with all the trees, flowers and waterfalls. Our building was right on the shore of the 7 Seas Lagoon.  I especially liked that we could do all of our traveling to the parks on the monorail. Dave and Leslie met us there and we got to the Magic Kingdom after lunch.  Good thing the park is open until 3 am!  Forgot to mention that we decided to celebrate Mom's bday when we made the reservations so the whole park gave her good wishes wherever she went. She had a birthday button on.  It was a very hot day so mom went back to stay cool at the hotel, while we hit our favorite rides.  Matthew pushed me in a wheelchair  most of the day, which allowed us to get through most of the lines much quicker. Jeff's parents met us at the Magic Kingdom and spent several hours with us enjoying the park. By late afternoon, we were ready to go back and jump into the pool with a slide built into a mountain.  It was lots of fun.  Dan and his family were there too, and the cousins were in teen contest poolside.  Kaitlyn and Matthew's team won. The prize? A free 30 minute boat ride!  Yay!  The whole family had dinner together at the Polynesian hotel. It was pretty darn good too.  At 10 pm a group of us headed back to the Magic Kingdom for more fun.  Can you say Buzz Lightyear 3 times in a row?  We  were back in our room at 3 am and asleep at 3:01. LOL! 

Day 3: Jeff had to leave at 0930 on the Disney Express bus back to the airport.  The rest of us had some breakfast at Captain Cook's and then to the marina at the hotel to cash in on the boat rides.  Kaitlyn took her dad, Dan in the boat with her, and Matthew took Eric in his boat. The rest of us boarded a pontoon and rode the 7 Seas Lagoon with Captain Dave at the wheel.  Check out time was 1100 and then we all boarded waited for a monorail to EPCOT. The first one was "sick" and they had to get a new one.  We finally made it and split up into a few groups so everyone could enjoy what was important to them.  Dinner was in "France" where Ratatouille was a gracious host.  The food was good too. One of my favorite experiences was shopping in Japan where  I was still able to hold a conversation in Japanese!  I was just happy to spend time with family! Disney fun had to come to an end and we loaded up our cars and drove back to grandma's after watching the fireworks from the pool area of the Polynesian.

Day 4: Sunday morning came early, but nine of us at grandma's got up and ready for church in Sanford on time. Eric played the piano during the offering and had many compliments. Lunch was at one of my favorites~ Sonny's Bar B Q.  Sure wish they had some here in Michigan. A few hours later we were off to Jacksonville to spend a few days with my brother and his family. The kids swam in their pool and the adults enjoyed conversation.  Dominoes Pizza for dinner and Disney Scene It for entertainment in the evening. Sarah and Kaitlyn were the winning team.  Eric is quite the musician and composer.  He has written music for cello and was happy to compile them in a book for Mary.  You can see that he has a true passion for music composition and can he play!  It was a joy to watch my Godson.

Day 5: Monday was beach day.  We went to a very nice beach and had a great time!  The waves were pretty strong as were the under currents. I loved jumping in the waves and body surfing too. I got pulled under a few times and went for a ride. My leg felt really good even with all the jumping! The kids made a nice sand castle before the weather became threatening and we left for home.  Guess what we had for lunch?? Chik Fil A! This time the adults enjoyed the pool for a while before Matt and Kaitlyn joined us.  We made an awesome whirlpool. Dan grilled delicious burgers for dinner.  Evening entertainment was the movie  Love and Death.

Day 6: We left Tuesday after a group lunch at Applebee's and got back to Oviedo late afternoon and then took in dinner and a show.  Dinner was Steak n Shake and the movie "The Scourcer's Apprentice".  We all liked the movie very much.

Day 7: Our last day in Florida was spent at the mall in the morning with guess! Chik-Fil-A for lunch.  Marlene and Ernie came over in the afternoon and we went bowling.  My bowling wasn't very good, but my leg/foot didn't hurt during all three games!  Yay!  Some bad weather came through and we were bowling through a Tornado Warning!  How exciting! Had dinner together at Outback and then some scrabble back at mom's.   A nice ending to a great trip.

Day 8: Morning came early and we were at the airport by 0930. We had time to shop where we got a few Harry Potter souveniers and Sarah found her frame at the disney store all at the same price as in the parks.  We had hoped to see the new Harry Potter park, but it was very expensive, very crowded and running out of food.  Maybe next trip we can go there.  Mary picked us up at the airport at 3 pm and then we made a Korean feast when we got home and enjoyed a dinner with the Cory's.

....so what happened since?....hold onto your hats!

Bedroom Update: Jeff was making decisions when I was gone and I came home to a beautiful blue room!  I have always wanted a blue room.  As much as I would like to have hardwood floors we decided to go with carpet in a bedroom.  The carpet we picked out was on backorder, so we will be waiting until 8/23 for it to get installed.  So all of my furniture is still filling up the rest of the upstairs and we all sleep downstairs. It will be nice to finally get moved back into my room.  It should be all done before Jeff gets back from Air Force duty in Miami at Southern Command.

Mary's Reign Ends: The Miss Danish 2010 pageant was held last weekend and a new court was crowned. Mary dressed up nice and wore her crown and sash one more time. She looked so nice.  We were happy with the new queen and less impressed with the crew that worked the show held at a church.  Matthew especially said that the mishaps would not have happened had they held it at  the high school. We thought Mary might get to ride in the outgoing court carriage at the end of the parade, but alas only the "winners" ride in that carriage. Mary is fine with that and is happy the year is over.

Departures: We helped Sarah move in to her new house Sunday afternoon and evening. Just hours later, I took Jeff to the airport in Grand Rapids.  He was in Miami later in the morning and will be there until September 11th.   I spent the morning in Grand Rapids having breakfast and shopping before my surgeon's appointment at 0820!  The visit went well.  The doc was happy with my range of motion and pain relief.  Scar healing well. Need to massage it to keep the skin from thickening.  Fun. I see him again in 2 months.

Bad Pipes: Over the past few weeks I have noticed mud backing up into our washtub downstairs, especially after I run the dishwasher.  So I called our plumber to come and flush our drain to see if a back up of other elements was imminent. Well, while he was cleaning out the pipe his auger got stuck in our  pipes underneath the cement floor of our basement. Since it was the end of the day he had to come back the next day to try to get it out.  They had to break up the cement floor to access pipe. The news was bad.  Our pipe had rotted through. The whole length of the pipe was rotted out and the pipe no longer was round.  All the water from our kitchen and washing machine was draining into the earth under our house! Today they were back and rerouted  new pipes utilizing a tank and pump system to drain the water from the incoming pipes.  So I guess I can't let Jeff go on military duty anymore (lol, not really)...first it was an ER appendectomy, then a leaky AC and water damage and now bad pipes! What's next??? I don't want to know or even think about it.

Work:  I went back to work on Wednesday for 4 hours. The shift went well and Hailey gave me lots of hugs.  She will get her trach out on Monday!  She has come a long way baby!My leg did hurt more today, but not sure if work contributed to that.  I am scheduled to work two days next week.  We will see how it goes.  Getting back to work wasn't so easy. My nursing agency had a bunch of admin stuff that "needed" to be done. I jumped through their hoops and was as polite as I could stand and got it done. 

College Prep: Since I couldn't use the kitchen for a few days, we went out to eat and did some shopping for college. Mary has just about finished her list of things she needs and her storage bins are filling up. She also bought a loveseat recliner for her dorm room for $40.  It is quite nice. She covered it with a black sheet, as her room will have a black and white theme.  Hope we can get it all to Ann Arbor. Think we will need to find a helper with a truck! Brandon will be moving in the same day as Mary and we are caravaning down to campus, just don't know if we can get everything in between the two vehicles.It will be a lot of work for 3 or 4 people. Sarah is getting settled into her new house, Klaaren Cottage, at Hope College. She has begun her clinicals, working at a high school, covering their fall sports. She is dong fine and glad to be around her friends that arrived early like her again. While the girls get ready for college life, Matthew spent some of his summer work pay on Band Hero. It is an awesome game for our Wii.  One person plays the drums, one the guitar and one sings.  We have had a lot of fun with it.   I am not very good, but Mary and Matthew are much better. Matthew received his schedule today: Spanish I, Algebra II, Village Green, Chemistry, Psychology and AP Language. He is happy with it.  Matthew will be working a crew job at the high school this weekend for pay.  There is going to be a concert and they need a crew for lights, spots and loading.

Danish Festival: Officially begins tomorrow. Set up has already started. I suppose I will wander around the craft show area tomorrow afternoon. There is a fairy tale parade for kids and then a fireman's parade after dark.  The Flat River Big Band plays about the same time, so I will have to make time for that, they are awesome. The Grand Dansk Parade will go right by my house Saturday around 1100.  I have a few RSVP  from friends that plan to watch from our front yard. I will let you know how the weekend turns out.

I had better quit as I have been writing for several hours!  I have posted lots of pictures in the photo album, including final pictures of my leg, house refurbishing (aka water damage/pipe trouble) and Florida pics under the August collection.  Enjoy!  I have also posted my beautiful daughters addresses for college this year on the side bar. 

Have a great Friday!

Gracie

On Vacation!

Having lots of fun in Florida with family.  Will update with our vacation highlights when I am creative or rested or both.  It might not be until I am back in Michigan!  Hope your day is a good one.!