Way too comfy...

Abby doesn't get up on the bed too often in the summer but apparently the brand new down comforter was irresistible.  She does look pretty darn comfortable.  An old dog deserves to be comfortable, right?

Now what?

Yep.  It's an old door.  A very old door.  Original to the house actually so probably about 1923...and apparently people were much shorter then since it's quite a bit smaller than the door next to it.  

There are so many cool things that people do with old stuff on Pinterest and I find this lovely old door in my basement and just stare at it and go, "now what?"  I guess for starters it should be cleaned up a little along the bottom where it appears a dog or something tried to scratch it's way through the door.  It's also not exactly "square.  The bottom edge is quite a bit shorter on the right side - maybe by a good inch or more.  Maybe a coffee table?  With some industrial type black iron legs?

Smelly stuff

I really like those little plug in things that make the bathroom smell good.  Face it, I have two males in the house and bathrooms can smell bad.  What I don't like is paying for them when they only last about 2-3 weeks.  Yeah, I know, that's how they make money.  I just don't want it to be MY money.

So off I go to Pinterest to figure out how I can make my own or refill the dang things.  And there are ways to do it but all of them just looked a little too complicated for me. I like easy.  Then I stumbled on these little gel things that definitely looked easy and could be put in small jars.  I have those.  I have lots of jars of all sizes from when I used to be Mrs. Granola and canned my giant organic garden to feed my babies (who were not wearing cloth diapers).  I miss my garden...

But back to the smelly stuff.

I was at Meijer the other day and wandered into their craft area and found these candle scents for $0.99:  Lemon Verbena and Basil something.  I like those well enough so I bought them.  I think I have a peppermint or something around here as well...anyway, I followed the two step directions that included gelatin and skipped the food coloring in two of them since I only had red (where does that stuff disappear to?).  Now to let them sit for 24 hours to solidify.  I had to put a sign next to them that says they are NOT to be eaten.  Gotta warn Motocross Boy/Man.  

My nose is having sensory overload now...

A Sunset Ride

Equestrian Girl has a JOB!!  As in one that PAYS MONEY!!  Yes, this is quite exciting though it does mean that she is quickly learning what "long day" really means.  Yesterday after working 8 hours she made it home for a quick rest, dinner and then we headed back out to the barn to ride Mata Hari.  She'd had Wednesday off so skipping another day for a horse in training wasn't really an option. It was a beautiful evening if a bit humid...

They worked long and hard at the trot and the work is paying off.  They look lovely!

This little horse has a BIG canter but its so clear and rhythmic.  She's found her balance now and they are working on straightness.

 Ah this just makes me so excited to see what Mata Hari is becoming!!

This makes me happy too.  They have a love for each other that is pretty special.

Homeschooling 2014-2015

This was going to be a monumental change year in our homeschooling history with both kids enrolling in school for the first time in 6 years.  Equestrian Girl was going to be taking one class at the local high school  and the rest of her classes at the community College.  Motocross Boy/Man was going to be taking 4 electives there and homeschooling the core classes.

Motocross Boy/Man is still doing what we planned.  Or at least for as long as it lasts because we all have a feeling he's not going to like the structure of public school any more now than he did 6 years ago.  Even though two of his four classes are gym... But we'll see.  Maybe he will surprise us.  In the mean time, I'm ordering his Math and Science curriculum from Switched on Schoolhouse, then patching together an English class that will focus much on reading and writing.  

Equestrian Girl is a senior this year!  Well, she is again now.  We had smooshed all her classes done over the past 3 years into a two year transcript and called her a junior thinking we could enroll her at the public school that was and she could take 2 years of dual enrollment classes to transfer to university later.  After much juggling and talking, we found out it wasn't going to work.  If she enrolled at a homeschool student, she had to take one core class at the school and she could only take electives at the college but NONE of them would transfer.  If she enrolled as a regular student, she had to take a bunch of electives and again, nothing she took at the college would transfer to university.  So much for THAT great idea.

Instead, she's going to pack in the classes as a homeschooler and graduate this year!  Deep breath.  I thought I had bought myself an extra year with her at home but now, it just sped up too fast!  But I have a smart girl and she's being very smart about how she's going to tackle college so that she will have little to no debt when she graduates.  

I was fortunate enough to have no debt when I graduated but it seems that's so much more difficult for kids and their parents now.  I've been saving for their college tuition since we adopted the kids but it still won't be enough.  Not nearly enough.  Maybe enough to cover two years each if they stay local and live at home....

Random Thoughts

It's funny how it's so hard to "catch" your car when it hits those big milestones - like 50,000 miles.  I was two miles too late...

This pile of papers talking about using less paper struck me as hysterical!

Apparently I'm not the only one who gets accused of always thinking she's right...they had all sorts of these signs at Meijer.

Praise the Lord!

Motocross Boy is a counselor at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Motocross camp this year.  I think he looks like he's really getting into singing praise to the Lord!

Old Times

This really old photo was taken just up around the corner from our house on Main Street.  Back in those days, Whitmore Lake was far enough from the city to be a "vacation destination" and the lake was surrounded by summer cottages.  Many of those cottages are just out of sight on the right side of the picture - the lake is behind them.

Happy 17th Birthday Motocross Boy/Man

We are family....

As is tradition, we all go out for dinner the night before Grandma and Grandpa leave to go home to Florida.  I came straight from work and was a little over-dressed.

This has to be one of the best pictures of Mom and Dad ever taken! They look fabulous!

And then one of the whole dang family.

A Horsey Day

Our pretty little mare had yet to be loaded on our trailer so yesterday was the big day!  We hauled the old battle ship to the barn and went to work.  Of course, it ended up being extremely un-eventful!

A little video clip

Then Equestrian Girl and Mata Hari did some riding ending with just a couple of fun low jumps.

Last they ended up with a bath...

And then this cool liniment rinse that she quite obviously loved!

After - a very clean and shiny mare who was quite ready for an afternoon nap!

Bucket Drummers

This trio was sitting outside the stadium last weekend.  That was some serious talent with empty buckets!

Take me out to the ball game...

I have no idea what possessed me to buy six tickets to a Tigers baseball game for a Sunday in August but I did.  Scott and I took the kids with their "dates".  We loaded up in the Excursion and hit the road.

 Everyone was pretty excited to get there - only Scott had been to Comerica Park before.  I can sort of see it from work but I've never seen a game there. 

It was a beautiful day.  Though that sun got REALLY hot.  As in baking hot.

Maybe that's because we were pretty close to the sun.  Yes, we really were up that high!

Afterwards we went to Pizza Pappalis in Greektown.  An old favorite where Motocross Boy/Man took advantage of his booth space and stretched right out!

While it was way too hot out for my blood and I'm not much of a baseball fan, everyone had fun and it was a good experience!

Alert, Alert! I'm in FOUR pictures!!

We celebrated out annual Christmas in July last weekend which happened to be August 2nd...close enough!  Grandpa got himself a new iPad for Christmas and made sure I got in plenty of his pictures.  

Motocross Boy/Man arrived in a t-shirt.  I think he planned ahead to change into his new clothes.

Equestrian Girl LOOKS like she came naked. She didn't.  Tube top type dress down there! 

Sister Carrie and I were being a little silly.  Might have been the spiked watermelon/basil lemonade I was drinking.

I was being a bit of a photobomber in this pic - Miss O was modeling her new dress and I wanted in on the pic.  Love my little niece!

Ah yes, here are the new clothes though he looks much less enthused about them than I do!

My little girl, who is a good 8 inches taller than me, still likes to cuddle up in my lap for a snuggle.

My Beautiful Niece

Miss O is growing up!!!  Such a beauty she is...

Addicted to White

I'm sick.  Seriously sick.  I went to Home Depot this morning and bought yet another gallon of Swan Wing White paint.  I'm painting this foyer for the second time THIS YEAR and I hate painting this foyer because I have to use the TALL ladder to reach way up that high.  While I have no problem with standing on tall ladders, I'm not so keen on having to climb up and down and up and down and up and down said ladder.   

I have to admit, I didn't love the color I painted it last time.  It was a little too "green" when I was going for a nice beige.  The thing with this foyer is there is a LOT of trimming since it continues around this corner into a very tall set of built in shelves.

I'm getting close though - one wall left and I don't think it's going to be white.  Be still my heart!!

Meet Bob

This is Bob.  He's my robot vacuum.  I love Bob.  This is Bob at home at his docking station getting ready to go to work.

This is Bob hard at work sucking up the massive amounts of dog hair in my house.  He's also quite entertaining to watch in a weird sort of way....you just WANT to know what he's thinking and why he's going where he's going!

And this is the result of an hour long Bob session.  I'm feeling like my floors are amazingly dirty considering Bob has been out 3-4 times over the past 2 days and I've emptied out his bin every single time!

Stranded?

This large ship was sitting in the Detroit River near my office all day Tuesday and then again all day Wednesday.  I kinda wondered what was going on so I posted this pic on Facebook.  Seems the ship had run aground in Lake St. Clair. But this wasn't lake St. Clair and the river is plenty deep where this ship is sitting.

After doing a bit of digging, I found that it had been pulled off where it had been stuck in the lake and was now anchored here in the river while being inspected for damage.  Mystery solved!