Cruising on the Freedom

The girls at the table, some of us are already planning a girls cruise in the near future.

Jim and I went on another cruise after Jim drove my dad to Florida. We hopped the ship , enjoyed the food, relaxation and even made some new friends along the way. From left , of course Jim and I, then Dave and Kathy from NY, behind them standing is Lisa and Ezra from FT Laud.( who met eachother in Israel, and Tobie and Heman from Ft laud, originally from NY. We were so lucky to have such a nice, fun group. Kathy has 2 daughters and she and I are already planning to set one of her daughters up with Jeff.

Our first stop was Key West. I am standing at a cafe and grill on the beach where we ate, it is on the most southern spot of Florida. Ask me about the man in the orange suit sometime. Shucks, I tried to get a picture but it did not turn out.

Jim and I paid extra money to eat in the 5 star dining room on the ship, the food and wine were spectacular. Worth the extra $60.

This was my dessert - a chocolate sampler. Needless to say we did nothing after that meal, went right to bed. It was almost 11 pm when we were done eating all the courses. Keith would have loved it !

We went to Grand Cayman, just went to the beach there. The shopping is too expensive in Grand Cayman but the water is the bluest I have ever seen.

This is Jim at a cafe in Jamacia. We did go shopping there. Jim bought a really nice watch. I was a sucker for all the poor people selling their items- I came home with a necklace, 2 braclets, a cd, and my hair braided. None of which I needed or really wanted. That's Jamacia man !

We had a really sweet waiter, here he is dancing on the table- that is a wig, not his hair. He felt bad because I could not eat alot of the food so he would bring me 2 desserts- did not really need that either but you did not see me sending it back.

This was a cafe in Jamacia, just loved the quaint little flowers on the tables, the bright colors on the walls. So cheery.

Can you see my braids ? A very fun vacation, very restful. Love cruising.

Grandpa and Bandit

Someone asked me what Grandpa and Bandit do all day? They sleep !

They sleep somemore !

And some more !

And Grandpa is good about sharing his bed !

Kansis City Mission Trip

You spend a week with 13 teenagers and you would find this picture of piglits riding on a semi hilarious too ! It was like they were staring at us.

Downtown Kansis City they say if you kiss the pig , it brings you good luck, hope he doesn't get a disease from a million people kissing that pig !

Every youth mission trip needs one kid with ADHD who accidentally on purpose lands in the fountian.

We went to see the Negro league baseball museum and Jazz Museum, this was really cool, I did not know they were the first to think of playing evening games under the lights.

Only one accident all week, not bad. Josiah hit himself in the eye, again an accident.

"Big guy in a little shirt" Jason trying on the size small junior sweatshirt they were auctioning off. I ended up buying it for my mentee for Barnabas Ministry.

We went to help at a day program for developmentally disabled, this was Harold, he was sad because Jimmy stole his pop at lunch. Jimmy has been known to sneak into the workers lounge and down 12 pops before they caught him.

We also worked at a soup kitchen in Kansis City, this is Kenny, he was originally from Detroit, so I had to give up my Tiger hat. He is also a Judo instructor.

This is the gang at our picnic on the last night. We were at a park, it was 105 degrees. They had a policy, no sleeveless shirts. Sorry but I broke that ridiculous policy ! We did have a really good time. Glad I went along.

Whats Jimmy up to now ?

What is that contraption on the roof ? Is that a T.V. ? What is going on ?
For those of you who have not heard the story it begins like this : Jim- I think we can save alot of money getting rid of cable, a guy on Talk of the Town said he can get 60 channels with an antennae. Rachel- Are they good stations ? Can you get 3, 8 and 13 ? Jim- Oh yeh! you can get alot of great channels for free !

Fast forward : We have been able to get channel 13 on a pretty regular basis. Channel 8 and 3 we have been able to get when the wind was not blowing more than 3 MPH, it was not raining, hailing, and if birds did not perch, and insects did not crawl on the antenae. The other 57 channels are religious channels, and t.v. shows and movies made before 1948.

So after paying the antennae guy from talk of the town $100 dollars to set up the antennae, adding netflex for $10.00 a month. Getting cables and Roku boxes, other computer gadgets at an undisclosed amount of money....... Oh yeh, and having the antennae guy come again for another $100.oo when we totally lost all t.v about 2 weeks ago for some odd reason, maybe all the storms knocked the antennae off the roof.( Oh yeh , and did I mention the new antennae Jim bought for another $125.00 because he thought the one we had for one year was not working )As you can see Jim added some reinforcements to hold it on the roof, and sat on the roof about 3 nights before calling in help. By this time the neighbors are all asking ? What the H is that guy doing watching t.v. on the roof ?

The good news is, we can now get channels 3,8, and 13 along with the other religious and old shows made before 1948 again. The bad news is, it cost more than if we had kept cable !

When Jimmy is not on the roof you can find him either landscaping ( or drinking pop) on the ground in one of his unusual get-ups.

Through it all he is always smiling !

Nurses Week

This past week the hospital celebrated nurses week. Each year the hospital gives out 2 awards to the nurses. I received the Dorothea Milbrandt Mentorship Award. The "ceremony" was in the hospital cafeteria Wednesday, May 11. This picture is me with my boss Jan Langeland, she is telling a little about what I do each day.

This is Patti Vandort, she is telling about the award and she gave me the flowers.

I rarely get flowers , I thought it was one of the prettiest arrangements.

I even had to go to DeVries Studio to get my picture taken the week before. This was the article that was in the paper. My Dad, sister and Jim were there for the presentation. The boys were not able to be there. I thought it was very special. It is hard to believe I have been a nurse for 32 years, 30 of those have been at Holland Hospital.

Why Not at the What Not

Jim and I went to Fennville Saturday night to the What Not Inn. We met Esther and some of her friends there for dinner and music. This band Entourage was there, and they were really fun to listen to . They are based in GR, they play here, in GH and GR at the BOB. This guy was my favorite, how often do you get to hear an accordian player with a band Huh ! I can about imagine what Dan will say when he sees this blog, open up to new things Dan ! Oh and by the way, when they played a love song the accordian player mouthed to me "This ones for you " I'm really not sure if I imagined that but what the hay, it makes for a more exciting story.

The keyboard player and the guitar player who also sang, played trombone, trumpet, etc.. Very talented guy.

And not to forget Alvie, her voice is awsome !

Esther and her friend Carol, both wishing they were up their playing their saxaphones !

Ed and Carol, the soon to be newlyweds !

We had so much fun, this band played a variety of music : Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Buffet, just to name a few. Oh and the food was really good too , we may have to go back again.

New Toys

Jim has been busy with his latest toy (it's actually a toy for Ben) he had fun hunting for, fixing up, getting all the necessary supplies for the new moped (raising a ruckus Honda).

Here Bandit is trying to get into the action, she was hoping to go along with me as I delivered Ben's belated birthday present.
Here's Ben on his new moped. I did not stay real long since Ben had to go to work at 3 pm.

We did have time to have lunch at the Grand Traverse Pie Company, it's about 1/2 mi. from Bens apt. on Hagadorn in Lansing. I usually buy him lunch and a chicken pot pie to go, thats what he is holding up , it comes frozen so he can bake it for an easy meal next week.

Since I had the week off, I spent a day in Chicago seeing Dan, I took Esther along and we rode the train. I also went to Chicago over the weekend with Jim,Bill, and Jean H. as he had his lab convention. I also spent a day with my friend Gret and we went to Good Will stores in Holland and GR. We found some fun stuff. We also went to a second hand boutique in East GR, I found a Jones of NY spring dress coat for $24.oo. I wanted this really cool Jimmy Choo purse but it was pricey $78.00 so I thought it through and decided against it. Then we found this Second Time Around furniture store and I saw these bar stools and fell in love. They will look great in the basement if it ever gets finished. The down side to my vacation is I have been sick. I started an antibiotic for a sinus infection today. Oh well, glad I did not have a trip planned, no fun to be sick away from home.

Blizzard of 2011

Well this is what is looked like around 3 in the afternoon, actually quite beautiful. I happened to plan to have today off. I had planned to have fun for the day with my girlfriend Gret, but since a co-worker could not get to Zeeland hospital where she works , she had to go in. So instead I shoveled, cleaned the house, did laundry, made an appt. for Bandit at the vet (since everyone else canceled there appt except for one weiner dog) made corn chowder soup and creamed chicken on buns.
Chad stayed home from work and we saw the open sign on at Deboers after I shoveled at Esthers, we planned to have a great breakfast, but only the bakery was open so Chad had a cinnamon roll and I had a date cookie ( ok I had 2 date cookies) I brought Jeff to work with Jimmy's Jimmy and it's a good thing I did, as they had not plowed his street where he works, I just stayed in the previous trucks tracks and made it no problem.

Grandpa called worried about the snow on his roof, so I called 911 to Keith and he came to Grandpa's rescue, thanks Keith !

I actually enjoyed waking the boys up to help shovel snow, I know Jim could have done it with the snow blower , but a little hard work never killed anyone.

Dan called from Chicago, they got dumped on too, Dan said he could have never got his car out today. He did unfortunately miss an interview. It was probably meant to be as it was an Irish Pub, what would a dark complected dutchman do working at an Irish Pub. Bythe way, they had no shovels left in Chicago, so Dan had to use a pizza pan to dig his car out.

Ben called and said MSU had the first snow day since 1975. But he was scheduled to work at 5 pm, hopefully they had things plowed by that time. Well it's back to work tomorrow. At least we have plenty of snow for skiing and sledding !