Welcome to Michigan USA

Well, we picked up our new foreign exchange student from the Airport in Detroit, on Friday morning. The plane was right on time. Anna-Lena is the one on the right, Charlie is in the middle, and Lesley is a girl from the high school we took along so Anna-Lena would be able to make a friend early.

We took her to Cabala’s to show her around, it has been several years since I had been there and it was the original one in Nebraska., I had forgotten how really big it is.

She and Charlie started out riding on Saturday afternoon, but weren’t gone very long before they ran into an hornets nest, the ones who build nests in the ground. The horses went crazy, Anna-Lena jumped off her horse, tore off her sweatshirt, and headed for the house. She was stung about a dozen times. Luckily no major adverse reactions. Charlie went back to get his horse and said her shirt was covered with the bees. When he looked later, he surmised that the horses has stepped right on the nest and pretty much tore it up.

We had invited a few kids over to meet her on Saturday night. We were going to have a bonfire but couldn’t because of the burning ban.

Ok Plan B do hotdogs on the grill, while the kids hung out in the yard.

It poured rain.

Ok Plan C – move the grill to the carport, - and we made roasted marshmallows, for s’mores over the propane flame.

On Saturday Charlie took her to Katie’s house, another horse person, she came home all excited about watching the equestrian competition today.

Shonda Starts a new semester at JCC today. She will be working regular hours and not weekends, and makes more money. Yeah!

Cucumber Canoes

Something came up last week at a meeting, that nobody else had heard of, I (we) must have had a strange childhood.

A friend said that she must have missed a cucumber when she was picking them from her garden the other day because she found a really really big, one when she was picking them.

I said when I was a kid; we used to take those, cut them in half lengthwise, and hollow them out and float them in the tub, as canoes, for toys.

Nobody else had heard of that, they thought it was one of the funniest things they had ever heard.

Ok, so does anybody else remember any of that?

That makes me think of:

-playing in the yard and making houses in the corn crib, or under the picnic table.

-homemade pies, sprinkling sugar on the dough trimmings and baking it. Yum.

-It also makes me think of picking and cleaning peas, green beans, strawberries pitting cherries, and cutting corn of the cob -Yuck.

But- Eating fresh jam and jelly Yum.

-going barefoot all summer and being able to walk in the gravel without it hurting by July.

OK, your turn what does that make you remember? Make a comment.

Family History and other stuff

Ok, I told myself when I started this that I WOULD write something at least once a week; I have found that sometimes that is not easy to do. Who wants to read about me doing the laundry and going to the grocery store?

I was away from work for 2 weeks, I had to take some vacation or loose it. We didn’t do anything in particular just hung around home and took it easy. I did work on some genealogy and found some extensions of existing branches and some new branches.

I put some family history pictures on flickr a couple of weeks ago. Last week I got a call from someone up by Clare who has been working on the Crosthwaite branch for several years. Her great grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother, so we are third cousins.

There is a feature on Ancestry.com that will show you famous people to whom you may be related. So I found out that my mother was probably not related to anyone famous, but my dad was related to five of the original Mayflower passengers, President, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife, several authors including Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert Louis Stevenson, a couple of Canadian prime ministers among others. I am not sure this link will work but you can try it.

http://trees.ancestry.com/RelationFinder/relate.aspx?pid=-1754542736&tid=3270021&pt=1

I went back to work this week and had a few things to catch up on, and the millage vote for the library expansion was on Tuesday. We are all disappointed that it did not pass. It has been rather subdued at the library this week. We need to look at the reasons and decide where to go from here.

As training coordinator I am always looking for ways to keep the library staff informed and up to date on new technology and library trends. I found this a couple of weeks ago and thought that some of you might find it useful too, especially if you have some websites that are frequently updated. And in case you do not know what an RSS feed is. This explains it very well, in a very few minutes and it’s easy to understand. http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Happy Trails

Frogs and Toad

I have to share this. Charlie came in this morning asking where the camera was. I walked out and saw what looked like a clod of mud or a wasp's nest on the end of a can. As I got closer I saw that It was neither- it's a gray toad.

Then This afternoon he found these: Real frogs in our artificial pond.










I also got an e-mail today from a woman who found some of my family history pictures on filcker. Crossthwaite family pictures. She says she has some of the same pictures. Her great grandfather was our great grandmother's brother. I am in the process of sending her information and trying to add to hers on Ancestry.com.

July 27, 2007

Not a whole lot happening this week. I am on vacation, which means I am taking time off work but we are not going anywhere. Monday, I attended the "Open House" at the Springport Branch Library, not many people there for the open house but the library was fairly busy. I have made a few calls about the library expansion project, reminding people to vote, asking if we can use there names in an endorsement ad. In case you live in the area, and are not familiar with the Library expansion issue. Please check out the library web page. and please support us on Tuesday August 7th.
I went to Lake Michigan with some friends, on Wednesday, not a great day weather wise it was only 68 degrees, according to the bank thermometer, in South Haven. It started raining at about Kalamazoo, and rained on and off the rest of the way there. It was cloudy but the rain held off for a couple of hours, so the kids had fun and we got away and had a nice lunch. The pictures of the lighthouse aren't great but here it is anyway.

Arthur, my nephew has been bitten by the family history bug. His grandfather flew in WWII and his cousin has tracked down a man who was a member of his grandfathers crew so I have been doing some digging for him. I am a little amazed at how much information I came up with from my home computer in just a few hours.

We got a copy of the DVD from Charlie's Whitewater rafting trip, but since I haven't figured out how to post it to the blog yet, I am going to refer you to Youtube for a sample of what it was like. http://youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZAGbWqfqY&mode=related&search=
This is not Charlie's group but it will give you an idea of what it was like.

Oh and one more thing, Charlie has decided to join the 21st century he finally got decided to get a --drum roll please---- TA DA...A CELL PHONE. ;-)

Whitewater rafting and Hornets at home.

Charlie went whitewater rafting, in West Virgina, with the Springport FFA this week. They drove down on Wednesday and rafted on Thursday. and were planning on camping Thursday night and driving back on Friday.
They got caught in a down pour which wasn't so bad while they were on the river, since they were going to get wet anyway. Most of the kids had never been camping before and left all of their bags next to the wall of the tent, so by the time they got back to camp EVERYTHING was wet, so they decided to start back on Thursday night.
I guess all of the kids had a good time, and leave it to us, Charlie was one of the few to get hurt. He got dumped out of the raft and hit his elbow on some rocks, nothing serious but it looked really swollen.
He took a camera but couldn't get any pictures of the rapids because he had to have both hands on the paddles when they went through.

Here is a picture one of the girls took, of him jumping off a cliff.

While he was gone, it was my job to water the horses, while doing that on Wednesday evening I found a hornets nest in the lilac bush, the hard way. I got to close to the bush and must have bumped it with the hose, I only got stung once but boy were they mad. I managed to go out and take this picture this morning. I think it is kind of interesting if I do say so myself.

Happy Birthday

Today is my youngest brother's birthday- if I tell you all how old he is it will make me feel really old, this is the only picture I can find right now. (I'll have to do a more extensive search later)

(This must be my week for embarrassing pictures.)

I am going to let all of you come up with a caption for this one- leave it in the comments section.

Happy Birthday Barry- Love you

P.S. This was just forwarded to me. I don't know who wrote it but I thought it might be appropriate for many of you who read this and if you are too young- you might want to be prepared. my comments are in brown italics

Many of us "Old Folks" (those over 50, WAY over 50, or hovering near 50) are quite confused about how we should present ourselves. Despite what you may have seen on the streets, the following combinations DO NOT go together and should be avoided:

One comment from a previous sender said fortunately they had only seen a couple of these- number 1 and 9 EEEOOOWWW Sorry about that visual. Or all of them for that matter.

1. A nose ring and bifocals
   
2. Spiked hair and bald spots
   
3. A pierced tongue and dentures
   
4. Miniskirts and support hose
5. Ankle bracelets and corn pads or ankle casts
6. Speedo's and cellulite (NO speedo's - ever I don't care how old you are)
7. A belly button ring and a gall bladder surgery scar
   
8. Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor
9. Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge (again this is not good no matter how old you are)
10. Bikinis and liver spots
    
11. Short shorts and varicose veins
12. Inline skates and a walker (the cause of wearing the ankle cast?)
13. Thongs and Depends

Do you mean like this?

In a comment on the last post Troy said:
"Oh...and where are you pictures of your cousins...especially the good looking ones who were always wearing horned rim glasses, striped pants, poofy plaid shirts, and -- worst -- dickies"

Do You mean something like this? I don't have a date on this but I am thinking about 1975? You better protect me if your mother and sisters come after me on this one.

Quiet Week

It has been a quiet week, not much happening. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures to Flickr. Some Family History pictures and some other photos I have taken over the past few years. Go to Flickr.com and do a search for betzspt ( I put that “tag” on all my pictures to make them easier for you to find.) I'll be adding more soon.

Keep smiling

Family Stuff

I told you a couple of days ago Charlie woke me up to go to work on the 4^th because he forgot it was a holiday. Well he woke me up again yesterday (Saturday) and asked me if I was going to work, I told him no it’s Saturday and he said it is? Geeze- these retirees have no idea what day it is.

I had a great time at Jordon Keeley’s wedding yesterday evening, the Sunset ceremony was lovely, and the water skiing bride and groom were unusual and entertaining. I got some pictures but most of them are not very good, but here are a few of them. I will post more on flickr. Click the link and do a search for betzspt.

The best part was getting to see family members we don’t get to see very often. Joe, Troy, Cheryl, Jeff and Lauren. All the kids, who are growing up way to fast. Oh yeah Lois' friend Marsha.

I am sooo glad all of you have such a good time picking on me about my “unfortunate ankle incident.” I swear I think it does run in the family. At least I found out who made the anonymous comment about crawling to the car. I won’t tell you who it is because she obliviously wanted to remain incognito but her name starts with Debbie. : -) And yes, I did drop salad dressing on my shirt- I swear my mother makes me do these things. She would have had a great time, or should I say she did have a great time.

Emily and Christian asked me who I was, I mean really! Just because I only see them every 3 or 4 years. You would think they would remember ME. Troy said he told the kids who everybody was on the way up, and told them to write it down, but Emily thought that was too much work or something.

I told her she didn't have to write it down, I have all of my family history information on my computer. I can e-mail it to you as a gedcom file if you have a genealogy program or pdf but it is 119 pages. I can also mail it through the post office if you will pay for copies and postage. Let me know.

When I started this blog, I sent the url to lots of people but I don't have everyone's e-mail address so if you know of anyone who you think would be interested please tell them about it, and please make comments, so I know someone is reading this, it is fun doing the writing, but it is more fun hearing from all of you.

Birds and Buds

It 's Friday but yesterday seemed like Monday most of the day. I hate two Mondays in one week. If thats not bad enough Charlie woke me up at 6:30 AM Wednesday and asked me if I was going to work. I rolled over said, "NO its A Holiday" he said it is?

Lots of things about birds this week, I am not sure why.
A week or so ago on his webpage, Arthur, my nephew- in-law, said he had baby Robin challenge him to a “duel or something." Well we had a pair of Robins build a nest in the tree just outside our south living room window. The nest is only about 5 ½ feet above the ground, I walked under it yesterday and the adults tried to dive bomb me. Later I found out why; the baby was ready to leave the nest I found it on the East side of the house hopping around and flapping it wings a few minutes later, luckily neither of the cats or the dog found it. I tried to get pictures but I am not fast enough. You will have to use your imagination and I know some of you have will have a wonderful picture of that, especially with me hobbling around with my ankle brace. Now the nest is empty and the robins are no longer guarding the tree so it is safe to walk or even sit under it.

I was driving by the Grand golf course today and just off one of the fairways at the west end of the course were two sand hill cranes. Cool.

On Tuesday Charlie went out to feed and water the pheasants and found 31 of them beheaded. Something got into the pen, it could have been an owl, or weasel or racoons. He found a couple of holes in the top of the fly pen. He thinks a couple more got loose, because the dog caught one, but Charlie rescued it, and he saw one that he couldn’t catch. We think we heard it last night in the horse pasture. He mended the holes, and so far the rest of them are OK so far.

We bought some plants for around the house too, one of them a dark red, (burgundy) lily. The pink lily we have had for a few years had huge buds, but seemed to take for ever for them to bloom. We planted the new one and it was almost like they exploded over night.

Our project for this week was a new water feature next to the deck in the front of the house. The birds are drinking from it already and it is not quite finished. Here's what it looks like so far.

Sunsets

In case you missed it there was a really nice sunset tonight. Here is one picture, for more of my pictures of many different things go to Flickr and do a search for betzspt.

A Normal Week ?

Not much happening this week, on Tuesday we went out to dinner, then Chris went to a movie with his friends. He didn’t get in until 3:00 AM and had to get up at 5 to leave for the airport. There was no problems checking in, both suitcases met the weight restrictions. We got to spend some time chatting, about his year here. What he would do when he got home.

A lot of people asked him if he was excited to go home. I think he has mixed feelings, he wants to go back and see his family and friends but he will also miss he friends and family here. He wants to come back and go to school, perhaps get a football scholarship. Of course when he gets home that may change too, two more years of school, you never knows what might happen.

I went back to the doctor to have the ankle checked, it is coming along fine. I can take the air-cast off when I feel comfortable, at first in the house on flat surfaces. Go back in 3 weeks if I think I need to, but if it feels OK, I can cancel the appointment. He said that what I have is a cross between a break and a sprain (a spracture, a frain? ) When I twisted my ankle. the ligaments pulled on the bone, but did not tear instead they pulled the bone apart. It is probably better as breaks go, because it should heal faster and have no lasting effects.

Charlie started another wood carving, I don’t know what it is, I haven't asked, I think it is better to be surprised. Some of you may remember is first wood working project a few years ago was the huge walking stick with a bird on the top, which he gave away. Then he did a totem pole, that he sold and gave the profit to the FFA. I don't have a picture of the first walking stick but here is the beginning of the current project.

The pheasants have all been moved to the bigger more natural pen and seem to be doing well.

We acquired a new kitten a few days ago it just showed up on the porch one morning. The orange male puts up with it and is pretty protective but it gives the dog a wide birth. The kitten is about one mouthful for Boston.

I took some pictures of the foal today she is 2 months old today. She is changing colors, notice the dark color on her muzzle, around her eyes and the spots on her chest. This is normal for appaloosas They change color a couple of times a year. In the fall/winter when they get their winter coat and in the spring when they shed it. The dame is a dark bay and the sire is a black appaloosa with a white "blanket" over his hips.

This and That

ANKLE UPDATE: I thought about taking a picture of my foot, but I decided that wouldn't be too interesting, I went to the Doctor here on Thursday, the 14th, he said yes it is broken, and showed me where on the X-ray, but I couldn't see it. Told me to keep the air splint on and it is OK to put weight on it if I am comfortable. Come back in 2 weeks, they will take another X-Ray.

We had an Open house for Chris on Saturday. I meant to take pictures but only got one of him with some friends and that one isn't very good but here it is (on the left.) Not a real flattering picture of any of them. On the right is one that I took right after graduation a couple of weeks ago. They look much more capable, don't you think?

Charlie and a friend have some pheasants they are raising. They are now about 3 weeks old and are ready to move the bigger pen. They bought 75 and have lost only 11. I think they plan on releasing part of them at our place and part of them at Jeff's probably sometime in August.

I found a blog the other day: Three Beautiful Things, every day the blogger records three things that have given her pleasure. I got to thinking about that, and realized that I and probably many others don't take time to notice the small things that give them pleasure. I have made a promise to myself to try and notice more.

For Wednesday June 20: The first Day lilies in bloom.
Setting on my deck watching the first lightning bugs of the evening.
Driving home on back country roads listening to a favorite song on the radio.

Today, Thursday, is our anniversary. 21 years. Geeze, where has the time gone. Love you Charlie.

When I came back from vacation last week Ishwar said something about taking a vacation in August and maybe going "up north." I told him several of us could share some great places to see. Please leave a comment and let me know what is your favorite place in Michigan?

Our U. P. vacation

After trying several options, I thought a blog might be a better way to share our news. Not as fancy as Arthur's but here goes. I thought I would let you know how our vacation went last week-end here are some pictures and comments. Click on the pictures to make them larger.

On Friday we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes with Charlie's brother, Richard. When we were on the observation deck Chris, our exchange student said Charlie, why don't you walk to the bottom of this dune so I can take a picture, to show people how far away it is. So he did, are any of you surprised? This picture is of him at the bottom of the dunes. Luckily it was only about 75 degrees and breezy.

While we are waiting for him to come back up, tour buses of people are stopping to watch, asking who is that? why did he do that? do you think he'll make it back up? For the record it took him 47 minutes to get back up. This picture shows him about half way. I saw some of those people in the parking lot later and they said something about him making it back up. I offered to sell his autograph, but got no takers. I also asked Chris not to ask Charlie to do something stupid, because he probably would try it.

On Saturday we crossed the bridge and went to the 'Soo'. Then to Whitefish point. We told Chris he had to walk out the pilings in the lake. A couple standing on the observation deck said "Do you know how cold that is, that is just evil" Chris said he would have gone to the pilings but it was too deep. He also said he has been in colder water, lakes in the Alps, this wasn't bad.

On Sunday we headed for pictured rocks and stopped to look at the "Log Slide" on the trail, a nice clear trail, through the woods, to the observation deck I stepped on a twig about the size of a cigar butt. the only twig on the whole trail. It rolled, so did my foot. I went down, got up, brushed myself off and kept going about 200 yards.

This is the log slide. also known as Devil's slide, from the observation deck. Please note: I fell on the way to the observation deck, not going down the slide as according to hospital staff some people do each year. On the way back to the parking lot we saw a sign that said there was a three mile trail to a light house. Charlie asked Chris if he wanted to to walk it, Chris said sure. (This is about 10 AM)

OK, for those of you who know us, you can probably guess the rest of this but I'm going to tell you anyway.

I told them I would drive up to the light house and meet them there (I couldn't walk three miles on a good day.) I drove and and drove and drove, on a two track through woods and sand etc., stopped turned around, went down a track to a Hurricane River Campground. Didn't see a camp ground or a lighthouse. Went back to the information center, (every time I got out the car, my ankle felt worse). There is NO drive to the light house, so I went back to the parking lot at the log slide. and figured they would have to come back that way.

By this time my ankle hurts just sitting there so I tried to elevate and put ice from the cooler on it. I hobbled to the rest room, my ankle is worse, after another 15-20 minutes I thought well I go set at a picnic table. I couldn't put weight on the foot at all.
The finally got back at about 12:30 after walking to the camp ground from the lighthouse then out to the road. probably another 10 -12 miles.
We decided I should probably have the ankle looked at, stopped at the information center and found out the nearest emergency room is in Newberry- which we drove through yesterday afternoon and was 2 hours away. There was a hospital in Munising but their emergency room isn't always open.

By the time we got to the hospital, Charlie stopped at the door, I got out and said something like, uh guys this isn't working, I can't walk, they finally brought a wheel chair to get to the examine room. They X-rayed it and said we don't think it is broken, but it looks like there is an old break that you may have aggravated, (I don't know when that happened, I have NEVER been treated for a broken bone,)put ice on it for 24 hours, elevate it, when you are sitting and keep weight off of it for 1 week, and gave me a pair of crutches. I am not real coordinated to start with, (obviously if I tripped on a twig) you'd get a real laugh to see me on crutches.

Before we left the ER a nurse is trying to teach me how to use the crutches, and says "you look like you're having trouble, would you like me to get you a walker?"
I said jeeze, you are really trying to make me feel old aren't you?"
Another nurse, says, from around the corner, " yeah why don't you just get her some blue hair while your at it."

After that we headed for Palm Book State Park, to see the Big Springs. I decided not to try to make it to the boat because I was still not doing well with crutches. (I had only used them for about 5 minutes) before we got back in the car. It is hard to tell from this picture but Charlie said these trout are about 3 feet long.

The next day Charlie and Chris went to pictured rocks to take some pictures, we decided to skip the boat ride this time. Chris did get to see, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and a few weeks ago, Lake Erie. So at least now he has seen some of Michigan.

Joyce.