Green Bay

Last weekend John and I went to Green Bay to visit my niece, Tara and her husband, Lee and their 2 boys--Isaac is almost 3 and Andrew was just born last month. When I woke up on Sunday I heard the laughter and chatter of of a little boy and was flooded with the remembrance of hearing little children in the house and what a wonderful sound that is. Then the dog came and put his head on the bed and I thot I was home because our dogs do that every morning to get me to get up.

We went to church and Happy Joe's Pizza. Watched the Viking/Packer game(must confess I watched my computer more since I'm not too into football), and took Isaac and the dog for a walk. Packerland was happy that night!

Deal of the day

We just happened to be browsing around Menards and I saw rugs hanging so I thot I'd look. I've been looking for a new rug for a long time. I spotted this which is about as close to perfect as I could get. And then I saw the red tag that said the display model was on sale for $59. I'm happy!

My Favorite Auntie

This is my mom's sister Margaret who has always been my very favorite auntie. I see her alot when I look in the mirror. I think I look more like her than my mom. I have similar taste in clothes and perfume. When I'm with my sisters they often call me Margaret. Margaret and her husband ran a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Bagley, MN. I would sometimes go and stay with them and one summer I stayed most of the summer stocking shelves and taking care of their youngest daughter. The kids were real cut-ups and fun to be around. Many fond memories! :)

25

My eldest son, Tyler, turned 25 this month. It was our first family get-together at Grandma's house since she died. I brought her smiling picture with so she was present with us. Tyler and Jami are buying her house so we can keep celebrating there.

I was sitting on the floor in the living room and I looked up at the chair and this is what I saw(altho more clearly)--a straight pin. For years I have kept pins in the sides of chairs and sofas because I like to dig around in my ears with them and some of my kids followed suit. I am happy that I'll be able to find a pin when I visit Tyler! I even put them at other people's houses so when I'm there I have a pin. Mary, Becky, and my mom have a few. I don't know how people can follow the rule about nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?!!

Washington

My friend Jody and I took a trip to Washington to visit her sister. It was such a fun 8 days. Tami lives in DuPont with her husband and 3 kids. Her husband is in the Air Force and is overseas right now. The siteseeing was great, but the most fun was getting to know Tami and her kids. I enjoyed being around young kids again since mine grew up. And Jody is the Brown family history/story teller and I loved hearing all the tales.

Tami's neighborhood--that's a kind of pine they called the Gumbi tree.

Air Force base. And there's Mt. Rainier. We'd be driving around and all of a sudden we'd see it and exclaim, "There it is again!"

The back yard.

Ferry

We took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle.

Seattle skyline

Jody has an injured back so this is her version of the girl on the front of the Titanic--with a purse, of course.

To Market, to Market

In Seattle we went to the big market.

Watched the guys throw fish and yell. There were musicians scattered around. When we parked and got out, I could hear a guy singing and playing guitar and loved his voice. I was so excited to see he was selling cd's for $5. I love it and listen to it almost every day--John's tired of it ;)

The lucky golden pig. Oh--I miss those guys!

Across the street from the market is the very first Starbucks. I had a carmel mocha--just like candy.