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My Weekend in GP

July 16, 2009 at 11:49 pm | In Family | Leave a Comment

A couple weeks ago I flew up to Michigan for the weekend so I could attend one of my sister Katie’s bridal showers. A BIG thank you to my in-laws for financing that flight! What a generous gift!

I arrived on Friday morning and spent the day running errands and hanging out with my mom. That evening we met my sister at her new house after work. She and Dan have a beautiful new house! They are doing some work on the inside, but the house is a gorgeous ranch. After a tour we met my dad for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Jack’s. It is right on Lake St. Clair in a local marina and my dad loves going there to see all the boats coming in and out.

On Saturday morning my mom took me on a tour of her garden. She has worked so hard and created a beautiful garden that surrounds most of our house and backyard. You can see some of her flowers in the pic below. In the middle of the backyard she planted a wonderful herb and vegetable garden. The picture below is of her first green pepper! It was so darn cute and perfect. We had this little guy in our omelet that morning and it was delicious!

Katie’s shower was held at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial on Saturday afternoon. This beautiful, former house – the Alger House – was donated to the community in honor of World War II veterans. Additions to the original building have been made and now various community classes and events take place here. The house is right on the lake and there was a wedding there that morning (hence all of the chairs in the pic below). This is where I had one of my showers and our wedding reception.

The shower was very nice and Katie and Dan received many wonderful gifts. Below is a picture of Katie (seated in the center) and all of her bridesmaids that were at the shower. The only bridesmaid missing was our other sister Mary who lives in Colorado.

This picture is my sister and I with our cousins and Grandma Booth.

After the shower, we took a walk down to the front gardens/lawn to take some pictures of Katie and Dan. I love the greens in the picture below. It really was a gorgeous day!

Dan’s mom, Dan, Katie and our mom.

Saturday evening, my mom, dad and I went down to the City Park to take a ride on my dad’s boat Blank Check. My dad has a 1941 Chris Craft that he purchased at a police auction. My mom sent him off to the auction that morning with a blank check and my dad came home with the boat. Hence the name Blank Check. He has spent many years restoring and rebuilding the boat and it is beautiful. My dad turns a lot of heads every time he takes it out.

The captain enjoying a ride on the lake. I love this picture of my dad.

All in all it was a great weekend and it was so nice to see my family again! I hadn’t seen them since Christmas! I can’t believe we’ll be heading back in a couple of weeks for the wedding. Where has this year gone?!

My Adventurous Mom

July 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm | In Family | Leave a Comment

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I took a little break from blogging. No reason in particular, just needed a break. I have some posts and updates on the way, but I wanted to share this picture first. My mom took a trip down to Florida recently to visit a friend. During her trip she went parasailing! MY mom went PARASAILING! I was shocked when she told me, but so proud! One of the guys on the boat took a couple pics and sent them to her. This one is my favorite. I love it!

Converted

May 8, 2009 at 11:16 am | In Random Thoughts | 2 Comments
Tags: Comics, Movies, Star Wars, X-Men

There are a few things that I never dreamed I would be interested in or really enjoy, until I met my husband.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Just kidding, but really, I remember sitting in our family room about ten years ago with my uncle and cousin. I came back to see what movie they were watching and it was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. I remember watching it for a few minutes and thinking that this was the most boring movie ever and that they were Star Wars nerds (sorry guys). I never dreamed that I would sit through that movie again.

Flash forward…I start dating Eric. Eric is a huge Star Wars fan. Being the good girlfriend, I agreed to watch the movies with him. Amazingly enough, I really liked them! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched all six of the movies now, but I think Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is my favorite. I even read the book! Crazy. Never in a million years would I imagine myself reading a Star Wars book. I even have Obi-Wan and Yoda lightsabers (my favorite characters and the Yoda lightsaber lights up and has sound!). This Christmas, I bought Eric the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit game. When we play, he has to answer all of the questions on the card in order to move forward to make the game a little more challenging for him. I must say, I impressed myself with some of the knowledge I have about the saga.

Then we go to the superheros. This began for me by watching Smallville with Eric. He got season one for Christmas one year and he made me watch it with him. I had NO interest in watching a TV show about a young superman, but I ended up watching the whole season and loved it! We now have through season 7 of the show and I can’t wait to see number 8! Eric also introduced me to Fantastic 4, Spiderman, The Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men. My favorite movies are the X-Men movies with my favorite character being Wolverine (Hugh Jackman may have a small influence on me liking this character). A couple days before the new Wolverine movie came out, my husband said “Before we go to see this movie, you have to read these first,” and he set down the Wolverine Origins comic books in front of me. Ugh, really? I have to read a comic book? (Of course I didn’t have to read it, but I did anyways). Good grief, what is wrong with me?? I actually liked them! We just went to see the movie last night and it was amazing!

Next on the list that Eric is trying to get me to watch is Star Trek. He has all of the movies on DVD. Ugh, just the thought of watching them makes me sleepy. However, the new Star Trek movie looks promising. Maybe he will get me hooked after all.

Tuesday Trivia

May 5, 2009 at 2:21 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | 1 Comment
Tags: Trivia

Can you see the image below?

Remember Magic Eyes? Did you know…

- Magic Eyes are technically autostereograms. These are 2D images that require your eyes to diverge in order to see the hidden 3D image.

- Autostereograms were created by Christopher Tyler in 1979. The first Magic Eye book was released in 1993.

- The image is created by repeating a horizontal pattern with slight differences in each repetition. This pattern creates the illusion of depth. Each of your eyes focuses on a different part of the pattern!

- Autostereograms are even used by vision therapists in the treatment of different vision disorders.

- Magic Eyes have appeared in shows such as Friends and Seinfeld as well as the movie Mallrats.

The autostereogram at the top of this post was created by yours truly with a little help from www.flash-gear.com/stereo. Were you able to see the hidden message? Have fun creating your own autostereogram!

Lightning

May 2, 2009 at 8:54 am | In Random Thoughts | Leave a Comment

Over the past couple months I’ve been playing around in Photoshop Elements and learning my way around the program. This week, I’ve started to read different tutorials and blogs to learn how to use different effects in pictures. I was looking around on The Crafty Cafe the other day and came across the Orton Effect. This is such a fun effect to put on pictures and learning the proper techniques really makes me feel like a photo editor! (yes, I know I’m a nerd and I’m ok with that ) I used this effect on the pictures of our squirrel friend below.

I was reading another site today and read a tutorial on how to make animated lightning. I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, so I just made lightning images. I can’t seem to find the color balance option in Photoshop Elements, so I just played around with different background colors.

What do you think? Does anyone have some Photoshop tips for a beginner?

Where Are My Peanuts?!

May 1, 2009 at 2:08 pm | In Random Thoughts | 1 Comment
Tags: Squirrel

We have a small bowl on our balcony that we fill with peanuts for the squirrels and birds. We try to keep the bowl full with nuts, but occasionally we will run out and the bowl won’t get refilled for a couple days. This morning one of our squirrel friends brought to our attention that we were out of peanuts.

This little guy was perched on the railing for about twenty minutes crying for more peanuts. He eventually tuckered out and just laid there the rest of the morning. He was so patient waiting for the refill, so Eric made an emergency run down to CVS to get some more peanuts. As soon as the bowl was filled up again, he came scurrying over to have a good meal.

squirrel-11

Tuesday Trivia

April 21, 2009 at 9:00 am | In Tuesday Trivia | 4 Comments
Tags: Avatar, Boomerangs, Sokka, Trivia

First, a quick confession. I am 26 years old and I still love cartoons. One of my recent favorites is a show my husband got me hooked on – Avatar: The Last Airbender. In a nutshell, the show is about a 12 year old boy named Aang and his friends, who must save the world by defeating the Fire Lord and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation. You can get some more detail on the show here. My favorite character on this show is Sokka. He is a really funny character and has a lot of great one-liners. One of his most prized possessions is his boomerang. Which brings me to today’s trivia.

Did you know…

Boomerangs are made in several shapes depending on their origins and intended function. They also have many uses including hunting weapons, musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, toys, and many more. The most recognizable type of boomerang is the returning boomerang, which is a throwing stick that travels in a elliptical path and returns to its point of origin when thrown correctly.

Boomerangs are the first heavier-than-air flying machine ever invented.

Today, boomerangs are mostly used as sporting items. There are different types of throwing contests: accuracy of return, Aussie round, trick catch, maximum time aloft, fast catch, and endurance.

I found this information about boomerangs from Wikipedia. There is a lot more interesting information about them. Click here if you would like to learn more.

Easter Opener

April 17, 2009 at 8:22 pm | In Elevation | 1 Comment
Tags: Elevation, Elevation Church, Worship

Check out the video below. This is what opened our Easter services last Sunday. The Elevation Church creative/production team is amazing!

Fraidy Cat

April 17, 2009 at 8:00 am | In Family | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cat, Family, Memories

My sister Mary and I have always wanted to be able to play the bagpipes. I love the sound of them and think it would just be amazing to be able to rock out a little Scotland the Brave.

A few years ago my mom got us each a practice chanter kit to get us started. We had so much fun learning to play the beginner songs and we even made up one of our own!

Eric and I were cleaning out our storage closet today and I found my chanter. I set it aside and told him that by the end of the night I would be able to play Amazing Grace for him.

I had to practice for a while, but I finally got it! For those of you who have not heard a chanter before, let me just tell you that it sounds nothing like the pipes. Not even close. The sounds is more of a duck or goose or something. If you play it right it sounds ok, but it’s not the prettiest sound in the world.

Apparently, Madison was not a fan of my music and actually was quite scared of the whole thing. While I was packing up, Eric said “Meg, say hello to your cat; she’s freaked out right now.” Maddy was peeking around the corner looking at me with her fur standing on end. Poor thing.

She’s been skittish all night and if anyone moves at all, she runs under the bed.

It’s been a while now and she has calmed down, but I don’t think I’ll be playing the pipes for her anytime soon.

Homemade Oreos!

April 16, 2009 at 10:55 am | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: Chocolate, Cookies

The other day I tried out a recipe for homemade Oreos. I got this book for Christmas and found the recipe in there.

It was a pretty easy recipe and fun to make! This was my first time making a chocolate cookie from scratch.

The instructions say to use a 1-1/4″ scoop for the cookies, but the smallest I had was 1-1/2″. The cookies turned out huge!

On my next batch of this cookie, I will definitely make them smaller. The cream filling was extremely sweet and overall the cookies are pretty rich. I’ll probably make some bite size cookies next time around.