Weekend Wrapup

What a great weekend. Saturday we hung out at home most of the day, went to a graduation open house, and then ran some errands. Nothing extraordinary, but we both had a really good day together. Randy got his grill put together, and here are some pictures of our first meal on it:

And, me being me, I noticed this:

Randy shook his head and told me, "You need to just get over this."

Yesterday we spent the day on a tour of homes in the Lansing area who have waterfalls and ponds. Randy's dream has always been to put a waterfall in our back yard, along with a pond. He's finally done pretty much everything else that he wants to do in the yard, so now he can start thinking of that. The tour gave us tons of ideas. Now all we need is a million dollars and we'll be good to go. Here are some of the areas we saw yesterday.




At one home, the owner told us to walk around and look at her prize winning hostas. Can you believe this?

While we were driving around, we talked about how since everything is so expensive now that we'll probably do more things like this. As Randy said, if we go somewhere, this is what we do, anyway. We drive around and look at stuff. So, we'll find things to see and do closer to home.


I'm off to Chicago for three days for work. As much as I love Chicago, I'll see very little of it as I'll be in conference rooms the whole time. But at least it's a change of pace, and I think all of us at work need that right now. We've had a lot going on lately, and I think getting out and hanging out together will do us all some good.

Randy's Dream Come True

As you know, our grill was trashed in the recent storm. We've gone round and round about what a "comparable" grill is, both in our opinion and in the opinion of our insurance company. Today we finally all got on the same page, and Randy has a brand new grill. He's so happy. He has to put it together himself because otherwise we couldn't get it home, but he's actually happy about that (goofy man that he is!). So, very soon, there will be delicious grilled burgers and dogs available at Castle Willett. Yeah!

I went to WalMart today and picked up two of the HD converter boxes. We have cable and expect we will continue to have cable, but come next February, if the cable goes out, we have no TV to even watch the news or weather unless we have a converter box. We also have a trailer that we take camping once in a while, and we will need a converter box for that as well. We thought that since the government is offsetting almost all of the price, we'd go ahead and get them know. I'm glad we did. You can get a coupon for $40 off the price by going here:

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

After the coupon, each one cost me $13, which includes tax. We just figure that after our recent storm, you never know when you'll be without cable for a week, and it would be hard to keep up with what's happening without a TV. So, now we're all set.

I'll post pictures of the grill as soon as he has it assembled.

Cleaning Up & Celebrating Father's Day

Life is getting back to normal here at Willett Manor. Thursday our friend Mark came over with his wood chipper, and he and Randy cleaned up all the brush in the yard. We' were so appreciative that he took the time to do that for us. He's such a good friend!

Then yesterday, Smith Landscaping FINALLY removed from our roof. It doesn't appear that there was any damage, so we're so grateful for that.

Here are some cleanup pictures....

My sister invited us over today to celebrate Father's Day. She and her husband have a beautiful home on Lobdell Lake in Linden. We usually end up there on Father's Day if the weather is good. We took the pontoon out for a spin, and it was so beautiful out on the lake. My sister went flying by us on the jet ski, having a ball. It was a very nice, relaxing day, just what we needed.

Storm Pictures

Here's what our house looked like after the storm...
















Our friends Doug and Cara had a tree come down in their back yard, covering pretty much the whole yard, deck, and half of their roof. It brought down the electric line with it. Worst part was that they had been without power starting on Saturday, got it back at 2 PM Sunday, and the tree came down at 4 PM Sunday.

Auntie Em!

A tornado whipped through our area Sunday night, and, unfortunately, we caught a portion of it. We're okay, but our basement has a lot of water, and there's a portion of a tree sitting on our roof. The tree still has a number of limbs hanging by a thread, along with a ton of junk in and around the tree. Our BBQ grill went tumbling across the patio. A couple of our plants bit the dust, along with one planter.

We lost power Sunday afternoon and didn't get it back until sometime last night. We don't know exactly when it came on, because by yesterday we had given up and gone to a hotel. The dogs had a dogcation at a friend's house and just got home a little bit ago.

Our fridge items and most of our freezer items are ruined, so my next order of business is take an inventory and throw it all out. Our deep freeze items made it through just fine, so at least I don't have to deal with that.

We're fine, and I think even the roof will be fine once they get the tree off it. Randy looked in the attic, and it doesn't appear there's any roof damage. We won't know for sure about the chimney until they get the tree off, since the tree is wrapped around the chimney.

On top of everything, both of us are having the busiest weeks we've had in a long time on our jobs, and we can't put our jobs on hold while we deal with all of this drama. To keep myself from getting too worked up, I keep reminding myself of all of the things that I'm grateful for. I'll even share my list:

1. We're all safe and sound.
2. We have good insurance, and they've been wonderful to work with.
3. We had already established ourselves with a tree service, so they are willing to do our tree work. Those that aren't already customers are really in trouble.
4. Our power is finally back!
5. We're lucky to have jobs, even though they're stressful right now.

I have taken a bunch of pictures, and I'll post those when I get a chance. Until then, please keep all of the storm victims in your prayers.

Ashamed To Admit

I'm so ashamed to admit that I see so much of myself in this.

It's Done!!!!!!

Mr. Love finished the front yard last night. WOW. All I can say is WOW. Here are some before and after shots (and yes, we're STILL getting people driving by - strangers - to tell Randy what a great job he has done!).

Some "before" shots:

And this is what it looks like now: