Beautiful Morning

I'm working from home today, and shortly after Randy left to go to work, he called me. He knew that I had been wanting to go out and take some early morning pictures, and he called to tell me that he thought it would be a perfect morning for it.

I headed out to see for myself, and here are some of the pictures I took:

What's Wrong?

Can you pick out the things wrong with these pictures?

Let me help you.....

The New York sweatshirt is back.

Mr. Love's dinner is just wrong. I'm trying to watch my weight, so Randy was on his own for dinner. He made macaroni and cheese and then added summer sausage to it. YUK. It made it easy for me to not want any of that.

So, we're now back to Sweatshirt Watch 2008. I'll keep ya'll posted.

Quiet Sunday

Mr. Love has been gone most of the day, so I've had a nice, quiet day to myself. I did a little housecleaning, a little laundry, a little scrapbooking, and a little reading. A perfect day!

Mr. Love came up with a great idea the other night, to blow up pictures we took on the river walk trail and hang them in our home. He really was thinking of doing in it in the man cave (aka the basement), but I ran with the idea for upstairs. A quick trip to Hobby Lobby, a quick trip to Sam's, and we had new pictures to hang.

I took a sunset picture from Houghton Lake and blew it up to 16x20, and I also blew one up to 5x7. Those went in the TV room.

I blew up two river walk pictures to 16x20 and hung them in the living room. The other, smaller river walk pictures are in the dining room.

A Special Stanley Birthday!

My dad, Glenn Stanley, turns 75 next week. WOW. Our family got together today to celebrate, and we had a blast.

My sister Lisa, her husband Dave and their daughter Kelsey picked up my parents and carted them over to our house this morning. We headed over to the Michigan Museum. Mom and Dad were there once, but Dad wanted to go again and spend more time reading about the things in there. The rest of us had never been, and we were impressed. What a great place. Randy and I are talking about going back and spending some more time there. It's right downtown Lansing, free admission, and free parking. What a deal!

OK, what are they pointing at, but, more importantly, what is this woman staring at???

After that, we headed to Okemos to have lunch at Gilbert and Blakes. Randy and I really liked it there before, but we just never seem to make it over there. Well, it was Saturday at 1:00, State was getting ready to play Michigan in Ann Arbor, and that meant the entire town was either at home or a sports bar. We had the whole place to ourselves! It was great.

We came home, and we had presents and birthday pie, courtesy of Sweetie Pie's in DeWitt. They have the best pie I've ever had, no kidding. They put Grand Traverse Pie to shame! They're a little more money, and of course they're in DeWitt, but I can't imagine ever getting a pie anywhere else after having their pie. We had carmel apple. coconut cream, and cherry/berry/berry. And, just to make sure we didn't go away hungry, my sister made these cute cupcakes with footballs on them.

We decided to take a family picture while we're all together.

Then Dave suggested that we take one like they used to in the olden days, where no one smiled. It was hard - we kept wanting to laugh. I love my mom in this one - she looks exactly like those women did in those old pictures!

Then, of course, since it's a national holiday (State v Michigan football), the guys hung out in front of the tv to watch State wipe the floor with that stinkin' blue and gold. Go green!

So, we had the day I know Dad wanted....the family all together, spending time at something that's interesting and doesn't cost a fortune, then eating until we can't move. For we Stanley's, that's a perfect day!

Happy Birthday, Dad.....we love you!

Walking Color Tour

After work, Randy and I took a long walk on a new trail here in Lansing. We had heard from a couple of people how beautiful it was, and they weren't exaggerating. It was the perfect evening for a walking color tour. The last few years it seems like we haven't had great color. Either it snows early, or we get a lot of wind and rain. This year it's been perfect. The color is everywhere, and I've really enjoyed getting out to see it.

I have tons and tons of pictures, and I'm going to share a lot of them. Carol, this is for you, the color you are missing this year!

First, here's a few pictures we took a few nights ago of the color on our street.

And here are the pictures we took on the river walk: