What will happen to our freedom?

This is Foster. He is an Australian Shepherd and is pure bred. He is 1 1/2 years old and he needs a home where he can get plenty of exercise and lots of attention.

We can have him for free if we want and we have to decide if we want him. I vowed that I wouldn't have another dog when Willie died, but I know that both Mac and I love living with dogs and could use another baby.

Foster is currently being cared for Mac's nephew John who already has 5 dogs of this type of his own. We love John's dog and that is another reason that we are going down to West Palm again this weekend to celebrate Mac's birthday and get to know Foster.

It would be nice to have a dog that is already trained and sweet. I got one look at this photo and I knew that I was in love. Mac has to make up his mind yet. This is dog is about 40 pounds and supposedly a bit spastic. I'll be letting you know what we do when we get back.

Christmas in West Palm

We spent Christmas Day at Joann and Sid's house. She had a great meal for us and rented tables and chairs so that we (20 odd) of us could all sit down at one long table to eat. She really went all out.
Cathy and all of her siblings were there and we took a lot of photos. Unfortunately mine weren't of a very good quality.
We stayed for three nights at John's house with his brother Gene and wife Linell. We had a lot of fun. There were 8 big dogs there. Two of these 80 plus animals thought that they were lap dogs and we got a whole lot of dog love. That did not fill our need for a dog. It just reminded us of what we were missing.
Mac is always complaining that he gets left out when the Nielsens get together. It was good for me to be on his side of that for a change. I wasn't ignored but he got a whole lot of attention from the whole family. I needed to see this scene from his side for a change. Also, a lot of people have mentioned that I might as well not be in the house at all if my grandkids are around as that is all I have attention for. Well Jo was really taken up with her two cuties--Conner and Cody. I could see myself in her hostess and grandmother behavior.
I missed going to some kind of church service. I love the carols and rites at Christmas and never got to experience them this year.
The highlight of my day was talking to Sean on the phone. He tries to call at least 3 times a year. He said that Jo is taking drugs now to try to ovulate on a timely basis, and that they had both had their fertility checked. They are going at this conception business full swing. I hope they get their wish in 2008. Sean mentioned that his book sales aren't off the wall and we discussed some publicity stunts that might help the marketing. He said the pope was coming to New York and he was thinking of sneaking in and throwing his book at him to generate some press. I suggested he do the Dali Lama and Tom Cruise as well to try to touch some other religious bases. It was a fun talk.
I loved talking to Karen as well. She was really sick with a bad cold and did not get the job in Atlanta that she had interviewed for. She wondered afterward if she would have, had she not been so sick the day of the interview. Going to Hong Kong and Japan and then going to Atlanta three days after return was too much for her. It would have been too much for anybody.
I also got to talk to Landon at length--the other boys were too busy playing in the basement with Daddy and the toys. Landon was pretty excited about his big new fire truck and his computor. He also can't wait to see our airplane when we fly in to TC in February. We shouldn't have told him that we were coming as he will be waiting for quite a while. He we soo glad that the Christmas Tree was still there even though Santa had come. He is a happy guy!!
I haven't heard from France yet about their Christmas. Maybe I should check their blogs.
Love to all. Grandma Janet

I am happy

It was a great week here in Florida. Although the weather started out cool it became progressively warmer as it went on. On Tuesday I found out that I don't have osteoporosis yet, just osteopenia (its precursor). I have gone down a bunch of T-scores since 2 years ago when my bones were healthier than a young adult and I was on estrogen. Going off of it, really caused a big crash.
I had a wonderful hour long Skype session with the three Williams women that I adore on Wednesday. I followed that talk with a nice swim.
Today I played bridge and did well, went to a great Christmas party before hand at the club,and I got a new pair of Crocs that are really comfortable and cute. Mac and I got haircuts today too. I went swimming at 5:30 and the almost full moon was out, even though it was dusk, not dark and it was shining on the pool as I swam. This evening I watched 3 eplisodes of House on my computor. I have been giving in to the constant temptation of Christmas Goodies everywhere I go. I will have to get serious about a diet after the first of the year when things settle a little.
Tomorrow I am going to get the last two shots in my knees for my arthritis and maybe some cortisone in my elbow for a condition that isn't improving (I've had it since May.)
I shared with Shannon the five keys to a good vacation: 1: have some idea of what you are going to do when you get up each day, 2: be a lot more respectful of one another than usual as you will probably be living on top of each other, 3: try to do something new or different each day, 4: don't go off by yourself all of the time, but 5: try to include some alone time or space for each member of the party. I read these in the paper and they seemed like 5 good keys to living with another human being.
I am hoping to find a few woment who want to scrapbook with me on a regular basis here in the camp. I am setting up a meeting to see if I can find a kindred soul here somewhere. I think it would help me get a little more of my scrapping done, if I had a regular time to work on it. The club house would provide an excellent place to set up and work for a few hours. I hope it works out.

Things are Good Here

Saturday was a fun day. We shopped a lot in the a.m. and found smoked turkey drumsticks to bring home from the Deli for lunch. Eddie called and Evan's team won the first game of the hockey tournament they were playing in and Evan got 2 goals. We had lots of xmas cards in the mail. One, from the young Amish family that we are friends with, was just glowing about the fruit box that we had sent to them. Apparently that was one huge success.
Another Christmas Card was from a friend with breast cancer. She is feeling well enough to visit her parents in January and she and her husband are going to visit us too. They live in Seattle and we don't get to see them very often. We called them right away and they are going to a shuttle launch at Cape Kennedy and we may go with them too, on January 10th.
We went out for dinner with some friends from the park to a new restaurant and the meal was fabulous. I even ordered dessert which was called a Chocolate Slide and was of course brownies with ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. We all had a spoon and that was fun too.
Friday I had the second round of shots, and my knees are coming along fine with the treatment. I am still coughing from the cold I caught in TC or from Mac about the day after I arrived down here. Tuesday I find out what the results are on my bone density test. I am thinking that they aren't very good. At least that is what I was reading from the computor when I peeked at it after I was done. Boniva here I come.

Getting Set up in Florida

I just got out of the pool. I have done 20+ minutes of laps everyday since we arrived (Dec 2nd I think). We have had great weather and I am really glad to be swimming on a regular basis again.
It has been difficult getting everything up and running here because some nearby lightning strike this summer got into the cable line and blew out our modem and the network card in our computor. We also had some trouble with the LCD TV but it's working now and the computor fixes only came to $100. We have been grocery shopping three times. We keep making lists of things we need immediately after coming in the door with a bunch of things we thought was everything.
I didn't make any bridge dates this week so that I could help with all of the setting up. Mac and I have two huge suitcases full of clothes that we don't know what to do with. We have so many things here already that we hardly needed to bring anything and yet we did. Oh well, we will manage to find room for everything eventually.
I get my first set on knee injections on Friday. You get two shots (one in each knee) three different times-one week apart. My girl friend is going to ride up with me and we will have lunch with her daughter who lives in Claremont where my doctor is. I am really needing these shots but I did very well on the ones I got in March. I almost can forget that I have knee problems sometimes.
I want to find a yoga class but haven't gotten to that yet. I have arranged for us to go to two concerts and one play this season. We are going to hear Willie Nelson again and a few other country groups and the play is a comedy.
Speaking of Willie, we have been mourning him all over again as we keep finding his balls and leashes and poop bags and things all over this place. We got rid of all of that stuff in Gowen and then it all hits us over again. I saw a Schnauzer mutt today at Walmart and I wanted to take it home. It was brown and about Fritzy's size. I saw a Halmark Christmas special about a woman who said that her late husband had made her feel fullfilled. I thought to myself that that is what my dogs did for me. I'll get over this soon.
Next week is full of appointments and bridge. I am having a bone density test and a visit with a dermatologist. I will be playing bridge on Wed. and Thurs. and every Mon and Thursday after that I imagine. Tuesday night is the club house Christmas potluck and gift exchange.
We are going to Mac's nephews house for Christmas in West Palm Beach.
Life is seeming very good to me right now. I am even planning to go to the cypress Garden New Year's Eve Party with a water ski show and fireworks at midnight.

Starting a List of things to do in Michigan in June

I am starting a list here and I want the various Williams to add things to it as they occur to them. My first entry is that we should have a new motor for our pontoon so we can take the girls (or parents) on a much better tube ride. I hear that Sofie wants to go back to the water park at Zehnders. Do any of the rest of you have things to add?

I am hoping that the newer Harry Potter DVD's will be available then and we can rent them, but that isn't for sure. Well--I'll just watch for anything else that you think up.

Four Days in Ann Arbor

I had a wonderful time in Ann Arbor last weekend. I played bridge 3 times and came in at the top or near the top each time. I ate wonderful meals at great restaurants (eggplant and tofu curry at Tup Tim for example). I got to visit with many of my friends and spent a whole day with Karen. (She beat me at Upwords and made roasted brussel sprouts for me. We saw a great movie, "Lars and the Real Girl", and Roz made us a blue cheese fritata which was heavenly.) I did a lot of shopping between friends and even though I didn't buy much I just enjoyed being IN A BIG CITY. After living in AA for many years it is difficult for me to retire in Gowen.

We have had very mild weather for it being nearly Winter. I hope that Mac and I get to Florida before real winter sets in. I picked a handful of raspberries this week.

Mac and I are planning to buy a much bigger engine for our pontoon boat. We are saving money for it, so that we can entertain grandkids by pulling them faster in the tube. I hope they appreciate it. I never want to tube behind a fast boat again after doing it last summer. I thought I would end up paralyzed or something. I can admit when I am too old for something.

skype

I am absolutely amazed that I can talk to my family in France using the computor and that I can see them too. It seems too good to be true. I have been flabergasted by this.

Mary's Visit and Sisters Week Together

Here are the four of us. We are in a nice Italian restaurant on Columbus Street in San Francisco.

We are at the end of our week long sisters vacation together.

We had a great time. We hiked in the Redwoods, and had lunch at a gourmet restaurant in Capitola (sitting on the terrace overlooking the Pacific). We swam almost every day and shopped a bunch at both upscale stores and outlet malls. We visited Bjorn and Laura and became mesmerized by the skills of Andrew who will be 2 today. He could count and do the alphabet and recognize letters and do complicated puzzles. He was amazing. We had dinner with Peter and Tom. Peter works for Google and is a self described "Multithousandair" because his start up company was acquired by Google. Peter looked great!!

Even before we got to California we were touching bases here in Michigan. Mary came in on a Saturday and Monday Karen brought her to Lansing where I picked her up. We had dinner in Lansing at Bravo with Becky, Scott and their two kids. Tuesday Mary and I met Amy at the Blue Water Grill and she had her two with her. Wednesday night Mary, Mac and I entertained Uncle Dick and enjoyed a fire side view of the full Harvest Moon. Thursday we had lunch with an old H.S. friend and spent the evening roasting veggies and watching Grey's Anatomy. Friday Karen came up and we went to Uncle Al's, where we joined almost all of Dad's sisters and brothers and had a great time at a potluck. Sat. we visited Eddie and his boys and then went to Carin and James' house for the rest of the birthday party that she was throwing the twins. Sunday Karen, Mary and I went to Birch Run and checked in at Splash Village. We shopped on Monday and did the water park returning in the evening to Ann Arbor so that we could pack and be ready on Tues. a.m. for the flight to California.

The highlights of our sisters time together were the great big belly laughs. We were on an extended sleep over. We were doing all kinds of silly and fun things. Mary brought a "Most Popular Sister" T-shirt from England. We took turns wearing it to breakfast in the hotel.

We played games and did puzzles together. We found so many things to laugh about. That is what I remember lovingly right now. We are so close and it is so wonderful.

I got back from this trip on Oct. 8th and was able to swim in Bass Lake. I did again on the 9th but it is over for the season now. It dropped about 40 degrees overnight.

Harry Potter

I got the "Deathly Hallows" from the library and started reading it. I can hardly follow it because its been so long since I read the last book. If it wasn't for watching the three DVDs with Anja while she was here I would really be lost. I have not idea what a "Horcrux" is or how to kill one without a Basilisk fang. Death Eaters and Dementors confuse me. Which is which and what do they do to you? They should have a directory of these terms. Maybe I should google them as they come up.

Mac's Sacred Spot

On Sunday we left Kingsley and went south by way of Yuma. Mac has a special spot that he loves to visit. You can see why from the photo. The next time the Williams are in town, I want to take them to Kingsley and to this spot. It is a bit of a hike from the road but well worth the effort.

Roasting Vegetables

When the Williams were here we made a few pans of roasted veggies. We roasted asparagus, egg plant and garlic. We soaked them in olive oil, and sprinkled italian seasoning and parmesan cheese all over them.

Special Pleasures

I just love swimming in late September. We are having wonderful weather this week and I should be able to swim everyday for a week (until the 25th). I just got back from a swim alone on a quiet lake, not even a swan or a goose for company. I feel glorious! The outdoor shower has a pattern of fallen leaves on the floor-almost like having a carpet.
I am also lucky that the shots in my knees in March have lasted this long and that I can continue to be active into the fall without pain.

Granddaughters

I am so lucky to have these two beautiful granddaughters. They even let me put rubber bands in their hair and then pose them for pictures. You can see they are used to me doing this.

Some more fun things

I saved the above post as a draft and when I finally got it posted it was a mishmash and I never figured out how to edit it. I will get the hang of this eventually. I wanted to add a few fun things that I left out last time. We made paper dolls. We do this every time we are together. They trace the doll with a template and then cut it out and dress him/her. We all enjoy this.
I talked Shannon and Caleb into getting a family portrait done. (That led to a breakdown by Anja--she wanted the shot that had a better view of her stuffie "Super Jim Panda Bear".)
We went to the island a lot of times and explored. Once we went in the pontoon boat and Caleb sailed the girls over as well. We went to the Danish Play Park at the Greenville Community Center. It is cute but dangerous. Anja fell and hurt her hip. Shannon and I went to my yoga class many times. (Anja joined us once.) I know I have still left something out but we did so many things this visit that I can't remember them all. What great joy I get from playing like this! I can't recommend retirement enough.

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Some of the Fun Things I did with Sofie and Anja
Some of the Fun Things I did with Sofie and Anja We had so much fun this summer. Sofie and Anja spent a few weeks with Mac and me at the cottage. Shannon and Caleb were there too, some of the time. Mostly we would swim. We did a huge amount of swimming. Usually we would take the paddle boat out into the middle of the lake and throw in the anchor and swim around the boat. We also swam closer to shore and from the pontoon boat.We went to a Harry Potter Party at Meijer the night that the book came out and I got the book for Anja and a bead kit for Sofie. Anja read the book slowly as she didn't want it to end but she is in her second reading now.Both Sofie and Anja climbed the X-Peak many times and slid down into the water.The also went tubing, behind our slow boat and also behind the Sterk's MasterCraft. I have fun memories of them in the tube. I didn't exactly enjoy my ride. I was completely thrown up in the air as we flew over the wake one time. I got bounced around pretty hard.We did crafting and scrapbooking too. We made a bunch of spoon puppets, but they never all got finished so we didn't have a show yet. We did some sponge painting too.We had an UnBirthday Party for Sofie, Anja and Conley who came to visit us with his mom. Mac and I gave the girls their birthday and christmas presents because I didn't want to send them over later and Shannon and Caleb didn't want to have to bring them back either. Most of the things are either here or at Lynne's.We went to Klackle's Orchard and spent three whole hours doing the orchard thing. Petting zoo, face painting, puppet show, barrel rides, electric pony rides, magic pumpkin rides, apple picking, eating donuts and drinking cider.We played the game Wild Woods many many times and also "garbage" and "war".We went out to lunch and when we were going into town we spotted a doe and two fawns off the road. We got a good look at them as they just stood there and didn't move for quite a while.We went to the Library many times and checked out bezillion books.We got to watch the firemen put out the electrical fire that I spotted behind our cottage in the woods. ( I had never called 911 before.) Sofie found all of my puzzle collection in the loft and really did a great job with puzzles. We watched a bunch of different DVDs. Mostly Harry Potter. We ate tons of pop corn.We went to a Nielsen family reunion. We worked on the family tree. We visited two graveyards to visit the graves of ancestors on the Nielsen and VanderLip sides of my family.We cooked together. I made them "mickey mouse" pancakes and heart shaped ones. Anja helped me make the pancakes. We all three made apple pies with the apples we got at the orchard.We had some nice fires and once had some special fireworks that we had saved for the girls from the 4th of July.We played "mother may I" and other outside games.We played in the hot tub.We played Barbies and Kelly dolls over and over and over.Sean came to visit too. He stayed for about 12 hours. He and Anja are really something together.We visited an Amish family and saw their animals.We stopped several times to feed grass to the ponies on a farm up the road.We ended the visit by going to Zehnders Splash Village. I just loved watching the two girls climb up the huge tower and ride down the big water slides into my arms on the big tube that Anja had to lug all the way up. Sofie was such a good "frog" jumping from lily pad to lily pad. They are such good swimmers and so much fun.
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Loving Anja's blog

I created a blog spot so that I can respond to Anja. I love that she is blogging. She is so clever.
I will love hearing from her when she is in Europe. What a great idea.