One Last Hurrah in MI., Florida, & Travels

     Ang's Parents are very creative and want to make memories every moment they can get.  When it came closer to our departure they kept thinking of one more thing to do.  One event that we miss out on is Homemade Chinese which is made every New Years Day.  It is an all day project with all the chopping and preparing.  So we had to make Chinese before we left.

Papa sitting at the table surrounded with all his grand babies and lots of egg-rolls

Ang's Sister thought it would be a fun summer project for the kids to tie-dye T shirts.  So while Ang was packing like crazy the kids were having some fun.

Everyone sporting their new shirts

Traveling to Florida we got a flat trailer tire it even blew off the fender of the trailer.  We were in Indiana on a piece of Highway that had a lot of tire carnage so much so, that it was impossible to drive around it.  We were not surprised that we joined the many who lost their tires.  We were thinking something must have been on the road.

We found a Wal-mart 21 miles away who had a tire and tools we could use but they wouldn't do the work.  Ace changed the tire and we were off.

Arriving in Florida we were flagged down by friends who told us the family we were going to for dinner had just been in a car accident and they are now being taken to the hospital.  Two children were thrown from the vehicle.  We immediately went into prayer mode and wondered if we arrived in time for a funeral.

The accident scene.  They rolled the car a few times and went thru two fences!

We were soooo thankful that there was no funeral and God spared all their lives.  You can read about their accident on their blog here.

Florida bugs which I DO NOT! miss

Florida was a short visit and so wish we could spend more time visiting everyone.  But I think we were at the end of our social capabilities and very anxious to get home.  You know you've traveled to long when your nesting instincts become active every time you enter someone's home.  LOL

Back on the road again Sam & Cherry camping out

We had to stop a the Biggest rest stop in Texas.  Anyone else been there?  I had to take this picture because I thought of my sister Becky who we call Bucky.  Nice bathroom facilities by the way; the only one the whole trip.

Celebrating 2 more Birthdays

      Ace and Aurora share the same Birthday.  This year Ace turned the Big 40 and I wanted to do something special with him and hoping his parents would be able to participate.  This was very hard to accomplish because I wanted it to be a surprise but Ace held the schedule to everything we were doing.  Soooo, My brother in law wanted to take the family out bowling and I took the opportunity and asked if we could make it a combined thing so we went ahead and all worked it out.

The Banner Tow Cake

Ace helping nephew Gibby with bowling

Opening all the homemade cards & gifts all the little people made.  My mom who is standing there, her love language is gift giving and she does a good job teaching her grandchildren this love language.  This year she was teaching all her grand children how to make cards not any card but Iris folded cards.  If you don't know what Iris folded cards are you can do a Google image search.

Celebrating Aurora's Birthday the next day

After cake ice cream and opening presents we went and did sparklers in the backyard these were given to us in Arizona but with it being so dry there I get so nervous doing fireworks so we brought them with us.

Cherry didn't care about the sparklers she rather try on shoes

Very smoky Sparklers

I was wondering what the neighbors were thinking about all that smoke.  We had a good time celebrating all our Birthdays and had sooo much fun.  Now this Mamma gives the clear that we can leave Michigan and head back to Arizona.  My one wish was to celebrate our birthdays with the family and my wish was granted.

Tradgedy Strikes The Lowell Home

UGH!

     Can life at the Lowell Home get any worse?  After our trip to PA. we decided to close up our home in Lowell and wait to see what the Lord had in store for it.  When Ace went to winterize our home and turn off utilities he opened the door to hear water trickling.  Not a good sound to hear.  Ace walked into the house with 2 1/2 inches water on the floor.  He spent a good deal of time cleaning it up thinking that was all that needed to be done.  However, when bringing me to the scene I told Ace there is no way we could leave and go back to Arizona and leave the house this way.  There was mold growing between the floor boards and I knew it was just going to get worse.  The damage was a lot bigger than Ace had thought.

You can see the mold seeping through the cracks that only means that there is moisture under it.

We took the end trim off and saw standing water.

After talking it over we decided to check with insurance to see if this would be covered we were pretty sure that it wouldn't be covered but we had to check.

After checking with Insurance we discovered it was covered after a $1,000 dollar deductible and that wasn't really something we had but God knew that.  

We hired our friends who helped us with prepping our home to sell it.  We figured who would better know our home and care for it like we would.  When they looked into all that needed doing we discovered what had happened.  A pipe in the bathroom wall had rusted out and gave in.  It then filled the wall with water until that gave out flooding 5 rooms.  The drywall soaked up a lot of the water.  Needless to say the damage was more than $1,000 and the insurance kicked in.

This is the bathroom where the pipe broke.  The cabinets were trashed as they were made out of particle boards.

James 1: 2-4

July 4th Weekend

We came back to Michigan to close up our home in Lowell for the winter since it didn't sell and celebrate three Birthdays with family before we headed back to Arizona.

Nana made the cousins matching 4th of July outfits.

Visited Lake Michigan which is missed dearly in the Hot state of Arizona.  I laughed when I heard my Hygienist say Arizona has a lot of lakes.  Hmmm  maybe there are some up North in AZ.

I think she liked the sand.

After wards Ice cream

 Ang's parents were overflowing with fun activities that they could do with their visit with their children and grandchildren.  One was eat dessert in the dark on their back porch for Ang's Birthday.  Set the mood with Kenny G playing on their deck speakers.  Turn on the Christmas lights on the pergola.  Serve Ice cream and cookies and enjoy each others company.

Everyone enjoying their dessert

Opening presents from my children

It was soooo nice to be with my parents for my Birthday.  It was my one request for our whole trip was to be able to be home for my Birthday.  

Thanks Family!

Our Time Spent at Ace's Parents Home and Memorial Weekend

Ace visiting with his big brother Dan.

Piper plays Happy Birthday.

 Ace's mom just blew out the candles on her cupcakes.  She is celebrating her 70th.

Opening the gifts

I love Cherry in this picture so I had to post it.

Off to the graveyard for Memorial Weekend to learn about family history.

Grammy telling everyone about her parents.

Ace's Grandparents grave.

Just because I thought she was sooo cute!

Celebrating Sam's Birthday.

Blowing out the Candles

We had lots of fun visiting Aces family while in Michigan we will continue our visit in Pennsylvania later in our trip.

Our Time Spent at Ang's Parents House

Aurora making Fruit Smoothies with Nana & Cousins

Getting tractor rides with Pa

Sam & cousin Gibby playing Go Fish they were best buds.

Piper and cousin Carson eating/drinking root-beer floats on the back porch.

Gustie and cousin Cera sipping their floats and playing Cootie.

Pa took the Glidewell children out to his wiffle ball yard and took some time to teach them how to play wiffle ball.  I think the girls are sidetracked by Winston the cat.

Gustie getting a lesson on how to stand and hit the ball.

Sam's turn for a lesson.

 When it came someones turn to hit the ball Pa taught them a chant, everyone shouted, "Can she do it?  Yes she can!"

Our Home

We made it to Michigan! We only arrived two hours late because of a snow storm. We had white knuckle driving thru lake affect snow and were so glad to arrive safely at Ang's parents door to only sink down into the snow and get stuck.
After arrival we celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family and then it was down to business.

One area of our lives, in Michigan, that still remains unfinished is our home in Lowell. We sure wish we could sell it but with today's economy it looks like we have to hang on to it until things get better. Our renters moved out back in October so the house has been sitting vacant. We spent three days cleaning and painting to spruce things up for either the next renter or a buyer.

Gustie scrubbing mold of the baseboards. I don't know why we bother since it probably will just grow back with no heat to dry things out.

The Gas and Electricity was turned off so we were creative and used a generator, a kerosene heater and a camp stove to help out with the necessities to make a clean house.
Is this what jungle camp really prepared us for?

The house was condensateing everywhere.
The girls are drying out their wet feet.

Piper warming her hands with the kerosene heater.

Cherry doing what she does best.

Aaron and Jacob helped us out a lot with painting and cleaning.
Ace's goal was to have the house done in three days and we made it only because of these two young men. Thanks so much guys we really appreciated your help!

Inspector Ace!
Ace would walk around the house making sure everyone was doing a job and if they needed anything to get the job done.

Here we are almost done. We have backed the kids into a corner they did a good job trying not to complain about the cold and helping with the cleaning.
One last huge thank you to Kurt and Kathy for loaning us the camp stove, generator, and kerosene heater. Your family would love Jungle camp!