here are some more pics from nanny's birthday lunch....

scroll down to see the rest....click on each picture to enlarge it...


 

and a few more......

 

and even more pictures...

 

nanny's birthday lunch....

shannon, scarlett and i took mom out for lunch for her birthday. we went to beale street smokehouse for lunch (delicious brisket) and then to the mill pond in fenton for pictures. i have been wanting to take 4 generation pictures for way too long and was able to get a few taken of the four of us. gotta love the self timer feature on the camera. it was a beautiful afternoon weather-wise and i am happy with most of the pictures. thank goodness for photo editing programs so i could crop part of my fat butt off. scarlett is getting so big, i can hardly stand it. just look at how she is looking at me. she was just precious, totally cooperative for the pictures and stood just where i posed her and smiled on command. i love her...

the waitress at the restaurant took this one for us, she was so sweet.
this was the coolest green door....very urban...with the graffiti on the bottom. i love this picture of shannon. she is so beautiful and getting more beautiful by the day. not only is she beautiful, she is sweet and kind and good, everyone loves her and for good reason. she is the best and i love you honey! happy birthday mom. i love you. 

scenes from the faire....

we went to the reniassance festival a couple of weeks ago and had a lot of fun. expensive though...it's been about 5 years since we've been there and i was amazed at how much the price of everything had gone up. five dollars for a turkey leg???? sheesh....lucky for us we had free tickets to get in to the faire. it was also a lot more technically updated since the last time i was there too. all of the characters had headset microphones so they didn't have to shout too loud for their performances. and now they use blackberry palm devices to run the credit cards for payment of their overpriced food and souvenirs.
this new feature (ride) was fun for austen, harnessed in and launched hydrolically (is that spelled right??) into the air from a trampoline. launched high into the air. he loved it and he laughed and laughed. i wanted to go on it too but it was too soon after surgery for that. they also had a rock climbing wall for the kids and he tried that too. there were lots of activities for the kids. the people that ran the activities for the kids were great with them. i think that is one of my favorite things about the reniassance festival, the characters and how they act the roles they portray. they really seem to enjoy their work.











we got home just in time to watch michigan kick notre dame's butt!!!! awesome game. M go blue.... 

September 11, 2001........

our family will never forget.....


 

it's fall weather.....

which means it's apple orchard time in the mandernach household. we love apple picking, it's one of our true fall traditions, i don't think we've missed a year since we've been married. it was cool (almost cold) today and overcast, perfect for apple picking
and cider and doughnuts. we didn't get cider though, they wanted $6.00 for a gallon...gaaaaa....i can get it for $2.00 at the grocery store. we did get doughnuts because there are really nothing like cider mill doughnuts, fresh and hot. we got pumpkin cinnamon and powdered sugar. yummmmm. we also got some kettle corn. nothing like that either.

the trees were laden with apples this year. i don't think i've ever seen the trees so full. easy to pick and big and juicy. this was our haul this year.
don got a few pictures of me this year but i had to fire him as back up photographer because most of them turned out blurry..dang it....he did get a few good ones though of austen and i. i guess i need to train him better. oh, well....off to make some apple pies....  

this pretty much sums up my hospital stay......

why on earth would they put me in the same room with an 83-year-old crazy cat lady? this woman kept me up almost my entire first night after surgery...i truly only got about 1-2 hours of sleep. she talked to me until 1:30 am about her cats, her son....who was brain-injured after being beaten up by drug dealers....and who now lives with her and her cats....but doesn't work..."but he is a really good boy"...and all he does is shop and now has 92 pairs of jeans and 124 t-shirts...and he is mean to her sometimes..."but he is a really good boy"....and how she had a stroke a few years ago and her doctor told her to talk...alot....so now she talks to her plants and her cats and on her cell phone (which she did alot in the hospital)..and to me which she did in run-on sentences, on and on and on and on. i finally told her to stop talking to me because i was exhausted and needed to get some sleep. she did but at 2:30 am she rolled over onto her tv remote and turned on her tv and didn't know how to turn it off so she rang for the nurse who came into the room, flicked on the overhead light and talked really loud (what the...it's 2:30 am!!). she called them again at 3:30 am for something that i was too drugged (maybe not drugged enough) or too exhausted to remember. when the nurse came in at 4:00 am for vitals, i asked for her pen and wrote this note on a napkin...

"you have to get me out of here!!, which i handed to her with a pleading, puppy-dog look in my eyes. she laughed and said, "just a minute", she came back and said,"c'mon, i'll move you to the next door, it's empty. i flew out of the bed so fast and she had to follow me to the next room. "did you have a vaginal hysterectomy", she asked me. "nope", i answered, "i had an abdominal hysterectomy". she told me that she has never seen anyone move with so much speed and agility so soon after surgery. "you'll do anything when you're desperate", i replied. i hopped into that new bed so happily, but as everyone knows, there is no rest for the weary in a hospital. and what is up with the nurses coming into your room in the middle of the night, turning on the overhead light and talking in loud voices. i understand that this is your daytime but it is my nighttime and you need to come into my room and gently wake me up, whisper to me and for god's sake, use a flashlight to see.........geez...only one of my nurses did that for me. she was also the one who told me that crazy cat lady told her and all of the other nurses that i kept her awake all night. we all got a good laugh about that one. i was very happy to come home a day early. my recovery has been slower than i expected. i am still very sore today around my incision site but i have tried to remain active. i started walking on a regular basis but i still have to lay down at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon for a rest or a nap. hopefully i will gain more strength as time goes on and i can get some cleaning and reorganizing done around this house.

school has started for another year....

and hopefully this one will be a better one for austen. he does not like school because he struggles with math and writing. he has improved so much in reading but does not love it like i did when i was his age. i devoured books. he has to be bribed to read. we had him tutored this summer and hopefully that kept him up for this year. anyway, he and nick were so cute this morning. how about this hip-hop stylin' dude?...going into 4th grade....growing up so fast....before my eyes...time please...slow....down....
 
 
nick is going into 3rd grade and austen is going into 4th grade this year as you can see by the number of fingers they are holding up. i have taken these pictures every year since first grade and austen has changed so much....i just can't stand it.

 
i always try to get at least one with me and him for the year.
 
since he is always so excited to go to school every year he didn't disappoint me with the look as he boarded the bus...for another school year.