Exciting Week ! Celtic Women concert & Royal Wedding

Hi all,
I hope you all had a Happy Easter. We did and it was so nice to see both sides of the family again. 

John and I went to the Celtic Women concert on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.  It was awsome !!! They really do put on a great show.

Today (Friday) is the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.  I took a vacation day to be able to watch it live.  I've always loved the English monarchy and all the history of it.  I was caught this morning watching in comfort right smack in front of the TV.

Here are a few pic's of the wedding, it was just wonderful and her dress is so beautiful. I know I'm dating myself, but she reminded me so much of Grace Kelly.
I did not take any pictures of her arriving, but I have some of the wedding it self and the two of them leaving and the 2 kisses on the balcony.

Queen Elizabeth & Prince Phillip

After the signing of the wedding license

Kate's parents

Kiss # 1

Kiss # 2

The huge crowd at Buckingham Palace

I was just amazed as to the crowd and how well the security controlled them as they made their way to Buckingham Palace.  There was a police line that held the crowd back and then when they got to Victoria's memorial it split and each went around and still kept the crowd from running ahead.  There would have been some mayhem if the crowd would have just been left to run to the gates.  Alot of people would have gotten hurt ortherwise.

Tomorrow, John and I are going to Sheboygan for a retirement party.  Sean is coming down to watch Bailey for us.
Have a great weekend.

Early Easter

First of all I am dealing with a runny nose, scratchy eyes and a bronchial cough for the last few days. I thought I was getting a cold, but I’ve figured out it’s my allergies acting up. I saw on TV that the maple tree pollen count was extremely high and what do you know…our house is surrounded by maple trees ! They finally released their bud husks (which are all over the ground), so I’m hoping to feel better soon until the next wave of pollen comes along.

This weekend the kids came over on Saturday to celebrate our own family Easter. Sarah, Matt & kids will be going down to IL to Matt’s side for Easter and Sean will be on his way home from California with Chris . Unfortunately, Matt had to work at the office on Sat., so he couldn’t attend. Which was kinda in his best interest because John and I are watching Sean’s cat Leo for a week while he’s on vacation. Matt is extremely allergic to cats and can’t be in the same room or even go into a room that a cat has been in without having an allergic reaction. Sean & Leo arrived around 11AM and then Sean took Leo right up to the bedroom without Bailey seeing him. Sarah, Kaylin, Shane & Audra came over around 3:30 PM. Kaylin & Shane were staying overnight so that was extra exciting. We sat down to a nice supper around 5:30 and had a nice visit. Sean left around 6:30 to go to Holly’s house to stay overnight. Holly was taking him to the airport on Sunday so he could leave for CA. Sarah & Audra left around 7PM. Kaylin & Shane were starting to wind down by that time so we got PJ’s on and watched part of Whinny the Pooh DVD. Both fell asleep watching it so John and I took each one upstairs and put them in their bed. They awoke then , so I read “I do it by myself” book and sang “Silent Night” 2 times and they both were sleeping again. They slept through the night and awoke around 6AM. They wanted pancakes for breakfast so Grandpa made Easter bunny shaped ones and they were a hit. OOP's!  I forgot to change that date in the camera again...doing it right now...

Bailey is having a hard time with knowing that Leo is in the upstairs bedroom right under her nose. She’s not going real crazy, but she’s constantly got her nose up in the air when she gets by the stairs going up to the bedrooms. Every time I go into Leo’s room, she’s whining and carrying on then. Hopefully, she will get used to him being in the house, I’m going to see if they can smell each other through the fence I have set up in the hallway. Should be interesting to see if any communication happens….I’m not betting on it…ha,ha.

Sarah, Matt & Audra came over on Sunday morning around 10AM to pick up Shane & Kaylin. They were going over to Bill, Loren & Reese's house to celebrate Reese's 1st birthday. So they packed up and left. The Easter Bunny came to our house too, so they each had a new outfit, coloring books & puzzles to gather up also.
After they left, then John and I focused on Sean and his flight to Dallas Fort Worth airport and then on to Orange County Airport where Chris was going to pick him up. So we followed him as he boarded and landed until he was safely at Chris’ parent’s house. He is going to stay there for a few days until they start back to WI.  As of this writing, they are in Vegas in a casino winning money. Hope they know when to quit and take their winnings with them.
Here is a picture's of Audra in her Easter dress.

It will be good to see everyone this coming weekend for the Easter holiday.  To my sister Denise and her husband Tom's house for the Neumann family's Easter and then to John's brother Chris & wife Dannette's house for the Winters side.
I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter !

Happy Spring !

Well , yesterday was a treat hey ??? 80 degrees..YEAH !! bring it on…. My tulips are coming up nicely, I can’t wait to see them blooming.  It will bring back such wonderful memories of Amsterdam.  I can still remember buying them at the flower market.  John and I went up north last weekend to check on the place. We haven’t been up north since the beginning of February for the Ice fisheree. We’ve been so busy down here with the finalizing of the remodeling downstairs and then the moving furniture and stuff back again which has taken up most of the weekends. We still have stuff out in the garage, but most of it is either going up north, going to Sarah & Matt’s or going to Goodwill. There was Little Audra’s birth, our friend Jenny’s baby shower & my cousin Randy passing away. 
Here is a picture of the snow still on the ground up north in our backyard.  Disregard the date on these pictures, obviously I have to correct that LOL.

Here is little Audra, growing like a weed...2 months now !!



By the way, if anyone is thinking about remodeling , we strongly recommend Crestwood Homes LLC. It is owned by Kurt Raymond and I can’t say enough about how pleased with our remodel project. His number is 414-861-4750. Very, Very nice, professional, knowledgeable & friendly. Here is his website :  http://www.servicemagic.com/rated.CrestwoodHomesLLC.12325935.html


Friday:
John, I and Bailey got up north Friday night around 9:30 and the place is still standing. Unfortunately, there is still about a foot of snow on the ground. We unpacked the truck and got settled in.

Saturday:
John putzed around in the barn getting his new ATV battery installed and did some running around on it down to the lake and back. Dewey stopped by and chatted awhile. Once John came back in from outside, we worked as a team to reverse the doors around on the refrigerator to open up towards the kitchen. We’ve had the place for ten years now, and the refrigerator that was left there by the previous owners had the doors to open towards the living room. Well we did it ! They have been reversed and they now open the right way. I guess better late than never, huh?  John took off with Dewey to go to the Black Bear bar for a ATV meeting. During that time I gave Bailey a bath. Her coat feels so silky again and smells like baby powder. She likes her baths but she doesn’t like the drying off part. After I dry her off she takes off running around the house like a crazy dog, she’s so funny…John came home in the afternoon and then removed the plastic from the patio door. We should be ok now not getting any below zero temps any more. He then went downstairs and copied some of the pictures that are on the computer desktop to his portable hard drive. One file took 20 min. That took the rest of the afternoon to do. We then had supper and were done for the night.

Sunday:
We had our coffee and breakfast and then decided that we were going to pack up early to get down south in the early afternoon. Sean came down to our house and stayed overnight on Sat. I guess just to get away for awhile. He wanted us to get back early to show us how his Blue Ray player & movies looked on our TV. So we got on the road around 10AM and got down here around 2:30PM. Two $80 gas fills for the truck on the way down !!! unbelievable !!!! I guess we just missed the tornado's that touched down in Merrill (north of Wausau) too, WHEW !!!!  It was good to see Sean again and we had a nice visit. He left around 4:30PM and got home safely. Then he calls us not much later to tell us that there were very severe storms going through by him. Thank goodness he got home before all that happened. He is going to fly out to Huntington Beach California next Sunday to meet up with his friend Chris. Then the both of them will be driving back to WI in Chris’ car. Chris and Holly have moved back to WI. Holly is already here, but Chris had to finish up work there in California and had to get his car back here. So Sean is taking a vacation. They are going to make it like a road trip and not rush coming back and take some side trips along the way to see the country. Sean is still looking up touristy things to see along the way.
So, that's it for now, not sure what's ahead for this coming weekend,
Have a nice week.