First Day Home...

After thirteen, yes I said THIRTEEN, nights spent sleeping in beds that weren't my own, I spent the most peaceful and glorious night restfully sleeping in MY OWN BED! I believe that I have never spent this much time away from home. Ever.

I've yet to finish laundry, catch up on bookwork, and straighten the house (that my husband had left wonderfully clean and neat), but I have unpacked, so there's that.

I have not uploaded pictures or written of my adventures, but I promise that I will!

I'll leave you with this though...a little of what I woke to for six mornings spent in northern Michigan -

Taken through the window above the bed. I had truly just awoken!
Believe me when I say that it was much more beautiful than this simple photo.

And what I enjoyed while reading, or talking, or listening to the sounds of nature. Or...doing nothing at all -

Enjoy the rest of your day. I am going to fix supper tonight. My husband truly deserves it!

Duker-day...My Trip to the Cabin

My mom and dad took me to the cabin! It's my favorite vacation spot! It's my only vacation spot.
I love it there. I usually get to go everywhere with my mom and dad. That's why they like to go in September...it's not too hot to leave me in the car if they have to go someplace without me. I love it when they go on little adventures and I love it when we just hang around the cabin. Did I mention that I love it there?

The swans were there again. Now, that annoys me because my parents feed them things that they could be feeding me. I like bread crumbs. So, mostly I ignored the swans this trip.

This trip it was all about my blue ball. My blue ball is my favorite toy in the world. Ever since Sosha moved in with us, she doesn't let me play with it. Once in a while she gets put in the house so I can have quality blue ball time with someone, but that doesn't happen often enough.

My dad packed blue ball in the car before we were leaving. And we were leaving Sosha behind. I felt a little bad about leaving her behind...but not bad enough to take her with us.

Here is my take on the long weekend:

For some reason, I found it both entertaining and upsetting to drop blue ball off the end of the dock.
The ball would come close enough to the dock and then I would reach out and pull it closer and try to grab it.
I was successful once, but it was hard!

I would plead and whine and cry and bark for help.

And my dad would say, "Go to the shore, get in the water and swim out to get it!"
He would say it more than once because I insisted that he help me get it.

I was successful. Twice.

Eventually I did swim out to get it several times.
Still, I liked it a lot better when my dad helped.

It was fun when my dad would kick blue ball for me.
I think my favorite was when he would kick it down the hill...

...And into the water. I don't know how many times I jumped in and swam out to get it.
But it was never enough!

We had one day of rain.
My dad took it as a day to relax and rest.
I stared at him like this most of the day.
I would really have had no problem with playing blue ball in the rain.

The day after the rain, it was foggy.
During the swans' daily visit, I noticed that blue ball had ventured out into the lake by itself.
I was a little nervous about going out to get it with those swans right there,
but I was more nervous that they would grab it and take off with it.

I guess I'm getting older and more mature. I just didn't feel like wandering off the way I've done during past visits.
My dad discovered that if he left the back of our car open, I liked going in for a little rest.
I don't know...it felt safe there.
Plus, it was handy if they decided to go somewhere they couldn't sneak off without me didn't have to look for me.

On Our Way To The Cabin...

We made a couple of stops on our way to the cabin. These are "must go" places that we stop at every time we're up north and they're in an Amish area. Our first stop:

This is an Amish owned and run store. Jim can ALWAYS find something he needs here.

On our way to the Amish bakery that we like to go to, we found a new bakery.
So, we stopped here too.

And then we stopped here.

And this is what we bought. Oh, except there was another dozen of peanut butter cookies. They were gone by the time we got to the cabin. I swear I only had two! And, yes, this was just for the three of us (Duke included, of course!) and we shared with the swans. Duke stepped on the brownies so he got to eat the one with his pawprint on it.

The Amish school is near one of the bakeries.

I don't usually take pictures of the Amish.
I mean...I wouldn't want people to take pictures of us as we're driving down the road.
I had my camera out and decided to snap the picture just as the man waved to us.
It turned out pretty good.

**Thanks for all your well wishes! I went to the doctor and am on antibiotics so should be "back to normal" in a few days! ♥

Where Have I Been?

I needed to step back from my blog for a few days. Then, Jim and I headed north for a looong weekend. It was so good to get away to the cabin that Jim's family shares and that we love...our favorite escape.
We had a wonderful time and I was able to do exactly what I'd wanted to accomplish. I read a book, wrote about being up north, and worked on a cross stitch project. And relaxed!
I had made up my mind to come back rejuvenated. Instead, I came back sick. Going to see the doctor tomorrow, but wanted to share this:

This is the view we woke up to on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Not Monday, because it rained. Hey, we can't have everything. It was perfect every other day.

Simple Sunday

1999 at Jim's family cabin. My kids, then ages 19 and 10, paddle boating with the neighbor dog in hot pursuit. ♥