End of the Day Light Dance, November 24, 2017

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November 24, 2017

On this date in 1987 we finalized the adoption of our daughter, Rachel Ann Jung Duchaine. What  Judge Goebel did not realize is that his announcement was just a formality. We first saw Rachel's photo on June 23, 1986 and from that moment on she was our daughter.

The sky was beautiful as the sun set last night. The ending light of the day seemed to dance with the clouds.

Headlights coming towards us as we head south on M-35.
We are on our way to Oconto, WI to pick up Charlotte.

We are enjoying our weekend hope you are doing the same.

If you have a moment, to leave a comment, we would enjoy hearing from you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2017

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving. A day to think about all the blessings we have. When we look back on this past year we cannot help but be thankful for our children, grandchildren, extended family and friends. We are grateful for this time in our lives when we are able to travel and spend time getting to know the beauty that is our country. We look forward to being able to do more traveling in our Stinger "B". 

It is nice to have a day to remind us all to give thanks but I keep thinking that giving thanks should not be confined to the 4th Thursday in November, or if you are Canadian the 2nd Monday in October, it is something we should think about every day. 

"When you arise in the morning, 

give thanks for the morning light,

for you life and strength.

Give thanks for you food,

and the joy of living.

If you see no reason for giving thanks,

the fault lies with yourself."

~Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief

Wishing Everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Clouds Turned a Wonderful Pink

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November 13, 2014

There is not a lot going on around here. Organizing a few things and doing some Christmas shopping. Tom is getting better everyday and after what seems like forever he is scheduled for his second procedure tomorrow. If you are reading this and you are someone who believes in prayer, as we do, we would appreciate a prayer or two that everything goes well.

So to explain tonight's first picture. One of things I enjoy doing is crocheting. I am not one to just sit and watch television or just sit outside in the sun, though I do enjoy the sun thing, so a lot of times I am crocheting. Anyway, back to the picture below it is a shawl that morphed into a large triangular wrap. Over the last seven years I have made at least 25 afghans, 30 plus hats, several baby sleep sacks, and couple of shawls. Lets just say there is always left over yarn. If you are a knitter or a crocheter you know how you have trouble, well at least I have trouble, throwing out the left over yarn so it accumulates in bags. If you sew it is just like all those scrapes of material that you have saved. Again, at least that I have saved over the years. I read a saying once...she who dies with the most material wins...and for a while I was in the running, Though, since we have been getting rid of stuff my chances of winning have dwindled to just about zero.  So again back to the picture. This was made with all that leftover yarn and it will be keeping me warm when I am sitting out watching the sunrise in the desert. Our granddaughter, Charlotte, was over and she was picking out different yarns she recognized from her afghans and other yarns she remembered from things I have made. So as I am wrapped up all warm and cozy I will be remembering mostly the afghans I have made our grandchildren and I will be thinking of them all snugly and warm.

Yesterday, Sunday, we took a ride down to Oconto, WI to pick up our granddaughter who had spent the weekend with her Father. (It is a half-way point.) It was a grey day and Lake Michigan was smooth like glass...grey glass.

Tonight's sunset turned the clouds a lovely pink. (Yes, that is white stuff on the ground. For those of you lucky enough to be in warmer places it is called snow...lol) There is something hopeful about a pink sky. A promise of a better day and not just weather wise.

Looking out our front door across the highway. The high school is in the
distance and the church is Central Methodist.

We are both hoping you had a wonderful day.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog today. 

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.

Thank You For Your Service

November 11, 2017


Today we honor our Veterans who served and continue to serve protecting our freedoms.

In our family we think of both our father's who served in the Army during World War II.
Tom served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
Tom's brother, Jerry, also served in the Navy as did my brother, Frank.
Our son, Thomas, is a member of Michigan's National Guard.

In Canada today is Remembrance Day. A day of remembrance for the men and women who have served and continue to serve their country.

Thank You For Your Service!

November 3rd

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Friday, November 3, 2017

After running some errands this afternoon I was approaching my turn onto Lincoln Road and home when I could see this ahead. We only had a high of 40 degrees today but the sun had made it bright and beautiful. I had seen clouds earlier but in a rush to get things done had not taken any real notice. Noticing now my first thought was this does not look good; this looks like snow. I decided to keep going straight and head down to lake.

Where I would normally turn left.

Continuing down Ludington Street the clouds do look ominous.

Down on the lake the clouds look dark and beautiful at the same time. There
is a breeze and I could see whitecaps. Little Bay de Noc looks dark and cold.

It looks like Stonington is already under the clouds.

After taking the picture above I turned to the right and saw the sun
through the clouds and the water looked like silver.

Checking the weather when I arrived home I found there is a Winter Weather Advisory in effect from 11:00 PM EDT, tonight, until Saturday, 12:00 PM EDT. There is a mention of 2 to 4 inches of snow accumulations but it sounds like most of it will be south, north and west of us. With any luck it will miss us all together which happens more times then not.

Over the years I always enjoyed the first snowfall, yes I did say enjoyed, the beauty of the white covering the tree branches, bushes, and ground making everything twinkle in the crystal whiteness. I have always felt that the cover of snow gives a softness and quietness to the world. What I do not like is driving in or after the first snowfall because it seems like a vast majority of people forget what it is like to drive when the roads get slippery. So there will be the inevitable rash of fender benders from people slamming on their brakes at the last minute. One last musing, at this point in life Tom and I agree we would rather look at pictures of the first snowfall instead of experiencing it up close and personal. For now as I write this it is 36 degrees and there are no stars to be seen which means those clouds that were in the distance are now overhead.

We hope you had a wonderful day. Thank you for stopping by and reading our blog.

If you could take a moment and leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.

Addition:  Our first snow of the year.

We awoke this morning to a dusting of the white stuff.
Looking out our back patio doors and front door.

Goodbye October, Hello November

Today, November 1st, is Rachel's Airplane Day! Thirty-one years ago at around 12:30 AM at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and I can still see his face, a gentleman put Rachel in my arms. As he handed her over we were both laughing. He was carrying two baby girls and he had reached out the other little one and said, the....baby girl; I reached out my arms and said, and that one is the Duchaine baby girl. He said, are you sure and I said, she looks exactly like her picture. Tom was holding Thomas who had fallen asleep, he opened his eyes, put his little hand on her cheek, and said, Rachel you are finally here. At that moment we became a family of four.

It had been a very long evening. She was suppose to arrive in the early evening on October 31st and we had been at the airport well over six hours by the time she arrived. Coming from seven hours away, and not having cell phones back then, there was no way for anyone to contact us to let us know there had been a delay. We had two contact numbers one for Los Angles and one for Detroit along with information as far as when we should call them. We had called the one in Los Angles earlier in the day and that person was able to tell us that all the babies had arrived in the United States. This is the information we, along with all the other parents, held on to as the night progressed. Their next stop was suppose to be Chicago and then finally Detroit. What we found out later was they missed the flight out of Los Angles but did get on a flight that landed in Denver where they also had a delay. In the end, though, there were five sets of happy parents just after midnight on November 1st.

For the most part it was a fun evening, we were all there picking up our second child and Thomas, we had the only boy, spent the evening playing with two little girls. Plus, it seemed that everyone had extended family with them, we had both sets of grandparents with us. So there was a good size group of people waiting for these five baby girls arriving from South Korea.

The contact person in Detroit had given us the information about the later flight coming out of Denver which was suppose to land before midnight. When the greeters arrived they had information that they were on an earlier flight, turned out they were not. It ended up they were on the flight out of Denver but it was delayed. I still remember, while we stood there waiting to find out if they were on the plane, a woman coming off the plane looking at our group and saying those must be your babies on the plane. I am pretty sure there was a collective sigh of relief from all of us.

As I look back on these 31 years it does not seem possible that the time has gone by as fast as it has. Rachel is now the mother of three little ones of her own!


Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween!
In Escanaba that means it is cold, raining and or snowing. The kids
lucked out this year it was only cold. The temperatures hovered
in the 30's all day. The sun we did have earlier was gone by the
time trick or treating started.

Earlier in the day we did have patches of blue sky peeking through the clouds. As the day progressed the clouds got grayer and  the blue sky disappeared.

This is the only picture I have of grandchildren dressed and ready to go trick or treating. None of them would try again for Nana. The littlest one stayed with Tom and I, the middle one gave up after 30 minutes. I picked him up and he was sound a sleep on the couch within 5 minutes. The oldest one peeled of her costume after walking in the door. (She had a hoodie, snow pants, leggings, and a top under her witches costume.) The grandkids downstate: only 1, the oldest, out of 3 went trick or treating with a neighbor. The youngest stayed home and passed out candy and the middle one, poor thing, was sick and throwing up. Happy Halloween and no pictures...:(

I lied there is this one more of Charlotte and
Nate, our daughter took, while they were sitting
  and waiting for Nana to come and pick him up.
He had sat down and said," Nate done".

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Not much warmer today started out at around 27 degrees this morning and we did reach 43 degrees later in the day. We did have a sun and mostly a beautiful blue sky which always makes it feel better though with  a breeze not warmer.

Took a short ride, between errands this afternoon, down by our city park. It is a beautiful park right on the water.

Looking out over the lake at the south end.

Looking back at the park from the beach parking lot.

Our beach area is an island and that bridge through the trees is how we get to it.

The beach house.

This picture and the one above are the yacht harbor from Aronson Island.

On the other side of the green is the beach.

Our water tower.
Our High School mascot is an Eskimo.
This picture is for you, Patsy.

We are glad you took the time to read our blog today.

If you have a moment to leave a note we would love hearing from you.