In Loving Memory

Michael James McKinley

"Uncle Mike"

September 25th, 1950 - July 25th, 2008

Journey to Michigan

I'm finally getting my pictures and videos organized from my excursion to Michigan. We left on a Monday and arrived in Kalamazoo on Tuesday evening. Both of my parents are from Kazoo and I remember visiting there as a kid since we lived outside of Detroit. My Aunt Kathy and her husband Dave now live in the house that she, my Mom and their brothers grew up in...sum up - my Grandma's house is now my Aunt's house. So the house has been in the family for a long time and it's always so neat to go back and visit. I decided (and my Mom agreed to go with me) to head out on the road for the trip North. So the journey begins......

This is what happens when you give a 21 month old an ice cream cone in the car because you don't want to take the time to wait for him to eat it at Dairy Queen even though you ordered an itty bitty kid cone. The diaper after this was not pretty.

Our first stop on the road for our stay over was Sikeston, MO. I think it is most famous for Lambert's Cafe "Home of the Throwed Rolls". They serve enormous portions (no sharing allowed) and will seriously throw a roll at you if you raise your hand. Here is proof.....

I eventually caught one for Brennan - as he looks so shocked in the above picture. I got the guy's attention from across the restaurant ( not sure if it was the tie dye T-shirt or me waving my hands frantically around). The first throw pegged the guy in the head sitting in the both behind us (oops, sorry bout that) and the second throw tipped off my fingers and landed in my booth after hitting the wall . "Here ya go, Brennan....enjoy".

We arrived in Kalamazoo the next day --- long, long drive but we made it. We even stopped to have lunch in Indy with my cousin Betsie! Whoo hoo! It was so nice of her to meet us and it gave us some encouragement to keep going the last 3 1/2 hours to Michigan.

We enjoyed some shopping, eating, visiting, shopping, eating, visiting, eating, visiting for the 1st couple of days. The weather is just so gorgeous there - it can be a bit humid - but so lovely to sit outside.

On Friday, my cousin, Shannon, and I took our collective 5 children to Lake Michigan in South Haven. The weather was nice - almost rainy but than it wasn't and the kids enjoyed playing and swimming in the lake. Too cold for me but glad I was there. Brennan LOVED the water!!!

Evan was not so surePreston, Riley, Brennan, Quinn and Evan out on the PierSherman's ice cream was in order after a day at the beach!

And this is what happens to the car when Shannon and I decide it was a good idea to throw the leftovers out the window at 60 mph. I seriously wish I had a car cam for that most hysterical moment. When Shannon and I get together we always seem to have at least 1 hysterical moment where we are having a -can't-talk-can't-breath-have-to-pee-seriously-going-to-wet-my-pants-moment. And this was it. Thanks, Shannon!!!! A night out at Fricano's for italian dinner is always good.

My beautiful Grandma - Ethel Mae Bramer McKinley Starz

Her children Pat (my Mom), Kath and Mike

Her Grandchildren (minus Colleen)

Her 9 Great Grandchildren.... Preston, Joshua, Riley, Annabelle, Brennan, Aleigha, Quinn, Evan and notice the picture of Reid, too.

And here is the whole family minus a few members that couldn't be there.

Now here is a little snippet of the goofballness that I am related too. I promised my cousin Jason I'd do this:

Sorry, Jason...it had to be done!




Chris was the Margarita man. I sure am glad Betsie married him!






Me, Aunt Kathy and Betsie enjoying our Pineapple Margarita concoctions!

The trip was wonderful - so glad we endured the effort to visit. It's good to be around family. It reminds you where you've come from.

We stopped in Sikeston again on the way back....we avoided Lambert's this time but did enjoy a dip in the indoor pool at the new hotel.

Thanks Mom for going with me - I couldn't have done it without you. And thanks to everyone for being such gracious hosts and planning such wonderful days for us!

Happy 1st Birthday, Reid!

My little nephew turned 1 this weekend. My sister and her husband had a nice party for him. He scored lots of presents and has lots of friends!

Aunt Jen and her wonderful friend, Lindsey, helped make the really cute cake for his baseball theme party.

Happy birthday little man! It's been fun getting to know you this past year.

Shameless Plug

My sister-in-law, Laurie, is a representative for Noah's Ark Animal Workshops. This company sells stuffed animals - similar to the concept of Build-a-Bear except she comes to you. She can host birthday parties, fundraisers, group parties, etc. She is really interested in the service project aspect of this organization and doing things for the community and helping organizations such as the Children's Hospital. The stuffed animals are really cute - they have tons of choices and accesories to choose from and they are really relatively priced too. So check it out if you have any interest for your kiddos or groups you belong to.

Day at the Lake

I've mentioned before about our group of friends that get together AT LEAST every 2 months for a kid-free day/night/whatever.

A couple weekends ago our friend Toni and our new friend Wes invited us over to Wes's place on Lake Ray Hubbard. He was so gracious to take us out on his boat and jet skis for a few hours. They even cooked a yummy dinner of hamburgers on the grill. Matt made homemade peach cobbler that we had with some Blue Bell. It was such a nice day to hangout together. Here are the pictures of me and Bryan on the jet skis.

If you haven't read the "100 Things About Me" post than you won't know that I hate lake water. I find it extremely creepy and scary. But I overcame my fear so I could try a ride on the jet ski. But I was slick enough that I didn't even get in the water...stepped from the boat to the jet ski back to the boat. And I never fell off!!!!

Thanks Toni and Wes for such a good time! I think Bryan and I are up for planning the next event.

Kitchen Update

We are going for it. We are redoing the kitchen. We started painting Thursday night. I'm loving the colors and here are a few pictures so you can see the progress. The seafoam green cabinets are going....And yes ALL my kitchen cabinets are full!!!! Plus I have a hutch for all my fiestaware. I know - you're jealous. ;)

Kitchen Redesign

Please ignore all the junk and focus in on the cabinets, walls and doors. I'm thinking the new shelf will be black. I'd like for the walls not to be white - a brownish color is what I had in mind - nutmeg not chocolate. I'd like to paint the rustic pine pieces in black - but hubby isn't going for it.
The doors and cabinets would be the same - but in a shade of beige - navaho white???? We just aren't sure if the brown would be too dark and the cabinets too light. The curtain will go....do I replace it with something with black in it???
The funky light fixture over the island is a problem. There are two florescent light fixtures...one has never worked and I think the other one is starting to die. There are plastic panels that go over that big space....the ones that were there were yellowed so we bought some new panels today but they are too small and will not fit. Any ideas???? Oh, and the dorky spotlight will go and be an eyeball recessed light in it's place.
I want to do all new pulls and knobs. I will do cup pulls on the drawers and knobs on the cabinets - in black. The next question is about the hinges....do I spray paint them black or fork over the $160 for all new ones?

Wish me luck

Wish me luck - I'm leaving today with my Mom and 2 boys to drive to Michigan (from Texas). That is a mighty long way but I am determined to do it...and, well, at this point I have to.

I will post our adventures when we return next week.

new toes

I had the pleasure of getting a manicure and pedicure done last night. My toes look cute again and my fingernails actually look nice and not like I play the piano or guitar!

Okay, so the gem flowers may be a bit much - but I don't care. I like the pink!

Ocean View

This week some friends of mine planned a little Theme Week for our kids....I had Monday, Holly had Tuesday and Jennifer had Wednesday and our theme was the ocean. We made cute crafts, ate ocean-themed snacks, looked at ocean books, investigated maps with the ocean and sang ocean songs. Here they are eating their oceans in a cup snack on Monday....




and here is a sample of their art - handprint octopus's:




Today was the trip to the Aquarium to wrap up our week. We saw all the different types of fish and sea creatures that we had learned about all week.







The hubby went with us to see all the animals:There was a tank with yellow-spotted stingrays with a duck and a turtle swimming on top.
There was a river Manatee....he was huge, but very beautiful.There were fish tanks to walk through:There were sharks that were lurking:There was wonderment and awe as we were learning:And there was an octopus that was showing off:There was also a moment when the world felt smaller than it should. I happened to recognize a blogger - I have been reading her blog every once in a while for a couple months now. She has the best stories and drawings on her blog. I had never met her before but I recognized this Mom of 3 boys as she was walking through the aquarium. I finally had the nerve to ask her if her name was Holly and if she was the writer of June Cleaver Nirvana. She was so excited, happy and probably a bit embarrassed that I approached her - and I felt like a fan going up to a celebrity. How odd that we would cross paths in real life and not just on the internet. I was glad I met her and I'll continue to read her blog - it's hysterical. Thanks Holly for letting me totally embarrass you at the Aquarium!!! :)