Doe at Sunrise

Early this morning, a doe crossed Cedar Bluff before sunrise. She grazed along the stones, pranced down the path, returned to poke under the apple trees and then headed down the bluff. Deer are such nimble creatures . . .until one crosses in front of a car on the road like a big buck did last Saturday night. My Buick is missing some lighting and the bumper is loose. Oh dear, more deer!

Hannah on Halloween

Mom Wendy dressed her little girl in a happy Halloween outfit, complete with little pumpkin socks. Such a cutie! Here's Grandma Wanda Jean with Baby Hannah Lee on Halloween night. The families Mata-Clark-Eichler gathered for dinner and treats at John and Liesl's in Howell.

Scary Skelly from Van Camp House

This skelly guy greeted us as we were entering The Van Camp House in Port Sanilac for organic turkey dinner this week. Good thing that Chef Andy Fabians's food does wonder for the soul -- even puts scary thoughts at bay.

Skelly has a plastic head. Rest of him/her/she/he/it is wood. Very clever. Very spookalicious!

Two Grandpas

Out of the mouths of babes. . .come great quotes! Here's a photo of Ed with Bill Heffernan at Bill and Judy's farm near Columbia, MO. We stopped to see the Heffernans on our way home from Houston and Quilt Market last week. The horses (one is named Elvis) are some of Bill's prize livestock. He also raises sheep and cattle on their farm, Booneslick Gateway Farm.

Now, for the quote. I was showing two year old Finny my photos using the LED viewer on the little pocket Olympus and Finny got excited when he saw this photo.

"Two grandpas," he said excitedly. I looked at the viewer and could see a little boy's pleasure at two men who both looked like his grandpa! Welcome to the family, Grandpa Bill! A little Michigan boy just adopted you!

Here's Hannah!

She's here! Hannah arrived today and she's a charmer. How good it is to know that Will and Wendy's long wait is over. Now the new family can settle in and get to know each other.

We love you!

Finny and the Elmo Cake

Oh the fun of having an Elmo cake for your birthday! Here's Finny posing with his Elmo shoes by his Elmo cake. It was a wonderful week with the Grand Boyz.

Next Big DEAL! Hannah Lee Eichler is here! And today we go to see the little one whose cries could be clearly heard over the phone this morning when her dad Will called to announce her coming.

Finny, Max, Hannah. Such blessings. . .

Golfing Again -- Second Season Report

Golfing with the Bird Creek Ladies' League ended last night with our fun night and banquet. The dinner was great. Cheryl Peyrek capped off her cooking with cream puffs for dessert. They were so good!

I've had a less than stellar year on the golf course. For family and other reasons, I missed at least five of the 16 evenings of golf. I hadn't learned the term "whiff" until this year. A whiff is when you swing and totally miss the ball. I did lots of that last year but nobody called me on it. This year I was summarily told that "those whiffs count" and added them to my scores as strokes.

So the scores didn't look like anything, I thought.

I did have my best score ever. I did make a true birdie on Hole #11. It was a great birdie (aren't they all great?)! I used my driver to hit the green and then had a medium length putt for the birdie. Too cool!

Anyway I wasn't expecting anything at last night's banquet. Still when Diane Koglin, crackerjack golfer and president of the league, looked over at me when she started announcing the "Most Improved" award for the year I knew that my name was on the list. Sure enough, I came in at the top again with a 1.8 stroke impovement in my handicap. Cool! That's enough to get me back on the course this fall and into league again next summer.

So, Bird Creek ladies, I just might play in your annual invitational next summer. That would be a brave step for this timid golfer who at least learned about whiffs this summer!