Shoe Tree

Yesterday was Thursday, and we all know what that means … shopping day in Cheboygan!  As my dad and I were finishing up our shopping and errands, we were headed out of town and saw this tree!  It is just full of shoes thrown over the branches!

I have seen shoes thrown over an electrical or cable wire over a city streets, but never have I seen anything like this!

I have no idea what this is for, or what it means!  There was no explanation that I could find!  My dad is used to me and a very good sport, so he pulled over and waited while I shot a few photos!  Thanks Dad! ( :

You can also see in this shot, that the snow is almost gone!  WAHOO!!!  There are more piles of it yet to melt in Pellston, but Cheboygan is mostly clear!

Based on the fact that this tree is about 4 or 5 blocks from the highschool, and the style of the shoes in the tree, I am assuming it was done by teenagers!  No matter who put them up there, for whatever reasons, I thought it was rather cool and wanted to share it with you!  If, per chance, you know what this is about, please fill me in! (:

I also got to eat lunch at Your Spirit, Your Place and it was YUMMY!!!  The owner came up to me, even though they were BUSY, and gave me a big hug and thanked me for my blog about her restaurant!  It made me feel so good!  Someone was pleased with my efforts, and that is just the best feeling ever!  Most places they wouldn’t even remember me!  Not Dominique!  She recognized me right away!

SO MUCH HAPPY!!!

HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

A New Hangout

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This silly little girl kitty has now taken to hanging out in my laundry basket!  I had just done my laundry, so there isn’t much in there besides her!  She prefers having a basket full so she has a comfy place to lounge around! (:

Kay had to work today, so I went up and spent the day with my dad!  It was a good time!  We chatted about anything and everything!  We watched Let’s Make A Deal !  We both love that show!  We talked somemore and my dad made dinner!  YUM! I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I have 4 men who will now cook for me!  I love it because I hate cooking!!!  After dinner, we were watching the evening news when Kay called and said that she was ready to be picked up!  Now I am at home watching tv and hanging out on Buzznet!  I also have 2 kitty cats vying for my attention while I type this!  I love all of my girls so much! (:

 

Your Spirit, Your Place

Our family has a new favorite lunch spot when we are in Cheboygan to do our shopping!  It is a wonderful little restaurant named Your Spirit, Your Place!  We have truly come to love it!  The food is all homemade, and the positive messages that they put out are quirky and completely amazing!  You will love it too, I promise!  I asked the owner if I could take photos of her business when we were there last week, and she said that I could!  I did take a few, and I shared one in a photo blog on my Buzznet account!  I also asked if I could write a full photo blog about the place, and she was nice enough to say that I could!  I can’t tell you how happy this made me!

Let’s get started with these hand painted and really fun tables !

Well Behaved Cowgirls Rarely Make History

A Coffee Shared With A Friend Is Happiness Tasted And Time Well Spent

Whatever Our Souls Are Made Of Yours And Mine Are The Same

Is It Time For Your Medication, Or Mine?

The Best Things In Life Are Furry

Do I Look Like A People Person?

To Gnome Me Is To Love Me

I couldn’t shoot them all because some were in use, but here are a few!  The one with my precious nephew, Gary, at the table was ours, obviously!  It is also upside down, but you can still clearly see the painted horse!

The work of several artists adorn the walls!  It is like a diner and an art exhibit all in one place! I am really impressed by the pretty paint scheme on the walls!  They are two colors that I would never think to put together, but they compliment each other so well!  I love it! (you are going to hear me say that often)

One wall even has a chalk board where you are welcome to share your thoughts!  I love this so much!  However, I couldn’t think of anything clever to share at the time!  I am sharing my photos now instead! Photos are my own contribution to the art world no matter how amateurish they may be!

The daily specials are written in chalk too!  I love this! (:

These lovely ladies were kind enough to let me take a shot of them while they were finishing up their lunch!

This is where the magic happens!  My favorite drink is their vanilla latte, and it is AMAZING!!!  If you are a fan of lattes, you definitely want to give this one a try!

Even the women’s lavatory is cheerful and fun!

Now for the important part … the FOOD!!!  Gary was having fun chewing on his straw after he finished his chocolate milk! (:  He enjoyed his scrambled eggs and bacon so much that we had to order him a second plate of eggs!  The staff were very generous and served him extra bacon as well!  He really appreciated this, and so did we!

They serve a very healthy menu that includes Vegan and Vegetarian dishes!  They even serve Australian Meat Pies!  You can see that I ordered my very favorite , the peanut butter chocolate chip french toast!  Words cannot describe how YUMMY it is!  I have also had their oatmeal, and it is real whole rolled oats, served with raisins, dried fruit, and slivered almonds!  I can’t say enough about a good bowl of oatmeal!  It can be very hard to find these days!

They serve both breakfast and lunch! Their Facebook page says that they serve Italian food too!  I didn’t know that!  I, obviously, have more things to learn about Your Spirit, Your Place!  Yet, I tend to be a creature of habit and will most likely order the french toast or the oatmeal! (:

For further information, be sure to visit their lovely Facebook page!  If you are pleased with what you find, be sure to hit that Like button while you are there!

There is a back room near the restrooms that has all of these pretty frames and other decorations!  I was traveling with a 2 year old, so I was out of time!  I will investigate these items further when I am there next week, and I will be sure to let you know exactly what I find!

After the other customers were done eating, I was able to get this larger shot of the dining room!

This is how cute it is from the outside, sitting on an old fashioned downtown block!

Well there you have it!  Your Spirit, Your Place is THE place to eat in Northern Michigan!  It has a little bit of absolutely  everything!  They have a menu with so many GREAT choices!  They have the most delightful and cheerful decor!  The food is absolutely delicious!  The owners and staff are so friendly and wonderful to chat with! They really create a welcoming atmosphere!

If you find yourself in downtown Cheboygan, Michigan, be sure to stop by and give Your Spirit, Your Place a try! You have my word that it will be a rewarding experience for your family and friends!

THANK YOU to Your Spirit, Your Place for allowing me to do this blog!

See you next time!

Smoochie

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This is our newest addition to our little family!  She is a precious little kitten that Kay named Smoochie!  We have had her 7 weeks now!  She has tripled her size because she eats constantly!  In addition to being precious and cute, she is also a little terror!  She torments our other cat, Robyn, who is getting older and definitely does NOT want to play!  Smoochie just doesn’t understand why!

Tonight I got up out of my bed where I was watching tv, and when I returned, I found that Smoochie had kept my spot warm for me!  Thank you Smoochie!

Indian Lake

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My PRECIOUS three when they were all youngsters!  They have grown up now,  but I have so many beautiful photos to remember those days!  I took this photo with my first digital camera back in 2003 while camping at Indian Lake in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula!  I would love to go back in August and take one of them now to match!

Well, I have had a very nice low key weekend!  I worked on Buzznet where I am still a Mod!  I watched tv, read most of a book, and was extremely faithful with my food intake!  I ate very healthy!  I can’t wait until I can get outside and start taking long walks!  The snow is slowly melting, so I think maybe that day is coming soon!  I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Best of luck in this new week!

Precious Boy

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This is one of my 3 precious nephews!  I take care of them several days each week! James is 5 years old and the middle brother! We were having lunch and I decided it was a good time to get out my camera!  I shot this!  He is such a blessing in our lives!  I couldn’t love him more!

I hope someone is checking out my blogs and taking a peek at my photos!  I would be ever so grateful if you would leave me a comment on any or all of my posts!  Tell me about your nieces and nephews!  If you don’t have any, well tell me about your family in general !   To comment you do have to give an email !  You are not signing up for anything!  You won’t get any spam or advertisements!  It just lets me know who you are!  ‘

THANK YOU for reading this, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Regional Sunset

 

DSC_0961Sunday night I had a wonderful dinner with my date at The Landing!  That is the restaurant that sits atop the Pellston Regional Airport!  We had a lovely dinner and were able to also enjoy this lovely sunset!  It was a fun night, and I hope for many more with this particular date!  (If you click on the photograph, you can see it in full size)

Happy 5th Birthday James

Happy Birthday James #5

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My amazing nephew named James Albert had his 5th birthday last week, and you know what that means… BIRTHDAY BLOG TIME!

We had the party on his actual birthday, which was Monday night!  So while James was still at preschool we took to decorating the house for his special event!

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Grandma and Kay took to blowing up balloons and putting them on strings!  These children LOVE helium balloons!  Although we were all tempted, none of us sucked in any helium to hear our voices sound squeeky and funny!

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David took a break from decorating the guest of honor birthday chair to make duck faces with the crepe paper!  He had us laughing so hard!

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Here is the finished product, and I think he did an excellent job!  I didn’t get any shots of Andy or Elaine preparing or decorating because they were both running around fixing things so quickly, that I couldn’t shoot one!  Andy was hard at work on the food and Elaine was tending to everything else!  Grace walked to the Family Dollar down the block to get the few things we still needed, but didn’t have!

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At last the birthday boy has arrived and gave his older brother a big birthday hug, while his little brother photo bombed on the side!  I think it is so sweet when they show their affection for each other!  Such wonderful kiddos!  I couldn’t love them more!

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Time for the birthday foodz!  The birthday person always gets to choose their birthday meal!  So, we had all of James’ favorites!  We had corn dogs, french fries, and chicken nuggets!  A little  hard on the digestion, but it’s worth it to celebrate with our precious James!

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After nomz we moved right into prezzies!  James got some really nice gifts as you will see!  Here he is holding up 5 fingers to show us how old he is now!

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What a loot !!!  The spiderman was from Grandma Evie and Cousin Jim!  Kay got him a My Little Pony giant coloring book!  They bond over ponies!  I got him the Nerf blaster!  The card that Elaine is reading is from Papa Gary!  All the amazing Star Wars toys were from Mommy and Daddy!  They are original releases from the 70s and 80s that Andy scoured the internet to find!  James doesn’t know what a lucky little boy he is!  Both he and David LOVE all things Star Wars!

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Time for cake!!!  Turtles are James special thing, so what other cake could he have!?!  It was yummy too!

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It is time to gather around and light the birthday candles!  That also means donning the most AWESOME BIRTHDAY HAT EVER!!!

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Here is little brother stealing the show for just a moment!

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Family photo bomb!  I love that Papa Gary got in on the fun! He is such a character!  But we love him ! (:

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Make a wish and blow out the candles James!

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We will end with Grandpa Dave sitting back and taking in the entire scene!  He just loves his crazy kids and grandkids!  I am not supposed to put him on the internet!  However, he has no computer, smart phone, iPad, or any other way to get on the internet, so he will NEVER know! Haha Dad!!! (:

There you have it!  Another wonderful birthday in our precious Keiser/Voison family!  I can assure you fun was had by all !

Thank you for taking time to read through this!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRECIOUS BOY!!!