June 27, 2015: Seaway Run

I walked with Mirelda Tokarczyk, her 2 daughters, and niece in the Seaway Run.  They had a community walk that was 3.5 miles. I was proud of myself for making it in 1 hr 6 minutes.      I think a good goal would be to run the 5K.   I met Mirelda and her daughters at Tim Hortons on Norton Ave.   We had nice fellowship for about an hour.   In the evening, we went to a potluck with our neighbors at Stillwater Springs. The food was all very delicious.  Mom and I brought our gigantic plates which many of the people thought was funny.     My body was pretty tired by the end of the day.

June 26, 2015: A Day in History: Supreme Court’s Decision on Same Sex Marriages

I thought this would never happen in America.    The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow for a federal law that homosexuals could legally marry.    Nancy Waters, the County Clerk in Muskegon County, spent $40 of her own money and bought roses and corsages for those same sex marriages that were performed.     I saw in the parking lot at the Hall of Justice that Wood TV8 and WZZM13 were there interviewing the homosexual couple to get married.     They were two young college girls who were the first to be married.   Nancy Waters waived the 3 day waiting period and had a minister there to perform the marriages.    There were 5 marriages that day.     

Also, Pat Krehn, the nursing supervisor at the health department, was having her retirement party.    Brenda let me go to it.   It was nice to see so many former retirees there such as:   Sharon Mack, Barb Prior, Jean Buckmaster, Carolyn Warren, Roberta Dress, and Mary. I told Pat she was one of my best supervisors I had there and hoped that she would have a nice retirement.       It was nice to see the present employees there, too.   They had sloppy joes, crackers, cheese dip, cheese, and Rykes cake.    It was all tasty.    Went shopping at Younkers and then to Barnes & Noble to see the gang.   Most of the gang wasn’t there. The store was pretty slow.

June 14, 2014: From Concert to Moving Upstairs

I didn’t plan for the day to turn out the way it did.     Becky and I were supposed to go to the B-93 Birthday Bash, but it was cancelled due to the flooding.     They had a lot of the past few days.     I had my parking pass which cost me $60 for the 2 days. Luckily, my friend Missy Gallegos gave me $30 as she used it yesterday.   Missy said that at one point they had to tell the crowd to go back to their cars as the rain was so bad.     Missy wore some cute beige shorts which got all muddy at the concert.   She said she had fun, but the people there were quite crazy. She didn’t think she would go again.

On Thursday, mom and I moved the twin bed back downstairs as I felt bad that she had given me the master suite.  Well, mom decided she liked that twin bed and wanted it back, so that started a day of moving.  Becky and I picked up her step-daughter, Jazzy Stowe, in Grand Haven and we all helped with the move of all of the furniture from downstairs upstairs.  We put my downstairs sofa in the 4-season room.     Brought the twin bed upstairs to what was the office.     Moved my clothes back upstairs to the master suite.       Moved the entertainment upstairs to the living room, as I was going to have the 55 inch TV remounted in the living room and then put the 46 inch TV in the master bedroom.   Becky had me send pictures of some of the furniture I was selling to her mom, who said she would buy most of it.   Luckily, our neighbor, Mr. Labash was outside in his golf cart, so he and another guy brought the entertainment center from downstairs on the golf cart and brought it up to the front door.     The Lord is always at our rescue.   We worked most of the day moving furniture all around.   They were all a big help.   I bought us pizza from Dominoes. Becky, Jazzy, and I went to the movie “San Andreas Fault” which was pretty exciting.  Like I said, what started out to be the day to go see a concert, ended up to be a completely different day.

June 13, 2014: Shopping in Grand Rapids & Becky

I was looking all over the stores last night for cowgirl boots that weren’t too expensive. I found some at DSW shoes in Muskegon; however, they didn’t have my size.    Mom and I were going to Grand Rapids shopping so we stopped at the DSW Shoes there.  I found a cute pair for $60. I wanted to wear them to the B-93 Birthday Bash. I hadn’t been to the bash since it was held in Ionia.    Met my friend Becky Stowe at the Macy’s in Grandville mall. I hadn’t seen here in a while. She was going to go with me to the bash tomorrow.     We had a nice dinner at Cracker Barrel and came back to my house.  Becky stayed over our house.

May 25, 2015: Memorial Day Weekend

I was so excited that my new Apple I-watch was going to be delivered on Friday.   Unfortunately, my mom was on her walk when UPS came, so had to go at 6:30 to pick it up from the UPS facility.   We had dinner Friday night at Fricano's in Muskegon.  I love their pizza.

Saturday, we had a funeral to go to in Kalamazoo for my mom's friend, Diane Kobza Skiba whose husband passed away on May 7th.      Judi and George Zubrickas were there.    Judi had a crush on Diane's brother, Tom, back when she was 13 so she was telling him that. It was funny.  Judi was telling us about George smoking pot and drinking in college.     I was surprised.  I thought he was an upstanding citizen.  :o)

Mom and I drove by to see where Diane lives as I had never seen it.    She lives on Austin Lake in Portage.   Then, we drove around Western Michigan University to see what changes have occurred. They are building a new dining hall in the valley dorms and there is a new Sangren Hall and some other new dorms.      Every time I visit WMU, there is something new.  Drove by my apartment at Dover Hills Apartments on Drake.   It all brings back good memories.  

Sue Arnouts came over as we were going to Shari Resnick's daughter, Julianne's wedding at 5:30. Julianne had a beautiful day for a wedding.  It was sunny and in the 70s.    She had an outdoor wedding behind the Trillium Banquet facility and then the reception was inside the facility.     She had a pasta bar for dinner and Ryke's cake. I took 2 pieces as I love Ryke's.     Met some nice people at our table.  They were friends of Shari's.     Her hairdresser and her friends Jackie and Vivienne were at our table.      They had a photo booth there which was fun.  Sue wouldn't do it, but Shari and I did some funny poses.

Sunday, we had breakfast with Judi and George at Toast N' Jams, then went to Grand Haven with Maggie and walked towards the lighthouse, but only went about half way as it started to rain.    We went to Judi's favorite clothing store there called Clothes Time.    I bought a cute top there.      

Then, went to the movie "Age of Adeline" in the evening.

Monday, Maggie and I walked in the Lakeside parade representing my friend Mirelda's husband's business, Tokarczyk Services, which does snowplowing and lawn care.      Mirelda had put together 1,000 treat baggies with business cards and we handed them out to the spectators.  Saw a high school friend, Jon Huizenga at the parade as well as Candace Fox, mother of Dave Fox.

Mirelda and Frank took all of us who walked in the parade out to a nice lunch at Pizza Ranch.      

I think Maggie had a good time walking in the parade.  I heard people remarking how cute she is.       Maggie is now worn out from a busy weekend.

February 3, 2015: Belize City, Belize

Our next stop was in Belize City, Belize.      In the 1700's, Belize City was actually founded by former pirates.  When a group of British buccaneers decided it was more lucrative to harvest lumber out of Belize's wooded interior.    With tropical hardwood in great demand, the town grew rapidly.  Thousands of African slaves were brought in to float the logs and load the ships, and before long, the European population had exploded as well.   The two groups and their descendants began to mix, ultimately creating the Creole culture so prevalent today.

Though no longer the capital, Belize City remains at the heart of the country---its gorgeous Caribbean coastline and rich cultural life a magnet for residents and tourists alike.   Home to a lush tropical rain forest and the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, it's also the gateway to adventure.  From jungle treks to cave tubing to scuba diving, the opportunities are endless.   And also fascinating is a tour of the ancient Mayan city of Altun Ha, once a major trading center long before the Europeans arrived.

We went on a cave tubing excursion which was alot of fun.      We had to carry tubes down into the dark caves, barely being able to see where you walked.    Our group had to hang on to each other's tubes so we stayed together.      The water was pretty warm.    There were bats roaming around way above in the caves.     We did a little walking around the caves, too.     I was surprised that this was my mom's favorite tour on the trip.

All of us had drinks and dinner in the main dining room. The food is always so good on the cruises. I usually gave 5-8 pounds on each cruise.   This may be why I can never seem to lose weight, as I have been on too many cruises with good food.

February 2, 2015: Roatan, Honduras

Our first stop was in Roatan, Honduras.  Dive shops about Roatan. Home to the world's second-largest coral reef, this diver's paradise is teeming with colorful marine life.  Though just as colorful are all the characters that have passed through the sandy shores of this beautiful Bay Island. Roatan has a long and tangled history of Paya Indians, Spanish conquistadors, British pirates, rebel slaves and more recently, European and North American expats. But it's not just the underwater wonders that have lured foreigners to lay down their roots here.  Roatan has a very unique cultural identity unlike anywhere else on the mainland of Honduras.  Everything here has been perfectly seasoned with Caribbean flavor---from the music and local cuisine to the laid back island lifestyle.

At 31 miles long and no more than five miles wide, Roatan is the largest of the Honduras' Bay Islands.

Mom and I signed up for the zip line tour.    I have wanted to go zip lining so convinced her to go along.     We had to put on a bunch of equipment in order to zip line.      They had to give me extra because of my weight, which was so embarrassing, yet brought us a bunch of laughs.        

I was scared the first time I went, but it ended up being lots of fun and I did pretty well at it.    Mom went by herself on the first couple of traverses, but then went with the guide for the rest, as it made her nervous. I thought it was a blast.         Of course, I got a bunch of photos of us.   There were 12 traverses all through the jungles of Roatan.       If you are afraid of heights, I probably wouldn't recommend this tour.

After zip lining, we got to hang out with some monkeys. I had one on my shoulder, who tried to climb over my head. It was quite funny.      

After the tour, we ran into Marianne, who said they had gone swimming and were now shopping. I went into the store where Joy and Kim where shopping.       Then, Mom and I walked over to this indoor flea market. She got a beautiful piece of pottery.      Then, we were going to walk around the town.  This little boy followed us around.    He was quite interesting.  Mom got scared so we turned around.  At the end of the walk, the little boy asked for money.  Mom gave him $5 but it was partly torn.  He said he couldn't accept torn money, so she gave him $1.  I guess he learned his lesson that ripped money is still just as valuable.