Belated Mother's Day Post

Whoops. I fell behind. The story of my life I tell ya.

Riddle House, Oldest on M.I.

I'll have to backtrack to Mother's Day. Garen did a dang good job of ensuring I had a good day. He deserves a post praising the fun I had with my family. I'll try to keep it brief though, since it was a while ago now.

West Wing

For Mother's Day I got to head off to Mackinaw Island with my family. Usually, I don't get around to doing the tourist stuff in the towns I live in, so it was a treat to go and check out the (what I thought would be) overhyped and overly expensive island. The ferry ride was free for the day, and we were also given a free ticket into the Butteryfly House.

The WHOLE House

The ride over was freakin' frigid. I don't know how I spaced how cold it is on the water. I grew up in that environment... but we froze all the same for the 18 minute ride. Once we got there the kids wanted to see horses. The island doesn't have cars. Just horses. Which are awesome, I admit, but Lillie was totally lost on the dang horses.

Butterfly in Lillie's Hair

We checked out some shops, walked around the main street and some side streets. We found a really old and tiny post office and the oldest building on the island.Then we settled in for some lunch. It wasn't an amazing lunch, but edible.

Hayden Holding Said Butterfly

After we ate we headed down towards the Butterfly house. To get there you pass a few private residences and bed and breakfast places. I found one house that looked huge. I took a picture while Hayden read the sign. Then after listening to him I realized I'd only taken a picture of a WING of the place. Here I thought this was a HUGE house, and it's just a huge WING. That was nuts.

Fort on M.I.

The Butterfly House was a hit for both Hayden and Lillie. I hate bugs. I hate bugs that fly, even pretty ones... but I sucked it up and went inside. I'm glad I did. The kids were loving every moment and even got to touch a few of them. One landed in Lillie's hair and got stuck. Hayden got it out.

Officer's Quarters

After the Butterfly house we headed up to the Fort. Here I thought it would be some campy recreation of a fort. Nope, it's the real thing. A lot of the spaces are still in tact, behind glass. It was really awesome to read about these people, how they lived (How some died) and how TB effected them, and how medical practices worked. (I've now seen how bloodletting worked). There were real cannons, gun demonstrations, and a cannon firing.

Lillie and I in Jail

The school was cool, but the officer's homes were the best, in my opinion. Lillie and I even got locked in Jail. Garen couldn't resist shutting the door and locking us inside. And then he left. No joke.

Oh he knows he did good

After all that, we made our way back down to Main St. Lillie STILL wanted to see the horses so Garen went and flagged someone down and got her a nice little ride. While they did that I snuck off and bought 2.5lbs of fudge. I cannot eat all this fudge... but what I can eat is AWESOME!

So there ya have it... My awesome day at Mackinaw Island for Mother's Day. Thank you Garen, Hayden and Lillie. I feel special and loved.



Here's some other shots from the day:

Freezing on the Ferry

Lillie on the Ferry

School House

Hayden on the Ferry

Fort in 1880s

Fort Today

View from the Fort

Old buggy

Hayden outside a Restaurant

Lillie @ Lunch showing us how butterflies go

Post Office, which looks suspicously like a house :)

Counter-Terrorists Win!

If you can really call us that anyways...

This particular post deals with the response to the death of Osama Bin Laden. My friend Dechion and another member of the blog community Big Bear Butt have also committed posts to this view. Their opinions are different than mine, and I do not mean to offend them. I found their works to be rather thought provoking as well. I encourage you to see their opinions... if you're into political and moral debates. If not, walk away... quickly... 

Disclaimer:
 I rarely have to put one of these before something I write. However, this post will touch on topics of extreme sensitivity, and subjects of mass debate. If you are easily offended by discussions on politics, religion, Osama Bin Laden, terrorism, Military or any other of those "Shhh you can't talk about THAT" subjects, I advise you to walk away. My opinions are often either really harsh, really from left field, and sometimes laced with rather inappropriate humor. Also, I am generally long winded. After this break, you may read on, and have your own opinion. I encourage you to share it. I however will not tolerate hate posts, general ass-hatery or nonsense. You have been warned.

The One With The Introduction

Ok, so maybe you get it, with the titles and such? Or maybe you don't. Just in case you don't (don't feel badly, Garen apparently missed the reference as well) the title of the blog and the title of this post are in relation to the TV show Friends, which used the "The One With..." format for every episode. I don't actually intend to label all my posts this way, but I liked the idea for the title of the blog... and hey, it's always a nice fall back when I can't come up with a clever title on my own for future posts.

So yup, a blog... on blogger... which is different than my previous wordpress attempts... and there have been many. This time around there's no just WoW, no just poems, no just "the kids drove me nuts today". I plan to simply post whatever crops up to my mind. Somedays it might be mindless complaining, other days, I might have an actual well formed opinion on something to share. Or maybe my kids were doing that cute thing again. Who knows? We'll see what I come up with. Otherwise, welcome. Make yourself at home. My life is pretty crazy so I hope you'll stay open minded with me here.