Better Late Than Never!

I had the privilege of attending a wedding in Hastings, MI on August 23. My good ScrapShare friend, Diane was getting married. She also invited another SS friend, Jen who lives in Dayton. I invited Jen to come stay at my house on Friday night and then we could make the drive on Saturday morning.

Here we were on Friday night....

Any guess as to website we were on?

If you said ScrapShare, you were right!

We got up very early Saturday morning, got ready except for the wedding clothes and took off for Michigan. We stopped for breakfast first since we knew we'd miss lunch. After leaving McD's, it took us just about 3 hours to get to our motel in Battle Creek. We chose to stay there since Hastings is between Battle Creek and Grand Rapids. We were able to get into our room before check-in time. We freshened up, Jen checked ScrapShare and let them know we were on our way to the wedding and then we took off.

We made it to the church in plenty of time. Diane had told us that we could come into the dressing room and hang out with them until the wedding, so we did! It was great to see Diane again as well as Tiffany, the photographer and another friend from SS. And, then there was Heidi! Another SSer only she came in from British Columbia! I've been wanting to meet her for a long time and now I have.

The wedding was very nice. Also, short and to the point! We got to hang out and watch Tiff take the pictures of the wedding party. Diane had invited us to hang out with them between the ceremony and the reception knowing that we were from out of town and there would be several hours between them. So we did.

After the pictures at the church, there was a caravan of cars that headed to a park to take the outdoor pictures. It was actually a part of the campus where both Jim and Diane work. There were several buildings on the property with this beautiful gazebo and several ponds. Very nice! It was pretty windy and it didn't take long for the veil to go bye-bye! The wind whipped it right off Diane's head! After Tiff took the pictures she and Diane wanted, we took a picture of the SSer's. Jim used Tiff's camera and I gave mine to the best man. Bill didn't do too bad....



Then it was off to the reception. When we got there we hung out for a few minutes in the parking lot. The wedding party would be entering at a specified time. During our waiting time Jen checked her cell phone and saw someone had tried to call her. The same number had tried to call me so I knew right away it was Manda..... another friend from ScrapShare. I had given her both our cell numbers. She had wanted to come to the wedding only she lives in California and had a niece getting married the same day! Diane, Heidi, Jen and I all talked to Manda. I got pics of the other 3 talking to her. I think Jen got one of me, but I'm not sure. Here's Jen holding "Manda" on a stick while talking to her.



The reception was a lot of fun and the dinner was so good. And, the wedding cake.... what can I say, Diane had my favorite...... chocolate/chocolate! Well, she had white and I think lemon too. But the chocolate was to die for! The DJ played a lot of fun songs and I don't think Heidi and Laura ever got off the dance floor! Jen and Diane were out there almost as much. I did get this old body out there for a couple songs. Of course, since they were songs from "my" era, it was easy to dance to them!

Tiffany was going to leave about 9 so we took another pic of the SS group. Laura took it with Diane's camera and it turned out pretty good. I've seen it but don't have a copy of it yet. And, we had to take our "crocs" pic. Diane gave Heidi and Laura a pair of crocs as part of their gifts for being her attendants. Jen had a pair for the reception and Tiffany had a pair on pretty much all day. Of course, Diane had on a pair, that girl lives in them! I'm not a fan of crocs but last December I bought a pair since they finally came out with one that was cute. So I had on my crocs too......



Yep, I'm the oddball in the pic.... but at least they are crocs!

The reception was winding down before 11 so Jen and I headed back to the motel. We were tired since it had been a long day. We got back to the motel a little after midnight and got ready for bed. We both got on our laptops to post pics on SS of our day. Jen posted a few and I couldn't. For some reason, photobucket was not cooperating with me. I couldn't upload any pics. Jen was able to download some of my pics to her computer and she posted one of the group to SS. When I downloaded my pics I found I took close to 200 on my 2 cameras! Now there were some duds but overall, I'm happy with most of 'em. By 1 a.m. we turned the lights out and went to bed.

Our trip home on Sunday was uneventful. It was a fun weekend overall.

39 Years Ago.....

Jul 20, 1969: Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.

I was 14 years old and on vacation in Carter Caves, Kentucky. My parents, my cousin, myself and another family we were with watched it on a black and white TV in the motel room.

Why would we take time out of our vacation to watch this on TV?

Neil was from our hometown, Wapakoneta. Actually, my parents knew both Neil and his parents. His parents lived right around the corner from us (I could see their house from my bedroom window which today is my office/scraproom). My grandparents were very good friends of Neil's parents. And, in high school, my Dad had dated his sister a few times.

It was also a pretty big accomplishment at that time and who knew where it would lead.

Now that is one childhood vacation I'll never forget.

When I started digi-scrapping, one of the first layouts I made was this.



And, yes that is a true autograph on that picture. The picture was given to my parents by Neil when he was home for the homecoming celebration in September, 1969. It still hangs proudly in our family room.

An exciting moment in history and a proud memory for my town. Wonder what the 40th anniversary will bring next year?

171 miles or 288 miles?

Which one would you rather travel to meet someone?

I'd rather drive 171 miles.

However, I drove 288 miles....

all the way to Ingersoll, ON Canada to meet Loridear from SS.

We laughed all weekend about "Indiana" and "Ohio" having to go to Canada to meet! Now that we have met, we hope to see each other either in Indiana or Ohio soon. Lori and I did talk about maybe making a run to Sonic in Fort Wayne and having emmylou drive down from Michigan to join us.

Here we are....

Derby Day.... there's nothing like being there!

Many years ago I had the opportunity to go to the Kentucky Derby.

My boyfriend, Jim, and I along with another couple (Daryl & Jody) decided to go to the Derby just a couple of days before... We had hoped to take a camper belonging to the mother of the other girl but on Friday that fell thru. So we took Daryl's car instead. All of us worked on Friday so after work, we started our journey. Naturally, we didn't have motel rooms so we had to just drive until we found something. Finally, about 2 a.m. we found a "cheap" motel room.... in Elizabethtown, KY. Yeah, we had driven thru Louisville and headed south in order to find something. We did have ulterior motives though. On Sunday we planned to visit Mammoth Caves and that wasn't that far from E-town.

We got a few hours of sleep then got back in the car to head back to Louisville. We were able to find a place to park that didn't cost that much. We were there.... at the Kentucky Derby.... 1980 version.

We went into the infield and found a place to hang out in the sun all day. Naturally, Jodie and I being shorter, didn't really see a whole lot. We did some betting on some of the pre-race races... well, the other 3 did, I saved my money for the big one! I pretended to know what I was doing and picked my bet.

I picked 2 horses to bet on.... Genuine Risk, a filly to place and Jaklin Klugman to show. Now, Jim and Daryl were making fun of my choices.... According to them there was no freakin' way Genuine Risk was going to win, place or show and I was wasting my couple of dollars (yeah, I bet real big!). And, Jaklin Klugman to them was a nonentity. Just because this horse was owned by Jack Klugman, the star of "Quincy, M.D." didn't mean the horse was any good. All I know is I wanted those horses so Jim did place my bet.

Who got the last laugh????

Winner - Genuine Risk
3rd - Jaklin Klugman

Jim begrudgingly stood in line to collect my money. Here's me while he was away :)





















And, yes, that is a Mint Julep in my hand..... Just a little strong for me, but I wanted the glass!


The Kentucky Derby is not what you see on TV. To see the race, you are better off watching it on TV, unless you have the bucks or the name to get in the grandstand. But, the experience in the infield.... as one website describes it "Part Woodstock, part family reunion, this is the gathering place to exercise the first rites of spring Louisville style!" Here it is, 1980 version...














And, here's the crowd at the ticket window.

















A once in a lifetime experience.

Special memories.

What a great day that was!