Mackinac Island~Grand Hotel~Celebrate Your Marriage!

Part I

We had a fabulous time at the Celebrate Your Marriage conference!!   I love Mackinac Island and of course we love  staying at the Grand Hotel.    Dan and I actually left here Sunday afternoon, spent the night in Mackinaw City. It takes about 5 hours to drive from our house to Mackinaw City.  My brother Tim and sister in law Jen were in Mackinaw City also, so we met up with them for dinner Sunday evening at The Admiral's Table. YUM! 
Monday, Dan and I caught the 10:00 am  Arnold Ferry over to the island. Tim and  Jen came over on another ferry about 1 hour later. We caught up with them and did some looking around and shopping!

FUDGE!

We bought three slices to bring home, plain chocolate for Kelly, german chocolate for Dan and chocolate/pomengrate for me! I am eating mine tiny bits at a time. ;-)

Yes....funny photo..maybe will share that story later. haha

gorgeous tulips

Was SO happy to see the lilacs blooming early, what a blessing!

Getting busy on Main St.

Dan & I andTim & Jen met up with dear friends Matt & Jodee for lunch at Horn's Bar. 

Good food, good times!

Check out the page for Horn's Bar, there is a link for a webcam on Mackinac Island.

Cute stuff

After lunch we headed up to the Grand Hotel to check in. I will share about that in my next post!

Wait till you hear what room we had!!!

Take care and Happy Memorial Day weekend.

That Time Again!

Almost time for our annual get away to Mackinac Island, staying at the Grand Hotel, for the Celebrate Your Marriage Conference!  We look foward to this every year and each year we have more friends and family coming as well!

I will tons of pics, as always when we return!

This afternoon I am going to a ladies lunch with my Mom and my sister, Lori. The lunch is at The Mainstreet Stable and Tavern. 

Really looking forward to it! They have great food and the atmosphere is very cozy.

I had a very nice Mother's Day.  After church we went for dinner with my parents and my brother Tim, his wife Jen and her mother, Betty.

Tim, me and Mom. He usually doesn't look this serious! lol

Ok, we should have moved the take out bag.

mother & daughter :)

We had a visitor, Avery, Sunday through Wednesday, while her parents were out of town.

She was so much fun!

All three of my sons called me on Mother's Day, that was lovely.

Youngest son, Chris came for a visit yesterday, spent the day, took us for lunch. He gave me some gorgeous jewelry for Mother's Day!

Take care everyone, have a joyful weekend!

~hugs~



Latest news...retirement

Wow, it's been a while since I have posted!  Lots has been happening. Dan is now retired from Ford Motor Company! His first day of retirement was May 1st.   We are both very happy! We are having his retirement party next month, much planning going on.

We took a couple days and went upnorth, checking out some properties for sale. We would like to get a small cabin on a lake for a get away. Also if we own our own place upnorth, we can take the dogs with us. We always feel bad leaving Patch and Bentely behind when we go away.

Here is a pic of one of the places we checked out.

Dan was walking down to check out the lake.  Beautiful view, but very steep and too far from the house to the lake.

One of Dan's niece's, Rachael, and her family live in the area we were in, so we met up with them for lunch. Had a great time!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Happy Birthday Dan, Lunch & Cake Talk

 Today is Dan's birthday!  Happy birthday to my hunny!  We had lunch at Erie Restaurant, which is just a few minutes from our house. It is a cozy, casual place and the food is always very good. Today Dan had a bison burger and I had a rueben sandwich. My friend Julie works there on Saturdays, so it was very nice catching up with her.  

Later this afternoon Dan enjoyed a piece of the German chocolate that I made for his birthday. German chocolate cake is his favorite cake. I also made a coconut cake, mainly for myself!

After all, who doesn't like a nice, home made cake?

The coconut cake I made is a healthier, lower calorie/fat version, then the typical coconut cake.  If you are doing Weight Watchers, it is 4 PP per slice. It is so delicious!!! It does NOT taste low calorie/lowfat.

Lightened Up Coconut Cake!

You can find the recipe at Dashing Dish. Katie has the best recipes!! Every recipe I have tried so far, I absolutely LOVE!

Happy weekend everyone!



Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins

Yesterday I made another Katie Farrell's recipe. I made the Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins. YUM!

Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups Old Fashioned Oats (use gluten free if sensitive)
• 3 Egg whites
• 3/4 cup Cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup Banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup Plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Hot water
• 1 cup Sugar substitute OR 1/4 cup + 2 tbs baking stevia OR 12-14 packets stevia (or to taste, it may vary with the brand of stevia)
• 1/2 cup Creamy peanut butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24 cup mini muffin pans with silicone mini muffin liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. Place the peanut butter in a mug or microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 30-45 seconds, or until melted.
2. In a blender, (or food processor), mix all of the ingredients together. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.
3. Place mixture in a large liquid measuring cup, and divide batter between muffin tins.
4. Place muffin tin in the oven and bake for for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool muffins before removing from pan. ENJOY!!
Servings: 24 Mini Muffins
Calories: 58 Calories per Muffin
Weight Watchers Points Plus Value: 1 per Muffin
Nutritional Breakdown: 3 g Fat, 3 g Protein, 2 g Fiber, 5 g Carbohydrates per Muffin

 I love Katie's site, Dashing Dish! So many wonderful recipes. Thanks Katie!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

~blessings~

~Pam

Happy Easter!

Lots of preparation going on around here for our family get together Sunday afternoon.  We are cooking two turkeys. I will cook one the normal way in the oven and Dan is going to cook the other one in his Oil-Less Infrared Turkey Fryer.

Normally we cook one big 24 lb. turkey in the oven for our get togethers. But this fryer won't hold a turkey that large. So, there will be two smaller turkeys. Hmmm...wonder which one will taste better? ;)  We will have about 25 people this year for Easter dinner.

Looking forward to Easter Sunday's church service, celebrating Christ's resurrection! I am so thankful that Jesus died for us, rose from the dead, and now we can have eternal life with Him! 

Thank You Lord! Easter Sunday at church is always wonderful celebrating with church family, special music, all the gorgeous flowers decorating the sanctuary and seeing all the kids in their cute outfits.

Easter candy, oh boy, it is a weakness of mine. I love it all. I was going to try not to overdo it this year. But, Dan and I went grocery shopping TOGETHER yesterday. He bought SO much candy! 

I LOVE Jellybeans.

 I told him we do NOT need that much!! Ha ha!  He justified it by telling me we were having lots of company and it is Easter after all! 

 Have a happy, blessed Easter!

spring~love it

We are enjoying a beautiful spring! Dan and I went out for a drive to Hidden Lake Gardens on Tuesday. 

I took a few pics! (of course).

I had been really sick friday night through monday, so it was nice to be feeling better and get out of the house!

We stopped for lunch at Rosalie's Roadhouse.

photo from Rosalie's Roadhouse website

Excellent food and serice. It was very quaint and cozy.

Kelly and I went and got pedicures last week at Skin Laser and Day Spa.

It was wonderful!! Here is a pic of my toes. ;-)

Kelly chose a french pedicure. Sorry..no photo!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

Joy to you!

Happy Spring~antiques, lunch, a walk & flowers

Happy Spring! What a beautiful day, sunny and temps in the high 70's, low 80's.  These temps are above average for this time of year, so everyone is enjoying the nice weather.  I took Patch for a little walk down our street this afternoon.

He would not stand still for me to get a proper photo, he was so excited.

 I did manage to snap a pic of some daffodils! And I took the photo while hanging onto Patch's lease, he nearly jerked my arm off.

These flowers are in the front of a house down the street. My spring flowers are not blooming yet because they are in shade for the most part. I probably won't see flowers blooming in our yard for another month. Meanwhile I enjoy all the flowers around us.

Dan and I went to one of the local antique malls, Maumee Antique Mall this morning. We had a nice look around, just bought a couple small things. 

 I thought this booth display was adorable.

 cuteness~

I should have bought this heart wall hanging to have for Valentine's Day.

After walking this huge place, we went out for lunch at The Seafood Restaurant.
Dan had yellow perch, I had coconut shrimp. YUM! We love this place, it's one of our favorites  for seafood.

Take care

xoxo

Happy St. Patrick's Day and check out a great website!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

God's might to direct me,

God's power to protect me,

God's wisdom for learning,

God's eye for discerning,

God's heart for my hearing,

God's word for my clearing. ~St. Patrick

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I made a healthy protein shake. I took a pic of it, but the photo didn't turn out. So here is a pic of the shake from the site where I got the recipe.

photo by Katie of Dashing Dish

I recently discovered Dashing Dish, which is full of recipes, all with healthy alternatives. I LOVE this website and can't wait to make more and more of the recipes. Katie, the creator of these recipes and the author of this website is amazing!  I made the chocolate muffins last week, oh dear me, so delicious and low fat/low cal/gluten free. If you are on the Weight Watcher's program, one muffin is, Points Plus Value: 3 Yay!

Check out the recipe!

Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Happy weekend everyone!

xo

gorgeous day~spring will be here soon~

Watching and waiting for Spring, that's what I am doing and today is a perfect preview! We are having lovely weather, sunny and the temperature is 70 degrees. Gorgeous!

 Already we are seeing robins.

Our lilac trees are starting to show green and many of the spring flowers are coming up. Each season brings it's own beauty and Spring is certainly a beautiful time of renewal.

I can't wait to get outside and start gardening projects.

I love fresh flowers and I need to have them in the house more often. The last time I had them was for Valentine's Day, the beautiful bouquet of roses, lilies and carnations that Dan gave me. 

Of course they don't last forever, but  I tried to salvage them as long as possible. Below you see how I had three nice flowers left, so I cut them down and put them in my mini milk bottle crate. So cute!

Of course this pic was taken a couple weeks ago, the flowers are long gone now.

Have a happy week.

xo

*graphics by Sadie and Judy