It is a beautiful, sunny morning here along the shores of Lake Michigan. My early morning road trip did not last as long as I would have liked, but my timing was perfect for the wildlife I saw.
West Michigan
All posts tagged West Michigan
Pier Marquette Beach, Lake Michigan
Published January 28, 2015 by Angela
And How Is Your Winter Going?
Published January 9, 2015 by AngelaMine; not so great. At least not today. I had to take a vacation day from work because as I was cleaning off my car after work yesterday, my driver’s side windshield wiper broke. Clean off. 50 MPH winds, white-outs, and I am holding one of my wipers in my hand.
I am in Muskegon. Living this close to the lake is a blessing in Summer, and a curse in Winter.
I found someone inside to zip-tie it back on so I could at least attempt to get home. Which was a ride from Hell. I was afraid to use the wipers, for fear it would break off while I was on the road. I got to the nearest auto-parts store, bought new wipers, and was told they could not install them for me. He really wished he could, but it was against company policy.
So by now I am only to the half-way point of getting home, am in tears, and still need to stop to get milk and cat food. I was going to leave work at 11am to beat the storm, and knew I would regret it once I didn’t. Thankfully, the wiper did indeed break off before I got on the road, or who knows what would have happened.
So we are still under a winter storm warning in West Michigan until 4pm today, and it is still snowing out. My new wipers will get put on this afternoon, but with the amount of snow still coming down, I have no intentions of going anywhere today, either.
Now that my “workday” is officially half over, I have still not done a single constructive thing. And probably won’t. I know the fact that I have lived in Michigan for my entire 42+ years means I really should not complain about winter, but I hate it. I hate it more every single year than I did the year before.
Are you caught in this winter storm as well? My girls have not had school for 2 days now, and are on the verge of getting cabin fever, already. What are you doing to pass the time?
Barely Into Day 3 of 2015, and I’ve Lost My Motivation!
Published January 3, 2015 by AngelaThis is my last full day of my Christmas break without my girls, as they are coming home tomorrow morning. I had a very long day yesterday which included lots of traveling to see my Granny who is in a nursing home and suffering from dementia (she had no clue who I was, but I was so happy to see her, even though it broke my heart to see her like that).
I also made a pit-stop to my parents, who were fighting like normal, and also why I have not had an overnight visit with them in over 3 years. They have been married over 51 years, but to keep a very long story short, my Mom has numerous issues that have alienated her 4 children, husband, and brother from her. Alcoholism plus mental illness does not a loving mother make. What is does make, however, is a Mother who sees no problem with calling her own children, and grandchildren, horrible names that I would not even think about typing out. And that’s just how she starts a visit off; then it goes downhill from there.
I got to spend some time with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew as well as my aunt and uncle. My busy schedule limits my being able to make these road trips to visit, so I was grateful to be able to do so yesterday.
And now there is a storm bearing down on Michigan, and pretty much the entire Eastern side of the U.S. It is still only snow right now (I am in West Michigan, less than 10 minutes from Lake Michigan) but will be turning to rain and freezing rain, and doing that and snowing at least until next Friday.
So I got the groceries I needed before my girls come home, and I really need to get the Christmas tree taken down. I’m pretty sure that will not be happening today. Besides that, I have a couple book reviews to get written and posted, two books to finish, and a cat that is in desperate need of some serious ear scratching since I left him alone more in the past 24 hours than I have ever left him in the 7 months I have had him.
Are you in the line of some of this horrible weather moving across the country? How are you going to spend your time? Wishing you warmth and happiness whether you are going out to enjoy it, or staying in to avoid it!
The First Day Of Winter In West Michigan!
Published December 21, 2014 by AngelaI was certainly expecting some snow by the first day of Winter in West Michigan, considering right after Halloween we had a week of horrible storms, several inches of snow, and enough Blizzards that schools and businesses were closed.
So I was up early, as usual, and since I have not been out lately to get any pictures, I figured it would be a good day to go see what I could find.
It was freezing cold out, literally at 32 degrees F, and I am pretty sure I destroyed one of my favorite pairs of shoes when I was looking through the lens, and not at the water, and the waves nearly knocked me off my feet when they came roaring in well above my ankles.
Pier Marquette Park, Muskegon, Michigan
I will definitely be wearing the rain boots the next time I venture out this Winter. Once the snow is significant enough, the roads down at the lake are all closed and I will not be able to get anywhere near it. There are definitely both ups, and downs, about living less than 10 minutes from Lake Michigan.
The water is colder than you could even imagine!
Hoping your Sunday is warm, and full of Blessings and Happiness! I plan on doing not a whole lot more than reading 🙂
And So It Begins In West Michigan…
Published November 17, 2014 by Angela…a Winter season that is looking to be as bad as everyone predicted, which is even worse than last year. It is currently 6:15pm here, on November 17th, and there are 104 closings for evening events that were scheduled. I think the school closings will start coming in by about 10 pm.
Another thing that I get out of the Winter season is numerous Doctor, Med-center, and Emergency room visits. Case in point: a 5:00 am trip to the ER this morning with my 16 year old. She has asthma, and as soon as the temperature gets to a certain degree outside, she is pretty much miserable for the entire Winter season. I spent $55.00 on an OTC nebulizer at the pharmacy yesterday which seemed to help, momentarily. Her other inhalers were not doing the trick. But this morning by the time I got out of the shower and dressed for work, she asked to go to the emergency room. I know better than to second guess or question her when she asks, because she will suffer in silence until she can absolutely not deal with it any longer.
And that other lovely side effect of bad Michigan Winters is lots of snow days for my girls. Which means lots of phone calls at work for me, because they cannot get along. Sometimes they do spectacular together, other days, they really all just need to be in separate rooms.
And the worst side effect is that I get seasonal depression. Which is much worse than my regular depression I deal with on a daily basis. As soon as the time changed and it started getting dark at 5:30 pm, I have been short of patience. I have plenty of books on my reading list, and my best defense against this very real seasonal depression is laying in my comfortable bed with my cat, reading great stories.
How do you handle the Winter weather if you are in a snowy state?
I Cannot Believe That Did Not Work…
Published October 19, 2014 by Angela…now I need to find some other thing as leverage to get my 13 year old to do what she is supposed to.
See, it is Sunday. On Sunday’s, Erin has her confirmation classes at our church from 9:30am-10:30am. Last night she said she wanted up at 7:30am to get in the shower. At 7:30am, she said she didn’t feel good. She never feels good. This has gotten her homeschooled, and out of so many things it is ridiculous. I would admire her determination and ability to outsmart me, except it is me that she is outsmarting.
Just make her get up and go, you say? I would be leaving church right now if that were in any way possible. You cannot force a 13 year old who is taller than you, and weighs more than you, to get dressed, and get in a car. 3 years ago, my next oldest daughter and myself managed to get her into the car to drive her to school. This was after a State Police Officer that I called came over to find out why she would not go to school. He spent 45 minutes telling her the importance of going to school, how she was going to get me in trouble, etc. etc. He said she needs a good ass beating, and as long as you do not leave any marks, you are not acting beyond your boundaries. No, I did not beat her behind, even though she needed it. We got her to the school. She got out of the car in the parking lot, and proceeded to run home. So no, I am not able to just make her go.
What did I threaten her with this morning? No laptop. No getting on the internet and playing any games, or talking to her friends, or watching music videos. It used to always work before. So yes, I have to find out what is the latest “most-important-thing-to-Erin” so I can use it as leverage when she wants to start pulling these stunts again.
On that note, since I was up so early, I got some amazing pictures of the Autumn weather here in West Michigan, and these flowers were my favorite.
Frosted Flowers October 19, 2014
Hoping your Sunday is a beautiful one, full of Blessings and Happiness!
Things That Do Not Happen Often Enough…
Published October 13, 2014 by Angela…is all four of my daughters being in the same place at the same time. We all have such busy schedules that we literally have to schedule family time as well.
Autumn is looking beautiful in West Michigan, and I wish it would stay like this for the whole year.
Looking forward to a busy Monday off from work, thanks to an incompetent dentist and my crown falling off my tooth and out of my mouth yesterday. I really wish I could say this is the first time this ever happened, but it is not 😦
May your Monday be filled with Blessings and Sunshine!
Wolf Lake, Baldwin, Michigan
Questioning Life Changes, Does it Never End?
Published September 21, 2014 by AngelaI always seem to have a difficult time making very important decisions; never being able to stop asking myself, “but what if I did …”. The past year has been full of life changes for me. All for the positive, but never without stress and worry. I will be the first to admit that I overthink everything. Every single thing. At 42 years old, with a great career, family life, and good health, I still stress over making decisions.
Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again, when someone else would make the decisions for me. Then I wouldn’t be the one responsible when it didn’t work out. I have made some bad decisions; some real whoppers! But I do always own up to them, hopefully apologizing when necessary, and definitely learning from my bad choices.
I watch my girls go through the very same thing. Struggling to make decisions. I can see the look on their face when they are hoping I can and will give them the answer. But I can’t. There are some decisions that they have to make for themselves, to learn and grow from. Even when I know that there will be crying later. Broken hearts. Anger. I have to let them own that. They have to take that road that they choose and decide for themselves if they made the right decision.
My outlook as of late has been to take a positive from a negative, and focus on that. Now if I could just teach that to my girls 🙂
It Never Ends
Published April 29, 2014 by AngelaThe bickering, that is. I was blaming the crappy attitudes my girls have on the extra-long winter here in West Michigan.
Boy was I wrong. Even on the sunniest day, Erin and Cassidy will NOT stop bickering. Over the most ridiculous things.
So now I need to blame it on something other than winter, and figure out how to fix it before summer gets here and I have this going on all day long.
Do you got any good tricks for getting your kids to get along?
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