You Know You're From Michigan When...

A friend of mine just sent this to me so I thought I would share it here. I know that most of you aren't from Michigan, but for the "lucky" few that are...well, I have no doubt that you will be able to relate to many of these.

You Know You're From Michigan When...


- You show people where you're from by pointing to a spot on the back of your left hand. (Especially useful if you're from the Thumb or the Little Finger)

- You know what a 'party store' is.

- Half the change in your pocket is Canadian....eh?

- You know how to play (and pronounce) Euchre.

- You've never met any celebrities.

- It's easy to get Vernor's ginger ale, Better Made chips, Sanders hot fudge sauce, and Faygo pop.

- You know how to pronounce "Mackinac."

- You can identify an Ohio accent.

- You drive 86 mph on the highway and pass on the right.

- You know what a "Yooper" is.

- Your car rusts out before you need the brakes done

- Your snowmobile, lawn mower and fishing boat all have big block Chevy engines

- Half the people you know say they are from Detroit...yet you don't personally know anyone who actually lives in Detroit

- You've had to switch on the heat and the air conditioning in the same day.

- "Vacation" means going to Cedar Point.

- The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer

- You know what a millage is.

- You occasionally cheer "Go Lions- and take the Tigers with you."

- Octopus and hockey go together as naturally as hot dogs and baseball.

- You know more about chill factors and lake effect than you'd EVER like to know!

- Half your friends have a perfect sledding hill right in their own backyard.

- You never watch the Weather Channel - you can just assume they're wrong.

- At least one member of your family disowns you the week of the Michigan / Michigan State game.

- Your idea of a traffic jam is 40 cars waiting to pass an orange barrel.

- The movie "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" wasn't funny. You consider it a documentary.

- Your little league game was snowed out.

- The local paper covers national & international news on 1 page but requires 6 pages for sports

- You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked

- You measure distance in minutes.

- When giving directions, you refer to "A Michigan Left."

- You know that Kalamazoo not only exists, but isn't far from Hell.

- Your year has two seasons: Winter and Construction.

- Home Depot on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas.

- Owning a Japanese car was a hangin' offense in your hometown.

- Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six-pack and a bucket of smelt.

- You know that Big Mac is something that you drive over.

- You can see a car running in a parking lot with no one in it, no matter what time of the year.

- You end your sentences with a preposition; example: "Where's my coat at?"

- You think of the four major food groups as beef, pork, BBQ sauce, and beer.

- You carry jumper cables and snow chains in your trunk.

- You design your kids' Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

- Driving in the winter is better because the pot-holes are filled with snow.

- Your favorite holidays are Christmas,Thanksgiving, and the opening of Deer Season, which you consider a National Holiday.

- You have 10 favorite recipes for venison.

- You learned to drive a boat before you could ride a bike

- Your snowblower has more miles on it than your car.

- Shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout.

- You’ve ever used the word “bogue.”

- You think alkaline batteries were named after a Tiger outfielder.

- You define summer as three months of bad sledding.

- You attend a formal event in your best clothing, finest jewelry, and snowmobile boots.

- You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week.

- The orange barrel is considered Michigan's 'other' lighthouse.

Zoo Drama

Today we took the kids to the zoo. It was a really nice day, not too hot. We got there early so it wasn't crowded. When we got to the lions Mya was so excited and wanted so badly to get a closer look she ended up walking right into the glass wall! All of the kids loved the petting zoo. They got to pet sheep, goats, a cow and even a wallaby. I was surprised that the wallaby would let them get that close while she had her baby inside her pouch but she just stood there.

Here's my nephew Ryan showing Mya how to pet the animals



Mya would have stayed in there all day if she could



Towards the end of the day my niece Sophia was starting to get tired and cranky. She had been walking most of the day so my mom put her in the stroller. My sister has been slowly trying to limit her use of a pacifier and now only gives it to her at bedtime...but since she was whining and it looked like she was going to take a nap in the stroller (and basically because my sister wasn't there) my mom gave in and let her have it there at the zoo.

Right before we were about to leave we passed by the flamingos. Sophia got all excited and wanted to get out of the stroller to see them. As we were all looking at them through the bars we hear Sophia scream. At first, because she was crying so hard, we had no idea what could have happened. Then we figured it out...she had dropped her pacifier in the water. She sobbed and threw herself on the ground, refusing to leave and begging grandma to jump in and get it. Obviously that wasn't bgoing to happen so we had to carry her out of the zoo.

As soon as we got home she ran in told my sister "Mommy, my paci ("passee") fell in the water with the dingos!" My sister of course laughed and then looked at my mom and said "Wait, why did she have her pacifier at the zoo?"

Yep, grandma got busted!

Mama Mia

How many of you have already seen the movie Mama Mia? What did you think? I LOVED it!

My mom has always loved the music of Abba so a few years ago my sisters and I took her to see the musical, which was great. Now that the movie has come out mom said she wanted the 4 of us to go see it together. We agreed..ONLY after she promised us that she would not stand up and sing and dance in the aisle like she did last time.

I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. It was cute, it was cheesy and a definite chick flick...although the 2 or 3 guys in the audience seemed to be laughing just as hard we were.

I thought Meryl Streep did a fantastic job and actually sang very well. Pierce Brosnon...well, let's just say his voice was not great. But I thought that just added to the charm of the movie. Julie Walters, who plays one of Meryl's friends, was hysterical. Incidentally, it was bugging me throughout the movie that I had seen her somewhere before and it wasn't until today that I read she plays Mrs Weasley (Ron's mum) in the Harry Potter movies.

If I Had Only Known..

Lately my niece Sophia has been spending much of the day in time out while she is here at daycare. Seriously, there are some days where the other kids practically have to go visit her in time out just to see her, it has been that bad.
She has no problem sitting there, but when her time is up she will just go right back to doing whatever it was she had gotten in trouble for. And of course she will smile and make sure you are watching...always giving you that "what are you going to do about it?" look (see photo).
Now, being that she is my niece, I know that it's not a case where her parents let her get away with everything at home and then she comes to daycare and goes crazy.

So a few days ago all of the kids were playing outside and Sophia was once again sitting in time out. My mom happened to be there at the time and was able to see what I had been dealing with. Sure enough when time out was over Sophia got up and ran right back to do it again (she was throwing rocks). I was so frustrated I said "I give up! I don't know what else to do".

My mom called out to Sophia and told her that if she would "listen like a big girl and do what she was told" that we would clap for her. Sophia stopped and appeared to think about it for a second. Then said "Okay" and put the rocks down. We clapped for her and she went on to play with something else.

Are you kidding me?? It CAN'T be that easy!

I was amazed but I figured she was only listening because it was grandma. But later that afternoon I had to try it again a few different times..and it worked every time! Since then she has honestly been MUCH better and has only been in time out once.

If only I had known about this a few months ago...

Our Backyard Water Park

The kids have had so much fun playing outside this summer. The weather has been awesome! Their favorite thing to do is go swimming and even though we don't have a "real" pool, our backyard is starting to resemble a small water park.

We have a slide for the little kids

A slide for the toddlers

And even a slide for the older kids


I actually bought the 2 smaller pools for Mya, but do you think she wants to use them? Oh no! She wants to go down the big slide. She has been on it a few times and she loves it. The problem is that I am short and so in order to get her on the slide I have to stand on my toes and lift her all the way above my head..and even then its a stretch. And since she is only 22 months old her little legs can't reach each hole for her to climb up it herself. She usually ends up getting on the bottom of the slide. She climbs halfway up and then slides back down on her stomach.

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!! I don't really have any big plans this year. I know that Mya would get scared if I took her to see fireworks, so it will probably just be a quiet night at home. The video above is of the Red Hot Boom 4th of July Celebration at Crane's Roost Park in Altamonte Springs, FL. My best friend Tara and I used to go to this every year when I lived in Orlando.

4 Mad Cats and A Night In The Dark

I know that I haven't posted much lately. I had been staying at my dad's house for the past few days. He and my stepmom went up north for the week so we are house sitting. Mya is having fun chasing their 4 cats around. Of course the cats aren't too happy about it. Only one of the four will even let her near him. She has always been very gentle with them and they didn't mind her so much when she was younger and just stood there watching them (see video) but now she likes to run behind them yelling "Kitty..Kitty..Meow!". Yeah, that freaks them out a bit..

Yesterday we had a terrible thunderstorm that eventually turned into a tornado warning. I had Mya and Sophia with me so I took them down to the basement to ride out the storm. The girls were coloring and everything was fine...until the lights went out. Mya didn't seem to mind it (she had her mommy there with her) but Sophia got scared. I was trying to calm her down and look for candles and/or a flashlight. Of course you can never find them when you need them so we had to just sit there for about an hour until the storm ended.

My sister called to tell me that the tornado warning was over and she was coming to pick up Sophia. After they left I took Mya to McDonalds. On the way there I noticed that my Dad's street seemed to be the only one without electricity and it looked like there was already a crew there working on it. I figured the power would be back on soon so when we got back I put Mya to bed and waited...and waited...and waited. It never came back on so I ended up just sitting there by myself in the dark. I never did find the candles or flashlight.

Today, when I got up to find the power was still out, we drove home. After taking a shower and watching the news I just found out the power will be off at his house for at least 2-3 more days.