The PERFECT homecoming gift.....

As most of you know....

I have been away for three weeks

to Florida.

I have a TON of pictures to share with you

from the Florida trip.

But, as wonderful as the beach was, and as gorgeous as the tropical birds were (which you KNOW I am in love with!)....

I also missed my Michigan, with spring unfolding.

I kept thinking of my tulips coming up at home...

and the green buds of the trees coming out...

and the wildflowers on the forest floor popping through....

and

I did get a little homesick.

So, as soon as we got done unpacking, washing clothes,  and getting re-organized at home,

I begged my hubby to once again get our butts in the car...

and

go looking in the woods for some spring photographs.

And, that was asking a LOT.

Our butts were really sore, folks...

We had just logged in 1, 750 miles... EACH WAY, twice...

but

being the Sweetheart he is,

he said

OKAY....

And, so we did.

And I got some lovely pictures, which I will share this coming week or two...

But,

the BEST

was

to

be

the

LAST

pictures

we got.....

Because on the way home, only 5 miles within home...

I looked on the highway

to the right side...

and,

HELP ME RHONDA....

I saw

THIS!!!!!:

(Was it REALLY what I THOUGHT it was?????!!!)

Oh, YES, it was!  A MOOSE!!!:

      I was so excited!  I yelled for my husband to get to the side of the highway and back up!! BACK UP!!!

OH MY GOD!

It was SO close!!!

and

just standing there!!

And, it was a BULL moose...with starting-to-get-big horns!

Do you see them?:

It was my dream come true.

I ALWAYS look for moose when we are out in the woods.

I was lucky enough ONCE this past winter to see one, and get it on camera (do you remember?) but it didn't have horns and it was much farther away.

But this fella was CLOSE...

and

I was so thrilled!!!

I got out of the car to get a couple of better shots,

but I have to admit,

I was scared.

And I stayed close to the car, in case I had to jump back in!!

But he was wonderful.

He just stood there, calmly looking about...

But, he DID keep me in the corner of his eye....

I kept saying under my breath....

"Nice Bullwinkle, nice Bullwinkle....just a few more shots and I will leave, I promise!!"?:

And I SWEAR he said:

"Are you sure? Because, really...I have much better things to do, you know....":

And.....

so...

when you hear a bull moose

give you

a

warning...

You'd best listen....

So....

I climbed back in the car with a grin from ear to ear....

a big sigh,

a hug to my hubby....

and we went home.....

And, I knew for sure I was really, really home............

and so happy.

Finally!.....Here They Are!! April's Photo Contest Entries!!

Finally!!

Although I am still having some problems with directly loading pictures using Blogger,

I am loading them using an external URL....

So, without any more delays...

here are our FABULOUS April Photo Contest entries!

In case  you forgot,

the theme for April's contest was:

"Rain, Fog, Mist or Dark Skies"

I am ALWAYS amazed at the interpretation and creativity

of all of the entries I receive every month.

And, we got EIGHTEEN entries this month!

Isn't that fantastic????

So, grab that cuppa coffee, put your feet up

and really study

each and every one of these beauties, keeping your mind on the theme!:

This one is from L.D.  He has two blogs. One is called:  "Larry's Creative Zone" and the other one is called: "Larry's Photo a Day".

This one is from Mistaya (Gail). She has two blogs. One is called "Life's Adventures--This Seasons Adventures"and the other one is called "The Life of A Rescued Pound Puppy in Her Own Words."

This one is from Anne. Her blog is called "Strawberry Jam Anne".

This one is from Cheryl. Her blog is called "Cher's Shots".

This one is from Ratty. He has three blogs. One blog is called "The Everyday Adventurer" , one is  called : "Rat Tales"

and his newest blog is called: "Nature Center Magazine".

This one is from Nancy. Her blog is called "Blissed Out Grandma".

This one is from Jientje. She has three blogs. Her blogs are called: "Heaven is in Belgium", "Heaven in Belgium" and "Heaven in 365".

This one is from J.J. Her blog is called: "The World According to JJ in L.A."

This one is from Judy. She has two blogs. One is named "Through Squirrel Eyes" and the other one is named:

"The Road to Here."

This one is from DJan. She has two blogs. One is called: "D-Jan-ity" and the other one is called:
"Eye on the Edge".

This one is from Lynn. Her blog is called: "For Love or Funny".

This one is from Jill. She has three blogs. One is called: "A Bubble in the Stream of Consciousness", one is called: "That Disney Blog" and one is called: "Thumper Awards".

This one is from Eva. Her blog is called: "Wrestling with Retirement".

This one is from Mark. His blog is called "Going Like Sixty."

This one is from Pat. He has two blogs.  One is named: "As I  Saw It" and the other one is called: "Patrick Tillett, Extremely Overdue".

This one is from Connie. She has three blogs. One is called: "Far Side of Fifty". Another blog is called:
"Forgotten Old Photos". And another blog is called: "Far Side of Fifty Photos."

This one is from Grannyann. Her blog is called: "Ann Tucker's Blog."

This one is from Sharon. She has two blogs. One is called: "A New England Life" and the other one is called:

"The Sweetest of Days."

********************************************************************

I hope I didn't forget any entries....!

With all of our traveling and the birth of our grandson, it is possible I accidently missed someone...if I did miss listing your entry, please let me know immediately, as I will be contacting judges at the end of this week to choose one winner.

I wouldn't want to be a judge this month again either, would YOU?????

Thanks to each and every one of the people that entered this month's contest...

you exceeded my expectations!

You are all just getting better and better!

and I love it!

Oh, one more thing!

May's theme for May's free Photo Contest!!!!

May's theme will be:

"Landscapes".

Any landscape you want to submit...beaches, mountains, your back yard,your farm, your neighbor's acreage...whatever your heart desires....

so,

dig in those archives or get outside and start snapping!

Entries for May's contest must be submitted to me no later than midnight, May 31, 2010...

can't wait to see what you enter!!!

If you aren't a blogger, that is OKAY. You TOO can also enter, following THESE RULES.

Mystery Ducks....Common Mergansers?

The same day we went out to the streams and lakes looking for ducks

that were migrating through our area,

and saw the Hooded Mergansers, we saw

some black and white ducks

which I cannot identify for sure

in my bird books....

This one had a head a lot like a Loon,

but it wasn't a loon.

This female was with him:

But then, when I saw her tufted head, we thought it might be another type of merganser...maybe the Common Merganser?:

The color was right for the female in this shot...she has a gray body and a rusty, tufted head.

And he was black and white.

But still, I wasn't positive.

He is very handsome:

They didn't stay long and quickly swam away, so that is all the photos

I could get of them.

So, bird experts...

what do you think?

Did I capture Common Mergansers????

Click ON HERE to see what the bird book shows about Common Mergansers....

Survey SAYS?????.................

Our Newest Miracle.....

Thanks to JJ who told me a way to load pictures 

around Blogger's present challenges....

I am able to post today....

For those of you that don't know....

the reason I was away to Florida 

was 

because my daughter Kimberly 

was due to have her baby.

We wanted to be there when she went into labor

and to be there for the birth of our newest grandson.

Kim was two days overdue.

We walked and walked the beaches 

to help to get her into labor.

Finally, early in the morning, my daughter telephoned us in our hotel room

to tell us to meet them at the hospital

because it was time!~!!

We were excited to be there and to help soothe her during her labor.

When it was time to push, we left the room for her and Nick 

to welcome our newest grandson into  the world.

All in all, her labor went well.

And she delivered a 7# 9 oz. boy!!!

But....

there were complications.

Scary ones.

Complications that a Grandma and Grandpa don't want to hear.

First, his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck when he was delivered.

They got it off quick...

and

my daughter said that she felt the baby having hiccups while being born.

Unfortunately, it was the worst time for him to get hiccups.

He aspirated meconium and ambiotic fluid in the birth process because of this.

So, he was born in respiratory distress...

Kim could only hold him a moment..and they whisked him away to the Special Nursery.

He needed to have oxygen and Xrays and it was discovered that he had aspiration pnuemonia.

As a first time mom and dad, his parents were scared.

We were scared.

He had to be put on antibiotics through IV's (which continually failed and he had to be poked several times to restart the IV's!)

Kim and Nick could not even touch him, as the extra stimulation caused him to breathe irratically.

For two whole days, all they could do was look through the nursery window.

It killed us.

Then, on the third day, two at a time, we could go and touch him....

but

we weren't allowed to hold him  yet.

It continued to kill us.

Finally, we could hold him for short periods of time...but he was all wired up to heart monitors, blood pressure monitors and IV lines.....

But, 

slowly.....

ever so slowly...

with many prayers from our friends and family....

he

got

better and better.

The Doctor said he was not deprived of oxygen long enough to cause mental or physical problems 

(whew!!) and that he just had to get rid of the pneumonia with the help of the IV antibiotics.

Finally, on day 6 he could come off IV's and eat.

They could finally feed him and have him in their room (Kim was discharged from O.B.but stayed in a room in the hospital to be by the baby)....

and on day 7, all the wires and IV's were gone and 

finally, last Thursday,

he 

got

to

go home!!!! 

We decided to stay in Florida until he was out of the woods

and Kim was a little more rested.....so we stayed for a day or two extra.

So, without any further delay....

here is our little angel:

This is Mama Kim beside Nicholas Ryan when he was still wired up in the Special Nursery.

They say newborns cannot smile and that it is "just gas"....I wonder...because when he heard his Mama's voice? That is what he did....

Alert and adorable....

The statistics...only that is not the complete last name..they don't put it all for confidentiality in the nursery.

I couldn't hold him and cuddle him enough when we were finally allowed to do so!

Look at that grip!

His cutie little foot with curved toes....

and heels that were full of lab draw pokes (poor little sweetheart!)

But, the GOOD NEWS is:

Kim called me today and the baby's check up with the Pediatrician

turned out perfect...

he is one healthy newborn now...growing and happy at home with  his parents...

We are so grateful.

It was the Mother's Day gift I wanted.

A special thanks to some of  you Bloggers out there who knew what was going on and wrote to give us support and encouragement during the ordeal...I really appreciated the prayers and hope  you gave us.

And now...this Michigan Grandma is already trying to plan when the next trip to Florida is going to be...

P.S. I will be working tomorrow on getting the April photos loaded so you can see the gorgeous pictures everyone entered into the contest..I will get them up for all of you to see as soon as I can!

S.O.S.!!!!!

Fellow Bloggers.....

I

Need

YOUR

help....

I am back home in Michigan after a long trip to Florida and back.

I tried to load pictures onto my blog when I was away (using my MAC) but they wouldn't load.

I figured it was my Mac.

But, it wasn't.

Now that I am home on my big computer, it still won't let me load photos onto a new blog post.

I believe it has to do with the "new" formatting that Blogger has.

Everytime I try to load a photo it says it is rejected.

Does ANYONE out there know how to fix this or how to send them an email?

I went to their blogger help site and many other people said they tried fixing it by changing it back to their old editor under settings and back.

I tried to do all the suggestions everybody else tried to no avail.

Of course I am upset.

So....

anyone out there have a solution or a shortcut to email someone on blogspot.com to help me????

P.S.

Go below to read the latest "prepublished" blog post..thank goodness I prepublished some before I got back and had this ongoing problem.

Thanks everyone...be patient...I will be back posting again as soon as I can get this solved!!!

Missed all of you!!!

Hooded Mergansers!

A few weeks ago, we took a ride into the woods to find streams and lakes where perhaps we

could see some ducks that were migrating through our area

to head south for Spring.

For the first time, EVER....

I was thrilled to get up pretty close to the

beautiful

HOODED MERGANSER.

Please click HERE for more info about them, they are gorgeous ducks.

See?:

(He seemed to have an "attitude" about my taking his photo!)

But his buddy was more social and let me take his photo:

(Don't you just love their little "helmet heads"?)

Here is a handsome couple.

I think the brown female is pretty too, with her tuft of feathers on her head:

(I found it interesting that the male has yellow eyes and the female had red eyes!)

Whenever we saw a male and female they were seperated and swimming together, away from the

single males:

They probably have already started little ones and claimed territory:

Unlike Mr. Attitude here...who puffed up his neck in warning to me.

Gheesh, I can't help it if he hasn't found a date for the prom yet!:

Although he is a fine male specimen....she couldn't go wrong mating with Mr. Handsome:

If only he didn't have that helmet head.....People may point and laugh....

But, it seems to have worked for SOME......

Of course, if you can't win the ladies with your helmet head....

you could always turn around

and show them

that gorgeous tail action....

Yep...that seemed to have worked, too--

Born to be wild.....

And it doesn't hurt at all...

to be this beautiful, even if you

ARE

still a single stud.

I mean, it worked on ME,

and

I'm human........

More Local Police Reports: A Double Treat!

Time again for LOCAL POLICE REPORTS, along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics.

Because there was only ONE weird report in each of these two days

of reporting,

I am giving you a double treat and showing you two separate police reports

this time.

So here we go!:

Okay...I didn't highlight the funny one from above.   But if you read the FIRST ONE, it reads:

"two small Pomeranians at large wearing sweaters".

THAT, my friends, is a henious crime!!!! 

I know that Paris Hilton has done it and a bunch of other skinny, young, drugged out stars...but you can't pull it off in the U.P. of Michigan, folks, even though it is dang cold.    No WONDER they ran away and are "at large". (By the way, there is no way those rats with thin hair could be at LARGE, but that is another debate!)  They ran away because they were humiliated to have sweaters on.  Even if they DID say "Go Pack Go" for the Green Bay Packers on the sweaters...it just isn't acceptable. Next thing you know, they would have made them wear those cheese head hats or the ones with the straws where you can drink beer directly from your hats! There has to be an end to this , people! I say arrest them and then call their owners and make them pay BIG fines for thinking that their anorexic, shaking-with-anxiety dogs are like their children! Enough!

Whew, thanks...I'm glad I got this off my chest.  And sorry to all of your Pomeranian owners out there....maybe I just don't get it why you like these dogs. No hate mail, please. I really do love dogs...almost all kinds.

***********************************************************************************

And now for the second Local Police Report:

***********************************************************************************
The "crime" in question is circled into the Police Report article above.  Loved the "turned out to be the moon rising", didn't you?  I just wanna know what the person (who called this in the police) was smoking?? Maybe (s)he had just RETURNED from the same party the minors were having on the beach and had imbibed????   I mean....WHO can't tell what the MOON is?  Was it the orange that through them off, or was it that the moon didn't look like a big slice of cheese????

Yes, folks.....

the excitement NEVER ends here..............

Don't you wish you were ME?????