19 years happy in love!

10-11-11 celebrating brain

Greg and I celebrated our 19th anniversary yesterday (and over the weekend).... the highlight being a night at the newly opened, newly restored Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel in Mason City, Iowa. The only Wright designed hotel still standing... and it is right here in Iowa!

I was so cool! There are 27 rooms to choose from, ranging from $100 to $250. We took the modest queen bed room for $100 and it was awesome! The hotel is on the south side of the downtown central park.

Here is some of the exterior detail.

Greg and I both love the style of Wright's designs in buildings and furniture too.

Our neighbor friend here in Des Moines, Carolyn- her brother Randy Cram, who lives in Clear Lake,  was part of the foundation who worked on this project-he is an architect.  

There is soon to be a restaurant opened, and there also is a ballroom. Great for a wedding reception!

I can't rave enough about this place! Treat yourself sometime and spend the night. Mason City also has the Music Man Museum, a most wonderful art museum, and also a few other Wright houses in town.

Well worth a trip to north central Iowa!

PS: Since Mason City is only 30 miles from my hometown, we did drive over there first to have lunch with Mom and Dad. What a gorgeous day with temperatures in the low 80's. Mom and I went for a nice walk by the river enjoying the trees and sunshine.

Anniversaries

10-10-11 celebrating brain

My friend Ann likes FOX news (among other news channels) and she informed me that Fox is celebrating 15 year anniversary, while Greg and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary.

So this video goes out to Fox news, and to the 99% of us our there. Many of us who are scratching our heads over Fox news.
A shout of to Columbus too!

The Daily Show
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September Vacation Ends, GEE- it's October already!

10-7-11 sister 's birthday..... happy brain

After 5 days with the Beachy family out east, Greg and I started the trip back home on Thursday last week...... BUT the fun was not over, since we had plans to visit friends in Columbus OH.


We had dinner with Pastor Amy and Julia Thursday night, which meant we would have to drive 11 to 12 hours on Friday….. but that was the price to pay to have an enjoyable fun evening catching up with old friends.

Julia introduced us to a fun card/board game called “Apples to Apples”. I can recommend this for everyone, probably age 7 and up, since it is educational as well as fun, and a good way for kids to learn the meaning of words. AND it is fun for adults as well.

Since we had time to spare on Thursday, we took the long way from Pennsylvania to Columbus and explored an area of Ohio which I had never been, but heard about from fellow blogger Susan. Hocking Hills was this very cool place just SE of Columbus.

We took the time to do some hiking and saw some incredible rock formations.

 

This one area called “Rock House” was so cool…. Kind of like caves in the rocks, but with several opening. People over the years have carved their names in the soft rocks. We found several names from the 1880's and 1890's like this one.

We finally made it back to the KC house Friday evening and Clover was very happy to see us.

Saturday night we had a fun evening eating dinner down on the Plaza with neighbors Kim and Terry. Kim was Clover's loving baby-sitter while we were away. Sunday, as Greg watched football, I played tennis with Molly late morning, then headed home to Des Moines for the work week.

Boy the weather here in the midwest has been awesome, warm and sunny. Des Moines currently is very, very dry which hasn't help allergies.... but the trees are changing colors with great beauty this year.

October is a special month for me, my sister's birthday, my birthday later in the month, along with Halloween and this coming week will be Greg and my 19th wedding anniversary. Thanks Mom and Dad for the card and money for a special dinner "out on the town"  for us this weekend.

Pennsylvania Day: part two

10-6-11 continuing brain
So after our visit to Flight 93 Memorial in the morning, we drove south in Pennsylvania to almost the Maryland boarder near a small town called Spring. Here we were tracking down an old Amish Beachy cemetery plot. Greg's brother Tim had been researching this.

Turns out a dirt road ended at a farmstead which had once belonged to the Beachy's (Peter) and the small cemetery was out in the back pasture. We asked permission of  two Amish women who were out in their garden and they pointed out the way.

We parked the cars and walked carefully through some turkey's just hanging out in the yard, and walked past a young Amish man cutting wood.

The site was just beautiful from this hillside. The stones however were all illegible  except for one.

Next we went to an historic Castleman's bridge in the area, which Tim's research indicated this Peter Beachy helped build. I'm not sure if I got the whole story correct, something about laying the cornerstone.

This bridge was awesome and the Spruce Forest Artisan Village sits on the river bank now next to the bridge. I worthwhile place to visit and I am so glad we did.

Wednesday GUEST Blog

10-5-11 listening brain
Ann has some random thoughts today.... she's been busy as usual doing this and that! ~judy

Random Thoughts


Goodbye Summer, hello Fall. I’ve got some random thoughts that I’m putting on paper:

I’ll miss my weekly outing to Des Moines for breakfast and my walkabout at the Farmers’ Market. Of the 20 markets thus far, I’m sure I got to at least 15. I ran out of time last weekend. Why grow a vegetable garden when you can get all you need and more at the market? Not to mention, seeing my favorite singer, Bonnie Finken at the market.

I’ll miss bargain shopping at garage sales. I love looking but I’m getting good at picking up an item then putting it back down. Last weekend, my finds included a “to go” blanket, Train CD (drops of Jupiter), a cool cookbook “recipes from B & B’s across the USA, several DVD’s including “De-Lovely” the music of Cole Porter, bin full of mason jars and a very cool purse for two bucks.

What is it with men and their machines? I was hooked on watching the big equipment in action over the last two months while they worked on the massive “Ravine Project” out back. The work clearing the trees, grading, installing steel grates, filling in huge rocks and making part of your property a natural “prairie” walkout was amazing. I can’t wait to see the beauty of the foliage as it grows in next year. Yes, our tax dollars at work.

Why is everybody down on Gov Rick Perry and what happened to Michele Bachmann? If you’re a democrat, you should be jumping for joy. That is, unless you don’t think the president will not get re-elected. The next three months, we will be seeing the candidates all over Iowa. And once again, Iowa voters may just pick the next POTUS (president of the united states).

Government, why are you messing with my light bulb? The infamous “light bulb law” going into effective in Jan. ’12. My gut reaction, really ……….. government regulating health care, how much and what I can eat, the capacity of a toilet, now what kind of light bulb to use? I understand this is good thing, but outlawing the light bulb as we know it, well that draws the line. Lastly, two things we can all count on. death and taxes. Time again for property taxes and of course, Dad. It’ll be six months on October 6th. Thanks everyone for cheering me on with my posts. Oh well, happy Fall everyone. Enjoy it!

Chat Later
That Girl, Ann Marie

Pennsylvania Day: part one

10-4-11 vacation reporting brain
Greg and I spent a few days in Ohio, then we went over to Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh where Greg's brother's family lives..... so we could have more family time together. We had an interesting day on Wednesday of last week.... we all went over to the Flight 93 Memorial Crash Site, since this was only about an hour away.

This memorial, out in a Pennsylvania field, has been evolving over the last 10 years, and continues to evolve. Currently there is a long walkway out into the field and a white wall with names of plane passengers, this wall built along the flight path. The crater itself was been filled in and now has prairie flowers and trees planted, and only family members are allowed out in that area. Their are plans to build a Visitor's Center on the hill which overlooks the field.

This is a beautiful memorial site, run by the US Park Service.

Large Rock marks crash site

Look above my head, I left one of my peace art magnats, as others also left personal memorials.

Catching up from time away

10-3-11 Sunday night brain


Much to write about, but not feeling in the mood too much. I’m watching Prohibition tonight …. You gotta love Ken Berns on Public TV. This is an interesting topic for him to tackle, and a topic I don’t know much about. The larger question is can we make laws to dictate how people live their lives? Inebriation was a big problem….. and some Christians got a bit “preachy” with their temperance…. This is fascinating.

Back to my life: over the last week, I’ve spent about 3000 miles in the car…. A vacation to visit Beachy family in Ohio and PA….. and special time with our 5 year old nephew, Brennan.




Last Sunday I spent the day with Brennan, Greg’s mom and Greg’s aunt at the Akron Zoo, while Greg and his brother went to the Browns football game. Bren is a good kid, but it took us three women to keep up with his energy.

Greg and Tim

Greg's Aunt and Uncle