This is where we were last weekend. That's not even a portion of this huge "S" shaped lake. It's called Williams Lake I think, in Waterford, Michigan. It was absolutely gorgeous, where houses sell for no LESS than $ 300k. I was right on the edge of the shore and my cousin Eddie's property. Just a tad to the left was the biggest fireworks display I'd ever seen!! WAYYYYY better than Paris Landing. I was told they (the lake community) spent $15,000 on the fireworks display!! WOW!! I took video of it, but ran out of battery power several minutes before the finale :(

We had a fantastic time and are going back next year and staying 2 more days. We decided to camp at my cousins and enjoy the 'parade of boat lights' they have on Friday and hit all the good parties!! YAY!! Eddie said they hoped on the pontoon boat and basically went all around the lake to different houses and partied. There was bands playing, solo guitar sessions and the whole shabang, so I told Eric we were so coming for that next year.

We stayed at my Aunt Maryann's. She has 2 spare bedrooms, but she turned one into what she calls the "Picture Room". It has 2 chairs, an end table and the whole room is covered in old photos. It's beautiful and I was so glad to see me in there with my old toothpick legs I had when I as a kid. The other spare room was down in the basement. It had been totally re-done by my Uncle Joe who died a several years ago. She just bought a new bedroom set from 'Art Van' furniture late last fall and me/Eric were the only ones beside my other cousin Denise to sleep in that bed. She had 2 throw rugs that were sooo soft and fuzzy, one on each side of the bed. It was a beautiful sleigh bed and matching nightstands, dressers. I wished I woulda took pics of that room, I just loved it and how it connected to the half bath from 2 differ sides!!

Anyways, we arrived early afternoon and literally unpacked the car and headed straight over to Eddie's. I wanted to take my Aunt's dog with us, but she didn't want to chain her up the whole day. She's a cute black w/ white markings Japanese Chin, very playful (almost as much as Alice--lol). We got there and went straight out on the pontoon for our 30-45 minute boat ride round trip around the lake. It makes me wanna have a boat (it might take a few years, but I'm working on that idea..lol). Some of these houses were just to die for, several of them were historic. After that we just chilled, talked and had a great time!! I seen my cousin Michael who was diagnosed with cancer as I've previously written. He looked pale and in pretty bad shape, but he's hangin' in there. He started chemo this week, I pray it helps!!

I'm down to a size 18 now..YAY BANNI!! I've still been wearing the 22's to work in, but discovered I was down to 18 when we went clothes shopping for the trip. Meijer had jeans on sale for 20 bucks and when I tried the 22's on, they were loose and big in the legs, so I got a pair of 20's and 18's to try. The 20's were obviously too big as well, and when I slid those 18's on, I was ecstatic to say the least!!I'm almost to the 200 mark. If I lose another 10 ibs. I'll be UNDER 200, where I haven't been since early on in my relationship. I am so proud of myself. I'm getting toner,too and my little pudge of a chin is slimming down, making my face look so much more beautiful (I can't help it, I'm a sexy bitch..roflmao)

I ended up wearing tan jeans and my pretty white top I wore at Easter along with some really cute white sandals I bought at Payless (where they also had an awesome purse on sale, they had several and I wanted the one that looked like a Berkin, but it was red and didn't match so I chose the black one ..lol).

My toes were painted a pretty pink, and I had given myself a pedicure before we left, so my feet were lookin' good!

Eric wore a nice pair of tan/khaki type shorts and a teal colored t-shirt but changed into his white t-shirt that has gnomes on it and it reads "Hangin' with my Gnomies"for the party.

We had New York Strip steaks for dinner along with corn-on-the-cob,potato salad (though not as good as Grandma Perkin's --lol)cheesy potato's, veggie tray's, chips, dip, and little snacky type foods. We got there around 1 or 2 in the afternoon and finally got back to Aunt Maryann's around 1 a.m. I think. My aunt drove my car to Eddies and back and maybe I'm just too picky, but boy I was freakin' at her riding my brakes, sometimes a little too hard. She had insurance that covered her as ours ony covers me and Eric. We were gonna ride in the PT Cruiser, but she don't like to drive it at night, so we took my car. She loved how it handled and kept telling me how nice it was.

Sunday, me and Eric escaped on our own to check out some sites and get a slice of pizza. I forgot how much I missed my old highschool..Cousino High Rocks BABY!! I had a chance to catch my Aunt up on other aspects of my life (my Mom, my other siblings/relatives..etc)which was nice, a good bonding moment. I missed that with her! Anywoo, when we got back into town Sunday evening, we went and picked up my Mom from the truck stop where she'd parked and we hung out for several hours. Dad and her drank beer together and reminisced of times past and dabbled into what went wrong in their marriage. It was nice to sit there with my parents and not one of us be arguing! My loved how much weight I'd lost and told me how great I looked. She was also impressed at how the house looks since she'd seen it last,especially Dad's room. She also loved my car. I invited her again for Christmas, but since mozzy has a place and Robert moves in with her in Nov. she'll prolly split her time between the 2 houses. Dawn,like I said b 4 , is comin' and staying here with me, so Mom will have to stay with mozzy, as I have no more room 'cause Dawny will be sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room, I can't wait!!

Anyways, needless to say last weekend was AWESOME!! This weekend, we're taking Dad and 'Uncle Dad' to the Firefighters ribs/blues fest, which should be cool! Next weekend we're going to the Cove to see the SB Silverhawks as it's Timken Night (where Eric works) and they have an upper box section I guess it's called and the beer, food, and pop is on them along with admission, but's it's just for the Timken employees and their families. We're taking Dad, so it should be a blast. Then the weekend after that is Mom and Dad's anniversary party, YAY!! Mom asked me to make my "Cucumber/Tomato Stuff" as it's now called..lol. It's just cut up Cucumbers and Tomato's marintaed in a shit load of Italian Dressing (very fattening, but I don't care-I'll swim it off..lmao).

Well, I guessed I've rambled enough for today! Thanks for reading!

Love,

~~~B~~~