HodgePodge / Easter recap

Happy Wednesday! I just realized that my A to Z posts for this week are still sitting as drafts!

I'll fix those later tonight.  I'm doing the HodgePodge right now! 

Thanks, Joyce!

1. Egg on your face, putting all your eggs in one basket, a good egg, walk on eggshells, nest egg, or a tough egg to crack...which eggy idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain

Hmm. I'll keep Joyce's answer. The Spouse is a good egg. I'll be keeping him.

2. April 7th is National Beer Day...are you a beer drinker? If so do you have a favorite? Beer battered fish, beer bread, beer can chicken, beer brats...which one sounds good to you? Have you made any of these? 

I drink (both beer & others) occasionally. I can't remember the last time I've had more than 2 at a time, tho.
I haven't made any foods with beer, but we did go to the VFW Friday for the last Lenten Fish Fry so we had beer-battered fish.
Going off topic for a moment... The Spouse & I both got off work early, so we went to dinner early (they've been known to sell out!!) and as usual, there's a 50/50 raffle - where you buy a ticket and if your number is drawn, you get half the money that was taken in. I won! Came home with a smooth $400!

3. Do you have siblings? What's the best thing about being your sibling? If you don't have siblings, what would you say are the pros and cons of being an only child? 

I have 2 older sisters and 2 older brothers. My sisters were 13 & 11 when I was born and my brothers 9 & 5 years old, so nobody wanted to hang out with the baby. I get along with everyone pretty well now, tho. But Sis1 is the lucky one - I was born on her 13th birthday!

4. How do you feel about floral scents in products? Do you have a favorite?

It really depends. Strong scents give me a headache. If I go into Bath & Body Works, I will load up on the "Vampire Blood" at Halloweentime - it's kind of cherry / plum / jasmine. The rest of the time I go for the Sunshine & Lemons. Lemons just smell so fresh & clean!

5. What's one thing in your home that begins with the letter G that you would say is a keeper, something you'll hold on to? Tell us why. 

The obvious is the grandkids. Altho I would LOVE if they didn't live with us, so I could spoil them and send them home!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We had some crazy weather recently so when I was on my way to help out with the "Easter Egg Bash" I went thru a lot of flooded areas!

I was really hoping there was still road under there!

Right after I took this pic, I floored it and made some epic roostertails!

Of course, the Spawn had to bring the grands out to see me. 

There were a lot of police & fire vehicles there so it wasn't much of a surprise that the Easter Bunny was wearing turn-out boots (like firefighters wear) but he was having a good time!

And the granddaughter went crazy when she saw Marshall from Paw Patrol - she loves him! 

Inside the county's MRAP (mine-resistant ambush proof) vehicle.

Always a crowd favorite at events like this. 

Blessed to have 4 generations together to color eggs!

The grandkids think that the Easter bunny brings their baskets, but we hide the eggs.  So, when it was my turn to hide, barn kitty Leroy was helping me out.  You can see his paw reaching into the brush... to knock the egg out so he could play with it!!  Which he did several times! 

My crabapple is showing life! 

#AtoZChallenge - Experiences

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!

My theme this year is simply things that I’m grateful for.

It’s a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!

I like to have experiences, and I'm blessed to have had some good - and not so good - ones in my life so far.  

#1 on my list is the 8 years I spend in the Navy (it was also my 2015 A To Z Challenge theme)

Home Sweet Home for 2 1/2 years!

My search & rescue team is like a second family - we've learned so much and work well together on call-outs. 

The Spouse & I have been on many adventures together. 

I got to watch both of my grandkids come into the world.

Anything I do with my siblings is bound to be an "experience"

And I'm sure there will be many more in the future!

#AtoZChallenge - Dawn

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!

My theme this year is simply things that I’m grateful for.

It’s a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!

I'm a morning person so I love to watch the sun rise. 

#AtoZChallenge - Chuck

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!

My theme this year is simply things that I’m grateful for.

It’s a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!

This is sort of a weird thing to be grateful for - but for entertainment value.... I'm grateful for Chuck. 

That link above tells the story on how Chuck became part of the family - but he's basically a 3D Flat Stanley, except he's a skeleton with googly eyes & wears a tuxedo onesie! 

He's even got his own Instagram account (@chuck.d.bones)!

Halloween Camp

Featuring in Top Lights Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat at the granddaughter's daycare (with friends!)

He's been kayaking.

Sometimes Chuck has to send a smaller version of himself - here's MiniChuck attempting to fly to Arkansas last January.

He got his own invitation to my niece's wedding, too!!

He's pretty fun.  He's been to Texas, Arkansas and Ohio many times, he flew to Nashville and got his picture taken by the pilot and was given a set of Delta wings, he always travels with us!

Happy April (part 2)

I meant to change yesterday's post title, but forgot - so Happy April for real today! 

It was crazy that Tuesday (aka March 31) was close to record high temps (73*ish) and yesterday we had a high of maybe 35*.  Today is raining & is ~supposed~ to get to 63* but it's not looking likely to even break 40!  That's Michigan for ya! 

Last weekend, I took a road trip with the sisters & Mom to Ohio to see Bro2. 

Look what leaped into the car!

I'm a sucker for cute blowmolds and Cracker Barrel usually delivers! 

When I got home, I hurried and stuck it out on the front stoop with the rest.  I saw the grandson do a double-take at it, but he didn't say anything....I don't think anyone else has even noticed it!

And to prove that I'm not the only weirdo who likes to explore old cemeteries, Sis1 (who was driving this time) happily changed our route so we could visit 2!  

This creepy old church (cornerstone said 1892) is what drew me to the first one.  Technically this is a graveyard - cemeteries don't have a church on the grounds.  There were actually some recent-ish burials, 2004, in there. But most of them were 100+ years old. 

Oh, and if you look close - there are 2 vultures up on the bell tower! 

Note to self - don't try A.I. to remove a vehicle from a photo!

This is the stuff of nightmares! 

The second cemetery we planned was only 3 1/2 miles away, but for some reason it was saying 33 minutes!   The last mile or so was a dirt road and GPS wanted us to park and walk instead of drive on the dirt road!  Aw hell no.  At the time, we were using my phone, so the setting to avoid dirt roads is most definitely OFF.   That dirt road was actually in better shape than the ones around Sis1's house! 

Anyway, just in case, I texted the Spawn to make sure she could see my location (since nobody back home knew where we were going other than "to some cemeteries") & she said if we kept going straight, we'd reach civilization.  

This was a super cool stone - I haven't seen any like this since the Spouse & I went to Boston. 

And I have no idea what that building is in the background!   It didn't look that close on Google Maps. 

I'll have posts up on my Halloweenie blog for both of these cemeteries and others in May for Cemetery Appreciation Month.  

Anyhoo.  The grandkids are on spring break this week.  I feel sorry for the Spouse trying to work from home while they're there.  But the Spawn has been trying to keep them under control. 

We did have to separate the kids for a while Sunday - they can get pretty rambunctious. I took this one and went on a walk which led us by a small play structure at a church on our street.  I have approximately 15 pictures of her posing as she came off the slide - each one more dramatic than the last!   

Easter is Sunday.  I'm sure we'll have a good time like we usually do.  My search & rescue team also will be at an Easter event Saturday where there will be a bunch of emergency vehicles on site to see and climb in (as long as there are no call outs! 😄 That's happened before!) and of course the Easter bunny!  I'll be going to that and then over to Sis1's house for family festivities.  Hope it's not raining!

Speaking of search & rescue - in the grand scheme of things, we fall under the sheriff's department. So tonight we get to go on a tour of the county central dispatch office and meet the peeps who page us out on calls.  In a couple weeks, we get to visit another county's SAR team - since it's the "richest" county in Michigan, they have all the cool toys.  That'll be neat.  

Anyhoo.  Signing off for now! 

ChatGPT did a much better job or removing the car from in front of the creepy church! 

#AtoZChallenge - Blogging

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!

My theme this year is simply things that I’m grateful for.

It’s a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!

This one will be short & sweet!

Blogging.  

I started blogging sometime prior to 2009 on Yahoo 360 but I clearly didn't bother importing that nonsense over when they shut down and I switched to Blogger. 

At one point I had 3 blogs - starting with basically this one, but with a different name.  It began as "Random Ramblings" until I realized just how many similarly named blogs there were out there. So in October 2011, I changed it to "The Life of Lisa".   In July 2013, it changed again to what you see now. 

Blog #2 was "Adventures in Weight Loss" that was an attempt to keep myself accountable in my Weight Watchers Journey.  In July 2013 I changed that to "Slow & Steady" then late September 2016, I merged it into this blog and here we are!

Blog #3 is my Halloween-themed blog called Maple Grove Cemetery  I started it in August 2011.

It's pretty self-explanatory.  I post pictures from my extensive Halloween display, cemeteries that I explore, shopping, adventures with my skeleton named Chuck, etc, etc,  

Anyway - it seems like someone always talks over me, this is a way for me to say whatever I want, whenever I want and nobody can interrupt me!

Happy April / HodgePodge!

OMG - I saw Joyce's "A is for Hodgepodge" post today and had a moment of panic! I am fully aware that I signed up for the A-to-Z Challenge, have topics planned for each letter, have a lot of posts sitting in draft and thankfully have posts A-D scheduled because..... I had a moment and basically didn't put 2 + 2 together that it started TODAY!!

So anyway, 2 posts going live today! That's what I'll be doing when it comes to the linkups that I participate in. And when I feel the need to write regular non-AtoZ posts.

1. March is rolling on out of here. Sum up your March in ten words or less.

Insanity. Learning. Deadlines. Training. Ready-for-real-spring (none of this cold/warm/cold/warm nonsense).

2. Are you afraid of heights? When was the last time you found yourself dealing with a height, and did it make you nervous?

It's hard to explain - I don't think I'm afraid of heights, per se - it's the thought of falling from heights! I've had to turn off videos of people working on top of wind turbines or climbing antennas. Even when I went up on top of our one-story garage to trim some branches - and felt nauseous near the edge.  But I have no problem driving across the Mackinac Bridge while that freaks a lot of people out.   I've also been in the CN Tower in Toronto and Willis Tower in Chicago that have glass floors and I was mostly OK with them, too.

3. What's a word you struggle to spell on a regular basis, and sometimes need to double check before writing it down? Use the word in a sentence that tells us something about your April calendar.

Definitely. I count on spell-check an embarrassing amount for that one.

4. Love 'em or hate 'em, with Easter comes the sweet treat known as Peeps. So... do you love 'em or hate 'em? Speaking of peeps, what's your favorite way to have chicken? 

Take them or leave them.  Oddly enough - if you pop a Peep in the microwave for a few seconds (enough to make it expand), it caramelizes the sugar a little bit and makes them a whole lot better. I don't eat them often, but the Spawn goes crazy for them. All the new flavors out there now are interesting, too. She's getting Dr. Pepper flavored ones in her Easter basket.

Oh, favorite chicken?  BBQ. 

5. This week's Hodgepodge lands on the first day of April, which happens to be National Poetry Month. Do you like poetry? Share a favorite line or two from one of your favorite poems. What makes this one a favorite? 

I couldn't tell you the last time I read a poem. How about one that I wrote back many moons ago? The irony just now hit me that its title and the name of this blog are very similar!

The Shack - the link goes to my Halloween-y blog

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We usually have family gatherings at Sis1's house, since she's got the most room. So Saturday we'll be having Easter dinner & then will color eggs in the evening. My bunch will spend the night, and we'll have breakfast and have the Easter Egg Hunt.

Last year, Mom brought a turkey instead of the traditional ham - and proceeded to argue with us, saying that's what she always brought (it's not!!)! Bro1 lives with her since she's not able to drive anymore, so I texted him a little reminder before taking her to the grocery store. Mom regularly gets scolded for bringing extra food that she claims "it was just in the cupboard, but we don't eat it." Then WHY do you have it?????

#AtoZChallenge - Animals

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!

My theme this year is things that I'm grateful for.  

It's a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!

I'm starting with animals, well - because I wuv them!

We are sadly down to only one pet in our house. 

DaisyMae

She was born in Sis1's barn in May 2015 and her brother & sister still live there, however they moved into the house. 

I am her human, altho she can tolerate the Spouse.  When we first brought her home, I sat on the couch for hours while she snuggled up against me until she got comfortable enough to explore. 

Day 1

She slowly started to explore and discovered the fish!

She's weird that she will be snoozing in on the bed and when we go into the bedroom, she will look horrified and run & hide.  But if I go lay on the bed, she'll get up there and snuggle with me. If the Spouse goes in there, she will again wait for me before hopping back up there, and she will lay on his pillow with him and let him pet her (but only if I'm there!)

She's slowly letting the grandkids see her - if she's laying with me, she waits to see what they're going to do before hiding.  She might get as far away from the grandson as possible, but still be on the bed, watching & ready to run.  But the granddaughter?  She's gone!  

This pretty girl is "Passionate Kisses" a Paint/Arab mare.

She actually belongs to Sis1, but she was 'my' horse for the search & rescue mounted unit.

She will be 23 years old next month and has since been retired to the well-deserved position of "Pasture Ornament".

Daisy wasn't always our only critter. 

Last year, we had 2 others cross the Rainbow Bridge within 6 weeks of each other. 

Maddie & Rusty

Madison aka "MaddieMoo"

gotcha day July 2012 - April 2025

She chose the Spawn from the Humane Society, but once we brought her home, the Spouse became her human.  This picture was actually taken at the vet's office before they helped her to cross. 

Rusty aka "Orange Boy"

gotcha day April 2017 - May 2025

Another adoption from Sis1's barn, but he'd been dumped there.  And he was such a nice boy that we couldn't resist bringing him home.  He took to being an indoor cat very quickly, but also knew the harness meant he could go outside!

The rest...

Skeeter (top) I brought home as a kitten in September 2000 and he was 11 when he got a kidney stone. 

He'd been my shadow and always came when I sat down and announced that I had a lap. 

Chester adopted me from the Human Society in 2002.  They said he was 3 or 4, but we had him for 14 awesome years before he passed away in his sleep. 

Maggie was also dumped at Sis1's barn and her tiny little body popped out 5 or 6 huge litters of kittens before I took her in 2006, got her spayed and brought her home.  The Spouse was her hooman, but she loved everyone.  We lost her to a Grand Mal seizure 3 months after Skeeter.  

Jack was the best Beagle anyone could ask for.  He knew who was supposed to be around our house, so the neighbors were all fine when they were out in their yards. People walking by just got a quick glance.  But if anyone came up our driveway?  He'd bay at them.  That was the only time he really ever made noise, other than when we messed with his tennis ball.  Heart disease finally got him at almost 15 years old in February 2018. 

Princess Daisy.