Hanging On for Dear Life . . .

I went out into the backyard yesterday after church to continue what I worked on last Sunday -- mowing and raking and generally getting the yard ready for winter. The first thing I saw gave me pause . . .



This is a tulip poplar -- we have several that I have planted over the years that came from my in-laws' yard (you should see their "momma tree"). It was those few leaves up at the top that caught my eye -- they looked like they were hanging on for dear life, and as long as they could stay on the tree they could keep winter from coming. I have been feeling like that, too!

I worked until dark, and then drove over to Miami University in Oxford to watch my nephew Conner play broomball. I went to Miami -- so did my wife and my brother. Many people confuse "our" Miami with the one in Florida, but ours has been around since 1809. I have an old t-shirt at home that says "Miami Was a University When Florida Still Belonged to Spain."



For the uninitiated like me, broomball is like hockey with no skates and a plastic "broom", and a ball instead of a puck. I took a shot of the opening faceoff with my cell phone and then cropped it -- that's my nephew in front of the referee (blue sleeves).

This morning, I took Zoe to the vet for her annual checkup. I always feel like a rat when I know she is going to get shots. But I wanted to get it out of the way before she heads to the kennel on Thursday morning . . .

Because we will be headed out for our last show of the year. We're going to Birch Run, Michigan (between Flint and Saginaw, and just a stone's throw from Frankenmuth) for the Great Scrapbook Events Shopping Show at the Birch Run Expo Center (right across the street from a huge outlet mall). This will be the first three-day show we have ever attended (Friday 1-8, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday 10-4), and we're going all-out with Fifty Feet of Fun -- Plus Ten! We're going to have Sue Rothamel from USArtQuest at one end, Tim Hammonds from Scor-It at the other, and Sue Nelson from Heartprints.net in the middle, and we're going to fill the other ten feet with lots of scrapbook papers and such.

Added bonus -- we were expecting a shipment of the new Cuttlebug Christmas Dies later this month. They came in early, so we'll have them this weekend! You can get more info about that show at http://www.greatscrapbookevents.com/ If you're in the area, plan to come out and see us.