About

Hi, I'm Wendy.

I have had this blog for over a year now, since 2013, so I thought it was time to update my information to keep it current.  So here is our profile as of December 1, 2014 January 13, 2017 January 28, 2019, March 15, 2023, August 20, 2026.  Wow.....that is 13 years of blogging!

My husband and I were both police officers in the third largest city in our state.  When we retired, we moved as far away from the hustle and bustle as we could, landing in a small town of approximately 4000 people and buying a house on 12 acres.  This was quite a few years ago.  Shortly after we moved out here, we decided that if we were going to live on all these acres in the country, we may as well make the most of it.  We planted some fruit trees, lots of flower gardens, got a couple 3 dogs, joined a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture), and ordered up our first baby chicks to become our laying hens.  We moved on to raising meat chickens, turkeys, and pigs for meat. We try to raise and buy meat that is treated humanely and given room to roam, cared for without hormones or unnecessary antibiotics, and our CSA is one of the only organic CSA's in the area (www.rcorganicfarms.com).  We have friends who raise beef, bees, goats, lambs, vegetables, and fruit.  We are blessed to have hunters and fishermen (fisherpeople?) in our lives who provide us with additional goodies.  I started canning and freezing to be as self-sustainable as possible.  We did all this by studying websites, reading books, learning from friends, and lots of trial and error.

In 2016, Frank retired from his second job as a Labor Rep for police, fire, and government workers in Michigan.  We sold the homestead and downsized to a 5-acre parcel.  We added another dog; that's right... that makes 4!!.....and brought our laying hens with us.  We stayed in the same area, so we can still use all the same food sources.  We have decided our hog-raising days are over, so we now buy those from the same farm where we get our beef.  We planted 8 fruit trees last year and plan on adding a couple more this year.  I would also like to put in a strawberry patch and some raspberry bushes.  Oh, and Frank went back to work part-time as a Labor Rep....they gave him an offer he couldn't refuse.  He is retiring again at the end of this month, March 2023.  Hopefully for good this time LOL.  

My husband, Frank, who is the greatest, and I have been married 21 22 25  27 32 34years.  We each had 2 children from previous marriages who blended nicely, giving us a lovely family of 2 girls and 2 boys, all of whom grew up into wonderful adults we could not be prouder of.  The only problem was that I began suffering empty nest syndrome.  We remedied this by taking in foreign exchange students, and I recently retired as a local representative for World Heritage.

We were caregivers for my parents for many years.  Both have moved on to a better place.  Mom suffered from Alzheimers/Dementia and was the main reason I started blogging.  You can read about this experience in my Life with Mom section.  Mom passed away at the ripe old age of 95 in January of 2016.  Frank's mom followed her exactly 1 month and 1 day later.

We also became grandparents on September 19th, 2014!!  One of the things about taking in exchange students is that they become your "child". Tingting, now an American citizen who goes by Jessica, came to us when she was 15.  We are very excited to share our granddaughter, Melody Elizabeth, with you. I call her my Angel Face.  She will be 12 years old next month and become a big sister in October.  We are very excited about this newest addition to our family.

The old empty nest syndrome struck again, and in August of 2018 we became foster parents to a teenage daughter.  Marissa is in 9th grade and has decided she would like to live with us permanently. We finalized the adoption in April 2019.  She is now an adult and working on her goal of becoming a firefighter.

September of 2022, our first exchange student, Marina, moved back to Michigan with her husband and their 2-year-old daughter, Mia.  You will see her referred to in the blog as Little Miss M.  Little Mister M, Miia's brother, Milan, was born March 14th, 2026.  He is nearly 6 mos. old already and has completely stolen our hearts.

I am nearly done rambling here......I enjoy scuba, travel, reading, games, hiking, entertaining, and cooking, all as frequently as possible. Frank enjoys scuba, hiking, travel, is a firearms instructor who enjoys shooting and teaching others about guns, and is a private pilot with a Cessna 205 that carries up to six passengers.

We no longer have the plane because Frank had medical problems that made it impossible for him to renew his license.  He is fine, and we still love to travel, but now we fly commercial or drive to our destinations.

We are looking forward to sharing "A Day in the Life" of our household with you.