Thank You!

We would like to thank everyone that e~mailed and left such nice comments for us to read during this hard time in our life. We are all doing pretty good. We have started to go through Dads stuff this week. It hasn't been as hard as we thought it was going to be. Dad collected a lot of different things. One of his biggest collections is his shot glass collection. He has at least 1000 shot glasses. We went through most of them today. It was hard to pick and choose. The shot glasses have been in our lives for many many years. I always said "I'm not going to want any of those". Wow how things change.

Bloomin' Tuesday!

Daisies are one of my favorite flowers. I remember picking wild daisies when I was a kid in the fields at a camp we used to go to. Make sure you visit MsGreenThumbJean to see the rest of this weeks "Bloomin' Tuesday" posts.

A Day To Remember!

We all had a very emotional day on Friday. Not only because we buried our Dad, but because of what Dads old friends did for him and the family. They will probably never know how special it was for us. Dad's bike hadn't been on the road or even started for at least 12-13 years, but as you can see his friends got it running so Uncle Randy and my brother Kim could ride it in the procession.

Uncle Randy and Kim led the procession and were followed by about 20 other bikes. Just the sound of Dad's bike starting and all of the other bikes made most of the people there burst into tears. Even with it being such difficult day, it made it a little easier knowing that it was exactly what Dad wanted.

Thank you to everyone that has commented, e~mailed or lit a candle in remembrance of Dad. Reading all of your thoughts and stories will help all of us through this difficult time.

A Difficult Day!

Dad's courageous seven year battle with cancer ended today. He passed away peacefully at noon with his family by his side. We all got the chance to tell him goodbye and that we love him. He was in no pain.

Goodbye Dad

We love you and miss you already.

Blog Break!

Dad has taken a turn for the worse. We will be spending most of our time with him and won't be posting on our blog for a while. Check out his blog by clicking HERE if you would like to stay updated on his condition.

Welcome To City Hall!

Here are a few pictures of one of the buildings we told you about on "Bloomin' Tuesday".

Buffalo's City Hall is a building that is much overlooked and often ignored, but Buffalo would not be what it is today without this building. Constructing City Hall where it is, with the style it has, quite literally changed the way the city of Buffalo looks. The buildings eventually constructed nearby and throughout the downtown business district would certainly not have the same design nor even be in their present location if not for City Hall's placement and design.

City Hall was built by the John W. Cowper Company, which was the same firm that earlier had built the Statler hotel and The Buffalo Athletic Club. The total cost of the building of City Hall was $6,851,546.85, including architect fees, making it at the time one of the most costly city halls in the country.

Click on any picture to get a closer look at the detail.

The following are some interesting statistics about City Hall:
The ground area of the site on Niagara Square is 71,700 square feet and cost $698,930, also making it one of the largest city halls in the country. Ground was broken on September 16, 1929 and the corner stone was laid May 14, 1930. The building was completed for occupancy on November 10, 1931, even though parts of the building were occupied as early as September 1931. The building was dedicated in July 1932.

The building has 32 stories, 26 of which are usable office space, and is 398 feet high from the street to the tip of the tower.

The total floor area is 566,313 square feet of which 316,937 square feet is usable for office space.

There are 1,520 windows from the first to the twenty-fifth floor. An interesting design feature is that all of them open inward, making window washers obsolete in the new City Hall. It takes approximately ten days to clean them all.

There are eight elevators to the 13th floor and four to the 25th floor. Curtis Elevator Co., the oldest active Elevator Company in the country, furnished the elevators. Otis Elevator Co. now the largest Elevator Company in the world supplied additional elevators added later.

There are 5,000 electrical outlets, 5,400 electrical switches, and 21 motor driven ventilation fans. One hundred and ten miles of copper wire weighing 43 tons, 47 miles or 180 tons of conduit pipe can be found throughout the building, as well as 26 miles or 5 car loads of underfoot conduit.

There are either 138 0r 143 clocks (there is some dispute on here) regulated by a master clock in the basement and 37 fire alarm stations distributed throughout the building.

It originally had 375 telephones with a master switchboard and 369 flood lights with an average candlepower of 350 each illuminating the exterior of the building at night from dusk to midnight.

Lunch Time!

Chris and I have been going to lunch together lately. He comes and picks me up at work and we go to a park that is close by. Chris usually packs us a lunch and we sit down by the lake. It is nice to get away from work for a while and spend time with my hubby.

We took these pictures so you could see what we get to look at while we are eating. There are people that are fishing and people that are eating lunch. There is a playground and a basketball court, so some days there is a lot to look at.

I am one lucky girl to have a husband that takes such good care of me. I will be the first to tell you that I am spoiled. All of the girls at work will agree. (I'm sure my mom will also) Chris always says he is just taking over where Mom left off!!

Bloomin' Tuesday!

While we were in Buffalo this past weekend we decided to do a little site seeing. We had seen some very beautiful buildings while driving, so we decided that we should see if we could get some pictures of them.

We came to Niagara circle and found this neat garden and fountain, so we parked and got out. We walked around a little to get come pictures. We had never seen lilies so tall before. The gardens were taken care of very well. When we got out of the car Chris said "we should be able to get some great pictures for Bloomin' Tuesday here". He was right.






Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Check out more "Bloomin' Tuesday posts by clicking HERE.

My Husband!!!

Years ago I never would have thought that my husband would do this kind of thing, but ever since we bought our digital camera he surprises me sometimes. He was outside working and I was on the phone with mom when he comes inside, grabs the camera and heads back out the door. Next thing I know, he is out back by our bushes snapping pictures. It was pretty funny watching him run around from one side of the bushes to the other and crawling around on the ground trying to get the perfect shot.

Click on the pictures to enlarge



All of the pictures were of this Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. I think he took about 30 pictures of it. When he got done, he came in the house and said "I think I got some good ones". What do you think?

For more information on the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly click HERE.

Happy 4th Of July!!

We hope you have a wonderful weekend with your friends and family.

Random Things!

I have been tagged by http://perennialgardenlover.blogspot.com/
and this comes with rules.



The rules are as follows:


1. Link to the person who tagged you.


2. Post the rules on the blog.


3. Write six random things about yourself.


4. Tag six people at the end of your post.


5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.



Here are my six random things:


1. I love to watch most sports. (Nascar is my favorite)


2. I love to take pictures!


3. I love spending time with family.


4. I scrapbook!


5. My favorite color is purple.


6. I love the Adirondacks! (would love to move there someday!)




Here are the people I'm tagging:

Beckie @ http://dragonflycorner.blogspot.com/

Lilli @ http://makemineblissful.blogspot.com/

Tabatha @ http://ktjsmith33.blogspot.com/

Mom @ http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/

Me @ http://thosenorthernskies.blogspot.com/

Pea@ http://peascorner.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday!

Today my baby brother turns his favorite number!!!

This should be a good year for you since you are your favorite number!!!

Happy 33rd Birthday Baby Brother!!!

Bloomin' Tuesday!

We thought we would share these lily pads with you this week. While driving to my brothers softball game a few weeks ago I saw these lily pads on the side of the road but didn't stop because I was alone. I told Chris about them the other day when he brought me lunch and we went to take pictures of them.

They are on a pretty busy street, so we had to find a pull off. People probably thought we had lost our minds taking pictures on the side of the road. But look how pretty they are.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The centers of the flowers are amazing.

We had a couple of visitors while we were taking the pictures. Here is one we got a picture of. We heard lots of toads jumping into the water when we got too close.

Check out the pink lily pads we took picture of HERE.

Make sure you visit MsGreenThumbJean to see the rest of this weeks "Bloomin' Tuesday" posts.