Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

Today is my dad's birthday!! I love that guy, too!!

We have lots of fun stories and memories with dad - I gave him a magnet not to long ago that said, "When in Doubt, Call Dad!" It is true.... he knows the answers to many questions - and if you have a beef with someone he is sure to back you up!

Joey, Jamey and I like to call it "pulling a Miles Chevrolet." For those of you that do not know, Miles Chevrolet is a car dealership in our hometown...and it's a great story that Jamey can tell about a visit to Miles with a problem with dad's truck - a truck that he had for less than a month when he problem occurred. The situation was handled accordingly, but Jamey isn't sure if he can ever go back to Miles. hahaha. Anyway - Joey & Maritza have a similar story from when someone tried to pull one over on them while Dad was out visiting them in California. I can't remember all of the details - but, I know that dad sent the guy packing. And when the florist for our wedding did something that was rather out of line, I knew to call Dad to have him take care of her. Anyway - I think he gets embarrassed when we call it "pulling a miles chevrolet" - but we know we can always count on him to stand up for us.

He is also a decorated war veteran from Vietnam - a war where thank-you's and welcome home parade's and parties didn't happen like they do now. A great many people may oppose the war in Iraq, but everyone is still supporting the soldiers that are over there. I was reading about March 29th becoming WHVVD - Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day on a yearly basis. One guy said, "For almost 35 years now, Vietnam Veterans have had an underlying need to hear four little words, Thank You and Welcome Home."

So let's see, Dad - Happy Birthday, Thank-you, and Welcome Home, Soldier!!! Hoo-Rah!

Here are some pic's, we saw him last weekend - he'll be boating a lot this summer so we thought he could use some new swim trunks!!

JSUK Monday

Just So You Know - I love these 2 guys!!! This is from the end of our Memorial Day Weekend - will most more pictures from the weekend soon.

They are the Cutest! :)

What it is like to live in Michigan:

It was a beautiful weekend, and we decided to take the weather up on it's offer for a date in the yard! We had two flower beds that we originally assumed would have many perennial's popping up - but we realized that it was almost entirely weeds! That was our main focus for the weekend, and here is what we were able to come up with:

Our only regret was not taking before pictures! We have pansy's, alyssum, and some other flower, but we cannot remember the name. Some additional projects for this weekend included replacing three "bushes" - 2 rhodendrum's, and 1 Miss Kim lilac that had died sometime last year before we bought the house. This was a little more taxing since these were in the rock that you can see behind this flowerbed....in the rock, under the lining, dig out the old one, put the new one in, and replace everything.

We also decided we'd like to hang hooks off the deck so that we could have some hanging flowers to enjoy this summer. Here are some pictures of the hanging flowers...and Dave putting away the drill, etc... after the task was finished.

After a long day, of hard gardening as we got into bed and turned on the tv to see the evening news - what to our wondering eyes did appear???? Bottom right hand corner of the screen: FROST ADVISORY. Sooooo - we got up, gathered some old sheets and went out to cover our helpless flowers from the frost, and bring the hanging plants into the house.

And, THAT is WHAT IT IS LIKE TO LIVE IN MICHIGAN. It's supposed to be warming up soon, though. Yippee!!!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY TODAY TO MY DEAR FRIENDS HEATHER (TODAY) AND MINDY (THURSDAY)!!!! 30's are the new 20's. :)

JSUK MONDAY

Welcome to JSUK (Just So You Know) Monday, a new weekly feature in the Harder Holler blogspot.

Just so you know, you will learn something each week - it may be very useful to you, or it may be "just so you know".

Either way - Enjoy. :)

Just So You Know - when you are purchasing something from an online store, and you get to the end of your purchase as you are checking out, and at the bottom of the page there is an empty box, and next to the box you see the words: "coupon code" or "promotional code" - you can almost always save some money!!

The first course of action is to head to the best search engine around - google. (www.google.com) In the search box type in, "coupon code + (name of store)". You will likely get your results here.... click through the first two or three links to find the best coupon. Some sites will even have feedback about whether or not the coupon worked for other users. [Note: not all coupons will work - sometimes they expire, or are just fake.]

The second course of action is to go to this website: www.couponcabin.com Here you can put the store you are shopping at in the search bar, and all relevant results will pop up. You can also add your name to their e-mail list, and they will e-mail you their best coupons on a weekly basis. [Note: I'm not sure that I recommend this, as it may cause you to shop when you do not really need to shop.]

Lastly - if you can shop locally, you should ---- after all, in order for your town to prosper economically, you need local businesses to stay open, so that local people have jobs.

Thanks!

How Many Harder's Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

I'm sure everyone has heard many variations of this joke:
How many blonde's does it take to change a lightbulb?
How many Irishmen does it take to change a lightbulb?
How many Texan's dos it take to change a lightbulb?
Etc.... the list goes on and on.

Well - We found out this past week that it takes at least two Harder's and the internet to figure out HOW to change a lightbulb.

The light near our shower in our bathroom has been out for 2-3 weeks.... we immediately attempted to change it, but failed and since then we have been showering in the dark. (Well, not completely dark.)

Thursday night we decided it was time to figure it out. After about 20minutes of each of us trying - (The problem was removing the fixture part of it to get to the lightbulb...no screws, wouldn't turn, wouldn't pop off) I had the novel idea to GOOGLE the problem.

http://www.google.com/ - I typed in "bathroom light with vent + can't change" . WaLa - up popped our answer. I have no idea how anyone got anything done before the internet was invented. Thank-you, Al Gore. (I'm kidding.)

After about 15 more minutes of following the suggestions we found on the internet, the bulb was off and changed. It was such a momentous occassion that I snapped a few pictures.