from Elaine

Hello I'm Elaine, the mother part of the team. We live in Northern Michigan, where there are usually nine months of winter and three months of bad sledding. (kidding!!) I have a friend whose husband always says, "I hope summer comes on a weekend this year." Some years that can be true.

My husband, and the joy of my life - Gabe, and I have four wonderful grown children:
one handsome son - Jeff, who owns Precision Customs, a really cool motorcycle shop that sells fancy choppers and bikes, he is married to Kelli, who has a dear little boy Logan;
and three beautiful daughters:
- Kristi, the oldest, is a registered nurse and is married to Matt, a dear teddy bear of a man, who works as a x-ray and cat-scan technician;
- Jenny, is a graphic artist and ski instructor, who is married to Steve, a great guy who is almost as good a carpenter as my Gabe; and
- Betsy, our youngest, who works for the Wastewater Treatment Plant here in the city; and is married to a wonderful guy, Jeff, who couldn't be more perfect for her if I'd picked him myself.

We are also extremely lucky to have seven terrific grandchildren: Kathleen, Erica, Jenny, Andy, Logan, Luke and Grace - THE MOST delightful children on this earth. We even have five grandpuppies: Keisha, Dylan, Sage and Kiska and Harley; and three grandkitties: Harley; Sophie; and Pookie.

Our angel-baby - Maggie, a liver and white brittany spaniel, is the joy of our lives around here. She is so smart, I sometimes think she is more people than dog. Coming home is absolutely phenomenal - the welcome we get is just unbelievable. . . .

With reading being one of my passions, I find that I love my job at the library. It is so much fun to be around all the books and people, and to help them find each other. I watch Luke and Grace sometimes, and that is a lot of fun!

My list of hobbies is long - reading, Bible study, guitar, knitting, crocheting, sewing, stained glass, basket-making, gardening, natural foods and cooking, genealogy, scrapbooking, cross-country skiing, biking, small woodworking, embroidery, needlepoint and crewel, and of course, the computer. I hope to get up some pages with patterns or information on some of these topics.

Thanks to my kids, I am getting some terrific collections of thimbles, Noah's Arks, and Nativity sets. What fun. I'll have to take some pictures and show you.

Joy and blessings,
~E

You thought I was kidding about the snow?
On the right is our breakfast room window; some years it has been completely covered!