I forgot to mention...

Can you believe I forgot to mention ANYTHING in my novel from earlier? Well, I did... today is Matt's 29th birthday!
The extra delicous birthday cake... from DeBoer, almond cake with raspberry filling adn buttercream frosting! Seriously DELICIOUS!
The kids and I decorated the house...
Waiting for dad to get home...
The one armed man attempting to open a birthday card!
Matt opening his present with Bailey's help! (It was a wratchet set, very exciting I know!)

This weekend...

We had a good weekend, I was in a crazy bad mood for most of it, mostly with the kids unfortunately, I think I had just had enough! That last paragraph from my previous post just carried over for the rest of the weekend.

When we took Landon to his baseball practice it was in an almost unmarked building (which we realized we were familiar with the building later), on a random side street so we drove around for over 20 minutes looking for the place, I was so irritated that Matt didn't just get directions from the beginning, I couldn't even talk b/c I would have said something that I shouldn't have. Eventually he stopped to get directions (which took another 10 minutes for some reason, the whole time I'm just getting madder and madder). We found it finally. We ran to Target to return something and then returned to watch the boys! They were doing good but I'm a little disappointed that we only know one other boy on the team. Landon's already informed us that he doesn't want to do baseball next year, but would rather do a different basketball program. I dont' care what he says though, he's finishing this year, he can not be a quitter. We knew going into this that baseball wasn't his favorite or strongest sport so I'm really not suprised! (It's not mine either).

Then after baseball we looked for Matt's birthday present (a marine radio) and din't find one at all so we decided to go to Kobe for dinner for his birthday. What a joke. I have to say that I normally LOVE Kobe, LOVE IT! THis time not so much. If you've never been it's one of those places where you sit around the grill and watch them prepare you food. You get a ton of food normally and it's very yummy! You could easily end up sitting next to complete strangers if you go with less than 10 people. Well, we only had 5. The couple that sat next to me kept asking me to move over, they didn't have enough room. I will admit that it was tight, but if Imoved over any more E wasn't going to be able to use the table for his plate (and his highchair didn't have a tray). I was already irritated at that and then as we were getting closer to finishing up dinner (we were by no means finished) our waitress came with boxes and pretty much scooped up my kids plates from underneath thier forks and boxed thier food up. And then she said that she was sorry that she was making us leave, but she needed the table. WHAT????? Since when is it ok to kick people out? There was another table open that they could use (and actually we must not have left quick enough b/c they did end up using it). We definately didn't enjoy the dinner as much as we should have, we were only there for about 50 mintues, normally a meal should take at least (minimum) an hour and a half.

After that we came home and played outside for a little bit when we came in Matt could easily sense my anxiety and told me he would take care of the kids so me and my computer disappeared upstairs all by ourselves! That felt good!

Sunday we got up and went to sunday school and church (where I was once again reassured that God wants me to go to Africa). After church we came home and made a leftover type lunch, laid E down for a nap, grabbed a quick one myself and then when E woke up the kids and I went to get matt's birthday present while he continued to sleep. That was enough to drive me crazy, me in a terrible no good very bad mood and three kids, one of which is extrememly strong willed and trying to be independent right now!

Dinner and bed after all that... I talked to Sarah for a little bit in the evening adn I think that helped my mood a little. Not sure why, maybe I had just had to much family time this weekend! Who knows! I definately feel better this morning!

E hasn't been sleeping all night in quite a while, he wakes up around 4am saying "Mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy... mommy...", but it's almost like he's talking in his sleep b/c I go in thier and he's laying down with his eyes closed still. Unfortunately I can't sleep through that, Matt doesn't have a problem with it though! Finally after an hour of up and down I made Matt go in thier, Matt told him it was time to go to sleep and the child did it! What's up with that?

I did notice the other day that he has two teeth coming in on top, not the ones you would expect though, I think they are molars even. That could be part of the reason for his lack of sleep, but I wonder if he has an ear infection too??? No fear though we are going to the doctor this morning for his 18mo appt so we will have him checked out! Wish me luck, I'm taking Carson too, so we and two kids 2 and 18 months. I'll be back later with an update!

Were home from the doctor, all went well! Little boy sat on the table the whole time they were looking at him (normally they put them on mom's lap), he sat still and let them do whatever they wanted, then the poor little guy had to get a shot, we weren't planning on that at all unfortunately. He doesn't have any ear infections (both relief and disappointment, I was hoping there was some kind of curable explanation for the night wake ups). It's probably b/c of his teeth that he is waking up though, and maybe a little bit of habit too! Lovely! He is 32 1/2" long, 25 1/2 pounds, both 50th percentile. He's a healthy little boy!

I Love THIS Saturday...

Seriously, I can't remember such a relaxed Saturday in a LOOOONNNGGGG time! I was in my pajamas until 10:30! For the past few months we have had to be somewhere doing something for sure before 10am, which is normally fine and I'm not complaining b/c truly I can't imagine my life without all the busyness, but there is something about this relaxed pace that we are enjoying too! I let Matt sleep in, played with the kids, watched cartoons and made waffles, then we all got dressed and headed to Sam's Club. Picked up a few things and stopped a few other places, now we are home, just waiting to bring Landon to baseball practice. Matt, myeself, Bailey & E are going to look at a few houses while we are out and we are going to go get Matt's birthday present (which he will be picking out) after practice is done! I may stop by World Market too, just to look though!

Despite this slow pace, I'm feeling a little "anxious" right now. Like I'm going to yell at the next person to look at me funny! I was like this last night too, not sure what the problem is but I can feel the tension from my shoulders and neck all the way to my toes! I just want the house to be quiet for 10 minutes, there are always noises, arguing, fighting going on and it's driving me NUTS! Matt keeps telling me to "look at this house" on the internet and while I would love to find a great house for a great price, we need to sell our house first! So why bother looking for a new house? OK, I need to go rest or something... enjoy your weekend!

Relief and Disappointment all at once...

Everything in HIS timing, right? Did you notice the ticker above? My Africa trip is getting delayed b/c of some unforseen circumstances, many of them actually! But we are still going...just not until January 2009! The school that we were going to dedicate isn't going to be finished, the well that was supposed to be dug by then isn't going to be finished (or even started for that matter), some of the people that weren't going to be able to go b/c of health/family issues will be able to go... the list just goes on!

So, if you were thinking that this would be a great trip for you but were intimidated by the dates we were traveling, now the door is open again, I would encourage you to pray about it!

4th grade spelling list & booster seats

I definately don't have a huge vocabulary, but these words are just WAY above me.

Check this out...
dodecahedron
desolate
disconsolate
ominous
tollbooth
expectations
epilimnion
cacophony
phenemenom
idiosynchrosy
valuable
awkwardly

Yeah... and if you want to know the definition of any of them go ahead and look them up on dictionary dot com!

Did you hear at all about the new law that kids up to age 8 and 4 foot something have to be in carseats starting in June or July? Bust out that booster again Bailey... she'll love that!

Crazy Bounce Fun

Look at those lips going after my boy! Aren't they cute despite my blurry picture?
We had a great time at CB yesterday, it not only wore out the boys but it wore me out too! I've been so tired lately, I've even been hitting snooze or just flat our resetting my alarm clock, so unlike me!
We were even able to play outside again yesterday, me without a coat! The boys blew bubbles, Elliot ran into the road, they pushed the lawn mowers around, it was GREAT! I'm so ready for all out spring! Today is dreary and gray, not a favorite kind of day for sure!

Tonight we get to go to Fun Night at Landon's school, Matt has to help the kids with games b/c I get to work so that should be interesting! We'll see how that goes!

An Open Invite:

What: Playdate at Crazy Bounce
When: Wednesday, March 26th from 9-11am
Who: Anyone who has a child 7 or younger that knows me or Sarah
Why: For some fun for the the youngins
Cost: $7 a kid (includes 2 hours of jump time as well as drink and popcorn)

We have been before and it is a blast- please join us!!!!!!

How was your weekend?

How was your Easter more specifically? Did you love celebrating in the snow (again?)? No outdoor Easter Egg hunts, that's for sure! We woke up early and did our little easter egg hunt, the bunny hid some pre-filled plastic eggs (courtesy of my 7pm Saturday night trip to Target) adn some of the eggs we colored. Elliot even shared in the fun of hiding those things. We almost thought that the bunny didn't bring an easter basket for the kids this year, but then I caught a glimpse of one basket (which looked to belong to Elliot b/c of one of the toys on top) and led the kids to it, they pulled it out and it was a FULL one, quite large too... all for Elliot???? No way, that bunny was tricky this year, he only left one basket with small gifts for each kid inside. Lots' of jellybeans, HSM2 for bailey, a bubble blower for E and a football adn word search for landon! What a great bunny!

After that we dropped the kids off at Sunday school and Matt adn I went looking for houses, it's kind of our sunday ritual if the kids have sunday school and we don't! And, like every other time we didn't find a thing! That's ok though, we have time!

Church was great, although I shed a few tears. I hate crying in public! During the announcements they were talking about a man that died while his daughter was singing hymns with him (this happened easter morning), and that just struck to close to home for me. When my mom passed away I was reading a Psalm to her, I saw her take her last breath while I was reading! Once I recovered from that I was able to enjoy the sermon and the thought that my mom is in heaven with Jesus all becasue he died on that cross for us! I was struck by the wonder that God actually gave up his son for us, so that we could go to heaven and how hard that would be. I often think of it as a removed thing, it couldn't have bothered him to let his son die because he knew that he would be alive again in three days, but to watch his son suffer like taht must have been absolutely miserable. Dann also talked about Abraham giving his son Isaac as an offering, but God stopped him before he actually killed him. I can't imagine getting even that far. I DO love God and I do trust him with most things, but that may be a bit much for me to wrap my mind and heart around. I guess that just means that I still have some work to do in my life!

After church we headed up north to my grandparents house for lunch. Ham, potatoes, veggies and some yummy desserts! Then it was home again for a little bit and then off to Matt's dads for dinner (hamburgers). We didn't get home until about 8:30 so it was a long day and another messed up nap day for E. Two of those in a row, it makes me a little worried!

Not a whole lot going on this week. BSF tonight. Bailey has sharing night at her school on Tuesday night from 5-5:30 where she can show us all that she has been doing and working on (have to find a babysitter for that yet)! Church Wednesday. Thursday is fun night at Landon's school. Nothing on the books for Friday yet (Matt and I may have to go out for his birthday though). Saturday Landon might have baseball practice (it's a rumor we heard)! All in all it feels pretty tame right now, I'm sure it will fill up though, it always does!!

I didn't even take a whole lot of pictures yesterday for easter, I am SOOOO sick of taking the same pictures over and over and over. I'm so sick of being inside, I just want to go outside and play in the yard (not the mud though), enjoy the sunshine, be able to take my coat off, mow the yard (yup, I'm even ready to mow again), draw with chalk, blow bubbles, put a for sale sign in our yard again... you name it I'm ready for it! Come on spring... come quick!

Exausted

The first game of the 3-on-3 tournament that Landon played in was a forfeit by the other team (the game was supposed to be at 7:30), luckily we found out last night at 10 so we were able to sleep in a little, but not to much though b/c then we didn't know when his first game would be, turns out it was at 9:30. They played thier first game with one win under their belt already, how nice is that? They played at 9:30, then not til 1:30, then 4 and 4:30. Unfortunately one of thier players was on day eight of having the flu so they only had three for a three on three which makes three boys very tired by the time the game is half over. They played hard though. They had a really good time too, which is always great. There were tears after the last game was finished unfortunately, they were so disappointed! Matt and I are exausted along with Elliot. I'm realizing how much work it is for me when Matt has a cast. Elliot was a bear for the second game (the 1:30 game, normally he would be sleeping during this time), he wanted to get down and run on the court in back of us (big guys) and then on Landon's court... he was all over the place, so I held him down on my lap, literally had to force him down! Thankfully Matt's mom watched him for the last two games (THANKS MARILYN)!

So that was our day... lot's of plans for Easter tomorow to keep us busy again, I'm ready for another weekend already and this one isn't even over yet! Happy Easter to you!

They accepted

They accepted the counter offer so pending inspections and stuff we SOLD A HOUSE!!! Now we need that kind of luck with this house! (Wouldn't that be great if we listed and it sold in a week????) That would NEVER happen though, not in this market at least!

Oh yeah...

We countered the offer! The offer probably won't go through unless the house get's painted and get this... the people placing the offer are willing to paint it themselves! And his dad is a professional house painter, so worst case scenario the loan doesn't go through and we have a feshly painted house! Certain loans (AFA I think) I guess are hard to get with chipped paint and in the price range we are in we are going to get a lot of those types of offers (or at least any offer we get is likely to be AFA), so we will always run into the paint problem and I am just not willing to paint the house right now! So anyway, this is a little less than I wanted to get in the end, but working it all out it is worth it!

E got his first haircut today (see 365 blog for pictures). I can't believe that he is 18 months old already adn that we waited this long for his first haircut. It's quite short and eventually I want to grow it out, but we had to get rid of the "yucky" stuff first. He's so darn cute!

Bailey's bruise is improving, it's now green so that is color number three. First purple, then yellow, now green! Perfect Easter colors!

Tomorow is Good Friday. My mom passed away on good friday, in 1991, I don't remember the exact date, just that it was good friday. I don't ever really get upset on a certain day, especially now with three kids and easter upon us (and a few other things on my plate), I think I'm just to busy to think about what this day represents as far as my mom goes. I do miss her every day and I do think about her every day, in little ways at least!

Me again...

Does anyone know of a "free" nero type software (for dvd burning)? I NEED to burn some dvd's with pictures and stuff and while I could do it on cd's it would take me 100 cd's for a portion of my pictures. I'm running out of room on my hard drive so I need to do it soon, I have them all on my external hard drive too, but I like to have them at least 2 places so I can't delete them from my internal hard drive yet... does that make sense?

A few people have shown interest in donating money for my trip, while I hate to solicit money, I definatley appreciate any help I can get, i fyou are interested please email me your address so that I can send you a form... lynettebell@chartermi.net ! I hate asking for money so much that I have to stress that this is in no way me asking, I'm responding to those that offered up front!

More Big News

If you haven't read the previous post please read that too (it will explain the ticker above)!

I just got an email from our realtor in St Joe. My grandpas house officially went on the market on Monday, she said that immediately after putting the lock box on the house there were several people through it and today we received 2 offers already!!!!! Did you read that? TWO offers on day 3!!!!!!

Update: So, it's 10:00pm and I haven't received offer #2 yet, still a possibility though. I think we will probably decline the other offer (which makes me nervous, but it's just not enough money and I don't think it will even fully be approved b/c of the type of loan it is), but we have to talk more about that in the morning. The realtor had a realtor's open house today too and 30 realtors went through the house, so even if only 5 of them have a client go through that would be excellent!

Big News

I finally feel like I can share, although I've only been sitting on this information for about 15 hours now, it's hard to hold it in and I know that God has confirmed that this is the right thing for me over and over and over (I kept asking for more)!


I'm going to Africa! Ghana to be exact! I'm going with I.N. Network. We are going to visit the Trokosi women, slaves to cultic priests that are serving time to atone for some "sin" that a male family member has commited (the girls can be as young as 5 years old). IN Network helps free these women and has had wonderful success. It's a huge relief program involving: gaining relationships with the priests, setting up agricultural projects for them once they free the girls ((b/c if they choose to free thier girls they are also letting go their free workforce). IN NEtwork also provides vocational training for the freed slaves since they have recieved no schooling. They want them to be able to provide for them and their many children (given to them from the priests as early as age 11-12 years old). IN NETwork also puts the slave women childrens in school, health care, biblical studies and food.


How did this come about you ask... well it was quick! I know it is meant to be, God has told me in so many ways, I am going with a friend (God knew I would never do something like this alone), the living conditions are supposed to be pretty nice, (no risk of mosquitos/malaria, running water, flushing toilet, twin beds etc) (God knew that anything to rustic would have been quite hard for me to swallow), it is a short trip, only 7 days and that's with travel (don't want to be gone from the kiddos for to long). I know that God has been telling me to go, he has really softened my heart to Africa, sparking my curiosity and desire to learn more, he softened Matt's heart to the whole idea, there is room on the trip (which, did I mention is April 30-May 6, tenatively?), and a few other things that I won't even attempt to explain! I know that this is where God wants me to go!

I need to come up with a portion of the trip price through sponsorships yet and while I hate to do that kind of thing I know that where God is guiding he will provide! My biggest request for support right now is prayers for the group and myself as an individual, both leading up to and during the trip!

If anyone else is interested in going I know when I talked to the women at IN Network yesterday there were still openings, let me know and I can get you the contact information! It is a small group so I don't know how quick it will fill up! I'm a little nervous for the 12 hour plane ride, but I guess it's better than it was a year ago where travel took 24 hours because there was no direct flight!

Oh yeah... and I just found out that landon's first game at the basketball tournament on Saturday is at 7:30 am... they have to be there at 7:00! HOW CRAZY INSANE IS THAT????

Attack

I feel as if God is just HITTING me with so much in the last few days. He is doing is best to point out ALL of my faults (ok, not nearly all, but so many that it's overwhelming me) to me, and still calling me to do things. I'm overwhelmed with the bitterness that he has shown me in my life. I need to let go of it, I don't want to be a bitter person. Not kidding, bitterness has come up at least 3-4 times in the last week alone for me... just shoving it in my face. I guess I always ask HIM to be clear, I don't take hints all that well!

I want to be fruitful, I don't want to be like the fig tree in Matthew 21:18-22 that doesn't bear fruit, but appears to be. I have felt God calling me and preparing me for something recently that I'm still questioning, but last night I felt him even stronger than ever before, so I took a "little" action and am leaving it up to him to figure out the rest. If it's his will/his time he will provide all the details. In the meantime if you would be willing to pray that I am acting on his will and not my own and that he would give me VERY CLEAR direction I would really appreciate it! I'm not ready to share the details of any of this right now, so if you are one of the very very very few people who do know, please don't share!

If you don't attend BSF and would like to try it out (I highly reccomend it and I know a few other poeple do to), the Saturday after spring break there is an intro (April 14) for new people to attend. They only have these class nights once per month and this is the last one that would allow you to join the class this year, otherwise there are other intro classes on May 5 and 12, but you would have to wait until next year to actually start attending classes regularly (which, if you can't make the April one I still highly recommend). I highly recommend the intro on 4/14 so that you get a taste of BSF before summer, it's only 5 more classes after that intro before summer break starts, so it's not that big of a committment anymore for this year!

First things first... and then a tag...

I'm very upset with the rec dept today! As I said before, Matt and I (along with josh & Bobbie) went to St Joe to finish my grandpas house. Sarah so graciously wached my children for me and not only that they were going to pick Landon up from baseball too... at 11:45 when my papers said it got done. So we dropped him off at 8:15 and found out there was a parent meeting (which we didn't know about), we obviously weren't going to attend, we needed to leave adn I'm sorry, but if you are going to require someone to be at a meeting, tell them about it ahead of time! So, while we were there WAITING for Landon to start (so we didn't leave him in the hallway with a bunch of kids and adults) they announced that there MAY have been a mix up and that thier practice went from 8:15 (by now it was 8:25) until 10:45. OK, no big deal, I just let Sarah & Ryan know. And we were on our way, off to St Joe. I called and talked to Ryan around 11:30 and found out that Landon's practice actually got done at 10, so obviously there was no one there for him (along with plenty of other kids I found out later). Thankfully another mom took him to Sarah's house (and thankfully Landon knew how to get there), but in the meantime Ryan and Cobe had left to go get Landon... no big deal really, it all worked out but WHAT A MESS! Seriously how hard is it to get organized, especially when there are kids involved? I know they have done this before so you would have thought they could have figured it out by now!

So, we got the house all cleaned up and ready to SELL!!! So we now have two houses for sale (although ours needs a for sale sign), let's home that one or the other sells... and soon!

And, I've seen this floating around, but I've avoided it until tonight when i decided to check a few blogs... thanks Ange!

10 years ago:
I was pregnant and huge! I lived at home with my parents, not yet married, but planning on it eventually. I worked at Town & Country as a receptionist full time. (I was even boring that long ago)!

Things on my to do list today:
1. Landon to Baseball
2. Clean Grandpas house
3. Pick up kids from Sarah's
4. Fold & Put away laundry

Three bad habits:
Spending to much time on the computer
I'm very impatient
Biting my nails

If I suddenly become a billionare:
Buy a new camera/lens that I SOOOOOO want, take my kids (and a huge group of friends/family) to Disney for a month, buy a bigger house (I don't even need HUGE, I just need another bedroom and another bathroom and a pool), donate to lot's of worthy causes, invest and just spend some fun money!

Five Jobs I've had (I'm taking this one further, just b/c I'm thinking about it):
Abby's Ally (waitress) Some may know that as Bosch's, those 6:30am Saturday mornings were killers
Dairy Queen
Big Dutchman
Janie's Cookies
Mommy & Me
Town & Country
Nichols (very short time)
Distinctive Group
Creative Memories (for about a week)
PartyLite (for about 6 months) (Home business' are NOT my thing)
Mom/Wife and everything that goes along with that one
I feel like there was one more I'm missing

Five things people don't know about me (maybe you do know, but I can't think right now)
1)I have a TERRIBLE gag reflex, dental x-rays are terrible for me
2)I'm still (9 years later) scared of my basement
3)I have a lot of irrational fears (fires, ax murderer's breaking into my house, remember the railroad killer, well I was conviced that he was riding the train that runs in my backyard and he WAS MOST DEFINATELY going to hop out in my yard next)
4)I used to be skinny (w/o ever working at it)
5)I have a cupboard FULL of alcohol that I NEVER drink! Seriously, I rarely have a drink at home, but when I do want one I have to buy all the liquor that it would take to make that fruity drink, which leads to quite a stash!

Whew... done! Now I tag... Sarah and Kate!

Do you feel it?

It's called SPRING! The sky is blue, the sun is shining bright the window is open (ok, it's a little cold, but that's ok, it feels GOOD), the birds are chirping, the snow is melting! We walked this moring and by the time I was done I was HOT! It was wonderful!

I love spring!

We are off to watch Horton Hears a Who this afternoon/evening! The kids will be excited and we'll see how E likes his first BIG movie! We decided that if we give him popcorn he will be good to go for quite a while!

Tomorow we are headed to St Joe to do the last of the cleanup then the house will be listed... FINALLY!!!! The kids are going to spend the day at Sarah's house. Landon has baseball ability testing in the morning so we will be up bright and early anyway! Not that e would let us sleep in anymore. He's been thinking that 6:50-7:15 is a good time to wake up... I definately don't agree with that one! Maybe we need to keep him up later!

Enjoy your weekend and this spring weather that we are having today!

Time Flies

This week has just flown right by. The kids were off from school on Monday so we headed up the Frederick Meijer Gardens to see the butterfly's with Julie and her kids. It was interesting taking both Elliot and Carson, but Landon (and Julie) was such a help! It was 80+ degrees in the garden and humid, what a taste of summer! The butterfly's were out in full force, I don't think I've ever seen that many when I've gone in the past. They were fluttering all over the place, so pretty!

Tuesday and Wednesday Bailey was home sick. She had a fever both days but it broke by mid morning on Wednesday so it was back to school for her today, and just in time too I might add. E has it today and I think I have a touch of something. No fever for me though. Elliot was CRANKY all day, quite a mommy's boy, which isn't abnormal for him, but it was intensified by 100 for sure today.

Angela came over this morning to get some pictures taken (see photo blog for that). We had fun doing that, changing clothes numerous times and trying to get her to stand just the right way (all while E was sitting on my lap or climbing my leg).

Gave him a little motrin though and life was back to normal. We spent a good part of the afternoon outside, we walked to school (for the first time in a long time), we played basketball, we picked up dog poop (aren't you glad you know that?), we just hung out! It was gorgeous out today, absolutely SPRINGY!!!!!

We decided to go out for dinner to Grandville... On The Border. YUMMY!!! It was nice to get out as a family, it's been a little while! We stopped at Target to get a birthday present and some bubbles on the way home too! Now I sit here watching "Dan in Real Life" all alone while Matt works (as best he can with his left hand instead of right!)!

Recipe Alert...

First of all thanks for everyone's suggestions, we will have to do some research, there is definately a LOT we want to do, in only two days but I ahve some great resources and ideas thanks to everyone's comments and emails!

Here is a recipe I tried last night that was pretty good, I would definately add some seasoning for a little extra flavor, I added the onion onion from Tastefully simple instead of cutting onions too!

Broccoli Pie

And this highly scientific measurements of the meatloaf that I made tonight... I have enough for a small army so you may want to half the recipe if you decide to try it!

3lbs hamburger
1/6 bag of spinach (fresh)
1 c or so of mozz cheese (shredded)
Onion Onion (Tastefully Simple)... not sure how much
1 1/2 - 2 cups of stuffing mix (unprepared)
2 eggs
A little A1
Chopped mushrooms

Mix well and form to a meatloaf or put in small amounts in a cupcake pan and bake at 350 til done. Told you it was scientific, but it is delicious! (Use ground turkey maybe for a healthier version, I'm just not a fan of ground turkey)

Need Information

I need your tips/suggestions/websites for Chicago. What should I do to book a hotel, I looked at Priceline and Travelocity, but I know there are other ones out there. Where should we go, what should we do? We've gone a few times before but we always stick to Michigan Ave, American Girl, Cheesecake Factory, shopping etc. Not completely sure I want to do the aquarium/museum stuff, maybe though! Landon wants to hit ESPN, we WILL eat at Cheesecake Factory once for sure, I was thinking maybe Navy Pier, but I'm open. Weather is kinda an issue too... it could be freezing or hot, whoever knows! So, let me in on your "secrets"!

Spring Break Blues

Well, we decided to cancel our trip (with some stipulations on my part). If Matt can't go on the beach or even really have use of his arm we aren't going to have fun at all. We are definately going to try to go next year though and we will be going to Chicago at least, not sure what we will do there, but we WILL go! We are also going to look more seriously at campers now! So, it will all work out, I'm just a bit disappointed as are the kids! The positive is that I don't have to put on a bathing suit and I don't have to tan (trying to see positives here, even if they are a stretch!). I did just do "spring break" shopping though, so that's a bit disappointing that the kids won't wear thier cute new outfits for a little longer now!

Update

Matt is done at the doctor finally... he has a HUGE black cast on his right arm, reaching half way up his upper arm. He did insist on a waterproof cast at least. They kept saying "Well, you know that costs extra, right?" which kind of scared him into thinking it would be like $100 or more, ends up it was only $25 extra, which we are TOTALLY fine with. Showering will be so much easier and he may even be able to go swimming with E in Alabama. Problem though... he can't go on the beach. If he get's sand in it at all it will make him miserable (not that he won't be anyway). So, good thing we are staying on the beach huh? No football, no frisbee, no sand castles, no wave jumping, lot's of sitting on his butt! He has to wear this cast for 4 weeks, then he get's a smaller one for a few more weeks. He get's to go get more x-rays next week to see how/if it's starting to heal at all.

Weekend Update

Friday night Matt was in St Joe and Landon was at a late nighter at church so we rented a few movies... Mr. Magoriums wonder Emporium for Bailey & I and American Gangster for Matt and I to watch later! MMWE was soooo cute! I was LOL quite a few times! We have yet to watch the other one. Matt made it home in time to pick the boys up from the late nighter saving me from waking the other two up to venture out!

Saturday morning I talked Matt out of going back to St Joe and spending time with us instead. Sarah is going to watch the kids next Saturday so that we can go then instead, although right this moment I'm wishing Matt had gone yesterday, more on that later though! We picked up one of Baileys friends and took her, Landon, his friend and Elliot to Crazy Bounce for an hour! It was soooo busy that an hour was MORE than enough! Elliot just loves it there though, he wanders around like he owns the place, it doesn't matter that he walks right in front of people or right at the bottom of a slide... He also LOVES to go down the slides, a LOT! After CB we went to Mc Donalds. If you know me you know I HATE McD's. There is nothing besides French fries on thier menu that I can/will eat! The one time I tried something different I had such terrible heart burn that I will NEVER again! After lunch we returned to our house to nap/play for a while.

At 5 Matt and I left to go to a suprise party for Julie in Grand Rapids. We had a good time and we got home early! A perfect night!

Church this morning (we didn't make it for sunday school, some confusion with time change stuff caused us to start getting ready late), then home for lunch. After lunch B & I took a nap together and Matt & Landon went to blay b-ball at church. Shortly after falling asleep he woke me up by saying... "Your going to be mad at me but I think I broke my wrist". Took me a second to absorb that, but YEAH, not really thrilled! It has been a joke almost that he would get hurt again, remember he just had surgery on his left wrist in November and he's been having some problems with his knee. So, I got up quick, put on real clothes (not sweats) and called his mom to see if she coudl watch the kids so I coudl go with him. He handles pain really well normally but I could tell he was in a LOT of pain (his answer to the 1-10 questions was 10). We got to prime care at 2:50ish and arrived back at home around 4 with a nice big splint on Matt's right arm. He has to see an orthopedic doctor tomrow for something more long term. He fractured it in two places and shattered a little of the bone from impact when he fell. It's not the same bone that was broken on his other arm luckily but it's still not a good break (is there such a thing as a good break?). Now fishing season is in jeapordy and I'm having issues with the fact that he won't be able to swim with Elliot on spring break. I'm not going to catch him EVERY TIME he wants to jump in... and he LOVES to JUMP! Oh well, what do you do? (If he had gone to St Joe yesterday we would have been totally done down there, now he's is pretty incapable of doing to much so we will have to do more, which I don't mind, it's just that he is so much more motivated and productive than me)

I had another health class at church tonight and then I hit Walmart with Sarah (I really don't like that store STILL, sorry Sarah!). Thier produce is just not nearly as attractive as Meijers. And the store is much dirtier than Meijers!

When I got home I noticed that Matt had done a ton of cleaning/organizing. I couldn't convice him to SIT DOWN, he HAD to keep going! He's on vicadin so I'm thinking he needs to do something to stay awake!

Hope you all had a great weekend! The kids are off tomorow so we are goign to go see the butterflies, I'm excited, it will be nice and warm in the gardens!

Starving Jesus

Wednesday night Crag Gross spoke at our church to the 4-12 graders about Starving Jesus and what we are doing to starve him. The concept was (as I took it at least) that we have our hands so full with other things that we aren't doing anything for Jesus. I also picked up a book and although I've only read a few pages I'm enjoying it! (Now just to finish it, I've started numerous books in the last year but haven't finished one in over a year, hopefully that will be remedied over spring break)

Last night we "fed" Jesus. Our family volunteered (through our church) for a mobile food pantry in a nearby neighborhood. We had NO idea what to expect or what we would be doing. NO IDEA WHATSOEVER! But both Matt and I thought it would be good for the kids (and ourselves also) to do some sort of volunteer work. So we arrived at 5 and were totally unsure if we would be inside or outside, ended up we were outside so luckily we wore our winter coats, hats and some of us (Bailey & I) wore mittens/gloves, it still wasn't warm enough, but we recovered ok! We unloaded all of the food from a huge truck, there was so much stuff that was donated. More potatoes than I've seen in my entire life, a huge box from Panera bread filled with bags and bags of baked goodies, 400 loaves of bread, lettuce, yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, and so much more. Once it was all unloaded and put in "stations" the families that wanted food (approximately 118) walked through and were able to take a specified number of each item (the numbers were specified so that the first person in line and the last person in line each got the same amount, except for on items that there weren't enough of, like there were only 40 or so broccoli's so only the first 40 families got those). I was at the end of the line and helped with the bread. What an amazing gift that I was given to be able to do this, the people that came through were so appreciative. The kids said when we left that they actually had fun (it took Bailey a while to say this as she was soooooo freezing cold, cold to tears actually, but eventually she got there). I am excited to do it again, unfortunately next month it is over spring break so we will have to wait two months. I would love to find more opportunities to volunteer with my kids doing things for others so if you have any ideas please let me know!

Unfortunately through all of this I had a terrible migraine, I think the cold helped to make it bearable, but as we were walking to our car someone was smoking and that smell put me over the edge. Smells seem to be intensified by 100x when I have a migraine. As soon as we got home I took a shower and went right to bed! I'm still a little woozy today, but it's better!

Landon has a late nighter at church tonight and he is taking two friends, then tomroow afternoon I'm taking Bailey & a friend to Crazy Bounce for a while, then Matt & I get to go out Saturday night together! Should be a fun weekend.

Thank you for holding

I've been on hold FOREVER, partly my fault, partly thiers. I was on hold initially for 15 minutes... 15 minutes with crying babies and screaming baby! Finally someone was there and what did I do? I hung up! ARGHHHHH!!!!! So now I'm on hold again, going on 12 minutes again... What a waste of my time!

ETA: OK, now I'm off the phone and I have to admit that regretably I was not a very good exaple of Jesus' love, I hate when I get mad like that! :(

I feel like I should update

but have nothing to say!

Same stuff, different week! (That's one week closer to spring break!)

Oh, yeah! I guess if your a scrapper I could tell you that my layout is being shown here!

Congratulations...

I know someone is going to laugh at how fast I got this up... but I wanted to congratulate my brother Matt and his NEW fiance Gabrielle on thier engagement!!!!

Weekend

I shopped yesterday, and boy did I shop! I got some great stuff from Gap and Children's Place for the kids, all thier easter stuff is ready, tried to prepare better this year for the snow that is inevitable! I got myself 4 shirts at Gap too, the style of most of thier shirts was perfect for my "problem" areas so I lucked out and actually found stuff that fit and didn't accentuate the bad stuff! Normally I just settle! I also purchased 2 pairs of jeans for Matt, something I NEVER do and really I just assumed we would be returning them this weekend, but suprisingly they fit him and he liked them, I liked them too, they aren't the typical carpenter jeans tha the normally wears (out of necesity really) and they look good on him!

Last night Bailey went to a school carnival with a friend and the other four of us just hung out at home. Elliot never got a real nap so he went to bed early (BIG mistake), Landon & I played Webkinz for a while then when Bailey got home her and I went to bed early! Matt was so kind to sleep on the couch with Landon so her and I could sleep in our bed together. I don't like to sleep with her though, she kicked me in the head multiple times througout the night! Oh well, she enjoyed it!

This morning Elliot woke up at 6:30 am, I promply brought him downstiars to Matt and headed right back to bed! Matt left for St Joe around 10, Landon went to play soccer with Cobe and Dimitri and some other friends at 9:40 and Sadie came over to play! We had fun building forts, putting bows in her hair, playing in the laundry baskets and eating snacks. She didn't really like the thought of the vacuume though, but that was ok, we got through it, I just needed to vacuume up some dog food QUICK! Bailey covered her ears for her!

Matt got home just in time for dinner and then proceeded to finally finish our bathroom floor. Finally! Not his fault, I'm just so thankful to have a floor finished, the linoleum has been peeling up in there for years adn we've just dealt with it, but it's embarassing, it looks gross and best of all... it's GONE!!!! Bailey and I had to go to Lowe's to get some more screws for the toilet and use the bathroom (b/c the toilet was removed to put the flooring in for several hours) and we decided to go get dessert together too. It was fun to just hang out with her and I know she loved it! She told me mutliple times!

Cobe is here overnight, everyone stayed up late waiting for the toilet to be working again so they could use it before bed, now it's 10:30 and all are in bed, sleeping I'm sure! :) Church tomorow then lunch at my dad's, class in the evening and coffee with a friend after that! Busy ~ Busy ~ Busy... as usual!

Hopefully your weekend was/is good!

**** After posting I'm re-reading and realizing how bad I really do need another bathroom... which only will come with a new house!