Glad to have Daddy home

Matt got home Wednesday night and he worked in Grand Rapids on Thursday. He worked from home for the first time on Friday. It definitely will take some adjusting. We tried to leave him alone. But, after our dinner Thursday night at church for the end of vacation bible school, we went and bought a pop up camper. We had been looking for one for a few weeks and I had gone earlier in the week without Matt to look at one we liked. But we found another and could not pass it up. We spent Friday out in the driveway cleaning and organizing the new camper. The kids really wanted to spend the night in it and since they are not old enough to stay alone, we all spent the night in the driveway last night. We knew it was going to rain and we wanted it up to check if there were any leaks. So it worked out perfect. It was really soothing sleeping in the rain. This morning we got up and went to some garage sales looking for things to put in the camper. Originally the plan was to go sailing tomorrow but we realized as we were driving from sale to sale that it was more likely to rain tomorrow than today. SOOO...we turned around and went home to get the boat. We decided to try Pigeon Lake instead of driving to Muskegon for several reasons. It was not very busy and after an hour of setting things up we were in the water. After another half hour of getting away from the dock and injuring my hand pretty badly we were moving. The kids were not sure of the tilting in the wind. We soon realized that Pigeon Lake is too shallow for our sailboat. We had to keep raising the keel in order to stay off the bottom and it just wasn't going well so we went back to the boat launch, packed up and headed to the beach. We spent a couple hours swimming in the big waves and then came home. We nicely got everything unloaded before the rain started. We ordered Chinese for dinner and now we are just relaxing before bed. It is nice to have Matt home. It will take time getting used to him being gone regularly but we are learning to utilize the time we have with him. Here are some pics from Riley's VBS program, camping in the driveway and then today (notice there are no pics of the boat trip...never smooth enough to take any). Enjoy!

My Big Boy!

Carter is such a big boy. He bought a big boy bike yesterday at Target with his pacifiers. I spoke with the cashier and arranged for him to buy his bike with his "baa's" and she played along. He gave the bag of baa's to her and took the bike. He is such a big boy. I was very proud of him. I of course paid for the bike and made sure I had other items so he didn't catch on. It worked great. He asked us for his baa at bedtime last night one time and we told him they were at the store. He replied " I will ride my bike tomorrow." So obviously, he fell for it. The first night was great. Hopefully he does well from here on out. Here are some pictures of him going to the store and then putting the bike together.

Week in Review

Well, I have been without my computer this week so I have some catching up to do. Matt was in Orlando this week and before he left his computer crashed, hence why I was without one. He took it! I have to admit I am addicted to the computer. I felt lost without it and without the ability to keep in touch with everyone. The good news of the week is that was promoted at work. He is no longer a General Manager of the hotel in Grand Rapids, he is the Area Operations Manager for his eleven hotels. Basically, he is no longer tied to any hotel. He will be traveling 3-4 days a week and working from home the rest of the time. It will be an adjustment but I think we will enjoy it.

Sunday: Father's Day

We spent the day visiting all of the Father's that live near us. We took Matt out for lunch and we gave him life jackets for his new boat. Here are some pics from the visit at my dad's. My niece and nephew were there as well.







Tuesday

We were able to visit with my friend Rachael and "my girls." I miss them a ton and it was great spending some time with them. It is hard to go from seeing them everyday to not seeing them at all. Riley also had her last coach pitch softball game. It was very interesting because three teams showed up for the game because of miscommunication somewhere. BUT there were not enough girls on any of the teams so they split Riley's team up amongst the two teams and they played. They had fun. She was catcher for one inning and lets just say it is not her best position. At one point after I got her to get away from the backstop fence she let the ball just hit her. I don't think she ever caught one ball and I know she never threw any back to the pitcher. The balls were all piled up against the fence at the end of the inning.



Wednesday

We went to Abby and Tim's for dinner. It was delicious. After dinner the kids danced and sang songs. Unfortunately, non of the videos turned out but here is one picture of Carter and Mason hugging like boys.




End of the week

On Thursday night we went to dinner with Dad and Phyllis and Boompa(my grandpa) and Pam. The kids eat free at James Street so that is nice. It was very nice and we had a lot of fun. Friday is my day without other kids and we went out early to run some errands. When we got home we washed the car, watered flowers, did some yard work, washed the outside of all the windows and cleaned the grill. Matt finally got home at 7 so we ate and sat outside. It was a beautiful night. Hopefully today we can make some progress on our bathroom project. Tonight is Jason's graduation party. So, off to get busy.

Riley opening presents

Riley's Birthday

Thursday was Riley's birthday and it was a very busy day. We had our last day of Day Camp from 9am-3pm and then we helped clean up. We left there around 5:15 and she had a softball game at 6 so we rushed home and cleaned up. We made it to the game and then we took her out for dinner. She chose Red Robin. I love that place but I think their kids meals are really overpriced. Riley gets the macaroni and cheese with two melon slices and it is 4.99 and it does not come with a drink! There is only probably one cup of macaroni there anyway! It is ridiculous if you ask me. When we got home we let her open two presents because she was not have her party until Friday. After we got the kids to bed we realized that our basement had gotten water in it with all the rain and there was mold appearing on the carpet. Now we have to take care of that problem and probably re-carpet the basement. What a day!














Friday we spent the day getting ready for Riley's birthday party. She chose soup and salad for dinner and wanted me to make an ice cream cake for her. So I was in the kitchen from 7:25 until 4:15 with a little break to run to the store for things I had forgotten and balloons. We made chicken chili, clam chowder and meatball soup. I thought it would be a pretty easy meal since I could get the soups in the crock pots and let them go but with appetizers, cake and cutting everything for salads, it took all day. Like every other birthday party has gone in the past, we were still trying to decorate when everyone started arriving. She had a great time.

Day Camp

Today was the first day of Girl Scouts Day Camp. I volunteered to be a leader since I had several girls from my troop going. It was so much fun. I really enjoyed it and it is amazing how enjoyable activities are when they are ORGANIZED. The girls had to create their own clown costumes and had real grease paint makeup put on so they perform a clown show. They had fun and I will post some pictures of Riley as a clown. I cannot be there with her tomorrow because I have a couple neighbor girls to watch but I will be able to be there Thursday with her on her birthday. I could not believe how tired I was after the day. I also realized how much I missed teaching. I found myself using management techniques that I used in my classroom and it makes me want to go back to it even more. There are days that I am content not teaching and knowing the job market, I figure it will be longer than I want so maybe I should look into something else but then after spending time with a group of kids I know that I will always be a teacher. Someday I will get back to it...







I got home and did a little cleaning, we had dinner and then went for ice cream. The problem with living within walking distance of the ice cream shop is that it is very tempting. We usually try to only go once a week but we might break that rule this week since I told Riley we would go on her birthday. After ice cream, Jason and I played basketball before we came in for bedtime.

Another busy weekend

Riley had a softball game Saturday morning and even though it was early it was still hot and humid. After the game we came home and got the boat ready for it's maiden voyage. We have a project that needs to be worked on at home but since Matt has had the boat for at least 7 weeks and not been sailing, he took the day off. Now I hope we can finish the bathroom! He said it was great and it sailed wonderfully. There was too much wind so they were tilting sideways more than they wanted. We decided it would be safe for the kids and I to wait to the next trip to go out since there are no life lines(the cables that go around the boat to hold onto for safety), the water is freezing still and we really didn't know if the boat would float (the joys of buying a used sailboat). So hopefully we will all get to go out soon. I did some birthday/father's day shopping with the kids and then they stayed overnight at Grandma and Papa's. Matt and I went to dinner and tried to do some more birthday shopping for Riley but the storm hit and we decided to head home. It was crazy! We were soaked and the roads through Zeeland were flooded so badly even after only 20 minutes of rain.

Sunday morning, Matt and I went to breakfast (two meals out without the kids!) at Perkins and it was terrible. Bad service and cold food. Cold breakfast(eggs) is the worst! Seriously there are not many choices for breakfast on a Sunday morning. We picked up Riley's birthday present, picked up the kids and went home to start working on the bathroom. We got a wall built, the new tub is in and some drywall went up. I had to leave during Sunday's storm to go to Day Camp training because that starts this week. At about 11:15pm Matt spotted a SHREW running across the floor so Jason, Matt and I spent a few minutes chasing it around the living room. It was quite a sight but the stupid thing ran right into the cup Jason was holding.

Matt left this morning for Iowa. His travels take him there for three days. He will be home on Thursday, Riley's birthday. She thought it was fun to tell Daddy "See you when I am 7!"

Too hot to sleep

It was so hot and humid today. The weather was so weird, hot and windy, then stormy. We started out this morning running errands and then taking Jason around to drop off applications for a job. The kids were able to play in the sprinkler for a little while before it was nap time. I had to go help Abby(my sister) shoot wedding photos at an outdoor wedding. Not the best weather conditions for an outdoor wedding but what can you do? It was sooo windy it was hard to keep ties down and dress placed but I think she did excellent. We were dodging the lightning and the rain but I think she got some great photos. Now I am trying to cool the house off to get some sleep. I cannot sleep when it is hot! We are too cheap to turn on the air conditioning so hopefully we get cooled off soon. Luckily the wind is gusting enough to move the air around inside. According to my weather station (for those of you that don't know, I love knowing the weather and the current conditions so I have a weather station on my house) the wind is currently 14.9 mph but unfortunately it does not tell me what the gusts are. I would love to see the numbers go higher! OK, enough about the weather. Seriously! Here are some pictures from this afternoon enjoying the hot weather.

First Post

Ok, since I have continued reading other people's blogs, I decided to start my own. Why not? So hang in there with me as I try to figure it all out. I will try to post regularly but you know how that goes. I am sure I will start out strong and slowly fade. For those of you that do not know, I have two kids and my youngest stepbrother is living with us as well. We are looking forward to some slower times as summer is here. No more school or weekly church for Riley, Jason graduated so no more driving him to Grand Haven every day and Matt's work schedule is slowing down. Hopefully, that will mean more family dinners at home!