Fall Open House

Welcome to the Brown's!!

This is a view of our street driving up to our house. I like the colors and the progression of the trees the further you drive...it goes from green, to multi-colored, to just a few red leaves left on the last tree.

This is the front of the house, not much other than a few mums and pumpkins. I'm not crazy about the arrangement yet...maybe we'll get some corn stalks to tie around the pole, and some bigger assorted pumpkins and gourds or something. Then again, we could go the tacky route and get some spider webbing to drape over the bushes and some sweet tombstones to stick in the grass...maybe a bloody mask or something...what do you think?

This is my favorite, tried-and-true Halloween decoration. I made this at a Fall Encrichment Activity with my Mother-in-Law. It took forever to paint all those pieces, but I loved the way it turned out. I've had it since our first Halloween together.

This is the mantle in the family room. (Sorry about the gross soot stains above the fireplace). Anyway, nothing too fancy...I went with just witches (like Mel) and a couple pumpkins. I'm going to replace the red flowers with something more fallish eventually.

And last, but not least this is the creative twist I put on my coffee table centerpiece in the living room. If you look closely, you will see the creepy crawlies peeking out here and there. Something I never would have attempted with toddlers in the house!

Can't wait to see everyone else's decorations...who's next???

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips. ~Author Unknown

(If you look really closely, you may notice a slight tinge of orange around Maryn's mouth from her Chef Boyardee Ravioli lunch before Church, September 23, 2007.)

When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us? ~Pam Brown

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double. ~Toni Morrison

What's the good of news if you haven't a sister to share it? ~Jenny DeVries

Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. ~Margaret Mead

How do people make it through life without a sister? ~Sara Corpening

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden. ~Author Unknown

There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me. ~Mary Montagu



A sister is a forever friend. ~Author Unknown

Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other. ~Carol Saline

Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow. ~Benjamin Disraeli

When mom and dad don't understand, a sister always will. ~Author Unknown

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life. ~Isadora James

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega

A sister shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams. ~Author Unknown

It was nice growing up with someone like you - someone to lean on, someone to count on... someone to tell on! ~Author Unknown

Sisterhood is powerful. ~Robin Morgan

Sister to sister we will always be, A couple of nuts off the family tree. ~Author Unknown

That last one is my favorite, I think. So I guess I've been thinking a lot about sisters lately...my own sisters and sisters-in-law, the sisters that my own daughters are to each other, as well as the sisters that I see in my own Mother and Aunt. We have such a strong bond. I am so grateful for this blessing in my life. I have felt it's power at some of the hardest times in my life, as well as the happiest. I feel so lucky to be able to share it all with you. I have been so excited to start planning our Reunion for 2008, and then to find out that we're getting a happy little surprise reunion for Mel's bday seriously was the best news I've gotten in awhile!! I can't tell you how much I look forward to seeing all of you, and just being together!! It's a calm amidst the storm, a light in times of darkness, an "event" to look forward to. Does that sound pathetic? I hope not. I just want you all to know how much I love you and appreciate who you are...the examples you show each day in the things that you do and what you stand for. I hope and pray that my girls will have in each other what we do. Here's to Jeff Norman for being the master-mind behind Mel's best bday yet!! I can't wait!!

LOL,
Suzy

Friday Firsts

First Music: I was a child of the 80's, so I went through a Michael Jackson phase. I was a big fan of Whitney Houston too. Other first’s included Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven on Earth” and OMD’s “The Best of OMD”.

First Best Friend: I always had lots of friends, but never one specifically. I remember when I was about 12, Jenny Collier (from church) and I labeled ourselves as best friends and dressed up as Salt & Pepper for Halloween. Later our friendship would crumble over liking the same boy…Jeff Goldman!! She wouldn’t talk to me after she found out he asked me to “go” with him. I broke it off with Jeff after a couple weeks because I felt so bad. She moved away a few months later anyway.

First Book: I remember reading series books a lot like the Little House books, Amelia Bedelia, Ramona the Pest, and Judy Blume in my latter elementary years. When I was in Middle School, it was the Sweet Valley High series!! I remember distinctly checking out Thoreau, Steinbeck, and Lord of the Flies one summer in High School just for the fun of it.

First Car: The first car I bought with my own money was an ’87 Ford Tempo that was red with really faded red velour interior. I called it “Old Red”. It was a stick shift, and Daren taught me how to drive it while I was living with them in Chelsea.

First Job: Chopping onions, slicing bread, selling (and snitching) cookies at the Miami Bake Shoppe (15 years old).

First Date: Buddy Kennedy took me to see his Ypsilanti High School’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors”, Spring 1990.

First "F": Freshman Gym Class because I didn’t want to get my hair wet and I was embarrassed to wear a bathing suit.

First Injury: I broke my thumb playing basketball in gym in the 8th grade at Holmes Middle School. I had to wear an air-cast for months it seemed, and it trapped sweat and stank so bad!!

First Child: Maryn Elizabeth Brown born on the 14th of December, 2000…3 ½ weeks early!! My water broke as I was getting ready for an early meeting at work. She had the prettiest lips and was so small. I was simultaneously freaked out and the happiest of my life.

Avery hits a half-decade!!

(This picture is Avery at the Northville Cider Mill, Sept. 3, 2007--Labor Day)

We celebrated Avery's fifth birthday on Saturday complete with a Girl Super-hero party during the day, dinner out with Grandparents Day at Cheeburger, Cheeburger and a trip to the ER!! It was a good day for her I think...oh wait you're probably looking for more details.

Girl Super-hero Party: Avery loves super-heroes...she's following in her Daddy's footsteps with that one. She loves watching the cartoons on Sat. mornings (particularly Justice League), and having bedtime comic books read to her. We invited 8 friends and started the party decorating capes with markers. Capes were followed by pizza. Pizza was followed by a Super-Hero obstacle course where the girls had to leap tall buildings (cardboard boxes) in a single bound, carry a brick to prove they were stronger than a locomotive, and race back to the starting line faster than a speeding bullet. More games continued inside, and then we finished off with a Super-Avery birthday cake and presents. It went surprisingly well. Sorry no pics available yet.

Cheeburger, Cheeburger: We love this burger place! It is the closest thing we've found to the infamous "Big Jud's" burger experience from Idaho. They have huge, fresh burgers with any toppings you want, fresh-cut fries, and milkshakes of any variety. Avery joined the birthday club several months back and was so excited when she got her free burger coupon in the mail for her bday. We got there, and she ordered Chicken Strips and Ranch...go figure! Grandma and Grandpa joined us and we had a good time.

Trip to the ER: Unfortunately it's not just the shellfish and possible tree nuts that I'm allergic to because following our fun bday dinner, I went into another full-blown anaphylactic episode. Mark and the girls dropped me off at the ER, and went home to open the rest of Avery's bday gifts while I got hooked up to IV Benadryl. Sorry no pics to post of this event either, although I'm not sure I would anyway!!

Maryn, Advocate of Racial Equality and Social Tolerance

Queue music... "All we are saying, is give peace a chance", and "so we keep waiting...waiting on the world to change..." As I post this piece of Maryn's artwork, I can't help but think of the lyrics to those tunes...(my fave of which is John Mayer's song). Maryn gave the FHE lesson last Monday night and this is what she came up with. It was so sweet. It was all about loving people and being "nis" no matter what people look like and how we should get along with people who may look or act different than we do because that is what Jesus (far right, with the beard) would want us to do. Even cats and dogs (lower left) should get along. Queue next song from the Primary hymnbook... "if you don't act like most people do, some people walk away from you, but I won't, I won't...Jesus said love everyone...He turned away from none... so I will, I will...". We were all pretty impressed with such a little girl giving us such a big lesson. We are really proud of her.

Buggin'!!

Disgusting image, huh? Pretty much this sums up our weekend. We decided to go hiking on some trails at Heritage Park in Farmington Hills, and this is what happened!! We were literally charged by an army of thousands of these blasted bugs! (We should have known we were hiking through the Amazon forests of mosquito-infested marshland!!) They were dive-bombing our heads, in our eyes, noses, mouths, ears...eww!! We were slapping ourselves frantically in an effort to kill the suckers before they killed us! Some of us were more successful than others. Mark came out of it unscathed, as did Avery (although last week she sustained a double bite--2 small bites in quick succession) right in the middle of her forehead. Maryn sustained 3-4 bites on the back of her neck and one on her leg. I won (or lost as the case may be) this battle hands-down with over 14 bites (some occurred last week as well)--2 on my face, 2 on my neck, 3 on arms, 4 on legs, 1 finger and 1 toe!! (The finger and toe ones are the worst because there's so little square footage to actually scratch!) After our "fun" hike, we celebrated with cones at Ritter's and Benadryl Itch Cream at CVS. (I sense a theme unfolding in my blog...I should re-title it, "Suzy and her Allergic Adventures") ...as Napoleon would say, "I itch real bad! Gosh!"

Randolph Roadrunners!!

Well, the girls officially began school at Randolph Elementary on Wed., Sept. 5. It was quite a day, and has been quite a process leading up to it. Regardless, they were happy and excited to go, as you can see above. Mark took the day off and dropped them off for a half-day. (Avery was actually only there for an hour.) Avery and Mark returned at noon to pick up Maryn, but after a few minutes realized she wasn't there! They ran to the office to discover that she had been put on the bus back to our old apartment! They called the bus driver who pulled over and waited for Mark to rescue Maryn from the bus, and when he did she was in tears. It was a scary event, especially for the first day...poor girl. Second day drop-off was a little harder for Maryn...she was pretty nervous. After all was said and done, we're now all on the same page as far as bus transit goes and (knock on wood) there shouldn't be any more curve balls thrown our way. Other than being tired and a little more hungry than usual, they seem to be enjoying their new career as RANDOLPH ROADRUNNERS!