A Day for Mothers, 2014

This is becoming one of my favorite holidays, y'all.  What's better than waking up to treats, cards, gifts, extra love and hugs, and being pampered all day?!?  This year didn't disappoint!

Each one of the girls made something very special for me this year.  I'm grateful for each one of them.

Here are a few highlights from the day.

A cake pop bouquet made by Mark and the girls...this had 3 different types of cake: homemade chocolate doughnut holes, chocolate chip cookies, and yellow cake.  They were decorated in my favorite colors of turquoise and blues.  It was not only so cute, but delicious too!

Thanks to Chippewa preschool, I had many gifts from the 4 year old.

Melts my heart.

A flower bouquet in a mason jar, and a cute sign.

I love the poem, although not original, I know it's from the heart. 

My big 4-0!!

Somewhere along the way, I got old, people!  Wow!  Do you remember imagining what you would look like or where you would be in your life when you turned a certain age...30, or 40, or 50, or 60, etc?!?  I can't say this is exactly what I imagined, but it's a great place to be nevertheless!  I feel great!  Somehow coinciding my birthday with buying this new house has given me a fresh perspective and positive outlook on life.  I am exactly where I need to be.  I feel so grateful for so many great things in my life.  It's hard to be too upset about getting older.  Part of the beauty of getting older, I think, is the fact that I have that much more life to look back on and smile about.  I have that many more happy memories and rich experiences that have shaped me into the person I am today.  Thank goodness for that!

My birthday was so much fun!  My sister Melanie put together a cookbook called "40 is going to taste delicious!"  She had friends and family send me recipes a couple weeks preceding my birthday, and then had a book for them to all go into.  I love it!  So cute, and fun to get recipes and notes from the people I love most.  Thanks Melanie!!  And thanks to all of you who sent me recipes, I can't wait to try them!

Mark (with the help of a couple friends from back in the day) put together a mix CD of favorite songs from our Galleria days in Rexburg at Ricks College.  The songs aren't necessarily from the early 90's, but they remind us of that period of our lives when and where we first met and had crushes on each other.  Those were some of the best years of my life, and I love that I can listen to this CD and immediately be taken back to that place.  So sweet!!

Maryn and Avery (with a little help from Parker) put together a movie of pictures and music of our family from over the years.  It was so cool to see our family over the past 15 years and how much we have all grown and changed.  It made my heart absolutely swell and want to burst with love and gratitude.  I love these girls of mine so much, and am so proud of the life we have created as a family.  Thank you girls! 

In addition to this, it's always great to get Facebook messages throughout the day, and feel a little extra special.  It was a great birthday because of the people in my life who made me feel loved and remembered. I love you all!

Mark and I slinging beer and brats at a Loons Game in Midland as part of a fundraiser for Parker's preschool, Chippewa.  It was a fun, spring night in Midland!

We MOVED!!

I have no actual pictures from the day that we moved.  Probably because it all happened so fast, and was such a blur.  Suffice it to say, things went smoothly and nothing got broken or lost! Lots of friends from our old ward, and new ward showed up to help, and it warmed our hearts.  We both feel so strongly that this is the house we were meant to find, that this ward is finally "home", and that we are all happy and content.  I keep having this feeling that we are finally "grown-ups", and that this is a place where we will grow older and watch many big, important phases of life happen.  I really get so excited thinking about what the future holds.  It's so nice to finally be able to settle in, and know that we can get comfortable and put down roots someplace that we are all taken care of.  I can't say I've had that feeling every place we've lived.

Anyway, I am grateful, and feeling very blessed.

 

This is the only picture I have of the inside of the house at this point.  I will try and get together an open house one of these days, but for now this is it.  This is our fireplace in the family room.  All those cards were from my birthday...another story for another day!

Spring Break 2014

I know, I know, I know!  I'm just going to pretend that my little hiatus never happened, and just pick up where I left off!!  Nevermind the fact that we bought a house, moved yet again in less than a year, and that my life is completely not busy.  Whatever...here goes.

So for Spring Break, we took a little trip down to the Metro area to meet up with my besties of all time.  By some magical, cosmic coincidence Becky (now in Washington), and Chris (now in Utah) decided to be in Detroit at the same time.  Casey (now in South Lyon), and I (now in Midland) traveled into the area to meet up with Sheila (still in the Detroit area) for a night of yummy food, plenty of laughter, and lots of memories.  I sure love these people.  It doesn't matter how much time passes, we all just click, and pick right back up as if no time has passed.  I am lucky to still call them friends...and this time we let our spouses come too, which made it only "funner". 

We also were able to attend a local storytelling event hosted by the infamous Detroit Story League.  It was a great way to see what Grandma does, and also get together with the cousins.

After our trip, we spent the rest of the week at home trying to do some stuff mixed in with removing wallpaper, painting, packing, and closing on the house, and generally being stressed out.

One of the days, I took the girls to Dow gardens to see the annual butterfly exhibit.  It's such a beautiful place, but unfortunately Parker was a little freaked out by the butterflies. She didn't like them touching her...that kid could be scared by her shadow.  Anyway, the rest of us enjoyed the day.

Spring Break ended with a trip to our favorite Nature Center, and an art show for the local preschools of the area.

 Parker being a turtle at Chippewa Nature Center, and sowing her work at the Art Show.

Easter in the Little Yellow House

What an interesting blip of time in the big scheme of things...our time in the little yellow house.  Although it was only about 8 months, it seems like it would never end some days.  Maybe that has something to do with the fact that it was the LONGEST Winter of our lives, and that we were trapped inside this 900 square foot home for 5 straight months.  Regardless, we still lived our lives and enjoyed making memories...even if they were cramped memories.  Haha!

Easter arrived, and we enjoyed all the traditions that the season and holiday brings.

The Easter bunny managed to find the little yellow house, and brought the traditional candy and books again.  This time, however for Maryn, he ventured out and included a movie and CD...was the Easter bunny thinking outside the box, or was he just strapped for time?!?  Hmmmm....

(BTW, Parker insists on doing the #1 sign in all her pics...I can't tell if it's supposed to be the peace sign, or if she really just wants to say #1...either way, she is a funny little girl.)

Easter Sunday included new dresses and a bright, sunny Sabbath day. I love Easter Sunday!!

Where has the time gone?

Sorry, I kinda dropped the ball on March.  Lots going on, and time has gotten away from me.  So here is a recap on our goings on for MARCH:

The Midland Center for the Arts is pretty cool.  We were able to really enjoy it this month!  We saw a visiting Frog exhibit that was really neat, and also enjoyed the exhibits that stay here year round.

Last weekend, Maryn, Avery, Mark, and I got to see Les Miserables, performed by a company of locals!  I was so impressed!  It was fantastic, and I couldn't believe the actors were all just regular old Midland-ites. The music was as wonderful as I remembered it, and it was a nice evening out with the "big girls".  I am excited that Midland brings such quality theater to the area!

Avery finished up another season of basketball.  This one was 6th grade girls 4 on 4.  Because of the smaller team size, she got way more time to play, and really improved on her skills.  It is so fun to watch her play.  We get such a kick out of watching her spread her giant wings and really dominate her opponents.

She also competed in our school's version of scholastic bowl...they call it "head-to-head", and there are several categories.  She competed in art: black and white still life.  She did well, but didn't place overall.  It was several weeks worth of practices and we are proud of her for being a good sport and doing her best.

She also participated in the 6th grade chorus, and had a spring concert this month.  It's fun seeing our tall girl in the middle of the back row.  We love our Avery Jane!

Maryn is doing well.  She has been through a lot this past year with facing some challenges that have come her way in school/life.  We are happy to say that we now have some answers we were looking for, and positive changes are happening that will hopefully make her life easier and happier.  It's hard watching your children struggle, and this has been a real growing experience for all of us.  Suffice it to say, she can still use your prayers and positive feedback to help her feel the love.  Teenage girls are so fragile.  I have to remind myself of this daily.  I know this because I was one, and wouldn't want to repeat that period of my life for a million dollars!  She has really been enjoying Young Women's and was able to go to a Stake Movie Night earlier this month.  Picking her up after 10 pm was a surreal experience.  She is definitely growing up!  I just realized I don't have any pics of Maryn this month.  Not sure how that happened...

Parker has been enjoying preschool, and made lots of masterpieces.  She celebrated her half birthday (for those kids whose birthdays are during the summer...hers falls right around Labor Day and Michigan schools always start after Labor Day), and insisted we make blue cupcakes and have blue juice (her favorite color).  Lucky for me, I was co-opping the same day, so I got to snap some pics of her in her element.

I took all the girls in for annual physicals this month, and was so amused to see that Parker is 43 inches tall, and weighs 43 lbs.  The first and last time that will happen in her life!!  She is in the 90th percentile for both, and is classic 4 year old, all the way!

She has also enjoyed her ballet class.  This past week was her last week for the season.  She has loved it, but we are going to be busy in the next few months so she will continue again sometime down the road.

I have been busy sending out resumes, teaching my primary class, and thinking about new furniture and paint colors.  Not much else to say...

Mark had his spring break from Delta the first week of March.  Needless to say, it's really lame that the public schools don't coincide their spring breaks with local colleges and universities.  We stayed home, he graded papers, and we got lunch out...a lot.  :)


We have been in full swing of looking for our new home!  We found a great realtor named Denise, and she and Parker have become new best friends.  It's so cute to see Parker run into her arms, and Denise be so excited to see her when we get together.  It's been a fun, but difficult process.  There are plenty of houses to choose from in Midland, and the market here is surprisingly great!  We had a wish list, a price-range, and location perameters.  We narrowed it down to two choices within all of those criteria.  It was either a big house that needed lots of renovations, or a smaller house that was move-in ready, but because it was a tri-level, it really lacked storage that we need.  We decided on the smaller, move-in ready house and were moving in the direction of writing up an offer when I woke up one morning and just didn't feel like it was the "one".  I felt like we were settling with both options, and for comparisons sake, we needed to open up either our search location or our budget just to see what else was out there.  I didn't feel confident, and figured that with this many choices why should we sacrifice?

Midland has school of choice, so we were assured that no matter where the house was, we could still continue to have the girls attend the school they started the year in.  That left only one thing holding us back.  The ward.  We came to the difficult decision that we would be open to leaving the 2nd ward if necessary, and starting over in the 1st ward if it came down to it.  There were two good options outside of our ward boundaries.  I think Mark and I both knew when we walked into the first house, that this one was "the one".  It was the exact layout and size we'd been looking for.  It needed updates, but had good bones that we knew had a lot of potential.  It fit into the same style and feel that our other homes have had.  It was perfect!  Just to compare it, we went ahead and visited the second on the list.  This house was very similar, but had a super creepy unfinished basement, and a resident bat living in one of the upstairs window frames (between the screen and glass.  Can you say, ewwwww!!!!  I became more confident in our choice.  It wasn't difficult after that.  We knew having to move wards would be the only thing that would be a challenge.  The rest is history...as they say.

We closed on our 4th house TODAY!!  We are now home owners again!  May I introduce you to 5201 Nakoma, our newest member of the family...for hopefully many, happy years to come!!

So as you can see, we are MARCHing forward in our lives...one day at a time...busy, happy, and looking forward to SPRING!!

A few more winter tidbits...

Midland has an annual snow sculpture competition between the area middle schools and high schools. 

{Sidenote: There is quite a rivalry going between Midland's 2 high schools and middle schools which has been entertaining to observe and become a part of.  Apparently, as the legend goes Midland High and Northeast MS can whoop Dow High and Jefferson MS in sports, but vice versa get their butts kicked in academia.  So, allegedly we have all the brawn and they have all the brains, as the story goes.  Haha!  It kind of reminds me of the Stevenson/Churchill rivalry in Livonia a little bit.  The other differentiation is that all the "rich Dow kids" go to Dow High, and the rest of us go to Midland High.  That's a whole other story though.  Don't you love my new "sidenotes"?  Really just an excuse to go on really long, pointless tangents...hahah!!}

Anyhoo, Maryn belongs to an Art Honors Club which meets weekly after school.  As part of their club, they were invited to enter the competition.  Each member of the club molded a design using clay for a potential snow sculpture.  The teacher, along with each team member voted on the designs.  Guess whose design was selected?  Maryn!  She designed a castle tower with a winding staircase, and tower.  It seemed pretty straight forward as to how they would construct it out of snow.  She was leader of their 4-man team, and had a practice after school so they could make a plan for the big day of the competition. 

The day came, and the kids were allowed a school-excused absence to go downtown to the city park where the sculptures would be made.  As you know we have had record breaking snowfall, and temps here so there was no shortage in that dept.  Unfortunately that also meant that Maryn's snow pile was quadruple the size they had at their practice.  Add to that the fact that it was also in the low digits for temps that day.  It ended up being pretty treacherous.  Their art club teacher was also not there, so they had little supervision.  When I showed up, the kids were all pretty beat.  They didn't end up winning the competition, and I don't think any of them had that much fun doing it either.  Sorry, not a very happy ending to this story.  All in all, I think that Maryn learned some important lessons about teamwork, leadership, and perseverance.

 

Hopefully you can see the top part of her castle slowly unearthing itself from the massive pile of snow.  They just didn't have the time or the energy to complete the whole thing.  Ah well, another story for the books, I guess.

Here's another fun winter picture of Mark and Avery out shoveling snow for the millionth time this winter.  They were both soooo thrilled I made them stop to "say cheese"!!

{Sidenote: This was right before Avery came down with a terrible cough that lead to her pneumonia this winter...now that was a good time!  After her sickness, Mark got his annual "barky Marky" cough, which lead him to the doctor to be treated with antibiotics for a bronchial infection.  Shortly after that, Maryn started coughing and was diagnosed with H1N1, which she lovingly shared with MOI!!  I'm on day 6 of my incubation, but my virus has settled in my head and sinuses with severe congestion.  I haven't breathed out of my nose in almost a week.  You may be wondering, "Did Parker escape unscathed?"  Not so much.  She began vomiting in the wee hours of the morning today, and is now down for the count with the stomach flu. Tis the season!!}

Well I can't end this sad winter blog post on that note, so here are some of Parker's winter masterpieces to put life back into perspective. Isn't she getting so big?!?  As she has artfully displayed, her favorite color right now is...BLUE!  The funny thing about that bottom right craft is that they ran out of blue mittens, so she was forced to choose another color!!  Her #2 choice is...PINK!!  So perfect for her!
  

This winter rocks!!