I LOVE fireflies! Last night after the sun had gone down and the daylight was fading away, I glanced across my front yard to be pleasantly surprised by the mystical little bugs with glowing butts turning on and off. In my very on front yard! I sat and watched out my window (because my yard was also full of mosquitoes... I also earlier got 10 bites in 10 minutes just on my front porch :-P) for quite a while :).
I never saw them growing up in Washington and always thought they looked so cool and unreal when I saw them on movies and stuff. Then I was never in Michigan during the right part of the summer to see them either (considering they are just coming out now and I would go home for the summer). The first time I saw them was when I was driving back to WA with my dad in mid-late June after my junior year at Calvin (2006?). I forget which state we were in, Wyoming maybe, and as soon as twilight hit... the grass on the sides of good ol' Highway 90 lit up with hundreds and hundreds of those little twinkling lights. I was in awe. I always knew I would love fireflies and longed to see them in person, but this was beyond all expectations. Who knew that an insect, a bug, could put me in such an awe that I had no other option but to praise my Creator for the goodness and intricacy of His work?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My 23rd Birthday :)
Birthdays are funny things. They've become so much less exciting in the last few years. Probably partially because I am always missing someone and can't see them. And because I've passed 16 and 18 and 21... and it's not like anything in my life is going to change because of my age now.
This year has been an exception. It's nice to have a husband who loves me and does wonderful things to make me feel loved and appreciated :). First of all, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny summer day... then I got off work a little early. I came home to a yummy salmon dinner and then yellow cake with homemade fudgy frosting. A little later on, as we were sitting out in the sun on our deck (which no longer has a hole in it, by the way, thanks to Matt's fam last weekend), Matt brings out a pineapple and sets it in front of me. Lo and behold, there is a straw sticking out and a yummy yummy drink inside! It was the perfect summer birthday treat! And so cute! So, of course, I had to take pictures to remember it. I wish I would have taken pictures of our dinner and cake too, but I didn't think of that until later. Oh, and Grace stopped by to see me for a while too.
The man behind it all :)
This year has been an exception. It's nice to have a husband who loves me and does wonderful things to make me feel loved and appreciated :). First of all, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny summer day... then I got off work a little early. I came home to a yummy salmon dinner and then yellow cake with homemade fudgy frosting. A little later on, as we were sitting out in the sun on our deck (which no longer has a hole in it, by the way, thanks to Matt's fam last weekend), Matt brings out a pineapple and sets it in front of me. Lo and behold, there is a straw sticking out and a yummy yummy drink inside! It was the perfect summer birthday treat! And so cute! So, of course, I had to take pictures to remember it. I wish I would have taken pictures of our dinner and cake too, but I didn't think of that until later. Oh, and Grace stopped by to see me for a while too.
The man behind it all :)
On a different, much less joyous note... Grace has decided that she is moving to Illinois in a few weeks because she hasn't found a job here and her lease is running out soon. She's the best friend I have here, and the only one I hang out with on a regular basis. It's gonna be quite the blow to my already lacking social life :(. Prayers for not getting too lonely in the coming year would be much appreciated.
PS: 3 weeks from today, I will be in Washington holding my beautiful little niece!
PS: 3 weeks from today, I will be in Washington holding my beautiful little niece!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Biking to work
The rain didn't last long, so I was still able to bike to work to see how long it takes. It took me 40 minutes to get there and 35 to get home... which is a little funny, because I was thinking it was more hilly on the way home... but come to find out: both directions have a lot more hills than I ever noticed while driving :-P. Anyways, that was all with Saturday afternoon traffic, not weekday rush hour. And I would definitely need to bring a change of clothes if I did this because I worked up quite a sweat (especially after going there and back - I'm real tired). In conclusion, it does not look very likely that I will go through the time and effort during the week, even if it would save a lot on gas.
Same old, same old...
Not much new going on this past week. I worked 5 long days to fill in for someone on vacation. It'll be nice to get some overtime pay, but it sure was a tiring week. I could really use a vacation myself from those kids... less than a month to go! It's also super crazy at work right now because we have accreditation people coming sometime between July 7 and 25 to renew our accreditation status. But this means that we have to have everything ready by the 7th and there are a million and ten nit-picky little things to make sure we have in our rooms or don't have in our rooms and what not by then. Pretty much every day our director tells us something new to make sure we are doing or have ready. For example, all broken toys must be thrown away, so we have to go through ALL of our toys to check for cracks and stuff. We are not allowed to have any aerosol-type spray that is flammable in our classrooms, so we had to go through our cupboards and all the children's' sunscreens that they brought and send home most of those spray on kinds and tell parents they need to send new non-flammable ones. Just a lot of little things that take a lot of time that we already were crunched for :-/.
Last week I got annoyed with the hot tub being smack in the middle of our deck to walk around all the time... so we randomly put it up for free on craigslist, since it wasn't even hooked up to work anyways... and someone called within an hour or two, came to see it an hour later, and then came back and got it a couple days later. Needless to say, now we have a giant hole in the middle of our deck to walk around, ha ha. But it's a step in the right direction at least :-P.
I'm starting to get a little bored around here again, especially on rainy days and when Matt is working on the weekends (although he did get daytime shifts on Thursday and Friday for this coming week :)). Like today, Matt works from 2:30-11, so I was going to bike to my daycare to see how long it would take... but alas, it has just started to rain. Boo. Hopefully it'll let up later. Does anyone have any good book suggestions for me?
Matt and I are trying to find something fun to do on the 4th of July. This is not the easiest thing to do however, because he will likely be working the day before and after, and we don't know who's around to do something with (although we're looking into it). It was always so easy on holidays and summer weekends and such in Seattle, I had so many friends and family around, there was always something to do or at least someone to hangout with. There are a couple of places with fireworks on the night of the 4th, so hopefully we'll go to one of those.
Last week I got annoyed with the hot tub being smack in the middle of our deck to walk around all the time... so we randomly put it up for free on craigslist, since it wasn't even hooked up to work anyways... and someone called within an hour or two, came to see it an hour later, and then came back and got it a couple days later. Needless to say, now we have a giant hole in the middle of our deck to walk around, ha ha. But it's a step in the right direction at least :-P.
I'm starting to get a little bored around here again, especially on rainy days and when Matt is working on the weekends (although he did get daytime shifts on Thursday and Friday for this coming week :)). Like today, Matt works from 2:30-11, so I was going to bike to my daycare to see how long it would take... but alas, it has just started to rain. Boo. Hopefully it'll let up later. Does anyone have any good book suggestions for me?
Matt and I are trying to find something fun to do on the 4th of July. This is not the easiest thing to do however, because he will likely be working the day before and after, and we don't know who's around to do something with (although we're looking into it). It was always so easy on holidays and summer weekends and such in Seattle, I had so many friends and family around, there was always something to do or at least someone to hangout with. There are a couple of places with fireworks on the night of the 4th, so hopefully we'll go to one of those.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Summer + kids = FUN
It has been a busy, but fun week for me. Thursday I was supposed to tag along with the Smith kiddies to a strawberry farm, but the berries weren't ready for picking yet, so we didn't get to go. I ended up babysitting for the afternoon though so their mom could run a few errands. Now that the boys are in booster car seats, I can fit all 3 of them in the backseat of my car! I took them to the park and bike trail that's right by my house. Their dad took their training wheels off in hopes of them learning to ride without them, but they are not even 5 yet and the result has just been them not being able to ride their bikes much this summer. So I put the training wheels back on, loaded them in my trunk, and set them free (within sight of me, of course) on the trail while I pushed Lacey in a stroller. They had a great time and really enjoyed the freedom of riding on a trail, especially because there was hardly anyone else on it. Then we had a picnic lunch and they played on the playground for a little while too. Summer is so much more fun when you have kids to enjoy it with :).
So cute
Water break
Big boys :)
Lacey Lou
Spiderman!
Thursday night I had a softball double header in the heat and humidity. We haven't come against any team so far that has given us a run for our money until the second game that night. It was definitely more exciting that way, and we ended up winning by one point, so we're still undefeated! Next week we play the other team from our church, so that'll be interesting. Anyways, I sure was exhausted when I got home that night.
Matt worked Friday from 1-6 instead of 5-10, so that was nice to have him home at night. Although I was still pretty tired from a long week. We did have fun playing Rummikub, and then watching The Great Debaters, which was a pretty good movie. Then this morning we sat out on the deck in the sun drinking our coffee :).
Ready to go!
So cute
Water break
Big boys :)
Lacey Lou
Spiderman!
Thursday night I had a softball double header in the heat and humidity. We haven't come against any team so far that has given us a run for our money until the second game that night. It was definitely more exciting that way, and we ended up winning by one point, so we're still undefeated! Next week we play the other team from our church, so that'll be interesting. Anyways, I sure was exhausted when I got home that night.
Matt worked Friday from 1-6 instead of 5-10, so that was nice to have him home at night. Although I was still pretty tired from a long week. We did have fun playing Rummikub, and then watching The Great Debaters, which was a pretty good movie. Then this morning we sat out on the deck in the sun drinking our coffee :).
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
New Bike :)
So I did end up deciding that I wanted a bike for my birthday too. I compiled my birthday money (or birthday money to be, considering my birthday is not for another 2 weeks :-P), and ordered a bike from Cabela's because they ship for free to their stores. We don't have any around here, but I had it shipped to the store in Indiana near Matt's parents. It arrived already last Friday, and they happened to know someone driving to GR that night, sent it with him, and I already have it! It's a Schwinn Solution mountain bike, although it is a little more hybrid-like than mountain.
I took it for its first real ride tonight when I got home from work. When I was at the cottage last weekend, Marcia's sister told me about a trail that starts only a mile from my house (on 44th and Kalamazoo if you live in GR). It's a nice, two-lane, paved trail that runs along what used to be a railroad track. It's called the Paul-Henry Thornapple Trail. It has a whole bunch of small sections that are paved a few miles long, and the goal is for the whole thing, which will be 42 miles long. By using the gmaps pedometer (which is a really cool way to find out distances, especially when not on streets), I found out that it's 7.7 miles from my house to the end of the trail and back. I rode that tonight in about 40 minutes, which I calculated to be about 11.5 mph... a leisurely pace?
The bike ride was extra nice because the weather was absolutely perfect. This morning it rained a little bit, but then in the afternoon it cleared up a lot to clear blue skies, the humidity died down a lot, and it was mid to high 70s. A nice change from all the thunder storming lately.
I decided that if I had a trail to bike directly to work on, I would do it for sure. My daycare is 5.7 miles away, which by my pace today should take just about 30 minutes to bike, when it already takes me around 20 to drive. But with all those streets to cross and everything... it would take much longer. Maybe I should try it sometime on the weekend though.
Random note (I had a few people ask about this): My friend Grace might not be moving to Illinois. She is currently looking for jobs in both GR and Illinois, so she might be sticking around here... that's what I'm hoping for :).
I took it for its first real ride tonight when I got home from work. When I was at the cottage last weekend, Marcia's sister told me about a trail that starts only a mile from my house (on 44th and Kalamazoo if you live in GR). It's a nice, two-lane, paved trail that runs along what used to be a railroad track. It's called the Paul-Henry Thornapple Trail. It has a whole bunch of small sections that are paved a few miles long, and the goal is for the whole thing, which will be 42 miles long. By using the gmaps pedometer (which is a really cool way to find out distances, especially when not on streets), I found out that it's 7.7 miles from my house to the end of the trail and back. I rode that tonight in about 40 minutes, which I calculated to be about 11.5 mph... a leisurely pace?
The bike ride was extra nice because the weather was absolutely perfect. This morning it rained a little bit, but then in the afternoon it cleared up a lot to clear blue skies, the humidity died down a lot, and it was mid to high 70s. A nice change from all the thunder storming lately.
I decided that if I had a trail to bike directly to work on, I would do it for sure. My daycare is 5.7 miles away, which by my pace today should take just about 30 minutes to bike, when it already takes me around 20 to drive. But with all those streets to cross and everything... it would take much longer. Maybe I should try it sometime on the weekend though.
Random note (I had a few people ask about this): My friend Grace might not be moving to Illinois. She is currently looking for jobs in both GR and Illinois, so she might be sticking around here... that's what I'm hoping for :).
Sunday, June 8, 2008
All Filled Up
So it seems that my writing on here is becoming a once a week thing, I guess that's not so bad. Last Thursday when I last posted and talked about the thunder storming... I also had a softball game that night. I was really hoping it would get rained out, but after the t-storm, the sun came out and dried everything up pretty well. However, it was still low 80's and 90% humidity - DISGUSTING... especially to play softball in at 7:45 when all the bugs are coming out to suck your blood. It was like slow motion all night because it was impossible to move very fast in all that hot thick air. Anyways, it was a little fun none-the-less.
My weekend ended up being a huge blessing. Friday was a fun day at work because it was a nice day and we could put the kids in their swimsuits and let them play with water outside... and entertained kids = less fighting and an easier job for me :). Then I got a message from my friend Marcia, who had heard that Matt was going to be working most of the weekend, and invited me to go with her, her husband, and her 3 year old (Luke) and 2 month old (Lauren) kids, to her parents cottage for the night and the day on Saturday. Her parents and sister were there too. We walked around the lake, sat on the dock and read, went for some boat rides, and did a little tubing too. I did my share of playing with Luke and reading him books, and holding Lauren too :).
Today was our first day without having to be at church early for Sunday school, and it was very nice. We got to sleep in a little, and then still had time to have a slow relaxing morning complete with cinnamon rolls before church. Church was also really good and funny too, yes I said funny. Our pastor is really into visual aides and props (like the word "it" made out of wood and 4 feet tall), and often he himself acting things out with the props. Today he crawled across about 6 chairs in a very dramatic fashion. Ada Bible also just started puting video in addition to audio of sermons online to download, which is pretty cool.
The weekend really put me in the mood for summer. It also made me feel much less lonely in general, just to get out and do something, and realize that maybe the summer won't be so bad, and then to have a relaxing morning with my husband and a good teaching and worship at church. Like I said, it was a blessing, thank you Lord for filling me up.
Bath time - I'm all wet!
All warm and dry
I'm cute and I know it
My weekend ended up being a huge blessing. Friday was a fun day at work because it was a nice day and we could put the kids in their swimsuits and let them play with water outside... and entertained kids = less fighting and an easier job for me :). Then I got a message from my friend Marcia, who had heard that Matt was going to be working most of the weekend, and invited me to go with her, her husband, and her 3 year old (Luke) and 2 month old (Lauren) kids, to her parents cottage for the night and the day on Saturday. Her parents and sister were there too. We walked around the lake, sat on the dock and read, went for some boat rides, and did a little tubing too. I did my share of playing with Luke and reading him books, and holding Lauren too :).
Today was our first day without having to be at church early for Sunday school, and it was very nice. We got to sleep in a little, and then still had time to have a slow relaxing morning complete with cinnamon rolls before church. Church was also really good and funny too, yes I said funny. Our pastor is really into visual aides and props (like the word "it" made out of wood and 4 feet tall), and often he himself acting things out with the props. Today he crawled across about 6 chairs in a very dramatic fashion. Ada Bible also just started puting video in addition to audio of sermons online to download, which is pretty cool.
The weekend really put me in the mood for summer. It also made me feel much less lonely in general, just to get out and do something, and realize that maybe the summer won't be so bad, and then to have a relaxing morning with my husband and a good teaching and worship at church. Like I said, it was a blessing, thank you Lord for filling me up.
Beautiful baby girl
Bath time - I'm all wet!
All warm and dry
I'm cute and I know it
Thursday, June 5, 2008
From good weekends to boring ones...
Last weekend Matt had both Saturday and Sunday off due to some errors in scheduling, but I didn't mind :). It was really nice to see what a normal weekend is like for a married couple who can be together the whole time, and nice to see what we have to look forward to in, oh another year or so :-P. Often there is this pressure hanging over us to do something or spend every moment together because we don't have a lot of time to do that and don't want to waste what we have. But there was none of that and we were free to do our own things and hangout together and all around relax. We went for a little bike ride each day. We went and got some ice cream, and then came home and played some games and watched a movie on Saturday night. Matt put hooks up outside to hang my hammock (that I got in Ecuador and haven't been able to use yet) , so I read for a while in that on Sunday, which was super relaxing. Sunday was also our last week of helping with Discovery Village (Sunday school) until September, hooray for sleeping in a little more on Sundays now! Anyways, any of you who get to consistently spend your weekends at home with your spouses, don't take it for granted.
This week has been insane at work! Our kids have just been all over each other. They were hitting, pushing, and biting... which are all things that occur on a weekly basis, but this was almost constant. Usually they are really good and play well when we're outside on the playground, but even that has been a challenge. They haven't been settling down for naps very well and then haven't been sleeping very long either. They've really been trying my patience. Last week we found out that all but one of the 10 kids we currently have in the toddler room will be moving up to the preschool in the fall because they will all be 2 and a half by then. We have gotten very used to having an older group of toddlers lately and the many more things we can do with them because of that. It is going to be a huge adjustment to lose them and get 5 or 6 new kids from the infant room who will all be more like 14-16 months. However, after this week, we decided that one upside is that we won't have nearly as many temper tantrums and general naughtiness either. I am going to be so ready to leave the toddler age-group after another year of this!
I would just like to say that right now it is POURING sheets and sheets of rain and there's lots of wind and thunder and lightning... and I am SO thankful that it's my day off and I am not at work right now stuck inside with our kids who have been crazy cranky and uncooperative and naughty this week already. Although, I do feel bad for the people who are there and I hope that the thunder at least lets up by nap time.
I am thinking I won't be playing softball tonight with this weather, but we'll see, it all can come and go very quickly. Last week's softball was great though! Matt ended up working during the day instead of at night, and he got to come watch me play. And then the kids I babysit for ended up coming to see me as well, so I had a whole little fan club :).
This coming weekend has no plans really. Matt is going to be working most of it, so lonely and boring for me probably. He works Friday 5-10, Saturday 2-10:30, and Sunday 3-8, blah. And it's looking like the few extra hours that Costco is going to give him for the summer are probably going to be on Saturdays, so goodbye weekends even more...
PS: Evangeline is one month old today :-D. Only another month and 11 days until I see her...
This week has been insane at work! Our kids have just been all over each other. They were hitting, pushing, and biting... which are all things that occur on a weekly basis, but this was almost constant. Usually they are really good and play well when we're outside on the playground, but even that has been a challenge. They haven't been settling down for naps very well and then haven't been sleeping very long either. They've really been trying my patience. Last week we found out that all but one of the 10 kids we currently have in the toddler room will be moving up to the preschool in the fall because they will all be 2 and a half by then. We have gotten very used to having an older group of toddlers lately and the many more things we can do with them because of that. It is going to be a huge adjustment to lose them and get 5 or 6 new kids from the infant room who will all be more like 14-16 months. However, after this week, we decided that one upside is that we won't have nearly as many temper tantrums and general naughtiness either. I am going to be so ready to leave the toddler age-group after another year of this!
I would just like to say that right now it is POURING sheets and sheets of rain and there's lots of wind and thunder and lightning... and I am SO thankful that it's my day off and I am not at work right now stuck inside with our kids who have been crazy cranky and uncooperative and naughty this week already. Although, I do feel bad for the people who are there and I hope that the thunder at least lets up by nap time.
I am thinking I won't be playing softball tonight with this weather, but we'll see, it all can come and go very quickly. Last week's softball was great though! Matt ended up working during the day instead of at night, and he got to come watch me play. And then the kids I babysit for ended up coming to see me as well, so I had a whole little fan club :).
This coming weekend has no plans really. Matt is going to be working most of it, so lonely and boring for me probably. He works Friday 5-10, Saturday 2-10:30, and Sunday 3-8, blah. And it's looking like the few extra hours that Costco is going to give him for the summer are probably going to be on Saturdays, so goodbye weekends even more...
PS: Evangeline is one month old today :-D. Only another month and 11 days until I see her...
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