to be 7 again...

These two have spent the past week together and so far very little fighting. Right now they are pretending to be a band. I'm trying not to laugh because I don't want to embarrass them, but it is so funny what they think the words to the songs are! hahaha

I'm looking into getting a blog overhaul. I don't know that I have the patience to figure it out myself so perhaps I will be purchasing a template somewhere.

The sun.

Feels like summer! It has been crazy here, even for Michigan weather. Either 50's and sunny or 70's and rain. After a long stormy weekend we finally had a gorgeous day yesterday. Not a cloud in the sky. We took advantage of the beautiful city we live in! First we saw some of the Barnyard statues downtown.



Then we walked down to the beach and played on the playground for a bit.


And finally time to cool down in the Compass Fountain.



We really are lucky to live here. I forget how beautiful it is and take it for granted often. It's Bailey's last week of school. We are really excited to have her home with us next week. I have lots of fun things planned. We are currently commitment-free and this is how I plan to keep it! The kids wanted to take another class at the Y but we would miss two of the lessons so we are going to wait. I think we may let Bailey take one Summer Camp session but other than that we are winging it!

So here's to summer!

Changes.

Life has changed since my last post. I lost my job and have been staying at home for the past 4 weeks. Craziness. I am enjoying my time with Megan and am excited for school to be out so we will have Bailey home with us too! I am casually looking for a job. I still really want to go back to school but if the right opportunity came along I certainly wouldn't pass it by. For right now we are just waiting to see what happens.

After going back and forth for about the millionth time we have decided not to sell our house. Seriously, sometimes my husband makes me crazy. I am glad that we are going to stay here a bit. Our house is really a good size for us. We could use a bit more room but it's doable. We are going to work on redoing one room at a time. Right now the focus is the yard. It is a disaster and the rain won't stop. We had new windows installed this week and our room is freshly painted. Just a matter of finishing the final details and we will have one room complete!

We also purchased a mini van. I wasn't super excited at first. I really wanted that cute little mazda 3 that went zoom zoom! But it wasn't really practical for our needs. The Pathfinder only has so many road trips left on it and we were cramped on our drive to Myrtle Beach. We ended up with a Town and Country, fully loaded van. It's nice and roomy. In fact we can't wait to have to drive somewhere to justify the purchase. Dave Ramsey wouldn't be happy with us but we were fairly smart about it. One paid off car/one car payment. It's not too terrible.

Next week starts the week of changing our bodies. I'm not fitting into any of my clothes and I am tired of feeling tired all of the time. I'm not sure if I will be able to run with my leg, but we will be doing some sort of exercize. The food is the biggest change. We are going all CLEAN. Yup. Cleaning out the cupboards and removing anything processed. The kids are going to have a fit. Hopefully they can adjust and will understand the benefits of only eating pure healthy foods.

So that's the update for now. Hope you have a fantastic day!

thank goodness this week is over

First the layout. Made with one of my favorite kits Studio Calico Who's Who. Seriously if you aren't a subscriber why not?! I pretty much stopped scrapbooking from the time Megan was born until she turned 2. Sure I still purchased new stuff and thought about doing it but it just never happened. Last spring I decided that instead of spending my money on stuff that I would never use i would buy one kit a month from Studio Calico. Best decision I ever made! I scrapbook all the time now. Love SC and the community there.

Now the bad week. First Kip was busy all last weekend and had a pretty bad week with work stuff. The problem with IT is you can't do changeovers during business hours so he was gone a LOT and really tired all week. Not really good for his mood ya know?

Then Kip's grandfather passed away. Very sad indeed. He lived a long full life and he was pretty sick towards the end, so it is for the best but still sad regardless. We went and hung out with his mom Wed. afternoon and I wish I could have done more for her. There wasn't a service or funeral, his wishes, so at least she didn't have that to deal with.

Thank goodness we are leaving next week! Myrtle Beach here we come. We are all ready for a break and to escape reality for a bit. Hope you enjoy your weekend! Will try to come back next time with happier news.

10 minutes to kill

So I still have ten minutes left before I have to go back to work. Might as well post on ye old blog that I seem to completely forget about. .

In light of some very sad news I have gathered over the past couple of weeks, I am trying to focus on the good things we have had. Here's my list:

1. Aunt Carole paid a visit! We love a visit from her. She's the perfect Great Aunt for the girls. She loves to spoil them and they love to be spoiled back (and I do not mean by buying things, I mean by actually paying attention to them and loving them so much!).

2. Kip is almost done with his insane schedule. It's been crazy around here. I am pretty sure being a single parent is not for me. He better keep loving me because I'm not giving him a choice!

3. Planning our trip to North and South Carolina. We are all getting very excited to get out of town for the week. We will be staying on the ocean, hopefully the weather will work in out favor.

4. Finally made it thru The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now I see why so many people loved it. I like that it had just enough foreshadowing to keep you involved, but not enough so that you would pick up on what really happened. Excited to start the next book in the series.

5. We managed to get outside to the park a few times last week. Hooray for warm weather! Of course by warm I mean 50 degrees, but that's a heat wave to us Michigan folk after a long winter.

6. Making my way back into running. I am staying fairly consistant with a pace of 9:30 per mile, which is where I left off last year. I'm trying to get under 9:00 by June but I'm taking it easy to avoid injury. Just running a couple miles every other day until I feel myself getting stronger. My calf muscle is acting up again so I am being very careful.

And with that I must be off. Hope you have a great week!

Merry Christmas!

So it's Christmas Eve and we still fight every day to get Megan to eat. She is so stubborn. When after a half hour of fighting with her we told her she needed to eat or she couldn't open her Christmas Eve present...surely that would change her mind right? WRONG. She said "Ok." and went to bed. I swear my hair is going to be all gray by her next birthday. (she did eventually get up and take a couple more bites but it took some coaxing from Kip.)

The stockings are hung, reindeer food on the lawn, we have been tracking santa and baking cookies all day. Just waiting for the big guy to arrive. Hard to believe it is almost over.

Now you must indulge me for a moment. My favorite kit club where I order all of my scrapbook goodness is having a contest. I need to make a Christmas list for their site. These are all my favorite things I haven't managed to snag just yet, with Christmas I had to be good.

1. Doilies Stamp
2. Mister Huey MH in Apple Jack and Lunchtray
3. Tweets Rub-ons
4. Noah Alphabet

Of course there are new inks and all kinds of fun things I would buy from the shop but these are on my wishlist for January!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!