This is for Tana...

What a busy fall! Although it's been busy, it's been a ton of fun. As much as I love summer and hate to see it end...I'm beginning to realize that fall really isn't all that bad either...I must be getting old! What can be better than a trip to the apple orchard, cinnamon-sugar donuts at the cider mill, pumpkin spice lattes, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating??
This year we've been a little tight on money, but God has supplied through it all. Would you believe that when we decided to forgo getting pumpkins this year Peyton won 10 of them?? What a fun family night carving them! Check out our Pumpkin pictures on facebook!
Trick or treating this year was a blast. Tristyn was a tornado and Peyton was a firefighter. They were so cute running from house to house (or Tristyn at least--Peyton's boots ended up being kind of heavy and he couldn't run :) yelling "Trucker Treat" and then smiling when they saw the candy dropped in their pumpkin. Both ended up with more candy than anyone should be allowed to eat in a lifetime! The best was watching Jason and the boys the very next day with all their candy spread out all over the floor sorting and counting...I don't know who enjoyed it more--Jason or the boys. (Probably Jason)
Today we enjoyed the beautiful weather by starting out at the Cider Mill for some yummy homemade donuts and coffee at Java Boulevard. Then we spent the rest of the day outside raking leaves. I remember as a little girl I used to dread raking leaves, but for some reason now I love it! I don't know if it's the sense of accomplishment to see green grass again, or watching the boys jump in the leaves oblivious to the fact that they are getting soaked and filthy! Regardless, it was a fun day and I'm so thankful for this warm weather and am soaking it all in before the snow begins to fly!!

Good for you

Why is that all the stuff that is good for you seems to be the hardest things to do??? I know that eating healthy is important, but why does junk food taste sooo good and seem to be so readily available? Why do I know I need to exercise sooo badly, but can't seem to make myself do it?? Why, when devotions are so important for my relationship with Christ and my entire well-being do I find every excuse in the book not to do them?? I get so frustrated with myself when I fail, but yet that seems to be all I ever do. I go to bed each night promising myself I will do better tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes...
Well, guess what??? Today is tomorrow. I'm not going to set a date to start anymore--I am starting now!!! If I fail, I'm going to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start again today---no more tomorrows!!
Ask me how I'm doing tomorrow...

New Things

It's been a while since I've written last--it's amazing how long the days seem sometimes, yet how fast the weeks fly!!! Since I've last posted we have decided to take our house off the market. In a way I'm sad because we want a bigger house soo bad, but it's also ok, because I know that God has a bigger and better plan for us than we could ever imagine!
Since we have decided to stay we are doing some much needed home improvements. The grand total number of hours we have spent in Menards so far this week is....6 hours!!! I have the bill to prove it too!! We aren't doing anything major, but I am still so excited. I love new things for the house. So far we have purchased a new back door, paint for the boys room, a new shelving unit for my pantry, and an entire new shelving system for my laundry room!!! I am so excited for the laundry room!!! Once we have a chance to go to IKEA we will also get new bedroom furniture, new bedding and hardwood floors!! I guess you don't have to get a new house to feel like you have a new house!! I can tell I am getting old because I never would have been so excited about such little things, much less things for the house :)
Another thing I have started since my last posting is a thing called Savings Angel. It is a grocery saving program that I am subscribed to. I have been able to cut my weekly grocery bill down to $50/week (this includes groceries for the week, HBC items, and items to stock up my pantry!) You wouldn't believe how much food I am stockpiling. The whole point of this Savings Angel is to get to the point where you don't need to go grocery shopping anymore--you can just focus on the best deals to maintain your pantry. I am getting name brand cereals for $1.00 or less a box, snacks and snack crackers for .67 a box, toothpaste free or less than .50...I could go on and on. It is so exciting, and believe it or not the highlight of my week is Sunday morning when the newspaper comes and I feel like a little kid opening a Christmas present looking for this weeks coupons!! (If you happen to get the Sunday paper and are just throwing away your coupons...please save them for me :) This is what has led to our need for a bigger pantry/storage area in the laundry room!
Our family is doing well...although it seems we have been so busy lately that we are just running from one thing to another. The boys are enjoying the still-warm weather and being able to play outside a lot. We went to the apple orchard last Saturday, but it was almost to warm to enjoy. We picked almost 30 lbs of apples which are already about half gone. The boys love to pick apples almost as much as they like to eat them, so I'm sure we will get in at least one more visit this fall. By now I'm sure you have all heard about our Hair Stylist-wannabe!! Peyton has now recovered from his hair slaughter, which ended up being so cute that I'm kind of sad it's grown back!! Tristyn has decided that he wants to be storm-chaser when he grows up and has absorbed about every known fact about tornadoes. I think he's destined to become a meteorologist!! He also has decided that he wants to have a new baby at our house, but he wants someone to bring the baby to us because he doesn't want me to get fat!! He is quite adament about that!! (By the way, in case your wondering...Tristyn doesn't always get what he wants...he's not going to get a new baby :) They continue to make us laugh with all the crazy things they come up with, I need to start writing some of these things down because my brain just doesn't remember these kind of things anymore...I think it's full :) Next time I post I'll try and remember some of the crazy things they say so I can share them all with you.
Well, that's about all from our corner of the world. I need to go be productive so we can finish up some of these little projects we have going. When they are all finished you'll have to come visit us and see all the changes!!!

Going, Going...Please come back!!!

I can't believe summer is nearing an end already!! Seems like we should have at least another month left!
I officially finished my summer nanny job this past Tuesday and will begin my fall one-day babysitting job next week. I am so thankful though that I still have one more year before I have to do the whole back-to-school thing! I'm not even thinking about loosing Tristyn to school next year at this time. We are however going to be working on "school work" with both boys this fall, which should be fun. I bought them both some books and new markers and they are excited to do their work. Today we kicked it off with a fun game of Alphabet Bingo--boy do I have my work cut out for me!!!
I am looking forward to going Outlet shopping tomorrow with my mom. Can't pass up those end of the season sales!! I'm hoping I can continue my streak of saving by being able to take advantage of these sales and put them away for next year. This fall I only had to buy shoes and socks--and last spring I only spent $60 for Tristyn's entire fall wardrobe including three winter coats!!! After a fun-filled day of shopping, the fun continues!! Saturday Jason's family offered to take the boys for us overnight so we could have a little alone time, since Jason is on-call and we can't go very far we are setting up our tent in the backyard and "camping". On Monday I am looking forward to getting together with a close friend I grew up with who is visiting from Ohio with her 4 week old baby boy!! And then later that day we are getting together with my family at Ross Park for a picnic, ladder ball, and more outdoor activities. Should be a fun Labor Day Weekend. Unfortunately, after that it all ends...summer that is, not the fun :) If only summer could last all year round. Oh yeah, it does if you live in California (yes, still dreaming about San Diego....)
It's been such a great summer I hate to see it end. We were so blessed with all the fun things we were able to do this summer and all the great places we were able to go and see. At least I'll have some great memories to look back on once the snow starts flying...

Next to Paradise

What an incredible week!! Jason and I left for our San Diego trip last Monday at 3 a.m. and drove over to Milwaukee to catch a connecting flight to Minneapolis. From Minneapolis we had an incredably long flight to San Diego California. The flight itself wasn't bad, I guess I just wasn't prepared for it being as long as it was. Thankfully the cloudcover was minimal and my attention was kept by continuously changing scenery. From snow-capped mountains one moment to flat, red squares the next. The moment we touched down at the San Diego airport, I knew we were in for a treat. California is absolutely perfect--palm trees everywhere, beautiful coastlines, perfect weather....I could go on and on. By the time we got our rental car and got checked into our hotel, we were STARVING!!! (We had skipped breakfast since we left so early, and then it just never worked out to get anything to eat until we arrived in CA!) We headed to Seaport Village, which is a very cool shopping/eating/boardwalk/park area. We had our first of many authentic Mexican dinners of the week and just wondered around checking the place out. With the time change and jet lag we were experiencing, we called it an early night and headed back to our hotel with a Starbucks (which became a little nightly tradition) and a snack.
The next day we started out bright and early and drove up the coastline to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Park. There we thoroughly enjoyed climbing down cliffs and climbing on slippery rocks to check out the tidepools and caves. We spent quite a bit of time there and then continued our drive up the coast to Pacific Beach. We enjoyed lying out on the beach for a while and just watching the huge waves crash onto the shore. After a little too much sunbathing (oops, who would know that California is just a tad bit more intense than Michigan sun???) we continued our drive up to La Jolla where we had lunch at the Hard Rock and enjoyed watching the Seals swim, play, and sunbathe at a beach there. Probably the highlight of our trip was the Cave Kayaking we did in La Jolla. It was amazing!!! We hired a tour guide and rented the kayaking equipment to be able to kayak out into the ocean and explore some caves. We were able to see many different kinds of fish and even some Leopard Sharks, but our favorites were the Sea Lions who were hanging out on some of the rocks. They were very tolerant of us, so we were able to get pretty close up to them. I think I could have stayed and watched them all night!! The last part of our tour included Kayak Surfing!!! What a blast!! We managed to actually stay in our kayak and caught a big huge wave that brought us all the way back into shore.
I could go on and on about the many things we were able to do and see in San Diego, but this would be one huge long post, and at the risk of boring you all to death, I'll just give you the highlights of the rest of our trip. We spent as much time as possible at the beach, and caught some pretty big waves body surfing. We went to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park, and then finished off our week by leaving San Diego and going out to the Island (Isthmus to be exact) of Coronado. Coronado is about as close to paradise as I think you can get. Beautiful and serene is about the only way to describe it. It was so hard to leave, but we were excited to get to see the boys.
It worked out so well, Jason's parents drove the boys out to meet us in Milwaukee at the airport and then we all stayed in Milwaukee Friday night and were able to attend his grandma's 80th birthday party in Milwaukee on Saturday.
The minute we walked off the plane, I began shaking with anticipation of seeing the boys. Since our last plane had been delayed almost 2 hours, they too were tired of waiting in the airport for us and came running as soon as they saw us. It was the sweetest renunion, and well worth the week spent away from each other. We laughed almost all night at the funny stories they had to tell us and the way that they would stop mid-sentence to tell us again "I love you and missed you sooo much" I wasn't even allowed to sit in the front seat!! I sat smooshed between two carseats in the backseat with two little hands wrapped around each of my arms!! I felt so loved and needed again.
It was so nice to have a week alone with no kids, and time to reconnect and share new experiences together, but it is also so nice to be home and settling back into a routine. I think life would be just about perfect if I could do this once a month... :)
Check out Facebook for the pictures I posted!! Just keep in mind that pictures don't do justice at all!!

Beginning the countdown...4 days left!!

So in four days I will be on a plane with my hubby heading to Southern California--San Diego to be exact!!! I have a lot of mixed feelings at this point. I'm so excited to be spending an entire week with Jason, but I also am a little sad to be leaving the boys. I know that the week will go by very fast and that we will have a blast and that the boys are in good hands...but I still can't stop thinking about having to say goodbye to them :(
Please pray that we will have a good time and that I won't be missing the boys to much, or that they won't be missing us too much. Also, please pray for safety for both of us...my mind starts going through a bunch of scary scenarios that I don't really want to even think about while we are away.
I will update you all and have lots of stories to tell I'm sure when we get back!

Nothing really noteworthy...

Well, I don't have much to write about. Life is good, life is busy, life is fast, pretty much sums it up. We have enjoyed a couple of nice days at the beach or in the pool so far, and are anticipating a nice day at the beach again tomorrow. The boys love the water and even Peyton is getting brave this year. During a recent visit to a friend's pool Tristyn swam around the pool all by himself in his new life jacket. He is getting so big!! Last night at Target I bought the boys their first pair of swimming goggles--needless to say they can't wait to use them!
We had a nice 4th of July with both my family and Jason's family. The fireworks downtown Grand Haven were incredible and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the boys don't understand that fireworks only come on special occasions. I don't know how many times I've been asked this week if we can go downtown and watch more fireworks!! We finally went and bought some fireworks to do at home with them, but it has been too rainy these last couple of days to do them. Hopefully Jason will be able to take Friday night off and we can do them then. We are also hoping to go to Michigan Adventures for the day on Friday if Jason can get off. Tristyn has talked non-stop about going to the waterpark for months now!
Jason and I finally booked our airline tickets for San Diego, so now it is official we are leaving July 21!! I'm really looking forward to having Jason to myself for a week and getting a little break. This is the longest we've ever left the boys for, so that is a little sad for me, but I know that they will be in good hands and they need a break from me just as bad as I need a break from them!!
That is about all that is going on from this end. I need to go get busy exercising or I'll never get it done tonight. I seem to find every excuse in the book when it comes to the elliptical...even housework!