Thursday: the year in review

So I was thinking about 2009 and decided it wasn't one of my favorite years. Now, there were lots of good times, no doubt. But there were a few things that overshadowed most of the year that also made it not my favorite. So, instead of talking more about that I decided to take one random picture from each month...and I was reminded how blessed I really am.

January: Betsie left. :( Here are people from our Bible Study at the good bye bowling.

February: I made a tablecloth.

March: Bible study potluck at our house. We had lots of potlucks this year!

April: Ashlyn and I painted our toenails.

May: Dad and Pat came over and we went to Watkin's Glen.

June: Girl's night! We put parafin on our hands and feet.

July: Ben got me a get-well kit.

August: we went to Niagra with some friends.

September: I went to a woman's retreat with my church. It was rather cold.

October: still quilting away.

November: we put the Christmas tree up

December: I took a picture of driftwood on a beach in Florida.

Wednesday: from Sun to Flurries

The day started out beautiful.

Then we had to leave. However, the kids didn't throw up in the airplane, our car didn't break down on the way home, the house didn't burn down while we were gone, and Flurry was still alive...so it was a successful trip home.

Here's Flurry with the helicopter. She would get closer to it than the vaccuum, but tried to never let it out of her sight.

This morning we also awoke to snow! It was nice that it held off until we were home.

Monday: happy birthday Larry!

Today was Larry's birthday. We got him some ducks so he could teach his grandson to line all his (Larry's) ducks in a row.

We also spent time in the pool and the sun and just had a very nice and relaxing day.

Saturday: the Bubble Room

Today we went to Captiva to the Bubble Room. They have some amazing desserts...it was delicious!!
Afterwards I collected a few shells on the beach. I also tried to be artistic and took a photo of some driftwood.
Here we are on the boat! It was kind of cool out today which is why everyone is covered up.

Then I took a very nice nap. Yay naps!

Friday: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Today was a wonderful day with family. We opened presents and got and gave a bunch of fun things (RC helicopters were one of the popular gifts). We played games, read books, and ate good food the rest of the day.


Overall, a wonderful day.

Thursday: Merry Christmas Eve

We made it to our destination safely, on time, and with all our luggage. Guess the prayers worked. :)

It's nice and warm and so far we've enjoyed being with family, eating, and watching a dumb dog Christmas movie. It was fun to uh...laugh at the movie. :) I knitted while watching the movie, and I almost have a skien finished. One left, along with edging.

Here is my vacation to-do list:
-Nap whenever I want to. (So far, so good)
-Read several books (only one down so far, but it was good)
-Finish the skien of yarn (shouldn't be a problem)
-Have no travel problems (still on track)
-Enjoy being with family (check)

Thursday: a post from on top of the world

Ben and I can currently look out of our window and see the tops of clouds. We got a free trial to airplane Wi-Fi. It's a little slow, as expected, but not too bad.

We made it out of Grand Rapids without any problems. :D Yay. I even talked to someone in the airport. Usually I just go my way and let everyone else go theirs, but I had asked someone a question and then we met again at the McDonalds after landing. It was kind of nice.

Tuesay: Avatar

We went to see Avatar...it was a great movie. I won't say much about it since it hasn't been out for long, but I would definitely recommend it.

I'm also starting to freak out about our Thursday flights a bit...it looks like it is going to start getting icy around the time we're supposed to leave. Well...I guess I'll try praying about it instead of freaking out. Or at least that even if things go poorly I don't freak out too much.

Monday: more Hudsonville

This morning Pat, Liz, and I went to get fabric for the next quilt. I'm still not done with the first one, but I might be ready to start the next before I see Liz again, so I wanted her to pick out some fabric. I was going to take a picture, but didn't. So you'll just have to wait a bit to see her beautiful fabrics.

Joel, Sarah, Anna, and their kids stopped by for a bit. It was fun to see them and I got some cute pictures.



After dinner we went bowling with Dad and Pat. It was a lot of fun. Pat stomped us the first game with 116 and then Ben won the second. We also got to have a theme for the scoreboard, so we chose Christmas. It was neat to have different things in the background for once!

Sunday: a relaxing day

Today was very relaxing and spent in the company of fun people. We read, napped, Wiied, and tried to go to a store only to remember that everything is closed on Sunday in this neck of the woods.

We also got a gift from Grandma Menkveld. Two years ago we got a gift from Grandpa Overbeek. These are my step-grandparents who really, I rarely interact with. And by rarely, I mean maybe once every three or four years. But the possibility that we might be coming to a Christmas party means that we get a gift too, even after Pat has told them not to get one and that we don't have a high chance of coming. To me it shows a new meaning to the words generosity and hospitality, things that I think I'm good at. I guess I still have a ways to go.

Saturday: Christmas in Hudsonville

We made it to Hudsonville today! We got up a bit before 4am though, so it is currently 9pm and we're already in bed.


Pat, Liz and I went to a 2nd hand store that was having a half-price sale and got some cute clothes. Then we exchanged presents. Below you can see Nathan sporting his new biking goggles.We had a delicious lasanga for dinner, played some hilarious catch phrase, and just had a really nice time together.

thursday: food day 4

Today was once again delicious. There were donuts! and bagels and these Oreo truffles that were amazing.

Tueday: food, ups, and downs

Today was food day #2. We had a catered lunch along with desserts (the cheesecake again!) at work and then a potluck with our Bible Study in the evening. More yummy food!

The down is that Julie crashed her car on the way to our house. She's fine, and they have good insurance. We still feel bad because it was our house she was going to...if we had chosen a different house or a different time or even a different activity maybe it wouldn't have happened. I know...a lot of ifs. But still...

The ups were that we did have a fun white elephant party though. I ended up with a Christmas tree topper and Ben with a game that gets boring rather quickly. Heidi ended up with footy pjs that everyone agreed just don't work for adults because they are too hot. Oh! And we all got to see Hugh's first roll. It was rather exciting. He just seemed rather grumpy that he was put on his stomach in the first place.

Monday: first day of food week

So someone in the building I work, being very smart, decided to make our Christmas eating celebration last all week instead of just one day. Today was "hot foods" but there were also snacks. Tomorrow is "catered lunch by the people that didn't want to bring anything." Wednesday is snack and catered lunch by Lockheed, and then Thursday is snack day. It might be a bit rough not eating everything. Today there were brownies with cherries, amazing carrot cake, puppy chow, chocolate covered pretzels, and the hot dishes.

Only four days of work left!

Sunday: ice

Today it was raining and right around freezing at noon. On our way home from church we saw five ambulances, several cars in the ditch, and multiple emergency vehicles. It was sad, but also weird because by the time we went by the roads were ok. The ice must have only been around for a few minutes, but enough to do damage.

Hmm...not a ton more happened today. We did several chores, I got the last of the Christmas presents (only waiting for one more to arrive), watched a movie, played some WoW did some quilting. The quilting has slowed down a bit these last few weeks, but oh well. I still do a little bit each week, just not as much as I had been doing. Oh! I also took a nap. :)

Saturday: Prince Caspian and Goats

We gave some goats again. I'm not sure what it is about these goats, but I love them. Maybe it's what the pamphlet says "Goats are cheap to raise. They will eat almost anything and can graze everywhere. They also provide nutritious milk to drink and meat to eat." They just sound like the ideal animal! I was listening to NPR on the way to work the other day and they were talking about people and their goats. It was a rather sad story overall, but these people did really care about their goats...they were basically the bank for the family.

We also watched "Prince Caspian" tonight which was much better than I was expecting. I always think about how hard it would be to have grown up and then have to become a teenager/kid again. I mean, you've already dealt with a lot of the annoying physical changes, but now you have to do it again. And you've grown up mentally too - kids think differently than adults, but now you're back to being a kid again.

Friday: a bit of paradise

I had one kiwi left from earlier in the week and had run out of other foods, so I decided to take it to work for lunch. I had to peel it and it was rather drippy, so I was eating it over the trash can, which put me in a different spot so I could feel the warm air from the heating system blow on me. If I closed my eyes it was like a little piece of paradise. But then I had to open them. :(

Thursday: misc

My phone has a problem. It has this mail/bell thing and I don't know what it's...I just figured it out. It was reminding me to add money. Well, that was going to be a fun post that failed.

The weather is calling for a chance of scattered Flurries. Hehe. Flurry scatters herself every morning.

Travis came over last night! Yay! He sat down in our semi-broken but not quite chair and it went "POP" and the center pole is now sticking out of the bottom of the chair. It was rather amazing. We also sat around talking and eating cheese cake and I felt like an adult.

Tuesday: cheesecake

Ben and I made cheesecake last night, and it was delicious tonight. The top didn't even crack! Clay also did a great job with the Bible Study today. WoW has a new instance which was fun.

The sad part of the night was that a tire blew on our way home from work. We were probably one minute away from getting to change it in the garage, but you really just can't go any further once the tire is flat.

Monday: ice cubes

Ben and I baked this evening. The first step? Turn the oven to 500 degrees and put ice cubes in. Seems rather silly if you ask me.

Saturday: a busy day

Today was rather busy. It started with some errands that included getting my hair cut. Ah, it is much better now. It was getting way too long. Then to a Christmas tea at church, where we ate good food, listened to a speaker, and just had a good time.

We also revealed our secret sisters. My was Deanna! She is on the left below and was an awesome secret sister. I also told Lisa that I was hers, and that was a good time. I had to follow her around at the church picnic until an opportunity just happened to open up so I could talk to her, and since then we've talked a few more times and waved a lot. I was happy that I wasn't just a random person to her.

And then games and delicious food tonight! I also got one load of laundry done and Ben helped with some other chores. Now it's time for bed.

Thursday: remembering

I find it funny how there are somethings, such as books and clothing, that I can remember who gave me and what the occasion was. The sweatshirt I'm wearing right now I bought at Hope. The shirt I wore today I bought on a girls trip to NYC. Yesterday the shirt and sweater were gifts from Cheryl for Christmas, but not the same Christmas.

However, I have a really hard time with Christmas ornaments. Maybe it is because they go into the box after Christmas and it takes a year before they are seen again. In some ways that part of the fun of Christmas...you get to look through the box and (hopefully) remember what comes out.

There are about two or three ornaments that I don't forget about though. The one below...I have no idea where it came from, I just know it always goes on the tree. Nathan has his friend. I'm sure they were toys from McDonald's kids meals or something, because Mom always tried to persuade us to not put them on. They always went on the very bottom of the tree. He doesn't go on the bottom any more due to Flurry, but is still a Christmas tradition.

Wednesday:

I used up one of the four blocks for my quilt tonight.

Oh! and one of the machines that I've been trying to get started on the manufacturing floor finally got started today. It was pretty exciting. Even more exciting was that after I got it started no one came in and told me it wasn't working.

Tuesday: sardines

Today's Bible Study plan was to either make more Christmas cards at the church if needed or do something almost as fun. Well, we only needed to make a few Christmas cards, so we also got to play sardines!

I got to be one of the people that hides (because I found Maria's spot last) and so I chose to hide under chairs in a darkish corner of the sanctuary. Not the darkest place, which was good because everyone looked there, but a dark enough place. It took a while for people to find me...a lot longer than I expected. It wasn't really a great group hiding place though, so after the first few people found me it went pretty quickly. It's been a while since I've played the game...it was a lot of fun.