Monday: Happy Birthday

Today was my birthday!  It was nice, as birthdays go.  Isaac and I went to the gym this morning and I did aquarobics.  I had forgotten that they do them in the outside pool during the summer, as so was rather late.  I'm not sure I loved it in the outside pool as it seemed a little shallow, but there were some nice features too...we made a bunch of whirlpools, just like little kids. :)

I had dinner with Ben's family.  And carrot cake.  I do love carrot cake and almost always get it at restaurants, but then decide to get something else or skip dessert.

Here's to another good year!

Sunday: adult

Do you ever look around you and think "Hmm, I seem to be an adult?"

Do you then freak out a little bit and think that being an adult might not be such a good idea?

I do.


And a completely unrelated picture to lighten the mood...

Saturday: alone - ish

Today I went to the big quilt show in Grand Rapids.  I went all by myself, which really ended up being quite wonderful.  There were a few times in the days leading up to it were I found myself thinking about logistics with Isaac in tow, and then happily remembered that he wasn't joining me on this occasion.

Most of the quilts were splendid.  A few were ugly.  I usually find myself most intrigued by the ones that I think that I could make, if I took enough time.  (Basically, this means pieced quilts and not applique or art quilts.)  But there were a few of the other kinds that I really liked too.  My favorite parts were probably the guild challenge section and the miniatures.  The guild challenge gave a theme that the members were supposed to design a quilt around, such as "under".  There were quilts with under bridges and under blankets and down under themes.  It was interesting to see how different people interpreted the challenge.  The miniature quilts were amazing because they had a gazillion pieces in about a 12" x 12" square.  A gazillion pieces in a bed quilt look amazing, but in a small square they were especially stunning.

I went through the vendor area in search of some good sky fabric...not too dark, not too white, not too patterned.  I found some perfect sky, along with a few other good pieces.

Thursday: looking up

Isaac and I laid with our heads on the bottom basement steps and looked at the ceiling this afternoon.  He looks at ceilings a lot more than I do.  They're kind of interesting, but I tend to ignore them.

Here was our view.

Wednesday: castle park

Today I finally managed to see the Castle that is in Holland.  (I find it a little weird that it doesn't have a name besides "the Castle".  But then, as far as I know, it's the only one in the area.  I just looked up castles in Michigan.  There were 19 on the list and this castle wasn't included.  The closest was Kalamazoo, which really isn't that far away, especially when you're talking about castle density.)

Situated in Castle Park, there are lots of "no tresspassing" and "members only" signs around the area.  In high school some friends and I had tried to go find it after seeing it on a post card, only to be intimidated by the signs.  It was a very disappointing day.

But a friend of mine was vacationing in the park, so today I had a valid reason to go see it.  Hurray!  Legend has it that the Wizard of Oz was written in the area and the Emerald City was inspired by this little castle and surrounding area.

We also took a short walk on the beach, but the small kids weren't really enjoying it.  Well, Isaac might have been since I put him on my shoulders and he was messing up my hair, but that wasn't really the point of the walk.

Tuesday: 10000 steps

I finally had a day were my pedometer was over 10000 steps.  Phew.  It turns out that walking around the house just doesn't really get you that far, so most days I get embarrassingly few steps.  I think I've had a few days since getting the pedometer that have also been over, but I don't wear it every day and sometimes it gets put on a little late.

To accomplish this amazing achievement, I walked around the lake (trying to get Isaac to take an early nap - it worked), played racquetball (although we didn't play as long as normal), and mowed the grass (I don't have anything interesting to say about the grass).

Monday: rain

It was a beautiful rainy day today.  Isaac and I went to Target, the Pet store, and Meijer.  Afterwards Isaac took a nap while I listened to the rain, too enlivened by it to sleep.  I don't feel as though I was incredibly productive during his nap, but it was still nice to get a few things taken care of.