Tuesday: skiing

Today we went downhill skiing. I've been downhill skiing once before and it was a bad experience. This time was much more fun. Ben gave Jamie and I "lessons" while Travis helped Jacob.

After several runs on the bunny hill I tried the easy green hill with Ben. It was ok...I got down without running into anyone or falling. :) It was the first time I was on a lift and the person in the chair in front of us was also apparently a beginner. He fell while getting off the chair lift. Instead of trying to get out of the way he proceeded to spread his arms out and stay there as long as possible. I ended up going in front of Ben but he is luckily a good enough skiier that he could deal with that. He also decided to turn 180 degrees half way down the hill and scared me out of my wits because I thought he was stopping and that I would shortly be plowing into him. However, he was just skiing backwards for a bit.

Back to the bunny hill for a few times to have the family all together and then lunch. I was warm before lunch but unfortunately lunch cooled me off somehow. I never quite warmed up again. But anyway...

Then Jamie, Ben, and I went on the green hill again. I starting going to fast so decided to ..uh.. sit down. :) Luckily I had learned how to fall correctly. The next two times going down this hill were much better. Ben stayed a bit closer and I did a better job of snowplowing. But then I was too cold so Travis and Ben nicely brought me home. Travis pulled my poles for a bit so I didn't have to try and ski on the flat/uphill part. Our lift tickets were almost done anyway and they're going back tomorrow so it was ok they didn't do any of the harder runs.

So...the day was fun enough that Ben can probably get me to go again. I'm a little sore though. (especially my arms...it is really hard to go uphill even a little bit).

Monday: water park

Today we went to an indoor water park. It was nice and warm with several largish slides. They were fun to go down and it was fun to watch everyone else play in the water too.

As we were leaving my throat started to hurt. I think I was sick the rest of the night. (Spoiler: I felt fine the next day.)

Sunday: Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Larry! Today was a nice relaxing day with several games, naps, food, and a movie.

Here's a picture of the family watching Larry open presents; the one with him turned out too blurry.

Saturday: Betsy and blanket

Well, I was going to go to Betsy's bridal shower and then go up north tonight or tomorrow. The problem is that the weather was supposed to get really bad tonight and stay bad tomorrow. So Betsy nicely came out to lunch with me so I could leave earlier in the afternoon. :) We probably got to talk more than we would have at the shower, so that's good at least.

The drive wasn't too bad, although it was really foggy. When it wasn't quite as foggy it was rainy. The worst part was at the very end when I think I had a few hydroplaning moments, but nothing too bad. I was happy to arrive though.

I also managed to finish half the grey on my baby blanket. I have decided to edge it in a burnt orange, so I'm not really half way done. But I am getting close.

Friday: boxing day

Happy Boxing Day! Except I didn't really box anything up since I'm not at home. Ben and I did repackage a lot of gifts though into few bags and sort into what can stay in the car and what can't. I guess that can count as our Boxing Day activity.

Not a lot happened today. Ben left. :( The bed will be cold without him. Dad and I went to the mall...it was incredably busy. We parked rather far away because it was at least a little less busy and then walked on some roads to get to the mall. My problem was that the elastic in one of my socks has died, so every 5-10 minutes I needed to stop to pull up my sock (depending on how fast we were walking). It was annoying. So these will get retired once we get home.

I ate lunch with the Menkveld clan; it was nice to see them again since it's been a while since I've seen most of them. Oliver isn't feeling well though, which is sad.

Thursday: Christmas

Merry Christmas! Ben and I spent the day with his family. I got a nice sewing machine...I think I'm going to make a table cloth first. There were lots of other wonderful presents too...Ben and I are excited to use them!

Jacob hiding under paper
Grandpa and Ashlyn opening presents.

Tuesday: Christmas with DeYoungs

Today we started out the day with a delicious breakfast followed by opening presents.


Here is a picture were we're sorting the presents but it looks like Nathan is trying to steal them away. I think it is my favorite picture of the day.

We all got these body-blanket things that have arms and zippers...specifically made for using them at them computer. However, they also make us look like penguins or Jedi (depending on whether we're walking or not). We can also only zip the top and have a cape. So many options. :)

Oh, it didn't stop snowing the entire day today. There is a lot of snow. Going to Holland the highway looked plowed, but most of the roads (even the main roads) had not been plowed recently.

Monday: we made it

We made it to Hudsonville today! We got in around 3:30. It was really nice to see the family for a while.

Sunday: Erie

We ended up leaving today at 3:30pm for Michigan. It was earlier than we had originally been planning on leaving, but the weather was going to be good for a while. We got to Erie, PA before the weather got too bad. It wasn't incredibly snowy, but the wind was causing white out conditions. Hopefully it will be a lot better in the morning!

Saturday: work and Flurry

Work went well this morning. The thing we had to do we pretty much had one shot to do it...else there would be a huge schedule delay. But we did it and it went smoothly. :)

Tonight I was telling Flurry that plastic bags are not for children and small animals to play with. She proceeded to put her head through one of the holes and sit down inside of the bag. Needless to say, she needed help to escape.

Friday: work, tree, and snow

Well, I had a record number of hours in at work: 53. I realize that this could be worse, but it was rather annoying all the same. However, I do feel as though I got a lot done. I need to go in for a few hours tomorrow :(, but I'm hoping for not too long.

We got a ton of snow today! There was pretty much nothing when we went to work, and at 2 when we came home there was about 6". More has fallen since then too. It is very pretty.

Here is our tree!

Thursday: lists

So Ben likes to "make fun" of my lists. I, of course, have a list of things for work. The funny thing is that I've started making a list of "really do this" things from my to-do list. That's right! Lists from lists. I might never hear the end of it, but found it too funny to not share.

Wednesday: 13.7

...is the number of hours I worked today. I know that might be normal for some of you, but it is not normal for me! I got swamped this week and with trying to be on vacation next week, I got even more swamped. But now it is time for bed.

Tuesday: lunch and party

Today at work we were given an appreciation luncheon. It included french onion soup, fillet minion, and cheese cake. It was delicious!

Then we had our Bible Study Christmas party. It has been a year that we've been with this group, since I remember being invited to last year's party and deciding to wait until the new year. We've formed a bunch of great friendships within the year though, so that is awesome.

It was a white elephant give exchange. There wasn't much stealing though. I gave away some angels that someone was excited to get because they didn't have any Christmas decorations.

Sunday: Christmas cookie-grams

Today my Bible Study delivered Christmas cookie-grams. The recipients got songs and about a dozen homemade cookies. The plan was to sing 2-3 songs, but most people were ready to get back inside after one. Oh well.

Here we are putting the boxes together:


And delivering:

Saturday: cookies

Today I made a lot of cookies. About 300, although only 90 of those were regularly sized cookies...the rest were bite size. It was three batches of dough worth.

I really like the idea of bite size cookies...and I can make so many from a single batch! Below are the ones I brought to a tea I had this afternoon.


Here's Ben's response on my to-do list when he saw all the cookies...

Friday: sandwich

So today I tried making my favorite sandwich from The Good Earth...turkey, cheese, and salsa cream cheese on a bagel. It turned out ok, but the cream cheese wasn't quite salsa-y enough. Maybe next time.

Thursday: long day

I worked for longer than normal today. I think I'll be working for longer than normal (for a Friday) tomorrow too because I'm getting up early to finish the work that I didn't finish today. :( Oh well. I'm thinking about starting to mix up some of the cookie dough I need to make for the 5 dozen normal cookies and 2 dozen small cookies I need for this weekend. I'm sure weekend activities will be fun, but I haven't quite motivated myself yet. Luckily, there is still plenty of time if I don't get to them tonight.

Wednesday

Hmm, I don't have a lot to say today. I keep thinking it's Thursday. I opened a can of pop and it was flat. I was sad. At least it wasn't sharp. :D

Monday: deep thought #1 - giving

Today's deep thought is on the subject of giving money. Don't get me wrong, I oddly enjoy giving away money.

Ok, so the tithe goes to the church. But then there are so many other people asking for money. Some of them are very easy to dismiss ("how did I get on that mailing list?"). Some of them are some what easy to dismiss ("They aren't a Christian organization" or "I don't have super-strong feelings about this cause"). But then there are the half-dozen groups that I really care about because they have close ties to us (church, friends in missions, and giving away goats). I guess the goats don't really have close ties to me but there is just something about them. Maybe in heaven all "my" goats will show up in a herd one day. But I digress...

So how to choose among the half-dozen groups that we really care about? There is some extra money in the budget for extra giving so I guess we got ourselves into this predicament in the first place. And I don't really have an answer for you either. In some ways it's rather annoying because we will have to not give some people money which makes it seem like their cause isn't important to us. But they are.

Could we give up that one extra "eat-out" per week and give the money away? We could. Does that make us selfish. Probably. It's kind-of a hard truth to live with, but I'm also not sure I want to change. But I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

Sunday: wedding pictures

I have all of the wedding pictures posted here. They aren't all great pictures, but I took out the blurriest.

Saturday: goat

I kept laughing about the goat comment, and suddenly this showed up.



I had tears in my eyes.

Saturday: cookies

So I started sharing my electronic to-do list with Ben the other week. I guess it's more than a to-do list...I keep bunches of lists there. One list is "things for christmas." And I keep finding little notes in the spreadsheet now...



They make me laugh.

Oh, I was just informed that Ben moved "make cookies" to the appropriate list since I put it in the wrong list.

Friday: camera cable

I got my camera cable today! I'll be putting up some Thanksgiving pictures shortly, but in the meantime here is Flurry enjoying the packaging. She likes to lick the air in the bubbles.

Thursday: feet

I bought a new foot scrubbing stone over Thanksgiving. It's amazing. I'll be sure to buy new ones regularly from now on.

I also wore different shoes to work today. My feet have been so cold lately and these shoes are warmer, although not as dressy. In the end, they were almost too warm as my feet were a little sweaty sometimes. But it was nice to not be as cold.

Wednesday: work review

I had my bi-yearly review today. I guess it's bi-yearly but this is the one that really matters as raises are based off it. Anyway, I thought it went really well. I'm getting another project to work which is exciting. And I'm on the schedule to get a promotion next year, which I'm also excited about.

Tuesday: laughter

So for Bible study we broke up into guys/girls to pray. The girls ended up laughing more than praying, but I know that is what I needed. It was fun

Monday: a mood

I was thinking about writing a deep thought tonight, but I find myself becoming a bit moody. Sigh. I finished my book last night or I would go read, but I'm not sure what I want to read next.

In other news, I like my haircut more now than I did on Friday. It has un-pooffed and the bangs aren't so prominent. I'm still not sure I love it, but it's ok. I'm thinking about growing it out more since I can't find a short style that I really like.

Sunday: we're home

Hi! We're home. Except I think I left my camera cable at Ben's parents' house. :( So I can't see any pictures of the wedding to see if they turned out.

The wedding went well. Travis and Allison and now happily married. I'll post pics later. Ben might have a clever way to get the pictures to my computer using the PS3 so hopefully I'll be able to post some soon.

The drive home went very smoothly. It took us about 10.5 hours, including a food stop.

Thursdasy: happy Thanksgiving!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! It was a nice day over here...we relaxed in the morning and then went over to the Hilldore party. There were lots of people that we haven't seen for quite a while since we didn't make it to any holiday parties last year. And there was great food.

Wednesday: Ben is n^n!!

Today Ben is 27. The is the last year he will ever be an n^n, as for his 4^4th birthday he will probably be dead. If not he can look at this blog post and laugh. But I won't know what cool things to get him that are part of the 4th dimension...

But I digress. Today Ben is a cube and so I got him a bunch of cubic gifts.

I told him he had to smile no matter what the gifts were. He got some post-it cubes, a candle, a chocolate orange in a cubic box, and a new DS game that I stacked with a lot of old DS games to make it into a cube. He was a little let down when he realized that 6 of the 7 games he already owned.

Tuesday: rehersal

We had the rehearsal today. I was the unappointed photographer. I need to learn about my camera better, but some pictures came out and most of the pictures from Cheryl's camera turned out.

The rehearsal dinner was delicious too.

Tuesday: we made it!

Well, the drive to Michigan took 12.5 hours. That's right, 2.5 hours longer than it should have. The first problem was snow. It was snowing pretty heavily in NY just as we were leaving, and so the roads hadn't been plowed or salted. Ben did the driving but was rather stressed. The next problem was snowplows. There were two in front of us plowing but not letting traffic go by. So we followed them at 30 mph for about 30 minutes. After that it cleared up and I drove while Ben rested. We went back and forth a few more times but ended up getting all the way to Hudsonville instead of stopping. One of us got just enough rest in time to relieve the other for a while.

But a few good things about it taking so long...we got better gas milage and I was able to see my dad before he went to work.

Sunday: polar bear and potluck

Today is WoW's 4 year annivesary, so they gave everyone a pet polar bear. I've decided it's going to replace the white kitten as my favorite pet. (Although I did tell Flurry she can be an honorary polar bear since they're the same color and in the same cat family.) Oh, I'm the owl next to the bear.



There was a potluck at church. We were the 4th-from-last people to get our food and there were slim pickings for the sides. There was plenty of meat though. So we decided to get dessert at the same time as our food which was a good idea because those were going quickly too. But it was fun to have lunch our friends (and actually we ended up eating dinner with them too).

Thursday: better

So today went much better than I expected. Yesterday's worst thing is getting worked without problems. The thing I don't know how to fix I have a few ideas to fix and know more now, although I haven't figured anything out quite yet. Oh, another things seems very lost and I'm not sure what to do about that. The other problems are not really problems just things I need to do.

And tomorrow is Friday!

Wednesday: not a good day plus landscaping

Today the last 30 min of work was rather terrible. One thing after another went wrong. Some where small things and easily fixable, some I'm not sure how to fix, and one is bigger and more annoying.


But the landscaping was finished when I got home and we went to some friends' for dinner and that was delicious.

Tuesday: potluck

We had a potluck with our Bible study tonight. It was a lot of fun with good food. Ben also had his first birthday cake of the year.

I know this picture is blurry, but I really like it. I think the bluriness makes us cute.

Monday: deep thoughts

Well, I've found several college friends' blogs and family blogs lately and you'll probably see them show up on the side bar, although I doubt you'll really care. However, after having so many blogs to read I realize that several of them have a lot of deep thoughts. I'm always complaining that I don't have deep thoughts, but I realize that isn't true. So I'm starting a once per week series on my deep thoughts.

Upcoming topics include: abortion, giving, working, consuming. Hmm, four weeks. That'll be enough to start at least. You will start to see the liberal Christian side of me.

The first one was yesterday. :) I decided that it was deep enough to be part of the series.

Sunday: serving dinner

After church our Bible study served dinner at the Y for people. After being the first person in the serving line and having to say "no" to a lot of people (no, we aren't serving seconds yet; no, you can't bring food home to your husband) I have a glimpse at how hard similar social work jobs might be. You do good/nice things for people but you have to serve so many people that you also have to put your foot down and say no a lot. I'm sad to think of the people who didn't get food today because I couldn't give their spouse food to take out of the building, yet the coordinator of the event said not to.

Moral of the story: don't ask if you can do something, just do it. I saw one guy packing up some food to take home that we gave him because we assumed it was for himself.

Moral number 2: if there are two lines, hit each line once because they won't recognize you as quickly.

Saturday: laziness and hard work

Today Ben and I buckled down and worked on leveling our characters. I hit 72 near the end of the night and I forget what Ben is up to. Amalle (my character) did a lot of running, blasting, healing, and carrying while I did a lot of sitting. Ah well, it is nice to have days like this...while several weekends have been fairly lazy this one tops them all. I got the essential chores done (kitty litter, cleaning the kitchen, and putting the laundry away) and told myself that was all I have to do this weekend.

For all of you worried about my health sitting here so much, tomorrow will be much different since we have church and some plans for afterwards. And next weekend I won't be letting myself off so lightly. :)

Thursday: WoW

The WoW expansion came out today. Below are some screen shots that I thought were related to me/funny/cute (in that order). So far it's been fun, but I'm tired. Oh, the 5:45 morning haven't been bad. Getting up hasn't been too bad, by the time I need to pick Ben up I'm usually ready for a little break, and ending early is always nice. I'm going to do it tomorrow and then probably not for a while again, but will keep it as a viable option if I ever should need to have more at work time than Ben.

Monday: work

I had to go into work early this morning - 5:30- and so I'm starting to get a bit tired. This whole week may be early days, although I don't need to be in quite so early tomorrow. But it is a good thing that I went in early as by 8am, when we normally go in, I had already got people working on several things.

Just for fun: a Foxtrot comic. I totally thought Steve was getting a super cool robot when he said he got to test an android.

Sunday: gourmet grilled cheese

Ben made me a grilled cheese for dinner while drinking a glass of sparkling white grape juice, so I asked him if he felt all sophisticated because you always see people in movies cooking while drinking their glass of wine. Or at least that's what I remember.

Saturday: more Flurry

Well, it was a Flurry day again. We took a lot of pictures of her. We also did some chores and played Warcraft. Ben and I got our latest characters to 70 just in time for the expansion to come out.

Wednesday: leaves

I went into work early today, so I got to leave before it was dark. :) We didn't rake all of the leaves over the weekend so we finished today...it was still warmish too!!

I have a donut waiting for tomorrow...how exciting is that?

Tuesday: election 2008

Well, last night I finally decided who I was voting for. Ben and I had been planning on going to the polls after work, but at the last minute we decided to go before work and there wasn't a line, which was great.

I started a new notebook at work. It's like starting a new tube of toothpaste...it's all clean and uncreased.

I had a meeting that was over half made of Mikes.

I got some free and delicious cake!

Monday: Flurry

Flurry is enjoying having boxes to play in and on as we unpack a bit more.
I felt like a glorified secretary for a significant part of today. It is important to do the stuff I'm doing, but it is also easy and rather mind-numbing so it gets passed down to the newest people.

Sunday: Happy Birthday Luke

We went to a surprise party for Luke tonight and had pie.

Saturday

Well, today went well. I wasn't as tired and Ben and I got a lot of chores done. And I played a lot of Warcraft.

Friday: brinner and exhausted II

Since it was halloween, we had brinner at Dusty and Laura's so we could pass out candy at the same time.

However, at the end of brinner I was exhausted again and so took another long nap. I guess it had sort of been a stressful day if I tilt my head and squint funny. I'm not really sure what's going on.