New Post...finally

Since everyone thinks it's been so long since my last post, I guess this one will be a long one!!!

Here's the update...

KELLY

Kelly had a band festival where they performed 3 songs and were judged and then went into another room and did sight reading and were judged. They received all 1's!

Kelly and her friend Sydney and I made a fun midnight run to get the movie "Twilight" at WalMart. They had a "Party" were they served cake and popcorn. We arrived at 11:03p.m. and were about 20th in line and we left the store at 12:07p.m. with the movie. The girls watched the movie in the van and we sat in the Meijer parking lot for about 15 minutes to watch a little more but then I got too tired so I took Syd home and the next day, they had a movie day so they could watch it. It was fun! (No pictures, though)

Kelly will be a model for a speaker I'm helping to host in May. The speaker is named Shari Braendel and she'll be talking about fashion and she wants models to show "Modest" clothes and I've picked Kelly as one of the models...there will be pictures for that!!!

ABBEY

Abbey received a really cool present in the mail a few weeks ago...a hand drawn picture of dolphins from the very famous artist Dan Gronseth! Yup! Uncle Dan drew her a dolphin picture and we framed it! It looks so cool!!

Abbey loves it! She hasn't done much drawing lately. She's been busy with school projects. She had to make a Valentine's box and she wanted to paper mache so she made a Mr. Potato Head box. She won first prize (her friend Heather who looks just like her won Grand Prize!) Check out her blog to see us blowing up Mr. Potato Head--www.abbeysnewz.blogspot.com

Abbey's been busy with Girl Scouts, too. She just finished a badge on Painting. The favorite was marble painting.JENNY
Jenny had a birthday 2 days ago!! She turned 8! I can't believe my baby turned 8!! She had a fun day, starting with breakfast in bed--a Mickey Mouse pancake! She got presents and then had to go to school.She brought no-bake cookies (or Amy cookies as we call them) for snack and when she got home, we invited the neighbors over for cupcakes.Then we went out to Red Robin for dinner and then out to see Monster's vs Aliens. She's still quoting lines from the movie. She had a fun day...and she's already planning next year!!!

Jenny also started swim lessons. She's doing great and she'll be all set for camp this summer.

DAVE
Dave had all four wisdom teeth pulled plus one more tooth this past Thurs. He is doing remarkably well...just a touch of swelling...no bruising but he's still eating soft food. He heals very fast and the stitches are coming loose because the swelling has gone down so much.

He's working on some new potential business ideas at work so hopefully that will all work out for him.

SUE

I'm too busy...is that enough? I'm trying to help plan for the May fashion speaker and it's seems like so many other things come up that I need to do first that the speaker project gets put on hold but it really has to get done. We are expecting to sell out 500 tickets for Friday night and 500 tickets for Saturday and all the work that goes into that...let's just say, I picked an awesome partner to help me accomplish this huge task-Heather Vanderlaan is the leader of the mom's group I used to go to and she has incredible organizational skills and this event will happen successfully because of her.

I'm leading Jenny's Girl Scout troop...which is fun but keeps me busy--especially during Cookie time. I helped Abbey lead the Painting badge which is also more planning. I'm doing some bigger things at the group I lead at church-Club Mom and Girlfriends. Plus, I still need to get laundry, dishes, helping with homework, being a mom and wife. Keeps me busy...so sorry for the delay of updating the blog...this should hold you for a while!

Weekend Update

We went to a concert by the Yellowsub Marnies on Friday night. They sang Beatles songs. We had a lot of fun. (No, there are not two Abbey's in the picture...the other blond is her friend Heather who, if they have the same haircut, get's called Abbey and Abbey called Heather by the ladies in the school office!)Today was Girl Scout day at the Women's MSU basketball game. Here are a few girls from Jenny's troup--all the ones with the snowcones. There are 13 in the troop and here are 5. It was a fun day! I guess, since I now have MSU wear, I am a Spartan fan. I've been a "Switzerland" fan for the 16 years we've lived in Lansing (by Switzerland, I mean I wouldn't choose MSU vs MI) but since we've been going to the Women's game this year, I've become a fan. Sorry to Switzerland.

GO MSU!

Reasons to Love Mondays...part one

No one likes Mondays...it's hard to get out of bed thinking about the 5 long days you have ahead of you! But, if we can come up with reasons to LOVE Monday's, maybe we wouldn't hate them so much!

Here's one I thought of today...For some reason, the elementary school lunch menu has something that my younger two girls love so they choose to get Hot Lunch on Monday's and that means I don't have to pack a lunch or make a sandwich for one or two kids!! It's great since we've almost always run out of food by Monday (hence my Monday Morning Meijer shopping trip that I have not been able to change for many years) and I only need to find a snack to send with them!

Another reason to love the Monday after Superbowl...our youth group at our church sells Sub sandwiches on Superbowl Sunday. We usually order several so if I do have to make a lunch, I can put in half a sub sandwich...not having to make one is such a delight!!!

And, it's sunny today...what more can we ask for in the wintery tundra of Michigan!

Contusion to the Coccysm

Abbey wanted to go skating...roller skating! Her school was having a roller skating party so Abbey, Jenny and I went. Jenny and I did not skate...but Abbey was having fun! It took a few times around the rink for her to really get using the 4 wheeled skates, but once she got it, she was going fast!

The roller skating rink brought back fond memories of roller skating when I was a kid...disco balls, video games, backwards skating...the smell of sweaty bodies, watching body parts fly as people fell. I kept thinking that it was amazing that no one had gotten hurt!

The last song of the Holbrook time at the rink and I finally sat down to talk to another mom and I looked out on the floor and saw Abbey laying down, obviously hurt.

I ran out to her, trying not to trip anyone who was trying to skate and I really thought she had just knocked the wind out of herself. She kept saying her back hurt. I pulled her up, still thinking she knocked the wind out of herself and she kept saying her back hurt...(No medical degrees here...but I should know better.) We put her in a wheelchair and brought her to the office. She was in pain!

The gentleman at the rink talked to her, asked her to pull herself up to standing using his fingers and she did. I talked to her and found out she fell first on her bottom-hard-and then layed down. She did not hit her head. Because she was in obvious pain, I decided to take her in to ER. (A friend brought Jenny home).

We got to ER and there was no line (God's Grace!!) We got into a room and were evaluated quite quickly. The Dr. felt her back and determined the pain was at the tailbone. They gave her some Motrin and that immediately helped. She had 3 x-rays (Abbey did not smile during her pictures!) and it took a while to get the xrays read but they determined she did not have a break but a badly bruised Coccysm-tailbone...in other words, a bruised butt!

She is sore, moving slowly, but picking on her sister and smiling...all normal in my book! I thank God it was nothing more serious. We're taking it easy today! All is well.

Happenings here

No new pictures to show but we've been on the go! Kelly went on a Jr. High retreat this weekend to Camp Geneva in Holland. She had a great time but she's tired!

Today, the rest of us went to a Women's MSU basketball game. This year we signed up for their VIP program and the girls get into every game (with an adult for free), get to sit on the bleacher seats, and attend a lock-in that had lots of inflatable games and meet the team. We've had a fun time--two families from our church also do this so it's even more fun to have friends there!

Abbey's working on a badge for Girl Scouts on Court Sports so she's been watching the games and is supposed to report on them.

Jenny's Girl Scouts are working on a badge called My Body and we are using different muscles in our body.

Kelly is doing trombone lessons once a week and last week, she tried out for Volleyball at school. We find out tomorrow if she made it!!

Dave's at Sr. High at church right now. He likes this age group and they like him.

I'm working on having a large speaker come to Lansing in May. She's going to do a Teen Fashion show on Friday night and have a women's day on Sat--both called "What not to wear". She'll go over what color looks best on you and what accessories look best on you, etc. It's a really cool talk and we are hoping to have 500 people each night.

It's still cold--but staying lighter, longer! There's hope that spring is coming!!

There's cold...and then there's really cold!

Mom was here when it was cold...now, it has turned really cold. So cold, the kids are having indoor recess. So cold, I'm wearing a hat everywhere I go! So cold, the cats new favorite napping place is on top of the heater vents.

We woke up to 1 degree this morning and at 4p.m. it's at 11 degrees. I know the windchill is colder, but I'm afraid to look!

We are keeping warm but I do have a sick Abbey. I brought her in to the Dr. today and she has broncitis. No antibiotics but a strong cough medicine...that can only be taken at night. She'll be home from school for at least another day. She feels terrible. Pray for quick healing for her!

Happy New Year-2009

Happy New Year...my New Year's Resolution...to blog every day...just kidding!!!

We had a quiet evening with the neighbors and then went home to play one more game before we watched the ball drop. Today, we had the neighbors here and we had game day.

We started with Pictionary Man...we had a blast

using the props and the man to draw clues for our team to guess. Then we split up, sent the kids downstairs and they played Scene it Jr., and we played Scene it Movies.

Jenny just ate chocolate

We wish you a happy new year full of joy and fun with family and friends!