One more day at the beach

Have you ever had one of those days were you know it's a good idea to keep busy but you aren't sure that the other party is deserving of it?  Well, that was my conundrum that day.  The kids had been so absolutely horrible, and busy, and disrespectful that i really didn't want to take them to the beach, as was the original plan.  I didn't want to reward them by taking them to do something that I know they absolutely love, but I also had the feeling that if we didn't it was going to be a worse battle of trying to keep them inside and having them be crazy.  I wasn't feeling the greatest so the idea of putting on a bathing suit didn't really appeal... and my Dad had just fallen and hurt his shoulder, so I wasn't sure he was going to able to go, but G convinced me that overall it was going to be better if we went to the beach and let them run around.  And, of course, he was right.




It turned out to be a glorious day.  The water was perfect, the waves were just big enough to be fun, but not enough to be scary... and the kids played and played and played.  I guess there is just something about the sunshine, the outdoors, fresh air and water to cure them of their crappy attitude.  I was pleased that it did!  :)  Had to soak in the sun and enjoy the toes in the sand as I figured it was going to be the last day at the beach for the summer.

JVG

Whidbey Island Marathon

I posted about the social, fun part of my Seattle trip... so here is the nitty gritty of the actual run!  Like I mentioned earlier we had the whole fire alarm incident the night before, but after that everything went really well!  We woke up, got some food in us and headed to the shuttle.  It was actually pretty chilly in the morning but that was good because by the end of the race it was pretty dang hot!

Sunrise

The sunrise was absolutely beautiful and we had a lot of fun just goofing around before the race.  It was a good thing that we started with everybody because they didn't have the starting time things at the beginning, so everybody started when they started the clock!  The course description said that there was going to be more water stations and more stations with things at them, but they weren't as numerous as they said... :(  I was glad that I brought my own energy chews because they only had one station giving out GU's the entire race and they definitely didn't have chip check in points.  So, all the people who were waiting for alerts at home never got any until the end.  That part of the race didn't thrill me but everything was really amazing.

At the start almost ready to go!

Within the first mile... looking happy haha

Getting ready for a hill

One of many hills

Beautiful scenery before mile 7

Happy to be done!

I wanted to make sure that I didn't go out too fast like I did at Chicago and then hate myself for the rest of the race.  But we started out at a pretty good pace and I felt great!  The hills were pretty intense but the scenery was enough to keep my mind off the fact that some of the uphills were two miles long!  We did a good job all sticking together until about mile 21.  We all ran up all the hills until mile 18... that one was just a beast.  It was so long and so steep that it was probably faster that we walked it!  I can't believe that people ran the whole thing...

This is my favorite picture of the entire race.

We are warriors!

I felt great the entire race but then I got a little mentally bored around 24.5  Which is a lot better than my other races!  I didn't necessarily hit a wall but there was a definite not wanting to run anymore.  I finished in 4:31 which was my slowest time yet, but it felt great and I was happy to go out on it.  This was the hardest course yet so I am not at all upset with my time.  This race is one where I felt the best afterwards too :) :)  So everything was good to end on.  I keep telling people that this is my last full (at least for a very long time) and I think I actually mean it this time. haha.

JVG

Easter

Easter snuck up on me this year!  Admittedly I thought that it was in April but it was at the end of March.  We had all just gotten over the plague and I was just starting to land back on my feet.  I wasn't planning on doing anything, honestly, because the thought of adding one more thing to the pile that was my life just seemed so overwhelming.  But, I kinda took an afternoon to just feel sorry for myself and then I got over it.












We went to my parents house and hid eggs again.  My sister brought a lot of jelly beans and then they came over early in the morning for the hunt.  It worked like a dream last year to have them find their basket and their own chocolate bunny.  That way it gave the littles (AKA my kids) a fighting chance against her huge kids!  We confined it to one room and it seemed to work out great!  We had a lot of fun and it's been so good having all the families together.

JVG

Norah's Birthday

Luckily for Norah she was healthy for her birthday!  Everybody else in the family seemed to have the plague and wasn't feeling very festive at all! I woke up and made her some birthday breakfast before heading off to church.  She got some great presents from Ingrid, in the mail, which she thought was great!  Her favorite was this little google-eye puzzle that they have at the library and she loves putting the pegs in.  I love it.  To see her fine motor skills at work is amazing!






Mom also made her a Grandma sized birthday cake.  Everything is now Pokemon and Norah has deemed herself Pichu, so Grandma made her a cake with that one there.  :)






I felt badly that we didn't do much more for her birthday, but honestly, I was in survival mode.  I was just hoping that people had clean clothes and weren't getting sick on things!  She didn't seem to mind, so that was helpful for this Momma to not feel so guilty.  Happy birthday sweet Norah... you are full of sass!  I can't believe how incredibly smart you are and how much music is already apart of your life.  You continue to amaze us...

JVG

Papa's Birthday

We had quite the busy birthday weekend!  We had Justus staying with us (more on that later) but we did get a chance to celebrate Papa's birthday.  We went out to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place and they even gave him a birthday treat!  We had a pretty low key day and the girlies helped me make a mud pie.







Happy birthday my sweet love.  You are amazing and we are so very blessed to have you around for another year.




JVG

Huge Chunk of Ice

This has been an interesting winter for us as we moved into a new place at the beginning of December.  We had been looking for a place because the winter was so terrible the year before at Rosewood and we didn't want to experience that again.  However, this place hasn't proved to be much better.  Upon moving in the door to Norah's bedroom fell off its hinges and it took them 1.5 months to come and fix it.  Really?  Then, after they replaced it it got warmer and it wouldn't fit in the door frame, so we can to call them again to come fix that.  Add on that our dishwasher broke, followed by our dryer and then the basement flooded... we weren't happy.  We also had to call them because the previous tenants had left a roll of carpet there which was now soaking wet and i didn't want it to get moldy.  Guess how long it took them to get it out of there AFTER they said they were going to take care of it?  Humph.  Well, anyway, the last straw was when we heard this really loud crash so we looked to see what it was and this huge chunk of ice had fallen off the roof (it tore the gutter right down) and landed on the AC unit in the backyard.  It was ridiculous.  Luckily, we didn't need the AC in the middle of the winter, but I just couldn't believe how lazy they had become with everything around this place.  This is definitely something that could've been prevented.





Anyhoo, we had an interesting thing happen to us this winter.  The sensor in our van kept telling us the wheel pressure was low so just a random day I asked G if he could go take care of that.  So he went to the gas station to fill it up which shouldn't take long right?  Well, I get a call from him saying that the wheel is deflated because the little nub that you unscrew came completely off!  WHAT?!  So he finds a spare tire and we get it to a tire place and they said that this isn't the first one that they'd seen.  That, it was pretty common this winter because it was so cold and that people have shredded their tires driving on the highway when it happened.  So, even though it was a bit of an inconvenience during the day I am so very thankful that we caught it when we did.  It was a cheaper fix because the tire wasn't destroyed and it could've been much scarier had we been driving with everyone in the car. So, small blessings.  :)

JVG

Thanksgiving/Birthday

I think that this has only happened to be once before but my birthday landed on Thanksgiving this year!  And, this years birthday was amazing.  I always wondered if people who had birthdays on other holidays (like Christmas) ever felt cheated because the celebration usually gets lumped into one big one but I have to say that I would be satisfied with my other birthdays were like this.

It started out with a nice 10K at the gym with my friend Nance.  Then, I came home and got ready for Thanksgiving.  I volunteered to bring sweet potato pie (per G's request) green bean casserole (because I like it and my mom will never make it) and homemade cranberry sauce.  While I was making it and getting ready a friend came over to pick up a bunch of baby things that I didn't want to move!  It was awesome!  I also got word that it was really low key at my parents house which was awesome.  I was a little worried that it was going to be a circus since my sister and her kids were already there (and had been since early that morning) but when we got there everybody was quiet and subdued.  The turkey got done early which was good because I was starving!  Everything was delicious and I definitely got to hork out.  :)

















I then got to take a glorious nap all snuggled on the couch with the fireplace on until a few hours later.  Glorious.  G watched the kids while we had a jam session which was a load of fun too.  We did that until my kids started to fall apart and then we packed everyone up and went home.  Perfectly simple and laid back.  :)  29 isn't so bad!

JVG

Snooze in the shower

In the middle of our moving week (more on that later) G was running out to get some food and Norah stayed behind with me.  I was cold so I hopped in the shower and of course Norah came in and wanted in too, so I let her.  We got all washed up and then she wanted me to pick her up (which is normal) and then about three seconds later I realized she was asleep.  She legitimately passed out and was waaaay gone.  It was very sweet to have that time with her and just be, but I gotta admit that my arms were really tired after that!  G was gone probably for another 15-20 minutes and I didn't want to put her down and wake her up so I held her that entire time.  It was very sweet and I enjoyed every arm aching minute of it.  :)




JVG

Treat Street

As many of you know we are big fans of froyo.  Like, so much, that I can't remember the last time we got actual ice cream.  However, G had a meeting up at school that lasted a bit longer than we thought it would, so after I got done getting groceries with the kids Jane invited us to go to a Mom's Group outing with her.  They were going to get ice cream at Treat Street, which was a little shop I had seen plenty of times but never went in.  It was fun going to hang out with Jane and to get a nice little surprise afternoon treat with the kids.  This place reminded me a lot of the old soda fountain places where you could get candy, or ice cream or little specialty treats at the counter as a little kid way back when.  At first the kids both said that they wanted blue moon so as I was ordering a blue moon Lucy said that she wanted coffee.  So, now I had a coffee, and a blue moon, and then Dude said that he really wanted mint chocolate chip... I hadn't planned on having ice cream myself, but I couldn't get Lucy an ice cream after she changed her mind and then stick Dude with the blue moon (when we all know that mint chocolate chip is better) so Norah and i ended up sharing the blue moon.  It was fun!  The kids did a great job with sitting and eating their ice cream, which was a lot more ice cream than I thought they were going to be getting.  It also felt really nice being able to take the kids out on my own, and knowing that I can still juggle them all  :)  it's also really nice to be able to treat them because they are such good kids and I want to be able to reward them and show them that I appreciate how good they are.  This is one proud Momma and I hope that I tell my kids enough how special and wonderful they really are to me.  :)




JVG

Helping my sister out

Let me begin with, I love my sister.  She has been going through a bit of a rough patch over the past few years, which ultimately caused her to move back up to Michigan to my parents with her four children.  Not easy.  She had to get a job which involves her not being home when the kids get home from school, so my parents watch them during that time.  My parents wanted to visit my brother, Jon, and his wife Megan and their new little son, Daniel in Kansas for a week.  Which caused a dilemma of what Holly's kids were going to do while they were gone.  She asked if we could help watch them and that wasn't a big deal at all.  We were more than happy to help out.  However, the week didn't go nearly as we had envisioned.

Dude riding on the same fire truck that my brother LOVED as a kid

Norah ripped Gaetan's pants in a major way

The plan was that we were going to stay at Mom and Dad's for the week (since they were going to be gone and we weren't driving back and forth each day) and they were going to leave on Tuesday, which meant that we didn't have to be there until Tuesday afternoon before Justus (her oldest) got home.  However, as stated in a previous post we got snowed in there Sunday to Monday in which they had a snow day, and it was looking like they were going to have one on Tuesday as well.  So Monday Dad and I tried to pick the best time of day go back to Kalamazoo and grab all the stuff that we were going to need for the week.  And boy, am I glad that he drove because it was SO WINDY you couldn't see the person in front of you.  So, we stayed there again Monday night because I knew that we were going to be watching her kids all day Tuesday, instead of just after school.  

I was right.  Holly headed off to work in the morning and Mom and Dad took off sometime late morning.  That meant that Gaetan and I were now responsible for watching SEVEN kids.... We needed to go grocery shopping because Mom and Dad didn't stock up before they left and Gaetan needed to work on his comprehensive paper so I was going to take all of them to the store with me, until I realized that our mini-van wasn't big enough for all the people... which is insane.  So, I learned something right then and there... I had an upper limit on how many kids I could handle.  I always joke that I would adopt the world, but if you have to take more than one vehicle to the grocery store because your crew doesn't fit in one?  That's to many.  The boys ended up staying home and playing the Wii while Gaetan worked and I took the girls to the store.  That part wasn't so bad because I'm used to having 3.  However, the bad weather had seemed to make people out and about stupid and even worse in the store.  Needless to say by the time I got home and unloaded the groceries I was pretty fried.  Gaetan volunteered to take the older boys out to a movie (less to watch) and also because they had been asking him for about a month now to go see the second Hobbit movie.  So, pretty much as soon as I had a semi grasp on the situation they left to catch their movie and grab some lunch.  ::whew::

The rest of the week wasn't so bad because they had school so it just our kids in the morning time... and after having all the kids having just ours seemed like a dream.  While we were there I cooked and cleaned up after everybody, which is no small thing!  They would leave early in the morning for school but leave everything they had out for breakfast, which sure, I suppose i could leave it out all day and have her clean it up when she got home, but then it would be out all day and in my way.  I would make them snack after school and then dinner and then clean up after all that.  I seriously think that i would run the dishwasher about three times a day!  Needless to say I was exhausted after that week.  And poor Gaetan had to get work done for his comprehensive amongst all this crazy.  

Sweet girly

Having a funny photo shoot in the morning

I think this sums these two up in one shot

Yup, she's not wearing pants... typical

It seemed so quiet in the morning with just our kids.  And yes, she is wearing an oven mitt on her foot

Weeks like this make me even more thankful for the family and situation that I am in.  I'm really glad that we could help my sister out and even though her situation sucks and that's why she's back, I'm glad that she stood up for herself and did what was best for her children.  That week opened my eyes to a lot of things and also helped solidify some truths I already knew.  It was also really good to come home and be in our own space.

JVG

Miracles do happen

I've been talking about our neighbor Chase quite a bit lately.  Dude and Lu love playing with him and he is such a sweet boy I'm happy to let them play together!  Unfortunately Chase has this weird degenerative bone thing that occurs only in his jaw/teeth.  Kim was saying that he has to go to the dentist every 3 months to keep an eye on it and it was getting worse.  They said that pretty soon they were just going to have to pull all his teeth and give him implants because they were just going to fall out of his head anyway!  She really wasn't sure what to do and the dentists told her there wasn't a cure for it.  :(

So they referred them to U of M and so they went there to see what their options were.  Well, while they were there they took more x-rays and then they kept calling in different drs to look at the pics.  They were so confused because they had seen the pics from before and knew what they were looking at but the ones that they just took where completely normal!  There was nothing wrong with it at all!  They had no explanation to why it was that way but he was cured.  :)  What a blessing.

JVG

Raeuf Visit

On Friday we went to E. Lansing to visit with a good friend that we had met/made while Gaetan worked at GRCC.  This was also the beginning of a very busy weekend and a lot of traveling for this Momma!  Gaetan met him while he worked in the tutoring lab and since then he's come over to hang out, been there for major events (kids being born) and he really gets and understands what it means to have a good friendship.  Even though he's Egyptian and has totally different beliefs than us, we get along with him better than most others we have more in common with.  Just goes to show you I suppose...

Anyhoo, we actually haven't seen him since he went to MSU so it was really nice to catch up.  It was so beautiful because it didn't even seem like we missed any time together at all!  We got to meet his lovely wife, Pegah, in which they've been married for over a year but she has only been in the states for 3 weeks.  He said it was a very hard time being away, (I can only imagine) but they seem like they are doing really well.  :)

They FED us so well.  Since they had just moved into their new place they hadn't had it fully furnished, but it was probably a little better that way.  We did an indoor picnic, with the spread on the floor and the kids went to town.  She made this delicious soup that was so comforting and warming... so I'm totally going to get the recipe from her.  :)  I forgot how Raeuf is when feeding his guests... he makes plates up for them and wants you to just keep eating!  If something on your plate is gone, he'll refill it for you... haha.  I forgot to take a picture of the spread because of all the eating that we were doing, and because I wanted to make sure that the kids weren't going to go and spill everything.  There were a couple different kinds of rice, this roasted chicken, stuffing, soup, salad, these DIVINE pickled vegetables (they had a little bit of spice to them too... just what this preggo wanted) pickles... and all in Iranian cuisine.  YUM YUM YUM.

I have to admit that their apartment was way to warm for me.  I'm sure it's because they were cooking all day and it's small, and there were lots of people there too... so we cracked a window, which helped a bit.  :)  After lunch Tristan and I went for a walk because he seemed like he was getting a little antsy being inside.  It was really nice.  I like spending time with him and just explaining things to him when he has questions.  He was really fascinated that there were words in the cement (the company that laid the sidewalk I'm assuming).  E. Lansing, at least where they live, is a little busier than I would've liked, but we had a good ole time anyway and he collected some rocks and things for Lucy and Nora(h).

After we went back the kids got to watch some dinosaur train while we played a game.  It was really funny to play Scattegories with 3 non-english friends.  His friend Marco was there and he's from Egypt too... so they were putting a lot of foreign people down.  We had a lot of laughs.  After that we had more food... ( YES! ) and then we had some dessert, cupcakes that she made, and the toffee chip bars I brought and toasted our celebrations.  We had sparkling juice of course because I can't have alcohol and they don't drink... to great friendships, marriages, end of the semester, and just blessings all around.

The beautiful cupcakes she made

Raeuf, Marco, Pegah and Lucy

It was just such a refreshing visit to be with genuine people who get us.  I don't know if that's weird to say, but when you are around people who just understand your being, your core, even if its a lot of work and coordination to get there, you don't feel like its taxing once you're there.  It's quite enjoyable... and how it should be!  :)  And you know they're good people when Lucy thinks they're OK  :)  After she got used to being there she was Pegah's shadow and followed her everywhere!  Pegah loved it... it was very cute.

Hoping that we are able to visit with them at least one more time before break is over.

JVG

Facetime

Man, I have to say I love me some Facetime.  I never really had the need for it until I used it once and can't get enough of it!  :)  The hard part for us is that our Facetime is on our computer because we haven't made the iPhone switch yet... but for all of our friends that don't live nearly close enough and do, I appreciate it.

I know that technology has made sure that we can keep up on eachother's lives via texts, calls, blogs whatever, but there is something to be said for being able to see that person's face.  It brings some sort of community with it when you can see them and hear them. :)

So... thank you technology for these small blessings.  The ability to see friends and family whom we wouldn't normally be able to see.  It does this Momma's heart such good and brings me joy.  :)

JVG

Sunday's Message

I. Love. Mars Hill Bible Church.  Even though it's little over an hour away it's so worth the drive!  This past week's message I found to be just for me.  If any of you have spent any amount of time with us you know the importance of eating... or having food time together.  Yes, I know a lot of it stems from my love of eating, but there is something about sitting around a table (or whatever) with friends and eating.  And if any of you have family you know that that time is a sacred and a special time together.  I really don't think I could do the message justice so I'm just going to post the link to the podcast so you can all listen and enjoy it as well.  :)  I highly recommend that you do... I feel like it gives such a great explanation of who we are as people.

http://marshill.org/teaching/2012/11/25/one-more-seat-at-the-table/

Also, the beginning of it talked about adoption and that has been on my heart lately.  I know that I'm pregnant with Norah, but I seriously feel like we could have 15 children! We've both come to grips with the idea that this WILL be my last pregnancy, but that doesn't mean we can't expand our family other ways.  We've discussed where we would want to adopt from and, really, I feel like our options are quite open.  We know that we want to adopt at least one more, two is quite in the possible reasonable and most likely so we will see how many more we will have!  I felt such a tugging on my heart listening to this woman's story, knowing that these are just affirmations along the way.  We have a friend who is literally right in the middle of her adoption in Kenya with her family and they are hitting as many obstacles and red tape as possible.  Their story and their love and determination is such an inspiration.

Here's to the future and all the adventures it holds!

JVG

Breakfast with my Dad

My Dad has started a new schedule in which he gets to sleep in.  All my life he worked really early in the morning so that he could be home for things in the evening, dinner and be there when we were awake!  I mean, he would go into work at like 2 or 3 in the morning type of thing... gross.  So, now that he doesn't have too, he doesn't!  Which he is LOVING, and I can't blame him.

The way his schedule is now sometimes on Friday's he drives right through Kalamazoo... as previous posts have shown we have gotten to see him from our window as he drove by on the high way!  But this time, he figured he had enough time that he could stop for breakfast.  :)  There is a breakfast place less than a mile or so from our place and the prices are good, and the quantity is what every preggo dreams of :)

Lucy was being impatient for our food, so she thought she'd start on a jelly pack...

The kids were so excited about seeing Don and going to this breakfast place they could hardly stand it. I think the bigger treat was afterwards when they got to see his semi-truck.  How fitting this today his trailer had a picture of breakfast food and bacon on it.  :)  They got to climb into his cab and get a view from what it looks like way up in the semi.

Lucy Goose big girl driver!  I think it's adorable how her little legs don't even clear the seat

Dude patiently waiting his turn

Captain T!

They were both trying to be the driver

My super fabulous Dad 

I couldn't believe the mass quantity of food that everybody consumed!  It was fantastic!  Great food, even better company, and what a great way to start a Friday.  :)  I'm glad that I look forward to seeing my family so much, and I'm even more thankful that they want to be such an active part in my kid's lives.  Thanks Dad for breakfast, it was a real treat.

JVG