I'm tired.

I don't even really have anything to write. It was a long day, and I'm tired. I got up early to do Chris's cousin Erica's hair. Then I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon trying to keep the dog occupied and out of trouble. And then I had to go to work and it was a crazy night. I love my job, but sometimes I hate it too, one of the reasons I like it though is because the nights always go by so fast. I guess I am somewhat bored there and I just would like to have a job that I am incredibly passionate about and I guess I'm so frustrated because I feel like that is never going to happen. Finally I am home and trying to unwind...my back has been killing me the last couple of days, and I know it is probably from having to lift people all night at work.
Wow this is totally sounds like a rant, haha.
Oh well, I'm peacin out.......
I have the new HARRY POTTER book!!! And I seriously need to read it asap....Since sunday night I've only had time to read 20 pages, come on now, let's get serious.......
goodnight.

Picture of the day

I'm so little and cute!!!

Weekends always go by so fast....

Especially when it's your weekend off!

Saturday I wanted to sleep in but ever since we've gotten Niles, it really isn't an option anymore. We lazed around for a little while and then ended up doing yardwork for like 3 hours. The grass is so fried, and it was all matted down, we had to rake everything and then mow it all again....it took forever. We seriously filled up almost 4 garbage bags full of yard waste, it was ridiculous.

In the evening our friends Jason and Thea came over with their little French Bulldog Audrey. She is so cute!

So Niles had his first little playdate. They were so hilarious, they definately entertained us for a couple of hours. They were both ripping around the house, it was so cute. Niles kept trying to nurse off of her...they were both just so funny together.

Later that night Chris and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie and our friend Mike came along with us. I actually thought it was pretty dang good. My only big thing with the movies is that they leave out sooo many important details, the books are just so much better. I actually was not a huge fan of the first 3 movies, I think maybe the director was trying to make the movies more attractive to children and I thought that they made the story look somewhat silly. The 4th movie and the newest one were so much better though. Probably because the characters are getting older, and the story is getting darker, much more for adults. Tonight when we went to Meijer I bought the newest book..!!! After I finish this post I will most likely start reading it, I'm so excited!

This morning we went to Mars Hill, which the message was good as always. One of our worship leaders is leaving which I am pretty sad about.

After church we went out for lunch to Kobe with Chris's family and afterwards they came over to see the house and visit with Niles, they all thought he was so cute!

After they left we all ended up crashing on the couch for a little while, it was like a family nap. =)

House church was tonight, I love getting to see everyone and hang out. I wish we could have stayed later but we wanted to go to Meijer and buy some baby gates to put up in the kitchen so that Niles won't have to be stuck in his crate the entire time when we are gone sometimes. When we got home it ended up taking Chris and I like 2 hours to put two of the up and then the other one won't even fit in the doorway b/c it is too small, I think we will just end up putting his crate in front of it.

Well anyways, that is about all for now, I'm anxious to start reading my book.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

What a World, What a Life, I'm in Love

Tonight was Chris and I's first actual evening at the house. By ourselves, eating dinner, being together, trying to relax. I loved it. Our schedules are pretty much completely opposite now, he works really early and then has class after work two nights a week. And since I work in the evening.....we pretty much see eachother for a second after I get home, which then he passes Niles off to me and heads off to bed. I just miss him a lot. But tonight was great, we cooked dinner, loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up, cleaned up the mess Niles has made in the yard over the past couple days, and took the garbage out to the road, who'd have thought it would have been so fun. I guess it's because it's our house. And we are doing it together.

This afternoon was also Nile's first vet appt. I took him to my work first, because I wanted to show him off to everyone and I knew some of the residents would just love him. People love puppies, they are just too cute. Puppies make people happy. And they need some of that in their life, but they loved him so much!!! Meeting all those new people and the car rides must have exhausted him. By the time we got in the exam room he was soo tuckered out, it was so cute, he fell asleep sitting up, it was so funny!!! Even the doctor couldn't believe it. We were wondering if maybe he was sick from sleeping so much etc. but as far as we know he has a clean bill of health, there wasn't even any parasites in his fecal test, yay! But he still got dewormed, and his first distemper shot. It made him even more tired, he has been sleeping all night long. He has gotten up a couple times to go outside to "go potty" but after that he just collapses again. I feel bad for the little guy. We know he has some pain too, when I picked him up earlier he let out a loud yelp and we discovered that they must have given him the shot around his armpit area because it really hurt him to hold him there. I'm sure that by tomorrow he will be up and running like his little puppy self again.

I have to work friday night, and then we have the weekend off. Not too much is on the agenda, maybe just some sleepin in, some yard work, some hanging out with friends, and def. some Mars...I haven't been in weeks, it's sad really.
Well I'm off to bed!

So cute.

Sam and Jess

Sam you are getting so big!!!!!



I think this picture was from a couple weeks ago, I stole it off of my brother's dropshots account. I still haven't seen the little guy since the beginning of April, he is looking so much different now, and so quickly! I cannot wait to see him again.

Meet Niles.

Thursday night Chris and I bought a puppy!!! He is a boxer, he is six weeks old, and we named him Niles (it was Chris's idea) but I like it and I'm getting used to it. He is so dang cute, so lovable, playful, nosy, clumsy....he definately has that puppiness quality about him. =) I love watching him play, especially because I know before we know it he will be so big! He will get somewhere between 50-60 lbs, hopefully no larger.

When we went to go see the puppies on thursday night, we weren't exactly expecting to go home with one. We should have known better. There were five of them, all boys and all so adorable. I wanted two of them, haha, but thank God Chris wouldn't let us......it would have been so difficult! After we decided which one we wanted and bought him, we had to rush to Petsmart and buy everything because we were not prepared at all. When we were walking around in the store he piddled on me. And all over the floor. It was pretty funny actually, he didn't really get me that bad so I wasn't mad or anything, he's so cute it's hard to be mad at him. We went to our friend's Erica and Joe's house afterwards to show him to them. Their daughter Kyra was trying to play with him, it was so funny, he is just her size. He slept during most of the time in the car, he must have been exhausted from all of the playing.

Right away when we got home he was kind of whining, so we fed him right way, he is sooo hungry. Then when Chris was taking his crate out and putting it together, he was already being so nosy and playing with the box and everything. It's so interesting to watch him walking around on our wood floors too because he slides around a lot, it's funny. He was so tired he actually waltzed right into his crate, layed down and went to sleep, so we went to bed, but it didn't last long. He cried and whined a lot throughout the night and so we were awake a lot, he really kept us up for a long time. We were so tired friday morning. I guess this will sort of prepare us for having kids, haha.

We have been trying to house train him as best as possible but it is so much more difficult. Because he is so little, we literally have to watch him every single second, to make sure he isn't chewing on tv or computer cords, or getting into mischief like puppies do... =) We have somewhat figured out what he does when he needs to go, he starts to sniff the floor, or his butt kinda protrudes a little bit, so we just take him outside and usually he will go. Hopefully he gets the hint soon, I wonder how long it will take? This morning we were in the kitchen making breakfast and he actually went to the door and kinda whimpered, we were like oh my gosh!! So yeah, Chris took him out and he went.

His schedule is interesting, we usually eat, go outside, play a little, come in and play a little, and then he takes a long nap. He definately sleeps a lot. I am hoping that it is just because he is a puppy, and not because there is something wrong with him. We have so much to do....we still have to take him to the vet and get his shots and everything....teach him to potty outside, teach him to sit and all that good stuff. Oh yeah, he hates his collar too, he keeps scratching at it, it bothers me because I don't want him to hurt himself. Also when we go outside I have tried to use his leash a couple times, he isn't a big fan of that either. He is so stubborn, he just tugs back on it and won't move, and if he does it's on his own terms. I know he is still really little yet but I want him to be trained right that is all...

He has been sleeping by me on the couch for almost an hour now, it's so cute, he's all stretched out and buried beneath and behind the pillows, I love it.

This is totally gonna be a photo blog. =)

I just wanna start this post off with a picture of Sam. Just because he is so dang cute and this is one of my fav. pics of him--

I know!! This post is long overdue. I have been wanting to write it for forever. I just knew that it was going to be really long and take some time, and I just couldn't bring myself to spend the time on it recently, especially because of everything going on. These past couple monthes have flew by and definately been a whirlwind of events. I cannot believe how each year I grow older, my life seems to fly by even faster. It almost sort of scares me, even though I am so eager to see what the future holds for Chris and I.

I think I left off in March.....Sam was born that month. And St. Patrick's Day. I have never really celebrated it before because I was always working. We just happened to have that weekend off, so we decided we were going to go downtown. Chris's cousin Derek came to hang out with us too. We started out at the Black Rose, and Irish restaurant downtown. They were SO packed, it was crazy. But we had some amazing food there. After that we went for a drink to Giradellas, and then off to San Chez for dessert and some irish coffee. Then we met up with Anne, Lindsey and Dani at McFaddens, which of course it was crazy there, but we had a good time.

A couple weekends later I finally got to go down to Ohio and see Jess and Trish and the baby! He is soooo cute, I loved spending the weekend with them. Sam is such a sweet baby. It is amazing how big he has gotten since then, babies grow so fast!! Here are some pictures from my trip to Ohio:

awww so sleepy!!! Me holding Samuel The happy family

A couple weeks later I went home for the weekend to Vassar to visit my family. They have a cabin in caseville and every year they have "clean-up days". We seriously worked our butts off raking some leaves (everyone did but in this picture it's my sis Meg and me) .

They also let us use the chain saw...what were they thinking, haha?!

We also took a walk down to the lake and took some cool pictures, beautiful isn't it?






May and summer came fast, I was so excited for the warm weather. I couldn't wait to get out to the pool at our apartment and take advantage of it for a while before we moved into our house. I definately wanted to hit the beach a couple times too. For Mother's Day weekend we stayed here and went to Muskegon. Saturday night consisted of going to the Great Lakes Downs to the horse races. I had never been before, it was so much fun!! The one time I bet on the horse that was doing so well, he lost. I was disappointed, I thought maybe I would hit it big, haha! Our dinner there was actually really good too, and the horses were beautiful.

Sunday we went to Dockers for a Mother's Day Brunch (good food again!!) We love good food. =)


Afterwards Chris and I went to the driving range. I have ALWAYS wanted to do that!! Sooooo fun, but I am not gonna lie, I was definately not very good. Chris is so funny too, he gets all mad at himself, it's cute.



Here is some shots from Grand Haven when we went to the beach one day--what a mistake, it was so windy, but I was determined to stay for a while since we had driven all the way out there, but yeah, we totally got covered in sand, it was so gross...I swear it was in my hair for like two days....

The last weekend in May was great. Chris's cousin Tim and his wife Megan came home from Texas on a break from the Army. Tim has to go to Iraq soon, so they came home one last time to see the family before he leaves.

Chris, Derek, Tim and Todd *the four cousins*

I have never really gotten to hang out with them before or get to know them so it was really nice. That sunday his cousins Derek and Todd had a family BBQ at their house and everyone came. Once again...soooo much food.

Why does everything always revolve around food? It's amazing to think about how much I have eaten in the past couple years of my life, crazy!! ANYWAYS!
They just had a daughter Abigail and she is so sweet. Definately one of the best behaved babies I have ever seen, she rarely cried!

We also played a game called Washers. This is me for the win. I rocked it out...haha!

Chris and I had been looking forward to the 3rd week of June for so long. A whole week off (well Chris anyways, I was only supposed to get 5 days off, which is still better than nothing) for a vacation with eachother to do whatever we wanted. We were so excited but the week definately got off to a rough start. On monday morning Chris had to drive to Muskegon to get his upper widsom teeth extracted. I also had my yearly check-up that day which to all my lady friends out there reading this, you all know exactly how much FUN those are...uhhh yeah probably not, but yeah....so my doc. is doing the breast exam and all of a sudden makes me funny face. I'm like uhhh....what? "I found...a little lump." My stomach was in my throat all of a sudden. She told me that she wanted me to get an ultrasound done. I so badly wanted to be positive but it was so hard, all the worst thoughts were going through my mind.....what if it is cancer, what if I had to have my breast removed, I want to be able to nurse my children, what if I couldn't? I would be devastated? The situation just made me want to throw up.

I quickly left and called Chris, he had just gotten home. I felt so bad unloading all of this on him when he had just gotten home from his surgery. I told him what had happened and while I sobbed he just held me and said everything was gonna be OK, he was so supportive. I had an appt. at Blodgett right away so he came there with me and I had the ultrasound done. The doctor came in to look at it himself and we decided to do a biopsy. We ended up doing it within the hour. I had to call work and tell them that I couldn't work or lift anything for 48 hours. They didn't want me moving my arm in any kind of repetitive motion or doing anything stressful or to raise my heartrate. They had to put a needle in my breast to numb me with the lidocaine; make an incision, and then put these little trigger things inside me to shoot out chunks of the "fibroid", I watched pretty much everything as I was awake, it was pretty interesting actually, definately quite the experience. That night I had to lay around and put an ice pack on my chest every 1/2 hour. I never thought that my first ultrasound would be on my breast, I thought it would be when I was pregnant one day. Needless to say I found out the next week that, Praise God! it was benign......now I just need to make the decision whether or not I want to have it removed.
And that was how my vacation started two days early, which I guess I wasn't too disappointed about, despite my distraction in the back of my mind, I was determined to have fun on my vacation with my husband, especially since we don't get to spend that much time together.

Tuesday we were pretty lazy all morning, in the afternoon we went out to Reeds Lake for dinner, we got a pizza from the Nantucket bakery in East GR, got a blanket and enjoyed the awesome weather. Later that night we watched the Departed, pretty good movie, kinda crazy though.

Wednesday morning my good friend Thea picked us up and then we went downtown to pick up her husband Jason from Kendall (he is a teacher there) and we drove up to Lake Leelanau, where her aunt and uncle lived. SUCH A GREAT TIME, what a fabulous little peninsula. When we first got there we visited about 6 different vineyards and did some wine tastings.

That night we went to this "dinner in a Barn" on a Hydroponic Tomato Farm. Thea's uncle played acoustic music during the dinner with his friend, the food was pretty good.

Thursday afternoon we drove home and went to Muskegon that night until Saturday morning. That afternoon we met back up with Thea, Jason and her parents in Fennville for the vineyards "Open House for the Season". It was very reasonably priced at like $7 a person and we got to taste so many different wines and eat cheese and other great food. Afterwards we went back to their condo and we played croquet, I've always wanted to learn how, it was so fun!!! They also have a little french bulldog named Audrey she is so cute!!

The next week consisted of going back to work, Chris starting school back up, and starting to pack up our apartment.

Friday, June 29th, we closed on our house. We are officially homeowners. It is so exciting, I love it!!!

The week we moved was hell though, haha. I never want to move again.....it's so stressful! I know that eventually I"m going to start looking for something and I'm not going to be able to find it anywhere. We spent SO MUCH TIME painting.....a couple of nights I was here until almost 3 in the morning painting...I was seriously running on no sleep.

I have to send out huge thanks to my mom-in-law Jeanne and her sis Barb, and our amazing friend Julia who all helped us paint. Joe and Erica for lending us their truck, I don't know what we would have done without it. Chris's Uncle Ted for helping us move the washer and dryer. And Jason and Andrea for helping us move a TON of stuff on thursday evening.
Friday consisted of the movers coming to the apartment to get our sofa, tv and mattresses. Our stove and refrigerator were delivered to the house.....OH YEAH, we ran out of hot water around like wednesday. I didn't call to have the gas turned on. I didn't know....!! No one ever told me that you had to do that....so yeah, they couldn't come out until today (wed. July 11), so we have had no hot water for the past week....so thanks AGAIN to Julia and Mike for letting us into their home and letting us use their shower....they are such a blessing to us. It's amazing how we are going to Mars, and got into this house church, and met such awesome people and how everyone helps eachother out, it's so great....we would probably be lost without them all. God is so good!! Sears is also coming back out on friday because they wouldn't hook up our stove since the gas wasn't turned on, so we haven't been able to actually cook anything either which isn't very fun. I"m totally ready for some normal food.

This past weekend my family came to see the house. I haven't seen them in forever, it was so great! They all said how they loved the house, it was so nice to get to share it with everyone. Bob and Jeanne met us here too, and we all went out to Mangiamos!

Later that night we all stayed at their place in Muskegon and watched movies...and of course, played Dominoes.

Sunday morning we went to church at Calvary, which was nice because I've always wanted to go there. We go to see Ryan and Angela, and also got to see Maya for the first time, she is such a beautiful little girl and just as sweet as I imagined her to be. I also got to meet Cadie Rae finally! We went for a short walk on the beach and took some pictures with the family....Afterwards we had lunch at Dockers....then the fam. was off to go back home, and me and Chris were back to GR for our house church.

Bro-in-law Pat, sis Meg, my "dad and mom" Randy and Dorothy, me and Chris

Chris's dad Bob and me Chris's mom Jeanne and me

We went to Jason and Andreas and had a little cookout and ended up playing beach volleyball for like two hours, it was sooooo fun. I haven't played volleyball in like forever! I am still sore today, haha. So this week was back to work again. Tomorrow is my day off and Chris has the day off too so we are probably gonna bust out the weedwacker and lawn mower and get some yard work done cause the grass is seriously WAY overgrown. Should be good fun...atleast the weather has cooled off for a couple days. I am just so happy to be settled in the house now. =)

Ok I wrote this post like five days ago and have been working on it like every day just trying to get the pictures and format all perfect, so I hope you all enjoy it!!!