New Years Eve

Wednesdsay New Years Eve – Dec 31st –

The kids went sledding in the morning. It was cold and we had a bit of new snow. They both had a great time. Joe and Joey lasted a lot longer than Justin and I did. I just took photos. Justin went sledding but didn't stay out long at all. Just a few times down the hill and he was done.

 

Joe going down the hill with Justin.

  

Joey going down the hill by himself!

  

The lake in Grandma's backyard. So pretty.

  

Justin is stuck and not going down the hill :(

  

Joey and Joe going down the hill again.

The only exciting thing we did this day was we drove with Joe’s mother to Saginaw to Best Buy because she wanted to get a new pc and tv. Come to find out the package deal they had was incomplete because they were missing the monitor she would need and could not do a replacement or anything. She was pretty angry about it and pretty much told the manager that she was going to buy a computer, tv and stand for over $2500 dollars and he was like, ‘Sorry, can’t do anything’. So we just walked out without buying anything. What a bummer. Joe’s mom was pretty upset about the whole situation.

That night after the kids went to bed and Joe and I watched South Park. How classy huh? He loves that show and I got sucked into watching it. We switched it at 11:30 when Dick Clark’s NYE celebration came on.

At that time we moved from the living room to the kitchen and played a game called Trumpet and for the record – I beat Joe (we played a few rounds). This is a big deal because he beats me at nearly every board game we play.

We were up to see the ball drop and kissed when it did. Awwww lol. Then we watched a little more of the NYE celebration and then I went to bed .

Dec 30th...meeting old friends!

Tuesday Dec 30th –

We woke up and got everyone ready and we all jumped in the van and headed on our way to Midland where Joe and I went to college at Northwood University back in the day (96-00).

On the way up north we marveled at all the little business on the way that shut down. We saw a few trains that were parked. We mentioned it to Joey and he said to us “I’m only excited if they are MOVING”. I guess he doesn’t like train cars anymore unless it’s a moving train. Too funny.

When we got to the Midland/Saginaw split on the highway I happened to look over and there was a man in a SUV. I glanced at him and I said to Joe, ‘That looks like Jen B’s dad!”. He slowed down and then passed us and I looked again and it looked like him. I got on my blackberry and messaged Jen’s sister Beth and asked if he drove a blue trailblazer. She wrote me back and said, ‘Yes, he drives a blue one!’

I swear it was him. What are the odds that he will be driving past us at the exact same time when he lives over 2 hours away from where we were at the time we saw him. That is just so odd. The other odd thing is I was on my blackberry most of the time so I wasn’t even paying attention to the other drivers passing until he drove by and I glanced up. So weird!!

It was so awesome to drive into Midland. We were seeing all the stuff that has changed. So many shops have shut down. We were so sad to see the Hot N Now hamburger chain going out of business. The one in Lapeer was out of business and the one in Midland was closed.

We were so excited to see campus. We drove right there. We were just looking to see what has changed. It looks the same but there are a few new signs on campus and some new designated parking for students that live on campus.

We then drove around town for a little bit to see some business that have stuck around since we graduated 8 years ago and others that are new. In all, Midland didn’t look like it was doing too poorly.

We stopped to eat at Fazolli’s for lunch. The kids got pizza, I got a combination Italian plate and Joe got pasta romano. It was a pretty good lunch.

I then called a friend of mine from High school. We actually used to be best friends in elementary when I moved to Howell. We lost touch through middle/high school and then found each other again on facebook (another reason I love facebook!).

Joe and I took the kids to the tridge which is three bridges (tridge). It was ICE on the sidewalk going up to the bridge, it was ice on the bridge and there was a huge section of the river moving very quickly. Joe was very nervous that Joey would goof off and slip and fall into the river so I got a few photos and we got off the bridge.

 

 Joey and Joe on the Tridge.

  

It was sooo flooded from the snow melting - you can see the playground on the other side completely under water.

  

 Justin and Joe.

  

 Me on the tridge. Brrrr.

  

 Joey on the tridge.

  

 The boys!

The weather here a few days before was sooo wonderful. It was about mid to high 50s. Because it was so warm, the 17 inches of snow all over Michigan started to melt and flooded everything. The river was so high that it flooded the banks on the other side of the bridge and the playground and everything was under water. It was pretty amazing how high the river got after all the snow melted.

We called Christine (my friend) and told her not to meet us at the tridge like we had planned and we agreed to meet at the mall instead.

We drove back to the mall area and met Christine at the playland so we could chat. I told Joe to get on his wireless for his computer so he could do some work related stuff. We stayed at the playland probably for an hour before the kids started to get restless.

Christine and I talked like old times. We haven’t talked in YEARS and we were talking so easily. It was great we talked about our kids, we talked out daycare, about our jobs, everything. It was so cool to see her!

 

 Joey in the mall's playland.

  

  Joey in the mall's playland.

  

 Joey and Justin in the play area.

 

 Christine and I.

We finally said our goodbyes and took the kids to the food court and got the kids a 10 piece chicken nugget to split while Joe still worked on his work pc.

I ran off around the corner to get myself an orange Julius. I haven’t had one in years. The bad thing was there was only one guy working and it took 15 minutes to get it. Joe was pretty pissed that I left him with both kids while I got it and took so long while he was trying to work.

I had the kids finish up their food and then we went BACK to the play area so they could play a bit . Joey is the type of kid that has to play with SOMEONE – anyone. I taught him to go up to someone and ask him their name. He found some older kids that did not want to play with him. He came back to me pretty upset about it. I told him that those kids were a lot older than him and scanned the play area. I said to go say hi to the kid over there in the blue. He ended up being closer to Joey’s age and him and Joe played fabulously together. He was a well behaved kid and played great with Joey.

I hate play areas because the first time we were there we saw this child that was pretty rough with Joey and would push him and his mother didn’t even care. Please people – watch your darn kids!! If my kid did something I didn’t want him to I said something. This child obviously just walked all over his mom. Sad!!

Finally we were there so dang long the kids were ready to go. Justin brought me his shoes. Joey’s friend was leaving so the kids put their shoes on and we walked over to where Joe was still on his work pc doing work stuff. Luckily he was just about done. I think we were in the mall 2-3 hours!!!! Joe was happy to be done with his work stuff and we were just happy to get out of the mall!

We made it back to Northwood one more time for photos. We had to get photos of us on campus!

 

 Joey and Joe with the NU (Northwood University) entrance.

  

 Joe and I by the Northwood entrance/sign. Joey took this photo.

  

 Justin by the entrance.

  

 So much water flooded the roads. You can see the water turned to ice down this road.

 

There are turkey's all over Midland. Here's one they saw!

On our way home I talked Joe into stopping at Rally’s for a hamburger – we hadn’t been there in years!! It was as good as it was in college!

Then we took the trip home back to Grandma’s house! What a fun day.

Monday the 29th...

NOTE - all the posts below are new and have been all updated at once. Everything from Christmas Eve to the 29th are brand new entries.

Also I wanted to say this is my 907th post. I went over 900! Awesome!

Monday Dec 29th

All we remember is that we started the day out at Grandma Char's. The kids wanted to see Carlos - the horse. They love horses and wanted to see Carlos every day.

 

 Carlos, Grandma Char and Justin.

  

 Carlos and Grandma Char.

  

 Justin saying HI to Carlos.

  

 Joey in the half frozen water on the lake with his boots.

 

 The boys by the frozen lake. Only the edges are not frozen due to the warm weather we recently had.

Then we went shopping at Walmart. They still had awesome sales on Christmas stuff so we picked up a 6ft Christmas tree (not pre-lit) for only $10.00. That will be Joe’s Detroit Tigers Tree for his game room. We have blue lights and we plan to buy orange lights next year around Halloween and decorate the tree with the Detroit Tigers ornaments we have.

We also got a 9 foot prelit skinny tree for $60. We are excited about this because it will go in our formal living room in front of our front window. We bought silver and red bulbs to put on the tree half off. Gotta love after Christmas sales!

We talked about it and we aren’t sure where we will put the tree we have up now with all of our Hallmark ornaments and the fun multi-colored lights. I guess we’ll think of that next year.

That’s all I can think of for Monday!

 

 Justin looked so cute in his new John Deere hat.

  

 Look at my hat mom!

  

Joey is probably the most computer literate 4 year old you'll ever meet (I wonder who he gets that from?! LOL). He was playing a coloring book software that Grandma Char bought for him.

  

 Grandma K nice and toasty.

  

 Joey being a goofball.

  

 Justin loves doritos and cheetos and was bumming some off dad.

  

 Joey playing with his new toys.

  

 After Joey went to  bed that night he walked out and said, 'Um, Justin is naked in his bed and jumping up and down.' We walked in there and this is what we saw. Hahaha! He stripped himself!

 

Joey with his frog.

Leaving my parents and Christmas at the other side of the family.

Sunday Dec 28th.

We relaxed a bit in the morning and watched Wall-E. What a cute movie. It is a bit slow but it’s cute. The kids like it but it tends to bore them a bit in the middle.

Then we packed up the car to go back up north to see Grandma for our Christmas there.

When we got there everyone was ready to eat lunch/dinner. It was about 1:30. We had ham, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a mix salad and a green bean dish. Yum.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to some yummy desserts.

Joey asked to open the gifts about 100x and finally we did the gift exchange. Joey and Justin both got these John Deere Tool sets from Uncle Fred. They also both got Monster trucks. Joe got a bunch of clothes he needed including sleeper pants, boxers, a nice flannel shirt and some nice hanes t-shirts. I got a gift card to Wal-mart!

 

A photo of me, that I'm not really happy with. :) Joey took the photo.

   

Joe - Joey took this photo.

  

Joey and Justin opening their gifts.

After the gift exchange everyone gathered back at the table to munch on dessert and talk.

Shortly after everyone needed to go home.

We got the boys ready to leave to go to Grandma Char’s house (Joe’s mom). I was getting the food from my parent’s house from that morning out of the van, and I picked up the turkey soup, the lid slid off and it tipped over and about ½ of a huge bowl of turkey soup went all over the floor of my van. To make things worse, I have a stow and go van so the turkey soup went into the floor and UNDER the floor and into the stow and go!

Let me tell you that was the biggest pain in the butt to clean up. I not only had to clean up the upholstery, but I had to open up the stow and go and clean up under that. The soup also got in the crevices between the stow and go and the floor so I had to try to get the soup out of the small crevices as well. It sounds funny but I swear to you, I was not happy about it. I have visions of smelling rotting turkey soup in my van for months to come. Hopefully I cleaned it up good enough. The soup even went UNDER the stow and go and into the metal frame! My gosh!

We headed over Grandma Char’s house when I was done cleaning. Joey and Justin got to see Char’s horses.

After she was done the boys came in to do presents at Grandma Char’s house.

We got Char a bunch of things she asked for off her Christmas list. The boys are spoiled rotten and got these really cool bounce back remote controlled cars, a few matchbox sets, and Joey even got a SpeedRacer car track set.

 

Grandma Char's tree and Joey and Justin waiting to open gifts.

  

One of Joey's gifts.

After we did Christmas at Grandma Char’s house we came back to Grandma K’s house (where we stay overnight because she has two extra rooms) and we gave her the Christmas gifts we got for her. We got her some rare perfume she loves that is so hard to find, a calendar of the boys and her 3M box.

 

Grandma K opening her gift.

 

My boys.

Because we are 3M stockholders, they offer stockholders the chance to purchase 3M holiday boxes every Christmas that has a large assortment of their products. I get one for my mom, Audrey, Grandma, Grandma Char, and myself of course. It’s the one thing I get them every year that I think they forget about that always gets a huge smile out of them. We all love the 3M gift boxes.

After Grandma opened our gifts I made the boys a pizza while Joe got the kids in the shower. I was trying to pull the pizza out and it went sliding off the pizza pan, back into the stove. I tried to catch it and ended up getting the end of it, flipping it over in the stove. The pizza cheese was nice and hot and gooed all the way off the pizza as it hit the bottom of the stove. My gosh – first the turkey soup and then the pizza? Seriously – keep me out of the kitchen! So then we had pizza cheese all over the bottom of the stove and all over the grates on the stove racks. Grrrr!!

So now the kids are in bed and sleeping. I’m sitting her updating my blog in Microsoft Word since there is no internet at Grandma’s. Grandma is conked out on the chair next to me and Joe is asleep on the couch. I guess it was a tiring day for everyone!

More Bargain Shopping and seeing my best friend!!

Saturday Dec 27th

We all woke up and ate another spectacular breakfast compliments of my father.

After we ate breakfast my dad and I ventured out to the OTHER Salvation Army thrift store in White Lake. This was the one I used to always shop at and I wanted to check it out again.

The store is NOT as nice as the new Howell store. I did manage to spend a TON of money and it even elicited some eye rolls from the cashier as I brought an entire buggy full of clothes her way. She was kinda rude to me so that ticked me off.

I got some shirts, my dad got some shoes, and I got some flat sheets and a sheet set for Joey’s bed and a few sleeper pants. I got a few more shirts for Joe. I even found a Tiger’s throw for Joe for his game room. I love thrift shopping – seriously. I find Gap Jeans and name brand clothes for the boys. It’s wonderful and I’m not spending 100’s at the mall (though mall shopping is fun too but it’s expensive and we don’t have the money to do it!).

We must have been in the thrift store a few hours because it was past noon when we walked out.

We stopped at Meijer and I found these Plasma cars on sale for ½ off for the boys and Joey’s birthday is in a few weeks so we picked one up for him and one for Justin. In fact adults up to 220 lbs can ride on them. Sweet!

Then we stopped at a hardware store to get something for dad’s water softener. I stopped at Rite Aid because I forgot to get diaper wipes at Meijer. It was right next door.

The hardware store didn’t have what dad needed so we drove off to yet another hardware store. Then we went home. Jeez what a fun day.

When we got home I noticed Joe was a bit annoyed because I left him with the kids all day while I was out with my dad. He’s such a good hubby!

After naps my friend Jenny came over with Wyatt and Katie. We had a nice time after nott seeing each other for a year. She got the boys a bunch of books for Christmas. I got Wyatt a movie he wanted and a monster truck and got Katie the Fisher Price Little People bus and the dog grooming little people set. The kids seemed to like their gifts.

I got Jenny some chocolates and she got me a Christmas ornament that said ‘Best Friends’. What a sweetie.

 

Joey and Wyatt eating monstrous popsicles! 

Jenny and Katie.

Katie looking like a doll. Awwww.

Wyatt and Joey playing with Joey's new toy.

Closeup of Katie.

Jenny reading everyone a book.

Jenny and I.

Jenny and I and all of our 4 kids!

Katie is so adorable. Joey and Wyatt were full of energy and had fun playing with Joey’s new toys. It was so nice to be able to see Jenny again!