Rustic Playhouse!

Check out the new rustic playhouse by Blue River Mill, yes that's www.bluerivermill.com in case you wanted to spend any money in the near future!!! Tomorrow, the mini rustic benches and stools will be added and then it's off to a new home for this playhouse.

Looking for Mt. Pleasant Baptist Academy Buddies

So...after years of having a facebook account for the sole purpose of spying on and scaring my freshman students, I have finally created a semi profile and added a photo of myself. The amazing thing was that within hours of updating my profile and adding the photo, Greg Papenfus invited me to be his friend. Carol and Cassandra Herman have also added me as friends. Here's the bummer. When I typed in the name of my high school, Facebook did not recognize Mt. Pleasant Baptist Academy as a "community". It did recognize my other schools. First off, for anyone who is computer savy (Adam Herman or John Nelson???), is there anyway to add our school so that it is easier to connect (or let me know if I'm missing something)? Even if we can't, I'd love to see a bunch of us have this as a connection. So...look me up on Facebook and invite me to be your friend, and then maybe your other friends from MPBA will do the same, and we can all have an easy way of keeping in touch! Call me crazy...

Why All the Blog Updates

So why did I wait for several weeks to finally post on the blog, and post too many items at once???? It's like this. I desperately need to be grading right now. in fact, I'm so overwhelmed that I have no time to blog. It's finals week at CMU. Do you see all of these beautiful almost graduates? They are waiting for me to grade their portfolios, final projects, etc. What am I really doing? Well...I poured myself a glass of vino rosso, sat down to grade, and ended up making a few blog posts instead!!!

Great Wolf Lodge

I just finished teaching a class in Traverse City, which is NOT something I want to spend time talking about in the Blog (except to say that later this summer when you see photos of my trip to Thailand, I can attribute the finances to teaching this class). While I was slaving away teaching, my family enjoyed the Great Wolf Lodge (except that I was really there when all of these photos were taken). I thought that maybe my kids were getting a little too old to enjoy the Lodge, but to my surprise, I actually had a lot of fun myself. The water and air was warm, the waterslides were fast and furious, the free fudge was good, the room was fun (the bed could have been better) and Taylor actually hit the jackpot on one of the arcade games and won 350 redeemable tickets instantly. As John would say..."Good Times, Good Times." If anyone ever wants to do a group trip, I'm IN (as long as your remember to invite me)!

An April Day at the Bridge

Our first shot of the bridge this season (from the Nelson beach or "Cobble Beach") on a cool and windy day in late April!

First Weekend in Mackinaw 2008

For all of you who wondered about the Mii Kevin with a bald head, I did want to confirm that yes, Kevin does have a bald head and here is the proof. Just in case you wondered, it's not natural...he has to work at it. Why? Because I begged him to (go figure). Anyway, we just got back from a nice weekend in Traverse City and Mackinaw, where we visited Mama Mia's Pizza, Audies, and went to Devon's Fudge twice so that Taylor could get her fix of chocolate ice cream. We also visited with mom and dad, aka, Burt and Chris Ann, and can't wait to go back for many more visits this coming summer. The weather was sunny, but the Michigan weather took a turn for the colder, so we actually spotted a few remaining piles of snow! I'll make another post with a few pics from our stay at the Great Wolf Lodge!

Guess Who's Getting a Brother!

So, Bear absolutely knew that it was a boy, way before John, Danielle or the Dr.'s did (does that remind you of another male Nelson who knew certain facts without a doubt and never questionned how or why he knew them?). When I asked Bear what the baby's name was going to be (if in fact, it really was a boy) the answer was a quick "Luigi." Can anyone guess Bear's favorite Wii games??? After a little probing, he finally admitted that his mom and dad were leaning towards "Juno" or "Juneau", but he thought that it didn't fit with their family (the Bear and Willow theme presumably). He definately feels however that "Luigi" would fit within their family theme. What do you think?

The Best of Walker's Hair

Adventure #1: Walker's Hair

Versions of the Priests

Kevin's grandma's funeral was this week and it was the first time, in a long time, that all of grandpa's children and grandchildren were in one place at the same time. I even got a shot of grandpa with 9 of his great grandchildren all drawing their pirate swords (to keep Jack happy!)

I'm Not the Odd One Out

I was just sitting with Kirk and lamenting the fact that of all 3 Priest brothers, I ended up marrying the one that didn't enjoy shopping and spending money. I married the money "control freak". Then, maybe for the first time in my life, I discovered something that I have in common with ALL of my Nelson siblings. We all love to spend money (I wonder where we get that from), and our subconscious must have taken over at some level and made sure that there was internal control built into our marriages because it made sure we found the Kevins, Dans, Surias and Danielles of the world! We love you guys!