Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Wish Kevin and Kirk a Happy Birthday!


Today, Kevin turns 38 and Kirk turns 36! Happy Birthday to them both!




Today, Walker and I did some shopping to come up with an extra special Birthday card for Kevin. In case you can't read it, here's what it says (it includes candy and 2 magazines).
"Be careful with the circus peanuts and junior mints, because they can make you extra chunky! You're a fisherman & Michigan Sprotsman, but we all know that your fishtales are sometimes whoppers. Your son is a hot tamale and your daughter is 5th Avenue. Sometimes we snicker and call you a nerd, but Really we all know you're a sweetheart! Happy Birthday to a Red Hot Man!
Mind you, that took some creative thinking after we picked out all of the candy!
Happy Birthday guys!

Monday, June 22, 2009

A Trip to Art Van


So...I've been looking for a living room couch for a couple of years. We have a couch upstairs in the TV room, but I haven't had a couch in the living room since it was remodeled. We've been sitting on folding chairs, a glider rocker, and my Pier One bedroom chair. This will all soon change. Here is the story...I have wanted a brown leather couch for years, but when I was at World Market in March, I fell in like with a tan couch that had a chaise lounge on one end. I was slightly concerned that it might not be a quality furniture item, but was pretty set on it. We went to Lansing to buy it last Friday night and stayed at John & Danielles. On Saturday morning, Kevin wanted to eat at the Cracker Barrel, and I knew that there was an Art Van on that side of town, so I told him that we should check out couches and chairs at Art Van BEFORE we did anything at the World Market. Here is how I heard John describing the process to Carol after observing our shopping. "They walked in the store and sat down on one of the first couches near the door. Then they started shopping for matching chairs and never looked at another couch!" I didn't realize it at the time, but he was totally accurate. When we saw the couch, we didn't even look at another couch! We didn't even go back to the "Clearance Center" part of the store before purchasing our couch.


We did have some debates over the chair, since I wanted a modern roomy chair and Kevin demanded a rocker. I finally gave in to the "ugly" chair, because it means that he will continue to get up earlier than me in the morning to get the kids up and around for school. While they get ready, he sits in the living room and rocks in a chair. I did however insist that I could not tolerate the solid color chenile/velvety type fabric that comes on rockers. Fortunately, when you shop at a real furniture store, there are designers to help you, and for a small fee, I was able to select from any fabric that the particular chair company had for any of their furniture. You may not agree on my selection, but I think that it matches the couch well, accents our VERY burnt orange walls, and goes well with our house in the woods. The fabric swatch laying on the couch is what we're using for the chair.









Lastly, I purchased 5 throw pillows at World Market, the day before I switched couches. I wanted to lighten up the room with them, and bring in a few other colors while accenting the orange. I don't know if I can pull this off, so if any of you are great at decorating, fabrics, etc. (ie. Kara Tait, Carol, Danielle...), please let me know if I'm going too far! I know that none of these pillows can go on the chair, but 3-4 of them could be on the couch at a time (I think). Let me know your honest opinion!!!

If You Come for a Visit...











If you come for a visit, you will notice something different about the outside of our house (Kevin hated having to stain the siding every several years). The siding really helps tie together all of the small additions that we've made over the years, so it looks like one house that actually fits together! We also pulled out the garage door and added a window and small french door. This will become Kevin's finish shop for Blue River Mill. Soon to come is a new front door that matches the color of the siding and has a bigger window. What do you think? I think the first pictures of the back of the house look better than the front! What do you do when your backside is your best side???

A Night in Lansing!




Last Friday night, Kevin and I made an impromptu trip to John & Danielle's, sans kids, since they were all over the country (Washington and Cruising back to NYC). We talked late, played with kids, slept on the futon and played tourist while we ate at the Cracker Barrel (note the photos). There was also a stop at Art Van, the damage to our bank account can be evidenced in a nearby post!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Citizens of the Month: Go Tay!

JAY NEWS
Citizens of the Month
March & April/May 2009
We have several “Citizens of the Month” for
March and April/May.

April/May’s seventh graders are (back row)
Alexis Finch, Rachel Travis, Andrew Sura, Kaylie
Rhynard, Taylor Priest (front row) Sean Yesmunt,
Nathan Polizzi, Cody Gruss.


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Cedar Point!!!

Returning after over 20 years...We spent the day at Cedar Point last Saturday. I haven't been there since the summer I was going into 7th grade, the summer that Charles and Di were married, and the age that Taylor is currently! There was a ride having it's 20th anniversary that didn't even exist the last time I was there. Anyway...here's the rest of the story!
If you look closely, our group is in the 3rd row from the front. Derick has his hand way up in the air, Walker's hair is all that shows next to him, then comes Kevin and Michele. I think that it took me 45 minutes and about that many photos before I actually caught the car that they were in!
Our new family pic
I was careful to monitor myself because I know my limits. Walker did everything along with Derick and Michele, including stretching when he was getting measured so that he could ride on the biggest/fastest rides. Kevin skipped a couple, and Taylor skipped 2. Taylor did not monitor herself well enough. She went to bed white as a ghost with the spins and was puking by 1am. At 2am she was clawing at the walls crying that she couldn't get them to come down! Believe it or not, she has fond memories of the day and only has bad memories of the hotel! Thanks for the great idea Derick! I bet your glad you got that 2nd hotel room!




Our first ride of the day. We're smiling here...Look at the end of the day posting to see what the ride looked like from a distance to figure out what I looked like by the end!












Bumper Cars

The "kids" had a good old fashioned bumper car war...
















Over the park!

Taylor's favorite ride of the day!

It was not Michele's favorite ride!



This one ranks in my top 2!



Great evening view of the park! Those two yellow spirals on each side constitute the first ride that we went on of the day. It was like a Pharoh boat ride on drugs, alcohol and speed!