HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!

Well, I've been attempting to keep this blog for a whole year now! I hope that once or twice I have given you a good laugh. Now that we're in Michigan it has taken on a whole new purpose of keeping in touch... who knew last August that one year later this is where I'd be!
Anyway - CONTEST TIME!

Yep, you heard right. First annual! All you need to do is write a comment. I'd love to hear about a post you liked, thought was funny, etc - but feel free to just say *hi* too. Then on Monday night - August 27th we will put all the comments in a hat and pick out a winner. I'll photo the process. Nods to Spincerely who, of course, did her blogiversary contest first {no, i did not win despite like a million entries.... sigh} [he hee heeeeee!] edited: uh, i mean a week from august 27th??? like maybe i really mean i will pick names on september 4th???? yeah, that's what i mean! (hee hee hee)

Furthermore I just heard about my youngest consistent reader who has been with me for a year. Hey DYLAN!!! Glad you're here!!!!! Tell your mom to post a comment so maybe you can win a prize! Also nods to Agent K who is my youngest commentator to date. Hello all you junior Agents!!!

Now - go ahead, write a comment, say hi, just leave your name - any is fine.
Prize will have a little something yummy, a little piece of local interest, and something scrapbookery (is to a verb!).

Good luck!
See ya after Chicago - where i might get to see this {*said with hope and great optimism......*}

What We've Been Up To

Hello there! How are all of you? I hope everyone is squeezing the last bit of torture - oh! I mean enjoyment out of the summer. ;)

Here's what we've been up to...

Teaching youngest to enjoy gambling for tickets and punching rubber duckies (ie: I have plenty of Chucky pics for at least 3 layouts) {yipe!}
Here's how the house is progressing. Above is the upstairs, can you spy Max in the photo? You are looking at the bedrooms from the location of the bedroom over the dining area. I THINK this will be Abbie's room, but no promises have been made just yet. Below you see the house is now dressed! The bottom is due to have stone work put on - and then fully dressed house!
Do they have a PGA tour for bowling? (hmmm... I think PGA may be for golf.....)

Here we pose with the lovely bowling ball. Note earrings match braces! Abbie did great bowling as did they all. There were some arguments about who would be helping Ethan (both of them wanted to - bicker, bicker, bicker) but overall a really fun time. Even Nana came with us!! AND GUESS WHO WON FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN HER WHOLE LIFE?! Me, me mmmeeeeee! Yes, I am "J" and it took playing against children, my mom, and using the bumpers but I finally got a score with three digits. Whoo hoo! {ah hem, for those of you thinking I jest you must not have played with me yet - let's just say I have a lot of room for improvement, but hey love those bumpers!}
Sorry for my lack of content today. Just giving you some quicky updates. We are off to Chicago for the weekend to see brother Matt and sis in law Heather and go to the aquarium (and YES i will be going to Archivers too in case your wondering).

Coming soon - it's my BLOGIVERSARY! We are having a big contest here, I've been blogging for a year. Next post baby! Mark your bloglines and keep checkin in. Prizes and everything. Also likely some Chicago pics comin your way.

So, what's new with you?

AND the winner is....

Here's the new home! She is still a bit "undressed" at the moment, please pardon her appearance!
Here's the side view. We have the corner lot and our property goes all the way to the road. At this time the land behind the house (you see the woods, and then eventually there is a field) is not planned to be developed. Maybe in the future, but we'd still have a BIG buffer of woods and there is so much other developing before they'd even get to that - it would be years from now. By then I can build up quite the evergreen natural barrier (since apparently when a house is directly behind mine it tends to make me feel a big lack of privacy).

So, here we are.
We picked the smaller of the two school choices we had.
See those two windows at the bottom of the house? Those are "daylight windows" which lend themselves to a finished basement. WHEN you come to visit me you will likely have that view! (hee hee hee) The house is a five bedroom, so we do have a guest room. Still, our plan is to finish the basement pretty quickly so we can have a guest room with a bathroom down there and a playroom too. Then the fifth bedroom will become my designated studio! Whoo hoo! It may need to be a partial office too, but it is still an improvement over my (much loved) scrapbook closet!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Lets see, what else....
There is a really gigantic pantry in this thing, like you never saw one so big! The downstairs has one long room from the front to the back of the house with a vaulted ceiling (so big around here). It is technically the living room and the dining room, but we will keep it all family room. Then there is an eat in kitchen with a slider to the patio, a wonkin pantry, and a laundry room (vs. laundry closet... man I'm movin on up!) and a half bath. Upstairs are the five bedrooms, not too huge but adequate and two full baths.

We really love the lot we got. It is HUGE (for MI but CT people would not think so) by the development standards (great for resale) and is on the corner. The street you sort of see in the second picture (what makes the corner) is not really a street at all but a snow plow off. Around here there is a LOT of snow in winter (but not "sticky snow" or so I am told) and in the new developments there has to be a designated place to push the snow. That little road (which ends at the tree line) is for snow. When there is no snow there it is designated as our tennis court!!! Somehow I also think that Max will love the giant snow piles formed there. Let's hope they don't make me a nervous wreck.

Well, now you are updated!
We have been enjoying not house hunting for a change!

One strange side effect though was that the purchase of the home triggered a home sickness effect in both Jeff and I. It was a sort of sad weekend. I think the finality of it is hitting home. Still we purchased wisely with resale in mind so I don't know why we felt the change, we just did. And with both of us down - whew, it was a loooooonnnngggg weekend.

We are very excited to be purchasing so early in the houses life. We get to pick siding, cabinets, counters, flooring, the works. Cool.

Now, you may wonder when she'll be done.......... November! Yes, that is the rather large down side to this one. I really miss my stuff. I will need to buy the kids more clothes (we didn't pack for school or winter - no winter coats, boots, etc.). Still I think the three months will fly by once the kids are in school and have their normal hectic schedule. And oh yes, I will be driving them to school and picking them up every day until November 15th. Should be a thrill. Didn't I move here to drive less?????? Yet we are registered for school now, Abbie has started soccer, and we are on the final three week countdown. I have never been so ready for school to start, ever!

I miss you all.
Take care and enjoy the rest of the summer! :)

Finally!

Good morning!

Yes, finally I am back.

I am sorry it has been too long.

I think it is a combination of computer issues, life, summer with the kids, and the extreme (in amount we've seen anyway...) house hunting that has kept me from keeping up. I hope to get better............

So, on to the updates - yesterday we put an offer in on a house. Don't know if it will wind up being a "done deal" or not. Waiting for their counter or acceptance of the offer. You all will know when/if we are ever home owners again. I won't go into the type of house yet or anything... but stay posted for updates either tonight (oh wouldn't that be great for it to be done tonight???!!!) or tomorrow. As soon as it's done. I'll just say this, it's similar in size to my old home but has five bedrooms! A room for guests! Whoo hoo!!!! Who's coming to visit me first?!

As to what else is new, not much. I will make a list:

*Registered the kids for school and they took placement tests this week. I was very happy with the positive reception they both received. :)

*This weather has been DISGUSTING here. My parents keep claiming it's "unusual" and "atypical" - but i've had some other natives tell me it's like this often. It is so humid outside that it is thick to breathe. Just opressive. Like you don't even want to be in a pool or at the beach because it's SO HOT AND HUMID. Yuck. My hair is in constant 911 mode. I kid you not it is like day 60 of this humid "spell". Please hope for me that it ends soon. I am VERY LUCKY though that my parents have central air, so at least we can sleep at night and breathe by day when inside. Phew! That's a good thing!

*All we have been doing every moment we have "free" time is house hunting.

*Abbie's soccer team had summer training this week (three days) and starts practices next week already. Whoo wee!

*If you here me say "i'm tarred" instead of "i'm tired" you will know that I am already aquiring a midwestern accent!

*I NEVER get any "free" time to use the phone! I miss talking to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*School starts here after Labor Day - I will be starting the countdown soon. I am so excited for school that yesterday we bought new backpacks (the Princess got hers at L2) and school supplies even though we don't know what we'll need yet!

*I have had a toothache for three days now, I need to find a dentist.

*Ethan is talking really well now (though you may hear him say he's "tarred") and loves riding his new bike. Our biking adventures are another post - but suffice it to say there has been a ton of riding being done. Where we are is full of biking trails.

*The house we put a bid on is a rideable by bike distance away from my parents, with adult supervision (there is some main road travel needed).

Okay - on to the story where I last left you a MONTH ago.

What exploring did we do that left something in many orifices?

Spinny guessed cereal - all I can say is I WISH!

Drum roll.....

Here are the pics: This is the vechicle that we did our torture ride in. No really, it wasn't that bad and was tons of fun and educational too!

We went on a dune ride and explored the dunes near Lake Michigan. We learned how dunes are formed and we learned that when the driver shouts "hold on" it is a good idea to follow directions immediately. We also learned that the driver means it when he says that you will get some sand "everywhere".

Here is King Max standing on a dune.

You really had to hold on! AND keep your mouth CLOSED. When you are going fast and whipping around a sand track and going up and down hills that sand will getcha. I had it in my teeth, hair, fingernails, on my face as a scrub. Crazy.

Can you believe all that sand!

After our sand scrubbing we all went to Lake Michigan for a dip, and aquired more sand! I am still getting it out of the rugs of the minivan. But hey, it was worth it. Family fun!!!

Well, I miss you all.

Leave a comment if you can.

Stay tuned for house updates and pics.

Take care and enjoy the rest of the summer! :)