Birthday fun

On May 6 we celebrated two special occasions.

My dear Gregory Peter turned 27,

and our little Kensie Michelle turned 8 months...

In honor of the day, we took a "special" chair picture....

Adrenaline

Well, I did it. I completed my first 5k this morning. Thanks to a last minute sign up by Greg's cousin, Beth, I was blessed with a running partner. I know we look like sisters, but we are not even blood related. Funny huh? Anyway, we were matched pretty well the whole race. And since I've mostly trained alone, it sure was nice to have a buddy. Definitely more motivating for sure.

We both finished under 27 minutes, which was better than my goal! I'm sure there was a little help from some morning coffee as well as the adrenaline that kicks in from running with a large group. And we DID get some cheers from our hubby's on the sidelines, which always helps too.

And I have to give a shout out to my dear friend Jamie, who -- if it wasn't for her encouragement, I would have never signed up in the first place. Thanks Jamie!

So, here's to the 5k. The official kick off of Tulip Time has begun!!

Bring it on.

Block party update...

Our block party did not go so well. We did not have a SINGLE person show up. I busted my tail to clean the house ALL day, forgoing the chance to enjoy the nice weather yesterday, prepared food, and no one came. Just Greg, Kensie and I. THEN, I got a letter from the post office threatening to take me to the PIS (Postal Inspection Services) because I slipped the invites into people's mailboxes. Whoops. Who knows if anyone even got them! Anyway, I was pretty much in tears last night. Greg was sick so he went to bed early, and I just laid in bed awake for an hour...so annoyed.

I woke up this morning with this on the table. A note written by my loving, understanding hubby...

I sighed a deep breath, knowing he's right, but still feeling the heat of tears in my eyes. I also realize prayer is important BEFORE an event like this, to keep the focus off myself. I was more worried about what people thought of my clean house and what food they were going to eat. I have seen the power of prayer in the past. I hope we remember this for next time. God will bring people if you ask him.

Highs and Lows

My birthday brought some wonderful highs for the week. Beautiful flowers were brought home by my husband. I was given some very thoughtful cards and gifts, as well as a lovely brunch with some great friends.

The lows were mixed between a sick baby on my birthday, barely seeing my working husband ALL week, and recently hearing news of a friend who has breast cancer. Just when you think you hit your high in life, I am reminded there are times like this that keep me grounded. It keeps my need for God alive, knowing I can't have perfection in any circumstance.

**Kensie is MUCH better today. Her fever is gone and she is eating everything in sight. Maybe a one-day bug? Or maybe some teeth here soon...who knows. But glad she's back. **

And I know we're jumping the gun a bit, but we took some pics in front of the tulips. The Tulip Festival is not for another week, but there may not be any tulips by then. And whoever lived in this house before us LOVED tulips. So we are gladly reaping the benefits. I'm more of an interior decorator...not so much of an exterior one.

Doggie tricks

Kensie has learned a few tricks (some old and some new) including sitting, standing, and rolling over. Please observe the cuteness that follows...

...and with a little support from the couch (cheater), we have a 2 foot munchkin who looks about ready to walk...yikes! SIDE NOTE: she literally stood there for 5 minutes while I snapped pic after pic. She has NO balance whatsoever, but her legs are stiff as a board...cracks us up!

The rolling over trick has become my favorite. After only a half hour of training, she literally does it on command...see for yourself!

New news

I was never able to take a real "spring break" vacation while in high school and college. Sports always kept me tied down during that coveted week of no school and all sun.

Growing up in CA, the "cool" thing to do was go snowboarding over spring break. Everyone would come back to school with lift tickets still attached to their coats, bragging about where they went skiing that week and how many snowball fights they had. Meanwhile, here in MI everyone and their dog goes to Florida (where I STILL have never been..hint hint Greg...). After seven days in the hot sun, they return with the most glorious tans I have ever seen.

But, now that I'm out of school, who says I still can't enjoy a spring break trip?

Here are some pics of our missions trip to TN. Our church has been going to this summer Christian Camp for years, and we finally had our chance to go. We helped them do various jobs around the camp like clearing shrubs, trimming trees, cooking, stuffing envelopes, painting, shoeing horses, house-cleaning and the like. We were privileged to bring Katelyn along for the ride too (and the help :). She was a trooper, even if she did get bit by a horse! (ask her about it...)

And Kensie did amazing as well! Mommy didn't get much sleep as we had to sleep in the same room, but she faithfully took her two naps a day and slept 12 hrs at night. She even celebrated 7 months while we were there. And since I was kinda freaking out that we weren't going to have her infamous "chair picture" until 6 days AFTER we got home, we found a chair in our cabin to substitute...

the morning view from the front porch of our cabin...breathtaking!

Old news

A few weeks ago we attended a fun "winter Olympics party" at church. We were assigned teams, created our own country name and flag to match, and competed in various "athletic" events. These included flicking ice cubes with plastic knives on a table (to imitate curling of course), and putting shoebox lids on our feet and sliding around on carpet shooting Nerf guns at cardboard targets (the biathlon of course).

The last event was hockey. Played on a carpeted gym floor. It was broom to broom combat with a bouncy rubber ball. The goal, obvious. Get the ball through the goal as many times as you can.

So what's with the picture??

My competitive husband gave the tip of his index finger for his team during that hockey game. No, I'm not kidding. The brooms we played with were under-average household brooms (say from the 1930's?). Brooms were braking left and right, but people carried on as if it were the real Olympics. We had quite a competitive group. Anyway, Greg happened to have a broom with a metal handle. Basically (without being too graphic), the handle broke and pinched the tip of his finger off ... O-F-F ... off. Gross. You are now allowed to make that disgusting face that I know you can't help from making. To make you feel a little better, it was not the nail part of the finger, just the pad (like where you would get a finger print). But still...there was QUITE a bit of blood.

.

After a trip to the ER, Greg had his finger wrapped up with no hope of seeing his gold medal, or the tip of his finger ever again. A few members of the group came to visit him at the hospital bearing gifts and news. Greg's team had WON and so they draped his (plastic) gold medal around his sweaty neck. And as for the news, well.....let's just say someone "found" what looked like a peanut on the floor close to where the incident happened....gross.