christmas grandma

after diana got out of work thursday, we headed up to grand rapids to see my family for christmas. hurray! its finally here! we arrived that night and just took it easy. friday morning diana and i got up, got ready, and finally headed out to do some much needed christmas shopping. (who ever said last minute shopping was a bad idea?) meijers was actually surprisingly calm for being the day before christmas! after a bit of a headache with me loosing my phone, we eagerly awaited the arrival of our special christmas eve guest: grandma! that side of the family decided not to get together this year (which seems understandable, the family is just getting too big- i think there's about 174 of us now...), so instead we had grandma over to spend christmas eve with our family. after dinner we got to have a good time with her playing cards and chatting! she had never played 'phase 10' before, but rather enjoyed it. at the end of the night diana and i took her back home. she said she had a wonderful time, and so did we!

last day bowling

the last week of school before christmas break is always one of the most difficult weeks of the year. the reason is most kids have already checked out of school mentally and are only focused on what they are going to do with all that free time and with all those new toys they expect to get! well, one thing that helps out is the fact that the last day of school before break has no classes at all! instead, we take the kids to the local bowling alley and let them run wild! when we get back from bowling, the kids have a pizza party in their room, and then they head to the gym to play for the rest of the day. it is always a good time, and the kids really love it! this year we tried a few different things to make it run smoother, and most of them worked. since there are no actual classes that day, instead it feels like i'm a babysitter instead of a teacher. not that i'm complaining, its a nice change of pace!

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cabin jumper

the next day most of us slept in pretty late. finally, after we were all up and had taken care of replacing the gas we used in the generator, we packed up and cleaned up. once we got everything together, keith started up his 4 wheel drive suv. except, there was a bit of a problem: the battery had died! i had to drive my little saturn around and give it a jump. who would have thought that my little car would need to help out his big suv?!? it was a pretty funny sight to see! after we got it started, we all said our goodbyes and hit the road. we are already looking forward to next year...

cabin night

the rest of the night was filled with tons of fun. as the years go by we find that this trip up to the cabin seems to be the only time each year where all of us are actually together in the same room! we had an amazing time of playing games, being silly, and getting honest. this visit up to the cabin ends up being a highlight of the year every time we go. no matter what changes go on during the year, we are able to talk, laugh, and have a good time together while we are up there. it always reminds me how much i miss seeing those guys more often. living two hours away has its distinct disadvantages...

sporties

another important tradition that we have when we go to the cabin is making a visit to the local dive bar sporties. now granted, its not actually called 'sporties' anymore, but it was when we started making this cabin visit an annual thing eight year ago, so why change what we call it now? they always have amazing hamburgers, and the most pleasant of shady clientele, so we knew we were in for a treat. turns out, we visited on the very night of their 'customer appreciation day' party! the place was packed! usually when we go there are about two people in there, the waitress and a really creepy looking guy hiding out in the dark corner. this year there were thirty or more people in there having a great time! they had even classed up the joint a little too- they had new tables and chairs, and even one of them fancy jukeboxes thats hooked up to the internet! i dont know about all these changes, sporties. but at least the food was just as good as i remembered it, so all is forgiven.

shootin'

one of the traditions at the cabin, along with being very very cold, is going out and shooting stuff with guns! nice and manly, right? well, usually all we bring up there are little 22 riffles, but since keith came with us, that purveyor of all things firearms, he brought along his big ol nasty shotgun! there were a couple other ruffles that we brought too, but everyone wanted a turn with the shotgun. he had a blast shooting up empty cans and shooting over empty shotgun shells! keith will now be invited up with us every year from now on, just so long as he brings his shotgun!
(check out this hilarious video!)

driving up

keith and i drove up to the cabin this year. we got a pretty early start, leaving around 11am. most of the way the weather was pretty good, but for about ten miles it got pretty rough! the snow was coming down and the wind was blowing badly. at one point we had a rather exciting event. we were driving through the snow and wind, which caused the road to be a bit slippery. well, turns out there was a truck that had slid off the road and flipped a couple times. there were emergency vehicles on the scene already by the time we got to that part of the highway, but for some reason i cannot fathom, the vehicle two cars in front of us decided to slam on their brakes. now, this is never a good idea. its especially bad if the road is slippery. why did they slam on their brakes? i have no idea. the emergency vehicles were still about a quarter mile ahead and the traffic wasnt slowed either, it seems that the person driving this vehicle saw the police lights and slammed on the brakes. which is a bit of a bother for the car behind them who was traveling 40 miles an hour. it just so happens that the car behind them was me! well, somehow i got an amazing flash of nascar, because i slammed on my brakes, slid to the right, toward the huge ditch on the side of the road. as i was beginning to slide directly into the back of the car, i hit the gas and somehow managed to dodge around the vehicle, barely missing it by about an inch with my side mirror! after sliding around the vehicle, i was able to correct the car and return to the right lane of the highway, completely avoiding the destruction of hitting the other car, or falling off the highway! both aaron and dusty, who were riding with me, were shocked and impressed. i was too- i've always considered myself a terrible winter conditions driver, but somehow managed to make it through this impending accident with no problem at all! God was definitely guiding that one! yikes! after my heartbeat returned to normal, we stopped at our usual place for lunch on the way. as a side note, please be sure to notice the person sitting behind brains in the photo above. not only does he have some amazing facial hair, but he is also sporting a fantastic curly mullet!

cabin time again

its that time of year once again, that time when the guys and i head up to the cabin and have a great time doing cabiny things! this year, due to christmas and new years falling on the weekends and not everyone having the week off in between, we went up a bit earlier than usual. i traveled up to grand rapids the night before so i could get a good nights sleep in preparation of all the fun we were going to have. i knew i was going to have to drive my little saturn up to the cabin, so i picked up rex and dusty on the way over to aarons. we met up a bit earlier than usual, but surprisingly everyone made it there on time- even jeffry lee! before we headed off we hung out at aarons for a few minutes getting everyones stuff packed in the vehicles and figuring out the seating arrangement. we were all very excited about the fun ahead and were ready to get rollin!
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snow day!

it happened again! every once in a while, when the weather is just right (or wrong, depending on your perspective), we get that wonderful thing called a snow day! as a teacher, i always love it, i'm sure parents might feel a bit differently about it, but i sure do love them! it was only my forth snow day ever as a teacher, so i treasure them all the more! sunday evening the weather was really bad, the snow was coming down in buckets, and the wind was howling. they were projecting that it would last straight on through to monday afternoon. well, school made the decision sunday night to cancel and called everyone to let us know. that, by the way is when its the best: when you know the night before that school will be cancelled! diana didnt have to work monday either, so the two of us stayed up extra late, snuggled up in the blankets away from the cold, and watched a movie! when morning came and we got up, which was extra late because we got to sleep in, we peeked outside to see how bad it had gotten. and would you know it, there was only about three or four inches on the ground and the rest of the day was sunshiney! diana and i had a great time with our extra snow day and wouldnt mind at all if there was another one around the bend...

barbara's back

every once in a while diana's sister drops by to visit. we always love having her, and she always gets a free haircut out of the deal. not bad, huh? this time when she came she brought her boyfriend with her and we had a great time getting to know him and just hanging out. we went to three floyds for dinner and then ended up going to a party at one of diana's work friends house. we had a great time! it was really nice to get to know barbara's boyfriend, and also have a blast at kat's place chatting with everyone and enjoying the product of her great baking skills!
in case you are wondering, this is a picture of barbara showing diana a bunch of youtube videos which barbara quotes all the time! they were quite funny, as you can tell by the smiles!
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b-balling it

as happens every year, there is a 6th grade basketball tournament at our school. we, and three other schools in our area, get together on a saturday and challenge each other for the much sought after title of basketball champ. i've been working at the tournament for a few years now, i sit out in the hall at the ticket booth. its not terribly interesting, sitting at a table taking money for five hours, but thats ok. i get to see all the kids and parents in a different setting than the classroom, which is nice! the tournament went well and we ended up in second place, not bad for a team that lost every single one of its season games...

tweets reads!

one of the most exciting moments of the whole thanksgiving visit came that sunday afternoon. after we had finished our turkey dinner and had been playing around for a while, i sat down in the armchair in the living room. tweets came up to me and wanted to show me something. she hopped up on my lap and pulled out a book and started reading it! what?!? our little tweets is old enough to read?!? when did this happen? i was so amazed! she was able to sound out the words and she ended up reading the entire book 'bath time for biscuit' to me! wow! i am such a proud uncle! before you know it she will be driving and dating and all that stuff- good luck jill and tim!

house kids

sunday afternoon was filled with fun! after church the kids came over and we had a great thanksgiving meal- with all the fixin's! once the table was cleaned, we all went into the living room to hang out. diana sat with the kids looking at books (in front of the heat dish, of course!). we all got a chance to laugh and play with the kids and talk to the family and everything! these times are what diana and i most look forward to on our trips up to grand rapids!
(more pics: 1, 2, and a couple dance videos by the girls: 1, 2)

game day

one of my mom's favorite things in the world is to sit at the kitchen table and play games. it doesnt really matter what game we are playing, she is just happy to have the opportunity! well, i certainly got that love of games from her. diana and i spent hours and hours playing different games with mom over the weekend- i think we spent the entire saturday going through all the different games mom hand and giving them all a try! there were some winners and some losers as far as the games go, but we had a blast playing them anyway! one of the most surprising things of the weekend was that papa came by and joined us for a few games too! he's usually not very interested in playing, but he was a good sport and pulled up a seat (mom was shocked and amazed, to say the least!). we will definitely have to do this again soon!
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at the hut

one of the special events during our visit to see the family was a trip to pizza hut! we met there for the lunch buffet and a chance to have a good time! the kids all pigged out (and so did the adults...) as we made a game of waiting for the servers to bring out the next pizza- 'is it a supreme? is it a supreme?' mom kept asking. the kids favorite was always the bread sticks though! its so fun to just spend time with jills three kids, its amazing to see how each of them are developing their own personalities. each time diana and i go up there it seems like they have grown so much! all three of them are so amazingly sweet and loving- jill and tim must be doing something right!
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brinksgiving

after a great time with diana's family, we made our way up to grand rapids to see my family. since we had already had a huge feast, mom and papa figured they would push their thanksgiving meal to sunday when tim, jill, and the kids could be there too. instead, we spend thanksgiving day just hanging out and having a great time! it has felt like forever since we were up visiting them, we havent been up there since chad visited in august, so we were long overdue!
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allen thanksgiving

with a bit of a break for thanksgiving, diana and i made plans to go visit my family for the holiday. at the last minute we mixed up our plans a bit and made it to the allen family thanksgiving too! we arrived there thursday around 11am, after dropping off our little dog at barbaras. uncle arnold and aunt nancy hosted the feast at their house and had everyone over- which was about 35 people! it had been a while since we last saw her extended family, so it was really great to be able to see them all again. unfortunately her grandma has been steadily declining in health, but she was having a good day and was able to join us for a while. diana's mom and step dad were even able to join us, so the whole family was there!
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my wife, the stylist!

when diana and i first got married she started cosmetology school with the hopes that one day she would be a hair stylist. well, shes been working for about six months now at a salon as an assistant, working her way up. recently she finally got the call: she is now a full fledged hair stylist! we are both very excited! she is a bit nervous, but looks forward to what challenges are in store.

now comes the real challenge: finding people who want her to cut their hair! the hardest part of becoming a stylist is building a clientele. one way that her coworkers have suggested is by creating an advertisement to give to people that will get them interested in coming in. well, thats where i come in! i've got a little experience in designing stuff just like that. i took a bunch of graphic design classes in college and really loved it. so i thought this might be the opportunity i've been looking for: create an advertisement for my wife! well, after a few hours working in photoshop (and many many hours trying to get the dang printer to do what i want), i came up with a design that we are both proud of. i printed it on a heavy stock paper the size of a postcard and we have since send out a couple hundred around town. hopefully we will start to see the results soon! the picture at the top of this post is what i came up with for her. if you live around us, please click on it and print it out so you can give her a call and use the coupon! she hopes to see you in the salon soon!