summer starts

this memorial day weekend has a lot of meaning for my family: its the beginning of the sandy pines season, its the anniversary of diana and my engagement, and its papa's birthday!  we didn't want to miss the fun out at the pines, so we trekked up to grand rapids and joined the family fun.  one of my favorite parts of the start of summer at sandy pines is the flea market, so we made sure to get there in time to wander the flea!  last time we had been there we were pushing a stroller, so it was pretty cool to go this time with a boy who was old enough to walk through on his own!  we picked up a few things while we were there and had a great time.  with papa's birthday ahead, we didn't dally for too long- we had work to do!
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dishwasher blues

when it comes to woodworking and fix-it stuff, i do pretty well.  but when ever there is water involved?  well, that's a whole different thing all together!  my dad always had the policy that if something's broke, you fix it.  unless that broken thing involves water- then you call the plumber!  there is a lot of truth to that, when it comes to working with pipes and water, it can be really tough.  but, being the cheap dutchman that i am, i wasn't about to spend money on a plumber!
ever since the garbage disposal had been replaced we have been having trouble with our dishwasher.  the last time we ran it the whole thing overflowed and soaked the floor!  it was getting old anyway, so david went out and purchased a new one.  i unhooked the old one and got ready to put in the new one.  i felt pretty confident with my plum knowledge, so i figured i'd give it a try.  about a half hour into the process of hooking up the new dishwasher and getting all the pipes ready to go, i came upon a strange realization: this dishwasher didn't even have an electric plug!  what?  turns out the new dishwasher is supposed to hook right into the electrical grid of the house.  huh?  all it had was bare wires at the bottom that were supposed to hook into some mysterious electrical plan that didn't exist.  i'm pretty sure they just do that so you have to pay extra so that the company will come in and install it for a huge fee.  sorry guys, you aren't getting my money!  so we picked up a cord assembly, connected it, and put the thing it myself!  ha- that'll show ya!  and it all would have gone according to plan if it hadn't been for that pesky garbage disposal!  turns out, the person who installed it hadn't removed the rubber plug for the dishwasher fixture.  we didn't actually need a new dishwasher in the first place- the only reason there was flooding is because the person who did the garbage disposal messed up!  argh!  well, we had words with the company that did it and they ended up reimbursing us for part of the cost of the dishwasher.  it still sucks that we had to replace it for no reason, but at least they were willing to admit that they had made a mistake.
see, this is why i don't hire somebody else to do the job!

mothers day dinner

to celebrate mothers day we went over to my grandma's place.  she lives in a retirement community, so we met up with her and jay at the restaurant in the complex.  my uncle ted and aunt joni soon joined us for lunch together to celebrate.  we had a lot of fun, grandma and jay were thrilled to see ledger- and he always loves seeing his grandma-great!
one of the funniest things from the weekend was when grandma pulled out a little container and handed it over to ledger.  i opened it up a little bit and then let him open it the rest of the way.  not really sure what to expect, we just watched as he opened it up.  the lid came off and inside- a plastic spider!  the look of shock and fear on my boy's face sent us laughing for minutes!  'spider! icky!'  and he threw it back to grandma-great!  we spend the rest of the weekend laughing about that one!  grandma felt a little bad about it when she saw his reaction, saying that it was meant for papa or me, but ledger's reaction was so priceless that it would have been wasted on anyone else!

wood, work, and walls

my dad has a job that keeps him in the office, but he's a handy fix-it man at heart- and boy, is he good at it!  i have very fond memories of him fixing and building different things around the house.  growing up, i was always his handy tool helper- trying to anticipate what he might need next, grabbing the right tool, holding the wood when he cuts it.  you know, all the handy man type of stuff!  over the years he has taught me by example how to fix, build, and create so many things!  well, i got to do that job once again this weekend, and watch him pass along his 'do it yourself' wisdom to jackson!  we headed out to sandy pines to build a garage.  a year or so ago there was a big storm and a tree fell on the pole and canvas cart cover that they had always had.  with the hard winter we had this year, the snow that came down had finally done that covering in.  it was time to replace it, so papa decided to go all out and build a full on garage in its place.  we spend the afternoon putting up the walls that he had built, securing them in place and building the supports and plywood on the walls of the garage.  by the end of the day we had turned a simple wooden foundation into a four walled building!  ah, the satisfaction with seeing what we had accomplished!  papa has certainly instilled in me the importance of a job well done!  and its so cool to see him pass that along to jackson. i cant wait for ledger to be old enough to step into that role of helper- like father, like son!  i just hope that i will be even half as good at this stuff as papa so i can be such a good role-model to my boy!
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avery's soccer game

for mothers day, diana and i took ledger up to spend the weekend with my mom.  we headed up friday night, too late to do much of anything other than put ledge to bed and play a little game of cards!  papa asked if i would be able to help him a bit with a project out at sandy pines, and mom said that jill and the kids were going to be busy all saturday morning with different soccer and softball games, so we made plans to go and join them for one of them.  ave's soccer game was early enough in the morning that we could go and cheer her on before heading out to work at the pines.  ledger had never seen a soccer game before, so he thought it was pretty need.  for a couple minutes at least, then he wanted to run around!  jackson was there too with a soccer ball, so ledger was all about kicking it around with him (which mostly just entailed him trying to kick it and then running around for five minutes!).  while we were watching the game i mentioned to jackson what papa and i were going to work on, he didn't have anything else for the day, so we made plans to have jill drop him off so he could help us!  oh, that's right, the soccer game- aves did a great job, staying focused and going after the ball.  she may have done a fantastic job, actually, but i was too busy playing around with ledge and jackson to know for sure...
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swingin'

the swing set is fantastic, but ledger is a little small to handle stay on a normal swing.  so, diana and mom went to pick him up an infant swing from the store.  they came home with a fun red car swing!  ledger and i opened it up and got to work putting it together.  we screwed in all the wheels and parts, even all the extra stickers that put a face on the front of the car.  ledger was all about it right up until i put the smiley sticker on the front of the car.  then, for some reason he threw a fit!  'no smiley face!' and then he threw a tantrum!  why?  excellent question...  after i attached the smiling mouth of the swing, he was completely against it- in fact, it took a couple weeks for him to even be interested in the swing again!  i took it out to the swing set and hooked it up, replacing one of the swings.  but he would have none of it.  i took him out there to show him the new fun swing, but he wanted nothing to do with it and ran away from it!
almost every day diana would take him out to the swing set and ask him if he wanted it go in the swing and he kept refusing, instead spending his time on the slide.  this continued for weeks!  it wasn't until diana finally peeled the smiley face sticker back off the front of the swing that he was finally willing to get in the thing!  what a strange boy, huh?  anyway, he eventually came around to it and really loves it now.  he can spend an hour in that thing at a time- just back and forth, back and forth!  at least there's no smiley face, right?
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playground at home

ledger's favorite thing to do is go to the park.  he loves to go and sit in the swing there for hours at a time!  with that in mind, for ledger's birthday, his grandpa keenan told him that he would get him a swing set.  now that the weather was getting warm, it was time to get that birthday present!
david ordered a great set that he knew ledger would love.  when it came we didn't have the chance to put it together, but a couple days later we had a few hours, so we opened up that box and pulled out all the parts.  usually i try and just get working with trying to put things together, but i thought it might be a little bit smarter to actually use the directions...  you know, there is a child's safety at stake and all, right?  i got to it, following the directions and putting the pieces together.  soon after david came out to help.  between the two of us we figured everything out and had the thing put together in a half hour- team work!
we moved it over to where we wanted it to be and bolted in the slide- now it was time for ledger to see his new swingset!  he came out into the backyard and was so excited to see that he now had a playground in his own back yard!
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too mulch work

diana has been chomping at the bit for weeks now!  finally the weather is nice enough for us to go out and get some work done on the lawn.  the first order of business: cleaning out the flower beds and get some mulch in there!  we found an amazing deal on mulch at the landscaping place, so we stocked up (about 60 bags...).  she and i put on our workin' gloves and got down to it!  we tore out all the ugly weeds and stuff, put down some weed killer, and spread out that dark rich mulch.  once we got the plant and flower section looking great, we set our sites on the tree.  after pruning back all the crazy growths, we put down some fabric to keep the weeds out, and piled on the beautiful white rocks!  by the end of the day the front of the lawn was looking pretty great!  with an exhausted sense of accomplishment, we packed it in, cleaned up the yard waste, and (after putting ledger down) collapsed into our beds- achy and exhausted!
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falamy!

ok, this was totally adorable!  we've got this wind chime in our dining room that ledger always likes to play with.  every once in a while he will ask me to lift him up so he can play with the 'bells'.  its got five strands, each makes a different note when struck.  this particular evening, after a long day of work, driving back and fourth, i got to spend a little time with him.  he wanted to play with the bells, so i hoisted him up.  he grabs one of the strands and says 'ledger!' to signify that one represents him, he then grabs the next one and says 'mama!', the next, 'daddy!'.  there were too left, and he pulls on one saying 'grandma!' and the last 'grandpa!'  he looks at me and says 'falamy!' and it melted my heart!  (he can't seem to pronounce 'family' and instead says 'falamy'; its much too cute to correct, so we have started saying 'falamy' as well!)
this whole multi-generational household has been so good for our boy- we love it!

play ball!

a few friends of diana invited us to go see the local minor league baseball team the other night.  we were totally up for it!  i made sure to get home from work on time, and off we headed as a family to enjoy our first south bend silverhawks game!  its really early in the season and there's still a bit of a chill in the air, so the place was pretty empty.  not that we minded, that meant that we got our run of the stadium!
we got there and spotted our friends right away (they were about the only people there...), so we headed down and sat with them.  that didn't last long, soon ledger wanted to explore, so we were off!  i went with him up and down the rows of seats.  he had never been to a baseball game or stadium before, so he was excited to check it all out.
granted, we didn't really watch any of the game, we were too busy getting hot dogs and drinks from the concessions and playing around in the kids area to pay attention to the sports on the field!  it was so much fun we will certainly be back this summer!
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mr. potato eggs?

sometimes for easter we head up to grand rapids, but this time we decided to stick around and spend it with diana's family.  her mom was so thrilled about getting ledger an easter basket and doing a little egg hunt in the back yard and deck!  there was one problem though, she had gotten all the little toys and candy for him and a really cool mickey mouse basket, but she forgot to get the plastic eggs to put them in!  oh no!  don't worry, we macguyvered a solution: we put the candy and toys inside of the four mr. potato heads that we have!  it was a really funny solution, but one that worked perfectly!  some of the trinkets and toys we had for him were too big to fit in those plastic eggs anyway, so this worked better.  he had no idea what was going on, but as long as those jelly beans kept flowing he didn't care!  i'm pretty sure he had his sugar intake for the year that afternoon!  everybody got him a couple little prizes as well: a few mini skateboards that he's been obsessed about for a while, some cool baby aviator sunglasses, and a big huge bottle of bubbles!  that boy was all set!
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friendly fun

even with all the great family fun, i was able to steal way a couple hours to go and see my friends.  with jon and his wife recently purchasing a home less than a mile from my parent's place, i was eager to check it out!  i picked up jeffry lee and we headed over.  with all the work that jon had put in, i knew i was in for a fantastic tour, and he did not disappoint!  the place looked beautiful!  all the rooms had been freshly painted by jon in anticipation the move, and the home was gorgeous.  we headed down to his office and spend the night chilling out and enjoying some time together, just listening to some music and chatting it up.  there was some great conversation, a short walk, a look at the amazing deck and back yard, and even some great news!  all in all, a fun night with the guys!

out and about

after dropping off all of grandma's stuff at her place and bringing the rental truck back, i got the chance to spend some time with my boy!  before we left, the lake was still frozen over and there were still a few big piles of snow around the yard, but when we got back it became spring- no more ice, and now we could play outside!  so i took advantage of the warmth and spent some time with ledger out in the yard throwing around his red bouncy ball.  it was so nice to just relax outside with him and play around for a bit without being trapped inside because it was still freezing outside- spring is almost here!
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home at last

after an epic 25 hour nonstop road trip, we arrived back home!  we were both tired out of our minds, but all we could think about was ho excited we were to see our son!  when we walked in the house, after being away from him for almost seven whole days, we were greeted with such a yelp of excitement i will never forget it as long as i live!  'mama!  daddy!'  that little guy was so thrilled to have us back that he was giggly with excitement- and so were we!  we stayed up and hugged and smooched him nonstop for an hour or so, but eventually the exhaustion got the better of us, so we went to lay down and try to catch up on the sleep we missed out on the night before!  finally, around 4 or 5 in the evening, we got up and spend the rest of the evening playing with our boy and telling mom and david about all the great times we had!

the long drive back

after spending an incredible time in new smyrna, it was time to head back home.  with much sadness we packed up our suite and headed out.  we were both sad to see it go, but excited to be back home with our little ledger!
friday morning we packed up the last of our stuff, said our goodbyes to the beautiful sandy coast, and were on our way by 9:00am.  i had a blast so far our whole trip, but i must admit, i was really excited for our big road trip back to indiana!  we began our journey north, hitting a few traffic jams along the way, but having a good time.  the worst part of the trip though, was the fact that the truck didn't have a cd player or mp3 player jack.  which means we were stuck listening to the radio or nothing.  usually we just elected for nothing, taking the chance to instead talk and just have fun together!  though i will admit, during those long night hours with diana sleeping, i was really thankful for those podcasts!
we stopped for dinner in atlanta (or as i call it 'hotsie', much to my wife's disgust...) and were still on the fence about where or when we should stop for the night.  we kept on truckin, rolling through tennessee and kentucky.  finally, around 1:00am, diana said the had had enough and wanted to stop for the night.  we pulled off at a couple exits.  at the first one all the hotels were booked, so we continued on.  at the second exit we tried i went in and got us a room, then got back in the truck and told diana to head in to the room and i would park the truck and get all of the stuff we needed and meet her in there.  before i could even get our stuff out of the back of the truck she came walking back out, completely white like she had seen a ghost.  'there is no way we are staying here.  go get our money back!'.  um ok...  i guess she had walked in the room, which smelled like urine, the window was open and wouldn't close (keep in mind it was about 40 degrees out), there were two recliners in the room which looked like they had been found on the side of the road, and the sheets were stained...  needless to say, we got our money back and kept driving!  reinvigorated, i talked her in to just driving through the night instead of trying again for a hotel room.  when all was said and done, we finally arrived back home around 10:00am, bleary eyed, but excited to be back!

see food

we were thrilled to be in such an amazing place, living it up on the beach, but we still realized that we arent made of money (though we sure felt like it with that amazing hotel view!), so we played it smart with eating.  as a way to keep eating cost down, we stopped at the grocery store our first night and got a few supplies- enough food to take care of all of our breakfasts and lunches!  that way we could save up some of that extra money and splurge a bit on a better seafood dinner!  and boy, did we!  diana and i had some amazing meals.  our first night there we both decided that we wanted to have the full experience, so we were going to go nuts and eat seafood every night.  most of the places we were able to eat at were all fished locally, so that meant we were getting the authentic experience!  i love fish anyway, so an excuse to have fresh delicious fish every night?  count me in!  diana would mix it up a bit, she would get crab and other stuff too.  each meal was amazing, and it really seemed like each night was better than the last!  i also tried to always have enough to take back to the hotel- that way i could also enjoy a late night seafood snack!

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beach bums

diana made quick work of getting to the beach!  with our hotel right on the ocean, we just had to walk out from our building and there we were on the beautiful atlantic ocean shore!  now, anyone who know me knows that i don't really care for the beach, but being in this beautiful place, with such a beautiful woman, i figured i had better get over myself and just enjoy every minute of it.  so i did!
each morning we headed out to the beach and laid out for an hour or so, getting up from time to time to wander down the shore and check out the cool shells and stuff.  in preparation for our laying out, we even wondered over to the local souvenir shop and picked up a beach blanket and a couple towels.  so, by the time we got there, we were all set for some sun and relaxation!  we both popped in some headphones and rocked out to some great beach music (or podcasts...) and had a great time.
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hotel amazing

wow.  i'm not entirely sure how else to describe the place we stayed!  knowing it was our anniversary, diana's mom and david planned our time in florida to allow for a few nights on the beach!  they graciously footed the bill as a gift to us- allowing us to soak up the rays and enjoy a few days to celebrate our fifth anniversary! the last time diana, her mom, aunt, and barbara came to visit grandma together, they planned a visit and stayed a night at this hotel, so she knew what we were in for.  i, on the other hand, had no idea what wonders were in store!  when we first arrived at the best western we checked in and went up to our room.  since diana had been here before, she told me about the amenities and how awesome the room was, but when we opened our door, it was quite different than she has expected.  it was a single room with a nice view.  last time she had been here she had an amazing suite, so she was not that impressed with what we had walked in to.  i didn't know any better, so i was pleased as punch!  diana talked about how much better and different the room was last time, so i called down to the desk to ask if they could change us to a suite, and they said 'sure!'- at no extra charge!  we grabbed our luggage and headed over to the new room, and wow- it was everything i hoped and dreamed!  the place was twice as big as the duplex we lived in for the first four years we were married!  it had a living room, a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and still had an amazing view!  good thing she complained, because this was a thousand times better than the first room we were in!
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load em' up!

with a big hauling truck, we were ready to load up grandma's stuff!  we headed over to the storage unit and fill 'er up!  of course, when we got there we realized how much oddly shapen stuff she had- maybe this wasnt going to be as easy as we thought!  thankfully we got a bunch of packing blankets, so everything that was delicate could be wrapped and safe.  this is one of the times where all that wasted time playing tetris growing up really pays off- i was able to figure out a way to get all of her things in there and snugly fit without any trouble at all! although, i will admit, i made a bit of a mistake with packing the dresser: we kept all the drawers in it and had it facing the front of the truck.  this was great for saving space and keeping everything in its place, but was so annoying whenever we would slow down on the road trip- those drawers would come crashing into the front wall of the truck, freaking us out each time!

down to florida

monday night we were dropped of at the south bend airport for our flight down.  all was going well until i realized that i had forgotten one of the most important things to have with you on a trip: headphones!  oh, i was miserable and almost called off the whole trip!  eventually my anger subsided and diana reminded me that we would still have fun, so i decided to allow the rest of the trip to happen.  but just barely.
we arrived in florida around 11 at night, so we took a taxi to the hotel.  we were both exhausted and hungry so we found a pizza place that would deliver and chowed down!  soon after we fell fast asleep, our heads filled with the fun times ahead!
in the morning i got up early to walk down to the hauling truck rental place to get our ride for the week.  i pulled in and by the time i got up to the room diana was up, packed, and ready to rock- our road trip was about to begin!
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