after years of only having about two and a half feet of counter space, diana and i finally did something about it! we have a really small kitchen with only a couple feet of counter space on either side of the sink, and one side is covered by the huge microwave! after years of complaining about it, we finally went out and got a little cart to put next to the stove so we can put the microwave over there instead of using up the valuable counter space. the biggest change, though, has been getting used to the new placement of our trash. it was always next to the stove where the new cart is, but now its under the sink. its been a few days since we made the change, and we both still walk over next to the stove to throw something away. one of these days the change will sink in and ill stop trying to microwave our trash!
kitchen shuffle
after years of only having about two and a half feet of counter space, diana and i finally did something about it! we have a really small kitchen with only a couple feet of counter space on either side of the sink, and one side is covered by the huge microwave! after years of complaining about it, we finally went out and got a little cart to put next to the stove so we can put the microwave over there instead of using up the valuable counter space. the biggest change, though, has been getting used to the new placement of our trash. it was always next to the stove where the new cart is, but now its under the sink. its been a few days since we made the change, and we both still walk over next to the stove to throw something away. one of these days the change will sink in and ill stop trying to microwave our trash!
sandy supper
on monday the family gathered together for a yummy dinner together: hot dogs and brats on the grill! we always have such a fun time together, just hanging out and chatting. the weather wasnt quite as hot as it had been all weekend, so we sat outside and enjoyed the shade from the trees. the kids were as fun and bubbly as ever! i wish we could spend more time with them than just the occasional bi-monthly visit! soon after we ate diana and i had to head back home again. why are holidays always so short?!?
hole in one
my mom had a great idea, she wanted to go out on the paddle boat with the bubba and tweets. diana was excited about that and wanted to go enjoy the fun too. well, that leaves aves feeling left out. thats where i come in! i went over to tim and jill's trailer and invited aves to go on a cart ride with me and go play some mini golf. she felt pretty cool to be singled out by, what i can only assume, is her favorite uncle! tim came along too and the three of us had a great time playing putt putt. tim and i did pretty well, we ended up tying each other at the end of the 18 holes. aves, on the other hand, did amazingly well at mini golf! she got almost 15 holes in one! it was truly amazing! granted, she started off by dropping her ball about 3 inches away from the hole after the first three holes...
fireworks!
the kids get excited for fireworks, but you know who gets even more excited about it than them? my wife! diana loves fireworks! every 4th of july it is the highlight of the weekend. at sandy pines, as dusk set in, we headed down to the usual spot down by the beach for the show to begin. the ritual also includes the kids playing around with sparklers before it gets too dark- and they have a blast with them! its been fun over the years to see the kids play with them because it wasnt that long ago that the kids, all three of them, were terrified of sparklers! they were so scared that they were going to get burned that they wouldnt even hold them- their dad and i had to hold them and they would move our arms around. the firework show at sandy pines was especially good this year, where as in years past the whole thing was, at times, a bit underwhelming, this year was the park's 40th anniversary so they went all out and had a great firework display!pines potluck
its the 4th and we are at sandy pines- that must mean its time for a potluck! every year mom and papa invite over all their friends and kids from sandy pines for a grill out. its been going on so many years that now the kids have kids! there more than twenty people there enjoying the food and fun of sandy pines. diana and i have a good time each year at the potlucks mom hosts (theres usually one on memorial and labor day weekends too), and enjoy seeing everyone again. each time it gets more and more comfortable seeing everyone again, chatting it up with the old gang from back in the day. i tell ya, if diana and i move back to grand rapids, we are totally going to hang out with squeegee and his wife- those two are a ton of fun!
buried treasure
as we were leaving the beach after a few hours of fun in the sun, we happened across a fun event for the kids. at the volley ball court they had hidden hundreds of plastic coins under the sand for the kids to find. when the kids got word of this they were excited and wanted to join in! it started a couple minutes after we stopped there so they dug right in! the kids did surprisingly well with aves actually getting the most coins with 18. once the coins were collected they could trade them in for a frozen icee pop, which they were super excited for! it was a fun little even and the kids had a blast!parade candy
the 4th of july has rolled around again and that means diana and i are off to sandy pines to enjoy the weekend with the family! soon after we got there on saturday we all drove over to the main road for the annual parade! the kids walked over from the beach where they had been swimming all afternoon. the girls put on their patriotic antenna (which aves corrected me on when i accidentally called them antlers!), all three of the kids got their bags out for the important parade job of candy collecting! we waved at all the passing vehicles and carts all decorated for the holiday and enjoyed the fun of the spectacle! after it was over, all of us looked over the candy they had gotten and each picked one for ourselves. hey kids, its the price you pay for getting all that yummy candy- the adults get a little piece too!(more pics)
after all these years
so, a month or two ago my buddy adam decided that he wanted to have a reunion with our former classmates. high school reunion? sounds like fun! the thing is though, adam didnt go to the same high school as most of us, so he actually wanted to have an 8th grade class reunion! thats right, all of our former classmates from kelloggsville christian (rest her soul)! thanks to this strange thing called 'facebook' (maybe youve heard of it) he was able to get the word out to almost all of our graduating class of 1993! the crazy thing is, many of them showed up! adam ended up hosting about 17 former 8th grade classmates! so friday night everyone gathered at adam's childhood home (he lives in l.a. and for some reason wasnt willing to fly us all out there to have the reunion. rude.) for a bit of catching up. i got there a bit late, living two hours away and trying to fight 4th of july weekend traffic will cause that sometimes... but when i got there it was such a strange sight- all these old faces that i hadnt seen in almost 18 years! granted, some of them i have kept up with, but many of them had been relegated to the 'i'll probably never see them again in my life' category. the night was spent catching up and hearing about where everyone is now, most stories involved marriage and multiple children. it seems so strange because last time i had seen some of these people they themselves were children! oh time, what have you done to us? it was a great night filled with fun and memories. at the end of the night adam promised to do this again next year with even more people in attendance. well, put me on the list- ill be there!movie rex-athon
its always fun when friends come by! rex stopped by for a couple nights recently. i hadnt really seen him much lately and when ever i did it was always with a big group so we were not able to talk much. well, when he came down here we fixed that problem! we had a great time just hanging out and chatting. oh, and watching movies. and boy, did we watch some movies! we started off our weekend by going to the local video store, they were having a pretty good sale, so we took advantage! between us we bought 9 movies and only payed around twenty bucks for all of them! granted, most of them were straight-to-video (which, for the uninformed, means that they are a bit, how shall we say, lower in quality...), but that didnt stop us from having a blast while we watched them! diana even joined us for one or two, but she wisely went to bed before we got to the really lame ones ('day of wrath' anyone?). many of them turned out to be better than expected, which is always a welcome treat. rexy, we will definitely have to do this again soon!
big top
kat, diana's friend from work, invited diana and i to join her and her husband tim at the local carnival. we met up with them and had a fun night of hanging out and enjoying the place! we didnt really go on any rides or play any of the games. a waste of a perfectly good carnival, huh? well, instead we went right to the big tent and hung out and chatted for a couple hours while listening to a pretty fun local band that played all the fifties and sixties hits. at one point diana and kat even went out on the dance floor (granted, they were about the only ones out there, but they were having fun!). my one regret was that we didnt get an elephant ear to eat. i guess we will have to go back next time its in town!(more pics)
a trivial night
every once in a while mom and david go to a trivia night event held by a local private school. when ever they would tell us about it we were always interested and wanted to join them sometime. well, it just so happens that one was going on that very saturday night! almost as soon as diana got to mom and david's house after work we were out the door again for a little trivia fun! it was really a great time, they have a bunch of tables set up and we had reserved one with a few of mom and davids friends. we got to enjoy a meal while we played ten rounds of trivia questions, all based on the theme of the event: hawaii! we didnt exactly do the best on the questions (i think we only got about 68 out of 100), but we had a lot of fun trying!
back to work
back on the job! i headed back to work on the house that mom and david bought. last time i was here i tore out all the kitchen stuff and had a good time causing a little destruction! this time i get to paint the ceiling. not quite as much fun... by the end of my couple days of work the place is looking a bit better, or at least brighter due to the bright white ceilings! i've got a long way to go on this place, but thats ok, cause i've got the rest of the summer to do it. thursday and friday i was hard at work, but i was quite happy to have diana come saturday night and stay for a couple days too, giving me a lovely sunday to relax with the wife! but monday it was back to work for me!(more pics)
my summer job
its summer, now what about that whole summer job thing? well, for a couple summers i worked night shift stocking at the local grocery store- and promised myself i would never do that again! yuck! last summer i helped diana's mom and david out with some work around the house and this summer i will be doing the same. except this time it will be a different house! no, they didnt move, they just bought a house down the street to turn into a rental. its in pretty good shape, but needs a lot of work- thats where i come in! david want to get that place ready over the summer so they can start renting it out and i'm just the guy to help make that happen! over the summer i'm going to be tearing stuff out, building stuff, replacing stuff, and repainting everything! this will definately keep me very busy (which though i dont like to admit it, is a good thing...) i've already gotten a good start on it. check out the pictures here!
take a little off the sides
during the school year i have to look presentable and professional. but when summer hits, all bets are off! since i have a beautiful wife who cuts hair for a living, i figure i should let her have a little fun with my hair! last summer i did a fauxhawk and bleached it, this year i just went for a full out mohawk- no messing around here!
summer begins
with school done for the year, we decided to visit diana's mom and david for a nice long weekend! we enjoyed a nice relaxing sunday with them, david made a fantastic meal, mom and diana got to spend a little time together, and i just sat back and enjoyed the whole thing!(more pics)
a refreshing dip
i'm not usually one to go swimming, but on memorial day it was so hot that i succumbed to the peer pressure (my wife) and went along to the pool. we got there and saw tim, jill, and the kids! unfortunately they were in the midst of packing up, so we only got to see them for a minute. we were still up for enjoying the water, so we went over to the adult pool (good thing they have one of those because the regular pools were packed like a can of sardines!) and took a little dip. it was nice to have a moment to relax and cool down from the heat of the weekend. oh, and i got to see my hot wife in a bathing suit- never a bad thing!
old sunday night traditions
sunday night at sandy pines mom suggested an idea for dinner, and boy did it bring back some memories! the meal itself consists of doritos, refried beans, and shredded cheese. its absolutely terrible for you, but oh so good! what you do is put a little bit of refried beans on each chip in the dorito bag and lay it out on a cookie sheet. when youve done the whole bag, then add a layer of shredded cheese and put it in the oven- presto! instant yum! this is something that we did in our household when i was a child on sunday nights for many many years. a very memorable tradition that i loved! mom and i would always gather around the kitchen counter and make a couple sheets full for the whole family to enjoy every sunday night as we would watch 'our house', or 'life goes on'. oh, what fond memories- and tasty food. it was really fun to remember those times and introduce diana to it as well!
memorial at the pines
saturday morning diana and i were up and at em, ready to head off to sandy pines to see the family! we got there just in time to join the family for a walk through the flea market- one of my favorite things to do! (diana doesnt mind it, but would much rather skip it and sleep in that extra hour- fortunately i usually win on that one). we got to spend the afternoon with the mom and papa and the kids. we always have a great time at sandy pines with the family, and this memorial day weekend was no exception!(more pics: 1, 2)
boys and grills
memorial day weekend is here and its time to go up to grand rapids for some fun! diana got saturday off, so we headed up friday evening. the guys and i planned to see each other friday night. not knowing what to do, jeffry lee invited us over to grill out and enjoy a campfire together. well, count us in! we got there and jeffry lee was just putting the meat on the grill- perfect timing! rex, brains and allison, jeffry lee and jill were already there. soon after us came keith, aaron, and freddie- the whole gang! after the fantastic meal that had been prepared for us we all gathered around the campfire and just had a blast hanging out and pestering each other! diana and i ended up being the last to leave- we just didnt want the fun to end but knew we had an early morning ahead.(more pics)
what is this 'outside' you speak of?
diana has been getting the spring fever lately, she's been kind of antsy and sick of being couped up inside. with the weather getting a bit better she asked if we could go try to find a park or something to walk around and enjoy this warmer weather. granted, i've lived here for eight years, but going outside has never been a priority for me, so i had no idea where the local parks are at! using the marvel of modern technology, we pulled out our gps and looked up the closest parks. turns out we have quite a few close by- who would have thought? we rode over to one of them and got the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather. we found a nice couples swing and enjoyed a bit of time in the outdoors. i guess this 'outside' thing isnt as bad as i feared. i just hope diana doesnt make me do it more often- if my lily white arms and legs sees the sun, theres no telling what might happen!
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