remember the time?

on the way home from diana's parents place, diana and i got talking about the good old days: college. granted, we didn't know each other then, but we both really enjoyed hearing about those times. when we got home we both dug out our old journals to continue our night of nostalgia. she grabbed her journals, i grabbed my old sketchbooks, which i often used as a journal as well. we spent the night going through those things, sharing the little nuggets and treasures we found along the way. she shared some of her stories of hard times and difficult moments, and also the little joys and her growing independence. i shared the old drawings i had made during those challenging nights, and the illustrations that represented the great times away from home. i dont think either one of us realized how time was flying, we were both caught up in the moments that we had made it through. finally we looked at the clock and it was 4:30am! through all the stories and writings we both remembered who we were, and we each also got a glance at who the other was. a chance to reflect and be reminded of what we once were drew us closer and gives who we are now even deeper meaning.
it was a magical night, the kind i had always longed for when i first wrote those words and drew those pictures in my sketchbook all those years ago. who i was and who i am looks forward to spending who i will be with the most amazing girl i've ever met. sometimes you have to look to the past to realize how bright the future has become. our love for each other grew that night, it grew closer as we now grow together.

floating in the breeze

with the evening still young, we took a nice relaxing ride on the boat. as we travelled the lake we took time to check out the local wildlife, spotting cool birds, swans, and a bunch of turtles bathing in the sun!
when we got back we hung out and talked, and diana even gave david and her mom a haircut! they both turned out well, its obvious diana is getting more and more comfortable with her cutting skills! the haircut she gave her mom looked really great- which just thrilled david! finally it was time for us to head back home and make sure poco hadn't gotten into any trouble while we were gone...
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food folks and fun

this past weekend diana and i headed over to see her mom and david's for the day on saturday. we arrived there around 2pm and soon after we got there miranda and barbara pulled in. we helped get some of the food ready, cutting up veggies, peeling corn cobs, etc. by around four o'clock her dad came over and it was time to eat!
david was maning the grill, and when everything was ready we all headed out to the deck for an early dinner. the weather was perfect and the food was great. as always, it was really nice to see everyone again, and it was especially cool to have everyone there! it was diana's moms birthday, so we even got to have some cake! soon after dinner barbara had to leave to go to work and miranda had to go as well. with our bellies full, we cleaned up the mess we had made!
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the first hundred

its a big year for us at work. the school i work at is celebrating its one hundred year anniversary! founded in 1909, its been growing ever since. all this year we are having special celebrations and events to recognize the big milestone our school has achieved. earlier this year they had a grand fireworks display to commence the start of the year, and this past week we had a special dinner. all the faculty was invited, so i went and diana came along as well! she doesnt mind all the school stuff i do and actually seems to enjoy it! we dressed up a bit and headed out. when we arrived we had a hard time finding a seat, but eventually found four seats together so we could sit with ali and jeremy. also, at our table was a parent of one of my students, and her father who, coincidentally, happened to be one hundred years old! (no, i am not making that up- what are the chances, huh?!?)
we ended up having a great time enjoying the food and chatting. after dinner there was a little 'history of the school' quiz (this was shocking to me: it wasnt until the 41st year of the school before they enrolled their first non-dutch student! ha!), and then a christian comedian came on and performed for us.
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the sis n' nick

i always love to surprise diana, and apparently so does her sister! at the beginning of last week i got a text from barbara that said that she wanted to stop by and surprise diana by showing up at her school and getting a hair cut! unfortunately it didnt work out due to work, but she and nick decided to come and see us anyway! they came friday evening to spend a few hours with us. it was only the second time barbara has ever come to visit, and the first time nick has ever been to our place- we were both very excited to have them here!
soon after they arrived, we headed out to eat. we had a great time catching up with them- diana is always filled with a brighter shade of joy when her sister is around!
when we got back diana wasnt feeling so good, but the rest of us watched the infamous florida music video and had some good laughs at my expense. later diana gave her sister a hair cut, which looked really good! we sat and talked till much too late, but diana didn't seem to mind that she had school the next day.
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eat at joes

monday night before diana and i headed home, we stopped out at sandy pines one last time to say goodbye to the family. we all went out together and ate at joes country corner restaurant. diana and i got there a little late because we had to drop off poco at the trailer, and then head over from there. we sat outside, they had a huge grill where they were making some really great burgers and seasoned chicken, which smelled amazing!
we had a really fun time. it was the end of the summer at sandy pines, but a great way to send it off! the kids, silly as usual, were happy to see us and bubba and i had fun playing with his transformers while we waited for the food. diana and i are already looking forward to visiting sandy pines together next summer, maybe we will actually pull out a tent and spend the night!
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oily guys

i was in a bit of a bind. the car desperately needed an oil change, but of course i didnt realize this until monday, labor day, and all the oil change places were closed. argh. i know, i know, i really should know how to change it myself, but i dont. anyway, diana and i planned to spend the day cleaning mom and dad's place for them, but now i really needed to change the oil before we drove back home. then i came up with the solution: jeffry lee to the rescue!!! i gave him a call and fortunately he was doing some car stuff already, so i drove over and he was willing to give my car an emergency oil change! thank you thank you thank you, you are a life saver! dinner and a couple rounds are on me, big guy!

labor day grill out

for labor day we were at sandy pines for a big gathering of everybody there. it seems like every time we go to sandy pines there is a big gathering of everybody there, but thats ok, cause we always have a good time! usually there are a bunch of friends at the cookouts, but this time almost everyone was there to have one last get together to say goodbye to another fun summer. the food is always good (especially the jalapeno poppers!), and its fun to see all the old friends. as is the tradition, we gathered at the end of the day for a big group photo- the first to include my beautiful wife!
(more pics: 1, 2)

labor day weekend

over the labor day weekend diana had to work saturday, but we packed up and headed home to see my family saturday night. sunday morning we went to church out and sandy pines, which was great! (every year they have rev. rog vander kolk, a retired pastor who is just about the greatest preacher i've ever heard, so i was delighted that we got to hear him this year!).
we went back to the trailer and hung out for a bit, then it was lunch time! we had a simple lunch because we knew we were having a huge grill out together that night. everyone was doing well, mom and my sister were getting pumped for their visit to washinton state the next weekend to see our cousin dave get married. the rest of the afternoon we hung out, diana went to the beach with mom, and later that afternoon diana and i went for a bike ride!
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lawn work: overgrowth

what a mess! the place next to me has been vacant for the past year or two. the guy who used to own it was evicted and now its owned by the bank, which means it is no longer taken care of. there is a fence between our lawns, so i usually dont mind- hey, it makes my terrible looking lawn look great by comparison! but one thing that had been bugging me was the overgrowth in the back yard. the bank, for some reason, decided to take down the chain link fence in the back yard, so all the crazy bushes from his yard spilled over and was growing now in my yard. now that i have a weed wacker (thanks for the birthday gift, mom and dad!), i thought it was time to take care of this out of control area. i chopped, i cut, i pulled, and now it looks much much better!
take a look for yourself at the before and after pics here!

lawn work: edging

i cant quite explain why, but for some reason i had the desire to do some lawn work. this is very unlike me, first of all, i usually try and shy away from anything that involves: a) being outside, b) the sun, c) lawn work, d) physical activity. so choosing to do extra lawn work is quite unlike me! for some reason i decided to edge the lawn. i was walking poco and saw a bunch of other lawns edged and thought it looked really nice, so i wanted to do the same to our lawn. i started with my driveway, worked my way down to the road, then went down the sidewalk. the driveway looks amazing! i think i added at least 8-12 inches on each side of the driveway. it had probably been five years since i last did this, so the lawn had crept in during that time and ate up almost a foot of driveway on each side. it looks so much better now and we have so much room to park now!
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home made snacks

diana and i were sitting around with some free time on our hands, and we were hungry! we had a bag of sweet potatoes in the kitchen and thought it might be fun to try and make some sweet potato chips!
it took a bunch of work, and a bunch of time, but in the end they were really good- and much healthier for you than regular chips!
see how we made them here!

school 'do

with my classroom all ready, i needed myself all ready too! it had been far too long since my last haircut. since diana has been feeling more and more confident in her abilities, we threw caution to the wind and had her cut my hair!
she ended up doing a really great job, and i looked good for the first day of school- win/win!
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super classroom

with school starting that means that it's time for me to go back to my real job- teaching! hurrah! but before the school year can begin i have to get my room in shape. each year i usually wait until the last minute, going in to get the room ready the week before school starts. well, this year i took it to the extreme- i waited until the day before school started. yikes! i didn't have much choice though, with working last week until wednesday and then having to go babysit the kids over the weekend, i havent had any time at all to get to my classroom. monday i started working and tuesday i finished up. each year i make some wall decor to make the place look good. i dont really much care for premade stuff, too cheesy, so i always make my own decorations. this year my theme was once again superheroes! i had done this one before so i was able to use some of what i had made last time. not thinking ahead, i only laminated two of the characters i made last time. i learned from my mistake this year and i laminated them all! the kids have really been enjoying the heroes so far this school year, so i guess it worked.
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babysat

with mema and papa taking the kids for a couple hours before tim and jill got home, i was able to say goodbye and head home. over all we had a really fun weekend! some of it was easier than i had expected, while other parts were a bit harder... now i better understand jill and her crazy days with the kids. i will certainly be a bit more forgiving when she shows up at times a few minutes late when shes got the kids!
it was a ton of fun and i'm glad i was able to babysit for the weekend- some great memories i will always have with my nieces and nephew! love you guys!!!
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big boys and girls

i was really missing my wife, so mema and papa offered to take the kids for sunday afternoon so i could head back home and see diana. we met them for lunch at big boy and got ourselves some food from their breakfast buffet. the kids were excited to see them again and to tell them all about the fun we had the day before. as we were leaving i even made them all stand for a family picture!
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stick her

when we got back i had one more surprise left. when diana and i were at the dollar store we also found a box of stickers that you could color yourself. it was only a buck, so we figured we might as well get that too.
i pulled out the box for the kids and they loved it! we spent the next half hour coloring these furry velvet stickers. after the kids had decided that the stickers were adequately colored, we peeled them off and started pasting them on anything we wanted, which for the kids meant pasting them on themselves!
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kids and shake

after we spent some time playing with the new toys it was time for dinner. i planned that we would go out for dinner, figuring that the kids might be sick of the house after spending all day inside. we gathered up our stuff (aves insisted that brenda come along too) and hit the road.
i remember seeing signs that steak and shake lets kids eat free on the weekends. i wasnt sure if there was some sort of catch, but i figured we would go and find out! we got there and ordered our food. the kids each got something from the kids menu, but what really caught their eye was the pictures of the different shakes they had. we picked a couple of them that we could all share and ordered two shakes as well. when the food came the kids were excited about the shakes and actually finished them! bubba and aves did a good job of cleaning their plates of food too, but tweets didn't really care about her hot dog- she was too excited about the shake! over all the kids did surprisingly well at the restaurant, behaving themselves and staying fairly clean. when it was time to go i went up to the register and wouldnt you know it? the kids were all free! the grand total only came to around 13 bucks. not bad- it would have cost more than that if we had gone to mcdonalds!
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prizes!

after the kids got up from their nap on saturday i had a little surprise for them. i knew if i came for the weekend empty handed the kids might be disappointed, so diana and i went to the dollar store the night before i came. we found a little something for each of the three kids and now it was time for them to get their prizes!
i sat the kids down on the couch, went to the car to get the bag of stuff. when i came back i started by telling them that aunt diana and i picked these things out, and if they didn't like them we were sorry. i then proceeded to give each of the kids their gifts: bubba got a new transformer, tweets got a big purple disney princess ball to bounce on, and aves got a stick horsey that made horse noises to ride! bubba and tweets loved their gifts, but aves was really disappointed in hers. bubba tore into the transformer package and got to work changing it, we blew up tweets bouncy and she bounced around the living room. aves through down the horse, laid on the floor and covered herself with her blanket. poor girl! i went under the blanket with her and talked with her for a bit apologizing that she didn't like the gift. i gave it one more try, holding the horse and telling how much fun she could have with it. she still wasnt convinced. i then asked her if she wanted to name the horse. she said ok and we both decided on the name 'brenda'. after that point she changed her mind and decided she liked brenda now, and carried it around with her the rest of the weekend!
(videos of the girls playing with their gifts: tweets, aves)

girls only

bubba found something else to do, so i got to spend some time with the girls. first we played with some of their 'american girl' stuff, cutting out paper flowers and creating dioramas. soon we went into tweets room and found some of her toys to play with.
its really fun to watch the two of them interact, tweets is so girly and aves isnt, but she enjoys girly stuff just because her big sister does. tweets also does a great job of playing with aves and making sure that aves is having fun too. its obvious that they are very different but love each other so much that they are willing to do what ever the other wants to just so they can be together. its obvious that God has blessed these siblings with love, patience, and compassion!
(more pics, and a video)

boys only

after cartoon time was over the girls found something to do, so bubba and i headed down to his room to play! when we got down there i noticed this sign he had made and put up on his door that said 'jaideyn and avery cant come in. no girls allowed!' i laughed out loud- thats hilarious! its like something straight out of a calvin and hobbes comic strip! ha!
we spent a while down there playing with transformers and legos and stuff. eventually the girls began calling for us, so we headed back up stairs, but it was fun to have a little time in a place where no girls were allowed!

saturday morning cartoons!

jill had told me that in the morning bubba likes to wake up early. shoot. but she also said that he comes up and watches saturday morning cartoons and can do it all by himself so that way i can stay sleeping a bit longer if i want to. phew! well, saturday morning came rolling around and bubba comes to my bedroom door ready to watch cartoons. instead of telling him he can watch in the living room i invite him to come and join me and watch them on the tv in the bedroom im staying in- he was super excited! when each of the girls woke up they came in and joined us too! for about an hour we just laid in bed and watch cartoons together. it was so comfortable and so cute! it is a memory that i will always treasure.
i tried to get a picture of the three of them in bed watching cartoons, but bubba didnt want to be in the picture, so he quickly hopped out of bed- which then resulted in a silly playful wrestling match between him and i!

a friendly visit

after the kids had gone to bed it was time for me to have a little fun. i was hoping to see the guys while i was home, but since i couldnt really go anywhere with the kids asleep, the guys came to me!
around 10pm rex, aaron, jeffry lee, and freddie all stopped by after they saw a movie and had dinner. they came over and we got to hang out for a while and talk. it had been a while since i saw all of them together, so it was a ton of fun chatting for a few hours. i'm sure it comes as a surprise to no one, but our conversation soon turned to nerdier topics like comic books and movies. freddie, jeffry lee and rex were all interested and we had a lot to share on the topics. aaron on the other hand, was bored quickly... as we were going on about this and that he decided it was time to cash out. but since he caught a ride with jeffry lee, he was stuck! he soon started nodding off on the couch. the rest of us didnt really notice right away because we were busy amusing ourselves with conversation. eventually (around 2:00am) we decided to give aaron a break and call it quits for the night. i invited them back again for saturday night and they actually took me up on it! (well, except aaron. i cant imagine why...). so saturday night they showed up again and we had a blast. that time we pulled out some cards and played euchre till the wee hours of the morning! it was pretty cool of the guys to accommodate me and come to tim and jills house two nights in a row. now thats some good friends!

buckaroo rodeos

once i got the kids back home from sandy pines then it was time for bed. the kids know the routine, which was helpful because i didn't! first they eat a flintstones vitamin, then brush their teeth, then i read them a short story, then its off to bed for the girls!
i put aves in her crib and tweets in her bed giving them 'just five minutes' to play with the light on before it was night-night time. then i went down to bubbas room with him and tucked him in. he wanted me to read him a couple pages from a science and wildlife book that he has (what a curious little guy, huh?). we said our prayers, he turned on his bed lamp and i turned off the room lights. now, back up to the girls and tell them to pack it up. prayer time for each of them, aves gets her fan turned on, tweets gets her night light and cd player turned on. off go the lights, and soon after off go the kids into dreamland!
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we all scream

after washing up and getting dressed for bed its time for one more snack: ice cream! the kids each got an ice cream sandwich from mema. no wonder they love it here so much...
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sandy kids

after dinner was cleaned up, the kids went out to the front yard to play. bubba pulled out his track ball set and asked cal if he wanted to play. he was up for it, so the two of them through it back and forth for a while. the rest of us stood over there and watched and chatted. soon after the other kids wanted to join in as well!
later in the night it was time for the kids to get cleaned up, so they each took turns in the shower and got into their pajamas.
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foot long fun

mema had been planning ahead and found a great way for the kids to have a meal they would remember: she found some foot long hot dogs and buns! she brought them out and the kids almost had heart attacks when they saw them- they were so impressed! after grilling them up we all had a seat and enjoyed the feast. bubba kept laughing at just how huge the hot dog was!
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a box of rocks

papa has been trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the space they have out at sandy pines. he first built a walk way to the big shed, and recently decided to surround the shed with rocks. bubba must have helped him put some of the rocks around it earlier in the week because soon after we got out there he wanted to help papa put some more rocks around it. we each grabbed a shovel and everyone have a helping hand! bubba was feeling pretty tuff because he got to use a big people shovel. he would dig it into the heap and proudly walk around back, dropping most of his gravely load along the way!
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adventures in babysitting

at the beginning of the summer my sister and brother in law asked us if we could babysit for them for a weekend in august when they were planning to go on a mini vacation with all of tims family (except kids of course). we said sure! we would love to. as the weekend got closer we began to realize that diana wasnt going to be able to take the time off- it fell on a weekend where she had to work saturday. oops. no problem, i thought, i'll just go and watch the three kids myself!
everything turned out all right and we had a great time. i had finished working at the grocery store just a couple days before, so i was able to go friday morning and take the kids at noon, when tim and jill had to leave.
i got there on time and the three kids waved off their mom and dad. then it hit me: i was in charge of these kids for the next three days! yikes! now that they were gone, it was time to get down to it: lets play! we played around with play-doh, transformers, and other fun stuff for an hour or so, then it was time for a nap. by then i could use one too!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)