Chad's Moving Day

For about two years now, we have had a basement full of my brother's stuff. A few years ago he was stationed in Missouri, but was being restationed in Washington state. Instead of bringing all his stuff with them, they asked if they could store it in our basement. Our basement is huge; tons of space. I told him 'no problem!' When it was time for the move, they drove all the way here with their trailer full to the brim with stuff that they weren't going to need for the next couple years. We packed in the extra rooms of the basement with all the stuff and shut the door and forgot about it. Seriously, with the big basement we haven't even noticed all his stuff!

Now that he's retired and found a new house, it's time to get all his stuff back and bring it into their new home! The whole family showed up to help! The boxes and everything were a lot easier to bring downstairs than it was to bring it back up! Still, we had so much help that it only took about an hour and a half to totally clear out his stuff. We did a good job using our Tetris skills to pack it all back into the big trailer- and now he's off to the Upper Peninsula to bring it into their new place. Poor guy, he's got to unload that all himself!

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Back to the Vet

That dumb dog did it again! Ever since we got him three years ago, he's been a bit of a magnet for injury. The first night he spent with us he gobbled up one of his toys and we had to force him to throw it back up! This time he tore out another one of his claws by accident. He saw that pesky neighbor dog in our yard and wanted to go out and chase after him. We opened up the back slider and off he went! When he came back his back paw was bloody- he tore out another claw! At first I was really mad at the other dog, but then we spotted a bit of blood on the deck and I assume his injury was from getting it caught between the planks of the deck and not in a fight. Still, it meant we had to take him in to the vet again and get him looked at. Yup, he tore it right out and needed to have surgery on it. Well, that's what you get, dummy!

Now he's stuck wearing a cone for the next two weeks. He's still pretty cute though, huh?

Chad's Party

It's been so long since Chad was in town that it's cause for celebration! We've gotten the chance to see Chad and his family a few times now since they've returned, but the rest of the family hasn't! A few of my aunts decided that they needed to throw a whole big ol' party for him since he hasn't been around much for the last 20 years. My mom's side of the family used to get together every year for Christmas, and often times we would get together in the summer at a park as well. That side of the family has always been big- I have 16 cousins on that side! Now, with most of them married and with large families of their own, its way more people than can fit into any house. When the numbers started getting too big, and grandparents started to pass away, we stopped getting together with the whole family. With Chad in town, it just seemed like a good enough reason to gather the whole clan and catch up. It was really fun to see all my different aunts and uncles, cousins, spouses, their kids, and everyone- some of these people I hadn't seen in decades- or had never met at all! Chad, of course, hated all the attention, but the reality is that he was only the excuse for the get-together. The food was good and catching up with everyone was a delight! Ledger got to meet a whole bunch of random people that he's related to, which he rightfully thought was kinda weird...

Xylophone Fun

The trombone wasn't exactly a hit. A couple months ago we got Ledger a trombone for his birthday; he is starting middle school next year and one of his options is joining band. He had his heart set on playing the trombone in band class. He had never tried it before, but it's just the one that caught his eye. We got him a used one to try out to make sure he was actually interested. He played it for a week or two and decided he didn't really like it as much as he thought he would. No problem, that's exactly why we got him an inexpensive used one to find out. His latest interest is the xylophone. Alright, lets give this one a try! He spent the last week at his grandparent's house, so I went searching for an inexpensive xylophone to surprise him with when he got home. I found a good one and picked up some mallets for it.

When he got home he was totally surprised and thrilled! He spent the rest of the day plunking away at it! I've got a feeling that this one won't last either, but he's having a good time with it now!

Date Night Barbie

I'll go see basically anything in the theater, but Diana is a lot harder to convince. Well, she has been pestering me about wanting to see the new Barbie movie for months before it came out. It's finally here, so we went opening night to see it at our beloved local theater. My favorite place in the world is at the theater, so I'm always excited when I get to take my favorite person in the world there- and she demanded it! (please note, I am wearing pink and she is not...)

The movie itself was delightful and hilarious- it instantly shot up into the rarified air of Diana's favorites along side Clueless and Romeo + Juliet. She has actually gone back to see it in the theater twice more with friends! I guess she just likes to be a Barbie girl in a Barbie world!

Dinner with Chad

I had dinner with my brother. Over the years my brother and I have had a pretty up and down relationship. When I was little we shared a bedroom, we slept in bunkbeds, him on the bottom and me on top. Eventually we put our beds on opposite sides of the room. Most days he would ignore me or rib me, as an older brother does. Eventually it got so bad I moved my bed into the closet just so I could have my own 'room' (yes, this actually happened). He liked it and so did I! When my parents finished the basement, they built in another bedroom so he moved down there. I loved it because it gave me my own room for the first time! Eventually I went off to college and he stayed in the basement. We would really only see each other when I was in town. Our relationship wasn't great, but we never had any animosity towards each other, it was more like 'yup, that's my brother.' He joined the military and for the next twenty years we would see each other, at most, once a year. This worked quite well for us actually! I got married, moved jobs, had a kid. All while he was doing the military thing. Recently, he retired and moved back in temporarily with Mom and Papa while he and his family find a new place to live. With him in the area again, I figured it was time to call him up and share a meal and chat, just the two of us. I gave him a call and he was up for it! We met up at a nice restaurant in Allegan and spent a couple hours catching up, just talking through what we've each been up to for the last 20+ years. It was really strange because we are both such different people than we were the last time we lived under the same roof! We got a chance to talk about life, fatherhood, jobs, faith, and family. It was so normal and yet so absolutely strange... We are in such different places, he and I, but it was so nice to catch up with him while we are in the same place- for probably the first and last time in our lives!

Whitecaps Game

Each year my work has a special employee appreciation event. Last year we got passes to go to the zoo (which I wrote about here), and this year we had a special reserved area at the local minor league baseball game! Though I've lived in the area most of my life, I've never actually attended a West Michigan Whitecaps game. Well, I guess this is my opportunity to fix that! It was a Sunday afternoon game with lunch being provided, so we made sure we would arrive hungry.

Having been our first visit to the stadium, we tepidly made our way inside, asking the ticket taker where our seats were. 'All the way round the whole stadium'. Of course. The walk around was fun though, seeing all the different fans and crowds as we made our way. Finally we got to the special reserved deck behind outfield. I saw a bunch of coworkers, so I knew we were in the right spot! We found ourselves a picnic table and I went to say hi to my boss, introducing the family. He was delighted to see that we came and directed us over to the grill and food that was reserved for us. We all piled up our plates full of 'ballgame food', and settled in to watch the game. The whole thing was pretty neat, seeing the crowds, the players, and the whole Sunday afternoon sporting spirit! After about a half hour we decided 'that'll do', and got out of there. Sure it was nice, but none of us were even remotely interested in staying any longer!

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Back to School Shopping

We knew Ledger would need a bunch of new clothes and stuff for the upcoming school year, we decided to get ahead of it and start the school shopping early.  We made the plan to go shopping in Holland, so we headed up there. Whenever we go out shopping, Diana and Ledger's favorite part is usually the part where we go out to eat! We were driving by Russ', which caught Ledger's eye, and he got really excited about going there for lunch on our way to shopping. I honestly have no idea why Ledger likes that place so much... For those who don't know about Russ', It's a local chain that's really popular with Dutch people over the age of 70. And Ledger, apparently. 

It was always my grandma's favorite restaurant, but she always pronounced the name wrong. The place is called Russ'. Please note the apostrophe, there by stating that the name is supposed to mean that someone named Russ is the owner and it belongs to him. When speaking, it correctly would be pronounced 'Russes', so show ownership. My grandma didn't seem to understand that and would always call it 'Russ'. She would say 'Lets go eat at Russ'. This delighted me to no end!

Anyway, after a delicious meal, we made our way to a couple stores and got the boy a bunch of shirts, shorts, and pants. We just need one more trip out this summer to get notebooks, folders, etc. and we will be done with his back to school shopping!

A Boy and His Dog

Over the summer our dog seems to have made a big turn around on Ledger. The two of them have always gotten along, Ledger loves that dog a ton! Wiggins though, on the other hand, was a little tepid about the boy. Wiggins would come over to Ledge and get petted or play, but the dog would never seem to seek him out or lay by him. That's changed in the past month or so. When Ledge is on the couch watching TV or playing on his tablet, Wiggins will eagerly jump up and snuggle with him. Maybe Ledger is a little bit more calm with him, or Wiggins just decided he trusts him, but either way, both of them are getting along smashingly these days!

Both of them are so cute in this picture, so be sure to check out all the other random pictures of Ledger and Wiggins!

Haircut Again

I know I thought the last time I grew out my hair would be the last time, but I kinda snuck another one in... I've had my hair styled back since I cut it a year and a half a go, so its been a little long on top, but I've always been sure to keep it short on the sides and back. I kind of got a little lazy with the haircuts, and it all kept growing out. Diana trimmed up the back once or twice, but before I knew it, the (thinning) hair on top was about  10 inches long! I always love having long hair, but the evil villain called 'male pattern baldness' keeps thwarting my plans! The day finally came where I finally accepted my fate and told the wife to grab the trimmers. Off it came, and this time I didn't try to keep it longer on top- buzz it all!

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Allegan on the 4th

 Now that Mema and Papa no longer have a place at Sandy Pines, we were unsure what we should do or where we should go to celebrate the 4th of July.

We live in Allegan, so we figured we could just go downtown and watch the fireworks with our fellow Alleganians! They had a bunch of events scheduled downtown all day, but we just wanted to see the fireworks. We rolled in around 8:30pm. It was already pretty busy, so we had to park pretty far away- all the way over in the parking lot of the Frugal Hoosier (that's what Diana and I call the local grocery store). We brought chairs so we could have a place to sit to watch the show. They are currently doing a lot of road construction downtown, so most of downtown was filled with orange cones and caution tape! We were still able to find a pretty good spot to sit over by the gazebo at the park. The line to get drinks was so long and so expensive, that I actually just walked back to the gas station and got some fountain drinks for us at a fraction of the cost! Even with the long line, Ledger wanted to get a fried snack. He was willing to wait, so I gave him some cash and let him wait by himself. Eventually he brought back deep fried Oreos! He was very pleased with his treat and gobbled them down, kindly giving Diana and I a small bite each.

At dusk we settled in to our seats and got ready for the big show. The firework show was great, probably better than the Sandy Pines fireworks, so we were very pleased with our decision. Afterward we gathered up our things and headed home, pleased to participate in our little town's celebration!

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Strawberry Cookie Plush

My boy's favorite game for the past couple months has been Cookie Run Kingdom. I have no idea how to play, but he loves it. Actually, he doesn't play it that much, instead he loves the characters in it! The style and design have inspired him and his animation so much that he just loves to draw the characters and animate them. One in particular has become his absolute favorite: Strawberry Cookie. He loves plush characters, so of course he has spent time online looking for a plush version of his beloved Strawberry Cookie. He found one, but unfortunately it wasn't going to be released for another month! A month later he still desperately wanted it and actually talked his grandpa into getting it for him! When it finally arrived he was so pleased! He tore into that packaging and was elated to finally have it all this time later!

It's been a while now since he got Strawberry Cookie, but he still loves it just as much!

Greg's 70th Birthday

My best friend Greg turns 70 this year! His son Adam invited me and Aaron to a special birthday celebration to honor the milestone. Aaron and I were the first ones there and got to help Adam set everything up in preparation for all the guests. A few years ago we had a special celebration at Greg's for his retirement. He spent his career as a philosophy professor at Calvin College and has really been enjoying his retirement. Adam invited a bunch of Greg's friends over to celebrate. After chatting and laughing together, we filled up plates from the delicious spread, and gathered in the living room. Adam suggested that we should go around the room and each share a special memory of Greg to celebrate him. I spoke of the time he brought Adam and I to a Star Trek convention back in middle school and how much fun we had while he just hung back and listened to a football game on his headphones. It was really fun to hear all the loving stories from everyone else who was there as well. I'm certain Greg felt the love and appreciation we all have for him on his special day!

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