Spring Cleaning

Sad to say, but I have been very neglectful of my blog... so in the next few weeks, I am going and try to do better about posting updates here.

I have been working hard the last couple of months on painting and redecorating my bedroom and trying to organize and clean out my kids rooms and closets to make room for their spring wardrobe. They seem to bring stuff home from school or church and then put it in drawers, or their closets, or under their beds. I found lots of interesting things under my son's bed that I think were part of his bedtime snack....apple cores and orange peelings. Yuck! I worked my way upstairs and found our workout station that hasn't been used in a while. I think I need to spend some evenings getting the dust off of it!!

Now, Doug is making shelves downstairs for more storage room. That is my last project before I move outside. I can hardly wait. There are so many things that I would like to do. I can really overwhelm my husband with my numerous projects if I am not careful. I am glad for a wonderful husband!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful, but busy Christmas season. What a wonderful time to remember why we are here and how we have been given the "greatest gift". It was great to have my sister and family come up and spend a few days. We had hoped to do a little snowmobiling but we lost all of our snow. Church was canceled that Sunday too due to all the ice. So we had a great time playing games and eating.

All I want for Christmas......

We have a litter of yellow labs that are now 6 wks old. We have been selling litters for the past 3 years. We have a chocolate litter that will be ready in January. They are so cute that I had to post their pictures. We are advertising them for Christmas. My kids, especially Nicole is loving having them around. She will grab a puppy and blanket and lay down for a little nap. Hopefully Christmas will come soon.

Black Friday Shopping Trip

I just returned from a very early shopping trip with my mother-in-law. We left around 4 am this morning and braved the Walmart crowd. We were in and out in about an hour most of it spent standing in line. We then headed for Menards where we got a lot of good deals. Then it was off to Meijer where things were pretty slow which was a nice change. We enjoyed take out from Bob Evans and decided that the van was getting to full and it was time to go home. I have ran out of steam and a nap is calling to me now. I am hoping to get our Christmas tree tomorrow and start decorating my house and listening to Christmas music now that Thanksgiving is officially over. I bought lots of snowman decorations this summer at an estate sale so I am eager to start decorating.

The Hunt

In keeping with the tradition of First Nation or Indian people, the success of a hunt deserves the artful and sometimes embellished retelling of events, especially when it involves the taking of one’s first buck. In honor of that oral tradition and because I have had more experience at telling big tales, I, Short Eyes( Doug), will tell the story of my squaw, Many Smiles(Mary), and her first buck.
It was the morning of eleventh moon and bitterly cold (OK, it was 35 degrees). In order to get to our hunting grounds, Many Smiles and I crossed the great swamp and trudged across never ending plain (Well, maybe it was a ditch and a horse pasture). When we finally arrived at deer stand, Many Smiles promptly fell asleep, leaving me, Short Eyes, to keep watch.
Just before dawn, Short Eyes sees movement in the brush and grabs eye tubes (binoculars) to see what it is. It looks like 11pt buck, one point on each side (alright, it was a spike). Short Eyes has trouble waking Many Smiles from dreams. Many Smiles finally wipes sleep from eyes and grabs one barrel shoot pipe from my hands. She tries to see deer through the shoot pipe’s eye tube(scope), but can’t find it. Short Eyes tries showing Many Smiles where it is, but buck walks into brush. Me no see um. Many Smiles goes back to sleep. Many Smiles talks in sleep. Her mad about not shooting buck so she can go back and sleep in warm teepee.
Later that morning, Short Eyes sees more deer come into plain. Eye tubes show they all bald (does and fawns). Suddenly, they look back into great forest. Out steps mighty stag(OK, a 3pt). Him looking for girlfriend. Many Smiles grabs shoot pipe again. Her look through eye tube, but buck starts to walk away. The patriarch of the great woods is 175 steps away now.
Ka-BOOM!!! Fire stick explodes. Mighty beast staggers and falls, but then summons its great will to live and bounds into safety of woods. In two giant leaps it fords mighty river (Alright, a knee-deep creek). Something wrong though. His great strength fails him and he finds himself falling. Last thing him remembers is mother’s warning about how chasing girls would be the end of him.
Many Smiles very happy. Her start victory dance. Short Eyes very proud of her. Many Smiles finally kills first buck. Now Many Smiles can return to warm teepee.

Junior Convention

This was Alissa's first year to compete in Junior Convention. At Daystar, grades 4-6 are eligible to participate in competitions like checkers, ping pong, basketball, shuttle run, puppets and many more catergories. Alissa was pretty nervous since this was a first for her. She sewed a jumper and dress which she placed in 1st and 2nd in(thanks to her Grandma Derscheid. She also took 1st in puppets which she got to compete with her cousin, Connor and her best friend, Kylie, and she took 4th in the ensemble. We were very proud of her.

Chuckie Cheese's

Doug has to do quite a bit of traveling for his job at Pineview and this gives me and the kids a chance to go along and spend some time together. He had to travel to Grand Rapids last week... so while he was at court with one thePineview boys, I surprised the kids and took them to Chuckie Cheese. The kids had a great time spending all their tokens and eating some pizza. Dryson was pretty nervous once the rides started, he usually hopped off as soon as it started. Nicole loved played skee-ball even though they rolled on the other side and sometimes right back to her. Derek played ever game that had a gun or steering wheel. Alissa liked being on the big screen. We all had a great day together.