Banana Bread

I just got done taking banana bread out of the oven. There is something about the cold weather that makes me want to bake and do crafty things. I am taking a loaf to a friend who just had a baby. They should enjoy it. Cole and I are off to the grocery store to get a couple of things. Then it is off to get the girls from school, and home for dinner and off again to Brownies. The girls have so much fun there! Mike has bible study tonight so I will have some quiet time after the kids are in bed.

Stampin'

I went to a Stamp party this afternoon. It was a lot of fun we made a Christmas card and I love doing the arts and crafts stuff. I am hoping to have a party of my own the beginning of next year (maybe even in Feb.). As I said before, I had a lot of fun and am hoping to make some cards with my new stamps.

Thanksgiving

Thursday was a wonderful day. The weather was terrible, so it was nice just to be able to stay inside and be warm. Mom came over for dinner and we just played around the house and ate and ate some more. We gave Joel a call to wish him a happy day and that pretty much sums it up. It was great to me.

Actually the whole week was great. I worked on Monday and the kids went to daycare. I took the rest of the week off. We slept in and played games and just had fun together. On Tuesday we went to Sears to get the kids' pictures taken. That is always fun because they enjoy it so much. They are such HAMS! Friday I met Mom in town at Younker's and we did a little shopping there. I then went to Kohl's, Target, and Sears. I had a lot of fun. I brought Tori and Cole with me, so I wasn't even sure how long I would stay in town. They were so good that we stayed in town from 10-3:00. I even got to try on a ton of clothes at Sears and bought a whole matching Christmas outfit. It is so cute!

We got our tree yesterday. We are going to decorate it today. The kids are eagerly waiting right now, so I had better go and get started!

Winter Boots

I have had a nice past couple of days. Thursday we had 6" of snow dumped on us. It makes the world look so pretty and makes me want to bake and sing Christmas carols. The snow caused a 'snow day' for the kids. Well, this puts a monkey wrench in the whole "working Mom" thing. I talked to Mike and he said that he would stay home from work and work on Saturday instead. This made my life so much easier. I was scheduled for work at 7:15a.m. on Thursday which would have meant that I would have to get up at about 5:15 to get the kids and me ready and leave with enough time to get to work on slippery roads. I don't think the kids would have appreciated getting up at 5:15a.m. either! So anyways, Mike saved the day and the kids had a blast playing outside in the snow. They even made a "snow house" as they call it! :)

Yesterday I also worked and it went well. After work Mike took me out to eat at Red Lobster and he even hired a babysitter! I love that. We haven't had a babysitter since like last January (except for Mom or Dad). It was great and after dinner we went window shopping and came home and went to bed early.

Today Mike worked (due to snowday) and Morgan and Tori and I went shopping for some boots for Morgan. We went everywhere in town. The last place I stopped was Salvation Army. I found the perfect pair there. They were pink like Morgan wanted and quality like I wanted. They fit and they were only $3.00. They had a little bit of dirt on them, but nothing the washer won't get out! I am so excited!

Tonight I want to turn in early. I am still fighting off a cold and have now lost my voice. I need some extra sleep!

Little Sicky

Today I got up early to go in to work early. At about 1:00 I got a call from the school (which my heart always sinks when they call) and it was the office lady. She had Cole in the office complaining that he was really sick. She took his temp and it was normal, but thought she should call me. She said that he was coughing and had a headache. Now, since I had a headache last week, I could empathize. However, he did not have a feaver, and Mike and I were both working. Now, do I tell him to go back to class until the end of the day (in which case I look like a terrible mom), or do I tell my boss that I need to leave work early, and put her in a bind when I don't REALLY think he is "sick". I decided to pick him up early. I get there and he is all like MOMMY! and happy and smiling. Not too sick I think. So I bring him home and make him take a nap, because gol' darn it, he is not going to have a fun afternoon! So he tells me that he is now feeling better and doesn't need a nap. (also everytime I say the word "sick" he fake coughs) Eventually he falls asleep, and now he is top notch, fighting and wrestling with his sisters. I think he is feeling up to par, but tonight he is going to bed early!

Ugh.....!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night I reconciled the checkbook with the bank statement. It wasn't adding up! I found the mistake! One of my payroll checks didn't post with direct deposit! Needless to say we were in the negative until it posted. I called the bank and went in there this morning and got it all fixed, but in the mean time all last night I was in knots and sick to my stomach! Apparently this happend to several Munson employees, because the lady asked if I worked there. I hate that! I don't know who's mistake it was, but the bank made it right! Thanks, now I can sleep tonight :)

Chick Flick

Okay, I love the movie "The Note Book"! We watched it again last night. Every time I see it I cry for a couple of hours afterward. I needed a good cry! It felt good. Mike even enjoys that movie.

P.S. not a kids movie!

Kindreds, Kids, Kleenex, and Kalamazoo

I am sorry that I haven't posted in over a week. It was a busy one. Last weekend I went down to Lansing to visit my friends Jen and Kelli (from Grand Rapids). We had a good time. We went to this AWESOME resturant called Bravo. They had the best food and it was a wonderful atmosphere. It is an Italian place and all of the decore was all of the light Italian colors with marble and white columns. It was beautiful. Jen's sister Becky came along for dinner and it was good to get to know her too. We had a great time laughing and eating until we were miserable. (they had the best desserts there!) After dinner we went back to Jen's and watched 'The Wedding Date' it was pretty good. On Saturday morning we had a relaxing morning and got ready to head out to shopping at the Howell outlet mall. It was great fun. I came home late on Saturday night (1:30a.m.)

This past week was busy just with school and work. I worked at the school on Friday and that is always fun. I have been fighting off a cold/sinus infection, so I have been extremely tired and have had a headache for a couple of days. Not fun!

On Friday the girls each had a friend over to play after school. This went very well because they each had someone to play with. If only one friend comes over they tend to fight and compete. So now I know that if one has a friend it is just easier to invite someone else over too!

Saturday Mom, Mike, the kids, and I all drove down to Kalamazoo to visit Joel and Meg. We were going down to celebrate Joel's birthday (which is on the 17th). We had a good day. We didn't leave town until about 11a.m. and we got down to Kalamazoo about 3. We took Joel out to dinner at a really fun steak house and they sang happy birthday and brought out a cake. After dinner we went back to his apartment to have more cake and ice-cream! It was a nice visit and good to see Joel and Meg too! We didn't get home until about 1:30a.m. because it was raining most of the way home! Hard to get up early for church!

I'm BAAAAACK!

Okay, this must be a record for me that I am posting twice in one day! I just have to vent for a moment. Mike and I scheduled the balloon ride again for tomorrow morning, and the balloon guy just called and cancelled because apparently he already knows that tomorrow morning will be windy! This is exactly the reason it was cancelled before, but the next morning it was beautiful! The one good thing is that at least he called the night before and I didn't have to get up at 5:30a.m. for no reason. Another good thing is that at least they don't take you up in the air if it is dangerous at all! I hope that I haven't ragged on the balloon guy too much. It is such a cool gift that my husband gave me. If anyone else needs a great idea for Christmas they are running a buy one get one free special right now. So anyways, I will NOT be going on a balloon ride tomorrow......so my fun weekend will not start until 12:30 when I leave to go to Jen's house. I am so excited.

Today was a good day for me. I dropped the kids off at school and had about an hour to kill before I needed to be at work. I went tanning.....which I always LOVE. After tanning I went to Target where everything from Halloween was 75% off. I got some candy for so cheap and two cute t-shirts for Cole. They have spiders on one and a cute skeleton on the other. They don't even look like "halloween" just cut boy shirts. I love it when I find a good deal! Anyways, when I went to the check out my bill was only $10.31 for 4 huge bags of candybars, two t-shirts, two water bottles, a coke and two packs of halloween pencils (to save for next year)! Bargains!

Oh, and one other little bummer. I hate it when you make plans, and then someone else asks you to do something at the same time. We hardly ever get to go over to friends' houses, and someone invited us over this weekend to play games, we can't go because I am going downstate. Bummer! I am so bummed! Too bad it wasn't any other weekend :(

So Sweet

I just have to brag for a moment about my son. We got his 'character education' report card sent home today and he got an "A" for being a "caring and compassionate person. He is quick to help others in need and is great at sharing." That's my boy. Of course it is funny because tonight when he got home from school he was fighting with his sister and saying that he was not going to share his candy with her! So funny!

Catch-up

Well, here I am posting (and it has been a while!) So sorry to those who are checking every day. I am even getting nasty e-mails from one friend (Jen) who by the way doesn't update her blog very often either. hint hint.

Anyway, here I go. This will just be kind of a boring look into our life for the past few weeks. The kids have been so excited about Halloween. They think that it is so fun to wear a costume. Which is very funny becasue they get to all of the time. They have TONS of dress up clothes and wear them on a regular basis. They were also excited about the CANDY! We decided that we were not going to go trick-or-treating. Yes, you heard me we were NOT going. The kids were okay with this because we were going to take them to the local baptist church where they have this huge fall festival and give out tons of candy. The kids had so much fun and we even got to go on a hay ride after dark! It was a lot of fun. All in all the kids made out well on candy they each ended up with over a gallon of candy which was all good candy bars and chocolate! ummmmm... my favorite. I may just have to sneak some while they are at school. Tori wanted to be an angel again. She makes such a cute little angel. Cole was a Knight. He was sooo cute. Morgan was Cinderella. She brought the picture of Cinderella to me and said that I had to make here hair like the picture....I did my best and Morgan was happy, but it didn't quite look like the picture. The most important thing is that she was happy! The worst part of Halloween is that I accidentally left my camera at my friends house so I wasn't able to take any picutres :(

Over the weekend Mike and I were invited to an 80's dress up fall party. It was so fun. We played 80's music and visited with friends and ate chili and our friends Jim and Stacy made this GREAT 'white chicken chili' which I think is super good! It is such a treat to have! Oh, at the party we even tight-rolled our jeans. We were like so cool, "psych".

While we were at the party the kids spent the night with my dad and Mary. This was their first time spending the night there and they had so much fun! They just love Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Well, again we have scheduled the balloon ride for this Friday morning. So far the weather report is good. I hope that is stays that way. Friday at noon I am heading down state with no kids to spend the weenend with Jen and Kelli. They are my old college roomies and it is always fun to get together with them. We laugh the whole weekend, and I even get to sleep in! yea! So I will post and update on Monday!