The New House

I have been feeling down lately and didn't want to post for a while. I realized though that I still haven't posted about the house. A few Sunday's ago we had a big snow storm. Church was canceled so Riley and I decided to make some snowmen. They are kind of camouflaged because of the leaves. Can you tell we didn't rake this fall. Oh well. There are four of them if you can't tell.
Here is the house. See Chris and Reid in the big window? I love that window. The boys love to look out of it. It is small but just right for us. I hope we get visitors soon.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Reid

Today Reid took his first steps. I can't believe my baby is one already. Here are pictures from his birthday. Because we were in the midst of moving my mom bought Reid a little cake. We cut him a little piece and he took a little piece and then face planted into it. He is the best little guy. I love him so much and feel so lucky to have him in our family. I wish you all could see him all the time. He is the best. He makes my heart ache because he is so wonderful. He is so smiley!!

Moving

We have been in our place for a while now but I haven't had a chance to post any pictures of moving day. We had 5 people lined up to help but only two guys and one of their wives came. We got it all done though. Those two guys were angels. Here is the three guys, our friend Jordan, Chris and our friend Jackson carrying our super heavy mattress.We got the 17 foot truck and thought we would have room to spare.... boy were we wrong. I didn't know we had so much stuff!



This is a view from our front window. Riley took the picture. That is why it is a little blurry. We have the fattest squirrels by our house. The people across the street feed them. They are always running around with corn cobs. This one was on our mail box pole. So funny.

I will post some pictures of the actual house when I get a chance. We are so happy to have room.

Flor

Has anyone ever heard of Flor? A woman who's hair I cut today told me about it. The house we are going to rent (I will tell you about that later :)) has hard wood floors so I want area rugs for some of the rooms. It is a cool idea but more expensive than I thought it should be. What do you think?

www.flor.com

Halloween Festivities

I love Halloween. It is such a fun time of year. This year I felt a little overwhelmed with trying to move and everything else going on.

I made cupcakes for Riley's school party and we went trick or treating on Main Street this year.

I have had it up to HERE!!!!

Imagine me holding my hand up past my head as I say : "I have had it up to HERE!!!". The straw has finally broken the camel's back!!! If you talk to me at all you will know that I am not happy where we are living. I don't like the apartments. I don't like the kids we live by. Our neighborhood is ghetto etc. We have been in these apartments for over 6 years now and I have had it. We have had our pumpkins destroyed. We have woken up to broken alcohol bottles on the sidewalk. We have had loud horrible neighbors and one I think was a drug dealer. Needless to say I have put up a lot but Chris hates moving and we couldn't really afford a nicer place. But this past weekend was IT!!! Let me tell you what happened.

First : On Saturday we were having some friends over for dinner and Chris took the boys outside to play while I started dinner. I brought out two of Reid's favorite toys to play with because he usually just crawls around in the grass. One was this little wooden pushing toy that has crocodiles with mouths that open as it is pushed. Riley had it when he was a baby. The other was a little plastic dump truck that made noises. Well, Chris brought Reid in when our friends came and Riley continued to play out side. Chris didn't bring the toys in but Riley was still out there so I didn't think it was a big deal. I thought once " we should bring those toys in" but I didn't and I learned my lesson the hard way. Anyways, when dinner was ready, probably 30 minutes later, Chris goes out to bring Riley in and says that our toys are destroyed. He comes in with small pieces of wood that resemble the toy we once had. I couldn't believe my eyes. I went outside as Chris proceeded to pick up the remains of our nice little toy. I was furious. I started to yell that I wanted to know who broke our toy. Of course no one fessed up so we just picked up the pieces and I swore to never let those kids use any toy again. I asked Riley who broke our toy and he said it was a little 3 year old that lives next door at the same time Chris brings in the little dump truck and it is cracked and broken. The wires are hanging out everywhere and it was ruined. I took it next door and showed it to the boys mom and told her that Riley said that her son was responsible and started to cry and said how bad I felt because we like to share our stuff and now I can't do that because we don't want our stuff ruined. She said sorry but the damage was done.

Second: On Sunday night Chris and I went to a dinner that was for his work. It was at this delicious restaurant in a small town outside of Ann Arbor called Terry B's. We got my dad and step mom to baby sit the boys so we got all dressed up and went out. When we got home down the hill from our place the maintenance guy was working on a door of a lady that we know. We asked my dad what was going on and he said that a little while ago the police came to our door and asked them if they saw anything. It turns out that there was a robbery. Someone kicked in the door of that apartment and stole all of there electronics. Everything is gone, there TV, Playstation 3, their laptop and of course they didn't have insurance. UGH!!! The next morning I got on the phone and got renters insurance. I guess there was another break in of someone else that our neighbors knew.

Our lease is up November 30 and we will be out of here. I know stuff like this can happen anywhere. I know kids and neighbors aren't perfect but I need a change. We are looking at houses to rent and I am excited and nervous at the prospect of moving. I will let you all know what I find.

I did it!!!

It has been a little while but I haven't had a chance to update all of you. The half marathon went well. Jana Ward and I drove up on Friday afternoon. After we got into Holland we checked into our hotel and then went to pick up our stuff. It was fun to get a number and be with everyone who was running the next day. We went to bed early but I had a hard time sleeping. I kept having nightmares of the next day. We eventually got up around 5:30. We went down and ate breakfast and tried to get pumped up. It was a very cold and windy day. We waited in the car for as long as possible because it was so cold outside. The race started at 8:30 and there were a lot of people running. One thing that I have enjoyed about running over the past few months is interacting with all the runners. Runners seem to be very friendly in general. I didn't want to start off too fast so I was behind the rest of the pack. It was thinking I would be able to pass some people but that actually never happened. I was last place for the entire time. I didn't think I was that slow but I guess I was. My pride was hurt a little but I got over it and just wanted to finish. It took me about 3 hours but I finished. I would run another one and there are some things I would do differently. Thanks for all of your support.