In these shoes

These shoes have walked miles on my feet.  I happen to love this brand and style.  I have worn them for at least 15 years.  I get a new pair every year.

As you can see I keep the past couple of years on the shoe rack for doing jobs that I don't want to wear my new ones doing, like mowing the lawn.

For the first week I had my new treadmill I put on my trusty Reebok's and walked 2 miles a day.  After each walk my feet would just scream at me, "These are not the right shoes for this". Yes, my feet actually said that.  So off I went with my 20% off coupon to Kohl's to find a good pair of running shoes.  These Fila's were on sale and with my coupon only cost me $28.00  My feet are so happy!

To my surprise my favorite Reebok's were on sale this past weekend and I went to get my annual pair.  I had my trusty 20% off coupon and off to Kohl's I went.  I was deeply saddened when I discovered that my favorite style is being discontinued. They didn't have my size among the last few pair they did have so I was left to pick out a new favorite.  I found these Nike's on sale and with my coupon paid $25.00 for them.  The purple swoosh did help make everything ok.....for now.

Sad sight

So we kicked off the month of December by waking up on the first to a puddle in front of our fridge.  Sadly the poor ole thing died during the night leaving us no choice but to throw everything away and go purchase a new fridge.  This is my new freezer with the meager supplies I picked up at the grocery store.  Who can live without butter, cheese, chicken and bacon?!

These are the only two things that survived the big thaw.  Under no circumstance should you toss out CHOCOLATE!  These did not get devoured during the stressful day but are safely back in the freezer waiting a more worthy emergency :)

All dressed up

In November it became apparent that the kids needed new church clothes.  Jeremy has been asking for a suit and this is how my handsome young man looks in his new suit.  He also got a new shirt and new dress shoes.

While we were looking for new dresses Emily came up with this shirt and the sweater below to go with her skirts that still fit.  They look great with jeans too.

These two dresses were on the clearance rack at J.C. Penney.  The blue one is Liz Claiborne and the polka dot one is by Alyx.  They were $29.99 each.

Say hello to my little friend

This is my new treadmill.  I have a goal of losing 44 pounds by my 44th birthday in July.  As you can tell I am set up in the basement but I have a Ipod outlet and a small t.v. so I'm good.

My awesome husband heard me mention that I didn't have enough room to put my glasses, book, water, house and cell phones so he hooked my up with this bin zip tied to the handle.  It is perfect!

A Thanksgiving get away.

After we enjoyed our Thanksgiving lunch we loaded up in the car and set off to Traverse City.  It's a 3 1/2 hour drive from our house.  The kids were so excited to be hitting the road at 2:30.

By 3:30 I was the only one still awake in the car.  It's a good thing I was the one driving.

The wardrobe in our room looked too much like the passage to Narnia so Emily gave it a try.  Ours lead to no where.

We had a all night Monopoly game.  I felt like I didn't get the memo on wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a black t-shirt.  These guys were still going strong when I called it quits at midnight.

This may look like a pretty lake scene but in reality it is a sad look at how low the lakes are in Michigan.  The water should be up to the road, not a mile out.

On the way home we stopped at our favorite pizza shop for what we think is the best pizza around.  We only went up north from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning.  We did some shopping and some swimming while we were there also.  All in all it was a great get away with NO cell phones.  Now on to Christmas!

The proper way to eat a SnoBall

When I heard that Hostess was going out of business I went down to the local store to grab my favorite treat Snoballs.  To my surprise the Hostess shelf was empty.  Lucky for me this store had a gas station out front and ta-da!  I bought the last 3 packages they had.  I will now show you how I was taught to eat one of these treats.

First you take a snoball and put it on a napkin or paper towel so you don't get the coconut all over the place.

Then you peel the marshmallow shell off the cupcake.

You eat the cupcake first.

Then you eat the marshmallow shell.  It is so yummy this way.  Farewell Snoballs, I will miss eating your yumminess.

Mean Mom or Life Lesson

So, here is how my mind works.  I was taking a shower on Saturday and the water wasn't draining properly and my mind went to thinking that I needed to remind Rob to clean out the gutters before winter set in.  After my shower I asked the kids if either of them wanted to clean the gutters.  Emily agreed after I said I would pay her.  Before we headed outside I thought that Jeremy shouldn't get off so easily so I taught him how to clean out the tubs drain trap.  I think this is an equally gross job.

Emily started out standing on the shed to clean the garage gutters out then did the sun rooms gutters.  The challenge then was to do the upper gutters.  In the back of the house it is a little easier because you can stand on the sun room.  That is until we realized that  Emily wasn't tall enough to reach so I had her haul the extension ladder up.  We learned a very big lesson.  Someone should always be there to hold the ladder for you!  I stood there completely helpless as Emily was taking her last step before transferring onto the roof when the ladder slid out from under her and down she fell!  Thank God it is only about 8 feet to the sun room roof.  She has a nice bruise on her butt.  After she got her wits back she was able to lower one of the ladders down to us so we could send Jeremy up to hold the long ladder for her.

I give her all the props in the world because I would NEVER have gotten back up there after a fall.

While Emily was up on the roof Jeremy had to get all the leaves that pile up between the shed and the air conditioner raked up.  I do not want to encourage any critters making this corner of my house a home for winter.  So, am I a mean mom or a mom who taught her kids good life skills?