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?

Honors, Mentors and Black Belts, Oh My!

Wednesday, October 10th was a busy day.  Emily was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Jeremy was able to give Phil his mentor pin.  Phil was instrumental in helping Jeremy achieve his Eagle Scout rank.

On Saturday October 12th Emily earned the rank of 2nd degree black belt!

Richie and Emily love being in class together.  They are both high kickers and can kick each other in the head if they want to.  Richie got his black belt today.  Yes, this is them posing for me.  I'm glad the restaurant owner didn't kick us out!

Why did I keep that?

I call this the evolution of a trick or treat bag.  I broke out the Halloween buckets today and I found all of these modes of collecting candy.  I look back and can remember which kid carried which bags and can think of a costume that was worn.  My kids stopped going out for candy 5 years ago, the year Emily was diagnosed with diabetes.  Jeremy didn't have to give it up but he chose to support his sister.  I wondered why I kept these but then Emily said "Cool, I can use those for my kids."  Yes, I put them all back in the tote and hauled them back to the basement.

Give me strength

If any of you know me you know I hate a cluttered room.  This is how Jeremy left his room today while he attended a football game.  Some of it is clutter, some of it is home work, all of it gives me a head ache.  I just shut the door.