Wordless Wednesday: Vacation

Falling...

Well, with the Fall Season here in all it's glory, I have come to the realization that no matter how busy I thought the Summer was, this Fall is worse, much worse. I am running in circles, trying hard to focus on today, tomorrow, the weekend, next month, Christmas, the girls' 5th Birthday....ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

The only good thing (date wise) about the next few months, is the absence of birthday's. There are NO birthday's in my family in September, October, or November, and only 1 in December. Whew. My sister will be turning the big "30" in January two weeks before the twins turn "5". We are taking the girls to Disney World for their birthday, as we have promised them for the past several years. I think it's time and I think that they will be able to enjoy it now that they are a little older and have seen many of the famous Disney movies.

This past weekend was spent in Chicago, minus the children, and we had a great time. We even made a little side trip up to Wisconsin to visit with some dear friends! The time went way too fast and before I knew it, we were back home unpacking the suitcases only to start laundry and re-pack them again! We are leaving for FL on Saturday morning and I am so ready for a vacation in the sun!

As I take a deep breath here, I am plagued by the fact that I have too much to say due to my failure to update the blog as often as I should. I'm starting to ramble and my thought process is becoming disjointed. This seems familiar....

Tomorrow I'll be back to expound upon recent events in a more logical manner. Until then, enjoy the chaos!

Smile!

Getting Out!

We actually got a chance to go Geocaching 3 days in a row this weekend! Yaahoo! We had the pleasure of escorting our dear friend, CaptRussell (caching name), through town on Friday morning. We did 2 great multi-caches closer to downtown and took a nice nature walk in the park adjacent to the twins preschool for the last cache. As always, our time together was too short and went by too quickly. Hopefully we will get a chance to catch up with Russell and his family when we make our way down to Disney World in January. Here's hoping anyway!

The Tikibirds and CaptRussell

Saturday, the girls went down to Gun Lake on the boat with Grandma and Grandpa, while we had the joyous experience of power-washing the house. It's amazing how many different shades of white there are! After 4+ hours of washing, we realized that we hadn't eaten all day so we headed out for a bite, didn't want to go back home yet, so we hit the trails for a few caches close to home. Mike and I had fun caching, just the two of us, on a gorgeous day!

Mike & I at Fallsburg Park

Sunday, we had no plans (can't believe it!) so we planned a route that would hopefully allow us to hit #4500 on our cache find list. We chose to do all country caching, instead of heading into a city like Kalamazoo or Lansing. It was great! Tons of nature, hiking trails, lakes, dirt roads and fresh country air. We hit our milestone and savored a wonderful day spent together as a family exploring our world! Awesome!

Mike and the Twins pose near "Pokey at the Lake" Find #4500!

Wordless Wednesday

GYMCO

The girls had their first day of Gymnastics Preschool on Friday. They were so excited to get started-stopping for me to take pictures was driving them bonkers. Listen, this kinda stuff only happens once and they're all we've got. I know that they will appreciate these pictures as they get older!

The class is from 9am - Noon on Fridays and there seems to be a good mix of boys and girls, ages 3 to 5, in the group. They spend the first hour or so doing gymnastic work, then time in the classroom with a more typical curriculum and conclude with time outdoors hiking, exploring or playing. It's considered *movement* based school and the girls had a riot. I KNOW they are going to love it!


We get to meet their regular Preschool teacher and see their classroom on Thursday. Last year, their teacher was Ms. Anderson...this year it's Ms. Johnson. How easy is that? They will be attending Tues./Thurs. afternoons...I'm actually going to have more than 15 min. of time to myself during the week now! Way cool...



It's really going to be interesting next year when they start Kindergarten. I do believe that most school districts in our area will be moving to an All-Day kindergarten schedule due to recent Michigan legislation that cuts funding to schools who only offer half-day classes. Because the twins will be on the older-side, I don't think that they will have any problems with the transition. Either way, I'm sure I'll be a mixture of tears and giddiness at this time next year!

Oma

Today we mourn the loss of Mike's beloved Oma (Grandma). Born in Germany, and arriving in the US with children in tow back in the late 50's (I believe), her husband was very lucky to land a job at Ford Motor Company. He worked hard and earned the respect of his managers and co-workers and little by little, they began to establish a stable world for their children.

Then her husband, Ted, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease or ALS when he was only in his early 50's, and was gone too soon-Mike never even got to meet him. She found a life long friend in Henry, a fellow German, whom she shared her life with until his sudden passing a few years back. Since that time, her quality of life had significantly diminished, she had come to live here in Grand Rapids to be near her daughter (Mike's Mom) and was eventually transferred to hospice care.

We knew this moment was coming, and soon, but it's never easy to say "Good-bye" for the last time. We did that last night and it was hard...really hard. She loved her 4 great-grandchildren so much! All girls...April, Kimmie, Lauren & Tara...they could always make her smile. Oma was full of spunk, warm, caring, compassionate, funny and a German accent that made everything she said sound more interesting. I am grateful that, through Mike, I had a chance to have her in my life and that of my children. We are all better off because of it....

We'll miss you, Oma. Be at peace and watch over us. You'll always be in our hearts.

The Microwave

So, we (mostly Mike) finally got the microwave installed above the stove on Sunday. Doesn't it look pretty? Ok, maybe *pretty* isn't the right choice of words, but it's so nice to have this appliance in its place-that empty, ugly space that was just waiting for something new and shiny to fill it!

The oven directly below it is also new and shiny. So much so that it hasn't even been used yet....seriously. Mike still has to run a new gas line under the house so that we can officially install the stove too. We have another large microwave, in our mini-kitchen in the family room, that we were using to cook a lot of our food. We really need the real deal working though. I hate to cook so that aspect has been great. The amount we spend on pre-prepared meals and eating out is not-so-great. Time to get moving on some of those final house completion projects!

So, YAY for the microwave! I can't wait to start using it!