Wishing all Health, Safety and PEACE in 2008!!! Cheers!
Monday, December 31, 2007
And A Happy New Year
Wishing all Health, Safety and PEACE in 2008!!! Cheers!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Christmas Morning
The morning was fun. After gifts we lazed around for a while, munched and played. finally got around to getting ready for my Dads. They spoiled us as usual and went way overboard. I will have to take a photo of my new carving from my dad and post it. It is amazing. How can his stuff keep getting better? Anyway, we had a great dinner and too much dessert. Dad and Cindy loved on the kiddos for a while and then when babies started to get grumpy we all left.
Grady wound up getting sick that night. 103.5 temp and crabby. No other symptoms of anything. Weird. Maybe teeth (those dang molars) but that seems way to high a temp for teeth. Now Jason and I are under the weather. We always get sick together and him way worse! I am fighting this cold with everything I got... tea, vitamins, oranges, water, juice. We will see. I am going to bed now to see if I can sleep some of it off.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Grandma Donna's
Today i have to bake a pineapple upside down cake for the Gilchrist party at 5pm in Whitehall , and then rush off to Flanders (Cindys fam) in Montague. Whew..crazy last part of our day, but we wouldn't miss any of it. Its Tradition!
These are a few of my Favorite things...
My Hand-made Christmas gifts. Starting with the 1st one A stocking made in 1978 from my Gramma A. So adorable. Then the next 2 photos are my annual Santas from my Grandpa and Grandma Freed. We got one each year once we get married. I won an extra one as a draw gift one year. What a bonus! The next photo w/ three santas are ones my dad made.His style is totally different from my grandpa and I LOVE it.
Grandma Marion (Cindy's Mom) makes the felt stockings and have so much fine detail, and our regular family stockings come from Jason's mom and are made by a family friend. I have tons more handmade gift that I totally treasure but then this would go on forever! I just know how lucky I am to have such talented people in my life. Thank you for sharing all that with my little house. My appreciation for all things homemade come from all of you!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Well, here is yet another winter tradition in our house. Jason and Summer started this one last year. Covering the windows with paper snowflakes. I really love this one because we can keep them up past Christmas. I add some paper doilie hearts when Valentine's Day is close. The best part is that everyone can make paper snowflakes ( Ok, not Grady yet) Its as crafty as Jason gets and even my Dad made a couple when they babysat for us. Now we have lights up on the house and around the front windows and the snow flakes look even better!
I am so LOVING hearing every ones traditions. people are posting them on their blogs and its so fun to see your own twist on the holidays and everyday life. Please keep sharing!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Tradition
The 2nd photo is "The CRAZY House" This house is a 1/2 mile from us and is indeed crazy. Its on Shuller(I think) off Laketon near the lake. Their yard and lot is COVERED with the tackiest stuff in Christmas history AND WE LOVE IT. We've been calling it "The CRAZY House" for 10 years, since Jason and I moved to Muskegon. Summer fell in love as a toddler and now if we are out past dark and no one is crying, we have to drive past it. I think we have been past 4 or 5 times this year already. These people just want to make all the little kids happy and it is just awesome.
Gotta work for 4 hours tonight. I've got a stop to make to get a gift on my way in. Going to take my X-mas cards to work and hopefully if its as slow as yesterday I can get them mostly done! Jason is out grocery shopping ( love that) And I am making lunch for my babes. Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Oh, Christmas Tree
This is Tigger(on the TV) Teagen and our sweet little tree. I do love this little tree even though its fake. At this point in life it is necessary. TO many little kids and dogs. Even the cat leaves it alone. I don't have to worry about Grady filling his cheeks with pine needles. Our ceilings are so high that if we didn't put the tree on the little table, it would just look ridiculous. I have to say that Christmas Morning this tree is awesome with all the gift piled up underneath. My only concern is that the poor thing may collapse due to the sheer volume of ornament that it displays!
One day when we move, it will become the "kids tree" and hold only kid-made ornaments and then we will get a REAL family tree. Sorry my photo is so cruddy. I took it last night while the kids watched some specials on TV. Did anyone else see the Shrek Christmas? I only saw part of it but it was funny! Grady was laughing so hard he kept falling over!
Monday, December 10, 2007
YUMM...
After cookies, we ate tacos that Julie made and had brownies my Gramma made for desert ( like we needed desert, but at least we didn't eat MORE cookies!) The kids got some GREAT books for gifts and I recieved a beautiful piece of wall art made by my Gramma(picture later) and a fun tree Peacock from my Aunt Linda that I think will be living in my studio after the holiday. We all had a great time. The kids love seeing their big cousins (Summer chattered about them the whole way home) I have more reading material sent by Julie,and Jason got some special cookies from Gramma, just for him. Our drive was easy and even fun. Lots of talking and listening to X-Mas music. Cookie Day is our Holiday kick-off. I can see now that at the Schultz House, Christmas is HERE!!
Friday, December 7, 2007
You have to check this out
Click on Nitty Gritty over to the right. She has just posted an awesome story about a great loss in her life. Her blog is SO inspirational. I cry almost every time I read it. Please check her out! It will change your day!
What matters most
OK, the messy house drives me nuts. But I decided a long time ago that time spent enjoying my family if far more important than a perfect house. Life is too short and I don't want to miss a thing! What would my Mom have done if she had known that at 30 that she would be gone in 3 years? It wouldn't have been dusting, I know that for sure. Now, I realize that its irresponsible to live each day like its your last(or else I would be maxing out credit cards all over town!) But I think we can all apply some of that saying to our lives and really benefit. It goes along with "don't sweat the small stuff". Sometimes I need to step back and take in the entire picture to see what matters most.
Well today is a busy one. I am finishing up some secret projects(gifts), I have to pack for everyone for our trip to Mason tomorrow, and I just found out that Jason has to fly to Wisconsin next Weds for work, and I need to figure out if I am working or not and how to deal with that! And I thing Jason and I will play "Rock-Paper-Scissors" to see who is stuck grocery shopping and getting my Jeep an oil change.
So have a great weekend, I'm grabbin' my coffee and gettin' GOin'!!!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
One Crazy Week
This weekend...Friday night Jason and Summer are going to literacy night at her school. And Saturday morning we take off for Mason for COOKIE DAY with my Mom's side of the family. I love Cookie Day. Kicks off the season and its so fun. I will post pics and explain this tradition when we get back. What kind jof traditions do you have? what traditions do you want to start? I have a few that we do just at my house that I will share next week.
The photo above was an outtake from our x-mas photo shoot. I did get some good ones...you can view them in you mailbox in about two weeks!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Then & Now
This is is also a season of lots of mixed and confused emotions for me. Some of the best and worst moments of my entire life have happened during the holidays.
We had the most amazing Holidays when I was growing up. Beautiful decor, 13 foot trees, lots of treats and more gifts than we ever could have dreamed. It was very important to my Mom. And it was perfect. But her diagnosis came around Thanksgiving. and Then when she died it was right before Christmas. Not my favorite time of years anymore. But later my 1st date with Jason was 2 days before Christmas. We went for Chinese food and then he took me to see some of the best light displays I have ever seen. We broke up that next summer and then got back together at Thanksgiving. He Asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve, sitting on his bedroom floor while I had curlers in my hair and tears in my eyes. Years later we finally set a date on a Christmas night. About 5 years later I miscarried a baby we wanted so badly right before Christmas. 2 years ago, we discovered I was pregnant for Grady on New Years Eve.
I am hoping for a less eventful holiday this year. Its so strange the balance of good times and hardship. I have earned these memories, good and bad. They all make me who I am. I am OK with that. It definitely explains the mood swings!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Naughty
Monday, November 26, 2007
A post from Grady
Translation:
"sweet, Mom is busy with Teagen so I am gonna smash the keyboard while shes not loking! Then when she catches me I will go straight to the x-mas tree and try to pull the entire thing down! Yeah, then I need to pull Teagen's hair for a bit before I take a nap. Mom, we got any cookies?"
Saturday, November 24, 2007
So Thankful
I have been so sick. I called in to work for the 1st time ever (at this job) and even had to tell Kel to find someone else to watch Leighton on Wednesday. Come to find out I finally got the Strep that the girls both had last month. It was so bad. But 24 hours on meds and I was munching turkey with the rest of America. I even braved some "black Friday" shopping. At 3:30 AM!! But it was fun (except waiting for hours to check out at Kohl's-thanks Rae!) Pretty much slept the rest of the day but put a nice dent in my list.
Thanksgiving itself was great. Just went to Jason's dads. It was just them, us, Grandpa Bill and Dave & Dorthy Wilmers. We popped in to say HI at my parents house (they had all Cindy's fam there) Set them up to babysit for us next Sat (Oh yeah!) for Jason's company party. We were going to make a night out of it, but I know Rock & Cindy are not ready for that! This is the 1st company party that I have not been preggo or breast-feed possibly ever. And its the 1st party since Jason has been in his new supervisor position. So we are getting a lot pressure to party all night! I'm just not into that anymore. We grew out of our party years(funny how that happens) Plus I'm not giving anyone any ammo for gossip about the boss' wife for the next week!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Reid
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Genius
Monday, November 5, 2007
Its official...
I got the call a few weeks ago, and I really thought it was a hoax. But its totally for real. We are a "Nielsen TV" family! And they paid us $30 cash! That is so weird.
I vaguely recall a "Roseanne" episode from 20 years ago when they were chosen and were only gonna watch the Discovery Channel so that they looked smart. Now I wouldn't go that far, but I am a little embarrassed by how long Nickelodeon is on in my house. And I may as well admit to never missing an episode of Nip/Tuck or Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Not exactly wholesome intelligent TV but I am unable to help myself. It could be worse and I could watch reality telivision! LOL! Just kidding! But seriously, I dont wactch much of that.
So we have little journals by each TV and we just record what we are watching and what channel. How exactly do you do that when my dear Jason surfs through stations at approx. 10 stations/sec. This could go on for 10 minutes! I am not joking when I say I literally get motion-sickness! A bit of his ADD shining through. I guess I'll let him figure all that out on his own and go watch TV in our room!
Finished!
Read the last of the last book yesterday.....I'm still reeling. I need to come back to real life so that I can get something accomplished again.
Friday, November 2, 2007
current obsession
It was a total accident to discover these. Let me explain. I scan the message boards at sistv about once a week to see whats going on in MI. I stumbled over a title that caught my attention and it was a few girls gushing about a series of books.Some of what they were saying intrigued me(even though I try NOT to get into series- hate cliffhangers that make you wait for a year before the next is published. I have NO patients.) So I go to Amazon.com to see what all the fuss was about. Interesting enough. A love story with vampires. OK. but then I see its considered young adult. Not for me.
Pretty much lost interest. The next day Jason didn't hunt and I took the opportunity to visit Barnes and Noble. One of the 1st books to catch my eye was Twilight. paperback.decent price.it is almost Halloween, vampires are OK.I'll try it. OMG. WOW. This could possibly be the greatest story I've ever read. The romance...(((swoon))) doesn't feel young adult but I totally could have read it at 13 and loved it. Not your typical vampire stuff either. no grossness. I read it in less that 24 hours(over 500 pages) got up the next day and dragged Grady and Teagen back to the book store to get the last 2 books in the series. Only available in hardcover. Uggh. But totally worth it. I am more than halfway through New Moon. Last night I had 7 client in 5 hours. left lots of time to read. Hopefully tonight will be the same!
Thanks for listening to my book review. I am a bit nuts when it comes to books. BTW- The books are Twilight, New Moon , and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. I suggest if your interested, to get them off Amazon. Way better price. Or if you wait the weekend you can borrow mine!
I plan to post Halloween pics this weekend. I want to work on them a bit.
And thanks for the comments! I LOVE hearing for everyone!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
I LOVE Teagen's scary face! She is so funny. She wanted to pratice trick-or-treating by asking us with her pail. And she was so serious about wanting a smiley face pumpkin- not scary. I cant wait to see her all dressed up.
Summer is beside herself with excitement. I don't know how teachers handle these kids all day before the party. Summer and her friends have all been discussing costumes since school started! Halloween is pretty big among the 1st Grade crowd.
Allright, I'm off! Leighton will be here by 10:30 and I have things to do before I have to devote all my attention to the biter and the bitten. Wish me luck!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Whew..today was a long one. Most of it spent at my little job. Starting with a 7:30am meeting in Grand Haven. ridiculous. Its tanning, people, not rocket science. Whats funny is how much Midnite Sun & Cruise is like a Midwest version of "Sunset Tan". I've only watch the show a little, but that's because I have enough drama in the 12 hours a week at work that I really don't need to see their drama too.
So then it was straight to the salon to open until 5pm when we close. Lucky for me Amanda hung out for a while in the morning and then Autumn came in and tanned and hung out too. Makes the time go by.
I am lucky to have a flexible job and the free (or very cheap)tanning is cool too. The years I spent home all the time were not always easy and I like getting some adult interaction. I am the "old Lady" around there but I have fun with the girls.When ever I say I am quitting, Jason reminds me that the problems there are not as bad as the problems I Could have other places. I mean they let me work 12 hours a week. That's pretty awesome.
BTW- The biting Saga continues. I am looking for advice. We do time-outs(nope), send her to her room(just goes to sleep), spankings(solving violence with violence?), put toys in time-out(she doesn't care). I don't know what else to try. I'm sure by now Kelly doesn't want Leighton here. If Greg knows or finds out, I am sure he won't want Leighton here! I already don't even let them out of my sight but Teagen doesn't seem to care either way. Are there toddler muzzles? Oh, yeah, and she only bites him. and only on the finger. Weird.
OK,long boring post. Sorry. Should have some pics tomorrow. And maybe some new stuff in my portfolio at sisTV. Later Taters!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
NOTE:
If I have you listed somewhere on this blog its because I love you story and/or I love your work. Please let me know if you would rather remain private! And don't worry- I am truely an innocent stalker. Harmless. Really.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Why God made 2 year olds so dang cute...
OK, last night I took all three kids to Cee-Cees To meet Kelly and Leighton. It never occurred to me that this was the 1st time I've taken them out alone to a restaurant. Except for the full diet coke that Grady grabbed and dumped down the front of himself, everyone was good. If only Teagen would have actually eaten and didn't sit at her own table. Grady kept stealing Kel's fork and banged on the plate really loud. Needless to say, it was more stressful and less fun than I had hoped. With Kelly working full time, we really have no chance to catch up anymore and that didn't happen yesterday either. Then, somehow I still thought it would be fun to check out the new Target after "dinner". Kel rolls her cart over with her nice little germ-protecting seat liner for Leighton. I grab one of those limo-sized carts ( BTW-those thing require blinkers and mirrors) trying to figure out how to strap Grady into the toddler seat. You can't use the baby seat in those things, they have the leg holes blocked. So Kelly graciously removed her son from the germ-free cart to ride w/Teagen and pushed Grady in her cart. At this point Summer is crying because I told her she's too big to ride in a cart. Should have got back in the car at this point but no, I was not going to admit defeat. In we go. I left both carts with Kelly for 1 minute and I hear crying- loud crying. Its Leighton with teeth marks on his finger courtesy of Teagen. She hates if he points at her or pokes her so that's her reaction. If it happens at my house-I take care of it. BIG trouble. But I have no idea how to handle it in a store FULL of people. I give Kelly a lot of credit for not slapping her across her face(OK, Kel doesn't even have that in her) but man, I was SOOO MAD! Why is she doing this? It makes me crazy. And I thought the biting phase was over. She has bit Leighton on the arm a couple of times, but its been a while. Then while watch Leighton this week, I've noticed he has started poking and pointing at everything. He's 2 and very laid back. But he is starting to see that he can push limits and loves to push Teagen's buttons. So that is her reaction. The WRONG reaction. I cannot believe that one of MY kids is the BITER. Ya know, there's one in every daycare. Ugghh. I hate it, don't know what to do. I am Sorry Leighton. I am sorry Kelly. You guys are troopers for still loving her. Anyone have any ideas how to handle this? I'm totally at a loss.
So after about 12 seat swaps and 4 Teagen melt-downs in the middle of shopping isles, we check out. The woman in front of me in line looks back apologetically, "I'm so sorry...I've been there." I just got in line, was it that obvious that I was totally losing it? I have no idea who I've become. I can't understand how I lost control of the situation.
I'm not leaving the house again until hunting season is over.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
a little boo for you!
One Last cheer...
Whew...the season is OVER! Its been fun,interesting and long. Pratice started in July And has been 4 days a week for 2 hrs a night. Lakeside takes football very seriously and the cheerleaders follow the same schedule. Such a different experience for us here than what it was in Whitehall last year. They learned A LOT of cheers and pratice was pretty serious.( they even ran laps!)
I didnt like some of the cheers- to provactive. One in particular is "jiggelo". We alway did as "wiggelo" when I cheered(back in the day) Its not meant to mean anything, but I still hate it. Lots of sing-song, hip-hop cheering too. Not what I was used to. I think Summer was uncomfortable with a lot of it too. It was a bit odd to watch how differently all the girls were...by race. Summer has always had very mixed groups of friends in school. Totally unaware of race, and I was very proud of that. Summer would be telling us about someone and say " Ya know, that girl with the soft brown skin that has all the cool barettes in her hair." The words black and white were no more than colors of crayons. But in cheerleading there were sudden obvious differences. In any free time, the girls seperated. But I think just because they played differently. The black girls did little dances and cheers learned from olders kids. Summer and her friends would play "secret spy" and other imagination games. The white girls seemed almost younger. One thing was always the same- if Teagen and Grady came to pratice, ALL the girls wanted to play with them! Teagen actually learned most of the cheers and Grady loved the cherring so much that he would clap after they finished. Grady loves the ladies!
But anyway, Its been fun. Great coaches. Thanks Renee and Ashanta. We might try soccer next year. Who knows. My questions is...how am I supposed to do all these activities when I have 3 playing?!?!
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