Cruise

 We are going on our very first cruise ever in about a month and a bit-- the end of Feb. We will be gone for 7 days on the boat and 2 more in travel days. We will be going with Jacob and Audrey! YAY! The itinerary is Belize, Mexico and other places warm and cozy. CANNOT wait. But i will miss Walter a lot. 

 So it has been about 12 years since my last post!! lol. The boys are now almost 30!! Jacob is married to Audrey and has been for about 3.5 years now. The other two are in long term relationships to people we also love-- Erika for Noah and Drew for Micah. They visit us often at our cottage. Heck yes! We have a new cottage! Well we got it in 2022 October. It is Dave's family's cottage. What a mess it was to get it, but worth it! Jacob and Audrey live in Holland, Drew and Micah in Flint and noah lives home with us. Erika comes over lots. :) 

We have 3 dogs right now. Walter our Golden retriever baby-- age 3. Roland is 11 and Ez is 9. They are sweet fellas-- yes all boys. I retired last year after teaching for 35 years! I write curriculum for an SEL company and i nanny once a week for a little one named Crew-- he just had a baby sister named Lily, too! Great family! Dave is still at Rylee's Hardware. We just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. We are learning more and more about what makes each other tick as we get older. I would say I understand him better now and love him even more than I did when we got married. 

Mom died in January but she was ready. She had Alzheimer's and was nearly 90. It was her time and she was so ready. 

I hope to use this blog more now that i found it back. See you soon!

College life

Oh dear, bad blogger lady.  Oh well.  2013 and much of 2014 proved to be my least favorite years of my life.  😞. Moving on. Jacob is off at Indiana Wesleyan university.  He loves it there, no shock at all. He has always been Mr. School. Jacob got himself a girlfriend.  Her name is Audry and she is a nice young girl.  He is very happy. Noah is off at Calvin.  He is. So very independent there. He does his own laundry, he's gotten a job and he seems to like it there.  He almost never comes home, but he texts a lot and he is really growing up.  Micah is still home with us.  He is taking courses at GRCC. He really seems to like it and he gets quite a charge out of some of the students there.

Dave is still at Rylees and I am stil at grps at stocking school.  We got a new puppy this past summer- Roland.  He is a cutie.  :)

New position

Well I did it!  Finally!  I interviewed and got a position at a new school-Stocking Elementary.  I am SO excited to take my colleagues Katie and Jessica with me.  And, and, AND I get to work with my all-time favorite principal JoAnn.  We are starting up a new school together.  It actually felt really good to interview and get a position- like I did it on my own merit, not just because I had enough years to move where I wanted to go.  So now I am trying to split my things from Congress things. 14 years is a long time to differentiate materials!

Micah's headaches finally went away.  Those months were the most brutal time for me as a parent.  Someday I will blog about the whole experience, but not yet.  Just know things are not always as they seem with your children.  I learned a lot about parenting this year.

Boys are officially seniors now.  Um. Time.  Stop. Now.  Please.

2013

It is already April.  It has been raining here like crazy.  All of the rivers are flooded and many of the lakes are too.  The Grand and Rogue Rivers are past flood stage and even West River drive was closed due to flooding for a time.  2013 has not been my most favorite year so far.  We found out hat Noah has a heart condition known as WPW syndrome and Micah has been suffering through headaches for two months now.  He has missed so much school; my heart just aches for him.  Jacob is healthy as a horse and continues to love his stage work.  We paid our house off in February only to have governor Snyder take most of that payment back in fees, insurances, and other unfair taxes.  I guess it is a blessing to have the house payment off our plate- one less thing to fret.  I know 2013 will get better, I just know it.  God continues to be good.

Christmas Eve

Sitting here as a family watching It's a Wonderful Life.  Boys are really watching it this year, they act like they have never seen it before.  I cherish these moments with my favorite boys right now.  Even though they each take turns being a pain, they are really great kids.  No one ever tells you how much fun children are at this age.  I try not to think about them leaving for college, but maybe that stage of our lives will be grand too.  I am so praying this is true.  I can make myself downright teary even thinking about them flying the coop.  Time just flew for me and these boys.  Just yesterday they were just learning to walk.  It would be so much easier it i didn't love them so much.  Sigh...

Well it is Christmas Day here tomorrow.  It seems to come sooner and sooner each year!

Cross camp

Noah and Micah are at cross country running camp this whole week.  Jacob was up at grandpa's cottage for a few days.  The house was QUIET.  Can't say too quiet, but it gave and I another taste of how things are gonna be in a few more years.  We went to The Twisted Rooster.  Yum!  I got. Twisted Mac and Cheese and Dave got steak.  Both were delicious and the we got campfire s'more cheesecake.  Sooooooooooooooooo soooooooooo good.  So.  Then I went to Target to get teaching goodies.

Yesterday Dave, Jacob and I went to the Whitecaps.  Fun night with dime hotdogs!

A nice break from kids, but will ready for them all to come back on Friday.  :)