Monday, December 12, 2016

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

Yesterday was a perfect FALL day to do a little snowshoeing.  We went with some friends to trek around the local game area.  We blazed our own trails and enjoyed the gently falling snow and pretty snow-covered scenery...all two feet of it since Thursday!  Winter doesn't officially begin for nine more days.  If all this snow we've had so far is any indication of snowfall to come, I think we're going to be doing a lot of shoveling this winter!!


Thursday, December 8, 2016

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

No, really...it IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  We put up our Christmas tree, Matt hung lights and garland outside, the Christmas Story leg lamp is in the front window, and I put out all our holiday decorations throughout the house.  With the possible 10-16 inches of snow we're supposed to get today through tomorrow, it'll definitely look like Christmas here!













Matt and I walked a holiday 5k last Saturday.  We shaved four minutes off our time from last year.  If I find the right bra, maybe we'll even run it next year.  ;-)



Monday, November 28, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving came.  Thanksgiving went.  I'm still full.  We stayed home this year and had Autumn's family join us for turkey and all the fixin's.  It was a long day of cooking, cooking, and cooking some more.  I was in the kitchen for most of the day and our guests were entertained by Matt and his pinball machines.  It was a good day...full of good food, family, friends, laughter, games, and a Lions win!






ESPN College Game Day

ESPN came to town last weekend...and we were there to share in the excitement!  Keaton and Autumn were the biggest (and coldest) fans.  They braved the chilly temps and snow to stand in the fan area from 8:00 a.m. until noon on game day. They were rewarded by being shown on TV a lot...and Keaton (and his man bun) made the Kalamazoo Gazette sports page!



Autumn is the cute girl jumping.
Keaton is a standout with his man bun.

Matt didn't want to miss out on any of the fun with his alma mater so he and his friend headed down to join the crowd of WMU Broncos fans...make that UNDEFEATED WMU Broncos!  Surprisingly, they easily found Keaton and Autumn in the crowd and hung out with hundreds of other fans yelling and cheering until the crew from College Game Day headed back to their bus.


                                                   

Matt came back home to warm up and we grabbed some food and headed down to Kalamazoo to do some tailgating with Keaton and Autumn before the big game last Saturday.  There's nothing better than hot chocolate (and Buttershots) on a cold, snowy day!!







Thursday, November 10, 2016

More Signs

Hahahaha...I love the signs my friend just sent me for my collection.  She has the same twisted sense of humor as I do...that must be why we've been such good friends since the 6th grade!



Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Sad

I am saddened by the entire political arena this past year.  It was ugly.  It was horrible.  It was mean. It was hard to watch. What saddens me the most is that our children saw and heard so many terrible things about candidates.  That shouldn't be the way campaigns are run.  I am fortunate to live in a country that is founded on freedom...freedom of press, freedom of speech.  It's a wonderful privilege that we can say what we think and not be persecuted for our beliefs.  But, wouldn't it be even more wonderful if we all could be nice in how we express our beliefs?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all express our opinions without so much venom?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all respect one another's opinions, even if we disagree with them?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if candidates would just point out their strengths and have a clear and concise message as to why he/she should be elected to office? Wouldn't it be wonderful if candidates showed class and refrained from immature comments, mudslinging, and negative ads? Wouldn't it be wonderful to teach our children about the democratic process without so much hatred?

Friday, November 4, 2016

Fall Camping

Last weekend, we took the motor home out for our last camping weekend of the year with our friends.  It was gorgeous! We rode bikes, walked, took lots of pretty fall pictures of the beautiful leaves, kayaked, enjoyed awesome food, carved pumpkins, and roasted pumpkin seeds over the campfire (chipotle garlic, ranch, and white cheddar). YUM!  We're happy that Keaton was able to join us for some fun! He forgot to take pumpkin seeds, though...we're still eating them.  ;-)








Of course this is mine.
I do LOVE shoes!


Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Keaton's 25th birthday with dinner and drinks at a tapas...not topless...restaurant last Thursday.  25!  WOW! The food was fabulous and the margaritas were magnificent. I like alcohol that doesn't taste like alcohol.


After dinner, we walked over to another restaurant for some dessert.  Matt, Keaton, and I toasted the big day with a shot of Superman...banana liqueur, blue Curacao, and Baileys. It tasted just like a chocolate-covered banana. YUM!!  We're so proud of the incredible man he has become.  We're thankful he's happy, kind, caring, compassionate, smart, and responsible...and that he has an equally happy, kind, caring, compassionate, smart, and responsible girlfriend to drive them home. He makes us so proud every second of every day!



Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

ArtPrize

Last Saturday, we went up to Grand Rapids with our friends for our annual trek around the city to see lots of art work from various artists.  There were paintings, sculptures, video, and everything in between in all forms of mixed media.  It's amazing how creative some people are and it's incredible see the workmanship that goes into creating a piece that dazzles the eye and mind.  I appreciate many forms of art and enjoy pieces that speak to me.  I admire the creative process and opinions expressed by all. This year's top public prize vote winner of $200,000 went to Wounded Warrior Dogs.  There were six wood carvings of military dogs, each representing a different war and each with a wound depicting the injury their military companion received in that war.  It was incredible!!!!!! I'm happy to see that this was the top winner. We all had to agree that this year's ArtPrize left us all feeling disappointed though.  The outdoor venues that display artwork were lackluster and much of the pieces were located at inside venues that unfortunately created shoulder-to-shoulder bumping just to walk a few feet.  In all of our previous years attending ArtPrize, there were more pieces outside and scattered around the city so we could stroll around the city and take in lots of other sights too.  This year seemed to feature more artwork in fewer venues...which meant longer lines and much larger crowds in smaller spaces.  Grand Rapids is a lovely city with lots of interesting things to see and do!!



Friday, October 7, 2016

The Shed

There's definitely no shortage of projects to keep us busy around here!  Over the summer, we cleaned and repainted the shed and hardware.  I had Matt cut out this "A" for me on some old plywood and I painted it to add some flair to the shed.  I threw in some repainted flower pots and even the shed now looks pretty!  We still have to get new pavers and add rocks to replace the sad grass (weeds?), but for now, this shed isn't the sad, dirty mess it once was!!


 


  
  

                                     





Thursday, September 29, 2016

Side Yard

We had a rusty, dirty, ugly, nasty basketball hoop on the side of the driveway. (Trust me, it was bad.  It must have been even too bad for a before picture.)  I kept pestering Matt that I wanted it repainted.  He wanted to wait until he got a new acrylic backboard for it and then he said he would repaint the pole.  Needless to say, here's the freshly painted hoop...minus a new acrylic backboard.  Deb 1, Matt 0 for those of you keeping score.

The side of the house has a nice fenced-in pen and doggie door on the side of the garage for any future dogs (yes, plural) we may have in the future. I power-washed the concrete and we added some river rock. We  had a hard time finding just the right river rock to use in our landscaping.  Everything here in Michigan was too gray or too red. We finally found some Indiana river rock...but, it's also 5x more expensive than Michigan river rock. I think we'll have to go to Indiana and buy the bulk of it there for future projects or find a way to stain Michigan river rock tan!








Thursday, September 22, 2016

Cutting Crew

Matt and our awesome neighbor grabbed the chainsaws and got to work cutting and removing the huge tree branch from our roof last night.  Thankfully the damage from the branch isn't too bad...except for the poor gutter.  Another bonus is we also got a head-start on the fall cleanup of the backyard!







The view from our bedroom is MUCH better again!