12 Days of Birthday

I continued with my 12 Days of Birthday by going away for the weekend. We went up to Grand Rapids to spend the weekend and brought our friends along. (Well, I guess they brought us along since they drove!) We went to the RV show and our friends decided they're ready to upgrade to a motor home also. After the show, we went for drinks and out to listen to a band play 80s music. They were awesome! It was more like going to a concert than going out to a club - it was standing room only. This would have been nice to have known ahead of time as Kelly and I wore big, friggin' high heels and had to stand for 2 1/2 hours just waiting for the show to start. (Our shoes were pretty darn cute, though!) Finally, we couldn't take being on our feet anymore and walked (or more like limped) back to the hotel. We didn't know how much it had snowed while we were in the club until we started walking through the drifts - me with open-toed shoes. The bright side was that the snow helped to numb the pain. It was a great short getaway, but bittersweet as we weren't home to console Keaton during his break-up with his girlfriend. Aaron came to the rescue and spent the weekend with Keaton and his friends and took them to the Michigan basketball game on Saturday night. I guess hanging out with the guys, watching basketball and playing video games is one way to mend a broken heart.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year! We spent our holidays kicking back and trying to relax (as much as possible) without traveling too much. After 18 years of not being home for Christmas, we've decided that next year we will begin a new tradition of actually seeing what it feels like to celebrate Christmas in our own home. It will be a new experience, but one we're looking forward to beginning. While we enjoy visiting everyone back in Flint, we miss the leisurely pace we could enjoy at home - not to mention all the little things we could get done while we have some free time. People can come visit us if they'd like a change of scenery - plus we have two ski areas within 15 minutes for you skiers and snowboarders! So with that said, we began our New Year with our usual flair for drama. This year's drama was a stomach ailment. Poor Matt got sick on New Year's Eve (it wasn't due to alcohol consumption) and we had to cut our celebration short so he could spend Thursday and Friday on the bathroom floor. I spent Thursday and Friday following Matt around with anti-bacterial wipes and disinfecting anything he touched and/or breathed on. (At the time, we thought it was a stomach bug and Keaton and I didn't want it!). Playing detective, we discovered that five others were sick after eating at his friend's house, so it was probably food poisoning and luckily it wasn't from my cooking. Whew! Keaton aced his Chinese food ordering and pick-up with flying colors - I was too tired to do anything after spending a sleepless night listening to Matt in agony in the bathroom and disinfecting everything in sight. Keaton's ready for college now that he can order food and pick it up on his own.

We're back in our basketball routine again. The boys had a pretty easy, laid-back schedule during Christmas break...unfortunately it was very apparent in last night's loss. Before our break, we had a spark of hope that the team would play together as a team. They had a couple of games that they played well, worked together and ran an offense. Our hope was dashed last night as Plainwell reverted to its old ways and it was every man for himself for the most part. It's frustrating and sad to watch. The hard part is to see Keaton hang his head and watch the growing frustration he has. Only 17 more games more to go...