Sunday, July 20, 2008

relay for life

it's our second year participating in relay for life - this time in our own county for a team at jason's work...


part of our participation included jason (& porter) participating in the Miss-ter Relay contest...


his team's theme was luau, and while he didn't win the contest (based on donations they gathered), porter was jason's secret weapon for 'earning' a donation...here they are doing the hula...


and 'performing' for member's of his team...


and the girls in their team shirts, too...

i lent my balloon animal making skills to raise more money, too. paula, one of jason's techs, lilly and i traveled around the 'track' hocking my wares...i made some killer alligators!


his team surpassed their fundraising goal for this year, and we're looking forward to what next year may bring!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

birthdays

ah, the best thing about a birthday is being able to do whatever you want...and on this day, i did exactly that...which included sleeping half the day!

jason and the kids served me a yummy breakfast in bed, and then i even slept some more until i don't think i could sleep any longer. i decided i wanted to spend the day with the family at the beach...and while our new hometown doesn't sport the kind of beach that grand haven does, there is one nearby, with a new sprinkler park, that i thought we could check out for a day of fun.

we all sported bathing suits and piled into the car and then made a quick stop at meijers where i went in to load up on picnic lunch stuff...and then off to the lake!

we had a great lunch in the very large picnic area and then headed to the sprinkler park portion - the kids had a great time trying out every sprayer and standing under dumping buckets.


we then moved over the beach/lake area of the park and ran into one of our soccer players (who also has a younger brother porter's age) so everyone had a great time catching up and splashing together!

i never got in the water, as you can tell from this picture, oddly enough for my mid-july birthday, it was COLD! it wasn't enough to stop the kids, but molly need some snuggling to get warm once she decided to get out!
the kids were pooped on the way home, after a good five hours or so of soaking up sun and playing in water, so some of them slept on the short 20 minute drive back home. given that we're so close, we opted just to have the kids wear their suits (and for molly, her swim diaper) home in the car. little did i know that this was a fatal mistake. sweet little molly was exhausted, not having had a nap. when we got back home, i had to 'wake' her up to extricate her from the car. she was very groggy, and clearly not wanting to be awake. she didn't protest, but gently laid her head down on my chest and relaxed. relaxed so much that she um...well, she 'leaked' on me. her very water-logged swim diaper could hold no more. i guess that was her special way of wishing me happy birthday.

despite being a baker, jason called on a local establishment for my cake, that he, for some reason found necessary, to cover with exactly 33 candles. ugh.

it was quite tasty! i took it camping a few days later, and thankfully, it came in very durable plastic covering that was not penetrable by a local skunk in the middle of the night. he was able to knock it off the table, bat it around a bit, toss it around, pounce on it, and got it out of the screen room, but wasn't able to get it open before he gave up. whew.


another great birthday.

Friday, July 04, 2008

ten


it's been ten years married to this guy. and while we, like all married couples, have had our ups and downs (far more ups than the other...) i can't imagine spending my life with anyone else.