Favorite Olympic Moment

Ok- I must admit that I am totally hooked to the Olympics this year -especially the swimming!!!I have always watched the Olympics when they come on every few years, but never as much as I have watched this year's events. I have always enjoyed the summer olympics, and the swimming events, especially anything to do with Michael Phelps, has me hooked. I think my all-time favorite moment in Olympic history happened last night when the USA men's relay 4*100 team took the gold over the French-(that's what you get for talking smack about us Americans). I was so nervous for the US, but the last 50 meters were SUPER exciting. I was actually sitting downstairs in the dark with Parker sleeping in his crib right behind me, but I couldn't help by scream when they won!! Thankfully, Parker didn't wake up!! I could hear my brother-in-law, Todd, who was upstairs, scream when they won too. I guess he woke up my mom-in-law because he was so loud. The entire time Brad kept saying that they weren't going to make it and that they were too far behind, but I kept on hoping that maybe the last guy, Lezak, would turn on the power and win, and he did!!! I was so happy for the team and for Michael Phelps, as he needed this in order to possibly get his 8 gold medals.

Celebrating after the win!!

Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak

One really cool thing that seems to be happening in this year's swimming events is that a ton of Olympic and World Records are being broken. It seems like in almost every race a record is broken. That makes it even more exciting to watch because a lot of the winners aren't just getting the gold, but they are setting new records. Last night in the relay, Lezak beat the world record for his split by 4 seconds!!! That's amazing!!!

I am still looking forward to the track and field events. Todd is going to MSU for track this year, so it makes it even more interesting and exciting to watch as we now have a family member competing in these same events (he'll be doing it on a college level though-but, you never know, maybe one day he'll be in the Olympics)!!!

I am definitely hooked to the Olympics this year and you will know where to find me every evening (and maybe sometimes during the day) for the next 2 weeks-on the couch watching television!!! GO USA!!!!

Parker's Walking

The big event of this week: Parker is walking all by himself!!!! For the last few months, he has been walking around furniture or walking while holding someone's hand, but would never venture out on his own. At the end of June (10.5 months old) he would take 5-8 steps from one person to another, but that was it. Since moving to MI, he really hasn't walked much on his own, not even taking a few steps here or there. We thought maybe it was because everything was so new to him, but last night we finally figured it all out. While we were at my parent's house, we were all sitting around eating our delicious banana splits (thanks Dad), and Parker just started walking from the couch out into the middle of the living room to where his toys were. I was so astonished!!! I got down on the floor and tried to have him walk from me to my dad, but instead Parker just took off walking all over the place, even in circles around me. He wasn't holding on to anything!!! BUT...as soon as he would get to where the carpet changed to tile, he would sit down. So, we figued out that the reason he hasn't been walking much is because we live in a house that has hardwood/tile floors throughout the entire first floor. We have carpet in the basement, but are hardly ever down there but to sleep. He is more comfortable walking on carpeted areas. I am guessing because it doesn't hurt as bad when he falls down. So, tonight, we had everyone come down to "our house" (i.e. the basement) and Parker walked all over for them to see. It was so cute and sweet! I could tell he was super excited to be able to do it. I can't believe my little guy is growing up on me. He is now walking, is waving and saying "ba-ba" (Bye bye), is counting to 3 (he doesn't actually say the numbers, but makes little sounds) and on the 3rd noise, he does something like kick his feet or laugh, so he knows what counting to 3 is. He is pointing and puts his index finger up to show that he is 1 years old!!!! He is SO smart!!!!

I can't believe my bubba is going to be 1 in less than a week! I now am going to be chasing him everywhere!!!! It's going to be interesting to see all the different things he will get into now!!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Today, as I was relaxing around the pool, I got to thinking of some of my absolute favorite things in life (besides the Lord, my family, friends, etc). So, I thought I would share a few with you.

Beautiful Days

A good book

Getting my hair done at a salon

Relaxing by the pool

A&W Root Beer
Sleeping
Tootsie Rolls
Shopping the day after Thanksgiving
Driving in the car with the windows down

A thunderstorm-as long as it's not in the middle of the night and doesn't do any damage

Waterfalls Autumn Hot Showers

Chick FlicksCookie Dough

Target stores

Jewelry
Listening to music
Losing weight

BLOGGING, of course!!

Garage Sale

My mom-in-law's house is the absolutely BEST place to have a garage sale. I am unsure if it is because their house is 1/4 mile off the road and cannot be seen from the road, so people get curious as to what is back behind the woods, and then stop in; or if it is because they have a good reputation for having "good" stuff at their garage sales. Whatever it is, it makes for a great garage sale every year! The last time I helped her have a garage sale was a few years ago and we made a TON of money- over $1,000.00! People were crowding around tables fighting over items. I had never seen anything like it. The last couple garage sales she has had were when I lived in NC, so I wasn't here to help, but she did really well with them too. This year, Aunt Mindy, grandma, and Brad's mom all went in together and had one. I threw in a few items I had, but I had gotten rid of a lot of stuff before we moved back to MI. We didn't put an advertisement in the paper or anything, but just stuck 2 signs out by the road around their house on Thursday morning around 9 am. Before Scott was back from pounding the 2 signs into the ground, 3 cars had already pulled in. There was a steady flow of cars/people all day long. Everyone sold a lot and made a lot of money- combined total of $650.00!!! The clothing and bedding went the fastest!

These are all the tubs of clothes!

The girls, Halle and Bailey, had a little pink lemonade stand. They colored a sign and sold cups of lemonade for 10 cents each. After about an hour of it, they were off playing, and so the lemonade stand closed. They each made a couple dollars though. I think they drank more than their profit, but they had fun doing it anyways.
We finally closed it down around 4:30-5ish. There really wasn't a whole lot of stuff left. We decided to have it again today, Friday. We put the signs out at around 9:30am, had a few people, and ended up closing it down for good at 12:00pm. There really wasn't anything good left because everything had been picked over the day before. I think $50 or so dollars worth of stuff sold in those couple hours, but most people weren't finding anything they wanted. We ended up having a family friend request that we bring all our "leftovers" to her house. She is having a big sale/donation party in a couple weeks to raise money for a group that helps girls struggling with anorexia. So, we bagged and boxed everything up and took it over to her house. It was a lot of fun to help out with the garage sale again this year. We have mentioned that we should start renting out my in-law's driveway for people to have their garage sales on. It is unbelievable the amount of traffic that comes back to check everything out.
A few garage sale tips that seem to work for us:
1. Price everything cheap! We priced clothes/shoes at $1.00 each, but have been known to go down to 25 cents each. We also priced whole bedding sets at $10.00!!! What a steal!
2. Have the mentality that whatever doesn't sell, does NOT come back into the house. We take everything that doesn't sell to either Goodwill or a different charity. Nothing comes back inside!!
3.Be willing to negotiate a little!
4. If you have a garage sale with other people, write down every sale and how much of it went to each person. Otherwise, you have no clue what each person made at the end of the day.
5. Start out with an exact amount of money at the beginning. We started with $50, which we broke down into $1, $5 bills, and a bunch of change.
I am sure by this time next year the tubs will be filled up again with lots of junk for the annual garage sale. It doesn't take long to accumulate stuff that you will never use again. I guess we will just have to wait and see....

Fall Fashion

One of my absolute favorite things to do is shop. When I have some money to spend, it's even better. I have no money to spend these days because I just moved and am still trying to find a job, but I still enjoy shopping no matter what. A couple days ago I got to go shopping for a few hours with my sister-in-law, Jessica, and my mom-in-law, Micky. There is a really nice outdoor mall about 35 minutes away from their house. It was a beautiful night out, which makes outdoor mall shopping even more fun. We went to Panera for a quick dinner and then hit the stores. We made sure to stop by the Nestle Toll House shop before we left for a sweet treat.

I haven't been shopping lately, so I had no idea what the new trends for this fall were. A few items I noticed in most every store I looked in were:

* Wide-leg pants

* Scarves

* Yellow and orange

* Black and gray

* Bold colors

* Jackets/Blazers

For the most part, I'm okay with the fall trends. The only thing I wasn't too thrilled about was the mustard yellow and burnt orange. I will not look good in those colors, especially once my tan fades away. So, I will probably stay away from those items on the shelves. I did, however, get started on my fall wardrobe. My mom-in-law was so sweet and bought me a really nice outfit. I got some wide-leg pants, a white tee, and a pink scarf. All I said was that I thought the outfit was cute, and the next thing I knew she had all three items up at the counter and was paying for them.

Here's what I got:

So, I now know I will look "in style" when I wear this outfit!! Thanks Mom!!!

Week in Review

Here are some highlights of our first week back in Michigan:
* We got everything unpacked, put away, and stored in the storage unit. The door to our unit is broken (of course), so we called and they are getting that fixed (hopefully soon).

Here's just some of the many boxes that we filled up with our junk

Here's Parker sitting on top of a pile of trash bags filled with clothes, blankets, sheets, etc.

* Todd and I spent 2 days pulling weeds and thorny bushes out of the landscape at dad's office

* Halle cut her hair!!! It was in the middle of her back and we chopped it above her shoulders. She looks so cute with her hair short, plus, no more big tangles! "Before"- I know it's not the greatest pic, but it's all I have on my memory card right now

"After"- Halle and Bailey

* We had a big family party for Brad's grandma on Saturday.

Her health is detriorating and everyone wanted to get together to spend some time with her. We get to see her quite often now that we are back in MI because we live only 1 mile down the road from her house, however, there are a lot of extended family that doesn't live close by, so this was a nice chance for those people to see her.This is Grandma! She is SO sweet!

Here is Brad's dad pulling Parker in the wagon

Here are a bunch of the grandkids and great-grand kids.

All the guys played basketabll for over 2 hours!!!! Here's Brad going up against one of his brothers, Todd.

* We watched "21" (it's a movie) on Saturday night. It was SUPER good! If you haven't seen it, you should watch it.

* We went to a new restaurant. Well, it's not actually new, but it's new to us- we've never been there. My brother-in-law works there as a bus boy. It is on a lake right by where we live. We got to sit outside on the patio overlooking the water. It was so peaceful and relaxing and the food was good.

* We spent Sunday afternoon at my parent's house. My dad grilled chicken, we played with sidewalk chalk, we got to see my mom (she flew home from Chicago tonight-she was there on business), we went for a walk and picked Queen Anne's Lace (we tried to see who could get the biggest one), and we went for ice cream at a sweet little shop in the town where they live. It was a very enjoyable evening.

So, that's our first week back in MI. It's been full of fun and work and we love it! I hope everyone else had a great week too.