Week in Review

Well, this week flew by and I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. That could have been because I was sick with Strep Throat (again) for the majority of the week! I thankfully didn't have to work Tuesday, had to cancel work for Wednesday, and already had scheduled Thursday off due to Parker's ear doctor appointment.
Needless to say, there were some HUGE things that happened this week!!
1. 2 weeks ago Brad and I went house-hunting (for the 100th time) with our realtor and came across a house we absolutely LOVED!! We figured there was no way on earth we could ever get it, but we put an offer on it anyways. The bank called this week and said they accepted our offer!! WOOHOO!!! So, Brad and I are still standing in shock with our jaws dropped and are waiting for all the adendums to come so we can sign our life away!! Hopefully, we can move in in January!!
2. I got a little Christmas shopping done. After visiting the doctor's office on Tuesday and testing positive for Strep, I headed to the mall and got a few gifts bought. I know, I should have gone back home and crawled into bed, but I wasn't going to let my throat that was on fire stop me!! I spent all day Wed on the couch to make up for it!:0(
3. I finished a puzzle in 2 days! (That's whay happens when you can't work)It was only a 500 piece one and quite easy! I'm going to glue it together with puzzle glue and put it in a frame. It's a picture of two snowmen! I thought it would look nice hanging up for the holidays! My parents did this last year and it looks awesome!
4. Parker went to the ear doctor. Our insurance for him doesn't start until Jan 1, 2010, so I was planning on paying the bill to see the doctor this visit. Well, the doctor didn't end up charging me anything!! I think it helped that he knows my father-in-law and my father-in-law refers alot of his patients to him. Parker has fluid in his ears again, so it's looking like he might have to have set # 2 of ear tubes put in. We are doing a nasal spray for the next month to see if it helps. Just imagine-nasal spray and a 2 year old! Yeah, it's not going to be fun doing that every night!
5. I got some more done on Halle's homemade Christmas gift. I'm not saying anymore than that, as she tends to read my blog occasionally. Will post pics after Christmas!

That's about it! We have LOTS of shopping to do this weekend and I would really like to take the kids to see "The Princess and a Frog". Halle is spending the night at Bailey's to celebrate her 9th birthday, so we might not have enough time to cram it all in.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Congrats Nate and Lisa!

This weekend was Nate and Lisa's wedding!! Dec 5, to be exact! Nate and Lisa have been dating for quite a few years and finally got hitched! Their wedding was at West Cannon Baptist Church in Belmont, MI (it's a suburb of Grand Rapids).

It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and it was nice celebrating with all of Brad's family that was there. Lisa was so pretty!!

They had a nice reception after the ceremony and the bridal party did fun entrances while being introduced in. It was cute! They also played a game during the reception. Every table had a paper on it and the table was to come up with a question to ask the bride and groom that the answer would either be "Nate" or "Lisa". Then they asked Nate and Lisa (with their backs turned away from each other) the questions, and they had to raise either a high heel (for Lisa) or a black shoe (for Nate) and see how many they could get right. It was quite funny!!

We had a good time and the whole extended family stayed the night at a hotel afterwards. The hotel had a pool, so some of the kids went swimming, and they also had a big room with tons of leather sofas and a projector screen, so our family took over that room and ate pizza and watched football on the big screen. It was a nice way to end the day!

We headed home today. It has snowed a TON in Grand Rapids, but once we were outside of the city, there wasn't hardly anything on the ground. We had two detours on the way home. One was in East Lansing to go eat at Brad's favorite- P.F. Chang's, and the other was to Best Buy to buy a new camera. We REALLY REALLY REALLY disliked our other camera!

Zumba

I've been going to Zumba class at our local recreational center once a week. It's a lot of fun and you don't even realize you are working out. You do a lot of Latin rhythms and dance moves throughout the workout. I look like a complete idiot trying to get my hips to sway the way our instructor does, but I really don't care. The music is very lively and set to quick beats and usually really fun songs! If you are looking for a workout, I would highly recommend it.

New Moon

I believe I've officially become a Twilight fanatic! Ha!! I read the books, loved them, but never felt like a fanatic like a lot of people I know. I mean, I haven't bought myself a "Team Jacob" t-shirt-which I am by the way-Team Jacob, that is. I told myself I wouldn't go to the movies this weekend because I didn't want to fight the crowds of screaming tweens that were there swooning over Robert Pattinson. Well, I withstood it for about 12 hours! On the way home from picking up Hal from school, I called my sister-in-law, Jessica, and asked if she wanted to go see it with me. I stopped by the theater and bought our tickets for the 9:45 showing. We got to the theater at 8:30 and ended up having to stand outside for an hour!! The line for the movie was SO long!! and it continued to grow!! We got decent seats, which was really the only thing I was worried about. I did not want to have to sit in the front row while I held my jaw closed after seeing my beloved Jacob without his shirt on. Yes, I know he's like 15 years younger than me! Haha!!
The movie was WAY better than the first one!! I can't wait for the 3rd movie to come out!!

A Little More About Me

Here's a little more about me. I found this on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun to fill out!

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?

I tend to be eating veggies and dip every time I get online to blog! I'm actually eating them right now! 2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
My very practical answer would be my flat iron. My hair is so frizzy if I don't run heat through it every day. It makes a world of difference.

3. Beach, Mountains, or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
I wish I could like on a mountain, overlooking a beach. That's probably asking a little too much though! The funny thing is I'll probably end up living on a farm-kinda. Brad and Halle really want to have horses one day. Horse manure reminds me of a farm, therefore, I would be living on one.
4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
Putting clean clothes away. I don't mind doing laundry, but I hate putting the clean stuff away. It will usually sit in the laundry basket or in a pile in my room for a week before I finally will stick it back in drawers or in the closet.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?

My sister or my mom. People always said I look like my younger sister but lately I've been getting more of my mom. That is probably because I have highlighted my hair blonde and cut it shorter (just like my mom's).
(If I wasn't filling out this blog while on break at work, I could get on Facebook and copy a picture of my mom/sister on here so you can see what I'm talking about)

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the fam?

I like a little of both. I enjoy socializing, but not when we are busy doing so every weekend. I do enjoy all getting into our pj's and snuggling on the couch watching a movie. That is my favorite of all time!

7. What's your all time favorite movie?

Sleepless in Seattle

8. Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night?

I hate sleeping with make-up on, but there have been times when I go to bed having forgotten to take it off. That's usually only when I fall asleep on the couch and Brad wakes me up to get in bed. I hate how my pillow feels the next day! For the most part, I do wash my face before bed.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?

I really want to learn how to quilt. I have no real reason why just that I want to make one. Maybe one of these days I will get the chance to learn.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?

I'm good at remembering really random things. I can remember odd numbers, facts, movie trivia, etc. that a lot of other people can't. I tend to see the details of things and remember those more than the whole thing.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?

I thought he was really cute! We met in 9th grade and started dating in 11th grade. Now that we are older and have been married 8 years, I'm attracted to him because he's a hard worker, a good dad, he loves me, and he still looks pretty darn cute!

12. What is something you love to smell?

Men's cologne. Right now Brad is wearing Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue!

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.

I assume the worst in most situations. I also try to assume what others are thinking before I find out from them what they are thinking. It bothers me that I do it and I am working hard at trying to stop.

14. When you have extra money, what's the first thing you think to do with it?

Spend it on the kids!

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?I'm more of a chuckler. I don't silent laugh but I'm not one of those obnoxious laughers that you can hear across a packed, noisy restaurant either.

The things that make me laugh the most are stories that my brother tells of our childhood (he remembers so much more than I do), things my kids do, and The Office. If I could ever stay up past 10pm (I'm too exhausted anymore to stay up any later than that), I tend to laugh more the tired-er I get. I can't remember the last time I laughed REALLY REALLY hard!

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?

Depends on what I'm shopping for. If I had to buy everything at one specific store, it would be Target.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?

Study God's Word, Sleep, Play with my kids, Shop, Crafts, Scrapbook, Hang out with my sister, Clean, Decorate a house, Read, Blog, Try new recipes, Travel...Can you tell I need more time in a day?

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?

I shop the sale racks at every store and I shop at stores where things are priced reasonably. I like to spend my money on my kids and home decor, so as long as I stay away from stores where those things are present, I tend to save my money better. I will admit, since we are really serious about buying a house now, I haven't bought much lately. I am asking for gift cards to home decor stores for my Christmas present though!!!

19. Who is your favorite character of all time?

This is a hard question! I'll have to think about it.

20. Would you want to be famous?

No. I think you get more perks with being famous, but I have no desire to be. I look at families like Jon & Kate Plus 8 and see how stardom ruined their family. I hope that I can make an impact on people's lives, but not at a "famous" level. You are under too much scrutiny and pressure to be the way the world thinks you should be.

What to Offer?

We are putting an offer on a house today!

We have been looking at homes for the last few months and have finally found one we both really like and would like to buy! It's a forclosed ranch-style home on 4.5 acres. It's in a nice neighborhood, only about 10 minutes from my in-laws (Mom-in-law is babysitter during the week so we needed to stay close to her). Since it was a forclosure, we went over the house quite a few times, just looking around, peeking in the windows, but yesterday we finally got our realtor over there with us so we could actually step inside and look around. It's the perfect size for us and doesn't need a whole lot of work to actually be able to live in it (unlike some of the other forclosures we've seen). It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a basement that was finished, but all the drywall had to be torn out due to mold (which is something we would look into further if we get the house).

It's a great deal BUT there are 3 other offers on it already. The bank is taking offers up until today, so hopefully, ours will be the last one in before the cut-off time.
I really don't want to get my hopes up but it's hard not to. What is hard is figuring out how much to offer when you know others have put in offers as well. You don't want to lose it because you underbid, but you don't want to offer WAY more than everyone else and lose out on a good deal. We talked to our realtor and my father-in-law, and have come up with a figure we think is good (hopefully, the best because that's what the bank's looking for).

Why do they make this so stressful?? I was hoping no one else had seen the house on the list and we would be the only ones interested, but it doesn't look like that's how it's going to happen.

So, pray for us this week as we figure it all out. I know that God has awesome things in store for us, and if this is the house for us, He will allow us to get it. If not, we'll keep looking.

(I obviously would love to post pics of the house but will wait until we know it's ours before doing so).

Can you buy Amoxicillan by the gallon?

My dad always jokes about the amount of Amoxicillin we took as kids. He always wondered if you could buy it by the gallon because with three kids in the house, we were constantly being prescribed it.Now, I'm asking the same question. Halle is sick! It really was inevitable seeing as how the majority of kids (and adults too) that live around here have been sick lately. I've been sick a couple of times now. Parker had an ear infection just last week (with which he was prescribed Amoxicillin).

Yesterday, Hal woke up complaining of a sore throat. She acted perfectly fine though, so I sent her to school because it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Even last night, she complained of it hurting a little, but she acted normal. Well, this morning, she went to the doctor (Grandpa) and she tested positive for Strep Throat!! So, now I've got two kids taking the blessed antibiotic!(Parker's taking it because he's very likely to get strep and he still is having ear issues).

I might even take a swig of it later tonight to be on the safe side. Ha!!

I think I might suggest my gallon idea to the makers of the drug. For families of more than one member, it really would be quite helpful.

Chicagoween 2009

We diverted from the normal this year and took the kids to Chicago for Halloween weekend. (The "normal" being staying home and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood). My mom is living in the suburbs of Chicago for a while due to work, so we figured if we had a free place to stay and park, we had better take this opportunity while we had it.

It all worked out wonderfully, except that I was extremely sick and the weather was crappy. Allyson got to go with us and Brad scheduled his work so he could go too! (Isn't it nice being the one that makes the schedule?)
We left Thursday evening after everyone got done with work and school. (Yep-I allowed Halle to miss a day of school on Friday, but we did a lot of educational things that day anways, I promise) We packed up the Denali (thanks to Mom D. for allowing us to use her car, otherwise, we would have never had enough room), and took off. About 20 minutes into the ride, I realized we forgot two very important items. # 1-The STROLLER!! How we expected a 2 year old to walk around a huge city for 2 days is beyond me! So, we stopped at Target and Brad schmoozed the girl at the counter to give him the umbrella stroller for the sale price, even though the one he got technically wasn't on sale. We also forgot #2: The CAMERA!! This is what happens when the most organized person of all of us (me) is extremely sick and isn't thinking clearly before we leave the house. So, we debated over buying a new camera (which we will do at some point in time soon), but opted to just use Brad's camera on his phone and my mom's camera.

After all that drama, we were on the road. Driving into the city late at night is the way to go, as we hit absolutely no traffic. We got to my mom's about 9:30p.m. Chicago time (we gained an hour by going). We somehow crammed 6 of us into a tiny, one bedroom apartment. Surprisingly, we all had our own space and it worked out well.

Friday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and took the train into the city. We took the kids to the Field Museum (see, I told you we did something educational) for the majority of the day. Sidenote: Teachers-You get in free to the museum if you have something indicating you're a teacher! I got in free!! (a $23 value)They have Diamonds on exhibit there right now. That was really cool!!! There were a bunch of security guards and vaults that the diamonds were in. Wow!! They were all so beautiful!! This one was on display there. The picture doesn't do it justice. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the diamonds.

After we were done at the museum, we took a taxi down to the shopping area. Halle wanted to go to The American Girl store (of course), so we did that for a while. We went to eat at our favorite pizza place in Chicago, Giordanio's, got some Garrett's popcorn, and then took the train back home. I was completely exhausted and was getting a fever by this time. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it another day. Thankfully, I have a father-in-law who is a doctor and he called me in a prescription.

Saturday- We went back into the city for the day. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and we went to Franken Plaza for the Halloween festivities going on there. They had the Midnight Circus performing, so we watched the show (twice).Halle made a craft and got a balloon animal. Parker was asleep the entire time!! He missed out, but we were glad he was getting a little nap. We actually ran into some people we knew!!! Who would have thought we would sit down next to our friends from high school in Chicago over Halloween weekend? So, that was a nice surprise!!

The entire time we were there, Halle kept begging us to take her for Chicago-style hotdogs, so after the show, we headed to Portillo's for lunch. The are the BEST!!

We then spent the rest of the day shopping!!! Parker went to the Disney Store and got a Woody and a Buzz Lightyear doll and Mimi ("Grandma" in Parker's language) bought him a Woody and Buzz shirt. Can you tell what movie Parker's into right now? Halle went to American Girl and got her doll's ears pierced and Grammy bought her a new outfit for her doll. I went to Macy's and Mom bought me a pair of Coach tennis shoes!! My mom was spoiling us all!! Thanks again, Mom!! She also bought Allyson a pair of boots, so we all got something except for Brad (sorry Honey).

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to my mom's place, so we just went and ate at Panera Bread for dinner. It tasted good and warm, which was nice considering it was FREEZING all day!!

Sunday morning consisted of us all packing up and leaving. We had to get back for Brad to be at work by 4. So, it was a quick goodbye and we headed home.

Not much happened on the way home, but we did stop at a gas station and guess who was there in her big bus??? Jennifer Hudson!!! Brad actually talked to her agent and saw Jennifer's sister inside the gas station. I guess all the workers were going nuts!! We saw her dogs being walked in the little grass area too!! We didn't get a glimpse of Jennifer herself, but it was still cool to know that she was in her bus just a few feet away from us!

We had an awesome time this weekend. It went by way too fast!! Halle keeps talking about how much fun she had, even though she didn't get to go trick-or-treating. She said "It's just candy...Chicago is awesome!"

Happy 2nd Birthday Buddy!!

Today, August 13, 2009, my little guy turned 2!!! I can't believe how quickly 2 years have gone by. 2 years ago today, I was making my way to the hospital at 6am, getting induced, having my husband tell the nurses we would have this baby before lunch, and at 12:15pm (exactly at lunch time no doubt), little Parker Bradley DeLange was born!! I thought he was the cutest boy ever then, and now he's grown and become even cuter (if that can even happen). Seeing as how I leave tomorrow for a wedding in Kentucky, we aren't doing a whole lot to celebrate Parker's birthday today. I did make chocolate cupcakes to have tonight, but his real birthday party will be next Saturday!!

Since I really don't have many birthday pictures to post yet, I thought I would give some updates about Parker at this point in his life.

* Weighs 27lbs

*3ft tall

*Wears a size 5 diaper (almost could be in a size 6)

*Wears size 18 month in pants/shorts (and they have to be pulled tight with the elastic)

*Wears 2T or 24 month size shirts

*Wears size 7-8 shoes

*Has brown eyes (still)

*Has white blonde hair right now (the sun bleaches it out)

*Wakes up at 7ish every morning screaming "EAT! EAT!"

*Favorite foods: Pizza, Bananas, Hot Dogs, Grapes, Oranges, Fruit Snacks, Waffles, Rice Krispies, Mac N Cheese, SALAD!! (yes, he loves salad) with Ranch Dressing, Cheeseburgers

*Favorite Drinks: Juice of any kind, water

*Favorite Restaurant: McDonald's

*LOVES: Football, horses, basketball, baseball, playing with Tula, soccer, running, swimming, sidewalk chalk, coloring

*Still sleeping in his crib

*Has asked to be put on the toliet a couple times but hasn't done anything on there yet (at least he knows what it's for and is interested in it)

*He loves copying Halle

*He loves tackling Halle

*Is talking like crazy now--says all sorts of words, not all of them are the clearest, but we understand what he's saying most of the time

Happy Birthday Buddy!!! I love you with all my heart!!

Our New Family Member

Well, I haven't blogged in about a month, (not because I haven't wanted to, but because I stay up too late doing fun things and run out of time to blog), but today we added a new member to our family and I couldn't miss out of this huge moment on my blog!!

About a 3 weeks ago, the DeLange's St. Bernard, Diesel, had to be put down due to lymphoma. He was only 5 years old, but it came on really fast and there was nothing that could be done. After that, Brad and I started searching for a possible puppy for our family. We searched high and low, and I kept preferring the Golden Retriever- they are the cutest when they're a puppy and when they are older. We found a litter that was in Grand Rapids (about a 2 hour drive from our house) and we called about them. They only had 1 male and 1 female left (out of 8 puppies)and the ad had only been out 3 days. We chose to put a deposit down on the female without seeing her or anything. The owners sent us some pictures of her, so that's what we got to look at until today. We had to wait 2.5 weeks before we could go and pick her up because she wasn't old enough to leave her mama.

Well, today, Tula turned 6 weeks old and was allowed to come home with us. We drove all the way to the other side of the state and picked her up! The people who owned her had already named her Tula, and we liked the name so much, we kept it!

Here she is!!!!Halle's first time holding herParker just loved her!! I love her face! I think she likes me!!Tula just wanted to sit and snuggle with Parker in his car seat the whole way home. Parker would only last 3-4 minutes at a time before he wanted her off of him. She didn't want to budge!! Halle got her snuggled and she fell asleep!
Tula was wiped out!

Halle is beyond excited about having her very own puppy! She has been at her side all day long!!!

We are so excited about the joys Tula is going to bring to our family!! We love her alot already, except I think we're in for a long night as Tula won't quite crying in her cage!!!! HAHAHA!!

A Wedding to Celebrate

Today my mom, sister, and myself held a bridal shower for my cousin, Lauren, who is getting married this August. We held a brunch today because Lauren could only be here for this weekend, my Aunt was in from Arizona, and tomorrow is filled with activites for the 4th, so it was the only time we could all do it. It wasn't a huge shower because my cousin lives in Kentucky (that's where the wedding is going to be), and her parents are missionaries in the Dominican Republic, so there really aren't many people besides family that would come.

We made blueberry muffins, quiche, hot chicken salad, fruit skewers, mini weiners, and mini-cheesecakes, brownies, and creme puffs. Everything turned out great!!

The Table- We got everything at Hobby Lobby (my absolute favorite store) and The Dollar Tree. We were quite impressed with how everything turned out. (The colors of her wedding are lime green and dark blue)

The place setting- Halle was in charge of the napkins, and she went online all by herself, googled "How to fold napkins" and found and site that showed you how to do it. She put the bows on and everything!! I'm super impressed and now believe my 7 year old would be a great party planner! The BRIDE!!!! Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride- Lauren, Sister of the Bride- Rachel We played 2 games. This one was putting on knee-high nylons with oven mitts on your hands. It was quite funny!! Lauren, Aunt Mel, Rachel, & Grandma Allyson and Me Hal and I My Mom and Lauren Lauren opening her gifts. This is the only one I could show because all the others were intimate apparel. Leave it to Aunt Michelle and Grandma to buy her something practical like silverware!! Here was the whole group that was there. Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride-Lauren, Aunt Michelle, Grandma, Me, Allyson, Halle, Sister of the Bride-Rachel, and Mom.

Halle was asked to be Lauren's flower girl today! She is quite excited!!!

We wish Lauren and Daniel all the best as they embark on this new journey together. Congrats!!

Up-North

We spent the last 3 days up north, at my parent's friend's cabin. They had a nice little cabin on Wiggins Lake in Gladwin, MI, and allowed my parents to have us all up there for the week. We could only go for a couple days, but it was still a nice getaway. It was typical Michigan weather, and was cold (highs of 60) and rainy, but we still had a lot of fun. We boated, fished, ATE LOTS OF FOOD, played games, relaxed (I think we all took naps at random times throughout our stay), and sang songs around the camp fire.

Parker, Grandma, and Halle

We went on a boat ride in the pontoon boat! It was a really nice lake, but it did start raining on us. Thankfully, there was a canopy cover, so we didn't get too wet!

Parker steering the boat They had 2 swings, which the kids LOVED! Parker spent the majority of our two days there in that swing. It was in the shape of an airplane and it would go really high! He would just laugh!! It was SO sweet!! (You will notice the cabin is in the process of being re-sided) About 2 seconds after Halle cast her first worm into the water, she caught a small Large Mouth Bass!!! We were all shocked! She wouldn't have anything to do with touching it or taking it off the hook, but she was quite excited! Parker even went fishing with his own pole. He only had a bobber on the end of it, but he enjoyed reeling it in. Parker got in the lake for a while, even though it was quite cool out. He LOVED it!! The water was quite warm, and he could splash and flop in the water. There was also a slide that went right into the water, so he slid down that a bunch of times. We made bon-fires both nights we were there. I realized I am really good at roasting marshmallows!!! I toasted them perfectly brown without burning them. Everyone was quite impressed!!! They started the 4th of July Sparklers a week early. They had lots of fun running around with them, but Parker ended up touching the hot part of one of the sparklers and burnt his finger. We didn't even realize his finger was all blistered up until the next day. He never once complained about it hurting.

We had lots of fun hanging out with my parents. We wished we would have had warmer weather, so we could have went tubing and fishing more, but we enjoyed lots of laughs and scaring Halle with the "Sea Creature of the Black Lagoon" story. (She begged Papa to tell her a scary story around the bonfire). We ate SO much food, even enjoying a pie from the local bakery.

Halle didn't want our stay there to end and ended up going up further north with my parents to pick up the motor home that they inherited from my grandparents. She was going to get to ride in the motor home all the way back home tonight! I haven't heard from her yet, but I'm guessing she had a lot of fun!