A Good Last Day of October

Mary is safe on the other side of Michigan. Should be enjoying the Detroit Symphony right now. Sarah is back safe at Hope College after a cross country meet in Adrian MI. Guess the Men's and Women's team came in 2nd! Now she is watching a movie with friends on campus. Trunk or Treat was a sucess over 250 people came through. We all had a lot of fun and Sammy the dog was very good at his first ever Trunk or Treat! Everyone liked him.. He even "sang" a little. Still have to prepare my lesson for Sunday School and go buy some milk. Glad that the Gators won, Sooners are winning and sad that Michigan lost. Tebow now holds the record in run in touchdowns! That's cool. He got to keep the ball. :) Guess that is it. Happy November and Here's to "All the Saints"!

Grace

Sammy's Ready for Halloween!

Sammy is going to be a skeleton~I think he looks cute! It doesn't fit him very well, but he is tolerating it. I won't make him wear it the way it was designed. Thinking about taking him to trunk or treat so everyone can see him! Wonder if he will like it?? I think I am going to put a poster on our door directing them to church for candy. I don't want to miss trunk or treat...it is a lot of fun!

Matthew's Pumpkin Carving

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We didn't get any decorating done, but Matthew carved this year's pumpkin by himself! What a great job! Just had to use it for the BIG blog picture. I have some before and after pictures on the family photo link later today.

Jeff is home safe and sound. It is good to have him back. Looks like he'll be home till spring. He will be bowling in a tournament in Grand Rapids. I may or may not go and watch. Matthew is working tomorrow at the show "In the Mood" at our performing arts center. I thought about going to that instead of the bowling, but it is $25 per person. He will work 10 hours and it is a paid job~! Yay Matthew! Mary is leaving for Ann Arbor in the morning to visit her friend and they are going to hear/see the Detroit Symphony. It is supposed to be a great show.

The weather has been yucky. Rainy, windy and chilly> Wonder how cold it will be for the trick or treaters? I have 600 pieces for our house, and 220 for our church's trunk or treat. That event has been a great success over the past few years.

It is LATE! Better get to bed.

Grace

It's Been a Good Day Overall

This morning my mom and I left home at 0915, sent a box to Sarah, picked up Norma and then headed for Detroit airport. We were there just before noon without any problems. It was sad to see mom leave, but we had a really fun time!

Norma and I headed back north and west. We stopped for lunch at Culver's and then went shopping at JoAnn Fabrics, Nike Store Outlet and Bath and Body Works. I bought some nice new shoes for my sore feet and some lotion for my dry hands! I found Gator material and bought a little of that for something special. We had a really nice time together, and got home around 5 pm.

Back at our house, dinner was homemade pizza before heading to the Fall Orchestra concert at the high school. Mary was a cello playing a cello. The concert was good for early in the year, including middle and high school students. The finale were songs from the Phantom of the Opera, and the Phantom showed up lurking around the orchestra. It was really cool.

I have to work early hours tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow is 3 hours and Friday is 12 hours. After work tomorrow I will go to quilting with the main dish for lunch time. Need to be in Grand Rapids by 2pm and then will attend a meeting about how to find money for college. Jeff comes home Friday night. Saturday Jeff is bowling in a tournament and Mary is going to Ann Arbor to visit her friend and then they will attend the Detroit Symphony. Trunk or Treat at Mount Calvary at 6 pm~ I can't believe it is nearly November.

I am pretty tired, so I am going to get some sleep before my alarm goes off at 0430!

Grace

PS- I talked to my mom. She is home safe and sound. Evidently the plane was like an Emergency Room. Lots of sick people sneezing coughing and even throwing up! Stay healthy mom! Thanks for coming~ we had lots of fun!

Time Is Up

Well since it is after midnight, I can say that my mom leaves today. We sure had a lot of fun. In just 8 hours, I will be driving her back to Detroit airport, along with my friend Norma. I am glad she can come along so I have a buddy to drive home with too.! Thanks Norma!

Sunday's service was superb. The music was awesome and Jeff's sermon was great. We had burgers on the grill for lunch and then we were off to the reformation service in Sidney. Mary and her musical friends were playing for an anthem. They played well and this service was nice, but much more "relaxed" and the ringing of the bells took several minutes. By the time we got home, we had a few hours before bowling. Mom and I did some stamp crafts for her to take home and Jeff took a needed nap. Matthew had his friend over and they played the Wii and even did some wrestling! Yikes! Bowling went really well for me. I bowled over average all three games. We took one point and our opponents took 3. Oh well, we still had fun!

I worked 5 hours on Monday and then spent the rest of the day with mom. Jeff left for military duty while I was at work. Matt and Grandma watched Ghostbusters, while Mary and I made chicken crescents for dinner. My kids choir and chime team rehearsals went well and the kids will sing on Sunday. Mary has been working on her cello costume for the orchestra concert tomorrow. It turned out nice. She brought Liam, the cello, home today to make sure she could play well with the costume on! It seemed to work out nicely and I took a picture. She did a great job. Mary's latest project is to crochet a Michigan blanket. She started it off with Grandma's help and then got several rows done. Grandma worked on it today while she was at school. It is coming along nicely, but there is a lot to go! Will it be done in time for the Michigan/Purdue game? She will be in the Big House next weekend and this weekend is a trip to Ann Arbor to hear the Detroit Symphony's Tchaikovsky concert! Still waiting to hear from U of M about her acceptance. We are trying to be patient, but others are getting their responses.


Mom and I had fun runnning around the stores today and then we enjoyed dinner at Applebee's before Mary went to College Spanish. Matthew drove home with a stop at the orchard and the car wash. My Prius is clean! Thanks Matt! Got some laundry done and played a game a scrabble. Mary won, Mom came in second and I had an awesome word~quaint! I wonder what points I would have scored? We just play without keeping score and the first person without letters wins! It is fun and less stressful!

Well, I'd better get to bed and rest before the big drive tomorrow~Orchestra concert to follow!

Grace

Today is the day to remember my wonderful Grandma Irene! Happy Birthday GG! I know she is happy in Heaven.

Time is Really Flying!

The week with Mom is going fast! We are having lots of fun and keeping very busy, as usual:

~The concert on Tuesday night was wonderful. Matthew and Mary did a great job in show choir. It is amazing how much the students in learn in a short amount of time. Next Wednesday Mary has an orchestra concert. The students are dressing up as it is just before Halloween. Mary has constructed a cello costume, so a cello will be playing a cello! Too bad Mom has to leave that morning, so she will miss it.

~I worked on Wed and Friday for eight hours. Mom read her books, kept Sammy company and worked on other projects, including preparing to play the organ for church. The weather turned colder and we had soup and sandwich for dinner. I showed mom the Wii games and she played Price is Right and enjoyed watching the sports wii games.

~Thursday we went quilting and enjoyed lunch together with the quilters. Mom practiced the organ while I worked on my moose quilt. Mom helped in the quilters room after she was done practicing. We are working on a HUGE project...a quilt with 35 cats on it! Thursday night was the Brass Trio practice that went very well. We play for church for the first time of the season tomorrow! Reformation!

~After work on Friday Jeff barbequed some venison that tasted really good. I would have thought it was beef if I didn't know what he was cooking. We had some pizza too. Kind of a crazy mixture hey? Mary had a gig practice for a reformation service in the evening. More Wii games and watched "Monsters and Aliens". I thought the movie was just ok. I am glad I didn't pay a lot to watch it in the theater. Then we had a big surprise! Sarah came home! Her friend Kellie was home on furlough from the Marines, so a friend picked her up after school and they came "home" to visit. She stopped by with her friends and said hello and chatted for a while. I know they had a really nice time.

~This morning Mary took the ACT at the community college. She said she feels really good about it. The last time she took the ACT her calculator's batteries were dead. She did the math with paper and pencil. She still scored a 28! She expects that today's test will be higher. We should be hearing from University of Michigan very soon. They would be crazy not to accept her! Mom and I went to a craft show, then did some shopping for some of our own crafts! All of us went in to Grand Rapids for steak dinner. We got home after 9 pm and watched the end of the Gator game. Yay, another Win! The past few hours were spent at church practicing for church and preparing for Sunday School. It sure was a packed day!

~Tomorrow is busy too! Church in the morning and then we will go to the service that Mary is playing for in the afternoon. Bowling in the evening! Jeff leaves on Monday for Air Force duty.

Still enjoying the Leaves!

Grace

First Concert of the Year

Tonight is the High School's first choir concert. Mary and Matthew will be at the end of the program in the show choir. Matthew's first year in the top choir! I am so glad that Mom is here to enjoy the concert. We are all excited! Jeff has council meeting, but he plans to leave in time for the show choir performance.

Sarah is back at Hope College. Mom liked her room, and we toured the chapel as well. We got back home in time for Mary's doc appointment. She has had a bad cough for several days. No pneumonia! Yay! Looks like a virus and she should be feeling better in a few days. For now she will continue with the cough syrup and an inhaler.

Better get to the concert!

Grace

Mom is Here!

Mom's airplane was on time in Detroit and we made it home by 5pm. She really loves all the colors of fall. Don't see much of that at all in Florida. Introduced Culver's burgers to her for lunch and then we all had dinner at our Mexican restaurant. Mary and Matt had practice for the choir show tomorrow, Jeff had a meeting and Mom, Sarah and myself went shopping for food at Meijer. Have one more load of laundry to finish. Work for 3 hours in the morning. Mary and Brandon are at the movies and Sarah is across the street at our neighbors finishing a movie from last night.

Tomorrow we take Sarah back to college by lunch time. She has to work at a cross country practice at 2pm. I think we will take a scenic route home and then the concert in the evening. I work Wednesday and Friday too. Time with my mom will fly by!

Guess that is all for now.

Grace

Sunday Afternoon

It has been a really great Sunday! Sunday school was fun, we learned about Elijah goes to Heaven in the fiery chariot. Adult Choir sang just beautifully today! With the usual few errors that I make on a Sunday, I think I did pretty well. One communion hymn was 8 verses. I was going to play four, play a little interlude, and then the last four. Well, my kids in the front pew sang out verse 5 without me! So from now on, I am just going to play the whole hymn start to finish. The chime team played for the first time of the season and I think it was the best ever! I am very proud of the team. We even got applause! The congregation thanked us with gifts and a cake for Pastor's Appreciation day. We immediatlely used our new gift card to Applebee's for lunch.

Mary is back out to Brandon's for the day. Sarah 's friend is here and we are playing Dutch Blitz. Sarah is winning :( Matthew is playing video games. Earlier, Jeff, Matthew and I were outside raking leaves. There sure were lots of them. The picture of the leaves at the top were on our yard! I am close to getting the laundry done and the kitchen is cleaned. Bowling starts in just 30 minutes! I hope that I can do better than last week's 83! That is all for now I guess!

Homecoming 2009

Matthew decided to go to the dance. So I had to take a picture of him. He just got his hair cut today! I took him over at 8 pm and will wait for him to call for pick up.

Brandon made it back to Greenville about an hour ago and Mary is out visiting. Sarah has two friends over watching a scary movie! What is a scary movie without popcorn, chips and salsa and pizza rolls in the dark!!!! I am in the living room folding clothes and will start my sunday school lesson very soon. I think I have the music for church under control. Jeff is at church getting ready for service. It is certainly a lot more quiet there!

Sad to see Bradford hurt again and the Sooners losing the game. Glad that the Gators could pull off another win! That was too close of a game for me. Michigan had a "training" week against

Delaware State, as the radio man explained. We'll see who is at the top of the Football picks this week. Sarah and Mary have been there a long time!

Have a good Sunday!

Grace

Sarah's Home

Got home from work on time yesterday. Jeff and I drove over to Hope College and brought Sarah home for the weekend. It is fall break. She was supposed to have a Spanish midterm Friday but after a couple twists and turns, the midterm is now on Wednesday, the day after they get back from break. Sarah had hoped to get it over with. She and some friends studied two hours together on Thursday to be prepared! We went to the Greenville High School football homecoming game on the way home. Sarah worked down on the field with Mr Day. It was very cold. I had to go sit in the car, since I wasn't dressed warm enough. After we got home we ordered a pizza and enjoyed eating together watching baseball.

This morning I drove Mary to Central Michigan University for the Centralis Scholarship competition. It was an unusual day. Mary found grammatical errors on the power point and the message from the professor of the year got a little silly. Didn't even get the weather science right. The e-mail confirmation letter Mary received from the admissions office had run on sentences and poor punctuation. It doesn't give her a lot of motivation to go there for preparing as an English teacher. As for the competition, she said the essay question was easy. We won't know if she makes it to the next round until January. Should she win, the scholarship is a full ride scholarship for 4 years.

This afternoon we are watching football. Mary and I listened to the Wolverines on the radio on the way home from CMU. They were way ahead at half time~40 something to 3. We are watching OU battle Texas. Poor Bradford is injured again. Wonder if I will be able to watch the Gators tonight? I do have to prepare for Sunday School and I play for church tomorrow. Chimes play for the first time of the season. Lots to do! Laundry is extra large with all of us at home. I don't mind....I love having Sarah home. She is going to have a few friends over to watch a horror movie tonight. I won't be joining them this time. Matthew has decided to go to the homecoming dance afterall. Brandon is coming home tonight, so Mary will go spend time with him this weekend.

Well, if I am going to be prepared for tomorrow, I had better get moving!.....after the game!

Grace

Spirit Week

This is spirit week. It ends with our school's homecoming game on Friday and the dance on Saturday. Neither Mary or Matthew will be going to the dance this year. It will save me some money on dresses, clothes and hair! Anyway the week started off with twin day. Mary and a friend wore the same style shirt. Tuesday was camo day. Mary wore Matt's paintball camo shirt/jacket with jeans and Matthew wore a black shirt and camo pants. Yesterday was black and White day. Mary looked very very nice..Matt didn't want to participate which is fine. Today was wear your favorite school clothes. Mary wore Michigan and Matthew wore Michigan State! Will there be a rivalry within the family? Sarah of course would be wearing Hope College. Tomorrow is Purple and Gold day, GHS school colors! I hope we can win our football game.

I had a good day today. Got some things accomplished in the morning including baking brownies for the quilter's lunch. They turned out really tasty! Never put candy corn on brownies until after you bake them...they sink and melt. I learned that today. I got three more rows on my moose quilt done. It is looking really nice. This afternoon I tried to use a computer program to write music for orchestra. I got too overwhelmed and frustrated, so I just wrote it on staff paper like I am used to doing. The transposition wheel that I have is really helpful. Mary and I made ravioli for dinner and then she had class and the rest of us went to orchestra. The brass trio sounds great. Matthew's trumpet really adds to the depth of the song. He likes to improvise a lot. Most of it sounds really good. Jeff plays his French horn and Daryl the euphonium. We are ready to play for reformation sunday. Mom H. will be here and is playing for the service.

Tomorrow Jeff will go get Sarah from college for a long weekend. I work till 1630 and then will be home doing laundry and if it is nice, maybe go to the football game. There should be a parade too. Sarah and Jeff should be back in Greenville around 1930. Saturday morning Mary will be writing an essay for a scholarship competition. It will be an early morning...registration is at 0800! We will be back for lunch and then there is a party in the afternoon. Brandon is coming home in the evening for a long weekend as well, so I am sure Mary will want to go spend time with him. Monday Mom arrives in Detroit, and Jeff and I will be going to pick her up in the afternoon. Sarah goes back Tuesday, so Gma will get to see everyone.

Guess that is all for now...

Grace

Tuesday Took a Turn

Today was planned out for certain things to get done and things turned out very different. We ate the dinner I planned and I got a few projects done this morning, but the afternoon was like a whirlwind of stress!

Took the Prius into Grand Rapids to get the oil changed by the Toyota dealer. I had a coupon, plus I felt sure that they would know for sure how to maintain the Hybrid. Well, it wasn't that good of an experience. One of the service guys showed me that I had dirty air filters (Yes, they were dirty). However it seemed like $70 is a lot to pay for them. I was not prepared today to have that done. So I said I would think about it and come another time. When I picked up the car, the was a notation on the slip that said the filters were very dirty and the owner declined replacement. Reading between the lines, it said you are a bad car owner. Shame on you! As I drove away, I heard a terrible gear sound! I stopped, drove around the parking lot and could not replicate the noise, so I drove home. No problems. I stopped at Big Boy to get Mary an application for work. When I got back in the car and started it up and drove away the noise was back....I called Toyota and said I was coming back. Another 30 minute drive one way to have the fix what ever they broke. I dealt with another service person, whom I like and had before. Infact his son went to school with Sarah. He got the mechanic out and we rode together and the sound was replicated. He got out and discovered that there was a piece of metal bent on the wheel that the tire was hitting.. He was glad I brought it back and said there was no damage to the tire sensor wire, wheel, metal or tire! Yay! He's not sure how that happened, but I told him everything was fine until after the oil change. So far so good.

After driving another 40 minutes home, I had planned on talking about money planning, jobs and school. Well Mary had another blow by the theater department. Seems the director likes to say one thing and do another. Oh to the opening of new wounds. I am hoping that we can come to some resolution so we can all go on without bitterness. The money talk will have to wait.

Mary had Spanish class after dinner and then came home and is talking to her best friend and did her homework. Matt had a little nap and did his homework too. I am doing my homework, ~blogging! I want to write a report for music committee meeting too, since I will be at work tomorrow. Sarah comes home on Friday.

Jeff is on his way home from the Pastor's conference and should be home in about one hour from now. Yay!

That was my day in a large nutshell.

Grace

!!! Just realized that I lost another earring !!!!!! Darn !!!!

What a Wonderful Weekend!

Jeff and I had a really nice time in Minnesota for our friend Mark's wedding. The weekend was filled with lots of activities and excitement.

Our plane to Minnesota was delayed almost an hour due to weather conditions. The ride there was fine and they made up time, except when we landed they had no gate assignment for us. We sat on the tarmac for nearly 30 minutes waiting for a place to park! Many passengers saw their connections leave right in front of their eyes! We were glad that we didn't have any connections. Once we were parked at the gate it was off to the marathon of finding the baggage claim and rental cars. There is lots of walking at this airport and thankfully people movers too! We noticed that this airport is prepared for winter! The rental car garage and even gas refills are in the basement, inside! We drove a Toyota Matrix while we were in Minneapolis. It was very nice.

We drove across the highway to the Mall of America. What a place! It is huge and has an amusement park inside the mall! We ate at Tony Roma's Place for Ribs. I got chicken which was very good, and Jeff had the ribs which were ok but overpriced. Afterward Jeff treated me to Coldstone Ice Cream. I had a wafflebowl dipped in chocolate and sprinkels with chocolate chocolatechip ice cream. It was delicious, but very filling! I don't think I could have eaten one more sprinkle. Jeff had a waffle cone dipped with peanuts and cake batter ice cream and oreos. Naturally we needed to walk it off so we spent a good amount of time walking around to see what was there. There was Legoland, the rides, American Girl Doll store and even the home plate from a previous baseball stadium where the mall stands today! We did purchase a few things, and I looked for shoes that I ended up finding at Target near our hotel.

Jeff drove some pretty heavy rush hour traffice north through town to our hotel. The Suite we stayed at was very nice and reasonable with our military discount. It was a little late, but we headed back south to Minneapolis to see if we could see a play at the Guthrie Theater. Each night, 15 minutes before the curtain call, the sell tickets from 15-25 dollars depending on the day and time. This line is called the rush line and is first come, first served! We got there and since it was a Friday evening, we bought two tickets at $25/each. We were on the floor, 8 rows fromt he stage! How awesome is that! The play was amazing.. we saw Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest". Lots of laughs and good acting. This was a theater kind of in the round. Before the show, we went out on the observation deck and saw the night lights of the city. I really liked the lights on the bridge.

Saturday morning we met some new friends at breakfast. Paul and Monique were AF friends with Mark and Kim as well. I guess he was Mark's boss 3 times! Anyway, it was nice to meet new people and make new friendships. We sat together at the reception and had lots of fun. Jeff and I went exploring a little and had a nice pizza lunch at a nearby restaurant. When we got back to the hotel, it was time to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was very nice. The pastor had a nice message. The bride's daughter and a sister sang some songs. This wedding was very emotional as well. Mark's son Scott couldn't be there as he is in pilot training in the USAF. There was a candle lit there to signify his prescence from far away. Mark's brother was the best man in Scott's stead, and the rest of the bridal party were the children of the bride and groom. Pat lost her husband to cancer, and most of you know how sad we were when Kim went to heaven 2 years ago. It is comforting to know that she is in God's presence. In that light, there were a myriad of emotions "flying" around. It was wonderful to see Mark very happy.

Sunday morning came early, and we were invited to share in the event of gift opening. We had a nice breakfast together and met some new people and have good fellowship. Mark's neighbors from Maryland are a lot of fun! Before we knew it, it was time to head back toward the airport. We had an hour or so to burn, so we just drove around the city to see what we could find. One thing we couldn't find was a gas station to fill up the tank for the rental car. We weren't going to run out, but we needed to return it full.

We returned our car, checked one peice of luggage for $15, went through security and then made the haul back to the gate, this time using a tram! YAY! I still can't believe we now have to pay for our luggage to ride in the underbelly of the plane. It is like a robber without a gun! We stopped for a bite to eat at the airport, since we had to high tail it to bowling as soon as we got home! I had Chinese and Jeff had a bagel sandwich. The plane was overbooked and they were asking for volunteers with flexible scheduling to fly home "tomorrow". We thought about it, then they said that the next flight was Monday at 3:40 pm! That is crazy...so no way Jose'! The plane was boarded and there we were again waiting on a plane for what? Evidently there was some maintenance issues, then the pilot apologized and said that the airport was short on workers and our luggage wasn't on the plane yet and catering hadn't arrived! What on earth are we paying that $15 dollars for??? It was another 30 mintues before we left, almost on hour after our scheduled departure. Needless to say that once back in Grand Rapids, we were very late to bowling. We bowled the last game with the team and then bowled the games we missed by ourselves. We ended up splitting the points and took 2. I had only one good game, 126. Jeff bowled pretty well and maintained his average of 150. Thanks to Mary, she brought our balls to the alley so we wouldn't have to stop at home first.

The kids did really well while we were gone. Mary and Matthew went to Hope College to visit Sarah. They went to a soccer game, played Dutch Blitz , ate dinner at Steak and Shake and watched a scary movie together. It is so nice to know your kids like spending time together! Mary did report to us Sunday morning that Sammy ripped and ate part of the cardboard backing of our refrigerator! I don't know what got into him, or how he actually got behind there in the first place. We have been finding him in wierd places. He has been sleeping upstairs, in Jeff's office and curled up by the kitchen table.

Now that we are back home, Jeff leaves again this afternoon for Pontiac for the Pastor's Conference. He will be back on Wednesday. I work Wednesday and Friday. Sarah comes home Friday for the weekend. Mary and Matt keep up with their activities at school. My mom arrives one week from today and will stay for ten days! Hurray! I will do my best to keep you updated during the week.

Have a great day!

Grace

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! LOTS OF LOVE!

Before We Fly Away

Had some good work days. I managed to sew a few rows of my new quilt today after my foot doctor appointment. Got some new shoe inserts and meds. We will see if that helps my sore feet heal! Theater boosters meeting went well. Came up with some good ideas and strategy. Was able to talk to the managers about the fall play fiasco. We had a good discussion. Time to move on and look to the future. Mary is doing well and Matthew is anxious to get back to scenery and floor work as soon as the Stage Manager is done with soccer. The kids are going to see Sarah this weekend. I know they are looking forward to being together. Jeff and I leave tomorrow for Minnesota. We are excited to share in the joy of our friend's wedding. We will get back on Sunday, maybe even in time to bowl! Better finish packing!

Get Me to the Church on Time!

Grace

A Quick Note from Sarah

First off, I'd like to say this is my first attempt blogging so bare with me.

On November 13, Hope College is having a Relay for Life. My friend and I had decided towards the end of last year that we wanted to make an "Athletic Training" team for the next relay. Now its coming up. I am posting this today to see if you would consider donating to a very worthy cause. For those of you who aren't exactly sure what Relay for Life is here's a quick refresher.

Relay For Life is a really fun event that raises money to combat this disease and to spread awareness about how we can protect ourselves from cancer. It brings together people of all ages and we walk around a track for 24 hours to signify that cancer never sleeps. It’s basically a time of celebrating those who have battled the disease, remembering those who have died and a chance to fight back against a disease that takes too much from too many.

If you would like to help by donating, please click HERE. This will take you to my personal page and will give you a link to donate. I know, lots of links.

Thank you so much for your help.
~Sarah

Enthusiasm~Hope~Sadness

Well I really hoped the Tigers would win tonight. They started off so well~3-0! Then the game got closer and closer, tied and retied...I still had hope until the last Twin crossed the plate to win. Sniff Sniff... It was a crazy game, at least it was close and not a blowout! Who will I root for to win the series???? I'm thinking St Louis, since I went to nursing school there and they were my team when Ozzie Smith was their shortstop. As you can imagine Sarah is very unhappy as well. She loves that game and team more than anyone else I know. The commercial of all the babies dressed in baseball clothes, my grandchilden will be wearing a Tigers jersey one day! No Rush though! Hhahahaha.

Tomorrow is another all day work day and then choir. Not much time to get other things done. I work early on Thursday too and then have a doctor appointment for my plantar fascitis, quilting and a theater booster meeting.. Packing and dinner with the Gideon people. Yes the ones with the Bibles. Wedding this weekend. We can't wait. That is all for now...GO TIGERS, I love you anyway!

Grace

Just a Quick Update

Here are the 2009-2010 Hope College Athletic Tranining Students. Sarah looks so beautiful don't you think? It is nice to have her in the front row. I worked yesterday all day then had some really good music rehearsals. The kids sang well, and the chime team really turned the corner this week and are melding nicely. I worked this morning for 3 hours, and am back home with a bad headache. I took my meds and now am off to take a nap. All is well otherwise. ~Grace

Win Some~LOSE ALL!

None of our teams won today. That was a really downer. Michigan tied it up in the final minutes of regular play, then blew it with a great change to score in OT. Tigers couldn't win again today. I think that is 3 losses in a row. They have to win tomorrow! It would help if the Twins would lose too! Then the Sooners started out strong and then had trouble in the second half. Close to a touchdown, but not close enough, they lost too.

Otherwise we had a nice day. Went shopping a few times, once for groceries and once for new church pants for Matthew. Made Ravioli for dinner. Then play Dutch Blitz for 2 rounds. I won a game and Mitch won a game. Matthew wanted to challenge me again, but I had to get ready for Sunday School and practice a song for church tomorrow. I am looking forward to the kids choir singing tomorrow.

That is it folks!

Grace

Football Day!

I am pretty disappointed. The Michigan vs Michigan State game is not on our TV or on ESPN 360! So I am sitting here at the computer listening to game on CBS sports on the U of M website. The game just started and Michigan already got a field goal after an interception. Mary and Brandon are at their friend's house to watch the game on the channel we don't get! Sooner game on ESPN tonight and maybe even on a regular tv channel. We will see. Sarah is in Lansing today for Hope College Cross Country meet. Go Dutch~! Hope she doesn't have too many injuries, course that is how you get experience. Still I pray no one gets hurt.

Dinner last night was delicious. Everything turned out really well. Brandon and Mary sang for several hours last night, something they love to do! Jeff and I wathced "Memoirs of a Geisha". I just love that movie, it might show up on my Christmas list. Matthew's friend came over to spend the night. They watched some TV, were on facebook and now they are playing tennis down the street.

I am going to work on some picture projects and plan for Sunday School tomorrow. I need to go through my sock drawer too. I have too many, many with holes in them :( I will need to go to the store too for milk and a few other groceries. I applied for a few more jobs with the same result- Not selected. Sure wish God would let me in on His plan! I know Iknow, have faith! I do!

The rain is gone for now and the sun is out with a partly cloudy sky. We never heard from the Miss Danish people, so Mary had no idea where or when to meet for the parade. So we said go ahead and spend the day with your friends. The Miss Danish people really should have told her when to meet long ago.

That is all for now...Hope the Wolverines can start running the ball better. State is ahead!

Grace

So Far Sooooo Fun!

Mary made it safely to Ann Arbor and is already heading back with Brandon and their friend Nicole. I expect they will be "home" for dinner around 7 or 7:30pm. I feel better when she is not driving alone.

Matthew and I went bowling to support the Senior Mystery Trip this afternoon. We bowled on a lane by ourselves and actually got 4 games in 90 minutes. My first game was great~124! The middle two were exactly the same 98. I redeemed myself the last game with a 115. Matthew had a really good last game, 126! He should have found that ball from the beginning! After bowling we met Jeff at Applebee's for lunch. Jeff and I had lunch combo~French Onion soup and French Dip Sliders. MMmmm. Matthew had chicken fingers.

Back at home, we learned to play Dutch Blitz. We like it a lot. It will be even more fun with more people playing! I won the first round and then we had to stop as it is time to make the crescents. I also went out and harvested most of our tomatoes, even if they were green. I don't want to have the cold temperatures ruin the rest of our crop. Listen to me like I am some kind of farmer! Anyway the green ones are on the sill waiting to ripen. Right along with the cool weather, many many of the leaves are turning already. They started early this year...end of August. We have a light blanket of leaves covering our lawn on the side of the yard.

Well, better go...I want dinner to be great!

Grace

No School~ Rain~New Quilt

Today is a teacher work day and Matthew and Mary have no school today! Mary is already gone. She is going to spend the day in Ann Arbor with Brandon. He and another mutual friend will come home tonight. I will be doing a lot of praying, especially when she is driving alone on the highway. I don't work today either, so I am going to try to think of something fun to do with Matthew. There is a bowling special at noon, so we might do that. I sure need to practice. I wanted to take him golfing, but this rainy weather prevents that. We are going to learn Dutch Blitz!

The weather is definitely fall weather. We have had some really cold temperatures for the season. We even had 30 degree temps one morning! The high temps are in the 50's on the average. The storm windows are closed and the heater has been working again...Jeff already misses the summer.

After Sarah called last Monday reporting cold temps and high winds, I decided she needed her winter coats! We forgot them last weekend for her birthday. So after PT in Grand Rapids I drove over to Holland and hand delivered her two coats! I also tried to treat her to a McD's burger. I had a strong urge to check the meal after leaving the store and they screwed it all up. So I had to drive back and get a new correct one.. By the time I got the food to her, the fries were cold and the burger just ok. She was appreciative, but it didn't turn out the way I intended it too.

Sarah has been very busy at college, and doing well. Classes, tutoring, work at the Biology department and DeVos for Athletic Training and Meetings for Relay for Life have been keeping her schedule full. She loves to watch the Tigers and is probably sad like me, that they lost yesterday. It sure is coming right down to the wire!

I worked on Wednesday and had a decent day. Sadly, Hailey didn't feel well. She slept most of the day. I worked a few hours on Thursday too. I am supposed to work again on Monday.

Choir rehearsals are going well. The kids are singing on Sunday, and the adult choir will join us to sing the doxology at the end of the service. Chimes are coming along nicely. Orchestra is pretty much a brass trio right now. They sound very nice. First service we play for is for Reformation.

Yesterday marked the return of our Thursday lunches at church. The quilters and church staff eat together. I made hot dogs and there was chips, veggies with dip and apple cake! It was great. I also started a new quilt. The pattern is around the world. There is the single moose in the middle then the rows of colors and moose surround it. I think it is going to be great! I will take another picture when it is sewn together. I had to lay all the pieces out then pin rows together. Next week I will sew the squares into rows and then rows into the quilt, then add some borders! Probably not all in one week though!

The Prius informed me that my tires were a little low on pressure, so Jeff helped me a LOT by getting the tires filled to the proper pounds and bought me a digital tire gauge. Itis pretty cool. We checked again this morning and got Mary all set to drive to the "thumb side"! My car is pretty smart!

Mary is supposed to be in the Cedar Springs Red Flannel Days Parade tomorrow. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rainy and as of right now, no one has contacted her as to where the parade starts, meeting times etc... We still don't have a schedule! How crazy is that! Mary will be tutoring English on Wednesdays and teaching cello lessons on Fridays. She is thinking very positively lately of all the past events and circumstances. I am so proud of her!

Matthew helps keep the house straightened and looking nice on a regular basis. He is practicing with the tennis team and was the stage manger on duty yesterday. He says he doesn't really like the stage managing, he'd rather build the sets and work the floor. Once the soccer season is over and the other manager is back full time, Matt can switch back to that. He played the trumpet last night at orchestra, and boy if he just practiced a little his range would be out of this world. It sure is nice to have a trumpet in our group! Matt is a cool kid.

Looking ahead, I am making chicken crescents for dinner tonight. Brandon will be joining us. It is good to feed college kids a home cooked meal! We were going to the Red Flannel festival in Cedar Springs, but with the weather and lack of info, we may not go. I guess you have to wear red or you get thrown into the festival jail! Tomorrow is the Michigan vs Michigan State game too. I will want to watch it. Next weekend we are in Minnesota for friend Mark's wedding! Yay!

Until the next update,

Gracie!