Jul 31, 2007

Pictures from our day

Here are some pictures (compliments of Senta) from our day today. We went to the library this morning and then went to Caesarland afterwards to stay out of the heat and enjoy some time with our friend Kristi and her kids before they move.








Congratulations Mandy!!

Mandy and Franchot are going to be the proud owners of a new home!! Yay!! This will be their first house, and we are so proud of them! Here are some pics she sent me. It is really close to Trey's school, so perhaps if he behaves himself, he will be allowed to start walking to school.





Dancing Mama

Yesterday we went to the Splash Park in Canton. While we were there, I had a woman come up to me with her young daughter. Speaking to her, referring to me, she said" Look, it's the Dancing Mama!" What does one say to that?! So I was like, "Hello!" Then she explained her daughters lack of interest as being tired or something to that effect, and walked off. Obviously she thought I was someone else, so Lauren and I had a good laugh and forgot all about it.

Well, Today, the same lady was at Caesarland!! And, she recognized me again! I thought perhaps it was cause I was wet before that made me look like whomever she thinks I am. Now I am starting to wonder if perhaps I am the "Dancing Mama"!! She introduced herself asked me if I was going to be at the park tomorrow, like it was something that the "Mama" did often, so I said I was. (I didn't know how to weasel out of this conversation without embarrassing us both) Anyway, I just thought it was funny. So did Kristi (another good friend who is sadly moving to Texas) and Senta obviously, as Senta decided I needed to have a picture of her for my blog! So, enjoy and perhaps you all can figure out who she is for me!! She seemed like a great person, I just have no idea who she is!! Of course that isn't saying much, since one time I was talking to someone in the store, and didn't realize it was one of Carl's Aunts! lol (Just in case you were wondering, her shirt says "I like Money" and is next to a picture of Mr. Krabs.)

Mini Break part 2

Due again to our lack of digital camera, I stole these photos off the Air Zoo website. Click
We had an awesome time! The entire place is covered in huge murals and the floors are painted to resemble grass, trails and even the U.S.S. Kittyhawk! The Air Zoo is located in Kalamazoo, MI. I highly recommend this experience!

This is the Blackhawk SR-71B. It is a stealth fighter. You would not believe how huge this thing was in person!!


They have a 4-D movie that you can experience located in the "bunker". It is about a bomber and it's ill fated crew. Very moving.


The kids LOVED this!! Even I got a thrill! you can't tell from the ground, but those balloons are booking! They also had airplanes that you could ride in the same fashion.


An example of the fantastic murals they have. This one is located in front of the flight simulators they have. Trey, Lauren, Franchot and Carl Sr. all went on these. It was hilarious hearing them scream and shout as they went loop-de-loop.

A floor mural representing the U.S.S. Kittyhawk.

While we were at the Air Zoo, we took a short drive over to their Michigan Space Science Center. It was full of interesting things! There was the "Lunar Leap" where you were able to simulate the feeling of leaping on the Moon's surface. All of the kids tried that! There were space capsules that you could sit in, rockets to blast off and a simulated flight to Mars.

Jul 29, 2007

Bellanger/Washington Mini Break, part 1

This past Thursday we left our home to journey the west coast of Michigan. Well, actually we only went to Michigan's Adventure's and The Air Zoo.

We all went, Us, Carl's parents, his sister Mandy, Franchot, Lauren and Trey. We drove there bright and early and got there about 11ish. We had gone there last year, so we knew what we wanted to hit and what to miss. We were really hoping that we might be able to take advantage of the water park side this time. The last time we went, it was overcast all day, making it too cold to be soaking wet. This time was an absolute repeat! Not a spot of sun the whole day. In fact, we got deluged by a huge hail storm the minute that Trey and I started on the kiddie car ride they have. Of course my brave husband tried to rescue us, but was unable to find me. All of the employees stood by watching of course. Although in their defense, they did stop the ride eventually, allowing us to get off...so very kind. We made it back to shelter unscathed physically, but poor Trey was an emotional wreck. At least by the time that happened, it was only about 1 1/2 hours till closing so we were able to go back to the hotel without too much loss. Otherwise, the day was really fun. The kids won a LOT of stuffed animals at the carnival games and I ate the most delicious chili cheese fries!

Unfortunately, we totally forgot to take any kind of digital camera, so we will have to post pictures later. Tomorrow, part two of our trip.

Jul 24, 2007

Can you fly a helicopter?

My sis-in-law Mandy sent this a while ago, and I thought I would share it with you. It will drive you insane!

Play
Your IQ Is 100

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Average

Your General Knowledge is Exceptional
A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

What's logic anyway, eh? :)

Trey is a champion in our book!




Tonight we went to Trey's baseball championship game. He plays with Dad's Club, same as Jacob, but with the older boys. His team, the Rockies, played against the Tigers. It was a pretty exciting game, but not well ump'd. There was quite a bit of squabbling going on between the coaches and the umpire. It seemed like the other team was playing for blood, rather than for the fun of the game; taking advantage of mistakes and errors. This kind of play even resulted in part of the crowd applauding when a boy from the Tigers team got creamed in the face with the ball. I am sure glad that Jacob will still be playing with the Co-Ed's next year. The parents still think the kids missing the ball is funny and cute there. People get so crazy!! Well, needless to say, poor Trey's team got clobbered. But, he's always going to be an Allstar to us!

Jul 23, 2007

We LOVE Harry Potter!!


I sent Carl to the store at midnight again this year to pick up our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I finished it last night. WOW!! That is all I am going to say because I would never want to spoil it for anyone, including Carl who is halfway done. (I am a hog, and I have a hard time sharing) If any of you that are reading this are not Harry fans, why not?! What a wonderful story of loyalty and friendship; good versus evil! I highly recommend jumping on the band wagon!




Baseball Pictures






Our baseball season is finally over! We went to the picnic they had for all the players and their families on Saturday. It was a blast! They had an inflatable jumping castle, games, softball and LOTS of food!!

While I was there, I was gifted a CD with about 50 pictures of Jacob playing ball. What a wonderful thing to have, 1) Because they were taken by a lovely man who actually knows how to use his superb camera and 2) I hadn't taken any at all since I have to use a toothpick so activate the shutter on mine....sigh...

Well, the point is that all season I have been waiting for the pictures he took to be uploaded on to the Dad's Club website but have never seen any!! Finally I asked and the wife of the photographer (who are also grandparents of one of Jake's teammates) said that she was not the one that posts them, and since the person who was supposed to was slacking, she would bring me a disk. So, here are a few of them. Better late than never!!

Jul 19, 2007

Obviously our stuff is not good enough to steal...

I woke up at 7am as usual and headed straight for the shower. As I was getting dried off, I noticed that the glass on the side door of the garage was smashed, the door ajar. I ran upstairs immediately and asked Carl if he had done it. (ha ha) With a sleepy no, I went outside to inspect. Seems that someone decided to try to break into the garage in the night. Of course we had just had the garage sale, and that may have been what drew them to us. The door was not fully open, as we had a table still up in the way of the door. I am not sure if they got in through the large door that was unlocked, but I am assuming they didn't since they broke the small door to get in. There is nothing missing as far as I can tell.

We went through today, after contacting the police, thinking we were the only ones affected by this. It seems the we were wrong. Tonight we found out that 3 of our neighbors were broken into as well. 2 more garages and a truck. Seems that the culprit was after power tools, having stole quite a few from the vandalized truck. Doesn't look like he was able to get much out of any of the garages though, so that is good. I am grateful that he was only interested in the contents of the garage. My children don't sleep there.

Jul 17, 2007

There has not been much to report on this end. We plow through the days as usual. Monday , baseball and FHE. Tuesday, Library day. Wednesday, baseball. Thursday, Park Day. Friday, anything goes! How do we fill in the time in between? Carefully...

Yesterday we walked down to a local park and played in the sand. Alex found about 20 black walnuts, 3 checkers pieces, some glass, rocks and a Caesarland token. This was his proudest find, and of course that means he lost it promptly again at baseball. So, there is a token at Adams Middle School. Happy hunting!! While at the park, Lauren and Trey thought that they discovered a hidden pocket of clay under the sand. They proceeded to spend about 45 minutes gathering it, only to discover once they got home and wet it that it was in fact dirt, not clay. It now resides in my backyard.

The rest of the day was spent inside due to the off and on again rain storms. Also, Lauren's stomach decided it hated her, wanted to revolt, and after torturing her for a bit, did just that. So, she spend the majority of her afternoon laying on my bed next to a bowl. In true Lauren style she managed to pull herself together and by the time her mother showed up, she was begging for beef stew! Amazing!

We ended the evening with Jacob's baseball game. (it's really softball, but we like to pretend!) He did very well, getting to bat 3 times. He also won the game ball; something he has been desiring since the season began. He has one last game, and then we will be finished for the season. That will leave Mondays and Wednesdays open to even further mischief and mayhem.

Jul 13, 2007

Book Club Fun!

I, along with 14 fantastically wonderful women, belong to a book club were discuss a different book each month. This month was my month to choose, and I picked Buster Midnight's Cafe, by Sandra Dallas. Can I tell you how much I love her books?! Since I chose the book, I was given the responsibility of hosting the event. We all had a great time, discussing almost everything but the book! ha ha Everyone seemed to enjoy it as much as I did and that made me really happy. Sharing the books that I love is such a huge part of who I am. I guess that is why my goal is to be a librarian. Thanks ladies for sharing the evening with me!

Some more pictures from the picnic





Jul 10, 2007

4th of July Picnic

For the 4th this year, we spent our afternoon at the Westland Ward picnic. What a great time we had!! There were many games to play, each having a silly twist. The broad jump, shown below ended up as smile measuring.



Here is where we got to the booty measuring! ha ha Senta was kind enough to volunteer. The story behind this shot was when we moved on to building structures with marshmallows and toothpicks. Tamara, Senta's sister said something about the buildings having to be larger than Senta's butt. Well, Jake took it literally and measured her booty right there!!

As you can see, they got to me as well!

Jul 6, 2007

Garage Sale Progress

The past few days have been crazy! I have gotten little done other than selling our wares in the driveway. By the time the day is done, I am so exhausted that I can hardly do anything. Isn't it funny that a garage sale can do that to a person? All you do is sit, but perhaps that is why you get so tired. Well, the first day we were able to sell quite a lot, including the dishwasher that has been taking up quite a bit of space in our garage. We made out with $77 that day. Today we had a slow start that we all blame on Mandy being there. She jinxed our progress. This theory was proved by the fact that when she was here we made $4, and after she left we made $65. We sold the couch and chair that Mandy had contributed along with a LOT of tiny bits of stuff. Senta dropped by in the afternoon to give my my purse, (left it at her sister Tamara's when we went over for the 4th) and to refresh my spirits with an enormous Dr. Pepper. Ahhhhhhhhhh. She bought a bunch of stuff and so did her kids. Thanks guys!! Her good deeds were rewarded when my neighbor sent over 3 bags of clothes. I think we each took a 1/3 of the clothes and put the rest out for sale. We will be out again tomorrow unless Carl can convince his family to let us out of it so we can go to the airshow. We'll see what happens.

Jul 4, 2007

Happy 4th of July America!!

This photo was taken from Caedes. It was created by the Artist .bfrank.

Jul 3, 2007

Problem resolved


It was the wood choppers this AM. They came and shredded all my mulberry branches, and half of the mulberries along with them. Oh well, the deed is done and now my yard is clear once again.

RIP Mulberry Tree


Why has my tree been butchered so? Let me tell you a tale...


As some of you know, we are having a garage sale this weekend. I was in my garage trying to straighten up (with the help of the entire neighborhoods collection of children helping it seems) when I realized I needed to move the lawn mower out of the way. So, I took it around the backside of my garage, only to find this wire hanging down from the trees. This photo was taken much later in the day after it was deemed safe, so don't worry, I'm not that dumb!


So, after a call to Detroit Edison, and guarding the gate from children entering for about 45 minutes, they came to inspect. Seems that sometime during the big storm we had Wednesday, the pole got damaged, and caught on fire! This caused the wire to the light post in out front yard to melt and come down. Luckily the live end was way up next to the pole, so there had been no danger to the kids this whole time. The first man left, and then a big truck came with 3 men. They all talked about it, said they would be going down the Alley in the back to look at it, but then left!! Not that it is about 4:50 in the afternoon now. Carl and I at 8pm put the kids to bed, and we going to watch a movie when we could hear 3 trucks rumbling up in front of the house. This picture is the view we had for the next 3 hours they were here fixing the pole!!!


Mu favorite part of this whole thing, was not them coming so late at nigh, which was comical enough, but this guy. He had stolen my lawn chair and put it in the alley so he could talk on his phone while the other 2 guys worked in the cherry picker. Even when I came outside to watch, and take these photos, he still sat. He knew I was there, he just really didn't care! ha ha Neither did I really, but I did think it was funny. When he decided that he might be useful once again, he placed it back over the fence, and said "Thanks for lettin' me use your chair!" No problem buddy!



So, here is our yard this morning. I gave up watching around 10pm. There were about 6 guys in total in our yard tromping around trying not to trip on the various toys that had been left out from playing. Of course our porch lights don't work (no thanks to the MASTER ELECTRICIAN that lived here before!) so they are all tripping and stumbling in the dark. So here is our tree this morning, and by golly it is a sad sight. They had to trim it to make sure it could go back up and I was pretty sure they might just leave it here, but no, I just heard them pull up AGAIN!! Ha ha, looks like it's my lucky day!