Trip today!

Jacob and I start our 4 day long trip to the U.P. today! (Upper Peninsula for you non-Michiganders) He is super excited and so am I now that I am done packing and am pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything. I had my birthday party last night with Carl's family and I got pretty stocked up for today. Some new shirts, a new wallet, sunglasses, a hat and some spending cash to buy fudge in Mackinac. Yum! Tell y'all about it when we get back!

Talent Show!

Jacob is participating in his school's talent show again today. He is doing a violin duet with his violin teacher. We are super excited. I am going to take some video with his new camcorder, so when I get the video uploaded I will post it here. :) Show starts at 12:15 if anyone is looking to go to the most wonderful, awesome and humbling talent show ever known! Watching these kids get up and perform their hearts out with no fear or pride brings a tear to my eye every time. Getting me a little choked up right now to be honest! So, Burger School, Garden City, on Maplewood, East of Merriman, North of Ford. Be there or be square!

A general update

Things have never been so crazy at our house! We are homeschooling Alex, Carl has a really unpredictable schedule for half the week, Jacob is taking violin and soccer, Alex is taking guitar, all three men have scouts on Tuesdays. I am starting school soon, just started a new blog chronicling my efforts to lose weight, volunteering all this week setting up Jake's talent show at school, then the next week going on a four day trip around Michigan with him. Park days, field trips, shopping, teaching...Let's face it, these past two months have just been hectic! I don't really see an end to the craziness until school is out in June. Then we may get some peace, but not likely! Once, Carl's sister Mandy came over and said that there were only a few days on my calendar that were empty. She should see it now! So, I will try to be more vigilant about keeping this blog up to date, especially since I have not been on facebook more than a handful of times in the past two months. Wish me luck!

Homeschoolin!

I know, I have been less than blog like as of late, especially after my vow to blog more regularly. But with Homeschooling and soccer and music lessons we have been swamped with little spare time for me to blog. So, I will try to be more vigilant in the future and we'll see what happens! ha

So far everyone is alive and kicking in the homeschooling front. We have joined up with a great online group that gets together for field trips and fairs often. Infact, we are going to a homeschool chess meet in an hour that is every other week at the Novi library. We are really having such a good time! Our main concerns so far seem to be getting Alex to focus and be more self motivated. But we have a lot of hope for our future. After all we are all still de-schooling!

Mommy N' Me

I thought I would do my next shout out to my sister Jill and her awesome store, Mommy N' Me. It is located in Rexburg, ID and is a consignment kids shop. She runs it with the help of her daughters, Ashley and Chelsea. I had the pleasure of working in her shop a few days over the summer and let me tell you, she has got a great place! The shop is located in a lovely house with the most amazing woodwork! She has all the rooms set up for different age groups and sexes. The best part as far as I am concerned is that it is not just consignment, but new and handcrafted items also. After working in her shop a few days I can testify to her high used clothes standards! If there is even a tiny hole or stain, it is rejected. Those items that are left behind if they can't be sold are then put in to the largest 25 cent sale you have ever seen my friends! Boxes and boxes of clothes, blankets, shoes and maternity wear, all for a quarter each! Again, the highest standards. You would be hard pressed to find the stain on these items. She does it during the warm months, so save up your loose change! 

I have added some pictures, although not the best ever, the first shows you a bit of the shop, and the second shows you the faces that were not captured well in the first shot. This is my sister, and her grandson Broxton. Such a cutie!!! He sits in his little chair right up at the register and checks everone out. That is when he is not playing in the toy room. It's good to have connections, right Broc?!

Moving update, plus our week in general

Ok, I have realized that a goal of everyday blogging just doesn't fit in with my lifestyle, so...I am going to do it as often as I can. Especially since we now have even MORE family away from us...way to go Mandy...lol

Ok, so here is an update on the whole moving story. Last time we left off on Monday when everything was supposed to be fixed. The early morning swap that they were promised never happened. In fact, it was quite late in the day before they got their stuff moved over at all. I believe Mandy and Franchot finally were able to get ahold of someone about 9 am, but after that it became a game of phone tag, a new person always answering the phone and no one knowing what was going on. Finally the truck company decided that they would tow the truck to a nearby facility so that they would not have to have all their personal affects drug out in the middle of a motel parking lot. Seems thought, that their idea of close was Southfield, which is about 40 minutes from the hotel they were at in Romulus.

So the truck was towed to Southfield, everything was shifted over, they drove back here, got Trey, Lauren and my in-laws and finally left out about 4 I believe. By the time they all got to Ohio, it was so late that they all collapsed, without moving a single thing but blankets, a few top mattresses and pillows. Of course the standard run to Wal-Mart was in order since all the toilet paper was packed, and food needed to be purchased. The next day was no better since they had to off-load the whole truck and then drive back to Michigan. (Mandy had an appointment for the kids. Shots and stuff for school.)

We spent Monday night at Jacki and Carl's to watch the pooch, so we decided that they would appreciate some dinner when they got back in town the next day. So we made what I would call a "vat" of spaghetti and some garlic bread. You would have thought I had made something better than that the way it was praised. Hungry tired bellies will eat anything! And so the next day, the Washingtons made their final trip back to Ohio and there they have stayed! They will be back up next weekend to get the rest of their belongings and then it will be final. I am sad they are gone, but I am so glad that this moving experience is almost over! I think everyone's nerves were frazzled!

In other news of the week, Jacob got to go on a field trip to McDonalds (I know right?), we spent a day doing our taxes (whew!), and Carl and I discovered an awesomely terrible game called Trailer Park Zombies! You just have to play it, there is no description...ha! Today is a half-day for Alex. A friend of mine has a daughter that goes to the same school so I am getting them both off the bus and watching her this afternoon. Should be interesting since most times they just don't get along, but it's been a while since they have spent a lot of time together so...

And this weekend is the Plymouth Ice Festival! We are going sometime this weekend and highly recommend it to anyone in the area. But dress warm!!! They do ice sculpting demos in the park and serve things like hot cocoa and roasted nuts. Yum. Every day of the festival is something different. We try to go every year. I will post some pictures when we go.

Moving Delay

My Sister- in-law and her whole family were planning to move to Columbus yesterday. They packed up the truck, emptied the house as much as they could in one trip and off they went. Only they never made it any farther than I-94 and Merriman Rd.! The transmission on the truck went out right on the freeway. So, instead of the original plans, which were them driving down with my in-laws, doing the happy dance in their new living-room, all spending the night, then coming back up the next day to finish up last minute business, they got this instead: A pad lock to lock up the truck so nothing would get stolen, a tow truck to get the truck to the hotel they were being furnished with, small beds in the tiny hotel, and a dinner stipend generously given by the truck company of $22. Really? Who can feed a family of 4 at a restaurant for $22?! Barely can do that at McDonalds!
So Trey, our nephew, came to our house for dinner and to spend the night. Lauren, our niece, crashed at my in-laws and Mandy and Franchot got the tiny beds at the hotel! To make it worse, no one packed a day bag, since they were just going 3 hours then unloading. So no one had toiletries or pajamas. Luckily we are all family! ha
Today the truck company is sending a new truck and professional movers to move all their stuff from one truck to another, and then they can attempt to hit the road. That should be interesting in the middle of a hotel parking lot! Funnest part is the truck they got was not quite big enough, so now they have to do this all again next weekend. Sigh. Good luck guys, I hope that this day is the day for your happy dance!