So it was another thrilling year at Brown City Camp.  I, however, have no terribly great pictures to share with you.  I knew I wasn't taking too many pictures, it's getting harder to take pictures all the time, since both kids are usually running in two different directions.  This was my 14th year at BCC and every year is different, but especially as a parent now and not a camper.  Definitely more rewarding to raise your kids at BCC, but certainly more fun as a camper with no responsibilities. I got a lot out of the messages this year, more so than last year, and hopefully even more next year, as Brant will be old enough to go to class with Kadence in both the morning and evening services.  We will be there, BCC 2009, Matt already put in his vacation request for it.  And hopefully everyone will be healthy next year.  Both the kids had colds, in fact, Kadence is still coughing - 16 days now, when will it end?

Anyway, Brant has learned to love ice cream and so this was their bedtime snack last night.

They were messy, that's why they're eating it on the kitchen floor.

Daddy's new house for 2008-2009

We're getting to know the area. . .

Swings are always fun, no matter where we are.

We visited Matt this weekend.  He had to work, but wanted to see us some.  It was nice to see him, but both the kids were sick throughout the weekend, so it was a long weekend for me.  Since we were away from home, none of us slept especially well either, so it was nice to get home into our own beds.  We will be venturing back there this coming weekend as well, for a trip to the zoo and a party with Matt's new collagues.

We had a busy weekend driving over to Brown City Camp to replace a ramp for Matt's parents.  I didn't help too much, mostly keeping the kids out of the way, but Matt worked his tail off to get it done in two days, with help from Merlin, John, and Zach.  I managed to get some boards cut and help doing some carrying of wood during naptime.  We used to do projects like that together all the time.  Kids are in need of constant supervision, however, so I usually do that now, but I miss working on projects sometimes.  In a few years when they don't want us around, I guess we'll have more time to spend together doing those type of things. 

Quiz finals was this weekend as well, so although that wasn't our intent to go see quizzing, it was nice to do so.  It always brings back many fond memories for us.  The kids did great this year too.  We are very proud of our church quiz team.  They continue to keep the legacy alive for Evergreen.  It was fun to watch with Kadence and explain some of it to her.  She liked all the clapping and cheering mostly, then was glad to go play with Rachel for the remaining time.

So this is our last week of residency, which is tremendously exciting, although, clouded with saddness as Matt is moving to Detroit on Sunday.  I'm just really nervous and scared about it, because we don't have any information about his schedule or anything, it makes it quite hard to plan.  So I guess it's good he's starting on Tuesday, so at least we can move on with our lives and make some tentantive plans for our summer weekends.  It's just not how I envisioned the end of residency, which I thought was going to be the end.  I guess that goes to show we can't know or plan everything, but God is still keeping watch over us.  So if your ever home alone, think of me and give me a call, I'll probably be home alone too (with my 2 sidekicks, of course .)

Well, I don't have pictures loaded from the weekend yet, but I have a couple from last week.

As you can see, Brant has a love of tractors already and always wants a ride!

Helping himself to Kadence's corn on the cob.  He gets his own now.  I didn't know he could eat corn on the cob at 15 months, but he does.

Rachel and Kadence

GREAT NEWS!

Matt passed his board exam!!!!  We're so proud of you, Matt!  I don't think anyone really knows how much time you put into preparing over the last six months and it was not easy, but you did it, and we made it through.  Another major hurdle passed. 

Onto the next challenge - Fellowship in Detroit, two hours away.  He'll start his next year of training on July 1st.  It's 12 months of interventional training.  For those of you who don't know what that means, it's something to do with image-guided needle poking.  Yuck, I know, that's what I think, but I guess he finds that challenging and interesting.

So thank you for all your prayers and thoughts over the last few weeks.  It means a lot to both of us.

As for the children, Brant had his 15 month appt. at the doctor.  He's in the 6th percentile for weight.  This is not so good.  But he grew vertically 2 3/4 inches, so they determined he wasn't malnutritioned.  Kadence was less than 10% for weight as well at her 2 yr appt, so I am trying to put weight on them, it's not so easy though.  I guess they have the opposite problem of most of us Americans.

So that's most of our news for now.  Have a good weekend!

I know I haven't written, I'm trying to think of something significant to talk about, but to no avail.  Anyway, with Matt studying nonstop for boards (two weeks from today), we're all in survival mode, make it through the next two weeks with understanding and ease.

So today I took the kids to the children's museum.  Kadence was a good girl and stayed by me the whole time.  I think the last experience with her getting lost scared both of us enough to pay better attention.  This, of course, did not mean Brant stayed with us, so we mostly followed him around.  They had a great time; it had been a couple months since we went last.

I'm hoping with the nice weather later this week to take them to the children's garden at Meijer gardens.  We have memberships to both places so I want to make sure we get our monies worth!

No big plans for the weekend, in fact, really no plans at all.  Matt will study and we'll probably stay home.  Anyone else doing something fun, so I can live vicariously through you?

Well, I have a board meeting at church tonight, so I better get my stuff around before the kids wake up!

So it's been awhile since I've had something to say.  What can I say, not too much going on around here.  I had my last cake course and graduated from course 1.  I even received a certificate and a cookie cutter!  It was fun but not quite as satisfying as graduating from college.  Anyway, so I didn't put a picture on until now because I wanted to give it to Merlin and Mary for their 35th wedding anniversary.  I froze it and gave it to them tonight.  But because the kids and I have a cold, we couldn't be there to see them receive it.  So I hope they liked it.  Here's a picture of it.

It's not too bad for only being my 3rd cake, but I have a ways to go yet.  Also, I made this dessert the other night when we celebrated their anniversary with them.

I think 35 years is definitely worth making a big deal about.  Happy Anniversary Merlin and Mary!  It's been quite a road to look back on I'm sure.

I also got some garage saleing in already this year.  Trying to find good deals on clothes for the kids.  I've been pretty successful, shouldn't have too much else to buy for the summer, just a couple of odds and ends to complete some outfits.  I think I did both their wardrobes for about $30.00.  Granted, they had some already given from family and friends, and I tried to buy some end of the summer deals last year for Kadence, but not to shabby, eh?  Oh, that doesn't include buying sandals though, had to buy a new pair for each of them.  I hoping to hit a few at the end of this week, if the weather permits.

Today, my mom and I took the kids to the Tulip Time Festival in Holland.  It was a lot of fun and the kids did really well.  Brant slept all the way there, so that was nice.  We went to Windmill Island, had a picnic, walked around downtown and walked around by the desolate outlet mall and Dutch Village.  It was low key and the kids had a great time.  I got them each a little pair of wooden shoes with their names on them, like I have from when I was a kid.  And Kadence got a pair to wear for dress up, which is her new fun thing to do (with my help).  I didn't get her name on those though, cause Brant might want to play in them when he gets bigger too.

Well, I had more pictures of the day, but they're not working too well right now.  Maybe later.  

Exactly how much housework does a husband create?

by Diane Swanbrow

April 3, 2008

Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families.

For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men who have no children from about an hour of housework a week. . .

. . . Both the men and the women who got married did more housework than those who stayed single, the analysis showed. "Marriage is no longer a man's path to less housework," said Stafford, a professor in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. . .

. . .Married women with more than three kids did an average of about 28 hours of housework a week. Married men with more than three kids, by comparison, logged only about 10 hours of housework a week.

I just found this article interesting.

It's beautiful outside today, however, a tad windy.  Brant looked like he was going to get blown away.  But we'll take it because it's not raining and we can get out of the house. 

It's another week without daddy here, but we're managing.  The kids don't seem to mind too much, most of their day is without him, but in the evenings, he is sorely missed, especially by me, who could use some much needed adult conversation and a short break from the kids.

running down the hill

posing for mommy again!

On another note, as most of you may know Matt is in Washington DC this week for a review course for his oral board exams, which is Monday June 2nd, if anyone wants to add that to their prayer list!  Well, the Pope is also in DC this week.  So Matt called me around noon today asking if I could see where the motorcade was on CNN.  I told him what I saw (police SUVs and then motorcycles then the Pope surrounded by more police) and then he could estimate how far back the Pope was.  He told some people around him that they were coming and some guy asked who he was talking to, he said, "My wife is watching on CNN in Michigan."  He saw all of it, including the Pope in his little "popemobile"; it's a weird looking vehicle.  I heard cheering on the phone as he passed, then I heard it again on TV.  Technology is amazing.  We shared a live moment together hundreds of miles away, granted, his experience was much more "live" than mine, but it was neat.  Not that either of us is Catholic in anyway, but he's important to a lot of people and Matt decided that that was a once and a lifetime experience, so he walked a half hour to see this man drive by him, without a camera, might I add, so he'll only have memories to remember it by.

So life has been pretty boring around here, which is probably why I haven't felt the need to write anything new.  We had a playdate over here last Friday with some friends.  Kadence was thrilled to have kids come and play with them in their playroom.  Everytime we've invited our friends over, they get sick.  I was starting to think we were cursed or something.  Anyway, they all had a good time. 

Monday, Matt and I took the kids back to see the butterflies at the gardens, that way they could show daddy around.  A guy told us there was a tank of turtles on the first floor, so we also went down there to see the turtles.  I didn't know they were even down there, so it was something new.

Thursday, Kadence got sick.  No fun.  She had fevers up around 103 degrees for most of the day.  I gave her a 90 degree bath, which she didn't appreciate, but she took it well, and her temperature dropped down to 101 for awhile.  She was a mess last night, couldn't catch her breath under all the mucus and after sitting in the bathroom for a steam shower and a short trip outside to cool (it's what the doctor says to do, her doctors, not Matt ) she slept much better.  She got up for a drink at 4am, which was a good sign since that meant she could still swallow, and then she told me, "You go sleep in your bed, nigh-night mommy" and closed her eyes.  I wish it me about 30 seconds to fall back to sleep, but it doesn't.  She had some fevers this morning and lost her voice completely, but she's feeling better now, seems to have some of her spirit back after eating dinner, but her voice is still gone.  It's not actually all that bad.  It's been quite quiet today, other than Brant whining, nothing new there.

Well, here's some new pictures anyway, a little more exciting than our lives right now.

Cade and Kadence, they had a lot of fun together at a get together to boil sap and make maple syrup!

Playing in the laundry baskets.

This inflatable bouncer is really for outside, but with all the crummy weather lately, we got bored and decided to bring the outside inside.