Its been a while

First let me apologize for our absence on here.
A lot things have been going on,
but I'll explain later.
Today, I just need to get my thoughts out there.

This weekend, I took a trip.
I've been meaning to take this trip since I moved to Kzoo.
When we moved here, I moved close to the place my grandparents used to live.
And Since I became aware that their old house was less than an hour away, I've dreamed of what it would be like to have them so close.
Although, I'm not really sure what it would be like, since they have both passed away more than 10 years ago, but I cant get it out of my head
So this weekend I drove past their old house, and i wasnt what I remembered.
Not that I remember much. but the grass was over grown, when it was always cut, there was no picnic table to gather around and play cards at night or eat grilled corn in the summer, no squirrel feeder to laugh at the antics of the squirrels, I dont recall seeing a deck for the pontoon to park at and take us out on the lake, or the paddle boat to paddle across the canal and watch the turtles, no ducks wandered onto the grass expecting to be fed, no campfire pit could be seen to gather around and laugh. The house was empty, abandoned, something it never looked like until the closest memories I have. When we cleaned out the house on the weekends, and stayed in the house much too quiet with out grandma snoring on the couch watching TV. Sadly most of the memories I have at that house are not happy memories, but I want them to be. Although the good ones never stand out first.
I remember going there in the summer and riding around with my grandpa on the three wheeler, and later when I was old enough to take it for a spin on my own, I remember watching TV with my cousins or going out on the lake to "fish", but those are all a blur, the most vivid memory I have, that I cant get out of my head is the night my cousin was bit by a dog. I remember that night all too often. I sadly also dont remember much about my grandparents that lived there. I try. I try to remember them there in the house and the good times, but what most of my memories end up being are the ones from the nursing home, and sadly for my Grandma, mostly of her snoring on the couch, since her time in the nursing home was limited. But I try to remember my grandpa before the nursing home, but I cant pull up many memories, but I remember the memories of him not remembering us, of him wearing a bib of how hard it was on my dad to see him like that. How hard it was for all of us and yet, thats all I can remember.
I want to remember more.
I shouldnt have went and tried only to remember the good times. And imagine what it would have been like.

Diningroom

YEY!
the dining room furniture has arrived!
thanks John and Gerard for helping carrying it!

Update

So we have been kind of busy lately
but we have taken a few pictures along the way
We finally got our refigerator
also we have been working on some other things with rearranging the house, we finally bought a new mattress, so that will be great. Cant wait until that arrives.
We also got a new dining room table, so we moved the dining room table into the kitchen and the kitchen table will be my sewing table! I'm so excited!
so that arrives on wednesday!
Cant wait!

Roaming

So walking through Meijer one day I spot a cute loveable Gnome and I've got to have it.
So I buy the mini-me travelocity gnome and he begins his adventure with me.

Although we have not gone anywhere far yet we will, oh we will.

Raking in the big bucks

Well apparently someone at Home Depot is reading my blog.
because they left a penny behind for us today :)
yey! a whole 2 cents found... maybe by the time we retire it will gain enough interest to double itself...
:)

Change Finder

So Thinking about my last blog I remembered hearing about a family that blogs about the money they find.
and I thought, hm... I wonder how much change I find in a year.
well I so far have only found 1 cent, but then again, I dont get out much.
so my tally so far 1 penny :)
keep dropping change people! I've got retirement to save for :)

Life Savings

Sometime back when I was 5 or 6, my Grandma and Grandpa L gave me a Bank, shaped like a giraffe, and named "Richey". Like most kids I recall playing in the yard with the box a ton, but this doesnt mean I didnt enjoy the gift. Richey stands about waist high and has for many years held change.
Every year for Christmas I would receive enough pennies to feed him one penny a day for the whole year, I know that doesnt sound like a lot, but you have to feed your pets you know.
I was also very good at finding money on the ground, its a good pastime, One time I even found a 20 dollar bill on the floor! :) that was a good day.
anyway... I digress,
Eventually I was no longer given pennies to feed Richey as I had my own income which until recently I spent only cash, and would not spend my change. Richey did in fact become rich with Change, aside from the few raids that took place in Middle School, his treasure stayed intact.
and I always dreamed I would spend the money I had spent most of my life saving on something wonderful, like a vacation or something, I honestly had no plans for it, and thought it might just sit inside that cute little giraffe until retirement.
Alas, come Sunday I realized my dreams of that change collection lasting until retirement came crashing down to reality.With the money poured out onto the table, I was going to spend my savings on a Fridge.
Thats right, a not so exciting Fridge.
The fridge that came with the house died saturday night just as company was arriving. So Sunday morning we fired up a mini fridge to get us by until we could afford a new fridge.
To help us on our way, we rolled over $300 worth of change mostly from Richey.
Now the saving starts again for another rainy day.

Day 21

Well I feel like I am counting the days in solitary confinement or something, only my situation is probably more pleasant and I shouldnt be complaining.

lets review, since day 6.
i've judged a few competitions they have went ok, we had some people over on the 16th, but just as they were arriving, or fridge was dying, and by the end of the night, everything was warming, so we had an emergency on our hands! and no refigerator right now sad.
so hopefully we can get that remidied soon.
on the 17th we went bowling for a niece's birthday, it was a nice break from reality to see 2 year olds bowl.
And a problem tha thas been plaguing our family is spondelothesis, on monday I went and had an X-ray, and thankfully I am free of the problem, however I can not say the same for my other family members.
and finally the big news of 2010 so far, Josh had his 27th birthday, sadly it was low key because we are poor and have no fridge.
but I got him the new wii fit game :)

as for our resolutions, well we havent been back to church, but hopefully this weekend we can do that. Adn we have been working out, we joined a gym recently so Josh has been enjoying that and I went to Zumba once and that was fun and the people at this gym are really nice!
and as for eating healthy, well we are doing our best out of the mini fridge :)

oh and you kno whow I told you I fell down the stairs,
well this is a pic from a week after I fell, the bruise is still on my leg! and its been 2.5 weeks now!
and its still a huge lump... Awesome :)

Oops

well monday didnt end so hot,
I fell down the stairs at work, and now my leg is a great shade of black and purple...
yey

and then yesterday I didnt get to work out because I had to go to bed early to be up at 3 to drive to work for a meeting with china and india...
so our resolutions are sliding a bit, but I think Josh worked out.
and we are still eating healthy!
:)
so thats good

Thinking about yesterdays post

not that Catholic is a bad thing...
but I'm lutheran... so It was just not what I expected.

how do you compromise on your beliefs? Can you?
I dont know...
I guess that is something we need to work out.

in other notes.
back to work today
yesterday got our work out in and made a ton of chicken so we can make these delicious chicken wrap things for lunch...
and tonight Turkey Tacos... we tried them at Sams it was really delicious.

Resolutions continue

Day 2 of the new year and the new resolutions went well.
we ate healthier and we worked out on the wii, although, it said we both gained weight...hm...

today, we got up and went to early service at the lutheran church in town,
it was ok. it felt a little catholic to me.
still deciding if we will give that church another try next week, a different lutheran church, or hit up a baptist church for josh.

also, josh rotated the tires on my car today
yey
and I cleaned did some laundry and took a fabulous nap.
too bad we have to go back to work tomorrow

New Years

Well, This is that time of year where everyone celebrates a new year and a new beginning, and to help that new beginning along, resolutions on how to make this year better than the last.

So this year
josh has resolved to be healthier, meaning, eating better, and working out.
So far so good, yesterday we both worked out on the wii and tried to eat healthier. Josh tried out that Taco bell Drive through diet, he said he was hungry not much later :( so he ate some triscuits and cheese and salami, sounds healthy right??

I resolved to go to church more.
by more, I mean basically if I make it to church one time that is more, but I really want to go to church more often. So tomorrow will be the first sunday, so hopefully we can make it.

hope all of your resolutions are working out too.
We are off to healthy grocery shop!