Weekend happenings ...

Not a whole lot new to report today ... so some bullets:

• Spent some time Friday and Sunday over at my folks painting ... the kids have been good about helping out with that (meaning, they play nicely, and let us work quickly).
• Saturday Amy, Dave, and the kids came up from Crystal Lake for the day. We all did the Home Depot craft, and the kids were great playing together. It made for a pretty darn relaxing day for us adults!
• We got an offer on our CA house, but I don't think anything will pan out with that. It looks like it was just someone fishing for a steal.
• Sunday we did a lot of relaxing!
• We went out to Chinese as a family on Sunday evening. I think we found only the second reasonably priced local restaurant that we'd actually recommend to someone!
• Sub point to the eating out ... we decided that Sunday evening eating out really should happen more in the late afternoon in order to maximize happy moods/good attitudes. There were no blow ups or anything, the kids just get tired early on a Sunday.
• Emma is really getting to be quite a reader. I think that on average, they take the reading at Woods slower than what we were used to in SoCal, and what I observed to some degree with our niece Sarah in Crystal Lake. But I think Emma's really starting to get the hang of it. Now if only she had more time when she wasn't quite so tired!
• Emma is also really enjoying math puzzles lately ... things like "start with your age, take away 3, double the result to get me". She's always asking me to make them up for her ... good stuff.
• Timmy continues to have a very active imagination. Whether it's playing with his imaginary friend mouse "Jack", or building robots from legos, or having the occasional nightmare at night ... I think all of that comes from his very good imagination.
• Tim is also really into listening to books on CD in his room right now. He loves to build robots and draw while he does that.
• Emma has three loose teeth currently ... she's really wanting some to fall out as she's the only one in her class that hasn't lost a tooth this school year. She's even been specifically asking for apples a lot lately, just to loosen those loose teeth faster.
• Cyndie has been very busy getting ready for the MOPS spa night which is coming up this weekend. She's pretty excited because they have lots of vendors (for facials, manicure/pedicure, massages, hair, etc) coming, which should allow all the ladies that come to be very pampered!

Have a good week all!

The weekend ... yeah!

Well, the weekend approacheth, and I'm looking forward to it. The big excitement for the kids yesterday afternoon was going in the jacuzzi. Cyndie got Emma some better swim goggles, and she wanted to try them out, so they did! We had dinner at my folks, and did some painting for them after that. After we were pooped, and went to bed by 9pm.

It's pretty cold and windy today, with a bit of flurries, but I think that winter is on its way out over all. Most of the snow is gone from the lawn, and after super-freezing temps the last couple of days, the frozen ground is beginning to get a bit mushy. We're looking forward to things drying up a bit so that the kids can spend more time outside.

It should be a quiet weekend. I don't think we have much planned!

Thursday

A quick update on the happens of late, with a little bragging first.

Last night, after dinner, Emma was on a mission. She wanted to play the Emma and Timmy game, so we told her the more you help clean up dinner, the faster we'll be ready. So she was off. Clearing the table, rinsing off the dishes, loading the dishwasher ... awesome. She was all business. She was such a big help. When Cyndie and I both praised her and her great attitude, she gave a little smile, but I think that inside she was really bursting with pride/excitement that she was such a big help!

Had bowling last night ... that was fun. I've figured out the flaw in my game (I'm sure there is far more than one), and am back on the upswing in regards to consistently scoring well. It was a fun night, but the Ham Fighters (my league team for those of you not paying attention) ran into an incredibly hot Shomer Showers team (I have no idea what that means) meaning we only took 2 out of 7 possible points.

Today, the kids both have school, and Tim has a play date with his friend Ben until 3 or so ... meaning Cyndie has most of the day to herself! Amazing, I wonder what she'll do with her freedom! Tonight we're going to meet (me from work, Cyndie and the kids from home) over at my folks to work more on painting ... the kids really like to play over there.

Plowing along ...

Not a whole lot new in the life of the Wildwood DeVries these days.

• The virus/sickness/whatever that hit over the weekend appears to have been kicked. We've had no sickness since Sunday morning!
• The kids finished up their "Winter I" session of swim lessons. Both are on to the next level for next session. After that, we'll probably switch to sports for each of them ... likely soccer
  
• Cyndie has been actively recruiting volunteers in the spa/salon industry for the MOPS Spa Night. She's seen some results lately and is optimistic that there will be a good crew for the even at the beginning of March.
• We're looking at a spell of warmer weather for the next several day. Today is already in the upper 30s, with rain starting to fall when I walked into work this morning. It looks like we will have a combination of snow/slush/rain around for the next several weeks.
  

The weekend has closed ...

Well, our weekend did not go exactly as we had planned. We planned for a busy Saturday, and then a some sledding with friends on Sunday. Unfortunately, Emma was sick in the night on Friday, so we canceled all our Saturday plans, including a birthday party at a bounce place, and having some friends over for music/dinner. Oh well. Both the kids actually acted fine all day. We did end up going out to Home Depot for the craft (Emma made a jewelry box, and Timmy some book ends). The afternoon was kick back, relaxing, movies, painting our crafts.

During the night Emma threw up again (crazy!?). So I went to church to do the worship team thing, but Cyndie and the kids stayed home. Our sledding "date" with friends was also canceled. We ended up getting out a bit to go over to my folks place (while they're out of town) to work a bit on tearing out their old carpet in their bed room, and getting it ready to paint. We ended the weekend with a "family movie night" ... Return to Neverland. I also did some work on the current project for our art class ... we had to do something with a Raggedy Ann and Andy in it. I'll try to post a picture of that (and Cyndie's) after class Tuesday night.

So there you have it. We're back into the groove of things for another week, hopefully with health!

Introducing the newest member of our family ...

No, we have not replaced Albert. Rather, Cyndie has worked her magic again and has found us a steal on Freecycle.

I got home today while Cyndie and the kids were still out at Grand Geneva ice skating. I found the dishwasher half pulled out of the counter, and tools everywhere. It turns out Cyndie had found a free dishwasher, and wanted to surprise me by putting it in while I was gone. She had gotten it most of the way out, but needed a bit of help in the end (plus she didn't expect me quite so early). Anyway, I called her and she told me the about what she'd found. I took the old dishwasher out, and when she got home (she had the new one in the back of the suburban), we carried it in, and I installed it.

Now, for the first time in six or so months, we have a working dishwasher.

And the best part, is that the dishwasher is brand new! That girl is amazing. I think the deal must have been (I'm guessing this since the lady from whom Cyndie got the dishwasher said they just bought the house) that the last owners of the house had replaced some or all of the appliances in order to help sell the house, but then the new owners wanted a different color (the dishwasher is black, so it matches what we've got in our kitchen).

So there you have it, we have a brand spankin' new dishwasher, and our cash outlay for said dishwasher is $0.00!

Friday update

It's been a whirlwind last several days.

Wednesday was the strangeness of putting Al down, then a rain/snow storm that made the roads REALLY icy from about 5 - 7 pm, then bowling (Bible study was canceled for Cyndie).

Then Thursday was a short day of school for the kids (parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon and evening), Uncle Gow came into town for a very brief stay*, our parent-teacher conference (all good things, Mrs. Hintz loves Emma and says she's an excellent student), and worship team practice.

*Long story short, Gow and I are submitting an application to be on the Amazing Race. It's a long shot, but we're excited about it. It turns out making a three minute video of ourselves which shows why we would be good contestants in one afternoon/evening was a lot harder than we expected! Unfortunately, we were up against a deadline to get it submitted, so we'll go with what we've got!

Now today, the kids have the day off school, so they're going ice skating at Grand Geneva, I'm at work. Cyndie and I are looking forward to an evening of nothing, and sleeping in tomorrow. We're having some friends over on Saturday afternoon, so that should be fun.