July

June has been a busy month here at Huizinga Zoo and will continue to be right till the last day of the month. We still have one more Birthday sleepover to go.

You know the scroll down as you read till you get to the heading JUNE then you have caught up on what has been happening here at our home.

Oh and a reno/rental update, its 99 percent done, just molding around the floors and a bit of plumbing to do. Rental sign will go out front by early next week I suspect, so that it can be rented before school starts here in mid. August. Its been an adventure but it is so satisfying to see it this close to completion.

July holds, the 4Th, my vein surgery, vacation bible schools, zoo camp and teen camp!!! as well as lots of relaxing by the pool. I love summer.

How I Paid for our Anniversary Getaway

It has been a while since I have had a real good go through of our home. I needed a reward to get me going, so when I saw our 15Th anniversary coming up on the calender and the church camp for the children providing the sitting we need to go somewhere, and then a community rummage being held in the neighborhood of our soon to be rental, I decided to go for it.

I actually had 3 sales, earlier in April I took part in a homeschooling book sale and sold a lot of our phonics books that we no longer need. Then a neighbor was having a sale at her house and was so kind to offer to host my stuff there, and then there was the community rummage where I made over $650 in the 2 days of the sale. All together between the 2 sales I paid for our trip, and still came home with a bit, and we did not cut corners either, we had a great hotel room, great food, and just kicked backed and enjoyed our time (read next post).

I still have various items left of eBay quality, that I might spend one day doing a listing fest and raise money to go camping with the kids, or spend a few nights in a hotel room during zoo camp in Fort Wayne. But we will have to see if busy schedual of renovating, and summer fun allows me to squeeze that in.

Where We Spent Our 15 Year Anniversary

Mackinac Bridge

This is the view of the Bridge from the ferry that takes you to Mackinac Island, that is located on the tip of the Michigan State. We decided that would be our destination for our 3 day 2 night get away just the evening before we left. So we packed our bags, sent the 2 youngest ones to church camp and Thomas to a friends house, and set off. Jack got this brilliant idea to travel up the east side of the shore of Michigan, can I just say that roads here are not built for scenic drives! But still it was a blast as we laughed about our boring drive, and how many times we got lost, and God was good for us by granting my desire to run into a Tim Horton's (not available in Indiana) where I enjoyed a iced cap. and we both munched on donut holes. And even though our intention was not to eat at a golden arches, a queen or a king, the entire time. We had to break down and settle for the arches our first night out of pure desperation when at 8pm we still had not hit our destination and were still hopelessly LOST!!! Jack ate bites of his big mac and me my chicken grill in between fits of laughter and cries of frustration.
But when we got to our hotel room and were greeted by this view it was all worth it!!! Our hotel was right on the shore of lake Michigan. Great king size suite with a Jacuzzi tub and a TV in the bathroom. You could open up the doors to the patio and hear the lakes waves and if you closed your eyes you felt like you were at the ocean.

The next day we headed out with our bikes to the ferry that took us to Mackinac Island. The island does not allow cars, or motorized vehicles of any kind, so it was a bike riders dream. We did the 8 mile loop around the island taking many rest stops along the way to enjoy the view. Then spent the afternoon exploring the old English Fort.

that's me enjoying my morning cup of Joe, I am afraid the years are catching up with me, I am not really ready to go for the day till I have had either a cup of good green tea, or coffee filled with skim milk and a bit of sugar.

Me and My best friend enjoying the boat ride to the island. I cannot believe we hit number 15 already. I figured out that by my next birthday, I will have spent more than half my life with this man. We complete each others sentences, often express the same thoughts at the same time, and enjoy working together. Yeah we grumble at each other from time to time, but we make up quick and we laugh at the grumbles later. I cannot imagine sharing this adventure called "life" with anyone else, and hey I think we make cute children together too!

All in all a great anniversary trip, and I cannot wait till next year to pack up and explore another area together.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Father's Day landed right smack in the middle of a 6 day stretch of 12 hr shifts for Jack. So we skipped church that day to squeeze in some time to honor our "Dad of the house". Which of course meant we all woke him up by screaming "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY" at the top of our lungs while barring gifts.
One of our traditional gifts is "a father's day slogan T-shirt" which I am sure you are all glad of cause that means my hubby isn't topless in these next photo's. The other traditional gift is handmade cards by all his children.

We then went downstairs to have a "Father's Day feast" that consisted of biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes, and fruit salad.

And this is a picture of My Hubby's plate, mmm....., That's an Indiana Breakfast right there. Probably why we are known as "the heart attack state"

Courtney's Big day in reverse

(sorry one of these days I am going to remember that blogger enters pictures in reverse order)

All I can say about this picture is that if you are going to put sparklers on a Birthday cake don't light them in the kitchen and then carry the cake 20 feet, cause you end up with a very dramatic cake entrance!!!
Here it is my barbie cake, those of you on my facebook page, know that this took me all day to create, and although I think it looks like Barbie covered in inner tubes, Courtney and her friend were quoted saying "IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CAKE I HAVE EVER SEEN" (nope I am not lying jack heard it too! so that makes the whole very frustrating day worth it!!!

This is what Barbie cake "TAKE ONE" looked like. Ummm ya, that Internet site that I got my directions off of, said nothing about putting in two cake mixes!! I was thinking of just icing it and calling it a day, but Jack came into the kitchen and said "WOW THAT LOOKS LIKE A BACHELOR PARTY CAKE" and then I realized that this cake was rather PG13 and decided I needed to try again (thus the above photo)

Dinner, both June babies decided to have sleepovers for their parties this year
(Aiden's is tomorrow) Courtney decided on a menu of hot dogs and hamburgers. Now I thought every child liked either hot dogs or hamburgers well see the child beside Courtney in the Red shirt, ya, she asked Jack and I for a "nice juicy carrot" instead. Great group of girls though, my daughter is blessed to have great friends.

Birthday morning, We let our kids open family gifts first thing when they wake
up which is why Jack looks so dead to the world cause he had to work the night before and Courtney without telling me, went into our room to wake her daddy up so she could open her gifts (rule is they have to wait till daddy is up, now I am thinking I will have to alter that rule)

All in all Courtney had a great birthday, she had lunch out with the family at Wendy's, and did arts and crafts all day till her friends arrived.

I can't believe my littlest is 8 years old already!!! I am totally ready to have that almost middle age oops. baby! Too bad the hubby isn't. Sigh....................oh well, I will just borrow cuddles from the children in the church nursery.

Jack's Last BirthdayYep you read the title right, this is a picture of Jack's last birthday. You see he says he is not hitting 40, so from now on we won't be celebrating his day thus his 39Th year of life will just go on........................................well until his final day of life here on earth.

I think his last birthday was a good one. We went out for lunch at the flattop grill (with free birthday coupon of course). Its a restaurant where you get to create your own stir fry. Then he bought himself a new pair of runners, (to work in not to run in, I felt bad for the poor runners, I can hear them screaming to be used for their intended purpose, poor things are going to need Prozac in a month just to make it through life, since they sadly will never experience the thrill of doing what they were designed to do).

We then headed home, for a nap, followed by a steak dinner on the grill. Then a movie with the kids (oh and by the way I think the new "Alice in wonderland" is demented!!!). And then came Jacks favorite part of the day, HIS CHERRY CHEESE CAKE.

The next day we continued the celebration in the afternoon, with a pool party at our friends home. And another cake was served that we labeled "the pink mountain cake" for all the children. Now either you have a mind of innocent youth right now and have no idea what I am talking about, or you are a member of my family and laughing your head off. HE ASKED MAKE IT!!! AND HE SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO GIVE ME A CHALLENGE AND NOT EXPECT ME TO RISE TO IT, and that is all I have to say on that matter, cause this blog is family rated, so you will have to ask me personally to see the pics.