Puddle Yuck

The snow has been melting slowly but surely this week, creating a slushy, dirty snow on the streets. Our driveway in particular has a big, muddy, icey puddle at the bottom of it. Well, Matt parked my car on the street today before he left for work. As I walked down the drive with my keys and coffee in one hand, and my purse in the other, I debated..."How am I going to cross this puddle to get to my car?" Each driveway on our street is in the same condition and the snow is piled up a few feet high on either side of the drives. So - I thought I should jump over the puddle, safely onto the street. As I made my way, it seemed very logical. Finally, I took the leap, landed on the other side...but I slipped on the ice and fell straight back into the puddle of muddy water, on my bum. As you're laughing (very hard) please know that I didn't get hurt (I'm sure you're relieved). Although, my pride was crushed. I stood up and thought "Man, now I have to go change my clothes!" But how was I going to get across the puddle again? I sat my wet, dirty, cold self down in my car, drove up the drive, and walked very calmly and cooly inside to change my clothes. I'm not sure if anyone saw me fall, but if so, they had a good laugh about it - and probably still are. Yuck!

P.S. - When I got to work, I realize that the majority of the puddle water landed in my purse. So, I spent the first 15 minutes at the office, cleaning muddy ice water out of the crevices of my wallet. Another, Yuck!

New Lights

Any of you that live in an older home understand the ancient lighting fixtures that come with the purchase. We've lived with our "vintage" lighting for several months now, but are ready for a change. Several weeks ago, when we went to IKEA, we purchased new lighting for several of the main rooms. So, finally, today we have a guy coming over to install them! The only downside is that each fixture takes a 40 watt e-12 bulb - rare. So, we'll have to go stock up. We're excited. Pictures to come.

This crazy life...

What a busy week. It seems like each day we get up, go to work, work really hard all day, and come home feeling like we accomplished nothing. Ever have those days? Well, needless to say, we're looking forward to the weekend. Any Saturday that doesn't have something planned results in a loud "HIP HOORAY" from our home! All week long we look forward to "sleeping in" - for many of you like us that only means that we get up at the same time (7am) but stay in our jammies until 10am. For some reason that feels like sleeping in. One more day left to this crazy work week and the short time of relaxation begins. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as we are.

Seussical the Musical

CSH held their second annual musical last night and it was PHENOMENAL! Matt and I were blown away by the performances of the students. The big "AHA!" moment of the year was when the Sour Karangroo (my sister Leah) entered center stage and sang a seusiccal version of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" - what a shocker! Who knew she could sing and perform like that? My other sister Sarah was one of the back up singers (she's in the middle in orange). The costumes were phenomenal, the performances were hilarious and we couldn't have been prouder of our students than we were last night. It was a fun evening. Enjoy the pictures.

Bloggers Block

Hm...so it's been a pretty standard week, nothing interesting going on...so I don't have much to write. Hopefully something eventful will happen.

Back from Ikea

Our trip to Chicago was a blast and well worth it! We had a great time going back to Moody to hear Allister Begg speak. Then we were off to Ikea in Shaumburg. We had way too much fun, if you know what I mean. :) I secured a cool chalkboard for our kitchen (only $15) and a rug for our kitchen (only $6) and best yet, we got lighting fixtures for 4 rooms (only $65!). Knowing that we would have spent double that in town made us feel justified with what we bought. It was a lot of fun - makes me glad that Ikea is so far away, so we can still enjoy it as a commodity!

Good Dog - Bad Mom

As you've probably read, we're heading out to Chicago tonight for a conference and then to shop at IKEA tomorrow. In all the excitement, I didn't even consider how Booga was going to be taken care of! I'm such a bad mom. So, after many phone calls, we decided to board her at the kennel. It's only $14 a night and they take really good care of her. Well, little did I know that Booga wasn't up to date on her shots. So, not only do we have to spend money to board her there, but we also have to pay $80 for her updated shots. This fun weekend is slowly costing us more money than we had planned on! It would have been cheaper for us to pay someone else to watch her. Oh well...the pangs of being a "parent."

Back to School...Ikea in 3 days!

Schools are open today and Matt is happy to be back to school. I think he was getting major cabin fever. AND, this Friday, we're headed back to Chicago to Founder's Week at Moody. We plan to hear Allister Begg speak on Friday night, then head to IKEA on Saturday. If you don't know what Ikea is, shame on you! It's only the best place to shop for household goods without breaking the bank. I'm super stoked about going.

New Baby

Our really good friends from college, Aaron and Emily, just had their first baby! Miles Murphy Cope was born earlier this week. Isn't he absolutely beautiful? For those of you that know them from Moody, click here to see more of their pics.

2 Down - How Many More to Go?

Thanks to our trusty snow blizzard - Matt has had two days off school in a row. Yesterday, because the snow created treacherous driving conditions and today, because the wind chill is extremely LOW! I think they said the policy on cancelling due to wind chill was if it was -10 degrees or lower. So, it has to be at least -10 degrees outside. Isn't that crazy!

Needless to say, rescue missions all over the country still need to operate, rain or shine. We're kind of like the post office. Just because there's bad weather, doesn't mean we can close our doors on the homeless. I'm at work.

Still Snowed In

Day two of the blizzard and we're still snowed in. The windgusts and freezing temperatures create a very likely temptation to stay in forever. The official temperature this morning was 0 degrees. Yikes! Churches all over the area are cancelled and several shopping malls. The movie theaters even closed last night. Thanks to my brand new trusty winter boots - I'll be shoveling the drive in a few minutes. And regardless of how bad the snow gets, we'll be making the short, 10 block trek to the Littlepages to watch the Super Bowl. GO COLTS! (Rah) GO BEARS! (Matt)

BLIZZARD!

Holland is undergoing its first blizzard in 4 years and we're smack dab in the middle of it. We've been snowed in since this morning. I went out to shovel the driveway earlier. I'm not sure I even made a dent in the snow. We had drifts up to 3 feet and I think we're supposed to get another 8 inches tonight!

Matt and I ventured out earlier to get a few groceries (and snow boots - neither of us owned any!). The roads were fine on the way there, but on the way back we almost got killed. This woman pulled out in front of us - but Matt did a great job pumping the breaks without fish tailing. I think I'm more scared of the other people on the roads than I am driving on them.

My high school friend, Robin, is getting married in less than a half hour and there's no way we're going to be able to make it to the wedding. I feel so bad. But, at least she'll have a great story to tell about her wedding day.

Pray that we don't kill each other over the weekend. Matt's getting a little stir crazy! Enjoy the pictures - knowing you're not here!

My Old New Chair

Many of you know that I am famous for recovering my old chair using $6 fabric and a hot glue gun. Well, she's done it again - to the same chair. When we moved into our house in Michigan, the chair no longer matched the decor. SO - I bought fabric from an outlet store for $1.75 and used my hot glue gun once again to recover the chair. Here's the finished product and I'm quite proud of myself. At this rate, I'll NEVER have to use a sewing machine. *Note - I must credit our good friends Lee & Candace Nordine for the idea in the first place. They did this to an old chair that was Matt's parents', which then gave me the idea to do it to ours.

Busy Weekend

This weekend has been the busiest we've had since moving here. Friday was homecoming for our students. Sarah and Leah (my sisters) are seniors, so this was their big year to walk the homecoming court. We don't have football at Calvary, so the homecoming court happens between the JV and Varsity basketball games. I did Sarah and Leah's hair and makeup for the big occasion. It was an all afternoon event, but a lot of fun.

The high school votes for King and Queen, between the senior class. Sarah was crowned Queen and Paul Hontz was crowned King.

I wondered if there might be some animocity between the sisers (since they're twins), despite the looks of this picture, everything was fine! :)
Then - Saturday was a huge cleaning day, because we had students over last night to paint...

Kitchen Update & More

So, I've been asked a couple of time how the kitchen turned out. Well, the truth is, we have our new appliances in, but I've been totally UNmotivated to finish putting the cabinetry up and paint it. So, now new pictures yet. Sorry folks.

Another reason why I haven't been motivated to do work around the house is because Matt and I have started doing ebay. No, we're not hoping that make that second income in the future (way too much work/pressure), but we do enjoy buying things and then selling them for much more!

On another note...the snow continues to fall here in Michigan. We were blessed with a very mild winter, until January hit. Now Matt truly understands what I mean when I ask him if he's ready for the "Michigan Winter." He's always colder than everyone else :) hehe...and I tell him "It's really not that cold yet."

Small groups officially started at our church this month and we're really enoying it! We meet with a multi-generational group - which we love! We're studying Galatians right now and rejoicing in the truth that we are truly FREE from sin, through the work of Christ on the cross. Isn't is such a blessing to know that we don't have to work for our salvation - but that its already finished? I find such peace in knowing and trusting in Christ as my Savior. I'm reminded each day that my good works are filthy rags - and I am only saved by Christ's righteousness. Thank you for the cross, Lord!

Kitchen Remodel

Leave it to us - we've only lived here for 6 months and we're already re-doing something. About two months ago, we got appliances given to us - a dishwasher, over the cooktop microwave and range - all white. This week we're having the appliance installed and Saturday I'm painting our wooden cabinets white. Matt's been studying a lot in the evenings, so I thought while it's cold outside, I might as well put myself to good use. So, this time next week, you'll be seeing a brand new kitchen. In the meantime, this is a reminder of what the old kitchen looks like...

It's Over Already?

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone! Matt and I spent a wonderful 5 days in Kentucky with family and friends. It was fun to stay with his family and celebrate Christmas the Neal way - it's the first Christmas in my life that I haven't been with my family! I really enjoyed watching Daisha and Jamal open their gifts too. We were able to go to our old church on Christmas Eve. It definitely felt weird to be a "visitor" at what we still consider to be our church. They recently opened a new portion of the building, which was amazing! All in all, our trip to Kentucky was refreshing. And we promise it won't be 5 months before we visit again!

We celebrated Christmas in Michigan with my family last night. We opened presents at 5pm and then headed to Muskegon for a Fury hockey game. Going to the Muskegon Fury has become a Christmas tradition for our family. It's always a lot of fun - mostly watching Matt make a goof of himself. We love to watch the fighting (shh...don't tell dad) and the people that attend the event are also quite amusing. I didn't realize hockey was such a "hick" thing!

Enjoy the pictures!

Painting at the Neals

We had the great privilege of having three senior girls over last night to PAINT - Matt's favorite pass time.

It was Emily and Sarah's first time painting and they did a fantastic job!

Hannah on the other hand is an experienced oil painter and experimented with acryllics last night.

As you can see, it was a lot of fun!

Students Raise $1500, Teacher Shaves Head

You know the saying - "Put your money where your mouth is?" Well, you could say that Matt put his head where the money is. The Senior Class at Calvary raised $1500 through their phone-a-thon - and the reward was shaving Mr. Neal's head. Most of you know that Matt was already half way there, so it isn't too big a change.

Never Ending

School, volleybally practice, play practice, school fundraiser, quick homework, bed, school...Does anyone remember their life being this busy in high school? I mean, I guess I ran around non-stop, but I must have blocked it from my memory - because I am shocked at our busy my sisters are. I'm not sure how they do it?