Phenomenon

Have you ever moved your refrigerator? Go ahead, try it. You'll find yourself absolutley and utterly disgusted. Especially if you have pets! I moved my fridge to paint underneath the cabinets last night and what a surprise I had. LOTS of dust, milk tops, twist ties, and hair - the animal kind. YUCK!

Kitchen Progress

My kitchen is slowly but surely being redone. I decided to put up a new backsplash today. I was certain I liked it at the store several months ago, and even brought a sample home to double check. But, now that its finished, I'm not so sure. Although, maybe once I get my cabinets painted tomorrow, it won't look so bad. It's very coppery though. Anways...enjoy the pics. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have a finished kitchen to show off.

And They're Off...

...to Zambia! Matt's team left this morning at 7am for Africa. What a fun experience! The last few days have been crazy, getting him ready to go. But, when he left today, he looked excited and very much ready to lead the trip. Two adults and 13 students - what a crazy time! They will be gone for two weeks, working and teaching in Zambia. Pray for them. It will be an exhausting experience - but definitely something they will never forget.

In the meantime, I'm home. I have LOTS of plans while Matt's gone. Including, getting the kitchen cabinets paitned (some of you are saying "FINALLY!"), installing new counter tops, going to a wedding out of town, cleaning, lots of laundry - and I suppose a little shopping. Hehe.

Anybody want to come for a visit? Now would be a great time - besides, I could use some help painting.

Wild Wild Weekend

What a weekend I had! I just returned from Tennessee, visiting college friends that just had their baby. What fun! Not only did I get to spend 24 hours in a car with my college roomy, but we also were able to love on the most adorable baby I have seen in a long time. Miles Murphy Cope is yummy! We spent a few days enjoying 80 degree weather near the Smoky Mountains. And now, I'm back in Michigan, preparing for my husband to go to Zambia. It'll be a lonely couple of weeks, but very prosperous. I plan to do a lot of things that have gotten pushed to the side while playing the role of wife. Should be a grand ole' time!

Let's see...

Right now our life is filled with studying, packing, emailing, calling, arranging, preparing, worrying, laughing and MUCH MORE!

Matt leaves for Zambia next week, I'm going to Tennessee this weekend...are we crazy you ask? Probably.

And that's all we have to update you on for right now.

Oh and here's a picture of the Zambia Team t-shirt that Matt and I designed. Enjoy!

Zambia in 2 weeks

As every other teacher in the world is preparing for a relaxing week off during Spring Break, my husband is preparing to board a jet plane with 10 high school students and one other teacher to Zambia, Africa! He is really stoked about going, although the stresses of planning a trip like this can sometimes cloud the excitement - especially in the few days before the trip takes place. So, needless to say, his joy is accompanied with thoughts of responsibility. Pray for him?

Also, I'll be staying home alone during those 2 weeks. I'm planning to FINALLY finish painting my kitchen cabinets and hopefully surprise Matt with a finished kitchen when he returns. I may even venture out and get new counter tops installed...but SHHH that's between us. (He never reads this blog.)

Well, hope everyone is enjoying life. Cheer up - warmer weather is on its way!

Home and Sleepy

We're back from California and what a time we had! It was very refreshing for both Matt and I - even though I was technically there for work. Though the weather wasn't as warm as we would have liked, it was still a lot better than snow in Michigan. 60 degrees and a little breezy. The beach was gorgeous. I spent most of the week in meetings, but had a lot of time to relax. On Friday, Matt and I drove down the coastline, through Malibu and into Santa Monica. We spent much of the day in Santa Monica, on the pier and shopping near Santa Monica Blvd. It was really fun. So, now we're back to reality and 4 hours behind schedule. We're hoping to be caught up on our sleep by tomorrow. We'll see.

California - HERE WE COME

So, I'm going to our annual marketing conference in sunny Mandalay Beach, California and Matt is coming with me. Should be a good time away from the cold weather. Hopfeully I will learn a lot from our marketing company - and Matt will have some time to catch up on pleasure reading and sleep! Fun, fun - we've never been to Cali.

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!