Top Vacations in Michigan

Warning:
Descending the dune may only take a half hour to get down, but will result in a two hour hike back up.

With this information, I consult my three kids. Do you really want to try it? Everyone has to agree and there will be no complaining on the way up. I received simultaneous excited yes's.

So we go back to the car, get our swim suits on and I pack a backpack with towels, water, and a camera.

We head down. Awesome views. Such natural beauty. We make it down in ten minutes. The girls are excited to go in the water. We head in. The water is refreshing and clear. We had a blast playing in the waves and swimming. It's hard to believe this is Lake Michigan. Caribbean like water without the salt.

After spending an hour in the water, we agree to head up. It is one of the steepest climbs I've made without actually rock climbing. I pack the backpack up and the girls have already started climbing.

Child# 3 made it up in 25 minutes.

Child #2 and #1 made it up in 30 minutes.

It took me 40 minutes. My age is starting to show, but in my defense I had to carry the backpack which completely throws off your balance when climbing. I know it's an excuse, but at least it didn't take me two hours to get back up.

We had such a great time. The girls are at such an awesome age.

Breaking Records

Child #3 rocked third grade with breaking two school records. She beat the one mile record by over 30 seconds at 6:28. She also beat the 600yd dash record matching the boys record at 2:09.

Child #2 improved her one mile time by one minute, which is extremely impressive.

Both Child #2 and Child #3 received awards for their artwork that was showcased at the public library art show.

Watching my children grow, succeed, and stumble through their childhood has been rewarding and challenging at times, but I am honored to help them make choices and decisions to discover what they want out of life and to help them form their own path.

Round Trip

Though this happened about five months ago, I thought I would share anyway.

It was a typical weekday, but Child #1 had a doctors appointment in the morning. In my attempt to accommodate my families schedule, I worked from home until it was time to take Child #1 to the doc appointment. The plan was go to doc appointment, take her to school, and then drive myself to work. From the doctor to her school to work is a 50 minute round trip.



We arrive at the doctors appointment and are met with, "Your doctors appointment is next Monday not this Monday." I'm sure the look on my face was hilarious. The receptionist asks if I would like a later appointment for today. I shake my head no and walk away.

Well that was fun. After dropping off Child #1 at school, I head back the way I came to get to my office. I'm only two minutes away. Stopped at a stop sign, a truck is in front of me. Though I was on the phone (speaker-hands free) with my friend, the truck started to beep. Holy crap! The truck started to back up. I choked and couldn't shift into reverse fast enough. As I'm screaming at the driver who can't hear me, the sound of my front end crunching registers and I step on the gas in reverse. The truck stopped after realizing he hit something. I tell my friend I have to go. She laughs and says to call her back.

Jumping out of my truck ready to through the first swing. The driver came out of his truck and I was already swearing up and down at him. I'm sure the surrounding offices were getting an entertaining show of the crazy lady in her business attire. After I calmed down, he apologized several times. I called the cops and took pictures. Got the driver's insurance and drove off to work with my smooshed front end.

The ironic part of the this story is that my front end was just replaced six months prior due to another accident my truck was in.

My friend later tells me she was so disappointed I hung up with her. She wanted to hear my crazy show when I got out of the truck.

The truck driver's company made it really easy to get my car fixed. I have to say that was nice. Plus no was hurt.

Just in the nick of time

Its amazing what we do for our children.

Child #2 entered the science fair with a friend at school. They decide to do rock candy as their project. Both kids worked together to put create a poster of information and design on their subject. Since it takes a lot of work to make rock candy, the girls decided that they would buy the rock candy to provide samples at the fair instead of making all the samples. Child#2's friend was responsible for getting the samples so I didn't make the mental note to confirm that the samples would be ready for the fair.

Last night was the night before the science fair and Child#2 states at 7:40 PM that her friend couldn't find any rock candy at the store. Of course, my first reaction was why didn't you tell me this earlier. The Handyman goes straight to his phone to find rock candy locally. Walmart pops up as a source. He calls Walmart's customer service to see if they really do have rock candy meanwhile I am making an additional Google search. Half Nut pops up, but it looks like a store online not something locally so I click on it anyway. Just as I'm searching the website. The Handyman repeats Half Nut while talking to Walmart customer service person. Bingo. I check the address. It is a local store and it is open until 8:00 PM. The Handyman quickly calls them to verify they have the rock and candy and they are opened until 8:00 PM. The store is 15 minutes from our house. He rushes out the door.

About half hour later, the Handyman walks back through the door with a disappointed look on his face. I ask, "did you get the candy?" Child #2 skips out to the kitchen, "Daddy, did you get the rock candy?"

The Handyman responded, "They were closed before I got there."

Both Child #2 and I are shocked.

A big smile springs onto his face, "Just kidding! They had a whole bunch of it and it was only $1 per stick."

We bust out laughing. Child #2 says, "Daaaaaddddddd."

The Handyman gets to be super dad for the week. The samples were a hit.

Lesson to Child #2 is to tell mom and dad earlier rather than later. We both emphasized this several times over the next two days.

The Case of the Missing Zip-Loc Bag

Rush, rush, rush. From 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM, we're on the go. Not much down time these days. Occasionally, I remember to pull some kind of protein out of the freezer for dinner. Yesterday morning I was actually on my game, I was able to remember to grab a bag out of the freezer and have a tentative game plan for dinner. I always leave the protein on the counter during the day to thaw (it takes all day to thaw because it comes from our deep freezer).

Half way through the day, I remembered Child #1 had a basketball game. 5:00 PM rolls around and I'm running late coming home from work. Thank God, the coach volunteered to take my daughter to the game that started at 5:15 PM (In the past, I might have shown up almost late to a few games. I was never technically late because I always made game time). So I rushed home to pick up Child #2 and #3, running inside to use the home facilities I realized that the protein was on the counter, making a mental note to put that in the refrigerator. Then we rushed to the game. We were only 3 minutes late to game time. See I'm almost always on time.

The score was 5 to 0, we were losing. Child #1's team was playing the hardest team in the league. Within the next two minutes, we pulled ahead 6 to 5. We actually had a chance. This was so awesome. The girls and I were cheering, it was an intense game. Coaches screaming, crowd grumbling about fouls and missed fouls, players were getting rough. It was the best game ever. Between the time outs, the fouls (one of our girls fouled out), and the ball going out of bounds, the last quarter took 25 minutes.


Last Quarter we took the lead:


Child #1 scored 2 pts and got a 2 pt foul, she scored 1 of the free-throws
18 to 14
22 to 14
One of our girls just fouled out (uh-oh)
22 to 20
22 to 22
3 minutes to go
22 to 24
They took the lead
The other team 2 pt free-throw 
22 to 26
Tons of steals and break-aways but no scores
One of our girls gets 2 free-throws, makes 1 point
23 to 26
Last twenty seconds, we try for a three-pointer.
We missed

What an awesome game! I was so proud of the team. They played their hearts out. It was so much fun for the parents too.

After the adrenaline rush, we stopped at Cousins to get subs. Then headed to the grocery store. We were out of bread and apples for school lunches. Though I provide the choice of hot lunch at school, Child #2 and #3 prefer making cold lunches. Yay, we are saving money.

Finally we're home. We rush around to get ready for the next day and it occurs to me I need to put that protein away. I completely forgot. Oh well. I look on the counter and it's gone. I ask the girls if they threw it away or moved it. Shoulders shrug, puzzled looks appear, and replies of no are said. I check the refrigerator. Maybe in all my rushing around, I forgot I put it in the frig. Nope. Literally, there is no evidence of package or of meat (it was ground up venison meat packaged in a freezer zip loc bag). No bag, no pieces of meat anywhere to be found. It was literally a mystery.

Then it occurred to me to check the dog cage. We found the evidence. The dog ate a half a pound of nicely thawed raw meat. Wow! Child #2 even fed her dog food before we left for the game.

She never touched the meat all day. Yep. She was mad we left. It was a break from routine. We have a very crazy dog or a dog that acts like our 4th child. She is good during the day when we are away, but expects someone to be home with her in the evening (which we normally are). Even though, Child #2 and #3 played with her for an hour before we left for the game. Any break from routine and she needs prozac. Oh well. So far she hasn't gotten sick, but she hasn't eaten anything since either. We'll see how today goes.