new series - artwork

i just finished designing the next teaching series artwork for church. dave hasn't actually approved it yet, so there may be some changes. what do you think? the new series will be starting on aug. 11 titled, "what if everyone cared, prayed, shared".

i actually took this picture at the "public market" in downtown seattle this last winter. here is the original photo... gotta love photoshop :)

OUCH!

well, i'm only into this "blog post a day" thing 6 days and i've already blown it :) now, i do have a pretty good excuse..... i was in the e.r at hackley hospital most of the day yesterday passing a kidney stone. seriously, i never need to experience that kind of pain and agony again in my life. i have heard it said that passing a stone and child birth were on the same pain spectrum and i will admit that the two are both extremely painful however there is one blazing difference......when it's all said and done you have a stone vs. a baby.

meeting mackenzie grace

we drove into grand rapids today to meet mackenzie grace. the newest addition to the pohlad family. she was born on her big sisters birthday, july 27. it is james and annies fourth child - amazing! we had a blast hanging out with them, my other brothers and rita and of course all of the kiddos. mackenzie is beautiful and looks a lot like her daddy :)

losing it...

i went into the bathroom, 15 min. before a family (whom i had never met before) was coming over for dinner, and saw an all to familiar sight. pee! all over the toilet. needless to say i was frustrated. so i called the boys and told them they needed to clean the bathroom. i gave them the necessary tools to complete the task and sent them off to clean and i went back to the kitchen. a few minutes later i realized the boys were in the basement bathroom (i wanted them to clean the bathroom off the family room). here is how the conversation went:

me: what are you doing? (shouting, like every good mom, from the top of the stairs)
boys: cleaning the bathroom - and we're all done (very proud of their work)
me: where are the paper towels you were using (i'm not sure why i asked this - i guess i just knew what the answer was going to be)
luke: i flushed them all down the toilet (showing me an empty roll)
me: WHAT!!!! (running down the stairs to see that the toilet was about to overflow. AHHHH! (i totally lost my cool and swore)
boys: i'm sorry mommy!!
me: GET ME THE PLUNGER!!!!
boys: i'm so sorry mommy.
me: go up stairs and clean THAT bathroom.

after cleaning up the mess in the downstairs bathroom i took a deep breath and went and apologized to the boys. i hate it when i lose it on them. they did end up cleaning the right bathroom and they did an excellent job!

just the two of us....

this evening dave and i got to go out, just the two of us. we drove to grand rapids and visited another covenant church, fellowship covenant church. dave heard about a thing that was going on at the church called, the church basement roadshow with tony jones, doug paggit and mark scandrette. when we first got there i began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves in to. however, i was incredibly blessed by the evening and the words spoken by these passionate men about God's great love for his people.

afterwards dave and i went to adobe (one of my favorite drive thru mexican restaurants from back in the day). we sat in the car savoring our meals and enjoying each other. i realized tonight how few times we get to be, just the two of us.

on another note - we are in the middle of our series at church called summer cineplex. this morning james bean spoke to the movie the matrix. i haven't listened to the podcast yet - but i hear it was awesome! so, i thought i would put a link in case anybody else might be interested, click here to listen.

so, if you haven't noticed i am trying to post a blog a day for the month of august. not sure what i am hoping to accomplish - just thought it might be fun :)

beach day!

today we went to the beach for the first time as a family. don't get me wrong we have all been to the beach but not as a family, until today. it was awesome! we borrowed a friends skim board - everyone had to give it a try (except me, i don't need anything broken...lol).

the boys found big sticks and battled each other for over an hour - it was pretty funny to watch. none of us can wait to go back!

Birthday Girl!

our lilly jane turned 5 yesterday. i am amazed that my baby is already five years old. we had so much celebrating her.

can you say "cheese"

she has been so excited about her birthday and loved all the attention. to celebrate we filled the day with all of her favorite things....

happy birthday princess lilly!

1. lots of presents
2. grandparents
3. went to see kit kiterage - an american girl (very, very good)
4. chuck-e-cheese
5. a homemade cookie cake she decorated all be herself
6. a party dress
7. lots of smiles, hugs and goofing around!

HELP!!

i went out into my garage this afternoon to grab a bottle of water and that's when i saw a very unfortunate sight. a very large puddle was forming in front of our freezer. as i went to investigate i realized that the door was open about an inch or so and as i opened the door more water came pouring out. AHHHH! thankfully, everything in the freezer was still cold, defrosted, but cold. the only things i decided to throw out was all the fish, although it was still cold it kinda grossed me out.

so, this is where i need help. i have aprox. 10 lbs. of chicken breasts, 2 lbs. ground beef, 1 lb. italian sausage, 1 lb. ground turkey, 2 lbs. sirloin steak. we are going to grill up the fillets for dinner tonight (nice alternative to the paninis we were going to have). i have everything in my fridge right now, but am figuring i need to make up as many meals with the meat as i possibly can by tomorrow. my hope is to make up meals that i can freeze for a later date - but i can only think of spaghetti sauce. so, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

thanks friends!!

vacation at club diller (aka: mimi & papa's)

every summer, since we moved to michigan, we have taken a week to go to "club diller". dave's brothers family; doug, nettie, claire, abby and sylvia join us from portland, oregon and we all hang out together and our mimi and papas. below is a little synopsis of our wonderful family vacation together.

1) hanging out at the pool
2) all the girls went to the salon for mani's & pedi's
3) ate at tre kroner (my fav. breakfast spot) with jeffy
4) stayed up late with our cousins
5) saw indian jones at the $3 theater
6) hung out with a bunch of old friends
7) went to the city (millenium park, ruths chris, and blue man group)
8) visited new community church
9) i got my hair all chopped off (thanks becky!)
10) celebrated great grandma tena - just because!
11) luke learned how to play chess
12) lots of fort building
13) all the boys went golfing
14) annual diller pool party (lots of aunts, uncles & cousins)
15) lots & lots more....

i'm sure i have forgotten a ton of things. needless to say, we had a blast. it is so wonderful to have such an amazing family to hang out with and enjoy the summer with. i love you all! thanks bob and shar! little reminder, 18 weeks from today till we get to party again together on the disney cruise!!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

This last friday, June 27th, Caleb turned 8 years old. We celebrated as a family all afternoon and evening in celebration of Caleb's big day!

I am so blessed by my oldest son and thankful for the joy he brings to our family. Caleb, I love you so much!!

we spent the day doing the following Caleb inspired things...
1. Qudoba (he loves burritos!)
2. Ice Cream & presents (note the iPod shuffle - he was soooo geeked)
3. WALL-E (he was so pumped that it came out on his birthday - he was sure they did that just for him)
4. BBQ and Birthday Cake! (yummy!)

lilly rides a 2 wheeler!

this morning lilly woke up and announced, "today i am going to ride on 2 wheels". the funny part about her making such a statement is how it reminded me of when she decided she was ready to use the toilet. she walked into the kitchen and just told me she was "done wearing a diaper and wanted to wear big girl panties". it's as though she just wakes up and makes a decision to do something and BAM it's done. today was no different. once we got her training wheels off she got on her bike and without any prompting rode off down the driveway. i was shocked! she spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening going up and down driveways and around and around the cul-de-sac.

lilly we are so proud of you!!!!

florida vacation

we just returned from our 3rd annual trip to don pedro island. it was one of the most relaxing 2 weeks i can ever remember. i am so blessed by my family and the time we are able to spend with each other on this family vacation. below are a few highlights from our trip.

independence

caleb loves to read. about a year ago he started the series, magic treehouse. i bought him the first 12 books in the series and thought that would get him through the summer....HA! he finished all 12 of the books before school was even out and wanted more. throughout this last school year he finished the entire series (30 some books) and was ready to move on to something a bit more challenging. we went to the bookstore and looked through many of the book series that are available and after much deliberation he came away with the first book in the narnia series, the magicians nephew.

so, the other day i walked into the family room and saw caleb laying on the couch curled up under a blanket finishing up the book. he didn't realize i was staring at him - but i was. i just stood there thinking about how big he is and how independent he has become. not too many years ago i dreamed of the day when my kids wouldn't need me for every little thing and would stop begging me to read "brown bear, brown bear" one more time. i felt myself wanting to cry realizing that we are in a new stage of life with our kids. i'm not sad, just aware of how fast it all goes by.

love note...?

luke came home today with this note in his backpack....
all luke had to say was, "weird". i had to laugh.

nyc birthday

for my birthday dave, dave nagel, and i went to the BIG APPLE. we seriously were there for 24 hours and had a blast. enjoy the slide show for a few quick highlights of our trip. which were....

- times square
- st. pats parade
- lunch in soho
- david letterman show (kinda lame)
- hanging out with rupert from hello deli (note pic of me and rupert!)
- dinner & drinks at native with our friends jose, mayra and javier
- walking everywhere and taking the subway
- enjoying jamba juice (we miss it in muskegon)

probably the best part about the trip was that we did it. it was a bit random and unexpected and we all had a blast! thanks for all the birthday wishes - 32 is looking like a great year :)

robin = spring

since we moved to michigan (three years ago) one of the traditions i have fallen in love with is "finding the first robin". on march 16th the above robin was spotted in our front yard. it brings me such delight to see signs that spring is around the corner :)

it's official....

... luke can tie his own shoes. this is a HUGE milestone in our lives not just for luke but for dave and i (or anyone else who has ever needed to put shoes on lukie). God bless my middle child however, i have to tell you there have been many days when i thought i was going to "lose it" over his needy whine when it came to tying his shoes and even worse his whine about how he didn't want to learn. i am so proud of our luke and was thrilled to see the excitement he had on his face when he realized he had "got it"! WAY TO GO LUKE!!!!

wishful thinking

the kids love going outside to play. everyday after school it is a mad dash to get out and explore the new mound left by the snow plow in the front of our yard. at one point this winter the pile was about 6 ft. tall and 20 feet long. yesterday afternoon i looked out our front windows and saw this...even the kids are dreaming of warmer days - lol!

pop-up books and glue guns!

i don't know about you, but i have always loved pop-up books. for christmas, this year, caleb received an amazing one on beasts. he loved it so much he slept with it for several nights. i think what is so fascinating about them is the creativity it takes to make one. they truly can be works of art. speaking of art - this year we have delved into the world of glue guns. with the help of my sister in-law (thank you nettie) i realized that my kids were/are old enough to handle a glue gun. these are very exciting times!! we are fortunate enough to have a craft room in our house filled with many wonderfully creative things for our entire family to "craft" with. in any given week we can spend countless hours creating. so, some of you may be wondering where i'm going with all this and so here it goes......

i walked into the craft room this afternoon and saw a bizarre sight. i called lilly in and asked, "what is this?" she looked at me sheepishly and said, "i wanted to make my own pop-up book". so, with the help of a piece of paper, a glue gun, and several plastic dolls and furniture pieces she went to work. i couldn't help but laugh...... she had literally glued everything down on a piece of paper with the hopes of creating her own pop-up book story!

long time...

so, it is a new year. i have all sorts of things to post and a bunch of pictures which helped capture the holiday season. however, i haven't had time to post anything because it seems all of my efforts have gone to designing the new renovate website and promo material for the new church (which has an official launch date of feb.10). so, for anyone who would like to check out the new site please visit www.renovatechurch.com. so, now that my workload is lessening i hope to post some pics and stories from the holidays :)