I am excited to say that a cousin of mine did end up running the 25k and finished 63rd in his division with a time of 1 hr 49 minutes and 27 seconds!!    Way to go Darrin!!!   We are proud of you!!

So what did we do last week?!? 

Monday ~ As far as I remember, Monday was just a normal day here and then at night Kevin had Karate. 

Tuesday ~ We ended up having some friends over for dinner.   We grilled up Paul’s famous Venison Wraps and fried up some of Paul’s turkey that he shot the week prior.   After dinner we sat around talking for awhile before heading out to the back yard and had our first fire for the year.  You couldn’t of asked for nicer weather… the heat from the fire warmed you up and there were NO MOSQUITOES!!  

Wednesday ~ We started hauling stuff over to my sister’s as we were going to be having a garage sale there this weekend.  Around 3:30 we just about had it all set up and started asking why not just open it up now to see how we would do and we were surprised at the number of people who showed.  Honestly, I think that was my best day selling and we were only open for 2 1/2 hours.

Thursday ~ Got the kids off to school and went to my sister’s and helped with the garage sale.    It was actually a slower day.. a lot of people coming in the morning, but just walking through and leaving without buying anything.   Then around 2 it started picking up and people were buying things, except it also started looking a little dark.  Carl went inside to find out that rain was indeed on the way and since most of our stuff was outside and we started feeling the sprinkles we decided to close up and hauled as much as we could into the barn and covered everything else while my Dad went to pull down the sale signs.   What was nice was since we closed early and it was a slower day I wasn’t to tired to take Kevin to Karate, so that’s what we did at night.

Friday ~ Another day spent over at my sister’s house.  Let me just way the kids had so much fun since they weren’t at school.  By the afternoon they were looking a little on the tired side so my sister threw in a Little House on the Prairie DVD and let them just veg for a little while.  Of course it wasn’t to long and the boys were back outside playing.  It was once again another slow selling day and we just figured it was due to there are so many sales on Thursdays & Fridays.   So we decided to skip having it Saturday and doing it Tuesday and Wednesday of this week instead.  Of course now they are talking rain on Wednesday.  Oh joy!

Saturday ~ Paul ended up taking the kids to our friends house (who was over on Tuesday) so they could feed their fish and while they were doing that, I finally was able to go grocery shopping!  Now I know why I like grocery shopping during the week instead of on the weekend!  Not only were there more people there, but things I wanted were sold out as well.  I got home and Paul and the kids were still gone so I had fun (seriously I did) picking up/cleaning and having it stay that way.  It’s amazing how much faster you can clean without the helpers in the house.   I couldn’t help but think is this what it’s going to be like in a couple years with both are in school full days?!?

Sunday ~ We did our normal going over to my parents house for lunch!  Even though I’ve seen them all week long, it was still enjoyable to go over there to have some more adult conversation.  But this is what I did learn yesterday when I was over there….

Yup… Kevin’s 2 new bottom teeth are coming in before his others ones fell out.    Here I couldn’t wait until he lost his first tooth, but how sad knowing he won’t have that empty feeling because his other ones are already coming in.  I guess this is common.. just that I never heard of it before.  I did call his dentist this morning and they said for us to wiggle it a lot in hopes that it comes out on it’s own.  If not, then I’m suppose to call back again next week and they more than likely will end up pulling it.   So time will tell I guess.

Anyways.. tha’ts what we have been up to.  This week will be just as crazy, but I’ll try to post more often. 

That’s where I wish there was something I could do to get rid of it for him so he could go headache free for while.  I found a psoriatic arthritis treatment, but first off I don’t know if that’s the kind of arthritis he has.  (Honestly I didn’t know there were certain kinds)  Plus after reading the warnings on it I’m thinking maybe he would be better to have the headaches.  Of course who am I to say since I’m not living with them every day.

Guess I’ll just keep searching and praying I can find something all natural that will help him.

The last time I had shopped for Pasta I had only found one that had a higher % for the Dietary Fiber and it didn’t taste terrible, but I also wasn’t totally in love with it either.

Then a couple weeks ago Mom Central along with Ronzoni Smart Taste ended up having a blog tour which I was lucky to participate in and was thrilled after I watched the Supermom Video that the spaghetti I was going to be trying was not only high in fiber, but an excellent source of calcium!  (It is a cute video if you want to watch it)

So when I received my package in the mail I couldn’t wait to give the Ronzoni Smart Taste a try.   Was it going to taste like cardboard, or was it going to taste like every other spaghetti?

I’m happy to say it ended up tasting like all the other spaghetti we’ve ever made!  Actually most of the time I have left overs for the following day, but this time I didn’t.   So that tells me even my sometimes picky eaters even enjoyed it even though it’s 3x’s the fiber and calcium equal to an 8 oz glass of milk!!  What a great way to sneak more fiber and calcium into a diet than with smart taste pasta!

If you would like to try some Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta, just visit their website and click on their promotions & coupons and you can sign up to get a coupon for $1 off 2 boxes!

I just want to say thank you to Mom Central & Ronzoni for giving me the opportunity to try their Smart Taste Spaghetti.  Had I of not tried it, I probably would of stuck to the same ol’ pasta because I know my family liked that kind.  Now I know which brand of pasta I can get that’s high in fiber for my family and tastes great!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Ronzoni Pasta and received a sample of Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta to facilitate my review and a $20 thank-you gift certificate.”

Tuesday night my friend’s daughter called (she is Katie’s age) and wondered if we wanted to come over and play.  So the kids & I quick picked up the living room and off we went.  (I knew we would be getting home late and wanted to make sure everything was picked up so they could go straight to bed)  Like usual we had a fun time over there.  Katie & O (that’s what I’ll call her) played in their swimming pool while Kevin had fun playing with their train set and I had fun being able to have adult conversation!   It’s just nice to be able to have fun/relaxing nights like that.

Wednesday, Paul andI ended up taking the kids to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.  That was the first time we took the kids there and we all had a good time.  Of course Daddy takes a little to long looking at stuff (he thinks he needs to read EVERYTHING) so the kids & I went ahead and I just had fun pointing out things and seeing their minds at work.  The fun part of the day was all of us being able to ride their carousal.   Paul didn’t dare get on it thinking he might brake something, but as soon as I got on he knew it would be ok.  It was cute.. Kevin & I took some horses in front of Paul andKatie so I turned around and there was Paul and Katie holding hands the whole time.  Talk about priceless!  I’ll have to download the pictures so I can show you!  The other fun thing was we had stopped in the printing store (they have a street of what it looked like back in the day with stores that are filled with stuff back then) there was a volunteer working and printing book marks.  He was explaining the whole process of what they had to do back then, Paul was asking him questions when all of a sudden he asked the volunteer if he had taught at Hudsonville High School.   He said yes, when Paul said I thought so.. you were my teacher!  What a small world!  They have fun talking about old times and probably could of talked longer had the kids not of wanted to go check out the other “stores”.

Then last night Kevin got to start back up with his Karate.  They had the last 2 weeks off due to the instructors being gone on vacation.  I had to admit it was kind of nice not having to take him twice a week to class, but once we were back in class you should of seen Kevin.  He was so slap happy, smiling and giggling all the time.  When I asked him about it on the way home he said he was just so happy to be back there.  Everyone seemed happy to be back! 

Today I ended up running up to Meijers to get some stuff for tomorrow (we have our annual family reunion up at Big Star Lake) and I ended up finding out that Meijers started putting most of their toys on clearance!  It must be they are starting to make room for all the new toys for Christmas!  So, since there was a whole aisle that was 50% off I decided now would be a good time to get some Christmas shopping done since the kids were home with Paul!  Needless to say I know Kevin will be really excited this year.  Of course I’m not sure if what I bought will be for Christmas or his birthday which is in November.  I was able to find a couple things for Katie, but most of the stuff I saw for her was only 25% off so I thought I would wait a little longer for those things.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week.  What have you been up to?  Anything fun?

It always seemed like when went went on vacation we would always have issues too!  Our issues always seemed to be with something happening to our vehicles.  All I know it was probably a good thing we didn’t have an RV because it’s probably easier to find a car towing company versus a rv towing company.  I guess when my sister-in-law heads out west they will be camping it with a tent. 

Here’s wishing them a safe trip out west and back home!  May they not have to visit a bunch of car repair shops like we did when I was little.

Have you done any upgrades to your house lately?  If so, what did you do?

So I thought in case you didn’t know what to do for a couple minutes today (and until the contest ends) and wanted to cast a vote for a great cousin of mine (SAHM to 3 boys) then just follow this link…..

http://www.nickjr.com/home/super-fan-contest.jhtml

Hers is the one where one kid is a doctor and the other 2 are animals.

Her words on the side say.. My child is a Diego Super Fan. He loves to watch Diego, wear Diego clothes, read Diego books, and play with Diego toys. In this picture he is checking on his “animal brothers”: baby bear and giant puppy.

If you do go off to vote… THANK YOU SO MUCH and if you need for me to vote for you on something, just let me know!