Archive for the ‘Paul’ Category

It’s hard to believe that 9 years ago I was getting my hair all done while having butterflies in my stomach. In 2 hrs I would be walking down an aisle with my Dad and would soon be Paul’s wife.

I was not really nervous for marrying Paul as I knew he was the guy.. I was just nervous to have to talk in front of all these people as I hate speaking in public and would I be able to hold everything together since the night before at rehearsal didn’t go as planned.  I was an emotional wreck of course I still think most of it was due to my Dad being sick and wasn’t able to be there.  I’m such a Daddy’s girl it was killing me. He ended up feeling a little better the next day and was able to walk me down the aisle, but sucked on a lot of cough drops to keep him from coughing. (What a trooper)

Our reception was right at the church. I picked that location just because living in Michigan you never know what March weather might contain. We could either have no snow and in the 40’s OR we could have a huge blizzard. In case there was a blizzard I didn’t want for my guest to have to drive somewhere else in that bad weather if they didn’t have to.

The only oops at the reception, which I didn’t know about until later, was one of the cloth napkins by the food ended up starting on fire, but thankfully the caterer’s caught it right away. Wouldn’t that of been something to of had the Church caught on fire. I would of felt AWFUL!

So what’s has changed in the last 9 yrs for us? We bought a house and are now living in Hudsonville, MI. (Which isn’t new for Paul as we only moved 1/2 mile from his parents house) We went from both working to now Paul being the only one working outside the house as I’m a stay at home mom to 2 wonderful, yet busy, kids. I swear this job is the hardest one I’ve ever had. Kevin is in Kindergarten and Katie is in the 3 yr old preschool program so I can have 5 hrs a week to myself! 

Now I sit back and wonder… how different will my life be another  9 years from now?!?   Kevin will be a freshman in high school (Yikes) and Katie will be in junior high (double yikes)!    I think I better start doing what everyone says to do.. sit back and enjoy the time with the kids when they are little like this because they grow up fast!

Anyways…  Here are a couple pictures of our wedding day.  I hope you enjoy!

Paul and I at the reception.

This is our wedding cake and yes.. that is a Buck & Doe as our cake topper. (We both were deer hunters at the time.. since having kids my deer hunting has come to a stop for now)

 Finally.. I thought I would share with you the song we played when we lit our unity candle.

I just wanted to say I’m so thankful that Paul has been learning over the years how to fix our own trucks & cars.  Thankfully we have the older style vehicles where there isn’t as much electronical stuff to go wrong.  For example this past week his radiator went kaput so he ended up replacing it all by himself saving us quite a bit of money.  What’s really nice though is when you are able to find a deal on Mopar performance parts so you don’t have to pay top dollar.

Even though he was able to fix that, I guess he did find some more things that are wrong with it, so we will still be taking it in Monday to get fixed, but at least it won’t be as much as it could of been.  Wish us luck that whatever else needs fixing won’t cost us an arm and a leg.

Since getting the internet do you find yourself looking up more and more reviews before making that purchase? I know I have since I want to get the most out of my money. For example for Christmas we wanted to get Katie one of those art easels and the first place I went was amazon.com so I could read people’s reviews to see what was good and what wasn’t. I’m glad I did too because I was just going to go with the Melissa and Doug one as I know they are a good name, but found out by the reviews that they now are making them somewhere else and the quality has gone down his quite a bit. (For example the holes didn’t line up for the one person) So we ended up going with a different one that might of cost a little bit more, but had very high reviews.

Then what else I find interesting is reading things like accutane reviews.  Thankfully I don’t have to take any of that medication, but reading the reviews and especially what the side effects are you sure would know what to take and what to stay far away from. 

Because reading online what the side effects are from the sleeping pills Paul has been taking I’ve been able to start weaning him off of them.  Did you know that his ever so precious Ambien causes 3 different kinds of cancer in animals and all the other sleeping pills seem to cause some kind of cancer?!?  After watching our friends wife, our neighbor (who they both are our ages) and our friends son all battling cancer right now it sure made him think twice about popping another pill.  Since then he has been trying to do other things to get a good nights sleep (like taking the hot shower when he gets home from work).  So far it seems to be working a little bit.  He still wakes up tired, but he did on the sleeping pills too.  Of course this week he has only been working till 11pm instead of 1am, so maybe that has something to do with it too?   Who knows.. all I know is I’m glad he isn’t popping those pills anymore!

In case you a have a guy you need to buy for (I guess you could get them for a lady as well, but Paul uses them way more than me) a practical Christmas gift that wouldn’t be so costly would be to get them some cable ties.  I know you’re probably wondering why in the world would you want to buy someone some cable ties, but my parents ended up getting Paul and my brother-in-law some for Christmas a couple years ago and both Paul and my Brother-in-law ended up liking it.

At first Paul thought what am I going to do with these, but before long he realized how useful they were!   What Paul used them for was… hanging Christmas lights outside in the trees, working on cars, wrapping up excess cords, attaching tree branches to his tree stand… etc.

Paul’s advice though… when buying some, find a container with all different sizes in it like my parents did because you never know which size you will need.

All I can say is our Thanksgiving of 2009 was so not what we expected.  Usually my extended family will meet over at my aunts house for a potluck dinner.  I always bring the snicker salad and this year I also was going to make some meatballs.  Unfortunately due to the illness in our house earlier in the week I had decided we wouldn’t be attending the Thanksgiving dinner just in case we were still contagious even though I didn’t think we were, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

So for our small Thanksgiving meal here at home we decided we would have Venison wraps, snicker salad (hey.. I had the stuff to make it, I might as well right?) Sweet potatoes, corn and apple pie for dessert.  Things were going great… Paul made up the venison wraps while the kids & I organized the living room as we would be putting our Christmas tree up later that night.  Since it was getting closer to lunch time Paul thought he would start grilling the wraps and outside he went.  Then not that long afterwards he came back inside with excruciating pain.  He kept saying something wasn’t right and had a sharp pain on his left side.   At that point he was knealing by the couch, but before long he was on the floor moaning really loud. 

I asked if I should be taking him to the ER (I know he has a low pain tollerance so I wasn’t quite sure how bad it truly was) and he said not yet.  Well, a few minutes later he told me to call someone to come here so they could watch the kids.  I knew my parents would be over at my aunts house (10 minutes away) so I called them to see if my Dad could come over and watch the kids so I could take Paul in. 

My Dad hurried over and Paul and I jumped in our car and off we went.  Thankfully the hospital is only 10-15 minutes away from our house and when we arrived Paul walked to the ER door, but as we were at the window signing in he ended up falling to the floor in pain where the receptionist started hitting the button under her desk to get a nurse out there ASAP.   We (the nurse and I)  got him in a wheel chair and off we went to the ER room and as soon as we got in the room, the ER doctor walked in and told the nurse he would put the IV in if she would go get the pain meds.   

The pain meds weren’t working fast enough for Paul and he was still moaning when they wheeled him away to get a cat scan to verify what they were thinking (as we were) that he was dealing with Kidney stones.   As I sat in the little room I realized one thing I should of done before my Dad came over was put the book I was reading in the car.  It would of been a perfect time to get caught up on my reading.  ~wink~    I lucked out though as there were some  magazines in the hall so I grabbed the AARP and really, it wasn’t as bad as what I thought it was going to be.

Before long Paul was wheeled back and I could tell the pain meds had kicked in as he looked so relaxed as if he could fall asleep.  What a difference 5-10 minutes could make!  Needless to say we sat around waiting for the results and when they came back we found out that yes he did have a 2mm size kidney stone that was about to drop in his bladder.   Since he had to urinate before we could leave (they wanted to make sure he didn’t also have an infection) we were stuck there for awhile yet. 

We finally we able to leave and were given 3 different prescriptions that we needed to get filled.  Of course with it being a holiday we had no clue what would be open so the nurse looked it up on their list and supposedly the Meijer pharmacy by our house was suppose to be open until 6pm, which gave me time to drop off Paul, go inside to Thank my Dad for watching the kids and then head out with 1-2 hours to spare!  So that’s what I did and after I found a nice close parking spot and started walking towards the store I could see that the pharmacy looked quite dark and when I got to the door there was a sign saying they were open, but until 2pm.. not 6pm!  So I went across the street to Wal-greens to find out their pharmacy was also closed, but there was one about 20 minutes away that was open, so off I went.  You could tell they were probably the only pharmacy open in town as they were quite busy and I didn’t end up getting home until 6pm, but after we ate and before Paul decided to hit the hay I did talk him into bringing our Christmas tree up from downstairs and the kids & I spent the night decorating it! 

As you can see, it was quite a crazy day for me (along with the days & week before) so needless to say you will now understand why I might end up talking about how excited I am for this upcoming Saturday when I get to go to Birch Run with a couple friends and will even be spending the night!   Let alone when it gets closer to my Las Vegas & orlando vacations!!   Needless to say I can’t wait for next year as I have a feeling at least the beginning of it will be the year of travel for me!

Where or where does the time go?  Here I thought with the kids both in school and me getting a whole 5 hours a week to myself that I would be able to get some extra stuff done.   HA!  What was I thinking?  I guess I do get some extra stuff done, but not as much as I was hoping for. 

I did get to go grocery shopping by myself today and let me say it was heavenly!  I didn’t have to worry about chasing Katie around the whole store.  If anything it’s well worth the $68 a month for her to be in preschool so I can get that alone done.  ~wink~

Of course I suppose I should be finishing my dishes instead of blogging, but since Katie is actually quiet and I can sit and think I thought now would be the best time to blog because once Paul gets home I’m sure the fighting will start and then I won’t be able to enjoy this quiet time anymore.

So what have we done this week?  Kevin had his Karate Monday night where he ended up having 2 sparring matches!  He lost the first match, but I was still proud of him because every time he has a match he has been improving.  Then the 2nd match was against the same person, but they did it free style where they don’t stop or keep score.   It was actually really nice because the kids were able to just go at it so we could actually see what they have learned since it wasn’t a constant stop and go. 

Tuesday Kevin and Katie had school, but Katie ended up staying home due to she didn’t sleep great the night before due to a cold and since she was still sleeping when it would of been time for us to leave for school I said forget it and she stayed home with Paul while I still headed to school as I was going to be going on a field trip with Kevin to Robinette’s Apple Orchard!  We had a great time there, but it was a little on the cold side.  When the sun was out and there was no wind, it felt great.  But as soon as the wind kicked up and the sun wasn’t out or we were in the shade it was quite cold and the kids were shivering.  By the time I got back from the field trip, I had to go pick up Katie at my parents.  I found out she slept until 10am when Paul called them to see if they could come pick her up and spend a few hours at their house so he could get a little more sleep, plus he had some errands to do.   I went over there and Katie was acting her normal self.   She could of went to school, but I know she needed that sleep.  Especially since she slept in till 10am!  She NEVER does that!

Yesterday Paul had a dentist appointment and then we were suppose to go to the movies to see Night of the Museum II, but he found out that one of his teeth was broken so he had to go back at 2pm to have it fixed.  So the movie ended up going out the window. :(  Oh well.. guess we will just have to rent it when it comes out now.  So I just did the normal.. played with the kids, cleaned, tried a new recipe (you can read about it next Tuesday for Tried and True Tuesday) and then had found out Paul didn’t change the filter on the furnace so I got to change that too.  All I can say is good thing Meijers had their air filters on sale awhile back and we stocked up on them.  That way I didn’t have to take the kids out to go get one.  Of course I suppose I could of just picked one up today.  One more day wouldn’t of hurt right?!?

In 45-50 minutes Kevin will be coming home from school!  Then we can quick work on his homework, make some supper and then he has Karate tonight at 7pm.  I’m hoping we can get some practice in before we go as we haven’t practice yet since class on Monday.  Oops!

Tomorrow Kevin has school (it’s his 3 day week) and I think Katie & I will be heading out shopping for new gym shoes for her.  I had just bought her new ones last spring and of course she didn’t wear them during the summer as she wore her crocs everywhere she went and now they are feeling a little snug on her.  *sigh*   I suppose that’s what happens with little kids… they outgrow their shoes before they can wear them out.  (At least if they are more of a seasonal shoe)

Well, I better sign off as Paul just got home from picking his deer meat and is now out mowing the grass.  It’s amazing how guilty I end up feeling when he’s home and I’m on the computer.  Bummer thing is he has the next 6 weeks off of work!  Hopefully he will be out hunting quite a bit or I just might never get back on here!  ~wink~

I hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Thankfully I was still up reading my book, but that didn’t stop from making my heart start pounding when the phone started ringing at 1:15am, because that can only mean one thing… somethings wrong!

I answered it and it was Paul! He called to say “guess what I just did”. Here I’m thinking he got in an accident, locked his keys in the the truck.. something like that.

Nope.. he’s playing Mr. Cop tonight.

He just about got in an accident due to someone just about hitting him because they ran a red light! He said the guy was obviously drunk.. going from one line to another. Going anywhere between 35-45 so he said ya know what.. screw it and dialed 911!! Since he was following him at that point he was able to give them the license plate number, color and make of the car and which way the person was heading! The Sheriff’s department said they would send units out that way and have some by his house in case they didn’t find him. Needless to say Paul is feeling pretty good right now. Maybe if they do catch the drunk driver (I pray they do) Paul will of saved someones life tonight!

All I know is it seems like we are hearing about more accidents lately where someone has died due to drinking and driving! PLEASE.. if you drink, don’t drive! Have someone be your designated driver! If you don’t have one, just call a taxi or even a loved one. I can promise you, they would rather pick you up than have someone give you the news that you got in an accident and either died or killed someone else. It’s not worth it! Please be responsible!

Has it seriously been a week since I updated my blog?  Shame on me!!  Now I have to think about what we did this past week.  Monday the kids and I went to the library to pick out some new books andmovies.  I had a friend recommendthe Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye so I checked out book number one.  Looking at it I thought do I really want to read this?  I’m not much of a book reader and this book was quick thick.   That afternoon the kids & I were reading our own books and let me say, this book sucked me in on the first page.  I ended up staying up till 3:30am reading!  Needless to say the next morning I was quite tired.  I did end up finishing the book just this afternoon and will be starting on the 2nd book tonight.

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?

A couple weeks ago it was a little toasty outside and the kids wanted to squirt each other with the hose so I asked Paul if he would want to wash the car with the kids.  (That way he could kill 2 birds with one stone)  

While I was inside cleaning with the windows wide open I could hear Paul reminding the kids NOT squirt him while they were giggling.  I thought I would go out to see what was going on and needless to say I came back in the house all wet.  They were having the time of their life washing the car and squirting the water all over.   I was surprised after they had it looking all spiffy the kids didn’t want to make the inside look nice with some new car accessories, but I shouldn’t complain should I?

So today was another toasty day and what did Kevin request to Paul… that they clean my car again!  I guess driving on the dirt road to pick blueberries today got it a little dusty.   I think it was more they just wanted to spray him with that cold water all over again.

Can I just say I’m getting so sick of Paul being tired all the time. Over a year ago (more like 2) I finally got him to go into the doctor to see why he was always so tired. They ended up sending him off to do a sleep study and while he has a mild case of sleep apnea they didn’t think that was what was/is causing his lack of sleep.

Since then they have put him on every sleeping pill possible. Only one really seemed to work (Ambien CR) but once he said something to the doctor about how he was making food in the middle of the night and not remembering it, that his doctor took him off them and told him he couldn’t be on them anymore. (Guess to many people were cooking/driving while on them and getting seriously hurt) ;

It just stinks because that was the one pill that was able to shut his brain off as that’s why he doesn’t get a good nights sleep. He always has 2002 things going through his mind and he just lays there thinking about them all. Then when he does get to sleep, he can’t seem to get into a deep sleep.

I keep wondering if there is anything else that could help? I know he complains about the mattress so I wonder what if we ended up buying a sleep number bed if that would help him? I remember my old sales rep at Kent Rubber Supply had one and him and his wife swore by them, but at the time we didn’t want to spend that much money on a mattress. Now I wonder if we should of.

Of course I think sometimes he doesn’t get a good sleep is not only the hours he works (2pm-1am) but by the time he does get to bed the kids wake up a few hours later and it’s so hard to try and keep them quiet. I couldn’t tell you how many times I say “Shhh Daddy’s trying to sleep” ever morning!

If you or someone you know works 2nd shift, do you have a secret on how to get to sleep once you get home?