Science Fair 2011

Ashleigh just finished her first science fair. It was months of planning and executing the experiment's, and all I can say is we survived. She finally decided to test ice cubes to see if they would melt at the same rate in different drinks that were at the same temperature. Sounds easy enough right, actually it was a lot more involved than I had expected. The teachers required journals, tons of research, and the scientific method to be used. I think both Ashleigh and us were exhausted by the end, but she had fun, and is already planning her project for next year. (that's right we have next year and then 2 years after that with Carter)





Our little scientist. Pfizer donated all the lab coats, goggles, gloves, and the display boards for the students. They all loved it and thought they were so cool! I completely forgot to get a close up of Ashleigh's board, oops :(

Ashleigh with her certificate of participation, she also received a ribbon.

What to do?

So our current complex, in which we have rented our townhouse at for the past 4 1/2 years, is not the friendliest area anymore. All of the nice and pleasant people have moved as soon as their leases have expired, so pretty much we are left with questionable people, and there are no children that I trust to allow mine to play with. So we have been in the process of looking for a new rental, would much rather buy, but with John still involved in the hiring process with Michigan State Police it would just be stupid to buy right now, and then receive a placement on the other side of the state.

We have seen a couple of places that would work, and they have a yard, which is a plus for the kids, but their seems to be something with all of them that I am just not so sure about. I can't decide if its just my reluctance to have to do the moving thing for such a short time, or if just really need to stay where we are. We plan on buying a house within a year. So what would you do, would you just stay and suck it up or move even though it may only be for a year?

Father Daughter Dance and a night out for Carter and Hannah too!

I Hate blogger sometimes, I can never remember the order that pictures upload, so I'm now have to do this backwards. Once again it was the annual Father Daughter Dance, and this year was just as exciting for Ash as years past.This is the best picture I could get of Hannah and Carter on this night (rotten little devils). Why Ashleigh was at the dance with Ash, Carter and Hannah had made special plans of their own. So Carter went to the WMU hockey game with Aunt Tricia, and loved it. I love that the tickets were free, which is one of the perks with Carter playing KOHA hockey this year, they get free tickets!!!! Hannah and I went to go see Tangled, which is a very cute movie, and then we went for ice cream. Since then she has been obsessed with Rapunzel, even had to make her Rapunzel hair to wear with the dress ( thank heavens for yarn and braids) I'll post a pic of that later.

Here is Ash ready to go. We seriously tried on every dress in the entire mall, and finally after the 36th dress (and yes I was keeping count) she finally found this one. Had she told me from the beginning that she wanted red to go with the "Red Carpet" theme, it would have made life much easier. She was so excited she wouldn't show John her dress until it was time for them to go, all she would tell John is that he had to wear his suit, and a red tie.

Proud Daddy and daughter, ready to leave, and go to Culvers for dinner (Ash's choice) before heading off to the dance.

Blizzard

Okay Sissy here are the pictures I said I would post a few weeks ago, sorry it took so long. I got busy and then forgot.

So this is the "Big" Blizzard we got, I guess I thought it would be worse. Glad it wasn't a panic was sure created though. I have never seen a meijers sold out of the basics like milk :)

Carter enjoying some time in our newly fallen snow

The girls with our neighbor Jordyn, loving the big hills created by the plow trucks




John had to dig a path to get to the garage, and then he had to dig his car out, the snow came up past the bottom of his car doors

Here is what our sidewalk looked like after they came through and cleared pathways

Just another look at how much snow there was before John made a path

Since this storm we enjoyed 50 degree weather last week, and watched all the snow melt away, and then this week we were hit wth an ice storm, and lost power. Boy does it get cold fast in the house when you have no heat. Thankfully my mom and dad had power and heat so we camped out there until our power was turned back on. And can I just say I am grateful that out of town power companies came to help restore power, we got power back 24 hrs. before the original estimated time.

Not Good News :(

So the gist of it is that we had a great dinner last weekend, and not much else, other than within the next year John will be promoted to a major's position (his work does promotion the military way), and that is only if business in Kalamazoo continues to grow. Basically we felt that the owner was just trying to figure out if John is still actively pursuing a police job, which of course he is.

Even though we didn't get great news, John isn't too disappointed, he just found out he has been moved through to the next step in hiring with Michigan State Police, and he is still #1 on the hiring list with Kalamazoo County and should be able to be hired in April May, so we are keeping our fingers crossed:)

Good News?

Today John was in Jackson for meetings all day, and on his way home he calls and says that I need to call Bravo's restaurant and make reservations for tomorrow night for 4. Of course I ask all my questions as to why I need to do this and his reply completely shocked me. He says the owner of the company he currently works for is taking John and me out for dinner with him and his wife tomorrow night because there are important issues he wants to discuss with us.

So now we are so curious we could die, and the only thing we can agree on is that we may be getting an offer we can't refuse for John to stay and not continue to pursue a police job. John has excelled at this job, and it has been no secret that they want to keep him, and will greatly miss John if he leaves for a police job, which they have known from the beginning was a possibility and they respected that. But now business in Kalamazoo area is bumming, and they really need John, especially since they just landed the Stryker account, and we also heard this week that the owner really wants to keep John, and is afraid he will leave. We have discussed staying with his current job, because how often is it that you actually find a job that you love and that the employer respects you as a person as actually values you , and not to mention the prospects in Michigan right now for police careers is slim pickings.

So if things tomorrow go as we are guessing we are going to have a serious decision to make. I'm excited to see what tomorrow night brings! Hopefully fantastic news!

Bronson Park on Christmas Eve

Every year we go to Bronson Park, the kids love to run around and look at the displays. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood when my parents took me and my sisters every year. This year we decided to go on Christmas Eve (just as I did as a kid), and I wanted to take the kids on the horse drawn carriage ride too, but lets just make it clear the carriage company is crazy, they wanted $110 for a 30 minute ride. We of course decided not to take a ride, and I was disappointed because it has never been more than $20 in the past. Another disappointment is some of the displays that have been there ever since I can remember were not up this year, apparently they had to be retired, just more of a confirmation that I am getting older, great!

Candy Cane Lane, the kids ran so fast I couldn't get an up close shot, but if you look carefully you can see them

Pretending to be the missing statues

The lights on this little bush were much more beautiful than the picture shows


The same nativity scene that has been there every year, still looks good so hopefully it will be there for years to come
Actually got them to sit for just one quick picture, there were so annoyed with me every time I tried to take a pic someone would walk in front of me, it was really busy for Christmas Eve.