Slumber Party!

Gary and I had our first overnight house guests last night. Because of some high winds on Tuesday night, many people in our area lost power. Unfortunately for Amanda and Courtney, they still did not have power as of 9 PM last night. So, they packed their bags and stayed at our house. I was happy to have company as Gary was out late at the Red Wings game!

Big News from Little Old Zeeland

On my drive into work this morning, I was surprised to hear Drew and Mike mention a story from Zeeland, Michigan! Apparently there is a woman named Nelly Jones who turns 111 today. She's only 3 years away from being the oldest person in the world! Such big news from such a small town!

Giggle Pants

There is nothing I love more than the sound of this little guy laughing!

Look who's 30!

Happy 30th birthday to my sister Andrea! We had a fun night of pizza, beer, and bowling (except the beer part for me, I was DD). I'm glad I could help you celebrate, Ange! I took a total of two pictures, so here's one for you to enjoy.

Happy 25th!

Today is Miss Amanda Huizenga's quarter-of-a-century birthday. Happy Birthday, my dear!!! I'll catch up to you soon enough.

Cold Front!

I was hoping for some warmer weather when I was out west this week. But, no such luck. It was cold and rainy in LA and even colder in Dallas. I didn't get much time to do anything besides work which is a shame because the hotel I stayed at was right on the water in Marina Del Rey. I never even got to see it in the day light. I did however get the chance to catch up with my good friend Julie and her husband Paul while in Dallas. I can honestly say nothing is better than good conversation with great friends over a great bottle of wine. Thanks for hanging out so late on a school night Jules and Paul! I love you guys!!

Headed West

Tomorrow I'll be off to Los Angeles and then eventually Dallas for work. I'll be attending focus groups, which are usually easy days filled with snacking on M&M's behind a two way mirror listening to complete strangers talk about your product. But here's the kicker, they'll be done in all Spanish! Supposedly we'll have a translator, but maybe my 4 years of Spanish in high school will come in handy!

How do you say "More M&M's please?" in Spanish?

A Bachelor's Fridge

This is what our fridge looked like before getting groceries today. We'd been eating out for about a week straight while moving! I never thought I'd say it, but I'm SICK of eating OUT!

ZHS Reunion

This week was Keith Oang's birthday. All the boys came into town to help him celebrate. It was totally a Zeeland High School reunion! It was a great time though. The thing I love about those guys is that no matter how much time has passed since I last saw them, we pick up right where we left off again.

Me with Rick and Jordan

Keith bartending!

Jello shots with Jeff and Rick

Happy Birthday Keith!

Another addicting video game...ROCKBAND. Here is Jordan and Bonzi playing guitar, Rick on the drums and me singing...er...trying to sing!

Finally Coming Together

Things are finally starting to come together at the new place. We at least have the most important thing set up, the flat-screen and surround sound! See below for a pic of Gary's most prized possesion, well...after me of course :)

UPDATE: To satisfy Ange's curiousity, we were watching Entertainment Tonight who was doing a story on the death of Bob Newhart Show alum Suzanne Pleshette. I have NO idea who that is...

Don't Ignore Your Signs

You know how sometimes you are given "signs" but you don't realize it until it's too late? That is what I feel like this morning after the nightmare that last night turned into.

Sign #1: My cell phone was dead
Sign #2: I forgot the keys to my apartment
Sign #3: The weather - it was raining & super windy
Sign #4: Gary had to stay late at work

My desire to get all my stuff out and be done moving blinded me. By the time we made it to my apartment it was already 8:30. We packed everything up at were on the road by 10:15. I had my mattress and box spring in plastic bags because I love my nice almost brand new mattress and because it was raining. Well, the wind kept catching the bags and the mattress was flopping around like crazy in the back of the truck. We had to pull over 3 times to try and rearrange things.

I'm behind Gary as we're driving down 696 to make sure nothing falls out. Next thing I know, I look up and my mattress is flying across the highway and lands on the shoulder. I stop immediately but by the time Gary can stop, he is probably 300 yards ahead of me. I run back to where my mattress has landed and somehow I get super-human strength and can drag it back to the Explorer. Gary RUNS back to make sure I'm OK. We're thankful that the mattress didn't hit anyone or anything and didn't cause an accident.

Gary eventually circles back (it's not easy to circle on a major highway). It looks like a few of the bungy cords we were using as tie downs have snapped. We get the mattress loaded back onto the truck and after stopping once more to pick up more bungy cords, we drive 30 MPH the rest of the way home.

Two hours later, we're finally back at the condo. Only to have to unload everything we loaded. By this time, it's 1 AM.

What a night. My poor mattress. Anyone know a good way to clean it?

Like a Puzzle...for Adults

We finally got the entertainment center, which I may add looks great in the room! Now comes the fun part, hooking up the flat screen and putting together the home theatre system! Here's Gary trying to figure out what goes where.

It never ends...

I spent the day at home yesterday so that we could get the new fridge, a replacement for the dinged up dish washer, and the other set of furniture we picked out. Of course, nothing went smoothly.

To get the fridge up the stairs, the delivery guys had to take off the railing which for some reason was kalked onto the wall. Although we didn't want to yet, we now have to paint the stairway. They also put a really nice scratch in the floor boards on their way up.

The new dishwasher looks great, except that this too doesn't fit. It's about 1 CM too wide. Aren't dishwashers pretty standard in size? We're having someone look into trimming the cupboard to make it fit.

There was also a mix up with the furniture delivery, they had changed the delivery time to between 3 and 6 so I ran out to grab something for lunch. Of course I came back to a tag on the door saying "Sorry we missed you!" from Art Van. We did eventually get the couches delivered but will have to wait for the entertainment center because one of the corners was broken off.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, but we're both ready for everything to be over and done with so we can enjoy the new place!!

Workin' for the Weekend

This weekend was move-in weekend. Boy did we work hard! We started at 7:30 AM on Saturday and didn't quit until about midnight. I will say though, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for moving! I spent most of the day re-cleaning as the person we hired did a less than satisfactory job. Plus, you never know how clean it really is unless you do it yourself.

Here's a shot of the front of the new place.


We had hoped that everything would go smoothly but no such luck. The appliances came at 8 AM, and they were beautiful! EXCEPT - that the fridge ended up being about an inch too tall and the dishwasher had two good sized dents in it. Needless to say, both will be going back. We'll get the new ones on Tuesday. Here is a picture of the fridge...in the living room.

We spent the afternoon organizing the piles of stuff we both have! Most of this in the picture below is mine :)

In the evening, we spent an hour or so back at Art Van trying to figure out what to do about furniture. We came up with an idea that we hope will work. We'll find out tomorrow when it gets delivered!

The nightmare continues...

And we thought our troubles were over! HA! Gary is having the condo cleaned from top to bottom today. It seemed to be going well, except that whoever last left the house poured anti-freeze in the shower and tub which has now left a lovely ruby-red stain. We're hoping a little bleach will take care of it.

On top of that, he also had his brand new living room furniture delivered today, except that the delivery guys COULDN'T FIT THE COUCH INTO THE CONDO!!! I loved that couch, it was big and so comfy. I guess big and comfy don't work so well with stairs and corners. Looks like we'll be going back to Art Van tonight and picking out another new set of furniture.

Poor guy, just can't seem to catch a break.

This is what WOULD have been in our living room...

Welcome Home!

Congratulations are in order! Gary officially closed on his new condo today! The whole process has been an absolute nightmare. Between the missing appliances, the power-trip association president and the mysterious man on his title, it's quite a relief to finally be able to call it his own! Congrats baby! I'll try to post pictures so everyone can see how it's coming along.

The Newest Legends of Rock

He's been thinking about it for a while but Gary finally broke down and bought Guitar Hero (OK so I've been secretly wanting it too...) What a RIOT! I think we're addicted after playing it for only 2 hours. Although Gary got booed off stage on his first attempt of Poison's Talk Dirty to Me, he's doing much better with a little practice!

Here's to 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Gary and I spent New Year's Eve at NOMI in downtown Northville. It was fun, the blueberry martinis were AMAZING and I got a kiss at midnight. My only complaint is that the "party favors" were less than exciting. I got one strand of beads which you'll see in the picture above. No "Happy New Year" crowns or anything! I'm glad we stayed close to home because the weather got pretty nasty! The first big snow storm of 2008!

My New Years Resolutions:

1. Eat healthier
2. Exercise more
3. Volunteer once a month
4. Get back in touch with old friends
5. Pick back up the guitar
6. Take a dance class

We'll see how long into 2008 they last!