Thursday, July 16, 2009

taking ya back to Memorial Day weekend :)

Hi to my loved ones first of all. I've been really wanting to blog lately, and get some updates in. ok welcome to another random sonja blog. i started this back before i went on vacation and have worked on it off an on for quite awhile. I started it, tried to figure it out then had to restart b/c mainly and quite frankly its been awhile since May, and because for some reason when I took my pictures off of my camera onto my computer they did not stay in the right order at all, so now i have to put the pieces back together, hoping i dont loose anyone along the way :)
Ha i've been jotting down notes and quotes and fun stuff i wanted to blog about so
hopefully you can all keep up w/ my RAndoMneSS!!!!! xoxxo

Listening to TWilgiht Soundtrack right now...love Muse (Supermassive Black Hole) & Blue Foundation's "Eyes on Fire"!


Memorial Day weekend, we had lots of fun things to do!! First of all I was sooooo super-excited b/c Mom was in town! Had not seen her since like Halloween !!!! We miss her soooo much!!!
Mom and Mike had a get together at their house and EVERYONE was there!!!!!

It was like a family reunion!!! JOhn and Kasia where there with Kasia's parents here from Poland :) Mikes daughter Becky and her husband and their two girls, Aunt Suz & Will, Aunt Jean, her son Dan and his wife Julie, Aunt Jennifer and her husband Bob and their kids, Aunt Rana and her husband Randy, Uncle Dave, Uncle Dale and Glen, and Dales daughter (my cousin :) Kristy with her husband Charlie and their 3 kids. Ana my BFF also came and so did Bex riding in on her Harley!! I"m not so sure who the guy in the cane is I think the neighbor and his wife directly behind mom in the shot, either that or relatives i didnt know i had! It was so fun to see everyone and eat lots of yummy food :) Mike took the pics, I like how he got one of him in their too!!
Mom brought back souveniers for everyone!
Here is a pic I took of Tyler w/ all the seashell necklaces on...i think i did it in the last blog i did but it so cute see it again! ha!!!!
Silly little guy!


mom brought john a pine apple from Hawaii! He always makes the silliest faces. He loves pine apples!








Kasia and her mom and dad with the kids. This was the first time they had met Ty
probably didnt recognize lily she was 5 when we went to Poland!



yikes that is a mt. dew in tylers hands!!




































These are some group pictures that mike took of everyone! it was crazy like family reunion! i still cant beleive all the people that came ! it was great!






Mike is so funny he got one of himself in it! i love it!!!!











me and my friends!!! where was kasia for this shot-i didnt get one of the 3 of us : ( so glad that my friends came out to see my ma!











oh there she is!
I just LOVE this picture of kasia w/ the Hawaiian flower in her hair! Girl you are so beautiful!









i just adore this picture of tyler....we found caterpillars!











we cut the pineapple(well someone did, wasnt really me, i dont like to cut those things, but love to eat them!) mom and mike brought from Hawaii....and tyler thinks it is a hat! of coarse lily had to try it out and even ana got in on the action! girl your a kid at heart!





































Becca and Brian also had a
Memorial Day weekend party!

Sunday Memorial Day weekend, Tim took me and the kids up to Becca and Brians house for a cookout! Lots of fun! We know most of their friends from previous get togethers and B & B always put on a good party! Lots of fun. The kids just love it so much up there at the lake!
We had lots of fun!!!!

Me and Ty on the pontoon boat! Brian took us and Lily and
Carson out for a ride. It was Ty's first boat ride :) Thanks B! He kept telling Brian the boat was too fast! ha! Got that Nemo lifevest at Meijer, he thinks he's cool stuff in it! Arnt you all so jealous! Less than $20 and a trip to Meijer and one could be yours too!















A good picture of our 'Hostess with the Mostess'
Looking pretty badass in those sunglasses bex!


















A shot of Me Bex and Karol by the fire. I love sitting by the fire at night ;) unfortunatly there were no marshmellows, bex was bummed. note to self next time bring marshmellows!









i have a ton of pics of the all the dogs that were there that weekend, the kids loved being around all the dogs!











Ty was excited that Karol's son Joey was there, they are about the same age, i think Joey is actually a little older. Karol is so funny she said she didnt realized that we had boys the same age and that she then felt more bonded to me. She's so funny :)



Karol's husband Joe, said him and Joey have been practicing this for a very long time. pretty impressive! Tyler wanted to try, ha! Joe humored him but since ty is heavier and not as practiced as Joey it was not as sucessful! ha!






Adorable little guy isnt he! Fun Shot of Karol and Bex chillin' with some sidewalk chalk!














Becca in her fabulous garden...well the start of it, when i was there for 4th of July it was so big! i'm so proud of her! and jealous..i have no room or patience for one :)

















LIly in Aarons hat! looking good lil!~





















Had to throw one of tylers monster faces in there.....tim needs to shave!!












Jordan modeling the snuggy for me! looks like a monk! tim keeps threatening to buy me one b/c i'm always cold, and he laughs at the thinks he is going to buy me one! grrrr! (angie i've totally stole 'grrr' from u i use it all the time now, ha!)ommercials! I dont want one! and he still













couple shots of Tyler in the hot tub, and popsicle tongue!





















We stayed the night there and the kids got the paddle boat out the next day. Tim came up and hung out with us for awhile before we headed back :)
















NILES
on the way back from B&B's house in Decator, we stopped in Niles to go to the Wonderland Theater....its so way cheaper to go there then at home...and they have a super cool park right outside the theater, with super big slides :) And cool snacks and stuff.

There is tyler on the biggest play ground slide i've ever seen. he loved it! made me a little nervous....its in Niles right next to the theater, i think we saw dinosaur movie that Will Ferrill is in the one where they journey to the center of the earth-is it land of the lost, whatever, i wasnt very impressed w/ the movie.
Tim sat down on this swing by the river right next to the park and all the kids piled on next to him, very cute :) I should've gotten one of just him before b/c he looked like a sad little old man just sitting by the river by himself holding my bag, ha ;) In case you havent noticed picking on tim is one of our favorite past times in our family....He dishes it just as well, and when lily and i first joined tims family we both had a hard time with all the picking, but we've adapted for better or worse and now lily can dish it just as well as the rest of the sassy kids!




















LIly on a long bummpy slide, they have so many slides there, so many big ones. It is a really nice park! And so conviently located next to the movie theater









DAD's house, visiting w/ JM



Took a picture of dad's house, it looks so different on the outside than it did when i was growing up, the house next door is even gone. The inside of the house looks pretty much the same though. Its neat to see what has and hasnt changed about the neighborhood and the house ;)This house just brings back so many childhood memories, i lived there for the frist 21 yrs of my life!


Its fun to see JM playing on the shelves that John and i use to play on . He's so cute w/ his tacklebox of cars!
















We went to Tom and Lynn's Kitchenette for lunch I love that place, and it reminds me of growing up. The have the best breakfast there! The boys were playing video games, the ones w/ guns, papa was so proud!





























Dad Found a pogo stick at a yard sale, tyler thought it was so cool but had a hard time using it!




Tyler and JM in the wagon w/ ringpops. Lily pulled them around the house for ever.


The kids just love going over to my dad's house to hang out especially when JM is there!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fort Wayne June 8-14th


Ana and myself and Lily and Tyler drove to FW (the long way, i might add...only Ana and I can get lost in Bremen!....now have Sprint Navagation...wont happen again!) anyway we hitched a ride w/ Ana Banana Fofana to FW.
Me and the kids
stayed all week, Ana stayed till WEd I think....we played games and drank and ate yummy pizza from Hungry Howies....oh wish i had some of that now! Ana brought some of her yummy chocolate cake for Kasia's b-day! it was sooo good, choc cake and apple beer! what more could a girl ask for! We hung at the pool, they had a 2 ft pool for ty to hang in :)








We also went to this really awesome putt putt and entertainment center outside of FW....we did some putt putt.....i loved all the cool mini buildings...

















tyler posing for me infront of the mini town! so cool...and check out lily and the cottage~

















loved the castle~ this place was so neat! lily and john could spend all day playing video games!
Tyler chilling in the comfy chair eating something, he loves how kasia always has snacks at her house,im' sure we pigged out. I need one of those comfy chairs in my bedroom so i can sit and read :o)











While we were there we not only played to oh so popular among our family Blokus, Kasia introduced us to a very exciting game called Squint, its like pictionary but with cards that have shapes on them and you have to rearange them to make pictures, we had a blast!!! Lily looks confused!




Lily in one of Kasia's scarves, looking very grown up.....K convinced tyler to wear a more manly type of scarf...looking very gansta :)





















Wow I sure do have some cute little kids!! Hard to believe how big they are getting, this summer my little girl turned 10! double digets, yikes that means i'll be 30 this year!! oh my....and little man there is 3 already! can ya all believe it!!










On Friday i think Becca came up to Join us for the weekend, so we could celebrate Kasia's birthday!!! well i know becca came up but not sure which day fri sat? guess i need to word or punctuate that differently, but unsure of how...so you get this fancy explanation instead.
tyler is a blur! he had to wear one of kasia's scarves :)














Kasia took lily to the mall, and got her lots of cool scarves and stuff for her b-day even though it wasnt really near her b-day yet, he he.



WE found this really neat store in the Mall called Earth Magic, I LOVE it.....we got good luck ancklettes. They had pewter fairies too & buddha's, i could've spent all my money!






















wow she's growing up sooo fast~
modeling the scarves for me ;)


Lily drawing on her cool fairy notebook K got her for her b-day :) you scrape off the black stuff w/ a pencil and under it is rainbow :) Ty looking very Kanye





















While at the mall we stopped and ate at the food court, they had the cutest little apple core tables for the small people to sit at! i loved it, i want one! reminds me of smurf mushroom houses for some reason, even the little stools were cool little wormys ;)















the kids had chinese. And we had something we thought would be super tasty, Pita! K gyro, me chicken, not so good really but what can ya expect from Mall Food court!



AFter eating me and the kids took a ride on the super cool two story carolsel that is in the mall....I have some old pics from last year when we visitned John and I took some neat photos of it! Here is a curent pic of tyler on the upper level, boy was i impressed!
They have the neatest animals, there is a dragon i think and really awesome jeweled fancy real and mythical creatures!

































German Fest!
FW Was having German Fest downtown while we were in town. We went toi sample some tasty food! I had a very tasty brawt w/ saurkraut! sooo tasty....and yummy apple coffecake type dessert! sooo good. It was fun to eat and listen to the music, and watch people dancing. We took a little train ride around the park. they had also these neat model T style bicycles that you could rent and the whole family could fit in them...they said they are there all the time, not just for events! we'll have to go try it some time. The kids got some balloon animals! Tyler just had to have a pink girafee! ha. i'm impressed w/ my photo taking skills, i got lovely trash can shots!



















































Sweetpotato Shephards Pie!

So I read this book its called, You Are What You Eat, I really enjoyed it, it was very extreme. Very detox, organic, healthy. I absorbed some of it and alot of it i had to put in the not really going to happen pile. But they had this one receipe in there for Sweetpotato Shephards Pie, that sounded really good. I thought hey i like sweetpotato's they are not only tasty as hell but also super good for you, and the little experience i've had with Shephards Pie has been extremely tasty. Whats not to love about food topped with Potatos! So I brought my book with me thinking I could convince my lovely shephards pie loving sis in law help me with this project. So we spent all day, well most of the day shopping for ingredients and on a hunt for this thing called arrowroot...which we'd never heard of and then we googled it and Wikipedia tells me that it is most often used in powder form that it is like cornstarch, it thickens soups and such. We look and look at Meijer and finally ask someone who finds someone else who says they use to carry it in veggie (or root) form in the produce dept but do not anymore. We looked and looked again in the organic section hopping for something and nothing. We got everything else we needed there, zucchini, sweet potatos, squash, lots of other tasty veggies and such that we needed. We headed to Fresh Market, which first of all is one of the most awesome grocieries i've been too, on the pricey side, but just set up like a deli/market, with the coolest feshest deli and produce and fancy boxes things :) I'd been there prior with John also and spent a small fortune on groceries. I spoke w/ at man in the produce dept there, he checked a book and checked online and said no such luck with them. He suggested a Food Co-op or health food store. He was very helpful and nice but we left there feeling slightly annoyed and deflated w/ the whole arrowroot situation. We already had all the other ingredients and dont honestly know enough about cooking to know if we could leave it out or use corn starch instead. Deciding to stick to the natural organic healthy receipe i wipped out my newly acquired Palm Pre and newly set up and learned how to use Sprint Navigation and went to the search icon (search failed us earlier when it sent us to a Dollar Store that was no longer there) with a little prayer i typed in Food Co-op, not knowing what a food co-op is or what to expect. They had one, down town i think, irrelivant to the story, we had to drive more to get this mysterious Arrowroot! Sprint Nav, really is quite a wonderful little thing you search by name or place or whatever your looking for, it tells you if there is first of all what your looking for, and how far it is, and how to get there, even gives you link to call them first. Sprint Nav, got us there safely after I called first and asked a very nice man on the phone if they 1 had arrowroot and 2 were open. I got an afrimative to both, i was first of all very excited that he knew exactly what arrowroot was after having to explain to several people what i was looking for at the other stores, when i myself was unsure of what it was. Poor Kasia, thank you thank you to my sis in law for not abandoning me and or disowning me on our hunt for weird ingeredients! I ventured into this new to me food co-op alone, still not really knowing what i'm looking for. the receipe says arrowroot, not if its a veggie, or a spice, or powder, what is it!!! It looks like a regular market, a small
one, very health food store like. Not sure what i expected! After browsing the veggies with no luck I found a very nice woman who not only helped me to find arrowroot, explained to me what a co-op was. Locally owned groceiry mainly is what i got from it, owned by people in the community and those who own shares ? in the store get a discount. Thankfully this one is open to the public! She showed me some boxed stuff and then after explaining to i was usure how much i was needing and that it was for my shephards pie receipe she lead me to the bulk get your own out of the jar section and helped me out. Thank you oh so nice lady at the local co-op :) I had to include a picture in the blog of this mysterious Arrowroot b/c honestly it looks like a baggie of drugs, its really weird stuff orderless, tasteless powder. Finally with Arrowroot in hand we went back to the apt to cook :) Lots of chopping veggies, fun, i like cooking espeically with friends :) Kasia also made a very very tasty normal style sheparhds pie for john and kids full of meat and tasty gravy. I loved it!!! I was very excited about my own creation (well receipe followed creation) It was lots of prep and i felt compelled to take a picture of the beautiful array of tasty chopped veggies. We steamed the sweetpotato's in water (omg the best i'd ever had) and mashed them up just like potato's then put all the other ingredients together and baked it. I did take a few before pics but none after of my pie. silly me. I do have to say I was kinda dissapointed in it. I knew it was healthy style an that it would be nothing like john & kasia's , but it was really quite bland, and mushy, for as many veggies and such that we put in there that i really liked it fell short of my expectations. It could've been that i wanted to make it for so long or that we spent so much time getting stuff and preping it that I felt it should've been fenominal, or that i was so hungry i ate some of the meaty one. It had really no flavor to it, I felt trying to be healthy and all it would defeat the purpose of the healthy ness to add salt or anything to the mushyness....i did however add some dried veggie salt stuff that K had, and it helped. It also made a ton of it, Kasia liked it, and we did eat it a couple times, but John and the kids wouldnt even try it, so it really was kinda wasted. I may try the receipe again with a few alterations, maybe some onion or garlic would help spice it up, and maybe i would cut the receipe in half..i do have a ton of arrowroot left :)

john and kasia's tasty meaty shephards pie, oh today is so cold and lazy, today would be the perfect day for shephards pie!! comfort food.

I would also like to mention here that while i have no pictures of it John makes the most yummy taco (borito's) that ive ever had. They are soft shell (hence the borito comment) they are turkey, diced red pototos (i luv) taco seasoning (green pepper-i dont so much like) seasame oil. and very tasty fresh toppings....tomato, black olive, black beans, avacado (yum) he also puts in jalepeno, not for me...and we got cheese for the kids but he opts out on that, healthier :) They were just soooo good, i loved them :) I ate like a massivly stuffed one while we were there.....not all we do while in FW is eat....just alot of the time!









Bex, Kasia, me and the kids went to the FW Zoo...look at my friends and their oh so appropriate t-shirts! you guys are so cute! We went to the new african wild exhibit and they had mist, it was so cool. I didnt take that many pictures at the zoo, so most of these are ones i got from Becca, she's such a fabulous photographer!!!
oh my tyler driving i'm not ready for that~~~
















photo compliments of ms. lily young
i love zebras

i just adore these fun pics she took of the merrigo round they have in the middle of the zoo!












Tyler and the fake platupus!

love the cute monkey looks like the one in Night at the Museum



Yike looks like that croc is going to eat my baby! good thing there is glass between the two of them






We went on the ski lift over the wild africa exhibit, its new. it was kinda scary b/c i had wiggly tyler between becca and i that kept trying to stand up and turn around and see kasia and lily! it was ok but you really didnt get to see too much, wasnt as cool as the one we did in Poland and thankfully not as long!
















a couple more pics of the mist from when we got into the exhibit and those very cool flowers that reminded us of Horton Hears a Who. Another artsy fun pic, complements of Rebecca ;)

tyler and lily in a fake cave.....



















Tyler in Wild Africa playing the drums









ty loving on his favorite aunt!


















check out these huge pelicans? thats what they are right? cant think today....They were huge, like prehistoric birds or something




















look at that nasy hyena trying to get close to my little boy....and this big old mean looking osterage!






















Lily with one of my favorite animals at the zoo, the girafee's. you could feed them but they were not hungry : ( so beautiful















moma peacock w/ her babies ;)


tylers giraffee eating leaves.....










One of the funnest parts of the day was the jellyfish! they are so cool!





























Tyler in the bambo! in the rainforests :)
And with a huge lizard!

















That weekend Kasia, Becca and myself went to see Hangover the movie (hilarous) in celebration of her birthday, and then to her fav. pub for some yummy Stongbow beers!
Yum. I am not a beer drinker for those of you who've never drank with me.....but Strongbow is a Cider beer, and it is so yummy, doesnt taste so much like beer! ha! !!! I thought i was so artsy :>)



















We went to this pub on Saturday that Kasia really likes but they were about to close...time for one beer though....our server suggested a couple clubs to go to....but we were hungry and ended up with Wendys and some alcohol from Walmart on the way home, instead of the disco! Uh oh is that what happens when you hit 30! It was only b/c it was kinda late after we got out of the movies! saw Hangover! sooo soooo funny-we laughed the whole time!

















Timothy and Jordan came to pick us up from FW. Since i have no car, because i have no job, i have to rely on others to transport me. I think their should be a train between FW and SB! We told tim about the cool golf place (he'd been years and years ago for a work function) and he wanted to go. We golfed, the boys did the batting cages, me and the kids rode the roller coster again-which i think was faster this time?!? and Lily asked tim to go on this ride w/ her. Funny some times she is so annoyed by him so when she asks him to do something like this with her it just tickles me :)




Next to Galena for the great Galena Balloon Race!It was so neat.....we actually though their would be a race and um no, just blew up the balloons and like 3 of them actually went up up and away, but the rest were just there, and you could walk around and see them. Boy was the fire hot!!! no to mention that it was sweat dripping down your legs hot weather. But i had my girls there, and eric and eric's parents, it was fun. lots of driving that day, bex and i went from SB to Chicago and then drove w/ eric and angela way up to Galena! i had no idea how far it was. the next day we got up and ate at this really awesome lunch spot called Earwax, i loved it! had the best turkey burger ever! Was a fun weekend!
These first larger pictures are ones becca took :)






















































































We spent alot of time watching them blow up balloons, it was neat, we had beer and snacks to keep us busy while we watched from the grassy hill :)

The night show wasnt as fab. as we expected it think but it was pretty damn neat just to be there and see all the balloons!


















Two of my favorite people, Ms. Rebecca, and Ms. Angela at the Great Galena Balloon Race.


Ang wore her free (i'm so jealous) Coraline t-shirt. love that movie! And love the keys on the shirt! and most of all Love Ms Angela!!!












My very talented Friend REbecca can hold her beer and take pictures at the same time ! i love it!! Angie, or is it Lena, or is it Angela (eric's parents were confused on what we called angie..i've always called her angie and well we laughed when eric called her angela but apprently it was by her request and it use to be Lena...i love lena, but Ang is just Angie to me....or Dollface....It was a funny conversation to have with Erics parents who are so super nice and dont look like the kind of people who would feed Eric day old Panera, ha!) Maybe Angela is incognito or maybe she's just trying out new names, ha, when i was in grade school, i hated how my name is spelled b/c well b/c i was a kid and people called me SonJa, or sonia, so for awhile i changed it to sonia, or was it sonya, maybe both, but i've come to like the uniqueness of Sonja :) So i understand Angies quest to find her true name :)














Here is me annoying E & A with my camera...the first one looks like they are singing to each other how sweet...and i took like a ton, and just like my kids i really didnt get a normal one, but i totally love the second one of my cheesy friends :)

















Here is a picture of the 1,2,3,4 balloons that actually did go up into the air....we realized that they really dont have much control over where they go or how fast they go and can treally come back to where they started so this was the "race" that we did get to see. :)















The picture of above this to the right is eric very excited about his favorite balloon! The one i have pictured below this, the Football one of coarse, he is a boy so it must be his favorite, ha ha ha , he he he...i think he thinks me crazy!














The monkey one reminded me of Tyler, The kids would've loved the balloons!!! Maybe next year i will make it a family event :) It sure is a long drive though! The monkey balloon had a man in a banana suit running around underneath it! They had a couple balloons you could get balloon rides in it went up in the air like idk (for those of u who r textedly challenged IDK is I dont know) like 30 ft? and they pulled you back down w/ a rope, didnt think it would've been worth it, the kids would've loved it though. I think i'd like the real deal but that is oh so expensive, maybe when i finally win that lotto....oh yeah gotta play to win!

They had some really neat old cars at the Balloon Race, I loved this little bug w/ his colorful racing flames :) and his cute little headlight eyes!!!!












So after the show was over and it was getting dark out we decided to walk back to our car in stead of waiting in the insane long line for the school buses that we rode from the parking lot to the event (it was at a golf course) And I guess we didnt really realize how long it was to get from A to B b/c it was long and dark and kinda dangerous to be walking along the side of the road in the dark w/ the cars passing and all...And quite frankly i wasnt dressed for the long walk, even though i really do need some exercise, especially after beer, smirnoff coolers, hot dogs, walking taco's and shaved ice!!! But i had on flip flops and a skirt, the sweaty ness and the rubbing of the legs together not so nice..but we made it and then thankfully eric took the wheel for the long ride home b/c us ladies we knocked out. All in all though it was a really fabulous time and i'm so excited that we did it!!




Chicago!!! Angie style!!!!
















Despite the name of this place it was so super cool, and the food was so fabulous!!! Bex had the hummus veggie plate! everything was so fresh and tasty! wish i could go there now i'm famished ( love saying the word....)




Angela got Flaffle pita, its something i've never had! but oh it was so tasty, like fried hummus balls or something. it was awesome!

regretfully i have no pic of my food, weird, seems i had one, oh well, it was so tasty i gobbled it up!


I couldnt help but take a picture of some of the bathroom grafiti at the EarWax restruant, some was obsence ( no surprise) but some was really neat, like Chia girl. the whole place was decorated really neat :)




















A shot of the outside of the building....almost right across the street there was this building called The peoples gas light and Coke company.....very odd...wonder what goes on there!
















On the way to lunch we saw this sign, and it was like definitly before noon! I Love Chicago, we had a blast. We had planned to go to this fun place Angie loves near Earwax where they make their own icecream while you wait, they even have soy for my vegan friend. but they were not open yet, we'll have to plan to go next time we are there! just an excuse for another trip to see Ang in Chicago!!!



















Tyler
My mom sent Tyler how to dance like a hulla girl for his b-day, I thought he'd like it, yes i know he's a boy but they didnt have how to dance like a hula boy video. he was actually scared of the video i dont know why. he's going threw this whiney, fussy phase, its driving me nuts! no one can so much as mention fire without him bawling! But i think he looks so cute in his Hula boy outfit!


The girls really wished that Tyler was a little girls so when they are board they dress him up in their clothes and wigs and such and call him Tina! They sent me thins pic on my cell phone and i really had to take a second to figure out who it was! that is lilys wig from last halloween :)


My boy very emotional lately had to get a picture of his pittiful fake cry face! Life is hard when your 3!



And a shot of his silly face, w/ his new mohawk (well not new now, but new then) hairdo!







Well now some how i lost some of my pictures i already uploaded grrr!!!! ones of Pickeling w/ bex and rachel and yummy shephards pie, so i guess i'll re add them here at the end of the blog as to try not to upset all lay out i previously spent so much time on. Grrr looking at my photo folder i realized dumb blogger, or maybe dumb sonja, there are a ton of really cute pictures that are no longer in my blog!!! look at all this fun stuff that got deleted somehow!



Tyler on the mini rollercoster at the Putt Putt fun center, he was kinda scared, but did ok for his first time!










And this super fun pic of JM sitting in front of my dads house!














Tyler eating the octopus cookie k got him at Starbucks!

Nadja cutting into her birthday sugar cookie at her mom's house














There was a yummy chocolate cake for those of us who are not apposed to chocolate as Nadja is, Annika got her a nice peice of it!


















wow there are a whole ton of picture like 50 that did not make it into this draft! grr, was hopping id finish today, looks like no : ( and mostly have to be reincorperated into the original blog so another day i suppose. like this shot of Timothy and his mother...its really the only shot i took that day and i wish i would've taken a million more because it was a very interesting day. I think Tim's entire extremely extended family was there! We went to Elkhart for Tim's uncles funeral. We didnt actually make it to the funeral just to the massive neighborhood gathering afterwards. There was a ton of very tasty food. Spaghetti, Mac n cheese, sweet potato pie, Greens (jordan was excited about t that) Chitlins which i refuse to eat. and tons and tons more. But that wasnt the most intersting part of it all. This gathering spanned at least 6 blocks of random (well not really random) houses, that belonged to family members everyone cooking and hanging out on the porches and catching up. It was surreal so many people just walking up and down the streets between the houses, it was really a block party.














Pickeling asparagus!!! And making tasty Salsa...which was gone too fast!
One of the things i love about have really awesome crafty friends is that i get to do things that i would probably never do on my own. Pickeling is one of them. I'd never in a million years say hey today i feel like pickeling, but i really enjoy it. I love doing new things and pickeling and jaring is just so old school and very hands on and fresh veggies and fruit and i really enjoy it. I enjoy it mostly b/c its friend time, and there are tasty results :) So Rebecca and Rachel have included me in their canning club and i'm so honored b/c i really know nothing about it, but really love doing it. This last time we got together we Made some awesome salsa, which is all gone (time to salsa again). The tomamto's were quite frankly a pain in the ass! Lots of peeling. My fingers acutally hurt from the acid in the tomato's by the end of the process. What we didnt make in to salsa we jarred as just well tomatos ( i recently used some in my spaghetti, yum o :) And the ladies wanted to pickle asaragus, i didnt realize that this was something that was done quite frankly. I am recently a asaragus lover and really do love it, but didtn know you could pickle it, i guess you could pickle well anything really. I tried it and its quite tasty, well if you like pickles then you'd love it! I took a couple snap shots of us ladies, and a few that i thought were artsy of the jars. Its a long process well when you do alot, it really is quite simple stuff, but we spent all day on our feet. Well worth it. I hitched a ride up to Dector (where becca and brian reside) with Rachel and Fredie, that whole no car thing again.....i sure do miss having my own little escape pod. maybe i should get my ass a job! ty is quite ready for preschool! Anyway back on track here, this is me and Daisy( i love that name) in the back seat, it was a nice peaceful sunday drive up to Michigan, Daisy was restless as my back seat buddy. It was nice to spend time w/ an animal though b/c i miss having a pet at home, dont so much miss having another person pet to clean up after, maybe some day.....

Ya know it sure does look like strawberries in my hand, this maybe the time w/ did strawberry and rubarb jam, oh so tasty. we did however burn one batch of strawberries, and they were so messy we got them all over the counter and floor and everywhere!! ha, but it was once again really fun and soooo tasty. the strawberry/rubarb my fav!!!

Becca looking very domestic in her pink apron!

yep definily strawbery day :)

its been awhile i dont obviously recall what we did which day, hell maybe we did all 3 at the same time, maybe not, but we did do them all and they were soooo tasty! & i had fun!



Here is rachel our canning/jarring guru :) and her little baby belly bump starting to stick out ;) I just saw her last weekend and she is looking pregnant now. Bex took some really awesome shots of Rachel and Freddie with the baby belly :) They are so cute! The ladies are looking very excited about Jars of Asparagus!




















Here is Sonja trying to be artsy w/ the cool glass jars. Just thought the asparagus looked so neat w/ the garlic cloves in it :) Becca filling jars w/ tasty jam, or maybe with the burnt jam...we'll assume its the tasty jam!

















Yeah my blog from way back in May that i've worked on off and on for 6 weeks is finally complete, or as complete as it is going to be !

As usual I jumped around loaded and reloaded pics, captioned and told lots of stories, I probably repeated myself & left out things I apologize if any of you had feelings of confusion while reading my blog, hope it made ya smile too ;)
Stay tuned for several up coming blogs I have on deck.
4th of July at Becca and Brians in Michigan
Johns non birthday celebration @ WestFest in Chicago featuring Local H and really bad festiveal food & moshing idiots
My fabulous weekend adventures with my ladies inluding Saugatuck, St. Joe and tasty Hawaiian pictures, yum
Shots from Lily an Tylers birthdays guarenteed of cute kid pictures
And the hightly anticipated Hawaii vacation pictures, tons and tons of them!!


What i've read lately...
I"m in the middle of Dreams from my Father-Obama, finding it very interesting and well written.
I read the first 4 bokos in the House of Night series, recommended by Bo-LOVE them!! need to read book 5, but its in hard back the first 4 were not and only $8! im poor at the moment, so ill wait! hate when t!hey do dthat theyt get ya hooked on a series and then up the price!
The Well Dressed Ape, was so good, and so very interesting veiw on who we are and why we are the way we are, so funny too!

i'll leave ya with a list of things i'm very excited about :)
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp as the Madd Hatter!!!
New Moon movie in Nov!!
Carebears for Halloween
Heath's wedding in Indy with Ana
House of Night book 6!!




lots of love!!!
xoxoxox




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