Happy Birthday Momo!

Thanks for letting me marry your boy!

It's fun to stay at the YMCA

I joined the Y, which has been a really fun thing for me to do every morning, getting out of the house, doing some socializing, watching E! News, and getting my sweat on.

Ryan has this "corporate members" deal that gives us 6 sessions with a wellness coach. I went in for my first session last week and we did all of the BMI, Weight, Flexibility, Upper Body Strength, and Basil Metabolic Rate testing. Basically, I discovered that I am pretty close to half made out of bones and organs and half made out of fat. "But that's why you're here, right?" said my wellness coach excitedly. "Yes, that is exactly why I am here!" I replied.

I got average scores across the board, except for flexibility...I did above average on that one :o) Thank you yoga class!

Then, as an incentive (I LOVE INCENTIVES) at the end of each session I get a prize! My first prize was a pedometer. I wore it the next day for a few hours while I ran my errands. The only problem is that everyone can hear this "tick, tick tick" sound coming from me with every step. I pretty much sound like a walking time bomb and was quite surprized that I didn't get kicked out of the store for being a potential hazzard to everyone around me.

Today I went back for session #2 and learned all of the lower-body circuit weight machines. The best part was my incentive...this cool new gym bag.

Date Night

I Heart Hope College

Today I got to hang out with my friend Courtney. She is going to Hope College this fall, so we walked around and checked out her dorm and whatnot. She is pretty much one of the coolest gals I know. On Monday she is heading to Southern India with a team from Granger. SHE IS INCREDIBLE! I am so excited about all that is in store for her at Hope. Woo-Hoo!!Walking around campus makes me realize two things. #1 - I am old. #2 - I am so thankful that I got to go there. I am who I am in so many ways because of the people I met at Hope and the things I learned at Hope. I even met Ryan at Hope...which was the best part!

Today on my google home page the "How To" tip of the day was titled "How to Write your Autobiography" Of course - since I am done working for the day, Ryan is on call at the hospital tonight, and I don't want to sweep the bathroom floor - I clicked on the link to see what insight I could gain.

Amazingly, these tips can be applied to blogging, so the following is my rendition of the list, having switched the topic to blogging.

• Understand Your Reasons for Writing a Blog: your blog will turn out best if you simply write because you want to, perhaps to share the experiences of your life with others, to keep in touch with your family, to try and understand your life and the forces that have shaped you, to preserve your legacy, or simply to exercise your desire to write. If money is your primary motivation, blogging may not be for you...unless you are DOOCE who is an inspiration to us all.
• Read Some Blogs: The best way to get a feel for blogging is to read some good blogs. Ask blogging friends (ME) for recommendations. The more you read, the more approaches you'll be exposed to, and while you don't need to copy any of these for your memoirs, you can get a lot of good ideas about how to organize your story and make it interesting.
• Think About Your Audience: If you're just writing for yourself, and you don't want anyone to ever see your story, blogging is not for you. If you're writing for friends and family, you'll want to pay more attention to readability, but you can still take certain shortcuts because chances are your readers will already be familiar with many of the characters and stories. Writing for the general public, however, requires a more thorough approach. You'll need to constantly keep in mind that your readers may not know anything about the people or events you are writing about.
• Develop Your Theme: Think about what's most important to you, and build your blog around that. Having a theme in mind will make your stories more compelling and help you weed out all those unimportant details...which can be funny to toss in every now and again.
• Organize Your Blog: You have options! Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end, stop. A logical beginning would be your birth, but you may also want to start by giving an overview of your ancestors' stories. Conversely, sometimes it makes sense to skip over your early years and start sometime later in life. You needn't just go through your life year by year, however. You may want to organize your story more thematically.
• Jog Your Memory: The best way to remember the past is to try and find things you have kept from that time, such as photos and letters. They may spark just one memory or a whole chain of them. I call these entries "Flashback Friday" and am inspired to post another one soon!
• Start Writing: This is the most important part! When you open the floodgates of memory, you will probably be eager to capture everything just right. Just relax, and take it one post at a time. Be yourself. When I started this crazy blog two years ago i didn't think I had anything to write about. I guess I was wrong.
• Be Vivid: Use descriptive words. Think about the Who, What, Where, When, How and Why of each memory. Use your senses to help describe your stories. Show, don't tell. At the same time, don't get bogged down in unimportant details. While you want your blog to be vivid, you don't want it to be boring.
• Be Honest: Honesty is the best policy, but you don't have to include every horrid secret you may be hiding if you don't want to. Conversely, you may decide to spruce up your blog a bit by creatively sharing some of life's mishaps.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Sarah!

I'm so glad you're in my life and in our family!

Students Shining for Jesus

Johnnie and a team of middle school students are in Chicago this week doing a mission trip! Check out thier blog to get updates on the team! Corey and DC are in Mexico with some high schoolers this week too! You can check out their blog for stories and pictures! Leave some encouraging comments and the guys will share them with the team!

What an awesome time in the life of the Student Ministry at Granger. Kids giving weeks of thier summer break from school to serve Jesus in places way out of their comfort zones! Way To Go Guys!!

No Cavity Club

I am proud to say that after all these years I am still a member of the "No Cavity Club!" Yippee!

It's such a great feeling to know that we have health insurance and dental insurance and even vision insurance now! Thank You DeVos Children's Hospital for taking care of your residents! I have scheduled a whole bunch of appointments for myself and as soon as Ryan gets a minute of free time, we're going to get him in for some contacts that are the right prescription and a check-up at the dentist! Wa-hoo!!

I just read this post back to myself and realized that you probably are not as excited about all of this as I am. That's not stopping me from posting. Hahahaaaaaa!

I hope I have kids as cool as Kem's someday! They came up today for some fun at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum!

The only hitch was when we put a few too many dimes in the parking meter at once and got it all jammed up. Thanks for coming to visit guys! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Weekend Report

This weekend Ryan was on call from friday morning at 7am until Monday at 2pm...so I decided to drive down to Granger for the last day of Camp Adventure, Church on Saturday night, some chips and salsa with a bunch of my friends, the annual GCC staff picnic and the Transformers movie.

Being at camp was incredible. I got to be there for Friday night's "Rhythmic Movement Celebration" (its not a dance) afterwhich all of the counselors and directors jump in the pool with their clothes on. As you can see by the picture, dad did the same thing again on Sunday afternoon at the GCC Staff Picnic at Tim Steven's house. I think the children were confused. I heard one say, "but mommy, he got his clothes all wet!"

Speaking of dad, this weekend's sermon was one of the best he has preached. Click HERE to listen. Im serious. You have to listen to this one!

And lastly, the Transformers movie was actually really good. I was suprised, because going in I assumed it was a guy-car-guy-destruction-guy type of movie...and it was, but I also liked it...so there you go.

Ryan survived his first crazy weekend as a resident. He is a superhuman. This year is going to be a true adventure, figuring out how to prioritize our life, finding creative ways to spend time together and making specific plans to have fun and go places together.

HEY! Any spouses of really busy people out there who have any good ideas for me, I'M ALL EARS!!

Welcome to the Blogosphere DC!!

Ryan has been known to be quite the grill master. This weekend we went to the store and actually bought our very own! We've grilled out every night since. Ryan is a happy man.

In Honor of Matching

Mom & Dad at Camp Adventure

On Politics

INNOVATE 2007

I am so so so excited about Granger's Innovate conference coming up in September! I am a teeeeny bit biased because of my extreme love and devotion for Granger, everyone who works at Granger, everyone who goes to Granger, and basically everything Granger does and is going to do until Jesus comes. Regardless, you need to be there! Your team needs to be there, their spouses need to be there, and the front runners of your ministry need to be there! It's going to expand your thinking! I can't wait!

Tune in for Tim & Kem's weekly Countdown to Innovate Podcast
SCOTT HODGE will be there! Will you?? I'm so excited to hang out with my blogging friends and meet you if i haven't already!! Comment to let me know if you'll be there and I'll be on the lookout for you!

Dear Dell Customer Service, (if you can even call it that)
I am infuriated by your shenanigans. Next time I call for assistance with my computer problems, please do not transfer me from the "Wireless Connectivity Problems" department to the "Expired Warranty Support" to the "Hardware Support" department then back to the sales department of "Expired Warranty Support" so that I can pay you $239 to extend my warranty before I am allowed to speak to anyone.

I don't want to speak to anyone.
I am not paying $239 to extend my warranty.
Grrrrr...

Camp Adventure

I got to spend the last two days at Camp Adventure...and let me just say there is nowhere I have ever been closer to Heaven. The staff was UNBELIEVABLE! The Directors were AMAZING!! Jr. Highers make me happy! These people are changing the world.

Kyle & Sarah got a new puppy!

I got Ryan a drum set for Graduation, so while Christopher the drummer boy was here, we had him help us set it up. Seems to be a big hit so far!

I looks like we may need to buy Ryan a microphone too... so that he can sing along with his mad beats.

Morning Glory

Our new landlord has a little hobby that I seem to be benefitting greatly from. Check out some of the flowers on my porch and in my yard! I took all of these shots this morning.

I Love Visitors

Ryan's Mom & brother Christopher came to visit our new apartment last night! Chris is on his tour of colleges and HOPE happened to be on the list. Yippee! Ryan was post-call, so after a little nap he gave us all the full tour of Grand Rapids. What a guy!I love visitors...because I get to do more laundry with my washer and dryer! tee-hee-hee

CAMP ADVENTURE - PART 2

Tomorrow starts week 2 of CAMP ADVENTURE!! This picture really captures the spirit of camp. Corey, Johnnie & DC are quite the incredible crew of Directors. I want to be there!!!

Normal Humans

Today is a big day! The phone and TV are getting hooked up, which will make this place seem more like home. We're only getting the basic basic basic cable package though, so I'll be cutting E! out of my life cold turkey style.

Ryan's first night "on call" was the 4th. My parents came up to help me hang pictures and get my house in better shape than this picture shows. We watched the fireworks on the Pearl Street bridge while Ryan gazed upon them from the 9th floor of the hospital. He wears scrubs when he's on call, which makes him look like a real doctor, but then he IS a real doctor. AMAZING!

He is running on 1.5 hours of sleep. Residents are not normal humans.

Student Painters

My cousin Phil Beeson was in the Louisville paper yesterday! He is an inspiring businessman! Check out the article HERE

Our New Apartment

well...what matters MOST about it!

On Moving

Moving to Grand Rapids was a CRAZY time!! Ryan drove from GR to Chicago late Thursday night and we finished packing boxes. Then Friday morning we picked up the U-Haul (which was about 4 feet too short for our apatment to fit in) and began to load. We had Bryan, Aaron, and Carson there to help, which made the packing much more enjoyable.

We closed up the truck and fed everyone pizza before getting on the road to GR. Michelle and Bryan were heading to West Michigan to celebrate Carolyn's first birthday party, so they were nice enough to help us drive our stuff to GR.

We had quite the caravan going. Bryan drove Ryan's Jeep, Ryan drove the U-Haul, Michelle drove her car (affectionately known as the Green Bean), and I brought up the rear in my car. We got to GR around 1:45am and woke up the next morning a 6:45am to start getting stuff ready to unload the truck at our new place!

Bryan and Michelle helped us uload too, because they have been the best neighbors of our life. Joel and Faye are our new next door neighbors, so Joel helped us with the unloading process too! Yippee for great neighbors!

We actually managed to get everything into the apartment, except for one blue couch that simply could not fit! We tried to take it to the Salvation Army, but they rejected it! Haha.

Amazingly, we got every single thing we own into our aparment in time to go to a grill out where I got to meet all of the DeVos Residents and Program Director and Ryan's new friends. Luckily I managed to misplace my flip flops and had to wear my sporty tennis shoes with my nice white cropped pants to the party. That's a great first impression! Haha! Ryan didn't seem to mind my dorky shoes, which is just one more reason why I love him.

Sunday afternoon Cliff and Huddy had us over for lunch and we got to see Hillary and Kevin too. Good food, good times!