Milford Sound

Claire, Jason and I went to Milford Sound in October. I have been a massive slacker, so now I am finally putting up some pictures. For those of you who don't know, Amy and I tried to go last year, and we got about half way down and found out the road was closed because of an avalanche. This time I made sure to check that the road was opened.

We went on a cruise, which was awesome! We saw dolphins, seals and penguins!

It started raining at the end of the cruise and rained all night, so the next morning there were waterfalls everywhere.
We spent the night at the Milford Lodge, which was set in a beautiful valley, next to a river with huge mountains going up on either side, which was really cool! back we stopped at a few different spots, including Mirror Lakes and The Chasm, where a river flows through a narrow gap and has carved it out.
The drive was almost as cool as the cruise. We kept going "look at that!" and slowing way down to look out the window. We also pulled over about a million times to take pictures. All in all we had about 400 photos from the two days. Milford sound was breathtakingly beautiful with spectacular views of the mountains, and close ups of waterfalls.

My new soapbox

Ok, so everybody is DOING it. Jenny and Jamie have their blog about life in Haiti with their THREE kids. Wow. So cool Jenny! Amy has a blog that followed her crazy trips to Peru and Africa and probably the rest of the world... and Jes and Debbie: we look forward to your occasional post here. :) So, I decided to start a blog where I could whine and marvel and write all things boring or interesting about my family. Growing as it is. I added the link at the side if you're interested. I'll still keep all things fun and crafty and girly here (and hopefully you will too!), but then I don't have to muddle our Suite up with all the baby stuff. :) Yes, I just made muddle up. Take the adjective muddy and the noun puddle... and make a new verb: muddle!

Update: I just looked it up to make sure I wasn't really using a bad word here, and well, I must be in touch with my Dutch roots because it IS a word and I used it correctly! Ha!

Second Grade Logic

Straight from the lunchtime discussions:

Student 1: "Santa doesn't exist."
Student 2: "No, God is Santa"
Student 1: "How come?"
Student 2: "Because God gives us gifts, not Santa"
Student 3: "No, my dad and mom give me the gifts!"

How fast is your mouse?

Test your memory this Thanksgiving... but be careful, it's addictive! Try this game.

Our New House

We signed the papers last week Friday and moved half of our stuff in on Saturday. This coming weekend we'll finish up the move and probably start living there. I had a few of you ask for photos. These are from our inspection and showings so our stuff is not in them, but the photos look way nicer than it does right now. The house is FULL of boxes! :)

Calvin, Calvin, sing we all to thee...

Girls, I have to chuckle and then add a comment to our blog. I totally just made one of those Calvin telethon guys' nights. I always get these calls and think "what's a 526 number?" and answer it thinking it might be a parent from my class and it ends up being Calvin asking for money. Ugh! It's never a convenient time... so last night I got a call and I had noticed, from those knight emails we get, that they're trying to get every student to participate by donating some amount of money (good luck!). We were just heading out the door... so I told them to call me back the next day. Normally I forget and am surprised a second time, but this time I remembered! I even had my debit card ready! The kid was so surprised that he "made a sale"... he was excited! Then after taking my info (and incorrect card number the first time) he asked if there was anything else I would like to know. So I asked about him. (Is that flirting?) He was a senior (hmm, my sister-in-law's a senior), so I asked him what his major was... he is one of those made-up CAS majors :) (hmm, that's SIL's department). So I asked him if he knew her and he did. Oh how fun. Dutch Bingo. he he he. I guess it made my night too. Although I'm a few pennies poorer now...

Crystal Deodorant

Since changing to The Diva last year, I have convinced many others to "convert". Well, my sister-in-law(SIL) just told me about a deodorant that she has been using. I know that the normal stuff has aluminum and is not good for you, but I am a pretty sweaty person (sorry, TMI). I have to wonder about all these chemicals we put onto and into our bodies every day and the relation they may have to rises in cancer, etc... So my SIL told me about this Crystal deodorant. I thought I'd give it a try and I've been using it for a week. I can't say I've noticed a difference, good or bad, so I guess I'll just keep using this crystal instead of deodorant. My SIL's doctor actually uses it and that's how she found out. I guess you can use it on feet or anything that gets sweaty. Derek was with me when I bought it and he has one too (not pink, it's a little more manly looking, but the same thing: mineral salts). The website sells it for 6.99 but Meijer has it for 4.59 and I got it on sale last week for 3.59!

Clementines in South Haven

Tate and Debbie were up in Indiana last week for Jon's wedding. "Congratulations Jon and Debbie!" Derek and I were able to meet them in South Haven for dinner one night. It has been so cold here (umm, all summer and fall basically) so I think these Texans were a little chilly. :) We ate at Clementines and then walked downtown and to the pier, to the BEACH. Right, Tate? Michigan DOES have beaches. :) Anyway, it was great to see you guys. We miss you already!

Yeah, I came right from school so I am definitely wearing a skirt and black tights. I know, I know...

Some pictures of our house!

This is the guest bedroom

Our living room

The study

The kitchen

From the front..
I still have to paint the master bedroom/bathroom
Hopefully those pics will be coming soon!!

We're Homeless! (and debt-free!)

So we sold our house. It only took 6 weeks to get an offer (Yup AND we live in Michigan, folks!). Here are some pictures of the crazy days. I'm currently neck deep in school stuff (I just finished my 3rd day teaching) but I thought I would take a break to update the blog. I'll post pictures of my classroom too, now that it's almost finished. Just have a few things to do over Labor Day weekend and I'll let you know.

(Do you see Derek waving at you?)

signing the papers...

"What have we gotten ourselves into?!"

All our earthly possessions are crammed into this storage unit (ugh).

Since we are currently without an address, we are camping! This was the sunrise this morning:

Now that the move is done and school is underway, I guess we better get back to the house shopping...

My Lil Peanut

Just thought I'd share a few more photos of my precious little niece. She's such a little doll. I just love her so much!

New Zealand

New Zealand's been great! I've been teaching snowboarding with kids this season which has been an adventure. I've only taught adults before this season, so I'm used to explaining the technical stuff and have have been trying to get better at explaining stuff in ways that make sense to 8 year olds.
These photo of Jason and I are from early morning riding last week. I had to get up at 6, but it was worth it!

A surprising video...

Ha ha ha. I was cleaning off my computer desktop today and found a mysterious file. It was so random and surprising when I opened it up! I'm guessing it was in an email from one of our parents. They tend to send us the funny chain emails and such. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you since I have no idea where it came from and it gave me a laugh. Caution: don't watch this if you're in the office (uro stands for urine...). I can't believe people sign up to act in these ads either! :)

Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes

The summer is coming to an "end" for me. I know the weather and the calendar don't show it, but the school supplies in the stores tell me that my free time is almost up! Some of you recall that we put our house up for sale at the end of the school year in May. I prayed a very selfish prayer that it would sell during the summer while I was not teaching (fully anticipating it to not sell until next summer). I think God has a sense of humor because 6 weeks into the summer we got an offer and we are looking to move before the school year begins. Oh yes, 2 days before school begins. Ha ha ha. I just finished moving all my classroom stuff from my old school to my new one and am rapidly trying to unload boxes. What do I do with the boxes? Oh, I bring them home and fill them up of course. I'm unpacking during the day and packing at night. :) Let's just say I go through a lot of Sharpies and packing tape!

Here are some photos of my new classroom:

It looks inviting doesn't it?

Can you guess my theme?

Our Trip to Utah

Right after school got out we headed to Utah for a vacation. I didn't post any photos yet because our summer started out so busy but now I'm catching up. :) What a beautiful place Utah is! We went with friends from church / college. The hot tub was great! Smile guys! Derek and I went hiking one afternoon up in the mountains. At 10,000 feet it is still snowing in June!

We saw a real live moose!!!!!! (from our car). I went to the white mountains and Isle Royale and never saw one. Now I've seen one. (sigh).
Beautiful drive, beautiful aspens, beautiful everything.
Near Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Highly recommend it! We saw a moose here too, from a distance.
Driving rentals through the mountains on extremely well-maintained dirt roads: a dream from Derek. These dirty cars are like a trophy:
We (not me) caught some fish for supper that night. I came from a family that did a little bit of hunting and fishing for fun but not like this. We didn't have anything planned for dinner that night and really needed to catch some fish. It was so good and "fresh"! Here's the whole group:
This is the reservoir at Flaming Gorge, a gorgeous blue color:
We stayed at a condo in Park City and went to the Olympic park one day. Some skiers were practicing their jumps into the pool!
This is not a postcard. Derek actually took this photo when we went into Salt lake City to hear ad see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse.

We took the chair lift up in Park City to do some hiking.

An old abandoned silver mine up by the ski runs. We explored a few of these old buildings.

Towel Animals

This post is just for fun. Everyday our room attendant would see us leave for breakfast and when we returned our room would be cleaned and made up. When we returned from dinner we would find our bed side lamps on, sheets turned down, with a little towel animal greeting us. Our cruise director joked that everyone probably had 200 photos of towel monkeys to go home and show their family and I had to laugh because it was so true. At least we only had 6 photos, one from every night. :) So here they are; tell me which one is your favorite in the comment section!

Scorpian:

Bat:

Dog: (I think)

Elephant:

Monkey:

Swans: