Unexpected News

Last week Thursday I had just sat down on the couch with Matt to watch the CMA's and look thru a new cookbook I had just gotten in the mail.  I was drooling at really yummy looking cake when a friend I use to work with called me.  I hadn't heard from her in a long time so was really excited to talk to her, but a little reserved when I saw what time it was.  As soon as I heard her voice I knew something wasn't right.  A good friend of ours, Mark, had died earlier in the afternoon of a massive heart attack.  It took me a few minutes to grasp what she was telling me.  At first I didn't believe her (she would never joke of such thing, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it).

This is the first death of someone I've been close to that had been unexpected.  And I'm the kind of person that needs answers.  Old people die... why?  Because they are old.  I get that.  My 51 year old friend died... why?  Heart attack... I know, but why?  With the medical field where it's at now... why?  I don't get it.  Why did God chose him?  Out of everyone he picked him??  He has a wife and daughter....

Mark left behind a beautiful wife of 30 years, whom I have met a few times and in those few times I can see how great of a wife and mother she is!...And a 19 year old daughter in her first year of college.  It was just the three of them and in my eyes they were like the perfect family.  Mark absolutely loved his family and no matter what conversation you were having with him most of the time he would start talking about his family.  They were his world.  He absolutely loved his wife and adored their daughter.  It warmed my heart to see that kind of emotion that he would carry about his family. If you would ask him how he was doing he would respond Good... my daughter did this... my wife did this... There just aren't many men out there that talk a whole lot about their families or display that kind of affection.  They also have a dog that is "spoiled rotten" and Mark acts like it annoys him, when you can really tell he loves the attention that his wife and daughter give that dog and would always come in with pictures of him!

My heart breaks for his wife and daughter.  I can't imagine being in there shoes.  This past weekend I was just in a funk over this news.  Totally shocked and sad to spread the news to some other friends that use to work with Mark.  All weekend long I kept thinking of different conversations we had, or how he would always pat my back and say "How's it going, Amanda Marie??"  (He always used my middle name!)  Or the time when I had just gotten contacts for the first time and lost it in my eye.  I was freaking out, had no contact solution.  Mark handed me some of his contact solution, told me to look better in my eye, threw me in the bathroom and said "Good Luck"!  A few mins later I went back to my desk and sat.  No contact found, Mark was with a customer.  Soon I heard him walk over and say... "Good Grief Amanda Marie!"  He bent over and picked up my smashed and rolled over contact off of the floor.  "Now ya did it!"

He was such a good guy.  I am SO lucky to have known him, even if it was for a short time.  I worked with him for 5 years and knew when I left that we would be in contact forever.  I lost someone that could always make me laugh, sort thru my troubles, help me get thru a bad day of work, tell me if I was right or wrong, be brutally honest with me, and someone that was a good role model.

Matt had left that next day to go up north and go hunting, leaving me with this news so fresh. The news just put me in a bad funk that I just couldn't shake.  My husband wasn't by my side, and I couldn't help but think of all the widows out there that don't have a wife or husband anymore.  Oh my mind just spun... I was just sad. 

Now that everything is over I'm feeling better about the situation. I'm just realizing how I have some pretty incredible people in my life, he happened to be one of them, and I'm so happy to have known him.  His family still wears heavy on my heart...I have been praying non stop for these two and will do so for a long long time. 

It's Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen, says Makenzie

What a fun... but COLD evening Halloween was!  We picked up some pizza's and headed over to Matt's sister's house where the family eats then treats!

Guarding the candy!

 After we were done eating, we all got our costumes on and were headed out!!  Did anyone guess what Matt and I were!?!?!?

Hank and Peggy Hill off of King of the Hill :-)  My cousin says that Matt looks like Drew Carry and I think he's totally right!  Maybe next year???

Here we are!!!

Makenzie in her "fish bowl" and Auntie Lisa the "mummy"
(who accidentally toilet papered the neighborhood!)

We ended up being joined by Thing 1 and Thing 2!
We usually don't see Nat and Caleb on Halloween so that
was a TREAT for us!!

We didn't stay out as much as we did last year... I'm a complete baby when it comes to being cold, so we headed in early.  On the ride back to our house we warmed up a little bit and decided to take Makenzie Trick or Treating to the neighbors.  Each time we got to a door she'd yell "Treat!"  But that's it!  "Treat" and then "Tank You!"

She poured all her candy out when we got home and just sat hoovering it the rest of the night.  Now, we never have candy around the house so I don't get how she knew that it was something really good... BUT she did!  Matt and I couldn't go near her or the candy without her flipping out.  Yikes!

Now whenever she hears our doorbell ring, no matter where she is I hear her yell.... TREEEAAAT!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Today is the day kids have been waiting for ALL month!!!  I've been waiting too!!!  I LOVE seeing everyone all dressed up and seeing all the creative costumes people come up with.

Makenzie's costume is ALMOST ready.  We are reusing a costume that I made for her in September at a Toddler's Halloween Camping trip.  It got a little mangled so while she's napping, I will fix it!

Matt's costume is ready to go!!  He was even practicing how this guy talks last night.  OMG... talk about FUNNY!!!!  He does it SOOOO good too!!  Haha.

My costume is in progress.... I don't think there is a whole lot to it.  Most of it is making my hair look a certain way.  My mom came over this morning, so I figured while she had Makenzie entertained I would play with my hair and see if I can get it going.  First try = Success!!  That was a good thing and bad thing.  Good, because I don't want to hassle with it later and have it not work out.  Bad,  I kinda look like a fruit loop and have some errands to run today.  I suppose today is the day to look like a fruit loop and have it be A-Okay!

Last night Makenzie and I finished making the Halloween cards that she was busy finger painting yesterday.  What fun.  We drew grass and sunshine on each card and I think she did really good for a 22 month old!!  When she was drawing the eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin the marker STARTED in the right spot.  :0)  Little things Momma adores, but bores everyone else!!

We even made our own envelopes to mail the cards into!!  I'll post pictures later, but they turned out really neat.  I made them out of her coloring pages!  Sometimes I impress myself with the ideas I come up with! 

Well, everyone have a SAFE and FUN Halloween!!! 

Sandy Sleety Tuesday

I sure am glad I got all my grocery shopping done yesterday!!  Today in West MI it is NASTY!!  Reminents of Hurricane Sandy are in town making for a windy, rainy, sleety, cold day.  I had to run out a few mins ago because our garbage kirby thingy (what ARE those things called?!?)  was knocked over and blown into the road.  My face got pelted by the sleet. Thankfully, we aren't in Vermont where they were just hammered with snow.  YIKES.  A tad too early for that.

Workout update!  I am on day 7 of 28!!! So far so good.  I even got Matt to do it with me last night :0)  Hehe!  I had him do yoga with me and for those of you that have never done yoga...don't judge!  I dare you to try it and then tell me how you feel.  Matt didn't realize that it can be a pretty intense workout, but he learned quickly last night.

Makenzie's diapers!  We are still rockin' and rollin'!!!  Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Makenzie's cranky again.  (No she would not look at the camera.)  She's been asking for Matt all morning. I let her talk to him on the phone twice, and kept her busy painting pumpkins, coloring, reading.  When it came time for lunch she didn't want to eat anything only wanted to eat yogurt and nothing else.  We worked on this eating thing for about a half hour and I finally asked her if she wanted to go to bed (she had been yawning all morning).  She said night night, so off to bed we went.  This was an hour ago now and I still hear her playing in there.  Yup... not going to be a good night... haha!  AHHH!!! These are like days when your boss is mad at you and you can't do anything right, even after you've done a bunch of different stuff you are still wrong.  BUT... at least when you are at work you get paid for it. 

 I better go get my stuff done... I think she'll be wanting out of the crib any min now.  At least I have dinner all made and waiting to be thrown in the oven!  So I don't have to worry about cooking.  Just keeping Miss. Makenzie happy!  Oh!  She said her name today  "Shenzie!"  Close!

Hunting Widow's Weekend!

Well, it is definitely that time of year again for all of us wives married to hunters!  Men are gone most of the weekend hunting leaving the wives at home with the kids.  Leaving little time for the wives and kids to spend time with Daddy/ Husband.  Normally it's not that bad!  Gives me a chance to do things with Makenzie one on one in the evenings when normally she's all about Daddy.  Yeah this past weekend was a WHOLE different story....

Friday night, right after work, Matt headed out to go hunting.  Makenzie played while I made a yummy stir fry for dinner.



After dinner I decided it would be fun to make pumpkin bars!!  Tis the season!!  So my little chef (who normally sits on a stool) pushed a chair over and climbed up.  She'd stir the flour and sugar around in her bowl while I made the pumpkin bars in mine.  Makenzie definitely didn't like the taste of the pumpkin, but definitely like the batter all mixed up :0)

Then our night went downhill.... while licking the better she stepped off the chair.  Luckly I was close enough to where I caught her, but it was enough to upset her and cry.  Then when I took the better away from her you would have thought she was dying.  The screaming and the crying coming out of that girl!!!  WOW.  So then I go to distract her with her favorite toys, books, music.... crayons.... mama dancing... boping on the bed!  NOTHING stopped her angry cry.  She was MAD.  So into pj's she went and we sat in front of the tv (yes that distracted her!) on opposite sides of the couch waiting for Daddy to come home to put her to bed.

Saturday morning she woke up getting ready for the day!!

She had her pj's all unzipped, and boy was she proud!  We headed off to my cousins for a 31 Party and then to a craft fair.  Came home for some lunch, saw daddy for a few mins and off for a nap she went!

And then nap time was done.... Daddy was gone hunting.... and Makenzie was NOT happy.  It took me an hour and a half to make dinner and get it on the table for us to eat, which she then wouldn't eat.  Everything I did to try to make her happy... made her even madder.  I couldn't win for losing!  So... back into pj's and off to bed.  Yay for hunting season!

Makenzie trying to mooch Grandma's Pumpkin Bar!

Sunday was a nice day though.  Matt was home all day and we had my Grandparents over for Turkey Soup.  My grandpa is one of Makenzie's favorite playmates... so she was VERY happy!

Keeping my fingers crossed for a change in attitude by next weekend.

Meals, Menu, List

Every 2 weeks my goal is to make a 2 week menu, then grocery list, then do all the grocery shopping ONCE so I don't have to be at the grocery store every week.  I started doing this awhile ago and was totally shocked at how much my grocery bill actually went down!!  It takes a LOT of time tho. 

A. I'm not good at coming up with meals.... I don't like eating the same meals all the time, so most of the meals I make are new recipes.  Which means you have to spend time finding all these recipes and so on.
B. Making a grocery list off all the ingredients for about 14 days worth of meals... takes awhile
C. Finding coupons and making sure they make it to the store with you!
D. Then I remake my list so it's arranged that the beginning of the list is at the front of the store and I work my way back. 

I probably waste a TON of time doing all this.... but it's become routine.  What's not in the routine is Matt not being around... there's a few nights he won't be home and I'm at a complete loss as to what to do for dinner!!!!  It would be nice to do a quick easy meal (because Makenzie turns into a Monster around dinner time, especially when Daddy's not home).  But I'm at a loss as to what that would be.....

Well, I have got Turkey Soup simmering on the stove, bread in the breadmaker!  My Grandma and Grandpa will be over for dinner, so I better scoot so I can go finish up "The List"!

Halloween Costumes!

Spent some time... okay almost 2 hours... at Hobby Lobby today!!  My mom, Makenzie and I had nothing better to do than wander the greatest store EVER.  Plus I needed to get some supplies to make Matt and I's (is that proper?) costume. 

I think I got every thing that I need for Matt's costume... but mine might need a little help.  We'll see... I'll start with his and then work on mine. 

We are dressing up as a TV couple.
Both wear glasses.
The husband loves grilling, and works in the business.
The wife is pretty outspoken.
They have one son.

Haha!  You'll never guess :-)  My father in law could tho!!