Bocce Season

Karen and Michael were in town to celebrate their pregnancy with all in Holland. Karen, Michael, Jenn Hendrie, the Fennemas, Kool, Heather, Missy, the Dietchies, Beverly, Denise, Lossing and the Hendersons spent an overcast afternoon at Tunnel Park. We had the firepit ablazing, brats, cheeseburgers, plenty of diet pop and a really fancy cake that Jenn made. We played Bocce ball, and telephone pictionary. Karen got a highchiar and some childrens books. The kids played and the adults talked. We had quite a jolly time!

Not so funny as wedgies and mutant cats

This is a kind of sobering post, but I realized I haven't shared with you a pretty important thing in our lives. Michael's mom was diagnosed with stage 2B colon cancer a couple weeks ago and had a foot of her bowel surgically removed. She found out about it earlier than most people do as the result of a chain of events that began with a Holy Spirit prompt to have a 55-year-old-lady medical checkup. Patricia is in pretty good spirits and her prognosis is good. However, tomorrow she is having a port surgically put into her chest. This will be where she receives her chemo for the next six months every other week. Please pray for her peace, healing, ability to receive/need, and continued support/encouragement from family, friends, and church.

what lies beneath

I haven't done laundry in a couple of weeks. I just haven't had time. I usually do it on the weekend, but my weekend was full of a little youth group trip and running (I'm running a half marathon this weekend in Kalamazoo!) and watching the Miss USA pageant. So, as you can see, I've been busy with really important stuff. As a result, my underwear supply has run low. I had to reach for the bottom of the drawer this morning-otherwise known as Wedgieland. I just thought my friends may like to know that I am sitting in a computer lab right now, feeling my underwear (which I readjusted at lunch) recreep into wedgie territory. Fun day.

Here's a cute cat, Benjamin

I learned about this from my new favorite mag, Matt Swier's 6th grade newsletter. This cat was born with one eye and no nose. It's definitely not a hoax, check out this article for verification. Thanks Matt, keep up the good journalistic work!

Both Ends of the Spectrum

West Coast Craziness

So things are crazier than ever out here. Many eventful things are happening every day as we prepare to move "back east" as people out here call it. We got a new car (a fricken' awesome Subaru Forester), thanks to generous donations from family. The Saturn was definitely at the end of it's life span, though it served us well. We've been dealing with TONS of bureaucratic junk which has involved waiting in several offices for many hours over the past few weeks. Poor Sienna has put up with a ton. To read how awesome she is these days go to our website. :)

Simone's first triathlon

Simone competed in her first triathlon on Sunday morning, greatly aided by the sweet bike many of you helped get for her birthday. She loves the bike. Not suprisingly Simone did awesome, finishing the spring distance at a blazing 1 hour 22 minutes. The sprint is a 500 meter swim, 13.6 mile bike, and 5K run. She was fourth in her age group and the 13th woman overall in the sprint. Not too shabby. Here are some pictures of her.

My sister says we have a lot of energy

My little sister Emily was with us this past weekend, in town to present at a librarian technology conference. We had a relaxing weekend, but she kept saying that we were wearing her out. I gave her the full experience. We went hiking in the Hill country, ate a bunch of meat, had a fish fry (all of which was actually caught by church people), made her distribute doorknob flyers for our church. Oh, and I made her help me with some school stuff, too. These pictures are courtesy of her camara, which she took when we went hiking.



Here is the latest gem from Cadence.
Dad: "Do you always get punished when you lie?"
Cadence: "No, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.












Eli is not a baby. And yes, he is in the pack. The trail we are hiking on is rated one of the ten best in the country for hiking. It is also an excellent mountain bike trail basically right in the city. Translation - lots of slighly overweight white males in tights with Camelbacks loaded down with energy bars.

Big Beepn' Bunnies

LONDON (AFP) - In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit.

Please- In the comment section. List words these pictures evoke. I'll begin:

Yikes!

Here He Is

This is our baby's sweet little profile from the first time we saw his face on about three weeks ago. I personally like his little turned up nose and little lips. Teeth, skull, and spine are also nice. Looking at it now I'm seeing an eye for the first time too, but it's probably a man in the moon type illusion.

Breastfeeding Doesn't Work!

So Rachel and I just found out that we are pregnant again! Rachel wasn't feeling well so we called our doctor. He had us come in and he looked at her. We took a pregnancy test and it was positive. He gave us a little scolding for not protecting. We knew that we wanted to have several kids close together but this is a little too close for comfort. He said that he has seen this before. They are going to keep a close eye on Rachel in the next few months to make sure that everything is ok. We are pretty excited to have a little sibling for Win even though they are so close together. We will let you know when we have any more information.