Crock Pot Fun!!

Ok so i just got this blog from a friend of mine. The title is "A Year of Crockpotting" it's saved as one of my blogs to check out. I guess the lady is making something in her crock pot everyday for a whole year! so great! and she puts the recipes up too...so take a look! I think the crock pot is the GREATEST invention since sliced bread...but that's just me.

I made a Taco Soup in the crock pot the other day and it was a success. Ask me for the recipe if you want to try it! :)

fall musings...

hello friends!

well it looks like fall is offically upon us in michigan....i do like it that the weather has cooled down and the humidity is hardly around anymore, but it means we're that much closer to WINTER...the dreaded WINTER! AGHAGHAGHGAHAGH

i know many people think that tanning at a salon is a bad thing...but getting completely depressed b/c there is NO SUN here for 5 months is not something i can live with this winter. so i'm going to get a membership for a few months. probably between feb and may. i won't get orange! i'll just get happy! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! happiness rocks! :)

oh and i put out my fall decorations. been lighting a bunch of candles and using less electricity. it's fun. also coming home and throwing on a sweatshirt and jeans is great too!

so now a question....WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF FALL?

...mine would be fireplaces...even though we don't have one...

hi!

hello! so i'm watching the movie "Outbreak" which is super scary! :) but guess what? Patrick Dempsy is in the movie! how crazy! ha ha ha he's a small role and he dies...but who would have guessed back then that he would be such a big name now right?

oh...and i'm super pissed that china stole the gold medal from nastia luckin. ugh! sooo pissed off! her landing was 100 times better than that other girl! go usa! ;-)

updates....

hello friends! i just realized that i haven't written in awhile!

On the job front.....I'm trying to get as much work at Western Seminary as possible! I've contacted the bookstore and library people to get jobs there. I have a meeting next week Wednesday with Mary at the bookstore. She had mentioned that she would need help on Thursday and Friday. And I'm hoping that the library will take me Monday through Wednesday. I'm trying to get as many hours as possible! :) And how great would it be to WALK to work!!!!! I'm really hoping this all works out....so I'm asking for some prayer. :) If you could send up a little prayer that would be fantastic!!!! :-D

This weekend JB and I are going away for the weekend with a girl I used to work with, Heidi, and her boyfriend Kyle. His family has a cottage up north. So that should be super fun!

rearranging the wernlund's pad

well....we did it. we tackled the basement yesterday. i started on it around 1pm and JB jumped into the fray around 4pm. We weren't finished until almost 10pm....what took us so long you ask? well....jb decided he wanted the pub table and chairs on the first floor. so we had to rearrange the first floor as well. But I think it looks pretty darn good if I say so myself! so....come on over if you want to see it! :)

oh....and last but not least....my sister sent me a picture message this morning of my niece Aubrey. She was in the bathroom....unrolling the toilet paper! HA HA HA she is just too darn cute! and that's exactly what her mommy did when she was young (or so I was told. Erin was a bit of a trouble maker...)

The battle...

So JB and I were in our bathroom getting ready for bed last week. This normally takes him 2 minutes and me....oh about 15. of course! so anyways....i'm washing my face when a HUGE fly buzzes by my face. I probably wouldn't have freaked out so much, but it was GYNORMOUS! You could hear it flying from like 10 miles away...ok...a little bit of an exaggeration, but still. So i quickly slammed the bathroom door shut. I didn't want the huge bugger in our bedroom keeping me awake. So I grabbed my sword (bathroom wash cloth) and swung at the enemy! JB grabbed his sword (another bathroom wash cloth) and swung as well. It was hard when you consider how tiny our bathroom is. Not much room for two people let alone two people with washcl....swords. So while we are swinging at the huge fly I'm skreeking like a little girl, worried that JB is going to hit me instead of the fly. After loosing it for a minute or so, we saw it flying once again and slapped it down! JB grabbed some toilet paper and smooshed him. VICTORY!!!!! The Battle for Gondor is won!!!!!

rain rain go away....have i already used that title?

hello friends! so it seems like EVERY time I wash my floors....it rains!!!!! oh the horrors!!! the storms were insane! it actually looked like movie rain. i'm not really sure how to describe it, but it was like movie rain. and a HUGE branch fell down RIGHT behind my car. when i say HUGE branch i mean like half a TREE!!!! :) ha ha ha

how i almost died....well...maybe not "died"...

ok...so our girls seminary bible study had a fun get together dinner with the husbands last night. everything started off great! great food...great friends...great conversation....and then it happened....the clouds rolled away (literally) and the sun came out. then the Matthews (it was their house we were at) told us to take the paddle boat out on the lake. They have this really pretty lake right in their backyard that about 30 houses all back up against. so anyways...back to my almost dying....

so Angela says "Hey Evonne, lets go on the paddle boat!" so Angela is WAYYYY more adventurous than I am. I had no desire to jump in a tiny paddle boat and float out in the middle of a lake....but.....i was encouraged to try the paddle boat. (thanks jb) so Ryan and Jason get in the front of it, and Angela and I get in the back. that's when i noticed that the water level was SUPER high. like we were almost taking on water already....so i didn't really say much b/c they seemed to think we were going to be ok. so....we start off.

Ryan and Jason are pedaling away. Well...the steering mechanism wasn't working very well. We got super close to the fountains. And then ducks started floating over to us...and Angela HATES ducks. so while she was trying to distract me with a story I was trying to distract her from the ducks (I put my hand in front of her eyes...I don't think it worked very well).

so as we're about in the middle of the lake I notice a little bit of water coming into the boat...at my feet. Then Angela yells that water is coming in at her feet. so the boys leaned forward and headed to shore. they were doing a good job....but since the steering mechanism wasn't working, it was taking a long time. and it's hard to pedal when you're leaning forward trying to stop the flow of water into the paddle boat. so they leaned back to pedal better.

and then it happened. water FLEW into the boat on Angela's side and she got super wet. from the waist down. she yells "WE'RE SINKING!!!!" and then my hubby ripped off his shirt and ran into the water to save us. :) ha ha ha Of course he wasn't wearing a swimming suit. and neither were any of us in the paddle boat. So he grabbed the boat and pulled us to shore! Isn't he great!? MY HERO!!!!!! :-D

(side note: Cindy Matthews saw us in the middle of lake and said to her husband Gary, "Gary, the boat is WAY too low in the water! it's going to sink!" maybe it was good that we didn't know....oh and the reason we almost sank....it was raining and I guess the inside part of the boat we couldn't see filled with water. Oooppss)

continuation of california vaca...

ok...so i left off on Sunday morning. we drove to church (The Bridge) and got to see a bunch of fun people! Not enough time to talk of course! :) But I'm glad we got to see some people!

so after church we had lunch (late of course) with my grandparents b/c it was father's day. took a bunch of pictures to hopefully use for christmas cards this year....not sure if any of them turned out so great....but...anyways...around dinner time Jill and Meredith (friends from high school) came over and we all drove to Temecula. Pat and Oscars baby!!! One of my favorite places to eat. They have the greatest bread sticks EVER! (too bad I didn't get to eat any...) we met up with Keri and her hubby Rich, Donna, Raylene and her hubby Tim. Had WAY too much fun! we were there from 6-9:30pm. We all had to catch up on each others lives! Then we drove home and had to say goodbye to Jill and Meredith.

Monday we had breakfast with Gregg and Jorden! Again...WAY too much fun! Then Trisha came over with her 7 week old baby! Trisha...has a baby...she's a mom! wowzer! :) so we talked for several hours. Then my dad got home and him, my mom, jb and i went to sushi...Dono Sushi that is...and we got a picture of my dad eating SUSHI!!!! no way!!!! ha ha ha he LIKED it! really....he did!!!! so anyways. then we walked around these cool new shops in Chino Hills. They're called "The Shoppes" and it was super fun. It was a nice night to walk around.

Tuesday we got up and packed everything up. We ran to the New Balance Oulet. I got a pair of really nice running shoes (even though I NEVER run!) for $12.00. Normally $89.99!!! What a deal huh? :) The we had lunch at Costco. Yummy hot dogs and coke. then we had to go back home and did random stuff before we packed up everything in the Pilot and drove to the airport. it sucked! GRRRRR. it felt like we had been there for 10 minutes. and the next time i get to go back....is christmas. perfect.....

Huntington Beach

hello! so we're back from California. We got in an hour later than we thought we were and my parents picked us up with IN-N-OUT!!!! YES! soooo good! especially b/c we had hardly anything on the plane. then once we got home at 12:30am we woke up my sister and looked in on my sleeping niece Aubrey. She is super huge! she's started to pull herself up and walk around the tables.

So we got in bed around 1:30am after talking to my fam. we got up on Thursday morning and drank coffee and talked for a while before JB and I went to get our hair done! YES!!!! soooo great. Not only did we get to talk and hang out with Jodie (our amazing hair stylist) and her daughter Meghan, but we also got our hair cut and now I'm several shades lighter too! Wooo Hooo! I LOVE my hair!

So after our hair we headed over to my dentist of 23 years. The ladies in that office are so fun! I was super excited to see and talk with them. We got our teeth cleaned, mine were pretty bad...my teeth haven't been cleaned for over a year! not a good thing....I need to floss MUCH more! :)

After the dentist we packed up our crap again and headed out to Huntington Beach! My brother-in-laws family has a beach house about a block from the beach...can you believe it! WOW! Here's a couple pictures of the beach...

So on Friday we all went to the farmers market. Walked around the little downtown area and had coffee. Had dinner and JB and I walked to the beach to get some pictures of the sunset. Saturday we had a big breakfast, then JB and I laid out at the beach. We got tan!!! Then got ready and went out to dinner at a Brewery in Huntington. great fun! After that we hung out and of course went to bed late....just like every other night!! :) We got up early to get to church in Chino.....
....to be continued! :-D

countdown....to beautiful weather!!!!

yes....i will be in sunny non-humid california in two days. i can barely contain myself. I almost started packing a week ago, but thought that jb would kill me if i started any earlier than Saturday. so i waited. but now i'm ready and waiting impatiently. In almost a year here in Holland Michigan I now fully understand why sooooo many people live in California. :) Paying double for rent in California is totally worth it!!!!! And to make some extra money so we can someday move back to California....I've decided to have babies and sell them. What? What's wrong with that????? ;-)

Another beautiful picture of the mountains in Southern California!

so excited!

I can't believe that in a week I'll be in sunny wonderful California! I can't wait! Especially since the weather here is so sucky! It's like 70 degrees here but it rained like crazy this morning! I wish the sun would come out and the humidity would go away....

(This is an amazing picture of the beautiful mountains back at home! I can't wait to see them!)

This past weekend

Hello everyone! (everyone is jb stephanie rachel and sam) This week was fun. On Friday jb and i went out to the Kirby Grill in Grand Haven with Heidi and her boyfriend Kyle. It was super fun. on the second story they have 4 pool tables and they serve just pizza up there. downstairs they have dueling piano's on thursday-saturday. they were really good, but then they started singing and playing little known songs. so we left. it was pretty late anyways. i ended up getting a super bad sore throat. i almost choked on the flem half they night.

saturday the sore throat was even worse. can't really remember what i did on saturday. probably just watched movies....

sunday jb and i went to Manna for our church service. it's on 9th street in downtown Holland. The service started at 10am and we got out of there at noon.....yes....a 2 hour service....can you believe it? singing took 45 mins, then they told us to take some time and visit with other people, and then the pastor spoke for an hour. it was more like a bible study/class like setting. oh....and no one came up to us and introduced themselves. and in a church that small everyone should have known that we have never been there before. so that was kind of disappointing. but my throat hurt so bad during the service i drank an entire water bottle of water! i never do that! ha ha ha

after the service we ate lunch and then went over to the seminary owned yellow house down the street and planted some seeds! we are not expecting anything to grow, so if it does we'll be super excited! :) ha ha ha

so that was my weekend. still trying to get over the cold thing i have. monday it turned from a sore throat into a runny nose. not fun! but i did make banana bread on monday and it came our really good! yum! :)

rain rain go away....

why oh why is the weather never good here! it's raining cats and dogs(where did that expression even come from??) everyone, including my husband, keeps saying and I quote, "Summer is almost here!" Bull crap...when it's sunny outside it's only 50 degrees. and when it's raining it's like 80 degrees and humid. this place is sooooo backwards! i just don't get it! i really want some sunshine and warm weather!!!! like this picture...beautiful Point Loma Nazarene University in sunshiny San Diego. Can I go back now???

Girl Night!!!

So Stephanie, Rachel and I (girls of the WCC) went out last night and it was SUPER fun! we walked downtown and had dinner at New Holland Brewery and there was this super loud two man band singing. we had to yell to hear each other! we had ciders and talked. then we walked around downtown to walk off some of our dinner. we were super stuffed. then we went to martini night at 84 East. I'm pretty sure we were the loudest ones in the entire place! we were laughing so hard! :)

so I've kind of decided(by myself) that we need to have a girl's night monthly. I didn't discuss this with them....I just decided when I got back home and realized how FUN it was!!! :-D Hopefully they'll think the idea is good too! ha ha ha

A Day in the Life of....

Hello! Well I'm new to this whole blog thing and I'm not really sure anyone will read it, but here it goes! :)

So over the past few weeks I have a schedule for what I do since I don't have a job right now. And here it is...with a few variations...

8:30am get up and eat a bowl of cereal
9:00am take a shower and get ready for the day
10:00am Put in one load of laundry
10:30am Vacuum House
11:00am Dust and pick up stuff in Kitchen, put another load in washer
12:00pm make lunch for hubby and i, eat lunch, sit on couch with hubby
1:00pm run to Meijer, Aldi, Dollar Tree or Target (not EVERY day...)
2:15pm sew on buttons to hubby's pants and shorts
2:30pm watch Food network
3:45pm greet hubby at door as he returns from work
4:30pm make dinner
5:00pm eat dinner and clean up kitchen
5:30pm go for a walk downtown
6:30pm play Peggle on the computer while "watching" tv
9:00pm start movie
11:15pm get ready for bed
12:00am fall asleep

so that's pretty much a day in the life of Evonne right now... HA HA HA :-D just call me suzy homemaker! ;-)