I did this first on Facebook, and changed a few things to be more accurate. I like the list, though, so I thought I'd post it here so I can come back to it sometimes.
1) My husband and I are true blue high school sweethearts. We met in high school (band, even, as if we needed proof we are geeks), dated as soon as we both were allowed, and got married directly out of high school.
2) I was born in South Carolina, lived there for a year till my dad got out of the marines, and now I've lived in Michigan my entire life. It was 104 degrees the day I was born, now I sometimes see 30 degrees on my birthday. In May.
3) I played trumpet in high school band.
4) My favorite food is lasagna.
5) I have the craziest, loudest family I have ever met. We used to scare my friends, and now it's a family joke that 'if you can survive the Bouwkamps/Jagers, you're a keeper.'
6) I'm 24 years old. In the 6 1/2 years since high school, I've had 3 kids, owned 2 houses, had 2 rounds of chemo, had one bone marrow transplant, and I'm about to do radiation.
7) I was on the equestrian team in high school even though I've never owned a horse. I borrowed 3 different horses in 4 years on the team. It's a lifelong dream to own a horse someday.
8) I'm a member of 'the Circle' and I've been to 'the Gathering' twice. Sounds cultish, huh? It's actually a website and an event for fans of Ted Dekker. We went the first time to meet friends from the site, and we go back because it was so much fun.
9) We didn't get to go this year, though, due to the dumb economic down-turn and subsequent cutting of Kevin's hours.
10) My favorite song right now is “Lead me to the Cross” by Hillsong United.
11) My favorite books are the Twilight series. Yeah, teen fiction. So what.
12) I worked at two different stores when I was in high school. Both of them have closed.
13) I once owned a dog and a cat named 'Calvin' and 'Hobbes.'
14) I once owned two cats named 'Jack' and 'Russel.' We wanted a dog, you see...
15) I've never smoked a cigarette in my entire life, not even one puff. I didn't hang out with people who were rule-breakers, that's for sure.
16) I'm the shortest adult in my family so far. (I say so far because my siblings aren't married yet.)
17) I owned a convertible in high school.
18) I live in a subdivision in the country. I've had cows walk through my yard. It's an odd mix of rural and suburban life.
19) My favorite movie is P.S. I love you.
20) I've only met two people who spelled their nickname the same way I spell mine (Nicky). One was a guy. I've never met anyone who spelled their full name the same way (Nichola). I've read books with 'Nickys' in them, or seen ads for movies, but they're always guys.
21) I have a teeny tiny tattoo, the size of a fine-point pen mark. It's for my radiation...but getting it has made me consider getting a real one. I just may do it after my treatments are done, to celebrate. Plan is to get it on August 10th.
22) I do laundry twice a week. Is that weird? Oh well, it's better than going naked while trying to cram 8 loads into one day...
23) I live in Michigan and don't own any snowpants. I had to borrow some the last time I went sledding.
24) There are more kids movies on my DVD rack than Grown-up movies.
25) I've been to the Philippines and the Dominican Republic, but never out west. And never to Boston in the fall.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Farmer's Market
I took the girls to the Farmer's Market in Downtown Holland today. They do a market every Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesdays are kids days, so they had hula hoops and jump ropes and sidewalk chalk out. I think they were doing activities too, but I checked the brochure and it didn't look like anything interesting so we went on. Maybe the next time we go it'll be a more interesting activity and I can let the girls hang out for a while and I'll sit around and watch. Today there was a guy playing a banjo. My kids love to put coins in their open cases when musicians are playing. He was pretty good, too.
I'm once again getting used to having all three of them in tow. During the school year I saved my errands for when the older two were both in school. Having them all along is really not as hard as it used to be, they get better at sticking by me as they get older and I just strap the littlest in the stroller! She can't wander away that way! :)
Anyway, I picked up some strawberries, blueberries and apples. One of my favorite parts of summer is having berries sitting out that everyone can just snack on. Fresh blueberries are my favorite!
I ended up buying too many strawberries, and quite a few of them got smashed on the way home (don't know how that happened, with 3 girls in tow...ha!). So, I looked up an easy, no-pectin (as I didn't have any in the house) strawberry jam recipe. The only problem is that it called for the jam to reach 220 degrees, and I don't have a candy thermometer! So I decided to wing it. I brought it to a rolling boil, like it said, then let it boil until it was going to overflow my pot. Now, we will see how close I got by whether or not the jam sets. It's in the fridge right now but it's still pretty warm. If it doesn't turn into jam, I plan on making a sweet bread I improvised a couple of weeks ago and using the strawberry stuff as a dessert topping. I did dip a finger in it, and it is certainly sweet enough! So either way we'll get a treat.
I'm once again getting used to having all three of them in tow. During the school year I saved my errands for when the older two were both in school. Having them all along is really not as hard as it used to be, they get better at sticking by me as they get older and I just strap the littlest in the stroller! She can't wander away that way! :)
Anyway, I picked up some strawberries, blueberries and apples. One of my favorite parts of summer is having berries sitting out that everyone can just snack on. Fresh blueberries are my favorite!
I ended up buying too many strawberries, and quite a few of them got smashed on the way home (don't know how that happened, with 3 girls in tow...ha!). So, I looked up an easy, no-pectin (as I didn't have any in the house) strawberry jam recipe. The only problem is that it called for the jam to reach 220 degrees, and I don't have a candy thermometer! So I decided to wing it. I brought it to a rolling boil, like it said, then let it boil until it was going to overflow my pot. Now, we will see how close I got by whether or not the jam sets. It's in the fridge right now but it's still pretty warm. If it doesn't turn into jam, I plan on making a sweet bread I improvised a couple of weeks ago and using the strawberry stuff as a dessert topping. I did dip a finger in it, and it is certainly sweet enough! So either way we'll get a treat.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Over a year...
I've been thinking back recently and it dawned on me it's been over a year since my 2nd Hodgkin's diagnosis. We got the awful CT scan results in late May '08, PET scan results in early June '08, and the biopsy was one year ago this past Saturday (June 27, '08). I'm seven months and eleven days post-transplant. I thought I'd give a few details about how I'm doing.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Swimming
My parents and my in-laws both have pools and now that the kids are older and we don't have to worry about them wandering off the edge of the pool unexpectedly...we can spend more time swimming. We went to my parents' tonight.
I love watching the girls play and wander around and S and A can both take care of themselves (with adults nearby, don't worry), so Price Charming and I can relax most of the time. Before when they were ALL little, we had to watch them and hold them all the time and swimming was not very relaxing.
We had a Funniest Home Videos moment! I was helping C swim around with a noodle, and Prince Charming went to blow the water out of the noodle. Unfortunately, I straightened the noodle right toward my face at the same time and ALL the water in the noodle went in my face and up my nose! Haha! Too bad we didn't have a camera running, cause it was funny. Of course I had to dunk him after that!
Hopefully we will spend lots of time at the pools this year. It's nice that it's actually fun for everyone now.
I love watching the girls play and wander around and S and A can both take care of themselves (with adults nearby, don't worry), so Price Charming and I can relax most of the time. Before when they were ALL little, we had to watch them and hold them all the time and swimming was not very relaxing.
We had a Funniest Home Videos moment! I was helping C swim around with a noodle, and Prince Charming went to blow the water out of the noodle. Unfortunately, I straightened the noodle right toward my face at the same time and ALL the water in the noodle went in my face and up my nose! Haha! Too bad we didn't have a camera running, cause it was funny. Of course I had to dunk him after that!
Hopefully we will spend lots of time at the pools this year. It's nice that it's actually fun for everyone now.
Potty Training
I know, stay-at-home moms blog about such exciting things, huh??
But we're pretty excited. We were just starting to wonder how we were going to be able to keep affording C's diapers as hours got cut at my hubby's work and we had to tighten the belt. Well, with something like 8 diapers left in the box, that small problem was solved!
Nearly 2 weeks ago, C walked up to Daddy and said, "I have to go potty!" Well, since her diaper was dry, we figured, what the heck. He walked her to the bathroom and put her on the potty, and lo and behold, she went! And then, believe it or not, she only had one accident that day. And she stayed dry ALL NIGHT!! That was most amazing. She's actually only had 5 accidents in 12 days, and all of her accidents have happened when she was on her way to the bathroom, or already there. So we knew she knew what she was doing, she just needed to do it a little earlier!
Actually, she sets a record for our kids... she potty trained the earliest. Both her sisters trained the week they turned three. Thankfully, though, they've all trained just as easily as she did. Maybe there is something to waiting for them to come up with the idea on their own... I don't know. I certainly don't have anything to brag about, because I had virtually nothing to do with it.
But I certainly am happy! Between the diapers, wipes, and diaper genie refills, that saves us at least $40 a month. Nice. And, really, I think this was mostly God. That he was helping her figure it out so we could save some money in our budget. So I'm still thanking him for that. He does care about those details, after all.
But we're pretty excited. We were just starting to wonder how we were going to be able to keep affording C's diapers as hours got cut at my hubby's work and we had to tighten the belt. Well, with something like 8 diapers left in the box, that small problem was solved!
Nearly 2 weeks ago, C walked up to Daddy and said, "I have to go potty!" Well, since her diaper was dry, we figured, what the heck. He walked her to the bathroom and put her on the potty, and lo and behold, she went! And then, believe it or not, she only had one accident that day. And she stayed dry ALL NIGHT!! That was most amazing. She's actually only had 5 accidents in 12 days, and all of her accidents have happened when she was on her way to the bathroom, or already there. So we knew she knew what she was doing, she just needed to do it a little earlier!
Actually, she sets a record for our kids... she potty trained the earliest. Both her sisters trained the week they turned three. Thankfully, though, they've all trained just as easily as she did. Maybe there is something to waiting for them to come up with the idea on their own... I don't know. I certainly don't have anything to brag about, because I had virtually nothing to do with it.
But I certainly am happy! Between the diapers, wipes, and diaper genie refills, that saves us at least $40 a month. Nice. And, really, I think this was mostly God. That he was helping her figure it out so we could save some money in our budget. So I'm still thanking him for that. He does care about those details, after all.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Summer Vacation
Well, here we go. Today is the first day of summer break. 3 girls home all day, every day for 3 months. May I just say, I'm not a fan of summer break...
Hopefully I can make it good. I've got some plans! We're going to take our bikes (the younger 2 in the burley) to town every Monday, and go to the Library and to the park, weather permitting. The older two have VBS one morning every two weeks. I think that's a pretty brilliant idea by our church. Hopefully it'll keep them interested in it all summer. Then, on the opposite weeks of VBS, I'm taking them to my grandmother's house on Thursday mornings for a couple hours. This way I can get some grocery shopping done and they can get out of the house some more. S has a day camp the last week of July.
Since the older two are mostly self-sufficient in the pool now, I can probably take them to my folks' and my in-laws' pools by myself a few times. In fact, S would like to be able to swim across the pool so she can pass the swimming test at camp and use the whole pool. We'll be making that a priority.
There's always walks around the neighborhood, and the library will have things going on, I just don't know what they are yet... they haven't posted anything. And I'm the new organizer for our church's playgroup. I need to get my rear in gear for that and get a summer schedule out. Sigh. Maybe I have too much to do! Ha. Just kidding. We like to be busy with this fun stuff.
Prince Charming and I leave tomorrow night for a few days to spend some time alone. We're going somewhere with no responsibilities and no set schedule! We're looking forward to sleeping in and literally ONLY doing what we feel like doing. I can't wait. 3 nights and 3 days without having to get up at 6:30 with the kids! :D And they're looking forward to going to my folks' house. Grandma lets them stay up late! Hehe. It'll be nice for us all.
Hopefully I can make it good. I've got some plans! We're going to take our bikes (the younger 2 in the burley) to town every Monday, and go to the Library and to the park, weather permitting. The older two have VBS one morning every two weeks. I think that's a pretty brilliant idea by our church. Hopefully it'll keep them interested in it all summer. Then, on the opposite weeks of VBS, I'm taking them to my grandmother's house on Thursday mornings for a couple hours. This way I can get some grocery shopping done and they can get out of the house some more. S has a day camp the last week of July.
Since the older two are mostly self-sufficient in the pool now, I can probably take them to my folks' and my in-laws' pools by myself a few times. In fact, S would like to be able to swim across the pool so she can pass the swimming test at camp and use the whole pool. We'll be making that a priority.
There's always walks around the neighborhood, and the library will have things going on, I just don't know what they are yet... they haven't posted anything. And I'm the new organizer for our church's playgroup. I need to get my rear in gear for that and get a summer schedule out. Sigh. Maybe I have too much to do! Ha. Just kidding. We like to be busy with this fun stuff.
Prince Charming and I leave tomorrow night for a few days to spend some time alone. We're going somewhere with no responsibilities and no set schedule! We're looking forward to sleeping in and literally ONLY doing what we feel like doing. I can't wait. 3 nights and 3 days without having to get up at 6:30 with the kids! :D And they're looking forward to going to my folks' house. Grandma lets them stay up late! Hehe. It'll be nice for us all.
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