Whoa... it's been a long time!!

Happy September! I realized as I was pulling up the recipe to make another batch of laundry soap last night that it's been waaaaaaaay too long since a blog post! Our life has been full of crazy, busy, non-stop goings on and I just haven't been in a "blogging place". 

Here are some highlights!! Joshua is a freshman in high school. Oh. My. Gosh. I can't believe it either. Logan started fifth grade today, so he's top dog at his elementary school. The boys are amazing, of course, and we're so blessed. Joshua is on the varsity tennis team - he got into tennis last spring and hasn't looked back! Logan adores soccer and is currently on a mission to master pull ups after we took his bedroom door off the hinges and installed a pull up bar for him. Next up will be a punching bag in the garage for Logan and a weight bench in the basement for Josh.

We've been doing some traveling in the old 'RV this summer! We actually just got back from Webster Lake in Indiana for the holiday weekend. I love that our schools don't start until after Labor Day. It makes it easier to soak up the last bit of summer before heading into fall and back into the routine.

By the way - I was digging back to school this morning! I got more accomplished in the couple of hours between when the boys left for school and when I had to leave for work than I do all day, sometimes! I forget how productive I can be when I'm back in a routine!

I'm going back to school this January (yikes!!!) - completely online and I've never taken an online class in my life. I'm excited about it, but super nervous at the same time. Cub Scouts will start back up soon AND I'm taking a trip to Canada next week! That will be worthy of a blog post, for sure, I think. All I need is a small digital camera so I can have pictures to post as well!!

I'm going to try and do a better job blogging regularly, but we'll see what happens. For sure, after I get back from Canada, though. 

CoLoR rUn!!!!!

Such a fun day today! Did my first Color Run ever! I love downtown Grand Rapids, and this was the first 5K that I've ever done down there and it was a riot! My friend, Cheryl, and I signed up together - along with a few of my co-workers. 

Here are some pics:

This is pre-race... nice and clean for now!

Cheryl and I relaxing before heading to the Start chute.

Cheese!!!!!!

About midway through the race!

Our Office Assistant, Kristen, and me - my co-workers are cooler than your co-workers!!

Success!!

Jumping for joy!!

Good times were had by all. Thank the good Lord for make-up remover wipes to get the color off my face, and I think I'm going to need to wash my hair at least three more times before I'll get all the blue out.... Right now I'm rocking some bluish/green patches that make it look like I was swimming in a chlorinated pool for too long! The bottom of my foot is still blue and I have a green patch in my armpit, but it was a ridiculously good time. My shirt is hanging outside in the sun... I sprayed it with vinegar in hopes of keeping it colorful - we'll see what happens!

I can't wait to do this with my kiddos next year! It will be so fun to spin and twirl through the color stations with them!

Happy Easter!!

He is risen - He is risen indeed!!

What an amazing Easter we were blessed with!!! It's always a good Easter when you can actually WEAR the new Easter clothes and cute sandals that you bought for church without worrying about freezing half to death!!! It was so warm here in West Michigan! I may have even gotten some sun on my arms sitting outside today!

Our morning started with Easter baskets at  home - after getting ready for church, of course! Church was great... lots of singing and celebrating! Of course it ran late - which is fine - but it kind of started us off schedule for all the running around from family to family that we had going on today. 

After church we went to Rick's family's house on Mona Lake - this was the first year without an Easter Egg Hunt for the cousins - Josh and Logan are the only ones who aren't teenagers - but there was still good food, coloring eggs and the gifts of over-sized, gigantic beach towels to get ready for summer! Oh - and I might have even gotten an updated family photo today!! I'm waiting for the pics to be sent to me, but I'm cautiously optimistic!!

Then we left Rick at his family's and the boys and I headed into Coopersville. Rick was on call this afternoon for work and C'ville was a little too far away to be... We spent some time with my mom - sitting out in her backyard while the boys played with some of their Easter gifts. We weren't able to stay as long as I would have liked, but it was a nice visit.

The next stop was to my dad's house. He has started doing an Easter Egg Hunt for the boys every year and he had been looking forward to them coming out. Grandpa Greg and Uncle Kevin made it a geocaching egg hunt with 24 very well hidden eggs and coordinates to the next one in each egg. There is some tweaking to be done to the method, but I have a feeling this will be the new way of hiding eggs... Uncle Michael and Aunt Katelynn were there as well and we had a cookout. 

My forearms and the tops of my feet saw more sun then they have in MONTHS, so I might have actually gotten some color! It was beautiful weather - sunny and in the 70's - so practically perfect!! God blessed us with a beautiful day to celebrate the gift of the resurrection!!!

Where is Spring?

Man, oh man, am I ready for spring..... This winter has been BRUTAL. We got more snow this year than we have ever had at our house. In fact, I still have at least 2 feet of snow in my backyard. Like, covering every single square inch of my backyard... We have snow piles that are still 4-5 feet high, and at least 24 inches of snow on the roof of the garage   :(

The temps for the next bunch of days don't give me a lot of hope that I'll be rid of it anytime soon.

Today as I was driving home from work, it was sunny and gorgeous outside. I could see grass along the highway and I just wanted to go for a trail run.... Unfortunately, there is still way too much snow in the woods, and I'm not even sure I could get down the two-track that leads to my favorite running trail... Oh, and it was only 25 degrees, too, which would have made running outside extra crappy. So, interval/strength training and cardio it was. 

Big bummer because I'm doing a 5k in August and I should probably start to train... and by training, I mean running. Not a runner, and yet running a 5k - go figure...

All of my spring clothes are waiting for me in my closet, but it's still too cold to wear them without an extra layer. Our whole family is anxious to get back to the beach. We want to take our Land Rover to the sand dunes (which we always do at the beginning of April) - but I think that if we want to go up anytime soon, we're going to need snowmobiles!

Think warm thoughts... and send them to Michigan. Winter has outstayed it's welcome this year!!

That Time of Year Again...

If you're newish to Holman Happenings, our biggest one is a cancer survivor. He's been in remission for (hopefully) 9 years - we'll confirm the "9 years remission" in about 2 weeks. I got the letter in the mail from the Children's Hospital and they've scheduled his next MRI and appointment with the oncologist. 

We are SO lucky that we have A-M-A-Z-I-N-G care so close to home. Right now we're on a "once a year" scan schedule, but next year will HOPEFULLY be our last scan. Once he hits 10 years remission, we don't have to go back to the oncologist or have ANY MORE scans. We can go ahead and put this nasty not-niceness behind us. We've been doing this since he was diagnosed in 2004 and I'm anxious to not have to do it anymore. 

Good juju is always appreciated... I'm not expecting anything less than an "All Clear" - but we've been doing this long enough to know that you never know for sure until you know for sure  :)