Not much new. Tim's job is very stressful. He has to lay off 2 people & he will have to go out & do selling as well, which he wasn't suppose to have to do. He isn't too happy about it. We tried a new pizza place last night. It is a local restaurant & we were hoping for Mom & Pop pizza, but it was just fair. Well keep looking. Can't keep up with Dauber's shedding. With the light carpet & pale walls, it all stands out more than it did in our last house. For Christmas, we are going to ask for a carpet steam cleaner. Hopefully that will help!

Tim's lawnmower is ready today. He is so happy!!! Shawn has started to ask about his day care friends. I'll ask him if he misses them & he'll say yes, but if I ask him if he wants to go to school, he very loudly says NO!!!

Hoping to go into Toledo this weekend. Tim may have to be there on Friday to meet with his boss. If not, I am hoping to convince him to go anyways to go out to dinner, a movie, golfing, etc!! We need Mom & Dad to give us a break for a night or 2!!!

Got up this morning & went to Horrocks for various fruits & veggies & then to DW to get milk. When I got home, we got ready & drove to Holland. We went to Dutch Village. It was a true tourist site, but Shawn enjoyed all of the water & animals. Tim will be posting pictures from the trip soon. Tim & I both got certified that we aren't witches!! I'm sure you are all happy to know that!!

Tim thought that the swing ride that they had there went really slow, so we thought that Shawn would have fun on it. Well, it was your typical amusement park ride that goes really fast & high. Shawn was scared to death & crying. We were the only ones on the ride & Tim tried to get the guy to stop the ride, but he didn't hear us. Between being scared that Shawn was going to fall off the swing, the heat & the dizziness from the ride, Tim & I didn't feel to well after the ride. We went & sat down & had a drink until we could feel better. Shawn seemed fine as soon as we were done.

From there we went to Office Max to pick up a phone for our kitchen & a literature sorter for Tim's office. We then drove to Holland State Park . We didn't enter into the park, because they charge you & we didn't bring our swimsuits. The coast line is really pretty. Pretty houses, cottages & a ton of sailboats! Dad would love it. There was a huge Chicken BBQ set up as well.

After that, we drove to Fennville, MI to Crane's Pie Pantry. I had heard about it from the Food Network (at least I'm pretty sure that I did). They serve lunch there, so I had their famous Sloppy Joe, Tim had their famous Chili & a chef salad & we ordered Shawn a hot dog that Tim ended up eating!! They have desserts that they are famous for so I had a cherry cheese strudel with ice cream & Tim had a slice of sugar free blueberry pie.

We are going to relax for a bit now & then head over to Tim's office to set up his literature file.

Last night we ate dinner & Tim wanted to drive around so we took 31N and just drove to see what we could see. Saw some shopping areas & golf courses. Not an area that I would make a point to go to, or show anyone, but it was nice to see what was there. We then came back & went for ice cream. Tim still has not found any Carbolite ice cream, so he had a diet pop. Shawn had "white i cream" & I had mint chocolate chip.

Tim's lawnmower still is in the shop & the neighborhood kid that he used last week has his lawnmower in the shop, so Tim had to borrow our next door neighbors lawnmower. He was going to go & rent one, but the guy has offered twice, so Tim felt it would be a slap in his face if he didn't use it. This was the first time for him cutting the grass & the hill was a bad as he thought it would be.

While Tim was cutting the grass, Shawn & I went to the library to get a Thomas video. When we came back, Olivia, the 2 year od from next door was out. She came over & played with Shawn & watched movies for about an hour. It gave her Mom a break. Hopefully, she will return the favor soon!!

After he cut the grass, Shawn took a nap & we then went to a mexican restaurantt called the Beltline Bar. It is pretty well known in the area & the food was really good. Tim said the salsa was some of the best he has ever had. We both had their famous wet burritos & Shawn had a taco, applesauce & fries. We all enjoyed our food. We then went to Meijer to walk off some of the food.

Tomorrow we are headed to Holland, MI to see what we can find!

This week hasn't been too eventful. I've been working & keeping Shawn occupied. We tried something new from Meijer. It was a gyro kit from Mediterranean Chef. It was a family pack that came with the flatbread, the gyro meat & the sauce. The meat was all ready cooked so you just had to warm everything up. It was pretty good. We'll get it again.

Tim is planning on going into work for a little bit this Saturday. There is a German fest going on downtown & the Whitecaps (minor league ball team) are in town this weekend as well. We'll see what we actually end up doing.

Drove to Reed's Lake this afternoon. It is about 20 minutes away from us. (straight down Brenton Road, Mom) It was a really pretty lake with picnic tables & benches & tons of ducks. Shawn had a great time running around. The lake was beautiful. There is a small sailing school with the type of boats that Brad & I use to take out at Jolly Rodger. There is a neat restaurant that I want to take Mom & Dad to when they come. It sits right on Reed's Lake & it has a deck that you can eat at. It also has a take out restaurant in town. The menu for both is the same www.rosestakeout.com We then found ourselves about 5 minutes from that in a little area called Gaslight Village. The area was once a amusement park. There was an old fashion ice cream parlor called Jersey Junction that serves hand dipped ice cream, as well as sandwiches. They are open every night in the summer until 10pm, so we wil definitely go back there soon. Check it out at www.jerseyjuntion.com We are now headed out past Meijer on 28th street into the city of Cascade to find a Mom & Pop ice cream shop.

We went to Grand Haven yesterday. Pretty area. It has a long boardwalk that we pushed Shawn in the stroller on. Tons of power boats & people walking to the beach at the end of the boardwalk. We were going to go to the beach to swim, but it was actually cooler there by the water & I didn't want to get Shawn sick.

Shawn did really well until we hit a toy store that had a Thomas train table. He loves pushing the trains around on these tables. Right now, I buy him the die cast metal trains from Target for $4.99-$5.99 a piece. The wooden trains that go with these tables are $9.99 a piece. Anyways, the wooden trains have all of the trains from his movies. I showed him one of the trains from a side view & asked him who it was. He had to turn & look at the train's face & then he was able to tell me that it was Peter Sam. There are probably 50 trains & for him to be able to look at the face & know which train it is amazes me!! We go to leave the store & put Peter Sam back & he started screaming & crying & throwing a major fit. He threw himself down on the floor of the store. We walked out of the store & down to a restaurant, hoping that he would settle down. He cried & was mean for about 20 minutes & then started to settle down. Tim & I both agreed that we were not going back to buy him the train because he was so bad. Towards the end of the meal, he was being so cute & good, and well, somehow, Tim ended up back at the toy store buying Peter Sam. I know, we are horrible parents, but he is so hard to resist!!! Looks like his Christmas gift may be the train table & track!! These trains are the only thing he plays with. No matter where we go, he has to have a train with him. He runs them all over the floor & if one falls over he will say “Sorry, Edward” or whatever the trains name is. He will also talk to the train saying “It’s Percy, Thomas” or whatever else he is trying to say. At this point Mom is probably saying “And you have all of that on video, right Lisa?” That would be a big “No’. I haven’t broken the camera out yet.

We were going to be productive today & work around the house, but Shawn didn’t sleep too well & we are all tired, so we have done nothing today. Shawn went down for a nap at 12:00, so hopefully he will wake up happy.

There is a Social Committee meeting on Tuesday night. This is the committee that plans all of the events in the neighborhood – Garage Sale, Easter egg hunt, Pool party, etc. Not sure if I will go or not.

Well, now that I am home all day, I am going to attempt to start up this page again. This has been the end our first week here. It has been quite an adjustment for me being home with Shawn all day. I have to work a minimum of 24 hours a week & trying to concentrate on that & deal with Shawn has been tough. Tim went out & bought me my own desk so now I have a a true home office with my laptop, desk, fax machine & cell phone. Except for managing Shawn, it is working out pretty well. I have not been able to print from my laptop to the printer, so I have been emailing to our home computer & then printing. My Computer department at work just overnighted me a wireless printer server to attach to my computer so it will work. Tim is going to work on getting that set up tonight.

The neighborhood is really nice. We have met some of the neighbors, but no one has become life long friends yet!! I guess it takes longer than a week. We have only been to the pool 5 times. 4 out of those 5 were with Mom & Dad. Trying to find the time during the day is hard. Not sure if I will get a membership for August or not. We have the grade school within walking distance from our house, just like our last one. The other night we drove our bikes over there & let Shawn play on the playground. He had a great time. The cisty is building a Nature Park next store to the school, with lookout decks to fish off of & trails to walk on. It is not quite done, but what we saw so far is nice. It's nice to have it so close to home!

We have pretty much figured out the city. It has all of the same stores as Toledo, plus a few new ones, so that hasn't been too bad. We had to take my car in to repair the passenger side window (it would go up or down) and the electric passenger door. On the door, we were opening it half the time by the handle & half the time by the remote. If you open it by the handle, it messes it up & then it doesn't close all the time. The reset that, so now it works. The had to order a part for the window, so my car is going back in on Tuesday.

Dauber has to go in for surgery on Wednesday to remove a stich in his ear and a wart on his leg. They will have to give him some happy gas, so it will end up costing us around $285. Not fun, but I guess it needs to be done.

Went to Bunko last night for the first time at the community club house. It is a dice game. There were 20 woman there. I ended up with the most Bunkos (2) and won $26.00!! You put in $4.00 to play, so not bad returns!! It is a monthly gathering. I give it another try & see if I can meet some of the neighbors.

Tomorrow or Sunday, we are planning to drive to one of the lake towns for the day. Not sure which one at this point. From 10-1 tomorrow, they are doing Child ID's at the clubhouse. We are taking Shawn there. We'll see how it goes.