Ahhhhhhhhhh.... It arrived

While some use the blog to comment on the cute things their children are doing we Verwys' know what's really important.....


No more trips to the laundromat!

Cat on your lap?

Human style!

Marvin is watching Michigan vs Ohio state and having Fran dance to "hail to the victors" after touchdowns!

Cat on a lap

What more can you ask for?

Cider

Homemade cider twice this season! It is fabulous and totally worth the work. Tonight we even had to pick the apples before we pressed!

Gotta remember to take my camera!

Pumpkins

Carving on Tuesday!

I just downloaded blogger on my iPad so maybe I'll get back to blogging

Summer Dinner

Tonight for dinner I decided to make some De-Lish garden food.
I had some produce to use up before it went bad.
(PS: our fridge decided to quit on us today, freezer is still freezing but the fridge is about 60 degrees inside. Marvin has had 2 bowls of spoiled milk with his cereal this week- not a great way to wake up.)

Course 1:
Bruschetta

I was able to use 2 tomatoes and basil.

Course 2: Chocolate Brownies

You're probably thinking, what in the world could you grow in the garden that you'd put in those brownies...
Here's the secret: 2 cups of shredded Zucchini! Which is about 3 zucc's.



Zucchini Brownie recipe: All Recipes

You can't even taste the zucc's.


Both turned out great! I love gardening!

Colorado Challenge

I’ve had a ton of experiences this summer that were a first. I say I because most of the summer Lindsay ( I ) have been travelling and Marvin has to stay to work. Unfair…maybe! :)

Up first- Trip to Colorado.
June 25-July 3
Cost: Free to ME

Why? It was a church camp and we took kids from the area 8th grade and up. 10 chaperones, 33 kids.

Chaperones                                    

Closest I got to all the kids in 1 photo- about 12 missing

Pike’s Peak- World Famous Donuts

 You had to eat them at the top of the mountain, because if you took them down the elevation would deflate them and they would taste bad...of course we tried this- it's true!

Pike's Peak is a 14er. This means it is above 14,000 feet above sea level. You could really feel the elevation change and we were up there a while. A lot of us got a little dizzy!

Jill - another counselor I met, we got along great.

Each night at camp they had different activities- Line dancing, horseback riding, paintball, mountain biking etc.

Soldier’s Mountain

 

At camp there was a smaller mountain we could hike to the top. We did this at 4:45 one morning to see the sun rise. None of the campers went – too early! It was beautiful!

 Guy counselors and one of the teens on the left

Me and Jill

 At the top they have a cross.

 On top of the world....

 Then I fell in...

Also on our trip we went white water rafting- mountain climbing- repelling and did a bunch of other life threatening events! It was a blast. Check our facebook to see other photos.

Mackinac Island

Is it with a C or a W? I always spell Mackinaw/Mackinac wrong… so why the 2 spellings?

The French Pronounced it "aw" but spelled it "ac". The British heard it pronounced "aw" so they spelled it that way. Today Mackinaw City retains the "aw" spelling while the bridge, straits and island steadfastly cling to the "ac" spelling. No matter how it is spelled, however, it is always pronounced Mackinaw!

Well we headed to MackinAC Island on Friday with 4 high school girls.

Depart at 8am, catch the 9:30 ferry.

Looking for cheep ferry tickets, go here, they are $11.

Amanda, Lindsay, Tawni, Lauren, and Antonia (our German exchange student).

A stop at the church

A pose near Father Marquette.

Who doesn’t love the jumping photos

Another church stop:

We had a lot of repenting to do I guess…

A hike out to Arch Rock, and stopping along the way for photos.

Arch Rock- we made it!

 

Highest point on the island: Fort Holmes, once a British fort taken over by the Americans!

Checking out the cemetery. Oldest grave was from 1823!

Hike back down.

Hitting the shopping stores- I love Antonia’s turtle photo.

Had to sneek this photo~ no cameras in the stores. Who is seriously going to wear a wiener on their head?

Turtles Again:

Doc Oc!

We had a great day. It was a bit chilly but very fun!

Storms a coming….

Well it actually already came, but I’m bad at blogging…

I came home from work the other day and started walking up my steps and saw this…

I thought OH WOW, what happened?

Then I looked a little farther and saw this…

 

The whole meter had been pulled away from the house. Then I thought, “how’d that happen?”

 

Then I saw this…

 

HOLY COW!

 

A MASSIVE tree had fallen because of the high winds we had a few weeks back. It took out our power lines, cable, internet, and telephone. Our electric in the house still worked even though the lines had fallen. Well…the electric worked until we called Consumers Power! They came out and actually disconnected our electric because it was “unsafe”. They did this on Friday morning with out telling us! After about 5 visits from them, over $300 in electrical costs, a visit from the city inspector and 96 hours later we finally got our electric turned back on. 

Being with out power for 4 days will result in a huge LOSS…

It was about $200 in food from both freezer and fridge that we had to throw out!

For once we are glad we don’t own a house, and most of the costs (electrical) are picked up by our landlord.

Schools out for summer

I stole the title from my cousin’s blog!

I love teaching at a school where the instructional hours are from Labor Day to Memorial Day!!!!

A few photos from the last day.

10th graders

8th graders

And Spenser!

My summer plans include not working very much! I took this teaching job so I’d have my summers OFF! Some teachers like the kids, I like the summers off!

Marvin did say I needed to get at least a part time job so I wouldn’t drive him batty with my boredom. He’s right, after about 1 week I go crazy! So my plan is to tutor about 8 hours a week, and possibly pick up a babysitting job 1 or 2 days. I also was just assigned 4 local stores as an American Greeting Card stocker- whooo hooo! That will be about 10 hours a week. With all of these side jobs I’ll be able to accomplish my main goal of summer~ sleeping IN!

A few other goals I have planned, in order of importance:

1. watch the star wars series

2. visit flint and gr for some family/friend time

3.read more~ currently on the list Glass Castle

4. blog more, sorry…I’ve told you about my love/hate relationship with blogging!