My husband is amazing....

Well, this is literally the worst scheduled week in PA school (lots of tests and a dreaded write up) and I was feeling so overwhelmed with so many things at the beginning of the week with lots of things. I had a melt down on the phone on Monday night with Mark, and was a brat in all honesty. Here is the e-mail I woke up to Tuesday (I took out a few specifics)...

Hey babygirl-


I know that the past couple of days have been trying and it's been exceedingly difficult to deal with certian situations that have been frustrating. I wish I could take that away, but I also think that this is a good time to take a step back and just realize who God is, and that He hasn't changed in this situation. He is still the God that has brought us to and from Texas, through our long distance engagement, through our simple life, through cancer, through our first year of marriage, to and through PA school and so many other things I can't list right now.

He laid the foundations of the earth, He sits over the heaven and earth on His throne, He measured the waters in His hand, He numbered the stars, He weighed the mountains in His scales, He authored Justice. Our problems are like a drop of water in a bucket to Him, or dust on a scale. He holds the world in His hands and oversees everything.

My point is, let's take some time and realize that God is bigger than this. Lets cast aside our idols of a perfect life, or a life that's easier, or a better position, or whatever it is, and just realize God is in control and we can take confidence in that. He hasn't forgotten us. He has something set aside for us to flurish in. Even though it isn't easy, we can rest in God together.

I love you so much baby girl. I hope that today goes great! I'm praying for the Lord to grant you new mercies today(Lam 3:22-23). You are so amazing and I'm so blessed by you :)


Marky
Isaiah 40:25-31
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God??
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings mlike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Isn't he amazing?
Yeah, Im preeeetttty lucky.
And God brought us the storm of the decade and Wayne is closed tomorrow. It is literally the most exciting thing ever, and could NOT have been better timed. Praise God!

Love,
Brittany

Christmas break update in photo form :)

Here is a recap of our amazingly awesome Christmas break. I will write more later but I got a sweet new camera for Christmas and have about 800 pictures so I will pick a few favorites to share, and these are in no particular order...



The hottest guy in the world. Oh yeah and my husband. This is on the beach of Anna Marie Island, trying to figure out the camera.



Playing scrabble in Flordia with the in-laws. We played lots of speed scrabble, scrabble flash, monopoly (Mark and I on my phone), regular scrabble, and pictionary :) Love the board games.

We went to see Manatees at the Tampa power plant. They huddle around there when it is chilly and so the bonus of it being freezing was we got to see real, live manatees. They were not nealy as pretty as this one, so I spared you and just showed this picture.

Making a wreath for my mom for Christmas. It took forevvvvvvvvver. And about 2.3 million hot glue gun burns. But it turned out pretty well! And she still has it hanging up. Yay.

We got to stay for a two night staycation in a cabin at Gull Lake Ministries. This was right when we got there. About an hour after we got there Mark contracted a stomach bug, or food poisioning or something, and spent most of the rest of the time in the bathroom. We ended up watching like 8 movies and it still was pretty wonderful. Quite a blessing.

Anna and her Christmas wreath we helped her make for her parents for Christmas. We cut it out and put a cute picture in the middle. She was pretty into it. Prob not as much as me.

And here is Amy after we made hers. Her little hands wouldnt stay open for the handprints so we did footprints. Turned out pretttty messy.

Jennas friend Brenna came over and we played some rummicube (?) and were pretty much a few 80 year olds.

Anna and her beloved marshmellows from the lucky charms.

My sweet new camera and an awesome shirt I got from my mom. I loooove it! 

Anna and her teeny tiny violin. We play twinkle on another violin and she really thinks she is playing it. It's so great.

The book that rocked our worlds this Christmas break. I highly recommend it. It really was challenging and convicting.

I wish we would have kept track of how many boxes of lucky charms Lex, Jenn and I went through this break. I would estimate 15.  No joke.

Amy playing jingle bells and Anna thinking she was playing it. She is going to be so dissapointed one day when she finds out she cant really play all these insturments. And Amy came down for a day and it was wondddddddderful. She is in PA school in Tennesse, and its so fun to see her (which is like every few months unfortunatly) but it was such a fun day!!

Lex and I and our New Years Eve cake that we made. It was amazing.

How we spent New Years Eve. Watching the office. Jenna had just got home from the hospital and so we all just cuddled with her and enjoyed being home and together. (Mark was still in Flordia)

mmm love that laugh

Anyway.
This is our life.
:)
Love,
Brittany

Snow Day!!!

Here is how we celebrated me being done with school for the semester (and getting 27 days off)! Mark humored me and played outside with me and Anna. It was wonderful! I also babysat the girls for two whole days while their mom went back to work and Mark came and was so helpful. He actaully likes holding babies now! Yay, we are making progress :)

Anna loves when "her Marts" pulls her around on her sled

Anna will strum while Mark does the fingers and she loves it. I love how she rests her hand on his knee:)

Loooove this :)

Things I never thought would happen in 2010

- That I would get cancer


- That I would live alone for the first time in my life (after being married)


- That Mark would live in the bedroom I grew up in a house with my mom and baby sister


- That I would drive across the state twice each weekend


- That Mark would be working 3 part time jobs


- That I would eat cereal for almost every meal


- That I would actually appreciate UofM for something :)


- That I would enjoy PA school so much


- That Mark would be working at gracespring (the church that my family goes to)


- That I would drive from Texas to Plainwell all by my self


- That I would love BSF so much, and then Mark would also start going and love it just as much!


- That I would have to spend almost a week in isolation and not be able to touch anyone (post radiation)


- That I would go to a rattle snake round up (when we were in Texas)


- That I would miss Texas and our life there SO much

- That I would get into Harry Potter (I only read 3 books, but I did see several of the movies and go to the Harry Potter land in FL)


- That we would spend most of our savings on medical bills

- That I would still get to babysit a Pierce child (Anna and Amy) every Saturday night (I started babysitting their boy Shaun when I was about 14)

- That I would get an iphone

- That Mark would be delivering pizzas at Pizza Hut and actaully enjoy it as much as he does

-- That I would love being married sooo much, I literally love it

Anyway, thats all I can think of now, but hope everyone is doing well!! The next post will have lots of pictures to make up for this ones lack of pictures!!

Love,
Brittany :)

Ten things we are thankful for 2010

You can treat this post as our Christmas update letter :)  Brittany and I both compiled "Top Ten Lists" of the things that we are thankful for this past year.  We thought it would be fun to do them separately and see how the match up.  So the lists are completely unedited by the other person and are our own thoughts :)


Mark-
10.Little Joys- Like the all state insurance mayhem commercials, silly little remote control helicopters, burning leaves, that first cup of coffee in the morning, and chocolate chip waffles!

9. World Cup- I love the world cup, and get really into it.  I think it stinks it only comes every four years.  At least it makes up for the winter Olympics...

8.BSF- For some reason I'm reallllllllly picky about the bible studies that I want to join, but BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) has been everything I look for in a bible study (they actually study the bible in depth and have good theology, but I think you can't get one without the other....).  Such a blessing!  And listening to great lectures by a old guy with an English accent is a bonus!
 
7.Traveling opportunities- Brittany and I have been so blessed to be able to a lot of the world in first year of marriage, and are so incredibly blessed to be able to do travel a little bit.  We went to Mexico, lived in Texas (so got to see a lot of Texas, including beautiful Abilene, Sweetwater, and Dallas.  I got to see more of Texas than Brittany because I was down there longer, so I got to go to San Antonio to see a high school state football championship game, Austin and San Marcos.  Also, I was able to stop in Tulsa and experience the best of Oklahoma with my awesome sister-in-law Wendy.), Chicago, Jacksonville, Hogwarts (in Orlando, Anna Maria Island (at the end of this year), beautiful Detroit (I'm running out of places to list), and the worst place on earth, Ann Arbor (mostly because of all the filthy rodents that live there).

6.A great football season- Go Spartans!  11-1, and they still get a terrible bowl game, at least they are playing on New Years day though!  Hopefully they win this year...  Mark Dantonio is so great and such a great compliment to Tom Izzo (PS- I'm ready for a great basketball season now, Tom :).  A special shout out to my friend, Eric Swanson, who is a manager on the team and a complete stud!  I love my Alma mater!

5.Harry Potter- I know, I should be pretending to be a grown man, but I love Harry Potter!  I have read all seven books this year, watched all seven movies (anxiously waiting for the finale in the spring), and had the incredible opportunity to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando.  So amazing!  The only way I can describe it is, "A world of whimsy and fantasy!"

4.Youth Ministries/Jobs- Some times it is easy for me to become frustrated and upset about jobs, but when I take a step back and reflect on what God has given me in the area of employment, I am truly blessed and can't wait to see where God places me in the future.  This year I bounced around A LOT!  Had a great Director of Youth Ministries position in Texas that I learned lessons there that will shape the way I do ministry forever.  I was hired at Big Beaver UMC in Detroit for two weeks, after which I resigned from because it wasn't going to be a good fit for me and Brittany (both theologically and for our stage of life).  I then took an internship at gracespring Bible Church (and yes gracespring is supposed to be lowercase.  The church also underwent a name change, so it's the same church as RBC) and have learned sooo much there and I'm getting great experience!  Also, because it's part time at gracespring, God has blessed me with another job, delivering pizzas for Pizza Hut!  Which I love!  It's not a career choice, but it's a really great way to earn some more income and share my faith outside of church :)  Anddddd, I just picked up another job working a couple of hours at the Doster Store (a small country convenience store).  I am just so blessed to have three jobs in an economy that is so depressed!

3.Great friends and family- I'm not going to list many people here (for fear of accidentally leaving someone out), but know if you are reading this, you have probably impacted my life in the psst year in a way that I would only do justice by thanking you in person.  It's been a weird year, no doubt.  But the truth is, Brittany and I wouldn't have been able to make it through if it weren't for two things: our relationship with God and our family and friends.  So Thank You!!!

2.Great doctors- I like to joke with Brittany that she is really great at spending our money on fun things for herself, like PA school and cancer treatment!  I know it's kinda a morbid joke, but I wouldn't want to spend our money any other way.  I wanted to make this one my number one (spoiler alert), because it's such an incomprehensible blessing to have Brittany healthy.  Thank you God for the incredible doctors that He used to help make this happen.  I'm tearing up right now as I'm typing this because we have seen God's sovereign hand move in our lives.  I know this will affect us for the rest of our lives, but I'm not concerned about that, because we have the rest of our lives to enjoy God and his blessings.  In a way, I'm glad that God blessed us with cancer, because of the glimpse of his mercy we were able to see due to this trial, the way that it has brought us closer to Him through it, and the platform it gave us to share our struggles candidly and how our relationship with Jesus has meant everything to us.

1.A wonderful wife!- It's soooo awesome being married!  I'm not going to apologize for being corny or whatever, but it's so great being married to my best friend.  Being able to spend our time together(this includes not having to go home at night ;), and sharing my entire life and heart with Brittany is the best thing I could imagine :)

Brittany -

10. My iphone - It came to me through a series of unfortunate events with my sister, and I am obsessed with it. I looooooooove it and am so thankful for it. I don't NEED it and it is just a little extra blessing (with lots of fun games). Oh yes and my Nintendo DS, which I have mentioned before how amazing that little guy is :) I love texting and it really makes my days great!

9. Books on CD - I drive a lot. Like 45 min a day, and 3 hours Friday home, and 3 hours Sunday back to Detroit. I love books on CD. I had this wonderful intention of listening to lectures while I drive, but I can hardly pay attention in class so its just not happening when I am driving. I really enjoy car time now.

8. Babysitting - Anna and Amy. LOVE THEM. I literally can hardly wait for the my time with them on the weekend. I love snuggling with precious Amy and hearing Anna talk (and talk and talk). I will stop myself there....

7. Blogs - I love reading blogs. I have to limit myself, because I'm pretty sure I could do it all day. Some of my favs are the ones about: large families, adoptions, homeschooling, solid Christians, crafty people, and photography. I follow some families and totally am obsessed with them and know lots about them but they live across the US and would prob be totally weirded out if they know I read so much. But I am learning a lot. Actually it didn't hit me until I was reading a blog at lunch the other day and a girl who sits by me in school asked who the pictures of the kids were and I was like ....ummm.... haha and I explained to her about the blog and hopefully she understands. Anyway, I am thankful for blogs.

6. My school friends that I have made this year, have been so great, and helpful, and wonderful. And of course my other friends who have consistently been awesome.

5. Free heat in my apartment. Love cranking that up to 85 :)

4. Texas - Living in Texas for the first half of the year. Awesome. Here are some of my fav things from it - hanging out with Mark each night, making dinners all the time, doing everything with Mark, Rosa's, mountain biking, the Borcherts, violin lessons with Lex, Jason's Deli, being involved with Mark's youth ministry, being cancer free and school free :)

3. Having a family that loves me well. And is by no means perfect, but forgives me and gives me lots of grace and opportunity to grow. I love hanging out with my sisters on the weekends (which mostly consists of sitting at the dining room table studying), but they are both so wonderful and I enjoy them so much. And my mom is so great too, she is so loving and patient with me, and gives the best back rubs in the entire world!

2. Being cancer freeeee - and having a God that heals. Just thinking back to July and getting diagnosed and the shock and whirl wind of events that followed, and how faithful God is.

1. Being married to the most amazing man in the world. I know blah blah blah. But I swear he is, and I am am pretty sure I could not have made it this year with out him. Point and case. Him driving to Detroit to be with my school fundraiser and encourage me for a few hours last night (its 6 hours round trip)!!

Here are some pictures of things we are thankful for!!

Mark and Lex with their Butterbeer from Harry Potter world...its something Harry and his friends drink in Hogsmeed, and they were just in heaven.

Anna and Amy, loooove themmmmm

This weekend consisted of....

amazingness in the form of....

• Mark coming late Thursday night after working at Pizza Hut and waking me up
• Friday taking my LAST test (in clinical med orthopedics) from the summer semester and officially being all caught up in school
• Getting the exact grade I needed in that class for an A (cut it sooo close)
• Friday afternoon naps with my wonderful husband
• Driving to a wedding rehearsal drinking great (speedway) hot chocolate and having great conversations about jobs and church and kids and homeschooling and life with Mark
• A wedding rehearsal and wonderful dinner with amazing spinich and artichoke dip with college friends that we have not seen in a while
• Sleeping in Saturday morning
• Going to the wedding of Jill and Nathan (friends from Brody), and Mark doing the message wonderfully (even though I was so nervous for him)
• Mark pulling two $20 bill from his pocket when he was pulling out his notes from his suit right in the middle of the wedding (he didn't know they were left in his suit...oops)
• Going to Walmart between the wedding and reception to buy a plunger...(classy huh??)
• Sitting with Kaveh and Jenny at the wedding reception and catching up with them
• Apple Crisp
• Having mature conversations about whose family we are spending the holidays with (literally the hardest part of our marriage)
• Scrabble
• CJ Mahaney at University Reformed church in East Lansing
• Spending time with Kristen and Chris Umphlett, who we have not seen in a very long time!
• Cancun for lunch (my absolute favorite restaurant - a Mexican one in EL)
• Lunch with Ashley and Bill, Kristen and Chris
• Discussing the steam tunnels and Mark's prior life with Ashley and Bill :)
• Hummus and pita from Woodys
• Spending 99% of the time in our apartment in our huge bed...we even bring all our meals in here :)
• Mark here to help me with apartment things like cleaning drains and other manly stuff.

Anyway, it was a wonnnnnnderful weekend and I am so refreshed and loved spending so much quality time with my amazing hubs :) Annnnnnnnd we are going to Florida in 2 days! Yayyy.

Love,
Brittany

November update!

Wow, haven't updated in a while!! Here it goes... (sorry about the sideways picutres they are straight until I post them...no clue how to fix that)
Well school is going well. I just got done with a long stretch of tests and writeups and stress. Walking out of my test today I felt almost giddy (besides the fact that the test was surprisingly difficult). I literally cannot believe I have almost made it through this semester. God is so good, just the fact that I could come back and catch up and still do well with being sick and everything else, I am so grateful, and blessed.

 Anyway, last week was my birthday, which is always kind of a weird time because I hate it. Not just the "oh I am getting older blah blah", its all the emotions that come with it. My dad died the night before my birthday (when we were suppose to be celebrating) and it just seems so sad for me (and the rest of my family). My birthday just feels so associated with my dads death. I remember walking into my parents house coming home from MSU for my birthday dinner past the happy birthday sign and balloons and our pastors standing there and then my mom telling me about my dad. Ugh. What a crappy time. Anyway, I hate my birthday. And I am so not a gifts person. They really just don't do it for me, and I hate giving them. Not my love language.



Sweet sleeping Amy (prob 5-6 weeks)



Mark and I on my birthday. See that nice sweatshirt I am wearing? Mark got it for me for my birthday! I love it :)

These are literally my favorite people in the world.

My friend Ashley came for dinner at Logans that day, which I am soooooooo thankful for. I seriously love her to pieces and she has always been such a wonderful friend. Then Friday we went to Red Lobster for my birthday, I have only been there once before and it was kind of a random birthday pick. But I figured Mark and I could not afford endless shrimp and I was kinda craving them. So my mom and sisters and Mark and I went, and really enjoyed it!

I am babysitting Anna and Amy every Saturday now and I absolutely love it. I will get up super early to get my studying done so that I can do this. It really makes me happy (and gets me a little extra money), Mark has been working Saturday nights so it is perfect. Amy is 6 weeks and literally so precious, and we all know how much I love Anna...My mom and I took them to Alexa's choir concert dedication for the new auditorium this Saturday (not realllllllllll sure what we were thinking), it was a little ambitious, but they were pretty good! It was fun hanging out with my mom and having her help me with them. And the choir concert was amazing.

Mark is still living at my moms house and working at the church and delivering pizzas at Pizza Hut. He's such a good sport. He is really enjoying working with the church and just gave the message a couple weeks ago and did a great job. I love seeing how much he loves working with kids and at the church. It is totally what God designed him for. He helps out around my moms house with the lawn and all the manly jobs like the leaves and gutters and is really just a stud. He is enjoying delivering pizzas. He has always loved maps and finding places so it really is just a treasure hunt for him. And he gets cash tips, which help! I drive home every Friday after school and drive back to Detroit Sunday nights. Which is getting pretty old. The drive back to Detroit is the worst. A few more times and then several weeks of break! Yayyyy.

This Thursday after Mark gets done delivering pizzas he is coming to Detroit and then after school on Friday we are hanging out and then going to a wedding rehearsal (that Mark is speaking at), Saturday a wedding, and Sunday going to East Lansing to University reformed church to hear CJ Mahaney speak and out to lunch at Cancun with Ashley and Bill. I literally cannot wait. Then Tuesday night we are going to Florida. So many fun things to look forward toooo!! Yay!

Love love this picture of Anna and Mark. Wont he be such a great dad?

We pulled over on the side of the road to get this picture with a self timer. What a nice MI fall day.

Annie and Mark. She always says "he funny" and gets all buddy buddy with him and posessive of him.


Oh yeah...health update...I am CANCER FREEEEEEEEEEEEE. There is one lymph node that is still suspicious and big, but they (UofM) aren't concerned about it. I have to get my levels checked in a couple more weeks. And my iron was low which might have been causing the leg pain, so I am taking iron now for that and my legs are feeling much better!

Update, Finnnaaaaallllllyyyyy

Ugh, I hate the fact that I have gone soooooooo long without updating the blog.  Just knowing the fact that you are reading this and more faithful to the blog than I have is a little wake up call for me.  So consider this my official apology for my unfaithfulness to the blog.

So here is probably the only real update you are waiting for.  Brittany is looking really good so far!  We had her in quarantine for about a week due do her radiation treatment.  This was absolute murder for everyone!  I'm sure it was the worst for Brittany, but she managed really well!  After we got through that, we had another check-up appointment, nothing really ground breaking.  Since then Brittany has been slowly regaining her strength and is now feeling pretty good!  She is experiencing some leg pain right now, and I'm not sure that I can explain what that is due to, but we are told it's normal for someone who had their thyroid removed.  Right now our biggest challenge is getting Brittany caught up in school.  She is almost completely caught up and has seriously been such a trooper through this whole trial!  I cannot not believe the amount of fortitude that she has shown, not to mention her faith, strength, courage, perseverance, and a huge litany of other attributes!  She is truly amazing!

We go in for another check-up in couple of weeks to see if the radiation did it's job.  We are cautiously optimistic about this and can't wait to here more from the doctors!

Terminating cancer

Right now I'm sitting in the depths of wolverine territory at the U of M Hospital. Typing this post via the iPhone that my friend have me to use as an iPod touch, due to the fact it no longer works as a phone (he got a new one). This is day two of being at this hospital, so I think that I ought to begin by filling you in about monday.

Monday at the hospital

Brittany getting shot by a laser cannon.
Actually, she is getting her radiation level measured.

Pretty easy day today, did some blood work on Brittany to check out some stuff. Mainly to see if she is preggers, which she isn't, thank goodness, and to check her TSH level. That stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. Basically what this is, is the stuff that regulates the thyroid. The thing is, Brittany doesn't have a thyroid, so her TSH is really high, which is what causes the side effects of being tired, some short term memory loss, irritability, some soreness, ect. A normal persons TSH count is right about 0.3-3, Brittany's is at 67! This is good for treatment though, because thyroid cells are the only cells in the body that uptake iodine. The higher the TSH, the hungrier her thyroid cells are for iodine. The treatment for thyroid cancer is to attach a radioactive isotope to iodine, so that the thyroid cells eat up the iodine and are killed by the radiation. If you are anything like me, you probably were thinking, "but she doesn't have a throid.". Well, when cancer spreads, it always stays the same cells as where it started. So if cancer starts on the thyroid and spreads anywhere, it will always be thyroid cells where ever the cancer is. And we are trying to get rid of every last thyroid cell!

Brittany also had a chest x-ray and a test to measure the raiation levels already present in her body(radiation is everywhere, it's just normally so minut, that it isn't harmful) to establish her baseline for future tests. That is what is going on in this picture. After this, she was given a small dose of radiation (sorry no pic), so that her thyroid cells will light up on all the scans they do on Tuesday. She just drinks it through a needle, and they keep it in this big lead case.

Tuesday

Back at the hospital today. Got here at 9:30 and got right to the scans. I will post a pic below.  She had a full body scan, a chest scan, and a throat scan.  As well as a CT scan. We met with the thryroid cancer specailist doctor and she was really happy with the scans and decided that instead of tomorrow, we could do the radiation today!  What a huge blessing and will save us a trip back to Ann Arbor.  Perhaps more important than saving a car ride is that their isn't much cancer left in Brittany's body after the surgery. The only cancer left is in the neck, Praise God.  So they gave her the radiation, (I wasn't allowed to watch), and now we let that kill all the cancer cells :)

We now have Brittany in isolation in her room.  She isn't allowed to have any direct contact with any living creature for the next 3-5 days.  There are a buch of crazy rules too.  They aren't hospital rules, they are given by the federal government.  Here are some:

We have to keep all her eating utensils seperate, recommended using disposable utensils.

We have to keep her laundry seperate.

She has to flush like three times after she goes to the bathroom.

No one can use the toilet that she uses.

We have to keep her trash seperate.

Just a sign outside a room at the hospital

Brittany getting a full body scan.  Look carefully, she is in there

Brittany getting ready to get her radiation treatment with our awesome radiation technition!

We have another appointment on Friday, more of a check up type thing.  And she will get another full body scan. Shouldn't be a big deal, we will keep you posted :)

Update!!!

This past week, I had the distinct pleasure of teaching Alexa how to change a tire.  For some reason, that I cannot figure out, she decided to drive over a screw, which punctured her tire.  Alexa was a great student and dominated the spare tire.  I have full confidence in my student that if she were to decide to run over another screw, that she could handle herself and change her tire :)

Anna was prrrobably the biggest help...

Here is Alexa with her new friend Jack

One of the most traumatic events recently was Alexa cleaning her room.  This was a multiple day extravaganza that included rakes, shovels, a small crew of day laborers, and a dump truck.  One of the things that was unearthed was her collection of nail polishes.  I'm  not sure if we actually counted them, but there was well over a hundred bottles of polish.  She mentioned that her life's passion was nail art and wanted to open a nail salon.  We'll see what happens.

Here she is, in all her glory

This is Jenna just being a snuggie

Room for two more??  Brittany and Lex decided to pop by!!!  And D.O.G. wanted to participate

I literally have no idea what is going on here and don't know why it's on our blog. 

This is actually a long story, but I will try and summarize it for you.  A couple of weeks ago, Jenna and Alexa lost Pearl's keys (Pearl is our Honda Fit's name).  The keys literally disappeared.  So, after scouring every square inch of the planet, Jenna and Alexa settled on this rough payment plan.  A couple of clarifiers:  The hotel was because I needed to be back in Detroit for work on Sunday and needed a place to stay.  I ended up leaving earlier so that I could get let into to apartment by the management.  The Vera Bradley is a little pouch connected to the keys.  The Keys still haven't found their way home yet, so Jenna and Alexa have started to replace things.  This is actually a pretty accurate estimate, minus the hotel, if you lose your keys.  The cost for the car key and apartment keys is flipped. 

Moral of the Story: Don't lose your keys, it's an expensive hassle.  Just ask Jenna and Alexa

Us at Sandy Pines!!
Our crew: Mark, Brittany, Ben, Anna, and Alexa

Just playing on the swings.  Note to our readers, swings are less fun now, then when we were kids.  More nauseating too...

Hot day + small child + ice cream = this

We went to Brittany's high school friend's wedding this past weekend.  Here is Brittany, Michelle(the bride), and our friend Alyson.  Alyson is home for a couple weeks from California, so that is pretty cool.  Michelle's wedding was beautiful, like something out of a magazine.  My only complaint: it was about 95 degrees with 95% humidity and no breezzzzzeeee.  For those of you who know me, I start to sweat when I peel an orange, so needless to say, I was a sweaty messsssssss.  It was rough. 

This is senor Hansen.  He came over and made us this delicious authentic Spanish meal.  We had goat cheese, churizzo, payaya(sp?), and some other stuff.  It was so good.  Senor Hansen teaches spanish at Plainwell high school. He is also the most interesting man alive.  World traveler, plays frisbee, home brews, and is just plain cool!!

Alexa and Ben just acting casual

This is me describing how much I love Bell's Oberon(in moderation, of course).  Brittany decided to perch on me :)

So that is our life in a picture summary!

- Mark