Shopping Cart Drivers

This will be a short post.

Today at the grocery store, I almost got run over (TWICE!) by shopping carts! I was cruising down the main aisle and BAM! this old lady whips out of a side aisle in front of me -- without even pausing or a taking a sideways glance! The later, ZOOM! it happened again later on when a different person caused a near crash for the same reason.

Now, call me crazy, but it seems there's always been this sorta unspoken rule about grocery shopping to LOOK BOTH WAYS before you just merge into the main aisle. Main aisle people can't see you side aisle people coming due to HUGE SHELVES and lots of products on them. 

It's like driving --- when there's shrubs/trees/buildings blocking your view, you stop or at least slow down to check for oncoming traffic before you turn. You don't just go blazing through hoping that no other vehicle is careening towards you!!! Safety first, defensive driving, following traffic laws and all that jazz they taught us in drivers' education. Do these crazy people drive cars the way they push shopping carts?! Because if they do, I'm going to stay off the road... 

And hope they learn to have a little common courtesy to stop and look before pushing a giant shopping carts full of food out into a main aisle. :)

Love,

Sarah

New stuff!

Welp, if you haven't heard already, we've gotten a lot of new "stuff" since winter.

We know have 6 chickens clucking, pecking, and laying eggs! Yay for not ever having to write "eggs" on my shopping list ever again! The whole story is a bit long.

My family had chickens when I was growing up (25 of them) and ever since I've wanted them as an adult. Now that we're in a home where we won't be moving anytime soon, Zach built a coop, we picked out some adorable chicks at Tractor Supply, and brought them home and kept them under a heat lamp for several weeks.

My little peepers!

We finally moved them outside into the coop but didn't let them into the fenced in part for a few more weeks. They finally went outside but that was only to their demise because a few days later a raccoon dug under the fence and killed them...all of them... A few days later we pulled in the driveway and the stinkin' raccoon was running away from the coop! Zach went running inside for a huge flashlight and I drove the car around the side of the barn. It climbed up to the top of a ladder in the barn. Zach could see it through a crack outside the barn and I could see the whole body. So, I ran inside and got my .22 rifle. It wasn't loaded and I was in such a rush that I fumbled around with the shells for what seemed like forever until I got about 6 of them in and called it good. It's a semi-auto so it holds about 12 rounds. I told Zach I was taking the shot (he was on the outside of the barn) and kept trying to tell me to bring the gun to him because he could see it --- and I kept responding that I could see the whole body and that I was taking the shot. He came around the side as I yelled, "Fire in the hole!" Baha ha ha! This is hilarious to me as I write this because it sounds so redneck! It took a couple tries but I finally hit it and it fell down. Unfortunately I only wounded it and there was blood everywhere and Zach finished it off. It was HUGE and had sick nasty mangey fur and NO TAIL! But at least I avenged the death of my chickens. :)

Boom! Take that 'coon!

A few weeks later, we got some full grown chickens from a friend and they've been laying ever since. There's 3 white ones and 3 black ones. I'm open to name suggestions.

The other new thing we have is a DOG! And not just any dog - an adorable yellow lab puppy! It took awhile for Zach to warm up to the idea of getting a puppy but once he did he set right to researching what kind of puppy to get and where. He's a details kind of guy. :) He located a lab breeder close by and went to look at the pups then took me back to pick out the one for us! There were three female pups to choose from: two of them ran around causing trouble and chewing on everything in sight so we picked the more calm one.

Baby June!

We paid the breeder and put the adorable (but very stinky) pup in a kennel in the back of Zach's pickup. Well, she yipped, cried, and howled the whole way home... I felt terrible but with the way she smelled there was no way she was sitting on my lap for 45 minutes. The 45 minutes also gave us a chance to figure out what the heck to name her.... we had always thought we would get a boy dog and had all kinds of sweet names for boy dogs so a girl name was hard to think of. As soon as we got home and opened the kennel door - she puked. Ick. After cleaning that up we filled up a tub with warm water and gave her a bath. She was so tiny and fuzzy and cute! We played with her for a bit outside and finally decided on the name June. We wanted a short name that sounded mellow and June seemed to fit.

Zach and June

Finally got my puppy!

Her birthday is April 1 so she's already over three months old and growing SUPER fast. So far she has learned to SIT on command. We're working on STAY and COME. She likes to ignore the COME command, especially when she wanders through the hayfield looking for bugs and other disgusting stuff to eat. She likes to eat poop. And bugs. Gross. But she also likes to run through the garden and chase butterflies which is adorable. Nothing cuter than a puppy chasing a butterfly!

June also loves tennis balls.

Third new thing, paint! Our living room and one wall in the kitchen got a fresh coat of blue/gray paint. It's called "Van Courtland Blue" by Benjamin Moore. Thanks, Pottery Barn for the inspiration. I'm working on a photo gallery wall in the living room and a friend is doing a 4 canvas series of paintings for the wall in the kitchen. I'll post pictures soon.

Last new thing, Zach turned 25 and Mom Thorne turned 52 on July 16. I surprised Zach by inviting friends and family over for cake & ice cream in the afternoon. :) Zach was definitely surprised!

Pig cupcakes for the farmerboy

Happy 25 Years!

We also surprised my mom with tickets to a Tigers Game! My brothers got her a Tigers t-shirt and my sisters gave her spending money for at the ballpark and we went to the game on Thursday afternoon!

Can you believe she's 52!?

It poured rain -- the two days it's rained all summer and we had tickets to a ball game on one of those days --- but luckily our seats were just under the upper deck so we didn't get wet! And bonus - the Tigers won! After the game we stopped at Astoria Bakery in Greektown per the recommendation from friends and bought some delicious pastries for later. We also got to visit with our Thorne grandparents after the game which was so nice! I love hearing their stories.

That's all for now.

Love,

Sarah

Birthday Month & Bread

February brings several birthdays for our families again. January is packed full of them but February had a couple notable ones.

My youngest brother, Michael turned 12 years old on February 6. I am twice his age this year... crazy. I remember watching when he was born - how blue his skin was and how he didn't cry for awhile until the nurse rubbed some color back into him, how we really wanted him to be the 7th kid born on the 7th of February but he came at 11:50PM on the 6th, how he didn't have a name for almost a week because my parents couldn't decide what to name him. Some of the options on the table were: Harrison, Jason, Michael, and Travis and Justin's pick: Roly-poly-poop-and-pie. Thank goodness mom and dad didn't go with that one! :)

Anyways, Michael fits him perfectly and our family wouldn't be the same without him. He's in 6th grade this year and plays soccer, basketball, and baseball. He plays oboe in band and loves polar bears and the computer game Madden. He's still got HUGE eyelashes, adorable freckles, and shock blonde hair. He loves to tell you stories but he takes forever to get to the point... And he's still pretty small and cries at the drop of a hat.... maybe we babied the baby a bit too much. :)

Love you, Peanut! He was so small when he was born that I started calling him Peanut and it stuck. His other nicknames vary depending on which sister is talking to him.

If it's Katie, she calls him Sonny.

If it's Rachel, she calls him Babushka (which I realize is Russian for "grandmother" but who knows where she got it from)

If it's Amy, she calls him Bubba.

blowing out candles on his Superbowl cake

Mom & Dad with their baby

Mike & sister Rachel

Mike's birthday guests, who also may have been in town for the Superbowl...

Me & Zach, Trav's friend Jake, brothers Travis & Justin, Mom & dad, Rachel & Jared

The other milestone birthday we celebrated was Grandpa Cook's 92nd birthday on February 17. Yes, you read that right 92, as in ninety-two, as in 9 tens and 2 ones!

We went to Harbor Beach to their farm on Saturday for a birthday dinner and gifts. Zach, me, & my in-laws spent the night so it was nice to get some extra time with them when it wasn't so stinkin' loud from the rest of the Cook family chatter. :)

Grandpa Cook is doing so well for a man of his age. Actually, he's doing a lot better than most 70 year olds I know! He just wears glasses and has NEVER had a cavity in all his life! He sailed the Great Lakes as a young man, married Minnie, had 5 children and ran a farm complete with crops and cows for many years. He's also got a memory for dates like none other! He can tell you the date to the date when he started sailing one season, or the exact date and year he bought out the neighbors farm, or how much sugar beets cost in the spring of 1952. It's pretty ridiculous but also pretty impressive!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Cook! You are loved by many!

Singing Happy Birthday!

It's probably a good thing they didn't put 92 candles on there!

Grandma Cook, Sue, & Aunt Marge prepping the cake for eating

If I back up to January for a bit, I got to make a few exciting purchases! And they're only exciting because I waited and waited and waited to get them and now I'm so glad! One was a cozy down comforter. It's the best. Sinking into our pillow top bed with that comforter on top is SO lovely. I could stay in there all day! Well, at least all morning, which I've gotten to do a lot of lately due to our snow days and Presidents' days. :)

The second thing was the duvet cover for the down comforter. I went back and forth on colors, patterns, and designs but finally went with a complete bedding set from Pottery Barn. I was not disappointed at all! It gives our room a little pop of color which it desperately needed since all the walls everywhere are white. Plus it fits over the comforter perfectly too since we also got that at PB. I'll be sad when summer's here and the down comforter will have to go away. But until then, I'm enjoying it!

And last but not least, I have found a WONDERFUL bread recipe! I've made it twice now because the first time I didn't bake it long enough and the middle was still doughy, whoops! Anyways, I made it again Monday and it got my in-laws stamp of approval when they came over for dinner last night. Zach loves it too! I got the recipe from here. I followed her directions exactly. Bread is too sensitive for me to go messing around with the ingredients or doing my usual measuring method of estimating... I learned that the hard way.

Just beware, it makes 2 big loaves and it was pretty tough on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Probably because there's between 6-8 cups of flour might be the reason it was a huffin' and puffin' away.

But who cares.

The machine lived and we got yummy warm bread!

I usually eat as many slices as possible when it comes out of the oven because it's only warm and fresh once. Reheating is just not the same. My recommendation is to slather butter on it then drizzle some honey on top. Or put raspberry preserves on it. That's good too. Actually, just about any way you eat homemade bread is good.

bread straight from the oven

It might be weird to say, but I was super scared of making bread from scratch. It just seemed so complicated and too many things could go wrong then I would have wasted lots of time and ingredients. But it's not so bad after all. The result was worth the risk of learning how!

homemade bread success!

Love,

Sarah

A General Update

The large florescent light above our kitchen island has been replace by these little lovelies! Zach installed three pendant lights that we picked out over Christmas break. The pendants are tan and brown with a kind of stoney looking pattern and the fixture is a darker bronze. We like more of a brushed nickel look but none of the other fixtures in the house look like that. :) Trying to keep it simple and neutral around here since it's not technically our house.

Travis' 17th Birthday was January 3rd. Hard to believe he's 17... I still remember his chunky body and spikey, mushroom cut blonde hair as a toddler - hence he got the nickname Spike for awhile. Travis had quite a few nicknames in his life, (Trav, Travie, T-man, T, TJ-My-Buddy, and Bumblebee) the most common being T.J. Since he was the first son to my parents he got my dad's name for a middle name, Travis Jeffrey (T.J.). He got called that for A LONNNNNNG time. Now it's just Travis or Travie. :) Whichever we feel like yelling to him when we see him.

Love it when he really smiles.

We went to an AGR wedding a few weeks ago in Livonia so we made a weekend out of it by staying Friday and Saturday night at a hotel in Novi. We made a quick trip to Twelve Oaks Mall on Saturday morning before the wedding and got a down comforter for our bed. At first I was slightly disappointed at how thin it was, thinking there's no way it was going to keep us warm at night. I was completely wrong. That thing is stinkin' hot! We have to turn the furnace WAYYYY down at night to keep from sweating under it! But is super soft and cozy and it's never going to leave our bed - except maybe in the summer when we can't turn the heat down... I got way off topic. Anyways, Zach got to talk with a lot of former housemates and AGR alum and it was a good catching up time.

Matt, Zach, Dave, & Will

It's been really great getting together with our small group again after a break during the holidays. We've been going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace series and it's been incredibly helpful, challenging, and encouraging for all of us. The last week, our group's dinner theme was Thanksgiving - main dish was turkey, sides were stuffing, salad, corn, etc. and we signed up to bring dessert. I wanted to make something pumpkin-y but not quite an original pumpkin pie so I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I added some white sugar sprinkles and mini chocolate chips on top for decoration.

They were delicious! Fall inspired but not totally typical Thanksgiving dessert. You can find the exact recipe I used by clicking here.

That's all for now. Parent Teacher Conferences are just around the corner again so I'm off to work on report cards. Oh happy day. It'll be okay. Later in the day we're going to hang out with some friends at their family cottage. I see games and cocktails ahead!

Love,

Sarah

Cook Christmas & Progressive Dinner

Saturday afternoon was Cook Christmas.

pretty tree

Grandma & Grandpa Cook

chatting

The Cooks

We had dinner catered at a country club then went back to my Aunt & Uncle's home nearby for desserts and conversation.

Natalie opening her card from Papa and Busha

Aunt Marge tearing up at her gift - an arial photo of the family farm

coasters that look like books on a shelf

Aunt Lorraine - also thrilled about the family farm photo

Sunday we had a progressive dinner with our small group. So fun! We piled into a 15-passenger church van so that we could ride together. The men were so thoughtful to decorate the inside of the van with pine branches, strings of lights, and a lighted tree stolen off of LaPreze's porch. :)

Oh yes. Zach and I commemorated Dan's "No Shave November" mustache by wearing a stick on of our own. We got a few good laughs out of these.

Ho-ho-ho?!

Love,

Sarah

A Long Week

This week has been long.

Too long.

My class made Christmas gifts for their families all week... oh my. I don't want to see another popsicle stick, puzzle piece, or speck of glitter until next Christmas. If you're a parent of one of the kids in my class, pretend to be surprised when you open it. :) Here's a few of them:

Wreath Ornament

-Poster board cut in a circle

-Puzzle from Goodwill spray painted green & glued with Elmer's to edges of poster board (two layers of puzzle pieces)

-red sequins for berries

-red ribbon tied in a bow & glued on

-red ribbon hot glued to the back

Snowman Ornament

(this is what it was supposed to look like)

-popsicle sticks held together by a perpendicular popsicle stick hot glued down

-face painted white

-hat painted black then let try

-glue on googley eyes

-glue on carrot nose made from foam paper cut into a triangle

-painted dots for a mouth

How one of them turned out... more like a masked bird. Ha ha!

Jingle Bell Necklace

-ribbon with jingle bell

-4-5 beads per side of the bell

-tie closed to make the necklace

-good thing I waited until Friday to make these because they could make a person go crazy

Luminary

-mason jar

-mix equal parts Elmer's glue and water in a small cup; stir together with a popsicle stick to form a watery glue/paint

-students use a finger to spread paste on jar then place a tissue paper square over top

-spread more pasted over top of squares to make sure all corners are stuck down

-let dry several hours

-spray paint with gold glitter paint

-wrap around a red ribbon and glue with hot glue

-place small tea light candle inside

Puzzle Piece Snowflake

-glue together popsicle sticks with hot glue gun

-spray paint puzzles from thrift store with three different colors & let them dry

-glue on pieces with Elmer's glue (10 piece minimum, 13 is optimal)

-spray paint with gold or sliver spray paint and toss on some silver glitter

-glue on an ornament hook with ribbon

Stockings

-staple together a red and green construction paper

-use a cereal box to create a stocking template that students trace

-cut out and glue red and green stockings together

-punch holes around the edges

-thread through white yarn (oh, they needed so much help with this step)

-tie closed at the top

-write students' names with glitter paint

Reindeer

"I'm grateful for ___________"

The best part of the week was today when I got to watch my students open their presents. I got each of them a book, pencil, candies, and a small toy. They were so excited to see a bag with their name on it under the mini Christmas Tree in our room! They could hardly wait until after snack time to open them. We pushed the desks back to the edges of the room and sat on the floor. Most of them just sprawled out on their tummies waiting for their name to be called open their gift.

Monster trucks!

These glasses were a hit!

If you need a good laugh, head down to the dollar store and buy some false mustaches for your students or children to stick on and wear. It's hilarious! They wore these ALL day! Even to lunch and recess. I forced them to remove them for P.E. and the other specials.

Mr. Cool

It's days like these that I love (as crazy as they are) because it builds friendship and camaraderie with my students that doesn't happen on most days. I can be more candid and relaxed with them. While I sat in the rocking chair and the students opened gifts, one of my little girls sat on my lap giggling and playing with her little ocean animal toys.

ocean animal toys and a blue tongue from Jolly Ranchers

This weekend will fly by --- it always does but even more so when there are Christmas events planned for every day. Tonight is Zach's work party/dinner at a steakhouse in Grand Rapids.

Tomorrow, we're off to Detroit for Cook Christmas. I made Yum-Yum. It lives up to it's name. :) I'll post the recipe some other time.

Sunday is a progressive dinner with our small group.

Monday is back to school then a Christmas Coffee night with some ladies from church.

Party animal.

Well, at least it's a weekend filled with things and people I love.

Love,

Sarah