I'm Back.

Hello again! I am back from my WONDERFUL weekend away with my sister and girlfriends. We had a great time, and plan to do it again. The boys had a great time with Daddy, and Daddy enjoyed himself too! He said they were very good for him.

We scrapped, shopped, and ate good food. Even though we all said we didn't need anything at the scrapbook store, I think everyone made two trips there. The second time there I really said I didn't need anything at all, but once you get in there, you find something you didn't see the day before. It is crazy.

The time went way too fast. I had such a good time with these girls, and it was so refreshing to me as a mom. Just to have 4 days to myself did a world of good.

Here are some pictures of us up at Houghton Lake.

Nikki very proud of her page.

Kathy and Susan

Kendi and Corrie

Corrie, Susan, Kathy, Nikki, Cassy, and Kendi

You did WHAT with the tent stakes??

After Eric's weekend fishing and camping, we set up the tent in our back yard to dry out. The boys had a ball playing in it, which they did most of Monday morning. They were hot and sweaty from running around in that hot box, and they wanted something to drink. They were being so good, I thought I could run into the house quickly and get them some juice boxes. Mistake #1.

As I was coming back out, I saw Dane hitting the tent with something and heard Abel laughing hysterically. I quickly realized that it was a tent stake. There was a bag with extra tent stakes in it that I left in the tent. Mistake #2.

I told Dane to stop, which he did. And then he just stood there, which made me wonder...what did he do? When I got to the tent, my brain understood what he had done, but I couldn't say a word. I was dumbfounded. This is what I saw.....

I don't know if you can really tell what happened, but he poked holes (yes, that's plural) in one of the windows of the tent. Some of them were just punctures, others looked like he punctured the screen, and then pulled down to make a long slit in the screen. All together, there were probably 15 holes. All in a matter of minutes. The picture doesn't do it justice.

And Dane would like to point out that he made only 1 hole in the tent itself. That was nice.

This following picture shows my nice sewing work. I recalled my days at Dermatology Associates of West Michigan, where I did some work putting sutures in skin excisions (I'd like to give a shout out to Dr. Lamberts - the best dermatologist in Grand Rapids -for the fine teaching he did!). I have to say, they turned out pretty well. It took me about an hour to fix all the holes.

All done!!!

This is the face I saw as I was sewing it up. He looks so innocent, he couldn't possibly had anything to do with this...

Hopefully Dane learned his lesson and won't do anything like that again. Yea right....

Yummy yummy chocolate shakes!

We went for a walk tonight to the playground, and on the way home we stopped and got some chocolate shakes. It's right on our way home, so we had to stop, right???

Anytime I took the shake away from Abel, this is what he did. I had to have some too!

Dane and Abel so happy to have their shakes
This is the look I got when I asked Abel if I could have a sip....
Our Dane - always smiling!
Abel hardly came up for air when he had the shake in his hands!

Power Outage

A few weeks ago, we had some pretty heavy storms that caused the power to go out for a few hours. Dane decided to make a train with our barstools. I didn't get any pictures of him with his conductor hat on, and of course, when I asked him to put it back on for a picture he wouldn't. They had quite a good time.

Fallasburg Park

Today was a beautiful day, so we decided to go to Fallasburg Park near our home and have a picnic. We had never been there before (to the playground), although I have driven through it, and we have had a picnic there last year by the river. The playground was very nice, and there were lots of new things for the boys to play on. They had a climbing wall that Dane was very fond of. I must say, he was doing pretty well at it. There were tireswings that kind of resembled a merry-go-round, and Abel liked riding that. Dane doesn't care that much for things that swing around in circles, but Abel does. Eric thinks he's going to be the one wanting to go on the thrill rides. He's probably right.

We had PB&J's and juice boxes, played a little longer, and then headed home. The boys took good naps, and I hung some curtains and a plant over our kitchen window. They had so much fun, and I had fun watching them.

When Daddy's Away....

Eric left yesterday to go up north to camp and fish with his Jackson buddies. Dane has been saying that "Daddy is going to catch a big fish and it's wiggly". I just talked to Eric a few minutes ago, and he said that they had a big lunch of fried fish and french fries, and they are headed back out to fish again. It is a beautiful weekend for it - in the 70's and breezy. Wish I were camping - perfect weather!!

A little background on the Jackson buddies - these are actually all the husbands of my girlfriends from high school - Susan, Kathy, Corrie and Kendi. There are some other guys going with too, but when I refer to Jackson buddies, that's who I'm talking about. All of us girls have made a great effort to stay in touch since high school, with some of us seeing more of each other due to the places that we live. I am so glad that we have stayed in touch so well, although I don't see near as much of them as I'd like! We always have such a great time together - sharing memories, new gossip, marraige and parenting stories and advice, and much more. I hope these ladies are in my life forever. I am also so glad that all of our husbands get along SO WELL. They have a great time together as well, maybe sometimes too great! Whenever we all get together, it seems as though all the guys disappear rather quickly and do who knows what. The girls are always eager to hear stories of their times together, although sometimes there are things that maybe we didn't want to hear about. Oh well, they have a great time and it seems as though all their worries and stresses from their daily lives seem to go away when they are together, and I think everyone needs that from time to time.

The guys have seemed to get away a few times every year and return with stories of their great times and fun adventures. Although the girls always say we are going plan a girls trip, it just never seems to happen. Finally this year, we are going on our own 4 day getaway, and leaving the kids with our husbands!!! All of us love to scrapbook - although with kids now, everyone is very far behind. We are going up to a house on Houghton Lake to scrapbook, relax, shop, and maybe just sit and do nothing next Thursday through Sunday. We are all very excited to go and I think we will have a wonderful time relaxing a just talking - oh, and scrapbooking too. We have to get a little bit done to show our husbands when we get home! Us girls love to talk, and I think that has been hard lately with all of our little ones running around when we are trying to have a good conversation. It's always right at the good part in the story when your child is tugging at you yelling "Mommy, Mommy". The 14 little voices (that's right 14 kids between the 6 of us going) will miracuously go away next weekend for our much needed ladies weekend. My sister will be joining us, and I think she will have a great time with my awesome friends. Love you guys!

Dane and Abel in a bag....

I went to the Shipshewana Flea Market on Tuesday and got Eric a new camo bag to put all his hunting stuff in. Every year it seems as though he gets something else for hunting, so his old bag is getting quite small (10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag....). He opened it up, and Dane instantly wanted to get in it. They both had a great time in there..it kept them entertained for quite some time.

After 13 years in the Jorgensen Family, I realize that in a few years these boys will probably need hunting bags of their own......

A Very Productive Weekend

As most of you know, we are hoping to move to the Plainwell/Otsego area sometime this year. We have an unfinished basement that became a collection of Eric's tools, our camping equipment, holiday decorations, empty boxes (LOTS of them that I have collected in preparation for moving - Eric says too many - can there ever be enough boxes?), fitness equipment, and many other things that we don't want upstairs anymore. We needed to get down there and sort things, throw things away, and pack. So, my wonderful sister and Mom (thanks guys!) took the kids for the weekend to give us time to tackle this project.

We worked hard, and finally got things in order. We had fun going through old pictures (someone in a speedo, I'm not saying who), things from Eric's childhood and many "collections". I kept coming across baseball hats and asking Eric "how many dirty hats do you need?". "They are part of my collection" was his response. Ok.

Then I came across two bags of clothes hangers. Do I really need all these? If they have been down in the basement for years, untouched, do I really need to save them? Eric said he has been asking himself that question for years. So, all the hats stayed, and half the hangers stayed. I just couldn't part with them all. They were nice hangers, and what if I needed them? Are you with me. ladies?

We threw a bunch of stuff out, packed up a bunch for goodwill/garage sale, took some things to our storage building, and even hauled some things out by the road with a "Free" sign. Most of it is gone.

We really got a lot accomplished, and we even treated ourselves by going out to a late dinner. Thanks Mom and Nik (and Poppy, Mav, and Maddox) - we're one step closer to moving!

Cowboy Party

A few weeks ago, Maddox turned four and had a cowboy party. The boys had a great time digging for gold, tossing snakes, and going for hayrides. Of course, amongst all the cowboys, there HAD to be an Indian. Here is a picture of us!

An evening at the playground

It was such a nice night out. After dinner, I packed the boys in the wagon and we went for a ride to the playground. They love the wagon. Tonight, Dane loved waving at the cars passing by, which he normally doesn't do. He had Abel cracking up. We made it to the playground, where they always have a ball. I could hardly keep up with Dane as he was running around on all the equipment. Meanwhile, I had to keep a close eye on Abel. He loves to hang on things....hence his nickname "The Howler Monkey". He certainly kept me on my toes. We had a nice evening, and we even got honked at by Daddy when he passed us on the wagon ride home.

About our blog....

After receiving a blog from one of my friends (thanks, Kate!), I have decided that writing a blog would be such a wonderful idea. I can keep family and friends updated on what is going on with us. Although I wish I had time to call everyone personally with updates, Dane and Abel keep me very busy (Eric and Moose too!). I will try my best to keep this updated fairly frequently with important events, and happenings from our everyday lives as well. Enjoy!