Another Mini College Reunion and a Bachelor Party

After coming home from the cottage, I got to spend two days with my old college roommates in Grand Rapids. Jenn is doing a residency in Grand Rapids, so she and her husband live there. Kari and Amanda both live in Illinois. So, we met up in GR. We basically hung out at Jenn's house. I met her husband, who speaks limited English--this fact comes into play later on in a few stories. On Friday, Joel watched Kyper so I could just hang out with the girls. On Saturday, Kyper got to come along with me, therefore everyone could meet him. Joe, Jenn's husband, loved him and decided to call him Krisper instead of Kyper. Even though the girls had heard him pronounce Kyper correctly. on Saturday, we drove to Calvin and got to see the new field house and walked around campus. We also went to the house Jenn and Joe are going to move to. We did dinner and then I headed home. On the way out the door, Jenn gave me a bag full of frozen fish. I said I would take some even though I don't like fish, because Joel does. Since Joe has limited English he does not work, so he goes fishing all the time. Their freezer is full of fish! Here is the funny part of the story, I put the bag in the freezer when I got to Tim and Melanie's (where we are staying). Some of the ziploc baggies fell out and I thought I got them all. But on Monday morning there was an awful smell in my car and I found out that I missed on ziploc baggie. So either a catfish or trout was hanging out in my car for two days! Yuck! The smell is gone with the help of open windows and baking soda. Sorry, no pictures from this mini-reunion since I didn't have the camera.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Joel had the camera at my brother's bachelor party! A group of about 14 guys headed to Detroit for the evening to go to a Tiger's game for the party. Joel's car went early so he could mow our lawn. Thanks guys! Here are some pictures from that event:

Cottage Week

After Bethany's wedding, Kyper and I got to spend the week at the cottage. Joel had to start his last rotation of his third year--Palliative Medicine/Hospice.

Here are some pictures of from the week.

First some artistic ones:


Kyper throwing rocks into the lake.
Kyper crawled along the shore on his own. He loves he water!
Kyper with Lewis at 11 months!
Family picture
Kyper started eating big people food a little bit before we headed to the cottage. This boy loves to eat. Here is the first time he had spaghetti.
"How do Grandpa's glasses look on me mom?"
My mom was eating yougurt--guess who thought he needed some. He loves food so much. He knows the minute someone is eating something and will go to them and beg for some. (Kind of makes me think of a dog--yes I realize I just said that about my son. I also want to note that this child is not starved, so he really does not need to beg.)

A few notes about the week. First, On Tuesday it was cooler and a little rainy, so my parents, myself and Kyper went to Traverse City. Second, since Joel's rotation is in Grand Rapids he was able to join us on Wednesday and Thursday after his rotation.

Birthday and Wedding Weekend

Okay, so here are some pictures from my birthday and wedding weekend. June 11-13.

June 11 was my birthday. I don't have any pictures from a birthday party as much as I have pictures from the shower we threw for Bethany that night. We went to Mel's cottage for it and just had a low key evening talking with the Mellons and Bethany's sisters and sister-in-law. Joel took me out for dinner for my birthday and then we joined the girl's at the cottage. It was one of the best birthday gifts ever to see 5 of the Mellons on my birthday. G was sadly missed.




June 12 we spent up at the cottage. Kyper went swimming, ate Jones' ice cream, went on paddle boat ride, and played with Grandpa and Grandma Koning.
I just wanted to throw this picture in here to compare Kyper--the above picture is when he is 11 months and below is his first paddle boat ride when he was 2 months old! CRAZY!



June 13 was Bethany and Justin's wedding. It was a great time!

Here are just the girls. Again, G was missed!

And here we are with our spice. :)
Typical Joel--pull a funny face when the others in the pictures look awesome.

We made our own dance party in the back of the room.
Beautiful women and beautiful friends.

Bringing Home the Bacon

So, I am employed! I just started my new job on Thursday. I think I am going to love it! I can do 95% of it from home.

I am the new Administrative Coordinator for Rebuilding Together Detroit. Before, explaining my position, I should tell you about Rebuilding Together.

Rebuilding Together is a national non profit with affiliate's all over the country. The do home repair projects for low income people--families with children, people with disabilities, and elderly people.

My job is a part time contracted position. It will only be 20 hours a month. RTD does not have their own office. They lease space from another non-profit (actually, the one I did my internship at when I was at U of M.) Although, part of my job is to answer phones and sort mail--I only need to go in once every other week just for the mail. I can do the rest from home--yes, even the phone calls. They only have a message line, so I can call from my phone, retrieve the messages, and return phone calls from home. The rest of my job will be accepting applications and making sure applicants have all the necessary documentation. Getting that information to the board, so they can decide on the projects they want to do. I also will be looking for funding opportunities and filling out applications for them--I'm looking forward to this part. I also will be inputting a lot of information about projects and volunteers into an online database.

So, I am really excited. I like the position. I like that I can do 95% of it from home, so I won't really have to worry about child care for Kyper. The 5% I have to do at the office will probably be able to be done in the evenings or on Saturdays--when Joel is home. Or, I can take Kyper with me since it will be just picking up mail.

I get to stay in Kyper's world and I won't have a huge blank on my resume!

A Quick Hello

Yes, Joel, Kyper and I are still alive. We've been quite busy, so there will be many blogposts in the future. We are in the middle of a rotation in Grand Rapids and then off to IA for a week. After the week in IA, Joel will officially be a fourth year student. :)

Here are the main highlights from the last two weeks:
June 11 was my birthday, June 12 we headed to the cottage. June 13 was my friend Bethany's wedding and we moved into Tim and Melanie's house. June 14-June 18 I was at the cottage. June 19 I met up with some college roommates and Joel went to Detroit for a Tiger's game and mow our lawn. June 20-father's day and birthday party for Nathaniel and Joel. June 21--a day of rest! June 22-babysat for my nieces, and Joel's birthday. June 23 headed to Detroit. June 24 went to work in Detroit. Today--I had an appointment in Detroit with Kyper in the morning and then drove back to the west side.

See we've been busy. I will post more about some of the above activities and days when I am on Joel's computer, which has the pictures.

Kyper and the Kite

This is how we found Kyper after his nap. (Well, actually he was smiling, but we put him back in his crib to take a picture.)
No, we did not put the kite in there with him. It was in between his crib and the bookshelf...how did he get it in there? Who knows.

Mini College Reunion

A few months ago, Becky, one of my best friends from college called and asked what I was doing May 27. I told her we'd be in Detroit. She replied "Me too!" Dustin, Joel's college roommate, also had been trying to get out to visit us for a few months and it just so happened that it was the same time Becky was coming. Since, Canaan is also a friend from college we had a mini-college reunion plus one---Kyper. It was great to introduce Becky and Dustin to Kyper.

On Thursday, Becky came in and we had some Becky/Julie/Kyper time. We spent an amusing hour at the Verizon store getting Becky a new cell phone. We learned that Shaun--the Verizon guy was closing on a house and that there was an aerobic studio above the store. (It sounded like the ceiling was going to crash in on us.) He learned that Becky was from Seattle, her sister was in DC, and her dad was in Panama.--the country. He also learned that Becky would move back to to MI because of the weather. Who moves to MI, because of the weather?

Later that day, Canaan picked Dustin up from the airport and they came up to our house. We enjoyed a grilled steak dinner once Joel was home from his ER shift. After dinner, we spent the evening hanging out and having fun.

Joel and Becky--American Gothic

Friday, we had a delicious breakfast and then headed to downtown Detroit to show Becky and Dustin some of the sites. We walked the Riverwalk and saw the Ren Cen, the Joe, and Canada. We also rode the people mover. After the Riverwalk, we headed to the old train station--Canaan's favorite old building in the city. We headed back to our house and ordered pizza. Becky headed out to the west side of Michigan to see some family that evening as Dustin, Joel, Canaan, and I went to a Detroit Tigers game. It was wonderful. (A friend from church watched Kyper--babysitting co-op equals wonderful!) They had fireworks after the game. Also, Joel needed to work a night shift on Saturday, so he and Dustin stayed up late and did a late night breakfast as roomies.

The group by on the Riverwalk

Dustin and Joel on the stairs of The Joe--Redwings play here.

The guys in the water fountain

The girls in the fountain

One of the stops on the People Mover.Jumping in front of the Ren CenAt the Tigers' Game

At the Tigers' gameFireworks!

Dustin and Canaan left Saturday around noon and the rest of Memorial Day weekend was very low key due to Joel being on nights and Kyper coming down with a little cold.