Long Lost Friend

I don’t even know where to begin because it has been waaaayyy too long.  I just looked back and the last time I posted was the end of July.  I feel like my blog has been neglected and I kinda miss it.  To bring you all up to speed would be crazy ridiculous.  We have obviously been busy since I last posted.  Or maybe it’s just that I lost my desire to post.  Or maybe it’s just that when I finally have time to post, I’m too tired to start up the computer and think/write.  Or maybe I just needed to figure out where my priorities are.  Either way, it’s been too long since I last posted so I thought I would take this completely uninterrupted time to say hello and quickly bring you up to speed on the Hower family. 

We have enjoyed our crazy busy summer.  There weren’t too many actual boating days, but we did have fun going to the pool and spending some time out by the water.  For most of the summer, the mosquitoes were terrible at our house, so it was nice to get away from those nasty little creatures.  In fact, they were so bad this summer that the girls very rarely went outside to play on their own playground in the backyard.  I think that even they got sick of smelling like bug spray and STILL getting bit by mosquitoes.  So, it was really nice to get away to the boat for a while. 

After the summer season ended, the school year began.  This was our first "official" school year.  Kylie started Kindergarten this year and she goes all day every day.  She was so excited for this and she still just loves everything about school.  I rarely hear anything negative about school and if I do, it’s about the bus or bus driver.  Of course, with the new school schedule, I had to change my schedule too.  It’s going better than I anticipated, but I still kinda miss my one day off work a week to get things done around the house and extra time with the kiddos.  But, I find that I can get just as much done around the house and I have more time to prepare dinner, which saves us money on eating out.  So, overall the new schedule we all have is working out great.

After boating season, we decided to take Kylie & Kennedy to a U of M game to see how it would go.  We chose a game that we wouldn’t really care if we had to turn around and head back home after half time.  So, we took them to the game against Eastern Michigan on September 19th.  The day was absolutely gorgeous and the girls had a great time.  We made it thru the entire game and even hung out for a while as the crowd dispersed and the band took the field to close out the game.  And to top off the gorgeous weather and well behaved kiddos, Michigan beat Eastern Michigan 45-17.  Certainly an improvement over last season.  :)  

I think that the girls crashed JUST after we got out of the parking lot, which was pretty quickly since we waited until the very end of the game to leave.  The nap only lasted about an hour and then something woke them up so we decided that it would be time to stop for dinner soon.  It was such a great day and I am looking forward to making this an annual tradition.  The tricky part will be figuring how to split 4 tickets w/5 people. 

To round out our last few months in review, we celebrated a B-I-G accomplishment.  We managed to stay married for 10 years.  I certainly wouldn’t have ever thought it would be such a big deal to make it 10 years when we got married, but now looking back, it really is a big accomplishment.  And I am so proud to say that we have made it thru the last 10 years and I know that I consider myself a better person for being married to Dan.  There have definitely been some tense moments in there, but we have been thru a ton over the last 10 years.  We went from newlyweds and just the two of us for 5 years to parents of not only 1 child, but 2 more that followed shortly after (3 girls in 5 years).  The first 5 years were a breeze compared to the last 5 years.  But, we have the most amazing little girls and I wouldn’t trade them for an additional 5 years of easy breezy marriage.  I am definitely glad that we were able to build a strong marriage BEFORE we had kids so that when the kiddos added a stress to our marriage, we were able to deal with it and move forward.  I love where we are at with our family and I am so glad to have Dan AND my 3 girls.  We are truly blessed beyond measure and our wildest dreams.  So, in order to celebrate our 10 years of marriage, we took a scenic tour/drive up to the Mackinac Bridge and Island.  So, we spent some time in St Ignace, on Mackinac Island, at Soaring Eagle Casino, and then a quaint little hotel in Whitehall on White Lake.  It was so nice to be just the two of us to do whatever we wanted to do and whenever we wanted to do it.  We could go as fast or as slow as we wanted - there were no kids dictating our pace or our location.  It was so nice to spend time just the two of us as friends - the way we started out.  I wasn’t able to get very good pictures while we were gone because it was cold and rainy/cloudy.  The best pics I have are from our last stop, which was the Weathervane Inn in Whitehall.  It was a cozy room and a beautiful (even though it  was cold).

Well, there you have our last few months in review.  Our simple, everyday, ordinary life that has really cool things thrown in there every once in a while.  This weekend I am picking up digi-scrappin’ (or maybe soaking up some inspiration from my lil sis Manda).  Dan is hangin’ with the girls last night and today for a little while, then I will head home and spend the evening and rest of the weekend with them.  Next weekend we are going to the U of M vs Ohio State game and I’m hoping that our good fortune with weather over the past week hangs on for one more weekend.  Of course, it will probably be my luck that I get to go to the game where it will probably snow.  I’m sure it will be fun either way, but it would definitely be super cool if we have another weekend like this one and last one.  Alright, there is not recap on the Hower life and hopefully I don’t take so long to get back here and update.  I’m really hoping to be inspired to take more photos so I can use some of the cute quickpages that I got and then I will have more pics to post here as well.  So, until next time…