Saugatuck Sunset

A couple weeks ago, Mike had a job out in Saugatuck. He really liked the scenery there, and he knew I would love it as well. So one night he surprised me and suggested that we drive out there to watch the sunset. It was just as beautiful as he had described it! We drove down a private drive, deep into the woods. Then he parked the car and we walked to a scenic overlook. This is the view from there...

It was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see much of the sun, but it made for some bright pink sky!

He looks so deep in thought!

Looking south down the coastline

Amazing clouds!

I love this picture! There's some what of a funny story behind the shirts we are wearing. He bought us both shirts from Jamaica when his family was there on a cruise about a month ago. I had worn something different to his house in the morning because we had to go to a funeral first. When we got back home and changed, he came out of his room wearing his Jamaica shirt, and of course I had to wear the shirt I had brought with me that morning, also my Jamaica shirt! Great minds think alike I guess!!!

The Climb

I don't often post just music videos, but I've been hearing this song more and more on the radio lately and I have fallen in love with it. Take a minute and listen to the words!

New camera!

I finally got a new camera! My previous camera got smashed in my car accident, and I had to go over 2 weeks with out a camera! For me, that was a hard thing because I always have my camera with me! My new camera is a few steps up from my previous one, still nice and simple to use but with excellent quality pictures! I also took a break from blue cameras, and chose a nice red one (thanks to Mike's suggestion). So now I can finally post more things, because I have my camera to take pictures now!

Makeover Monday

I've tried shower gel after shower gel...sure they all do basically the same thing, but they're not all the same! For instance, some shower gels are nice and sudsy but they don't smell good. Or some smell really good but aren't moisturizing. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a shower gel that would do everything I wanted in a shower gel...smell good, get sudsy, moisturize? And then I found it! Avon's Naturals Shower Gel. In a word...amazing! And get this, it's available in at least 10 different scents, from peach to apple to cucumber melon to vanilla...so I could have a different scent every time I shower if I wanted to! I have found the "perfect" shower gel!

To order this or any other AVON product, go here.

New car!

You might remember about 10 months ago when I posted this. I was so proud of my beautiful sporty convertible until this happened almost 2 weeks ago. I have spent the past few days searching for the "perfect" car. After 4 days of spending a few hours going from dealer to dealer looking at cars and test driving ones that caught my eye. But as of yesterday there hadn't been the "perfect" car yet. Sure, there had been a few that were alright, but not the car. When I bought my Sebring, it was perfect...great car, great body, great price, great everything! I knew I only had my rental car until Thursday, so time was getting short for me to find a new car. I went out today knowing that, but not necessarily determined to buy a car, I didn't want to jump into anything just because of the rental car.

So my Dad and I drove out to Grand Rapids to check out a car lot that came recommended from some friends. There was one car there in my price range, and it was okay, but I wasn't sure about it. Then we headed out to Division, I had seen a car online that I wanted to stop and look at. But the car was no longer there, so we decided to continue to drive down the road and see if anything had changed since we had been out there on Saturday. So as we're driving, I pass this nice looking car with a great price tag on it. I quickly pulled into the lot and we got out to check out this car. The salesman came out and he struck up a conversation with us. I was very impressed with him, he had a great deal of knowledge and was not pushy at all. We ended up taking that specific car for a test drive. We got back, very pleased with the performance. We decided to try out another car on the lot that was also in my price range, but we were not as pleased with the second car. I gave Mike a call to get his opinion on the first car we looked at, he knows a lot more about cars than I do!

While I was on the phone, my dad spoke with the salesman about the car and what kind of price we could bargain for. I got off the phone and counted out some $100 bills (yeah, I felt pretty rich!) We made and offer, and received a counter offer. We countered the counter offer and it was accepted! I got an amazing deal!!! So now of course, I know you're waiting for pictures (unless of course you were sneaky and scrolled down already!)

So here is my beautiful new 2001 Dodge Stratus ES! It is in very good cosmetic condition (only a few spots that I bought some touch-up paint for). And it has a sunroof (one of my "wants"), a rear spoiler, a 4-disc CD player, and a remote start system! The car has only 1 downfall, it has quite high mileage; however, for the price we paid for it, if it will still run for 2 years it was worth it. The lady who owned it before me used it as a company vehicle, so it was regularly maintained (and her company paid for it, so she took excellent care getting everything done on time and keeping it tuned up). That is a very good thing, and usually prolongs the life of cars! I'm thinking this one is going to serve me very well. It runs like a charm!!!

The paint is real nice and shiny! It's my first car that isn't a shade of green!

The other neat thing about today is a short story about the man we bought this car from. We were sitting in his office and he offered us some water. The mug I was drinking from was from a Protestant Reformed Church. We got on the subject of churches and he goes to a PRC out that way. We casually mentioned that our former neighbors (and very good friends!) are also Protestant Reformed. His son asked their last name. I told him, thinking that the chances he knows someone who goes to a PRC out in Hudsonville were pretty slim. Turns out, our salesman married our friend's sister, so this family is related to our friends! What a small world!

Late night adventure

Last night, I was sitting in the living room working on my laptop. Suddenly I heard my dog barking like crazy in the garage. I went outside to see what he was barking at, but the door was shut so he couldn't see people walking by. I went back inside and he started barking again. So I went outside again, and still nothing. He continued continuously barking for probably 15-20 minutes. This is quite unusual for my dog! Finally my mom went to see what the fuss was about but she didn't see anything for him to be barking at either!

He finally stopped and it was peaceful again. I turned on the TV and was watching a show when I heard a strange scratching noise coming from the corner of our house nearest to where I was sitting. It sounded like an animal was outside and scratching on the wall. I would randomly hear these noises and then it would stop. Every time I told my mom to listen, the noise wouldn't happen. We thought maybe we had mice in our pantry (which is behind the wall behind me), but nothing was there. Mom went outside to see if she saw anything out there, but nothing. Finally we figured we'd look in the morning and mom went to get ready for bed.

Mom had just crawled into bed and I was sitting on the couch watching the last of the news when this flying creature came flying straight at me. "Mooooommmmmmm! There's a bird or a bat in our house!" Now, if you know me, I hate when things come flying at my face (ask Mike, I freak out). So I'm pretty freaked out as this bat is flying around near the ceiling of our house. Next thing I know Mom is screaming because the bat decided to visit her in her room. I got her to come out of her bedroom and shut the door trapping the bat in there. And we tried to devise a plan.

Finally Mom was brave enough to go search her bedroom for the mysterious bat. I wish I had a camera, she was wearing a jacket with the hood tied around her head, and she put one of my Avon boxes on top of her head. She walked slowly through her room but didn't see the bat. I told her she should just leave it until the morning and we'll look for it in the daylight. But then she saw the bat. In here...

So we came up with another plan. We would throw a blanket over the tree to trap the bat and then drag the tree outside. I didn't think that the bat would stay in place when the tree started moving, so we decided to throw it out the window instead. Well, as mom tried to throw the tree out the bedroom window, the bat fell out of the tree. So she threw a blanket on top of the bat and covered it up with her head protection (aka my Avon box). I found a piece of cardboard which we slid under the box, creating a lid. Then we carefully picked up the box, and threw it out the window. I quickly slammed the window shut. The bat was gone...we had won!

This is the box and blanket that we threw out the bedroom window! We still have no idea how the bat got into our house, but I sure am glad we got it out!

I'm still here!

Last Friday, I was still in a lot of pain from the accident. Mom insisted that I go into the urgent care center, so when she got home from work, off we went. When we left there, I had a diagnosis of: badly sprained wrist (at first they thought I might have had a compound fracture), sprained back, and hip contusion (fancy name for bruise). The doctor also prescribed Vicodin and Neproxen which have helped a bit. Thankfully I had nothing broken, but my leg sure felt like something more than a bruise had happened! I tried using crutches around the house because I was in so much pain when I walked, but that caused problems with my wrist, so I ended up just hobbling along.

I was supposed to work Friday morning, but I called in Thursday night and someone covered my shift. I wanted to go in on Saturday but the doctor told me I couldn't work again until Monday at the earliest. I did go to work again on Tuesday, it went well but I was quite tired when I got home.

Sunday night, Mike and his family got home. They had been on vacation for the past week. It was really good to see him again after a week of being apart. And, I think he was real ready to see me and see for himself that I was okay!

So now it's been over a week since the accident. I wasn't scared to drive the day after when we picked up my rental car. I have noticed that I tend to hold my breath when I get by 2 way stops. Especially if the driver of the other car happens to be one who flies past the stop sign and comes to a screeching halt right at the corner, rather than at the stop sign. That happened last night on my way home. But other than that...

I was fortunate enough to have full coverage insurance, so now I'm just waiting for the check to arrive. It should come today. I have been looking around online for a new (used) car, and later this afternoon my dad and I are going out to look in the Holland area.

I do have a few more posts coming. I did some work around Mike's house and so I will post a before and after picture. I have the before ones already, but since I no longer have a working camera (it broke in the crash), I'm going to have to have Mike take the after ones for me. So stay tuned for those sometime next week...