Productivity!

Lately Jared and I have been being so productive! We sold our hot tub that we never use...those things are WAY more expensive to run then I ever would have thought! We finally sold some Ikea chairs that we had, which were never even taken out of the box, but since we lost the receipt they wouldn't take back...Come on Ikea - your boxes don't really look like anyone elses, pretty sure you knew they were your chairs at least give us store credit! RUDE. We are painting the basement to move our guest room down there, we re-did our deck with the help of my dad and now have a fire-pit (thanks Mom and Herm) and a table so we can actually enjoy our yard!

Jared and I have also been feeling like we need to get involved at church or in our community more, we have been looking at a few different options and we are happy to say that we just decided we are going to be Young Life leaders at Hudsonville High School! We are really excited about it and can't wait to get started!

This weekend we had a bunch of friends over Friday night to play volleyball, hang out, and enjoy our new deck with us. It was a lot of fun! Jared and I were talking about it and feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives, we have a great group of friends, wonderful families, and we are so happy to be married. It is refreshing to be around other people who love their spouses too. We had a family re-union this weekend with one side of Jared's family and I was sitting there talking with two of his cousins and we just talked about how awesome our hubby's are! It was great! A lot of times I think people try to win with "the best" story, like they always have to top you, and it is usually negative - whether you are talking about your spouse or anything, but we were all just talking about how wonderful they were and no one was trying to up one another, we all just felt truly happy and blessed.

Well, I am hoping our productivity continues! Our good friend from Washington is coming to visit this week with her daughter - we are so excited!

I just love flash mobs so here is one of my favorites!

Camping/Triathlon

So Jared and I are NOT good campers and here is why:

The first time we went we totally didn't think about it and ended up sleeping right on the ground on some very lumpy tree roots - so now we have an air mattress - This would be ok except that Jared is a FLOPPER! He doesn't just role over, he flopps with all his might - which leads Duke and I to go flying like we were on the end of a BLOB all night! Duke - we bought him his own little sleeping bag hoping that he would just use that - he caught on pretty quickly that he was NOT on the air mattress and NOT under the same covers as us so he abandoned his little bag and now stands directly over my face staring at me until I let him in my sleeping bag. This leads me to tell you that Jared and I have mummy sleeping bags = NOT much room for Duke to sleep between my legs. After much resistance I have finally learned that when we go camping I bring a towel for me to lay on and just put my sleeping bag over me so that Duke can sleep there to....cause let's face it if Duke isn't sleeping well he is going to be standing over my face letting out pathetic whimpers every so often until he is under my covers. So in summary you have Jared in his sleeping bag by himself, sleeping soundly, then you have me with Duke over my face whimpering until he is BLOBbed on top of me and I let him under my sleeping bag as I am laying on a towel just waiting for Jared to FLOP again and send us flying. Add to this that I do NOT function properly and am NOT a nice person to be around when I do not have the sleep I need and it's a recipe for disaster.

This weekend we had to camp in Ludington Saturday night because Jared did a triathlon on Sunday. We had been at my sister's house in Traverse City all day playing with family and out on the water and got a late start to the campground. We got there as it was getting dark - 1st mistake. We quickly got the tent out and of course I put together the "frame" thing and filed it through the tent and OH it wasn't the right part of the frame - so back out it came. Finally it's up we are ready to stake it in... no stakes. So we threw bags in a couple corners and said good enough. We had no food, no water, no anything. Jared set up the infamous mattress and we both just crawled in and went to bed. There were a few BLOBbings during the night and a few whimpers from Duke after he would crawl out of the covers and then decide in fact he was happier under the covers, but overall I have to say it was a good night of sleep considering the conditions. I think me talking all day to Jared about how I was dreading it and how much he flopped helped - I think he tried to be a little more conscience of his movements...Thanks HUBBY!

The next morning at like 5:30 Jared was up and out and getting his stuff ready to go when there was a HUGE fart rippling through the campground! Jared whispers in the tent "WAS THAT A FART?" I said "It was but NOT by me!" Which was just hilarious!

Jared's Biggest Fan!

Jared is the one diving in the left 1/3 of the picture.

6th out of the water! GOOD WORK HUBBY!

At 7:21 Duke and I finally got up and packed up the tent in a hurry...only to discover that we did infact have the stakes...Jared had just rolled the tent out over top of them so we had slept on them all night. It's ok I didn't really mind the tent collapsing over me the entire night while Jared slept perfect in the center of the high pitch part of the tent in his sleeping bag without Duke. :0)

We made it into town and found Jared and then watched the Triathlon! Jared did GREAT dispite stepping on a big pointy rock on his first step into the water. (he was limping furociously after the triathalon from it and it turned into a HUGE bruise right where the arch is on your foot...OW!) Jared was the 6th person out of the water in his group which was AMAZING! He finished right in the middle of the pack of all racers and right on his goal time of 1:21. Duke and I were very proud of him!

Family Pictures!

here are our family pictures taken by my friend Anne Jansen! You can check her out on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anne-Jansen-Photography/148560235156195

I LOVE this show!

I love Modern Family!

Pictures

Tonight Jared, Duke, and I got some pictures taken by a friend and GREAT photographer Anne Jansen. I will post them when they are ready! I learned a few things while we were taking pictures... 1. Jared suddenly gets so sensitive to light he cannot open his eyes when people are trying to take his picture. 2. Duke loves getting his picture taken, and likes to show off 3. Jared and I are COMPLETELY awkward when we get our pictures taken. We stood there like deer in the headlights awkwardly looking at eachother and not knowing where to put hands, rest heads, or how to stand...seemingly pretty easy things that we do everyday...not so when a camera is on you. I decided I could never make it as an actress - when people tell me to do something I freeze (like at weddings if someone tries to make me dance...it's not gonna happen, but if I am just feelin it....WATCH OUT) and Jared DEFINITELY not at a model with his eye problem as soon as a camera arises. If we get one good picture it will be amazing. Oh and cause Jared couldn't open his eyes, I was laughing so my smile I am sure is awkward and just weird cause I am laughing.

We decided to get some nice pictures of us because without the pictures that my cousin took as an attender to our wedding, we really wouldn't have any pictures we like of us - hated our wedding pics. What part of "we want mostly candids not formal pictures" is hard to understand...cause we got 90% formals. Good thing we had disposables and family who knew what they were doing!

In other news this was a particularly great week for the Vermeulen Household! We built a little extention on our deck (and by we I mean mostly my dad, with the help of a few others of us), we sold our hot tub, paid off our lawn mower, I sold a house, and Jared was all ready to do his mini triathalon - but then it got rained out. However, the silver lining is that he found another one this weekend to do in Ludington so we will be going there to do that Sunday morning.

Side note - I have an addiction and it is CARDS! Right now I am particularly obsessed with Canasta and Hand & Foot. If anyone wants to play just call me up!

Have a great night!!

JUST ASK!

Here is my biggest “I don’t get it” of my life. When in life does it become wrong to ask for help, or ask for a drink when you are at someone’s house?

I hear people everyday who are struggling with something, but they never ask for help. What are family and friends for if not to help you when you need it. Give your friends and family a little credit and know that they are big enough to make their own decisions…I love helping my friends and family when I can – it gives me great joy…I assume that my friends and family feel the same. If I need help moving, I ask, if I need someone to open the door for me, I ask, if I need someone to go out to ice cream with me because I am in a poopy mood (yes I am an emotional eater) I ASK! Biggest pet peeve of mine is thinking or knowing that someone is struggling and they aren’t asking for help. This leads me to my attitude of – if you are too proud to ask for help, I’m not offering it. Sorry, but that is how I feel. I have watched numerous amounts of people struggle and I am standing right there…or I am in my house down the street while they are stressed out…Why aren’t they asking me to help? Either 1 – they have it under control despite how it looks, 2 – they don’t like/trust me, 3 – they are too proud. Now I have heard the argument – If you see someone struggling why don’t you just help them – and this is what I say to that…if it is a stranger or someone who I don’t have a relationship with I do! But if I know you: A – if you need help why aren’t you asking, maybe I think you need help but in fact things are going as you wanted because I am RIGHT THERE why wouldn’t you be asking for help if you needed it, B – are you secretly getting mad or annoyed at me for NOT helping even though you never asked?, C – are you scared of imposing on me, my time and energy…LET ME DECIDE THAT. I am a big girl and so are most other people in the world. If I don’t want to help I will say no. If I say yes, then that’s on me…if secretly inside I don’t want to…that’s my bad for saying yes so I better buck up and do it – you don’ t feel bad about that. And you aren’t going to pressure me into anything…trust me I will say NO if I don’t want to do it.

WHEW, that felt good.

2^nd annoyance – Why is it “rude” to ask for a drink or food at someones house? I don’t know about you, but when I have friends over I expect them to possibly be hungry or thirsty. One of the first things that Jared and I tell people when they come over is “Make yourself at home, we aren’t good about asking if you want things to eat or drink so the glasses are in there, fridge is there, snacks are over there.” Think about it, have you ever been offended or hurt by someone asking for a drink when they are at your house? Yet, I know people who have been thirsty for hours, and FINALLY I will ask them if they need something and they will guzzle it down in like 3 seconds…why? I do not understand this thinking at all.

Both of these annoyances hinder on one of my main life principles of communication and expectations. Don’t place expectations on other people – A) you are making it so that person can only let you down, B) You most likely are NOT communicating your expectations – so you end up getting mad, frustrated, or annoyed with other people and they don’t even know what the heck just happened. C) Control what you can control, get some courage say what you want to say or don’t be mad at other people for not reading your mind!

Thank you. That concludes tonight’s rant! JUST ASK PEOPLE!!!!

Funny Video

My dad showed me this the other day...It's funny.

Busy or Lazy

I feel like my life is either going 100 MPH or 2 MPH. I love being busy, the busier I am the more productive I am. If I have a day to do nothing...literally nothing will get done besides a nap and moping around about being bored...which is me not wanting to do anything I have to do, and not having anything to do that I want to do. If on the other hand I have 57 things to get done in a day, I will get those 57 things done, think of 4 other projects I want to start, and squeeze in a couple extra BONUS things accomplished. Usually my spurts of being busy or not busy go in week or month long chunks, but lately it has been more of a day by day thing.

Real Estate is NOT helping with this at all. This weekend I had the "floor" all weekend which means any general question that comes in to Keller Williams gets forwarded to my phone...well I had all kinds of calls....and they all came when I was busy. I was riding in the car for 2 hours....No calls. Out to eat with a bunch of people - call. Then I am in the dressing room trying on clothes - 2 calls! then I am ordering at a drive through - call, then I am driving with no paper or pen - call! Sitting at my house by my computer...no calls. CRAZY...anyways, these past few days have been really busy with appointments for work and other commitments which is great. I even got the laundry done, cookies made, sheets changed, and picked up around the house - when I have nothing going...you guessed it, none of this gets done.

(Duke and I are really good at being lazy together)

I have always wanted to start a non-profit called Fido's Friends, and since I have been busy lately I am getting the itch to do it again. I am coming up with a better idea of what I want it to be, so that is great. I get excited thinking about all the things it could be, organizationally what I would have to do...so exciting. Then if I am having a down moment, I am suddenly aware of all the work it would en-tale and instead of being energized by it, I am totally drained and just thinking about it makes me need a nap! So we will see where this leads me with my idea, I feel like I need to just go for it. I have been wanting to start something like this since I was about 17, so I think it's about time.

It really is always one extreme or the other. I think I am just wired that way, I don't do well with no projects to work on...hence why I always keep making projects for myself. Anyway...I'm off to work on my Fido's Friends idea....