HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY JASON!!!!
You are the best thing that has happened to me. I would be lost without you in my life. Thank you for everything you you do. I love you. Have a good day!
Stacey

Ode to my mom and dad

Tonight I called Jason while I was at Target...well he knew why I was there. I needed to get streamers and balloons to decorate for his birthday tomorrow. I do it every year just like my mom and dad did for all of us when we were little. We would wake up the morning of our birthday's and the living room would be decorated just for us. We knew it was our special day. I moved out of my parents house a long time ago, but everywhere I have lived since then, I have decorated for the people in my life and in turn they have kept the tradition as roomates move in and out and boyfriends become husbands. Thank you to my parents for the traditions you have instilled in all of us and in turn we bless and pass them on for other people to enjoy.

i know it's a month past thanksgiving, but i just wanted to share these pictures. baby girl is the only grand baby right now so she is really spoiled. but REALLY LOVED. i just wanted everyone to know how much her grandparents love her. (how can you not?) I can't wait to see you baby girl!

WHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it is about time! finals are done....we just have to wait for the grades.

see you all in about a week. enjoy the week, it will be over before you know it and so will 2007.

Don't miss the spirit of Christmas, the true meaning. Just sit back and take a look at all that you have, all that you are blessed with (and we think we need more)(don't worry i'm in the same boat) we are so blessed.

sleeping in

Today I slept in....but I still set my alarm, so in my head I didn't sleep in. I have one more final and it's tomorrow! I can't wait for it to be over. It will be nice having a whole month to not think abouty school...work some extra hours and hopefully if we get some snow back up here...we will go skiing. It's almost all gone.

Not a whole ton else is going on up here. Just counting the days until we can come home and see all of your shining faces.

Oh this is not exciting but i will tell it anyway....someone in our building is taking our netflix movies out of the outgoing mail box and opening them, watching them and putting them back in the box without re-sealing it. who does that? Gotta love college kids that forget how to act when mom and dad aren't around.

Anyway, i'm going to make some coffe and study my booty off for my anatomy final tomorrow. Have happy Thrusdays....TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!!

almost

it's almost over....school, i mean. today was the day i needed to get through. i had a paper due for english and my final quiz in anatomy (and the term "quiz" is a joke, it's more like a mini exam every week) i'm glad to be done with that. tomorrow i have my final sociology test to take and then that is it for the class!!! next week is finals and to tell you the truth i couldn't be more excited. i only have 3 two hour exams on 3 different days...so lots of time to study. i was also able to pick up a ton of hours before Christmas, so maybe...if you're good there will be Christmas presents!

jason took his final exam for his film and propaganda class tonight and i'm sure he will get the A he deserves. this week we have been pulling long nights working on our papers. he has his final paper written for his contemporary fiction class (i think this will be publish-able!) tonight he is going to figure out how to make his paper shorter...yeah, i don't ever have that problem of having too much paper written. after tomorrow, he is done with classes for the semester...i guess graduate students don't believe in exams...so not fair.

i did want to share one really exciting thing for him. his professor is writing a book and one of the chapters of the book is directed toward what jason is writing his paper about. in talking with his professor, jason was able to make references to things that his prof hadn't noticed...long story short, jason will have his name published somewhere in the book as an acknowledgement! what a huge honor! i'm so proud of you my brilliant husband! (oh and i can't forget genius too!)

well that is about all for now. love you all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 21st

Andrea Joy!!!

i'm sorry i'm not there

i love you!

christmas decorations

well, it was about time i put up some decorations in the apartment. our building doesn't allow real trees...and have you looked at the price of a fake tree lately? no thank you. so instead i made my tree-o-shoe rack!

bowl-o-balls

oh yeah, i utilized my chandlier too!

i know, i know...you wish you had something THIS fabulous in your home! i'm available for interior decorating!

wind

i know the waves crashing on the pier have been seen before...but you have got understand the awesome-ness of it. truely amazing. it didn't matter that it was snowing or that it was cold out. all i want to do was just sit there and watch. beautiful and stunning.

old man winter is here to stay

I finally finished our scarves and just in time. All of you trolls under the bridge like to get your snow in one heavy dose that will be melted in a week....well up here in da UP ya..old man winter is taking his sweet old time and slowly but surely adding a base of snow. MAKE A SNOWMAN!!!

home for the holidays

it was SO nice being home. the power of family is so amazing and just what i needed. (jason too!) we got back to GR on tuesday night after a LONG drive in the dark. on wednesday i woke up early to have breakfast at big boy with my crazy mom and grandma. i was just glad i didn't tell them i would walk with them! :) later i met mom at the mall and we shopped for a winter coat...but instead we held a mini "what not to wear" in the dressing room at yonkers. stacey and clinton would be so proud! we got a lot of things for christmas. and i can't have any of them until christmas. andrea fixed my hair for me at the salon and then later that night she put extensions in my hair. i call it my insta-sexy. i just love it...even though my head is constantly itchy, it will be sad when i take them out.

on thrusday (thanksgiving) jason and i were able to spend some precious time at my parents for a huge spread of thanksgiving brunch. it was delicious and it was good to spend time with everyone.

grandpa troost hiding behind riley

dad and grandpa terbeek on the chouch (for those of you who don't know...it's a mix between a chair and a couch)

great grandma troost and mom
(the best looking 94 year old i know!)

grandma troost and riley

(we all painted our names on tiles for grandma to put around a mirror)

meghan, olivia, andrea, sam

after bruch we headed up to newago for a turkey dinner at grandpa and grandma shrontz's house. between bruch and lunch i was stuffed and all i wanted to do was sleep...all that yummy food! emily kept coming over and giving me things while i was sleeping. she is so cute she's walking everywhere, with her little but wagging everystep and she likes to say new words. thank you grandpa and grandma for a great lunch and a great nap time at your house.

emily snuggling on denny's lap

(she loves her grandpa)

debby and emily

(look at those blue eyes...no wonder she's spoiled)



friday night jason and i, steve, amber and the baby, and jacob and linda went to logans for a great steak! i sat next to emily and she made faces at me all through dinner and played with her water and straw. oh and she said sticky!

ham!

jacob and linda at dinner.

(there's a little turkey in their oven!)

coming to a theature near you in june!)

a quick picture before bed time

after she went to bed susie and linda came over and all 4 of us sat around the table and knitted. i mean really...what else is there to do on a friday night but knit?! keep at it girls!

on saturday denny and debby decided that we all needed some good food to take home so we went to alikat kitchens to make some good meals to take back to the UP and put in the freezer. thanks mom and dad s!

jason, debby and denny

me and amber knitting on the couch!

on saturday night i went with mom to k-mart in search of martha stewart. i swear she was supposed to be there with fresh new ideas and that perfect little something...i don't know what happened but we couldn't find her. we did find a really cute basket for my knitting and a couple of 2 liters of pop....just no martha.

on sunday i finally got to eat good chinese food at mom and dad's. we also took some pictures for our christmas card...there's a sampling below...you'll have to wait for the good ones! thanks for my chinese fix mom and dad! thanks terbeek children for being patient!

i love this man

what's so funny?

(oh wait...i don't want to know)

saturday afternoon we packed up all of our stuff (i looked like we were home for a month) denny and debby finished putting up their HUGE christmas tree and debby made us a turkey pot pie (which by the way was delicious)

jason playing with emily in debby's shoes she insisted on wearing

we had a great time at home we're so glad we got to see everyone and hopefully next time we'll be able to see more of all of you. it was a long weekend that went way too fast. we'll be home the day after christmas. i can't wait. we'll bring some snow with us!

the home stretch

we made it back to marquette, safe and sound, and a little tired. it was a great LONG weekend at home...but i think i need a nap now. only 2 more weeks of classes and 1 week of exams. it's hard to believe that the semester is so close to being done. oh and we made it home just in time for the snow...it started this morning! i have lots of pictures and fun things we did this weekend...but i will post more later (i need to pay attention to lecture!) Have a happy monday.

dreaming of turkeys

the count down continues...one more 8 hour shift at work, one more time giving plasma, 3 more classes and 1 more test until i finally get to come home. i never thought that moving away from everything that is familiar would be this hard. i knew that it wouldn't be easy ecspecially since i was moving up with my best friend, but it's those little things i forgot to factor in. like baby sitting emily...cocktails...FFF with the Troost family...hanging out in the garage...what to do and who to call when your car battery is dead and your husband is 5 hours away hunting and you need to get to work in the morning...malls...real malls...dennys...a good steak...a place to grill it...stopping by my mom or dad's work place just for the heck of it...getting my hair done when it needs it...oh and there are many more things that i overlooked when making the decision to move up the the boonies. but really...i wouldn't be in school right now, i would still be working at spectrum and not moving towards a goal a much needed goal. getting my degree is a necessary evil on the path to the future. do i want to go to school? no, i hate school, studying stresses me out and i hate writing papers and taking tests, but they havn't invented the magic nurse pill that i can take a instantly become an RN without the stress and tediousness of it all. but enough self pity and griping.

i am so very excited to come home and see all of the wonderful people in my life that phone calls and emails and packages just don't do justice. oh and all of that good eating! i'm glad that i live this close at least to be able to come home. Tashina, Levi, Katie, Paula, and Jennifer....i constantly think of you when i get home sick and am thankful that i live this close. i hope that if you aren't able to come home and see your families that you will still have a wonderful holiday with the people that are with you where you are. I love you all and you are in my prayers. See you all in GR!

I can't wait!

I am so excited! Only 6 more days until I get to come home! 3 days of work, 1 test, and 4 lectures left! I am so ready for a break. I can't wait to spend time with both of my family and Jason's. I can't believe that I have only been home once since we moved up here. (that sucks!) Anyway I can't wait to see everyone. I hope everyone is as excited about the coming holidays as I am!

Oh and Jason is leaving for deer camp this tonight. Hopefully he'll catch a deer! :) Venison is so good. Oh and he's planning on winning everyone's money in poker so watch out Jacob and Steve! I hope everyone has fun hunting. See you soon.

coffee buzz

Yesterday I stopped into the Starbucks on campus for my early morning coffee before my 8:00 am class, but for some reason, they weren't able to brew coffee. The barista told me that she would charge me the coffee price and give me a coffee made with about 3 shots of espresso! WOW!!! That was a good morning! But to top it all off, they served it in their red holiday cups, and their counters were decorated with a winter theme. (is it too early to put up Christmas decorations?) I don't know if coffee can get much better. It sure beats the generic brand from Target! Oh and it's snowing here. I don't it's false hope...it won't stay, but it's just so pretty, and why live in the U.P. if there's no snow? Have a happy friday!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!

bike ride

jason and i were feeling a little cabin stir crazy today so we took a bike ride around presque ilse park. don't be too impressed it was only 2 or so miles. but it was good non the less. the pictures below are from our trip. last night we actually got to hang out with other people. i know, i know, some one is thinking...LOSERS right now, but it's really hard to meet people our age up here. anyway, someone at jason's graduate student union meeting invited him to hang out thursday after class and of course i tagged along. it was nothing special, just nice to have a conversation about something other than school and with someone other than jason. :)

ice does exsist in the u.p......

......so does the boogy man!

pink sky...and my love

is that appropriate

classic pose

super man!!!

pondering...but what?...but what?

how can you resist this?

These pictures were just too cute not to share. I miss her like crazy. Last year she was a pig, sleeping in her car seat, she was only 2 months old and NOW....she's walking and talking and wagging her tail! Thanks for sharing Amber. I miss you Baby Girl.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

That being said. I don't like halloween at all. I haven't since I was a going to elementary school parties. I love seeing little kids in costumes and the fact that they are able to eat all the candy they want (as long as their mom's don't eat it first!!! :) But besides that the only reason I look forward to halloween is that the next day november starts and that means thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. He here's to then end of october and the beginning of a new season! Have an ORANGE day!

time

well i hope everyone enjoyed the extra hour of sleep on sunday morning. i know i did. but where is all the time and why does it seem to crawl when we are at work, or in class, or anywhere we'd rather be somewhere else? And when you have an extra hour or 10 minutes, or you're fighting sleep trying to finish that paper, why does time seem to fly by without a care? Last night I was finishing my paper and i'd look up at the clock and it would suddenly be a half hour or hour later as if by magic? i wish i knew the answers, i wish i knew the key to slowing down time when you need more of it, and i wish i knew how to speed up time when it seems to painfully creep along. i hope that everyone has enough time in their days and that it passes with the speed that you need it to. have a good monday. monday's are a clean slate, you get to start all over this week with new goals, and more importantly a better attitude than you had last week. I will leave you with two quotes:

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. (will rogers)

For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

update

This update is for my mother. The tigers did lose the world series.
game 3 was: cardinals 5 tigers 0
game 4 was: cardinals 5 tigers 4
Game 5 was the deal breaker. The tigers had an awesome season and we still love them. Next year!
Other than that, Jason and I are doing good. My mom sent jason and i glow in the dark pumpkin pez dispensers. I am still knitting. 1st sememster will be over in about 9 weeks. (WHOO HOO!) I am so excited to have a little time off from school. Hopefully when I schedule my classes for next semester i won't have to go every day. So....anyway, not much else to tell. I hope everyone has a spooky halloween! Don't eat too much candy.

tigers update

game 1: cardinals 7 tigers 2
game 2: tigers 3 cardinals 1

crashing boys weekend

i don't think i'm supposed to be telling anyone about this....but i was allowed (with only a little harrasment!) to crash boys weekend at uncle gene's property. i drove down saturday after work and was able to see the boys in jason's family. they only let me come because i have been a little family deprived. it was nice to be some where other than my apartment too. the boys built a huge fire and the pictures below are some i took of the sparks flying up. thanks for having me guys. (i promise it won't happen again!!)

p.s. i had to scrape my windows after work today.

good evening (technically it is really really early in the morning) from the land of the wet. it has been wet all day long. and it's not even really raining. not much else is going on here. jason is finishing up his film presentation. he is so smart and creative and driven. good qualities to have as a graduate student. he is going to uncle gene's property in manistique this weekend. it's for boys only, although i would love to be there, it's so beautiful there. I might go down to watch the tigers game on saturday night. it's so fun only being about a hour and 15 minutes away instead of 6. I am working thurs, fri, sat and sun, but after this weekend i will be on my new and regular schedule which is sat, sun and monday night. just in case anyone is wondering we are coming home for thanksgiving. i'm not sure how long we will be home though. i asked for the weekend off and right now someone is covering sunday but not saturday. but we will be home and i couldn't be more excited. i really wasn't looking forward to cooking a big turkey and all the fixings. well have a good wednesday. sweet dreams-stacey

hugs

i am stealing this from my friend samara, but i know she won't mind a bit. this video brought tears to my eyes. i really believe what i was told at camp years ago....that everyone needs 7 hugs a day to survive....(or at least smile!) if you need a smile and a warm fuzzy feelings today, click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4


tag.........you're it...........give a hug to someone today.

granny shrontz checking in

(by the way... i knitted this all by my self and my how-to book!)

hello all. i just wanted to let you know that i started knitting thanks my grandma. she sent me all the fixings to make a really cute knit purse and i looked at jason and said...well i guess i need to learn to knit now. so last wednesday i went to michaels and bought some needles, yarn, and a basic how-to book. i can't say it's pretty, or good, but i do enjoy knitting. and jason needs a new scarf, so we'll see what happens.

GO TIGERS!!!!!

We're going to the WORLD SERIES!!!

the snow is coming

ok for all of you trolls under the bridge. this is the forcast for the rest of this week. it is from the www.nws.noaa.gov national weather service. they are calling for over 10 inches in houghton on wednesday night. aaahhhh. see you all in the spring.

Hazardous Weather Outlook

**Wednesday Night: Periods of rain and snow showers, becoming all snow after 8pm. Low around 33. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 14 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

**Thursday: A 40 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 38. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 17 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible.

**Thursday Night: A 40 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 18 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.

**Friday: A chance of snow showers, mixing with rain after 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 43. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

**Friday Night: A chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%.Saturday: A chance of snow or rain showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44.

apartment tour

Amber told me a while ago that she wanted me to take pictures of our apartment so she could see what it looked like. The below picture is a lay out of the apartment. Nothing fancy. Enjoy the tour.

when you walk in the door, to the left is the livng room, yes that is my desk in the corner...it's a little messy. oh and don't you love the white walls?

to the right of the door is our kitchen table that we never eat at, but it finally looks pretty all painted black. the wicker basket on the wire rack is going to be for our mittens!!! i think we will need the sooner than we think.

the kitchen and our avacado appliences and plastic cupboards. that is my flowered apron hanging on the wall. i love to wear it. jason thinks i cook just to wear the apron....he'll never know!

when you open the door straight ahead is the hallway. i know very impressive.

this is our bathroom, and the avacado theme is carried over. it's wierd having a green toilet.

this is the spare bedroom, aka jason's office.

our bedroom, there is a TON of walking room around the bed (hopefully you can sense the sarcasm.)

well that is the end of the tour. hopefully you will all feel like you've been here now.