Happy Birthday, Bryce & Dean!!

Bryce and Dean were born one decade apart, to the day. April 26 means this day these boys are birthday boys. Congratulations to both on making it this far!

Suria totally got pregnant and is growing a garden...

We are growing lots of things at the Nelson household this spring: a baby complete with long outstretched legs (so Bryce will not accuse it of being a dwarf for the first 2 years of its life) and a garden loaded with tomatoes, cukes, zuchini, strawberries, beans, peas, pumpkins, lettuce and herbs(we are hoping the ridiculously hot and steamy weather here will act as a natural greenhouse and we will have a successful garden similar to Cheryl's-although I am sure we can't compete!) Wish us luck with both!

-Suria

(printed without permission)

"What kind of man do you think you're going to be?"

Every Friday when I drive into work, I wait for NPR's Story Core to come on the radio at 8:25 am. Sometimes I'll sit in the car in the parking lot to hear it through. Usually it begins as a run-of-the-mill story then there is this pang of poignancy that hits you out of nowhere. They probably have enough recordings that they can pick some great ones.

When we thought that Willow would probably have Downs Syndrome there was one Story Core where two cousins interviewed each other and one of the girls had bigtime disfiguration. "I may be a hunch back, but I'm the flyest hunchback you know." Which reduced me to a big mess.

Some are better than the others. This morning there was one that you might like too...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89535203
and click "Listen Now"

A Friday

Today on my drive home from work I sent a picture of myself driving to some of you. Steve sent this back. This is what Steve looks like in his commute. Behind him you can catch a glimpse of New England. Taking and sending pictures while driving is very dangerous and I think it is worth it.

Life-a she's a good.

Bear had his school carnival today. He burned through all his tickets trying to win a nerf football with fins and jets and all that. He did not win it, ever. It was hard for me to see. Bear is a Stoic.

Bear threw a baseball through our livingroom window. I could tell he felt pretty bad about it. "I am sorry. I really am sorry." Then I said, "No, it's my fault, we should not have been playing so close to the house." But before I was done he interrupted with, "No, it's my fault. [pause] I am the one who threw the ball."
Then I made him pose for this picture. I cheered him up with stories of the three times I broke windows and he wanted to know if Walker or Spencer of Lucas ever broke one.

Summer is here. When Danielle has dirty feet, life is at its best. What a fascinating girl. I do love her.

Food Shortage

By the way....this whole food shortage worldwide thing is starting to freak me out...am i alone in this?!

Real estate update...

Well guys, i did some investigation and wasted a perfectly good realtor's time, but, thankfully, she probably didn't have much else to do based on current Michigan real estate activity. Now all i have to do is run with the wealth of info she has provided me and break her heart when i keep avoiding her attempts for human contact....

Created for
Danielle Nelson

Comparable Homes Near You Sold Price:$123,000 Listed Price:$127,500 Bedrooms:3 Bathrooms:1 Square Footage:1259 Year Built:1941 Comments: Sold Price:$118,000 Listed Price:$124,900 Bedrooms:3 Bathrooms:1 Square Footage:1260 Year Built:1951 Comments: Sold Price:$122,500 Listed Price:$128,500 Bedrooms:3 Bathrooms:1 Square Footage:1295 Year Built:1900 Comments:

Based on my knowledge of your area, my estimate of your home's current market value is:

Low of $118,000 to a High of $123,000

Spring Fever

So, every spring we come up with a list about a million $ long to do this year in home improvements. I jokingly recommended that we rent money pit with Tom Hanks the other day, due to the relatablity. Don't get me wrong, its a terrible analogy because our house is relatively solid, the stairs are not collapsing, etc....but all of the novelty dream improvements are adding up, so...i looked into a home equity loan. Our bank has a service where they will tell you your home value if you simply type in your address. Hopefully it is not accurate because is told us our house was worth $85,000.............man, that better not be true.

Desired improvements

• Paint house
• deck in back
• fence yard
• perfect lawn
• lots o' rocks
• cupolas
  
• dining/sun room addition
  
• and more....

Good news, after all this, maybe we could boost the value up to $86k....i think we'll wait a while. Accept for the paint... don't worry the poll will not go to waste!

The Dollar

This morning at breakfast I gave Bear a dollar and told him to 'put it towards a cool toy or something.'
Today after work he was showing me this tiny little clear plastic monster, like a pencil topper but smaller.
"Oh wow, where did you get that?" thinking he picked it up off the sidewalk or something.
"I got it from Jake...for a dollar."

I just like this one. Willow is very careful to not step on the ducks even though they circle around under her feet. She walks very gingerly around them. She did experiment once with giving one a little kick. But that was all, and the duck didn't seem to mind.

???

And the Winner Is...

Who's That Mii?

A Mt. Pleasant Springtime Tradition

Waiting in line at Doozies (Cheryl sent me this picture -you can see Kevin chatting someone up in line and Taylor undoubtedly not chatting someone up in line).


Ah Doozies. I remember being freaking ecstatic when they would open; to us kids it was like the official start of summer, when I would get to wait in line for hours to get a Blizzard knock-off.
This line looks to be about a 45 minute to 1 hour wait.

Any Mt. Pleasant-ites want to comment with their most memorable Doozies moments?