You will now find me here…

after careful consideration I have found that wordpress is not the place for me.  You will now find our family blog at kkccanderson.blogspot.com.    Bookmark it or follow me!!  Thanks!

Your registration is complete

I mentioned in my new years resolution post that I would be completing the 1/2 marathon this year.  Well dedicated readers, Im here to tell you that I have at the very least have registered to run the race.  The training has already begun, I got fitted for some new shoes, got a playlist set up on my ipod, and downloaded an app for my evo to track my runs – so Im ready to go.  Now to mentally prepare for 13 and some odd miles!!  That will be my biggest challenge!  Take a look below at what will carry me through the finish line.  note: these are not the shoes I would have chosen if I did not have feet problems…you know me – they would have been pink!!

Hopefully these babies will take me to the finish line

  Also I would like to list goals for my 1st half marathon.  These goals are much the same as my previous 5k goals: 

Finish, do not puke, and do not get hurt.  Oh and finish before the full marathoners!!

Thessalonians 4: 11-12

So friday of last week I recieved some sad news:  Heaven became a little kinder and sweeter.  This was due to the passing of my great grandma Johanna.  The readers of this blog who know me personally know how close my family is, we spent a lot of time with grandma.  I have been very fortunate to grow up with 4 great grandparents.  But friday I lost my last one.  My grandma was almost 99, yes you read that right – 99.  I truly believe that she lived so long because she was one of the greatest people on earth, and she was sent here to teach us all how to truly live.  My dad described her the best.  Jesus with skin on.  And the verse I posted above…was the best narrative of her.  “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, mind your own business and work with your hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”  It was a hard day for the Bouwens family, to realize that she no longer will be here on earth.  But luckily for us, she has instilled so many great values upon us that we hope to see little bits of pieces of her in all of the family.  She was honestly the most amazingly kind person I have ever met and she will truly be missed – I was beyond lucky to have called her grandma. 

Five generation picture. Cade, Grandpa, me, Great Grandma and Great Great Grandma

Hello Readers!

Welcome to our new family blog.  It was simply an omen that we ran out of space on our previous blog, I’ve been meaning to start a new blog for about 2 years.  Basically when I found out we were being blessed with a second child.  It was time to move on from “camdynelle.blogspot.com” since she was no longer the only one we were going to be writing about.  And even though it has been hard for me to let that blog go (of course it will always be out there for me to look back on), we’re here now to start a new fresh one, about our family of four.  I plan to write about everyday occurrences.  I hope to use this diary blog like the last one, chronicling our life…so I don’t forget one moment.  We have been pretty blessed in life, sure we’ve had our bumps (mostly of the property sorts) and I’m glad I can share some of our life’s adventures with you all.  This year I plan to write more, but also keep plenty of pictures to keep it interesting.  2011 is going to be a big year, so get ready for this new blog to blow your socks off 🙂 (here’s hoping)!!

“I wanna know where the gold at”

Anyone watch that youtube video…no just me.  Well you should because it is hilarious – my friend Jay sent this to me a few years back…and everytime I hear the word Leprechaun I think of it. 

Anyhow the true meaning of this post is to inform you all that I have signed up for my first 10k.  The leprechaun run.  My friend Jodi asked me if I wanted to do a run to prepare for the half marathon.  Running with friends is my favorite way to do it, so of course I said yes.  So now Im preparing for my first run of the season.  The run has green beer at the finish line…which is what Jodi should have lead with when she asked me…because Id run a long way for beer :)!

Aren’t you a little old to be at brothers?

Sure no one actually said that to us, but I sure felt like I was way too old to be there.  It didnt matter though, we had such a good time!!

Nicole and I.

Fun times at brothers. Kate, me, Kyle, Jordan, Nicole and Bill

New Years Eve

This new years was a little lame…but in a good way.  In the past we traditionally spend our New Years with our friends Bobbi/Tim, Sarah/Jay, Megan/Paul, and Jessie/Kyle.  This year was a little lot different.  This year we spent our night at home with our little family.  There were a number of reasons we decided to stay home this year among those:  1.  We thought it would be a great time hanging with our two kids and starting a new year as a family.  2.  We were all sick in the days before new years and 3.  We did not want to be on the roads with drunk drivers.  So we stayed at home and enjoyed the families company.  It was exciting to see Camdyn drinking her sparkling grape juice like I used to do on new years, and it was amazing to kiss my little girl at midnight.  It was probably one of the most low key new years I have ever had…but I will probably remember it the most!! 

New years eve...Camdyns sparkling grape juice!Kyle and I - right before midnight in all our glory...no makeup. I didnt even get out of my pajamas.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire

Well it’s not exactly on fire, but apparently the neighbor must have been worried about that due to the call he put into the city about it.  Let me explain.  Since the beginning of our house project, Kyle and I have both been very hands on.  We designed the entire house, the floor plan, the exterior, the roof pitch, the span across the front of the house, even the little office Kyle will have off the garage…you get the point…every last detail was decided by us.  However, we eventually had to let the city take our plan and decide if we met all of the cities codes – in other words…it was out of our hands.  Soon after Five long days later I got the call that our print was approved and we were cleared for takeoff construction.  Phew, bullet dodged – we had no major problems to tackle…or so we thought.  In days following we put the order in for our custom-built 3 foot overhang 4 – 12 roof trusses.  The roof was beautiful – exactly how I had envisioned it.  apparently the neighbor thought otherwise.  Soon after I gazed at my beautiful roof we get a call from our framers…the city had stopped by to ruin my day let them know that we had to cut a foot off the perimeter of our overhangs – because they neighbor called and complained.  How can the neighbor decide our fate you ask…well the city had made a “mistake” – they had missed the fact that we were only 5ft away from our lot line.  This means that we were only allowed 2 ft overhangs.  Pricey mistake if you ask me.  But of course the city reversed their mistake by “saying sorry”.  Are you kidding me, your sorry…yeah I’m sorry too.  I’m sorry that I believed you would do a better job than I could do at deciding whether or not our house met code.  I’m sorry that I ordered special made trusses with 3 foot overhangs to then cut off precious wood that made my house a “prairie style” house.  I’m also sorry that our lawyer then contacted you to reverse the decision to make us cut them off.  And then Im especially sorry (for myself this time) that we had to *tear* saw off my beautiful roof.  Sure we probably could have paid a ton of money to fight their decision to not uphold their word…but we did not want to spend the money nor take the time to do so.  So we made the decision to go down to 2 ft overhangs.  We have terrible luck with properties (I could go into detail about that…but we’ll just leave it at that).  So of course I was upset by this decision, but then I took a step back (after bawling for a few hours days) and realized that all that really matters is that I am moving in with my amazing family.  I could live anywhere with these three people and be happy – and that makes me the luckiest woman ever!  Take a look at our beautiful roof 🙂

The roof with 2 foot overhangs

I will say though, the worse thing about this whole situation is…we have to live next door to this neighbor.  And yes, we know who it was.  Revenge crossed my mind, even moving crossed my mind…but in the end you know the phrase “killing them with kindness”, oh yes, that’ll be my job!!

Christmas at the Andersons

We had Christmas with the Andersons the week after, and we had such a good time.  Camdyn really can not get enough of her cousins.  Especially Kael.  They pretty much want to spend all their time together.  I think it is so cute, because when I was growing up I was very close to my cousins.  In fact, I still spend a lot of time with them.  I know that she will have the same relationship with these kids – and it really really warms my heart.  I cant for Cade and Haylee to get a little older…I have a feeling those two will also be best friends…and I cant wait!!  Enjoy these pictures…you will find many of my kids, 1 of the entire Anderson clan and a few of the kids in the dog kennel.  Who knew that would be their favorite toy!!

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