Clear Lake Camping

A friend asked me last week what we do on our vacation. We'll let you show you what we do at my favorite spot in Michigan... You see 8 families for sure make the week super fun. See we are really productive when we get to camping

 We do some napping on the beach

 We laugh at each other

 We have arts and crafts time

 We hit the beach..EVERY day!

 and do some swimming

 we play ridiculous games in our aunt and uncles campers

 we watch DVDs on the beach...really?

 and we play cards

 we celebrate birthdays in the classiest ways!

 and play  more cards

 have in depth conversations

 we hit the lake tubing with Uncle Don

 and laugh all week long

 We play White Elephant 

 and decorate campsites

 we learn to water ski

 and Uncle Boof shows us how to water ski

 we take tons of boat rides

and we do some more tubing.

We have a TON of fun. Mostly everyone is on their way to Clear Lake early tomorrow morning. The Bossows are on their way out tonight from WI and I will be there Sunday. Can't wait to be in my favorite place, at Clear Lake with all my family!

Two Kisses for Maddy

And another one bites the dust. One of my summer reads that is. I managed finish a memoir on love and loss in 4 days. Not because I did not care what was written on the pages, but because it was AMAZING!

I fell in love with this blog HERE near the end of my first semester at college. I found their story in a magazine and was clicking back every day to see how Maddy was growing. Their story is one that many do no have. Maddy was born on March 24th and 27 hours later, her mom Liz passed away most likely from a blood clot. Liz never got to hold Maddy. That left Matt, a widower and father to a newborn preemie little girl. His blog chronicles life after Liz and then focuses on Maddy's growth, her baby book, as Matt mentions in the book.

Now 3 years later, Matt and Maddy are traveling on book tours. Continuing their life together never forgetting to remember Liz along the way. Two Kisses for Maddy is written from Matt's pov about life leading up to the birth of Maddy and the 27 hours that changed their lives forever. It takes you through 27 chapters of love and loss, up to Maddy's first birthday and the first year without Liz.

Two Kisses for Maddy, keeps you wanting more. I have been reading Matt's blog for almost the entire 3 years, and I feel like I have been a part of all the big things in Maddy's life so far. That's what technology does to the world today, takes ordinary people and connects them to more ordinary people all over the country and the world.

If your looking for an amazing story of a father raising his preemie daughter, Matt Logelin's story shows just that. Make sure to visit his blog to see pictures and read about their lives today as well.

Next on the list of reads includes
-Friday Night Lights (about 1/4 way thru this)
-Sisterhood Everlasting (just picked this up yesterday, 1/4 way thru)
-Something Borrowed
-Something Blue
-The Help

Off to Clear Lake next week so maybe I'll get through a book or too. Stay tuned and stay cool!

Heaven is for Real

On my day off yesterday I started and finished a very powerful book, about a 4 year old's story about heaven. Unbelievable! I would recommend anyone to read Heaven is for Real, no matter your view on religion this was an awesome read and a very short read as well. If you have a couple hours or so, it would be best spent reading this book.

Colton is a 4 year old who is on a family vacation when he becomes very sick. Among the days that he spends in the hospital, his life is in the hands of God. Weeks later he recounts his time in heaven to his family. What? Yup I said it, he spent some time in heaven. His stories of who he met, and how people looked are unbelievable. And he's only 4!

One of my favorite parts in the book talks about the power of prayer. A perfect rainbow is seen from the family's kitchen, when Todd and Sonja, Colton's parents got to look at it they call Colton up from the playroom,
"Look at that rainbow, Colton," Sonja said. "There definitely should be a big pot of gold at the end of that thing."
Colton squinted, peering up at colors pouring across the sky. 
"Cool," he said with a nonchalant smile. "I prayed for that yesterday." 
Unbelievable.
And that is only one small part of this amazing book. Heaven is for Real, and Colton is telling us all about it.

Keep reading! It will be awhile until my next Summer Reads installment, I'm picking up Friday Night Lights

Message in a Bottle

Next on my list of reads was...well I did not really have anything I wanted to read, but off to the beach I went this holiday weekend and I needed a good read. I pick up one of the many Nicholas Sparks books I got from my grandma and figured it would work. Message in the Bottle seemed fitting to be reading along the edge of West Michigan. And before I knew it I was sucked in, no matter what N. Sparks gets me sucked in quickly.

A young divorcee on vacation in the Cape discovers a message in a bottle while running. By publishing it into her column she gets an abundance of letters and responses to the column and the letter that was found. In investgating she runs across more pieces to the puzzle to finally met the guy who wrote the letter. Shop owner and dive instructor by day, sailor by night she falls in love with the man who is grieving. A thousand miles apart from each other they begin to fall more and more in love....ugh I better stop before I give it away.


It only took me a day to get through this book, well a day and a couple hours the following day. Somehow N. Sparks always seems to keep the interest going even though all his books seem to be among the same meaning, someone is dead or dying, someone falls in love, and there is always a sex scene. Oh N. Sparks.

Anyway, happy reads! I'll have another book ready to blog about tomorrow!

Summer Reads

So I have come up with an idea to keep track of the books that I read this summer. This is a big deal for me. Usually I get thru one or maybe two books the whole summer, but I have already finished two and am working on opening number three tonight. So I will give you the title, author and so on. Allowing you to see what I loved about the book, the chance that you need a book to read it will be here for you to choose from.

The first book I read this summer/started before winter semester let out was One Day now I know in your head your singing that commericial. But seriously stop singing. And think about this, Emma and Dex met in college, they live in England so everything sounds so much  more important. They have flatmates, and go to the lou. And they attend University, not college. But anyway, they meet and throughout their time they both come to  like to each other but never say it to each other. After years apart, and a fight that pulls them apart they come to met every year in July 15th. The day in which they met many years ago. You see the book written in Emma's perspective and then in Dex's. You met their friends, past flatmates and significant others. And in the end...well you would never believe what happens. You gotta read it!

And keep this in mind, in August Anne Hathaway is taking this book to the big screen. I can not wait to see this book come to life!

Happy Readings!

Rain Rain Rain

July 1st, you would think it would bring hot humid weather. Not so true here in Michigan. Or on the West side as well. While it was cloudy and threatened to rain all morning I left with my tour with umbrella in hand at 11am, hoping we would make it back dry. And at 12 it was not so dry out any more. In the process of another family needing an umbrella for the 12 tour, who left without one I gave mine to them and said good bye to my families in the hopes they would stay as dry as possible to get to their cars. My walk, my RUN to the office was uneventful. The roads were flooding and the puddles where past my ankles. All I could do was smile. Everyone was going to get a laugh outta this one. Drenched I walked into the office to a crowd at the front desk of VIPs, and counselors.

Rain Rain Rain kept my Friday fun. And one I do not want to forget.