The End of Summer

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I have posted anything I am realizing. I thought I would give a quick update on our lives.

We have had a really busy and fun filled summer. I can't believe the end of August is here already. Lots of house projects have gotten finished, we saw each of our a families a few times, went to a few weddings, and had a lot of fun activities! We have enjoyed having many visitors from Michigan including: Aaron and Catherine (friends from Calvin), Dave and Alyx, and my brother Bryant and Anne (his girlfriend). Also we have had time to hang out with our friends that live here in Milwaukee, we are so thankful to have made some really great friends here. We love having people over for a fire in the backyard or to play some games (like Ticket to Ride, our absolute favorite game!)!

As for the house, Alec is still finishing up painting all the exterior trim. It is a very time consuming job, and there is ALOT of trim. He also marked off where he wants to have a garden next year, he has major plans for a vegetable garden.

In other news, school starts on monday (8/31)!!!! And I have orientation this thursday and friday. I can't believe the time has finally come for me to start classes, it has seemed like this way distant event that has now finally come to the present! I am excited but mostly nervous. I have not forgotten all that being a student entails........it is going to be a ton of hard work and a huge challenge. But in the end it will all be worth it I am sure. This semester I am taking pre-nursing classes, then will apply to the nursing program in October. So please start praying that I get into the nursing program!

We are looking forward to the fall season though and all the changes it will bring!

A Few Before and Afters

We have been working like crazy on the house since we bought it end of April. So much of what we have done has been just bringing the house back to normal condition, the previous owners took such poor care of the house. So here are a few before and after pictures, hopefully the longer we live there there were will be more pictures to come!

All the before shots are taken at the home inspection, so its not our stuff or furniture.

Laundry Room:

Master Bedroom:

3rd Bedroom/Office/Scrapbooking room:

Guest Bedroom:

We are having fun, even though it is alot of work! But so far it is going well. We hope to finish painting the outside trim and then move to painting the living room!

Summer Fun!

Our friends Aaron and Catherine came to visit us for the weekend! They live in Grand Rapids and also graduated from Calvin the same year we did. We had so much fun seeing them again, and were excited to show them around Milwaukee!

We started off the day on saturday by heading to Bayshore mall, which is a huge outdoor mall which is very cool. We then drove downtown and checked out the wisconsin side of the lake. We all concluded that the Michigan side was better......can't beat the beaches there. After that we headed to the zoo! We found out that you can buy beer and other alcoholic drinks at the zoo........thought that was kind of weird........only in milwaukee I guess.

On sunday we went and had lunch at a restaurant downtown right near the lake called Altera. It was really good, Alec and I have been wanting to try it for a long time and we all loved it! We love having our friends come and see us, and it is especially nice not to have to make the drive ourselves :)

DeKruyter Camping

Every summer my parents camp for a week or so on the west side of Michigan. This year they camped at Hoffmaster State Park in Muskegon. We were able to join them friday-monday! My grandparents camped as well on the site next to us in their motor home, and my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins were there starting on sunday. We had such a great time, and the weather was really great! We were able to beach it up numerous times and enjoyed some bike rides, campfires, games, and general DeKruyter madness :)

I made puppy chow, and they attacked it!

Alec's family actually was able to come out and join in the fun for a couple days. They were just a few sites down from us, so it worked out perfect!

We went putt-putt golfing at Craig's Cruisers friday night, and had so much fun! We all had a pretty good game (however we all admitted it was too easy of a course).

At Whippi Dip, the BEST ice cream place ever!!

We went to fireworks downtown Grandhaven, MI. We had to kill some time while we waited for them to start. I felt bad for the people sitting around us......one group actually picked up all their stuff and moved further away :)

Wedding Weekend

Our friend's Dave and Alyx had their wedding this past weekend (June 13th) which Alec and I had the privilege to be involved with! Alec was Dave's bestman, while I was Alyx's personal attendant. It was a very busy day getting everything set for the 4pm wedding, but it was so much fun. The wedding went great, with no problems at all. It was held at Trinity Luthern Church in Grand Rapids, and then the reception following was at the Pinnacle center in Hudsonville. It was so much fun! Alec's best man speech went great, everyone loved it, and we had a fun time dancing the night away!

There was the most amazing candy bar you have ever seen, TONS of candy!!!

A Roofing Weekend!

We bought this house knowing the roof needed to be re-done badly.  And so we asked a few of the DeLange family members to help us out.  We had a house full of 10 people total, with five of them who worked on the roof.  And us girls and the kids helped pick up shingles off the ground.  

People involved:

- Rob and Anne (Alec's sister and husband) and their 2 boys Colin and Gage

- Derek (brother)

- Jordan (brother)

- Mike (family friend)

- Lauren (sister)

- Alec and I

They got the whole thing done between saturday and sunday, it was amazing!  We are just beyond thankful for having such an amazing family that is willing to drive all the way here and spend their weekend working endlessly on our house.  God has truly blessed us!!  

I thought we were doing really great with minimal injuries (even though I did print out directions to the nearest hospital........just in case).  But then sunday night after we drove around downtown showing Anne and Rob and the boys around, I was walking up the sidewalk to the house and stepped on a nail.  It went right through my shoe into my foot, and of course it was an old nasty nail from the old roof.  So we checked my immunization records and saw my last tetanus shot was in 1998, and they are only good for 10yrs.  BOO! But after some deliberation I decided I would be fine, and didn't want to go in.  

Overall though the weekend went amazingly well, and we are so excited that the roof is done and we don't have to think about it anymore!  

Lots going on!

I have been SO behind on posting!  We have been very very busy though.  It seems we have something going on almost every weekend between now and then end of the summer.  So here is a brief update of what we have been up too recently.  I keep forgetting to take pictures of the rooms in our house that are kind of sorta finished, I will try and do that very soon!

Memorial Weekend:  We were just simply excited to have a long weekend, Derek (Alec's brother) came to help us around the house with some painting.  It was great to have another set of hands!!  They got a lot done.    

Putting together the guest bedroom since the paint is finally finished in there! 

Painting the 3rd bedroom, which we are using as an office/scrapbooking room.

Last Weekend: We traveled to Grand Rapids for a bachelor and bachelorette party for our friends Dave and Alyx.  They are getting married June 13th.  Alec is the best man and so he organized the bachelor party (paintball, stretch escalade limo, grilling at Dave's river house).  The girls went and got pedicures/manicures in the morning, then we went and bottled our own wine, and then went to McFaddens (restaurant/bar downtown GR)  in the evening.  Both parties had a GREAT time.  

Getting our pedicures 

At the winery

The whole group ready to go out to McFaddens

Ready to party!

So then sunday morning we woke up and left for Dearborn for Allyson's (my sister) graduation party.  We were a bit tired after all the driving and lack of sleep, but it was an awesome weekend!

This coming weekend:  We are having some of Alec's family come to our house to help us re-roof the house.  It needs a new roof so badly, we plan to tear off the old shingles and then put up all the new ones!  So hopefully all goes as planned with that.  On saturday I will be the gone for the beginning of the day for registration at Mt Mary, where I will get my schedule for the fall semester!!! 

Well I will post again hopefully real soon with some updated house pictures!