Eight Happy Years!!!!!

So, it was 8 years ago today............................ That I married the love of my life. Now 8 years later we have had our share of excitement... 2 kids with one on the way, a dog, different houses and jobs, learning to be parents, visiting the emergency room over the years, embracing chaos, surviving on less sleep, learning parenting and poker skills, taking trips together, trying to schedule date nights...........that about sums up the last 8 years of married life. I have to say there have been many more good days than bad, and I can't wait to see what the next 8 will bring. I'm so happy I said I DO!

Here are a few fun photos. I'm glad the weather was so much nicer on our wedding day than it was today, rainy and cold.

I also want to give a big THANK YOU shout out to Bradley. Once again he has helped to save the day. Steve was so excited he finished work early today, 4:00. We thought we might go to dinner with the kids. Unfortunately, at 4:45 I get a phone call.... Steve has a flat tire on Walnut Lake Rd. UGH! Steve had some problems getting the final lug nut (?) off, so Brad came from work with the right tool to help him. What a GREAT GUY! I felt bad calling him and interrupting him, but Brad didn't think twice, and in no time he had helped Steve get his tire off and changed. I am blessed to have such great family who are always willing to help out.


Thanks Bradley T.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do LESS.............

Wow! It has been an incredibly SLOW day for me. I typically have a hectic Monday, but with the Jewish holiday beginning tonight my work load has decreased. In fact, happy Roshashana to me because I have a holiday tomorrow. I have no clients to meet at the gym and Nic and Amanda will both be at school. What will I do with myself? It felt kinda weird today with a lot of the afternoon free. I was not feeling sick so I decided to upload photos to Costco. I even felt well enough to scrapbook. I haven't made anything in months. It felt like a guilty pleasure in the middle of the day! I didn't even cook dinner tonight. I'm trying to empty the fridge of left overs. So can you see why it has been so slow for me..... As a reminder to myself I often read those 52 tips for happiness on the Zen Habits blog. Here is a little reminder of number 2 on the list.............

Do less. This is both a happiness and productivity tip. Doing less will make you happier, because your life won’t be so hectic and filled with stress. You will have time for things that give you pleasure, for the loved ones in your life, for life itself. It’s also a productivity tip: if you focus on the essential tasks, the big ones, the ones that will give you the most return for your time, and eliminate the rest, you will actually be more productive. You’ll get fewer tasks done, but you will be more effective.

I am giving myself a pat on the back because I have definitely done LESS today. I will say I do feel less stress and more pleasure. I need more days like this!

Anyway........... Here is the page I made......... I felt a little rusty but I'm happy with it.

Nothing new but some Photos....

Nothing fun and exciting to report around the Herdoiza house. Instead I thought I might comment on those favorite songs that come on the radio, that take you to a different place and time. It always amazes me how certain songs bring back memories of people and places and good times and bad. Just the other day, I heard an old song from college that reminded me of my roommate "Bird." It is funny how you remember the words automatically and certain feelings are stirred up. I only wish I could jog my memory this easily when it comes to remembering other things like birthdays, or mathematics, or grocery items. Maybe if everything were set to music I might be able to retrieve this info easier. What do you think?

In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy these photos. This was picture day with Amanda dressed in an argyle sweater on a 73 degree day. This is Nic just being Nic.

Friday Nic and I put those 40 lbs. of apples to use. I baked an apple pie and Nicholas made a miniature one of his own. Here he is peeling and coring the apples and even rolling out his own dough. It was a little tougher than play-doh.

Here is the before baking picture..... and the after.

I think he has a future as a pastry chef!!!!!

Finally, how do you like the new look? Amanda loves her new hair. Doesn't she look just like Hannah Montana? She was trying out the Halloween costume a month early.

Until Later.............

Random Thoughts

I have a few free moments this morning so I thought I might blog....

1. This is the first morning I didn't need to eat the minute I woke up. I was able to run on the treadmill and drink without being sick :) I hope it lasts... it is only 9:33.

2. Today is picture day at school. Amanda looked very cute. I'll post pictures later.

3. Did everyone watch the Office season premier? I love that wacky show, but.... I was a little disappointed. The Goodbye Toby finale was much funnier. I can't believe that Pam is gone and Ryan is the new secretary. I did like seeing what happened to Toby after his zip lining adventure in Costa Rica.

4. I'm sick of politics! I'm tired of the media and everyone else's 2 cents. I wish people would stop discussing it everywhere I go. Enough already. Let's elect a President and move on!

5. I regularly read this blog by Ali Edwards http://aliedwards.typepad.com/ She is a scrapbooker and artist. I have several of her books, enjoy her art work, and met her in person when she visited Michigan. She is working on a project which documents a "Week in the Life." It was originally a class she taught for Creating Keepsakes. For one week she is taking pictures and documenting her everyday routines. She has invited her blog readers to participate with her. I think I may be up for this challenge. I'm hoping for the next week I'll post pictures and jot down notes regarding my life in Sept. of 2006. Then I can do it again in a couple years. It will be fun to see how our life changes as we become a family of 5, jobs change, kid's routines change, our house changes, etc. In the end I hope to make a mini scrapbook. This sounds like a fun idea so here goes........

40 lbs. of Apples...............

Here is the usual update: terrible night, nauseous, runny nose, I felt like a truck had hit me this morning. Half of Sunday was successful and I'm just about to the point of feeling awful again. Will it ever end? I keep writing these updates so as not to forget. This is definitely the last time! Yuck!


I was happy to see some comments about the dreaded awful chores. As for the rest of you..... I can't believe you didn't comment. Are you telling me there are people out there who don't mind household monotony? I will have to agree with Aunt Annette about putting away the groceries once you get home from the grocery store. That is a bad one, along with unloading the car by yourself. I can't believe I forgot that on my short list. However, I still think the plastic containers beats the dog puke, based solely on frequency. I'm amazed Mo and Janina did not put in their 2 cents. Even Kaye had a gripe (she is human :)


Just thought I would pass along some pictures from apple picking on Saturday afternoon. We picked 2 huge bags of apples and just for fun we weighed them. 40.5 lbs of apples are now being stored in my fridge. We have lots of eating and baking to do!





Steve is a total apple picking pro. Look at that technique, that form!

As usual we enjoyed cider and donuts after all the picking was done. Delicious.


I thought this was a fun picture of Amanda jumping through a maze of bales of hay.



Until next time..............

Hawaii Finally......

Since I'm procrastinating (see earlier post), here are the Hawaii photos

This greeting was visible upon leaving the airport. We must have passed it at least 20 times on our travels around the island.

I just thought this was a cool picture. The rainbow was huge. This is one of the views outside of our condo overlooking the ocean.


This was one of our first adventures zip-lining over the trees on this ranch in Princeville. The hard hats ROCK! The hats may be a little dorky but the background scenery was AWESOME.

When you first zip line you have to put on a harness which is attached to this giant cable. Then you run down the platform and SOAR! It was a lot of fun. It took me a few tries to get the landing on the other platform.

This picture was taken on another cattle ranch/old sugar plantation I think. We wanted to get the scenery because this is where Jurassic Park was shot.

Steve swinging on a rope into the stream. I was freezing after the kayak ride so I did not participate.

Did you know that in Hawaii roosters and chickens hang out like squirrels here in Michigan? It is crazy. This guy was outside the window of the condo in our backyard. He was cock-a-doodling away.

Here we are in a sea cave on the Napoli coast. It is too bad I didn't get a shot of the crazy boat/raft. I was so sore after that ride.

This is the Waimea Canyon. It was breathtaking. We rode a van up the canyon for 12 miles and biked down. It was one of my favorite things.

Here Steve is flying high over the canyon in true Superman style!

It was crazy windy so high up!

This final picture was taken at a botanical garden we found while exploring the island. Unfortunately, it was a 45 min walking tour. You are seeing the 3 minutes it did not rain. The entire time we were in the garden it poured rain. We raced through in 25 min. It was awful. I just wanted my camera to stay dry, I did not care about the plants. What a deceiving picture.

Overall, this was a wonderful trip. I hope everyone gets the chance to visit Hawaii one day. It is truly beautiful like paradise. The only drawback is the LONG flight. Anyway.............. this time I'm really off to start some chores. Until later..........

Dreaded Chores.......

I'm not doing so bad this Friday. Nic and I just walked Amanda to the bus stop and now we have the basement to tackle and errands this afternoon. I am PROCRASTINATING. On that note I've decided to compile a list of my 5 most dreaded chores. Here they are ranked in order of DREADFULNESS........

Number 5: Cleaning the Basement
Number 4: Washing the kitchen floor
Number 3: Drying the plastic containers from the dishwasher
Number 2: Putting away the folded laundry which ties with taking out the trash
Number 1: Cleaning the SHOWERS.

I think I hate some more than others because they need to be done so often. What do you think? Anybody think they can top this list?

A Nicholas Funny..............

So, I'm feeling really bad right now. (Especially since I brushed my teeth and it make the nausea 10 times worse :(

Just had to share this comment.....

Nicholas asked me if the baby is in my tummy, how did it get in my throat? He is a very smart one. Everything that enters your tummy first stops in the mouth and passes through the throat. Good Question my Son!

Speaking of conversations with Nic, here is another from yesterday. While I was driving home from preschool I was asking him about his day. I always inquire about the day's events from Amanda and Nic. It is very difficult to get info. Now I have resorted to: Tell me three things you did at school today. Nic's reply, "I had snack, I ate my lunch, and I had cake." The note sent home from school talked about the books they read, the letter of the week, weather, painting, and tennis class. He failed to mention any of these facts. So today in the car I ask the same question. His reply was he ate his lunch and had graham crackers for a snack. I guess the lesson here is that it really doesn't matter what I do with Nicholas all day long. The activities we do, the games we play, the fun we have will never quite stand up to what I feed him for lunch! I guess I need to start making memories revolving around SNACKS!

What will tomorrow bring? Good Night.

Day by Day............

It has been awhile, but that is what general nausea and fatigue will do to a girl. It feels as if I have had the flu for the last 3 weeks. The good news is..... Hopefully, only 3 more weeks of this YUCK! This week I visited the doctor and we heard the baby's heart beat. We saw the little guy/gal on the ultrasound. I finally got some confirmation, there is a little stinker in there making me sick. (Ha, Ha) It is so amazing to hear that heart beat and see the little one!

Around here, I'm taking things day by day. This week I picked up Nicholas from school on Monday and he was miserable. 45 Minutes later I had him in the Dr. office with a 101.3 temp and a viral sore throat. Amanda finished her first week of school without incident until Friday night. It seems she has caught a cold. C'est la vie and it is only the first full week of school. Steve is working like crazy between the club and the Andover boy's tennis team. I'm just trying to make it through my work days. Life goes on...........
Since I'm feeling okay now I thought I would post some random pictures.What a doll and how do you like that hat? Pretty cute huh?Nicholas and I spent the afternoon making a banana cake. Unfortunately, I was so sick by the end I couldn't even taste it. The kids loved it and Nicholas thoroughly enjoyed licking the icing. I just might have a future baker on my hands.I tried the cake today. It was pretty good. I got the recipe from cooking light. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=522331

It is a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. It's a good way to use up all those old bananas. Until the next time I'm feeling well enough to blog............

The First Day of School............

So I can't believe it. My Amanda Grace is officially a first grader. Yesterday we met her new teacher, Mrs. Payton, and visited her new classroom. She has a real desk this year to put her school supplies in, her own coat hook, and a personalized mailbox. This is a real step up from tables and cubbies in kindergarten. Today was the actual start of school. Here she is looking a year older and just so cute with her Hannah Montana book bag.

I wonder if she will continue to be this excited for the rest of the year. I give her a couple more days before the novelty wears off. What do you think?