One of my goals for 2019 was to work with my dog, Copernicus (or Copper for short), on earning various levels of Trick Dog Titles. I did not know that Trick Dog Titles were a thing until recently and when I found out, I knew it was the perfect winter activity for Copper and me -- something to keep us busy and active even when it's too cold to spend much time outside. I have always enjoyed dog training and have thus far had two rescue dogs that I've trained in obedience and tricks. Obedience training is necessary to keep your dog safe and happy and to keep those around him safe and happy, as well. It' fun to watch a dog learn and progress in his manners -- though it's a lot of work! For me, the real fun starts once the basic obedience work is done and we can start working on tricks! It is amazing how smart dogs are and how much they can learn. With a little time and a lot of patience, you can teach your dog to do incredible things. It's good for them, too, as it challenges them mentally, works their brains and helps them get out some energy in different ways. You'll find that some of the "tricks" actually help boost obedience, too.

As another year comes to a close and a new one begins, I'd like to take some time to reflect on 2018 and some of the highlights from my year. It seems that each year goes by faster than the last, and I think that makes it all the more important to reflect back and really soak in the things that happened. 2018 had its challenges to be sure -- challenges with work, with volunteer work, with health, with home life and family -- but we'll save those for another day! For now, I'd just like to think about the biggest lesson learned through those challenges, and that is about changing my own attitude. When I found myself in less than desirable circumstances, I found myself complaining a lot and stressing or worrying about the situation -- until suddenly a two-pronged lightbulb came on. Firstly, I realized that in all my complaining, I was not stopping to think about what I could do to solve the issue. Wouldn't my time be better spent strategizing and problem-solving (I supposedly love problem-solving!) than complaining and worrying? Secondly, and closely related, was that I needed at attitude shift. I didn't like where my mind was at. I could be more productive in trying to solve or better manage the situations in my life -- but I could not change other people. What I could change was myself. If I put forth the effort to do all I can to help a situation, I can rest content in knowing that I did all I could. The rest is not up to me, and I can choose to either worry or stress over the things I can't control, or I could decide to be content, hopeful an even optimistic about the outcomes. What I really needed was to recapture the joy in my life. A lot of that stems from reframing my state of mind and focusing on the good. There's a Sister Hazel song that includes the following line,

My husband, Tom, and I recently returned from an 8-day trip in Iceland. Iceland? "Why Iceland," you may ask. Iceland first came on my radar as a potential vacation destination four years ago when we were planning our trip to England, Wales and Ireland. There are several airlines that have layovers in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, connecting the U.S. to European destinations. While it didn't work out for us to include Iceland on that trip, it remained in the back of my mind as some place that would be fun to explore. This year, we learned of some inexpensive airline tickets to Iceland, and indeed, as we considered vacation destinations in the western U.S. and Canada, we found that plane tickets to Iceland were only half the price of flying to Montana! (We discovered later that once you get there, everything is SUPER expensive. But, with a little planning you can find ways to keep your costs down.) So, without knowing a whole lot about the country, we booked a flight! Then came the research. Lots of research and planning. We had eight days to try to fit in as much of Iceland as we could, and I sure jam packed our schedule! We spent most of our time along the "Ring Road", highway 1, which circles the main part of the island -- with a couple days in the beautiful Snaefellsness Peninsula. If I can ever find the time, I hope to do a more detailed post(s) on our itinerary later, for anyone else who may be planning a trip. But, in case you need to be convinced to go there first, here are eight heavily photographed reasons that YOU should visit Iceland!

Saturday at our house felt a little chaotic. After some morning cleaning and some trips back and forth, we finally dropped my car off to get new tires put on in the morning. From there took Happy to the dog park for a last romp before the snow really started to fall. We got home just in time to welcome our niece and nephew in for the afternoon (had not gotten to the grocery store yet - sorry, kids!). 

I scrounged around for lunch, then Tom dropped my niece and me off at the grocery store to shop for something to make for dessert. We were going to spend the evening with friends we had not seen in some time and that was my dish to bring. Thankfully, my niece loves to bake and was a great help in the kitchen. 

Meanwhile, my nephew had far too much fun with Happy. They're really good play mates. 

Playing with oversized drink umbrellas...turned...Asian hats?

Tom was raking leaves while I was busy putting out fires inside (no, really...my second fire on the stove top in the past month...not a good trend!) and trying to keep the boys (Happy & nephew) out of trouble. My niece and I made these delicious Chocolate Caramel Mini Cheesecakes from a recipe I found on Pinterest...only, we made our own Caramel Sauce. Yum!  

Turned out delicious! Sweet, and rich, but delicious!

I wanted to make a separate little mini dessert for my niece and nephew that didn't contain so much sugar. I had gotten some apples and was thinking some sort of baked caramel apple dessert.  We were contemplating how to make it when suddenly my niece says, "Don't you have to leave in 15 minutes?"  I looked at the time. Yikes! We did only have 15 minutes before they were going to be picked up and we had to head out to our friends' house. Already having some of the ingredients put together....I improvised! No time to bake apples. I suggested something in the microwave, and my niece (understandably) made a face. No, you're right. No microwave. In a sudden burst of inspiration, I whipped out my cast iron skillet and decided pan-fried apples couldn't take that long and would probably taste great!  So, here's the little dessert I invented.

On top of the world -- or at least the tallest mountain in Wales

Tom and I decided to do a big trip this year -- the biggest we've ever taken: a two week trip through the UK and the Republic of Ireland.  I'm not exactly sure what spurred on this trip, but we've talked about going to Europe for some time.  I've always wanted to explore the lands of my heritage. I've already been to Honduras (and have been able to visit family there on more than one occasion), but the rest of my heritage is from England, Ireland and Wales.  I did a bit of genealogy research  before the trip and traced my family back to a town in Wales called Merthyr Tydfil -- so that was definitely added to the itinerary, along with London, another (beach) town in wales called Tenby, and a week in Ireland including Rosslare Harbour, Kenmare, Dingle, Doolin and Dublin.  It took a ton of planning (some of which was probably not necessary), and we were constantly on the move, which didn't end up being too stressful and allowed us to see quite a bit of these countries in two weeks' time. We rented a car in Ireland, but we wanted to take public transportation (mainly the Tube [subway] and trains) in the UK.  We also wanted to stay at primarily Bed and Breakfasts -- which we did in every town save London.  As such, we decided that we should really try to pack everything we needed in backpacks so that we could more easily make the trek from train station to lodging, etc. It was difficult (for me), but we did it!  I first pulled aside everything I wanted to bring, then separated out everything I thought I could bring -- packed it all in the bag, and then got rid of a few things to ensure that my bag would suffice as a carry-on.  Tom had no issue packing everything in his medium-sized backpack.

My brother and his wife are due to have their first baby at the end of March. They are expecting a baby boy, who will be our first nephew on my side of the family. I can't wait to meet him. My brother decided on an awesome theme for the baby's nursery: Super Mario Bros. 3 (which, we both agree was the best video game ever made).  We used to wake up early on Saturday mornings just to play (and beat) the game. So, to go along with the nursery theme, I decided that the baby shower my mom and I threw should also have some Super Mario Bros. flair.  It started with the invitations...

I read my friend Kelly's blog post today and thought: wow, I feel the exact same way!  Life has been a blur for the past 5 months, mostly because I've been super busy with lots of good stuff: work (I love my job), traveling, holidays, project after exciting project with the RPF, teaching Sunday school, leading a bible study, hanging out with Tom and learning about beer as we hop along on our brew tour, and whatever else I can fit in!  It's been fun, but lately I feel like it's been hard to just catch up with my daily life.


I always heard that time goes by faster as you get older, but somehow over the past two years it has begun accelerating at an exponential pace  -- and I haven't even hit 30!  Sometimes, when time flies by, it leaves me feeling a little nostalgic.  Remember when you were a kid and a year seemed to last forever?  Even just the summer...it seemed it would never end.  There was plenty of time to do just about anything my little mind could think of. And, well, my little mind worked a little differently than most kids, as you can see by this example of what I did for fun in 1st Grade...

My friend & I started the "Help Save Our Earth" or "H.S.O.E" club.  This is my first newsletter. So, I wasn't the best speller; nor could I write in anywhere near a straight line. But we were going to change the world!

Well, somehow over the years I lost my zeal for extreme environmentalism, but I still want to change the world.  I don't know how, but I'm leaving that part up to God as I try to prioritize and determine how to best use the time, resources and abilities He's given me.  God has been doing a lot of work in my heart lately, and I hope to be able to put it all into words to share here soon.

Okay, so this isn't actually a stop on our brew tour, but it's something I have to share.  Last year, Tom attempted to brew his own beer for the first time.  He enjoyed the process and actually ended up making three different batches.  I think the first batch may be all gone now, but he still has some left from batch #2 and batch #3.  He recently gave a name to batch #2, stemming from the fact that it sat around in our basement for over a year -- after getting one bad bottle from that batch, Tom wasn't sure he really wanted to drink the rest of it.  And, thus it earned the name "Basement Creeper."  He now claims that only some of the bottles were affected and the beer is good for drinking!

I liked the name so much that I decided it needed it's own label design.  So, I made one:

Be careful going down those stairs!

The Basement Creeper is a Belgian Strong Ale, which I should probably add to the label, but I was just having fun with the design!

I couldn't stop there, of course.  Tom had said a while back that his beers were "Thom Bomb" brews, so I decided he also needed a logo for his home "brewery":

And, yes, that's a hop turned into a bomb

Finally, I made a design for his batch #3 beer -- a wheat beer, which he named "Barley Popp"

Tom and I made our second stop on our Brew Tour this past Sunday, on our way up to Montague where we were meeting some friends at a cabin for New Year's.  We were going to make a pit stop in Spring Lake at the Old Boys' Brew House, but we missed our turn.  Instead of turning around, we opted to keep going into Grand Haven to check out Odd Side Ales -- we figured we might as well save the other place for a time when we wanted some food to go with the beer, since Odd Side Ales didn't seem to have a food menu, and we were not yet hungry for dinner.  Little did I know, however, that our side trip to the brewery was really just a ruse.  That's right.  The only reason Tom suggested stopping by one of the breweries was to keep us away from the cabin a little longer while, unbeknownst to me, our friends were getting ENGAGED!  A proposal's not the sort of thing you want to rush, so Tom was in on the deal and just trying to buy some extra time for his friend.

Needless to say, it was a fun New Year's "weekend", and Odd Side Ales turned out to be a great place to start.  The atmosphere very much reminded me of a coffee shop, with multiple styles of tables, chairs and couches; eclectic light fixtures; a cabinet full of old games (including Guess Who? -- unfortunately, somebody else was playing it!); and, yes, ceramic mugs hung on the wall.  While not a "coffee person" per se, I do drink a lot more coffee than I do beer and have spent significantly more time in coffee shops than breweries, so the feel of this place was very familiar to me, and right up my alley.  I told Tom that if I owned a brewery, it would be much like this place.  I might skip the dart boards, though...somehow beer and darts don't seem like a good combination...

Tom ordered a sampler flight of six different beers.  They had lots to choose from here, and some very unique sounding options.  The ones he ended up choosing were as follows, with Tom's tasting notes included:

1. Albino Stout (he tried to get the Herbie Peppertop, but they were out) -- hoppy, light stout
2. Citra Pale Ale -- hoppy; citrus up front
3. Java Mint Stout -- smells like mint; mint taste throughout
4. Fat Bottom IPA -- bitter up front; smooth out back
5. Jackalope Amber -- hoppy amber
6. American Brown -- balanced notes of porter flavors

I'm not sure that Tom had a favorite among these.  The Java Mint Stout was certainly the most unique, and seemed apropos for the theme of the place.  It really did taste as much like a coffee drink as it did a beer.  The Jackalope Amber was hoppier than expected -- though we decided that the "Jackalope" should have been indicative of that!  I think the Fat Bottom IPA was the smoothest IPA I've tasted to date -- not that that tells you much.  But usually an IPA leaves me with bitter notes on the end.  As Tom put in his notes, this one really smoothed out.  

All in all, I give this place two thumbs up.  I'd like to come back in the summertime after a day at the beach or something.  And next time, I want to play Guess Who?!

click here to read the back-story on our Brew Tour!

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a few minutes to remember some of the things we did and things that happened in 2012.  I feel like it was a whirlwind of a year, but here's a brief memoir of what I can remember from the activities done, people visited and places traveled!


We rang in 2012 with some friends of ours on the east side of the state -- actually our friends that we went backpacking with on Isle Royale.  This year started out a bit rough, as I was transitioning medications for rheumatoid disease, and it took some time for the new meds to kick in.  However, it was a busy winter and my bible study group really kept me going (and helped to keep me from hibernating all season long!).  We also went to what I will call a "super hockey weekend" in Detroit where we got to see two Red Wings games in three days.  The Friday night game was special because it was Holmstrom's 1,000th NHL game.  The Sunday game was special because it was the day that the Red Wings tied the record for most consecutive home wins.  Oh, and we we were right on the glass for both games!  (Thanks, Dad!)


At the end of February / beginning of March I took my first trip to New York City.  I had a work event there for just one evening, but ended up visiting a friend from New Jersey for a couple of days.  She showed me around a bit of NYC and we went to the American Museum of Natural History where we proceeded to find the one and only platypus there!

Sadly, Tom and I *still* have not completely finished our winter house project, but we did get all of the crucial parts done this year.  Now, we just have to install our own bedroom closet doors (along with some fancy lighting...and take down the old track lighting, add a ceiling fan, etc.).  We also got some furniture for our downstairs bedroom (thanks to Tom's family!) so now we can actually use it as a guest room!

Spring came early this year, despite the groundhog's predictions (actually, we never really did get a winter), and an early spring meant early gardening!  Unfortunately, due to deer and drought my garden did not flourish this year.  I still thoroughly enjoyed my time in the garden and the food I was able to harvest, though.  I did try some new things like in the garden this year like Swiss chard, carrots, potatoes and asparagus, and I was even inspired to try some new recipes because of it!


A few changes were ushered in this year... Tom started a new job in April, which has really been a great opportunity and experience for him.  He works in IT and has a more challenging and interesting role now.  Then, this June my brother got married and we all got to travel down to Florida for the ceremony.  It was a wonderful way to welcome my new sister-in-law to the family!  We also went on a cruise around the Western Caribbean, which was our big summer trip for the year.  Of course, we also did a weekend in Charlevoix for a family reunion and our annual trip to Manistee with Tom's family.


 As summer went on, my health started to get better, which has been a huge relief.  Much of the summer and fall were spent between family events, baby showers, weddings and the like.  There was hardly a weekend we were home.  We had to do a late-season camping trip because summer was so packed -- but we can't skip a year of camping!  A new season of bible study and a new season of teaching Sunday school started up in the Fall, which has continued to keep my weeks full.  I've also continued volunteering with (and am now a board member of) the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation (RPF).


October brought on our annual Halloween Party, where Tom took away the prize for best costume as we dressed him up like Cap'n Crunch!  We had a big birthday celebration in November at my mom's house, which was a lot of fun -- by "big" I mean that it was for three people: me, my brother and his wife.  We all have late fall birthdays, so I think we are starting a new tradition of having one big day to celebrate together.  Tom was working like crazy all fall, with some major upgrade projects at work.  I was busy at the same time prepping for my trip to Washington, DC with the RPF -- for the ACR Annual Scientific Meeting (which was simply amazing!).


Just a few days after I got back fro DC, Tom and I left for a road trip.  We traveled from Michigan to Niagara Falls, Canada, on to Boston to visit some friends, who went with us to Vermont where we spent Thanksgiving, before we traveled back to Michigan via Toronto.  Yes, that run-on sentence was pretty much what our trip was like!  I have yet to post a blog about that...somebody remind me later.


And, before I knew it, it was December - my birthday, a big Lord of the Rings marathon with friends (prior to seeing The Hobbit, of course), and then Christmas!  We spent Christmas weekend with Tom's family this year; we had a brunch with my dad before we left town, and will be celebrating with my mom and brother this coming weekend before we head up north with friends to close out the year.

*Whew*  I'm sure I missed some important details and events, but at nearly midnight as I type this, that's as best as I can remember!  Here's to another great year -- cheers!

Tom and I were reminiscing last night about a trip we took two summers ago.  I hadn't yet started my blog at that point, but I wanted to share some videos and experiences from that trip here -- so, sorry it's two years late, but here's an overview of our epic adventure around Lake Superior.

If you are unaware, Tom has a motorcycle -- it's an Italian bike that most people have never heard of: an Aprilia Caponord.  It's considered, so I'm told, an "adventure touring" bike.  Personally, I am not all that into motorcycles.  In theory they scare me, though I never actually feel scared when riding on the back of it.  Tom got this bike in the summer of 2009 -- literally just a few days before we had planned to leave on a trip for North Carolina. Yep, you guessed it: we ended up taking the motorcycle for that trip!

So, the next year, we decided we should plan another motorcycle adventure and invite some friends along.  Friends always make an adventure more fun!  We ended up going on a trip all around Lake Superior.  We started in Grand Rapids, MI -- 5 people and 3 bikes -- headed up to Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, up around the top of Lake Superior through Canada, down through Minnesota, a brief stint in Wisconsin then through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and back to where we began.  The whole trip was about 1,700 miles, which we did in 5 days, 4 nights.  It was a very cool trip, and my first chance to spend any real time around "the big lake they called Gitche Gumee."  

If you ever attempt something this, I'd definitely allow some extra time.  We were rather rushed and we had some very long riding days.  It was great fun with great people, though.  So, without further ado, I'll let you watch the videos our friend Brandon put together about our trip:

Part 1:



Part 2:

For quite some time now, the online #rheum community has been creating their own language, including made up words and terms to describe our experiences with rheumatoid disease.  Quite often these terms are punny and mildly humorous.  Other times, these terms are downright hilarious.  As I've already stated that I believe laughter is often the best medicine, it only seems right that we should form a collection of these rheum-ism so that we can easily share the hilarity with others!

To add your rheum words to the list, simply fill out the form below.


Be sure to check to see what's already there!


There are also some great examples on Kelly's blog, and on Eric's blog!

Some of us have discussed creating a silly song using these words.  I am completely for the idea, however, I am also completely useless when it comes to anything musical.  So, I leave that part to the rest of you! 

This is what my sink looked like Thursday night when I was almost done with my cooking!

It's hard to believe but we just had our 9th Annual Halloween party!  Due to some other conflicts we had to have the party on a Friday night this year, which was a little chaotic.  Wednesday was my cleaning day.  Thursday was my cooking day.  And Friday, was rush around to do the last minute prep after work before people started coming over.  I made another giant pot of chili, cooked in the turkey roaster which can also be used as a ginormous crock pot.  There were lots of leftovers, so I have lots of freezer meals :)

Giant pot of chili!!

Another cute idea I stole -- a pumpkin-shaped cheese ball!

Tom and I both had "cartoon-ish" costumes this year.  I was Velma from Scooby Doo, and Tom was Cap'n Crunch!  

Jinkies!  You want a Scooby Snack??

Crunchatize me, Cap'n!

Oh yes, it's a home-made mustache, too!

I actually found the majority of our costumes at Goodwill.  I could not believe my luck when I found an orange turtle neck sweater, red shoes, a red skirt AND a wig for my Velma costume!  I had the glasses already and the socks I borrowed from a friend.  I made a box of Scooby Snacks by snagging some images of the "Snausages" brand Scooby Snacks.

I found Tom's blue jacket at Goodwill, too.  It was actually a ladies blazer....shhh!!  We didn't realize until looking at a picture of Cap'n Crunch how ridiculously high his collar comes up.  I had to attach some foam to the blazer to make that, and used a combination of foam and felt for the rest of the jacket decorations.  The hat I made out of foam padding; I don't know what it's actually called but I found it at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  We just had to spray paint it so it was the right color!  Also, the Captian's eyebrows are kind of floating up above his hat.  Not sure why.  Cartoons are funny like that.  Tom won our costume contest...kind of not fair, being hosts and all...but I also feel like his winning should be my winning since I made almost the entire costime :)

And now, for the pumpkins.  The first one I modeled after "Mutant Enemy" productions, since we've been watching a lot of Joss Whedon stuff this fall - including going through the Firefly series with some friends and now getting addicted to Dollhouse.


The second one I saw on Pinterest and one of my friends carved it for me!  She did a good job.  He looks so worried.  I have more spiders now...but haven't gotten an updated photo.


We had a discussion about how if you had spiders crawling all over you, you would probably DO something about it rather than just sitting there and looking worried.  However, Tom pointed out: "Well, what if you were just a head, without a neck? What would you do?"  Touche.  I guess all you can do is sit there and look worried!

And, finally, we have Halloween, the actual day, on Wednesday.  I may have to dress up as Velma again just so I can offer Scooby Snacks to our trick-or-treaters that stop by.  We're employing the same methods as last year to try to lure kids to our end of the neighborhood by giving away full sized candy bars!  This will be year number two, so we'll find out if last year was successful in training the kids to come this way or not!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already that time of year again – time for the beauty of the autumn leaves, the crisp air, cider mills, and of course: pumpkins.  I had some of my own pumpkins grow in my garden this year.  Unfortunately, they came July thru September – a little early for my fall decorating!  But never fear, ever since I discovered this pumpkin patch down the road from us, I’ve decided that I will be getting pumpkins and gourds from there every year!  Their selection is so vast that I always seem to find there a new type of squash that I never knew existed!

This year, I ended up with a lot of the same types as last year, because I really liked what I got.  I also decided to do some pumpkin painting with a friend again this year – it’s fun, the pumpkins always turn out cute and they last a lot longer than if you carve them.  Mind you, I do have a couple of larger pumpkins set aside as my carving pumpkins, but that will have to take place closer to Halloween.  Here's what I've ended up with so far: