Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Beaching It

One of my favorite things about living in Michigan is all the water. My favorite place in the whole world, is sitting at the beach, listening to the waves with my feet in the sand. On Father's Day, we went out to Mona Lake to see family. It was FINALLY warm enough for swimming! Lois has this awesome raft thing that seats, I think, 8 people. It's pretty awesome. Just floating on the lake with my eyes closed is my idea of heaven...

Yesterday, Rick took Joshua up to his Pentwater store so they could spend the day together. Logan and I went out to Duck Lake State Park with my friend Kait and her daughter Andi. We were down there for.... I would guess almost 4 hours. Even after re-applying sunblock twice, I still got burnt! On my shoulders, part of my back, right around my swimsuit top, a little on my stomach, and the front of my thighs!!! Sleeping last night was really uncomfortable. I think I might have sweated the sunblock off because it was so hot out... I'm on a quest for some better sunscreen today on my way into Muskegon - something with an SPF of 1,000,000, maybe :)

We're off to Muskegon in a bit today. Back to Mona Lake. I'll be sitting in the shade, LOL!!

Friday, June 12, 2009

"Ride for a Cure"

Most of you know our story - that Joshua was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in April, 2004 when he was 20 months old. He's been cancer free for 5 years, and in honor of that, Rick and my brother "Uncle Michael" have decided to do a special fundraising event for the Relay for Life.

They leave on Sunday morning and they're driving mopeds all the way to Key West, FL. Since the mopeds only go 40 mph, they are taking back roads all the way down there. Hopefully camping at State Parks every night of the journey.

All the money raised will be for Team Joshua and the Relay for Life.

There has been a Facebook account created for this trip - if you search for "Rick Moped Holman", you can add them as a friend. They will be updating Facebook with pictures and video as they make their way southward.

WZZM 13 came today to interview Rick and Josh about the trip. They aired it during the 6:00pm news today, but if you missed it, here's the link to the story online: http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=110276

So, flood Heaven with your prayers for a safe journey for my husband and my brother... I'm so proud of them both, but I would really like to see them make it home in one piece!!!

Have a great weekend!!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Assorted Athletic Activities :)

Last summer I remember telling my brother "Michael, I want to play beach volleyball next summer." We were sitting in Muskegon, on Lake Michigan, listening to our dad and uncle play live music on the deck. There was a beach volleyball tournament going on at the beach in front of us. It looked like so much fun! Volleyball was always my favorite, but thanks to bad genetics, I received a knee injury many moons ago that put the kibosh on my plans of professional volleyball, lol. In fact, it was the sort of injury that made it difficult to do ANYTHING remotely healthy for my body - from running to kickboxing, lol... I honestly had not played since before I had children, and Joshua will be 7 in August...

Fast forward to, oh, about 3 weeks ago. My friend from high school, Lindsay, had sent an invite to everyone on her Facebook friends list inviting them to get together and play beach volleyball once a week through the summer!! I love when things fall into place like that! I immediately let her know I was in, and had been waiting to hear when the first time would be. We decided on Thursday nights, at the Grand Haven State Park on Lake Michigan. This past Thursday was the first one. It occurs to me on Monday that maybe a little practice would be in order, to avoid making a fool of myself....

So, Tuesday night, Michael and I headed over to our friend Scott's house for a little "practice", since we all want to play. Practice turned into a deathmatch of insane proportions, LOL. We were ALL out of practice, but were trying SO HARD not to look ridiculous. I was bleeding in various places and we ALL had bruises and contusions up and down our forearms, LOL.

I woke up Wednesday morning barely able to move, lol. Went to the zoo with Josh's class for a field trip and felt better as long as I was moving. Assuming that sitting around would do my aching mucles NO GOOD, we decided to play some tennis on Wednesday night. Much easier on my body than volleyball, for sure :)

Unfortunately, I am not all that athletic by nature, but I LOVE sports, so I don't care. My poor brother (who was a tennis star in HS), took it upon himself to show me some pointers, lol. Luckily I catch on pretty quickly, so it wasn't as disheartening as it could have been!! I felt a whole lot better after a game of tennis, though. A lot less stiff and sore.

So, Thursday night, we headed down to Grand Haven for the maiden volleyball game. It was SO MUCH FUN. I will say that sand is a whole lot more giving than grass is. My body was thankful for that :) Luckily, I've been taking glucosamine for my knee for the last couple of months, and it appears to be working, because I was able to play hard for 3 days in a row and not have any knee issues at all!! I can't wait until the next time we play! We weren't great, by any means, lol, but we didn't look ridiculous, which is awesome! I can't play next week because I have to go back to work (long story, different post - one of these days), but I'm looking forward to Thursdays for the rest of the summer!!

Especially since on Thursday nights, my dad and uncle play at Jack's in Spring Lake, on the deck out there, and it's on the way home :)