Fiesta Bowl Bound

At 7:45 this morning a charter bus waited to take part of the Lakeshore band to Chicago O'Hare airport. The bus was enthusiastically packed, people checked and accounted for on "the list" and said people settled in the bus for the drive. As the bus pulled out of the parking lot, a part of my heart left on that bus. Yes, Mary is on her way to Arizona! Her flight out of Chicago leaves around 12:00 pm and they should arrive in Arizona around 5 pm, our time. I am so excited for her~ they have a full schedule which includes practice and performing but a lot of fun stuff too! Please pray for safe travel for everyone and that everyone (including luggage ^_^) gets where they are supposed to be in one piece!

If anyone is interested there is a website that has info on the competition and also what the bands will be doing. There is supposed to be a web cam set up so the performance can be viewed. The competition is on Jan.1 and Lakeshore marches at or around 12:15. This time is Arizona time, I believe they are 2 hours behind us. If Lakeshore makes the finals(only 8 bands will move on) they will march again around 6 pm. The web site is fiestabands.com. They have also set up a page for each band and for that you need the password. The login/username is lakeshore and the password is blossom.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and were able to enjoy being with family and friends during this blessed time of year!

Its Christmas Cookie Time!!

Its that time of year again....Cookies!!! Hannah was my helper in the kitchen today! With Christmas music in the background and yummy smells all around, it sure did make a happy memory!

Champions ride 'round town!

Lakeshore Lancer Marching Band takes First !!

Congratulations to our Marching Band who won the State Championship this past Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit! They took all 3 captions and with a total score of 86.55 won State! Grand Rapids Northview came in 2nd with a score of 81.9. The kids were so excited ~ As the buses drew closer to St. Joe on I-94 on the way from Detroit, they were met with a police and fire engine escort home! Tomorrow the town of Stevensville is having a parade for them! Go Lancers! Mary is the middle flute playerDottie and Herb met us at Ford Field to help cheer the band on!

Go Band!

The band is in first place!! They took all 3 categories at Jenison yesterday~ marching, visual effect and music and came in first at the competition which put them in first overall in their division. One more competition at Reefs-Puffer( yes, that really is the schools name..^_^ I would not lie to you all! ^_~) and then it is off to State! The kids came home really "pumped" last night! Just thought I would share the kids excitement with everyone!

Pumpkin Patch '08

Fall is here and time for Pumpkins!

Lakeshore Marching Band

Here is some video of Lakeshore's Marching Program. The program is called"Redoble De Corazon" or "The Beating Heart"! ^_^ Last night Lakeshore was host to the "Lakeshore Marching Invitational. With being the host band they were able to march exhibition but they are not able to get scored. They do get judges comments which is always helpful.^_^ Other bands that were there were, Vicksburg, New Buffalo, Portage Northern, Portage Central and a few others. Portage Central won the competition. Anyway, sorry about the quality of the video, I took it with my little digital camera. The camera only lets me record in 3min. increments so
hopefully it won't be to disconnected. You should at least get a general idea of the program and music. There are 200 kids in the band and they all work hard. We are very proud of our band! ^_^

Where did summer go?

Wow, it has been awhile since I have done anything with our blog. This summer has gone by so fast, I can hardly believe that the kids start school a week from this coming Tuesday! Not much happening at the DeBoer end of things, aside from getting ready for school but one of the big things is, Jared will celebrate his 14th birthday this Thursday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The first high school football game for Lakeshore (Go Lancers!!) is also on Thursday so marching season has begun....although it really feels like it never ended with practices starting right after school let out! ^_^ I think I'm pretty much organized as far as getting "back to school" supplies but hey, there is always something that I forget and there goes the whole "organized" issue right out the window! Mary will be a sophomore, Jared will be in 8th grade and Hannah starts 1st grade! There was some slight gnashing of the teeth with the older two as they complained about how early the bus comes in the morning but I told them it builds character! They didn't buy that for one minute as it was coming from such a morning person such as myself! ^_^ I have to admit, getting on the bus before 7am is a bit on the obnoxious side.

Well, we hope that you all had a good summer, able to enjoy it with family and friends!

And She's Off!

Another stepping stone in the life of a child! Hannah has learned to ride a 2-wheeler!!

Its Done, well almost!

Finally have the girls room painted and starting to put it back to rights. Now all we have to do is paint a few pieces of furniture and it will be complete! Mary did most of the circles on her wall . For a first time trying something like this I think she did very well! Mary is happy how it turned out, I think.^_^ I got a "typical" teenage response when I asked her if she liked it. "Yea, its alright." She did have a big smile on her face when she said this so hopefully that is a good thing! ^_^

Good friends are God's way of taking care of us!

This past Saturday we went to Comstock for our friends, the Westrate's, daughter Tara's open house. We were able to visit with people we haven't seen in a long time! It was a beautiful day and the food was great! ^_^

As we were sitting there talking and watching the kids, we tried to figure out just how long we and our families have been friends. Over 24 years for some of us as we met in youth group! Talk about time flying by!! ^_^ We have been blessed with the people in our lives and are richer because of it. Two people whom I am SO thankful for are Karen and Amy (Amy is the proud Mom of the graduate)! They have always been there for me and I would be lost without them!

Karen , me and Amy!

"Real Friends know your secrets, think not of your weaknesses and strengthen your every footstep with unconditional love!"

VIP Day at Hannah's school!

On May 30th was VIP Day for Hannah's kindergarten class! Each child was able to invite 2 special people for a picnic( which included ice cream~ Yum!) and activities with the kids! It was a lot of fun to see Hannah interact with her classmates. Was a terrific day!


fun at the water table!
Dad and Hannah making a necklace
Hannah's friend Cameron, she would get annoyed with the boys because they would call her pretty. ^_^
Miss Carpenter opening her present that the kids gave her! She was an excellent teacher !

Memorial Day Weekend At Klinger Lake!

After we spent awhile in Kalamazoo, we headed down to Klinger Lake to spend the rest of the weekend with my sister Dottie and my brother-n-law Herb! It turned out to be a beautiful weekend! We celebrated Hannah's birthday as well. We had a great time, of course, any time I can spend with my sister is great! ^_^

The view that greeted us every morning from the guest house!

Happy 6th Birthday Hannah!

55,16,6

On the 24th of May we headed into Kalamazoo to celebrate Hannah's 6th B-day, Rachel's 16th B-day and Mom and Dad DeBoer's 55th wedding anniversary! We had a great dinner and it was nice seeing everyone again. With everyone's schedules its very difficult to get all of us together at one time! Congratulations to Marc and Zach who graduated from High School this year!

I also found out( thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Jan ^_^) that yes, Jared is officially taller than me! ^_^ Jared was very proud of this fact!

All the cousins watching some TV

God Bless you Mom and Dad!
The DeBoer Family 2008

Mother's Day

To all those mother's who are near and dear to my heart~ Happy Mother's Day!

God could not be everywhere and therefore He made Mothers! ~ Jewish Proverb

Blossomtime 2008

It was Blossomtime once again here! The festival is a celebration of all the fruit blossoms in the area. The southwest corner of Michigan has long been regarded as a premier fruit growing region. The Blossomtime Festival is the oldest and largest multi-community festival in the state of Michigan and celebrated its 102nd year! Whats a festival without a parade! This is Mary's 3rd year marching( first year with the H.S. band) and Jared's first with the middle school marching band.





Mary is the flute player in this row.

Heres Jared on the first trombone!

A Mother's Ramblings

Hannah came in our room around 4:45 am last night because she couldn't go back to sleep. After making a make shift bed on the floor , Hannah fell fast asleep! Meanwhile, I'm WIDE awake and far from impressed with the situation. Those who know me well know I never greet the morning all "perky"! So I grumpily stayed in bed and ordered myself back to sleep. That worked so well. (just a hint of sarcasm here^_^) As the room was getting lighter letting me know that yes, the day would soon start, I glared at the clock to notice the time. Proceeded to roll my eyes , formed a sneer(I told ya I don't do perky)and then stared down at the floor. My heart just melted. What is it about watching your child sleep and then going all mushy!?! One of my favorite songs "Fingerprints of God" came to mind. I then started to see Mary, then Jared at that age, all curled up in their blankets. I found myself saying "Thank you" over and over again and realized that it became a prayer of thanksgiving for this journey called Motherhood! Now like any journey it is filled with peaks and valleys. Hey, not all these white hairs on my head are from old age! ^_^ But at that moment I realized once again how blessed I am! The biggest blessing being my children! Each one a gift from God! Blessed that I'm able to watch them grow, to laugh with and cry with. Blessed that they still feel the need to give Mom a hug before they leave the house for the day. Through growing pains and life lessons, I see and rejoice in the people God is molding them into! I wait in wonder what all God has planned for their future! So, I'll greet this day with a smile on my face instead of a sneer. Ready to continue the journey with God's help. To cherish His gifts to me, my joy...Mary, Jared and Hannah.

A Walk at Silver Beach!

It was a beautiful day here and we decided that a walk on the pier was in order! . Being out in the sunshine felt great! Spring is finally here in Michigan!

Not much new on the girls room. We are waiting for John's back to return to normal as he threw it out last weekend. Mary and I did get the paint , so as soon as John patches some areas on the walls, we'll be ready to paint!

Mary and Hannah's room

One of the projects that we have planned is doing the girl's room. John and Jared worked on installing the replacement windows today. They went in easy but getting the old ones out proved to be a bit of a challenge. John had to remove drywall around the old windows in order to get them out so needless to say we have a very dusty mess in the girls room! Next after clean-up is getting the border down and get some paint on the walls. Mary wants navy blue walls with lime green and turquoise circles to accent on the one wall where her bed is.These are the colors on her comforter. Not sure how I'm going to get even circles painted...I can probably do an amoeba shape ^_^ but I'm not that artistic so if any of you have an idea on how to get circles, I'm open to suggestions! ^_^