Job Update

Today was the day that Wyoming Public Schools said that those of us with pink slips would get the news on our job situation. Sure enough, I got home from an afternoon out, and waiting for me was the envelope.

Holding the envelope, I felt almost sure nothing was going to change about my job situation, but the fact that I was HOLDING an envelope meant that something COULD have changed, so there was still that twinge.

I tore the envelope open and stared at the words, but I didn't see them. It's like when you have dreams and you can't read--that is how it felt. I blindly searched for the part that WASN'T a form letter--the part where it gave me my personalized info.

There it was:
for second semester your assignment will be 1.0 English Teacher at Wyoming Park High School (unchanged),

PHEW!!! Even though I wasn't expecting my job to change, the chance was still there, and seeing the proof and reassurance that everything was the same almost brought tears to my eyes.

What a wonderful Christmas gift for my family: one job that I love plus a new, part-time job (see post below or click here to read it) that I hope to love!

Bring on the holiday celebrations because we have so very much to celebrate this year!

Riemersma Family Weekend Extravaganza

This weekend was the annual Christmas cookie decorating fun on the Riemersma side. Saturday the Sluiters packed up and headed over to get creative. Eddie's Grandma Riemersma had all the decorating tools ready to go when we got there!

Eddie was more into the waxed paper and how it crinkled than into decorating.

Ashley made some beautiful cookies, while Michael, well, he had a couple good-looking ones. The others? um...well, I wouldn't eat them.

The naked cookies...

Grandma did the frosting....

along with daddy...

Jack shows off his beautifully tasty creations...

and uncle Chris shows off an ugly CMU cookie. Ew!

So momma makes a pretty WMU one. Just, um, ignore the fact that she didn't wear any make-up.

A double-decker creation. After this uncle Chris created a "booby trap" cookie that included 3 cookies and a whole LOT of trapped toppings and frosting. We saved that one for Grandpa.

Uncle Mike also thought the goal was to make TALL cookies...

All the finished cookies!

Today we gave Grandpa his "booby trap" cookie. It didn't have quite the effect we had all hoped for, but my dad did find it tasty! (Also, please take note that my dad is wearing a shirt with fish all over it. Feel free to tell him you saw it here. You're welcome, dad).

Eddie hung out with his uncle again today.

And we all celebrated our December birthdays: Cortney and Jack. They opened birthday gifts together after a yummy turkey dinner.

Eddie got a little sleepy and couldn't quite fall asleep with all the fun going on. I can't imagine what the Christmas parties ahead will do to his sleep schedule! Oh well...it's just a couple days, right?

Finally it was time to sing and blow out candles. Jack chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. YUM!

Today was the start of some fun celebrations for Sluiter Nation. This week we look forward to celebrating another December birthday with all our friends and family!

The Professor And Mary Ann? Not Quite...

Due to many factors (the uncertainty of my job situation, Cortney's lack of job situation, etc.), Cortney and I discussed it and it was decided that I would apply to GRCC for some of their open English positions. On Monday of this week, I got the call and email that they would like me to interview for an adjunct position.

Adjunct basically means add-on. So an adjunct professor is one who is adding a college course to whatever else they do in life, usually teaching elsewhere. Wednesday was the day of the interview. After filling out all my paperwork, and meeting with the assistant dean to interview, I was pooped. Eddie, Louis and I crashed big time Wednesday night!
The interview went GREAT, and on Friday, the assistant dean called a reference of mine, and I was offered the job via email!
Cort and I discussed the offer for about two seconds and I accepted! So, Professor Sluiter will be teaching Developmental English Tuesday and Thursday evenings from January 7 until April 29! This is a great opportunity for our family and for my career! I am happy to be able to help us out financially in this rough patch AND I hope to acquire some job security at GRCC that I don't have at Park.

Speaking of my job in Wyoming, I will be hearing before Christmas whether I have a job for next semester and what it will be (if at all). The assistant dean did tell me she could add a couple more teaching assignments (during the day) if I find out the worst: that I don't have a job in Wyoming to go back to. So, we are feeling very blessed and very excited about what the future holds.

Thank you all for all your prayers through this! We continue to be grateful for all of you!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

This year was Cortney's first birthday as a daddy, and it was one of his best ones in a while...or so he tells me. It started off by being a snow day for me, so we kept Eddie home from daycare too. I sent Cort back to bed and gave Eddie his early morning bottle.

After we all got up later, we gave Cort his presents. Eddie got him and #1 dad frame and I got him the new Super Mario for wii.


Cort got to spend the day playing with Eddie and playing video games with me. He even found out that GRCC was closed due to bad weather, so he didn't have to leave the house. He immediately changed from jeans, to comfy pants!
Later in the afternoon, I made brownies (Cort's choice every birthday), and Eddie and I sang happy birthday to him.
It was a pretty fun day! The next day, Friday, I took Cort out for a mommy and daddy ONLY dinner at Olive Garden--one of our date favorites.
We always end up taking home leftovers and dessert! Cortney was pretty pleased with his birthday celebration and is looking forward to dinner at his mom's tomorrow night and sharing a little party with our nephew Jack, who turns 5 soon, next Sunday. Maybe a December birthday isn't so bad after all!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

My lovely and talented photog friend, Missy, decided to do a twelve days of Christmas giveaway on her photography blog. You really should check it out here. I mean, if you like winning free stuff, and who doesn't!?!

Anyway, all you have to do is leave your 12 days of Christmas in the comment area, but you know me, I can't just leave a comment, I had to do the whole thing as a picture post. So, without further ado, here are the Twelve Days of Christmas in Sluiter Nation:

Twelve Christmas Cards Received....
Eleven Holiday Recipes to Make...
Ten Toys to Choose From...
Nine Pairs to Put Away...
Eight Ounces to Down...
Seven Friends We're Missing (see the post below for more details)...



Six Dirty Bottles...
Five Loads of Laundry...
Four Over-ripe Bananas...
Three Hanging Stockings...
Two Starbucks Coffees...
And One of Santa's Little Helpers!
So there you have it! Can you think of Twelve Days of Christmas from your life? You can? Great! Enter to win stuff HERE! Oh, and I hope your true love really DOES bring you all that you want this year!

With Friends Like These...

Most people know that Cortney and I pretty much grew up together. We became super great friends in high school because we hung out with the same group of people since about middle school. The great thing about this group is that they are OUR friends--neither of us "inherited" the friend group when we were married--not that we don't also love those friends an awful lot--but it's a pretty special thing to have the same group for so long--together. We still consider those people (and their spouses) our best friends in the whole world--even though almost all of them live somewhere other than Michigan.

Usually, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July are the two times a year we are guaranteed to see our favorite people. This Thanksgiving, however, it just didn't work out. Everyone just keeps getting farther away and either flights don't work out, people have new jobs and can't get time off, or something else comes up. We became painfully aware this year how very badly we miss our friends.

Soooooo...since I have been thinking about them all a LOT lately, I thought I would do this little tribute to them....

These are friends who we celebrate the big things in life like graduating from high school...

they come to our openhouses...

they make slurpee runs with us....

they do silly school projects with us....

they have been our tailgate group for many, MANY football games at MSU....

and WMU....

lots of tailgating...

we've helped each other through big stuff like moving to college for the first time...
and we've celebrated all the fun in our lives together, like birthdays...

art shows...

Christmases...

and weddings...

we do a LOT of eating together...

and we celebrate life-changing stuff like new babies...

even if Cort and I are the only ones changing our lives with babies...

they all still help us rejoice...


they come to visit us...


and we go their way whether it's to NY...

or to Chicago...


and once in a while, we are known to really show each other just how much we love each other....

Yes, these are our best friends in the whole dang world. They are all over the US map: Montana, Colorado, South Carolina, and Illinois, and we miss them so much. Most people get to see their long-time friends on a fairly regular basis. Our situation is so different. While we get to enjoy a few of them who still live in Michigan, I know we ALL miss the ones who we see so little of. Sometimes I get downright sad that Eddie won't get to enjoy the most important people in our lives all the time. That he won't regularly get to hear the laughter and the crazy stuff that happens when we are all together.

The great thing is, however, that we get to travel to new places to visit them AND that when we DO see them, it's like all the time and distance never existed and we go right back to where we left off.

And that is why these crazy people will ALWAYS be the best friends of Sluiter Nation!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Last night we bundled Eddie up to pick out his very first Christmas tree. As you can tell, he was pretty excited. We took him out of his car seat while we wandered around the tree "farm" looking for just the right one. Eddie was quite wide-eyed at A) being out of his car seat while outside and B) all the cars and people that were around. He held on to me pretty tightly and didn't say much.
Here Eddie and I are perusing the trees that were available. Eddie made the final decision, a 7-foot blue spruce.
When we got home, Cort put our new tree in it's new stand and strung the lights. While dinner was in the oven, I finished the decorating. Eddie was pretty excited!
He seems to be a fan of having this new sylvan addition to our living room--especially all the pretty lights!
Today after work, I finished putting all the presents around the tree. It really completed the look.
Eddie was already under the tree, trying to find his gifts. Hey Ed...no touching!
And of course, I was peeking too...I just can't help myself! Eddie and are a pretty sneaky team!
I think Eddie loves Christmas so far! I am sure as the celebrating continues, he will learn how even better it can all get!