Announcing McKenzie Rose Keuning

Here is a picture of the proud mom, Melissa, holding her third child (but first girl!). McKenzie Rose was born on October 28th weighing six pounds and six ounces. She was nineteen inches long.

Both of her big brothers are very proud! Mom and baby are doing well!!

Dream Team at Chula Vista

This is only part of my unit in Mary Kay. My director, Joyce, is behind her husband on the far right hand side. Joyce is kneeling in the black suit. If you can't find me, it is because you don't know that I added blond highlights to my hair! Plus, I am throwing you off by wearing my glasses. I am in the front row to the left of Steve. What do you think of my hair?

Last weekend, October 28th through 29th, we traveled to the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells for a fun-filled weekend of wonderful tips and knowledge on how to grow our Mary Kay business. I am more excited than ever about this opportunity. God kept showing me over and over again that He is part of this company. They don't just say that they put God first, family second, and career third; They actually live it!

I was constantly amazed at the caliber of women who are involved in this business. Everyone that I met was genuinely interested in me, and we all took the time to learn from run another during our breaks and around the dinner table. I am looking forward to a long career with Mary Kay.

Another thing that was a NEAT surprise for me is that these women LOVE to have FUN!!! Our sessions were not boring. They were full of knowledge and quite inspirational. Some of them were VERY HUMOROUS as well! I will have to say that the directors always kept us guessing about what they were going to do next. One of the directors actually gave her presentation in an evening gown, sash, and tiara. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

For even more fun, a group of us ventured down the water slides at Chula Vista. I cannot even put in to words how much fun this was. I felt like a little kid all over again. It was A BLAST!!! If you and your family ever get a chance to go to Chula Vista, DO IT! The water park was phenomenal!!!

101 Dalmatians

Okay, so it is actually only one dalmatian!

These are pictures of my niece, Addison, all dressed up on Halloween. Isn't she CUTE??

Ed and I took David along with the three kids that I nanny for to our church's Hallelujah Harvest. It was A LOT of FUN! Of course, I forgot our camera, so I don't have any pictures to post right now. Luckily, one of my friends was there and took a picture on her digital camera. Hopefully I will get that soon. When I get it, I will have to post it. The kids all looked adorable and enjoyed themselves.

They got to play a lot of different and really fun games before getting their candy. Then the booths all closed, and their was family time in the sanctuary. The puppet team did two skits. The first one they did was an acting out of Carmen's song, "The Champion." It was AMAZING! The second one they took the theme song from "Ghostbusters" and changed the words to talk about "Sin Buster." It was very clever! I am constantly amazed at the creativity displayed by our puppet team and creative productions department.

New Post --- FINALLY!

Hello everyone!

I have been meaning to write a new post for the last two weeks. I will give you a quick update.

Ed and I both celebrated our birthdays in October. My 32nd birthday was on October 21st, and Ed had his 34th birthday on October 23rd. On my birthday, the Gulland family loaded up the car and went out to Culver's for lunch. Then we made a trip to Home Depot for a can of spray paint!! TOO MUCH FUN!!! After that, we headed to church. I taught at the 5:00 pm service. Then our friend, Steve, took David home with him so we could go to a Marriage Matters event. We went to Rodney and Dawn's house for an Outdoor Movie Night. There were over 30 people there. We watched the National Treasure. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The decorations and food were incredible. I saw a lot of my friends, so it was a FABULOUS way to celebrate my birthday. On Ed's birthday, I took David and Michael (the youngest of the three kids that I nanny for) to Ed's office so we could take him out for lunch. Before we headed to Ed's office, the boys and I made a cake. Of course, the boys picked out the frosting and the cake decorations so the cake had Cars characters on it and sprinkles. You gotta love BOYS!!! Ed also finished his BIG Field Study project for Hummer in Rogers on his birthday. They had their final presentation that evening. After his presentation, he went to Applebee's with his friend from school, Luke, to unwind and celebrate that they completed their project early!

Our lives have been very full with Ed finishing school and working along with my nannying and running my Mary Kay business. Ed has his last class on November 30th. There will be a celebration going on in our home. He does have two Capstone (wrap-up) classes in January, but he is not worried about those at all. We are very thankful that Ed has been running his race with excellence, but we are also ecstatic that this season of our lives (having him in school) is almost done. God has been faithful to us and help us through what could have been a very difficult time with Ed having to study so much. God has helped us make good use of our time, so we have still had adequate family time. We have been lacking in the couple time, but we are addressing that problem!!!

Love you all!