Our Sunday Date

Date

09/13/09

Matt and I took the bike on a little ride today through the country to Byron, IL. The road we take follows along the Rock Rivers lined with trees. Its one of the most beautiful, relaxing scenery that you could ever see. We took this road into Byron and stopped at Sam's drive in dinner for lunch! After lunch we kept on riding along the river to Oregon. Here are some pictures of how beautiful it is!

We had a great time together, talking and riding. We then stopped back in Byron and went to a some winery there. I had heard about the place on the radio and it sounded interesting to me even though I dont really drink. We stopped in and tried the harvest apple wine made there from Illinois apples and I bought my first bottle of real wine! Well see if I actually drink it though! hehe! Overall it was a great day! matt and I havent done this in a really long time. I love him so much! he is the best husband in the world!

The Millers Came to Rockford

Family Time In Rockford

Matts mother, sisters,nieces, and nephew came up to visit us on thursday night! They got here kinda late so we just visited for a while and then went to bed. Friday we woke up and went to the Discovery Museum down the street! It was so much fun and the kids had such a blast that we stayed for about 5 hours, came back to the house to nap and then went to dinner and to get ice cream. After ice cream we went and had a fun time at the park! It was a great trip and it was sad to see everyone go on saturday morning.

Here is everyone on the fire place. What a cute group!

All the Kids being funny and climbing on top of us!

Dana and Michelle the Ancor Women!

Matt trying to make electricity by turning the crank real fast!

And this is the final finale and it is the funniest of all! This is a video of Evan and Emerson being the ancor women at the museum! Evan is so cute and so funny you have to watch!

Gotta love family and time together!!!

Wheel-A-Thon Walk

Rockford Wheel-A-Thon

About a month ago Matt and I did a walk for the Rockford Wheel-A-Thon. Our team raised over $3,000 to help people in our area in wheel chairs. This money goes towards ramps for houses, actual houses, wheel chairs and many other necessities for thier needs! It was a great time and it felt so good to help others!

Camping in South Haven Michigan with the Miller's

South Haven, MI

Camping with Matt's Family

Here is Our niece and nephew Paige and Colson at the beach. We went on so many walks to the beach because the kids loved sticking their feet in the water even though it was 50 degrees. It was a hoot watching them look for cool rocks and shell from Lake Michigan! They are all so precious!

Here is Matt and Emerson(another neice) but Emmy was not looking. The next picture is of the girls making smores. They ate so many marsh mellows it wasnt even funny!

Here is Evan (another neice) after eating a marsh mellow! She is so funny and loves being a littel goof ball!!

While we were there Michelle(Matt's sister), Mike (Matt's dad), and I joined the 5k walk/run at the park on saturday morning. We took Michelles dog Abby with us for the walk. It was a lot of fun and we all got a free t-shirt from the park and McDonalds free items. I decided to run the last mile but it was a lot of fun. We also did some accidental hiking through the woods after going up some sand dones that looked like paths that went no where but where we were not supposed to be.

Here are some other pictures of the just the beautiful sceanery that was there. And me in the woods.


This is little Mya walking on the beach which I thought was so cute! and the dune we climbed up!

Girls Weekend

Girls Weekend with the Besties!

So I met up with Katie bug and Amanda in Utica, IL for a fun girls weekend which turned out to be a really fun weekend with Megan drinking a little too much and puking and Amanda and Kate making fun of me in the moring. We stayed at the Grand Bear Resort that had a arcade, swimming pool, amusement park, golf, and many bars inside and outside...

This is Kate and Amanda on a ride that I would not go on which they said was not that great at all but I stood back and took pictures anyway. I love Kate's scared face and Amandas face that looks like she is having so much fun!

Here is me and my Katie Bug at dinner/another bar waiting for our food to come out which her and Amanda ate in the mornign cold which is soooooo gross!!!

And here are the pictures of our last day which we took at the entrance of the hotel inside and outside. We thought the wooden bear was really cool!!!! Kate tried to ride it but we didnt get a pic of that ! Over all it was a really fun girls weekend and I cant wait to schedule another one real soon! Love you girls!

Home(Indiana) for the weekend!

Indianer the Place I Love!

Here is a picture of little Samuel who was having fun with the a water bottle spraying everyone and everything. It was so cute. And here is a picture of Malice and Matt and Grandma Handys. What can I say Indiana brings out the best in everyone... Even Malice!!

Here is Grandpa and Jeaner Beaner listening to the Indy 500 and I wish I had a picture of Grandma when her driver came in 1st place. She was so happy!! And here is a picture of my twins Grandma Handy and Wanie! Its scary how much we look alike.

*Well Matt and I had a great time home visiting and cant wait to come back!

I will be posting some new stuff this weekend! Sorry its been so long!

MOMMA"S DAY

Mother's Day

For mother's day Mom, Steve, and George came over for a cook out at our house. It was such a nice day that we were able to sit outside to eat and talk. It was a lot of fun just to hang out with everyone and be with my brother made my and mom's day so good.

Me and My Brother

The first picture is of me hiding mom with her squezing her face through. The second we tried to take a nice family picture but it didnt turn out the best. The third is me and my handsome, hot hubby!!

Matt's New Toy

2003 Honda VTX 1800

Here is Matt's New baby. As all of our friends are having kids we are buying dangerous Motorcycles to have fun on. There is plenty of time for kids right now is our time to have fun and do fun things together so.........

Here is Matt on his bike. Can you see his smile. When he got this I was so scared and held on so tight that Matt could drive confortably. We have rode quite a few times now and I am used to it and actually love it. And yes Wanie my HELMET just came in so im safe!

Updates on the Millers and Handys

Well pictures are soon to follow this blog with fun new additions to Matt and I's life. But right now I just want everyone to know that my brother is HOME!!! YEAH!! He is my old brother and I love it, I have spent 3 out of the 4 days with him so far and each and every day make me cry because it is just so wonderful to get to spend quality time with him and him enjoy it. Second of all I changed my major on friday with a counselor at school to special education. I am so excited and know that this is the best choice I could have ever made for my future. God put this wonderful feeling on my heart and I knew this was my future occupation. I cant wait to help all th children out there who are singled out because of a disability when they are just the same as everyone else. After my bachelors that I will receive in 2 more yrs I will be going for my masters degree to specialize in autism!! Yeah I finally know what im going to do and am going to have to work really hard to get it done!

Mindy, her aunt Debbie and another lady are opening their own salon so they have been so busy working on that and making it their own. It is now finished and looks amazing, dad did a great job on everything. The long hours really paid off! Pictures will follow once I charge the battery on my camera.

Matt and I added a Honda VTX 1800 to the family. If you dont know what this is its a motorcyle and again pictures will follow. I trip to Indiana will follow as well this summer on it so you can all see it. I was really nervous and scared to ride on it at first but now I love it!

Well I guess that is all for now. I love you all and wish me luck on my finals next week!

Father & Son

Here is the latest poem from Johnathon that he wrote for dad! It will make you cry!

O, how I miss those Days, sitting there fishing, But in a haze. Watching how he does it, making sure I am doing it right, And keeping my line tight. O,how I miss those Days, Riding my Bike down the road, looking in the creek for that big old toad. Missing those winter days. Riding in the truck, through the country hoping not to get stuck. How I miss those Days, coming home from work together, cleaning up, sitting down, eating pizza and watching T.V. together. Missings those nights of him. Falling asleep in the chair, waiting to hear him say...... I am resting my eyes, which is nothing But lies. Everythings dissappearing, But I'll always remember hearing....... Him telling me those four words. I love you son. I'll never forget those days, I love you DAD.

Check this Out!!

First of all Happy Easter Everyone!! I wish I could be with you today but you know how life goes. I want to share a poem with all of you that my brother wrote. He has been writing a lot of poems and this one we published on poetry.com for him.

If Only, If Only
I thought you were different, I still don't know.If only, If only you could of seen, what else I had to bring.If only, If only you would of stuck around,you would of seen a new side of town.You say you were scared of me.I don't know why?If only, If only you'd give it a try.Maybe I am wrong about you,I haven't a clue.But all day I still think about you.If only, If only I could hear from you.So I know what to do.I haven't heard from you,that's probably a clue,So I guess I can't have you.If only, If only.
Johnathon Handy
Copyright ©2009 Johnathon Handy

Here is the link if you would like to check it out on your own. It is awesome, something I could have never done because I am just not a writer but it sounds like to me that he is a great one! Love you all!

My Birthday and Girls Weekend!

Well friday Mindy and I had a pampered chef party on my birthday. There was a lot of people there and I turned out to be a lot of fun!! Also Kate and Sarah came up on friday and left this morning. We had a great time with some much needed shopping and girl time! I cant wait for more of these fun times. Also thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a couple cousins call me on my birthday and say they were my favorite!! We should start out saying that Brooke, Kel, and Matt all say they are my favorite. Kel called first and matt called second but Brooke sent me a card the day before so really who is the favorite? You are all great cousins adn friends and I love you all the same so there is no compition. You three can fight over it but as for my birthday Brooke became the favorite because I got her card first! Haha! love you all!

Sunday March 1, 2009

Last sunday mom and I went to Our Lady of the Assuption church and spoke to highschool and confirmation students about drugs and how they can affect not only you but your family as well. They wanted Johnathon to speak and he accepted but because of his current situation he couldnt so mom spoke for him. She told his story about his life before durgs, during his drug addiction, and his current situation right now. Johnathon gave her some thing that he wanted her so say so she just translated for him which as great. I was asked to give my perspective as as sister of a drug addict and this is my speech I gave. Im posting this for all of my family on blogger who want to know a little more about Johnathon's addiction. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do and Im very glad I did. I just hope that I was able to help someone to not make the choices Johnathon did. Who knows maybe when Johnathon is out and clean we can go and do this together to many schools!

Hello my name is Megan Miller and I am the sister of an addict. As a sister you can’t imagine the pain and suffering I had to go through seeing my little brother using drugs and his life falling down the drain. We had been so close since we had moved to Illinois about 8 years ago. There is only two and a half years between my brother and I and we have always been close until he began using drugs.
Let me tell you a little bit about him before drugs. He was kind and caring. He had such a love for his family, he was fun to be around, he loved to explore and we used to build forts out in the ditches of the corn fields back home in Indiana and pretend we were in some far off land and no one could see us. He loved life. This all changed when we moved to Illinois and had to start over with no family, new friends, new schools, and new everything. He was 14 years old when he started getting into drugs. Yes, he was 14. At first no one knew about his experimenting with drugs but then I started to see a change. One day I caught him smoking pot in the garage with a friend before school. Of course trying to be a sister and a friend I didn’t tell my parents because I thought well it’s just pot and we had a good brother/sister relationship that I didn’t want to ruin. I was very wrong. From here he went downhill. His pot smoking turned into smoking cigarettes, drinking, and using heroin.
His addiction had gotten so bad that he was steeling everything from all the people he loved for his drugs. He got arrested a couple of times for stealing and I couldn’t bear to see him sit in a jail cell so my husband and I paid his bail. He was so very thankful but continued steeling and he became homeless for a while when he turned to me. As his big sister I felt it was my duty to help him and couldn’t even think about him on the streets. Against everyone’s wished I opened my home to him only to find that while I was at work he had found someone on the street who knew where he could get drugs. Coming home to find him high and items missing from my house was the worst feeling I could have ever felt. As I sat to ponder I felt betrayed but still loved him and couldn’t let him leave my house. Since then my brother has been in and out of rehab centers only to return to the drugs. These situations caused him to overdose twice. When I got the call to come to the hospital my heart burst into a million pieces and so many things went through my mind. Seeing him laying in a hospital bed hooked up to wires, not awake, and knowing the events that had almost taken his life I began to fear his life would come to an end and he wouldn’t be this lucky again.
On June 14th, 2008 I had my wedding in our hometown in Indiana. My brother was going to be one of my brides maids. I teased him a lot and told him he would have to wear a dress like the girls but he was still excited to be a part of it after knowing he didn’t have to wear a dress. He even came over one Sunday with my mom and helped me put M&M’s into bags for the guests. Not knowing what was to come, Johnathon was court ordered to rehab the day before my wedding. Knowing that my brother wasn’t going to be at my wedding caused a feeling to go through my body that I can’t even describe. That day was the best day of my life but in the back of my head I kept thinking about how much I wanted him there to enjoy this day with me, and to see me walk down the aisle. Looking back at the family pictures from that day his face seizes to exist in them. I video tapped that day for him and when he went to watch it shut if off because it hurt him to see that he was not there.
As a sister and a friend who was so close to her brother you can’t imagine the pain and suffering that goes on knowing that your brother is in jail and that there is nothing that you can do about it. I started to blame god for what he was doing to my family and my brother. Were we such bad people that we were being punished? Questions like these ran through my head many times. After the arrest for his friends death in November our lives turned upside down once again because finally for the last two months before the arrest he was getting back to the brother I enjoyed to be around and loved spending every moment with. I then realized that God has a purpose for everyone, me, my brother, my family, and anyone who believes. All I can do now is pray. I had to find god again and be strong for my brother. I had to get him to believe in God again because God and Johnathon are the only ones who can make this change in his life.

Today our society has become filled with drugs, drug addicts, and drug overdoses. My brother’s story is just one of many. Remember that peer pressure is not east but you have to be strong and let God help you to say No!! Drugs will ruin your life just like it did to my brothers. It took away his childhood, his graduation from high school, his confirmation as you are all doing now, his family, his friends, and has made his life not worth living in his eyes. So I’m asking you today to remember my brother’s story when you are put into the situation he was put in the first day he decided to be part of the crowd who did drugs.

Update on the Millers

Today Matt and I went to look and test drive the car I have been researching. We found a 2008 Ford Focus at a dealer about 45 minutes away. We were there for almost 3 hrs and they wanted us to buy the car that day. They would not take no for an answer. We just wanted to look around at a whole bunch of places before we made a decision and yes they had the best price but they were so pushy that when we finally left I told Matt I didnt even feel like getting a car anymore. It ruined my experience. So we decided to go out and have a nice dinner together.

Tomorrow Mom and I go to our old church In Beloit, WI and talk to the confirmation class and their parents about drugs and how they can ruin their lives. Mom was asked to tell Johnathon's story and I was asked to tell my side of the story being a sister of an addict. Its going to be rough but I think it will be good. If i can just change the life of one kid, or prevent one kid from becoming an addict from my story I will know I went through this for a reason.

Got to see Brother

Today I got to see George and it was harder than I thought!! I tried not to cry but im a Handy and the tears flow, I didnt let Johnathon see them though. We got to do it face to face over a phone instead of through the video cameras which was so much better!! He seems ok but I know he is hurting by the few tears that came to his eyes when he saw dad, mom, and I waiting for him to come in.

The only complants he had were that the food was gross. the only good food is the hot dogs!! I miss him so much and want him out but I am starting to realize maybe it is good for him to be in there for a short time but not years!!

He still needs our prayer and support. If anyone wants to write him send it to:
Rock County Jail
Attn. Johnathon Handy
200 E. U.S. Hwy 14
Janesville, WI. 53545

Im sure he would love to hear from us family!

If Everyone Could Pray!!

The Handy family has had a rough couple of years and right when things were looking up they got worse then they have ever been before. I know everyone who looks at my page is family so im asking if you all could pray for us and for Johnathon. He needs us more now then he ever has before.. He is hurting and is so scared, and there is nothing we can do!! Attorneys for this kind of offense cost between 25 to 50 thousand dollars so all we have is to depend on God. Its really hard for me to do this right now but its all i have got.

Please im asking for as many prayers as I can get!! Johnathons whole life depends on it!!

Thanks

Why does God always have to knock us down?

I know God is with us at all times, but everytime something good starts to go right why does he always through a right jab into my face? I know he is always here but he never answers my prayers. Can anyone explain this to me?

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school and it started out with me having to leave early and drive in a blizzard. It took me an hour and a half to get there. First of all campus is so big that I walked three miles just going from class to class, and I only got lost once. Overall it was a great day, I love all of my classes but Biology and am excited to finally be in the last few years of my education. My Associates in Art dipolma should be coming in the mail any day and I cant wait!!!

Torn

Well I had my orientation at Northern Illinois University today and it didnt go anything like I had planned. I found out that I will be there for 3 years and not 2 which makes me very unhappy. Also im very torn on what to do about my major, im trying to decide if i want to major in early childhood ed and get my masters in special ed. or do my major in special ed. and get my whole 3 years paid for my the state because of the shortage of teachers need for this field and get my masters in early childhood. Ive wanted to be a teacher my whole life and now i just cant decide what is the best decision for me. I dont want the free schooling to decide my choice I want it to come from my heart and what I feel I want to do for the rest of my life. So im asking if everyone could pray for me to help my decision go a little bit easier. Maybe God has a plan for me and Im just not listening hard enough.

God please show me the way and let me help children, they are all special to me no matter what their abilities are. Just help me decide what is best for my future!

House Project #2

House Project # 2 Complete

Matt and I got up on New Years Eve morning and started our next project for the house and painted the living room. It was originally all white like everything else in the house and is now flint smoke which is a light grayish color to match the carpet and fireplace. We love it!! We also rearranged the living room which gave it so much more space. The house is slowly but surely coming along and we are so excited to have a new fun change.

you can hardly tell but the first one is the before which is white and the second is the after which is the flint smoke color.

New Years Eve

Partying Like its 2009

First the night started out going to Buffalo Wild Wings for Johnathon's Birthday. Dad, Mindy, Breann, Johnathon, his friend Mike, Matt, and I all went to dinner. It was a lot of fun and Johnathon is now a year older. I think Johnathon was glad to have us all there to help him celebrate. He got new bindings for his snowboard from matt and I, new shirt, hat, and shoes, which he is wearing from dad, mindy, and breann.

After dinner dad, mindy, breann, matt and I all headed down to the Wheel which is a bar close to dads and had a drink to start the night out. Matt and I then headed to my friend Chelsea's for the night. We had a great time hanging out with all out friends and bringing in the new year.

Matt and I

Kaela and Tony

Kyra (who I call Sugar)

Over all it was a great ending to 2008 and a new beginning to 2009. Hope everyones New Year was as great as ours turned out to be!

Hell No!!! I aint going!!

Us Crazy Handy's

Well the day after Grandma Handy's Christmas we all went out to Wanie and Mike's for the day and had a lot of fun being the Handy's. You all know, drinking, playing fun games, laughing, and just being the fun family we are.

To start the story let me just say that Kel and Lucy were in town and Lucy had this fake phone toy that was sitting in the kitchen and out of no where Grandma picked it up and started talking on it and this is what she said.....

(Hell No Noreta Im Not Going to Florida)

Then it became a fun game and we all joined in on the Hell No!! game. And we crazy Handy's ended up with this....

And this.....

And this.....

Oh and I also had to add this picture of my Wanie because it was just so cute and so her!! You will know what i mean.

Vera Bradley accessories Yeah!!!