The Pastoors

Cleaning Caddies

2009-09-23T17:13:00.003-04:00

I've been working on putting together different cleaning caddies for my customers to try out. I have a cleaning caddy filled with the essential cleaning supples and a laundry kit filled with all our laundry products. You can use the kits for a week on all your household chores and then I will pick it up at the end of the week to see how you like them. This is a new idea I'm trying, so let me know your thoughts on it!

The kits will also have some samples and goodies in it for you to keep and enjoy while you clean!

Germany Trip

2009-07-07T15:48:00.006-04:00

Well, I should update the rest of our trip. I will try to keep it somewhat short!

Monday night after we picked Nate up we went to the town of Braunschweig for dinner. We sat outside with the view of the palace there. Very cool! We then headed back to the hotel and Nate and Uncle Doug went in the pool...then got yelled at for being in after it closed! Oops!

Tuesday Uncle Doug and I went to Wittenberg. It was about a 2 hour drive from Wolfsburg. Here we went through Melanchthon's house, Luther's house and saw the Castle Church where he nailed the 95 theses. We went back to pick Nate up and ate dinner at our hotel.

Wednesday Nate only worked until about 10:30, so we checked out of our hotel and headed south towards Heidelberg (where we stayed the last 2 nights). We made some stops along the Fairy Tale road. This is the area where the Grimm brothers lived and worked and wrote all their fairy tales. We stopped in Hannover-Munden which is famous for all of its half-timber houses. We then stopped in Kassel and saw Hercules statue and one of the fairy tale castles. We didn't have enough time to go through the castle but could see it from the statue. We then went on to Heidelberg. We unpacked a little and then headed out to walk around the town for a while.

Thursday we headed out to see the Heidelberg Castle. It was a little bit of a walk from the hotel, but not too bad. We toured the castle for a while and then headed back to the hotel. We stopped at a cafe on the way back and had something to eat. It was pretty humid out, so we wanted to go swimming when we got back to the hotel. When we got back, I found out I had forgotten to pack the bottoms to my bathing suit:( So I took a shower instead and Nate and Uncle Doug went swimming. I guess I would have fit in with no suit on in the sauna...but I didn't think that would be a good idea! We went to a nice Spanish/Mexican restaraunt for dinner and then walked around for a while before we headed back to pack up for our trip home.

Friday we left the hotel around 9:00 a.m. and headed for the airport. All our flights went great and came in a little early. Uncle Doug was on a different flight home but came in under an hour after us. So by the time we brought our luggage to the car we could drive around and pick him up. It worked out quite nicely. We then headed home to get the kids. Nate was drifting a little too much on the road so I drove the last 100 miles or so. We got the kids a little after midnight and were home by 1:00 a.m.

Safe travels so far!

2009-06-29T10:06:00.004-04:00

Well, we made it to Germany yesterday morning with no big issues. We made it to our gate at O'hare with 14 minutes to spare...so a little tight maybe!

We flew from O'hare to Atlanta and then on to Frankfurt. The flights all went well and on time. We landed at about 9:00 a.m. Germany time (3:00 a.m. our time). Our hotel is in Wolfsburg (about 3 hours north of Frankfurt) so we took a nice drive through some cities on our way up.

We stopped in Koblenz and went to the Festung Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. We stopped at a little local pizzeria for lunch. We then went to Bonn to find Beethoven's house. We had a little difficulty finding it since our GPS wanted us to turn down walkways, but we did find it. From there we went to Cologne. Nate had been here on his last trip and wanted us to see the Cathedral. It was awesome!!!

We then finished our drive most of which in on the Autoban. Nate has way too much fun with that!! I took a little nap since we hadn't slept since we woke up Saturday morning (well, a little on the plane, but not much). We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a while.

We woke up this morning and tried to find a SIM card for the international phone Nate got for me from work. We then brought Nate to work and Uncle Doug and I went to the Bergen-Belson concentration camp about an hour away. This was the camp that Anne Frank died at. There is nothing left of the actual camp, since they burned everything down to keep disease from spreading. It was a very interesting place to visit. It almost seems park-like since there is nothing left of the actual buildings. But still a very somber place, just thinking of all the horrible things that went on there.

We are now at the hotel waiting to hear back from Nate. The phone we have is not letting us dial Nate's number for some reason and we don't have his German number, so we are waiting for him to email us back. Hence the reason I'm updating my blog. We had to pay for a whole hour just to send him an email.

Hopefully we will catch up with Nate soon and head out for dinner. The weather he is great! In the 70's and sunny today.

Also, I put more pictures up on Facebook of our day yesterday.

Fun & Busy Weekend!

2009-06-23T16:08:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Friday night we had my cousin Meri's wedding. Allison was the flower girl. She loved it! Her and I went to rehearsal on Thursday night and her and Aiden (my cousin Ben's little boy) did great! Friday she got to get her hair done and get pictures taken. She did so good all day...she told me "it's so much fun at the wedding mom". She made it through the reception and went right to bed when we got home.

Saturday was a beautiful day! Nate let me sleep in a little and played with the kids and read them some books in the morning. He also made them breakfast! So nice:) Then they all went outside and the kids helped Nate clean out the shed. Then we sat out in the sun and they played in their pool. They then told me they wanted to take a nap outside. So we laid out all the towels and they layed there for over an hour. They almost fell asleep, but we had to go away at night, so I put Andrew in bed after a while.
We then headed out to Nate's parents' house for dinner for Nate's Grandpa's birthday. The guys all went golfing in the afternoon and then we all met up for dinner.
It was an awesome night and I didn't realize it was 9:00 already, so we quick packed the kids up and took them home for baths.

Sunday was pretty typical. Church, then Sunday School, lunch, naps and church again. My cousin Kelly made confession of faith at night at Faith PRC, so we went there for that and had a lunch afterwards. Both services Andrew sat on Nate's lap in the back of church, we're hoping he can sit in church soon. He hates to go in nursery so we thought we'd try him out in the back. He does pretty good for a 2-year old!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. The kids played in the pool for a little while, then they wanted to come in because they were hot.

Today was hot again! We had to go get Ally's 4-year old shots at the doctor this morning. She wasn't too happy about it, but did very well. She got an ice cream cone from McDonald's on the way home, so then she perked up quite a bit:) This afternoon we went over to my Aunt Mary's house to swim in their pool. The kids loved sitting by the pool, but not going in so much!

Rest of the Newsletter

2009-06-03T21:50:00.002-04:00

Time for Vacations and Trips to the Beach!!

Also along with summer comes vacations and trips to the beach or park or zoo!!! I can’t wait to take the kids out this summer! We already have a long list of things we want to do for day trips, since we will only be going on one camping trip this yearJ

I just want to highlight a few products that we offer that I love when going out and about or going on vacation.

For the beach you will of course need sun block. You always want to make sure you are protecting your skin! I have used the kids’ sun block already this year and I love it! It isn’t greasy at all and soaks in very quickly without much rubbing (which is great when a 2 year old just wants to playJ). We also have sports sun block in a continuous spray form (SPF 50), and SPF’s 32, 52, and 78.

For snacks and drinks for the beach or trail, we have some great options for trail mixes, juice boxes, and snacks.

And if you want to look a little better in that bathing suit this year, we have a Trim Body System just for you! It comes complete with a 30 day supply of food bars and supplements to help loose those extra pounds by the 4^th of July! It also comes with a journal that has what you should eat and take for each day for the full month. It has recipes and shopping lists to help with healthy eating habits. And it also comes with a work out DVD.

Next is something that I always have in my bag with me…LOC towelettes. They are so nice if you need to quick clean something up or if you spill something on your clothes. And with kids…I never have them too far away!

For all those hikers out there we have some great meal bars and snack bars that are so convenient to take along. We also have energy bars that are delicious!! And you should always stay hydrated…we have sports drinks or twist tubes (add them to a water bottle for a little flavor!)

The new products for this month are: 12 oz. Cranberry Grape Energy Drink, Artistry Total Mascara, Meal Bar Variety Pack, and a Snack Bar Variety Pack.

We have an expo at Centerpoint Mall this Saturday, June 6 from 11-6 if anyone would like to come and check out our Artistry and Nutrilite lines. We would love to have you stop by and say Hi!

I have a few specials for this month as well. The Meal Bar Variety Pack ($25), Kids Sun Block SPF 60 ($9), Adult Sun Block SPF 32 ($8.50), SA8 Laundry Detergent ($20), and SA8 Tri-Zyme ($9).

As always, there is FREE shipping with any order of $75 or more and 100% money back guarantee on everything!

Hope Classic 5K

2009-05-30T18:47:00.002-04:00

Nate ran in the Hope Classic 5K again today. I think he's done it every year since I started working at Hope. He finished in 23:01. Not bad for no training! My brother-in-law Ben ran also. He got the gold medal in his age group (25-34)! I think his time was 19:35. I usually go and help out with late registrations and taking times at the end of the race. It's like a secretaries reunion every year:) Stephanie Lanning - who was the secretary before me - comes and helps every year too. Going back to help makes me miss this time of year at school.

Nate also won a gift certificate to Rainbow Grill! Good things we stuck around for prizes this year:) We then of course had to go out for dinner tonight. Who wants to cook when you can go out for free? Em and Ben were over at Mom and Dad's house so we called them up to see if they wanted to come too. The kids were all very well behaved and we had a nice dinner together.

Now Nate and Jon are playing outside with the kids, so I have a quiet house to myself for a little while. Then it's the usual Saturday night routine of getting ready for church tomorrow. I think Nate and Jon are going to go play basketball, so I will have a night to myself...I'll have to find a good book to read, or clean the house....I think a book sounds better:)

June Newsletter

2009-05-29T22:36:00.002-04:00

Every month I email out a newsletter. I thought I would start putting it up on here as well. If anybody would like me to add them to my email list, let me know!

Here is the first section of my June Newsletter. The next one will come hopefully on Monday!

Summer's Here!! Are you ready?

Along with summer comes all those lovely grass, dirt, and blood stains. Wouldn’t you love a product that takes them all out, even if you forget about them? We have a couple different products in our SA8 line of laundry care that are great stain fighters.

The powder detergent is awesome! I have never given a sample out where the people don’t love the product! (I guess there’s a reason it’s ranked #1 by Consumer Reports.) There are no phosphates in it, which is great for your machines. It won’t cause any build up in the pipes and will also start cleaning them out as you use the detergent, making your washer last longer and saving you money! It also dissolves completely, which makes it great for sensitive skin or for babies. Our 6.6 lb. box is so concentrated that it would take 3 – 4.18 lb. boxes of Tide to do the same number of wash loads.

I have used the liquid spot remover quite frequently with my two kids. It gets absolutely everything out!! It has gotten dried blood out of Andrew’s white church sweater (after he had a little accident in nursery) and blood out of Allison’s white sweatshirt after a fall out of the bike trailer. You can’t even tell where the blood was!! I was so happy, I thought they were going to be ruined.

Also, I use the Tri-Zyme presoak/booster as well. This is great if you have little kids or babies. I have a couple customers who love it for their baby stains. You can use it as a soak before you put them in the washer or as a booster along with your detergent. I’ve also washed and dried a shirt with spaghetti stains on it (I forgot about the stains at the time), treated it with the spot treatment and then used the Tri-Zyme along with my detergent and the white sleeves came out perfectly clean!!

I can’t say enough about these 3 products!! The other products in this line are also great, but these are the ones I use on a regular basis.

We also have all-fabric bleach, liquid detergent, sensitive detergent, and fabric softener.

If anyone is interested in any of these products or anything else...feel free to give me a call (616-667-2598) or email me at epastoor@hotmail.com. You can also order through any of the websites that are in my links section on the left.

Busy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T20:59:00.002-04:00

We had a very nice Memorial Day today! We started out the day going to the Jenison parade. So nice that we just have to walk to the end of the street to watch it! My mom and dad, brother-in-law Ben and Sara and David came at about 8:30 and everybody headed down the street (well, I stayed home to take a shower and get ready...kinda nice to do that without having the kids coming in the bathroom all the time;)
The kids loved the parade!! What wouldn't you love about filling a bag with candy? Andrew was most excited about seeing Clifford the Big Red Dog on the library's float. He told everybody about it! "clifford, parade...clifford, parade" to anybody who would listen:)
After the parade we came back to our house to relax and have lunch. Rich came over a little later and we played ladder golf for a while...until Nate got the balls stuck up in the tree!
All 4 kids napped at the same time for a while, so we got to relax which was very nice.
After they woke up we got ready and headed off to Nate's parents' house for dinner. It was also a little going away party for Vernon and Melody Ibe (he is a student at the seminary). They are going back to the Phillippines this week. They will, DV, be having a baby at the end of July! We are very excited for them and wish them all the best as they travel for 26 hours to get home this week!
Now, I think I'm ready to head for bed. It's back to normal life tomorrow. Nate has to go back to work...it will be wierd without him around! The kids will miss him a lot, they got used to having him around every day.

Fun morning with Nate and the kids!

2009-05-19T14:19:00.002-04:00

We had such a fun morning today! Unfortunately Nate is home on "vacation" - unpaid of course:( but that also means we get him home all week!! The kids are loving it:) Andrew calls for Daddy when he wakes up in the morning...sounds so much better than mommy:) For a week anyway. I'm sure I'll be ready to hear Mommy again next week:)
We spent the morning relaxing and getting ready to head out to the mall. I had to return something, and then of course replace it with something else. I got the kids sunglasses from Children's Place...so cute!! They thought they were so cool on the way home...but wouldn't really keep them on outside...go figure.
Then we got some McDonald's for lunch and brought it to the park. The kids love playing there! We brought our kite and tried to fly it. Tried being the key word there!
The kids are now sleeping and Nate is out visiting restaurants showing them our energy drink mixers for making all different kinds of drinks and smoothies. We're trying to make up for a little lost income this week. Hopefully he comes home successful!
I just got done laying out on my chair and reading a book...it's so awesome outside today!! Ally would say "love it" like the dragons on Dragon Tales say...she's a little obsessed with them!

The weekend was pretty uneventful this week. We did have one little mishap on Saturday. Nate was giving the kids a ride in the bike trailer...unstrapped...tipped over and they both fell out. Ally scraped up her chin pretty bad:( She was upset all night...Nate felt so bad. Hopefully it will heal nicely before we have family pictures taken in June and she has to be in my cousin Meri's wedding on June 19. Hopefully a little makeup can cover it by then:)
Allison also got her papers for Sunday School, she is very excited to start! I can't believe she old enough already!
Well, I suppose I should get something done while the kids are sleeping!

Way Behind!!

2009-05-12T22:13:00.003-04:00

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted in over a month! Time is flying by!!

We've had a pretty busy month so far. Allison turned four on May 3. I can't believe how fast 4 years goes by! We had a party for her the Friday before her birthday. We had both of our families over for pizza and cake. Every time I asked Ally what she wanted for dinner for her birthday she would tell me she wanted Marco's pizza. That made it a pretty easy party for me:)
Allison also started going to Jenison's Early Childhood Center a couple of times a week for physical and occupational therapy. We had her tested in March at the ECC because we had some concerns. My Aunt Ruth (Kaptein) has been through this system before, so she came with us to all of our meetings. We are so thankful to her for helping us know where to get started.
They recommended she start therapy to help with her gross and fine motor skills as well as with her inability to focus. She has really like going to "school" these past few weeks and is excited to start pre-school in the fall. She will go to the ECC for pre-school as well. She will be in what they call an at-risk pre-school which means there is more help per child than a normal pre-school. She will also get any PT/OT that she needs. We are very thankful that we live in the city of Jenison, they have been so helpful and quick about everything!
Other than that, Nate and I have been busy in our business. We participated in a Health and Fitness Expo in Caledonia a couple weeks ago with Jon and Alyssa. It was a great learning experience for us! But the coolest part was that we had a booth right across from one of Amway's pilots. After the expo he brought us to the Amway hanger at the airport. We got to sit in all the DeVos' planes and their helicopter. It was so cool!! They are awesome planes!!
We also went out to Pittsburgh for a business conference at the end of April. It was a lot of fun! We went to the Pittsburgh mission for church on Sunday. We finally made it after getting re-routed because of some sort of charity walk. Then we totally missed the road the church was on! We ended up coming in as they were singing the song right before the sermon! Oops! But it was nice to meet all the families there. It happened to be the one service a month that Rev. Bruinsma goes to a different church to preach, but we got to watch a sermon from Hudsonville PRC instead.

Well, this is a very long post...sorry! I'm not promising that I'll post soon, because that obviously doesn't happen:)

Andrew's first bowling experience

2009-04-08T22:48:00.003-04:00

We had a fun night tonight! We went bowling with the kids and some of our friends. The kids had a lot of fun and didn't do too bad on their half game that they played:) Andrew had so much fun running up to the lane and "throwing" the ball. I don't think he hardly even touched it! He would clap for everybody and give high 5's. Ally thought it was too loud but she still had fun. Sydney and Ashlyn were there too, so she was excited to see them. Dan Holstege set it all up for us tonight. He is leaving this summer for his internship, so we won't be seeing him much until after December. It was fun to get out with everybody again. It's been way too long since we've all gone out together! Maybe when the nicer weather comes that will change. I was so mad at myself for forgetting my camera:( That alwasy seems to happen.

Not much else is new, we've been keeping busy with our new business and I've been keeping busy with my spring house cleaning. I finally got my "junk" bedroom cleaned tooday! YAY! It was driving me nuts.

I was just saying to Nate that I just love where the kids are at right now. They are old enough to start doing things on their own and being able to converse with us. It's so much fun to see them try new things and get so excited about everything. Andrew is talking up a storm lately. We've started with the "what's that, mommy?", "who's that", "what you doing, mommy". It is pretty cute right now, ask me in a couple weeks and I may have a different answer:)
Allison is turning into such a little girl. My baby is definetely gone:( I can't believe she's almost 4! I love to watch her play with her dolls and how she makes up different places for them to go and things for them to do. I can see how much she picks up from different things that we do or places that we go. She has a very good memory!

Fun Trip to the Zoo!

2009-03-18T17:04:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I am way behind on this thing!

Yesterday we had a very fun time at the zoo! The weather was so awesome...no coats! We went with Dee VanOverloop and her two girls, Sydney and Ashlyn. The kids loved it! Well, not Ash so much:) Ally and Andrew have been talking about it since we left and already asked to go back the same night. Andrew did not want to get back in the car. He kept saying, "no home, zoo!" It was kinda cute...but naughty too! We will definitely be going back this summer.

This weekend I had an Artistry party which was a lot of fun! My mom and grandma and Nate's mom and grandma came. They all had fun trying all the skin care and makeup. If you want to see something funny, it's 4 "older" ladies taking their glasses on and off and trying to do their makeup! And them trying to remember what they put on:) But they all loved the products! If anyone wants free samples of the skin care or cosmetics let me know and I will get some to you.

Well, that's all for now...hopefully it won't be that long between posts again!

Great Products

2009-03-05T13:11:00.003-05:00

I just thought I would tell you about some of our products that I've been using lately that are working great!

I just used the carpet and upholstery cleaner...it works awesome! It is only $19.99 and comes with 2 24 oz. bottles with sprayers and 1 64 oz. refill. I used it on my benches in the kitchen where the kids eat. The benches were so bad that I was going to see how much it cost to recover them. I used this and they look so much better! The seats in the picture had the same amount of stains on them. I also used it on my carpet where there were marker stains and dirty spots...they came right out!

Also I used the liquid stain remover a little while ago after Andrew had a little accident in nursery. He fell into the toy basket or something...I don't know what, but he had a fat lip and blood on his white church sweater:( I forgot about it for a couple of days and then found it in the laundry, thinking it would never come out. I sprayed the stain remover on it and threw it in with the rest of the clothes...you can't even tell where the blood was! (it is $9.45 for a 17 oz. bottle)

We also love the dish soap and the dishwasher soap. The dish soap is $10.50 for 34 oz. (which will do up to 222 sinkfulls!) and the dishwasher soap is $10.50 for a 50 oz. box and you only need one tablespoon per load.

Anyway, just wanted to share these with you in case anyone is interested!

Errands with Grandpa

2009-02-27T23:54:00.002-05:00

Today Ally did errands with Grandpa Z. She calls him when she wakes up and tells him she's all ready to go. He picks her up and they go to "Grandpa's McDonalds" - the one in Hudsonville. She loves the days when she can go with Grandpa! Usually they go to the store and the bank after breakfast, but today she said she just wanted to go see her Grandma. Andrew and Mom came at lunch time and we all had lunch together. Ally decided she wanted to take a nap at Grandma's. I think she just says this because she thinks Grandpa and Grandma won't make her sleep! It didn't work to well today. Grandma brought her home to take a nap! However, Andrew decided that he didn't want to sleep at all today. So he just layed in his crib and talked for an hour and a half!! That makes for a very crabby boy come dinner time!
We had Pete and Nicole and Trenton over for pizza tonight. The kids had a blast running around together! We could hardly hear ourselves think! The kids went to bed pretty good, except I now hear Andrew making noise. Poor little guy has another cold!
Well I better tend to my little guy and then off to bed!

Artistry

2009-02-25T09:58:00.003-05:00

Last night I had a very fun night over at Nicole Hanemaayer's house! She had an Artistry Clinic. This is the skin care and cosmetics that we sell through our business. (Pete and Nicole are our sponsors in the business.)
Anyway, it was such a fun night! We got to put our faces in the glow machine. This machine shows you what is under your skin. It's kinda creepy, but cool at the same time:) It shows you where you have dry or oily skin, or sun damage and stuff like that. We then got to play with all the skin care and makeup. It was fun to have a night to do some girly stuff with no kids around:)
I will be having a clinic also in a couple of weeks, so if anybody wants to come let me know and I will send you a flier with the info!
While I was gone, Nate met with his brother Jon and our mentor, Dave Teroller. Jon is probably going to be signing up next week, so we are very excited for him (and Alyssa:)!

During the day yesterday, we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Z. The kids were all excited when we pulled in the driveway because Uncle Rich was there! They played in the basement with him for a while, then he watched Dragon Tales with them! We had lunch there and then went home for naps. They love to go to Grandma and Grandpa's on Grandma's days off! They bought a swing set on Monday for the kids, so we'll probably be going there a lot in the summer:)

A Typical Monday

2009-02-23T21:49:00.002-05:00

Well, since it's been almost a week since I last posted, I suppose I should update my blog. And yes, Em, I will no longer bug you about not updating your blog:)
Things were pretty routine around here today. The kids woke up extremely early (7:30), and yes, that is very early for us! We got a lot of laundry done and cleaned the house. I don't know how the house gets so out of control over the weekend! Ally and Andrew think they "help" me sort laundry by throwing it all over the laundry room...not so much of a help, but they have fun:)
Grandma Z came over after school with fruit snacks for the kids. They love their fruit snacks from Grandma!
After dinner we made a trip out to Ben and Em's to return Ben's bike that Nate borrowed last summer! We had a nice visit with them and the kids had a blast! Nate now thinks he needs his own bike so he can beat Ben in their triathlons this summer.
Well, that's about how the Monday's go in the Pastoor household. I'm off to watch 24 with Nate. Good night!

Hi Everyone!

2009-02-18T09:48:00.002-05:00

Nate and I decided that I didn't have enough to do with the 2 kids, keeping the house clean, taking care of Nate, and starting our new business. So we decided to start a blog that I can do in my "spare" time! Oh well, it doesn't take too long and it's kind of fun to do. I always read my sisters blog and thought it would be fun to have one too!

We thought it would be a nice way to share stuff about us and our kids. Also, we will be giving updates on our new business as Amway Global Business Owners. We are very excited about starting something together and are having fun with it so far!

Well, that is my first post, nothing spectacular, but now I do have to get to the mounds of laundry sitting in my basement! It is not fun trying to catch up after being sick:(