MIchigan Living: Winter Weeks 23-24

So here's the latest happenings in the Carter wanderings






-----Bronners Christmas Emporium-----
Apparently the largest Christmas store on the planet is in a Bavarian styled town called Frankenmuth (sounds like something you get from poor oral hygiene, right?). The name of the store is Bronners and is open 364 days of the year-- oddly enough it's closed on Christmas... So there we headed to get the annual family ornament; something that reflects our adventure for the year. So we found a darling glass bulb with the shape of Michigan painted on it, that the overly friendly Bronner's staff even personalized for us. We took great care getting it home safely, and as one of the ladies (who will remain nameless) was attempting to take the small tag off of it, she dropped it on the table and it shattered into a thousand pieces... oh, well--











---NCC Staff Christmas Party--
We got to be part of our first Northpointe Community Church staff Christmas party... food, friends, fun, and White elephant Gift Exchange. Cool stuff-- all in a beautiful MI style home with icy roads and snow on the porch! We love this place!





-----Snow and Ice-----



Question: Can ice form on rubber?
Answer: Apparently yes... at least on those little nubs on the side of tires-- the proof is in the picture!






-----Anniversary-----



We have been married for 16 years-- which is a long time to do just about anything... so in celebration we went to a local steak house and celebrated by eating way too much red meat followed by tinnnnnyyyyy desserts...








-----IPhone 3Gs-----



...Verizon customers eat your hearts out-- we got Emily a new cell phone (yep, it's the older Iphone 3Gs- but way better than what she was using) and it only cost $1.05.
...California customers eat your heart out-- in MI you don't pay the sales tax on new phones based on the regular price, only on the actual price (in other words, in CA we would have paid an extra $30ish in tax because the MSRP of the phone is $375. In MI the price of the phone was $.99 so we only paid a total of $1.05). Let's hear it for MI!!!!!



-----Snow Report-----
So not really too much snow since the initial 1 foot dump and power outage. We had a weekend of flurries and a total accumulation of around an inch-- which mainly meant that it snowed pretty consistently during the day but didn't stick much to the ground (by the way: why does snow melt so quickly from asphalt? Seemed to be gone awfully fast but stayed on every other surface for much longer... any ideas?) So we spent the day Christmas shopping at Target...




All in all Winter hasn't killed us yet. I realize the typical response to this is "Wait 'til February..." Well, we're waiting, but I have this feeling we'll be just as fine then as we are now! And right now we're praying for a White Christmas!

Michigan Living Week 22... and a half

So Emily here and I am blogging mid week because I had one of the coolest experiences today and couldn't wait to tell everyone about it!!!

I have been attending a weekly women's bible study, and during our prayer time we have been praying for a 3rd grader named Autumn who is blind because she has a brain tumor. They can't operate but are trying to get shrink it by using really strong chemo that racks her body, making her really sick. My heart was so touched and burdened for her, I really wanted to do something to encourage her. I decided to have the group write her notes of encouragement on 3x5 cards and then I would braille each one so she could read them (as many of you know I have been taking a braille transcribing course for about a year). So the cool thing is I was invited today to go out and meet Autumn to deliver the brailled cards to her. What a beautiful angel from God. She is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. To look and talk to her your wouldn't know she was sick or struggling. She was so excited to meet me and even more excited to read the cards. It was so awesome to stand there and watch her read something that I brailled!!! I also got to meet her aide and after talking to her I have decided that what she does everyday is exactly what I want to do. So now I am praying that God brings me my own Autumn to work with when I am ready!!!

Michigan Living Week 22: Winter For Real!

So this was the week of super adventure in our winter wonderland!

Tuesday it snowed-- and apparently not just a regular snow, this was a good one...





...the official report was 10", but when it comes up to your calf that has to be 12" at least. Not only did it snow, but the weight of the snow took out a number of tree branches which apparently are built over electrical power lines to break the fall of the branch when it comes crashing down. However, one of the side effects of having power lines break the branches fall is that they tear the line from the pole, which we learned means the electricity cannot get past that point-- like to our house. And on a side note: when the water to your house runs on a well, which apparently is powered by electricity, it also goes out. So all that to say about 24 hours without power or water...



... but it was absolutely amazing! Tons of space with pure, untouched, pristine snow. Enough for sledding, sloshing, fighting, and snow man building! And the girls even got a snow day out of it-- and on the very first day of snow for the year too!



...and Emily and Christ got to practice their newly acquired snow driving skills-- nobody died!




Then the week got weird as Chris wrenched his knee somehow (no, the good one!) followed by Danielle getting pink-eye from some kid in her class (arrrrrgggghhhhh...)

But by Sunday we are all normal again-- or at least as close to normal as we will ever get! In all an awesome week! Bring on winter!

Michigan Living Week 21: Winter

This was a super short week with Thanksgiving and all...



Wednesday was the beginning of Thanksgiving break for DeWitt kids, so we headed down to Royal Scott bowling alley and bowled a few games, ate pizza, and drank pop (yep, we say pop now... well, Rebekah doesn't because she refuses to adapt to the culture-- just wait, they'll get her!) While Chris dominated with his amazing bowling prowess (is that a positive quality? Cause Fred Flinstone was also a good bowler and not sure anyone wants compared to him?!?) Danielle came a close second-- which totally caused Emily and Rebekah to fall into a deep depression that only massive amounts of turkey could solve! Which is how the rest of the week was spent!










And while we did not get up uber-early for Black Friday, wee did join a local gym who had a cheap Black Friday special sign up deal-- so back to running on treadmills, lifting weights, and showering with odd old men (Chris not Emily... wait, not sure if that's any better...hmmm)

Michigan Living Week 20: Winter

Well, we made it through another week of winter... and so far we're not dead. We had a few snow flurries which got us all excited, but then didn't actually stick. As a matter of fact it isn't even really that cold. The days have been floating between 32-48 degrees, and the evenings... well, we are inside the house during the evenings so who cares!



This week also gave us the opportunity for our first Lansing Silver Bells... the annual lighting of the 100 foot tall Christmas tree at the steps of the state capital. So us and 10,000 other people piled along Michigan Avenue to see a light parade, watch a tree light up, watch some fireworks over the capital (actually VERY cool!), and listen to some Disney kid named Cody Simpson sing (listen to because it was impossible to see him). The weather even cooperated by not going much lower than 40 degrees and we were thermal-ed up in our winter best.

















Saturday was another awesome day! Northpointe Community Church has their monthly 3rd Serve- which this time involved buying a Thanksgiving dinner for a family in need and delivering it to them. So we hooked up with some friends of ours and hit up two houses. What a cool way to be reminded of all the things we have to be thankful for!


And now we're looking forward to a short week of school and a long weekend of sleeping in!



Happy Thanksgiving blog readers!

Michigan Living Week 19: Winter

Winter is here folks!
Well, technically, winter doesn't happen on the calendar until December, but I'm pretty sure in the real world snow equals winter. And since we had snow flurries this week I can officially say "We're in it now!" (although it was much closer to 60 degrees today...)













Monday was a unique experience for Chris. Apparently there was a midnight release of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (who knew?) and a friend needed help running his mobile laser tag game (Mobile Laser Kombat) for the event. So from 9:00pm until 1:00am Chris got to gear up in full camouflage and referee nearly 200 Monster fueled adolescence shooting at each other (and at the local Marine recruits). What a night...












Rebekah began her swim module in her PE class... which happens at 8:00am. So that meas a walk up to the high school in the 30degree temps, and a bit of frozen wet hair on the way back. So far she's having a pretty good time with it!





Danielle is LOVING school! She's become the locker opener for all the kids around her who struggle to get theirs open. She's also starting to write stories about anything and everything! Crazy cool!

MIchigan Living: Fall Week 18

By the end of last weekend we decided it was time for some winterizing-- vehicular and wardrobe. We bought 280lbs of sand for the Dodge-- in 70lb bags called "Sand in a Tube", who knew they made such a thing?????-- and 587lbs of clothes for all three girls.






Monday was the national holiday of Halloween-- and however you choose to (or not to) celebrate "get free candy" day we decided to walk around our town to get to know folks better! My favorite had to be the gentlemanly grandfather type with hot apple cider for the grown-ups (with a little topper of Peach Schnapps). Danielle's favorite house was the one giving out FULL SIZE candy bars! And while we did forget where we parked the car, Rebekah's 13 year old friend found it with her smart phone GPS... so glad we brought her!



We also spent a day in Danielle's 5th grade classroom talking about Tourettes, and how differences are what makes life interesting! Danielle's favorite part was passing out Emily's homemade Carmel Apple cookies...



Saturday was our first Student Life Activity. We had a Fall Bash at a local Farm called Peacock Road Tree Farm. Basically it was an evening spent riding the wagon out to a pumpkin patch (where we were able to smash pumpkins since it was the end of the season), cruising through the animal petting zoo, playing Laser Tag in a tree maze (a Zombie Hunt version), and eating S'mores by a bonfire. Not a bad night to hang out in 45 degree temps! And I even got to talk about Jesus in the strangest place ever-- the middle of a pig race track (nope, you read that right!) And on the way home we got to have a great conversation with a local Michigan police officer. They are so nice! Apparently when you go 50mph in a 35mph zone they come out to share their views on life, driving, and cash it takes to tie those two things together (on a happy note: I got off with a mini-lecture and a warning...)



And in the midst of all of that adventure we finally found a burger place that gives In-N-Out a run for it's money (Chris thinks it's better, Emily and Rebekah do not agree, but still love it!)...






...and we learned that Pepsi is vending some odd things these days!

Michigan Living: Fall Week 17

Do bloggers get a 'bye' week? This week we took one...

Michigan Living: Fall Wek 16

Re-Run! At least this week sure felt like a rerun... Chris' parents came out to visit for the week, so we got to re-explore all of MI we've already explored which was very cool! So that meant lots of eating, some driving, and a lot more eating!




Cracker Barrel-- Chris' parents new favorite restaurant!














Went to Lake Michigan (Grand Haven) on Saturday-- and the weather was totally awesome... 60 degrees and no wind- just cold enough for a light jacket...









...which Chris' dad needed a jacket just in case it was too cold, so we coined a new fashion genre called "Geriatric Gansta"






Finished the week with a trip to Uncle John's Cider Mill-- super busy, but the weather was so nice who cares?!?




And even carved some pumpkins around some caramel apple cider and a bonfire.

Michigan LIving: Fall Week 15

Arrrrgggghhhh!
Sick again-- this time it was both girls. They say this is the time of year everyone gets sick around here, and it seems to be true-- lots of people are sick. But, man, it sure sucks when it works through a whole family.


Meanwhile, we did squeeze in a little bit of adventure...




From our porch we saw this creature eating something... anyone know what it is, 'cause we don't! What we do know, however, is that when you yell it is the funniest, fattest, wobbly runner we've ever seen.
















Last night-- High School youth group-- we worked through the question "Why Do We Have to Die"... so it seemed to be fitting to do that at the local cemetery from a local funeral director. Believe it or not, it was a very cool experience!













And now for a well earned mini-vacation- we're not going away, instead the Carter's are coming out from CA for a week long visit-- bring your sweaters!

MIchigan Living: Fall Week 14

So everyone is healthy again-- Hallelujah! And this week had a regular amount of adventure to it...







To start, Emily began a new job. She's working as a para-pro at a local elementary school (kind of like a one-on-one aid with kids who have special needs). Every day ping-pongs between great and terrible, depending on the kid's mood!





Friday was DeWitt's Homecoming which began with a parade cruising down one of the main streets, a tailgate party at the local Junior High, and of course the Homecoming Game... all super fun!








Saturday Chris got to be the uber-cool guest speaker for Northpointe Community Church's Men's breakfast... mainly because he's the new guy and nobody is totally bored with him-- yet! 75 men and some 'soon-to-be-men' spent the morning looking at what it means to be a Biblical man from the book of Genesis... and ate a lot o' sausage.





The rest of the day was spent in Grand Ledge (about 20 minutes away) at the Fall Color Festival... basically half a day spent walking through some awesome looking trees, eating some fresh kettle corn, making rings from horseshoe nails, and sampling maple syrup cotton candy... tough day, huh?!?













So we started this blog back in June under the premise that we would probably die in Michigan, and at least we could all get a good laugh out of it. Well, we're still alive and totally loving it... and for all you CA friends-- the temps have been around 72 degrees during the day and 50 degrees in the evening... tough huh! And just to hammer home the point, here's what we see outside out kitchen window every morning!



Jealous? Yeah, I know...