Michigan Living Week 4

Now the weeks seem to fly by. I just sat down to blog and asked the question, "what did we do this week?" We started talking about IKEA, the GREAT WALL OF DEWITT, White Castle, etc, but all of that was just over the weekend; what happened to the week? Here's what we finally remembered--

During the Week:
Both girls registered for school, Rebekah to DeWitt Junior High and Danielle to Herbison Woods Elementary school (5th grade). Now there's an official end to summer on the calendar!


Emily did the normal week of keeping the house running -groceries (Meijer), household stuff (Meijer), cleaning supplies (Meijer), DVD rental (Meijer), banking (Meijer), drinking water (Meijer), prescription pick-up (Meijer)- you get the picture. (In case you don't know, Meijer is the one-stop-shopping-everything. Think Super Wal-Mart on steroids...)

And I worked, which primarily means learning names and systems right now. Still feeling like the new kid at school who can't find his locker- which is normal, but a getting a little old...




The Weekend:
IKEA and White Castle... Here's the story: the girls are sharing a large room, and we thought it would be fun to split the room down the middle with the GREAT WALL OF DEWITT which would give both girls times of privacy. So we trekked to IKEA and bought some curtains and a tension cable to hang them. On the way there we spotted at White Castle (made infamous by the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle). So we decide to partake in a cultural phenomenon-- Question: Have you ever eaten at a White Castle? Let us know what you thought and we'll tell you what we thought!




Well, IKEA turned out awesome! Man, those Scandinavians have some cool stuff! They even sell socks from a vending machine so kids going into the child-care-thing have their feet covered- crazy!




And the GREAT WALL OF DEWITT was a great success!















I also finally got my Kayak wet- spent a couple hours exploring the Looking Glass River- just awesome. River kayaking is so the way to go! While I'm sure I'll miss the dolphins and seals of ocean kayaking, I certainly won't miss the work, waves, salt, and cold!








And today was another opportunity to worship with people who genuinely love the Lord and their community and aren't afraid to express that reality in a corporate setting- awesome!

Michigan Living: Week Three

Weather Report:
Week Three started with some massive heat and humidity! Temps topping around 95 degrees plus 70% humidity created a heat index of well over 105! Thank God for air conditioning (I actually met a very cool lady today named Michon who said she had no air conditioning in her house- only fans... I felt fer her!) Then continued on to end the week with a couple of days of random thunderstorms (no thunder/lightening though this time). And today turned out to be moderately cool- maybe in the 80's.

Activity Report:

Spent a lot of time at malls and the car mechanic this week. We got a name of a guy in town who does car repairs for a ton of folks in the church named John E... so we had him make friends with both of our vehicles. Cool part = he's super reasonable! Super cool part = he's pretty good. So far he diagnosed both vehicle problems without even trying very hard (something Perry's was never able to do for some reason!). The malls were a little more fun: we watch Harry Potter part 900- I mean Deathly Hallows Part 2-- at the coolest theater (NCG for you locals...)while Emily and Danielle saw Zookeeper (funny stuff!!!), and then tonight ate at Olive Garden and walked around the Meridian Mall (where Danielle accidentally 'electrocuted' herself with a trick pen that she failed to read the sign about before handling- lesson learned!?!).

Citizenship Report:
Emily and I are now officially citizens of Michigan. We both got our drivers' license in the mail this week and registered our vehicles which meant a change of license plate from CA to MI. Now we're locals!

Church Report:
First full week of being the Student Life Pastor at Northpointe Community Church. Mainly got the orientation to all things form and paperwork, as well as Sam's Club card, tax exempt at Wal-Mart, HSA, and more papery type stuff. Then today got to pick up some rental vans for the missions trip leaving tomorrow and hosted a 'get to know the Student Life Pastor open house' for part of the afternoon. It was cool to see so many folks show up to find out who were are-- or maybe it was more to just check out the house? either way it was cool!

In general we're doing good. So far Michigan has not claimed our lives... but I suppose it's still early. As a matter of fact, the lady working the customer service counter at Sam's Club was certain we wouldn't make it through the winter. She told us to come visit her in January and tell her how we're doing. It's a date!

Blog Frequency Update

Tired of reading about us?
Obviously we are starting to unravel in terms of blogging everyday... some of that is due to our temporary 'sketchy' internet connection at the house, and some of it is due to the ramping up of real life that has started to take over! All that to say we'll now be updating the blog every weekend detailing our adventures from the week. That should provide enough information and entertainment for all!

Michigan Living: California Diversion Days 10-12

Chris:
Last blog I forgot to mention that on my 4 hour "mechanical issues" delay in Phoenix I called a friend who had a friend tell him that a mutual friend of ours from Lompoc was in the same airport as me (did you get all that?). So through the use of skillful cell phone and GPS location technology we connected and killed an hour swapping stories (thanks Kate!)



So the wedding turned out beautiful, the weather held moderate (meaning the fog didn't come in until 6pm) and I got both the bride and the groom's names correct- couldn't ask for more!









Then hopped on a plane and flew home, this time with no delays- way to go United/Continental Airlines!!!



Now I can totally focus on the stuff going on in MI.

MEANWHILE...






Emily:
We spent the weekend doing all kinds of fun girly things like shopping at one of the many Lansing area malls, painting our nails multiple sparkly shades of pink-purple-black, hitting a round of mini-golf and eating yummy treats at Sweetie-licious (which is a quaint small town bakery famous all over the country for it's baked goods... all in little downtown DeWitt).




Now we're all back home together and beginning our second week of Michigan living (which by the way began with record highs in both temperature and humidity- and a freak thunderstorm today!)

Michigan Living: Day 8-9 California Diversion

Sorry wasn't able to blog yesterday- spent the whole day in the airport to get back to California to perform the wedding of a couple I really dig, Kemper and Joleen. Question: Why can travel that is so technologically advanced be so systematically messed up? Every time I fly through Phoenix on US Airways my plane is delayed by at least 2 hours-- this time it was 4 hours. I shouldn't complain, at least I didn't have to travel by covered wagon for six months and eat two of my friends on the trip!

Today Chris spent the day eating with friends and rehearsing a wedding. Tomorrow will be much of the same-- except the wedding will be for real!

Emily and the girls spent the day at the Lansing Mall losing Danielle's purse which caused a panic meltdown, but then finding it in one of the stores, which caused another meltdown of happiness.

So let's vote blog-readers: who had the better day?

Michigan Living: Day 6

Another gorgeous day in paradise... probably 88 degrees and sunny! Which meant I spent a few hours in the office then headed down to Lansing with the family (about 15 minutes away) to attempt to get a MI drivers license. I had visions of CA DMV in my head and did some Zen breathing to prepare for the purgatory that is DMV, but really all unnecessary! Sure there was a HUGE line to get the papers we needed to fill out to wait until our number was called (they were on number 17 when we started in the line),

but the wait was only about 40 minutes and the employees were super helpful, made the whole precess pretty easy, and were even polite and kinda nice. Totally not y typical governmental agency experience. Is this how it normally is Michiganders? If so, be happy-- not all state governments are the same!

Also, the girls got to spend some of the gift cards they got from Northpointe (from some very generous folks!) at Barnes and Noble (Danielle) and Hobby Lobby (Rebekah). They love spending money. A few more house supplies for Emily and there went the day. As I sit here and type this Emily is at a candle party at a gal from the church's house and the rest of us are watching some past episodes of America's Got Talent. Another great day in the Northern Midwest (still haven't decided is Michigan is in the Midwest or not...)

Michigan Living: Day 5

Severe Storm Watch!!!!!

At least that's what weather.com said, but honestly it was pretty cool. I walked to work at 8:00 and it was sunny and 86 degrees... then around 9:00 it turned super dark, poured a foot of rain, blasted with sheet and bolt lightening and thunder, and then quit by 11:30 dried up and returned to sunny at 80 degrees. Not too bad for our first 'severe storm' (although we began the day without coats so we got a little wet, but then again some of us - ehem, Rebekah- were trying to get as wet as possible!).



After all that storming we felt like we needed some BIGGBY frappachino coffee and took a little walk around the shopping center.

Here's what we found out about town happenings:














Seems that there is a whole lot of very specified food product commissions in MI. Tomorrow I'll try to get a picture of the Asparagus advisory board... which is good because I really do have some questions about that vegetable, and am looking for some advice!



Meanwhile... the girls got to become official Michiganders by getting their DeWitt Public Library cards. Now they can read again!

Michigan Living: Day 4

First day at Northpointe Community Church as the Student Life Pastor. Technically I'm not on staff until tomorrow (Monday) but today we all got to come up on stage and be introduced to the church. What a cool place! Worship was awesome, preaching from the Scriptures and relevant, and a congregation that knows they have a great church and want to see it grow. Could it get any better than that?

Then we spent the afternoon with the Balogh's who fed us, and took us to meet Dave and Lori who let us use their pool-- so apparently it could get even better!

We love our house,




and the weather,






and Michigan in general!


Oh yeah, and we will even end up with a working dryer tomorrow (long story short: we have a natural gas dryer and the house is ready for an electric one, but could be outfitted for a propane one-- neither of which will work for us!)-- so cool!

Michigan Living: Day 3

Today was great!



Got lots of stuff done: got our mailbox sunk, mostly figured out the dish washer (which is huge for us since we haven't had one for 11 years!), hung a door to the basement, found the woods behind us to be enjoyable and filled with black winged dragon flies and a tail-less beaver (AKA woodchuck?), found a possible 'put-in' for the kayak (about 100 yards from the house), met two of our neighbors, and had our first home cooked dinner (mostly from gear the Youth group provided for us when we arrived). Pretty good day!






Now we're winding down for the evening and listening to the fireworks from across the street-- either that or a police shoot-out (pretty sure their fireworks-- which I guess by the number of warehouse sized Phantom Fireworks stores we saw on the way must be legal year round!)

Michigan Living: Day 2

Today felt like the first 'real' day of life. Almost everything is unpacked, just a few boxes we aren't sure where they go yet. We also had to do some real life stuff: Wal Mart for some bathroom gear and the laundromat, which we haven't used since we were first married-- they've gotten even more expensive by the way; about $12 for 4 loads of laundry!

Then came dinner. It felt like it should be a celebration so we hit a BBQ place in Lansing (about 10 minutes away) called Smokey Bones. Super awesome food and even better advice framed all over the walls. Here's a couple favorites from the men's restroom:















Both Rebekah and Danielle have spent a bunch of time with some new friends running all over the church property and terrorizing the Northpointe office staff (Sue and Kristin- you're awesome!). Matter of fact, their first activity was to go picking wild raspberries from the area just behind our home. Not a bad start to a new life!

Em: Glad there's not boxes everywhere, and starting to feel settled. I'm enjoying the warm weather [Chris- so everyone from CA was talking about how humid it would be. I was thinking like Mississippi or the rainforest or something, but no way! We're all super cool with the heat!].

Rebekah/Danielle: [sleeping]

Michigan Living: Day 1

Today was the first day we fully lived in MI. At least, we took the day to attempt the great unpacking! Stuff, stuff everywhere... eventually it will find a home. If you've ever moved you know the feeling of having everything so different, having to find new spots for the pots and pans, wondering how you ever made everything fit in your old house, the inability to locate the forks and spoons until well after dinner is over-- not bad just weird. And now it's 11pm (that's only 8pm for you CA'ers) but it feels way later. But at least we're mostly in and were able to eat some pizza



and catch an episode of a beloved TV show on Hulu. Now off to bed to begin day number 2!

Travel Adventure Day 6

Word for the day: Goodness-- as in God is truly good. As Christians we know that, but when BIG ADVENTURE happens and God uses it as an opportunity to reminds of us his goodness, well-- it's a pretty cool thing!

So we left Iowa this morning-- after the early morning wake up call (see yesterday's post-- which we found out was a prank from a guest who pulled the alarm and then ran out of the hotel...) we got on the road and had a long but good drive. Stopped at another Starbucks, and of course the king of all Midwest eating: Cracker Barrel. Finally, after fighting truckers through Chicago, we landed in DeWitt MI! Spent the night in our new AWESOME house on the floor watching the lightening bugs out of the window!




Em: So today was amazing! It felt so good to be in Michigan and not have to be driving anymore. I was so filled with emotion when I walked in and saw what all the amazing people here have done to make our house so AWESOME!!! It is soooo beautiful! I am looking forward to getting our stuff and making this place home!



Danielle: I was soooooooooooo excited get to the house

Rebekah:Oh my gosh!!! The house is amazing! We have a forest for a backyard and it has raspberry bushes in it! And the fireflies are amazing!!! Unpacking is officially as bad as packing! Now I need a nap. :)

Travel Adventure: Day 5

Key word for today- corn!
After a tough start to the morning that actually turned out pretty well (a flat tire that was easily patched at Kirk's Nebraskaland Bar and Fine Dining... and Tires) we cruised through hundreds of miles of highway bordered by cornfields. Does the US grow corn anywhere else? Seems like all of it generates from here! Anyhow, some pretty country to cruise through. Half-way we tried our first Cracker Barrel which was a blast!



Seven hours later we landed in Coralville IA (a pretty cool, suburban but modern town that had a great mall to walk around and stretch our legs in). The hotel (Baymont Inn) had a "light dinner" for it's guests (sandwiches and some sort of Pasta Fazool- an Italian pasta made by an Iowaian and presented by a clerk from New York). After some dessert at the mall it was in bed by 9:30 to get a good night sleep for the final push to MI.



4:00am-- Fire Alarm!
Conditioned by my years in Lompoc my first instinct was to try to pull out the battery. No battery! Second instinct: maybe this is real and we should probably get outside. Well, after the Coralville FD came out and we walked over to the gas station across the street to buy a soda, it turned out to be s 'false alarm' (we think somebody bumped a fire pull somewhere in the hotel). So back to bed around 5am. So much for that good night sleep... maybe tomorrow- I mean tonight.

Em: Little tired of driving- glad to see light at the end of the tunnel...

Rebekah: I'm tired!!!

Danielle: (shower)

Travel Adventure: Day 4

Today was AWESOME! Yesterday I thought we saw the beauty of CO, but today we saw the 'real' CO. After leaving Glenwood Springs we headed up 10,000 feet through the heart of Vail-- where there's still snow, in July! Stopped at the swankiest Starbucks and knocked off a few of the gift card dollars a friend gave us. Then went through 4 tunnels-- two small and two mongo long-- drove in a straight line for 350 miles and landed in the middle of nowhere (if you watch THE MIDDLE you know the kind of town; it's the place where they give directions based on crossing either one or both of the overpasses. When we asked about where to watch fireworks, they said "Saint Annes"; when we asked where and what that was she looked at us like we not wired right. When we went to dinner at Kirk's Nebraskaland Bar and Fine Dinning, the waitress told us that she thought the fireworks were pretty good, but that she had also, "never been anywhere else so...".





Emily: Behind our hotel is a cornfield. When I looked out the window to see if we could watch fireworks from our room, it looked like sparks in the cornfield. Then I realized it was lightening bugs! Sooooooo cool! (Chris: Which meant all the ladies ran outside in their PJ's to watch/catch/chase/terrorize the fire flies-- I came out for about 1 minute and somehow attracted my own creature- 10 mosquito bites in under a minute. Is that a Minute To Win It game yet?) Oh man! I got to see lightening bugs! Better than fireworks!

Rebekah: Nebraska turned out to be not as boring after all!

Danielle: Lightening bugs are awesome!

Travel Adventure: Day Three

Man, oh, man... who does these long drive trips for fun? I mean, I know a bunch of folks who take the family to far away places and drive to get there, but I've realized it's sooooo not for me! Everything's going fine (minus a 'check engine light' on the Dodge that I'm choosing to believe isn't anything serious, and no mechanics are open on the 4th of July...) but driving 9 hours is crazy stuff. Complicate that by a +1 hour time change in each state and it turns a 10 hours day into a 12 hour day. Pretty much all about eating, driving, eating, driving some more, last eating of the day then sleep... and some people choose to do that for vacation?!? Me thinks that's crazy!

Okay, even in all of that, Utah and Colorado are beautiful. My friend Chris L told me before we left that once we got on the I-70 it got really pretty. He was right. Driving through huge canyons was pretty cool, and I'm pretty sure we crossed the Colorado River 20+ times. Very cool!

Emily: It was very cool to be driving through such pretty area while singing worship songs with Bekah!

Danielle: the hotel is more like a cabin. it was pretty cool to cross the Colorado River, i'd never seen it before!

Rebekah: Even though the drive was soooo long it was amazing!!! There was some mountains that were made of white rock and the tops were full of orange pebbles...it looked like it had been raining rocks!!! There were these other mountains made of red rock and there were bright green plants scattered around on it!! It was a perfect combination of colors! :) Also the river was amazing! Some parts of it were really calm and others were white water rapids! It was so cool!!!

Travel Adventure: Day 2

Maybe the keyword for today was 'Circus'-- as in everything felt like a circus! We started out leaving Lancaster with a visit to the musical road- which was very cool-- although I'm still not sure exactly what song it was that played (supposedly it's the William Tell Overture, but ???) but it was pretty cool nonetheless (by the way, it's better at 75 than 55!). From there it was the 112 degree drive through horrid topography to Las Vegas, which it totally under all kinds of construction and nearly impossible to get anywhere (yes, even more impossible than usual!). We landed at Circus Circus and because of it being the 4th of July weekend (my bad!) found the last two parking spots available-- I think out of 1,256,875! Which meant leaving the hotel and loosing a place to put our car was out of the question, and Lompocians walking The Strip in 112 degrees was also out of the question-- we were the hotel's dream customer; stayed in the hotel the whole time... arrrrggghhhh! Whatever, now we can't wait to get out of here tomorrow! It's official, I hate Las Vegas!

Danielle: (staring blankly at the TV...)

Emily: Today came the weird feeling after crossing into NV that we are leaving CA behind-- maybe for good! Not necessarily a horrible feeling, just weird.

Rebekah: (snore...snore...grrrr...shhhhhh...)

Travel Adventure: Day One

Today was all about space-- will there be enough space in the moving truck? Will we have enough space in the cars? Will the hotel be spacious enough? Will there be enough space left in our brains to accomplish a four hours drive? And all the answers, so far, have been yes! We had the best moving crew ever (thanks Ricky, Simon, Emily, Jaylen, Shannon, Jeff D, Jimmy, Tyler, Debbie K and Shane). Not only did everything fit, but in record time (less than 2 hours)!

Right now we just finished 20 minutes of swimming at the hotel pool (Rick/Pam C- it's your favorite Lancaster hotel), and will be heading over to Em's folks place in a couple minutes. So far it's been awesome!

Danielle: It was really hot here today (74 in the Poke-- 104 in Lancaster).

Rebekah: It was weird driving around knowing we won't come back for a really, really long time.

Em: Ummm...