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...