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...

Michigan Living: Fall Week 13

Sick, sick and more sick... that was the main event this last week.




Since preschool we learned that it's important to share so that's what we did this week-- after Chris got 'Michigan death flu' he shared it with Emily... who might have shared it with the girls-- still too early to tell!




Danielle has had a number of 'disaster' drills at her school-- each more interesting than the next. Fire, lock-down, dam breach, stampede, coffee bean shortage,etc. (some of those might have been made up!?!) The coolest one so far was the Tornado Drill... which looks suspiciously like the earthquake drills from California-- still not sure how covering your head with your hands provides protection from a ton of falling debris and flying cows (Remember Helen Hunt in Twister?), but then again I'm no physicist!



And speaking of tornado drills, this last Saturday was the first Saturday of the month. Remember what that means? Yeah, we didn't either! Apparently they're still testing those city wide tornado sirens-- at 8:30 in the morning!