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!