What a Week

It's official. Up to this point Mike has taken care of everything to do with the tenant we have in White Pigeon. This time while he is gone it is all up to me. And what a time to take over. 3 days before Mike left, we got a call from our tenant saying he was moving out over the weekend. So, today I get the keys, then go in to fix things up (only cosmetic damage, Mike will do a couple of other things when he gets home), and tommorow I am showing to a prospective tenant. I've done enough interviews in my 20 year McDonalds career that I have a pretty good sense of people, and my first impressions in an interview are usually right. The times I talked myself into hiring someone who I first thought "no" on almost always made me kick myself. We will interview people together when Mike gets home.

So, with a week of lake effect snow coming, and up to 2 feet of snow-Mom and Dad, quit gloating that you are not here!! (We are moving to Elkhart county, and they are in the lake effect watch, St. Joe MI is not. We will be staying in Sturgis most of this time to avoid the worst- boys go back to school on Monday) we are getting ready for the bad weather. Today will bring a trip to the grocery store - just in case. I will talk to our Middlebury tenant so she can let me know what is going on there, plus I am working in White Pigeon. We are ringing in the New Year in Middlebury.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Not a Great Time To Be Flying

I think everyone saw on the news the story of the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack. Unfortunate timing to be sure with Mike flying out the following day. I was joking with Mike that every passenger would have a full body search at the airport. Now I see that everyone flying into the USA will have at least one pat down. Guess it's good that everyone is on alert.

Well, Mike has arrived safely in Xiamen, China. His business partners over there have taken him out to make him feel welcome - he called home yesterday after a night on the town, already feeling awful. Apparently they drink A LOT of rice wine when they go out. He's called home several times since he left.

I think he planned this timing. I have 2 houses to "Un-decorate" while he is gone, both inside and out. He was "Grinchy" putting it up, I imagine taking it down would be worse.

Next stop - China

Well, I took Mike to the airport today to head off to the other side of the world. His plane took off from Kalamazoo at 1:30. He called me at 3 to tell me he was sitting on the plane in Detroit that will deliver him to Shanghai. He will arrive there tomorrow morning between 8 and 9 AM. With all the time zones he crosses, it will be between 8 and 9 PM in China. They are 12 hours ahead of us. He will then spend the night in Shanghai and get on a plane the following morning to head for Xiamen - his final destination. I do worry a little when he flies so far, but he really enjoys it, and it is warm there, should have temps in the 70's. On a happy note for all of you, Mike will try to post pictures and comments on our blog from China to keep everyone informed about what he is doing. The cats and I will now head off to bed - one is purring at my feet and one snoring (who knew cats can snore almost as loud as people) under the bed. This is going to be a long 2 weeks.

Merry Chirstmas

This morning is Christmas Eve Day, and before we get too far into the holidays, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope this holiday finds everyone happy and healthy and with loved ones. We are going to try to spend time relaxing and enjoying eachother before the bustle begins this evening with trying to get (Mike) out the door on time for church.

Merry Chirstmas

Winter Wonderland

The boys are really enjoying the snow this year. Saturday was the first accumulating snow of the year, and the boys were out in the afternoon and evening building snow forts. Then Sunday we made a trip back to Sturgis to pick up a few things and make sure the cats had plenty of food and water. We brought the sleds to Middlebury on Sunday too. The boys have been outside every chance they get on those sleds. In Sturgis our house is inside the city limits and our yard is totally flat. But here in Middlebury, we have a small mountain range of hills in our yard. I think they have tried out every one of them trying to find the best one to sled down. Unfortuantely, the best one seems to be down the driveway. (See the candy cane post - by the way, today I still can not get my car up the hill to park and that is with 4-wheel drive - it's just too slippery) Our fingers are crossed for a white Christmas on Friday - we may get rain on Thursday and above freezing temperatures.

Cars 4 / Candy Canes 0

So, part of my Christmas decorating in Middlebury included unlighted candy canes edging the driveway. Within the first week, Mike hit a patch of mud backing down the hill of our driveway and took out the first candy cane. The UPS lady got the next one delivering packages. Yesterday we got very wet snow - great for the snow forts the boys started building, bad for driveways. We made a trip to Elkhart today to run errands. When we came home, Mike began sliding around as he accelerated up the driveway hill. I asked him to stop and let me and the boys out so someone would be alert to call 911 when he slid off the drive and rolled the Trail Blazer off the side of the hill. He laughed, but out we got. As Mike kept trying to park on top of the hill, he kept sliding, ever closer to the edge of the drive to go sideways off the hill. He managed to stop and asked Steve to come get one of the candy canes so the car did not take out another one. Unfortunately, the slippery drive was also very slippery walking and Steve did a body slam on to candy cane casualty number 3. As Mike continued to slide down the drive (literally, breaks on, no tires moving and he still slid back down the hill about 30 feet) number 4 was crushed into several tiny pieces. We have about a week left until Christmas, and 8 candy canes remaining. Wonder how many I will have to pack up and re-use for next year. Mike wants to begin a pool - the person coming closest to the actual number of candy canes left by December 26, without going over wins.....all the ones that are left

Boys Will Be Boys

Let me take you back a bit. For my high school graduation, many, many years ago, my cousin made me beautiful figurines for a Nativity Scene. My Grandfather made me the manger to go with it. It does however take up a lot of space. So when I decorated here in Middlebury, the perfect place was to clear off the top of the entertainment center and place it there. In the evenings here it is very peaceful to light up the Nativity, turn on the tree and be together as a family.

So tonight my Darling Husband decided was the night to hook up the surround sound to the livingroom TV. Now he has had this system just waiting to be installed ever since I have known him. The living room made it's final move this last month to an arrangement we are both happy with, so the TV made the big transformation tonight. (Does surround sound REALLY have to be turned up so loud?) My Darling Husband used my Darling Oldest Son to help with the hook up, they messed with sound, color, and speaker arrangement, then put in a Harry Potter movie to check out how well it is working. The 2 Darling Boys and 1 Darling Husband are very impressed with the whole system.

So, now that they are done with the installation and are watching (and listening to) Harry Potter I have a chance to check out the speaker system. One behind the couch, one on the window sill, and 3 on top the entertainment center sharing space with the Baby Jesus. Do Mary and Joseph really need to share the barn with the animals and speakers larger than they are? Somehow I don't think the angels sang the good news this way.

Wedding Photos

After 4 months of marriage, I am finally getting around to doing something with the pictures. This is one of both of our favorites, taken by a close family friend after the ceremony at a local park. I've finally printed an album. I made a photo CD. After I am done here today I am loading images from the wedding and the honeymoon onto a photo frame for Mike to take with him to China.

It's coming

Christmas that is. Yes, I know this day comes around every year. This year it is coming too fast. Not the holiday. Shopping is done. Gifts are wrapped and ready to go. I am not ready for the year to be over. There is too much that still needs to be done before the year is out. Jobs that must be done to protect the apartment over the garage from the winter, jobs that must be done in the Middlebury house before we move in permanently in January, jobs that must be done before Mike leaves for China on December 26th. That's right, in the middle of all our holiday chaios, Coachmen has re-implemented it's business in China and Mike has been asked to return. He will be gone for at least 2 weeks. For those of you who know what a planner I am and how unexpected developements throw me for a loop, this puts a big kink in our plans. We will manage, and I know things will be fine. I have a long list of people in Middlebury I can call should I have an unexpected emergency. I have plenty of friends in Sturgis should something happen here. Oh well, wish us luck in getting every thing done before Mike leaves for China.

the ex-grinch

Many of you know that Christmas is my favorite time of year. Some of you also know that Pete loves Christmas as much as I do. It's the whole package that I love - the carols, the good-will, the lights and decorations. Yeah, especially the lights and decorations. Normally I go all out in my decorating. My old house on Prospect St. even made it into the Kalamazoo Gazette one year (I walked out to see why there was a man in my driveway taking pictures of my house to find out he was a Gazette photographer taking pictures of well decorated homes. I later got the picture mailed to me after that edition was published.) Ususally the decorating begins the week before Thanksgiving (a week I am traditionally on vacation) and takes at least a week to complete. This year is very unusual. We are living in 2 houses - Sturgis and Middlebury. I did not want to go all out at Sturgis, hopefully it sells. We are going to spend the holidays in Middlebury, but no room to store the decorations and I did not want to bring them here just to take them back to Sturgis. So this year we are understated in our usual decore. So I thought.

Mike on the other hand can not remember the last time he even put up a Christmas tree. Let alone decorated any part of the house or yard. Last week he helped me to hang garland (I should have known how little decorating he has done when I had to explain to him what garland is - "oh, the rope stuff". He has admitted that the house looks nice, the lighted garland is a nice touch and called himself a reformed grinch.

A couple of weeks ago my parents were here helping to hang cupboards in the new kitchen. Mom was looking out the window when she noticed that the Amish man from across the street who fences off an area of our yard to pasture horses was out taking down the fence for the winter with his young son (about 5 years old I think). I saw the boy checking out the decorations while he pulled out fence posts. My mom saw the dad checking them out. She said he looked as if he could not quite belive what he saw, and a couple of times did a double take. Have I mentioned yet that we are the last English house before the Amish neighborhood begins? Not many other decorations out here.

Winter is Here!!

So, yesterday morning the boys were sure there would not be school. When they left school the day before even the teachers were speculating with the kids on if they would be attending. So, good mom that I am, I set my alarm to get up a half hour early to watch the school closings and would turn off the boys alarms so they could sleep in if they were cancelled. By 6 AM, only one area school closed - Three Rivers. Then Mendon was added to the list. Lake Area Christian too - they were getting closer to Sturgis. No such luck for the boys, Sturgis went as scheduled. Now it was bitterly cold with 7 degree air temps and below zero wind chills with the fierce winds, so I took Steve to school instead of having him walk. ("But why do I need a scarf? My jacket comes over my chin. What do you mean do I want to wear my boots? There's not much snow.") Pete only walks a couple blocks to the bus stop and chose to still ride the bus even though I offered to take him to school too. He whined much less about the required winter wear ("I get to wear my new boots today? OK.) Of course he still has recess and Steve does not. Fast forward now to the end of the school day. I saw Steve walking to the door and opened it before he had time to get out his key. "I'm so glad you made me wear my scarf, Mom, I'm freezing." I then got to tell him something he has a hard time believing lately - Hmmmm, Mom does know what she is talking about."

This morning Steve left with boots, scarf, heavy gloves and a new hat. I did not even have to tell him.

Hello

Hello. I have decided that since my sister lives 2 hours away and my parents are traveling all the time, I too will begin to blog. After all, I have been told several times when it comes to technology, I need to join the 21st century. So, after a busy morning of making cheese balls, molasses cookies, and fudge for the family Christmas this weekend, I designed my blog. The children have headed off to school (yeah), and so far we have side-stepped the freezing rain and ice that was predicted to come last night. Darling Husband stayed in the Middlebury house last night while Darling Boys and I stayed in Sturgis so that everyone was in the town they needed to be in and not have to drive a half hour this morning. I will be so happy when we move to one home and are all under one roof all the time.

Yesterday Mike came home from lunch and declared that we were finally going to move around the furnature in the living room to set it all up the way I want to try it - wow what a diffference. I feel like we have so much more room. The new kitchen is still a work in progress. We still have 2 cablinets to install, but are waiting on a piece from the home imporvement store to finish. Mike has committed to get it completely done by Christmas since I have invited the in-laws over for Christmas lunch.