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I joined Facebook today. :)

Well that was quick

Jeremy goes back to work tomorrow. Just one day off. It's funny, but we're both a little bit disappointed. We really didn't want it to last long, but laying in bed last night, we made some big plans for stuff that we could get done while he was laid off.

good news bad news

Good news first. Jess & I have planned a trip to visit my friend Julie in Wisconsin in October. We're taking the ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee. Julie will pick us up there & take us to Madison where she lives with her fiance, John. Our hosts should be thrilled to discover what great fans Jess & I are of beer & cheese. All right Wisconsin! :)
So let's hear it for the bad news...Rah! Okay, so it's not so "rah". Jeremy was laid off today. We expected it to happen if the GM strike lasted very long. It just happened so much faster than I anticipated.
Jess & I bought our tickets this morning, Jeremy was laid off this evening. Maybe not the best timing for a trip, hopefully the strike will be short.
In related news, Jeremy has committed to working on the window re-glazing project during the layoff.
I guess it's all kind of good news, bad news, huh?

OCD

Jeremy bought a new canister vacuum this morning. The excitement that I am feeling about this new vacuum is not normal. I'm sitting here at work, excited for five o'clock so that I can get home & vacuum. Honestly, there is something wrong with me. ;)

Happy Labor Day Weekend

I spent last night having dinner & drinks on the patio at the Harrison Roadhouse with my good friends Ryan & Jess. There were a few times that Jess and I laughed so hard that we snorted. Yes, we snorted in public & more than once. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the three LARGE Newcastle that I drank. ;)
I'm getting picked up this morning at about nine to head to the beach. We're heading to my parent's house on Lake Michigan. Leisa (seven months pregnant/wearing a bikini) and her son Jasper (the soccer star), and our friend Kristen are picking me up & we'll head west. Two other couples are coming, one bringing their daughter & the other their dog.
It should be a really nice day on the beach. The weather is supposed to be wonderful all weekend, upper 70's to low 80's and sunny.
My friends are all coming for the day & leaving me there, so I have the night to myself until my husband drives over after he gets out of work tonight. YAY!
I think my sisters will probably end up on the beach with us at some point too.
Hope everyone has a safe & fun weekend.

Practice

Last night I attended the first soccer practice of my friend's son's team. He is four years old. The team is 4's & 5's. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
I would bet that you can pretty accurately picture four year olds on a soccer team. A few of the kids were 5 & had probably played last year, but again, they're still FIVE! The four year olds however were HYSTERICAL. If you ever have the opportunity to do this, please do. It's just about the funniest damned thing to watch.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Work has been busy, but is slowing down & house projects are the one thing we seem to have in abundance. I'll post some pictures of our latest project soon.

Minnesota Pictures

 

 

I've finally downloaded some pictures from our visit with my brother & his family in Edina.

The first is the sunset over Lake Minnetonka on the 4th of July. It was a great night, perfect weather, good tunes, great boat, sleepy kids & we were almost directly under the fireworks.
The second is Jeremy & I in front of my brother's house on our 2 year anniversary. This is just before we were treated to a fabulous Thai dinner in Minneapolis.

In other news, in less than 24 hours I'll be camping with some of my favorite girlfriends for the weekend. I'm so excited! :)

This is not the project I meant to start

Today I decided to wash windows. Our house was built in the 40's, and has the original double hung windows with storm windows on the outside. I knew this would be a pretty big project with having to wash inside & outside, plus to take the storms down & wash them inside & out.
I got the storms down & decided to start with a blast from the hose on the outside of the window to get off the major grime (they were really dirty). The putty that holds the glass in began falling off in huge chunks. I now know why the previous owner didn't wash the windows.
Sooooo, I'll be doing these windows one at a time. I'll now be scraping & reglazing the windows & then washing them. Window number one is scraped & primed with linseed oil, the putty is next. Wish me luck.

Long time no post

The month since my last post has been incredibly busy & supremely wonderful. It's just so great to live in town. There isn't one thing I miss about St. Johns.
In the past month we've packed, weeded out tons of stuff while we packed, moved (with the help of 13 wonderful people & an enormous truck), unpacked, weeded out tons more while we unpacked, had an all-day yard work party with my mom & sister, organized, had two overnight guests already, went to Grand Haven for my niece Hadley's high school graduation, had my 93 year old grandpa here to visit TWICE (YAY), had a few small backyard parties, flew to Minnesota to visit my brother & his family, celebrated our two year anniversary, enjoyed friends stopping by while we work (a welcome reminder to stop working & drink a beer), done what feels like a gazillion small indoor & outdoor home improvement type projects, made 9 or 10 trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Menards, and I was even able to have a girl's night with my Lansing girl's group!
Jeremy & I have learned (after nine years) that we can be pretty damned good at doing projects together. Now that it's OUR house, the work just seems so much more worthwhile. We've been pleasantly surprised at how well we're getting along as we put together storage racks, hang blinds, etc.
Soooooo all in all, home ownership is starting out well. There's a ton more to do, but I'm trying to tell my obsessive compulsive self to slow down, we have plenty of time. ;)

Still packing....

and moving in on SATURDAY! YAY!

Closing

Closing is set for Thursday at 10 am. I can't wait to get the keys!

So far so good.

We applied for our mortgage today & we removed the home inspection contingency from our offer. The inspection went really well on Friday. We had already done a pre-approval on our mortgage, so it should go fairly quickly. We're shooting for a mid June closing date.
It feels like this is all happening so fast, it's overwhelming in so many ways. On the other hand, we're so excited to get into the house that it can't happen fast enough!

Home sweet home?

We are well on our way to finally becoming homeowners.
The house inspection is on Friday. As long as there are no major surprises in the inspection, we should close mid June.
The house is in Lansing, just a few blocks from Ryan & Jess, and just a few more blocks more to Nick & Kelli's. We're so excited, nervous & nauseous, but excited!
Oh & hey, any suggestions for what color to paint the shutters? They're a dull gray now.

Speechless

I have been unable to comment on Traci's post from Wednesday. At first it was that I couldn't figure out where to start, and then nothing I wrote seemed to be enough.
I really was speechless.
To simply say that I was touched or to say thank you in a comment seemed inadequate. Instead we've emailed back and forth about it.

Traci's generousity of spirit is amazing. Here, with her permission, is part of her reply to my thank you...

"Somedays, when you wonder why life has thrown you curve balls, you need to reflect back on what you have learned from all those thrown at you.
In seeing what an influence you had on my life, it can also reflect on the influence you have on all your friends and family.
When the guilt of living,the days when Sarah enters your mind, remember what you gave her while she was here. And cherish it. Those are the moments and things in life that we remember."

I told Jess today, "that Traci, she's a thinker".
I am not always a thinker. I mean, I reflect, but I don't really dissect things, I can be more of a guy in that regard. Mostly life is good, and as long as it stays on track, I don't mess with it. Of course doing it my way means that when life throws you a whammy, and you have to stop and examine things, it's that much harder.
I do think that's part of why my cousin Sarah's death hit me so hard. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my relationships. Sometimes I honestly can't believe how hard this is. I know it's been hard for so many people & certainly harder for some than for me, but I just can't believe how sad I am about losing her, and how much I miss her.
As I've said here before, I do treasure my friendships, and I appreciate all of the support I've been given. There are two things I say a lot, and I'll say them again. Thank you & I love you.

Sunshine!

YAY Sunshine! This morning when I left for work, I could hardly see from all of the bright, happy, sun-shiney sun in my eyes.
Jeremy & I were leaving the house at the same time today. I pulled out of the driveway & then looked back at the house to yell goodbye to him, it was so sunny my eyes were watering. It's hard to adjust after so many gloomy, snowy, dismal days.
It makes me so happy, I could cry.

So...who thinks a home phone is stupid now?

I was in such a rush to get out of the office today that I left my cell phone on the corner of my desk. It's a 20 - 25 minute drive back to my office in Lansing & I only realized this as I was pulling into my garage. I won't return to get it, but I hate knowing that I don't have it. Not that I generally receive soooo many calls, or that I often have calls that are of huge importance, but I feel so cut off.

Jeremy is working, which means I won't even be able to use his phone to check messages until he gets home from work. That's at about 11:30 tonight, by which time I'll be fast asleep, so I won't actually check messages until I get up tomorrow morning.

We cancelled our home phone at least two years ago & I've never done this before. So, nobody can do anything tonight that requires my immediate assistance, nobody get hurt, nobody die, nobody do nothin', all right?

Is it just me?

I am just floored by some of the email that is forwarded to me.
It's partly the content of the email itself, but mostly it's that someone is reading this email & thinks, "huh, I think I'll forward this to Amy (or Jeremy)".
Yesterday we received one that we've gotten before. It's falsely attributed to Andy Rooney & it is a long, bitter, racist, sexist, and downright nasty diatribe. The subject line was 'This is Great... Forward it'. Hopefully none of you have had someone send it to you, it is absolutely ridiculous.
Others that I get are in support of prayer in school, an end to affirmative action, a call to arms for anti-abortion activists, the proud to be an American screw-you-if-you-don't-agree war rants, etc. I don't get it.
Granted, none of these are from my friends. They're usually from my co-workers in other branches in the company I work for, or from Jeremy's co-workers. Every once in a while I get one from someone that I really like though.
Am I the only one who gets these? Is it that I don't articulate my stance on issues?
I guess if you don't know someone well, maybe you don't know where they stand, but if I don't know someone well, I don't forward crap to them.

Welcome

I've added a few links lately. Traci & Kelly have blogs now, so check them out. :) Can't wait to see you two chicks on Friday, I hope Abby is ready for this invasion. We will have a blast. We all really need this night together. It's awesome that Amy is coming too!
Also we have a "gurls" weekend with my Lansing friends planned in West Olive the weekend of February 23rd. We'll probably head out to the bar or downtown GH shopping, so if any of you chicks over there are free that weekend, maybe we can merge my "chicks" group with my "gurls" group!
Can you imagine?
Total chaos!

Not sure where this is going

I just have not been able to get back into posting. I've decided to just make myself do it today so here goes...
I added links to two of my long time friends websites today. Traci I've known since kindergarden, so that's about thirty years. Abby moved to our hometown (in West Michigan) in 8th or 9th grade, so about twenty years? Correct me will you Abby?
There are about seven of us women (me, Kelly, Traci, Angie, Abby, Michelle, Char) from our hometown who have known each other longer than our husbands, boyfriends, coworkers, and most of our every day friends have. We try to get together once every few months for a girl's night, and we have a night planned for one week from today.
I was back home this week for Kelly's father-in-law's funeral. In the midst of such sorrow, I am amazed by how quickly we fall back into such easy laughter and joy in each other.
After the tragic death in my family this fall, I feel a deep appreciation for all of my friends and family back home and here in Lansing. I am thankful for the support everyone offered me in November and the support you continue to offer to me as I struggle with Sarah's death.
I am thankful for all of you who endure my endless stories about her, allow me to cry, and offer to help me through this in so many ways.
Thank you.