Beautiful Michigan

Here are some images from this spring and the few days of summer so far! Michigan certainly is a beautiful and diverse state, with some great wildlife (big and small).


























This frog is so well disguised in the swamp water!

And look at that spectacular little bloom in the beauty of the waxy leaves.



This is the main street of "downtown" Mackinac Island (no motorized vehicles allowed on the island). Nice to cross the street without being worried about crazy drivers, crossing lights, or a car coming around the corner.







Last, but certainly not least, a beautiful view of Lake Huron, just before it meets Lake Michigan at the Straits of Mackinaw (the Mackinaw Bridge is not in the photo but is located just to the right of where the photo ends. A ferry can be seen shuttling between Mackinac Island and the mainland (white wake).



I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far!

China Update

Our friends made it safely to China, met their new daughter and today officially signed the adoption papers! It was wonderful to read of their good fortune (on their blog!) and also to see pictures of the family together. I am so grateful they have chosen to share their journey with all of us back here that wish we could be with them and can't wait to meet the new little one!

New $5 Bill

I was reading another blog (K1!) and saw this - so I copied it! It cracked me up! Enjoy the weekend everybody!

A Journey of Faith, Hope, and Love

Friday morning, friends of ours will leave for China, where they will adopt their fifth child. (Yes, you read that correctly, 5 children!) The whole family is going. Their children are ages 17, 15, 13, and 2 1/2. The oldest three are boys, the youngest, a girl. They are adopting a year and a half old girl from China. If you pray, please pray for them, their safety, and for their new daughter (Elizabeth). China has experienced a year without compare - a record setting cold, snowy winter with massive power outages, a huge earthquake with aftershocks leaving tens of thousands dead and millions homeless, and now flooding on a scale I cannot even imagine. Add to that China hosting the olympic games in August! The Chinese certainly have their hands more than full at this time.

Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers that their travel will go well and that Elizabeth will transition to family life (in a different language) quickly. Also keep her and her new family in mind as Elizabeth may have health problems - pray that she will receive a positive outlook when examined by pediatric specialists in the US!




It's tough enough to travel with 2 kids - I can only imagine traveling with 4 and then 5! Packing has got to be a nightmare! (As will the laundry be upon their return home.) Adding a new life to a family is always exciting! I can't wait to meet Elizabeth and welcome them all home!

FIESTA!

On Saturday, the boys took the ACT. That pretty much made them feel fried for the rest of the day! Later on, we went to a Mexican Fiesta at Egypt Valley with Joel and Laura. Here's a photo of the band (from across the pool) and a photo of the 4 of us wondering what strangers would be seated at our table!

Look who it was! Ben and Lisa showed up and we enjoyed their company immensely. Here, we were all serenaded by the Mariachis! The food was good and the "special drink" that had no name was enjoyed by all. I thought it tasted rather like Koolaid and vodka. A storm was blowing in, so we all headed home. I understand a number of people lost power in Grand Rapids. We did momentarily, but (thankfully!) it came back on and all we had to do was reset clocks, restart computers, etc. Much easier than dealing with no power for an extended period of time. We think the secret is the generator we bought. We used to lose power quite often, and usually for days at a time. The longest was 5 days in the middle of winter - we kept the fire on just to stop the pipes from freezing! Well, a few years ago, we got sick of the power outages and spent a pretty penny on a generator, as well as the electrician to rewire with a hook-up just outside the back door, so that it will power most of the house, and of course all the major appliances (like the washer!). We haven't lost power even once since we did that!!

Another Cool Car

We spotted this car on our trip to Saginaw. It had a classic car plate which said 1934, but I'm not sure of the year! I just know it's an old Roadster. I loved the tangerine color!

Grandma and Grandpa were doing well. We all went out for lunch, which was great. Afterwards we went back to their house and chatted for a while. The trip there was awful! I couldn't believe every road I tried had construction and was down to 1 lane - I-96, I-69, M-57... the normally 2 hours, 10 minute trip took 3 hours. The way home was a little better; I stayed on back roads and made it home in 2 hours 25 minutes!

On a side note, I've been working steadily on my dissertation - a little bit every day. I still haven't gotten the push to spend hours and hours in one sitting, but I keep thinking every little bit adds up!!

Summer Break!!

School is finally done for the boys! Yesterday was the last day. Both boys have summer jobs. That's a good thing because they'll have some spending money for movies, mini-golf, etc. but also because Harrison plans to buy a car this summer. He and I spotted this modified truck-part-boat vehicle yesterday and started talking about all the unusual vehicles we see around the Grand Rapids area. We decided it would be fun to take pictures of as many of them as possible this summer and post them! Unfortunately, we missed one today - it was a DeLorean but driving too fast to snap a photo! I like this boatmobile better, anyway!

I think we're finally past the terrible storms (well, we do have rain predicted tomorrow!). We had quite a few big storms over the past week. We lost our internet service Sunday and got it back last night. I've been looking at pictures in the local news of all the damage - so many roads washed out! I'm thankful we didn't have any damage, other than my printer/fax/scanner machine is fried from the power surge. I'll have to get a new one soon. Tomorrow we're going to Saginaw to celebrate Father's Day with Grandpa Roy and Grandma Gloria.

Strange June Day

My sister's birthday is June 3. I can remember, as a kid, my mom always trying to have at least one of her 50 rosh bushes develop a rosebud that she could force open (in a vase) for my sister's birthday! Well, lo and behold, June 3 I toured our yard and found one bush with 2 buds. I left them so they develop and bloom naturally, however! I only have about 15 roses though.

The day started kind of chilly and overcast, turned to windy and thunderstorming with lots of rain, then amazingly humid and warm. I walked this afternoon and felt generally damp, much like the feeling of being in a tropical jungle, such as in Southern Mexico or the Amazon region. Yesterday, we barely made the 60's and tomorrow we're supposed to top 90. Very strange weather for June!

To the right is a butterfly (or maybe its a moth, I really don't know) I noticed when leaving the foot and ankle specialist's office. I had to drop off Clayton's sandals to be re-built to mimic the orthodics he has for closed shoes. He was in a cast for about 5 weeks and will need the orthodics for at least a year. Anyway, it was a lovely surprise to find this blue beauty just outside the door! If anyone knows what this butterfly is, I'd like to know. I tried looking it up by searching "butterflies," "Michigan butterflies," and "Michigan butterflies and moths," but have had no success as yet. Later on.... this is the closest I can find: http://bugguide.net/node/view/38193

Another Championship!

Well, another championship! The Spring Varsity team won the spring championship today ... what a year for Harrison; two championships in one year! First, the Forest Hills Northern/Eastern Combined JV and now the FHNE Combined Varsity Spring! Here are some photos of the action. The first you see Harrison going in after the puck (black jersey, down low on right side of picture). Next - I just like the photo - is Harrison watching the puck come down ice. He's standing upright in directly right of the ref.

This next photo was too precious to not post! Here's Harrison sitting in the penalty box watching the play. It was a good penalty as he prevented the other team from scoring. He spends very little time in the box, so I thought I had better catch this shot while he was in there! The next photo is just a shot of passing up the puck.

Last, the trophy! You'll most likely need to look closely, but it's there and pretty big! This was a really fun game to watch against East Grand Rapids as the teams were well matched, very even, equal teams. It was very exciting! The rink was also very, very cold today!! I put on a winter coat and two blankets!