Catching Up

Okay, we've been bad at this (and we keep saying it) but we know people are looking and so we will try to get better at it.

What has happened since February...

Amy is pregnant and is due about Thanksgiving. Yes, we will find out the baby's gender (and share that information when we know it) but no, we will not tell you what we will name the little one.

I am scheduled to go to Montana for work. The trip will be led by Dave Vermilye and we will have 5 kids along. There is a gentleman on Wedgwood's board that has a ranch and we will head out there and experience that and go on a 3 day wilderness hike near Glacier National Park. I'm excited - it's a great opportunity. Amy is not so excited - she thinks it's a great opportunity too but I will be gone for 15 days and, since we've started dating, the longest we've ever been apart is 4.

We put in a retaining wall next to our driveway (with the help of Kevin and my father-in-law, Keith) because the old railroad tie retaining wall was falling apart and falling over. I will do a quick post shortly with before and after photos.

We put in a new garden behind our house. Actually it is an old garden but it was full of plants that we didn't know, so we tore them all out and planted new ones. We'll post a picture of that as well.

There is probably more but nothing is sticking out to me right now. I plan on posting from the Montana trip, it will be easier than sending emails to everyone and clogging inboxes with pictures that you may or may not want to see.

Pete

quick update

We keep promising to be better about posting, but without much luck so far. We did take pictures in the midst of our big snowstorm a few weeks ago...these are from Sunday the 4th as we attempted to shovel our driveway. Pete did the majority of the heavy lifting. After all of the snow we've been getting, there's been a little more talk of getting a snowblower.

You can't really tell from the picture above, but there's a hole in the bumper of my car...yes, we braved the elements on that Saturday and got rear-ended. It was really no one's fault (and the police wouldn't come to the scene - the accident wasn't serious enough), but it means another trip to the body shop for my poor little car. I'm almost afraid to say it, but it just needs to be hit on the back driver's side and then all four sides will have been crunched in my nearly 5 years of ownership (though all of that damage has occured in the last 18 months - yikes!) I've spent more on insurance deductibles than I have on any other repair for this car. On the bright side, I suppose that's a good thing: it's a good car, just accident-prone.

We'll try to be better about posting!

an interesting day

As I drifted off to sleep last night, I had the thought: I don't want to work tomorrow. And when I woke up this morning, I still wasn't feeling all that motivated.

And then it was a stereotypical Monday - things not going right, issues with one of the projects I'm responsible for, etc. I sat at lunch with my co-workers and said, "I just want this day to start over." Then I could have (hopefully) a better attitude and things would just go my way.

And then, over the PA system, came this announcement: "Please evacuate the building immediately." Okay, great - a drill. They happen from time to time.

Several hours, lots of confusion, many fire trucks and one HAZMAT team later, I got my do-over. We got to go home early!

Not to make light of the situation, which hospitalized at least one person, but it was definitely nice to get away from a not-so-great day. Today's events also illustrated the great need for Zondervan/Family Christian Stores to have an emergency plan in place. There really didn't seem to be one. I'm sure we'll have a new policy explained to us soon. In the meantime, we spent a lot of time standing outside and then sitting in a room in an office complex next door until we got the okay to leave.

Here's the scoop:
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6108405

We need to do better PR - FCS hardly gets a mention! :)

history

The death of Gerald R. Ford has been big news around here for the last week or so. And it makes sense - Grand Rapids is his hometown. As a history buff (and a GR native), I've found it fascinating to read the stories, talk to people and learn more about this man. Sure, I've been to the museum a few times, but it's taken these events to bring this man and his life into focus.

President Ford's casket arrived at the airport yesterday, and since my office is so close, a small group of us decided to head to 44th and Patterson to watch Air Force One land, and to see the motorcade.

There were a LOT of people there - and a lot of kids, which I loved. I'm so glad they got to experience this piece of history. We saw the plane land and after about half an hour, the motorcade made its way down the drive from the airport. We were standing in the airport entrance along with several hundred other people. The hearse went by fairly quickly, and then the car with Mrs. Ford and many cars following with various dignitaries (the only one I could easily see was Jimmy Carter). It was solemn, reverent and inspiring to see all of these different people - different ages, backgrounds, races - taking part together in a truly historic moment.

Today, Pete and I waited outside our house to see if we could catch a glimpse of the 21 F-15 fighters as they did the flyover of the final service today - and we did! Granted, they were a little ways off but there's no mistaking the noise.

Listening to and watching the services has been moving - I love the symbolism, the pagentry, the history, the gathering of leaders. But beyond that, I'm continually struck by the fact that while he was a world leader, he was also a husband, a dad, a grandpa, and how both inspirational and difficult it has to be for his family to have this be so public.

And that's my little taste of history...

Nautilus

Just finished a paper model of the Nautilus from "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea." Here is a picture. Sorry it's so dark - our camera is having problems and only occasionally will use the flash.

I still exist

It's been a long time since I posted but I aim to do better. I'm shooting for at least one post a week.

As Amy mentioned, I recently was promoted to the Assistant Supervisor at Crossroads. It gives me more responsibilities (which I am looking forward to) and a couple more evenings at home (which I am also looking forward to.)

I have also dived into a new hobby. It started when I was scheduled to lead an activity at work where we would go shoot off model rockets. I have a number of them and I help guys build their own (it's fun to watch them shoot off their own rockets.) It was not rocket-shooting-off weather that day so the activity became "Build Models with Pete." We only had a limited number of model rockets or plastic model cars and some guys had limited resources to purchase one of the models from us and I wanted everyone to be able to get involved. I had seen some paper models a number of years ago and figured I could find some on the internet to print out and offer for some guys to build. I was blown away by what I found and that I could download them and print them for free! I was hooked. If you want to see what I'm talking about Papertoys.com has some fairly basic models to build, Yamaha Motor has an impressive collection as does The Disney Experience and that is only a taste of what is out there.

dateline: nashville

I'm posting this from a hotel room in lovely Nashville, Tennesee! There is a group of us down here from work for strategy meetings with our big music vendors - Word, EMI and Provident. Each of these companies encompass record labels, who present their new releases to us. We listen to lots of new music and get to do some really fun stuff. Today was our meeting with Provident, and we heard some great new music from both new and established artists. And then we got to have dinner with Michael W. Smith tonight. I grew up with his music, and while I'm not the fan I was when I was 15, it's still a bit of a mind-boggling experience. And let's just say that he's pretty airbrushed on his album covers. :)

While this is a fun trip, I really don't like being away from home. I'm a bit of a homebody to begin with, and I have such a good reason to be home. Plus, Pete just got the exciting news this week that he will be the assistant supervisor of the home he works at, so we won't be able to celebrate until I get home this weekend. I'm so proud of him - it will be a great role for him.

We have one more meeting tomorrow (with Johnny Cash's sister, of all people) and then we're on our way back. Before I left, we put in a lot of work on our entryway (there is paint on the walls!) and we might be able to finish up this weekend. Woo hoo!

good friends

My friends Laura and Jill and Melissa (who took this photo - its quality is not her fault) came over about a week and a half ago to celebrate Laura's return to Spain. She leaves a week from today and will be working with Muslims in Barcelona - just the type of ministry God has gifted her for. I'm so excited for her, but sad she won't be here in GR.

I've know Laura and Jill since junior high - and they've known each other since kindergarten! We've gone from sitting together on the bus in middle school, through the drama that is high school, then supporting each other through all of the change that happens in college to weddings and babies (Jill has four!) and now homeschooling and Spain and new houses. Good times. And there's nothing better than simply sharing conversation, some Chinese food, homemade humus, wine, bread and olive oil on a Friday night. Life makes it a little more difficult to get together as often, but I treasure the times we do.

And I've had the opportunity to reconnect with some college friends lately. Several of us that worked together on our college newspaper are getting together Monday night (somehow, we all ended up in Grand Rapids and found each other after eight or nine years) and my roommate Andrea and I have just gotten back in touch after a few years. I've found that the older I get, the more difficult it is to make these kinds of friends. Maybe it's just the stage of life I'm in right now, and it's fine, but it's not as easy as it was in college and in my early/mid 20s. So I cherish the ones I have, try to stay connected to them, and look forward to the ones that may await.

rainy days and mondays

Yesterday was Monday and yesterday was rainy (VERY rainy), but, to paraphrase The Carpenters, neither of those really got me down. Instead, it was the woman who hit my car.

Yes, after years of accident-free driving, I've now been in two in the last 15 months. The one last year was my fault. Yesterday's (fortunately for me) was not. First, the good news: no one was injured. The bad news: my car is in the body shop for its second round of body work in 15 months. Soon, the entire front end will be brand new!

So I was headed toward work yesterday morning when a car in front of me slowed to turn into a health club on Burton. I slowed down too, since that's what you should do. There was a car waiting to turn out of the same parking lot. She later said she thought I was turning as well (though I can't figure out why - I didn't have my turn signal on). So car in front of me turns in, I start to accelerate, and so does the car coming out of the parking lot. And it accelerated into my passenger side. There's nothing quite like that sound of metal smashing against metal.

It's truly providential that on a dark, rainy morning, the accident was not any worse, the police officer was friendly, the tow truck drive was friendly, and the woman that hit me was extremely apologetic. And my gem of a husband was able to drive over and comfort me, give me a ride to the body shop and then a ride to work.

No pictures of the car to post - we'll just look forward to it looking as good as new.

my favorites

In lieu of another boring life update, I thought I'd post a list of some of my favorite blogs, especially since I can't figure out how to post the links on our blog template.

1. The Corner at NationalReview.com
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
This is a group blog on the electronic side of the political magazine National Review. They are all conservative politically, but what I appreciate is that they are thoughtful - not knee jerk. And it's a wide spectrum of people - a few athiest/agnostics, several Catholics, a few Jews and a handful of evangelical Christians. Some are employed by National Review, others with think tanks, the government, etc. One guy is a producer on the TV Show "According to Jim." And it's not all politics on this blog. Lots of interesting links. I have to admit - I check it at work at least once a day (don't tell anyone!) :)

2. Andrew Osenga - independent artist living in Nashville
http://www.andrewosenga.com/blog/
Andrew used to be the frontman for a band called The Normals - not your typical "Yeah God" Christian music. They have disbanded, and Andrew now plays with Caedmon's Call in addition to his solo shows and albums. He's also part of a community of independent Christian artists called the Square Peg Alliance, which also includes Andrew Peterson, a top favorite of both Pete and me. I'm going to Nasvhille for work next month and I'd love to check out a Square Peg show if I could (doubtful that would happen, but it's worth trying!)

3. My cousin Rachel
www.scottandrach.blogspot.com
It's a great way to keep up on my cousin Rachel's doings all the way over on the east side of the state. And congratulations again on your fantastic news! (Read her blog to find out what it is).

4. Following Austen - by Lori Smith
www.followingausten.blogspot.com
I stumbled upon this blog via AustenBlog and was hooked. Her posting has been spotty lately due to a battle with Lyme Disease, but she's a great writer and will have a book out soon about her summer following Jane Austen around England (my dream trip someday!)

There are others I randomly read, but those are the four I probably read the most. Follow the links and have some fun!