Guys' Night

So Allison and Kelly went out to some girls party tonight (still not back at 10:12...which is late for both of them...so must have been good). Well, Bri and I decided to make a good time of our time without the girls. Our first stop was the fitness center. Really, I swim laps while Bri makes due with the kid area, which includes a water slide, river walk, whirl pool, and one of those bucket dump things...he has it pretty rough. I was excited to get front row parking there, we usually have quite the hike to get in, can you believe having to walk to go work out! So, we get into the locker room and I look at Bri, who usually has our stuff in the back back and ask, "Where's the back back?" "Back back? Whoops?" comes the reply. "So it's in the car? Where's our suits then?" "In the back pack," comes the reply from the dad next to us, laughing at us. So...much for the short walk in today.

Good time swimming though. I think I finally have a pair of goggles that don't fill up with water...which is nice because I was beginning to believe, due to past performance of several pair, that I misunderstood the purpose of goggles. So a little sore (at least for me, Bri piped up that he was not) we left the fitness center. I gave him the choice of dinner out or Monopoly (his choice of game lately) at home. He chose that we could pick-up dinner at Wendy's and go home and play Monopoly :) Wendy's was good, but I wouldn't recommend their new Ranch Fries...not exactly a winner on that one. However, after a back and forth game of Monopoly I still managed to prevail and regain some dignity (he won the last one). I'm just thankful for the speed die that keeps the game to a reasonable time, by reasonable I mean two hours.

Half a chapter of Narnia and the kid is off to bed. I thought he would have crashed quickly, but he just responded to my question of, "You still awake?" With a quick, "Yes, dad!", so guess I was wrong. Narnia has been great though. We are on the 7th book (thanks for the gift Ron) on the second time through them. CS Lewis is a genius author. The kids love them and they are packed full of great lessons!

That's about it for now, bug Allie and hopefully she can tell you about her evening!

Crazy Weekend

Ok, so I guess that I shouldn't really complain, my in-laws in Minnesota said they woke up to below freezing temperatures already this fall...but it was 39 degrees this morning. I had not realized how much we had adjusted to South Carolina until these last  few days.

So I didn't get to watch Michigan State play yesterday. I heard that it wasn't pretty, but a win is a win...plus it was over Ohio State. So that was good. We were on our way to a picnic with a bunch of people from our neighborhood. Wow was that cold...but it worked out pretty well. It wasn't raining (which it had for the past three days...the Tigers game even got rained out on Friday), but the wind was pretty strong. It stayed that way through dinner and during the message (which was outstanding), but it died down right before the hayride and everything felt a lot warmer then. It may also have been b/c it was a great hayrides...or rather hayrides...as there were two tractors and wagons. They kept leapfrogging each other or even driving in loops and going past each other...which led to some pretty good hay battles between the wagons. They even stopped at one point so we could just get off and throw hay at each other, although that led to a little less comfortable ride on the way back. Brian's comment, "That was fun, but boy is that hay itchy." I believe we will be finding a hay around our house for quite sometime. Too bad the Tigers couldn't pull out the win.

Today was more sports day. First up was Brian's soccer game. The weather was beautiful, the play...not quite so much. Brian's team does a great job when the ball comes to them, they just don't seem to motivated to run any distance to get it. I think the best was when they they made a great stop and the ball got kicked into an open area of the field and not one kid ran to get it...they just stood there. It was comical to watch the coaches and parents encouraging the kids...to no avail...to run and get the ball. I admit my bias, but I was happy to see that Brian hustled well...which I appreciate b/c that is about the only skill I have in sports. Then I get to watch a crazy comeback by the lions, get beat in Wii bowling by my son, and now am relaxing while watching some goofy offensive efforts by the jets and ravens (4 turnovers returned for touchdowns at this point).

Fun quotes from Kelly, in response to me saying she is getting pretty big, "Yeah, that's b/c I'm almost 7". For those of you counting, and knowing she is five and her birthday isn't til May, she followed this up with, "I'm almost six and then I'll soon be seven."
After a several minute discussion with the neighbors about how old their 9 mo. old baby is, she has now determined that he is zero.

Allie's Adventures

Allie's Adventures:

So to make friends in our new town, I'm trying some different methods. We went swimming at the Community Center we've recently joined and I decided to try and lock my keys in a locker there.  I didn't actually realize I had left the keys in the locker until Kel & I went into the locker room after swimming.  That's when I looked at her and asked "Who has the key?"  She shrugs an "I don't know" and it hits me that the keys are in the bottom of the bag that I nicely placed in our locker & locked up before we went swimming. As a result, I met several of the lifeguards on staff, including one very strong young woman who was able to cut off our lock with a pair of bolt cutters.  Hopefully she can be a role model for my daughter. We also met several people in the locker room as we drew a crowd with our escapades.

My next attempt at locking the locker was also not very successful.I bought some glow-dial combination locks on clearance at MC Sports, because hey, they were on clearance.  Well, unfortunately, the U part of the lock proved to be a tad bit too long for the locker, so I had to jam it in there and pry it out, all the while crushing my fingers to lock my lock.  My husband has simply shaken his head and wondering why I didn't just buy a regular ol' combination lock. I tried to explain, "but they were on CLEARANCE."  He just didn't get it.  Maybe next week I'll fare better against the lockers.

trip to michigan

this is brian writing today about our trip to michigan we left at 10:00 a.m. now my dad made a joke about me driving it was funny and it is 10:34 a.m. i made a light by reflecting the sun off the phone i am hungry we are on the highway and people keep calling and interupting my bloging my dad told me to get the phone charger when we stop we are going to stop in a few minuites now i feel starving my mom and sister are in the car in front of us me and my dad are in the penske truck and are at exit 65 and are getting off at this exit to get a snack it is 10:55 then we went to mickyd's and now we are on the road sorry i gotta go now bye.hi again i had got to the hotel that we were staying in and went swimming and i pushed my mom in as a joke and we ate a continental brekfast then we packed up and no we are on the road it is 1:08 riight now and we wil be in michigan at 2:14 i am wearing the army hat my uncle ron gave me (he is in the army) we are at exit 71 and exiting there

Classes Update

So Allie and I just finished up our summer classes. For her, she had a quite challenging one, but she persevered well and I think learned quite a bit (I'll leave that for her to share). For me, yes I did walk in May, but I had one internship credit left to do and finished that up on Friday. So that means that I officially have now finished all requirements for my degree! Allie should hopefully follow soon as she has just one more course to complete her certificate. She is thinking of taking a break this fall as we get things together for our next step, but hopefully next spring or summer should see her finishing up as well.

So, again the question about what our next step is... well, how about a kid update first. Kel and Bri had swim lessons last week. They loved them and Kel can now "swim" a good distance with no floats. I say "swim" because it is quite comical to watch as she paddles along with just her eyes above the water and then manages to pop her head up for intermittent gasps of air. But she has a blast doing it and is quite proud that she will now put her head under water. Bri was more excited about the new toe straps on his bike. He has loved them, but they have led to some interesting crashes. His first attempt going up a hill came a little short and he realized stopping was not quite so easy when his feet were strapped in. But he did much better after that... for awhile. Early last week he decided to look down while trying to get his feet in the straps... not a good idea going down a hill. Smack into the guardrail by the creek he went... no major injuries though, just some bruises and a few scrapes that are healing well... thankfully. God really does watch over little kids. Lesson learned - biking goes a lot better when you watch where you're going.

Alright, so onto our plans. We are really hoping to head up to Detroit by the beginning of September to do some work up there before heading overseas. There is a great opportunity for some further training and it looks like things are coming together so that we can do that. We should know early this week for sure, but please keep those plans in your prayers. We will let everybody know some more soon, but, just another reminder that it will work better for us to use email. Allie will be sending one soon... so if you are not on her list and would like to be, just drop her or I an email... or even just leave a comment.

Good Trip

So we just got back from a great trip up to Michigan. It was great seeing friends and family for a couple quick weeks. The kids actually got an additional two weeks as my parents had taken them up early... which also means we got two weeks off with no kids. (Allie wants to add during those 2 weeks she got ahead in her homework & has since fallen behind again.) Although we would always love to have seen more people and spend more time with the few who we did see, it was a great trip overall and a lot of fun was had.

Traverse City was especially nice because Allie's parents were able to come up there as well... so most of the families were together. Bri had a great time playing with... his cousin from South Carolina who was also up visiting. A little funny that we drove 15 hours for him to play with a friend who lives just an hour away. The two didn't leave the lake for the entire week, spending their time fishing or swimming... or swimming trying to find the fishing pole they dropped off the raft...I don't think that was ever successful. Bri's highlight was camping out in a tent (in my parents' yard) with Zach and another friend. They loaded up the tent with toys and snacks and I'm pretty sure I heard them still talking around 4 AM. Not much sleep that night, but they were all up for the Cherry Festival Parade the next day.

Bri had a blast at the parade. Kel would have loved it, but she left the day before with Allie's parents for some extra grandparent time in Livonia. Although Allie and I were certain that we saw her twin (in behavior at least) on one of the floats. We were toward the end of the parade, so the kids on the floats were pretty tired, but this one cute little girl was dancing away to the songs and doing all the hand motions... definitely a girl after Kel's heart. Bri's favorite part was getting all the things people were handing out as they went by in the parade (candy, coupons, magazines, toys... you name it). He collected two full bags, one for himself and one for his sister, complete with green stuff (her favorite color... for Michigan State, sorry HK). These handouts became Allie's and my least favorite part when Party Giant came by. Most groups handed out stuff sporadically, but this group had a handout for each and every kid... noise makers. You could hear a wave of sound following this float as hundreds of kids gleefully put these handouts to immediate use... 10 minutes later... still going on... Party Giant, worst float ever. Allie had a good moment at the parade when Pool World came by with giant sized (like 5 ft) beach balls. As one came toward her she tried to knock it back in the street, but instead it knocked her out of her chair... oops.

I'd say the highlight of the trip came on our last Sunday when Laura convinced Will, Mike, and I to join her in a Triathlon (sprint distance: 500m swim, 20k bike, 5k run). This was my first triathlon and I had a blast, I think I did the best on the biking, despite being on a mountain bike. But I now know why Laura wanted us to do it... because she kicked all three of our butts and placed second in her age group. Will sadly had bike trouble for the third (out of three) triathlons in a row. Mike was a great sport in joining our insanity and was pleased to finish. I was pretty happy with my performance overall, especially coming off a broken/sprained ankle which is still bothering me. Although I was not too happy the next day (quite sore) or today (first day I tried to exercise again... I'm hurting a lot right now). Bri followed up our performance with a triathlon of his own that evening: swam to the raft and back, biked around the driveway, then ran around the driveway (my parents driveway is pretty long by the way) and now he wants to get a road bike. He did quite well on our ride today, making it about 13 miles before Allie picked him up on our way to the lake, leaving me to finish the ride. Kel also got some good exercise in today... at least according to her. I'm pretty sure she just sat in the backpack and I did all the work... but what do I know.

That's about it for now. We are just down here trying to figure out our plans for the next year. As some of you know we are looking at staying in Columbia for another year or doing some work around Detroit. Much of it depends on what happens with our house, so we appreciate your thoughts & prayers in this. :)

Kelly Update

So Kelly had a busy last week. Last Friday she had her 5 year old birthday party. Her venue of choice... Chuck E. Cheese of course. As crazy as things were with the normal crowd plus two other birthday parties and the slightly disturbing animated Chuck E Cheese band, it was a great time. They really do a good job there. The kids of course liked the game tokens, but Kelly also got a crown, a special show from Chuck E. and a trip into the Ticket Blaster to grab for tickets. She really just spent all of her time in there laughing rather than grabbing tickets, but no problem. The girl who was helping gave her a handful of tickets and everybody was happy. As a bonus for us, we even had the girl helping us serve all the pizza and cake... and the pizza has much improved in quality since our last visit.

Thursday Kelly had her "graduation" from pre-school. Lots of dancing, singing, and much fun for the kids. She is funny because she will do all the dances and songs for us at home, but she is too shy to do them in front of the other parents at school. Her teacher gave each of the kids an award and Kelly received a prize for being full of peace and not having a mean bone in her body. Very nice, but not quite sure her brother would agree as one of her favorite past times is finding new and unique ways of torturing him :) Sadly for her, she has now lost one of her most useful excuses for getting things she wanted of "My teacher told me I had to do ____ for homework..."

We've also been working on Russian. She has been doing great at understanding it, but hasn't wanted to speak it very much, but I think I have found the key. I told her that she could understand it better than me, but if she didn't practice I was going to be able to speak it better. This seemed to convince her at the time and she worked on a few phrases. The next morning she had been eating breakfast with her mom and came running into the bedroom to wake me up saying, "Maslo". Confused from waking up I asked what she was saying and she responds, "Maslo...that means butter...I'm better than you dad!" and runs away laughing.

Today was still quite busy for her. She went to the 93rd birthday party for one of the ladies at our church at which she had, "Cake for lunch and macaroni 'n cheese for dessert!" Then it was off for another attempt at riding a two wheeler. Today was much better (i.e. much less back ache for me holding on to the handle bars) and after a few short attempts on the baseball field (thanks for the tip Chris) she was riding fine and we rode around the asphalt track for awhile. Our little girl did about 5 laps (over a mile) and is proudly showing off to anyone who is willing to watch (hopefully Allison will soon upload some videos/pictures to Facebook).

If only...

If only it was the thought that counted then I would have posted on this at least every couple weeks, if not every week. Instead we're looking at five plus months of no posts. Oh well, I will try to be better. Also, at some point I think we may be switching to doing some more updates by email, so if you are interested in getting those my wife (the more reliable one) will be putting together a list, so let her know.

Alright, so what has gone on this semester. Wow, so much (sorry if this is long). In terms of the fam, everyone is doing real well. Kel still loves school and is eagerly looking forward to her birthday party tomorrow, girls (princesses) only, but Bri and I are allowed in on the fun as well. It is a bit late as we wanted to wait until things freed up after the kids ended soccer. Her team of 4/5 year olds is, of course, hilarious to watch as the mass moves around the field. She is really funny as she will run all the way to whoever has the ball, but is not aggressive enough to take it from them. My sister tried to give her the advice to imagine the person was her brother (whom she has no trouble tormenting), but the advice did not seem to work. She had a blast though, which is great. She is already becoming quite the girly girl as she loves clothes, dolls, anything pink (which according to her, Uncle Will, is a color boys should not wear), shoes, and talking on the phone. Most of her phone time is still limited to her play phone though, on which she is constantly calling her friend Edessa, whom she is sure is in every white mini-van which we see on the road.

Bri played soccer and from watching some pros play he figured out the cool move of slide tackling... had to have a talk and let him know that might be a bit too much for his age group. But he had a blast and we just finished our second trip to Cici's Pizza in as many weeks for end-of-the-year parties. He's doing well in school, but is looking forward to the summer when he has more free time for his three favorite past times: video games, Legos, and watch TV... little does he know that we get to be the evil parents and just make him go outside and play more :)

Allie is steadily plugging away at her schooling, just two classes left! She will likely finish up this fall or next winter depending on how our plans work out. Schooling for me is winding down. I have an internship left this summer, but I walked this past weekend. A lot of my family made it down so it was great to see everyone... and we had some great food as well, at my graduation party... but especially in some trips to Waffle House and Inakaya for sushi. We miss them all a lot (Kel especially misses having my sister's dog to boss around... although he never listens to her), but we will see them again soon as they will be back down soon for some stuff at our church.

Many ask what our plans are now. We are not really sure. We still are looking to go overseas and are all working on our Russian, but past that we need to get a lot of plans in order. That is the main goal for the summer. But things are winding down here. We finished Bible Clubs with the kids from the church and neighborhood. It was difficult at times, but we have had some very encouraging talks with parents and kids lately. One in particular was great. It was with one of the kids who has caused us the most problems and we felt his grandparents were always frustrated that we kept bringing him home. However, they let us know how much they and he appreciated what we have done. Also, we talked awhile and it was great to look back and see that although he has caused some problems, he has been getting a lot better over these years. This was especially encouraging as we have seen some other kids starting to get caught up in other issues; this kid has been improving and it was a real encouragement to see God working in his life, and some others whom we have talked with recently.

Alright, that's about it for now... a little long, but wanted to catch people up. I'll try to be more diligent, but I'll leave you with a funny quote from Bri. He was telling us about something from school and Kel wanted to add her thoughts. He looked at her and said very seriously (stressing the last word), "Kel, you won't understand, this is SCIENCE." Speaking of Kel, she just came wandering out of bedroom... her excuse this time is she's looking for her stuffed animal, Hippo. Time to be off to solve the world problems... of a 5 year old.

2 months later

Wow, can't believe it has been two months since the last post. I feel like every week I intend to post something, but something comes up. The last couple months of school were pretty busy, but everybody finished the semester well. So I have 3 classes and some internship work left (I should finish the classes in May and then we'll see about the internship). Allison also has three classes, but she is dropping down to one for the spring semester so she can spend some more time with the kids (she felt a little overwhelmed with too many classes this last semester). Brian is halfway through fourth grade and enjoying it (except for homework...which he believes just gets in the way of play time). He is creative in trying to get out of it, but so far has not succeeded. Pretty sure that if he put half as much effort into getting it done as figuring out ways around it he would not only have mastered fractions, but probably moved onto calculus by now. I have to give him credit for the creative ideas he comes up with though :) And Kelly, she still loves school and is heartbroken any day she doesn't get to go. She finished up with some cute musical presentations (I think some pics and maybe a video are on Allison's facebook) and we are now never without some musical entertainment from her as we drive around, play...or whatever. The good news...I taught her the MSU fight song...and she sings better than me.

So, as many of you know, we are in Michigan now. Had a great time at a wedding yesterday, some friends from school (who are also from Michigan) had the foresight to know that I would be much happier at their wedding than watching MSU and UofM bowl games yesterday (thanks Justin). Other than that, we have had a great time seeing family and friends and getting reacquainted with snow (at least while it was here). We managed to have a great time tubing and skiing up in TC before heading down state to green southern Michigan for the last few days. We even got in a painful hour of Brian, Allison, and I attempting to snowboard. My hour was really spent walking Bri down the hill, but he did a great job of keeping trying and made some great progress. Allison was quite proud that she made it down the hill once without a crash.

No skiing for Kelly, it also seemed that she did not remember snow. When we arrived in Michigan she saw it and excitedly proclaimed, "It's snowing!" (really it was just on the ground). Upon touching it she proclaimed, "Woo, it's cold." Coming back out (from McDonald's) she again proclaimed, "It's snowing!" It was this time, but then the wind blew hard and she again said, "Woo, it's cold". Finally upon arriving at Mike's she excitedly ran down their drive-way, back-up, back-down, then tried to turn onto the sidewalk and absolutely wiped-out. She just lay there for a few moments in snow trying to figure out why things were so slippery...no harm and much of the rest of her time has been spent bossing around various cats and dogs.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and New Years and it was great seeing many of you...wish we could have seen more and spent more time with everybody, but it always seems to be that way.

Allison camping...in October

Now, how many of you thought that you would ever see Allison out camping, let alone with November almost here? How about if I told you that it was her idea for us to go and she said she wanted to go along (not just send the rest of us)?

So, this weekend was the Cub Scout Halloween camp out. Last year I guess there were over 800 scouts on the camp out. This year they thankfully broke it up into two weekends, and last weekend was the crowded one :) The kids had a blast. Brian's favorite was the climbing wall and "rifle" (known to the rest of the world as BB gun) shooting. He did amazing on the climbing wall. It was one of the horizontal walls that you can climb all the way around (at least theoretically). So picture scouts hanging on this wall everywhere all trying to climb around. Amazingly they all went the same direction, but at quite different speeds. So traffic jams abound, in which the kids are all trying to hang on and (unsuccessfully sometimes) not step on each others feet (or hands). Yet, Bri made it all the way around w/o falling. Kel wasn't as successful, not from lack of trying. But she was quite happy with her balloon painting and cat tattoo...although she did not enjoy when the scouts scared each other in the maze. Result: one crying Kelly and one Scout apologizing to her the rest of the weekend. Of course, the trick or treating was a good time for all.

So, how did Allison do? Well, aside from freezing last night (it does get cold down here at night even though it is still decently warm during the day). As camping goes, it was pretty nice. They had a gator to haul our gear to the campsite. Pretty nice bathrooms (adult only ones as well) and even the camp food at the dining hall wasn't too bad (I've had much worse in Brody). So all around it was a good time. They even had a nice service this morning, since we missed church, one of the camp leaders gave a great message to the kids about overcoming fear and trusting God.

In other parent bragging news. Bri had just got his report card Friday and was very proud to show us that he received all A's :)

Quick Update

So good news. Allison is feeling much better today, her poison ivy is fading, as is the soreness from her injection. She has concluded that the pills might have been a better (although slower) idea than the painful injection.
As for me, I had a trip to the doctor today to check out my finger. There is some bone and ligament damage, but each was just under being severe enough that it would need surgery. It will take awhile to fully heal, but I'll take that any day over surgery.

Some interesting ups and downs

Well, we've had some pretty good tings in these past weeks. In answer to Allie's prayer, we have some other packs helping us out with our excess popcorn. A little has left our house, so we now have a little more room to walk around :) Alright, it wasn't that bad, but there were a ton of boxes. In other scouting news we have a number of new recruits into our pack and, praise God, some other adults helping out a little bit. Now, if we can just encourage a little more from them without scaring them away. A big highlight to check off our list was the annual Cuboree this weekend. Six scouts and their parents (up from 2 last year and no parents) came this year from our pack. The kids have a blast. There were about 100 scouts there total, running around to stations teaching orienteering and astronomy to archery and bb-guns (any guesses on what was the big hit?) But, it was quite well run and not nearly as chaotic as it might sound. The kids had a blast, including Kelly who got about 5 hours of playing on the playground.

Brian has also started up soccer. At nine years old it is getting a little more organized, but still quite hilarious to watch the mash of kids chasing the ball around the field. Yet, they have managed to win one and tie one so far, so the kids are quite excited to be "undefeated".

On the flip side, I think Allison and I are both trying to kill ourselves. She somehow managed to get poison ivy yet again, although we have no idea where she managed to touch it as she has worked hard to avoid it. I have never seen someone who gets it so easy or on who it spreads so much. It came up Friday and she tried to make it through the weekend, but took a trip to urgent care tonight. One shot later and she should be feeling much better tomorrow, as long as she's not limping too much from being sore from the shot.

As for me, somehow I manage to hurt my finger in...of all things...flag football. Got it caught on someone's loose shirt when I was trying to grab their flag. Let it go for a little more than a week, but I still couldn't straighten it, so went in to get it checked. Sure enough it is broke, but they think the reason I couldn't straighten it is because something might be torn (appointment tomorrow to find out more)...come on, how does that happen in flag football. The good news is that I finished the game (threw for a touchdown and caught one other) and I am getting pretty good at typing with a splint on.

Alright, that's it for now I guess.

Being overwhelmed... by popcorn

(John's wife, Allison, is writing this post.)

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed out there?

I (Allison) feel like I am in a constant state of being overwhelmed. I wish I could say that every time things get frustrating or stressful or busy, I just sit back and ask God for help, but I don't. I'm a worrier by nature. If I don't have something to be stressed about, I take insignificant things in my life & worry about them.

For instance, our house is currently overwhelmed with popcorn. Yes, popcorn. We have caramel corn, microwave popcorn, caramel corn with nuts, butter toffee, chocolate covered popcorn, the list goes on & on. As a leader for our son's Cub Scout pack, I was in charge of ordering popcorn & instead of requesting individual boxes, I ordered cases. The realization of my error first sank in when I called the Scout office to find out when to pick up our orders & the lady said, "You have a truck or a van to pick up your order, right?" To which I of course replied, "No, I just have my car, it should all fit in there, we didn't order that much." But as I said that I thought to myself, did I order what I thought I ordered or did I get more? Sure enough, we got the more.

Now, I think God has a sense of humor because to be stressed out about having too much popcorn has to be one of the most ridiculous things you could come up with. Every time I tell my story, people just crack up laughing & I can't help laughing too.

Am I worried about getting my reading done for my classes, no, popcorn. Am I worried about finding time to clean my house, no, Popcorn. Am I worried about how my kids are doing in school, no, POPCORN. I feel overwhelmed just not being able to get it out of my head. I've even had several dreams (nightmares, really) about trying to get rid of it all.

So whether I have something to worry about or not, I'll find something. The tricky part is letting God use this in my life for his purpose. In the mean time, if anyone is craving some snacking sustenance, give me a call. I'll hook you up with some popcorn.

A special man

So the travels for the summer, and hopefully for awhile, are done. We're tired, but they have been great, and last weekend was no exception. Since we had only recently returned from Michigan and the kids had started school it was difficult to make it. In the end only I could go, but I didn't want to miss out.

As many of you know my grandfather passed away last Christmas. I've been meaning to write about him since then, but it seems hard to know how to capture such a special man in words, I wish I was a better writer for times like these. However, now seems a good time. For a couple years now my grandma and he had planned a big party for their 25th anniversary, which was to be last Sunday. Fittingly, for a man who loved people, life, tennis, and chocolate (ok, maybe chocolate came first) she wanted to have the party still as a celebration of his life. It was a wonderful time and, as he would have wanted, everyone had a great time.

So where can I start in describing this man? I'm sure I have to start with his sense of humor. If you ever met the man you would shortly be caught in a fit of laughter as it would not take him long to tell you his repertoire of jokes. Some might be classified as a bit crude, but there was something about this man that he could pretty much tell you anything, even if he just met you, and not offend anyone. He was even great with kids; I will fondly remember my daughter squealing with joy as she sneakily tried to steal M&Ms from the jar by his chair without him noticing. He would always wait until the last moment and then yell a loud, "Hey" as she darted away laughing with her hands full of the goodies that he loved to share with kids...well as long as it wasn't the last M&Ms, but I don't think he ever ran out that I know of.

I could go on about many other things that he loved, but most of all he loved people and, as was shown this last weekend, was loved by so many. He touched people from Traverse City; to Mesa, AZ; to Texas; to The Villages, FL; and many more places. But I think one of the most amazing things was his role as Father to so many as my Aunt Cathy shared so beautifully. If our fathers are supposed to show us an image of our heavenly father, then my grandpa succeeded. God adopts us into his family, and my grandfather has brought so many into his. When he married my mom's mother he took on an enormous task, bringing three young girls, my mom and her two sisters (one soon to enter and one already in her teens), into his house. Yet, with love he merged them together with the son he already had. After his wife passed, he married again, and once again had children to bring into his family, this time a teenage son and two who were grown. Yet, as before, he lovingly opened his heart to more and more. It takes a special man to be a great father to his own children, yet this man has managed to do it with not just one family, but three, and to bring them all together in love.

If we can even partially live up to his great example of love, I think we will more than succeed in life and in doing so make him proud. As with my grandma, I like to think of him looking upon us, seeing us following his example, and smiling.

I, as so many others, will always remember him fondly.

Travels almost over and 10 years coming up

So our summer travels are nearing the end. I have one last trip to Michigan coming up this weekend, but last week, since Brian had a few days off from school, saw us visiting some family who has recently moved to SC. Laura came down from DC and met us in Sharon, SC; where my Uncle Jack and Aunt Janet have moved. It was a great time out of getting away from the city and seeing family. It was a bit warm (same as everywhere), but we were able to go swimming for a bit, which was quite refreshing. Kelly enjoyed seeing Zuke again (who she still likes to feed and boss around), as well as my uncles two dogs. Sadly, due to the forecast of a thunderstorm, we could not convince Allie to camp outside...all we ended up with were a few sprinkles in the late afternoon...oh well. Friday, my other uncle, Jason, and his family showed up as they are also moving to the area. Brian and Kelly enjoyed seeing their cousins Lexi and Zack. A great trip, due in most part to my Uncle Jack and Aunt Janet being wonderful hosts. Looking forward to having them, Jason, and his family a little closer by for this next year.

We made it back to Columbia just in time to take off with our church for a youth overnight up to the Great Wolf Lodge. Kelly was just to short (a shade under 42") to go on the big water slides, but that was probably a good thing as they even scared some of the adults because you got thrown around quite a bit. Everybody had a blast though and after a day soaking in the wave pool and water slides we all crashed that evening.

Back in Columbia for a few days before heading up North one last time, despite all the travels, it seems the hardest thing to believe is that our 10 year anniversary is coming up in just a few days. Definitely doesn't feel like I've been married for 10 years, but that is probably because (as Neil and Dr. Jones often remind me) I married way up :)

News from the South

So I know that many of you are waiting to hear about the trip, but I feel like I'm still processing it as it was so much in two short weeks. So I'll give you some updates from our first week back in the states.

Like always it was a whirlwind. Sunday we arrived in Detroit early in the morning and crashed for like 12 hours (alright 14 for Allison). Our luggage arrived and we took off for Traverse City, eager to see our smiling kids who somehow managed to stay awake until our 11 PM arrival. Tuesday was a quick stop through Lansing for the dentist and dinner with a great friend from work and back to Livonia in the evening. Friday found us on the road again...this time heading to SC, with a stop in Cinci to see some old college friends.

Today was quite nice, it was great to be back at our church and see so many people that we missed all summer. This afternoon we, in attempt to deal with the heat down here, headed out to Lake Monticello for a picnic and swimming. Pizza was the food of choice, and was quickly as the kids wanted to get in the water. Kelly told us the water was cold, but when we got in we found it to be bath water temperature. A couple hours later we, thoroughly pruned, emerged from the water. After two days of relaxing (still feel like we are recovering from jet lag) we hope we are ready for Brian to start school tomorrow.

Back in the states

Just a quick update for everyone. We are alive and, aside from being a bit tired (still not quite back on a normal sleep schedule), back in the states again. The trip was great. We feel like we saw so much for being gone just a few short weeks. Everyone's question to us seems to be if we have made any sure plans. As a brief answer, not yet, but we certainly have a lot to talk and think about.

We'll try to write some more later.

About time for an update

Well, I've had hopes of updating this sooner, but no such luck (or time). I just finished my week long class down here in Columbia. It was an amazing week of being introduced to the world of Islam. There is so much to learn, but I'm excited to learn more about it, especially with our future plans looking like they might be in that area of the world.

Speaking of future plans. We'll be heading out tomorrow (soon to be today) for a couple weeks. The kids will stay in Michigan with their grandparents (pray for our parents as they try to keep up with the energy of kids), but Allison is flying down tomorrow and will meet up with me (I'm in Columbia) in Atlanta and then we'll be checking out some future possibilities overseas. Not sure exactly what to expect, but we are very excited. After finishing my class yesterday I've spent the last day and a half running around trying to get all packed up. I think I'm doing pretty good...even had time for a haircut. Guess we'll see when I get over there. I always feel like I'm forgetting something when I leave for a trip. Oh well, can't worry about it too much I guess.

It was great seeing a lot of people in Michigan and DC the past month. Hope to see some more of you when we get back in a few weeks. Don't know how much access we'll have to blogging and email over there, but feel free to send us some (Allison loves her email) and we'll do our best to post some updates.

Traveling here and there

So a busy couple weeks of traveling and more to come. June 4th we headed out from South Carolina. We stopped in Charlotte, NC to see Ben, Daniela, and Josiah. It was great catching up with them and the kids loved playing together. To top it off, we had a great feast (Potato Soup, Breaded Chicken, mixed vegetables, fruit filled brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, and...later...strawberry smoothies) as Daniela is one of the best cooks I have ever met. Ben said he is always disappointed when they go out to eat and I can understand why.

Then it was on to DC to visit my Ron and Kristina. The great food continued there as my brother loves to cook as well. Saturday we went to the zoo with the kids. Brian liked the big cats and reading every sign he could find. Kelly loved the the Giant Pandas and the snakes (go figure). Sunday brought us a trip to Annapolis where we had a great seafood buffet. Who knew Brian would love oysters and muscles...Kelly just wanted mac & cheese and fruit. Later we picked up my sister from the airport (she's doing an internship in DC) and my dad from the Appalachian trail (he was doing a month long...400 mile...hiking trip). As Allison and the kids had never seen much of DC, Monday we went and walked around the mall, dragging my dad with us...not sure how excited he was for more walking. After three days of walking everywhere we were pretty dead. So we just relaxed on Tuesday. We also got to see some more old friends, Craig, Kristen and Holly who are all living in DC. Sadly it was time to head out on Wednesday, so we packed up and drove to Livonia for the night and then on to Traverse City the next day.

Spent the last few days in Traverse City. It was great to see family and friends. A close family to ours had their last daughter graduating from high school, so there was an open house Sunday, and another close family friend was moving to Ohio. So we had a going away celebration for him. We will miss him a lot, but the party was good.

Today was a bit crazy, we wanted to fit in some time with my brother as he was pretty busy while we were up there. So he, Allie, and I did some mountain biking today. 13 miles later and we are both hurting quite a bit (I think my dad's bike has the most uncomfortable seat ever). We then took off to Lansing to meet with some people from South about our upcoming trip and our now spending the evening at Ray and Robin's. We'll relax down here for a few days (recovering from that bike trip) and then head back up to Traverse for another week (and possibly some more biking torture).

Stitches, Weddings, and Biking

So kinda an eclectic title, especially as the stitches had nothing to do with biking (no injuries on that one...probably because we kept Kelly in a the kid backpack). So, it starts last weekend when we wanted to have an end of the year Cub Scout party, so we went bowling...what's the worst that could happen. Well, the first game went great. The kids had a blast due to the bumpers and Kelly (due to the kid bowling ramp and some great aiming from her father) even won. However about midway through the second, as she carried her ball up, she tripped and landed with her chin on the bowling ball. Chin is definitely not stronger than bowling ball and after a trip to the ER she emerged with her first two stitches (her Uncle Mike is so proud that she is following in his footsteps). But all is ok. She did great (handling things much better than her mother who skipped the trip). All week she ran up to anybody she saw and tipped her head back to show off her stitches, which are hidden just under the chin.

A little less drama was had yesterday as we went up to West Virginia for a wedding. We spent Friday night in Hitton, WV at a nice little hotel. Saturday morning after a healthy breakfast at Mickey D's (kids choice) we headed out for a hike in the mountains (beautiful) followed by swimming at the hotel pool. Kelly did take a little fall coming down the mountain, but no harm done this time. Then it was off to the wedding in the afternoon. It was outdoors and the light rain from the morning cleared up and everything was great. It was definitely one of the best weddings I have been to. The farm was beautiful and everything was pretty low-key, but well done. The message was one of the better ones I have heard at weddings. After the ceremony the reception was outside at the farmhouse with dancing on the driveway. It was just a blast to hang out, have all the families around, and see an amazing couple get married.

We headed back down last night to have a last Sunday at our church here before heading to north later this week. The message was outstanding and, as often seems to be the case, was just what I needed to hear. Later we headed out for some biking. It was raining on the drive out, but we stopped for lunch and it cleared up for our bike ride along the Lake Murray Dam. The ride was great, although Kelly missed most of it as she fell asleep in the back pack. We stopped for ice cream before turning around. All of us were quite tired by the time we got back as we rode a little over 9 miles and quite a few good hills in there. Brian and Allie did great, but all are were pretty tired tonight.

So a good start to our last week down here for the summer. Looking forward to heading north and seeing friends and family.