Interlochen

I mentioned that Cori and I had a little getaway last weekend to Interlochen. It was such a fun overnight trip for us. On our way out we stopped in Traverse City for dinner, and then it was just another 20 minutes to the campus.

Interlochen is a boarding high school for the arts. It started as a summer music camp in the late 1940's and has since become a rather prestigious place. Countless whose-who of the artistic community have boarded there: Norah Jones, Jewel, Josh Groban, and Chip Davis (Mannheim Steamroller) to name a few. We saw the Canadian Brass perform from their Legends album. I can't even describe what an indulgence this was for me. The concert was held in the center's outdoor (sheltered) Kresage theatre where Green Lake serves as a stage backdrop. It was heaven to look out on the lake and listen to this amazing music with intermittent moments of the wind through the trees.

The CB puts on a pretty entertaining show. The first half of the program was pretty classical-intensive. The intro's to their numbers were a happy blend of discernible-only-to-music-people jokes and laymen puns. For example, in introduction to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the tuba player pontificated at length as to the perfect fugue form found in the center episode of the piece: proper theme statement, development, and variation followed by perfect key modulation and theme reversal... Then he went on to describe his issues with the title of the piece, how it should technically be called Toccata Fugue and Toccata in Dm, and so on. At the end of his dialogue I bit my lip and looked over to Cori, half expecting him to be bored to pieces or totally embarrassed to be seen with me. "Got that?" I ventured. "Uh, sure. He was pretty funny." Cori is such a trooper.

The second half of their program was total entertainment. They did a set of Big Band tunes ( and the cute lady sitting next to me was singing every word), a few sets of Beatles songs, including Penny Lane with all its fun piccolo trumpet episodes, and a performance of the first and only all-brass Western 10 minute opera (which featured only about 90 seconds of singing). It was so clever. They finished up by announcing their encore, also kind of amusing, and playing a very modern treatment of Yesterday by the Beatles. I loved every second of the whole concert.

I just could not believe the music. I would never be able to really describe it so I won't try. I will always remember this trip.

That night, we stayed in a little cabin on campus. The next morning when we checked out we took some time to walk around campus. Here are some pictures from the concert and our self guided tour:

From left to right, Row 1: 1-From my seat out to the lake. 2-The CB plays on horns that are plated with 24 K gold--except for one of the trumpeters who has a silver horn. Its a trumpet thing. 3-Traditionally, the CB is a quintet. They expanded their ranks for their Legends album by five. One of their star players is actually from Northern Michigan.

Row2: 1-The other side of the stage. 2-Taken the next morning. This is the Kresage again, this time with a Jr. High winds group rehearsal inside. 3-Flags representing the nationalities reflected in their student body.

Row 3: 1-Another bowl theatre. This rehearsal was for a full orchestra and choir. 2- A little gazebo ready for some performers. It was so interesting walking around campus. It was early on a Sat. morning. The place was filled with the sounds of rehearsing. In addition to the practices already mentioned we overheard 4 or 5 pairs of drama students practicing lines. We drove by a warehouse full of cellists. 3- The students are always in this uniform.

We would have stayed longer but we wanted to hit Sam's Club before heading back. The drive between Traverse City and Petoskey is so beautiful. The 31 is either hugging the side of Lake Michigan or winding through orchards and farm country. We bought some cherries and raspberries along the way, enjoyed seeing the sights of the Venetian Days Festival that was happening in Charlevoix as we drove through, and took our time coming around the bay to see the sail boat regatta. Here are some pictures from our drive home.

National Geographic Best Photo Awards- My Favorites

*Thanks Mom O for sending these out! I loved looking through them.

Grant Attack

Our little man hit his ten month mark last week. At nearly 30 inches and just under 20 pounds he is now in the 80th percentile for his height and 30th percentile for weight. In every way he is growing up so fast.

However, he might disagree with that sentiment. He wants so badly to walk and be mobile. He refuses to crawl, despite all the tummy time and out of reach toys his mean mommy subjects him to multiple times a day. We had a walker that he could masterfully wield wherever he wanted to go. After his last checkup, the doctor suggested less time in the walker--a prognosis I saw coming and dreaded. He wasn't in the walker a lot, just long enough for me to make dinner or load the dishwasher...Then Grace serendipitously rolled it behind me while I was holding Grant resulting in me falling on it and rendering it fit for the garbage. Sooooo now, the days with him are a little longer. He gets fussy to be in motion, and the only thing that stops the tears is taking his hands and walking him around wherever he wants. Help me. Although he isn't crawling, Grant still gets around. While sitting up, he can rotate in a full circle. While on the floor, he can roll over and scoot around on his back.

He is proving to be a very vocal and expressive kid. When he is happy, you can hear it. When he is mad, everyone from here to the Mississippi can hear it. He hasn't shown any interest in signing yet. But he has started using some more distinguishable vocal communication. When we play peek-a-boo he very clearly says "bah!" and then laughs and laughs at our reaction.

We don't know where he picked it up, but he does this scrunchy-nose snorty thing when he gets excited. Its pretty funny.

Once he had a taste off the big table, there was no turning back. He stiffly turns away from any and all baby food. He will eat just about anything that he can feed himself. Things I can always count on: wheat bread, graham crackers, green beans, and any kind of fruit.

Like all babies, Grant loves to handle things. He uses that cute little pointer finger to probe everything in reach. It is an engrossing job that he takes very seriously. Except for when he wants to walk around.

Thursdays with Cori

For as short as the summer season is around here, Northern Michigan has more than its share of golf courses. The plant where Cori works has a golf league that plays 10 weeks during the summer and tours 4 or 5 local courses. Cori really wanted to participate, but didn't want to do it with out me. I felt this was very sweet, but I haven't proven to be much of a golfer in our 4 years of marriage. He assured me that it wouldn't be a big deal to learn the sport while golfing with his associates from work. This was truthfully my largest opposition to the whole golf league thing. I agreed and with great tenacity began swinging my way into this new world.

Every Thursday for the last 6 or 7 weeks now we golf 9 holes with alternating pairs from Cori's work. I'm getting better, little by little. There are a few different things I'm really starting to love about golf:

• Playing it with Cori. I love spending the time with him and watching him play.
• Being outside surrounded by a beautiful combination of wild and highly manicured naturescapes.
• The quiet. Golf is a very quiet sport.
• The good shots. Its true what they say. It only takes one good shot to make the day of golf worth it. Usually, I only get one.
• The mental work. There is some strategy and a fair amount of decisions to make every time the ball gets hit.
• Driving the golf cart. He he he.
  

Blessings

Alma 34:16 And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption. I came to this verse in my Book of Mormon reading last night. It is one of my favorite atonement verses. I am moved by the idea of being encircled in arms of safety when I repent. It is a loving and parental call to righteousness.

Real life miracles that have been happening in the missionary department in our branch. In the district, there has been huge emphasis placed on doing missionary work. We are getting some fruits from these labors as we see new faces around our meeting house and at our branch activities. I am being reminded a lot lately that I just need to open my mouth to the people around me. Today, the man who seeded our lawn came to our meetings. As it ends up, he has been dating a woman in California who is a member of the church. He took the discussions while visiting her this summer and is planning to get baptized ASAP so they can plan for a temple marriage next fall. In the midst of his spiritual journey, he had spent some time around and in our home. In the many conversations that Cori and I had with him over the course of getting our yard in we never mentioned the Church. Shame on us. We can never tell how prepared another person is for the gospel until we actually say something. Even then, it shouldn't matter how prepared the other person is. I should be willing to do whatever the Spirit tells me to do. I'm just very grateful to see the Church growing, little by little, in our area.

One year older and wiser too (maybe) I had the most marvelous birthday all week long. The actual day was spent welcoming phone calls from friends and family near and far, signing for the flowers Cori had delivered to the house, a girls-night-out viewing of Mama Mia followed by a trip to Applebees, and cake and balloons with Cori and Grace when I got home. The rest of the week brought gifts from Utah and Vienna, and a grand finale night away with Cori. We spent the night at Interlochen Center for the Arts where we saw a performance by the Canadian Brass. It was so fabulous. I have such thoughtful and kind people in my life.

The Digs: Downstairs

When we moved in, the basement was a large cement rectangle with a furnace, a water heater, and some very poorly placed bathroom plumbing. The day Grant was born, our contractor pulled the permit and started working. It was supposed to be a 3-4 week job that took 3-4 months. But everything stayed pretty close to budget, and we are so pleased with how it all turned out. Click here for some pictures taken a couple of weeks into the project.

Now, lets go down and take a look.

This fireplace took a few weeks to get in due to some issue with finding the right fittings to extend the gas line as well as the process of punching through the poured concrete wall to install the vent. We are so glad to have it. It puts out a lot of heat, and a lovely glow. In the winter, we can make the basement the warmest place in the house.

To the right of the fireplace. The door on the right is the guest bedroom.

Taken from the fireplace. The middle door is the bathroom. The door on the right leads to a storage area and the utility room.

This little alcove is just the right size for a pool table. Right now it is serving as a home office and a gym.

The guest bedroom. Just waiting for someone to come and stay...

The bathroom that adjoins the bedroom.
Inside the closets... There are two storage rooms a closet under the stairs, and a large linen closet in the bathroom. Here is the utility room.
And the closet we call the fruit room. This is all the food storage we've built up this year.

Things I love about the basement:

• Having the TV downstairs. I love and hate television. When I can, I love to head downstairs in the evening with a little project and some TV in the background. I find it intensely relaxing. But I hate and fear the negative influence that comes from too much TV. I love having a setup where the TV is out of the way, and the temptation to have it on for background noise during the day is taken away.
• All the storage. Need I say more.
• The bathroom. It turned out just how I was picturing it in my head. It was a lot of fun picking everything out.
• The experience. It was a consuming project. Everyday for months someone was coming and going working on it. We learned so much.

Things I do not like about the basement:

• Vacuuming it. It is a lot of carpet. It makes my arm hurt.
• That it is not a walk out. There are 3 egress windows, but no door. It is pretty tricky getting big furniture down those stairs. We weren't able to put the shower we originally wanted because we couldn't get it into the basement. The drywall and lumber had to be loaded through the windows... It just made everything tricky.

The Digs: great room and kitchen

Some of you may recall these pictures I posted nearly a year ago before we moved in.

Note: as you look down the hall, the bathroom is a nice shade of primer white and there is not a mirror over the vanity. All the bed rooms and the other bathroom had only been primed as well.

Look at the ol' girl now.

The wannabe photographer inside insists that I apologize in advance for these pictures. It was a very bright day when I took them and we have a ton of windows. I tried a bunch of different settings and my limited skills gave me two options: overexposing alien-like light glowing from the windows that overpowers the shot, or a low ISO setting which helps the window problem while making everything else look like a funeral parlor. I know I should have slowed the shutter speed and used a tripod, but lets get real. Then I thought about waiting until dusk to try again, but I have got other things I need to do with my life than obsess over taking perfect pictures to show all of you. (Though I really want to obsess over that. Really badly. Hence this whole paragraph that you are still reading.) Now the wannabe graphic editor inside insists that I apologize for picking pictures that illuminate both of the problems just listed rather than sticking to one or the other.

The entry. This was also primer white. Those stairs go down to the finished basement.

The view from the entry. The whole kitchen is plainly in view, I just couldn't get it in one shot.

The hall leading to the bedrooms (3) and bathrooms (2). Notice the yummy creamy yellow color of the bathroom, and the presence of a mirrored cabinet (and Gracie's potty chair that she refuses to use).Dining area and deck
Great room and Grantigus from the kitchen View of the kitchen as you come in from the garage
Door out to the sheltered part of the deck

Door out to the garage. The washer and dryer are around that corner.

Things I love about this part of our house

• The wow factor. It is really lovely when you walk in. We were so struck by it. There were a hundred things that we knew we'd have to work on in buying this house, and all we could think of was how much we liked walking in.
• The color. Which is part of the wow. It is a warm pumpkin tan that helps the space feel cozy even though it is wide open with cathedral ceilings.
• The granite and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. We love the look of it. I love the ease of sanitation.
• The layout. Its great for keeping an eye on things while I'm working in the kitchen. And it is fun for entertaining. When we have lots of people for dinner, we line the food up buffet style on the counter, and there is plenty of room for guests to serve themselves on one side and plenty of room for me to work restocking the buffet from the other side.
• The floors. We've been told that they are hickory or maple. I really don't know what they are. But I love the rustic knots and the highly contrasting color variations.
• The windows! I am in love with all the large picture windows in this house, but particularly those in this space.
  

Things I do not like about this part of our house

• My inability to decorate well. My tastes are painfully simplistic. I find large empty walls and lots of open space so luxurious. It is really hard for me to hang things up and, much to my patient husband's chagrin, it takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to decide on things. Looking around this space, eh, I'm happy with it. Looking at pictures of this space, Mmmm, I think it needs something.
• The visibility of the kitchen. If it is clean, it makes for a strong positive impression. If its cluttered, it doesn't matter how clean the rest of the space is. The whole place feels like a mess. This makes entertaining a little more stressful for me. I really need to be on the ball to have stuff made and cleaned up on time.
• The fireplace. It is a weakling compared to the one we put in downstairs. It doesn't put out much if any heat. It was obviously installed to be an ambient element rather than a utilitarian one. During the winter it would sure be nice to have a little help warming this big room.
  

A brief interuption

in the scheduled postage for this week.

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't posted the food storage shopping schedule for the next few months. And here we are at the end of July. Tells you how much I've worked on it this month...But really, up through the end of June, I've been pretty diligent about stocking up and it has added up fast. I love having our little mini mart downstairs. It has saved my bacon more than a few times in the last months. It is really nice not having to run to the store for little things. Even if it has been a while since our last trip to the grocery store, I can always make due with what we have--a dear luxury as there is no such thing as a quick run to the store when one has two kiddo's in tow.

July

Week 1

Sure-Jell, Certo, Paraffin wax, etc., or buy some jams and jellies. Watch for sales.
Week 2

Fill those water jugs! Or buy some bottled water.
Week 3

72 hour kit week; start it, update it, or complete it…but get it done!
Week 4

Canned goods. Buy what your family likes and will eat. Chili, soups, canned meats, kidney beans, etc.

August

Week 1

Back to school sales. Paper, pencils, envelopes, stamps, and journals.
Week 2

Baking powder, soda, corn starch, vanilla, bullion cubes, cooking spray
Week 3

Tomato week. Can or buy…salsa, juice, sauce, whole, whopped, paste, pizza and spaghetti sauce.
Week 4

Do some fruit canning or drying. Or, buy it. Watch for sales.

September

Week 1

Vegetable week. Can or freeze lots of vegetables. Or buy some canned. Green beans, mushrooms, corn.
Week 2

Get dry beans, peas, legumes, etc.
Week 3

Sweeteners. Honey, Karo, Molasses, brown and powdered sugars.
Week 4

Iodized salt. It seasons, it preserves, it’s a toothpaste and a de-icer.

3 out of 4 three lists! We're half way done with a year of food storage stock ups! Now I need to learn more about canning so I can make use of our farmland location while we are here...

The Digs: outside and surrounding

Our humble abode. Pretty modest on the outside. It is difficult to tell from this view, but the property slopes down quite a bit, and it is very much a two story house. Finishing the basement nearly doubled the square footage of the place. When we moved in, it didn't have house numbers, a mail box, landscaping of any kind or the shudders.

From the other side, taken at sunset. We want to plant a big deciduous tree off the corner with the gas meter to add a little something to the emptyish wall with the toutes petites windows.
A better view of the back deck. Half of the deck is contained in a closed off screened area. Its nice in the winter for barbecuing and nice in the summer for bug protection. Originally, the open deck was completely boxed in. Cori wisely negotiated to have the stairs down to the yard put in as part of our escrow agreement.

Taken from the top of our driveway. Yep. That is the Church building. We feel so fortunate to live so close. There are members of our branch that have a long drive, more so on winter roads, to get to Church and other activities held here.

Our property is flanked to the South and West with acres of agriculture. This field got fertilized every time it snowed last winter. And while we labor to keep our new grass alive, the corn across the street is effortlessly growing as high as an elephant's eye.

Things I love about the location and lay of the house:

• Proximity to church
• All the farm fields. I am so much more conscious of when it rains or snows or shines. It is a miracle to witness Nature as she gracefully dresses and undresses with each change of the season.
• Being outside the city (lighter taxes) but close enough to really enjoy it. And I'm using the term 'city' pretty lightly here. Its darn rural. And I've enjoyed that part of living here too.
• Crickets at night. I don't know how I will sleep when it gets cold again and they bury down for the winter.
• Our huge yard. We both love all the grass and room to play.

Things I don't like about the location and lay of the house:

• Being on a corner. There isn't much traffic to speak of. But when the wind blows up the hill from Lake Michigan and across those flat fields, our house is it's first obstacle. There were a couple of storms last winter when Cori and I laid in bed, eyes wide open, wondering if our house was about to blow down. Happily, it did not. But we got incredibly high snow drifts that made getting up our driveway an interesting adventure. Speaking of which...
• The incline of our driveway. All the other houses in our subdivision were built up on a hill so that the driveways are level and the yards more sloped. Ours is exactly the opposite. It makes the house look smaller, and the driveway can be particularly precarious in the winter if we are not diligent about keeping it cleared.
• The distance to Cori's work. He has about a 20 minute drive (closer to 30 with snow). There are much longer commutes out there, we know. This is just the longest he has had since the summer we were married.

More to come...

Blessings

Having Cori home again Though we had a wonderful week, it is soooo nice to have Daddy home.

Date night It was really good to have a night away from the kids so we could catch up on each other's life. We discussed and planned our future over tacos and gelati downtown and then met Lillian and Dave to see the new Batman flick. (Which was completely intense, but fun. I'm such a sucker for those comic book flicks.) It was a nice night out.

Rain True, it did cut our golf outing short. But it meant that I didn't have to spend a day moving sprinklers around our yard to water our grass. I'm very grateful for the deluge that hit mid week.

Being me I have to pinch myself once in a while because life really feels good. There's plenty to work on, don't get me wrong. But I'm so grateful for our happy home, our happy babies and our happy schedule of things that are important to us.

Possible visitors... We got a call from some family tonight and we may be entertaining this week. I'm so happy! We are so grateful to our family members who take time and money to travel out to timbuktu to see us. This does mean that I'll need to get all my chores done and visiting teaching finished up before Wednesday. I better get myself to bed.

I'm back

in a manner of speaking.


I didn't really go anywhere. But since my husband was out of town and my immediate family was vacationing in fabulous Vienna, I was feeling a little out of travel-loop. So I took a vacation from some of the everyday things in my life for a week and did some other things to mix it up with the kids.

Things I vacated:

• Blogging obviously. But, just like when I am on a real vacation, I spent the week reading all of your blogs. It was lovely.
• Exercise (unintentionally) except for the core class we've been having with one of our college gals who is home for the summer. She is majoring in exercise science with a minor in kicking people's trash. Sadly, I didn't maintain the daily jog/walk/sprint with the kids that I had been doing. I paid for it today when I went with Cori.
• My bed time I stayed up way to late. (Hence, no exercise in the morning) But I had a lot I was working on after the kids were in bed. So I felt more justified in staying up than if I had just been watching TV.

Things I did not vacate:

• FHE Though I have to admit that I was tempted.
• The kids' schedule The alternative is never worth it to my sanity.
• Laundry It is just too scary to come back to if I let it go.
• Full busy days I can never feel relaxed at the end of the day if I haven't been productive. It is the best feeling in the world to put one's feet up after busy hours of productivity. And yes, some days my productivity is measured solely on the fact that the kids didn't spend the day in their PJ's, were fed regularly, and played with. But I got a lot of other things done around here this week and it felt great.

Things I did to mix it up:

• A large chunk of Tues. was spent at Jeanette's house 'helping' her get ready for her garage sale. Our help included her playing with my kids, her joining us for a picnic lunch in the park where we watched an abbreviated performance of Guys and Dolls by a local dinner theater troupe, me chatting with her while we spent 1 hour pricing things, and my kids taking naps in various places all over her house.
• A secret project I repainted our bedroom while Cori was away. He had no idea I was working on it. I also got a frame for this print we have of an antique tourist map of Paris. Pictures to come...
• One dinner out We don't take the kids out to eat unless it is in substitute of a date night. So it was a special treat to take a drive thru dinner to the park. We ate on the marina and watched the boats come in and then played on the play ground until the clock chimed bed-time.
• Talking on the phone until 1 AM with my pal Heidi, whom I have not spoken with in ages. I can't remember the last time I had some real late-night girl talk. It was completely great. Thanks again Hides!
• Golfing with Lillian. What? You didn't know that I have the sport of golf to add to my extensive (read: minimal) list of accomplishments? Well, I don't. Not really. This summer is my first serious exposure to the game. Cori and I joined this golf league through his work and we golf nine holes every Thursday. I enjoy it more and more every time I go. Anyway, with Cori out of the picture this week, I needed a partner and Lillian dug out her clubs to join me. We got rained out as we were starting the fifth hole. Troopers that we are, Lil and I decided to roll with the punches, change plans, and go out to dinner instead. Many thanks again, Donna, for watching the kids!

Pretty great vacation, huh? It was cheap. I didn't have a ton of house work and laundry to do upon returning. And I was pleasantly diverted the whole week. Most importantly, I'm refreshed to attack the ins and outs of my everyday life once more. So stay tuned for lots of posts next week. I want to show you around our house and our yard.

Then and Now: At the beach 07-08

Blessings

Cori's gainful employment although it is taking him away for a whole week starting tomorrow. I'm so grateful for how hard Cori works. I'm equally grateful for his sensitive attention to our family and couple time. I do not like it when he travels, but he hasn't had to do much at all this rotation. I'm very jealous that he will get some wine and dine treatment in NYC without me. But more than anything, I'm grateful to be at home with my babies gainfully employed in my own dream job.

Branch Conference today. We had our entire District Presidency as well as the new Mission President and his wife with us today. I really enjoyed the training our R.S. presidency had with the District R.S. representative. I felt supported, vindicated, and highly motivated by all that I heard throughout our meetings. And in a miraculous showing, the kids were really good in church today. So good. I had to rub my eyes and pinch my arm.

Great friends who already have me booked up this next week to keep me busy. Now if I could only find some babysitters...

Vicarious travel through my family who are currently living it up in Vienna. How I wish to be with them. But it has been so much fun to imagine them there, and to look forward to their reports, pictures, and gifts:).

Colonial Michilimackinac

While Sara was here, we made a trek up to Fort Michilimackinac. This was the original location of a Colonial French military fort. Eventually it was occupied by the British. Then during the revolutionary war, it was dismantled piece by piece and ferried across the straights of Mackinac to Mackinac Island where the Fort still stands. The British burned anything they couldn't transport. In the 1950's there was extensive archaeological excavation done in this area, and in the fifty years since, they have recreated the fort and all its interior buildings.

I just love living history sites like these. It is so fascinating to see how people lived and to learn the history of their homes. At the Fort, they had red coats, Ottawa Indians, a Holy Father, and women dressed in French Colonial garb. They fired powder guns and cannons. There was a bagitaway game for the kids (a lacrosse-like game the Ottawa played), and a recreation of a French Colonial Wedding--in French. It was a fun few hours back in time.