New and Exciting

The most exciting thing in recent events: Scott finally gave in and let us buy a freezer! That doesn't really sound that exciting but we got a fabulous deal and now we don't have to be afraid of opening the door on the freezer in the kitchen without everything spilling out. And I have a place to put all of the baked goods. We went apple picking so I've made apple brownies, apple bread, apple scones, apple crisp.... It gives me something to do during the day. Today I'm trying apple muffins.
I also made a very exciting discovery. Spaghetti squash! I saw Rachael Ray make it a couple weeks ago, then saw one in the produce dept so I bought it. We tried it last night and it was so good! And it makes a ton! Scott maybe doesn't love it quite as much as me, but he's a good sport about trying new things (haha, like he has a choice). :)
So I guess that sums up my life of not working - I spend it in the kitchen. My jeans are getting a little tight. :)

Vacation

First of all, a belated congrats to Jeremy and Marilee on their new baby girls, Jennalyn and Lydia. Scott and I like that we don't have to fight over who gets to hold the baby. :)

Well since I have all the vacation time in the world right now and Scott had a few days left, we decided to head up north for a few days of camping last week. We spent Wednesday night at Wilderness State Park, which was VERY COLD! Thursday we went up to Tahquamenon falls and explored a little bit and camped there that night. Friday we went to Pictured Rocks and found out that dogs are really not welcome there. So we did what we could with them, and then on Saturday we left them in the car for awhile to do a hike. Then we headed to Indian Lake and the Big Spring. That was pretty cool. And another cold night! Sunday was a long drive home. I wish we took a picture of the car because it was packed like a puzzle to fit everything and still leave room for us and the dogs. I had just enough room in the front for my feet. :)

We have tons of pictures but here are just a few:
Edit: The rest are at flickr

We used the small backpacking tent and our air mattress filled the entire thing! But at least it fit...

At Tahquamenon falls

Spot decided to dig a small hole. He kept laying in it but it only fit about a third of his body.

A family pic

Changes

Scott and I are laughing because it feels like we moved. I packed up a ton of stuff during my week off, and now I have to unpack it all - it just happens to be right back where it was. :)
I moved to Ann Arbor and worked at a fabulous new job for a whole 6 days. NSF was great and I LOVED the job. However I slept only a couple hours a night the whole first week just because I was stressed. I don't think either of us thought it would be so hard for Scott to find a good job there. But even if he did, I think he really wanted to stay at GE. Either way, he was going to have to commute, or we were both going to have to commute from Lansing, we were going to have to finish up our house to try and sell it, and we both agreed that we wanted to continue attending Brookside and our small group, and eventually raise our kids in Grand Rapids. So after a miserable week missing Scott, and a great weekend (getting lots of sleep) with him, and another sleepless night before having to drive back to Ann Arbor and go back to work on Tuesday, I decided it just wasn't going to work. A job isn't worth all of that. So I did drive in to NSF Tuesday morning but I was pretty certain by the time I got there what I was going to do. I felt bad, especially since they wanted me to stay another couple weeks but at that point I just wanted to go home. I finished up the day Tuesday and we "parted on good terms".
So now I'm struggling a bit with not working, and knowing I'm never going to get a good job like that in my actual field again. I need to find a job but its hard to find motivation to apply to jobs that don't sound so interesting. I know something will pop up eventually though. And in the meantime I get to unpack. And Scott has reluctantly given me the go-ahead to start decorating this house a little (ie putting up pictures, etc) since it looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while.

More Busy-ness

We actually got a weekend to ourselves a couple weeks ago, but all the other weekends have been pretty busy. We got to go to Ryan and Mary's reception at the Frederik Meijer Botanical gardens in July. I don't have any pictures of them so here's us instead. :)




The following week was Jenny and Thom's wedding (Jenny is Scott's cousin). It was a fun time at the reception as you can see from the ladies on the dancefloor.




That weekend we spent at the Shack in White Cloud. The whole family got together to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma's 55th wedding anniversary. We went out on paddleboats, played with goats, horses, and a weird cow, played shuffleboard, ping pong, and board games, and ate banana splits at 8:30 every night!




Last weekend we went camping with Dave and Michelle near Higgins Lake. Camping is never very clean, but with Spot and Mia along we got extra dirty (so did they). The dogs got to go swimming and Spot has finally seemed to conquer his fear of the cable after many hours being tied to a tree. Daisy spent the weekend at the kennel - not worth trying to deal with her around other dogs! They both slept for a couple days after.




So its been fun. The next couple weeks are going to be a little crazy but I'll get into that later. A lot is changing. :)

RIP Mrs. Gray

Mrs. Gray had an apparent stroke (I think) yesterday and we found her late last night on her side unable to move. Scott is a good sport and took us to the emergency vet to have her euthanized. And he buried her along the side of the property - at around midnight. Cars kept slowing down driving by, I'm sure we looked suspicious.

Interesting

After you read Scott's very long post below, try out some of these tests. They are very interesting. (warning: its a little time consuming and you can't have any distractions around you)

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/research/

Busy Summer

Hi all, Scott here again. Laura is sleeping sound so I thought I'd take another shot at updating the blog. We have had a busy summer so far, so I'll just highlight the activities of the last three weekends.

Over the fourth of July weekend Laura and I headed over to Aylmer, Ont. for a family reunion on my mom's side. We celebrated my great-grandma's 100th birthday (it's actually coming up in December, but who wants to travel then?)

Oma (Dutch for grandma,) Laura, and I

My bro and sis-in-law - Jeremy and Marilee (plus the twins!)

1/8th of the family...and the only Americans!

It was nice getting to see everyone again, and neither Laura nor Marilee had met most of the people before so it was nice that they got to see more of the fam...

The following weekend Laura, her dad, and I headed toward Chicago to attend her cousin Charles's wedding. It was my turn to meet a new person or two, although most of the people were new to Laura, too.

Charles and Christina

Cousin Joy

Myself with a very tropical Laura

On Sunday we got to see the dedication of Adalynn which was super cool! :) May God hold you in the palm of his hand, Adalynn!

And finally, but certainly not least, we come to this past weekend (and yes...my main motivation for posting today). :)

This past weekend the whole fam went camping at Hayes State Park. It rained...and rained...and rained. And was muggy. And mosquito(y?) But, it was nice just to have some time to relax and spend with the family. And on Sunday, we got to do one of the coolest things anyone can do...drive a real NASCAR car on a super speedway! Some of the pics from that day are below....you can also see them (and more) at Laura's Flickr account.

Nemo demonstrating the wet weather



The racers (ok, drivers!)

Rusty ain't got nothin' on me!

Me and my loving, patient, and sun burnt wife! I love you, babe! :)

Creig and the kids before his drivin' the #8

We look way cooler in safety suits!

Me climbing on in

Woo hoo...pushin' 150mph!

Some of the very patient and loving fam!!

The driving experience itself was intense. I pretty much thought I was going to die the first couple laps. The next couple laps were spent regaining composure and realizing that the car sticks really good. And the last lap or two were spent thinking...I can do this, and this is super cool! Laura and I are already hoping to go back someday...this time, Laura is also going to be driving, though! :)

A big THANK YOU to Mom and Ed for an amazing weekend and experience. Your gift was/is greatly appreciated!!!

Well, that's it for this blog. Now to see if it actually posts.

-Scott