Click on the slide show to go to the album.
Myrtle Beach
OMP
Farming...
OMP
Farming...
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Photos....
Here's some photo's and another news flash that I just remembered when looking at the pictures. Sadly, while we were gone to Myrtle Beach the ducks disappeared. Lucky ducky, Mrs Quackers and the little mallard went missing midweek while we were gone :( I'll miss their cute waddle. RIP
Click on the slide show to go to the album.
Click on the slide show to go to the album.
Groovin' Along
Well... I know I've been awful at blogging from the start, but I really did think I would get better with time. Mmmm... maybe not so much, but I'm still hanging in there and hoping that one day I will be better at keeping up with it.
One thing that may help is our most recent exciting news. We are getting another exchange student in the fall. His name is Fredrik (goes by Freddy) and he is from Finland. Mike and I are very excited to have a new son! He will be living with us for the entire 2010-2011 school year and he is a hockey player. So, he will be playing hockey on the St. Johns/DeWitt team. I imagine for how athletic he seems though that he will be playing many more sports. I have a few projects in mind to finish up around the house before he arrives and I look forward to working on those in the coming months. I need to make a complete checklist for myself so that I'll have something to work towards.
We just returned from an amazingly fun and relaxing weekend on Myrtle Beach with the Keenan side of the family. Mike's Aunt & Uncle were gracious enough to invite us down to the beach house they had rented to stay with them. We not only got to spend lots of quality time with the family we also got to hang out with Brandon & Cynthia. We really enjoyed seeing them after such a long time! The weather wasn't that great at the beginning of the week, but it warmed right up by the end of the week and I got two full beach days in. Enough to get a little bit of color to return to MI with. Mike played golf, we did a 1,000 piece puzzle, we visited some gorgeous gardens, had great seafood and Mike & I went kayaking together for the first time. Fun, fun, fun! The most enjoyable part of the week, no disrespect to anyone, was playing with my little niece Helena all week. She lives so far away and I was overjoyed to be able to hang out with her for a whole week. I have some great pictures of us together and I love her to pieces!!!!!!
Mike and I spent a lovely weekend on OMP with Ken & Janet the weekend before we left for Myrtle. We had such a nice time!! We did a little bit of everything and really enjoyed all of the adventures. Especially an exciting run in with nature at the lighthouse! Just a hint, a couple of geese did not appreciate Ken & Mike. We'll leave it at that!
This weekend will be a quick trip up to OMP (Old Mission Peninsula) and the Leelanau Peninsula to do some wine tasting with a large group of girls. It should be super fun and I'm looking forward to it!!
Other news:
We have quite a bit of the finishing touches on the chicken coop and it is working out beautifully. Mike and I designed & built a great new coop and I couldn't be happier. Chores are enormously easier now and I think our flock is infinitely healthier. So healthy in fact that yesterday we got a record breaking 32 eggs!! Holy mother of eggs! We ran a new fence to keep them out of my garden, but it blew down in a thunder/wind storm and they figured out that they could hop it. Now that it's back up... they just hop it. Argh, chickens are smarter than most people know.
The garden boxes are just finally dry enough to plant a bit. I'm looking forward to fresh lettuce for salads and some radishes for breakfast!! I'll plant some of my garden tonight and cover the box with windows. That way the chickens won't be able to hop in my garden box and dig up all my seeds and I'll have a greenhouse effect going on. At least until the plants get big enough and we get the chicken fence re-run.
Photos to follow.......
One thing that may help is our most recent exciting news. We are getting another exchange student in the fall. His name is Fredrik (goes by Freddy) and he is from Finland. Mike and I are very excited to have a new son! He will be living with us for the entire 2010-2011 school year and he is a hockey player. So, he will be playing hockey on the St. Johns/DeWitt team. I imagine for how athletic he seems though that he will be playing many more sports. I have a few projects in mind to finish up around the house before he arrives and I look forward to working on those in the coming months. I need to make a complete checklist for myself so that I'll have something to work towards.
We just returned from an amazingly fun and relaxing weekend on Myrtle Beach with the Keenan side of the family. Mike's Aunt & Uncle were gracious enough to invite us down to the beach house they had rented to stay with them. We not only got to spend lots of quality time with the family we also got to hang out with Brandon & Cynthia. We really enjoyed seeing them after such a long time! The weather wasn't that great at the beginning of the week, but it warmed right up by the end of the week and I got two full beach days in. Enough to get a little bit of color to return to MI with. Mike played golf, we did a 1,000 piece puzzle, we visited some gorgeous gardens, had great seafood and Mike & I went kayaking together for the first time. Fun, fun, fun! The most enjoyable part of the week, no disrespect to anyone, was playing with my little niece Helena all week. She lives so far away and I was overjoyed to be able to hang out with her for a whole week. I have some great pictures of us together and I love her to pieces!!!!!!
Mike and I spent a lovely weekend on OMP with Ken & Janet the weekend before we left for Myrtle. We had such a nice time!! We did a little bit of everything and really enjoyed all of the adventures. Especially an exciting run in with nature at the lighthouse! Just a hint, a couple of geese did not appreciate Ken & Mike. We'll leave it at that!
This weekend will be a quick trip up to OMP (Old Mission Peninsula) and the Leelanau Peninsula to do some wine tasting with a large group of girls. It should be super fun and I'm looking forward to it!!
Other news:
We have quite a bit of the finishing touches on the chicken coop and it is working out beautifully. Mike and I designed & built a great new coop and I couldn't be happier. Chores are enormously easier now and I think our flock is infinitely healthier. So healthy in fact that yesterday we got a record breaking 32 eggs!! Holy mother of eggs! We ran a new fence to keep them out of my garden, but it blew down in a thunder/wind storm and they figured out that they could hop it. Now that it's back up... they just hop it. Argh, chickens are smarter than most people know.
The garden boxes are just finally dry enough to plant a bit. I'm looking forward to fresh lettuce for salads and some radishes for breakfast!! I'll plant some of my garden tonight and cover the box with windows. That way the chickens won't be able to hop in my garden box and dig up all my seeds and I'll have a greenhouse effect going on. At least until the plants get big enough and we get the chicken fence re-run.
Photos to follow.......
Monday, March 15, 2010
Nice To Be Home
Well, we seriously considered going up north to try for one more skiing weekend. But it just looked too miserable out. So we enjoyed a weekend at home instead. I continued the purging from the attic that I began a month ago and got stalled on. Mike did various projects outside and we spent some quality time with friends and family. It was so nice!
Last night I was working hard in our bedroom. I dyed two blouses, trying to re-purpose them. Pulled a bunch of clothes from my closet to take to the tailor and even cleaned up my shoes. I finally cleaned up my wedding shoes as well! They have been sitting in a box in my bedroom sine June 2007. I trashed them at Brandon & Cynthia's Bachelor/Bachelorette party and they've been sitting ever since. It took me like 15 minutes to clean them up. I'm not sure why I ignored them on my floor for so long, but it feels good to get it done. I have been taking monthly trips to Goodwill and this month will be not be any different. I am purging tons of things from the attic. Amazingly, I took one box of dishes downstairs to unpack and I found things I didn't even know I had! I put a bunch of springy dishes in the cabinet and its like I have a whole new kitchen!
The other major project for Sunday was rugby. Though DirecTV we had purchased a channel named Setenta. They carried the Super 14 Rugby games and therefore we were happy. We recorded them, because they played at 2am usually and were able to watch our beloved Blues. Unfortunately for us... Setenta sold out! They sold out to the Fox SOCCER Channel. The humanity! Fox Soccer channel does not play rugby. What a sad, sad day. So we had to find another method. Our only option was the internet. We landed on RugbyZone. We moved the tower for our desktop PC downstairs to hook it up to the TV. After hours of fussing with it. We got to watch The Blues vs the Crusaders. We got stomped : ( The only problem we're having is with buffering... ugh. We've got some ideas though and we're going to try to get it handled before the season is over. Because pausing every 5-10 minutes or so to load... pretty much makes Mike want to break things. Hehehe
This week is pretty quiet. Mike's been pushing me to accomplish quieter weeks and I am striving towards that goal. Less things planned during the week, especially when working overtime will greatly reduce the stress. Here's hoping!
Last night I was working hard in our bedroom. I dyed two blouses, trying to re-purpose them. Pulled a bunch of clothes from my closet to take to the tailor and even cleaned up my shoes. I finally cleaned up my wedding shoes as well! They have been sitting in a box in my bedroom sine June 2007. I trashed them at Brandon & Cynthia's Bachelor/Bachelorette party and they've been sitting ever since. It took me like 15 minutes to clean them up. I'm not sure why I ignored them on my floor for so long, but it feels good to get it done. I have been taking monthly trips to Goodwill and this month will be not be any different. I am purging tons of things from the attic. Amazingly, I took one box of dishes downstairs to unpack and I found things I didn't even know I had! I put a bunch of springy dishes in the cabinet and its like I have a whole new kitchen!
The other major project for Sunday was rugby. Though DirecTV we had purchased a channel named Setenta. They carried the Super 14 Rugby games and therefore we were happy. We recorded them, because they played at 2am usually and were able to watch our beloved Blues. Unfortunately for us... Setenta sold out! They sold out to the Fox SOCCER Channel. The humanity! Fox Soccer channel does not play rugby. What a sad, sad day. So we had to find another method. Our only option was the internet. We landed on RugbyZone. We moved the tower for our desktop PC downstairs to hook it up to the TV. After hours of fussing with it. We got to watch The Blues vs the Crusaders. We got stomped : ( The only problem we're having is with buffering... ugh. We've got some ideas though and we're going to try to get it handled before the season is over. Because pausing every 5-10 minutes or so to load... pretty much makes Mike want to break things. Hehehe
This week is pretty quiet. Mike's been pushing me to accomplish quieter weeks and I am striving towards that goal. Less things planned during the week, especially when working overtime will greatly reduce the stress. Here's hoping!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Who Knew?
Who knew that the world of exchange student hosting was so competitive? Yikes.
Mike and I are heavily considering hosting another student this fall. We thought every other year is a good time frame for us. We can bump it back if we need to and make it longer between students, but we'll aim for every other and see how it goes. So, the weird thing is though, that now that we're moving forward and begining to look for a student we're getting sales pitches. Our program is the best, our students are the best... Crazy.
So first, I guess, is that we're still being courted by FLAG. We had already decided that we would not go the FLAG route again because of their lack of structure. So, instead we settled on looking into YFU. We're familiar with them and their program so, it seemed like a good fit. We put in our interest on the web and got a call the same day from a representative. Talk about being on the ball and trying to sell it. The representative was very nice, but was certainly hoping to "hook" me. Which is weird, because I didn't say I was looking at other programs... because I wasn't. Then a moment later it seems I got a call from a friend's friend who is working for yet another program and was trying to sell us on hosting with them as well.
I understand many people currently don't have the means to support another body in their household, so it may be tougher to place students... but man, I didn't expect to be a piece of prime "hosting family meat" that everyone is trying to get!
This definitely gives me an impish grin and a devilish mind about the situation though. I'd like to figure out what these people can do for me. I mean how badly do they want us to host a student?? hehe
Mike and I are heavily considering hosting another student this fall. We thought every other year is a good time frame for us. We can bump it back if we need to and make it longer between students, but we'll aim for every other and see how it goes. So, the weird thing is though, that now that we're moving forward and begining to look for a student we're getting sales pitches. Our program is the best, our students are the best... Crazy.
So first, I guess, is that we're still being courted by FLAG. We had already decided that we would not go the FLAG route again because of their lack of structure. So, instead we settled on looking into YFU. We're familiar with them and their program so, it seemed like a good fit. We put in our interest on the web and got a call the same day from a representative. Talk about being on the ball and trying to sell it. The representative was very nice, but was certainly hoping to "hook" me. Which is weird, because I didn't say I was looking at other programs... because I wasn't. Then a moment later it seems I got a call from a friend's friend who is working for yet another program and was trying to sell us on hosting with them as well.
I understand many people currently don't have the means to support another body in their household, so it may be tougher to place students... but man, I didn't expect to be a piece of prime "hosting family meat" that everyone is trying to get!
This definitely gives me an impish grin and a devilish mind about the situation though. I'd like to figure out what these people can do for me. I mean how badly do they want us to host a student?? hehe
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Oh What a Feeling!
A 16 year old Brazilian boy. Did we know what to expect? Not really. Do we love him and the outcome? So much so that it is a bit amazing actually.
In August of 2008 my wonderful husband, once again, agreed to one of my crazy ideas and we decided to get an exchange student from Brazil... for a whole school year. It was all a bit of a whirlwind. We were asked about hosting a student on a Friday and the following Friday we decided to go forward and within another few weeks we had a teenager! What exactly brought me to the conclusion that we needed a 16 year old from another country living with us, while I was finishing 2 college classes, working full time (plus some), Mike was getting ready to sit for his PE, being an assistant coach for a HS wrestling team and working full time, I can still not definitively say. I know it had a lot to do with the general reaction that I received from my friends and family in that week that we were thinking about it. Most of the reactions were some version of disbelief or doubt. I don't take kindly to people doubting me. Call it a flaw, but I like to prove people wrong when they doubt my choices. I can still hear Mike saying in a high pitched and tentative voice, "Well honey, if you think we can do this, okay then." If anything, I think I can confidently say that my husband will always have a new adventure as long as I am still kicking.
And so a tall lanky Felipe Ferreira Lisboa Luz joined the Keenan ranks on our little farm in St Johns. Neither of us had lived with a teenager before, (besides when we actually were teenagers!) So, we knew we had a challenge ahead of us, but we had no idea what kind of challenge it would be. Funny as it sounds now, we sat down before our new son arrived and made some rules together. Curfew, chores and the like. All very reasonable items to consider and we wanted to have a united approach to what we were about to tackle. It always happens in situations like this that you are prepared... but not for what is really about to come. And it was the same in this case. We were prepared for a teenager, but not the one we got.
We couldn't have had a better experience together. Mike, myself and Felipe all learned so much from each other. And somewhere along the way of trying to find rides and figure out how to get him to go out with his friends more often... we became a family. The time flew by and after lots of trips and adventures we suddenly, to our dismay, were at the end. June was upon us and we once again had no idea what to do. We all struggled through our goodbyes and our Brazilian son was gone. Our Felipeson was gone.
For several months it was a weird thing. It was only a short period of time, less than a year that he lived with us, but it felt like there was a large gaping hole in our house. Why did it take so long to re-adjust after Mike and I had been together so long and Felipe been with us such a short time? I believe it is because it doesn't really matter how long you have known someone... if you put your whole heart into a relationship that is what you'll get back. And we did, our hearts are bigger now because they have our son Felipe in there.
Yesterday, as I was ironing and watching TV we got an email from him. The shirt I was ironing got more than a few tear drops. It was amazing to hear from our Felipeson that he had the exact some feeling about us as we did about him. Oh what a feeling! He thanked us for all we did for his time in the US and for making him a part of our family. I thank him as well, for becoming a part of our family.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Really?
I have a really nice post that I've been working on about the holidays (which were really lovely, by the way) but I have to rant a bit currently. I know some things in life you will just never understand and I'm trying to reconcile myself with that, but it's not working... So I have to bitch about it.
Is my life incomplete? No.
Do I wish things were different or that I had done things differently? No.
If I'm happy with the way I am and my life why would many people assume that I'm not? Why would people assume I should take the path that they followed or one that they think I should follow? Why is the path I am taking not okay? I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not doing anything that has never been done before. Many people take the path in life I have.
Yet it seems that I am almost 30 years old and apparently do not know myself. Basically, what I get told on a regular basis is that one morning I will wake up... and just be a totally different person. I'll change my mind about all the things I've known about myself, in my life and I'll want to be a totally different person.
AMAZING. A-Freeking-MAZING.
I guess I just have trouble getting past the fact that I can't be who I am... What was I thinking?
Is my life incomplete? No.
Do I wish things were different or that I had done things differently? No.
If I'm happy with the way I am and my life why would many people assume that I'm not? Why would people assume I should take the path that they followed or one that they think I should follow? Why is the path I am taking not okay? I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not doing anything that has never been done before. Many people take the path in life I have.
Yet it seems that I am almost 30 years old and apparently do not know myself. Basically, what I get told on a regular basis is that one morning I will wake up... and just be a totally different person. I'll change my mind about all the things I've known about myself, in my life and I'll want to be a totally different person.
AMAZING. A-Freeking-MAZING.
I guess I just have trouble getting past the fact that I can't be who I am... What was I thinking?
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