more fire pics

I'm so short I could stand under the driver's
side mirror...



I really liked this one of the cab...



BTFD has door to door service!

stop, drop, and roll

I won't steal Mattie's thunder with all the fire photos that we took tonight that he is about to post on his blog, but I did have to stick a few of my favorites up here. (the rest are on his blog and at my Flickr page.) We went out to his fire station to snap some shots. The reflections off the shiny fire trucks in there were pretty awesome. I joined a Flickr group dedicated to photos of reflections, so I noticed them a lot more tonight and got some decent shots. I need to get to know the settings on our new camera a little better, however.

didden

Stopped over at Chez Rometti last night and China (otherwise known as Didden) decided to take a little nap. Chelsea was quite jealous when I got home.

Wrote a whole bunch yesterday. I have to be more disciplined to put stuff down on paper (or virtual paper). One of these days it will all come together. I wonder why we write sometimes... it seems like people have said it all before. Like Ecclesiastes says, there's nothing new under the sun... and one of my favorite verses... " Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." (12:12) Someday I want to frame that one and stick it on my office wall at the library.

5th anniversary trip

As promised, here are some shots from our time in Saugatuck. Yes, it was COLD! No swimming for me, although I did stick my feet in the water until they were numb... about 30 seconds. Justin, bless his heart, was humoring my burning desire to go to the beach even though it was about 50 degrees outside and we were about to get blown over. What a good sport!

We had dinner at an old mansion called the Belvedere Inn. We felt a little underdressed but it was very nice.
The gardens were just about to burst into bloom, and we got to wander around the mansion for a little bit. I had scallops with champagne butter and caviar and a big juicy filet mignon... mmm! Justin had a steak too and chocolate cheesecake that was ALMOST as good as Mom's!

We also went on a bit of a "fantasy real estate" tour of the area. One of our favorite things to do is look at houses, so we found some cool ones to spy on and even dropped in on an open house for a $1.5 million "cottage" right on Lake Michigan. Like I said, fantasy. :-)

I posted some more of our photos on my Flickr site if you'd like to see them. I didn't get a shot of the million dollar cottage, but we did see some other very nice places! It was so nice to take a few days off. I can't believe that it's already been 5 years. God has really blessed us!

happy memorial day

I've been waiting to post until I've downloaded our pictures from Saugatuck and our anniversary weekend, but I should get to that soon. In the meantime, we had a nice, relaxing memorial day weekend.

Saturday was a day of cleaning, babysitting, and generally getting things done. It was HOT here! Mid-90s and high humidity made for a scorcher. And to think, last weekend I was wearing a scarf and nearly getting blown away at Lake Michigan. Gotta love that weather. We also saw X-3 on Saturday. If you're going to see it, make sure you stay through the end of the credits to see the extra scene. A little surprise!

Sunday was barbecue day... we had about 25 people over from church for a fun cookout. We now have an entire fridge drawer filled with nothing but meat. I should be in Atkins paradise but frankly I'm a little grossed out!

Monday we went to Bath to see their very cute and small memorial day parade. The best part was Justin and I getting pelted with candy by the driver of the big red fire truck, very officially pictured to the right. :-)

Monday I also went over to help Jess set up her new apartment. It ended up being more of a personal potty-training coaching session for Joey! I think I've run out of ideas to persuade him to poop. No amount of telling him how fun it was or bribing him seemed to work! Ah, the joys of future parenthood!

We also went to see the DaVinci Code last night. I didn't think it was as bad as the reviews have made it out to be, but we did bust up laughing at the very dramatic portrayal of the Council of Nicea, the description of the Star of David as a "blade and chalice," and at the ending revelation "You are the descendant of Jesus Christ!" I think that part was supposed to be serious but I couldn't help giggling, and Kevin was cracking up as well.

greek life update

I have been meaning to update about last weekend and give a summary on our first year of Greek Life ministry. We ended off the school year by having our guys Jordan and Drew, their girlfriends Maggie and Lauren, and their friend Charlie over for a BBQ and a few rounds of putt-putt golf last Saturday. It was a really great time and so encouraging. The guys are getting an apartment together next year and we are going to try and have the weekly Bible study there. I am going to join them in the fall as hopefully the girls will as well. They are very sweet and I am excited to get to know them better. Drew is staying here for the summer and Matt is going to meet one-on-one with him, which will be awesome for both. Justin reports that the guys have made tremendous progress this year. Please continue praying for all of them as you can imagine some of the issues that they come up against every day... pray for a desire for God to be strongest in their hearts, and for boldness with their friends.

I got to see Tina the other day which was great as always! I'm looking forward to seeing her more regularly in the fall when hopefully the girls will be around more. She has such an awesome perspective on things. For those of you who don't know Tina, she is kind of our "consultant" for Greek Life. She started a very successful Greek Life ministry at Central Michigan after becoming a Christian in college and having a huge heart to reach her sorority sisiters. She is a totally godly woman and is so awesome!

Anyhow... ending the year on such a positive note was great. I also, surprisingly, won at mini-golf. That never happens!

lilac season!

Here is my first bunch of lilacs for the season. One of our bushes is just starting to come out and the other is slightly behind. I love when they bloom, it smells so good...

blog de chop

Mattie is blogging! Visit him here.

new office, take 2

I've moved again... sigh. I do like my new office a lot. It's cozy and has nice high ceilings which you can't tell from the photos. Our library was built in the 50s ( I think, I should probably know that being a librarian) and has lots of blonde wood and industrial-looking-ness as you might imagine. I have lovely harvest gold panels behind my computer!

You can't tell from the picture, but I still have the Librarian Action Figure duking it out with Emperor Palpatine in front of my monitor. Nancy Pearl armed with a light saber is a pretty fearsome sight.

Hopefully one of these days I will settle in somewhere and stay put for a while! I'm beginning to feel like a bit of a nomad... or a hobo as Amy would call it.

     

twins

I was wondering why my door clicker wasn't working today, then I realized those weren't my flowers in the bud vase. :-)

farewell to the business library

Today was my last day at Business. Peng had his camera out (of course!) and switched roles from librarian to paparazzo for the afternoon. You can see about 20% of all the photos he took here at the Flickr site he set up. This photo is Peng, Nancy (my boss), and me.

I am now firmly installed back in the Main Library and have just finished setting up my new office. It has nice high ceilings. I will get some photos up as soon as I get around to taking some. I've been trying to keep my morale up and be excited about starting yet another new job but it's not easy. I am trying to focus on the good points - I am really going to like the kind of work I'll be doing, I like being back with my buddies here at Main, etc. I submitted my THIRD resume today. Third time's a charm... hopefully? We shall see.

the more you eat...

Whose idea was it to take all the fun out of eating beans? This story could be good news to some, however, whose flatulent husbands/ fathers/ boyfriends/ brothers shall remain nameless. :-)

yet MORE destruction!

Seems to be a bit of a destruction/demolition theme here... I just watched online as the old Jamestown Bridge got blown up. You can watch the video here. I think Justin's love of watching things explode in movies is rubbing off on me, or maybe I've just watched Mythbusters too much. Or it's just my morbid disaster fascination kicking in... Anyhow it is cool. It was a pretty scary bridge to drive over so it's a little creepy seeing it fall down, but worth the watch. If I'm not mistaken, this bridge's center section had a grate for a roadway.... the kind that makes that awful noise as you are driving over it, and you could look down and see the water underneath you. It was either this bridge or the Newport bridge (on the other side of the island) that I'm thinking of... Oh, the bridge is on the way to Newport, RI by the way, for all you non-easterners. :-) (Photo and story from the Boston Globe website.)

rest of demolition photos...

sorry, forgot to mention that they are here at my Flickr site.

april

I didn't quite capture the sun comming through the blooms on this tree outside my building this morning. Even though it's just shy of 40 degrees this morning, spring is still on its way. These are the times I'm glad I don't live in Texas... sorry Wrights! :-)

Happy belated Easter to everyone as well. It was nice to celebrate this year and great to have a lot of visitors in church. If they would only come back... We have some boys that come over and play basketball in our parking lot all the time, and I was really happy to see them with their mom in church last Sunday. I have struggled a lot with keeping a good attitude about these kids since my headlight cover was "mysteriously" shattered last year while I was parked near to the basketball hoop. They also like to yell at Chelsea. Usually I don't have a problem seeing ministry potential in kids but for some reason my attitude has not been good about these boys. I'm trying. Seeing them in church helped me be thankful that they feel comfortable coming over to play ball.

All else is good here. We're going to Holland this weekend to see Julie and company, and Justin is guest preaching. I'm supposed to sing something like a good preachawife should but I don't know what that's going to be yet. Good thing I enjoy that "sangin' and playin' pianna" or else I might not be forgiven for shaking the neighborhood with the bass in in my punch buggy in a decidedly un-preachawife-like manner! :-)