Anniversary at the Metropark

We went to the Metropark Sunday night for burgers. Here's some pictures.
Here's us. On our first anniversary.

Here's the yummy burgers and potatoes we had for dinner.
Don't worry, they weren't done yet.

Here's what most of the Metropark looks like. There are places with playgrounds and shelters also. We weren't far from the waterpark either.

Our friend the dragonfly. We went for a walk in the woods and found him.

Another view of the Metropark. This is a stream that feeds into the Huron River that runs through the park. Very gorgeous.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our first wedding anniversary! Last night we celebrated by going out to eat and to a movie. We went to Carrabba's (Brian's favorite) and ate far too much. We had a really great waitress and an even greater brownie dessert!

After dinner, we had about an hour to waste before the movie, so we wandered through Michael's and Dunham's looking at stuff. We then went to the Canton Cinema and watched Wall*E. It was an excellent movie and even a love story. :) We thoroughly enjoyed it and the company we had with each other.

We're not really doing much today to celebrate. We went to Dearborn Christian Fellowship for church again this morning and talked with a few more people. I slept and Brian saved the world this afternoon. We're now getting ready to visit the park with some burgers and rollerblades for a relaxing evening in the outdoors. It's truly a blessing to have such a great park so close by.

Thanks for the anniversary wishes we've received so far!

"Same Kind of Different As Me"

Until this evening, I could honestly say that I have never cried while reading a book. The book I just finished has ended that. I read "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. It is the story of a couple and their journey with a homeless man. It is the best book I have read in a very long time and definitely worth the tears. Get a copy if you can. It's worth it.

Cars and Beavers

Here's two pictures of my parents at the Henry Ford Museum on their anniversary.

Here's me in one of Ford's cars. You could actually turn the handle in the front and it would "start". You could also move all the pedals and handles.

Here's me by a beaver at the Detroit Historical Museum.

Libraries, Parents, Metroparks, and Computers

A lot has happened since my last post, so this post will be in sections to get you up to date on the exciting things that have happened in the past few days.

Libraries
Friday, June 13 I got a call from a woman named Karen at the Allen Park Public Library. She had seen my resume for another position that I had applied for with the Wayne County Public Libraries and was curious if I wanted to come in for an interview. She had a 20 hour a week opening for a Tween/Teen Library Assistant. Of course I said yes, so this past Wednesday I went in for an interview. The three women I interviewed with were great and I really felt comfortable with them. The library was very people and service oriented. Karen said they had a few more interviews to do before they knew for sure, so she'd call me the beginning of next week. Well, apparently they decided sooner since I got a call from her on Friday afternoon. I was offered the position and took it right away! I have to fill out some paperwork and go through some orientation, but I actually have a job in a library! I am very excited about this. I have definitely learned patience through this because I have been trying for jobs in libraries for over a year and now finally get one that I wasn't even expecting or applied for. God is good!

Parents
My parents came this last week Thursday and Friday to visit us. It was their 26th wedding anniversary on Thursday, so they spent the day at the Henry Ford Museum which they had previous tickets for. For dinner, we went to Cici's Pizza, which is an excellent pizza buffet. My favorite is the dessert pizzas. :) On Friday, Brian went to work, so I spent the day with my parents. We got free tickets through the library to the Detroit Historical Museum. We spent the morning there. It was a nice museum and we got to see quite a bit. After having lunch at Wendy's, we went to Ikea for a little bit and did a little shopping. When we got back to our place, my parents left because my mom had to be back in GR for a wedding Friday evening. It was nice to spend a little bit of time with my parents here.

Metroparks
Since moving here, we have seen signs for and heard things about Metroparks. We weren't entirely sure what they were, so we looked it up on the Internet. We found one that is not even 10 minutes from our apartment. Yesterday afternoon we decided to go and check it out. We bought an annual pass for our car. A metropark is basically a giant park/nature preserve. There are quite a few of them along the Huron River which goes from Lake Saint Claire to Lake Erie. There are picnic areas, charcoal grills, and picnic tables. There is a hike/bike trail. There are a few different places to fish in the river. There is an aquatic center with slides, a lazy river, and a pool. We took our rollerblades and went on part of the hike/bike trail. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the Metropark and already went back today! We're looking forward to doing some grilling there since we can't do it at our apartment. If you come to visit, we will have to take you to the Metropark.

Computers
Yesterday we had to buy legal sized paper to print off my job application. While at Best Buy, we looked at the computers because we were looking to buy a new laptop for me before school starts in the fall. Instead of just looking, we ended up buying one! I am now posting from my new laptop. I'm still getting used to Vista and all the new things on it. I still have to transfer my old documents and things from my desktop, so we aren't getting rid of it quite yet. We hope to be able to donate it to Love Inc. sometime.

Other than those exciting things, life is pretty good here in Belleville. Brian is learning more at his job and feeling more comfortable there. I am finished with my class tomorrow, so I will have a bit of time off before I start this new job. The week of the 4th, we are planning on going camping for a few days, so that will be a nice break away from regular life. Hopefully I will be able to post more often now that my class is done. Pictures will come soon.

Belleville Apartment

Here's Brian's desk where a futon will hopefully be someday to provide sleeping for our guests.

Here's the new desk that we just got last week and put together ourselves. It is nice to have a large space to do my homework.

Here's the other wall of our office. There's a closet and one of my bookshelves. It's a nice-sized office.

Here's our view from our balcony. There are apartment buildings all the way around the pond and the office with fitness center and pool are at the end that you can see. We're in the last building on the south side of the pond.

This is our dining room with the table we got from Brian's Great Aunt Grace.

Here's the kitchen next to the dining room. There's a little bar at the corner of the counter, but we don't have bar stools.

One half of the living room.

The other half of the living room.

The whole living room. I love the slider and window above it because it lets so much light into the apartment. The vaulted ceiling also makes it seem a lot bigger.

Here's the moving truck. They did a great job.

Our bedroom.

The other part of the bedroom.

The bathroom.

My favorite room! The laundry room! We can actually do our own laundry now whenever we want to. The room also stores our Christmas tree and all our camping stuff.

So there's a few pictures of our apartment. We'd love to have anyone come and visit us so that you can get a firsthand look at where we live. I'm going to post some pictures later of our backpacking trip to North Manitou Island over Memorial Day weekend.

Internet

For the first time since moving to Belleville, I am finally posting from our apartment! Yay! I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

The Weekend...and the one to come

Well, it's Monday and I'm once again in the library. Our Internet still does not work, so I'm still spending my entire day at the gorgeous Canton Public Library. I probably shouldn't complain since I do love libraries, but it would be nice to be at home doing my massive amounts of homework.

This weekend was pretty fun although we didn't do anything highly exciting. Here's what we did.

Friday: I ventured to Brian's work to have lunch with him. It's a large place with spike strips that requires driving on a five-lane highway to get to. I'm glad I'm not the one to go there 5 days a week. After Brian was finished with work, we did some shopping. We went to Staples and bought an L-desk for our office and bought a Father's Day gift for Brian's dad (which will remain nameless). When we got home, we watched "The Second Chance".

Saturday: We slept in! We then went to Target and bought lamps and a tub mat for our apartment. We also bought my Dad a Father's Day gift (which will remain nameless). We had lunch at home and then went back to Meijer to get the rest of our groceries. And we forgot the new bright blue reusable bags. :( In the evening we tried to watch "The Patriot" (it skipped a lot). We went for a walk down a gravel road behind our apartments.

Sunday: We went back to Dearborn CRC. We saw an old friend of my sister's who is marrying a girl from the church. Quite disturbing to have someone actually know my maiden name! For lunch, we went to the house of a family from the church and stayed most of the afternoon chatting. It was fun to eat dinner again with young kids (2 & 4). We went home, I did some homework, we watched some TV, and went for a walk/jog after it stopped raining.

This coming week we're coming home! Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, Brian has to go to Mankato, Minnesota for work. Instead of flying back to Detroit, he got a flight into GR. That means that after I drop him off at the airport on Wednesday evening, I'll be driving home and staying with my parents until Brian gets there. We'll spend the rest of the weekend with his parents. We'll also get to celebrate Father's Day with our dads. I'm very much looking forward to going home.

Green Thrifty Acres

Last night Brian and I decided to go to Meijer to get some groceries. We have very little food due to trying to eat it all before we moved. Instead of wasting expensive gas to go next door, we walked in the almost 90 degree heat. It took us about 10-15 minutes to walk. The air conditioning inside was wonderful!

We did our shopping, although we didn't get everything we needed since we had to carry it home. Since we had already helped save the environment by walking, we decided to go the extra mile and bought some of the reusable bright blue bags that Meijer just came out with. We then walked home with our groceries in bright blue bags.

It is nice to know that I won't be collecting way more Meijer plastic bags than I need now. I just have to remember the bright blue bags when I go now. It also was too hot of a day to do that much walking especially when it involved carrying groceries home. We'll think about it a little harder next time. :)

Libraries

In case anyone doubts the usefulness of a library, I'm here to prove you wrong. Perhaps I am a little biased because of my future profession resting on the usefulness of libraries, but I don't care.

Monday began the Internet saga. I discovered I had no Internet in our new apartment because AT&T didn't actually do anything when Brian called last week to set it up. This sent me on an afternoon trip to Panera Bread, being the only place I knew that had free wireless. After googling for libraries in the area, I discovered the Canton Public Library but had run out of time to see if they had wireless Internet to use on Tuesday.

Tuesday I discovered that our Internet was working in our apartment! Yay! I spent all day Tuesday in our apartment except for a walk to Meijer and a trip for donuts at Tim Horton's across the street.

Wednesday morning I woke up to my Internet working once again. I checked a few things and then had breakfast and took a shower. When I returned to my computer to work on two large assignments that are due this evening for my online class, I discovered that something had gone wrong with our Internet service and all the customer service woman could tell me was that it wasn't supposed to be hooked up until next Monday.

Because of these pressing assignments that are due later today, I now find myself in the Canton Public Library (which is absolutely gorgeous!) using their free wireless Internet. If you thought a library wasn't useful, here's proof that they are!

Moved

We have moved! Everything went smoothly the day of the move, but we were all tired by the end. Two Men & A Truck moved all our stuff, but we still had to unpack it all. We have about 5 boxes left and a lot of organizing to do yet.

Our apartment is wonderful. It is bigger than our last one and much more open and bright. We have a giant slider with a big window above it that brings in a lot of light. I will be working on organizing our stuff this week while I'm at home.

Brian started his job last Friday and is back every day this week. It will take some time to get used to him being gone all day every day. We haven't done that in a while. I'm home every day all day because I don't have a job and am just taking a class online at the moment.

Our Internet didn't get set up, so I have to wait another week for it to be in our apartment. Right now I'm posting from Panera Bread. It's a nice place, but still a little drive just to use the Internet.

I sent out an e-mail with our address/phone number/e-mail/website in it. Let me know if you didn't receive it and would like that information.

I will post some pictures of our apartment once I have Internet in the apartment. I also haven't taken any pictures yet and want to get the last few boxes unpacked before I do. Look for them in about a week.