Is it July 28 already?!?

Wow!  This month has flown by!  Here's a breakdown of what we've been up to and what is to come for us in the next few days.

June 28 - found out we would be moving to Germany by August 1...the craziness began!

June 29 - our third anniversary - celebrated with some German food in Ann Arbor

July 1-5 - went to the Adirondacks for a long weekend of muddy backpacking with great friends...climbed the second highest peak in NY

July 6 - one day home together spent unpacking and repacking

July 7-9 - Beth in GR and Brian in Washington DC/Baltimore/Indianapolis for work

July 10 - helped friends who recently got married in Germany move their households together

July 11 - last Sunday at Dearborn CF...trip to Frankenmuth to see Grandma Jo and Fred

July 14 - Beth's last day working at the library

July 15 - lunch with a friend (Jayme) in Troy and making plans for our first visitor (Becky) to Friedrichshafen

July 16 - hanging out with Laura, Deb, & Patrick with a rousing game of croquet (which I lost!)

July 17 - Brian and his dad take a trip to get some furniture to GR...get together with all the Ponsteins

July 18 - last Sunday at First CRC...tree fell on my parent's garage roof while Brian was in the garage

July 20-22 - Brian in Mankato...storms make him sit in the plane for 3 hours before making it home

July 20 - movers come to pack up and take our stuff going to Germany by boat...we'll see it in 6-8 weeks!

July 22 - ice cream with our small group...Brian missed it because of his plane troubles

July 23 - Beth's 26th birthday!...Whitecaps game with the Pfruenders and Brummels

July 24 - emptying my parent's basement...dinner with Oma at Russ'

July 25 - lunch with Pfruenders...Katie and Kyle's first anniversary!

July 26 - Ponsteins come to get the rest of our furniture...sold Brian's Intrepid!

July 27 - Beth meets Mom in Howell to trade off a carload of stuff (a little shopping too!)

July 28 - last minute packing and cleaning

July 29 - Brian's last day of work...driving to GR with the last carload in the evening

July 30 - leave GR at 9am to head to Detroit for our flight at 1:30pm...fly to Atlanta for a 2 hour layover

July 31 - arrive in Stuttgart, Germany at 9am (3am MI time)...return rental car and head to our apartment

August 1 - meet up with Brian's boss who will show us around the town and help us find things we need

August 2 - Brian's first day of work in FN

We'll update again once we've made it to Germany and have Internet access.  Your prayers are much appreciated as we take this journey to a new chapter in our lives!

Mini-Golfing

Mom, Katie, and I had a free afternoon yesterday, so we went for lunch at Applebee's, mini-golfing at Craig's Cruisers, and ice cream at Coldstone's.  Here's some pictures of our mini-golfing adventure.  I won, but Katie had the only hole-in-one.

Packing

It's amazing how much organization it takes to move across the ocean for 2 years!  We have less than 2 weeks until we fly out to live in Friedrichshafen, Germany for 2 years.  Tomorrow the movers come to pack and take our stuff that will be taking a long boat ride across the ocean.  It will take 6-8 weeks for the stuff to get to us there.  I've been in the process of getting everything ready for the movers and moving the rest of our stuff back to Grand Rapids to be put in a storage unit.  Brian and his dad made a trip out here Saturday to get some of our furniture and we hope to get the rest of it to Grand Rapids in a few trips this week.  Our bedroom is full of the stuff that we will be taking in our suitcases on the plane with us.  We'll be living with all the stuff in 5 suitcases and 2 backpacks until the beginning of September when our stuff on the boat arrives.  Since our apartment has been in a continual state of disorganization for quite a while now, I thought I would take a few pictures before the movers come so you can see how we've been living.  I can't wait to be in Germany with all our stuff so that I can find it all again!

A wide view of the living room - this is all going on the boat.

Our bikes - boxed and ready to go!

Some of the suitcases we've been living out of - no more dressers!

We lost our bathroom counter somewhere!

The random pile of Brian's socks that have been living in the hallway for about a week.  :)

The Ten-Minute Storm

Yesterday we stopped at my parent's house to trade vehicles with my dad so that we could take our bikes back to Belleville before the movers come.  After Brian looked at the weather, he decided that we should stay a few hours so that the storm that was coming could pass through and go ahead of us across the state.  My sister was over, so we decided to look at her pictures from their trip to Europe.  While we were looking at the pictures, a downpour started with a lot of wind, lightning, and thunder.  The power blinked off a few times, but always came back on.  We heard a lot of noise from the storm, but never guessed what all the noise actually was.  Brian was in the garage putting all our stuff in the truck.

When we were done looking at the pictures, we got up and Dad noticed that there was a lot of leaves pushed up against the kitchen window.  When he looked out the slider door, we all realized that half of the giant maple tree in their backyard had fallen on top of the garage!  Since it was still downpouring, we couldn't go outside and check it out, but we could see more branches dangling over the front of the garage above my car and that two branches had punctured the roof in two different places. 

Once the rain slowed down, we all headed outside to check it out.  Here's some of the pictures:

Cars For Sale

Brian and I are moving to Germany for 2 years and would like to sell both of our cars before we move on July 30.  Leave a comment or send us an e-mail if you're interested!

2002 Mercury Sable
White
about 135,000 miles (we can get you exact if you want)
Back door locks no longer work with clicker
Comes with extra tire
$3000

 2000 Dodge Intrepid
Black
about 180,000 miles (we can get you exact if you want)
Front door locks have been tampered with but clicker still works to lock and unlock both doors
Front passenger shock is worn and makes noise
Burns a little oil and uses a little bit of coolant (we just watch it and fill it as needed)
$900