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

Greenfield Village and Shrek 4

This past weekend Brian and I both had Saturday off and we weren't heading to Grand Rapids, so we decided to do something fun (and mostly free!).  We started the day off by stopping at Best Buy to order a new computer battery and buy a headset.  After that quick errand, we went over to Greenfield Village.  The day started off a little dark, but it ended up being a beautiful day!  We walked around the village, saw the sheep, ate lunch, and watched part of the baseball game.  We then headed over to the Museum to see the new Play exhibit, but weren't overly impressed with it.  We then headed to the movie theatre and saw Shrek 4 in 3-D.  It was a great movie!  Here's some pictures of our day.