house for sale

our house is officially up for sale!  it’s been a busy few weeks as we have packed some things away and moved furniture.  we love our “little house in the woods” as we fondly call it, but we are ready for something just a little bigger.  it was a strange, but exciting feeling to pull up to the house yesterday and see the for sale sign.  we would love to move this summer.  we already have a house we would love to purchase, but we’ll need to sell ours first.   we are having an open house already on saturday!  after i read the description of our house for the listing, i decided i would love to buy our house! LOL!  it sounds wonderful!  and, it truly is.  there are many things we will miss about this place.  especially our amazing backyard.   now that the house is on the market, we’ll have to keep it picked up.  ty is much better at that than i am…i’ll have to work on that.  i’m notorious for letting my clothes pile up all over the floor; probably not a bad habit to break :) 

anyone know someone who wants to purchase a great starter home on the northside of holland?

i know it’s springtime when…

…(in no particular order):

• captain sundae opens for the season
• mud is as prevalent as snow piles
• it’s 30 degrees when i leave for work and 50 degrees on my way home
• it’s the end of 3rd quarter at school — already!
• i’ve seen the sun 6 days in a row
• cadbury mini-eggs are back on the store shelves (i enjoyed a bag already!)
• i can wear skirts to school
• i get a hankerin’ for some good ol’ grillin’ in the backyard
• packing and cleaning begin in full force, as we get ready to put the house up for sale
• peeps are for sale in the grocery store — best served stale
i can go outside wearing a thick, cozy hoodie and no coat
spring break is right around the corner
the road becomes an obstacle course as i avoid potholes (or in some cases, craters!)
the days get longer
captain sundae opens for the season (oh, did i say that already?)
my energy level begins to pick up

and best of all…

• i get my yearly spring cold :( 

hopefully this is just a cold; i think it is.  it’s just a bummer.  i was finally feeling 100%, and it was great! a little extra sleep and downtime already has me feeling better than yesterday.   but no matter how i feel, seeing the sun shine brings a smile to my face.

 

 

saturday morning

saturday morning…typically a day i sleep in.  not this morning; i woke up @6:20!  well before my alarm.  it wasn’t hard to get out of bed today, because…

ty flies in to grand rapids in a couple hours :)   it’s been two full weeks since we’ve seen each other.  i left on friday the 22nd of february for guatemala, and he’s been in california for two weeks.  it sounds like he had a challenging and rewarding time at fuller seminary.  it will be good to have him home! 

it was a busy day for me yesterday…i figured i probably should finally unpack and do some laundry!  i needed a few things from the store, and i thought picking up the house would be a good idea too.  unlike my husband who immediately starts unpacking and doing laundry when he arrives home from a trip, i tend to put it off.   in the evenings this week i did a lot of sleeping and vegging, which meant i had a lot to accomplish yesterday!  fortunately we had a 1/2 day thursday and no school friday.  like a true procrastinator, i waited with my “chores” until i had to have them done!  i’ve even done a couple loads of laundry already this morning 

it’s time to check on the status of ty’s flight, eat breakfast, and get ready to leave.  i’m certainly not going to procrastinate and risk being late to the airport.  i’m so excited to have my husband home again!   

  

signs of spring?

this morning before i left for school, i brushed about a 1/2 inch of snow off the truck.  it was just icy enough to fish-tail a couple times, which made me wish i had taken the grand am.  however my car is low on gas, and ty’s truck had 3/4 of a tank.  so, i drove the truck ’cause i detest putting gas in cars during the wintertime; i’m always cold, so standing by the car freezing while filling the tank is not my idea of fun.  (when i lived in grandville, i could stop at a wonderful full-serve gas station!  the extra $1 it cost me was more than worth it.)  ok. so, where was i going with this?  oh, yea…

i think spring may actually come again this year!  this morning’s snow was such a contrast to the rest of the day; a sure sign that spring will eventually arrive!  this afternoon the sun was shining, and i could see bright blue sky from my classroom window.  it was so bright outside on the way home, i was wishing i had my sunglasses (which, of course, were in my car at home).  it was an amazing afternoon; downtown holland was beautiful this evening too. 

two things happened right when i arrived home that brought a smile to my face…once again, sure signs of spring in my book.  first, i had to carefully walk down the driveway to the mailbox.  the ice under my feet was cracking with everystep!  the driveway hasn’t been bare in months, and i’m loving the thought that it’s warming up enough to melt all the ice off our driveway.  even if it’s only slowly, at least it’s melting!  the second event caught me totally by surprise…geese!  i heard them “honking” and when i looked up, i saw a small flock of geese flying out toward lake macatawa.   what music to my ears :)   

winters here in michigan get so long, but signs of spring are all around me.  today was such a breath of fresh air.   but, i hope my students don’t catch spring fever yet…it’s way too early for that!  

my michigan home

it’s sunday evening, and i am back in michigan.   traveling over the last two days went well –guatemala to houston yesterday afternoon/evening and houston to chicgao this morning.   keith found a great price on our plane tickets, as well as an amazing rate at a hotel in houston.   it was worth the overnight stay — it saved us a lot of money, and the newly remodeled hotel rooms at the holiday inn were amazing :)  the four of us arrived back in holland a little before 3:00 today.  i was home, but the other three still had to drive to grand rapids. 

in many ways it feels like much longer than eight days ago that i left for guatemala.  so much has happened over that relatively short period of time.  i have more writing to do in my journal, things i don’t want to forget.  there are many things to think about as we work to continue this partnership; one of them being stronger support from the school community.

it’s good to be home again, but i wish ty was here too.  the time will fly by, i’m sure.  i have lots of things on my to do list:  unpack, laundry, groceries, bank, lesson plans, grading, you know the routine.   i actually have a relatively easy week ahead of me for school, which will help a lot.  maybe i’ll even get in a little scrapbooking! :) 

i  attempted to download a few pictures now that i am home, but i’m not being so successful this time of night.  i probably should get a good night of sleep, so i’ll try again later! 

thanks so much for following my trip; it means a lot to me that friends and family were thinking about us and praying for us and our work in guatemala.  please, keep them in your prayers also. 

time to say goodbye

it’s saturday morning…i always find it’s hard to believe that a trip is ending.  when we arrived, it felt like we had a nice long time here.  but, just now i was outside watching the building team leave for the airport.  four of us arrived here one week ago today (the building team was in guatemala on the previous wednesday).  now i should be packing so that we can leave later this afternoon.

keith, tiffany, jim, and i are going to zone one this morning.  it is the oldest part of the city, where we are going to do some shopping in the market and sightseeing of the national cathedral and palace.  i’m excited to go there; it’s another part of guatemala that i have not seen before.

 yesterday was a bittersweet day.  there was a dedication service in the morning with participants from the church and both christian schools.  there were many tears shed at the end as the staff at colegieo cristianos kyrios thanked the team for the new building.  most of the classes made cards and wrote letters to the westside students.  it will be a lot of fun to share them with our kids as we share about our trip. 

due to delays at the beginning of the week, the construction team did not finish the building.  there were parts of it that they knew that would not be completed, but they were hoping to get a little more accomplished than they did.  summer (she was in charge of the build and work with the school) reminded the team last night that it’s not about the completed project.  what matters is that we were here doing what God called us to do.  we were here to make a connection to the school community.  we were here giving them something that they never had before.  we were here as an answer to a prayer that the school has been praying for a long time.  we were here because we listened to God.

we shed more tears at the restaurant as we said goodbye to our new guatemalan family.  many of them shared incredible words of thanks for the work that we did.  they were asking when we were coming back again!  jim reassured them that some of us have already begun talking about the possibilities of returning, and what that may look like :) 

thank you for all your prayers.  it has been an incredible blessing in my life to be here, and i am praying for God’s direction as i think about returning some time! 

we have an overnight stay in houston tonight and return to chicago tomorrow.  i’m not sure i’m ready to go home yet; i love it here!  besides, ty is at fuller for another week.  but, the worst part is that i am returning home to MORE snow!  i don’t think winter is ever going to end.  i’m sure going to miss this beautiful weather and country.  i’ll update again when i am back in michigan.  thanks again!