Snake Free! (Hopefully)

A couple of weeks ago I had an encounter with a rather large snake by the shed in our back yard. I tried very hard not to exaggerate in describing it to Brian as I told him it was as thick as a garden hose and about two feet long. I don't think he quite believed me until today. After dinner I went to go water my garden and in a neat little coil on the sidewalk outside our shed was... The Snake. I yelled for Brian who came over with a shovel as The Snake tried to slither under the foundation of the shed. Brian valiantly hacked at the snake with the shovel severing it in two. He's my hero! One half of the snake is now hopefully dead under our shed and the other half is disposed of in the woods next to our house. When I asked him if it was as big as I described, he said The Snake was actually about 4 feet in length and certainly as thick as a garden hose! Creepy. I just hope this snake was the only one, that we don't have a nest of snakes under our shed, that this particular snake is not a poisonous variety, and that snakes are not like worms and can regrow severed parts. Now it is on to our mole or groundhog problem. We haven't quite decided yet what we're dealing with. I was feeling a little like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack today and I tried to flood out some of the tunnels as I watered. Every where I turned though I thought I saw another snake. I was still a little jittery from earlier. I actually feel I have been extremely brave during all of our critter escapades here in Michigan, but I have to admit not as brave as Brian, now the Great Snake Hunter.

After googling Michigan snakes here is the info I found. I believe our friend was an Eastern Garter Snake.

NY Trip

Brian and I are back from New York and had a great time! We flew to Albany on Wednesday night and got to spend all day with Wa, Linda, and the Libuttis. We got to swim during the day, Brian got to play BLC softball, we had a small birthday party for Cheryl, and we had a sleep over with Michaela. On Friday it was off to New York for Michael and now Jaimie Libutti's wedding. It was a great party, and we had a great time visiting and celebrating. Check out Cheryl's Blog for some great pictures of the evening. The girls were just adorable! Jenna and Michaela were both dancing up a storm. The pictures above and below are from Cheryl opening her presents.

Memorial Day Weekend

This past holiday weekend Brian and I traveled to Chardon, Ohio just outside Cleveland for Brian's college roommate, Larry's ordination. It was a really special occasion. Larry's family hosted us and as always their hospitality was exceptional. We also had the pleasure of meeting Larry's new fiance, Eden, who he met in Colorado. She seems like a truly special person and a great match for Larry. I just hope we didn't bore her with too many Concordia stories. Brian delivered the message at the ordination which, in my opinion, was very good. After the Saturday service Roy and Linda traveled back with us to Michigan where we did more outside work and spent some great time together. Occasions, such as this weekend, and visits certainly make being away from friends and family much easier to handle. Consider that an open invitation to all! I will close now as we are just about to leave for the airport to catch our flight to Albany, where Brian is preaching at Michael Libutti and Jamie Irving's wedding--update to follow.

A Little Bit Country

We have been doing a lot of work on the parsonage property lately. I am actually taking a time out as I've developed an allergic reaction from one of the many renegade vines we've been clearing from the property. Plus I'm avoiding the two foot long snake we've sighted in one of our beds! Brian, however, was part of a major project. We had some dead trees that needed to be removed. Thankfully, an expert in whatever area needed can be found among the people at St. Peter. Yesterday four members, one of whom owns a tree service, took down four of our dying trees. For two city kids the idea of doing this on your own is really bizarre, but these four guys were cool as cucumbers- throwing back miller lites, revving chain saws, predicting the place of landing for the tree, and sitting idly by as the tree fell a few yards from their feet. In the video below of one falling, notice Duane Betcher sitting coolly on the stump as their latest conquest bites the dust. Thanks guys!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

The Confirmation Crawl

This weekend was confirmation at St. Peter. There were about sixty-five 8th graders that took part. There were 5 services that the students could get confirmed at and Brian was busy preaching, helping, and taking many group pictures throughout the weekend. Bri was able to establish some great relationships with the kids and really enjoyed teaching them. On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we were able to stop at about 7 parties which were all very nice but collectively pretty overwhelming. For me it is especially tricky because everyone knows Brian, and through Brian, me. However, I am generally not nearly as comfortable with names and faces as Brian. I don't have the daily or even monthly contact with members that Brian does because St. Peter is such a large church. Thus, I have developed a catch-all phrase for those tricky introductions where you are not certain if this is the first time you have met someone or a repeat. I'm pretty proud of it as it took many awkward meetings to get it down. "Good to see you." Not "good to see you again", not "good to meet you", just "good to see you". It takes a lot of discipline to stop just after the "see you" but I have found it very effective. I suggest its use should the awkward occasion arise. I was able to use my "good to see you" line a good deal this weekend. The confirmation parties were individually very nice. It was great to see people in their homes, with their family, and in their element. We'll see how we approach the confirmation party crawl next year, but for year one we didn't too bad.

HGTV Cindy-Style

To continue our MI tradition of being out of town, Brian spent all of last week in Juarez Mexico on a mission trip. He went with people from church and they built from the ground-up a small home for a family of 4. It was an awesome experience. While he was gone my Mom came and stayed with me. Neither my mom nor I are ones to let the grass grow under our feet so we decided to tackle the big job of the landscaping around the parsonage. The landscaping had not been tended to in many years and was in serious need of an overhaul. Every time I walked outside and looked at it I was overwhelmed.

My Mom and I are often quite ambitious in our projects, and we especially like the opportunity for a big reveal when all our work is done (I guess it's from too much reality TV.) When I was in high school my Mom and I painted our entire Chicago bungalow while my Dad, Katie, and Mike were in Canada fishing. With Brian gone we had great motivation to finish before he returned. My Mom was awesome! She has such a knack for gardening and is so resourceful. We pretty much went non-stop for the week, and are very happy with the finished product. In fact, my Mom and I were finishing things up right until our company arrived on Saturday. Brian was truly impressed, and he and I are so excited to have a neat looking outside. We are so appreciative of her help. To cap off the weekend my Dad and Katie joined us for a surprise visit for Mother's Day. It was all just great!

Graduates!

Another weekend past and another spent outside the state of Michigan! This weekend my sister Katie graduated from Concordia University of Chicago, and I was able to travel and celebrate with my family. We also celebrated with Michael who is graduating from Illinois State University next weekend. They are both majoring in education, Katie in Math and Michael in English. Go figure, three teachers in one family. It was a nice ceremony, and we had an excellent celebration dinner at an old Bundalo family favorite Sabatino's. It has great Italian food and is so old-school the menus and pictures on the wall haven't changed since my Mom worked there 25 years ago. My parents are very excited to have all three of us done with college. We will continue the celebration at their dual graduation party June 9th and in a family trip planned for this summer. Congratulations on the hard work Katie and Mike!

Flickr Pictures

I have uploaded our digital pictures from the Party to our flickr site. They are pretty much the same as the photobucket pictures, but if you wanted another possibly easier format to view them, they're up there. It was such fun, and it is so nice to have some pictures to have captured parts of the evening.
Wa's Party Pictures, Click Here!

Wa's Surprise Party

On Thursday Brian and I flew to NY to help celebrate his Dad's Surprise Birthday. Linda and Cheryl worked very hard at putting the details of the party together and it was a major success. Roy or Wa as we have fondly nick-named him was totally surprised. It took him a while to realize he wasn't at Brian Strauss's birthday like the previous month's subterfuge had suggested but his own 60th birthday party. The night and weekend itself was such fun. We got to catch up and celebrate with so many great people. Wa's brother, sister, and their spouses came from DC, and Brian and I tremendously enjoyed catching up with them. Linda and Wa had friends come from Pennsylvania and Virginia who made the evening special of course for Wa but also for Brian, Linda, Cheryl, Danny, and myself. At the party we were able to catch up with all the fantastic Delmar/NY area natives who we miss seeing on a more regular basis. Not to mention, we had fun enjoying the company of our nieces Jenna and Michaela whom we can never get enough of. The only downside of the evening was that it had to end! If we could have kept everyone around for 48 hours straight that might have been enough time. It really couldn't have been a more perfect night or weekend. Happy Birthday Wa and thanks for the great night in your honor.

Honoring a Hero

Brian and I have returned from New York where we celebrated Roy's 60th birthday with a surprise party. I will post more on this later as I get the pictures going. It was a wonderful party and great to see everyone. While we were in Albany, we also got to participate in a memorial 5k that honored Timothy Moshier, a West Point graduate and high school classmate of Brian's that died in combat in Iraq. The Saturday race was a benefit for his infant daughter and funded a scholarship in his honor. A good high school friend of Brian, Erin, spent a lot of time helping put this race together. Brian and I also got to see another of Bri's high school buds, Mark, who was great company for the little-over three mile run. Wa even joined in the act and gave the walkers a run for their money. It was a privilege to run and to say thanks in any way for what Tim gave for our country and our freedom. It was a little overwhelming to put a personal story to all those we hear in the media each day. It is hard to be numb to a grieving widow pushing their infant in a stroller. No doubt he is a hero whose life and legacy will be remembered by many. You can check out his memorial website below. www.timothyjmoshier.com

Eyes to see the Blessings

Being married to Brian is definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have never doubted this for a moment of my existence. Uprooting every year for the past four has been exciting, enriching, but on occasion tough personally. At times it has been hard to see God's hand and purpose in continually making and leaving new friends, in acclimating to new schools and then restarting in new districts year after year, and in living geographically away from every person I call friend. Part of me could view all of this moving as a huge sacrifice and to be honest at times there are parts of me that do. Thankfully, God has not let these weak doubting parts of my character fester very long. I am thankful He is working on me and giving me eyes to see the blessings. Let me elaborate.

When we started our seminary journey I knew that our objective was to progress Brian's career and get him through seminary. All I wanted was to get a job in order to pay the bills. I had no idea I would get a job in what I think is the best school district in the country, receive multitudes of training on the best cutting edge teaching techniques, and forever change my attitude and beliefs on education. I didn't understand the blessing that moving to St. Louis was to me. I could have never left Chicago and taught in an above average suburban district never even knowing what more I could have been experiencing. Now, I almost feel like God intended more for me to be in St. Louis than Brian.

When we got the call to Michigan I didn't have eyes to see the blessings either. Leaving my awesome district in St. Louis, the tough job market in MI, and the challenges I face teaching in Detroit were easy for me to dwell on. You think I would have learned from the St. Louis experience that God always has a plan. Doubt is just so subtle sometimes and can sneak back in so quickly. Luckily, God is starting to change my perspective again. The past few months have been a whirlwind for me professionally and none of them would have happened had I not lived in St. Louis, taught at Maplewood, moved to Detroit, and gotten a job in Macomb County.

In St. Louis I received tremendous experience with a program called Cognitive Tutor Algebra I by Carnegie Learning. It is a new, revolutionary Math curriculum that has a very sophisticated software component, and in my opinion is everything that we need to change the Mathematics achievement gap in our country. The county that I live in is one of four counties in the country to receive a federal grant to conduct a study of the effectiveness of this curriculum. My experience with the actual program, the other training I received at Maplewood, and my connections now made in Macomb County have put me in the position to be the county wide Curriculum Implementation Specialist for Carnegie Learning and train other area teachers on the curriculum.

A daunting task certainly for a 26 year old, but one I could not pass up. I will write more about my recent company training experience in Pittsburgh later, as I'm still processing it. There are just too many events that had to string together to make this opportunity happen for me that I'm certain it's a God thing. I am just thankful for the eyes to see that it is exactly that, a God thing.

Wings Game

One thing we're learning about Detroit-- It is a big sports town!
One thing we're learning about being a part of St. Peter-- The people are very generous, and once they find out you enjoy something they go out of your way to indulge you!

For instance, The Zilinskis are a wonderful new family to St. Peter with two pre-school aged boys and a new baby girl. When they learned of Brian and my interest in sporting events they invited us to go to a Wings game with them. Being that I have never been to a live hockey game I didn't quite know what to expect. However, I like sports and seeing new things, so I'm in. Brian is super excited the whole time. Well, we had an absolute blast! Hockey truly is one sport that TV just doesn't capture. We had great seats and great company in a 1-0 win for the Wings over Anaheim. I even found my self cheering for a fight that erupted at the end of a period and was on the edge of my seat as the Wings stopped numerous Anaheim power plays. Maybe the Wings can be the Detroit team we call our own. After all, we don't have a hockey team yet. I'm not quite sure about this though, my cousin Ginger, an avid Blackhawks fan, might disown me. It was a great night and a generous gift from our new friends the Zilinskis. (I wish we had taken a picture of the four of us to post, but the one of Brian and I will have to do.)

Our Snowy "Spring" Break

I read a great quote in the Wit and Wisdom section of the magazine we subscribe to,The Week."Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of 10 people couldn't start a converstaion." -- Kin Hubbard United Press

Well, I wonder how many conversations were started by the weather this week. It's giving me something to blog about. Actually, Brian and I had a great spring break despite the crazy weather. We got a light dusting of snow in Michigan for Easter and then about 6 inches in Chicago after. We managed to have a great time despite the weather. Besides, we could always jump in the house if we got too cold, and my Mom supplied us with fresh tea and coffee. We were not roughing it. After the initial snowfall, the fish were pretty active and we caught about 12 one evening.

The trip was a great visit with family, but we hope the weather is better next time. In the midwest you learn this next saying all too well. If you don't like the weather, wait a week. Hopefully its wisdom will come to fruition. It has been a long winter...

Spring Break

I am enjoying a nice relaxing spring break week in Chicago. Sleeping in, taking jacuzzi baths, bargain shopping with my Mom, eating good meals of course, and a little fishing with my Dad. I caught the first fish of the season as you can see in the posted picture, though my Dad did have to take it off of the hook. Brian is coming to Chicago tomorrow and hopefully we will catch lots more. Chicago is always fun even though the weather is often from tropical.

Great Visit!

Last weekend we had Wa and Linda in D-Town for a little visit. It was great. They drove in on Thursday and departed on Monday. Brian's day off is Friday, so they got to spend all day together. Friday night we went to my school where I played in a faculty basketball game vs. the junior high teachers. The high school staff did not represent well and we lost. That will probably be my last full court basketball game. The aches in my knee the next day confirmed that I am officially retiring. It was very fun though. Brian and I are also losing our reputation for tiring out our company. Since we have a house and not a tiny apartment, we actually enjoy spending time at home. We had a leisurely Saturday and Sunday with shopping, church, an excellent brunch, dinners at home, and of course participating in the Davies' family tradition of coloring Easter Eggs. It was great! We hope they come back soon.