Nursery Pictures

We've been busy working the last several days on the nursery. My Mom and Katie came in and we had a lot of success. The color selection after five samples and much angst was Sherwin Williams Honeydew. I love how it came out. The glider and dresser we bought off of craigs list second hand, painted white, bought new material to cover the glider, and hardware for the dresser. That was our first foray into refinishing furniture and it was both fun and a success. When we find out in September whether it is a boy or girl we will accent the room appropriately with pink or blue. I also have some white shelves to hang and we are going to put the baby's name in white letters over the crib. This has been such fun and such excitement. As you can kind of see from the pictures the nursery was in terrible shape before. It was a lot of work so it was so nice to have help when we needed it! I am now off to Chicago, Kansas City, and Indianapolis to facilitate some three day training sessions for Carnegie Learning. Maybe Brian will put up a post in the meantime.

Church Blog

This fall Brian is heading up a new contemporary service St. Peter is offering Sunday mornings. There is quite a buzz and it seems like people are excited. I know Brian is. We started a blog for this service and we have some pictures from the remodeling of the old sanctuary where the new service will be held. If you feel like it you can check it out.

St. Peter Lutheran Amplified Worship

Washington D.C. trip

On Tuesday and Wednesday we flew to Washington D.C. to visit Brian's grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. It is always great to do a little sight seeing in the capitol and it was great to see the Washington D.C. contingent of Davies. Barbara made a great dinner and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Barbara and Ken are great hosts and it was such fun to hear of and see pictures of their recent adventures. We saw pics of their new Boise home, their recent London trip, Ken's trip to Prague, and their family vacation to New England. They certainly don't let the grass grow under their feet.

Also while in D.C. we got to be guests at Brian's friend, Geoff Hunter's graduation. It was a great ceremony, tour of the facilities, and party afterward. It was wonderful to be able to be a part of such a special day for Geoff, Giselle, and their wonderful families. Everyone was so proud of Geoff for his accomplishment and we certainly share the sentiment. Best wishes to Geoff and Giselle in their new chapter of life to take place in San Francisco. Another great place to visit! We have video below to share.

Bump Watch

We had visitors from Minnesota this weekend, the Nixon Family. We spent some great time together. While they were here I was a little tired maybe due to the activity, but maybe due to the little growth spurt that seems to have taken place in my belly over just the last week!

Michigan Visitors!

From Tuesday to Friday my Mom and my brother, Michael, came for a whirlwind visit. They brought some baby stuff from Chicago that my Mom has been "collecting" for us and, we were on a quest for some additional pieces. We found a dresser that Brian and Mike refinished over the two days (thanks guys), and a glider that has yet to be redone. We had a great time together and their visit and help was much appreciated. We look forward to their return in early August with Katie to finish cleaning and painting our second floor.
We also had a short but great visit with Giselle on Sunday. She was flying through Detroit on her way between Toledo and San Francisco and stopped for a little two hour visit. It was great to see her and have her see our house and set-up in Michigan. I think she was a little surprised with how much baby stuff we have already, but I guess that's just us. Thanks so much for the visits we LOVED them!

Ann Arbor Art Fair- Not in Detroit Anymore

Last Saturday Brian and I ventured to the Ann Arbor Art fair. It is a nationally recognized fair and about an hour from our house. It was a gorgeous day as most of our summer days have been. We did not make any purchases but certainly enjoyed seeing the different mediums of artistic expression. It also struck us how different the crowd and atmosphere was at this cultural event as oppossed to the Detroit city fest. We took a video to highlight the contrast.

Baby on the Way

The news is officially out. Brian and I are going to have a baby! The due date is January 28th (right around the Bear's upcoming superbowl win.) I am now 13 weeks along and feeling pretty well. We heard the heartbeat at 11 weeks and everything is going well. Our baby is now about the size of a lime and my belly has grown quite a bit to accomodate it comfortably. It is great news and we are so excited. We are probably going to find out if it is a boy or girl in our September doctor's appointment. Thanks for everyone's excitement and support thus far.

Friends' Wedding 2007

For each of the past few summers Brian's close high school friends have "taken turns" getting married. With Chris and Annette's past, the finale of friends' weddings has come and gone and it was quite the final act. Brian's high school friend, Chris, and his beautiful bride, Annette, were married July 13th in the Albany area during a beautiful outdoor ceremony which Brian officiated. The night was capped off by a very fun reception. The personalities of Chris and Annette truly came out through the wedding choices as did their love for each other. It was great to be a part of the evening. The only sad part is that such occasions for us to all get together are coming to a close. I think we'll just have to try a little harder now. Friends Vacation 2008?

Michigan Sunsets

One of the interesting things about living in Michigan is the late and great sunsets we experience. Being this far west in the eastern time zone we still have traces of sunlight even at 10:00pm. Also with the flat farm land, we have big skies which make a great canvass for some great sunsets. The other night was particularly spectacular and Brian got a few pictures of the sun setting over St. Peter. Tomorrow we are off to Albany for Chris Gerber's wedding weekend. I'm sure we'll have a great story to share upon our return.

We're not in Norridge/Delmar any more!

Last night Brian and I went with some friends to the Detroit City Fest. It was kind of like a taste of Detroit with live music. We had a blast! The two couples we went with, we met on vacation in the Dominican Republic. They are life long Michiganders and know everything that's going on in Detroit. We are really glad they invited us it was quite an experience. Detroit is so diverse, and there were booths that had tons of local food from Greek, to Lebanese, to Ethiopian, to Polish, and much more. I had a Gyro, hummus, and Italian Ice and enjoyed all three. Brian who is very careful in making his selections had hummus and BBQ ribs. We passed on the deep-fried Mars bars and the 1 lb "Oh my God" hamburger. We settled in by one of the plazas and listened to a jazz singer and caught up with each other. While we were walking through the stands we encountered the Rap pavilion, and it totally reminded us that we were in D-town and not the homogeneous Norridge or Delmar any longer. Brian took video below to capture the memory, and I'm glad he did it was a really fun night.

Honey-Do-List

We had a great and relaxing fourth of July. Brian and I used the extra day to continue doing work around our house and had our own little barbeque together. We have been doing quite a lot around the parsonage, but the end of major home improvements is in sight. One of the things that has always bothered Brian and I were our dinged up garage doors. Brian painted them recently and what an improvement! I am almost embarrassed to post the before picture because it looks so bad, but I guess it is telling that we had about a year's worth of more pressing matters to get to first. Anyway, we are making progress and this old property is really turning into quite a gem.

Vacation Excursions

While on our family vacation, we went on a couple of excursions. Katie's dream in life was always to be a dolphin trainer so the swim with the dolphins was a no-brainer. Katie, Mike, and Brian got 50 minutes of time in the water with the dolphins who were really friendly and interactive. The boys also chartered a boat and took it 45 minutes south of Cancun where they went deep sea fishing. They caught a barracuda, a sail fish, and a mahi mahi(dolphin fish). The waves were pretty rocky and they got sea sick for a while but ultimately had a great time. The video really tells the stories best. Enjoy!

Comerica Park

On Friday Brian and I ventured to Downtown Detroit for a Tigers Twins game. We picked up some pretty good lower box seats at a pretty good price from some scalpers. I think the acquiring of the tickets may be one of Brian's favorite parts of the experience. Comerica Park is a really cool stadium similar to many of the other new stadiums with lots of unique open spaces to move around and watch the game from different view points. The game started out great with Verlander and Johan Santana pitching great games, but Verlander walked the bases loaded in the fourth and Joe Mauer hit a grand slam which was pretty much the end of the game. After the game as the Tigers do for every Friday and Saturday night game there was a pretty good fireworks display. It wasn't Wrigley (go Cubs) but it was a great night.

Mexican Vacation

As a graduation gift and a celebration of having all three kids out of college, my Mom and Dad decided to take the family on a vacation. We went for 6 nights to the Riu Cancun. It was great. Wherever we would have gone, we would have had a great time because we were together but the blue ocean, white sand, and the non-stop food and drinks sure helped. It was a family vacation to remember. Thanks Mom and Dad, you're the best.

We have some more things to post later, but here are some of our shots.

CLICK HERE for vacations pictures.

Schools Out For Summer

Today was officially my last day of school for the year. It feels so nice to be done for a little while. I think I was anticipating summer break even more than the kids. The 90 degree + rooms without air conditioning certainly didn't help things these last two weeks, but all in all it was a very successful school year. It will be nice to return to the same school next year and see the same students and colleagues again. My year may have started out tough, but turned into one of my favorites as a teacher. I am also excited to report that for the first time in my teaching career, I will be teaching the same subject as the previous year! Over the summer I look forward to tweaking my plans and adequately preparing for next school year, after I unwind a little of course. It will be so nice to have a summer where we aren't packing all of our belongings and moving to another state. I barely know what I will do with myself. On a very exciting note we're kicking off our summer with a celebratory college graduate vacation with the Bundalos. We are leaving tomorrow for Chicago and from there we will head to Mexico. A week on the beach is more than we could ask for, but with our family it will be perfect. Hopefully, we'll have lots of pictures to post when we return.