The first Michigan blog

We have arrived!! Last Sunday at this time I think we were stuck in insane traffic around Chicago after the highway was closed for some reason. We didn't arrived until close to midnight, but we made it safely. Arkansas decided to give us a heck of a final week before it let us go - we had over 10 inches of rain from the tropical storm in one morning, a tornado warning, the moving truck got stuck twice in the mud, we found a copperhead in the garage, and we had a mishap with the cat where he escaped from the house and a neighbor's dog chased him into the backyard where that dog and our dogs cornered him against the fence. All survived, but I had to go to the ER. The poor cat was terrified and bit my right hand several times and my left thumb. They had to take off half my thumb nail (egads!!) and I still can't feel the top of my right hand, but it is improving. But I saved my cat. How is that for a grand finale exit??

Michigan is superb!! Love love love the house minus the cigarette smell that is faint in the house, but rather strong in Ethan's room. Going to tackle that with some strong primer this week. The woods are beautiful around our home - I don't even have room to hang artwork with all of the fabulous windows in the house. People are so friendly and when I walk into stores I hear people laughing with the cashiers and the waitresses are so friendly. The kids' school is great. It is relatively small, but everyone is so nice. PLUS all schools are Green Zones in Michigan so you can drop off batteries, cell phones, and ink cartridges for recycling. PLUS you get 10 cents per can/bottle that you recycle. The PTA collects these for money. I can recycle almost anything here which is great!!

The fence in the backyard will be done this week hopefully. The dogs will have about .7 of an acre to play in which is great. The cats are all staying inside until the fence is done at which point we might try to let Vader and Rambo outside.

I talked to some of the preschool moms about the weather. I guess last year they had over 100 inches of snow!!!! Holy cow! Can't wait to take some pictures of that. We're buying a snowplow for the lawn mower.

This weekend we went to the Salmon Festival which was along a river here. Ethan caught his first fish in a salmon pond they had set up (actually a nice man caught it and switched poles with Ethan). They had a filleting station set up outside the area where they would prepare your fish. I guess salmon are very delicate and die after being caught so you can't release them. Ugh. But that is life around a lake! The kids made bookmarks, played some ring toss games, shot marshmallow guns at targets, fished with an automated fishing set up with a pole that really acted like you had caught a fish, and had their faces painted. And it was all free! There is a festival every weekend up here!!

Lots of pumpkin patches and TONS of blueberry fields surrounding us. They are everywhere. So many activities to do up here I don't even know where to begin. That being said, moving is EXHAUSTING. Man, I had forgotten how hard it is. I feel like the house is in chaos and there are so many things that I could be doing that I find myself skipping from task to task. Today I went outside to take out the garbage and decided to pull a weed or two in my massively overgrown landscaping and an hour and a half later I was still pulling weeds. I am excited because now I can see some potential in it.

Kids are yelling from downstairs. Hope everyone is doing well!!