Alright, after living here for five months, there are several things that still perplex me about this state and many things that I, of course, clearly like. Here is a list of random things before I forget that they strike me as weird or novel:
1) There are very, very few speed limit signs. You can go for miles and miles (like 50 miles) without seeing a speed limit sign. I have no idea what the speed limit is on the main strip to Greg's work. Sometimes I go 35, sometimes I go 58. I do what everyone else is doing and what I'm in the mood to do.
2) No left turns - at about 90% of intersections of the intersections I come to, you can't turn left. You turn right and then you will come to a special left hand lane where you can turn around. It is strange at first and it confuses my TomTom, but it does keep traffic moving.
3) When people talk about their families in the Upper Peninsula (the UP), they sound like they are speaking Norwegian when they start talking about the cities their families live in. Strange little towns with very long names - makes me laugh every time. And they just keep listing cities where they have family.
4) The roads fall apart in the winter. I remember this when I visited Michigan in college to see friends. There fine in the summer, bad after winter - I'm assuming spring must bring a lot of road repair trucks.
5) NORMAL pizza - Only those in AR might understand this, but pizza down there was thin, floppy, pale, and tasteless. Here pizza is normal. If only they would deliver to my house, the situation would be perfect. . . .
6) I have friends here that have moved to other cities for various reasons and they have talked about how they felt "landlocked" in these other cities as they are so used to having the big lake right next to them which really is like a freshwater ocean. . well, more or less.
7) It is VERY flat, especially after living near the winding hills of Arkansas. When I first moved here and was driving at night, I would see headlights coming at an intersection so I would wait. Took me a few times to realize that car was over a mile away and that I had about two minutes where I could turn safely before it was too close.
OK, so those are my random Michigan facts. The snow is melting, but it is supposed to get cold again. Getting excited to continue my landscaping on the once horribly overgrown mess - can't wait to dig in the dirt!!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy Valentine's Day! The kids are stuffed with candy from their parties at school, but they had a blast. Life has been quiet lately which is always good. Both kids are doing great at school, Greg is home from all of his trips for work for now, and I'm just . . . well, having a great time hanging out with my family. On a cute note, Ethan likes to spray his hair with water so that it looks dark like my hair. Katrina can now change her earrings so she is wearing all kinds of different ones and loves changing them. That's it from here! Enjoy the day!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Betsy, the superstar
Today Betsy came to preschool for Ethan's show and tell (he is the special person of the week at school). She was a HIT and I was glad I chose her for the occasion. I imagined some type of order - two kids at a time coming up to pet her. Instead, as soon as I came over with her it was a mob scene (this is his teacher's first year teaching - I'll just leave it at that!). Eighteen preschoolers coming at her and she ate it up!! Rolled on her back so that she could snuggle into them more, let them all pet her, allowed about five kids at a time to hold on to her leash, etc. I hope the other kids didn't have as much dog hair on them as Ethan did. Mater and Bella would have done okay, too, but I knew Betsy was the biggest attention seeker in the bunch. So proud of her!
And today on my "country living" journey, I learned that there is an art to building a wood pile outside. We had some firewood delivered by a man and his two young kids. The kids unloaded it and built a pile along with their dad on the side of the driveway. After they left, I threw the wood over the fence down to where we keep it and then I had to build my wood pile. First, may I say this was hard work. Country living isn't for the weak. And the art of building a wood pile with a whole bunch of wood is now a whole lot more respected by me. Somehow that six and seven-year-old made this look effortless. Yes, six and seven. I am thoroughly humbled. My pile is precarious at best - teetering on the edge of survival. But I did it. And I'm not even sore. Yet.
And today on my "country living" journey, I learned that there is an art to building a wood pile outside. We had some firewood delivered by a man and his two young kids. The kids unloaded it and built a pile along with their dad on the side of the driveway. After they left, I threw the wood over the fence down to where we keep it and then I had to build my wood pile. First, may I say this was hard work. Country living isn't for the weak. And the art of building a wood pile with a whole bunch of wood is now a whole lot more respected by me. Somehow that six and seven-year-old made this look effortless. Yes, six and seven. I am thoroughly humbled. My pile is precarious at best - teetering on the edge of survival. But I did it. And I'm not even sore. Yet.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Snow tires and weather people
I have had my snow tires for a week now and I'm pretty sure we could tackle Mt. Everest in the minivan now. I can plow through anything. Well, I'm sure it has its limits, but it is markedly improved. I can at least get down and up my driveway now which really is a huge deal. No more (knock on wood) getting stuck on the driveway on the way to school and frantically grabbing the shovel and dumping a ton of salt to get out. Katrina no longer is terrified which is a step forward. Unfortunately, they were out of purple snow tires when we went so we had to settle for black.
On a funny note, during the blizzard on the Weather Channel they had this map and then small oval shaped photos of all the meteorologists covering certain areas around the country. Katrina looked at me and said, "I know who those people are. They're the Presidents." I explained the photo images did look like those we sometimes see of Presidents, but those were in fact weather people. A day or two ago she was watching cartoons and a commercial came on with President Bush and President Clinton talking about some disaster somewhere. I fast forwarded it as Katrina would ask a ton of questions about it. She looks at me as I'm doing this and says, "I know who those people are. They tell the weather." Tried to explain those were former Presidents, but finally gave up. One day she'll hopefully figure out the difference. Unless Jim Cantore runs for President and then we're going to be really confused here.
On a funny note, during the blizzard on the Weather Channel they had this map and then small oval shaped photos of all the meteorologists covering certain areas around the country. Katrina looked at me and said, "I know who those people are. They're the Presidents." I explained the photo images did look like those we sometimes see of Presidents, but those were in fact weather people. A day or two ago she was watching cartoons and a commercial came on with President Bush and President Clinton talking about some disaster somewhere. I fast forwarded it as Katrina would ask a ton of questions about it. She looks at me as I'm doing this and says, "I know who those people are. They tell the weather." Tried to explain those were former Presidents, but finally gave up. One day she'll hopefully figure out the difference. Unless Jim Cantore runs for President and then we're going to be really confused here.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Pictures of the kids in the snow!
Here are some pictures of the snow. You can't quite tell how much there really is from the pictures - it is over my knees now when I'm "walking" in the yard (that is why the picture of the house was taken at a distance - I got tired - think I need snow shoes next year). Our very nice neighbor has plowed twice today for us - Greg is working on his tractor right now so we'll so how that goes. Good to have a nice neighbor though with a huge truck with a plow on it. On the second trip, he made the pile even taller so that the kids have a bigger mountain.
Misconceptions of a blizzard - I always thought they went on for some time. This one lasted about 12-14 hours. And I thought it would dump foot upon foot of snow. It dumped about a foot and now it is sunny and calm outside. Not sure if the kids will have school tomorrow or not. Still working on shoveling off the deck. That is a workout!! Kids are happily playing Wii in front of the fireplace. That's about it from here!!
Snow day!
Not surprisingly, the kids have a snow day today. It is kind of hard to tell what is going on out there as it is still dark. We have at least ten to twelve inches of new snow and it is still coming down. The new snow is deeper than any of the dogs are tall - Mater had to lead the brigade through the snow jumping through it, followed by Bella and the final tail was Betsy. Her short legs make deep snow a challenge, but she knows to follow the other two and wait for them to carve out a path. The cats have all been inside the past couple of weeks due to the cold. The tractor snowthrower (formerly the lawnmower) is broken so poor Greg was outside struggling with the snowblower until our nice neighbor came over with his truck with the snowplow on it and did our driveway for us. Still windy out there and I think the winds will continue all day. Kids and I are hunkering down at home and Greg will head out to work soon. I'll give another weather update later on!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Anticipating a BLIZZARD!!
According to the weather right now, tonight and tomorrow we will have a ton of snow and it will be a blizzard. Ethan and I are going to the grocery today and at 2:00 the minivan is scheduled to be fit with four spankin' new snow tires. We need them as the minivan has struggled this winter (it had to be towed off the driveway during a slighter warmer spell where the snow turned to ice and my poor van just kept slipping down until it was stuck in a small ditch). But the minivan has kept us safe for four years now, so I won't complain about her - she's the best of the best! Katrina's first comment when I told her about getting new snow tires (as she is now terrified of slipping after the ditch incident) was, in of course her serious voice, "Can we get purple ones?" If we got purple ones, I would definitely need spinning rims to compliment them. Few things strike me as funny as minivans with spinning rims.
Katrina learned how to spin in a circle last night at skating with one foot staying in the same spot. I will have to bring my camera next week to tape that. Ethan continues to love skating and gets up every time with a huge smile on his face and a wave for me. He falls a lot still, but LOVES skating. Katrina is still doing dancing on Tuesdays, but she has never loved it the way she loves skating. In fact, I'm not even sure she likes it, but she doesn't complain. There is an ice skating competition at the end of March that you can sign up for and she really wants to do it.
On the downside, the snowthrower tractor is not having the best of days. Its got a real bad case of the shimmies and is inoperable right now. On the plus side, we have a huge snowblower from our Minnesota days and a nice neighbor with a snowplow on his truck. I'll give weather updates if we actually get snow! Our friends were telling us this is the least amount of snow they have seen in the 25 years they have lived here, but maybe this will change tomorrow??
Katrina learned how to spin in a circle last night at skating with one foot staying in the same spot. I will have to bring my camera next week to tape that. Ethan continues to love skating and gets up every time with a huge smile on his face and a wave for me. He falls a lot still, but LOVES skating. Katrina is still doing dancing on Tuesdays, but she has never loved it the way she loves skating. In fact, I'm not even sure she likes it, but she doesn't complain. There is an ice skating competition at the end of March that you can sign up for and she really wants to do it.
On the downside, the snowthrower tractor is not having the best of days. Its got a real bad case of the shimmies and is inoperable right now. On the plus side, we have a huge snowblower from our Minnesota days and a nice neighbor with a snowplow on his truck. I'll give weather updates if we actually get snow! Our friends were telling us this is the least amount of snow they have seen in the 25 years they have lived here, but maybe this will change tomorrow??
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