Hello Michigan!

That's right, we've moved again! Add another state to our travel log.

Is this the picture I took? No, mine was fuzzy because I was balancing my camera on the steering wheel while driving down the freeway, so I went with this one.

We now live in Brighton, Michigan, which is about 15 miles north of Ann Arbor. We are getting settled, unpacking boxes, and getting back into the swing of everyday life.

Here's how we got here:

Mike took a new position with SAIC, a defense contracting company that was very impressed by his radar skills (or something like that -I'll pretend to know what he actually does...). I'm sure you're asking "wait, didn't he just take a new job in Ohio last year?" Yes, yes he did. However, due to ridiculous wait times for his security clearance to transfer and the lack of contracts the company won, they laid him off in February. Here's something you should know about me - bad news = no desire to blog because I want to wait until I have good news to counter said bad news. That's the excuse I'll use anyways!


Mike started work mid-June. He spent his days working hard and getting caught up to speed on the projects the team is working on, and he spent the evenings house-hunting and playing video games. He was able to come home on the weekends (it is only a 3 1/2 hour drive). We had hoped I could move up as soon as mid-July when I got back from my AZ trip with the kids, but alas, the home we found (and love!) was not available until August 1st, so we were in Ohio until the very last day of our contract.


So what was I doing while Mike was in Michigan? Packing? Eh. Cleaning? Eh. House hunting online so that I had a reason to clean and pack? Yes. The kids and I drove up a couple times to look at some houses that we thought might be possibilities. We weren't loving any of the homes, so a couple nights I spent sending mass amounts of emails to relators who were selling homes to that I liked to see if the homeowners would consider renting. And you know what, 2 weeks later the homeowners of the house we're in now needed renters, and we were on their radar! What a great blessing, for us and them!


So, once we found a place I figured I should probably start packing for real... but I didn't. Lucky for me, I have the most AMAZING mom who flew out for a week to help me clean, pack, and babysit my kids while I cleaned and packed.

One very important lesson I learned during this move: I will NEVER be a truck driver. I had to go pick up the giant moving truck because Mike was not able to get back in town after work on Friday night until after the rental company closed. The entire drive I was thinking "I'm going to hit something... I'm going to hit something..." But I didn't. Which is good. Although I'm sure I annoyed many people while I drove 20 mph down Dorothy Lane. Oh well. At least I didn't hit them, right?

(My mom told me at least twice that we needed a picture by the moving truck before we returned it. Apparently I didn't listen.)

After a full day Saturday of loading up (thanks so much Kettering Ward men and ym! You guys were amazing!), waiting for the carpet cleaners, waiting for the realtor to walk through the house, we finally made it to Michigan. Mike drove the truck, I drove Mike's truck with the kids, and Mom drove the car (note: the real reason Mom came was because Dad made her - he didn't trust us to tow a car behind a giant moving truck! Haha!). We stayed one night in a hotel and then moved in. We had a lot of help from our new Brighton Ward (Thanks guys! You were equally amazing!) on Monday night.

And now we're at the unpacking stage. We're liveable, but still slowly organizing and settling in. We have great neighbors with a little boy just a year younger than Amy. She asks me at least 10 times each day "Is Rowen outside? I'll go check!" She loves having a neighbor her age. She was also happy that this house also had a playset, and I'm happy the slide isn't as gigantic as the last one. I am much less stressed when she stands at the top because it's about half the height. Yeah.

Help! My belly's too big and I can't sit up!

So that's us! I'm going to try and backtrack and get caught up on our happenings back to January (has it really been 6 months! Slacker!).