Dreams of Summer

Since this is what our winter weather looks like now:

I decided that we needed an update with some more picturesque thoughts. Below are a few pictures from last summer. The first is from a pond from the Twisted Fish Gallery north of Traverse City, MI. They were calm enough, I could get close enough to count the hairs on the frogs!


Next, the one high point of an otherwise very forgettable vacation was a successful fishing trip. We only caught perch and gar, but at least the gar were fun to catch!



We visited the "Butterflies are Blooming" exibit at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, which provided many nice subjects for photos. However, not many of them were interested in sitting still to have their portrait made!



However, plants are easier to catch for a picture- you just have to catch them at the right time.


And I'll leave you with a sunset over Lake Michigan from early September. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we're back down to the beach. Not tonight however-- temperatures are supposed to be in the 20's with 30-40 mph winds and snow.

Just One Hitch

In other news, the big event of the summer was my sister's wedding. Like most weddings, it was a huge undertaking for all involved. This one was no different for me- I was the event videographer and photographer. Here are some highlights of the 700+ photos from the weekend.


The event was held at Hillsdale UMC near Kokomo, which is located on a reservoir. This gave us a terrific site for some "day before" happy couple pictures before launching into high gear.


Of course, there were some road bumps in the process, but overall things went as planned. They're still waiting on their published video of the event since I've had to waste my time making a living since then.



Mom pastored the ceremony, and between that job, acting as event coordinator for both the service and the reception, and being the mother of the bride, she was ready for a month's vacation afterward!


The happy couple is still a happy couple, now living in Kentucky in their newly purchased house with three cats.

Building Update

Hi all! Since this blog is supposed to be a news source, we need to publish some! So...

Here is an update on the building project:

So far...

We started with the simple box you see here. Not much style, and starting to fall apart. So with a bit of designing, we came up with a plan to add on without that "added-on" kind of feel.


So, we started destroying things. They say it is always darkest before the dawn. The same applies to any mess. You know you're making good progress when you can work all day and the mess is worse than when you started!


So, after tearing things up, we began to put some of it back. Things were slowed down by almost anything you can dream up as a setback. This meant that I learned (?) many new lessons in being patient. After a while, it became almost funny-- we kept waiting for the next major roadblock to appear, and wondered what bizzare form it would take.



After much rain, time, snow, time, wind, and time, we finally had walls and a roof. (You really take roofs for granted until they aren't there!)

The last picture doesn't show all the current updates (like the new shingles that actually cover the whole house, or the doors on the garage) but it does show the overall shape of the new house.

We now have a (working!) overhead door on the garage, a poured concrete floor inside the garage, and much of the trim. We're waiting for warm weather to put on the vinyl siding so that it doesn't break in the cold. That said, we've also considered just changing our family name to Tyvek, and calling the project done!



The township won't let us build any closer to the road than our current front wall, so we've had to get creative with the entry. There will be a front stoop under the overhanging roof, and we're hoping to add a new sidewalk and driveway this spring.