As Sands Through the Hour Glass.... :)

As the time approaches for us to say goodbye to our Northwood Community, I'm thinking of all the great memories I've had here.  When we first arrived, we were only 2 people.  Now we are 4!  I was expecting Timothy.  We were greeted by many ward members and neighbors to welcome us.

My calendar shows that when we arrived,  I was:
Tending at the church, attending a BBQ, babysitting Eva, babysitting Joshua, having midwife appointments every 2-4 weeks, getting glucose tested, setting up for Enrichment and "Super-Saturday" at the church, and walking at 8 am with another pregnant woman and a mom with her 1 year old.

Scott was playing Volleyball at the church on Wednesdays, we were both serving as ward missionaries, we attended a new ward member dinner at the Insititute, a welcome dinner at the bishops house, choir on Sunday afternoons, teaching a free English Class at the church with Ben Pence (I was the organizer, and Scott and Ben were the teachers) and were being hosted for dinner and hosting dinners to get to know people in the ward and neighborhood better, especially on Sundays.

These days, my schedule has been:
Running at 6:30 am with Sam and Janel, getting Timmy off to the bus, doing the Jillian Michaels workout video with Becky, cleaning and organizing while Aaron is at the sitters, or taking Aaron and Andrew to the Hands on Museum, getting the kids lunch, taking them to play or at the library or socializing outside with the other moms in the neighborhood, scraping a dinner together, cleaning up dinner, getting the boys to bed, and either working on projects at home or attending an evening activity.  Evening activities like baby showers, girls night out, global learning lectures at the Community Center, free events on campus, or doing laundry while watching hulu.

Some of my favorite places to take the boys have been the Matthai Botanical Garden (conservatory in winter), the library storytime, the Hands-On Museum, Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum, the U of M Natural History Museum, several Cidar Mills in the fall, and the Leslie science center.

We also took visits to the Toledo Zoo (to see Christmas Lights last week!), the Potter Park Zoo, the Detroit Children's Museum, Belle Island, Windsor, Dexter Cider Mill, Domino's Petting Farm, Huron Hills Metro Park, Kensington MetroPark, raspberry and blueberry picking, and many other great places!  There are lots of fun places to go here, and we will miss the friendly environment and great resources Ann Arbor has to offer!

Sundays this semester have been working in the nursery together, taking a Sunday nap, Skyping or telephoning family, and perhaps taking a little hike in the woods, or inviting someone over for dessert.

It's been a social, fun, busy, supportive, and fantastic environment.  We couldn't ask for better friends and neighbors here.  Scott's professor, Anthony Waas, has been so supportive, and was the means by which we were connected to the University in Aachen in the first place.  We feel very blessed to have met him back in 2005/2006, which started our journey here to Michigan as well.