our little corner of the world

Here's some snapshots from the past few days. Our family came together without hesitation to celebrate the life of a special loved one, Uncle Gene; he will be missed dearly until we reunite again. Even through the tears we had smiles!

Dad and Jerry

Grandma and Mom

Jim and Diane

Aunt Elaine

Joel, Jerry, Linda, Scott

John and Donna

Joel and Sarah


Rachel, Joel, Sarah


Mom and Mary

To Rachel, From Dad!



Joel, after the U of M v. MSU basketball game



Domestic goddess?



Emily with her gift to me



My new toy! Woo Hoo! I'll be serenading everyone at Gun Lake around the bon fire this summer.



Look at that fire!



No more growing

FINALLY! We've got pictures of the "the doors", all finished and pretty. Here they are...

For four days last week, I found myself in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was attending a national conference for my new job, along with my boss and another girl from our West office. It was beautiful weather... I never realized how much I missed the sun. When we were able to break away from the sessions, West girl and I walked the strip with our sunglasses perched most comfortably on our faces and breathed in the warm [read: smoke-filled] air.

Here's some shots from the trip (and even some from the plane as we took off)...

A replica Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris hotel


The the Fiori di Como (hand-blown glass flower ceiling) at the Bellagio hotel


Outside look at the Bellagio hotel


At night the water dances to music, it's pretty cool!


Leaving Las Vegas... the view from seat 24F

On Saturday afternoon we decided to get in on the Super Bowl action and take the shuttle to D-town. Was all the hooplah worth the ride? Yes and no.

The shuttle was somewhat disappointing (see Detroit News article on shuttle. We're actually behind the people with the yellow umbrella in the photo). Inexpensive transportation, yes; but two hour waits both to and from the Super Bowl festivities were frustrating, not to mention COLD! The precipitation was basically slush falling from the sky... not fun for outdoor activities. However, once we got inside the Renaissance Center, it was great. Saw media row, and even the 6:00pm edition of Sports Center (see pics below). Now we can say we were a part of Super Bowl XL!





Waiting at Macomb Mall for our turn to board the bus



NBC Channel 4 on location



And getting pretty before the broadcast



Motown Winter Blast sledding






Walking through a tunnel to the Ren Cen (yucky weather)



Shots of the ESPN Sports Center desk



The crowd, mostly Steelers fans, as the backdrop



Getting prepped before the show



Trey Wingo and some other person... Joel, any ideas?



They taped this segment ahead of time. It's the one where they diagram plays from games and then attempt to demonstrate themselves. Silly former players....



The fans showing support (and also wanting to get 30 seconds on tv)



The actual start of Sports Center (Super Bowl Countdown Edition...or something like that)






The Spirit of Detroit



Final shot of the night, Cobo Hall and the NFL Experience. We didn't go inside... for $15 and more long lines to throw a football, it just didn't seem worth it. And at this point we were pretty drained from the weather.

Well, I did it. I survived the first week at my new job. And actually, it wasn't even a whole week (I started on Wednesday). Getting up early has been an adjustment, and I'm finding that I start to wane in the early afternoon. I'm sure that will all change once I get used to my new routine.

The commute has been pretty great. Weather-depending, I need to leave the house by 7:15-7:25am for the gruesome morning drive. Leaving work at 4:30pm, however, is fantastic. All three nights I've been home by 5:00, and I love that. We can still eat dinner at a reasonable time!

It's been surprisingly easy to figure people out already... there are 60+ employees that work in our office, and get this... I can only count six guys! Makes for an interesting dynamic. And even as a newbie, I've been asked to attend a national conference next week in Las Vegas. I'll be going with my new boss and another gal who works out of the Grand Rapids office. Looking forward to that trip for sure.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers about this new adventure. It really means more than you know!