3 more weeks...

Wow. Weird to say. Actually three weeks and 1 day until we get in and start painting! Thankfully we've got lots of help coming in, which we've very thankful for. Our apartment is looking more and more bare these days! Sad!

Summer has been beautiful here in Grand Rapids so far! I love being outside and it is hard being cooped up in an office all day! We have enjoyed playing tennis together and taking walks around our apartment complex in the evenings after work. We've also been busy on weekends, between going to our friends' wedding in Monroe, playing bocce ball in Alger Heights, and even huffing and puffing around the north east side of town. Yes, last weekend Kara got me to RUN with her around her neighborhood. I'm not a runner but she went nice and slow for me :).

This past weekend was a blast, with a trip to the Tigers game on Saturday and an old-fashioned Witte party at Big Whitefish Lake. The gang was all there, and even Michelle and Rowley came up from Chicago. We had many games of "Washers" going on in addition to skiing, tubing, and swimming. Josh is apparantly very good at Washers - see his picture below. The little girls enjoyed finding "shells" - aka nasty little snails from the shallow water and baby Noah loved splashing around with them. I'm still recovering from my attempts at my slalom, which needs some definite work.

Otherwise we're just excited to move on to our new adventure and sad to leave all that we have here. We are trusting God to lead us with every step, including finances, studies, friends, and a church. He has blessed us so far and we are trusting His goodness from here on out. I'm excited for Josh and all that he will get to learn and experience at school. We will see what God does in both of our lives in these next two years!

On on unrelated note, I have decided that I really want to learn to cook. Well. I've been really into the Food Network lately (Rachael Ray is my favorite) and have been checking out recipes online as well. Last week I actually cooked a terrible dinner, which was discouraging, but it made me want to learn how to be better and more creative with food. I'm going to ask for cooking lessons for my birthday this year (in addition to a puppy and The Office Season 3).

Celebrations

I just read an incredible book on the topic of celebration, called Cold Tangerines, by Shauna Niequist. It is about celebrating the every day. We've been given such gifts in this life that we - at least I - fail to notice. Shauna wrote about worrying about crumbs on her kitchen counter and celebrating friendship, jealousy and being broken. The book consists of little glimpses into her life, but how at every turn there are moments to celebrate, if we choose to do so.

"To choose to celebrate in the world we live in right now might seem irresponsible. It might seem frivolous, like cotton candy and charm bracelets. But I believe it is a serious undertaking, and one that has the potential to return us back to our best selves, to deliver us back to the men and women that God created us to be, people who choose to see the best, believe the best, and through that longing are changed and inspired and ennolbed, able to see the fingerprints of a Holy God where another person just sees the same old tired streets and sidewalks."

Love it. And I'm really going to try and start celebrating the every day more. What do I have to lose? I will choose to look past the busyness and stress of this life and celebrate the good God has so graciously given me.

We had our own little celebration this weekend. Second anniversary!

Here is what we were doing June 11, 2005:

Here is us on June 11, 2006:

And June 11, 2007:

We had a wonderful weekend leading up to our anniversary this year in Chicago. We did some shopping for Josh - he needed to bulk up his professional wardrobe - which was super fun. We also threw in a trip to IKEA and some of our favorite food joints in town. And on Sunday, we saw Wicked, which was oh so fun. Josh liked it too! This one is definitely a new favorite of mine.

Then we went out to The Melting Pot for the second year in a row, which was wonderful. We loved our weekend of celebrating, and plan to continue the celebration throughout the next year of marriage!

Another weekend in TC

Cute path we found, then Josh and I in the "stocks" at Pirate's Cove (mini-golf)

Lunch in Fish Town, and the view from the condo balcony. Nana and Poppa love to watch the ducks and swans go by on the river!

Mom and Nana at the Marina on the big lake, and Nana playing mini-golf.

We spent a long weekend in Traverse City with Josh's parents and grandparents. Nana and Poppa Brown rent a condo downtown each summer, and we always like to go up and visit! We packed our weekend full of games, walks around town, golf (for the boys), shopping, and good food! Nana, Mom Brown, and I found a CUTE little path on the way home from the Grand Traverse Pie Company - full of wildflowers that were all different shades of purple. During golf we girls walked all around town - to the marina, the farmer's market, and in and out of the little TC shops on Front street. Then we met the guys up in Leeland for lunch, then shopped around Fish Town. That was my first time there and it was so cute! I love eating outside, especially when Lake Michigan is in view! We went mini-golfing with the whole gang - see Josh and I in the "stocks" and Nana about to hit a ball into the water! Mini-golf is an activity that we do with my in-laws whenever possible. Josh and I always try to beat them, but I think we're about even over the past 20 or so games.

A great weekend with the Browns!

And here is me with Dad Brown - we got him an Indiana t-shirt and we kind of matched when he wore it :)

Random Glimpses

This post has no rhyme or reason, but no worries, here we go. Hold on tight.

Here are some pics from a weekend I had with friends from college (Dee Dee, Jamie, and Jessica) in Traverse City. WONderful spa treatments, euchre (see below for Jamie's barn doors!), nail painting, junk food eating, and shopping were just some of our blissful activities from our weekend together. I love these girls! It was a huge blessing to spend the weekend together.

Totally unrelated:

Today I woke up in a mild panic. It was one of those mornings... I overslept, ran around like a crazy lady getting for ready for work, then sped out without even grabbing something to eat. I hit none of the 4 traffic lights quite right, and knew that I would be late to work. DANG - I hate that. Then I turned into the parking lot. It was eerily empty. I looked down, and yes, it was 7 am, not 8. I start work at 8. Far from being 1 minute late for work, I was 59 minutes early. What a way to start a day.

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There is something that warms my soul about cleaning out the car after a long winter of dirt and dust. Granted, winter has been done for awhile now and I've had ample opportunity to do it for months. Finally we got around to doing it (with both cars even) and it is simply wonderful to have clean cars. You know, for a couple weeks.

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Tonight I was just reminded how big God is. I came across this Psalm today while reading, and it made me smile big inside, so I thought I'd share. I especially love the last line.

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
O Lord, you preserve both man and beeast.
How priceless is your unfailing love!
Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 36:5-7

My Work

“People think publishing is a business, but it’s a casino.”

Here is a somewhat overcritical, somewhat true, and kind of interesting look into the publishing world:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/business/yourmoney/13book.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=45caaca05d23889d&ex=1179374400

Ice Cream, Tulips, and Moms

Friday Night - Out for ice cream at Jersey Junction with Bryan and Erika.

Saturday Night - We went to downtown Holland to eat carnival food and watch the Dutch Dancers with Matt and Erin. Erin, being a Dutch Dancer herself, told us all about the different costumes and the history of the dancers. Funny enough - they are very particular about the costumes but the dance itself was created by a high school teacher in Holland, MI.

After Tulip Time fun, we went over to the Ehinger's house and (what else!) played Guitar Hero. We also had a fun time with their yellow lab puppy, Dilbert.

Benny planted some flowers for our mom for Mother's Day. She loved it!

Mom and kids.

We enjoyed a fun-filled summer weekend with friends and family. We went out for ice cream and played some games with Bryan and Erika on Friday, went out to Holland for Tulip Time fun with Matt and Erin on Saturday, then had lunch with the Wittes on Sunday. It was beautiful and sunny and we had a great time overall. As much as we're excited to start our new adventure, we are sad to be leaving friends and family behind. We have been so blessed with relationships these past two years.

General Update

So life continues as usual here at the Brown home...

We haven't been up to too much lately, but at the same time we've kept pretty busy! We went to a very interesting conference at church last weekend, where we got to learn about the directions the church is going in terms of missions. We are obviously not going to be around Mars that much longer, but what the church plans to do in Africa was of interest to us both. Mars is going to be involved in microfinance in the country of Burundi. Microfinance involves granting small loans to poor people, enabling them to start or continue small businesses. We were amazed to find out the amount of money these people need to start a better life can be as little as $20. They use it to purchase anything from sewing machines to cows to raw materials. Also amazing to us is the repayment rate - 98%! People in terrible situations view these loans as the only thing that will improve their life and they are MOTIVATED to act! It makes a lot of sense to me - what they want more than handouts of even sponsorship of their children is just the ability to make for themselves a better life! We are reading this book on this topic right now, which was fascinating!

We don't know how we'll be able to get involved in this exciting ministry, but we're open to the possibilities God may present us with!

Josh starts school in less than 3 months, and we move in like 2.5... a very strange feeling! We're working on getting some things taken care of! Books, computers, apartments, placement tests... all sorts of details!

On July 24th, we will be the residents of:

3307 John Hinkle Place
Bloomington, IN 47408

Here are pictures of our new place - floorplan and outside. Check out the tiny kitchen! Goodness! We plan to slim down on some dishes and such.