sunsets

It is fun to be somewhere that we can enjoy sunsets again.  That is one of the things I love about NW IA.  You can always see the sunset.  Wide open sky!
Here the sky isn't as wide open, but the sunsets are amazing.  There are often clouds and they turn every shade of pink and purple all over the sky.  We missed tonight's and I guess it was a good one.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.  The sun often peeks out just before setting and its just beautiful.  Its really something when you are at the beach and it dips behind the water.
I wish I could send you a picture, but I'm usually at the airport at this gorgeous moment.  Maybe next month I'll be able to catch one because I'll be home!

Our hearts still hurt for MN.  Just tonight, Brandon said to me that when he goes to sleep, he still thinks we are just here for a visit, and when he wakes up we'll go home.  Hope is a powerful emotion.  I'm sure it helps him sleep.  Don't get me wrong, God planned for our family to be here, and Matt is in his glory - loving his job, which is an amazing thing. Its just that our hearts still hurt sometimes.  Brandon told me MN will always be home - I have to agree with him.

I'm working on the MN books I had planned on giving the kids for Christmas last year.  Maybe it will happen this year.  I have the pictures uploaded to Shutterfly - now just to put them all together!

The Job Saga

Never a dull moment around here.
I should be in Denver right now.  I was supposed to fly to Denver on Oct 7 and stay until Oct 27 for computer training for my job at the airport.  United owns a DOS based computer program that is over 20 years old, but they own it, so they pay no rights or rental or anything on it.  Its rather antiquated but it works.  Needless to say, I should have paid more attention in my 7th grade computer camps.  Think blinking blip on a green computer screen and you seriously have what I work with at the airport.  I tend to do very little and work in the Windows section, but I was supposed to learn all the ins and outs.  Interestingly, I put all the dates on our calendar in pencil, as though I knew it could be easily changed.
We had an intricate plan on when everyone was coming to see me in Denver, meeting up in MN, having people meet in O'Hare to transfer kids on different weekends. It was crazy, but we had it down.  Actually, that's the saddest part of the whole deal for me. I wanted to see Denver, show the mountains to my kids, and have my cousin take our family pictures.  But, such is life.
The week before I was set to leave, my boss at the Y started talking to me about taking on more hours.  One of the other girls in our office is taking a different job and they need more help.  I wasn't sure what I thought of it all.  Then, at soccer practice, a teammate of Anika's whose parents have been wonderful to us ever since we moved here, asked me to apply for the church secretary position at their church.  I kept declining that, too.
Then one day, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I sent him my resume and a few days later I had an interview set up for a few days before I was to leave for Denver and a few days after my boss at the Y talked to me.  I went back to my boss at the Y and just settled some things in my head. Could I work 10 - 3 while the kids were in school?  YES.  Could Maria be in the day care room free of charge and not be home alone (like she is now)?  YES  Is the job flexible enough that if I want to go on a field trip, I don't have to work that day?  YES  No nights, weekends, or holidays?  Only if you want to.  I went home thinking lots that weekend.
By Monday morning I was convinced the air port had to go.  Don't get me wrong.  This is quite possibly the most fun job I have ever had.  Who else gets to tell planes where to stop, or drive fun little trucks all over?  I have cool rain gear that I don't get wet in, and cool coats and stuff that they just give you, plus, I got to give my kids their first ride in a plane for free!  I also wanted to get outside of my safe little bubble between church, home and school that had been created in MN and believe me, the people I worked with were definitely outside of the bubble.  And oh so much fun.
So, I quit my job at the airport.  My boss was speechless - literally - but I told him I would stay on until he had someone trained to replace me.  Turns out, a former employee that was deployed in Afghanistan is coming back Nov 2, so my last day is Nov 1.  They aren't going to replace me after all, just stay working the same schedules we've been working, he'll just fill in where I left off. I realized I had never quit a job before.  They just phased out by moving to college, or to Minneapolis.  I got sent from one work study job to another while at Dordt, but that's because I was AWFUL at soliciting money on the phone - go figure - and better at office work - again, go figure.
I haven't heard anything back from the church secretary interview. It was a two hour interview and felt more like a brainstorming session of how they wanted this position to look and what they needed in a candidate.
As of November 5, I will be working 5 days a week at the YMCA.  Still not sure this is my calling in life, but I do know that it should make it a bit easier to be mom and wife.  We'll see what else happens.
I'm excited to have a few Saturdays free to go hiking or have people over, or to have game night again.

Schwallier's Country Basket

Another Adventure with Aunt Kathy

A-B-M in front of the barn where we each were given an apple and we bought yummy homemade donuts

inside the corn maze

The corn maze was amazing.  We were almost out, and then realized we were completely lost and had to back track and ask for directions! I forgot the snacks in the car so the kids were  grumbling most of the way and fighting over who got to be in THE LEAD!  Good grief.  Overall, a good time!

pile of hay bales to climb on and through (tunnels) and around -  All 4 kids are in the mess

feeding the goats

This goat was hilarious.  You could buy feed (our kids just picked the extras up off the ground), put it in a buckets and crank the bucket up to him on the platform.  But he was impatient.  He would pull on the strap even if you weren't cranking it - he wanted his food!

Maria in a different pen of smaller goats

Anika found the cat

Mr & Mrs Farmer Eburg

Jessica in the smaller pen feeding the goats

There was a tube slide out the back of the goat barn that landed in a pile of hay.  There was a small silo with shelled corn in it that you could play in with buckets and shovels.  There was a small track and tricycles to ride around.  There was also a tractor drawn wagon ride out to the corn maze and back.  Most of us walked, but a few took the ride back.  Normally, we could have picked apples, but all the blossoms froze this spring so no apples. On the walk back to the farm from the corn maze, the walking group found about seven apples on all the trees they passed.

But possibly the highlight - The Cow Train

Its a 4 wheeler pulling barrels of various sizes so adults and kids can ride.  Notice Maria is in the front car, an adult car, and I'm way in the back in a kid car - CRAZY!  But it was so funny.  The barrels have legs, tails, heads, and you just roll and bump along.  Jessica laughed the entire way.

And this is the front of our house with autumnal decorations as described by a friend.

The Martha Stewart way

With the Eburg touch

Just some of the fall colors we see around here. It has been GORGEOUS.  There are so many colors and so many trees.  Its beautiful everywhere.  We were told its because there are more maple trees here.  Who knows for sure.

Mini Golf

There's a cute mini golf place very close to church.  During the winter, they have a light and music Christmas show.  On facebook, I found out they were closing the first weekend in October for the season and the price was $4 per person for both courses.

Off we went.  It was a beautiful day.  We only had one hour between Anika's soccer game finishing up and me having to go back to work, so we took full advantage.  We moved very quickly through one course and did not finish up the second course, but both courses were very fun.  Lots of moving obstacles, hills, valleys, water, and tunnels.

We tried to mini golf at the course on 10 and Able every year in the Cities, so, now we found a new place to visit! 

feeding the ducks

There really are ducks in the water.

Every year we would go to the bread store by our house and buy a couple of bags of 'bird bread':  bread that had expired and they were trying to get rid of it.  I could drive by on blue 10 and look in the window and see if there was any in the grocery cart by the door.  50 cents a bag and I would buy two bags. It was enough bread to feed many geese.  We typically went with our neighbors or some friends so there were 4 - 8 kids throwing bread at ducks from a bridge.  That $1 of bread kept everybody busy for a long time.

I haven't found a bakery like that here.  I haven't found a bakery for bread really at all.  We really miss the flat foccacia bread and the garlic bread from C2B, but that's another whole issue.

SO, to continue the tradition, I bought two loaves of fresh Aldi bread and off to the channel by our house we went.  The ducks weren't all that interested after awhile.  So, the kids started sliding down the incline under the bridge - and putting holes in their pants.  And Matt and Anika started to watch the fisherman.

Not the best adventure, but an adventure none the less.

Free Tour Month

September was free tour month for all the historic sites in Muskegon.  I jumped on that one.

I kept the calendar and even roped another family into it with us on one day!

The first day, we toured the fire barn. It shows the history of how the Hackley and Hume families paid for the barn, the salaries of the men, and the equipment because they owned one of the lumber mills and didn't want their business burning down.  There were over 20 lumber mills along Muskegon Lake at one point.  We even took part in a bucket brigade and put out a fire.  Okay - it was a red bucket in the grass, but the kids got the idea.  The next week, I took the kids to the house right next to the fire barn, known as the Scolnik house.  It portrays life as it was in Muskegon during the depression.  I LOVED this house. It was like walking into different rooms of my grandpa and grandma Verbrugge's house.  The house had been renovated during the depression so the upstairs could be one apartment and the main level was another.  That way two families could live in the one home.  Kids slept two to a bed on roll ups in the living room next to grandma on the couch and the baby slept in the closet.

Fire Barn and Scolnik House

Maria at the player piano, my grandma's actually worked, though

My grandparents had a bed and dresser very similar to this, and the sewing machine, plus colored quilts

They even kept the piano rolls in the bedroom closet, just like gpa and gma

The old wringer wash machine and behind Anika were big crocks

The next week we hit the Hackley and Hume homes.  The first time we went, we took a family from school with us and we played croquet on the lawn in between the two homes.  The other mom looked through the home, I stayed outside and played croquet.  That day, Anika had stayed home from school - first round of strep throat already done for the year!  When we got home, we set up our own croquet set, and we have played a few times since then.
We went back a few days later as a family to get the tour.  Hackley was the owner of the lumber mill and Hume was his accountant.  The homes are GORGEOUS.  The building set back and in between the two homes was their stable.  Each home had their own driver and carriage.  The carriage would pull up next to the house and the people inside would get out.  There is a railing there now, but very cool back in the day, I'm sure.  Brandon took a picture of every room. Not sure I'm keeping those, but it was a cool tour.  You tour all three buildings and it takes a little over an hour.  I thought we were only going to tour one building at a time for about 20 -30 minutes (I figured we would go back three times to cover them all) so the kids didn't think it was as great as I did, but they survived.

The Hume home, large and spacious.  Big rooms, wide hallways, not much glitz

Hackley Home - smaller rooms and all about the ornate. the woodwork was amazing

Hackley on left, stables in the middle, Hume on the right

Church Carnival

We've dropped in on a tradition.  Every year Celebration church hosts a carnival for kids.  Its complete with every kids game you can remember from the school carnivals.. fish pond, face painting, darts, sucker pull, ring the pop bottle, leap frog, plinko.... the list goes on.  

The church secretary and her daughter do an amazing job on the face paint.  Brandon was a skeleton, Jessica was a butterfly and Maria had flowers. These pictures don't really do it justice, it was amazing and beautiful.  Of course, I love this kind of stuff, because I couldn't do it at all even if you paid me.

The kids came home with books, puzzles, games, candy, and more stuff than you can imagine.  They also came home with stuffed animals, as you can see.  I was really excited about that one because there never seem to be enough stuffed animals around here.  Oh, if there was some way to sound out sarcasm in a blog.

All the kids helped hand out fliers in the neighborhood earlier in the week and help set up the church the night before.  Typically the carnival is held in the parking lot, but the weather was too questionable this year so inside they came.

Anika was a worker for the carnival.  She ran the 'Spin the Wheel' game. As a worker, you get all the cotton candy, popcorn, and pop that you want.  She was ok with that, but she wished she had gotten some candy, too.  Anika has to report service hours to school and she got five hours alone just off this carnival between fliers, setting up and working, so that was a good deal, too.

I don't have a picture of Matt, but they spray painted his head red. It lasted several days. If you looked at it from the top it looked like a heart.