Atalie Arrives!

Painted by Mom A.!

Atalie arrived Thursday around 7pm CST (for those of you in MI)! Patrick had just gotten done driving for a day-long field trip to Rolla, MO with a Geography class and was busy getting some quick groceries and dinner with Kat when Atalie called announcing their arrival. After some hugs and greetings the rental van got emptied straight into the previously clean dining room. We all watched a bit of TV and then headed to bed.

Friday began with breakfast at the Pancake and Waffle House on S. Campbell followed by trips to Goodwill, Mama Jean’s Natural Market, and Salvation Army. We ate dinner at Garbo’s Pizzeria (yum!) and then headed to Andy’s Frozen Custard to get some dessert. That evening we watched Transformers and ate popcorn (Mom is the master of popcorn)!

We went to breakfast again on Saturday, this time at Ziggie’s, followed by more shopping at Cosmic Fish (a hippie-ish store) and a couple of grocery stores (this city is full of medium sized supermarkets that don’t always contain everything you want at one). Mom and Dad were generous and paid to fill up our cupboards with food for the next couple of weeks! They also helped pick out two pumpkins so we can have some jack-o-lanterns at the apartment for Halloween.

While we put the groceries away in the apartment, Mom and Dad explored the flea market and found a cute nightstand for $20 to bring back to us to use as a TV stand. Our DVDs fit perfectly in the drawers and the bamboo wood styling on it fits pretty well with the slightly Oriental feel of some of our other home accessories and decorations. One of our projects this week is to paint it black to match our furniture.

Later on, we made a nice sit-down dinner at the apartment, consisting of chicken pesto pizza and strawberry cucumber salad, with leftover frozen custard for dessert. The evening was finished off by gathering on the futon for another movie.

At the early hour of 6-something in the morning, Mom and Dad woke up us younglings to fix them a pancake breakfast before they hit the road back to Grand Rapids. It was great to have them visit and be able to see the apartment but Atalie was sad to see them go and misses them already. Spirits were brightened by going back to sleep for a few more hours, and spending the afternoon at Target and Lowe's to get a few little things for the apartment. Finally Patrick was forced to work on his homework while Atalie prepared dinner and began a book.

Meanwhile, the apartment is a mess from all of the unpacked boxes, but with the two of us together, it already feels more homey! Atalie has her work ahead of her this week though!