Congrats!

So I guess there are some congratulations to go around to some folks out there...

Mr. A seems to have passed the State of Michigan LPN licensing exam! He does not know officially yet but apparently is listed on the State website as having a license number. Way to go Mr. A! We didn't doubt it for a second.

To Brad on being a quarter century old today... don't worry, I'm told those aches and pains are normal...

Some more congrats to Megan, a long time friend from my church camp days. Megan got married last December out in Seattle and has so far been pretty happy being married. The good news is that she's pregnant! We are really excited for them and can't wait to hear more about how it's going!

I'm sure there's more out there to be congratulating people on but I can't think of anything else. If you can think of something, let us know!

P.S. Megan- is your email still the same (at Gmail)?

More Intermediate Lake

Calum racing around on a tricycle at the orchard

Atalie and Isaac pointing at and imitating the goats at the orchard

The Scotland clan

At the KT Tunstall concert

Intermediate Lake

Atalie and Matilyn

C's first fish!

Grandpa and Isaac swinging at the cottages

Private swimming lessons for C.

A week and a half ago, Atalie and I made the long trip up to Michigan to spend some time relaxing. We stopped in Okemos Thursday night so I could go to a doctors appointment Friday morning and then got picked up by Atalie's Dad and taken up to GR in the afternoon. We had a nice evening with Atalie's parents and a great visit with Cassandra and her newborn Matilyn Marie (very cute!). We are the unofficial Godparents, so it was pretty exciting for us.

Jackie picked us up on the way up to Bellaire, MI on Saturday morning to spend the week with my family at a cottage. We learned of the cottages from our friend Kat (whose G-ma owns them) and scheduled to rent the week for the whole family, Scotland crew included. We spent most of our time lounging around, playing with the nephews, and eating. I mention eating because we went to some different orchards around the area and picked up some pretty good fruits and vegetables. Yum! To top it off, our last night there we went to see a KT Tunstall concert in Interlochen. It was a lot of fun!

What's been going on, plus some more pictures

Hey everybody! We've kind of gone back to a traditional, not as exciting lifestyle these past two weeks, but I'll let you know what we've been up to, all the same:

• First of all, my bites/poison ivy/whatever they were, are mostly all gone. There's still a bit of an outline to it and they still itch occasionally, but the medicines seemed to have worked.
  
• We saw Dark Knight last Saturday, and it was AWESOME. Heath Ledger is a scene stealer for sure, and a total creep! :) Patrick and I spent several hours with Kat on the Friday before we saw it, looking for Batman Begins (we hadn't seen it yet, but were determined to before we saw Dark Knight). It was all rented out or there were only $30 special edition sets to buy, but we finally found the rare movie for all of $5!!! Probably the only one in the city!
  
• Patrick and I resumed some jogging again this week. (Applause for us!) It was hot, muggy, and difficult, but really satisfying too. I'm very proud of us! However, I rewarded us in the not so enjoyable fashion of locking us out when we returned from our exercise one night, and we didn't have any phones either (way to go, me). Patrick knocked on a neighbors door and contacted the landlord, who had to send the maintenance man out to us. After a $25 fee and some mosquito bites from our wait outside, I learned my lesson!
  
• We're going to the fair this weekend! We'll let you know how that goes, but we're anticipating slaw dogs, elephant ears and lemonade!
  
• My best friend Cassandra informed me after this past week's doctor visit, that she is going to have her baby girl any day now! Patrick and I are going to be godparents! :)
  
• I finally can show you some pictures of me rock climbing! I was able to view some of Kat's photos, so here's some copies:

Getting ready for lift off. :)

A really good picture of Patrick, as he waits to climb.

I just got past the most difficult part!

Pausing for a photo op! (And a break- I got too worn out to make it to the top!)

Yup, that's Patrick swinging from the tree. What a goofball! :)

Taking a break on the next wall. Luckily there were some nice ledges!

Yay! I made it to the top of this one!