The Easter whirlwind trip and a Mouse

The last week and a half has been quite busy. I got to go out in the field and finally get some data for my Thesis, worked all week, it rained 5.5 inches in 36 hours, a mouse scared the crap out of Atalie, and we went up to Michigan for Easter weekend.

The rain put a damper on just about everything around here and flooded more than 50 roads and countless houses. Some of the photos are amazing. Water was up 10 feet in some places within Springfield City limits (not on the big rivers). The big river south of the city was super flooded and overtopped the dam, flooding a bunch of (expensive) houses downstream.

As for the mouse- it really was uneventful. It darted across the hallway in front of her and she jumped about a mile. The mouse then retreated to behind the fridge and Atalie sent me after to find it. It was hiding in the baseboard in a crack and was absolutely terrified as I stood over it with a very bright flashlight. We were planning on the "flush and trap" move, which involves a broom a box and two people. Atalie botched the whole thing when she spooked the mouse by bumping a plastic bag near it. We couldn't find it anywhere in the house after that and of course Atalie was not happy. :-) Maintenance was called the next day and when we returned home Sunday night there was a trap set up (no mouse present, however). A maintenance person showed up Monday morning and said he'd come back in the afternoon and fill the holes in the floor through which the mouse likely entered.

We buzzed up to Michigan Wednesday after Atalie got out of work and pulled in at a sleepy 1:45am. We got up the next morning for an appointment at the Eberhard Center, lunch with Cassandra, and then an appointment at Frederik Meijer Gardens in the afternoon. Both places are nice and would make for a nice reception. We capped the night with Brad and Mike and then headed to bed, which we were looking forward to. Friday was an early morning; I met up with a professor at GVSU and Atalie headed over to the Cook-Dewitt Center to see how it would work out for a ceremony site.

Choppy and disconnected (gotta love it)... must go to bed...

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday we got to be in the St. Patrick's Day Parade that runs through downtown Springfield. Derek has a 1971 VW Bus and is part of the VW Club of Springfield which was invited to be in the parade this year. He invited us to ride along if we wanted to. It was a bit chilly, but lots of fun! The parade was pretty long (about two hours) but we got to see a lot of characters along
Derek, Amanda, Dave, Atalie, and Patrick in front of the bus.
In the bus during the parade.
Looking towards downtown up the parade line (we were near the end).
Irish music at Patton Alley Pub following the parade awards ceremony.
The VW Club actually won Best Decorated Car, but the Club went to a different bar after the parade and wasn't present so Derek got to accept it!
After that, Atalie and I went over to Derek's house to watch a movie and called it an early night. Lot's of fun!

So, this place isn't really too different from Michigan when it comes to dramatic changes in weather, at least. Despite all that snow last week, it was again a sunny, blue-skied, 60 degree day. Patrick and I are hoping to go on a weekend camping trip or a day hike sometime soon to enjoy the weather (hopefully it stays) and to get out of the house and do something active!

Our recreation lately has been mostly to plan wedding stuff at night (we think we're pretty on top of things, aside of still not knowing the time and place, of course- haha), and even our weekends have been pretty tame too. This last Sunday we went to our friend Kat's apartment for a mini dinner party with a couple of other people. It was quite nice (and yummy!) so we are hoping to do those more often in the future.

As for work, I've caught on quite fast- it's not too difficult of work-and I like it alright. I'm still keeping an open eye/ear out for other prospects though. I had two interviews last week in other campus departments for full time jobs, but one of them I don't think I'd like to accept even if I was offered. It sounds like a lot of work, for not much more money, and I'm not sure I'd feel like I fit in with the people I'd be working with. I guess that's how you know when some things aren't worth it.

Anyway, sorry there hasn't been too much exciting news to report over the last month. Hopefully with the start of spring we'll be motivated to seek out some new adventures to go on, and then report on! :)

Is this Michigan or Missouri?!

Today we had a SNOW DAY! The Springfield area got around 5 or 6 inches of snow last night and the whole place shutdown. I know, what a joke! We also witnessed a rare sight this morning as well- TWO snow plows went down our street. The City of Springfield doesn't actually own any plows and had to contract the county to help them out. We were shocked.

This is something like the fifth or sixth day MSU has been closed this semester and if they keep it up the school year might get extended by a week or so. Yuck.

Our snow day was somewhat productive: we shoveled the car out (we might be the only people on the block with a shovel), called GVSU Event Planning to get information on the Cook-Dewitt Center for the ceremony, checked out "save the date" postcard prices and details, and did laundry.

Date and Place picking

We are very excited about this whole wedding thing and have jumped right into getting plans ready. Atalie has been delightfully looking up different types of wedding dresses, cakes, decorations, bridesmaid dresses, etc. Of course, none of that really matters much if we don't have a time and place picked out.

It's been taking us a while to decide those two most important elements of the wedding, since we obviously want as many people to come as possible but still have a venue and time of year we love. So far we've narrowed it down to several different weekends thoroughout early to mid summer, and we're particularly interested in Frederick Meijer Gardens and the Eberhard Center on GVSU's campus. We set up meetings over Easter weekend to speak with an event planner at each of those locations, and we're trying to find a couple other places as backups in case those are too expensive.

As for everything else, life's not too exciting at the moment other than an alarmingly high electric bill and another job interview at the university for a full time position. Atalie's not telling the HR dept. about that quite yet; however, I don't care what they say if she gets offered it- we need the money. Hope you're all doing well!

Wedding date selection help...

All this wedding stuff is very exciting, however we're kind of at a loss as to what time of the year we should have it. Patrick has put up a little poll on the right that asks about a few times of the year. It pretty much covers the whole year (2009) so choose wisely. Since those of you reading this blog are among our closest family and friends and will be (most likely) at the wedding, your input would help us a lot. We're really excited so get to choosing!

Double Whammy

So, another reason why Valentine's Day was a big day, is because it was my first day in the office at my new job. (The ice days we had this week postponed my start date that I mentioned in a prior blog entry.) There's not a whole lot to tell you all yet, after only my second day, but the ladies I will be working more closely with are quite nice and helpful. My work isn't very challenging, since all I've done so far is alphabetically file tax and personnel documents and mail carbon copies to different departments, but it's something to keep me busy and earn a little money. I received user id and password information for their computer access today too, so I might get a little more variety of tasks next week. And oh yeah- I already get a day off, since the university is closed Monday for President's day. :) That's pretty sweet.