Home Sweet Home

This is a look down our street, Hillcrest Ave.  I love fall and I love fall on our street.  I also love where we live.  This neighborhood is the best to live in.  

We live close enough to walk to the grocery store, coffee shop and even to a Western Michigan University football game.  We also live about a mile from downtown Kalamazoo, but still have the "neighborhood" feel.  Our street has an annual block party.  Our neighbors are from all walks of life:  there are kids, seniors, singles and older families.  Our next door neighbors on each side adore our daughter and love to help us out anytime.  

Most of our houses on this street are old (ours happens to be 100 years old).  True, our paint chips, we share driveways and there seems to be endless repairs, but there are tall oak trees that line the street and sidewalks to pull our baby in the wagon.  

I may be a little nostalgic as this is my favorite time of year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything on this street!

Complete Mobility

So I know it's been a while and it's about time to write a little update.  About three weeks ago, Madeline went from a step and tumble for a couple days to walking circles around the house!  The transition from crawling to walking is fantastic, amazing, and trouble!  Our house isn't the most "baby-proof" kind of house, if that even exists, and we constantly have to monitor Madeline.  She is a very curious girl and wants to get into everything, always!  She is really good, though, with finding out how to crawl up into her favorite chair in her playroom and getting down stairs.  Of course, she does have an occasional spill but rebounds almost immediately most of the time.  It is such a blessing to see her grow into this little person but it is sad at the same time to see our baby growing up.  More to come...Happy Halloween!

Homecoming

Sorry all you Madeline followers, for once it's not about her :)

We went to homecoming at Hope College last weekend.  Todd played in the alumni game for men's soccer and Madeline and I came along.  As I was walking her around campus and downtown, trying to get her to FALL ASLEEP!, memories rushed back.  Some of you reading this might not have known me in my college days, please try not to think of me as crazy after this!

The first place I walked past was the railroad tracks.  They run right on the edge of campus.  Many a new freshmen can remember the train those first two weeks coming through at 2 a.m.  After that, you sleep right through it!  I also jumped through a (motionless) train so I wouldn't be late to soccer practice one day...no extra running for me!  Good thing the train never started up!!

Then past Dykstra, the girl's freshmen dorm.  I met my good friend, Erin, in Dykstra.  We had some great memories there!!  We used to yell at the people below us to "GET OFF THE GRASS!" while they were walking.  Only she could understand.  I am laughing right now just thinking about it.  Strangely enough, right as I walked past the dorm, I saw my R.A. from freshmen year.  I said, "you were my pod R.A.!!"  Well, they weren't called pods, but clusters.  Silly me.  She just looked at my like I had lost it.  

On past J.P.'s, Holland's infamous coffee joint.  Way too much money spent there on caffeine buzzes I probably didn't need.  I DID learn to appreciate coffee there, when it wasn't drenched in mocha java caramel extra whip cream (or something like that).  When you left there, you smelled like coffee for days.  

I then circled on past Durfee, the men's dorm where Erin and I had to live one May Term.  Our room had just been vacated by the boys for the summer and it smelled like socks and raw sewage.  I'm not sure what they had been doing in there all year, but it was pretty stinky!  I abandoned Erin many nights there because I had some new boyfriend at the time (not worth it) and I always felt bad about that.  We were taking a history class that May and it was SO BORING.  So was our job.  We had to call people and ask for money for the college.  I pretended to call, but really did homework.  I didn't feel bad about that.

I then swung past the Dow.  Well, there are many memories there.  However, the best memory was when Erin, big football players from our hall and I played on an inner-tube water polo team.  That's right, pretty crazy!  It was a blast!  We won all the time.  After the games, we would go back to the dorm room, order pizza and drink cherry cokes.  I think we both gained some weight that semester!

Well, really, I could go on and on.  College East, Phelps, Pine Grove, Chapel, 13th and Central, blah, blah blah...but I didn't walk past those places, so it will have to be another time.