festival days

the festival of faith and music is upon us! So today is exciting and nuts. But I wanted to post real quick about how happy I am Eddie is moving to safety! Will I ever take the safety of my brothers and sisters for granted again? I'd like to think not, but maybe I will. What a luxury.

Daniel took the picture of me and Conrad peaceful and happy. Have a great weekend!

Spring has sprung up on us

Here is a list of the signs of spring from this past WEEK alone...

mercury crept back up over 50 degrees in Michigan
my dad passed his BIG final test at the plant
Eddie is moving to the GREEN ZONE!!! As of Friday, he's starting the process to be back in GR, God willing, by April 29.
my sweaters, wool socks, winter coats have migrated to the attic only to be replaced by sandals, shorts, and skirts.

And it's only Wednesday. Yes, we survived a very difficult winter that was cold and dreary in many ways. It's amazing what a little sunshine and vitamin D can do for a lady!

So, here I am at work completely distracted with all these good things happening. This weekend is our Festival of Faith and Music. With Anathallo and Sufjan on Friday, then Neko Case and Emmy Lou on Saturday, it's going to be an amazing weekend.. not to mention the amazing workshops we're hosting. Josh Jackson, from Paste Magazine, Steve Stockman, David Dark, Lauren Winner... there's a huge list so check out the website and buy a ticket to Saturday's concert if you can. I'm in charge of that one, 2 divas sharing a stage. Yeah, I'm nervous. But really excited to meet them both!

This year the concert committee did something really cool called Bandspotting. They received 52 submissions and the winner, Son Lux, will perform on Friday (after Sufjan). You can listen to all the bands on the website as well.



So all is getting better here. I don't have any pictures of our spring break trip to DC on this computer, so I will post some later. We had a great time with extended family and ate way too much sea food (as if there's such a thing!).

Spring forward... more like FAST forward!

Well, the week is finally winding down and I have my sights set on DC! As much as I love Grand Rapids, sometimes I just need to escape! Soon we'll be on the road, enjoying the beginning of spring scenery, eating homemade chicken-salad sandwiches, and listening to Sunday NPR programs (hooray for "The Splendid Table" and A Prairie Home Companion!).

But until then, March is flying by too fast. This week was supposed to be my planning ahead week, but ended up being my putting-out-fires week. One thing that was a highlight was that Calvin hosted a speaker from U of Michigan. She's the head of their media studies graduate program (which I've had my eye on since graduating from Calvin). I boldly introduced myself to her earning not just an introduction, but an invitation to meet with her in Ann Arbor to discuss the program! wow! So, even though it's 2 hours away, I'm starting to consider taking 1 or 2 classes in the program next summer(or even this summer?). Hearing her speak made me miss doing work I get excited about. Well, this job has its moments, but it's a lot more drama and long hours than I anticipated.

Speaking of this summer, a friend of mine here at Calvin has a 23-year old daughter with special needs, and she's looking to open up her home as a group home for young adults with special needs this summer. She's securred a share of farmland near GR, and she and I are planning on teaching this group about gardening. I think the plan is to grow herbs for tea, tomatoes, and some basil. Then, maybe sell the tea to local stores and bed and breakfast places. My job only goes until mid June, so I'm going to have some free time on my hands and thought this would be a great use of it.

it's been a while...

I know I haven't been blogging very much lately. This past month has been so packed, I can't even remember much. Lots of weekend events, lots of evening meetings, mountains of snow everywhere, and new projects popping up at every corner.

The latest news around here is we are downsizing our transportation. Seeing as we both work at Calvin everyday and try to spend our weekends together, we don't really need 2 cars much. So, we've decided to sell the Honda Element (sniff, sniff). We both feel really great about this decision as it will save lots of money in payments and fuel, and the driveway space will seem so big now! For a couple of days we flirted with the idea of promoting the little Jetta to a station wagon... I've had my eye on a nice blue, manual Toyota Matrix. But, for now, the Jetta is a great car and if we decide to invest in a second (used) car a year or two from now, the Matrix will be it!

This coming weekend Daniel will be in Chicago at Northwestern University for a big conference, and I will be here in GR hosting a fashion show on Saturday night. So we have a full weekend ahead, but soon we leave for "spring break" (it's 10 degrees outside, so I don't know who thinks it's spring). We are driving out to Washington, D.C. to visit G-pa and G-ma Crosswhite, cousins, and Alejandro and Mariali and their little baby.

So that's enough catch-up. My job is getting better and better as I learn more about my own way of doing things. At first, I felt like I had to be like the person who had my job previously and it's hard to live up to imaginary expectations. But lately I've felt more confident in my own way of approaching the position. This has allowed me to enjoy my time at work more. The students I work with are amazing. Really, that's the best part of my job - just talking with students (who stop by my cloffice all the time - sometimes too much). There are not really many staff positions intended for younger people, so I think students appreciate having someone close to their age but not in the midst of all the college craziness. And my fellow staff workers are amazing. We've started an office weight-loss challenge. Hehe... we'll see if we can all be thinner by June 15. Guess I have to quit driving by Jersey Junction every other day!...oh, I guess I won't have a car soon, so that takes care of that.

Today I found out some really exciting news... two good friends of mine from my student days at Calvin, Scott and Heidi, moved back to Grand Rapids 4 days ago and live practically down the street from me and Daniel! I am SO excited to have friends in the neighborhood. So, I think I'm going to plan a party to welcome them and invite all the different people I know in-town but can never seem to find time to spend with them. Maybe I can start some good social habits (instead of hibernating in my attic with a book or documentary every night). We've done so much work on our house and I can't wait to share it with other people.

Okay... Conrad is ringing his bell to go outside so I need to help him out before he pees on the floor! I promise I will be better about blogging from now on!