Two anamolies...

1. A freezing fog warning this morning...who in the heck has ever heard of that?

2. We're taking a normal vacation! No sleeping in tents, bathing in rivers, or not bathing at all! Rather, it will be a week of fun with Tim and Anna in North Carolina. After many "we-could-do-this" discussions, we've settled on sticking around their town and staying busy with Frisbee golf, volleyball, gym climbing, biking, golf, games, food and other forms of fun. We'll be sleeping in a real bed and not cooking over a campfire - aren't you proud? I have to say, I'm terribly excited and wish we could leave right now!

And now a house-hunting update: we looked at a couple more places over the past week and a half, and haven't found anything we really like. One place was right on M-20, and I'm not all about the main roads; one place was in the middle of a stinky cornfield, by a railroad track and had a goofy floor plan; and one had the most messed-up floor plan I've ever seen. It felt like someone stuck all the rooms in a bag, shook the bag, dumped the rooms out, pushed them together and said, "A house!" So, we're still checking online every once in awhile and plan to attend a home builders show next month to see about the feasibility of new construction.

Work is insane but thankfully, it's very fulfilling and challenging. Some days are getting a bit long, and everyone in my office is getting pretty burnt out, but we're not even close to the home stretch, so we better get a second wind soon! I think the above-mentioned vacation time, followed by a week of being out of the office for college fairs, will do me some serious good.

The first of my six student appointments for the day is here, so I'm off and running!

Little Miracle

Last night, a couple from our church small group welcomed their new son, Mason, into the world. We met them relatively recently, but they still invited us to the hospital less than two hours after he was born. It was amazing...he is so small, and all they seem to want to do is share the love they have for him. We were his first visitors, other than Megan's mom. I got to hold him and so did Mitch, but my husband got a little scared when I told him he looked cute with a baby in his arms. No, that's not really in the plans right now, but you know what God often thinks of our plans.

What warms my heart most is how Chris and Megan welcomed us into their special day. They don't seem to have the same reservations I have when meeting new people. They almost remind me of kids on a playground, with no inhibitions or insecurities cautioning them from walking right up to someone who looks nice and saying, "Want to play?" And not to compare a new baby to a favorite toy or possession, but how often are people selfish with their favorite things? Megan and Chris took their son, who has already given them more joy than I can imagine, and happily laid him in my arms. It nearly took my breath away.

Winter Workout Weekend

A prayer I've been praying for almost a year has been answered: Bruce is back in the states after his second tour in Iraq. I'm so thankful that God protected him and brought him back safely.

And now for my weekend: it was a blast! We skied at Crystal Mountain on Saturday, after watching Bobby take fourth place in slalom. Ray met us up there and we tore it up all day long. Bobby placed somewhere in the top ten in giant slalom on Sunday. I can't believe this was the last time I'll watch him race, at least in college. And then there was our Sunday afternoon adventure...

Ice skates for Mitch, who's never owned a pair: $60 on sale at Dunham's
Skate guards to protect above skates: $4
Two cheap snowshovels that definitely don't compare to the heavy metal "widowmaker" with which I grew up: $25
Spending an hour and half shoveling a skating rink on the drainage pond behind our apartment complex: PRICELESS

Follow that up with two hours of open gym volleyball (we never made it off the loser's court but we started to play much better as a team) and you have a fool-proof recipe for one very sore couple reluctant to get out of bed on Monday morning!

For all you future parents...

...who will have future children who will pursue higher education in the future: please remember to teach them some common courtesy. I hate it when I call a student and they decided to make a game out of how rudely they can tell me they aren't coming to Alma. I hope they feel a little ridiculous and maybe the slightest bit bad when I tell them how excited I am for them that they have chosen a college and wish them luck in everything.

What is the problem with kids these days? My parents would have rung my neck if I was disrespectful like that! So please, I know all of you reading this blog will raise wholesome, good, respectful children, but remind them when it's time to peddle their talents to colleges that the reps deserve the type of common courtesy you should offer to anyone.

And I'm done. Sorry, it's just so frustrating!

House Hunting Update

Thanks Charlotte and Tim for your awesome insights! Here's the current scoop: we learned from our realtor that the house with which we are in love has a pretty fixed price. Someone made an offer just $1,000 below the buyers' minimum, and they did not accept. Their minimum is too much for us, so we are going to watch it for the next couple months without making an offer, and see if it moves. If it's still around in about four months and we've not transferred our adoration elsewhere, we'll make a reasonable offer.

In the meantime, we looked at another house (not good) and have requested that our realtor choose some other places that meet our criteria: outside of town, at least an acre, and within our price range. As she begins to show us places, I'm sure we will get more specific, especially in terms of aesthetics. (Actually, I really don't want to look at anything that resembles a double-wide, which many places around here do. But I'll let her figure that out as we go along.) We prefer a full basement also.

***

OK, I'm changing the subject to something that happened over the weekend that made me a bit angry - probably because it seems to be a fairly common misconception I doubt I'll ever correct. We had the first of two big scholarship competitions on campus last Saturday, and I was speaking with a family at lunch who was asking about the marketablilty of an Alma degree. As I was pointing out the benefits of a liberal arts education (critical thinking skills, flexibilty, the ability to solve complex problems, etc. etc.), the mother looks and me and goes, "Well, you're not using your Alma business degree to its full potential doing this."

Ouch.

Actually, I politely pointed out, I am. My focus was marketing communications and there's an immense amount of strategy involved in college recruitment. I have my finger in so many pies that my project plate is just about overflowing. It's so much more than just "talking about Alma," as so many people imagine. I could elaborate, but then this would turn into a resume, and convicing you, my friends, is not the point, nor do I believe it's necessary.

I guess what kind of gets to me most is that I had the same misconceptions when I entered this. I worried about it being an easy job that might not sit well on my resume, but we were so desperate to get out of Cadillac that I was willing to take the chance and even considered it a bit of a time filler. I know there were people in my life who saw this as just "going back to Alma" and who don't recognize the challenges of this unglamourous and under-appreciated job, but now I do, even though I don't plan to make this a career. And I'm confident that when I'm ready to move on, I can make it pretty clear to prospective employers how involved it can be to work in college admissions.

House Hunting

So as I wrote in my last post, we started looking and houses and have been out to see one so far. Last night was our second visit there, though with a different (more competent) realtor. Let's recap:

Nice things about the house
1. Spacious - open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, full walk-out basement (half finished)
2. Gorgeous kitchen with real wood floors
3. Wrap-around porch covered in the front
4. Great lot size: 1.5 acres
5. Great location: about 5 miles outside of town
6. Attached garage

Things we wish were different
1. Only full bath is the master bath, which can only be accessed through the master bedroom. We do, however, think there is room to move a wall and add a shower to the half bath on the first floor.
2. Garage is only one-car, but it wouldn't be hard to enlarge it. Or we could deal with it.

Two of the biggest things for me to get over
1. This is the first house we've looked at! People don't try to buy the first hosue they look at, do they?!?!
2. I still have trouble accepting that we can in fact afford a house. And I wonder about the unforseen expenses: we'll need a way to plow the driveway, mow the law, we don't have enough furniture to fill it, energy costs are higher, etc. etc.

Very few of my friends have purchased houses yet. Tim, I know you and Anna considered it for awhile - any thoughts? I'd love comments from the rest of you, too.

P.S. Mitch is doing a mortgage pre-approval today and calling the realtor about checking out another house in which we are mildly interested...