30 years

I think that other than his 2 years mission, this may have been Jay's first birthday away from family and away from the Utah state holiday Pioneer Day.  

July 24. 

And how did we celebrate?  We worked.  Jay worked a 12 hour shift.  I worked 11 hours. Welcome to real life.  

 I did manage to make a birthday cake.  

It was the same cake and frosting recipe as our wedding cake and this time I finally nailed the frosting.  

 Dinner was nothing special (kimchi Pajun). 

We celebrated at Red Robin a few days later thanks to a free meal. 

But the birthday gifts made up for a lame dinner. 

Bohnanza, Sodastream, "To the stars on the wings of a Pig" and...

A gym for the basement.  

Here's to enjoying the next 30 years and hoping we accomplish as much in the coming 30 years as we did in the previous 30 years. 

SPIDERS

I've never been one to freak out over bugs.  I can handle a spider here or a cockroach there, though I really hated how often those cockroaches appeared in our bathroom in Tucson.  However, we had a spider infestation on our hands.  Our front entryway, and all of our neighbors entryways were covered in cobwebs.  I would clean them up and two days later cobwebs were everywhere.  We rarely use our front door, but one evening after dark I went out on the porch and there were hundreds of spiders that came out to play.  I started spraying them down with hairspray.  The internet said it would make it so they couldn't breathe and die.  False.  That did not work.  A neighbor walking by offered her cigarette lighter.  This frightened me a little, I mean our porch is made of wood and I had just emptied my hairspray bottle on these guys.  This merely burned there webs but did little to kill them.  We got a little help from Home Depot and used almost a gallon of bug killer to spray down the front entryway, the garage and the basement.  These pictures do not do justice to the magnitude of the situation.  

one of three wasps nests that we found on our exterior windows.  

good aim

even the bushes were covered.  the webs showed up better on the green than against the white fence. 

I Stand Corrected

We live 30 miles from Canada.  At the border they look at your passport and ask lots of questions.  Where are you going? Who are you visiting? How do you know them? How long are you staying?  Are you carrying anything across the border you shouldn't be, etc.

On our return trip from Toronto a few weeks back we answered that we were from/headed back to Detroit.  A question or two later I said- We just moved to Chesterfield from Arizona.  The guy in the booth turned, stared at us and replied-Chesterfield is not Detroit.  It's not? Oh.

I guess it like saying you live in Salt Lake City when really you live in Sandy Utah...maybe.  Don't mess with border patrol. Chesterfield is NOT north east Detroit.

Home Sweet Home

In April, Jay and I flew to Michigan to look for housing.  Knowing we would be in Michigan for a minimum of 5 years for surgical residency, we both felt good about buying and were set on finding a low maintenance place-minimal repairs, minimal yard work, someone else to shovel snow, you get the idea.  We settled on an end unit condo with a completely unfinished basement in Chesterfield.  Our offer was accepted April 21st and we miraculously closed May 23rd.  We picked up our keys at 8 am June 23 after driving from Arizona in a 2 day blur.

Here's the place.

I'm not in love with the exterior, but it is getting a new coat of paint next summer and I don't have to shovel snow or mow the lawn.  A quiet couple lives above us.  

View from the front door looking at the kitchen and front room. I'm not a decorator, if you can't tell.
 It was painful for me buy and put up  what decor has been added to this place.  

From the kitchen looking at the front door

I really like the kitchen (except the dish washer. It's not mounted to the counter. Urg).
The pantry is spacious.  I have no idea what to do with all those shelves. 

Master bed room.  The bed frame and bedroom furniture was a craiglist find.
The bathroom is small, but there's a huge closet to make up for it.  I'm actually ok with that.  

We found a nice place for Jay's chair.  

The newest member of the house arrived yesterday morning-our dryer finally showed up 6 weeks after purchasing it.  We love the mudroom.  That door goes directly to a 2 car garage and I'm standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  And yes that is a hose in the sink.  We're in the process of fixing that.  

The room that will probably never be picked up.  This room is off the front room-it's a study room, music room, and guest room...aka mess. I haven't really unpacked all those boxes because I'm not sure where I'm going to put it.  

Wow bright guest bathroom.  Not my first choice of colors, but I think I can live with it. 

Check out the size of this basement! Jay has set himself up with a home gym in the basement.
In the half of the basement not pictured we have shelves of storage and tools.  

We welcome any visitors.  We are 30 mins from the Canada border and about 4 hrs from Niagara Falls and 4 hrs from Chicago.