We have taken the next step in life. That's right we have upgrade our cell phones. We have left behind the nextels and moved onto the lastest crazy, texting. Ok, so I probably made that a little more dramatic than it needed to be but it was exciting for me at least. Michelle just shakes her head at me wonders why she married such a dork. I know she likes it deep down. We got new phones that have full key boards to make texting easier. We are obviously new to the texting world but it is pretty cool so far.

Back to Normal

This past weekend was my dad’s birthday. We were able to make a surprise trip to Indy for the party. Dad was completely shocked when we knocked on the door Saturday afternoon. It was a fun weekend with lots of laughing, joking, and quoting old movies. Sunday night we pulled out the old home movies and laugh together about how much we have changed. It was just a plain old good time. We came home Monday morning and rested up before having to get back to real life today. Harvey was depressed to have to leave Joey, the family dog, and lay around all day Monday. He likes to play with Joey although I don’t think Joey feels the same all the time. Harvey is a little to energetic for Joey most of the time. I guess we all have to get back to normal.

We're Back

Ok, so it has been a long time since we updated our blog. We apologize for waiting so long. This was our second Christmas together and it was once again wonderful. We spent time both in Coleman with Michelle's family and in Indy with my family. But as we did last year, we spent Christmas day at home just the two of us and Harvey.

Unfortunately, do to the poor shape that the auto industry is in, my plant shut down extra long this year for Christmas break--three weeks. I was forced to take a large portion of my vacation to cover the down time. The extra time at home was nice, but I am running short on vacation time now and that stinks. Michelle and I just spent time together at home and took small day trips during my extra time off. The good news is my job is secure for the time being. It could have been a lot worse. Last week for the first time in the history of the company we had to lay off 64 floor workers. We are going from three shifts to two and going to four 10 hour days. Which again is sad for those who lost their jobs, but good news for me. It means a three day weekend every week. I think I can get used to that. I usually work ten hours a day anyway.

Michelle continues to hunt for jobs faithfully. She has decided to start subbing in the local schools for something to do and to make a little money. But this is just temporary until she finds something permanent.

Sorry again for being so long between posts.

The Top of the World

We visited our friends Ben and Miranda up in the U.P. this weekend. Ben goes to school in Houghton at Michigan tech. (Yaha for engineering!) It was quite the drive. I took Friday and Monday off so we didn’t spend the whole weekend driving. Saturday we all drove even further north to the tip of Michigan and took the Brockway mountain drive. Michelle got a little car sick but we did get to see some cool sites. We also got to see the big snow thermometer and a little road side waterfall. We just stop when and where ever we felt like it and took in the beauty of nature. The weather wasn’t the greatest. It was cloudy and over casted most of the time and it rained a good chunk of the time Sunday, which just gave us time to play a little Mario kart on the wii!

But all the site seeing and adventuring was second to visiting with Ben and Miranda. We got to see their new apartment in the great white north land and see the new credit union where Miranda works. There was a lot of talking and joking, and of course game playing. A good time was had by all. We drove home Monday in the first snow of the season. There was almost a inch of snow by the time we hit Marquette, but faded as we drove east. We had a lot of fun just taking our time driving across Michigan. It is amazing the many different landscapes this state has. We ate at Clyde's on the way home and it was amazing! (I know you're all jealous.) After all our travels, we were happy to finally get home and relax with Harvey.

Don't spit into the wind it can be dangerouos

The Top Of the World

"I Can Flyyyyyy!!!!!"

The one time the sun came out

"I'm Cold!"

Welcome Abigail Kay Steele

Craig and Stacie have finally met their beautiful daughter Abigail Kay! She was born on October 20th at 7 lbs. and 20 inches long. She has her mother's chin (the Reese Witherspoon chin) and nose, and from what I can tell her father's eyes. However, it is difficult to tell when the baby's only a couple of days old. Stacie and baby arrived home Wednesday and are doing just fine. I can't wait to meet this little miracle! I'm sure I will be posting more pictures once we get some. As for now this is the only one I have that isn't copyrighted.

Pumpkin Time

We kept with our tradition of carving a pumpkin this year. We have a system worked out between us. Michelle traces the face onto the pumpkin and I do the actual carving. Michelle says I have to do the carving because I have huge muscles and can control the knife better. Ok, maybe I added the part about the huge muscles but I do, do the carving. It's a fun little activity we started doing before we were married. Harvey didn't like the pumpkin at first. We set the pumpkin on the balcony with a candle inside and he started barking at the strange glowing face. Harvey rarely barks at anything and he soon got over his dislike.

Kings and Queens

This weekend we carried out the second annual trip to the Renaissance Festival. The first thing you realize when going to the festival is, well I guess I'm not that bad. Where do these people come from. They come in all shapes and sizes with some wacky outfits. Speaking of sizes, some women attending should have reconsidered the two piece outfit! But, in all it was a fun time. We went with the cousins and took in the sites. I had a gigantic turkey leg. Michelle did not. We watched a couple little side shows but mostly we just took in the sites. Afterwords we all came back to our house and broke out the wii. There was some serous tennis and boxing going on here. Fun times! (sorry forgot the camera again)