The sun is already beating down on Morgan while he’s out mowing Mom-in-laws lawn and the trees already look depressed after their nightly reprieve of cooler air. After today, the central valley temps dip below 100* so that’s something to look forward to. Also we ran some errands and found a thrift store where I found a baskety thing. Last Friday Morgan and I took a date afternoon and drove to Monterey for clam chowder bread bowls. That was literally the whole reason for the trip, those delicious bowls of chowder washed down with fresh calamari. We breathed that yum salty air and fended off seagulls while we ate looking out over Monterey Bay. It was sunshine with a cool breeze and 57* which was insane because when we’d left Mom’s in Winton it had been 105*. I regretted leaving my hoodie at home.

My mom and I left one Sunday a few weeks ago for Michigan and Morgan flew there a week later. We had a lovely time with Dillon’s, Madison, and Mom all being together. July 17 was the 10-year mark of our Dad Andy being gone from us so we did a couple special things in remembrance. One evening we all went up to Frankfort and fished on the pier till the wee hours, then slept the rest of the night in our vehicles just like Dad used to haul us to do when we were kids. Ahh, the feeling of waking up in a stuffy vehicle with your neck in an awkward position and yet, I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. The next morning at 5 we went out on the boat with our favorite captain, Brian Murphy, for a morning of fishing. Dillon’s and Mom threw a big BBQ charcuterie evening with a crowd of friends (including Andrew&Bridget who we’d last been with while visiting Dillon’s in Mozambique); and we all took a trip up north to Traverse City and spent night at the Great Wolf Lodge with lots of time spent in the water park with Max and Brett. Then we stopped at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor for cherry ice cream and boomchunka cookies. Truly.such.a.fun.time.

Another interesting thing that happened while we were in Michigan, hence, the title of this post. We had no idea something like this would open up there and it really is an open door for our life currently so after some days of prayer Morgan has agreed to teach Grades 7&8 at Countryside Christian School, Ithaca, Michigan. We even have a house we are going to be renting which is like the coolest thing because although we love our bus life, we are going on 3 years living in it and it will be so fun to be able to have company and also a house for me to fill with my thrift store finds. yay. We will be leaving here mid-August and driving the bus out to Michigan and in the meantime we are soaking up California and our friends and the sunshine. We were excited to be back at Winton and had been looking for a place to rent here for the time being, but with just one teacher’s marriage announcement our “life plan” changed again and now we have a different plan. It brings back the memory of laying on Dad&Mom’s bed talking with them in our Z Road house at Copeland and them telling me that sometimes you had clear direction and sometimes you didn’t as much but if you were following Him, He would bless the decision you made because sometimes there wasn’t an exact answer. I have often thought of that and how moldable we need to sometimes be to follow His will because if we have it all figured out all the time and know exactly what we want and don’t want, how can He lead us to serve Him in unexpected ways?

Ramble, ramble, I know. I went through and organized a couple of my old keepsake boxes yesterday afternoon. Some things I found: a pillowcase covered with painted memories from a sleepover at Joanie’s house probably 15 years ago; a book Madison gave me for my wedding full of letters from my special people that I cried as I re-read; a smashbook of my trips and good times in the youth with friends like Lonetta, Abby, Trudy, Laura, Taryn, Joanie, Cassie; my Edmonton unit scrapbook; two of my Dad’s shirts that were my favorites; a coffee mug from when I got open-water scuba certified in Roatan. I don’t go through things like that very much but it’s always so fun to see what you find every so often.

The next few weeks will be full I’m sure. Jerica is flying out to visit on the 8th and her and I are going to spend a couple days on the coast while Morgan and Levi go kayaking. Kandis and the kids arrive the 10th so that will be a full house and lots of niece and nephew time. Morgan is working for Uncle Marshall for a couple weeks and then the week before we leave he is going to be working on the bus. Madison flies in the 19th and will leave with us the 20th. She is going to drive our Jeep out to Michigan while we drive the bus so we will get to spend a couple days with her on the road before she cruises home a couple days ahead of us. I think we will stop and see Mom at GardenView on our way and hopefully we’ll be in Michigan in time for cousin Zanna’s wedding the 27th.

Have a good weekend..xo