What a whirlwind the past few months have been! Our life continues to be crazy, but in the end, isnāt this what life is all about? I fear that one day Iāll wake up in the same old bed, in the same old house, and go to the same old job. So all of this change, as frightening as it is, is truly life giving!
TO BEGIN! We have our new home!
It was quite the process to get into it, which is why we couldnāt say anything, but after a long period of waiting and upping our offer, we finally have made it to this new home for our family. We live in a fantastic neighborhood with sycamore trees lining the sides of the streets, with wonderful neighbors we are starting to meet (in fact we were out on a walk and Marian said āhiā to a girl we were passing. Apparently, she knew her from daycare. We and her parents were completely shocked that they recognized each other in the wild). And our next door neighbor is a retired police officer and runs his own shooting academy, so we feel quite safeā¦
Weāve got a full basement and a full (and simple to reach) attic which is a complete blessing. We even have those laundry shoots where you can throw down dirty laundry (praise the lordā¦). Lori and I each have enough closet space to actually survive without slamming our clothes in closets or piling them around the room. On top of that we recently had the downstairs painted and absolutely love our new kitchen. SO MANY CABINETS! Considering my love for cooking I'm so thrilled!
The home we purchased has a spare lot along the side of the house so Cali (our dog) and the girls have been running amuck out there. Every time Cali goes out there she comes back covered in mud because she is checking out every square inch of our muddy yard. But thereās a fence around our yard so we donāt have to worry about any of them taking off for the street. But in the meantime the girls are using our sun room as their play room. Itās a mess, of course, but much better than destroying our living room like they did at our last house. As usual, Yoshi the cat has found her place apart from the kids. She spends the majority of the day sleeping on a moving box in the basement.
Weāve got a two-car garage and a shed (which could one day become a writing spaceā¦) where we can store things for the yard like lawn mowers and the girlās outdoor toys. And strangely enough, one of our favorite things is the light we have in the front of the house. Just past our front porch, there is a single light that is ridiculously bright. Lori and I have named it the āBeacon of Hope.ā So if youāre lost in Grand Rapids, just look up and follow the light to our house. Of course, as always, there are tons of things that we can update, but again, thatās just life.
And considering life STILL might be too easy while moving into a new home, Lori has gone and announced a new Sparrows coffeeshop on the Westside!
The entire Sparrows team is incredibly excited about opening up this shop. In fact, the news about this opening has been phenomenal! It is located across the street from the massive New Holland Brewing and one of the hottest restaurants in town, Sovengard. Not to mention we are next door to The Butcherās Union, another fantastic place to grab food and drinks. But this street is still growing! The Jolly Pumpkin Brewing Company is going to build a new brewing facility across the street and Meijer will be debuting a smaller, urban-sized store. We are very excited to see what all of this will look like!
Lori is filled with overwhelming passion as she's pulling this store together. This is just more evidence of why Iām so in love with her. I canāt wait to see our girls look at her and realize theyāve been raised by a wonderful and loving mother who is successfully running TWO coffee shops in town. She is, hands-down, the most talented and beautiful tank Iāve ever laid eyes on.
Regarding my book, Thank You Kung Fu, Iām continually narrowing down the editing process. I feel quite confident I will be able to release this on my cancerversary. However, my agent says he wants to send the whole book out to publishers one more time. So having it published is still a possibility. But if no one picks it up, it will be available on June 7th, the day where I will completely OUTLIVE the time I was given to life by my doctors in 2009!
Still so many things to say, but I suppose Iāll give you a break. Until thenā¦