The House on Beaconsfield Avenue

Moving and MED SCHOOL!

The whole gang on moving day!
Mama Hobbs Unloading Rachael's treasures

Now this is one proud Dad!

First Day of School!

The House Upon the Hill is no more. It was very sad to leave such a beautiful place after a wonderful year. I never thought the time would actually come, but it sure did- With a BANG!
Reilly had to move down (to Grosse Pointe Michigan- right outside of Detroit) one week before I was able to. He began orientation at Wayne State Medical School while I finished working the Cherry Harvest.
Thankfully, we had many little helping Scott hands to load the amazing 24' trailer that was lent to us by our dear friends, the Sheffers. Reilly, Mama Hobbs and Devon schlepped all of our life down to our adorable new little home and unpacked in a day. They are amazing!
I finally arrived, excitedly, this past Friday and couldn't wait to dig in and make 1**7 Beaconsfield Avenue ours.
Saturday afternoon Reilly was officially inducted into Medical School through the traditional White Coat Ceremony. Of course it was incredibly special and I cried through most of it. Reilly was really excited that his Dad made it! He was chartered in on a private plane from Marinette just to see his son begin the long, arduous journey through the next 7 years of our life.
We are SO happy in Grosse Pointe. As Reilly says, "Rachael is just about ready to run for Mayor of the town after only 2 days". I guess living in such a community oriented town has been incredibly appealing for me. I have met all the neighbors and already have 2 babysitting jobs lined up- along with a very good connection through St. John's Hospital. Lucy and I walk up and down the beautiful tree lined streets just in awe over the spectacular homes and quaint little shops. We stopped and had lunch at the Sprout House- (a vegetarian little cafe right on the corner of my block!)
The nearest shopping center is about a 20 mile drive. The residents of the community opt to keep it that way in order to promote local business and agriculture. Having Lucy is always the reason people want to stop and talk. I realized today that I probably spent 5 hours of my day conversing with the new folk. I will take more pictures of our apartment and Grosse Pointe tomorrow to post.
I found myself walking down the sidewalk humming Annie's song in my head; "I know I'm gonna like it here"!

A Night in the Life of a Cherry Picker

Reilly and I started work at Cherry Bay Orchards this week. We have been working the night shift and amazingly it has been way more fun than I ever imagined it would be. Here is a brief illustration of events throughout the 12 hour shift. Enjoy!! and be thankful you are sleeping right now.


The Cooling Pad


Reilly doing routine maintenance on the trucks- What a HUNK!





The trucks come from the orchard with 8 tanks full of
beautiful cherries... Now the REAL work begins.




Flushing water to clean the cherries



Weighing and Grading Cherries




Yes folks, Rachael drives a forklift... Bet you thought pigs would fly before this day would come.



When we aren't busy, the real fun begins 'behind the scenes'

Things get a little loopy around 3 a.m.

Shenandoah National Park

Reilly and I have been planning a backpacking trip for our 2 year anniversary. We couldn't have imagined a better way to spend our time together. 4 days unshowered, Hail Storms in a tent, every meal out of a saucepan, bears, treacherous, waterfall hikes,rock climbing, dachshund puppies in the campground that made me miss Lucy, up hill climbs that last for MILES!!! and, an unbelievable amount of quality time together. Praise God for His beautiful creation and the opportunity that we had to explore just a small little bit of it. Enjoy just a few of our pictures.