Life in Ann Arbor

Yeah! We're here, we're safe, we're happy!!! It has been a crazy 10 days since arriving in Ann Arbor. It feels like we've been here so much longer, but so far we LOVE it here. Jeff and Janet Poulsen kept telling us how beautiful it was here but you just don't quite understand until you're actually here and you're exploring. I feel like I could get in the car and take a scenic drive for hours. Fall is going to be spectacular!!!! Followed by.............. oh, we'll see how that season goes!

John had a great orientation week.....classes on what to expect your first year of law school, time management (which being a catholic school they're really big on families and all the instructors said that school should come third, after God and Family, which I liked). They had mock trials, case studies and he was taught how to write a brief. Thursday they had a half day service project at the Salvation Army and an ice cream social. And on Friday they invited all the students and their families to the campus for a country bar-b-que. The food was GREAT!!! And I'm not just saying that because I'm prego and food in general is great, but it was a really great bar-b-que. We met a bunch of people. One of the families lives in Canada. He just graduated from Ave Maria and is President of the alumni assoc (it's still a little weird to see Canadian license plates around, I forget how close we are). And, there are about 15 or so families in our ward who attend Ave Maria, 6 or 7 of which are first year students. Any how, John is really excited and optimistic. He figures he'll have about 100 pages a night to read and if he can stay on top of that than he'll do just fine.

He was also surprised at the diversity of the students. They are all different religions, come from all over the nation and range quite a bit in age. One student I met at the bar-b-que is named Steve. He's starting his first year of law school with John. He's, I think, mid fifties and he's a retired pilot. He was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam war and I'm told he has some amazing stories. I'd love to run into him again and hear some of them.

I've mostly been busy unpacking (still.... blah) and getting settled. Miles was sick the first weekend we were here so we didn't do much, but this last week we went out exploring. There are so many parks here, three within walking distance. Gallup park, which is about 2.5 miles away has canoes and paddle boats you can rent and go down part of the Huron River. Yesterday we went to the Domino's petting farm, which is about 3 miles from our house (we'll post some of those pics next time). This week my first task is to figure out medical insurance, doctors and hospitals, and going to get a Michigan drivers license. I hate doing that kind of stuff. I'd rather be out exploring but, it has to be done. I've also set up a play date for Miles this week with a little boy named Luke. His dad is a 1L (first year law student). We met them at the b-b-que and then sat with them at church today. There's also a play group this Friday at a park in the next town up so I think we'll go to that too. Miles needs some buddies to play with. I think he was getting pretty bored of me this last week because he was even more excited than usual (if you can imagine that) when dad got home.

We want to thank everyone for all the help we've had this last month. We could NOT have made it with out you. We are richly blessed with friends and family. We love you and think about you often and hope all is well in your neck of the woods (wherever that may be).