Samantha: 57 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 22 Months, Week 1 (Week 96)
Tuesday was one of those days that started out completely normal, but then turned into something that ended up changing our future.
I took the kids out in the morning to the TRI to play in the gym and then to go grocery shopping. Then, we had lunch and nap time at which point I got started on my list of things to do, like getting Samantha switched to the upcoming skating lesson session, rather than the one over the summer. We decided, since our plans are really so up in the air for the summertime, and since we are already staying in town more on the weekends anyways due to art lessons, we might as well let Samantha do both art and skating on Saturday mornings. While talking to Ben about how his day was going and discovering that he wasn't feeling well, I was also dealing with trying to get Samantha to take a nap. Instead, she was just in her bed singing, so I went to her room and told her that I expected her to lay quietly because I wanted her to nap, and I took her blankie away. I made her upset when I took her blankie away, so I was not expecting her to nap, but then a little before 4:00, when she had already been in her room for close to an hour and half, almost reaching the time when I was just going to let her get up, she actually fell asleep. I assumed that I would have to wake her up in order to get to our community group that evening, but she actually woke up a little before 5:00, which worked out well since Samantha is always crabbier after being woken up. I was frustrated that she took so long being silly before finally falling asleep. Obviously her body needed the sleep, but for some reason she just doesn't let herself fall asleep sometimes.
Then, the event that changed our future was when Ben received a phone call from the Provost at Lake Superior State University offering him the job for a tenure track position. I was SO excited for him that I couldn't believe it. I was so proud, and we were both so hoping that a job offer would come from his campus visit a couple weeks ago. I couldn't wait to talk to him on the phone and hear more details about it. They were very excited to offer the position to Ben and at first wanted an answer by the following Friday because their second choice candidate had a job offer from another school but would rather be at Lake State. However, Lake State liked Ben the best and wanted to offer him the job first, which I think says a lot about what the school thinks of him. Ben told the Provost that he wanted to bring me up for a visit before making any final decision and convinced him to give Ben until Monday to make a final decision. It was so exciting and almost hard to believe. We had been waiting for this moment for so long, and now Ben actually had a tenure track job offer. It was almost surreal, and then everything else afterwards happened so fast.
Right away that night Ben and I started planning for our trip up to Sault St. Marie, Michigan. Ben's parents made arrangements to come down and watch the kids for us so that way we could get on the road Thursday evening and get most of the way there before stopping for the night. Also, staying at our house made it so that Samantha could still go to preschool on Friday as well as her art lessons and first ice skating lesson on Saturday. We were glad that she didn't have to miss any of those things. While up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ben and I decided we would stop by the school administration building to get a registration packet for Samantha for kindergarten in the fall. (It is so hard to believe that we are registering her for kindergarten!) Also, we got the name of a recommended realtor that we connected with so that we could see some houses on Saturday. After Ben's campus visit, I started looking at houses on Zillow, saving the ones that I particularly liked and would enjoy seeing in person, so I was at least a little prepared in that regard.
I felt like everything was a bit crazy and hectic on Wednesday with trying to plan for our weekend scouting out Sault Ste. Marie, while also having to carry on normal, every day tasks. For example, Wednesdays are my day to watch Bennett, so it was busy, but fun watching the boys play together. Benny always goes right for the basketball hoop and is happy playing with that for quite a long time.
The boys also played upstairs in Aedan's room with his new train track that he got for Christmas. I feel like it's so interesting that the boys generally play with the same toy at the same time, not necessarily together, but they are never off in two different locations. It's fun having these two boys back together again for some play time each week. They both give each other huge smiles whenever they see each other.
The day was already long and hectic, and Ben was not feeling well all day, making it difficult to teach, have meetings, and come home for a quick dinner before going to Bible study. He had a pretty bad head cold with sinus pressure, congestion, coughing, sore throat, headache, and general malaise. He even developed a fever and chills that night after Bible study. I felt bad for him not feeling well and having all these other crazy things going on at once.
I gave the kids a bath while Ben was at Bible study so that way Grandma didn't have to worry about giving them a bath when she had them on her own on Thursday night. Here are some silly pictures from our bath time that night. Samantha decided that Aedan needed to have a mo-hawk, so she styled his hair for him. Then, Samantha decided to show off her crazy hair as well.
After having breakfast and checking out, we headed out on the last segment of our trip which would be about three and half hours. It was much better driving in the daylight and without snow. It really is a pretty easy drive up there, most of the time going 75 mph on 75. We did not have much traffic and made good time. Once we got close to the Mackinac Bridge, I started taking pictures of the ice covered water surrounding us. It really was a beautiful sight. Even just the bridge itself is amazing.
When you get off the highway at the last exit before going through customs on the bridge to Canada, Lake Superior State University is almost immediately off on your left hand side. Here is my first glimpse of the town. I just had to take a picture of it. The skies are a gorgeous blue. The university is off the the left, and you can see the mounds of snow still covering the ground. It was in the mid-30s and actually did not feel that cold. It was supposed to be a nice weekend there, and we were looking forward to our time to explore.
From there, we decided to visit the local schools and see if we could get a tour and see a kindergarten classroom. We knew it was a Friday afternoon and might not be possible, but I knew it would make my teacher heart feel better to see the schools and where Samantha might be spending her days next fall. There are two main elementary schools in town, Washington and Lincoln, and well as a charter school. We were able to visit all three of those schools before the end of the school day. We got tours of all three schools by the principals themselves, which surprised me. I was very impressed that they took time out of their busy day to take around prospective parents. We got to see the gyms, the computer labs, the libraries, and the kindergarten classrooms. Lincoln had the largest classroom with many different areas for art, reading books, and even a play kitchen. It was great to see the kids playing outside in the snow, and every school had either lockers or cubbies for the students to store their boots, snow pants, coats, hats, and gloves so that they could get dressed for recess every day. The schools also had a lot of technology, especially in the forms of tablets or iPads for each student, as well as Smart boards or Promethean boards. It was all very impressive, as it was much more technology than I have ever used in a classroom myself.
The last school we went to was the charter school, but we were't able to see the principal because she was in a meeting. However, shortly after going back to our hotel, we were contacted by the secretary saying that the principal was available to meet with us at 4:20 so that we could see the school and have any questions answered. I was very impressed that they took this initiative to contact us, and that the principal made time for us even at the end of the day on a Friday. We really didn't know much about the charter school but had heard good things about it from other educators around town. It is called the Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe PSA. That is quite a mouthful, so people generally refer to it as the Bahweting school. The school opened in 1994 as a tribal school for the Chippewa Indians, and then in 1995 it was chartered by Northern Michigan University to become a public school academy. Because of that, the school is currently funded a Public School Academy and gets money from the government, but it also receives grants from the Bureau of Indian Education. Being doubly funded makes their resource pool that much greater than the public schools in town. Their library was huge and beautiful. Plus, the biggest advantage to me was that they cap their kindergarten classes at 20 students with a full-time paraprofessional in each classroom. The other schools said they have a max of 25 students, but they don't have a full-time paraprofessional. Ben and I also liked how they incorporated a lot of Native American heritage and culture into their school since it is still a tribal school. The principal said that around 65% of the students are of Native American heritage, so that would really be neat for Samantha to be part of such a diverse school. We filled out an application for the school and put Samantha's name on the waiting list because we figured that it wouldn't hurt. She is 9th on the list, but they made it sound like it is fairly common to get through most of their waiting list.
It was a full afternoon, and I felt pretty overwhelmed by the end of it all, but I also felt very encouraged because it seems like we have several decent options for schooling in this area. My biggest concern was that all the schools did full day kindergarten, no half day kindergarten was available like there is in Oxford. If we were to stay in Oxford, I was leaning more toward half day because Samantha still naps, not every day, but usually every two or three days, depending on how much sleep she's gotten at night or other circumstances that keep her up later or tire her out more. She seems to be pretty crabby by the time she gets to the third day and hasn't napped in awhile. Lately I had been questioning whether or not she would even be able to handle going from preschool three mornings a week to kindergarten all day every day of the week. That would be a huge transition for her, in addition to moving to a new city where she wouldn't know anyone yet. However, there is no other option up there for us, so it would be a transition we would have to go through.
After finishing up visiting the schools, Ben and I did a driving tour of the houses on our list. From our experience of buying our condo in Waco, we knew it was helpful to drive around, see the neighborhood, and see what the house looks like from the outside. There were actually quite a few that we crossed off our list because of how they looked on the outside or because of their location. We had plans to meet a fellow political science professor at Lake State and her husband for dinner at a local Greek restaurant. It was good to be able to meet who Ben would be working with and to hear more insight on the university, as well as their experience with the town. The food was really good, and we enjoyed our time with other adults. However, after a long day, we were ready to get back to our hotel, relax in the hot tub, and process our thoughts from the day.
On Saturday morning we had a meeting with a local realtor to discuss what we are looking for in a home. There really is not much of a rental market in Sault Ste. Marie, so we really would just have to buy right away. It was really nice to talk to the realtor because he went to Lake State for college and lived there ever since. He has six kids, so he has a lot of experience with the schools and with family friendly activities. He had a whole packet printed out for us with listings of various houses that we had on our list, as well as a few that were not. After talking in the office for awhile, we hopped in his car to start looking at houses. The first house we saw was just beautiful on the inside, but it was about 15-20 minutes outside of town. Also, one of the bedrooms was really too small to even be used as a bedroom. They turned the garage into two large rooms, making the house feel very large, and the backyard was very nice even though it wasn't fenced. However, our realtor made the point that it would be about 15 minutes to Lake State from there, more like 20-25 minutes when the roads are snow covered, which obviously would happen a lot up there. Our biggest complaint about where we live now is that we are outside of town and get annoyed at always having to drive back and forth to do things or go places, so it would be pretty silly to buy a house where we would have to do the same thing for many years to come.
We saw many houses, some that we knew instantly were not for us, some that were okay. Our realtor did a good job of showing us a cross-section of town with various styles of houses so that we knew what our options were. There was another older Victorian house that we liked because it was completely updated on the inside; however, it was almost too fancy for us and it had absolutely no yard and was right on top of the houses in the next lots. However beautiful it was, it was just not the house for us. Then, there was another house that looked like it had great potential from the pictures online, but when we visited it, it just had an odd layout, plus they had the windows open even though it was the middle of winter, probably to disguise the smell from smoke, pets, or both.
Finally, the very last house we visited was one we were particularly excited about because it was nicely in our price range, and it had a full finished basement, giving lots of extra square footage. As soon as Ben and I walked in, we were impressed. The living room was large and open with a fireplace. The kitchen was new and updated. There was a mudroom off the garage. On the main floor there was a bathroom and three bedrooms with lots of closet space. Then, the full basement had a nice family room area with built in shelves, plus there were two more rooms, one large room that could be another bedroom, and then a smaller room that could make a nice office or guest bedroom. The basement also had tons of closet space, plus a separate utility/laundry room. The house had sliding glass doors that open up to a patio area and a pretty decent sized fenced in yard. It is located on a quiet side street caddy corner from a local elementary school. The back fence has a gate that opens into a parking lot that is right across the street from the university. Plus, just right down at the opposite end of the block from the elementary school is the Norris Center which has a track, fitness equipment, a pool, and the ice rink where you can attend hockey games. The house is in such a nice location with being within walking distance to so many places. The only strange things about the house would be the bar area in the basement and the fully functional sauna, both of which would not get much use by us. There is also only a one car garage, and we would prefer a two car garage, especially because of all the snow they get over the winter. However, a lot of the houses only had one car garages or even no garage at all because the garage space was converted into living space. Here is the picture of the outside of the house we liked.
And here is the view of the elementary school from the street near the house.
After grabbing a pizza at a local pizza place, we decided to go back to our hotel, eat some food, and relax for awhile. Ben and I both needed our introverted time. Then, we decided to park on campus so that Ben could give me a tour. We couldn't get into the library, which is where his office would be, but we saw a couple of other buildings like the science building and the inside of the Norris Center. It was good to get a sense of campus and what the facilities are like. With it being a smaller university, it will be much easier for our family to have access to their facilities, which would be really fun.
After church we went to another local restaurant in the downtown area. It also had really good food: juicy burgers and yummy pretzels with cheese dip. Ben and I enjoyed our meal together, once again talking and processing our thoughts and feelings on our weekend away. We came up to Sault Ste. Marie looking for any red flags, anything that gave us an uneasy feeling, and we had none of those experiences. Instead, we felt welcomed by the local people. We got a good picture of what family life would look like for us with hockey games, ice skating, tubing, Jump Up (an inside play area), a public library, a farmer's market, the Norris Center, walking around campus, playing on the many playgrounds, walking along the locks and watching the boats in the summertime, even travelling over into Canada to explore, and so much more yet to discover. This city has a lot to offer, and many people have commented to us on how great of a place it is to raise a family. The schools seemed nice, with friendly teachers, principals, and staff. Plus, we even found a house that we really loved on our first day out looking. The more Ben and I talked about it, the more we felt confident in our decision to accept the job at Lake Superior State University. In many ways we were glad that Miami had nothing to offer Ben as far as a long term position goes because it made our decision that much easier. We felt like it would be foolish to turn down a tenure track position simply because it is cold and snowy in the UP. Yes, it will take some getting used to the different climate. However, we feel that God had made it clear to us that this is where he wants us to be. After so many months of waiting for something to come up and wondering if anything would ever turn up for a tenure track position for Ben, after so many phone interviews that lead nowhere, we finally got this offer for a tenure track position at Lake State. In fact, Ben got the email asking him for a campus visit the very day after I very sincerely prayed that God would just give us one piece of positive news. And now, that campus visit, God's very clear answer to prayer, led to a job offer. We are glad that God has made the decision very clear for us, that he gave us reassurance on our visit to the city, and now we look forward to embarking on the next chapter of our life as citizens of the UP.
(Just for fun, here is a picture of the International Bridge lit up at night. The American side is on the left with the red, white, and blue lights, and the Canadian side is on the right with red and white lights.)
Sunday morning we woke up earlier so that we could get on the road back home. Papa and Grandma were in Oxford watching Samantha and Aedan, and we wanted to be sure that they could get back home to Upland that evening. It was a long drive, especially since Ben was still feeling pretty under the weather with his head cold, but it was a pretty easy drive with no kids and no snow.
It was wonderful to be back home with the kids again. Samantha ran up and gave us big hugs, whereas Aedan just looked at us like, "You were gone?" Papa and Grandma took good care of the kiddos for us, and they love having them around. Here are a few stories from their time with the kids. On Friday when Grandma dropped Samantha off at preschool, Samantha told all her friends, "My parents are up in Michigan buying me a big house, so this is probably the last time I will ever see you again." Grandma corrected Samantha, telling her that it would be many months before we would have to worry about moving, so then Samantha said, "Well, summer is a long time away from now, so you have a lot longer to still like me." It's funny to observe how she processes things and how she's trying to wrap her head around the fact that we are moving to a different city in a different state. Grandma also told us that Samantha had a good time at her first ice skating lesson on Saturday, even letting go of the bucket and skating off by herself a few times. Papa and Grandma were both impressed with how well-known Aedan was at church, and he did a great job of being dropped off at his room without crying. I'm sure it was a lot of work for Papa and Grandma to leave their home and watch our kids for several days, but we really appreciate them being willing to do that for us, giving Ben and I the chance to check out our new town without having to drag the kids along with us.
After a very long, mentally exhausting weekend, we decided to let the kids watch a show that night before bed. Aedan loves Veggie Tales, so we put an episode of that on. About halfway through, Aedan got off the couch and says, "Bye-bye." A few seconds later, we heard rustling in the refrigerator (which is pretty common for him already). Then, ten seconds later, Aedan came out to the living room holding the ketchup bottle and saying, "Bob, Bob, Bob." He found the picture of the tomato on the ketchup bottle and as Ben put it, "He wanted liquid Bob to watch the rest of the episode with him." Ben and I thought it was so hilarious that we just burst out laughing. It was a wonderful way to spend the end of our weekend, laughing and hanging out with our incredibly cute kids.
(Blog about March 1-7, 2015)
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