Moving/Unpacking - Day 2

Ben worked Saturday. I spent the morning working on applications and hanging out with Ben's family dog. We left him alone too much the day before so I made sure to hang out and play with him. 


Then after lunch I headed over to our apartment to tackle the mess that hid inside. 


I started in the kitchen because I knew I wanted to finish that first. It would take the longest amount of time and involved quite a bit of organization. 

That didn't last long..


My ADD tendencies kicked in and I wandered to the bathroom where I made some progress.

I even worked a bit in the living room, well at least cleared off the couch! 

Ben got home from work around 3:30pm and we decided to take a trip to Detroit (well Canton, MI) to go to IKEA. Ben and I LOVE IKEA! It is a home furnishings store that offers modern, good quality and fairly cheap items. We left around 5:30pm after stopping to visit the dog and getting some dinner. 

We drove almost three hours to IKEA, spent two hours shopping, stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream cone, drove three hours back to GR, brought up all our goodies to our apartment then went back to Ben's parent's where we did dishes and cleaned up... we didn't go to bed til around 1am!

It was a crazy but fun day!

At IKEA we got..

* bed frame

* mattress

* wooden slats (plays the role of a the box spring mattress)

* entertainment center

* two storage boxes for the entertainment center

* two bamboo plants (one was a gift)

* vase for the bamboo plant (a gift)

* two flexible cutting boards (a gift)

* two rugs

And maybe something else I forgot.... but those are the big things!

For the last year we have had the typical newlywed apartment filled with hand me downs. We still have that but now we finally have some new furniture and that makes this apartment really feel like ours! 

Find out tomorrow about the tragedy that struck at our new home...  

Our New Apartment - First View!

We got the keys to our new apartment on Thursday, July 14th and moved in July 15th. I spent the morning at a doctor's appointment and then headed to the apartment. I brought up one load and then took some pictures. 


Enjoy!


We shall start the tour at our front door....

Welcome to our humble home!

This is the living room!

Towards the front of the house, looking left from the front door..

Looking slightly right from the front door, still the living room.

As you move towards the front of the house you see a door which leads to...

An awkward 1/2 bedroom, closet, storage room.... or as my brother likes to refer to it as, "Justin's Room".

At the front door and looking to the right you see the kitchen and part of the dining room.

As we enter the middle of the apartment. 

Our dining room.

Dining room and a little glimpse of the living room. 

Standing at the back of the dining room, looking into the kitchen. 

We LOVE the little window/counter/cabinet combination!

It is a great place for serving up food!

Now we are entering the kitchen through the door you see here.

The right side of the kitchen.

It is huge! Probably bigger than my last three apartment kitchens combined!

The left side of the kitchen!

Continuing the same side.

A BIG FRIDGE!!!! And only a few years old too!

A BIG OVEN/STOVE! I can use BIG cookie sheets now and bake more than six cookies at a time.

The right side again. 

View of the little window from inside the kitchen.

Taking a mini pit-stop back in the dining room to show you the big closet!

 Now unto the back half of our apartment. 

This is what you see standing where the kitchen and dining room meet up.

The door furthest to the left is the bathroom, then our bedroom in the middle, then the office on the back right.

In the hallway is two doors on the right side, opposite the bathroom.

Behind the first door is a pantry/storage closet.

Behind the second door is a super creepy emergency exit.

Now our bathroom! It is bigger than our last ones two but kinda a strange shape.

I love all the extra storage space!! 

This old medicine cabinet hides behind the door. Yeah, more storage!

Heading towards the back of the bathroom.

The shower is next to the toilet. 

 Now off to the office!

Looking in from the hallway. To the left is a closet.

The right side of the room, that door leads to the attic.

Closet door.

Mini closet with a door that leads to Narnia!!

(Well actually I half opened it and the strange attic smell freaked us out and Ben told me to shut it!)

To Narnia!

Heading up to the attic... another creepy stairwell!

Here we go!

And apparently I didn't get a picture at the top...

it is creepy...

Now heading to our bedroom.

This room is slightly bigger than the office and has more open wall space.

To the left of the room. 

We were excited to see when we moved in our landlord added some curtains!

We will change them out at some point, but they work great!

To the right of the room.

And our closet!! (Ben let me take over most of this one!)

Another deep closet. Not the best set up but we made it work!

And thus concludes the tour of our new place!

After taking pictures I began carrying up our stuff, cleaning the apartment and unpacking a bit. I did this while Ben was at work. Ben came home in the early afternoon and then the two of us brought up as much as possible! It was very hot on the day we moved so we had to take quite a few water breaks! 

Stay tuned for a look of the craziness that occurred after a day of moving in our stuff, then for a tragic tale involving a missing electronic, a recap from a weekend with our first visitors, and an updated look at our apartment as the week continues!

I am working very hard to catch up on life so keep tuning in! 

Betty Ford

Life has been beyond crazy.. let's see if I can catch up a bit!!! :)

Two weeks ago, Thursday, July 14th,  I had the privilege to pay my regards to the former First Lady, Betty Ford. I wrote this post on that day but did not get a chance to add pictures and publish this post until today.


Written July 14th:


Betty Ford and her husband Gerald Ford are very important members of the Grand Rapids community. When the news of her passing hit the city, Grand Rapids began preparing for Betty's arrival. The church were the funeral was held was noticeably busy. Days before the funeral I watched the landscape trimmed to perfection, audio/visual vans outside carrying in equipment, no parking signs placed around the neighborhood, and canvas fences posted for privacy along the back of the church.


Today brought a whole new scene to this quite neighborhood as Grand Rapids said goodbye to Betty Ford.


American flags were hung on posts, grandparents, parents and children lined the streets, police officers from seven stations filled the streets and secret service men and women spoke silently to one another and frequently checked their watches waiting for the arrival of our country's First Lady. 


I arrived shortly after 12:30pm after a quick five-minute walk from my in-law's house to the church were the funeral was held. At the end of the block was a police officer next to a Road Closed sign. A few blocks down a blockade of city vehicles made certain no vehicles would get through the closed road. 

I settled into a spot next to the fence with a great view of the church's front doors. Almost immediately after arriving a motorcade of black vehicles with tinted windows pulled up escorted by a few police vehicles. (I like to think they were someone important!) 

Overtime more black vehicles with tinted windows rolled in and many buses.

I am glad I went early because Betty's motorcade arrived much sooner than originally planned. The crowd quieted as Betty's hearse pulled in front of the church. Secret service men and women surrounded the vehicle and watched the crowd. 

I'm not sure why but we waited a long time before anything happened. I know that the Clinton, Bush and Cheney motorcades did not arrive on time and that may have been the cause for the funeral to be delayed. Their motorcades came in at a different side of the church and I only caught a glimpse of the cars heading into the church parking lot. 


While we waited we were able to catch some Grand Rapids dignitaries heading into the church.  

I chatted it up with a few people while we waited including the two female police officers from East Grand Rapids. They kept us updated and let us listen to their radio. It was fun hearing all the details, especially when they talked about the former presidents! How cool!


Twenty minutes late, military men marched up to the casket as Betty Ford's family came out of the church. The family stood by as the military men carried out the casket. The casket top was overflowing with beautiful flowers. The casket was a dark beautiful wood. The crowd watched in complete silence as Betty's casket was carried into the church. 

Most people quickly left the area. The rest of us took this time to sit down, chat, and take in the scene. I listened to stories of Betty from people who lived in Grand Rapids their whole life, heard about Gerald Ford's funeral and the differences between the two funerals, and saw what pride these residents have in their beloved city. It was a powerful afternoon. 

After about an hour and half, the church doors were opened once more as the military men carried Betty's casket out with her family trailing behind her. The police officers quickly go into their vehicles and started the motorcade. They were followed by two vehicles filled with secret service men and women, followed by Betty Ford, her family, then more secret service and police vehicles. While this was all happening the rest of the people gathering in the church left from a different direction. 


I waved to the family and said my silent goodbye to Grand Rapids First Lady!

There are a ton of great stories that follow what events of the day. 
Here is an article that shares the timeline of the day. 
Here is an article that discusses the funeral itself as well as talks about who attended the funeral.
Some of the people attended include: 

Former President Bill Clinton 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Cheney's wife, Lynn Cheney.

Gov. Rick Snyder and his wife, Sue.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush

Donald Rumsfeld (not mentioned in article but a police woman said he was there)