Alice visits the Michigan State Capitol

Last month the 4th graders visited the Michigan Capitol.  There was not enough space on the bus, so chaperones were requested to meet them onsite.  It's only a 20 minute drive to downtown, so I beat the bus there, since I left straight from morning drop off.

The parking was closer to the hall of Justice, which is where they were finishing their trip.  I took a picture before I met up with the class.

I'm not sure what this system warns of, but I'm glad it didn't go off while I was walking by.

Does the capitol building look familiar? Probably because the architect, Elijah Meyers, designed both buildings.

The floor they were sitting on is translucent, so people below could see their shadows. = )

The stars at the top are painted with gold and platinum paint.

Inside the governor's office.

We passed through the rotunda several times.

The representative from our county was there to give us a tour of the floor (otherwise we would have just been able to peek in from the door.)

The light panels had each state represented, if they said why I didn't catch it.

The Senate was meeting while we were there, so we didn't get too close as part of the tour.

The ladies painted represent 8 virtues, but I don't know which ones.

In the former Supreme Court room.

In the new Supreme Court Room.  The lady in the background is the Michigan Chief Supreme Court Justice, and Alice is sitting in her seat.  She was the one that gave us a few details about the legal system in Michigan.

It was a fun, informative trip.  I learned quite a bit about the state we currently live in.  I was really glad it was indoors (for the most part.)  I hope Alice remembers it fondly too.

later days

later days

All the other Spring Fun!

My children had school on both Good Friday and Easter Monday, but the Rosenthals were passing through on their way home from visiting family in Michigan and so we spent an unexpected evening socializing with some of our "Houston friends!"

The twins twinning:

For 6 weeks, each Monday and Tuesday, Alice and Emily went to makers club.  It was actually only 3 weeks each, but it was 6 weeks of picking up the two not attending makers club, racing home to meet the bus, then loading up the twins and heading back up to the school.

Next year though, I can't wait, because we can just do homework at the school until club concludes!  And Emily and Alice will be together and William can join!!!!!

Alice is practicing spelling, William practicing writing, and they are making sure that the grocery list is complete.  Happy Days.  Reading my list as the store is always an adventure! = D

Grace picked out some pokemon cookies at the store (thanks Avia) and I tried to convince the kids that they were leftover Christmas (santa's belt) and Easter (bunny) cookies.  They didn't buy it.  Also, Pikachu is an elf in the picture.

The Oldsmobile plan chimneys are visible all over Lansing.  The low clouds made them look even taller.  I like how much this accurately represents my impression of Michigan.

Emily likes to go to rummage sales as much as I do.  She was all smiles before we went to 3 last Saturday!

We made homemade 'baby food' to go with a doll that Alice gifted one of her friends for their birthday today.  The twins really like to feed their babies too, now that they know it's a thing*. = )

I'm not sure what it is about this time of year, but my friends all seem to have children with birthdays.  And all of their children are turning 10.  All.of.them.  So, I took a picture with my 9 year old.  Because I still have one.  At least for a few more months. = )

I made a new dish last week, with okra.  I was surprised to find okra up here, but it went so well with the Cajun flavor!

Grace and Juliet helped me make cookies for my mops meeting last week.  It was our next to last meeting of the year!

The twins left finger prints all over the glass door while we were waiting for their medicine to arrive.  It took for.ev.er.  So, I had them clean the door when they were done.

Grace decided that she wanted to buy a replacement umbrella with her birthday money (she broke her old one) at the zoo gift shop.  So, on Wednesday, after their medicine shipment arrived, we headed to the zoo. Grace is roaring, and Juliet is hissing (like the snake behind her.)

And we had to go see the tiger, like Grace's tiger ears!  But, he was asleep.  We weren't sure what tigers dreamed about, but they were impressed by the size of his paws. = )

We didn't stay long, since we had to go set up for MOPS, and it was cold again, but it was awesome to exercise their birthday membership!

We received a lovely box of goodies from a family friend.  Emily has been thoroughly enjoying them.  Here, she is creating a card to give her teacher for teacher appreciation week.  = )

One of the strange perks of living in Michigan is how fresh the dairy is!  We were drinking this milk on May 2nd.  And it was still good! = 0

I'm glad, because my family is so not consistent with their milk consumption.  And it was better to overbuy than underbuy.

Also, last weekend, not this weekend, but last weekend it was warm enough for me to mow the yard in so few layers that I got a sunburn!  (such that it is.)  Alice helped with the picture taking. ; )

My children doing 'tricks' (?)

later days

*Alice tested it out on their dolls before we made up all the baggies.  It's just baking soda and food coloring, so I wasn't worried.  But it's always good to test.

Garage Sale, well, Yard Sale

The Friday before thanksgiving, I held a garage sale.  It was cold, and windy, and cold, but it felt so amazing to empty the shed of all the cast offs, it didn't matter!

My outside helpers

Emily made 3 great signs for me to use (she was inside of course!) = )

I used the heat lamps to help warm, and my mom was the primary adult in charge (inside.)  She and the kids helped me move things from the shed to the front area. She also came back with Sarah's neighbor Josh the next morning and he helped us with some of the heavy lifting and set up.

Business was slow the entire day, but I sold my Christmas tree* and our TV stand, and a handful of other things to souls brave enough to get out of their cars.

My mom came out and helped me pack up just before dusk.  We filled my car with what we could and put the bigger items on the roadside.**

what happens to a propane tank that runs for several hours in particularly cold weather

It was rainy and colder on Saturday, so I didn't regret holding it a single day.  And I feel soooooo good having cleaned out the shed!

Once we cleaned out the shed, this little girl found the bike she received 2 Christmases ago. It had a low tire, and there were snow flurries in the air, but she was determined! I spent 15 minutes outside with her

Now, if we could just get that carport put in, my "big projects" list would be pretty minimal!

later days

* ::sniffle:: it was my 9ft tree, and just couldn't stand up in our new house.  That and my photo frame screen were the only two sentimental things that I sold.
**people picked it over and everything was gone before the trash ran!

A Ridiculously Complicated Carport

We are building a carport.  It's actually a concession on our part.  We wanted a garage, but when we spoke to the contractor* he said that we would have to do some major construction on our laundry room just to get a door at that end of the house, let alone add on a garage.  Major construction is not in the budget, but this Texan cannot imagine scraping snow off the car every morning, so a carport was the best compromise.

I could not get a contractor to call me back about a carport either.  This came as no surprise at this point, since construction in this state is near impossible, so we brainstormed a bit more, and decided even a pre-fab carport is better than daily snow scraping.

We found a company that actually answered their phones! ::shock:: and we were able to put in an order for a decent looking pre-fabricated carport.  They were no longer taking orders after that week, so I did things a bit out of order, but paperwork around here is somehow faster than construction.

In the contract for the carport company, it said that our building site had to be level within three inches, so I went to a landscaping company and settled on some crushed concrete to be delivered the following Monday.

They called me Monday to say that with the rain, it would have to be later in the week before they could deliver it.

Later in the week I went in to our local office to find out about building codes and what I would need to build a carport.  Turns out we needed a survey done of our property, which might be on file with a certain office, but they never returned my call.  Lovely.  So I called half a dozen survey companies.  Two called me back, one of which was a corporate surveying company and would have been very pricey.  The other company was $150 more than what we were anticipating, but when they are the only ones who return your calls, you have to make compromises.

So we set up an appointment for this week (which was 3 weeks away at the time).  Almost 2 weeks after I called, the office that might have our survey called back to tell me they didn't' have it. But did give me some insight into a simpler method of obtaining a permit.  I went out to the county website, and used some information from their GIS system to give an approximate placement for our carport.

When I brought it in to the village office, it turns out we couldn't build it where we currently park, because it would not be 10 feet from our property line.  = /  Our options were to build in the backyard (not convenient) or on the other side of the house (slightly more convenient.)**

We got very lucky that our leveling dirt delivery had been delayed, because I would have been very sad to have to have purchased it twice.  When they called back to reschedule, we left it open until I got the approval from the village office on a location.

So I redrew our sketch, putting it on the other side of the house.  When I brought it back in, she told me that it had to be 25 feet from our property line, and that our property line is actually 2 feet in from the sidewalk. Our house is only about 5 feet from the sidewalk anyhow. This means that the bottom two front porch steps aren't even on our property.

Once again, I redrew the new location of the carport^, again more inconvenient than before, but this time my mom was the one who dropped off the papers, while I took William to the optometrist.

On Friday, the village called me back with news of an approval, so the twins and I went to pick it up.  I scheduled with the landscape company to come out to deliver on Monday.

Tuesday was grocery day, so I had planned on driving out to the county seat (about 40 minutes) on Wednesday afternoon, but my check engine light came on. ::laugh of disbelief:: so it had to wait.  Thursday morning I dropped of my car at the mechanic with Billy, then took his car out to the courthouse.

My mom was on call to meet the bus for the twins, in case I ran out of time.

When I arrived, I parked in the back, but all of the doors I could see said "no public entrance" on them.  So, instead of trudging through muddy & wet grass to get around the building. I moved the car around to the front.  I had to go through a security scanner to get inside.^^  This may not sound like a big deal to y'all in the south, but I had on a coat, and hat, and gloves... it was annoying.  = )

So, I navigate through the halls to the office.  I explained what I needed, and had all my papers in order.  She asked who would be building it, and when I told her, she said "oh, they are in the system, but don't have a permit on file."  splendid. I pulled up my email to get contact information for her, and at this point they, thankfully, cut me out of the middle.  The permit lady was in direct contact with the construction firm, and was able to request exactly what she needed.

While we were waiting on the email with all of the documents, she looked at my zoning approval from the village, and told me I needed a health permit.  For a carport.  seriously.

So, I walked over to the health department, and because we have a well on our property, we have to have a $29 permit to build, well, a carport.  So I paid their extortion fee, and headed back with my health permit to the courthouse.

I have to be rescreened by security, and this time there is a line, and my time is ticking.  Back in the office they had received the email, but the correspondent had forgotten the signature.  At this point, I had to contact my mom, so that she could meet the bus, but didn't have any service, so I went down the hall to the nearest window.

Back in the permit office, they finally got all of their documents in order, and it was another $130 for a permit to build this amazingly complicated carport.  As she was handing me the approved documents, she told me that now I need to take a 2'x2' board, and I laughed because I thought she~ was kidding.  She was not.

I had to take a 2'x2' board (I asked her if it could be a little bit bigger, so that I didn't have to take out my saw) and put it at the end of my driveway with some super special code so that the inspector could tack up our building permit.  How am I even surprised at this point? I also had to stake out the area that it's going, even though we have a large slab of crushed concrete in place already.

Gee, I wonder where they want to build the carport?

My mom bought me some reclaimed stakes from a thrift store last week, for 8 cents a piece.  At least those were cheap.

The $130 permit was supposed to be up at 9am, but it's still not there.

Once that piece of paper is up, the only thing we are actually waiting on is the construction company to schedule and build the carport in question.  We are really hoping to beat the snow.  Who knew that would be the least frustrating part?

later days

*this is another complaint about the lack of people calling me back in this state.  only 2 contractors out of the dozens I left messages for called me back, and the other one was just too polite to say that he didn't have time.

**we are on a double lot, so we have two entrances leading off of the road, but one of them leads to grass.

^I do want to say that our village office staff was great.  They were helpful and answered the phones when I called.  We just needed more time, which we didn't have, so it was kind of a haphazard process.

^^I certainly understand why you would need a security scanner on a courthouse.  I mean, you don't end up in front of a judge for happy things, usually.  But making the public go through security seems a little over the top to get a permit.  And I do feel like maybe the employees should be screened as well, I mean they would be just as capable of bringing weapons in as anyone else.

~the ladies in this office were also helpful, I just did not like what they were saying.

An afternoon in the country

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today!  The temperatures were in the mid-seventies, so we headed out to the apple orchard for some fall family fun!

We bought a dozen fresh donuts, and did our best to keep them away from the bees while we ate them!

The big kids shot some apples from their apple gun, Emily hit the barrel 3/5 times!  They had fun launching pumpkins too.

The line for the tractor ride was pretty long, so we took a picture "pumpkins rock" while we waited.

Alice had more fun than it appears in this picture!

The prettiest pumpkin in the patch!

They didn't really have a pumpkin display set up for pictures, but we took some pictures anyhow. = )

Grace was pouting, about something...

..but brother is here...

...to make it all better.

We attempted the corn maze, but got to the second marker and then the twins declared they were done.

We finished off the day by petting the wagon horses.

it was a very fun outing, everyone got to do at least one thing that they wanted.  We came home with an apple pie and apple cider to enjoy tomorrow.

later days