Our 1 year anniversary in Michigan

One year ago today, Tom and I packed our last box, shoved it onto a very full UHaul, said a tearful goodbye to our gorgeous home, and we headed for Macomb to spend the night and be early to our closing in the morning of Nov 5, 2009. Sad day, happy day! We couldn't decide! New owners please take care of our lovely home that we built and cared for with such love.
Next day, he headed east to our Michigan home in the UHaul, I followed in my Jeep. We both felt elation when we crossed the Indiana/Michigan state line....we blew our horns and smiled cuz we were heading "Home"!
Little did I know, little did I even dream, that ALL OUR FAMILY...everyone..was at that very moment heading to our new home, too. By plane, train, bus, boat, canoe, van, truck, bicycle, ski....well, some of those anyway!!!! They were going to give me a huge surprise of a lifetime! I just retired, left my job, left my house, left my town & state, and headed to a new life. And they wanted to help us do it!
The next several days were a blur of family, food, drink, kids, grandchildren, friends, relatives, packing boxes, unpacking boxes, finding stuff, losing stuff, but loving my loving family for wanting to help us. Bless you all. There is nothing I could ever do to repay you all for the wonderful feeling of joy you gave us for just being there! Priceless!

Tornadoes in SW Michigan

I wondered if our new home was ever in danger of tornadic activity. With the Lake Michigan only a mile west, I didn't know if the vast water had any influence. Well, last Saturday night, I watched an enormous orange blob cross the NOAA weather map from west central IL toward us. It was HUGE. And, sure enough, we had a horrific storm around 11pm with tornado watches. Then, it really got bad! I almost went in the basement with Eli and Isabelle, our sleeping grandbabes. Around midnight it got a bit calmer! Next day we saw reports of 4 tornadoes that touched down a few miles from our house. Storm sirens did not go off because the tornadoes came from the Lake and no one witnessed them coming! Guess my question was answered. So, beware of huge orange blobs on NOAA weather website!

Michigan Residents now

Now it is May, & we have lived in our new retirement dwelling since winter, 2009/2010. We LOVE it here. We had snow, yes. We had ice, yes. But temp never dipped below 12-15 degrees....while central IL had way below zero temps. So, like the grapes n fruits n other micro climate plants, we loved winter. And, summer is turning out to be quite fun, too! So much to do and see here being just a mile from Lake Michigan. So...Y'all come and visit us...often!