We're home owners!

Well, not quite yet, we have to close on Friday, but it's pretty much a done deal that we have ourselves our very own house.  We've been looking for almost a year and now found this one just in time (thank you God) because Alex's brothers and Mike Shane just moved up here about a week ago and need a place to stay.  So, long story short, they're going to move into our duplex we've been in since May, while interning at our church!  Very exciting times to say the least!  And all this craziness just happens to fall right before Christmas when we're super busy and leaving for TC/Manistee for a week! AH!.......have to remember to breathe sometimes....

Anyways, here is a link to view the listing of the house:

(It is a bit of a fixer-upper, mostly cosmetic stuff, and eventually new siding and a roof, but it has a view of the lake and it's bigger!)

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1800-Grand-Blvd-Cr_Iron-Mountain_MI_49801_M42698-10032

I was telling a friend the other day that the only rooms I wouldn't touch as far as changing would probably be the garage and the laundry room! haha, so needless to say, it's going to be a lot of work, over a span of years. Yikes.  But, that's home ownership!

Declan & Ruth

Last weekend we got to see Declan and his girlfriend Ruth for a few days, they stayed with us and we got to know his new girlfriend a little better.  It's always fun/crazy/exhausting/loud when Declan comes to stay. :)  We love him, though and are glad that he feels welcome to come for a few days...and hopefully to move up here in the near future!  Here's just a few pictures from that weekend, Ruth and I went to the farmer's market Saturday morning, hiked around our favorite spots, made a Goodwill run, and Declan shot a deer Saturday night- his first! (Sorry, no picture)

Sadly I only got pictures of the back of Ruth!

Sweeping view

One of about 3 pictures of us since we've been married :)

Buds :)

Bow Bow wanted to wear dad's scarf (it has a different name, but I can't remember it...I'm sure he wouldn't like me calling it a scarf!)

Fall Update

 Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I've been pretty busy with work and just enjoying the last few warm days we have left.  The latest news is that we found 2 lumps on Bow the other week, so just to be safe we took him into the vet to have them removed.  That was yesterday, and he wasn't quite himself, because of the drugs and probably some pain, too.  Other than looking quite goofy now he's in much better spirits.



He looks pretty miserable



He was pretty drowsy, which is good, cause we don't want him opening up his incisions

He was feeling better by this morning and looking really bored of being cooped up with the cats, so I took him out for a nice walk on a beautiful fall day.




This is on a trail by Badwater Lake



A neat old bridge (out of service) that takes you across the lake to some trails



Bow looking a little happier...I had a hard time trying to keep him from chasing the chipmunks :)



In other news, we have officially gone from Immanuel Baptist Church to Redemption Hill, and thanks to Alex's creative design, now have this beautiful sign that is much more fitting to the size of the building. :) The old one was off centered and about the size of a twin bed, lol.  This picture is when they were still hooking up the wires for the letters, but you get the jist.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary with a short mid-week trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula, about 3 hours north of Iron Mountain.  We stayed in a renovated mansion from the copper mining days in Laurium, which was about 30 minutes from our destination of Copper Harbor.  The mansion was interesting, and a nice stay, but not really our style.  We discovered on our day trip to Copper Harbor that the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge is much more our style and we need to make another trip next year.

Sadly, we didn't get to do anything we wanted to do, because the one full day we had it rained pretty much all day, and everything we wanted to do was outdoors.  Oh well, we will have to try again sometime!  It was still nice to get out of town and away from the cats, though!  We got to sleep in a king size bed and our carriage house had a six foot jacuzzi bath tub!  Since we didn't get to do all the things we had planned on I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that I did take.

The Laurium Mansion

The awesome tiled porch

Eagle River Falls

Roadside stop in Eagle River

Some more falls (don't remember the name of the town)

Thought this bridge was neat

The very tip of Keweenaw Peninsula, at the top of Brockway Mountain

This is pretty much what it looked like all day Thursday :(

But then we had a beautiful day of course for the drive back!

The trip would not have been complete without a stop to golf-this is George Young Golf Course, where Alex gets to golf for $10 because he's a pastor!

Time for another update from the YMCA computer!  Finally cleaned my house well enough to take some "After" pictures from when we moved in, so I'll show you those later on.  As for updates on the Tunnicliff household we've been busy with summer things, hanging out with friends, and Alex has been preaching most every Sunday since Pastor Ron has been gone for about a month visiting family and doing a wedding or two.  It seems like lately our lives have been filled with all things golf, also.  Alex started playing in a league on Tuesday nights with some church/Northland University people and now has decided that "Summer Alex" = golf and "Fall/Winter Alex" = hunting and being a redneck. :)  Which is fine by me, I've decided to try my hand at golf and did pretty well at the driving range when we were in Manistee, so we're going to play 9 holes tomorrow, we'll see if I still feel the same way after that. :)


Other than that, not much has changed, we're still getting our sole entertainment from Norman and his crazy escapades....the latest of which is to chew through Alex's iPad charger cord!  (he already did the same to my cell phone charger)  I was introduced to Normie's brother the other day and he is HUGE......I kinda hope Norman doesn't get that big, otherwise he might have to be an outdoor kitty.  Alright, here's a few pictures of the house, first the Before pics, everything was covered in dust, and white...so I scrubbed and painted pretty much everything.


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Living room Before

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Living room After

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Living room again (and Norman) :)

Kitchen Before

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Kitchen After

Kitchen (that was a $20 table set, thank you Katie) :)

Bedroom Before (Bow dog helped a lot with the cleaning)

Bedroom After-- I love gray and yellow together :)  Oh, and Normie again :)

One of many of our hand-me-down furniture pieces

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The display rack Alex made me out of a friend's old barn wood and some shed antlers (I LOVE old barn wood)

I haven't updated in such a long time!  Not too much is new, I'm enjoying my new job at the hospital and trying to stay cool in this insanely hot weather.  We do have a new addition to the family, if you hadn't heard already--he's very tiny, named after a family member, loves to whine and is grey and furry!  Meet Norman:



Whitey and Norman conked out after one of their many battles

Norman and Whitey share an intense love of food-borderline obsessive :)

I hope to get up pictures of Before & After of our new house we're in...some day when I can make it to Alex's office and download the pictures on his computer.

Quick update while I have a computer to type on...a few big things have been happening here:

1. I'm sure most of you know by now, but I recently got a job as a relief x-ray tech at the hospital in town here, which was a huge answer to prayers-so thank you!  I start training Monday, June 4th and will train on days for a week (7-3) and then the next week I'll have a few 3-11 shifts and then end with two 3rd shift trainings at the end of June.  Should make for a busy June, as I'm keeping my job at the YMCA also!  I'm expecting it to die down pretty quickly after my training is up, though, but your prayers would be very appreciated!

2. We are moving out of the house on Woodward into a smaller duplex in Iron Mountain (to save money and get off the busy road) and we move tomorrow!  Hopefully we will have lots of hands to make it go quickly!

3. A kind of random update, I've come out of retirement and am playing piano for the worship team at church now.  After having 2 worship leaders leave recently (both for extrenuating family circumstances and job opportunities) we were really hurting for musicians (mainly a guitarist) but a pianist will have to do!  I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit, and the church has loaned me a keyboard that I can use at home to practice during the week.

4.  We were supposed to have Declan visiting this weekend/next week, but he is not able to come anymore, so now we look forward to Mom and Dad visiting in a few weekends!  Hopefully I'll have most of the house put away by then!

5. And of course, we are keeping busy with church engagements and getting to know people better, which really has been very fun.

6.  The last bit of news (that I'm not too excited about) but Alex put in for a bear tag for the fall, and is uber-excited to bear hunt.  Of which I've made it very clear that I will take no part in--especially not the tracking if he hits one! 

Mourning

It is with regret that I write this post, as we have lost a dear family member last Friday.  We had to say goodbye to our F-250 Turbo diesel last week as we found ourselves in a bit of a financial pinch.  He will be greatly missed, from his custom bumper, 6 inch lift, 37" hummer tires, to his crew cab, Powerstroke engine, 6 position chip, custom gauges and rust-free body.  He was truly everything we could've ever wanted in a truck and more.  R.I.P. Big Deezy.

On another note, though, we have found a red-headed stepchild to replace him!  After scouring Craigslist for a few days we narrowed the search for a cheap vehicle down to a few contenders.  We ended up driving to Rhinelander, WI (about 2 hours) to check out this 1986 Chevy K-10 that we both really liked, and after test driving it bought it and drove it home last Monday!  The Lord really blessed us with selling the old truck, and providing us with another one in just a few short days! (and that it made the trip home ok!)

Spring Hiking

Here are some random pictures of more hiking we did today after putting the hurt on some turkeys.  This is on the same property of the guy we hunted this morning, the one with just a little bit of everything the outdoor lover could want.  Woods, open fields, ponds, a trout stream, and steep rock faces as the backdrop.  (These pictures are mainly to get Matt excited to come back and try out the trout stream)  The property owner said it's nothing to fill your limit of trout in a day.  We spotted a few browns just walking the creek with Bow today, so we're pretty excited for the trout opener!

Looking out at the trout stream

Enjoying the scenery

Bow bee-lining it for one of the ponds

Trout stream

Turkey Season 2012

By now most of you know that Alex and I already bagged out for turkeys this season, but here are a few pics of the birds.  We were hunting out at a guys property who goes to our church, he has a farm on over 200 acres of just prime everything.  It has woods, fields, a great trout stream, and a backdrop of cliff overhangs to complete the picturesque setting.  It was a brisk morning (about 30 degrees) and we headed out around 4:45 to get in the ground blind before the turkeys came down from the trees.

When we got there and started walking to our spot we noticed about 10 turkeys roosted high in the trees not 100 yards from our ground blind, so we had to be extra quiet getting in, but we did make it in unnoticed.  Sitting in the blind that was actually in the cow/horse pasture we waited for them to come down and listened to them talk to each other for about half an hour before they finally decided to come down.

We watched them come right into the pasture and start casually feeding next to the cattle.  There were probably about 6 hens, 4 jakes, and one really nice tom in the bunch.  We watched them right in front of us about 85 yards out, eating, clucking, gobbling, and even sparring with one another for another half an hour.  Then, after calling sporadically throughout the morning the big tom finally noticed out jake and hen decoy. Well, once he saw them, it was over. (For him, that is)  *Side note* We had borrowed some really nice Avian X decoys from another friend and they were definitely worth it, they were so realistic.  Anyways, 'ol tom turkey came right in to the decoy so close that he was bumping into it to see what it was all about.  Not to soon after we decided to let Alex get a shot at it with his long bow at about 10 hards, and then I would back him up with the Benelli if he missed.  Alex made a sweet head shot, though, and I was not needed and the bird went down about 15 yards off to our right.

Well, all this commotion got the attention of the group of about 6 jakes that had accumulated in the distance, and they came running over looking for a fight.  We had spotted one other tom that was not as nice as Alex's but still better than a jake in the group of younger birds.  All the jakes and one tom ganged up on this decoy and were just throttling it, it was the coolest thing to see in person!  It looked just like footage you'd see on a hunting show, it was incredible.  Then, the jakes pushed out the one tom and I waited til he had cleared the group and then made him a jellyhead.  :)  Our two shots had not been more than a minute apart, it was pretty cool to see that much action from the crazed turkeys!

Needless to say we were pretty stoked to have been together and seen all the excitement together, and agreed it probably will be the most memorable turkey hunt of our lives.  We are planning on getting the tails, beards, and spurs mounted by a friend (the one who lent us the decoys) and then displaying our pictures right underneath the twin mounts.  Alright, finally, here are the pictures:

Alex's nice tom-we didn't measure yet, but the beard is pushing 10" and spurs were a nice white, and about an inch

My tom, a younger bird, beard probably about 8 inches, and only one spur

Oh, and did I mention they tasted pretty good, too?? ;)  We had some tasty fried "popcorn turkey" for dinner!