Upon some reflection, this is what I came up with:

1. Best:  Beautiful Scenery.  We truly live in the boonies.  Seeing squirrels frolicking in the snow, deer nibbling on frozen apples that have fallen off our tree, coyotes staring at you as you’re driving along…
    Worst:  Too Boonies.  No one comes to pick up our trash.  We burn whatever we can in our wood-burning sauna in the basement, and the rest we have to drop off “in town” and PAY $1 PER BAG.

2.  Best:  Nice Drivers!!  People always give you the right of way.  Driving can be so relaxing and stress/care-free.
    Worst:  Slow Drivers!!  When you’re late for church marathon on Sabbath morning (IR preaching at 3 churches and they’re all 20-30miles apart), you’re almost doing more passing than driving in your own lane. 

3.  Best:  Staying at Home.  I’m realizing more and more that I love just being at home.  It’s so relaxing just spending time with your family.  Sometimes I don’t even leave the house the whole day!
    Worst:  Money for Car.  Up here we needed a reliable big car, so we bought a Ford Freestyle.  We then found out that we need to buy snow tires…everyone up here has snow tires.

4.  Best:  Our Own (Free) Water.  We have our own well so we don’t have to pay for city water.  And, the water tastes so good and clean!  We can drink straight from the tap!
    Worst:  Our Own (Dirty) Septic Tank.  We have to pay to get our septic tank cleaned out.  I’m not sure how often this needs to get done, but Israel says it’s almost full. 

5.  Best:  Eagles in Sight!  We’ve seen a few bald eagles last month.  They are really incredible to see in the wild!  Israel always gets very excited about them.
    Worst:  False Hopes.  Any big bird that Israel sees just might be a bald eagle.  (Even crows!)

Speaking of the Best and Worst, Imanuel got his first round of immunizations a couple days ago.  We were into the whole debate about whether we should have the baby have them or not.  That’s partially the reason why we waited so long (he’s 8 months).  But, after speaking with a few doctors, (our pediatrician sister-in-law included), we decided that the risks of not having them are far greater than if getting them.  Here are a few pics of him the evening of.  He ended up getting 4 shots total.  3 immunizations and 1 flu shot.  He did pretty good though.  He screamed bloody murder when he got the four of them (2 on each thigh), but when it was over and I picked him up, he stopped.  He was fine the rest of the day.  After the shots, though, I felt so bad for him that I went to Walmart and bought him some teething toys for a couple dollars.  He’s playing with them in the pictures.  I included some other pictures from last week when Israel was in Ann Arbor. 

Bugs Bunny band-aids. 

 

He actually smiled with the ring in his mouth. 

The morning of November 2nd, 2006!   A view of our backyard.

That’s the birdfeeder on our back deck.

The baby decked out in winter gear. 

Bentley and his new, but short-lived friend, B1.   He found B1 at our friend/head elder, Ole’s work and took him home.  (Then within the next couple days, he shredded him to pieces.)  


And finally, we’ll leave you with Imanuel’s “I’m Chinese” imitation.