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. 
Hey Judy and Israel, Man, I love the shot of the backyard. And oh yea, your baby is ok too. I will have to visit you guys. I will plan it after the septic tank has just been emptied. God bless you guys.
man, that’s too much snow…i can’t handle too much anymore…maybe i’ll have a summer home in houghton or the u.p. but no way i’d go there even remotely close to winter…
that B1 picture cracked me up because I could totally see Bentley doing that. There’s always B2. And then there are the B52’s but they’d be much harder to tear up.. hyuk huk. (if you didn’t get that, don’t worry about it.)But man, your backyard looks so breathtaking. Wow!
wow… snow already? crazy crazy! and the baby’s soooo cute
i don’t know about jen’s b52 joke….the corniness did make me laugh though. :]it’s beautiful there–you actually make me want to come visit!btw, check out the zita’s page!they may need your advice soon!!! :]
the snow actually all melted earlier this week…so we don’t have snow for now. i think it’s supposed to snow and rain on and off for the next week. i hear the snow that we did have was nothing compared to what’s coming.
That’s hilarious about Israel’s “eagles.” It made us laugh because it sounded like you were describing Daniel exactly. On out honeymoon (to the UP) I thought we were going to crash several times on account of “eagles” that turned out to be crows! Maybe Mexican eagles are black.??? 😆 Glad IA survived his shots ok. The pictures are great! Thanks for sharing.DKJP.S. I can’t believe your trash system–that’s crazy!!!
Oh my goodness. It’s fifty-four degrees F here and I’m cold. Maybe I should spend some time up there with you guys and regain my tolerance for chilly weather! Love the ring smile picture. 🙂
Ahhh…. SNOW!! I miss it. It’s probably in the 60’s or 70’s. The whole eagles thing reminds me of this Norwegian guy who told us about these “eagles” that he saw in Berrien. (Yeah RIGHT.) But that’s cool that you see real eagles there. I think I’ve seen about two birds since I’ve been out here.Imanuel is soo cute! And Bentley looks like he’s surviving ok up there.
wow it’s so weird that you get so much snow…the only snow i get to see is when i go snowboarding!and immanuel’s looking as cute as ever. =)
he’s adorable. i can’t wait to see him at gyc! is he going to be there? i can’t believe its snowing over there.
Only one eprop from me, cuz I’m not looking forward to all the snow coming down my way soon. And the septic tank, it sounds like it is so full it’s bulging to the surface.
As I’m typing, I’m listening to “Poor Satan”, a sermon by Pastor Skeete from his Freedom From Fear series he did in San Bernardino. You ‘gotta check it out. See http://www.audioverse.org
totally the cutest 🙂 can’t wait to see you guys at GYC!!!
Thanks for the road best and worst experiences…we’ll need those tips soon enough. After looking at your backyard, I ‘m definitely investing in some serious winter boots…have mercy…Anywho…Immanuel looks like he’s a jockey with that winter outfit on, like he’s going to be racing horses or something…;) Thanks for the post…your are in our prayers…
Awwwwwwwww! Love the pics and the post!
Israel wasn’t joking when he asked for a snow mobile…and hey, nothing wrong with IR trying to look Chinese…