Dear Everyone

Dear Everyone that I havent written emails to or phoned lately!

Well, time is flying by and Cooper is 8 months old (actually he was 8 months when I started this letter, but now he is 9 months ie it has taken a while to find a block of time to write!!) - it's quite amazing. Here in Michigan it is the middle of Summer - something I still haven't got used to being in the middle of the year - I get surprised by all the Summer fruit available and keep thinking 'gosh how warm it is, it will be Summertime before we know it'. The days are long and usually very pleasant although we're had a few in the 90's (around 30 deg C). It gets really, really humid here so thank goodness for the air-conditioning we had installed last year. Considering how cold it is in the Winter, it is quite weird to see hibiscus flowers in people's gardens.

We have been busy as usual but have fitted in some flying whilst the smallest Finch is (was) still portable and not mobile. After the trip to NZ in April, we decided we should quickly visit my sister Jac and husband Hugh in London (that's England, not the Canadian version just across the border). So off we zoomed whilst Jamie was between jobs (see pics posted earlier) and had a great time with them for 6 days. Cooper had done so amazingly well, I decided to be brave and do the journey again this time, BY MYSELF! Jamie had a couple of conferences two weekends (one Thurs/Fri) in a row in Chicago and then he was going to Alabama for Chad's 40th birthday so on one of the weekends CJ & I flew to Chicago with Jamie. We had a couple of days with him in the DoubleTree Hotel (go the hot chocolate chip cookies on arrival!!! - Yum!) and CJ loved swimming in the pool with me there and then on the Sunday, we all went to the airport and Jamie flew back home for 4 days before going to Alabama and CJ & I flew Chicago -> Heathrow. The little one did amazingly again. I was full of awe for the Nigerian woman next to me on her first of 4 flights home from the USA, traveling alone with a 4 year old and a 3 month old baby!

Mother was in London for 2 weeks (the main reason for us visiting again so soon) so we got to see her for 5 days. We stayed at the Best Western in Upper Richmond Rd where we had stayed when Jamie & came in May, however in May we had the nice room featured on their website, but in July it was Wimbledon so Mother, CJ & I had a vastly different style of room. Hmmmmmm.

It seems that I am managing to keep VERY busy between managing the latest house projects - the next plan is for a garage so have been working with the city office (ie council) which involved writing a variance petition and presenting it at a council meeting, work with the architect, bank and builder etc. Here is a pic of the architect's latest drawing. For those who have been here, the garage will be at the back (hard to see in a 2-dimensional drawing!) and you will be able to get to the top floor via the existing back staircase. After that, the next phase is to put back the original front porch and make the current one smaller so we can have a kind of garden space between the side of the house and the garage. No-one knows when the original front porch was removed but we have a picture that shows it was there. We'll make it deeper though and then we can have a porch swing and a sitting area out there.

Also my work as church treasurer takes up many hours per week and a full-on day once a month doing the end of month stuff (a challenge for someone who has NEVER balanced her chequebook - I always just know what is going in and out!). On top of that I've taken on an officially-unofficial role in running the children's Sabbath School programme at church as there was no children's programme (ie nothing happening for them, not one thing in the cupboards and only a few chairs in the designated room) and we are getting some children coming along.... Not to mention looking after a very active, busy and extremely mobile baby in a 135 year old house with many hazards including 4 staircases! It is of concern to me that from last week on he has only been having a morning and afternoon sleep rather than 3-4 sleeps during the day (this is obviously normal, but very much encroaching on my time to get things done!!!). Oh and also a wee bit of my consulting work in NZ continues too.

CJ & I have been getting out and about each day to make the most of the weather and for me to get some exercise. Our NZ Mountain Buggy stroller is getting plenty of use and between being in walking distance of the bank, post office, fruit & vege shop, coffee shops and Jamie now working only two blocks away, we hardly seem to need to buy petrol these days. Brad and Amy next-door are teachers so they have almost 3 months off over the Summertime so we have spent a lot of time together which has been fun for CJ and Bella. I turned part of Jamie's 3rd-floor 'ManCave' into a play area which has been very cool for the little ones when it is too hot or too rainy to go out. Here are some pics!

On weekends it seems like we are never home - between visiting Detroit or Lansing (Jamie's mom is there) and other parts of the countryside. Part of the reason is to make the most of CJ being young and easily transportable (although he now doesn't sleep quite as much on the journeys as he did several months ago!!) and to keep up with our friends; and part of the reason is that Jamie seems to get 'cabin-fever' from being confined to Bay City for home AND work! He is so close to work that this week he has ridden his bike most days which takes him less than 10 minutes!

Well, I'd determined to get this done tonight and it's well after midnight and I still have some pictures to upload so I will sign off and thank my dear friends for being so understanding at my lack of emails and tell you that I hope to get another moment for individual replies to those I've received over the last 2-3 months.

Love, Victoria x