Midwestern Fun

Brief recap of our Michigan and Minnesota trip last month: GREAT! In typical Chris Winkler fashion, pretty much every moment of every day was full of some sort of activity--introducing Christie to various people at Hope College, meeting friends at random parks in the Twin Cities area, having dinner with some friends from Chicago (now living in Minneapolis), and several speaking engagements at four different churches.

We came away exhausted but full of new friends, renewed relationships with old friends, and a fun time all-around. And yeah, we took care of some work stuff, too: Christie attended a Children Desiring God conference and we shared about Wycliffe on multiple occasions.

This picture is from an amazing open house that my parents threw for us. The purpose was to give all of our friends and family from Michigan a chance to celebrate our wedding with us, as Florida was a bit far to come for most of them. Mom and Dad did a wonderful job with the food, decorations, invitations, etc. We also owe thanks to Doug and Katrina Jones and many others who helped my parents in tremendous ways.

Proof of the Owl

So if anyone actually doubted my owl story, here is a picture. More appealing pictures to come soon. (And those pictures are NOT of the owl, in case you were concerned.)

Friendly Neighborhood Owl

Christie and I just got back from a 10-day trip through the Midwest. About half of our time was spent in Michigan visiting the towns where I grew up and went to college: Boyne City and Holland, respectively. The other portion of the trip was in Minneapolis, where Christie attended a Children Desiring God conference and we visited with some of my friends who live in the area.

The trip was great, but it exhausted us. We were looking forward to coming home and spending the late afternoon and evening on Monday just relaxing and getting ready for the work week. Little did we know what was waiting for us at home.

A friendly neighborhood owl had somehow found its way into our house. But finding an owl in your home is one thing--I don't think that sole issue would have been too disturbing. However, finding a dead owl being eaten by maggots, and that appeared to have enjoyed defecating on almost every surface possible in our house--now that was quite upsetting.

Upon finding the owl, Christie ran out of the house screaming. I went next door and got the nine-year old twin boys who I thought might like to help me dispose of the animal. (They did at first, until it came time to actually move it.)

Since then, we've spent our week cleaning up owl feces and washing everything in sight. (In addition to working with our landlord to close the hole which we think the bird found its way in.) Ugh.