Hurricane Info

So we were "in" our first hurricane! We didn't really think it would be too bad for us out here because we are quite a ways from New York City. We knew that the national guard and other people were waiting the storm out in Rochester so that they could go help when it was needed so we figured we were probably pretty safe. We only got the very edge of its path, which just included wind and rain and it was a lot colder than it has been here in a while. Never thought that we would have to worry about a hurricane being this far north but I guess you never know! :)

Nick and I went and walked along Lake Ontario last Thursday. I actually didn't think that you could walk along it, but there is actually a public beach and everything. We have some pretty cool pictures but they are on our phones since I forgot the camera. Once Nick gets home, I will have him show me how to take it off of our phones!

Well, I just thought I would give you an quick update!

Talk to you later,
Love,
Carmen

August

Sorry that it has been so long since I have updated!  We have been having a good summer!!  My parents got to come at the end of June...we got to see a lot of new stuff that even Nick and I hadn't seen before.  July 3 is their annual "Ring of Fire" around the lake. ( Every year they surround the lake with emergency flares.) Nick and I thought we better go check it out because seemed kind of weird but kind of interesting at the same time.  We were definitely glad we went!  The flares looked really cool along the lake but there were also TONS of fireworks!!  And tons of people, but Nick and I actually managed to find a good spot anyway.  We have had two community events recently.  One was a free music and ice cream night, there were quite a few people but most of them were from our church or Calvary so there weren't very many actually from Livonia.  The second one was an outdoor movie night and we watched "Tangled".  It was definitely a good turn out.  We had over 35 all together and only 10 of them were actually members of the church!  We are having another one next Friday so we'll see if that has the same kind of turn out! I have been searching for a teaching job...no luck so far but that's ok! :)  Just praying that God will send the right thing along! :)

I will try and post some pictures soon from some of the events!!

Love,
Carmen

May in New York

Well everything has finally started to bloom!  Everyone kept saying how pretty New York is in the Spring and it turns out that they were right!!  The lake has been ice free for a while now and that has been a really cool view for us as we drive through town! 

We had a great Easter week but it certainly was busy.  We had a Good Friday service that Nick put together which was the Tenebrae service or the service of shadows.  It was a really cool and powerful service and we got lots of great feedback from everyone.  We had an Easter sunrise service at the house of one of our great congregation members and then had another service at our regular time. 

This week is District assembly which started last night.  Nick is in charge of making sure all the media presentations look right on the screen so he has been very busy doing that and I am helping with the music tonight and all day tomorrow!  It definitely has already been a crazy time.  But it has been a good start so far! 

That's about all of the news I have for now! 

Love you all,
Carmen

UPDATE!!! :)

Sorry that it has been so long since we have updated!  We have done so much since the last time I posted.
 I will try to fill in some events that have happened since moving here.  One weekend, we decided that we needed to go into Rochester and get some errands done in town.  After we finished all of that, we were going to Walmart in Geneseo.  So we set our GPS to take us there.  And we thought something must be wrong because it said it was going to take a whole hour to get there and that didn't seem like it could be right.  But we had specifically entered in "Geneseo" so we were like "Oh well, maybe we just don't know..." So we continue on.  After an hour or so, we see the sign for walmart...but we do not recognize ANYTHING around it.   Then we see a sign for the town of "Saltvale" and just cracked up.  If we had known anything about the area, we would have realized that we were no where in the right area but we didn't.  We set the GPS back up and it said that were 45 minutes from the Walmart we were trying to get to.  Oh well, it was a pretty drive and it was an adventure but also, hilarious!

The church had a game night with the whole congregation.  They played the newly wed game and Nick and I won!!  It was a blast.  Everyone had to bring a dish and we struggled to figure out what to bring.  Finally we decided to bring a Runza casserole.  So they could get a taste of Nebraska! :)

My parents and Jake just came and we had a lot of fun.  We ran all over Rochester and even went to Canada! Here are some pics:

Nick and I in front of Niagara Falls.  

Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo, NY-Guy Fieri Ate Here

My food from Lake Effect Diner

Lighthouse at Old Fort Niagara

Frederick Douglass was buried in Rochester

So was Susan B. Anthony

Our delicious NY pizza from Great Northern.  

Well I better get going, I'm going to make cupcakes for tonight's Caravan badge ceremony. 

Love you all!
Carmen and Nick

Update

So we are still trying to get settled in here in New York...Still have more boxes to unpack but we are getting there!!

Saturday we went to dinner with a couple from church at a restaurant in Geneseo (about 15 min away).  We realized that there is a lot more to Geneseo than we realized!!  There was a bowling alley, a Tim Hortons, a Wendys AND a movie theater!!  (and a lot more but we had never made it that far!)

Sunday went really well.  Nick did his first communion service.  They had a little reception for us afterwards with coffee and hot chocolate and cookies.  And they also collected a little food pounding for us.  Immediately following the reception we had to go make a trip to the Walmart in Geneseo because we discovered that we had a flat tire... :( 

Monday we got DISH set up (and we have a DVR now too!)  and we also got internet!!  It feels good to be back in touch with life again! ;) 

Today Nick had a staff meeting with the group at the Rochester church all day and has another one tomorrow.  He really is enjoying getting to know the new people.

I tried to watch Rachael Ray today and I thought I was being really smart by watching it an hour later than in comes on in central time.  I did not, however, take into consideration that 12 pm is the start of the local news...so I missed it!  Here it comes on at 9 am!!  That's a good excuse to get up early every morning! ;) 

Tomorrow night I get to go help with Caravans at church.  The girls are going on a field trip.  I can't remember where they said they were going but I know that they have been learning about fire safety and about CPR and stuff like that.  Should be fun! :) 

Tonight we got to go on our first Wegman's shopping trip.  That place is insane!!  They have just about everything you could possibly ever think of in a grocery store, including an Olive Bar which my mom is especially excited about!! ;)

Well, That's about all that is new so far!

--Carmen and Nick

Unpacking

Well we are busy unpacking boxes!  (well not right now, because right now I'm sitting at the library :))  My dad got stuck here another day because of the weather in OKC so we were able to get a lot done.  The kitchen stuff is almost totally unpacked and most of that actually has a place right now ;) 

It will definitely be an adventure for the next few days as we try to figure out where all of our stuff is!!!


Well I better get going...need to go home and see how much more we can get done today!!

-Carmen and Nick

We made it! Woohoo!