Mike and Grace's Blog

Blog Moved

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00

Mar 16, 2011 by Mike
Grace has started a new blog about living over in the UK. You can read this blog at http://gjhenscheid.wordpress.com/

We'll continue putting photos up at this site. The blog may move back here after we return from the UK.

Sorry for the MIA over the last year and a half

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00

Dec 31, 2009 by Grace

I will send an email out to family and friends because I'm sure by now the few of you who read this have stopped since we haven't updated it in so long. We got very busy and Mike just didn't have the time and energy to update things. He has now shown me how to upload photos etc so I can takeover some of the updates. There will be a lot of new photos to look at and I'll try and update you on what we've been up to over the last year.

Hard to believe the last time I wrote anything we had just finished climbing half dome. A few months later we went to Puerto Vallarta and we had a great time. We stayed for a little over a week and we had a great time. We explored the city which we loved because it wasn’t super touristy. There aren’t as many photos as I would have liked but many of the things we did we couldn’t take the camera with us. We did zip lines and a dune buggy/atv ride. Because both involved water the camera was usually tucked safely away.

After that lovely vacation we got back to the real world and back to work. We’ve both been busy at work and thus part of the problem with keeping this thing updated.

I can honestly say that 2009 feels kind of like a blur. The spring was busy for me with work and then Mike had to go to Kansas for most of the summer. He was able to come home for one weekend a month during the summer so we tried to make the most of our time together. We took a trip to Leavenworth, WA for our anniversary and we have pictures we will post. Mike took a trip to Alaska to fish with his dad and brother.

Sadly this year we didn’t get to take a vacation, first time since we graduated college and moved to Seattle.I know it sounds selfish but it’s one of the things we have tried to treat ourselves too each year so I really missed it. Mike got to take a few trips i.e.Alaska and Las Vegas with a few guys for a bachelor party. We are hoping to take a trip back to Europe next fall but so far we are just in the beginning stages of planning it.

We have just returned from a busy Christmas in Idaho. It was greatseeing family and friends but we were glad to sleep in our own bed again. We havea lot of unpacking to do but we are looking forward to 2010. It’s hard tobelieve that it’s been almost 10 years since I finished high school and I spentNew Years Eve in Time Square with my dad. A lot has happened since then.Hopefully everyone is doing well and will have a great 2010.

Mid Year Update

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00

May 16, 2008 by Grace

I decided that it was time for another blog. This year has really seemed to fly and it is a little freaky that it this year is almost half over. We have been very busy and I guess that is why the time has gone so fast.

Since the last blog I have started my new job and I am really enjoying it. I love my co-workers and the work is really interesting so the days just seem to fly by. I traveled to Washington DC in April for National AHA Lobby Day and it was a great experience. We had over 700 volunteers from all 50 states it was truly a site to see. Mike is still enjoying his job and is the lead controls engineer on his current project.

Mike and I had a very busy April we were out of town every weekend but all the trips were fun. We attended a close college friends wedding in Lansing, MI and it was like a mini college reunion. A total of 6 of us flew to MI to support her and meet her husband since we had not yet met him; we flew in from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Many people were surprised how far we all came but I know there was never any doubt that we would be there for her. We were really lucky and made some amazing friendships in college that despite the distance we have been able to maintain.

We also went home for my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary in April. It was a wonderful party. They are truly role models for all of us 60 years later and they are still very much in love. It’s hard to believe but on the 31st Mike and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary. The time has flown by and I can't believe it has been 5 years already.

After a crazy April Mike and I are trying to get some things done around the house and just enjoy life. Last weekend we finally tackled the flowerbed along our driveway it took us about 10 hours over two days but it looks a lot better. This weekend the warm weather finally hit and we are hoping to go camping. It was a wonderful 85+ today and we just loved it. We hope it sticks around so we can do lots of camping this summer. We are heading to Yosemite National Park at the end of May with some friends and we are hoping to climb Half Dome. It is a very difficult hike but we hope to finish the 14 mile hike by starting early. You have to do it all in one day as there is no where to camp along the way so it will be a long day but the scenery and the views will be worth it.

Well I guess that is all for now. Mike’s computer was on the fritz and it is the only one with a card reader but it is working again so we will get some new photos posted soon.

Update 2007

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00

Jan 17, 2008 by Grace

Wow, time has flown by. I can''t believe it is all ready 2008 it seems like 2007 went by so fast. I must apologize for the length between our blogs time just gets away from us.

The second half of 2007 was a busy time for us. Mike and I had some great adventures but we also worked very hard. In August Mike and I flew to Boise for the weekend and went skydiving with his brother, dad, sister and our good friend Sara Herring. It was something both of us have always wanted to do so when his brother suggested it for his birthday we both jumped at the opportunity. Plus it was the weekend of my mom’s birthday so we were able to celebrate with her as well.

Over the summer my job became very stressful for a few months after pretty much everyone but me quit. Nothing was wrong with my boss everyone left for different reasons but it made it very stressful for me to go from a four person team to a one person team. By August I was pretty stressed so in anticipation of needing a break Mike and I agreed I should try and take some time off and join him in England this fall. I had been planning on going since May but that was before I knew everyone was going to quit so I wasn''t sure if it was still possible. Luckily for me my boss was nice enough to let me go and by the time November rolled around we had hired 2 of the 3 empty positions so it wasn''t such a big deal after all.

I took 3 ½ weeks of vacation in November and joined Mike in England. He was there from Mid October till the end of December. It was a great break for me and while Mike had to work all week he was nice enough to play tourist with me on the weekends. We had a great time and I truly feel after this second trip that I “know” England. The first trip we did nothing but tourist things but the second trip I learned to drive and I dealt the everyday things like grocery shopping and laundry etc. While I was there we went to Cheddar and did cheese tasting, saw the play Wicked in London, visited the tower of London, visited Stonehenge, and drove through the Cotswold’s. We also explored Bristol, the city we were staying in. We will get pictures up soon but both of us have been battling colds since the holidays and we haven’t had the time or energy to post them yet. We spent thanksgiving with 3 other Americans and 4 Brits. It was fun cooking a traditional meal and sharing our traditions. Finding all the supplies for a traditional American Thanksgiving was an adventure all in its self.

That was the only real stressful part of the year and I must admit I felt like I was going through a quarter life crisis at the time. But I realized with all my co-workers leaving that I needed to re-evaluate what I was doing and get back on a career track. I was extremely fortunate that shortly after I started mentoring with a co-worker in our advocacy department that a position opened. I was able to apply and I got the job! I started 2008 as the new Advocacy Coordinator for the American Heart Association. I will even get to travel to Washington DC in April for National Lobby Day. I am really enjoying the position and I feel like I am back on track. I have always been a political geek and I am happy to be doing something in that arena. I haven’t had the opportunity to use my political science minor since graduation until now so I am very happy.

Mike started on a new project after Christmas that will keep him stateside. The farthest he will travel for this project is Wichita, Kansas. He is excited as he will be the lead controls engineer. I honestly don’t know much else about the project so you will have to ask him for the details.

We had a wonderful trip home for the holidays that was packed with family and friends. It was great to see everyone especially since we didn’t make it home for thanksgiving. Well this blog has gotten extremely long I guess that is what happens when you don’t write one for 6 months. If you are still reading this I hope everyone is doing well and I hope everyone’s 2008 is off to a good start.

Cancun, Mexico

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:00:00

Jun 28, 2007 by Mike
Ok, sorry it's taken 2 weeks to write about our trip to Cancun...life has been very busy since we got back.

I don't know where to start really, so how about the hotel. We stayed at a place called Royal Solaris (pics), which is on the southern end of Cancun Island. It was a wonderful all-inclusive resort, including 2 large pools and a large chunk of sandy beach. All of the staff there was extremely nice, and most spoke pretty good English. The food was great. With 6 restaurants to choose from, we never got bored of the food selections (which rotated at most of the restaurants). The waiters were always willing to do anything to make you happy. The beach was great too, perfect for just laying out in the sun, playing volleyball, or swimming.

Excursions

While sitting on the beach had its place, Grace and I were not likely to do that for 7 days straight. So, if you know us, you know we were off on excursions at least part of the time. Our first one was Chichen Itza (Wikipedia Entry) (Our Pics) which is a major Mayan ruin in the Yucatan. The main attraction there is a giant pyramid which you used to be able to climb on. Apparently someone fell and sued the Mexican government…so no more climbing the ruins. Though they never said that it was an American that sued, one can only assume. One thing I really didn’t like about Chichen Itza was that there were people everywhere trying to sell you souvenirs (“5 dollars, almost free”). Though once we heard that the people in this area only earn about 5 dollars a day it was more understandable. One thing I would recommend for anyone visiting Chichen Itza: go on a cool day. It must have been 90 degrees with 90% humidity there. Plus it’s not next to the ocean so you don’t get the coastal breeze.

The next adventure was a solo one; I went on a scuba trip on the reef in the area (pics). About 7 years ago I got my diving certification, but I haven’t been since. So, this was just a refresher dive to only about 30 ft. The fish and coral were beautiful plus I got to see the tail end of 3 dolphins, which was amazing.

Our next excursion was called a “Jungle Tour” (pics). It was more like “A boat tour of the lagoon and some snorkeling”, but don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. First off you get in a 2 person boat with an outboard engine that you get to drive by yourself. They take you through the lagoon and some narrow marsh like passages. From there you go into the ocean and they take you to a reef that you can snorkel at. While we were snorkeling, I got to see a shark that was about 6ft long. I was sure that if we saw a shark everyone would freak out and start swimming away. To my surprise a group (7-8 of us) started following the shark with no fear. That was a great finish to the snorkeling. After the snorkeling, we got back in our boats and headed back to the dock. This trip is fairly inexpensive for what it is…so if you go to Cancun, you might want to check it out.

Downtown

Getting into the downtown Tourist area was really easy and inexpensive. Public busses came around about every 2 minutes, and the one way cost was 65 cents. Some of the bus drivers were a little crazy on the rode…Made it more like riding a roller coaster than a bus.

Since Grace isn't a huge fan of clubbing (and I'm not a huge fan of $20 covers) we didn't hit any of the big clubs in Cancun (of which there are many). We did however find a small kareoke bar that is run by two New Yorkers called "My Place". It was a great laid back bar and everyone was really friendly (especially the owners). Beers were only a buck. Grace and I ended up there twice during our trip.

Wow..that’s a long blog…I hope at least a few of you are still reading. Be sure to check out the pics.

Remodeling

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:00:00

Feb 14, 2007 by Grace

I am excited to announce that Mike and I have finished our first big remodel job on our house. We remodeled our hall bathroom the only thing we didn’t change is the toilet and the tub. We did all the work ourselves so we are very proud.

We tiled the floor, painted the walls, refurbished the medicine cabinet, installed a new light fixture, new mirror, and pedestal sink. We hung new towel racks and painted and installed new molding. We absolutely love it we think it looks like something in a magazine but we are biased of course. We will post pictures as soon as we get our camera charged.

We aren't sure what room we will tackle next either the kitchen or the 3rd bedroom. We love doing things to our house. We painted the exterior last summer and it looks so much better (sorry we have been bad and haven't posted pictures but we will when we post pictures of the bathroom). We also installed crown molding in our living room that Bill so generously made for us. It was a lot more work than we expected but it looks awesome. I painted and decorated our guest room this fall and it looks great now we just need someone to come visit us.

There are a lot of things that come with home ownership both good and bad but Mike and I are thoroughly enjoying making our house a home. We love putting out own little touches on everything.

Pics: http://mikeandgraceh.com/gallery.asp?deptid=116

Time Flies

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:00:00

Oct 21, 2006 by Grace

Once again I must apologize for the time between our blogs. It's amazing how busy life gets and before you know it summer is over and it's fall. Mike and I have had a busy summer and early fall. After our vacation we tackled painting our house. It was a lot of work but we love it. We will post pictures soon; it's a pretty blue with crisp white trim. We have also tackled some interior jobs as well. We have replaced all the almond light switches with nice new white ones. Last weekend I finished the guest room. I took down the wallpaper border and then painted one of the walls a rich brown to make the room really pop.

We of course had to have some fun too so it wasn't all work. We managed to sneak two camping trips plus our annual backpacking trip in over the summer. We would have loved to do more but the time just wasn't there. We had Mike's grandma, aunt Amy and his cousins up for a weekend. Unfortunately we had to cut our weekend short to attend a wedding but it was really great seeing them. My cousin Kristin was married in Oregon on the beautiful coast at the end of September. It was a beautiful setting plus it was nice to see all the family.

Now that fall is settling in we are planning on working more on the house but focusing on internal jobs. Mike's dad made us some beautiful crown molding for our living room. Our goal is too have it up before Christmas.

As many of you know by now we aren't going back to Idaho for Thanksgiving. It wasn't an easy decision to make but due to many factors it is for the best. I am really excited actually to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner for our family and friends in the area in our new home. We will have 10 people total for dinner so we will have a full house. I suppose that I have bored you all enough we details of our life. I hope everyone is doing well. While we won't be home in November we will be making the trip home for Christmas. So if you live in southern Idaho see in you in a few months. We love you all and will talk to you soon.

Catching Up

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:00:00

Jun 16, 2006 by Grace

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe how long it’s been since we wrote a blog entry. This has been a very busy spring for us. If you don't know already Mike and I bought our first house in April. We have unpacked most of the boxes and now we just have to go around and personalize things. It's wonderful to know that you can do whatever you want to your home but it's hard to get out of the renter mode and realize you can put as many picture holes in the walls you want. We put some pictures on the site if you want to take a look.

Mike has been in England for two weeks now. He will be working in Chester until mid-July. I am flying over on July 14th and we are going to take a ten day vacation!

We are getting settled as I said earlier and Lex loves the yard. He can run and run and he doesn't have to be in his crate all day while we are at work. We have some recent photos on the website of him; he is about 32 lbs now.

That's about all that's going on with us. I will try and update the blog a little bit more often. Hope you are all having a great summer.

First couple days in England

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:00:00

Jun 04, 2006 by Mike

Snippets from an email I sent to Grace...sorry might be a little boring in parts. I left all the mooshy stuff out :)

Its about 3PM over here on Sunday June 4th. Thought I would tell you about my stay so far. The plane ride wasn't too bad. The person I sat next to was very nice and small :). For a 10 hour flight it didn't seem to take too long...I have had work days that seemed longer. I only got about 2-3 hours of sleep on the flight, I was hoping for more. The short flight kinda sucked. I was in the very back of the plane. The back seats don't lean back and they have less than normal leg room. Luckily the people in front did not lean back and I was on the aisle.

Got into Manchester at about 9:25 (on schedule!), but didn't get out of the airport until 10:15...It took nearly 40 minutes to clear immigration (there were a lot of people). Got to Broughton (where I will be working) around 11. Craig (friend from the UK) met me there and I followed him to my flat. It's pretty nice and fairly close to the center of town. We went to Lunch at a place called Revolutions, met Jason (friend from the states) and Al (friend from the UK) there. I guess it is the common EI hangout for Friday and Saturday night. The food was suprisingly good, though not a very large portion, which is good for me. We went to Pete's (friend from the UK) flat from there and watched a football (soccer) match, it was England vs. Jamaica. England smashed them 6-0.

After the match I was falling asleep on the couch and decided to head back to my flat and sleep. I couldn't fall asleep, so I watched a movie and hoped to fall asleep to that, but to no avail. So, I decided to go back out. I wandered around town (walking) a little bit and got myself lost (not too bad though). I found a Starbucks within walking distance, but it was already closed. I called Al to see what he was up to. He was at a BBQ that a friend of his from Airbus was throwing. There were a bunch of people from Airbus there that were around my age. Stayed there for a couple hours, and had a couple sausages for dinner.

I went home and went to bed at 11PM...32 hours of being awake took its toll and I fell to sleep right away. Woke up at about 4AM and felt wide awake...I thought I would have trouble going back to sleep but I didn't. I slept until about 10. Went and got myself lost in chester again. Found the Starbucks again and had an iced mocha...Just like home...except a little too much chocolate. Went to lunch with Craig at his local pub. I had a traditional sunday roast with all the trimmings. It was good. From there I went home. Took the car and drove to the grocery store. From there I drove to work, just so I know how to get there tomorrow morning. Came back home and here I am now.

New Puppy and more...

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:00:00

Feb 09, 2006 by Grace

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since we last updated our blog life has been keeping us very busy. Mike and I got a dog on December 4th. His name is Lex and we absolutely love him. He was alot of work at first but now we are getting used to the new routine. He is a miniature Australian Shepherd. Right now he is 4 1/2 months old and weighs 18 pounds. He is very smart and is alot of fun. Feel free to look at some of the photo's we have posted of him.

Hope life is still going well for everyone. We are still enjoying Seattle. Just our luck our first winter here has been a record breaking rainy season. Mother Nature must have known we were coming and decided to test us. But we know that sunny days will be here soon enough when summer arrives.

We had a great time visiting with everyone during the Christmas holiday. I can't believe how fast time has flown and that it is already February. Hope everyone is doing well and we will talk to you all soon. Take care and keep in touch.