Here are some pictures of life lately!

This is a picture from the inside of the last standing gas station from the 20's on Rt. 66

This is a flower that was growing on the old Rt. 66 that is not used anymore
This is Daisy and Smokey sleeping on Dan's lap

This is Daisy and Duke (they were oth sleeping but of course she woke up at the last minute)

This is Sarah (our family dog who we all miss very much) :-( RIP

Craziness!!!!

Hey guys!
So, it has been a month since I posted last and a lot has happened! First of all the WONDERFUL car that I talked about in the last post broke down. The alternator went and as a result I was out another week of work and collectively -$800.00. That was fun, but it's over now...thank God.

Our zoo is now smaller :-(. The kittens grew up and had to leave the nest. It was very hard, but they will be fine, and I am so happy we could help! We fostered a sick Chihuahua mix for a couple of weeks and she is gone now too because she got better and went up for adoption. And the only other thing that is new with the zoo is the current foster dog who is also a Chihuahua, but we think she is purebred. She is adorable and well...you can see for yourself

Aint she cunnin'?! She is in love with Duke....to the extreme. Her new thing now is to catch duke with his mouth open and lick him while he is mid-yawn! It is very funny to watch his face. She is about 6 months old and around 6 pounds. We love her :-)

One of my twins broke their leg! She was going down the slide at a new park and she got her leg cought behind her :-( She will be fine and she didn't have to get surgery, which is AWESOME! Now she just needs to learn that it won't hurt her if she walks with her cast...it may take a while, but I can imagine it must be scary. She is taking it really well :-)

As far as work and school goes...Dan is working like a horse on his research and classes this semester. Dan is hoping to get his masters over with in two years, so his work is pretty concentrated! I am not working a whole lot right now due to crazy schedules and stuff, but I will be working some more once October comes and things smooth out :-)

Also, on a lighter note...our wicked nice camera that we got for the wedding had to be junked out because it just stopped working and Best Buy said that the cost of repair was worth more than the camera! So they said we could go in and pick out a new one for the price that we paid for the old one!!! The one we got is AMAZING...here is my favorite picture so far with it:

Well I think that is all for now. I hope all is well with everyone else! We miss everyone so much!

We Got Some Wheels

Hey all!

It's been a while since I have posted last. A lot has gone on since! So in our past post we explained about our car issues. Well, it took FOREVER but it is semi taken care of! YAY! We couldn't fix our Saab in time for me to go back to work ( I missed a lot ) and we have been thinking of getting a new car anyways because everything seems to go wrong with the only one we had ( not very reliable ). Anyway, we spent a LONG time looking for another car and we were getting pretty discouraged seeing as we were borrowing our friends car almost every day while she was at work and I needed to get back to work ASAP. Well we found a car on craigslist and...YAY...it worked out! It's a 1994 Mitsubishi Giamante ( Pictures to come ) with good mileage and it looks band new! It is loaded and the man who sold it to us has taken GREAT care of it. We got it for a steal! It had an issue with it but its fixed and as good as knew. We are so blessed! God provides! We are still without the Saab, but Dan thinks he can get it fixed soon. We'll see though...these are busy times with Dan starting school and us both working.
So We took Duke for his first walk off of his leash this week! He is SUCH a good boy! He doesn't go far and he always comes when he is called. We are so lucky. He reminds me of another dog I hold dear to my hear (Sarah-Lee)...I miss her. We also found out that Duke LOVES the water, so we have decided that we will take him once or twice a week to the lake!
We also have some visitors in our house! We have foster kids!Aren't they cute?! They are 4 weeks old and were abandoned. We will be keeping them until they are 2lbs ( old enough to be adopted out ) and then they will go back to the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare. Needless to say, Dan and I are in love!

Charlie (Our Favorite)

Delilah (The Runt and Only Girl)

Spike (The Terror!) litter,but is still the "boss")

Chip (From a Diff. Litter, But Still The Boss!)


And one last thing... I got my hair cut and colored! What do you think???

A Public Testimony of His Faith

Hey!
We finally have internet again! It felt like forever, but it has only been a couple of weeks (haha). So, we have some exciting news! Dan got baptized this past Sunday! He did great and Pastor Phil survived despite how tall Dan is ;-). Alameda Baptist Church is the best thing that has happened to us since we were married. God is SO good! We already have great friends, and people we can call our family away from home. We see God working in our lives every day, down to the smallest things.
So, for those who don't know, our car has broken down. We called Kyle and asked him if he could come over and help us with the car/give Dan a ride to a meeting. Well he was a GREAT help! We couldn't quite figure out what was wrong so Dan called my dad and asked him what he thought. Dad said that he thought it was the fuel pump. So Kyle and Dan start working on the "fuel pump" not knowing that the whole time...it was the fuel FILTER that they were working on...and the reason they couldn't get the screw undone was because when you are upside down under a car...you turn the ratchet THE OTHER WAY. It was SO funny! Anywho... We were stuck and thinking of what to do when all of a sudden this guy who lives near us and his girlfriend come over and ask if we need help (he is a mechanic). HOW PERFECT! So he listens to the car and thinks it is the fuel filter...so we get the fuel filter and Doyle puts it on for us. It still doesn't start. Guess what he decided the problem was?! The FUEL PUMP! NEVER DOUBT DAD when it comes to cars haha. So he calls the parts store and they tell him it is a special order (of course, its a Saab) and that we cant get it until Thursday. Dan and Kyle ordered it at another place, and it was here today! Wicked cool! So...Doyle said he will put it in for a fraction of the price that we were quoted at all of the other shops. God sent! This is just one more thing that we could have stressed out about to no end..but we knew God provides, and that it would work out. And boy did it!

Update

Hey ya'll!

Just thought I would give an update on how we are doing over here in Oklahoma! Not much is different this week than last. Our guinea pig Cookie is still at Petco being medicated and looked after. Cookie came down with a nasty flesh thing within 15 days of us purchasing her from Petco, so they are footing all of the bills, therefore they want to keep her there until they know she will fully recover. I hope it is soon! We all miss her (especially her man Tim!). 

Well in the last post Dan let you all know about our laptop situation. We still don't have internet and will not be getting it until the 30th! I have to come to Dan's office to get online...it stinks. We have had a lot of trouble with getting the internet up and going with AT&T. Apparently when we moved in the apartment and the other people moved out...they never cancelled their home phone service. So we have a dial tone and can make calls (we only trued once) but we don't really want a home phone because we have our cell phones. Well, to make a long story short...because we have a dial tone, we can't have the certain kind of DSL that we ordered a month and a half ago and have been paying for (grr) but haven't been able to use. So I called and cancelled the one we can use and ordered the one we need, but this certain one has to be installed and no one can come out till' the 30th. Anywho, you probably didn't need to know that, but this week doesn't have much else exciting yet.

Dan and I have decided that Duke has two personalities. You know how some people say "I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover", well Duke is BOTH! He has officially tried to eat two little dogs and like 4 HUGE dogs. He will be nice to a select few, and the others just better watch it. So needless to say, some of our neighbors don't like Duke. He doesn't get asked to come out and play anymore. He just doesn't know how to play nice. But he is however better with the cats. Zoey is actually tolerating him, and Smokey thinks Duke is his dad. It's quite cute actually! Here are some pictures:

Smokey cuddling up to Duke:

Duke trying to sleep and Smokey not letting that happen:

I just thought this one was cute:

Also, I finally cleaned the upstairs to my liking and here are the some pictures of it!

The office:

The upstairs bathroom:

The bedroom:

And these are my wonderful twins!!! :-D

Emily & Evan

It's HOT!!!

Hey everyone, here's another post from down south.  So our computer has died.  But we have been provided for!

It turned out the Toshiba, which has had issues since Day 1, had its power cord fray through and won't charge the laptop anymore.  We found Ash's old laptop, but remembered the power cord on THAT one broke over a year ago, so it was out of commission as well.  We looked around for one... lo and behold, we found another power supply that matched the specifications of the laptop's power needs!  We plugged it in and presto!  It's nice when things work out.

This week the heat is finally turning on down here in Oklahoma.  Both Saturday and Sunday were 99° and yesterday hit 100° for the first time this summer.  Today's supposed to be 101° and Wednesday around 102°.  *whew!*  At least the humidity is a little lower than it had been.  It's supposed to "cool down" to the mid 90s by Friday as the remnants of Dolly come north and give us a few clouds (that's it).  After that clears out, it looks like the weekend and the start to next week will be around 100° yet again.

Let me tell you, for someone from New England, looking at the thermometer as the sun's setting, and seeing that it's still over 90° outside, it's a shock to say the least.  Not to mention it's almost 80° every morning when the sun rises, which doesn't help any.  I bike all over town, to class and work, when Ash is off working.  But when it's this hot it's almost unbearable.  I don't even want to think about how this could get worse, but I know it definitely can.  I've heard stories of weeks on end where it was 100-110° with the heat index up in the 110s everyday.  Don't want to hear it!  La la la! *covers ears*

Anyhow, other than that everything's going well.  My partial differential equations class is kicking my butt, but I'm hoping I do better on the final.  OH and get this!  We have a VERY difficult homework assignment due Thursday.  But the first half of the final exam is Friday!  How are we supposed to finish both???  I guess we'll all have to figure that out, but I'm just glad it's all over after the second final exam on Monday.  If I get a B average in the course, then I'll pass and it'll be my last purely math course ever!  Yay!

Enjoy your day everyone, and God bless you.

Half of our home

Hey guys. 

These are some pictures of our home (only downstairs because I need to do some cleaning upstairs). 

This is our Dining area!

                                                                  This is our Kitchen!

This is our living room!

This is the table mom and I restored! It was NASTY when we bought it! 

So I hope you liked the pics! Once I clean upstairs, I will post the ones from there. I guess the only thing that is going on with us right now is: Cookie (our white Guinea pig) is sick at the vets. She got a bite from one of the other pigs when she was in the store before we bought her and we didn't see it until this week. It had gotten infected so she is on antibiotics and staying for 2 or 3 days at the vets. Timothy is VERY lonely and can't wait to get her back! 

Everything else is going great! Pastor, and Kyle (youth pastor and good friend) came over last night and we had a blast! I made cookies and we talked for almost 3 hours about a bunch of neat stuff! Also, the date has been decided for Dan's baptism! It will be in two sundays! He is very excited, and I am too. Well everything else is great!

God is GOOD!

John 3:16

God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son

that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish

but have everlasting life.

A New Church Family!

Hey all!

I just thought I would update you on the best thing that has happened to us since we arrived to Oklahoma. We have joined a church, and gained a new family! So here are some details...

You all know that we were thinking about becoming members of Alameda Baptist Church (via our last post). Every Sunday, right before service ends, there is an invitation song and it is for ANYONE who wants help, or to make a decision etc. So, Dan and I had discussed it beforehand that we wanted to join, so we walked the isle when they started the invitation hymn. We were welcomed by the pastor and him saying how pleased he was that we wanted to be a part of the church and that he hopes he is a good pastor to us. We went into a back room and spoke with an elder and when we were done, we walked back out and were voted to be a member right then! Can you believe they LET us in!? Haha. I don't think they knew what they were getting into ;-). Also, I guess I have to clean the house because pastor is coming over to talk to Dan about getting baptized!!!

So, right after church, we were greeted by A LOT of people (who's names it will take a while to remember). Then, we were walking back to our car when the youth pastor (Kyle) invited us to go out to lunch with him, Johnelle, Lyndsay, and Jason. It was a GREAT time! We met the four of most fun, God loving people! Kyle, like I said is the youth pastor and he is only 22 (the same age as us). Don't let his age deceive you though, he has enough knowledge and wisdom as anybody and such a heart for the youth! Johnelle works at a bank and has been coming to ABC for about 8 years (and is the same age as us also). Lyndsay just started a children's ministry and is such a blessing to the church and those kids that she picks up in the church van every Sunday! Jason is Lyndsay's boyfriend of 5 years and is a great guy! He is very passionate about football and hating the Patriots! Haha. That was an interesting conversation to say the least ;-). We had the best time we have had since we came here and we gained four GREAT friends! God is GOOD!

So, Johnelle and Kyle both live less than a mile from us, which is great and they are going to teach us how to play DISC GOLF! It is a HUGE sport here and we actually have a park just for it right behind our apartment. Also, Dan and Kyle are planning on getting together and playing some pool soon. WE HAVE FRIENDS! haha.

I have to tell you all this. When we were eating lunch with everyone, we were telling stories back and forth and we told them about our goldfish that we brought with us all the way from NH and they survived. I also told them about how Dan will randomly get my attention and say "HEY! Honey! Do you ever get that feeling...when you have drank something cold too fast?!" And how I will be totally into it and then when I find out he is saying that again, I just want to smack him...HAHA. Well, Kyle was doing the Sunday night service with the youth group (testimonies etc, about a camp they went to) and threatened that he was going to bring us up in his service. Well...During service he randomly stops mid sentence and says "Hey guys! Have you ever gotten that feeling when you drink something REALLY cold?!" And we started laughing our heads off (the 3 of us that were there with him at lunch) and everyone else was like... um, sure... IT WAS SO FUNNY! And then he also decided to say at the end of the service that he went out with two of the best people and learned about us and our fish story (and he told it) haha. Anyway, it was GREAT, and I think we are going to fit in just fine! :-)

Well, Dan just got back home from class and I am still not dressed. Dan wants me to tell everyone that he thinks it is dumb that his professor assigned homework to be due the day before an exam. I guess that is it. WE MISS EVERYONE!

We live in a Zoo

So, you are all probably going to call us crazy, but we have added to our family again :-) Here is how it all started...

Dan and I have been wanting a dog for a long time, but didn't think we would be able to get one, because of our schedules and only having 1 car. Well...we saw this dog online (petfinder.com). He was a hound dog named Rufus and he was SO cute. We decided just to go and LOOK at, not PURCHASE the dog. We had NO idea what we were in for. We walk into the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare shelter and were pretty shocked at what we saw. Here in Oklahoma, they have no laws on having to spay and neuter your animals. Needless to say, they have an animal population problem like whoa! We were speaking to one of the workers there and she told us that this time of year they probably get close to 100 animals a day (wild animals, litters of kittens, people giving up their dog or anything else they don't want anymore). We were shocked, but what we were even more shocked about was the amount of animals killed each month! All of Oklahoma's shelters are VERY HIGH kill shelters (something Dan and I aren't used to). This broke our hearts. So we went into the kennels where they had the dogs and it was SO weird. It was kind of like shopping for food...there was an expiration date on every one of them.

So we hung out with a few dogs, and they were all nice...just not "the one". Then we saw a dog named "Chris" who was being very calm and just stared up at you, unlike ALL of the other dogs who wouldn't stop barking. We were a little wary because he was 5 or 6 years old, but we decided to get to know him anyway. Well...he was SO excited to see us, and he won us over RIGHT away. We asked him to sit, he sat...we asked him to lay down, he did and politely asked for a stomach rub ;-)...we asked him to come, and we discovered he was a little rusty on that one...but we could look past it!

So here we are...with our new dog, who was abandoned at a vet office. He is all we could ever ask for! We took him to the dog park after I got out of work today, but there were no other dogs there (it was 95 degrees out!). But, Dan ran around with him and he enjoyed the freedom from that nasty cage he was in for over a month! Duke seems to like his new name...he stays by our side, even when off of the leash! The cats...HATE HIM! But they will get over it. THEY HAVE TO :-D.

Well, I guess that is all for now. It's a long one, but I am glad you read it! :-) -The Michaud Family (all 7 of us!!)

Hello from Oklahoma

Howdy!
So, we are officially Okies now! We are finally getting used to our new apartment and surroundings. Dan is doing well in his summer math class (Differential Equations) and will be finished with it in 2 1/2 weeks. He is working at the weather center this summer too, and he is definitely in his element!
I am currently working for a wonderful family in Edmond, OK...about 40 min. away as a nanny for their twin 3 1/2 year olds (Emily and Evan). They are VERY busy and wicked fun to be around. This is the second set of boy/girl twins that I have been a nanny for, and the parents are telling Dan and I it is a sign! YIKES!
It has been a challenge moving so far away from our friends and family, but we have managed, and are starting to get used to it. We have visited churches since we arrived, and are pretty sure we have found "the one". It is called Alameda Baptist Church. It is a mile and a half away from our apartment and the people are great. It was hard finding a church here that did not have contemporary music or a mix of both contemporary and sacred, but we found a couple, and this is one of them. It is about the same size as my previous church Cornerstone Baptist Church in Scarborough, ME. Dan and I are hoping to make friends from this church, especially once we become members and more active in it. Please pray for us if this is the right church that we are faithful and that we would grow together and closer to our God.
Dan and I have found a bunch of fun things to do around here! There are the rodeo's of course (my favorite) and there is this amazing movie theater (where we only see edifying movies of course)! It is humongous! There is also camping, and swimming, and a bunch of places to go out to eat. I am sure we will find even more things to do in the future.
Well, I think that is all for now. Please call or e-mail us if you would like. We always love hearing from our friend and family! God bless