"I'm reading"

I have yet to determine if people in my family are reading this blog. I've gotten one message from A. saying he was reading. Anyone else?

Today we are having the annual church picnic. Then off to Joel's graduation open house.

A bit more about our trip to Indiana

There were lots of trees. Nice. We don't have enough of these in Texas.

We stopped at two rest areas with automatic hand washers. Insert hands, down comes 3 drops of soap, followed by water, followed by warm air.

Thanks to Caleb,D's HS friend who came with us, we noticed the odometer with this reading:

There is a gigantic cross, 198 feet tall, at the intersection of IH 57 and IH 70.

It is a week later. We are all peeling from our bad sunburns. In another week or so we will leave to go watch Andrew graduate.

Doro graduates!

Last night we saw Doro graduate from DHS, along with 640 of her closest American friends. The ceremony was that Reunion Arena this year instead of at the high school. It was nice not sitting outside in the heat, and it was nice seeing the graduates on the Jumbotron, but I still liked the other venue. It was terribly hard to find her after the ceremony, and when we finally got home the other visitors had been sitting at our house for 45 minutes waiting for us. We ate the cheesecake I had made in the afternoon (I've been testing cheesecake recipes since G's birthday.) After that the graduates went to Project Graduation, and all night party. This morning we found someone asleep on one of our couches, too tired to drive home. Turns out it was D's old gf, a friend of Doro's.

Car update

The guy at the shop claims he can get our old car running again for around $750, so we told him to go ahead and replace the head gasket. We need a car only for the next few months; after that, we could get by with just one car. I'm hoping it will be ready the middle of next week.

Blown head gasket

We finally got the blue car started long enough to drive it to the shop and the news is not good. A blown head gasket. Maybe damaged heads as well. So, which is cheaper--fix it or buy a new old car. And neither is possible until the next pay check. Ugh.

Dead car

Grrr. We really need two cars this summer. And the old blue car is acting up AGAIN. The cooling system is kaput--it runs with the temperature guage past HOT--and now we can't even get it started to take it to the shop. Ugh. It is hardly worth fixing, but I guess we have no choice. David needs to be able to drive to class, and unfortunately, he may have to drive 45-60 minutes twice a day to go to class if he doesn't find an opening in the Organic Chemistry class at a nearer community college.

Home, sweet home

We (the five of us in the van) made it home way earlier than the itinerary said because we drove all night. I'm way too old to do that, but the two college boys convinced us because the said they would do most of the night driving. I hardly slept at all, but did manage to stay away for my share of the 17 and a half hours on the road. Doro and her family were surprised when we pulled in at 9:30am, and they were busy getting ready to leave.

I waited my turn for the shower, then decided I felt awake enough to go to DFW and pick Gary up from his flight home. He was surprised to see me too. When we got back from the airport everyone else was asleep. I made a frozen pizza because we hadn't eaten in a long time. Tomorrow I'll have to try to get the house and kitchen back to normal and buy some groceries, make some real food, etc.

It is going to take a few days to get all the stuff resituated (right now the living room is full of suitcases and boxes) and all the mail taken care of etc.

We all ended up with some pretty nasty sunburns. Gary's head is glowing, I look like a racoon with white eyes, Rachel has a flesh colored watch shadow on her red arm. The pain has gotten worse as the day has gone on. We were there prepared with umbrellas, not sunscreen.

It was a hectic trip, but great to see two supporter families and my sister, her family, and my brother. Although everyone complains about me taking photos, I took them anyway and if any of them turn out, maybe I can post them here or at my website.

Rachel checked her test scores when we got home--YAY! SHE PASSED! (This was the second of three standardized tests she needs for getting her teaching certificate.)

I'm wondering if anyone is reading this blog. If so, please leave a comment so I will know if I should keep it going.

College graduate

Yay! David graduated this morning. He graduated summa cum laude. We had lots of family there, so that was nice. Go David.

In Indiana

We are in Indiana, it is really humid! VEry green too.

We went to Ivanhoe's for lunch. I'm expecting to see GAry soon, hope his plane got in on time.

We had a very nice visit with Miss Patti and with Isenharts. It is so good to have great supporters all over the country.

itinerary

I won't post it here, but I've sent everyone an itinerary by email for our trip to Indiana. Hope you got it and I'll see some of you soon!

Andrew's future

Andrew called and emailed recently saying SP is asking him to think about becoming country director in Ethiopia instead of going to Asia. He will be talking to them soon. I think they want a committment of two years. We need to pray that God will clearly lead him. He's also got a couple papers to finish between having fun with his friends.

Rachel is home

We drove to OKC on Thursday and got Rachel. She was not completely packed, but not much was still laying around so we were able to get it in the car while she was busy helping a friend with her stuff. The weather was rainy, so that made packing the car even worse, but we managed. Man, that girl has too much stuff! We had bad weather on the drive home too, but made it safely. Kenny came over and help us unpack and do a first round of getting Rachel situated in back in her room.

On Saturday, Doro's mom and sister arrived for a week's visit. Trouble with that plan is that we will only be here for the first few days, because we leave for Indiana on Wednesday. They will just have to manage on their own. I have to find the blue car--I lent it to someone at the Center two weeks ago--so they can use it while we are away.

Today, Sunday, we started early with a breakfast at church for the seniors. Doro's mom and sister enjoyed that. They gave her a nice pen and book and a bottle of coke that says 2004 on it. Then Sunday school was a discussion of the search for a new pastor, then church, then to Ton's. They liked Ton's a lot!

Then later this afternoon, Gary left for Waxhaw. In fact, he just phoned a few minutes ago saying he had gotten there safely and was happy to have a room to himself. Then after that, my mom arrived. That meant Rachel needed to finish cleaning up her room to make space for Gma. So I helped her try on clothes, put clothes away, and pack away more stuff she won't need over the summer.

Now Doro, her family, and Rachel are watching an episode of "I Love Lucy" for some American entertainment.

Lost mail

...has finally arrived. More than two months ago I mailed a fat envelope to R at her school. It contained a money order from the US Postal Service to pay for an exam she needed to take. When it didn't arrive a few days later, we had to go through the whole process again of filling out the test forms, getting another money order (they wouldn't take a check) and sending it priority (in order to make the deadline). Well, R took the test weeks ago, and yesterday the errant envelope finally arrived in her mailbox at school. Now I'm wondering if I can get my $100 back for the money order. I'm also wondering where that thing was for two months.

Tuesday May 11

Today we heard that W&J's house sold, after 4 years of trying to sell it. Yay.

Doro is having a movie night and Teddy Graham party tonight.

G. is working hard on the Ethnologue.

I'm still making plans for our IN trip.

Classes

Rachel called to day saying she had finished her first exam. She wrote for 3 hours, covering 7 pages, and her hand was cramping when she was done. Tomorrow she has another essay test. She is starting to pack too. We will pick her up on Thursday.

I tried to register David for classes at the community college, but it didn't work quite the way we hoped, and it looks like the class he wants is full already. He needs a transcript too, so he will send that and I'll try to go take care of that when the transcript arrives.

Andrew is working on booking flights to Canada for his friend's wedding. He enjoyed the Red Sox game last night, but they lost.

Picnic

Today has been busy. I took Doro and 13 other MKs went to Six Flags this morning. It was rather complicated to get them all there and get the reduced-price tickets, but somehome we managed. I go back at 7pm to pick them up. Then as soon as I got home I had to get lunch ready for 10. Gary did a lot of the work--mowed the lawn, scrubbed the bird doodoo off the deck, and started the charcoal. It was the guys here for the WordWorks meetings. They stay in the dorm, but there are no meals in the dining hall on the weekends. The weather was perfect for a picnic.

One problem was the mulberry tree is in season and there are purple berries all over the deck and ground. The birds like them too and the deposit fruit colored doodoo everywhere. I could make a pie if I could just harvest enough of them at one time. The taste good.

I bought a watermelon yesterday at the store for today's picnic, but somewhere between the store and the refrigerator, it disappeared. So I baked some cupcakes for dessert instead.

David has decided to take the job

David finally managed to find time to phone and tell me the details of his job interview. He said it was a five minute walk from the hotel to the campus of the National Institute of Health. He said 15,000 people work there--I had no idea! His building, the National Cancer Institute, is three years old and six stories high. He said the building has eight electron microscopes in it, three in the section he will work in. He said the interview started with a cup of tea! I didn't even know D drank tea, but he informed he he learned to drink it during that semester in Ireland. The director's first question was, "If we offer you this job, are you going to take it?" Looks like they really want him. Amazing.

He said they showed him the projects they are working on, gave him papers produced there, and showed off all the cool equipment. I'm going to have to look up and learn about "electron tomography." The computer he will work on is some kind of graphics computer with 16 gigabytes of RAM. And there is also a room (?) of processors to do "parallel cluster processing"--I'm not sure if I got that right. He would spend 60-70% of his time with these imaging computers, and the rest in the "wet lab" to get experience with real chemical and biological samples.

He said money did not seem to be a problem, they have lots of it and get more when that runs out. They offered him $4000/yr more than he was expecting, but the total isn't a huge amount considering the high cost of living for the DC area.

Logistics--looks like he won't need a car because of the good metro system. They don't offer any help with housing, but they've directed him to a website for government workers looking for housing, and they told him if he shares with someone else, he shouldn't have to spend more than $700/mo on rent. They do offer health insurance as part of the deal. He starts right after Labor Day.

Titles and comments

Now I have titles for my paragraphs set up. And comments too. You can leave a comment without putting in your email address.

Try it!

Job for David?

Looks like David has a job for the fall. I still don't have the details, but his one-line email said he would be starting in September.

He also is having trouble getting the classes he needs for summer school.

And, the florist just drove up with a dozen roses for Mother's Day from one of my kids--guess which one?

Job for David?

D. just phoned from Maryland. He got there ok, found his hotel, and said they had left faxed instructions for him to get to the NCI tomorrow morning. if he has time, he wants to visit one or two museums on the mall in the afternoon before returning to school.

Blogging

This is a blog. BLOG stands for Web Log. It is like an online journal. I'm going to try this as a method for sending out family news in lieu of separate emails.

This blog is open to the public for viewing. Therefore, I will try not to say anything too incriminating or embarassing!

Progress

Yay, today we made the last payment for Rachel 4th year at college. Two months without payments before we start them again for her last year. Next year will include her student teaching semester, and she has already been awarded a nice scholarship for that semester.

I also made hotel bookings for two rooms in scenic Marion, Indiana for the night before David's graduation. My sister and her family, along with my brother, will drive down from Michigan and join us for David's graduation. It will be a hectic time, but we will all get to be together briefly. My mom is also coming with us in our van and bringing along boxes of grandma's stuff to give to relatives in Michigan. Andrew is flying in from Boston, Gary is flying in from North Carolina. David's HS friend Caleb will drive up with me, Rachel and mom and he can help me with the driving--yay (since I hate driving).

And speaking of travel, D. flies to Washington DC tomorrow to interview for a job in Bethesda, MD at the National Cancer Institute. Wouldn't that be the coolest research job for a little punk like him?