Message from Grandpa to Grandkids

Grandpa Wendell sent us an email about the travails of small skin cancers:

Went to the Den of Dermatology yesterday. That usually results in about a dozen shots of liquid nitrogen on things that don't appear too harmful and usually two biopsies of spots that do. This time there were three biopsies so the nitrogen shot quota was cut down to ten. Odds are that two or more of the three will come back positive, meaning more trips to the needle-and-knife show. Gary is fortunate in having his mama's dark skin but I wonder about the grandchildren; they all appear very light skinned. Has anybody ever told them that they should be wearing a hat all the time in the sun, especially those that live in the tropics? All my problems stem from my childhood; nobody told me to put a hat on until I was 50 and that was way too late..

And if you don't believe him, check here.

Back to Work for Rachel

This whole summer has been an emotional roller coaster for Rachel as far as her hopes of finding a teaching job. She tried hard all spring and summer to find a full time position, and nothing has yet worked out. Her latest disappointment was especially hard because the position seemed so ideal and close by. :-(

Tomorrow she starts back with subbing. Pray that she'll be able to do a good job and not get discouraged with the nature of the subbing job. We're still praying a suitable full-time position will open up.

Reception

Last night we attended a reception for Michael Cover and his new bride Susanna. It was their wedding that David flew to in North Carolina two weeks ago. I baked a couple cheesecakes for the occasion but there were lots of leftovers. I guess I'll take them to Bible study tonight.

We were a bit worried about Hurricane Dean, but a look at the tracking map this morning looks like it is just now going a bit south of the Dominican Republic. Andrew and Laura are there for a couple weeks of home leave.

Rachel was fully expecting to hear about her latest job interview on Friday, but alas, no call. So it is looking like she will be back to subbing, starting a week from tomorrow. Yesterday she washed walls for a friend who was moving into a new house and the former renters had left it a mess.

Ballgame or PD?

Which was it? We can call it PD because it was our supporter who asked us to join him at the Rangers' game tonight.

Yay for David!

We got an email from David saying he had done very well on his USMLE scores (that 8-hour test he had to do a few weeks ago):

oh, great news. I got my USMLE scores today. I actually did much better than I was expecting. I ended up with a 251, which is 1.8 standard dev. above the mean. In other words, that score is good enough to get into pretty much any residency program. Now my grades on the other hand... But seriously, I think it puts me in a great place to get into U of Washington or OHSU or maybe even a Boston school for ophtho. Very happy about that.

We are starting to make plans for a weekend visit to go see David in the next month or two. Sarah's mom is coming to visit, so it would be a chance to meet her.

In other good news, last night Gary and I finished the deck refinishing project. Rachel and I had worked on it the night before also. It looks nice now, but not completely evenly colored.

In more other good news, Gary got word from the National Science Foundation that his grant through GIAL had finally gotten the official approval. That gives him $ to hire a research assistant to do some of his projects.

Yet Again

We are refinishing our deck. So much for buying the most expensive type of finish--it lasted less than 2 years.

I hired a couple strong MK boys to scrub the deck earlier in the week and now Gary and I are refinishing it. I'm blaming Gary for the wrong color of finish. I thought it was one and he thought is was the other so we went with his choice. That turned out to be darker than the last time, so the color is a bit of a shock. But who will know the difference after a month or so of grime on top of it anyway?

Both the fruited and the fruitless mulberry trees are full of these caterpillars. A few of them got painted over in the process.

Time for an Update

Some good news: Rachel got her car fixed and it cost way less than I was fearing. The guy did a great job and only took two days. Now she will be back on the road and I won't have to be taxi mom, which will make us both happier. For details, click here see her blog.

David called earlier this week with a couple possible dates for their wedding--June 21 or July 4. I couldn't really object to July 4th since I know someone else who got married on a holiday. We await further details.

Two Saturdays ago sons of two close friends got married and we were unable to attend, but I've enjoyed seeing photos and hearing about those weddings. Next Saturday one of them is having a Dallas reception for which I am going to bake a couple cheesecakes.

Laura got back from her trip to Haiti, and was sick for a few days after. I haven't gotten any word in the last fews days--hope she is better.

Gary got a new computer at work this week, since his old one started acting cranky. But come to find out, his new one doesn't have any better specs than the one I got for Christmas a year and a half ago, so he's feeling cheated! He did get a special video card so he can run two monitors at the same time. He's going to try to use one monitor as a "magnifying glass" at the cursor location on the main monitor.

We've made some internet purchases lately, quite an odd assortment. Besides a book, we've bought a new chair, a bottle of black ink, magnifying glasses, and a new lawnmower blade. Gary finds internet shopping so much easier because he can magnify the print on his computer whereas doing that in the store is harder.

The only other news of note is that we are yet again refinishing our deck. I hired a couple MK boys to do the scrubbing earlier this week, and now we're starting to put the stuff off. Turns out we got the wrong color, but oh well, too late now! Lots of fun to do this now that the temperatures have reached 100.

Tame Flowers

I took some wild flower photos on our trip, but I also got some domestic flowers, some of which we don't have in Dallas:

Hydrangea

Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile
(with a little photoshopped change)

Rose

??

More Photos

Sightseeing in Oregon, July 2007

This morning I had to get up early to take Rachel to yet another teacher exam, so I've had time to finish uploading the rest of my photos to my public online albums. I added the one above, plus a couple others. I also deleted one, edited captions on another, and did some rearranging. There are a total of seven albums about our recent trip, divided between photos of friends/family and photos of the beautiful sights.

Friends in Santa Cruz

Friends in Santa Cruz, CA Summer 2007 trip

Click on the above photo to see all the photos from Santa Cruz.

It was good to see friends in Santa Cruz on our trip. We were hosted by the Bohrmans who invited many folks over on Friday night. Then on Saturday night Arlyss Lilley invited others over for another dinner. After church on Sunday there was a sandwich lunch as well. We were well-fed while there!

We are grateful to all these folks for their faithful support of our ministry for many years.