Cute Kid Report

I know, I'm way too old to have cute kids. But I did find this cute photo while working on collecting photos for a slide show for David and Sarah's upcoming wedding. Ya'll come! I assume you've gotten your invitations by now--very nice invitations, too.

Let's see, I should update you on life. Gary's presentation on Monday went very well, according to all reports. It was multimedia, but even that worked thanks to some folks who made the technology work in a large venue. Since then, he's been very busy in more meetings and side meetings and lunch meetings and dinner meetings so I haven't talked to him much.

Andrew emailed with with a link to a blurb you might be interested in reading at Samaritan's Purse: click here.

Rachel didn't work at all yesterday, but today she is back to her two part time jobs. She's packed a couple more boxes of books in preparation for moving.

David told me he thinks he finally got thing straightened out: I've gotten 5 or 6 letters from Harris county (that's where Houston is) saying I need to pay up for running the toll booth--and they have photos to prove it. Trouble is, the car they are photographing is the car David traded in at the dealership where he bought his Jetta over a year ago. I mailed the dealership the title, etc., but it is probably still sitting on some salesman's desk. In the meantime they've apparently sold my old car to an unscrupulous scoundrel who did not re-register the car and he keeps running the toll booth. GRR. They even sent "my" unpaid tolls to a collection agency!

I've nearly finished by furniture rearranging--Gary may not recognize the place when he returns.

When the Cat Is Away

...the mouse will play. And by "cat" I mean Gary; by "mouse" I mean me; and by "play" I mean throw out things and move furniture. I do have an overarching plan for these activities, however--and it isn't just to irritate Gary. The plan is to make room for our new grandbaby! I know that child does not want to read 25-year old computer journals.

Gary is also missing his wild flower garden while he is away. April is the best month to live in Texas--too bad he's gone for half of it this year. I've had a couple chances to chat with Gary over Skype (the guy who invented that was a genius!). His big speech is tomorrow afternoon, which means it will really be while I'm alseep tonight. (Click on the photo below to get a better look.)


In other news, Andrew sent email that he had a wisdom tooth extracted yesterday. The process did not go that smoothly as the dentist had to cut the tooth into three pieces and the root had a 90 degree turn in it. He must have inherited his father's teeth! No news about a new job for Andrew yet, but they did buy their tickets to come to Dallas on May 23. We expect them to live with us for a minimum of 2 months while job hunting and having a baby.

To make room for them and baby, we're kicking Rachel out! Well, that sounds pretty drastic, doesn't it? We aren't kicking her out in a mean way, and it appears the Lord has provided a place for her to live for free right here in our neighborhood in exchange for some dog and grandma sitting. We thank God for that. But she is having some feelings of being unsettled as I'm already making her start to pack up her stuff. And that takes us back to the moving furniture. I"m trying to convert our piano room into a storage room (we have no garage or attic space) for Rachel's stuff and Andrew and Laura's stuff until permanent living arrangements have been settled. Either that or rent a storage room, so I'm trying to do this the cheap way.

Babies R All of Us

Baby Isabella's presents have started to arrive!

In other news, lots of rain again last night, but no damage to us. Others nearby weren't so fortunate.

I got my first email from Gary. He has arrived safely and looks like he figured out how to get internet access in his hotel room. He was feeling miserable from so long with no sleep. Chiang Mai is directly 12 hours different from us, half a day ahead.

Stress and Heat

Today there was stress as Gary got ready to leave for 2.5 weeks. And there was stress because I had just spent over an hour at the dentist (10 hours later I still feel the anesthetic). And there was stress because the car quit working this morning as I was driving to the Center.**

Furthermore, today the temperature got pretty hot in the house. I like to wait until May to turn on the A/C but today we decided we could either handle the stress or the heat, but not both. So I turned the A/C on for a few hours.

Turns out the van needs a new catalytic converter--I didn't need that $500 anyway! Should be finished by noon tomorrow. We got a friend to take Gary to the airport tonight instead of me. He just had to leave two hours early to catch his ride.

And the filling in my tooth is a temporary one, probably redo it in July. Either that or a root canal.

**If I had walked to work as usual, we wouldn't have even known the car wasn't working until we tried to drive to the airport barely in time for his flight.

Time for This Year's Wildflower Post

flowers, wild

I've been adding more wildflower photos to my album as I get new photos and identify the flowers. Click above to go to my online album. I've reorganized my photos so that I have all my unidentified ones on one place, to work on when I feel like it.

In other news, Rachel's new job seems to be going along pretty well. She did a fair bit of online training this week as well as working a few hours on four different days. They called and asked her to work today but she already had a babysitting job (which actually pays more per hour than Sylvan!)

Gary is out mowing the lawn (I did part of it last night) and then he needs to crawl up on the roof to fix the ridge vent that is flapping in the breeze due to coming loose during one of our recent storms. Then I think we're going out to dinner tonight because he is leaving on Tuesday for 2.5 weeks.

I've gotten the laundry done, bought gas for the mower, and finished the last of the newsletters. We almost went camping this weekend, but Friday just was too chilly. Today is lovely.

A Wedding Weekend

 
We spent a lot of time this past weekend on activities related to Sarah Cover's wedding. Sarah is the little girl next door whom we've known since she was a toddler. She married an MK whose family we also know.

David and his Sarah were here for the wedding, but left already this morning, here less than 24 hours. But we did a little wedding planning with them, and got to watch Mali and White Kitty get into it a couple times.

If you look hard enough, you'll see Rachel's new glasses in this photo. She put them on and exclaimed, "Wow, everything is clear and bright now!"

Fixed

I need to update about Rachel's car. The same kind friend and colleague who got her car repaired last time took care of it again, and at a very cheap price. Which the neighbors were very thankful for, since they paid for it.

Yesterday Rachel and I took off work so we could join in Sarah C's pre-wedding festivities. We drove south to Waxahachie and had brunch at The Dove's Nest


and took a quick stroll around the interesting courthouse


and an even quicker stroll through a small museum with a WWI display.

Freak Accident

Today Rachel's car had another accident--but this time Rachel wasn't in the car! It was parked in its usual spot on the street which is directly across from the neighbor's steep driveway. Mrs. Neighbor came home from shopping, turned her car off and put it into Park, but failed to remove the keys. She carried one child inside, and the other child, about 3 years, put the car in neutral and down it rolled right into Rachel's car. The child was not hurt. I was in the house and heard a big thud, but I just thought it was the cat knocking things around.

A few minutes later Rachel came in and told me what had happened and I went out and surveyed the damage. The neighbor was mortified, but we didn't call the police or the insurance--really, Mrs. Neighbor could have been in trouble for child endangerment! The front driver side fender is all crumpled, and one of the headlights doesn't work.

When Gary came home from work and looked at it, his observation was that if Rachel's car hadn't been there, the neighbor's van might likely have kept rolling right on into the DelMedicos' living room!

The car drives OK, but Rachel is mortified at the way it looks; we'll just have to see what can be done. The car is 20 years old.

In better news, it still isn't final, but things are still looking good for a tutoring job for Rachel at Sylvan Learning Centers. Andrew's job hunting has been intense, but still unfruitful. Lots of activity going on with plans for David's wedding.