Family & friends update

The girls left for their 5 weeks of ballet workshops.  We’ve halfway through our mini-empty nest phase (it has become an annual thing).  Kim just left for her parents for a week so it is just the dogs and me for now.  I plan to get tons of chores, blogging and guitar playing done in addition to my regular routine.

This was taken at the airport.  Sadly, it came out better than our last church directory picture.  We really need a new family portrait!

Both girls had fabulous years academically and with ballet.  I never get tired of watching them dance.  

They are both working at a local ice cream shop that serves the high fat stuff.  Mercifully, there is a magic button on the cash register that gives us a 50% family price break.  Mmmmm . . . discounted ice cream.

Daughter 1 is going to be a senior so we’re starting to look at colleges.  She is hoping to get on with a professional ballet company at the same time and it looks like she has a good shot at it.  Many years of hard work and dedication are paying off.  It is hard to believe this will be her last year at home!  We really have a lot of fun together (well, at least I know I enjoy it!).

Daughter 2 and I will be going to Honduras fairly soon on a mission trip.  I am seriously looking forward to that.  We’ll be building a house, distributing food, helping with Vacation Bible school, and just interacting with the people.  I’ve been learning some basic Spanish.  I got 500 Gospel of Juan (John) tracts from the Pocket Testament League that we’re going to distribute.  We were hoping to meet our World Vision sponsor child there but the logistics didn’t work out.  Hopefully we’ll go again and can spend a couple extra days and make it happen.  We’re going with a different church so we don’t know the team members that well, but they seem terrific.  I am taking my travel guitar to help with the music so I need to practice more. 

The Kenya trip with Daughter 1 got cancelled due to the political instability.  I’m prayerfully hoping that we can make that happen next year. 

Kim finished her first year as an elementary school librarian and loved it.  She is really, really good at what she does – the kids, teachers and administrators couldn’t believe how much she improved things (she doesn’t read my blog, so no, I’m not trying to score any points with her!).  Between getting out of the classroom (no parents and no grading!), finishing grad school and Daughter 1 starting to drive it has saved a ton of time.

Work is going well.  We went from public to private and then got a new CEO who has really impressed me (no one above me at work reads my blog, so no, I’m not apple polishing).  He figures things out rapidly, listens well, treats people at every level with respect and is really bright.  I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with him outside my normal job on a strategy process so it has been encouraging to see him in action.  Other than my long commute this is an unbelievably good job for me.  Career development tip: Succeed someone who was a bad manager.  You’ll look great by comparison.

Everything else is pretty normal – exercise, volunteer activities, etc.  I’m working another Kairos Prison Ministry weekend in the Fall and am looking forward to that.

Blessings to you all and stay in touch!