Ongoing Responsibilities

As we mentioned earlier, we will continue our employment with Campus Crusade for Christ through the fall. We are busy transitioning out of our roles in Portland and training our replacements.

Earlier this spring Anne, once again, directed the annual National Human Resources Sending Associate Conference. During this conference, new Sending Associates are trained in order to effectively recruit, interview, hire and assess new Campus Crusade staff members. Not only does Anne determine the schedule of the conference, she also presents the majority of the training material from up front. She has become one of the foremost experts on our new staff application and our hiring process. This is a busy season for her because, nationally, we hire most of our new applicants during the summer. Along with hiring our new staff, she has been asked to consult with a working group that is rewriting our application materials. This will keep her busy throughout the summer.

Since January, I have been working with our staff that are leading our International summer projects. Our teams are anticipating their upcoming summers, preparing to spend 4-6 weeks in: Japan, Croatia, Italy, Venezuela, Australia, Costa Rica, and Russia. My role has been to assist them operationally and strategically. I’ve been busy processing donations, filling out insurance forms, addressing parent concerns, identifying travel issues, etc. Some of our teams leave this week! Please be praying for them and their students as they encounter what will be an unforgettable summer. I will need to continue my role coaching these leaders until all teams return to the U.S. and their finances are wrapped up in August.

Sick Day

Today the kids were home from school and other activities because of constant complaints of sore throats, fevers, etc. After a throat culture revealed that they didn't have strep (thankfully) the rest of the day was spent resting and whining. Although, we did make this map of the continental US, and apart from it being entirely off-scale (Illinois is nearly the same size as Nevada!) and the fact the Kentucky looks absolutely nothing like it should, I think it turned out OK.

Allison, now, is fast asleep. Alex is in the shower (claiming he needs to wash off all the germs, again!), and we're off to clean our home for another showing tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed.....

House Guests

Every year we have a family of robins make a nest somewhere in our yard...either on the back porch or in a large bush outside our front window. Throughout the past few springs, we've enjoyed watching their eggs hatch and seeing them care for their young. This year, however, they chose a new spot for their nest. Right in the middle of the roof on our front porch. We found this to be a little bit of a nuisance, considering we are attempting to sell our house. So, once they began their work, we immediately began to stop it. I must say, these are the most persistent robins we have ever seen. Daily they have returned with their nest materials, and daily we have knocked down their work and cleaned up the mess. This has been going on for over three weeks now, and it gives us one more thing to do in order to prepare our house for a showing. Adam had the idea of placing one of Alex's dinosaurs up onto the ledge where they were nesting...thinking a lizard would scare them off. Now they seem to be preparing a nest for the dinosaur too. (See the pictures below). They've worked so hard, I think we'll let them stay, once our house sells.

Eugene Marathon

We had a great Sunday in Track Town, USA for the Eugene Marathon. Adam was pleased with the course and clocked in at a little over 4 hours. It was really an impressive finish considering his minimal training. The kids and I, following our one-mile-fun-run, spent the day as spectators at the finish line at Autzen Stadium. Both the kids received medals and t-shirts for their efforts. Alex also received a Marathon Finisher's Certificate for completing his 26.2 miles.

For Sale

Our little bungalow is still for sale. Trust me....you'll be one of the first to know when it is no longer ours.

New Car

Two weeks ago we purchased a new (to us) Toyota Corolla. Its a 2004. Prior to that we were driving a 1995 Ford Windstar which was a gift to us in 2001. It served us well, but it needed to be retired. Fortunately we were able to find someone else who needed it more than we did. We decided it was time to downsize due to rising gas prices. Plus, as our children get bigger their car seats get smaller, so we don't need the room of a minivan. It has been fun to drive and much less painful (price-wise) to fill up the tank.

Ready, Freddy!

Have you heard of Ready, Freddy? We hadn't either until Granny (Anne's mom, who happens to be a first grade teacher) visited us three weeks ago. She introduced Alex to a series of books starring Freddy Thresher, a first grader who loves sharks, and is usually dealing with some type of first grade crisis. (In this book he is the only student in his class who has not lost a tooth).

There are fifteen books in the series, and in the past three weeks Alex has read 8. Each book is about 100 pages.

It thrills us to see him become such an avid reader. Many times he will have his nose buried in a book, then we'll hear him begin laughing out loud as Freddy encounters something humorous!

Pearlington, Mississippi

Anne's father has returned this week to Pearlington, Mississippi. Its his second time down there as part of a Katrina Relief trip. To read more about their adventures, click here.

What would we do without You Tube?

Do you really think anyone ever purchased this ladder....?

Discovery Walk Festival

This past weekend was the Discovery Walk Festival here in Vancouver. The Discovery Walk Festival is a yearly walking festival sponsored by International Walk Fest and the City of Vancouver, Washington to foster international friendship. There were walkers and military units from a dozen different nations.

I (Anne) have enjoyed participating in this the past few years. Over the weekend the festival provides distances to walk between a 5K and a full marathon. This year, Alex and I ran a 5K on Friday, the kids and I walked the 6K family walk on Saturday, and then I jogged a half marathon on Sunday. The walks are very well put together and they take you through some historic parts of Vancouver. They also provide great entertainment for the kids along the way, including a balloon man and face painting.

Alex had a tarantula painted on his face, and Allison became the sugar plum fairy complete with purple lipstick. I was hoping to take some pictures. We had great weather on Saturday, and our walk ended by some fountains in downtown Vancouver that are great fun to play in. Following the splashing in the fountains, the face painting really wasn't worth photographing anymore.

If you do the math, Alex logged in 7 miles this weekend. Next weekend we are headed to Eugene, OR for Adam to run the Eugene Marathon. While there, Alex is participating in his first Kids Marathon. He needs to log 25.2 miles prior to next Sunday. Then he runs the final mile Sunday morning on the actual marathon course. Thanks to our events this weekend, he's up to 23.2 miles!

Behind on Pictures....

I've recently uploaded some pictures off our camera. Enjoy....

Beloved Boxer

As many of you know, Copper is our beloved boxer who will be 10 in two months. (The average life span for a boxer is 8 years). He has been showing his age lately, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of pictures of him and the kids. These pictures were taken about 10 days ago. He was having a bad day that day. However, today was a relatively good day. We went to the park and he ran a half mile. Go Copper!

Easter Sunday

Saint Patrick's Day

While 'Walking with the Dinosaurs'

Our Absence

Again, I know we've been absent from blogging for awhile. Click here and you will see why. You will see pictures of our beautifully remodeled home, thanks to Adam. The pictures toward the end are of our new basement and basement bathroom.

Allison's Words of Wisdom

I once heard it said that the average female says approximately 6,000 words a day. Because Allison is quite the verbal processor, we've always joked that she says 10,000 words a day. Today, however, was one of those days where I think she had spoken 10,000 words by lunch. Here are two classic thoughts she shared with me today......

1. Do you know who the baby of Abraham Lincoln is.....? ISAAC! (Referring to Abraham of the Old Testament and her cousin Isaac).

2. (In one nice run-on sentence...) I don't think I would like to go up into space...Well, maybe when I'm out of school I would like to go up into space because if I went up into space now, I would miss school and I don't want to miss school to go to space.

A very good examination of global warming

This is one of the best treatments of the issue of global warming that I've seen. It will take you about two hours to read through all the links and arguments, but it is very worth it in order to understand both the science and the psychology of the issue.

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the content at the link. For the record, I think that human-caused global warming is mostly alarmism. However, it has begun to shine a light on American over-consumption, to which I am very much opposed. Still, using a lie to advance truth is wrong and antithetical. Better science and better technology are the answers to many of the problems the world faces, but hysteria and alarmism stand in the way. On the other side of the equation, people in affluent nations need to rediscover lifestyles that delay gratification and tend to the needs of others. Only a movement characterized by conscience and intelligence will bring about lasting change: hysteria and government regulations will only exacerbate the problems.

Remember Y2k? That was going to bring us down, too.

Our Additions to the Renovations

As of this week, our basement has walls and a ceiling. Along with the bathroom, the drywall is complete! However, before Adam began the work we wanted to leave part of our family here in our first house. We each wrote our name on one of the walls before he added the insulation and sheetrock. For the bathroom, he had to cement the pump into the floor. Before he poured the concrete, we each picked out an item of our own to bury into the floor.