Our cottage in Normandy

Sorry the dining table is backwards- it's not on my computer, but keeps doing it for posting. Argh. Just tilt your head. :-)

New Blogger

Sorry...it made me switch!! You have to register a Google account now. It's pretty simple, just email, display name and password. I just entered everything the same as it has been, so I don't have to remember anything new. You'll just have to do the same before you can post again.

Here we are at Heathrow - along with 600,000 other people in our quiet - somewhat anyway - corner having a game of Scrabble. After a short night sleep we jumped out of bed very early to get to the airport on the chance we could get an earlier flight out. Someone in the hotel lobby had told us they heard on the radio BA was resuming flights to Paris afterall. NO! We were not even allowed to approach the ticket counter until they opened it for your flight. We were scheduled for 2:30 for Geneva to Paris. At 1:55 they opened the counter or our flight - with all the people who had been shuffled into a tent outside on the sidewalk while they waited - we were lucky to have our seat in the coffee bar. It only cost us the price of coffee and snacks - $7 minimum for credit card. (I don't know why the italics won't go away). So we saw London in thick fog, Geneva in low clouds after dark, and Normandy & Paris under low clouds. No sun for a week. :-).

I arrived at our London hotel very thirsty and immediately took a drink from the bathroom faucet with one og the glasses in the room. Later after dinner as I was washing my face I spotted the small notice down by the faucet. Not for drinking! We found one small bottle of water in the fridge - and quickly called for more! This traveling without your own supply of water is the pits - especially with unplanned layovers in countries where you don't have any local money!

More later.

Winter Wonderland

Hi all - we're home. This pic is what we arrived to see at our Az house! The snow had stopped the day before and the roads were plowed - but not our cul-de-sac or drive. We plowed on through and sure enjoyed the beauty. We arrived after dark - but I took the pics pretty early the next day.

Today the snow level was down to about 6 in where sun hit and still at least a foot in north or shady places. had a great time but we were all in bed by 8:30 on New Years eve. Kyle went to bed at 1 pm and didn't wake up til the next morning.

More tomorrow. Love you all!

How to make Christmas Cookies

More belated pics...

Jordan, Alli and friends at one of their court observation days for AP Gov.
Mark and Jakie putting the angel on the top of the tree.

Belated Pictures

here's a few pics to play catch up...

Jakie's Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast (he's the 3rd from the bottom on the right side) and Jakie chopping celery (with a plastic knife) with his buddy Evan. Evan's dad and Mark were classmates in this very classroom in the 6th grade!

All back home...

We landed tonight and now we are all back on US soil. The animals were very happy see and we are glad to be in our home. We had such fun though, we are already planning the next trip....England?.... Or Germany/Austria? We've decided that we should do Germany/Austria with Kyle so he can be our translator.

We have loads of pics, but I need to pic a few and get them off the camera. Right now they are all on Jordan's computer. Like a true social teenager he is hosting a New Year's Eve party..tonight. We just got home an hour ago. And the kids will be here in an hour. Fun!!

Happy New Year!!

Back from the beach

We just returned from several days at the beach and as usual, we need a vacation to recover from our vacation. We had a great time, but with 15 people including two toddlers in the beach house, sleep does come at a premium. The house was great, though. It was as ocean-front as I've ever been ~ you walk out the back door and there you are on the beach. The ocean picture I've posted here is the view out the living room windows.

The first 48 hours were stormy and windy with 45 mph gusts, but the next 48 hours were spectacular. It's hard to get weather that nice at the coast even in the summer. We played in the sand and climbed dunes all day yesterday. I've posted pictures of Joshua and our nephew Bryce leaping from the dunes next to the house. Bryce is Lis & Dan's 4 yo.

Hope you've all survived Europe. I see Blogger is finally going to make us jump ship. Welcome home to me!

Merry Christmas

We'll be on our way today. Keep us in your prayers as we make our way over the continent and the Atlantic, through (hopefully!)London, to Paris and on to Normandy. We're packing all day today and will fall asleep in the air on our red-eye flight and wake up Christmas morning somewhere over the ocean. We'll have Christmas-in-a-carryon! :-)

Love you all! So glad that everyone is healthy and Gigi is having such a wonderful time in Oregon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Goodbye Wifflemania

Yesterday Windy and I saw the last of the people we absolutely needed
to see, and went to dinner to have pizza one last time. On the way
there, and back, we saw three other people that we had missed, but
had wished we could see. It was great luck to have a chance to
briefly say goodbye in the middle of the street. After returning
home, Windy and I cleaned the apartment, did the laundry (sheets/
bedding), and finished the remainder of the packing. I called to
order a taxi for 5:30AM, but was unable to get through to the taxi
company for almost two hours. Huge frustration, since the only way to
get a taxi at that time is to order one on the phone, and we were
both running out of money on our prepaid cellphones (I think I had .
06 lita cents, and Windy had .24 this morning when we boarded the
plane). Walking 8 blocks to a bustop at 5AM with two sleepy kids, and
11 bags (only 6 are large) would not have been possible. Anyway, I
finally got through and got the taxi reserved.
We were hoping to just sneak out, under the cover of darkness, with
no neighbors seeing us. I wondered how long it would be before people
noticed the Americans were gone, since no one ever spoke to us
(besides a few of the small children) and we didn't need to move any
furniture or anything. I just wanted the enigma to continue in our
absence-you know, for their sake. It wasn't meant to be, however.
Someone saw us loading all of our gear into the taxi this morning.
Our taxi driver was a real hustler, and loaded everything, got us
their without the usual fear of death, and helped unload everything.
I gave him the remainder of the Litas that WIndy had, which amounted
to about a 30% tip. Still only about $4 US, but I am sure he
appreciated it.
The airport is usually very mellow. Not today. It was packed for the
holidays. I didn't want anything to get in my way of getting home, so
I was in ultra "no one is pulling the Eastern European cutting in
line garbage on me today." I maintained my position, bumped, stared
down, and bullied my way to my deserved place in the queue. All the
while managing all of the Petries and their stuff.
Then it happened. We became "those people." You know the type. The
ones who hold up the security line. WIndy did it on the way to Europe
with the scissors in the carry on. This time we all contributed. Each
of us had a Nalgene filled with water. I had a bottle of Coke. The
boys backpack was loaded with so many small toys that everything was
removed and hand inspected. I had packed three bottles of Vodka and
my beer stein in my carry ons (so it wouldn't get broken). Solution?
Make us all drink some of the water in our Nalgenes to prove it
wasn't flammable. Throw my Coke away. Check my Vodka bag (after
removing the Stein and the camera gear). Me open my computer, but not
turn it on. You should have seen my wool coat pockets loaded with
cameras, and other assorted electronics that I was unwilling to check.
I might add that there was an entire duty free store selling vodka,
that you can carry on the plane, about 50 feet after security. I am
usually so on top of these types of things, but I wanted to get home
so badly, that I just completely lost my brain. We also didn't get
much news while we were here, and the liquid thing happened just
after we arrived in Vilnius.
The flight was perfect, about a half an hour early! Our baggage was
delivered within 15 minutes! We skipped customs! Windy hailed the
shuttle to the hotel within one minute of our walking outside! The
hotel let us check in 4 and half hours early! We rode in to Paris,
saw Notre Dame and the Tower and had a lovely meal.
The kids have been wonderful this entire adventure, but the in the
last three days, they have been awful. We know they are excited to
see Paris and to go home, so we are trying to be patient. But, arghhhh!
After getting some emergency chocolate crepes, we rode the train from
the Eiffel Tower to the airport. The boys fell asleep, and it took
the last three stops to get them up. Kind of cute, but it also let us
know that the sleep deprivation and excessive fun of the last 10 days
was really catching up.
I had heard about the fog a few days ago, and wondered if it was
going to create any problems. As you know, it did. When I told Cade
and Heath that Grandma and Grandpa were stuck, and it might be a day
or two, Cade's eyes just welled up with tears. He didn't sob
uncontrollably, but he didn't make any attempt to hide his pain,
either. Poor guy. Heath was so out of it, that I am not sure he even
knows what's going on.
When we finally got back to the hotel, I went into Mont and Evie's
room to use the internet and Skype in an attempt to figure out where
they were, and I saw a picture that Heath had colored and signed for
Grandma and Grandpa, waiting on their pillow. It was very sweet, and
very sad too.
It looks like we'll see them tomorrow night. In the meantime, we have
to figure out what to do with all of our luggage after we check out
of the hotel while we wait for them.

cookie fun

My kids and I are here at Mom and Dad's with Kelsey, Monique, Emma and Gigi baking and frosting Christmas cookies in our normal state of chaos. I whipped up the frosting and kids set to coloring it. After the standard red, green, blue, etc, they started mixing colors. Joshua made purple, Kelsey made Beaver orange, Monique said she was making chartreuse. What's chartreuse? asked Joshua. "I don't know!" said Monique. I kept my mouth shut as she followed the recipe on the back of the box. Pretty soon her nose wrinkled up, "I don't like this color!" and it was quite nasty. I told her if she added a bunch more green she might end up with Kermit the Frog green, which she did.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Plan B

So by now, my parents and W&K should have been in touch. They each called us with hotel info, so we were able to give each the other's info. Poor Cade was grief-stricken and crying after arriving at the Paris airport to pick them up and being told by the airline that they were stranded in London.

My parents are snugly in a London hotel for tonight and are celebrating their 37th anniversary in London instead of Paris. They should reach Paris by tomorrow evening by flying from London to Geneva and from Geneva to Paris. I hope one of them has a window seat so they can see the Alps on their detour!

We have been disappointed that by virtue of using award miles for our tickets we were put on the Christmas Eve-Christmas Day flight schedule, but now it looks like we need not regret that since London to Paris service will not resume until then anyway.

I'll keep you updated as I hear. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Fog = Bad

So here's what I can gather from the British Airways website. Mom and Dad arrived safely in London about 1h 30m behind schedule. That's good. But their flight to Paris has been cancelled. All flights to Paris have been cancelled. All flights tomorrow to Paris have been cancelled. Service to Paris resumes on Dec 24. That's the day after tomorrow. So my parents are likely stranded in London for now. Unless they can scramble to get on an alternate route to Paris (chunnel? ferry?) before the flight service resumes on the 24th. W&K are waiting for them in Paris. I tried W&K's cell phone but it said "out of service." I know my parents phone will not work because they didn't set it up to do so from there. I hope they will be able to at least contact each other somehow.

I'll let you know if I hear anything.

All's well that ends well...maybe :-)

Through the beauty of Expedia, which did not complete our reservation that I made over the phone with them in person on Nov 9, I was told this morning that "there was a change and now the hotel is completely booked." Ummm...it wasn't booked when I made the reservation on Nov. 9. But now it's booked and we don't have a room there. "There was a change." That's what they said when I finally got through to an agent after being hung up on 10 times (that's actually the number of times, not an exaggeration- "we cannot answer your call at this time, please try again. click. buzzz." 10 times.) and when finally not being hung up on, waiting on hold for 30 minutes for an answer and another twenty minutes for the agent to find a manager and see what they could do for us. I feel like the Seinfeld episode at the rental car place where he has a car reserved but they tell him they are sold out when he gets there, and they go back and forth about what a reservation means. Expedia said they were sorry and they would like to offer us $50 off a replacement reservation. And then an 18-yr-old girl proceeded to try to read French hotel names and location names over the phone to me. It sounded like "Well, I have the (pronounced very slowly) sjbnasfkjbivfugbsdgb on the jhsaiuhdfiuahf near the elaufntjvsiuhv." Since she was just reading (well, attempting to) off their website, I told her it would be easier to just do it myself. Thank you for trying.

I didn't panic until the two next places I called told me they were completely booked except their penthouse suites which go for $3,300/night but which they could offer us for $2,300/night due to our circumstances. Then I started crying. I don't even want to know what our phone bill will look like. I called so many Paris hotels. Each of them was wonderfully sweet and friendly, speaking English with lovely French accents, apologizing that they were completely booked and recommending the next place to call. Each time the answer was "I apologize" or "I'm very sorry." So each time I probably sounded more pitiful than the previous call as I began to picture us wandering the Paris streets shivering in the rain and dragging our luggage around.

Finally, a lovely chateau-hotel gave us a room. They'll have to drag in 2 extra beds for the kids but we'll fit. They gave it to us for almost half price and although it's not walking distance to the Louvre or Notre Dame like the last hotel, it is walking distance to the Arc de Triumphe and Eiffel Tower. Disaster averted.

I got so freaked out, I called the front desk of the London hotel which I booked over the phone (staying up until 2 am a month ago so I could book directly with the hotel, 2 non-smoking rooms with nice views toward the Palace) just to confirm our rooms there an ease my mind. A gentleman told me he could find no reservation for us in the system. Guess who'll be staying up until 2am to call a London hotel...again.

So then I thought I'd check with our new Paris hotel whether they had parking, since many of them don't. When I called to ask, they asked me my name and then told me they didn't have a reservation for me. I stayed calm and told him I had just made the reservation directly with them 20 minutes ago. He put me on hold and when he came back, he said he had found it after all.

So, apparently we have some sort of reservation-destroying karma. Let's hope our London reservation re-appears tonight (5 hours to go) or I might be crying again and our phone bill will be even bigger.

Mom and Dad should be taking off about now. Let's pray for safe travel!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THOSE WE WON'T SEE IN PERSON THIS YEAR!!!!
HAVE A VERY MERRY TIME ALL TOGEHTER WHEREVER YOU ARE.
WE LOVE YOU ALL.
E&M

Gigi Danced For Us

So Gigi got here today and first thing she wanted to dance for us. We just shook our heads and tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. She even made us get out the video camera. If you click this link, hopefully you can see it. Merry Christmas!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=740fac654791731cd723a14G06121914

Serious Business

We took Gigi over to N & T's last night for dinner and a great visit. After N & t went to the store (after dinner), we had some very tasty apple pie. Ethan wanted some pie so Marilyn started to give him a bite when Nath opened up his mouth and pretended to come over and take the bite. Ethan pulled back with a really puzzled look on this face with a look of "Daddy, how could you ever take a bite of apple pie from me?" Now, you need to know that Ethan takes eating VERY SERIOUSLY! Well, we were all laughing really hard and Ethan looked at us and realized that it was all in fun, so he got a big smile and played along with his Dad. It was a riot.

Christmas is coming

Sorry I haven't been around much the last week or two. Things got crazy on me again... imagine that. I think we're all stirred up, aren't we? Kyle and Windy getting ready to come home, Mont & Evie, Mark & Heidi getting ready to leave for Europe (or have you already left?), Gigi flying to the Pacific NW, we just returned from a weekend in the Seattle area. Busy people. So, some odds and ends:

Gigi is coming to spend the day with us here today. We're certainly looking forward to that! Her gifts are all wrapped and under the tree, so I hope she brought an empty suitcase. :)

We spent the weekend at George's Dad's in Yelm, Washington last week, which is outside Olympia. He has 25 acres and 8 horses, so it's fun to go. The kids opened their gifts from them while we were there and my boys are now the oh-so-proud owners of compound bows. Weapons, we told them, not toys. Don't worry, they're under strict supervision and tight rules. Happy little guys, though. Denny has a colt there, so Amy got her chance to lead him around. What a skittish, cute thing he is! Sarah really loves the horses and she's not afraid at all. She's funny... she spent the weekend trekking down to the barn, collecting two little handfuls of hay, walking all the way to the upper pasture with those two handfuls, feeding them to the horses in the upper pasture and then hiking back down for more. Fun to watch her.

So I see that the blog is going into Beta and a will be upending people a bit. Heidi, is this maybe a good time to test drive the other forum? If we have to jump through a new learning curve this might be a good time.

Have a great week, everyone!

Football

I never thought I'd be a football fan, but I've actually become one. Today, CA held its first state high school football championship since 1927. After 79 years of crowning only section champions (there are over 1000 high schools in the state so it was deemed impossible), CIF has started a state championship bowl program where the 3 top teams from No Cal play the 3 top teams from So Cal after a selection process similar to the BCS. The 3 games are by school enrollement: D1 is 2000+ students, D2 is 1000-2000, and D3 is <1000.

4 of the 6 schools selected to play in the championship bowl games are Christian schools. Orange Lutheran (Jordan's school) was the So Cal selection for D2. Only 3 schools in that enrollment division are smaller than Lutheran. Going into this game, they were ranked 11th in the nation by US News. It was a So Cal sweep for the state championships. Oaks Christian beat Cardinal Newman in OT for D3. Lutheran manhandled Palo Alto to win D2. And Canyon-Canyon Country upset perenially national #1 De La Salle to take the D1 title. So I guess stealing OSU's strength and conditioning coach worked out well for us. :-)

Jordan was at the game, at the Home Depot Center, televised live on Fox Sports Network Prime Ticket. We had a viewing party here with homemade chili and cornbread. After the game, Jordan came home with about 10 friends in tow for a victory afterparty here. The other adults bailed and we goofed off with the kids (Mark beat all the guys at arm wrestling)and watched the D1 game on television- rooting for the So Cal team. Jordan's buddies are home from college so we had the Cornell crew here (3 former XC teammates are in school there) and even managed friendliness to the UCLA contingent: Uber-best friend David and his suitemate, who is on the football team and wore a "We Beat USC" Tshirt on his head the whole time he was here. Of course, the fact that he is 6'2" and 250 lbs of rock-solid muscle may have had something to do with our warm hospitality! ;-) Actually he seems like a really nice kid, a double major in linguistics and nuero-science.

So hooray for CA state football champions Lutheran High who, in the last 10 years, have gone from respectable small-school program to 11th in the nation.

And as for tomorrow...Go Chargers!

Crazy day

I gave my last final exam yesterday and it was a little crazy. I keep all my lectures, handouts and exams in my computer as Word docs and just print them out before class as I need them. There's only one giant printer/copier in the work room in the Music Dept. office downstairs so I have to print from upstairs and go down to get anything. So I usually just send it down and swing by the office to pick it up on the way to class. The final was scheduled at 11am so at 10:55 I sent it down to the printer and headed downstairs. When I got to the music office the printer was in pieces all over the room and a repair man was working on it. Uhhhhhh. I looked a little panicked so the secretary told me to go to the copy center. Ummm, that's on the other side of campus and I'd have to wait for the order and the final starts now. Okay, she said to just send it to her printer- a little desktop printer. I explained it was a 7 page exam and I needed 30 of them, staple-sorted. A desktop printer would take an hour to do that. Creative thinking, creative thinking.

"I've got it!" I said. I'll project the exam from the computer (all the classrooms are equipped for that) and pass out blank paper and they'll just write the answers on the blank paper. So I went back to the class and told them what we'd be doing and passed out the blank paper, turned on the projector and ....nothing. Great. Go to find the tech guy who sighs and asks if we have the right buttons pushed. He checks it and we do have all right buttons pushed (I would rather have been wrong since that would have meant it was actually working.) So he tells us we'll have to move to another classroom. The only problem is that I have so many students in my class that we only fit in the large classroom which is the one we were already in. He tells me to wait and comes back a few minutes later and says that we'll have to take our exam in the concert band rehearsal room since it's the only one big enough to fit and had a projector. So everyone had to trek over there (now 35 minutes past the scheduled start of the exam) and take their final exam sitting in orchestra chairs, writing on music stands on blank copy paper looking up and down from the projector. I had one printed copy of the exam to circulate around the class. I feel like they should all get extra credit just for going through that for their final exam.

The Dealio on the Blogio

Okay, so here's the deal with the Petrie's Blog woes. We switched to Beta because the whole of Blogger will be switching soon. You have to create a separate Google account to do so, and we have. We were supposed be able to use all of our old Blogs and have the new features on our "original" Blogs, as well. Only part of that seems to be true at this point. I can do anything I want on PP, but I can only post and do admin functions on FL.
Heidi, I still have admin priviledges on FL, and tried to invite myself with my google account, and it worked 90% of the way. That is, until I tried to log onto, and comment on, FL.
Seeing all the issues that the, er, "older" generation had even getting onto Blog in the first place, I think it's best that I am the test for this process. I will do my best to give you the easiest directions when, and if, it becomes a mandatory process for all.
There are obviously some bugs that need to be worked out by Blogger so that I can comment and not just post, but I will let other members of the greater Blogger community be the ones to raise a stink.
In the meantime, we will continue to post, but our comments on FL will be relegated to Emails. Your comments on PP will also need to come to us via EMail.
Thanks.
KJ

Cade's joke and Heath's bottom

Ok, so here is Cade's version of the "frayed knot" joke: Three seashorses swim into a bar, and order milkshakes. The first two get kicked out and are told "we don't serve seahorses here." The Third seahorse curls his tail way up and orders a milkshake. The bartender says "Didn't you see the sign? We don't serve seahorses here." "I'm not a seahorse," the third seashorse says, "I'm a mollusk!" Ta-Dum-Dum! Heidi, does this remind you of the "jokes" Ian and Neil used to tell when we were children? Because I'm afraid Cade's going to start quizzing people about the Capital of Lithuania when he meets them.

On to Heath's unintentional joke. While we were up in Klaipeda last weekend, we stayed with some other Fulbrighters there. During breakfast, Heath had to go potty. Kyle went in to check on him, and asked him if he had washed his hands, and Heath answered "yes." Kyle, being ever observant, noticed that Heath's hands were indeed, wet, but that the sink was not. Kyle became a bit concerned and asked him where he washed his hands. Heath pointed to the BIDET, and said "in the kids' sink!" Kyle explained what it really was, and then he came running into the kitchen very excitedly after a trip to the bathroom, and exclaimed to the people eating breakfast (who had no idea what had just transpired) "they have a sink for your bottom!" Then he realized what he had done, and was so embarressed that he ran back to his room and would not come out for several minutes.

testing

ding dang blog says I'm not a member since our other blog switched to Beta. Anyone else having a prob.?

Gotta Go!

This Blog has been without pictures for too long, so I will add something in the next two posts, just to break up the black and white (of interesting stories, yes).

I was making this (originally boring) exposure while waiting for a trolleybus. I was totally going to get on one during rush hour, and take a crazy picture from the inside. But I simultaneously saw someone I knew, and someone I didn't like (he was eyeing the camera). After the timed exposure was done, I picked up the tripod and walked over to my acquaintance. About two seconds later I heard the shutter close. Oops--wasn't quite done. I like the result, mostly because it was a total accident.

A Joke: Part One

Cade asked me to tell a joke at dinner the other day. I attempted to decline, saying I didn't really "do" jokes. He didn't buy it because he knows I am funny, and then Windy tried to explain that daddy is funny "in the moment." Still, no budge from Cade. I relented and told him the one joke I know. Which, I am sure y'all know as well. The short version:
3 ropes are outside of a bar. There is a sign that says "No ropes allowed" on the front door. The first rope says "I won't stand for it, I'm going to get a beer." He goes inside, and gets turned down by the bartender. He comes back out, humiliated. His buddy, the second rope, goes in, and tries to bully his way into a beer. "No ropes allowed!" replies the bartender. He comes out, more humiliated than the first. The third rope, a little smarter than the others, says, "I have an idea." Then he tied himself in a knot right in the middle of his "torso." Then he frizzed himself out both ends. He walked in, ordered a beer. The moment the bartender placed the beer on the bar, the rope slammed it back as fast as he could. Just as he was leaving to brag to his friends, the bartender asked, "Hey! Aren't you a rope?" He turned around and said, "No, I 'm a frayed knot."

Can you believe I found this picture on the internet?

I shall let Windy tell A Joke: Part Two

Shep and Mary

I just checked my address file and I still have an FPO in there for the Matthesens. Anybody have a current address for me? Also, what is Shep doing now? Is he still assigned to a ship? It's been awhile since I've heard an update.

Cade and the Delicious Treat!

So Windy's Chair invited us for dinner last night. We were all very nervous. She is 20 years older than us, and her husband is 15 to 20 years older than she. We have two boys, they have never had children. They are foreign intelligentsia. I am an idiot. You know, the usual concerns.
I gave the boys explicit instructions about behavior, and they seemed to get it. They have been wonderful almost everytime we have needed them to be, so we shouldn't have worried. We took a taxi and ended up being a half an hour late. No one's fault-just traffic and a motorcade. I told the boys to try anything that was presented to them, and that I would back them up, and get them out of anything too awful. I told them they didn't have to finish anything-but they had to try it.
We enter the home-crackers, cheese, and cookies. Good!
First course-bread with cheese and caviar. Bad!
Cade says"I want to have one." I did everything to disuade him, but he wouldn't hear me. He even used my own words against me: "Dad, I am supposed to try new foods."
"Okay, but just a little bite."
He took the biggest bite you can picture, and almost went into convulsions immediately. I let him spit it out into a napkin, but he wasn't slick at all. Imagine all the gagging, hacking, and spitting an over dramatized kid could muster-then make it real.
The caviar was pretty and he thought it looked like a dessert. I tried a huge one, and almost puked (no one noticed). Windy took one for the team, and ate about 6-10 of them because they said we had to finish them before the next course. I admitted I wasn't a fish person and excused myself from anymore caviar.
Next course: tuna (fish) salad with globs of mayo, black and green olives and soft boiled eggs. Mmmmm, tasty. First-tuna is much different here. They don't drain the oil and brine at all, and the fish is a very dark brown.
All in all, everyone in our family at some, or all of each dish that was presented (I drank a lot of wine, because they just kept pouring, and I wasn't about to refuse that after all of the other food issues-don't worry, I was fine), and it was a lovely evening, with lots of easy converstion. Quite delightful.
I would like to say more, but I am running out of battery power and my computer is yelling at me.

One more thing...

I forgot to mention that it's officially official that Jordan is going to Africa this summer. The letter of intent and deposit are in. He'll be gone for a month, essentially the whole month of July and return in early August. They're not going to a single place with a single project to accomplish. Instead they'll hit a few different places and just do whatever needs doing while they're there, so it will be more like an awareness trip of several different kinds of ministries there. They'll work in a feeeding center where kids walk miles each day round trip for their one meal, a crisis nursery, an AIDS hospital, live in a village for a week, meet with World Vision, attend a Chichewa service, spend a week doing construction, meet with Opportunity International Bank, and visit African Bible College Seminary. Like TMI, they do schedule some "down time" (4 days) for relection and fun, so they'll do a safari and visit a National Park there. I probably won't write any more about it until it gets closer, but I thought I'd let you know.

Love you all.

Goings on...

I've been remiss with posting. I've been reading faithfully, just not posting. It's one of those times where I keep thinking I don't want to post until I can post pictures as well, but this morning I decided to stop waiting for that and just write.

Jordan has the camera this morning. His AP Gov class has really kept him hopping- they require a LOT of footwork and out-of-class personal experience. He's had to do political service hours (he volunteered in the Rep. Party of OC headquarters), court hours (he's observed one day already and today is off to the courthouse again with a load of classmates-there's no school today) and local government hours (sitting through city council meetings). He still has to interview someone from an interest group, and he's still going to work in his shirt and tie every day at the law firm. We've submitted the first round of college apps- 4 with one more going in this weekend. The next round- 3 more - go in after Christmas.

I've been so proud of myself that I haven't been sick all semester even though I have sick students coming in for lessons every day and sniffing, sneezing and coughing. But we finally got hit this week. I say we- because it hit Mark, Jakie and I all at the same time. So Jakie's home today and only I have to head off for work since the last time I called in sick (1 day early in the semester- a 24-hr throat virus I didn't want to spread to students) I was told that my boss was "not happy about it". Okay...so I go to work sick. I really can't complain. I finish next Wed. Today is the last day of class. Mon I go in on my own time to teach some extra lessons for my voice majors who want some extra coaching before juries. Tues is 9-4 voice juries, which means I sit in a room with 2 other voice teachers and just listen to students one after another non-stop except a short lunch break, writing down comments on their singing and giving grades. It's always a little tedious and a little fun. It's nice to hear other students and exchange ideas with the other voice teachers and hear different songs. I have a deal with the full-time voice faculty who I'm on jury panel with, that we are each other's "bad cop". I threaten my students with what he'll think of them, and he threatens his students with what I'll think of them. Works out well. :-) Wednesday I give my final for the classroom course and then stay put until the grading is done. Then yeehaw! Then I get to focus on Christmas and getting ready for our trip. :-)

The book continues to move along. We are now in the "copyedit" phase which is harder than I thought it would be because I'm doing all the input and it involves working with these electronic documents in really complicated ways. After that comes the "galley copy" phase where we get to see what it actually looks like. Then - the finished product! Of course, we still have the voice-over recordings to do for the foreign language translations and some back on forth on front and back cover design, CD cover design, and marketing materials and strategies. It's a lot of work, but I'm learning a lot and I'm hoping it will all be worth it in the end. But after this, I'm sworn off "projects" for a while! At least a year or more. I just want to focus on getting Jordan ready for graduation and college and enjoying family time.

Yesterday was nice- It was my day off and Jordan missed school for getting some Xrays of his foot (he only has school until 10:30 every other day) so the 4 of us went off to breakfast at Denny's and came home and enjoyed being around the house with the Christmas tree and lovely weather.

There's probably more, but I have to run.

Love you all.

Artic Fever

Remember Heidi's story of Jordan's midnight shower? Well, our kids have apparently caught some sort of Artic Fever here up north, but they don't do anything so sedate as shower when it hits them. Honestly, it is VERY overcast at this time of year in LIthuania, and sometimes difficult to tell a day sky from a night sky, except that the night sky has a reddish glow to it. So when the kids get up at 7 or so it feels and looks like 4 a.m. to us. We now open all the blinds and shades in the bedrooms when we turn out the lights to go to sleep, because with them closed we are afraid we would just sleep all day. Well, the other night it happened. I heard what sounded like wild Lego-oriented banshees in the next room, and then the kids came in to ask if they could go downstairs for snacks. (I always leave bananas and yougurt ready for them to eat each morning before Kyle and I catch on that it is, indeed, morning.) I was about to say yes, because they sky looked like it always did at 7:30, but then I checked the clock. It was 4:03 a.m. I asked Kyle to double check. Still 4:03. Apparently, my standard response for Heath, when he would climb in bed with us at 5 a.m. in the States--"Heath, go back to bed. Look: the sun is not up. That means it is still nightime." has completely lost credibility here, because the sun never actually comes up anymore. I am afraid of the kind of migraines I am going to get when we return to blazing-bright Denver after low-light Lithuania. However, it is nice to be able to enjoy lighted candles in the daytime...

Stuck forever???

I have to share my 'horrifying' moment in the fitting room this afternoon. I wore an old (15 yr?) skirt - a broomstick style I've had forever. It had a draw string waist tie. After my nursing home ministry I went to Macy's to try on slacks for our trip - Something nice for Christmas Eve in a cathedral. I tried on the first set, and put my skirt back on. When I began to tie the drawstring it just kept coming til I stood there with the skirt falling off and the drawstring hanging limply in my hand. It had broken in two. This skirt had no elastic - just this HUUUUGE expanse of waistline that needed to be pulled in to give the broomstick look.

I stood there in horror - picturing my self walking out of Macy's and back to my car clutching the skirt to my body - that is if I didn't just stay put. It took my brain a while to figure that there was a solution...... calm down! think, breathe..... I was able to tie the drawstring at my waist and tuck the skirt evenly (somewhat) into it and I think I looked normal. Fortunately my sweater was loose enough to conceal the resulting bulges. I even managed to shop some more for groceries without a problem.

The Nativity Story

Mont & I saw "The Nativity Story" this evening. It was great. I HIGHLY recommend it. It was wonderfully done. I felt like continuing to sit in my chair and just worship God when it was over. I think Mont did too. We didn't move or say a word for quite a while after it ended.

That was the last of our free movie passes we've used - for the past 3 years. We had quite a few - but we sure don't see many movies. OH well -it was nice while it lasted.

French Lessons & minutia

I finally got started on the French CD's "French for tourists". You'll be pleased to know I am learning how to say "Stop thief," "He stole my watch", "I want a lawyer" and "call the fire department."

Did you know 60 has its own name but after that it is 60 and one etc. and then sixty and 11 for seventy one. Strange language. I wonder if they deliberately made the pronuncaitions so strange. But I will be able to greet people and ask how, when, where, and why. - and count! On the other tapes I have I have learned to count my pencils - and order beer. And been told that it is difficult to distinguish 'left' and 'straight on' after asking directions.

Gigi took a tumble on her way to aerobics today - but being the goer she is she got up and went to aerobics! She has a sore (& bloody) elbow, hand and hip. Her hip has an ostrich egg but nothing worse than just sore. Don't know if we'll make it skirt shopping tomorrow like we intended, though. Ouch! Ouch!

Eddie has been incarcerated in the spare bedroom. One day I found 3 pee/spray spots in the fam & living rooms and the next he peed on our bed again on a plastic bag from shopping. (Of course it ran all over the bed) Spanky was having a fit at him any time he moved - I guess it unnerved him or made him mad.??? He's surviving and we take turns going in and reading on the bed so he'll have company. He purrs like a fiend the whole time we're with him. Peace has returned to life in the house.

I have not had a sinus headache since Nov 5th when the Lord healed me. That is an incredible record for me. Just thought you all might like to know that. WHOOOHEEE PTL
ps Windy, did I spell minutia right?

Which One?

Which one do you like better, if'n you even like one? Obviously, one of them is a bit of a statement.
KJ

Kyle and the Pointy Shoes

I have to start this blog with a modified quote from my student Lisa's blog. She is studying in Spain right now and one of the first things she and her fellow students did was inadvertently spend an evening in a gay nightclub without realizing where they were. As she said, "What's the difference between a gay bar and a straight one in Europe? Very little, I have to admit." Well, it was in that context that we took Kyle clothes shopping yesterday. He needed an entire semi-formal outfit for the Transnational Crime Symposium for which he is the (official) photographer, and it was quite a strain to find him things that he thought were (almost) masculine enough. I am not exaggerating when I say I was praying the whole day. We went to the shop of a Polish designer that my friend Inoule (from the embassy library) had recommended. Inoule and I went shopping together on her lunch hour last week and had a great time. I found a great Lithuanian-designed-and-made tweed wool suit for myself, which is exactly what I had decided I wanted to get here, since what Lithuanian women don't know about suits, wool, and tweed is honestly not worth knowing. And when I told her I was going to have to take Kyle suit-shopping over the weekend, she gave me advice on where to take him. So off we went, kids in tow. First, we had to figure out by trial and error what size he was in centimeters. Then, I had to explain to the store manager that while I really liked multi-toned stripes on everything, my husband did not. I think she must have been perplexed when he rejected a white shirt because it had white embroidered stripes on it, but she kept calm and courteous the whole time. Anyway, we found a nice suit, which is cut Euro-style, but not too extremely, although the difference will be apparent when he wears it in America, and a semi-funky tie, but the shoes were what really killed him. He thinks pointy-toed shoes are only for girls. But European shoemakers apparently don't. And he has wide feet. So whenever he found a pair that were wide enough, he kept pointing to how far the shoes stuck out beyond the end of his toes. Se there we were in the mall, with the kids lying on the floor of the shoestores, exhausted by having to be patient all day, and I'm saying, "ok, honey, I see where your toes are, but can you walk in them without tripping?" "No? Ok, kids, let's go to another store." So we finally found some slightly-less-pointy (orthopedic) shoes for Kyle, which will probably still look pointy when we get back to the U.S. I will be sure to take a picture of him tomorrow before we leave for the symposium.
As we left with his shoes, Kyle said "You know what the difference between gay and fashionable is in Europe? Suprisingly, very little."

Pickle Wars

Hot times in my neck of the woods. There's a neighbor girl around the corner who's very cute and likes to walk slowly around the block trying to catch glimpses of Caleb. To celebrate her birthday tonight she had a slumber party with a jillion 10 and 11 year old girls. Ms. Cute Neighbor told Caleb at school that they were going to come knock on his door asking for pickles (yes, pickles) and he's been worrying about it for days. Tonight he had a friend sleep over so they could be a unified front just in case the girls showed up.

Lo and behold, a knock on the door around 6 p.m. and it was a big group of giggling girls asking for pickles as part of a scavenger hunt. I gave them a pickle and as they headed off, the boys (including Joshua) chased them down the street throwing pickles at them. The girls were screaming and laughing, the boys were hollering and bombarding them with pickles. I thought that was the end of it but I was mistaken. Turns out the girls divided into teams for the scavenger hunt so my doorbell kept on ringing and the same scene played out over and over. Caleb had hidden a few snowballs in the garage freezer and those came into play as well. The boys at one point came in for masks, somehow thinking that would make them more mysterious or something. They scrounged around and came up with a Leopard mask, a Shark mask, and a Darth Vader helmet.

After the pickles had run out (I told the last group of girls they'd have to use recycled pickles and made the boys go find some in the lawn ), the prank phone calls started. Messages on my voice mail which consisted entirely of giggling, etc. The boys begged for permission to go do Ring and Runs at their door, so off they went. The Ring and Runs must've gone well because they came back with fistfuls of pizza handed out by the girls. Remember, this is 3 boys versus a whole pack of girls.Finally got the boys settled down and into bed when Caleb's friend comes out and says he wants to go home (11:15 p.m.). His stomach hurts. Okay, so we call his parents who come and get him and off he goes.

I went in to make sure my Caleb wasn't upset and asked him, "Are you okay?" "Well," he says, "I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. He just left me on my own and there's like 15 girls over there..." Poor kid. So many girls, so little time ...

The Neverending Story

I have had children home with me for the last 14 days. First, Sarah and Joshua were sick the two days before Thanksgiving vacation. Second, 9 days of vacation, including the weekends. We followed that up with 2 snow days and now today Amy is home sick. I'm thinking I should just check them all out of school until January and call it good.

The problem with winter...

...is that early morning and late night look the same- dark. The last couple nights we've been having family campouts in our room (which means that both boys sleep in our room). I heard Jordan asking to be woken up at at different times throughout the evening, 6:00, 6:30, 6:15. All three boys were fast asleep before I finally trekked in at about 12:30. I woke Jordan briefly to confirm what time I was supposed to wake him in the morning. "6:15?" I said. He looked at me half asleep and confused and rolled back over. I figured I'd go with 6:15 and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, etc. Coming out about 10 minutes later, I was surprised to see Jordan's bedding empty. Then I heard the shower running down the hall. "Oh no," I thought.

I knocked on the door of Jordan's bathroom. "Jordan, what are you doing?"

"I'm showering. You woke me up."

"It's the middle of the night, Jordan."

"What? What time is it?"

"12:45"

"Great. That's just great."

I felt really bad but I was also laughing hard enough that it annoyed Mark (who doesn't like being woken in the first 3 hours of sleep) and it took some effort to tell Jordan through my wheezing that at least he didn't have to shower in the morning and could sleep in an extra 15 minutes!

Old traditions and new friends

It was so lovely, and almost painful, to see everyone's Thanksgiving photos. Heavy with nostaliga, too. But I am writing to report that we did have some turkey this year after all. The International Church hosted a dinner for expats on Saturday night, just in time for me to be able to eat again. It was a lovely dinner, but, as Kyle said, "not exactly Thanksgiving." We had Turkey, Wine, Garbanzo bean salad, bacon-wrapped prunes, and chocolate-orange souffle of some kind. When an Irish businessman in attendance announced that he was glad to have finally had his "first Thanksgiving dinner," we bit our tongues to keep ourselves from telling him that, in actuality, he had not. But there were some lovely new things: 1.) Elsa, a fetching little girl whose Mom is LIthuanian and father American, who played with the boys all evening, and 2.) This year's European Classical Guitar champion (a proud laurel for Lithuania--they REALLY do music and dance well in this little country) provided live music, which was enchanting. Cade became so mesmerized that he lay down in one of the beams that joined the floor posts and the ceiling beams(it was a Tudor era building design)to listen, and burst into wild applause when the music was finished. I hope the guitarist found it gratifying.

Jakie

Jakie is eating Pumpkin Pie with a smile on his face. Those who remember his first Thanksgiving and his first taste of Gramndma's pie will notice a diffrence.

Another thing we played was lots of trains. Jakie is enjoying them first thing in the morning here.

Thanksgiving

Thought I'd post a few pics from our time with Heidi & fam. Heidi put on a delicious traditional spread with a bit of help from me, Marie C, & Mont.

Jakie had lots of play with Granny (I was Granny, and Mont - Poppy this weekend for some reason). He announced at some point that was what he was calling us this time. In the pictures we are playing boat. We had quite a trip - its a good thing he's a skilled engineer and pilot.
Gigi and I also enjoyed some walks with Tessa & Jakie.

Heidi & I watched the 2nd half of the Oregon Civil War game and sure enjoyed the ending - lots of excitement! We all then watched USC/ Notre Dame on Sat before we drove home. It was a nice relaxing time - which was just what Heidi needed.

An atypical Thanksgiving in Dallas, Oregon!

Hi All!
WHAT a joy filled TG we had after Fridays infamous Beaver-Ducks "Civil War" game! Grampa & I sat all 8 Grands at D&G's while their parents, bundled in rain gear, topped off by fashion conscious ORANGE plastic ponchos ;-) carpooled to Corvallis - Beaver flags a flyin'!

As I JUST completed commenting in previous BLOG posts, those of us left behind, with the likely exception of diehards Caleb and Kelsey ;-), were quite content to watch OSU's hair raising WIN in the comfort of D&G's baby gated :-) family room! When they FINALLY managed to return (HORRENDOUS traffic tie ups!), we enjoyed our "cheated" on dinner and found it every bit as satisfying! - Baked Turkey breast, boxed mashed potatoes with flavorful heated canned gravy, boxed stuffing etc & polished it off with CostCo Pumpkin Pie & Sugar Free Cherry pie! :-) THEN we ALL stayed overnight at D&G's after N&T, D&G, Mike, Monique and myself played "Mexican Train" while others of the Grands amused themselves in assorted ways. (Monique in particular LOVES games - she & I even managed to play a few during the Civil War, after Amy & Monique (& eventually myself) got Ethan down for his nap!)

Speaking of ETHAN, he had a ball - literally! He searched out every ball or ball like object in the house and loved playing "catch" with cousin Caleb! Caleb in turn really enjoyed having a (baby boy) cousin who obviously loves "fuh-ball" too! :-)

In the am we had a tasty pancake feed before we HAD to "dispurse", though at their requests, Mike & I kept K,M & Emma with us when N&T & Ethan left so that the Grands could spend more time together - They practically sequestered themselves to squeeze in that last hour!! These (small sized) posted pic should give some idea of the fun we ALL had! - If you click on each pic, it will enlarge so you can see them in better detail. "Gotta" scat!
Love to ALL! M&M

On my feet again

Ok, so I'm out of bed today--thank heaven. This is my second food poisoning episode of the Fulbright--I guess it's always a risk when you travel. But I'm glad that it was only me and not any of my boys, big or small, because then I'd feel even worse. I am a more adventurous eater than anyone in the fam, and that doesn't always pay off. And it was very sweet--by last night, I was ready to eat something, so Kyle made mashed potatoes, and that was our Thanksgiving. It was enough for me, but definitely not for our legendary two-fisted pie eater...
Food (or lack thereof) notwithstanding, we are always thankful to be part of this family.

Jus Chillin'

Windy has some sort of stomach issue that is not fit to mention on Petrie's Progress, and is barely fit for here, but I must mention it only to provide the intro for the day the rest of us are having.
The boys and I are at the American Center having school in the library so mom could relax without an noise or distractions. I found a website that has printable things to color for Heath, and he has spent most of the day having "art". Now he is relaxing with Toy Story 2 on my computer with the most oversized headphones you could imagine on a 4 year old. Cade's work was review today, so he has plugged away in his workbooks and is now coloring a Space Shuttle we found on the internet. Aside from one hour that we were kicked out of the library so the Ambasador could hold a meeting, we have had a relaxing and productive day.
I wish I could say the same for Windy, which is odd, since I am the one with the weak stomach.

11:00 pm & California dreamin'

Mont & I watched "The Fellowship of the Rings" Friday night - how convenient that we were both in the mood the same night. We snuggled Eddie a lot and loved and cooed him - he'd had a hard day with Spanky. At 11 we headed for bed - only to find he'd pee'd on the sheet pile on the bed (I'd left them off after laundry til I knew if Mont wanted the flannel sheets on or not). OH BOY - my pillow case wet with you know what! We were rather grumpy by the time we'd cleaned everything up and settled into bed. I think Eddie knew he blew it even though we didn't actually beat him or yell or anything. Eddie did NOT get to sleep on the bed he'd marked. Today both cats were very mellow!!!

The the newly painted red house across the street was listed for sale. $899,999. Snicker. I feel sorry for their realtor. 3 bds, 1 bath, less than 1400 sq. ft., lousy condition. Clueless. Not very many people showed for the 1st open house today.

"Sitting" Emma & Ethan :-)

Sharing some personality shots of a couple of episodes of our recent fun with the Grands! It a delight to me to see that Emma & Ethan are real playmates! He says
her name clearly, now, too! Too bad we couldn't get any good enough shots of Ethan's "throwing arm", however! "The Kid" IS "a natural"! Signed, Proud Gramma :-)

Just the Petries

Here is a picture of the boys in the midle of a snowball fight. We were waiting for Kaze to come downstairs from Karen's house and, even though I told them not to get their knitted gloves wet, they started throwing snow at each other. It was, as you can see, quite unorganized, and quite fun.
We miss everyone, and we'll be heading home in a month. Can you believe it has gone by that quickly?!

- - NO, it wasn't "Mrs. Sorensen"!

After having experienced another prolonged bout of record breaking rain with WIND, Mike & I ventured forth late this afternoon into a welcomed "sun break" to walk the park pathway alongside the swollen Willamette River at Salem's Waterfront Park. We had earlier attempted so see if we could go to Dallas and give Darc a much needed break from the tedium of George's 14 hour days as the state budget is being "wrapped up", but, sigh, their 2, too sick kids eliminated that possibility. SOO not to lose the beauty of the day, off we went and what a blessed time we had!
- Enroute, we ended up driving through a short "one cloud rain fall", when Mike spotted a HUGE BRIGHT complete DOUBLE rainbow! Oh the beauty but of COURSE, no camera, sigh!
- Eventually we pulled ourselves away to continue walking, stopping to gaze at the lovely serenity of the reflected fall foliage at a bend called the Willamette Slough. After a time, I began to more closely observe what had initially appeared to be a GOOD sized "log" floating down river, about 75 yds away. I finally gathered my "courage" and pointed it out to Mike, commenting that I thought it looked like a BEAVER! (Well, afterall, there ARE several trees along the river bank at Waterfront Park which have had to be wrapped with chicken wire to protect them from further gnawing!) BUT, after a few moments of study, he proclaimed "NAW its Mrs. Sorensen" - a log. (SIGH - I DO have a reputation to "live down", I'll agree!) BUT my curiosity continued until I reluctantly began to agree, THEN "Mrs. Sorensen" DOVE deeply, RIGHT before our incredulous eyes, leaving circular rings in "her" wake!!!! Talk about EXCITED!! We continued to watch, trying to determine how long "she" might remain submerged, then as suddenly as "she" disappeared, she breached the surface, floated further downriver for a few seconds then dove again! This time, after "she" reappeared, she turned and swam upriver out of our sight nearing a bank whose reflections so heavily mirrored the foliage, that we couldn't see her anymore excepting ONE more huge ringed ripple of goodbye!
WHAT a blessing and awesome afternoon! - And we'd have missed it all had we been "pushing" ourselves! :-) OH how I wished we could have pulled our Grands out of "thin air" to share it with them! NOW whenever we walk there, we'll ALL know to keep our eyes open for "Mrs. Sorensen"! mc

Gigi's Birthday Cake

Gigi wanted everyone to see her birthday flower cake - sent by the Schmidts. We found it on our doorstep when we arrived home Sunday evening. Pretty Huh? And no claories! Sorry that the light was not very good. It is a delicious red & white combination of carnations and mums with a red rose on top, and red ribbons spaced a round.

Here's a little pygmy nuthatch on the tree next to the balconey. This is a recycle from our Sept trip, 'cause we didn't take a single picture this time. But we had a wonderful time.

We went preparing to be really cold til the house heated up (can take a while with hydronic) - and were pleasantly surprised to find it pleasant in midafternoon when we arrived. The winter sun coming in the southern windows had done a great job of heating the house to 64 - even though the nights have been in the 20s & 30s. The house is wonderful and I love the hydronic heating!! It makes the house so comfortable all over - no cold or hot zones - except for the sun's effect. What a contrast this morning! It was 56 outside - compared to 24 or so in Az - and sitting at breakfast here I was cold - my feet were cold. In AZ I was comfortable even next to the windows. On sunny days we won't have to heat the house - even when the outside temp is below comfort level inside.

We had very pretty days - though crisp -in the 50s. One evening we had our neighbors over and played chicken foot - and the next evening they invited us over for soup dinner. They moved in about 3 weeks ago. They have lovely things!! They seem to think we are rich because our house cost more to build than theirs did. Wait til they see the contrast in the furnishings when we really move in!! We have our "art" & investment in the house itself - they in the furnishings.

Gigi really enjoyed being there. It took the critters about 3 days to find us - they were all over the morning we left - and she spent lots of time watching them.

Eddie functions as a great 'wildlife alert system'. I was in the sunroom & saw him stiffen and then react - couldn't decide whether it was fight or flight - I expected to see an elk - but it was a grey fox trotting down next to the house with his breakfast in his mouth. Eddie ran to find another window when he went from view. I found foxy again peeking around the corner of the deck - what a sweet face! - but scared him off when I was trying to get a view for Gigi. Yes he had a sweet face - even with breakfast in his mouth - no wonder the gingerbread boy trusted the fox.

Sounds interesting...

I was trying to make a reservation at a London hotel for our stayover there, so I called, knowing it was late but hoping their reservations were 24 hours. A gentleman with a very proper Chinese/British accent (if you'd heard it, you would believe me) told me that reservations were from 9-5, and that since it was 2am, "Everyone is on the bed."

Whew!

Well, did I finally make this blog?

Louisiana

The flight out was awesome to begin with- flying through a lightning storm and the kind of turbulence where the plane just drops. We arrived at Louisiana International Airport at about 12am, after a two hour delay at the Houston airport. The lady who drove our shuttle was insane and almost killed us on the way to the rental car lot. We then took another hour to fasten our bags to the roofs of the 4 minivans we rented. It was 4 am by the time we pulled into Lynn Oaks School in Braithewaite, Louisiana, (a little less than an hour's drive out of New Orleans)and was raining harder than I have ever seen in my life. Chris and I played Frisbee in the gym for an hour, until about 5am since we'd been cooped up traveling all day, before we went to bed.

We woke up exhausted the next morning at about 11 am and headed to the first house we were going to work on, which belonged to Mike Peterson and required A LOT of repair. We didn’t work on Friday since we had arrived so late the night before and were getting ourselves organized, so we surveyed the destruction wreaked by Katrina, which was intense. There were military police rolling down the street in armored humvees, houses in the middle of streets, cars still stuck in the bayou, homes falling over or turned completely different directions, and houses that were essentially big piles of rubble. We ate a very unhealthy and very dissatisfying Gumbo for dinner that night and then turned on Lancer Radio to listen to our team beat Mater Dei at their homecoming game.

The next day we went to town on Mike’s house. I mostly just power sanded and re-mudded the ceiling. I also helped with framing and dry walling in the kitchen. We worked from about 9 am to about 5 pm. All 30 of our team members worked in his house and we got a TON of work done. We went to a church service that night and then came home and went to bed.

On Sunday we attended a church service given by the church who sponsored us, led by a pastor named Brother Rustin. The service was no typical Lutheran sermon, it was an exuberant Assemblies of God service with someone speaking in tongues and a lot of “PRAISE THE LORD” or “HALLELUJIA”. After church, we toured the 9th ward in New Orleans and another neighborhood, two of the most devastated neighborhoods in Louisiana. There were police everywhere, and almost as many gangters sitting on the street (well, I'm assuming, but that's what they looked like), houses were completey destroyed, with piles of trash and rubble everywhere. Maybe about 1 out of every 20 houses had been repaired.

On Monday we split into 3 teams of about 10 each and headed out to different houses to work on different projects. Our project was with the Benfiglio family (who managed to somehow not acknowledge our presence the whole time we were there, which was a little weird). We tore up their flooring, put in a new plywood subfloor, and did some demo in their bathroom. The house next to them was no longer there, moved by the flood.

On Tuesday we worked again from 9am to 5 pm at the Benfiglio home doing much the same work as the day before. Since it was Halloween, our evening devotion was really fun: a backwards scavenger hunt, where we found things and then got the list of what to make with what we had found. A lot of improv was involved so I LOOOOVED it.

Wednesday, we went back to Mike’s house and continued working there for the morning, where I got to crawl in the attic drilling holes, and also rewiring outlets. At noon, we moved back to the Benfiglio's. Since our days were long work days with few breaks, by the time we got back to the school where we stayed, we were in the mood for some fun. Chris and I decided to Duct tape Miss Rueter, one of the chaperones, to her bed. It was TONS of fun and we all had a good laugh at that.

On Thursday, our team was cut in half due to some minor sickness, mostly colds. So we worked extra hard and actually finished our house a day early. We came home and, as your would expect, more shenanigans ensued. The girls targeted me and destroyed me in a water balloon ambush. I was soaking wet and I came back into the room and found my sleeping bag full of tampons and maxi pads so they all had a good laugh at me. We went to Bubba Gump’s for dinner and I asked for my meat to be cooked to this order exactly, “Put it in the pan for 2 seconds, flip it, other side for 2 seconds, take it out” it was delicious and I had a good time grossing all of the girls out.

On Friday I stayed at the school to help bag up canned goods for the Saturday donation. We did a lot of work back at the school and then made brownies. Hilary, Kylie, Paige, John and I all stayed up talking until 5 am on Friday night since it was our last night, which was a lot of fun.

On Saturday we got on the plane to come home. But we had one last thing to do... Joel got his guitar out and we all sang praise songs on the plane. The stewardesses loved it and so did half of the plane apparently, since a lot of people joined in and it was a great time! Overall, it was my favorite trip of ALLLL time, I had such a good time, I loved everyone there and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

It's also made me really look forward to next service trip I hope to take- to Malawi this summer.

Jordan

Safe, Sound and Stinky

Jordan's back under our roof, and in the shower. It sounds like his trip was a little mini-TMI, 10 days worth. I'm sure Darc will remember something similar, but I think I took the longest hot shower of my life when I got home, and that was clearly his primary focus. He was happy, energetic, talkative and kept apologizing for his aroma the whole ride home. He said he hasn't showered in three days and the 3 showers he has gotten have been short and very cold.

He said he really loved his teammates, enjoyed the exertion of so much physical labor every day, the ritual of group devotions every 12 hours, and really loved being there, but was also very happy to come home. Sounds familiar!

He did a bit of almost everything- it sounds like they were doing every kind of demolition and reconstruction. And since he was one of the few boys, and one of the oldest at that- he got a lot of the extra fun tasks like crawling in the attic with the giant drill putting in holes for fixtures. He also did things that I didn't think they usually had teen vounteers do, like rewiring. Oh well. Chalk up one more Counsell who can install an outlet.

I'll leave the rest for his own words tomorrow. I "requested" he sit down and put things in his own words while it's all still fresh. I told him he'd thank me for it 10 yrs from now. No pics until we can get them from the couple photogs Jordan relied on.

Someone tell Nathan...

...Mark appreciated the phone message.

Kids stuff

Hey! Just indulge a proud Gramma who is on her way to work, here! Not in order - Joshua's (on Darcy's chaotic Saturday) soccer. Note it was COLD & "don'tcha" just LOVE that smile?! ! Sarah running into my arms after getting off her bus (ahh yes, I LOVE it!) 5th grade Caleb wearing the OSU shirt (mens medium!)Uncle Nathan passed down - yikes, it FITS! Am off to turn in my ballot on the way to work, so more later! mc with mb's assistance :-)

PS. Speaking of mb - he is 64 today and I've been singing "yep I still need him yep I'll still feed him now that he's SIXTY FOUR"! Soooo, Happy BD Mike!

Off to the beach

I'm scooting out of town in the morning for a weekend in Seaside with 5 friends. The forecast is rain, rain and more rain, but that's good because it will save me from the hot tub. Last year I made a hasty exit from said hot tub when one of my friends started discussing her breastfeeding issues with a 20-something college guy and his bikini-clad girlfriend. Complete and utter mortification, I tell you. I'll be back Monday. Have a good one everybody!

Name That Book.....

This is a quote from a book I'm reading now - published 1859 -
The first character says a man needs a wife to take care of the house, cook and make things comfortable.
"Nonsense! It's the silliest lie a sensible man like you ever believed, to say a woman makes a house comfortable. It's a story got up, because the women are there, and something must be found for 'em to do. I tell you there isn't a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but a man can do it better than a women, unless it's bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way."
I love it!
Kaze - can you name the author & book?

The lesser-known 17th circle of Dante's Inferno

is the cloakroom of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. I tried three different "lines," all of which disappeared as soon as I got into them. One was even official: a man in a green jumpsuit saw me get in a line, and then yelled (in Russian, so I am kind of guessing at this) "Hey, form a new line, away from that American! That's right. All you schoolchildren! Make sure you shove her a lot!" After the third try, I gave up and was about to climb the nearest statue and start gibbering and throwing things like a deranged monkey. Knowing that I would only get in more trouble that way, I clung to a nearby column while Karyn took my coat and shoved her way to the counter. She said it was fun to "get her New York on," but I would have preferred to carry the coat (and a goat, a boat, and a moat). But they won't let you keep your coat. I know this because we got chased out of another museum door by another old lady, screaming at us and making stripping motions with her hands. Thank Heavens it only meant that we had to check our coats.

Getting the coat back wasn't any easier. I took my number, 624, to the counter marked with the 600s. A woman who looked just like Kyle's grandmother yelled at me and motioned me away to the next counter. I took my number over there. Another woman yelled at me and motioned me back to the first woman. At this point, I began yelling and gesturing a bit myself. "SHe told me to come Here!" said my hands. Then the two women began yelling and gesturing at each other. Kyle's grandmother lost (unbelievably), and I was sent back to her, where she took my number as if she had never seen me before.

And, yes, Heidi, I saw some magnificant cathedrals, too. But I am posting my un-PC stories on the family blog and tonight I will post more sanitized stories on Petrie's Progress--with photos. I am trying to decide how much is too much for my students to read. Will they still respect me if they know that I spent the train ride home vomiting into a shopping bag? NOTE: when in Russia, don't eat Pizza, no matter how hungry you are.