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|  Well Diane and I are not known for our spontaneity, but I think this past week qualifies. We'd like you all to meet Ciao (pronunced Ki'-oh, long i sound), our Brazilian exchange student from Sao Paulo. We heard about him last Tuesday, made the decision on Thursday, and picked him up at O'Hare airport on Saturday. He is 16, and will play soccer at Rockford Christian, be in Sam's grade, so it was a really good fit for us. He has fit in well with the our other kids - playing cards with them below.(Lauren Marks, Emily's friend is visiting) His English is very good - he is able to understand humor, which is pretty advanced. He is only here for one semester, so he'll be going home in December. . So we have made our busy lives busier. But I think this is a good busy. In one sense, it isn't spur of the moment, because we have talked about 'one day' we'd like to have an exchange student. But the way it came about sure was fast! We took him today to Beth's house - we've been trying to do one workday a month at her house. I drove Beth's John Deere tractor for about 3 hours, mowing weeds. I haven't done that much tractor driving in a long time. On another note, I have finished the back patio, except for planting grass, which I'm going to delay for a couple days because it's been so hot. This is the nicest patio I've ever had. Sam and Seth helped put together the gazebo.   
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| We have a nice big backyard with this 'new' house. Although the front of it had landscaping, the back was like a field. Which was nice for the soccer goal I built for Sam, but wasn't aesthetically pleasing. So our summer project is to add some trees, flower beds, and last and certainly not least, a brick patio. We have a deck that is about 7 feet off the ground - we are adding the patio down below.   This will be the fanciest patio I've ever had - will include a seat wall, and about 300 square feet of brick. We're doing it ourselves - a former neighbor and good friend who is a brickmason is loaning us a really high quality masonry saw. The right tool makes all the difference!
 This last pic shows the flower beds and trees we've added. Sam has done most of the digging to turn over the sod - I rototilled, and raked it all out - Diane and Sam did the planting. Fortunately, it's been a very rainy summer, so things are looking good. My garden is in the far right of the picture - with the recent hot humid weather, it has really taken off. I'm almost afraid to get near the pumpkin vines.....
Lastly, we are fighting the battle of the Japanese beetles. All these new shrubs and flowers just look like lunch to a Japanese beetle. Fortunately, someone (It might have been Hannah) told me about 'Bag-a-bug". We have killed thousands of beetles with that non-toxic system. We haven't reduced the damage to zero, but it is at a tolerable level now. | | |
| I've actually felt guilty about not keeping up with this better. I've enjoyed reading the little snippets of my extended family's life that show up in my e:mail inbox most every day. Thanks to all of you who are more faithful than I. Here's a little snippet of our lives - after Memorial Day at the farm, we drove to Virginia, on our way to New Jersey for a wedding (we took the scenic route). We drove the entire length of the Blue Ridge Skyway in Virginia. Pretty impressive. I remember one time when I was still in the Navy, my Dad tried to show me the Skyway because it was his favorite drive. We got there, and it was completely fogged in! Couldn't see 20 feet. Things were much better this time. I've tried to attach a couple photos - we'll see how they turn out. This was climbing a Mountain call Old Rag. It was a 7 mile round trip hike, 2500 feet up and down. The kids (and Mom and Dad!) did great - scrambling over the rocks was a lot of fun. We saw this bear along side the road on the Skyway. Sam wanted to wrassle him, but as the good parent I am, told him no, leave the nice bear alone.  Emily took this picture of fireworks on the 4th. Pretty amazing photo, I think. Looks like the meteor that will destroy earth.
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| Wednesday of this week we took the kids out of school, and went skiing. We have a little Midwest mountain in Northwest IL, about 1hour 45 minutes away. It's very picturesque, right on the Mississippi river. At some points it looks like you could ski right out onto the river - but I think the railroad tracks would slow you down. It was the first time for Seth and Emily, and only the second time for Sam. Seth is a wild man - he made several kamikaze runs before he got the hang of how to turn and go at a more controlled pace. They all had a lesson, too - he just would get going too fast, then not want to turn. He said the first time down the green trail, he was just praying 'Please, God, don't let me die!!' Well, he didn't, and everyone had a very good time. Emily did fall and hurt her wrist - shook her confidence for a while, but she recovered, and went on to enjoy the rest of the day. It was a cold day - we got up and looked on-line, and Chestnut Mountain was at -8!! We decided to go anyway, and were glad we did. There was no wind, and it was very sunny. We bundled up, but no one got very cold at all. It warmed up to about the middle teens by mid-morning. We ended up with more sun on our faces than I expected - it wasn't something I usually think about in the middle of February. My 'tanline' goes right through the middle of my forehead. Kinda looks like a bad make-up job. Made for a very nice break from the routine. | | |
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As you all probably guessed, this wasn't actually a picture of me. This fellow was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park in New York City. That place is huge. There was a whole section on armor. I didn't realize it, but this type of armor was worn well into the 1700's. But as I thought about it, that made sense, because that was probably about the time that guns were becoming widespread. Even that armor was not real effective against bullets. I was also impressed with some of the intricate detail artwork on the suits of armor. Made me think that some of them were never intended for battle - maerely show. Even on our big picture, I can't answer Brandon's question about the nail in the eye. Maybe it's actually an antenna for his cell phone.:) | | |
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