Month: November 2005

I printed out all the itinerary items for our trip to Mexico and also sent copies off to Lorena and my brother Doug who is coordinating everything. I am very much looking forward to this trip. I need to do a little shopping before I leave to buy some drawing supplies and maybe some Christmas music. I think I might do that after work tonight because I am really not going to have a lot of time after that. Tomorrow night I need to get all my clothes washed and the car packed so I can leave from work Friday.

Last night, I drove down to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to see one of our missionaries, Jonathon Wright off to Chile. I knew him when I first went to Mexico in 1983. He is a wonderful man and has been an encouragement to me in his steadfastness as a servant of God. Also, I met a couple who have two beautiful children that they are homeschooling. They seem to be very balanced in their approach. She is basing here system off of Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Bauer’s The Well Trained Mind. It takes a lot of preparatory work and organization to use that system effectively, but she seems to have the type of personality that is well suited to that type of teaching. The Sonlight program we use includes a lot of the concepts pioneered by the Bauers, but packaged differently and emphasizing things we believe are much better suited for our children and the goals we have for their education.

On another note, a buddy at work sent me a link to a video of the coolest Christmas display ever.

I just read a great article on homeschool in the Seattle Times. If articles like that start appearing in newspapers like the Times, homeschool just might make it into the mainstream.

Just a few more days until I am back with the family. Grandpa Milo is off in North Carolina talking to a couple of Quality Corners biggest customers. We could well know a lot more about the direction our little company will take and, even more importantly, we will be together and on our way to Mexico for vacation before the end of the week. It is all exciting even though there is plenty of stress!

My plan is to return to some more serious blogging over the next week or so. All I have left to do for my family to arrive is to get the apartment rented. This Friday, I fly to Oregon and then on down to Mexico for a week in the sun in Puerto Vallarta with Lorena’s parents, brothers, and their families, my parents, my brother and his wife, and, of course, all of us. After Puerto Vallarta, we will fly back to Oregon and then head directly down to Dallas.

The reason for the renewed effort in our blogging is to allow for more participation in our homeschool by our extended family. Here is what we plan to do:

I hope to post, at least a little, from Puerto Vallarta. Maybe I will be able to put up some pictures if I am lucky.

Lorena has been doing a great job of getting rid of stuff so that we do not have to move it. She is giving away cabinets, beds, shelves, and tons of other stuff. It is a waste of time and money to have too much stuff. I worked on Saturday and had a relatively uneventful weekend. I went to Mesquite for Sunday morning fellowship meeting and Sunday afternoon gospel meeting. Kelly had a great time at her sleepover at Malia Doolittle’s house. Christian has been a big help to Lorena lately doing all sorts of things around the house.

I will be working through the weekend again this weekend. I think I might try to find some music to entertain me while I am programming. I wish I would have brought along my noise canceling headphones, but they can wait until the family comes out. Kelly is going to a sleepover at Malia Doolittles house along with all her homeschool buddies. This will be her last gasp with that crew. I hope we can find something similar for her here in Texas. There appear to be a good number of boys around Christian’s age in the gospel meeting. I am sure there will be neighborhood kids, too.

A couple more people went through the house yesterday and our real estate agent is planning an open house for the week we go to Mexico. It would surely be nice if the place sells before we move to Texas. It is something about which I should not worry, but do. I went to Wednesday night bible study last night at Jeff and Crissy’s house. The study was on Revelations 13. It was pretty fascinating. Lorena, Kelly, and Christian went to gospel meeting.

It is time to start hunting for an apartment in earnest. I have decided to try not to move into the apartment until we get back from Mexico. I also need to get a P.O. box set up close by here so that we can receive mail at one place even if we move around a little. I very much miss my family and it is driving me nuts that they are not around. I only have to survive about two and a half more weeks before they get here. They went to dinner last night with Jon Wright, Brooke Bracy, Tony, Martha, Joe Layman, and Dellis Waldo. It sounds like they had a good time.

Rigo is in Dallas for a week to train a bunch of people on the work he is doing at his job for ACS in Mexico. I drove down to meet him at his hotel and have dinner with him last night. His wife Minita had made a memories CD of photos with music that we watched when we ate dinner. It was very, very nice and made me realize how fast time flies. He gave us a copy of the disk that I will send on to Lorena. Rigo will be here for a week and then will possibly go on to work in Pittsburgh for a couple of days.

Lorena and the kids stayed with Dad and Mom in their apartment over the weekend. It sounds like they enjoyed themselves very much. Rubix and Kiwi the twin cat sisters went along for the ride, too. They are getting a little bit more used to traveling now.

We have decided to start looking for an apartment. I think we are going to leave our stuff in the house in Oregon until either the house sells or we find a place to buy. When we are ready to go, Lauro and Conchita will come up to Dallas to watch the kids while Lorena will fly back to coordinate the move. It will be a little bit of a pain, but we will get through it. I went to meeting yesterday and met a lot of nice people. Some of them, I already knew. Tommy Hockersmith, our elder, worked with a couple of companies with whom I had worked, Byron Stephens went to meeting with me in El Paso, Dennis Swanson is the brother of my friend Kim Swanson (now something else).

We have put a backup offer on a house we wanted in Richardson. I do not think there is a very good chance that we will get it. We should find out late Monday. If we do not get the house, I am going to go ahead and get an apartment, have Lorena come up here after our holiday and then let her pick out the house she wants. I looked at a bunch of houses in Sachse, Texas that look like they might be just perfect. It is a little further out, but I liked them a lot. After looking, I went to a chinese food restaurant in Sachse called the House of Fortune to buy some take out. It was so good, that might be reason enough to buy our house close by.

There is only an outside chance now that we will get the house we wanted. The man who has an offer on the house has to get his loan approved and some residency stuff (he is an alien) before he the deal will go through, so it looks like I need to keep looking. The whole family was disappointed, but there is still a little bit of hope. There are lots of nice houses here in Dallas. I am sure we will find one. Sometime next week when we know for sure that we will not get the house, I will go rent an apartment and get ready for everyone to come out in mid December. Then, Lorena can take over some of the task of finding us a house.

We should find out today whether we have a chance to get our new house. I left my telephone at home and so I will not be calling anyone until much later. Hey Kelly! That was a great post you left yesterday. You need to keep it up.

Dad told us about a really nice house in Richardson. I didn’t know what to except, you never know with Dad.(: But when we checked it out I found the house to my liking, or to put it a little more strongly, to my loving. Actually I think I liked the neighborhood even more than the house. (not that it’s bad or anything) They have a poker club, a garden club, a playgroup and more! The neighbors maintain a large, really nice, pool for the hot months and there is a park with a playground, pond, green, and bridge. They have a ton of year round events so as to not keep the neigborhood boring since there are so many kids. They include a fall festival, an independence day parade(I am soooo jealous) an “eggstravagansa” for easter and the little kids, and a big yard sale.
The house itself: large, really nice kitchen, really nice bedrooms(Christian’s turn to pick first) and a really nice back yard. I would describe it in more detail but there are others who want to move to Dallas too.(; I hope that Dad and Mom will be able to buy it, if not it isn’t the only good house in Texas. (But it sure seems that way!)

I looked at an absolutely great house on Sunday afternoon with my real estate agent Roya. She is really doing a super job for us. The house has a Sub Zero refrigerator, a spectacular view of Breckinridge Park in Richardson, a wide open kitchen and family room with a gas fireplace, four bedrooms, etc. There are home owner association fees each year, but they go to support a swimming pool and play areas. It is close to shopping. We are going to make an offer on the house today. I will put photos up as soon as I get the chance.

I went to both Sunday morning meeting and afternoon gospel meeting in Spanish in Mesquite, Texas yesterday morning. I met some very nice people. A bunch of us got together and went to Luby’s cafeteria for lunch between meetings. After gospel meeting, I met my real estate agent at a couple of houses we are considering. One of them was absolutely fabulous, but I am going to quit looking until we have our current house in Albany, Oregon sold. On Saturday, all I did was lay around, read books, wash clothes, and eat. It is really hard not to be with Lorena, Kelly, and Christian. We must have talked on the phone at least twenty times during the weekend.

Kelly and Christian continue to do well in their homeschool although they are on a limited program right now. It is a lot of work for Lorena to keep the house neat so that visiting, potential purchasers will see the house in its best light. The days here have been pretty eventful, too. There is a lot to do at work and lot to do in getting ready to get the family out here. We are hoping we can get the house sold, but do not know when that will happen, so it is pretty hard to plan. I think I am going to get an apartment and drive the family out to Texas in early December no matter whether we sell the house or not. It is not good for us to be apart.

I am working again. I started my job yesterday at August Technology in Plano, Texas. It mostly consisted of filling out forms and getting my computer set up. My new boss and the lead programmer in our facility took me to lunch at an excellent Mexican food place. Meanwhile, we had three prospective buyers visit our house back in Oregon. One of them did not like the property because it has a large side yard and a very little back yard. The second liked the property, but has a house to sell before they can buy anything. The last likes the house a lot, but has gone home to think about it for a few days. They promised to get back to us within a couple of days to let us know one way or the other.

The kids continue to perform well in their homeschool. They help Lorena out around the house, continue to swim, memorize, sing, play the piano, etc., etc. I feel like I am missing out on a lot by not having them here. It is true that I am missing out on a lot. This too shall pass. In the mean time, I am staying with Jeff and Crissy Nelson. The workers have been with them the last couple of days. Marilyn Frey is originally from Minnesota. She is the older worker. The younger one is Andrea Jensen from Iowa. They are both great. I cannot wait for my family to meet them.