Month: July 2006 Page 1 of 2

Kelly and Christian are gone to spend the week with their Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah.  The plan is that they will go visit the fish ladder, the fish hatchery, and one of the big dams on the Columbia River today, then OMSI, the zoo, later in the week.  The days they are not visiting attractions, they are going to build something out of wood with Grandpa Milo.  They went to Sunday Morning Meeting yesterday and then, after eating lunch at the Burgerville where Cousin Kylee works, went to visit Aunt Jean and Cousin Kylee.  Kylee will go up the Columbia River Gorge with them tomorrow, too.

As for Lorena and I, we hardly know what to do with ourselves.  I had to work all weekend, so Lorena stayed home and worked on the garden when we were not at meeting.  We ordered pizza in on Saturday night, then went out to dinner yesterday after meeting.  It is really nice just spending some quiet time together, but a little bit disconcerting to not have the kids there.  This is the first time since they were born that we have not had them with us for more than a day.  We mentioned that we past half way to the point where they will be gone off to college, so this is kind of what our life will be like when that happens.  Lorena said she really does not want to just go to work and come home to think about something to do in our leisure, but she wants to be a help somehow.  I think we might try to find a way to live somewhere in Latin America where we can help in the spread of the Gospel.

I was able to finish my next Wayne the Mexican comic strip in time for the article I am writing on socialization in the homeschool.  Now, all I have to do is finish the article.  It has taken quite a bit of thought.  The issue is not quite as cut and dried as either side thinks.

Yesterday was an exciting and eventful day for Lorena, Kelly, and Christian.  They went to camp while the workers continued working on the the house.  They had visitors and talked and emailed with lots of people about ongoing events and future plans.  I had to work a very long day.  It was very interesting work for me.  We want to make a piece of equipment that no one else really knows how to make.  We are working on the core technologies that will make it possible.  It might not be possible, so we are performing science experiments.  So, when I got home after a day of oscillating senses of frustration and satisfaction that is inherent to this kind of work, everyone wanted to talk but me.  All I wanted was to eat something and go to bed.  Nevertheless, it really was great to hear about such an eventful summer day for the family.  I think it would have been a hugely missed opportunity to not pay some attention and with a minimal amount of effort on my part, we all went to bed feeling pretty good about life.

Our good friend, Jeannie is taking a psychology class this summer.  She went over to the house yesterday while I was at work to interview Kelly for the class.  I was all set to be horrified with what Kelly would tell her about how we do things, but it really sounds like it went well.  Kelly described how we do homeschool, what she thinks about a few social issues, and generally had a really nice talk.  The fun part was that when she was asked about how much she uses the computer, she said not very much because her dad says computer use sucks down your I.Q.  Still, she showed Jeannie the latest issue of Kaktus Kids, the quarterly magazine, she and Christian write.  Jeannie acted genuinely excited about it and wanted to get on the subscription list.  Of course, that endeared her the more to Kelly, too.  We are always looking for people to read the kids writing.  I am sure we will give them a copy of the kids’ annual research reports, too.  It is always great to have more readers!!!

Gimme a W! Gimme an A! Gimme a Y! Gimme an N! Gimme a E! What does that spell??? WAYNE!!!! Who likes Wayne the Mexican raise your hand. If you read this blog and don’t write any comments (ESPECIALLY about Wayne the Mexican) then you’re not REALLY reading this blog. Come on everyone! We know you’re out there!

This is a special reminder from yours truly, Kelly, the Susie Social Butterfly of the ChapmanKids blog. If you don’t agree with Miss Susie Social Butterfly’s latest post then you will have to actually FACE Miss Susie Social Butterfly, ooooOOOooo (that is a WARNING) O-= , Comments make this blog *SPECIAL* C-:

While I was away in Texas, Lorena and the kids went to Sunday gospel meeting with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. They heard a handsome, young (35 years) preacher named Jeremy. They saw him again last week at a potluck for a friend visiting from visiting from Australia while I was in California. We heard yesterday that he drowned trying to save his brother-in-law in a kayaking mishap. The brother-in-law, a 41 year old father of four boys drowned, too. I had never met either man, so it did not touch me so much personally other than in the way it affected Lorena and the kids.  Lorena was especially shook up. The thing she remembers most about Jeremy is his smile. She remembers him smiling all the time. He smiled when he met and spoke with her and the kids and he smiled when he preached.  It is hard to know the mind of God in these things. The comfort we have is that, in this case, we know these men were trying to do what God had given them to do in the time He gave them to do it. That surely seems to be enough.

As many of you know, just about every free evening in the summer, Kelly, Chrisitan, and I all sit down at the dining room table, turn on some classical music–usually Beethoven or Chopin–and draw. We have been working our way through Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad. We even posted some work here on the blog a few weeks back. Lately, there has been an added twist to our drawing efforts. First, when Kelly’s friend Skyler came over to spend the night, we had her join us in our drawing. It was really a great way to enjoy her company and learn something new at the same time. A couple of days after her visit, she told Kelly that she really loved our drawing time and would love to do it again sometime soon.

Over the last couple of days, we have had our minister’s, Joe and Dellas staying with us. We really appreciate that Dellas always takes time to play some games like Scattergories or Cranium with the family, or at least with the kids. Christian and Kelly look forward to that very much. This time, in addition to playing some games, we invited him to draw with us. He did that with us a couple of times and drew some awesome pictures–especially for the first time. It gave us a chance to talk and be together in a way that includes the kids better way than when the adults sit and visit about grown-up stuff. Dellas liked it enough that he might get the book and take it with him so he can do it with other people’s kids, too. I will try to post one of his drawings here, if he will give me permission.

It was hot and humid all weekend long in Oregon.  That does not often happen here; it can get pretty warm, but usually there is not a lot of humidity.  It felt like we were back in Texas or South Florida.  We went to a baptism on Saturday at a beautiful spot on a beautiful river out in the woods of the coast range.  It was a very encouraging time even though we sweated a little.  We had our ministers stay with us through the weekend and went to the last gospel meeting of current series.  It was a little sad, because we found that the minister we have had for the last three years will be leaving Oregon for the state of Washington this fall.  We will miss him a lot.

Lorena and the kids are running over to the county fair this afternoon.  This has become somewhat of a tradition for them since we have been in Albany.  It is a very typical county fair for a mostly agricultural part of the world.  There are lots of cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, vegetables, a carnival, food booths, clowns, and exhibitions of every kind.  They enjoy the fair very much.  They like to go on Friday, early in the afternoon because there are generally not too many people there and everyone is fresh and clean, not yet burnt out from too many long days.

Kelly’s friend Skyler came over yesterday and stayed the night.  They had a great time.  Everyone played together really well in the pool and in the clubhouse the neighborhood kids are building under the Biles front porch.  It was a pretty usual summer day.  We ate lots of frozen blueberries, did our drawing, and just had a nice evening.

The plumber came this morning and put the new pot filler faucet above the Thermador stove top. I called during the process to find out what was happening. Kelly answered the phone and said she didn’t really know what was going on, but Mom had run down stairs as fast as she could with a bunch of towels and there was water everywhere. I just called, now about a half an hour later; everything is OK and the new pot filler looks “fantastico!”

Saturday, we put up the garden block reinforcing wall to keep the dirt in place below the new fence. We put in one yard of dirt behind the wall. We are going to need a bunch more blocks and five or six more yards of dirt before we are through, but it is going to look great. We now have some privacy in our back yard. Ron Williams youngest boy, Darren, came over on Saturday to stain the fence. He really did a super job and we enjoyed having him here.

We really enjoyed having Sandra Ramey over for lunch after meeting on Sunday. The kids did a great job of setting the table, picking up and washing the dishes, and making dessert.

I finished most of my work here in California for this pass.  Our plan is to have a brief customer visit this afternoon then head back to Oregon.  I should be able to get home by around midnight.  Lorena, Kelly, and Christian went to Dave and Glad Christie’s house yesterday to see Chet and Kayleen Nelson and their kids visiting from Australia.  I think they had a good time.

My work here in Livermore IS very interesting and the people are very nice, but I miss my family very much.  It is amazing how much more I worry about them when I am away from them.

I write this post as I travel to Livermore for three days of work. Last night I stayed at a hotel close to Portland International Airport so I could catch an early flight down to Oakland. I should be to work at the ATS facility in Livermore by 10:30 this morning. We are working on a vial inspection line for which I am doing the machine vision work. It should be quite an enjoyable job.

I cannot believe that we are not even half way through July and I have the bulk of the preparation complete for our 2006-2007 homeschool year. I think we have all the books we need on the right shelves in the bonus room. The first week schedules are pretty much put to bed. I was going to do them in the OpenOffice.org database. After doing a little programming, I realized it was going to be a whole lot more work to do it that way than the way we did it last year in an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet. I made it a little more automatic and plan to do the whole year in one spreadsheet file using one sheet per week for the 36 week schedule rather than do a separate file for each week. Weekly scheduling was really not to bad last week and it is going to be even easier this week.

Kelly will be doing the second year of her two year survey of world history while Christian will be doing the fabulous study of non-Western cultures that Kelly did two years ago. I was very surprised that we did not lose ANY books while holding them for the year between when Kelly finished the program and Christian started it. I hope it is that painless every year.

Today Christian and I are going to go sing at the library’s annual talent show. You can win twenty dollars, ten dollars, or five dollars. We are saving up for a new Nancy Drew computer game OR a rocket OR a new King of the Trees book! Even if we don’t win anything it’ll be really fun! Wish us luck!

Yesterday, we had quite a nice evening. We did our Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad and read a couple of chapters from How to Win Friends and Influence People. Christian read the second chapter. I had not heard him read for six or eight months. It is amazing how much his vocabulary and reading fluidity have improved. We need to have him read more. I need to get my eyes checked again because it is getting to be a strain to do too much reading. It was good to have such a nice evening as I have to head down to Livermore, California for three days for work. I really miss the family a lot when I am gone.

Mark and Clinton have just about finished putting up the fence around our back patio and side yard. It looks great. The only thing left is the wooden gate for the side yard enclosure. Mark put an arbor looking thing over the gate leading into the back patio. It looks absolutely great. Lorena wanted one for the side yard gate, too, but the posts are not tall enough. Maybe we can build a real arbor later this fall after we get our retaining walls in place. I plan to start on that on Saturday.

I leveled out the ground inside our new fence enough to put up the above ground swimming pool. We did not put it up just right, but I think it will be good enough for this season. Lorena took Kelly and Christian to the cubscout rocket day.  They both had a great time building and shooting off rockets.  The sad part is that it is now raining and pretty cool. I do not think the kids will be able to swim today.

I spent a couple of hours doing homeschool preparation yesterday. I finished Christian’s first week lesson plan using some new methods developed within OpenOffice.org. It came out great. We are going to have a great year this year. There are so many good materials, that I have a little bit of a struggle working out what not to use. I have loaded Christian up pretty good for the first week. We will try it, but if it is too much, I will back it off a little. I will try to put Kelly’s first week together next weekend.

Mark and Clinton have been working on the new fence and it looks just super.  We did not really have a very good idea about what it was going to do to the appearance of the house other than we thought that it would make everything look smaller.  Now that it is starting to go up, we believe it will have just the opposite effect.  It is going to be just beautiful.  I will take a bunch of pictures as soon as he has the whole thing done.  We made one minor change to our original design.  That was to make the enclosed area a little bit bigger.  I think we will leave grass in that area for now with the thought of building a one car garage with an office and a little shop there next summer or the summer after that if we can afford it.