"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Year: 2007 Page 8 of 15

Another working weekend

I worked through the weekend (except for Sunday morning meeting) and got a ton of stuff down for my job this weekend.  It was a really great weekend in that respect, but now I have just a few evenings to get the apartment cleaned up, get everything moved into my pickup, get all the utilities lined up for our rental house, and get ready to go back to Oregon for the big drive east.  It is a little frustrating to have a week long hiatus in my work at my new company, but even more frustrating to be here without my family.  I am really looking forward to the drive out and am genuinely excited about my new job and the new people with whom we will be meeting for bible studies, gospel, and fellowship meeting.  The elder of our Sunday morning meeting has invited the meeting to his home for the 4th of July.  His wife is from Panama and speaks Spanish.  They have a beautiful home with a swimming pool, so it should be a great time for Kelly and Christian and time for all of us to get a little better acquainted with our whole meeting.

Special note to Christian:  This is what you want to get!!!

Getting close to moving

Lorena is a champion.  She has the house very, very close to being ready to make the move.  She worked very, very hard and deserves much praise (and maybe even a new mattress for all her efforts.  I cannot wait to get out there to Oregon to see them again and bring them home to North Carolina.  Grandpa Milo is going to help organize the truck loading crew and we appreciate that very much, too.

I was going to call Trisha last night and explain to her why she should come on out to North Carolina to get her Masters degree, but ran out of time.  There are STILL compelling reasons why she should consider this.  The number two reason is that she would be close to her favorite cousins.  The number one reason is that she would be on the other side of the country from Merle!!!

Another great poem from our Indiana homeschool friend

Our friend, Corn Tassel wrote another poem for us to go into the KaktusKids magazine!

Mama

Mama tucks us in at night
With tummies full of food
And wakes us up when all is bright
And bids us start the day.

– Corn Tassel

I bought some more stock today

Stock Picks
Date=”June 13, 2007″, Symbol=”IVAC”, Price=”19.26″, Shares=”51″, Commission=”12.99″
Date=”June 13, 2007″, Symbol=”ACTS”, Price=”6.12″, Shares=”161″, Commission=”12.99″

Corresponding S&P 500 shares (for comparison)
Date=”June 13, 2007″, Symbol=”^GSPC”, Price=”1,472.18″, Shares=”1.3365″, Commission=”25.98″

Here is where I was, YTD, before the purchase.

I fun technical solution, Grandpa Milo calls from Alaska, and the Beavers win

Yesterday at work I found a way to replace a very good, but expensive lighting system ($1500) with a very cheap, but even better lighting system by using a parabolic reflector from a cheap flashlight (2 flashlights and four batteries for $2.97 at WalMart).  I love that kind of thing.  Then when I got home, I found that Oregon State’s “Super Regional” NCAA playoff game against Michigan was on TV at my company provided apartment, so I got to watch them qualify for the college baseball world series in Omaha for the second time.  The great part is that one of the local colleges here in the Raleigh-Durham area (University of North Carolina) qualified for the series yesterday.  UNC is the school the Beavers beat last year to win the national championship.  Then, after I was sound asleep, Grandpa Milo called me from his cruise in Alaska with Del and Alice Weber to ask who won the game.  It was, all-in-all, a good day.

I am wondering if JoAnn is still alive out there!?!!

Back in North Carolina

I made it back out east on Sunday evening.  I will post more when I get a chance.

My one day trip to Oregon

I am writing this blog post via wireless internet from the Eugene Airport as I return to North Carolina after my one day visit to Oregon.  We had a great time together.  Yesterday, we did nothing other than what we would normally do on a lazy Saturday.  We got up late to to to Elmer’s for biscuits and gravy and to look at the Norman Rockwell paintings.  Then we went to Ross to buy me some new underwear.  After that, we did more running around and hanging out followed by working on our portrait drawing.  Our buddy Dellas sent us a photo that we want to draw, but we need some more practice first.  Our portraits are starting to get better, but still pretty rough.  We are hoping that, with practice, they actually might start looking like the persons we are trying to draw.  After that we read together about hell in Psalm 9.  I do not know why I picked that, but is was a good read.

We got a nice note in the blog comments from our poet and friend Corn Tassel from Southern Indiana.  She is an amazing homeschool girl with three amazing siblings that we are planning to visit on our trip out to North Carolina later this month.

I had a great time with my family, but I miss them a lot.

A Terrifying Experience :-p (Not for the very, very faint of heart)

    Last night, I was reading the Internet with Mom, when I felt a cold sore inside my lip.  It was itchy and uncomfortable, as most cold sores are, so I bit down on it.  I stayed like that for more than a half an hour and when I let go, the right side of my lower lip was bigger than a swollen watermelon with a gland problem.   Mom freaked out and I started crying.  At first we thought it was an allergic reaction to food or something.  We put ice and Neosporin on it and Mom debated whether or not to go to the doctor.  It leaned down on my face, and the swelling wouldn’t go away. We decided to stay home, but didn’t get to bed till 1:00 in the morning. Ugh…  The lip deflated by morning, and Christian got a picture of it with the cell phone (yuck!  I’m not going to post it up for obvious reasons) 🙂  Needless to say, I survived, though just barely. 

Home for one day

I will be flying home to be with the family tomorrow and get the move coordinated with Lorena.  I will fly back to North Carolina early on Sunday morning to be back at work on Monday.  I am hoping to get some work done on the airplane, but who knows how that will go.

Baja Fresh

Yesterday at lunch time, Glenna, the roller derby lady took some of us out for Mexican food to a place called Salsa Fresh.  It was really pretty good–not Baja Fresh good, but pretty good.  I had salsa rostizada on a huge vegetarian burrito.  I think we are going to be able to find some very good Mexican food here, but we will be in a little bit better situation here than when we moved to Dallas because there is a Baja Fresh on Glenwood Avenue right in Raleigh.  Woo-hoo!  I knew this was the right choice.  The closest Baja Fresh to my other opportunity in College Station, Texas is ninety miles away in Austin.

Heading back to Oregon on Friday

I am heading back to Oregon for the weekend on Friday.  I am not sure whether I will make it all the way down to Albany, but at least I will get to see my family.  Hopefully, I will get something rented in which we can live for awhile either today or tomorrow.  Then I can get the truck to get our stuff scheduled and we will be set for me to go out and get the family to drive back on June 22.  It is bad to be without the family.  I have corrections on the kids annual reports that I have not yet made so, even though the school year is officially over, we have one more thing to do to really finish well for the year.  I will publish the reports here when they are finished.

Stock picks and not much else

More days of just working while I am waiting for my family. There will continue to be fairly small posts until the family get out here a little before the 4th of July.  Here is my current stock pick position versus the S&P 500 after about 4 months total:

Blueberries and free sodas

Yesterday was a very full day. Everyone in the meeting stayed after Sunday morning meeting for a potluck. They are the same here as every other place in the world; there was too much food, but we ate as much as we could. I learned that blueberries grow very, very well here. That should bring joy to our little family. We are huge blueberry fans and will still be able to fill the freezer up with frozen blueberries every summer if we are diligent. The blueberries are way cheaper in the supermarkets here, too. It may be that they just happen to be in season, but I count this whole blueberry thing as a huge positive because we thought we were going to have to go through serious withdrawal due to our acute blueberry addiction.

One of the huge advantages of working for my previous company was that the sodas in the soda machine only cost 25 cents. For a programmer, that is huge. You cannot image how delighted I was when I found that there is no soda machine at my new job. There is only a refrigerator, but it is full of a bunch of different kinds of soda and they are all FREE!

We are almost to the point now where we are going to commit to rent a house for six months or a year while we sell our house in Oregon and decide whether to build a new house or buy one that is already built. It is a tough decision, but I think it will be best in the end. Hopefully, I will get back to Oregon in the next week or two to either get the family or just visit for a few days.

How cool is my job?

The director of software in my new company does this in the evening and on weekends.  She is pretty amazing.

Working weekend

I am really starting to get into the work they have given me in my new position.  My plan is to put in as many hours as possible until Lorena comes so I can get ahead a little.  I will have dinner tonight with Courtney and Carolyn, then try to get a rental house picked out tomorrow.

Back at work

We were really glad to get a couple of awesome poems from our friends in Indiana.  Kelly is hoping she can get permission to put Addie’s in the Kaktus Kids magazine.  I apologize, but will only be able to post short posts until I get a house purchased, get my work under a little more control, and get the family out here to North Carolina from Oregon.

Awesome poems from Audrey and Addie (Our friends from Indiana)

Kelly,

We really enjoyed reading your poem. Very delightful and delicious! :) It made us laugh and say “cool!

Inspired by your willingness to share a poem, here’s one from each of us.

Nature’s Princess

Oh so lovely and fair her golden locks glow.
Her gown of green moss and red roses.
Oh her dazzling laugh that sounds like the birds.
Oh her bed of green moss and fresh leaves.
And her perfume that smells like lavender.
Her favorite plaything is a ball made of roses and sunshine.
Her pet is a little green frog.
And the briers do not ever hurt her.
The end.

By, Addie
Age 8

Cold Grip of Glory

That winter of 1886 the snow piled 11 feet high.
Everyday eyes watched Blue Slide nervously.
Towering mountain of ice with railroad tracks
crawling beneath. Mirrored by rolling
snowballs, tears accelerating
down the frost bitten face.

Eight young me volunteered for the job,
eager for glory. Took up positions
Girded with shovels, gloves and buffalo coats.
Their job to keep the stretch free of snow.
A priority felt for the train
that mapped this small Montana town.

Resolute boys kept their post as
sleet escaped from overturned sky buckets
while the snow crouched precariously
for the right moment to begin its slide.
Hands shadowed eyes on eight
upturned watchful faces.

“RUN!” the leader shouted as the inevitable
cannon’s boom sent them scrambling. Awakened
mountain’s shrug, trees responding protest,
roar of thunder, sickening crescendo
of battle. Followed by
silence…echoing louder than sound.

A fresh crew, the next morning,
telegraphed about the trains
delay 20 miles down
the track. High spirits, whistles
And feet tromped their way to
relieve the boys. Found none,

only that Blue Slide had slid. A
sigh swept through the party as they
realized the boy’s sense caused desertion
during the night. Until on sharp
eyed kid spotted his brother’s
pocket knife and called the others back.

In a feverish haste the men bloodied
their knuckles on the night-crusted
snow. Underneath in a soft death blanket,
smothering to the desperately searching diggers.
One man broke through a thin layer of ice
left by whispered pleas and gasped.

Rescuers hopes punished by
wide eyed marine pools,
not yet weighted with coppers, sharing back.
Other found nearby with steam tunnels that
hinted at short struggles. Arms pinned, faces
shrouded in blue, their mothers’ in black.

This poem recieved an honorable mention in a newpaper literary contest when I was 16. Must have been a slow news day!

Meeting people in North Carolina

I went to fellowship meeting in Cary, NC yesterday and met a lot of people who know people that I know.  My real estate agent turned out to be good friends (and started coming to meeting through) Stan and Audrey Cook in Washington state.  There is a lady in the meeting from Panama that is a native Spanish speaker who seems to have a lot in common with Lorena.  This is a very beautiful part of the world, the people are very friendly, and I believe we are all going to like it here very much.

Carolina Del Norte!

Estamos tan animados en irnos a C.N No podemos esperar ni un dia. He estado platicando con Ken y me dice que la gente es super amable y amistosa. Kelly, Christian y yo estamos pre empacando y ya casi terminamos con el cuarto de arriba, ahora nos falta bajar las cajas hacia la cochera. Ma~nana empezare a trabajar en la cocina ya hay la llevamos poco a poco. Lo bueno esque tengo muy buena ayuda y todo esta saliendo al100%.

Made it to North Carolina

After my first day of work, I am still very excited to be here.  I will return to regular posting on Tuesday after Memorial Day.

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