One of the things that is really cool about my mom (Grandma Sarah) is that she gets genuinely excited about an educational accomplishment. That is especially true for those that have to do with going to the university. In the spirit of that enthusiasm and to continue the tradition, I am quite happy to make this post. My cousin Trisha has been accepted into graduate school at Southern Oregon University (SOU)!!! Congratulations! Now all you have to do is start planning for your Ph.D. None of that Ed.D. stuff for you. You could come out here close to us to do it! There are lots of good Universities here in North Carolina.

We are going on vacation to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in a about a week and a half. We are all excited to go, but we have too many things to do. I have a big project going on at work that will trial with our customer the first week in April. We have so many orders and new opportunities at Quality Corners right now that Grandpa Milo (age 78) is going to go over to help get some of the new manufacturing processes squared away. Kelly is starting into her CLEP testing. Lorena still has a ton of things she wants to do on the house before the spring. And Christian, being Christian, always has many, many very important and highly technical projects on which he is working. We really do not have time to take this vacation. Nevertheless, we all know that, after the vacation is over, we will realize that we need to do that kind of thing more often and that we can not afford to miss those times that make us realize that busyness can get in the way of realizing what is really important. We are going to get to see the Wright (as in Orville and Wilbur) Museum, visit a Freedom Railroad memorial, go to the Lost Colonies, and spend time with our dear friends from Texas. How much better does it get than that?

Bryan, I think you should spot me a few pounds. Kelly has been on this big baking kick (it was oatmeal cookies last night). I think there is a strong case that can be made that I am at a severe disadvantage! I am finally going the right direction again after a weekend long gorging binge, but who knows how long that will last.