-
June Trip Highlights in Pictures – Part 3, Yellowstone
After our fantastic week in Seattle area, we rented a “hideous” (Melissa’s word) orange van and started driving East. What gorgeous scenery. Honestly, the driving time seemed to fly by because it was almost like driving through a national park – at 70+ miles per hour – the whole way.When we first drove through the arch and into Yellowstone Park, The Princess (age 5) asked, “Where’s the playground?” When her siblings explained that this was not going to be that kind of “park”, she moaned, “There’s nothing to do here!” A fantastic day. We were only disappointed in not having…
-
June Trip Highlights in Pictures – Part 2
All of a sudden, it’s July. So I better get motivated to continue posting some pics from our June trip out to Seattle and back, before they are completely outdated!
-
Summer Vacation – Newspaper Article for June
Here’s my newspaper article for this month – published yesterday. I suspect the newspaper holds a contest to find the blandest headlines possible for my articles – that’s the one part I don’t get to write. This one was entitled “Teacher Thankful for Summer Vacation”. That’s breaking news, right there!*** I know a teacher who found herself in an awkward position a few summers ago. It was late July and she was in the midst of a group of friends at church making small talk when one asked her, “So how’s it going with you?” “Well, things are fine but…
-
June Trip Highlights in Pictures – Part 1
I was going to do ONE entry of highlights from our June trip but quickly realized the trip was TOO GOOD to get by with just one. In fact, it may take 4 or 5! We thank God for such an awesome family time and we know we are privileged to have been able to make the trip.My brother Ryan and his wife Suzan and their two boys, Jonathan and Spencer, have lived in Seattle area for years now and Melissa and I had never had the opportunity to visit them. So when Jonathan’s high school graduation approached, Melissa and…
-
Piti Piti
Last July when we had the kids in Haiti for two weeks, we met a small group from Spokane, Washington. These folks had developed an ongoing relationship with a pastor and his church in Godin. We had the opportunity to help a bit with the VBS that the Spokane folks had funded.While there in Haiti, the Spokane group did a lot of videotaping. Now they’ve put that footage together and are using it to promote their work with an ongoing terracing project there in Godin. I came across the finished video on Facebook earlier today. Their website is pitipitievents.org. The “piti piti” comes from a…
-
A Perfect Day
Last Sunday was one of those days that struck me as being about as beautiful as life gets here on earth. I kept telling the kids that we were truly privileged to be in a position to where we could be on a trip like we have been on. (I am writing this on Wednesday evening – June 13 – and we don’t expect to be home yet until late Sunday night. We left home two weeks ago today!)I have to record the highlights of the day in an effort to capture a bit of that perfection and preserve it…
-
A Perfect Day
Last Sunday was one of those days that struck me as being about as beautiful as life gets here on earth. I kept telling the kids that we were truly privileged to be in a position to where we could be on a trip like we have been on. (I am writing this on Wednesday evening – June 13 – and we don’t expect to be home yet until late Sunday night. We left home two weeks ago today!)I have to record the highlights of the day in an effort to capture a bit of that perfection and preserve it…
-
Trip Update from Bozeman, Montana
We spent the week with my brother Ryan and his wife Suzan and their sons, Jonathan and Spencer. What a fantastic week it was, too. I am too tired to post any pictures at the moment, but I will when I get the chance. The week there was better than we could have asked for. Such beautiful surroundings and such generous hospitality! Melissa and I had the chance to share about Haiti at Ryan’s church last night at the Wednesday night prayer service and then Ryan treated us all to a treat at Dairy Queen. This morning we hit the…
-
Seattle Trip
Here’s what we came for: My nephew, Jonathan, graduated from high school last night. The ceremony was beautiful and meaningful. Too often, graduations I have attended (including my own high school graduation) have been rushed and all too brief. This one savored the significance of the milestone. And beyond the graduation, there have been all sorts of fringe benefits. Neither Melissa nor I have ever been to this part of the country, so every new experience is such a treat for us. And my brother Ryan loves to show off this corner of America, so he makes an excellent tour…
-
Plagiarism
We are in Seattle for my nephew’s graduation and I will pull together some photos and thoughts regarding this adventure soon. For now, I will post here my newspaper article from last week. It’s certainly nothing profound, but I guess it does remind me of the effects of The Fall and how tempting it is to take short cuts and tell lies: It is May and I have wrapped up my grading of research papers just in time to tackle final exams. In my last article I shared my perception that research papers are even less popular with English teachers…