{"id":6336,"date":"2013-05-10T02:47:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T02:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6336"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","slug":"nerd-camp-and-may-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6336","title":{"rendered":"Nerd Camp and May Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dats (now age 12!) received a letter of acceptance in the mail today.\u00a0 He is so doggone cute when he gets excited.\u00a0 He is going to STEM Camp (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)\u00a0– what I am calling\u00a0NERD Camp.\u00a0 It will be held on the campus of IU in June for nearly two weeks.\u00a0 The best part (in this frugal father’s opinion) is that it is all FREE.\u00a0\u00a0Potential campers all apply with an essay and teacher recommendations and grade requirements and, if selected, attend camp at no charge. We are so grateful for Dats’ teacher who introduced us to this opportunity and then took the time to guide him through the application process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In the midst of this, I\u00a0can’t help but marvel at how different Dats is from me!\u00a0 When I was about his age, I had my one and only camp experience – also on a college campus.\u00a0 It was not voluntary and I was not excited.\u00a0 It was basketball camp and I spent most of my week in the dorm room with “a stomach ache”.\u00a0 Crying.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>But whereas I was shy, Dats is bold and outgoing. He really sees every stranger as a potential friend.\u00a0 I envy that about him.\u00a0 That perspective will serve him well throughout life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Those two weeks will be long ones for Melissa and me.\u00a0 We’ve never had any of our kids away from the family for that long.\u00a0 It will be odd to travel without him, too, but we already have a speaking\/sharing\u00a0trip to Pennsylvania in the works for the weekend in the middle of his camp – and\u00a0our trip\u00a0may include a “swing” through Florida if we can work it out!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And that’s a good segue into what is currently on our plate.\u00a0 We just celebrated two birthdays – Dats turned 12 and The Drama Queen turned 11.\u00a0 And we are in the midst of the final weeks of school, which especially keeps Melissa hopping.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Meanwhile, our house will soon be open again and that means we will need to either take another shot at selling it or find new renters.\u00a0 Either way, Melissa and I have talked about it and it seems wise to dismantle the above ground pool in the backyard.\u00a0 The cover had to be tossed at the end of last season, the lining is on its final lap and the decking is getting wobbly.\u00a0 It would be a lot of upkeep for any renter and it is not a plus for most buyers.\u00a0 If we end up renting it out for another year, we will have to find someone here locally who can be our “acting landlord”, and I don’t want to saddle that person with the responsibility of winterizing the pool this fall and reopening\u00a0it next spring.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>At this moment, we are still hopeful for an August departure and thus, there are a thousand and one jobs to be done in the meantime even beyond the house\/pool issues.\u00a0 We need to keep pressing forward with the funding process while tying up loose ends here.\u00a0 For instance, we know there will be a huge neighborhood-wide garage sale on May 25 and we need to take advantage of the traffic it will generate to get rid of some more stuff.\u00a0 We can’t leave my mother-in-law with a garage full of boxes!\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Three weeks of the month of July will be spent in Greenwood at One Mission Society headquarters for training in doing cross-cultural training.\u00a0 Even the kids will get training and we will all be living in an apartment on the OMS campus during that time.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Then, God willing, we’ll be packing suitcases in August.\u00a0 Time will tell!\u00a0 We certainly appreciate your prayers now and in the hectic weeks to come…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dats (now age 12!) received a letter of acceptance in the mail today.\u00a0 He is so doggone cute when he gets excited.\u00a0 He is going to STEM Camp (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)\u00a0– what I am calling\u00a0NERD Camp.\u00a0 It will be held on the campus of IU in June for nearly two weeks.\u00a0 The best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6339,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions\/6339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}