What's goin on

Well, it's about time to post a second blog entry. I don't have any fans yet, so I'm really writing to myself, sort of like a diary.

I must mention two new blogs that are already great and will be incredible over the next year. One is Kristy's at http://goodmorningteacher-kristy.blogspot.com/ . Kristy is a wonderful writer, as you can see if you read her first few postings. They are fascinating, and very descriptive -- it is like you are there with her. The other is Nathan's at http://saudiaggie.blogspot.com/. Nathan is also an incredible writer. His Beijing blog and its stories and photos are amazing -- I still go back and read them from time to time. I wonder how long blog sites remain up. It will be a shame if they remove that one some day.

I think I'll write a bit about where I was one and two weeks ago. Terri, Emily and I went with Terri's mom to Germany/Austria/Italy for 12 days. Terri planned it all, and did an amazing job, putting us in wonderful bed-and-breakfast hotels and scheduling perfect tourist activities. It was a very relaxing trip for me, since all I had to do was follow the ladies around. Everything in Germany was beautiful and very interesting. Lots of flowers, vineyards, rivers, hills and mountains. HUGE mountains. A huge lake, the Bodenzee or something like that. Take a look at Emily's facebook at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2801413&id=8371261&l=acde2b25d7 . Emily created a superb album of our photos with lots of great explanations that tell the story of our trip much better than I can here. We also got to visit some wonderful friends, Meri and Verner Schmidt and their son Niko. Meri was our au peir when Emily was born, taking care of two-year- old Nathan for several months. Meri and Verner came back to visit us several years later, then Nathan visited them four years ago. They cooked us a delicious dinner, and took us to visit some very interesting and beautiful places down by the Bodenzee. It was great catching up and seeing them again. I'm so glad we stayed in touch.

Nathan flew to Saudi on Tuesday. He will be working on a master's degree at KAUST, and I'm sure he will take full advantage of the opportunities this adventure will offer. I'm extremely proud of Nathan, and have great confidence in him. His biggest news was his marriage in May to Carissa. She is brilliant, fun, in love with the Lord, and the perfect wife for Nathan. They lived in Ithaca NY this summer where she is attending Cornell U, working on a doctorate degree in Biomedical Engineering. I mentioned that she is brilliant, right? So she is in Ithaca and Nathan is in Saudi. They will surely find fun places to meet for their holidays. Spain is about half way between.

Emily continues to amaze me. She worked as an intern for Exxon again this summer, and wowed them again with her personality and highly effective work skills. I'm sure she will get an offer to work there following her graduation from A&M in the spring. Emily leaves tomorrow to move back to A&M.

Terri is back teaching at FBBA again. She has such great stories to tell most days when I get home. She is also amazing. I am SOOOO BLESSED! Thank you God!