Oaf Children

Oaf children

Rachel being strangled by a couple of protocol droids in Washington DC.

Wedding Invitations

Invites

My kind friend Martha came over this morning to help me start addressing wedding invitations. Sounds simple enough, huh? No way! It is very complicated. Plus there is the problem of finding mailing addresses for a generation who keep in touch by phone or email. Have you seen the websites that have all the wedding info on them? Cool idea. Here is Andrew and Laura's site.

(Formerly) Forest View

I think land developers must hire script writers to come up with the names they give their housing subdivisions. For instance, Mountain Creek--are there any mountains anywhere in North Texas? Creek? Well, I suppose there is a creek somewhere, except for in the summer when they all dry up. Similarly, Mountain Terrace. Then, there is Hunters Glen. First of all, the punctuation is wrong. Secondly, the only hunting going on around here is for which house, among all these identical looking houses, is mine? And the newest dusty construction project going on near my house has the audacity to call itself Forest View. What's up with that? There would have been at least a teeny forest to view if they hadn't just bulldozed it down. And the saddest of all--they are threatening to do the same to the forest in my back yard.

The Fifth Wheel

Her words, not mine.

Rachel is off to Washington DC for the long weekend, a graduation gift from her brothers. She was all excited about going until this afternoon she realized that not only was she going to be hanging out with her brothers, but also with their girlfriends. They are all gathering in DC for the wedding of one of Andrew's friends who happens to also live in the same house as David. I reminded Rachel that weddings were a good place to meet cute guys. That cheered her up a little.

Besides the wedding, they plan to also go to the new Star Wars movie and maybe a museum or two.

Andrew phoned us from DC this afternoon, having just arrived from Africa. How he manages to travel here from Africa and back twice in less than a month is beyond me. But he said it was worth it it terms of his job. He was happy to report that yesterday he spent $90,000.00--on two trucks and 12 months of office rent, paid in advance.

Can I Borrow Your Baby?

Baby

Rachel loves children. I guess it is good she has chosen elementary education as a career. She asked me the other day what I would think if, in the case that she never married, she adopted a child.

Speaking of adopted children, pray with me for a family in our church who is in the process of adopting an older child who has many emotional and behavioral issues. Ask God to work in the child's life and to give every member of the adoptive family wisdom, grace, and patience.

Grandma and her Granddaughters

Grandma and her granddaughters

My mom has been here visiting us since Rachel's graduation. We were happy to have my sister's daughter, April, also come visit us while grandma is here. April is on her way to be a counselor at
Camp Buckner, which is located somewhere near Austin. After tomorrow I should know better where it is located since all us girls are going to drive April down there tomorrow morning. It has been fun to have April visit. I'm sorry her twin brother, Alan, couldn't come along also--but he did visit us here a couple summers ago.

Home Cookin' and Episode III

Tonight, after eating the chili left over from Ma Hoyt's visit, I heard these words: "So nice not to be eating cafeteria food any more."

And speaking of college students, I just saw the neighbor boy, Jesse, who has just graduated from Texas A&M, carrying a load of games, blankets and chairs to his car.

"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Star Wars," he replied. "I'm going to go get in line with Caleb and Tim."
"Do you have tickets?"
"Oh, yes, we have tickets. We just are getting in line to get good seats."

Poor David, missing out on all this fun. How many years ago was it that Jesse's mom and I took these same boys--then too young to drive--and stood in line for Episode I?

Personal Space

My daughter has moved home. Do I need to rename this blog?

Rachel's Graduation

Rachel's graduation

Yay! She did it! We are so proud of Rachel for graduating from Southern Nazarene University yesterday.

We drove up to her school on Friday, arriving before 3pm, after sitting in traffic for a couple spells. Amazing but true, she had every last little thing pack up and cleaned up, so loading the cars went very smoothly and quickly. I say cars, plural, because her friend, Kenny, kindly drove up with us in his car to help bring her stuff home. Also attending: Grandma Dennis from south Texas and Auntie Carol from Pennsylvania. Rachel was happy for these visitors especially since her own brothers were unable to attend.

After packing the car we went to the hotel, changed our clothes, and then headed back to SNU for a dinner given in honor of the graduates. The dinner speaker gave a humorous talk, but it was a good talk since I actually remembered his three points:

1. Get a job.
2. Be happy--appreciate the humor in life.
3. Remember Jesus loves you.

After that it was back to the hotel to watch the Dallas Mavericks on cable TV--they lost. According to reports, the boys got a lot more sleep in their room than the girls did in theirs.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove off to do some sightseeing at the Myriad Gardens, a lovely park and elaborate greenhouse with 2000 tropical plant species. Then back to the hotel, change our clothes again, and off to graduation.

The graduation was kind of long, but the did a quick job of actually reading off the names. When Rachel's name was read they pronounced the "Fitona" part right, but they messed up on the "Simons." For a short moment, we though she was going to run back and tell them to correct the pronunciation, but she decided instead to keep on walking across the stage. After the indoor ceremony we went over to the fountain for a ivy cutting ceremony, then some photos with professors and friends, then we were headed back home, arriving at nearly 10pm.

Grandma will be here several more days and my niece, April, is coming tomorrow for a few days, so that will be a nice time for Rachel to transition back to life here.

Back from DC

Me and David on the Mall

I'm back safely from Washington. I had a nice visit with David. Here are some more observations:

• Both Dallas and DC have too many SUVs.
• DC has many luxury cars as Dallas has pickups.
  
• Dallas has better roads.
• DC has better bagels.
• DC people are better dressed, but seem more stressed.
• There are more fat people in Dallas.
• Texas needs more trees.
• America likes baseball; there are baseball diamonds all across the country.
• There is a smart church near the airport with their URL on the roof.
• It was fun to say to David, "I've been using computers since before you were born" when he tried to tell me how to do something. I had to say that after he made fun of me for knowing (and even using) most of the early PCs on display at the American History Museum.
  

Rhododendrons in DC

Rhododendrons in DC

I'm posting from our nation's capital, from David's new tiny laptop computer which is stealing unsecured internet from some neighbor. I'll pass my time with this post while I'm waiting for him to return from having breakfast with the father of a certain Miss Someone.

Here are some observations from my trip so far:

• There are 9 small pretzels in a 1/2 oz bag.
• My favorite tee shirt sighting: "My next husband will be normal."
• Clouds look different when viewed from the top.
• When you fly into DCA, be sure you make a bathroom visit early in the flight, or else don't drink anything. They have a rule on this particular flight that you may not, for any reason, get out of your seat for the last 30 minutes of the flight.
• In spite of fashion, jeans and athletic shoes are still the preferred dress for tourists.
• Miss Someone is a nice girl.
• Electron microscopes are cool.
• So is liquid nitrogen.
• Likewise the Air and Space Museum.
  
• I must be the last person in the universe without a cell phone.

She Said Yes!

Andrew and Laura

This evening we got a phone call from Andrew. He was calling from the Dominican Republic and it sounded like there was a fiesta going on in the background. He had gone to Santo Domingo a day earlier than his girlfriend expected to make his de facto engagement official.

As far as I understand the story it went like this: Andrew schemed with Laura's best friend, Nicole, to come to DR a day early. Nicole had helped Andrew to reserve a restaurant on the beach (sand floor 10 feet from the ocean) where he littered the floor with rose petals and parked himself on one knee to await Laura's arrival. Nicole then cooked up some plan and managed to get Laura to the restaurant. Nicole said she needed to go to the ladies' room and told Laura to go on in and find a table. At which time she found Andrew down on his knee with a diamond in his hand.

So now he has met Laura's mom, who only speaks Spanish. Lucky for him, he speaks passable Spanish. He has also met her sister and aunts and some of her old friends. He says they all like him, but as Laura says, "He's very likeable." :-)

Andrew apologized ahead of time for not being able to phone me on Mother's Day, but he said, "I'm getting you a new daughter for Mother's Day instead."

The wedding is August 5 in Santo Domingo. I've already bought our tickets. This engagement was dramatic, but it wasn't unexpected. Pray with us that God will be leading Andrew and Laura into a strong marriage that honors the Lord.

Where's Ardith?

Hoyt family

Last night we had a visit from a family I met on line. Apparenly no ax-murderers in this bunch, just a lot of nice kids! They got to try fajitas for the first time, and seemed to enjoy them--except I did notice someone eating them with a fork!

Arguing

I've been thinking about arguing for a couple days, trying to analyze what is involved in arguing, trying to figure out why and how people argue. (The anecdotes presented here are about actual people I know, but the actual people I'm thinking of may be of a different gender than the pronoun I'm using indicates. I don't want to be too obvious.)

1. I know someone who likes to argue. I mean, he argues because it is fun for him. He is very intelligent, and finds arguing to be mentally stimulating. He has admitted to strongly arguing one side of an issue, like he really believed it, then immediately turn around and just as strongly argue the opposite side. His interpersonal skills are not the best in the world, and sometimes his arguing for fun does hurt other people's feelings. But he doesn't really feel so bad about that, since his motives were not to hurt them, just to explore all sides of an issue.

2. I know someone else who doesn't really like to argue, but does it as a way to force interaction with an introverted spouse. This couple actually doesn't have any big issues to debate, but she tends to become engrossed in work and/or other projects and unintentionally ignores him, in spite of the undying love between them. So he picks a fight--and since she doesn't like conflict, she will immediately pay attention and start talking. Arguing does make them talk, but it would be nice if there were a better way.

3. I know someone who argues out of self defense. This person is an emotional person, and if his feelings are in the least way ruffled, he becomes argumentative. His arguments may or may not have a basis in logical fact, because indeed, they proceed from feelings, not facts. It seems like if he is happy and secure, he doesn't argue. If he becomes afraid or insecure for some reason, he starts to argue as a way to protect himself.

A Free Poem

Drought

He metes out his time,
thinking if he gave it freely,
it would soon run out.
So she accepts the measured droplets,
while longing for a flood.

May Day

In recognition of May Day I have updated the wildflowers photo page on my stale website to include photos of 6 more species of wildflowers that I have recently identified. I'm always amazed at the variety God came up with when he created our world.

Foxglove Penstemon

Foxglove Penstemon

I've walked the trails several times lately, and this is the one and only one of these I've seen.

In other news, I was chatting with my friend the other day about how our kids went off to Christian colleges but didn't get engaged while there. We want our money back! We had a laugh as we came to the conclusion that she shouldn't have sent her son to LeTourneau, but I should have sent my daughter there! (Just kidding, in case any of the characters in this story are reading this ;-)

We had a nice chat with Andrew today. He arrived safely in Charlotte last night and was able to get a full night of sleep. It was nice to be able to talk leisurely for a change, since phone calls to Ethiopia are pretty expensive.

Andrew in Amsterdam

Andrew just sent an email from Amsterdam. Wow, they just don't make overseas travel like they used to. From Amsterdam he sent me a spreadsheet I needed that got clobbered when my computer died. Amazing. He had a long layover there, but he said it was too cold and rainy to go out and look around. He will have other chances.

Remember all that work Rachel went through to get her fingerprints made? Turns out the police in Bethany didn't do a very good job with her little fingers and smudged all the prints. So now she has to go to the main police station in Oklahoma City and do it again. Not something she has time for in her last hectic weeks of school, but she did find someone willing to take her there next week.

Computer Update

I spent a lot of today getting my new computer organized: installing MS Office, configuring my web browsers, installing a fancy mouse, installing the photo software, finding all my old bookmarks, installing my backup of My Documents. It all went pretty well except for one problem: I had about 15 current Juno messages (from this past week) that got clobbered when I installed the old mailbox. And I may have lost a handful of recent additions to my Juno mailbox. But, it could have been worse.

I like the screen on this laptop, so I'm not even going to use the outboard monitor, but I am using an outboard keyboard and mouse. The printer is working, as is my digital camera downloads; I haven't tried the scanner yet.

In other news: David tells me he will soon be interviewed by the father of a certain Miss Someone; Rachel has not had an easy week with solo student teaching, but she is coping pretty well; Andrew is in an airplane on his way from Addis Ababa to Charlotte, NC.

Pray for them with me, if God brings them to mind.

Third Computer this Week

At 7pm I got a phone call from the nice man at the computer services department. He had stayed late to get my newest old computer running. Wasn't that nice of him? So I went over right then and picked it up. He did a great job getting it working properly, and now I'm spending the hours to install the software I want. Next job is to get it working on our home network and then download my backup from Gary's computer. It will no doubt take me a few days to get configured like I want, but it is nice to have a "new" machine. It is a Toshiba laptop with a large clear screen, and it seems to be faster than my last two machines.

Computers and Prayer

No, I don't really mean I'm praying for my computer, though maybe if I had, it wouldn't have died. I just have two things to talk about today--my computers and prayer.

A few days ago my computer died. It was Rachel's old computer, 5 years old, so I guess it was about time to die. The bad news--I hadn't backed it up the day before. The good news--I had backed it up a week ago.

So then I moved to a Compaq laptop, which I'm using as I type this blog. This computer was also given to me, and is so old it doesn't have a USB connector. But it doesn't reboot itself, so at least it works. The strange thing about this computer is that it has some kind of nanny software on it, and there is a list of words it won't let me type. Well, I can type them, it just won't display them. This feature works equally well whether I'm using IE or Firefox, and I can't discover what program is running to cause it.

So now I'm trying to get hand-me-down computer #3 working. This one is a Toshiba laptop with a nice big screen. Still not a very new machine, but at least it has a couple USB connectors on it. We tried to install the OS and just had so many problems that we decided to ask for help. So today I just took it over the the nice guys at the Center computer services, and they seemed to think in about 24 hours they could have it working for me. It was pleasant to have them smile at me and say, "Sure, I can do that for you." So, maybe in a day or two I'll see if I have a "new" computer. Then I'll see if I can install my backups.

Now to the prayer topic. Today the whole center was supposed to spend 9am-noon in prayer. I had one assignment I had to turn in by noon, so I hurried and got that finished, then went to the meeting room where the prayer meeting was being held. It seemed hot and stuffy in there, and the weather outside is beautiful today (after yesterday's tornado warning and hail storm). So I decided I would do my praying by myself as I walked. There are some cool hiking trails behind our center, and the weather was nice, and the birds were singing, and the flowers were flowering,... I just couldn't bear to be cooped up.

And I did pray, or at least I tried to, but God kept interrupting me. First there were the flowers--how many of them did he put on that trail? Such a variety, and so much fun to try to identify. Then there were the bird conversations that I couldn't help but overhear. Honestly, birds do talk back and forth, repeatedly, to each other, first on the left, then on the right. Then there were the bugs who were mating, but I won't go into that. How did God expect me to concentrate on praying when there were so many beautiful things in His creation to take in?

Definition of Marriage

Today I ran into a friend while I was at the fruit-and-vegetable store. Somehow we started talking about out kids (how often does that happen?). She told me she had two adult children living at home, and then said something funny: "We've been putting away $100 a month to pay for our daughter's wedding, and she's not even dating anyone. If she doesn't get married soon, I'm going to buy a new car."

That made me laugh, but it also dovetailed with other not-so-funny thoughts going through my head in recent hours about how society views marriage. It seems to me our society continues in various ways to bear fruit of the sexual revolution brought on by the pill, not the least of which is the dumbing down of marriage. If marriage no longer automatically means children (as it has since civilization began), then society can be free to redefine marriage in any number of new ways.

The discussions I've been part of are making me realize how truly postChristian society has become. It makes me appreciate the wisdom God had in producing a written document to last though time, not rewritten each time an event in history or science or technology produces social change.

Texas Star

Texas star 

Every spring I enjoy hunting wildflowers. Texas is ugly, I've said it many times. But there are so many beautiful wildflowers every spring, that it almost makes up for it. There are some hiking trails behind our workplace, so I took an hour's walk there the other day. I found several new flowers.

In other news, I took Gary shoe shopping today. He got two identical pairs of shoes, one brown and the other black, exactly like the two pairs he's throwing away. He's an easy man to live with.

I talked to Rachel this afternoon. She has made it through her first of two weeks of solo teaching and each day went well. She has had no time to do anything else, and has tons to do this weekend: preparing for teaching next week; homework for her one night class; work on her portfolio, etc. She was going to relax for a couple hours by attending a school musical which I expect she will enjoy. Thanks be to God for helping her to do so well this past week.

Down the Garden Path

flowery path 

In the winter of 1998, Gary ordered wildflower seeds over the internet and planted them in the strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house. The first spring they bloomed in an almost embarrassing flurry of showing off; cars would slow down as they passed by and people out for a Sunday stroll would stop and ask if they could take their family pictures in front of them. I think we counted 20 different species of wildflowers that came up that spring.

In the years intervening, we've gotten to observe the process of ecological succession as the dominant flowers (daisies and Mexican Hats) have crowded out others (poppies and toadflax). My husband was so taken with this process that he actually kept a spreadsheet for several years recording which species bloomed each year. (That makes him sound obsessive, doesn't it? Well, he is a scientist at heart :-) ) I have had to remind him (I also wanted to be a scientist when I grew up, but, alas...) that he is not an unbiased observer of this flower garden since he can often be found watering, and pulling out overly aggressive bunches, and even weeding it. Like you could actually weed a wildflower patch...they're all weeds!

On another topic, Rachel's solo student teaching continues to go well, though she is getting exhausted. She had two evaluations today, one by the supervising teacher and one by her professor. She didn't get a perfect evaluation, but her prof said she had improved a lot since the last evaluation. She brought home 6 stacks of papers to grade tonight, and she needs to do planning for next week, etc, etc. I hope she gets some sleep so she doesn't get sick. Keep praying for her.

Discretionary Spending

Sometimes we missionaries feel like we don't have enough money. But then other times, we are pleasantly surprised with more money than we "need," arriving unexpectedly from unexpected places. That happened to us three times recently. For example, today a check came labeled "discretionary." Isn't that a nice word? So I spent some of it discretionarily--including a ticket to go see my baby in Washington DC for a quick weekend trip in early May.

We also give thanks to God for providing for the last of Rachel's two college payments.

Speaking of Rachel, she did pretty well on her first day of solo teaching, but sounded near panic when she went on to describe all the other stuff she has to get done. I assured her I and others would keep praying for her.

Graduation Photos

Bluebonnets 

Rachel came home from college this past weekend. We expect this will be her last visit home until she graduates in just under four weeks. (Wow, I'm so excited that she is going to make it!) Anyway, we decided to try to take some photos to put with the graduation announcements. We tried the traditional photo in the bluebonnets. (This time of year you can see cars illegally parked along the freeway so people can take photos of their kids in the flowers. The police don't seem to mind.) But when we tried it, we didn't have much luck--wind blowing hair in her face, too much sun causing shadows, and squinting. Oh well, nice idea.

So next we went over to the park and found a shaded area in the scrub trees. That seemed to work a little better. Now I've got to somehow get one of the photos into her announcements.

Please pray for Rachel if you think of her these next two weeks when she will be doing solo student teaching.


trees 

Empty

frig 

My hungry and long-suffering husband suggested I go to the grocery store today.

"Fee e fii."

In case you don't speak To'abaita, the title says, "Fees hurt." I remember that sentence from the Solomon Islands language we learned so many years ago, because it was the one and only time I made a joke in a foreign language and somebody actually got it. The To'abaita word fii means 'pain'. (That morpheme is actually part of another word, fiito'ona, which means "faith," a word we anglicized to use as a middle name for our daughter who was born there.) Anyway, back to my story--the people in the Solomon Islands have problems similar to mine--finding enough money to pay the fees for their kids to go to school. So it was a pun to say "Fees are painful" since the word for pain sounded like "fee."

So why on earth am I talking about this today? Well, we are just about to finish eight years of paying college bills. The last kid (Fitona) will soon graduate, and we only have two more payments to make to her college. I've been worrying/praying about how we could make these last two payments, and the Lord has recently answered that prayer by a couple unexpected generous donations to us. We thank him for that.

Then today I got a handwritten letter from someone in the Solomon Islands asking me for money for someone else's kid to continue their college education. This is a family we have known for over 20 years, and in the past have helped to pay the fees so their children could attend secondary school.

So did God give me extra money to pay my kid's college bill, or their kid's college bill? Probably both.

"Mom, I'm So Twitterpated."

The phone rang. It was son number two. Giggling.

"David, are you OK? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing's wroooooong. (giggle)"
"Where are you?"
"I'm walking home from walking her home."
"Her? Who's her?"
"She just lives around the corner from me. You'd like her, mom, I know you would. We just had a DTR."
"Wait. When did you meet her? You can't be having a DTR already."
"Well, the first time was about 10 days ago."
"10 days?!! And this DTR--what did you say and what did she say?"
"Well, (giggle) there was a lot of ums, well, you knows, and sighing."
"David! You sound like you're in 9th grade again."
"I know. Isn't it great?"
"What's her name?"
"Laurie."
"You can't marry her. Andrew's girlfriend is Laura. We can't have too many of the same name."
"No, not Laurie--Lori."
"Oh, well, in that case..."
"Mom, guess what we did on our first date?"
"What?"
"We talked about how we liked our moms. (giggle)"
"Oh, well, in that case..."

Time for the Times

Today I left work early so I could come home a blitz-clean my house and bathroom and then make homemade pizza. Our lunch guest was a freelance journalist here to interview people, including the Executive Editor, for an article he is writing for the NYTimes about the Ethnologue. We're hoping he writes a complimentary article, which I'm sure he would have done even without the pizza.

Unknown Prayers

A few days ago my boss sent out a little memo where he talked about how hard it is to pray the "right" way. He pointed out, and I completely agree, that it is too easy to be shallow, distracted, and just plain selfish when we pray. But he reminded us that God has a solution to that problem: The Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:26-27 says:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

True enough, we are often incapable or unwilling to pray the right way; but, thanks be to God, we've got Someone to do it for us--the Holy Spirit who really does know the right way to pray. He never has doubts like we do about what really is the will of God, so he always prays correctly, even if we are floundering.

I am taking strength in these verses. There is a situation in my life that I just plain don't know how to pray for. Sometimes I feel one way about the situation and other times I feel quite differently. So relying on my feelings doesn't seem to be a very good guide for prayer. I am encouraged that the Holy Spirit is praying with me, no--He's actually praying for me--both on my behalf and in my place. I don't always know what He is praying, but I know it is in God's will, so I can rest in that.

Frozen shoulder

Here it is getting nice and warm, and the doctor told Gary today he has a frozen shoulder. He finally went to the clinic today for an injury done 6 months ago. He decided it was time to do something about it since he is no longer able to lift his left arm above chest level. He knows he hurt the arm way back in September when he was trimming trees, but kept hoping it would just get better on its on. The doctor prescribed either applying heat and slowly moving it more and more each day, or go to a physical therapist for $75/hour. The visit to the dr. was also a time to tell the dr. about David's plans for med school. David shadowed this dr. last summer for a while to see if he could handle the blood and guts part of medicine.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Fuzzy 

Even the friendly caterpillars are bigger here.

And speaking of Texas, the Rangers stated their season tonight. I should go to bed, but I want to know if they're going to win.

Today at Church

I was happy

• to hear a 10-year old ask for prayer for a Jehovah's Witness friend.
• to see all the fathers holding their children.
• to hear of a newly adopted child excited because she gets to have cake at her 9th birthday later this week.
• to hear an older man give thanks for his wife of 44 years as they celebrated their anniversary today.
• to sing, though some of it wasn't my favorite music.

I was sad to hear more details of the murders of a missionary couple in South America. They were close friends of some folks at church. The FBI is investigating.

We didn't get to stay for the sermon; off to the airport again.

Another Family Update

Gary isn't scheduled to fly back from San Francisco until tonight but he said he might try to get on an earlier flight. I should mow the lawn--but isn't that supposed to be his job?

I got a good email from Andrew this morning. He has been working with a person from USAID in their AIDS/HIV section to make some progress on his project. He said he has been looking for new office space and a house to live in (he's been in a hotel kind of arrangement for all these months). He said last night the Leipizig Youth Sypmhony was in Addis and played for the 100 year anniversary of Ethiopia and German diplomatic relations. There was an Ethiopian piano player who played with them, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Reports from Rachel and her student teaching continue to be good. Of course, it will get harder when she has to actually be in charge for two weeks, so keep praying for her. She is starting to think about a job for next year. It is kind of complicated because she won't have any certification until June, and then she won't have a Texas certification until sometime after that, but the Texas teacher job fairs are in April and May and is really too busy and it is too hard for her to get here for them. Pray she will have clear guidance in thinking about a job.

David called a couple times this week and you won't believe what he is thinking about doing--buying a house! Apparently some of the realtors in Houston work with MD and MD/PhD students to sell them condos or small houses. Of course, he has no downpayment money and we have none to lend him (though the realtor told him often parents help with the down payment). So he is investigating what he might be able to do with no or tiny down payment. It may not be possible, but I told him to go for it if he can, since he would be paying a lot of rent over the next 7 years.

My mom now has tickets to Dallas in May. She is coming for two weeks over the time of Rachel's graduation. And cousin April plans to pass through Dallas then too--she's going to be a camp counselor at a camp near Austin for the summer. It will be nice to see her.

How Much is a Missionary Worth?

Today I filled out the annual paperwork that determines how much money we are "supposed" to get for our income. This a a complicated, 4-page form that includes information on how much we need to live on in the areas of housing, transporation, insurance, taxes (including 15% SS taxes), ministry expenses, and children as well as a few other things. We all know that children are expensive, and now that mine are (almost) all grown up, we no longer include them on this form. Once the math was done the form said that up through May 31 our family needs $72,000 per year to live on, but starting June 1st, we will need $35,000 to live on. Wow, those kids eat a lot!

Truth be told, this annual form serves as a way for us to estimate our expenses, but other than that, it has little bearing on reality.

Today I'm sad to hear this news of our colleagues. I didn't know them personally, but I expect they were worth a lot.

Update on the Kids

No new birds to report on today, so I'll give a chickadee report.

Andrew is doing well in Ethiopia. He was recently struggling with some roadblocks, and though they haven't been resolved entirely, he has found new freedom in finding ways to solve the problems, so that is encouraging him to carry on. He said they are looking at new office space, and he recently interviewed someone who will work for him. He is still selling baseball and U2 tickets on ebay like a crazy man, and I'm mailing them out for him, like an even crazier woman.

Rachel continues to like her 2nd grade class. It is so nice to see her really enjoying her student teaching. She is starting to prepare for the two weeks where she will be in charge of the entire class by herself. She also sent me email today saying she really liked the CD I bought for her for Easter, Casting Crowns . My favorite song on it is "The Voice of Truth."

I had a nice chat with David tonight. He took half a day off work and visited with some of the Taylor band who were in town on spring tour. He got to see a couple of the people he went to Ireland with. He also said he bought an espresso machine off of eBay, so now he doesn't have to pay $3 a cup at Starbucks.

Lord, they are all a joy and a blessing to me. I thank you for them.

Crow

Crow 

Crows are not beautiful and they don't come to my feeder very often, but one was there today.

Does anyone want to live next to me? Our neighbors have decided to move to Kansas and asked if we know anyone who wants to buy a house. It is an older house, but the neighbors are great :-)

Easter

Easter Dinner

Easter was a blessed day, starting with the Easter Song by the 2nd Chapter of Acts, followed by a good church service where the pastor baptized his own teenaged daughter, followed by a nice dinner with friends.

It was nice having Rachel home again. She flew both ways and was delayed both flights, but we chalk it up to her education in how life works.

Good Friday

We don't have to work today. That is nice, but I have a big thing due at noon on Monday, so I'll probably be sorry I didn't work today. Last year on Good Friday, I went to see The Passion of the Christ. When we got home, I learned that my grandmother had passed away. I still miss her.

I had a little conversation with myself about what would be good or appropriate to do on Good Friday. I decided I would read, and pray, and clean. And talk to my friends on my favorite forum. But I think I got one of them mad at me, so maybe I should have just stuck to reading, praying, and cleaning.

As part of cleaning, I washed my van. Mostly to get the bird doodoo off of it. But I didn't wash the roof. I couldn't reach it and the birds will just mess it up again soon anyway. I also washed our comforter so I can pack it away for the summer. It was still covered with cat hair when it came out of the washing machine, but at least it was clean cat hair.

Gary somehow got to thinking about his old baseball cards today, so I dug those out for him. He has a 1963 Mickey Mantle. And a bunch of others. I suppose one day Andrew will get these.

Rachel called me yesterday with a burst of grand talk about how she had just found direction for her life and she knew what job she wanted to immediately apply for. This came after a discussion with her supervising teacher about what being a school teacher is really like and what Rachel's strengths and weaknesses are. It was good to hear her taking initiative. Lord, guide her to the job you have for her.

Then several hours later she called sounding overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Lord, help her to know how to use her time wisely.

David called yesterday while working on his taxes. I think this is the first time he's had to do them himself and he was finding it harder than expected, due to the odd way he gets paid from NIH. Speaking of taxes, we just got our refund. Yay! Now there is enough money for Rachel's antepenultimate college payment.

Ethnologue: the book

Ethnologue

We've been waiting for this day for a while now; the 15th edition of the Ethnologue - Languages of the World was unveiled today. We had a little ceremony where everyone whose name was on the credits' page was given their own copy. Gary's title in this effort is Executive Editor. That means he didn't do the nit-picking work of gathering the data about the languages of the world, but he did have the Herculean task of getting all those people to work together to end up with a professional product. And his job isn't over yet; in a couple weeks I hope to have another blog entry called Ethnologue: the website.


Here are some of the facts in and about the Ethnologue:

• The book weighs nearly 5 pounds, has 1272 pages, and is hard-bound.
  
• It is printed on acid-free, thin yet opaque paper.
• It includes 208 color language maps.
• It is an encyclopedic reference volume cataloguing all of the world's 6,912 known languages.
• It includes population estimates for each of those language groups.
• It gives alternate names and dialect names.
  
• It gives information about multilingualism, availability of literature, geographic and other information about each language.
• It includes statistical summaries by world area, language size, and language family.
• It gives a genetic classification of each language (that is, how it is related to other language).

And here are some things that the Ethnologue isn't:

• perfect - although more than 50,000 updates and corrections have been made since the 14th edition, the editors have no illusion that it is complete nor entirely correct. In the informative introduction there are instructions on how to send in corrections.
• finished - The total number of languages is 103 more than in the 14th edition. This is not because 103 languages have just been found, but rather had been previously considered dialects of another language. Language is constantly changing, so the Ethnologue will continue to catalogue those changes.
  
• a one-man job - As you might imagine, this massive amount of detail has been collected from many, many sources and it has taken the work of many people to organize, verify, and present the data.

One more item of note: The Ethnologue is the first major publication to make use of ISO/DIS 639-3 -- the new, comprehensive draft international standard for three-letter identifiers. The previous standard had about 400; now it has 7000 so every language in the word can be identified uniquely.

This big, fat book costs about $80. Mostly it will be linguists and academic libraries buying the book because SIL International puts the whole thing for free on the web. The website for the 15th edition is coming soon.

Thank the Lord with us for this reference volume that will be used by missionaries of many stripes, as well as academics.



Gary with his copy

Off to a Good Start

Rachel started her second rotation of student teaching this morning, 2nd grade a Bethany Public School. And an early start it was, at 7:30am. At our staff meeting this morning we prayed for Rachel, that she would get off to a good start in her new student teaching assignment. I thank the Lord for answering these prayers, as evidenced by this email which I just received from her a few minutes ago:

Hi Mom,
I am extremely exhausted, and because of that I won't write much. My teacher let me out really late, so I practically had to go straight from school to class, so I haven't had a break since 6:30 this morning.
I think I am going to REALLY like this class and really find that I'll be able to succeed. The kids are WONDERFUL, and my teacher is so helpful. The kids are so well behaved except that one kid who is SED. And actually, he was really good today which was really neat to see his social progress. Anyways, I think that is all I have to say for now. One kid said, "Mrs. Simons, I think you'll make a really good teacher" to me and I hardly did anything today! So that is encouraging.
Love,
Rachel

Love Lost and Found

"I guess for a long time I thought she and I were just friends, but by the end of the relationship I had realized I loved her all along. I think that was the real reason I never dated much when I was younger."

Someone recently sent me the above email. For a while it made me sad. But more than 30 years ago I learned that if the one you love marries someone else, the Lord in his graciousness can bring a new love into your heart.

Bradford Pear

Bradford Pear blossoms 

Our neighborhood has several Bradford Pear trees in it. They are a showy white for just a few days, then the leaves quickly replace the blossoms. When fully leafed out, these trees have the classical "lollipop" shape. I'm not sure why they are called "Pear" trees, because I don't think there is any fruit involved.

The wildflowers are starting to show their faces. I'm going to have to start blogging about them.


Bradford Pear tree 

World Almanac

World Almanac 

The Ethnologue still is in hiding, but this book has recently been published and it contains some Ethnologue data. The World Almanac contacted us get the latest and greatest information on the languages of the world that have 2 million or more speakers.


Inside 

Doctor, Doctor! I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

David phoned today with some really good news. Not only has he been accepted into the M.D./Ph.D. program at Baylor College of Medicine (also known as the Medical Scientist Training Program), he has been granted all tuition paid, health insurance, and $23,000 per year stipend for the entire program. Just think--in a mere 6 or 7 years, he will be Dr. Dr. Simons.

In other news, in the mail today arrived four tickets to a U2 concert in Paris, 58.20 euros each. I wonder how much they will sell for on eBay?

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse 

I know, this really isn't a very good photo. But it is hard to get these skittish birds to hold still long enough for me to make a good shot.

Rumor has it that a few advance copies of theEthnologue have arrived on campus, but are being kept under wraps until a formal unveiling in another week. Soon we get to see the results of all that editing. I'll be sure to blog about that when it happens.

It is nice having Rachel home for spring break. She worked at the Center yesterday and today to complete some required community service hours for one of her classes. She has a couple little papers to write, but no big assignments due like past spring breaks, which is nice. Today she made cheese broccoli soup which tasted pretty good.

Fingerprints

Bethany Police station 

I drove up to Oklahoma City yesterday to pick Rachel up for her last spring break! Wow, she's been doing this for five years, and soon she will graduate, Lord willing. As soon as she finished her last class, we drove to the police station where she got fingerprinted--the next step in a long list of things she has to do to get her teaching license. Using the two sets of fingerprints, a criminal background search will be done by both the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. At her expense, of course.


Mug shot 

Happy 21st Birthday, David

Happy Birthday, David 

We are celebrating David's birthday tonight. Only problem, David isn't here to celebrate with us. But that didn't stop us from going to Baskin and Robbins and buying this ice cream cake. David, we're sorry we can't have you here with us.

But I know he's not exactly missing us tonight. He is spending the weekend in Houston being wined and dined by the Baylor College of Medicine. He was picked up at the airport by a limo (wow, this is just like prom!) then taken to a nice hotel. During the day today he interviewed with seven faculty members about how he might fit into medical research in their MD/PhD program (otherwise known as a Medical Scientist Training Program. He has been officially accepted into both the PhD and the MD programs, and the interviews this weekend will determine how much funding he will get (the difference between "you pay them" and "they pay you").

Speaking of wining, David told me on the phone this afternoon that someone figured out it was his birthday today, and his 21st birthday at that. The group sang to him and then he said 7 or 8 people offered to buy him a drink tonight, now that he's 21. He said he might try something if it had lots of sugar and fruit in it, because he thought wine smelled like cat pee. I told him, "Now just because you're 21 doesn't mean you have to give in to peer pressure." He replied, "Mom, if I were giving in to peer pressure, I would have tried something a long time ago."

Red Bud Tree

Red bud 

Dallas really isn't all that beautiful of a place to live. In fact, some would say it is downright ugly. And I'd agree, if it weren't that we have the best springs here. I love the wildflowers, which are just barely starting now. I'm going to see if my camera will take good wildflower photos, maybe better than my bird photos.

Today's photo isn't a wildflower, it is a budding tree and it is gorgeous. We have two or three along our street, slightly different colors.


Red Bud tree 

Any other news for the day? Not much. Rachel called today with worries about how she was going to make it to the police station--she is wanted for fingerprinting. (That's just the next step toward getting her teaching license. After that comes the FBI background check.)

I also baked homemade cookies tonight so I could send them to my baby who turns 21 this weekend. But I made a double batch so there will be some for Rachel and her friends this weekend when she comes home for spring break.

Speaking of my baby, he has a big interview this weekend to see if he can get into the Ph.D. part of the Ph.D./M.D. program at Baylor. It is the difference between "you pay them" and "they pay you." Pray for him if the Lord brings him to mind.