Girl Scout Photo Op

B&W Y-12, managing contractor at the government's Y-12 National Security Commplex, recently donated $2,500 to Girl Scouts summer camp program. In the photo, Booth Kammann, center, left, who is CEO of the Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians, accepts the check from Nancy Johnson, a B&W vice president. In addition to Kammann and Johnson, from left are: Rebekka Range, Anna Vacaliuc, Andrea Range and Marian Vacaliuc.

 

Ulster is here!

The Ulster kids have arrived and the meetings and activities are in full swing.  Which means that almost every day Gabriel and Jack are at an activity, social event or service project.  This will pretty much go on for a month.  They do give us a weekend off and we are headed to go camping at Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains.

Today we are headed to Mass with everyone and then a family picnic.  Tomorrow I am helping carpool them to a ropes course.

Here is a picture from the airport.  Americans are in the green and Northern Irish are in the purple.  (not the best colors, I agree!)

 

VBS 2013

Marian is in the middle, 2 kids below the Mary statue.

Summer in full swing

Ulster kids arriving in 2 days.  We are getting the house ready for the guests.  Gabriel has successfully moved out (with his friend's help) the non-working TV from the basement.  Also installed our new microwave, which everyone loves.  Our old microwave had an irritating way of thinking you pressed one number instead of another.  So you would press 20 and it would think 90 and you would blindly start it and over microwave your dish.  Anyway, we found a new one at Home Depot and Gabriel successfully installed it. 

Ulster kids come and invade East TN for a month and hopefully don't get into any trouble in the process. 

Anna has this week off of work and will resume her nanny job next week again.  It is working out well and her charge (Kris) is an easy kid to care for.

Rain, rain

GO AWAY!!

It has been so rainy lately, not a day goes by it seems that we don't have a deluge.  And this morning was no different.  It absolutely poured and poured.  Then the sun came out and it was nice and then it poured again. 

Not a great year for our pool membership...oh well. 

We are hoping that it is not so rainy when our Northern Irish Teen arrives next week, many of the activities are planned for outdoors.  Last summer we suffered through 100+ degree weather for almost 2 weeks with the Irish kids, but the pool was a great respite.  Rain will dampen the mood considerably.

Gabriel has yet to finish his room, and we need to buy a new mattress for the top bunk.  All will happen by next week.

Summer has arrived

School is out, the pool is open and summer has arrived.

Gabriel is helping out with the regatta this weekend.  It's a National regatta, so there are thousands more people in Oak Ridge this weekend.  (A good time to leave for the week!)  I will help out a little tomorrow. 

Anna's summer job has proven to be less than we thought.  She was to be a nanny for a family, but that family is experiencing some job slow down and isn't using her that much.  She will likely work some next week and sporadically the rest of the summer.  She takes her ACT test this week for the first time. 

Marian is reading a lot this summer and playing with friends.  We are also starting a sewing club and I will teach her and a friend how to sew (we are doing baby clothes, smaller everything...)

Will step down from my leadership in the women's ministry here and step up to lead the pro-life group.  Never a dull moment. 

Bogdan is having an easy summer at work, the beam line comes "down" each summer for necessary maintenance, so he is not on call until August 1st.  So, no midnight or 3am calls for the summer!

Our Ulster (Northern Irish) teen arrives 3 weeks from today, and Gabriel is readying his room by re-installing the bunk bed.  (Which will stay for the year when our German student arrives in August!)