Marian's winning bookmark

This is Marian's winning entry for the Library's Summer Reading Program Bookmark.  It is supposed to be a girl reading a book and picturing it coming alive in her mind.  Good job Marian!!  They told us this will be used nationally by libraries.

Storms, heat and Gabriel back

We experienced a number of rain and hail storms over the past couple weeks and trees came down everywhere.  There are still a number of very large trees down.  Neighbors had one fall on their house, but thankfully it did not cause any damage.

And then came the heat.  It has been very hot this past week, but only rained once.

Summer is in full swing and Anna started her summer dog-walking job.  It is preventing her from sleeping in (she has to be there at 7am) and it's keeping her doing something.  Anna also met with her ETSU roommate and they had a nice dinner.  They seem to get along and will keep in contact this summer.  Anna's job is to find a small dorm microwave. 

Marian has designs on a room re-design, but might have to convince Gabriel to give up his bunk bed...All this has to wait until the Japanese Girl Scouts come for a visit.  They are arriving in a month and will stay only for a week.  It will be a whirlwind visit for them.

Gabriel is now back from Gov. School and seems to be happy to be home.  All his friends came over for dinner and slept over, so it does feel like things are back to normal.  We saw some pictures from his time there and oddly enough he was with girls most of the time.  Hmmmm.  Anyway, the kids in the group all seemed nice and he is glad he went.  He starts his internship at ORNL on Monday.

I finished the wedding dress alterations and the bride was happy.  The wedding is 2 weeks away and the mother of the bride seems a bit stressed.  :)  I guess I will be in that position at some point too.

Updates as summer starts!

Summer has officially started!!

Anna has secured a part time dog sitting job, which allows her time for the pool, but also some time to make some money.  The good news for her lately (other than graduating) is that she has qualified for the HOPE scholarship, which is $4,000 per year for college.  YAHOO!!

Here is one of the pictures from graduation...

  

Marian, Max and I went on a short trip to Charlotte, Myrtle Beach and Columbia.  (NC and SC)  We loved Charlotte, a very cool city and we were able to find free parking and saw a bit of a minor league baseball game there.  Then we were off to Myrtle Beach and thoroughly enjoyed the sun and surf there.  Beautiful weather and lovely beaches.  We chose a not so crowded area and also scored on free parking.  Our next day brought us to Columbia SC, which was less than stellar.  Coming from a Capitol city area, I must say that the area in Concord, NH was far nicer.  We came home via 40 West, only to hit a huge detour that took us 100 miles out of the way!  We got home in time for dinner last night.  

We are doing last minute American things like showing him all the original Star Wars movies (episodes 4-6) and making his favorites like Rice Krispie treats.

Gabriel was dropped off to Governor's school on Sunday and has been texting us updates.  He is having a good time and they gave each of the kids a laptop computer (to keep!).  They are taking a field trip to Chattanooga to look at a supercomputer there.