First week of Advent

Shopping for Giving Tree...why is so much fun to shop for 1 year old kids?

Choir Concert tonight!  Love to hear all the Christmas music. 

Prayers for those far and near:

Almighty God, We bless you for our lives, we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace we receive. We thank you for your faithfulness even though we are not that faithful to you.

Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around peace in our mind, body, soul and spirit. We want you to heal and remove everything that is causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives.

Please guide our path through life and make our enemies be at peace with us. Let your peace reign in our family, at our place of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on. Let your angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out and stay by our side when we return. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving

Fall..where has the time gone!?

Been a super busy fall, as you can tell from a complete lack of postings.

Marian is in the middle of a busy junior year.  Very demanding classes.  She's had trouble with physics, and she may end up dropping it altogether.  She did the fall play, Little Women, staring as Beth, the sweet and musical one who dies in the second act.  She loves the book and was excited to help stage one of her favorite stories.  Little Mermaid comes next!   We also started visiting colleges and saw 2 of them in October.  Hopefully, we'll see more in the spring.  She will also be taking the ACT test soon.

Anna still continues caring for babies at her day job as a daycare teacher.  She was sad to see her twins move on to the toddler room recently, as she cared for them since the beginning.  She has been active in many plays and musicals at the Oak Ridge Playhouse, a local community theatre.

Gabriel's big news is that he's accepted a position at Grand Rounds for a post-graduation job.  Check them out at https://grandrounds.com/ He's super excited and will be based in San Francisco, a place he loves.

Doula training continues and I've had my first doula birth, looking forward to the next one.

All will be home for Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to some R&R.

Goodbye to summer

School has now been going for a month and while the weather may not show it, that summer feeling is definitely over.  It used to be Labor Day was the official end of summer, but not here in Oak Ridge!

Marian is well on her way in her Junior year, that difficult and heavily loaded academic year.  She is already feeling it.  She was just cast in Little Women and will play Beth.  She is also assistant stage manager for Blithe Spirit at the Oak Ridge Playhouse.  That's fun, but tiring. Luckily, she has 3 days off and can catch up on sleep and homework!

Anna is doing well at her job and just welcomed a new baby in her daycare room.  She is also helping out with backstage work at the Oak Ridge Playhouse and loves doing both onstage and backstage work.  She just had a car accident, but she and the other passenger were fine, the car needs some work and we are still waiting to hear about the cost of repairs and she is still waiting to hear from the insurance company.

Gabriel began classes today for his senior year, hard to believe!  He had a good time at his internship this summer in SF and is beginning the work of applying for a REAL job.  He has a number of prospects and we are hopeful he will find a good fit.

Bogdan has been all over recently, a week long and arduous job in Idaho (did you know there is a National Lab in Idaho?) and then another 3 day job in Canada.  He's still recovering and catching up on sleep.  The good news is that he officially reached his 10 year anniversary and his pension milestone!

Costuming Little Women will consume most of my time this Fall.  I'll be training someone in September to take over my medical billing practice and I'm also well on my way in my doula training.  Have I mentioned that I'm changing jobs to become a doula?  My goal is to start full time in April of 2021. 

June is busting out all over

Heavy rain is leading to cooler temperatures here in TN.  But, lots of flooding.  None in our area, but in neighboring communities.  A developer has cleared land adjacent and across from our property and plans to build 3 houses.  Not sure how they will accomplish this across the street as it's significantly lower than the road, and will likely flood.  Not my problem :)

Marian is having fun at Governor's School for the Arts, competed in a talent show and won it (are we surprised?)  She did a duet with another girl and won a plaque, which she plans to saw in half to share with the other singer.

Anna is busy with rehearsals for 9 to 5 (the musical) and has applied to some new jobs.  Her current position does not offer health insurance, nor paid holidays, so she has applied to both the University-run childcare and the local healthcare conglomerate (Covenant Health) in their hospital childcare.  While she likes where she works, she realizes that she can make more money and get better benefits at another location.

Gabriel has started his internship and all seems to be going well so far.  He moved in with friends who are also in San Francisco this summer and that seems to be a bonus for all.  He admitted to being lonely the past 2 summers without anyone there with him.

We are hosting a French exchange student, Pierre, and he should be here in a month or so.  We don't know too much about him, but hope his year here will be a good one.  We will only have him for 3-4 months and then he will move to another host family.

May is almost gone too!

School ends in another week, but for Marian, it will done on Friday.  Then with no break, she goes to Governor's School for the Arts and will be there for a 3 week long intensive theatre experience.  It will cram a semester long class into 3 weeks!  She is happy for the school year to end and glad her sophomore year is finishing. 

Marian has once again created a summer bucket list.  On it this time are: make a music video, ride a horse, commit a felony (!), make a time capsule, teach the cats a trick, buy red shoes, read a Shakespeare play, crash a wedding or party of a stranger, go lactose-free for a week, and many more (there are 44 this year!)

Bogdan is having (and of course, we are all helping) his Annual Memorial Day BBQ today.  It's been going on for 6 or 7 years now, can't recall exactly.  Anyway, each year he invites all his work colleagues over, like 150+ people.  But, thankfully we never have more than 80!  This year, it's supposed to be about 60 people.  We grill brats, burger, and hot dogs and the party attendees bring everything else.  I always say, well at least once a year, the house gets cleaned, inside and out!

Anna has been cast in the summer musical at the Oak Ridge Playhouse, 9 to 5 (the musical).  She's excited to be in the ensemble, and it should be a fun musical.  Based on the 80's movie and all the music written by East TN's own Dolly Parton.

Gabriel leaves on Saturday (or Sunday?) for San Francisco for his internship, he's really excited.  Marian and I will be going on a long weekend to visit him when he's there. 

Memorial Day

Pictures from Arlington, remembering those who served for our country.