Courageous Joy

Day Nine of Vacation – 29 December 2005

The day began early this morning with a drive to the local airport. Yes, Mom and Dad have left to fly back to the NW. This goodbye seemed harder for us than normal. I think this is in part because it foreshadows another goodbye we will be saying in a few days. Good – proper, beneficial….Bye – leave taking. It sure seems from my point of view that there isn’t much benefit in much of the leave taking we do. BUT I refuse to go there now! Maybe I’ll have “thoughts on saying Goodbye” on the 2nd of January. {grin}

We did have a blast with Mom and Dad. We hadn’t had both of them to our home since 2002. Mom did come up to AK in July of 2003. Always a joy to have family visit….

Back at home the kids spent a bit of time on the computer. THEN ::::Drum Roll:::: Bre, Krista, Josiah, Jamin and Jared prepared to board a bus and head to San Antonio with a student trip sponsored by the chapel. They’ll be attending :::drum still rolling::: a Spurs game! Poor Mike couldn’t go with them because he is duty chaplain. We are thrilled they were able to go. There ARE advantages of adult children being home.{grin}

The younger set and I (Arielle, Nolan, Zander and Stacia) met Mike for lunch, spent the afternoon at the Lake (met a family of boys from Kodiak Island, AK), picked Mike up at 5 p.m., and went to Mr. Gatti’s to eat and play. Zander has been waiting to get tall enough to ride the bumper cars (42”) He is a good inch past that tonight – so he got to ride. The lady asked if he knew how to work the cars before she turned it on. Mike told her that he’d be fine, he’d quickly figure it out. We laughed. He figured it out really quick and loved it. I didn’t have the camera with me – bummer.

The younger set, Mike and I are now going to watch Kid Movies that the older ones get tired of and then fall asleep. We’ll have to let you know tomorrow how the Spurs do. {grin}

While at the park I was able to read another chapter in *Third Culture Kids* and continue my search for some sort of guide to an “inductive survey” of the Bible. My goal this year is to study the Bible through instead of read it through. We’ll see.