Feels Like Summer!

Greetings from sunny (...finally), warm (...finally) Ohio! Today the temperatures are going to get into the 80's! There is a pretty good breeze blowing, so it doesn't feel that warm to me -- but it's a DEFINITE improvement from the 50's we were having a week ago. I'll take it!

Life in our neck of the woods continues to be very good. We celebrated my birthday last weekend. Saturday, we had the luxury of a day with absolutely no commitments -- and beautiful weather outside, so we took advantage of it and spent as much time outdoors as we possibly could. Sunday was rainy, but it was a perfect day to relax after working all day on Saturday. Overall, it was an excellent weekend. Kevin and the girls made me dinner and cake on Sunday. It was a fabulous birthday.

This week has been good. Tonight I'm going on an overnight trip with Erin and a group of kids from church. We should be home before dinner time on Saturday. I attended the same program with Erin last year, and we had a ball. I'm looking forward to it.

We have a weekend of beautiful weather ahead (sunny and 80's), so I'm looking forward to spending Sunday around the house working outside.

Jessica took her certification test last Friday. She was a nervous wreck going in to the test, but afterward she said she felt really good about it. It's crazy -- because all of her studies culminate with this one test! It doesn't matter if you're a straight-A student all through college - - if you can't pass this test, you're boat is sunk! Kids that are poor testers probably have a nervous break-down before taking the test. Anyway, Jess should get the results in a couple of weeks. She has about three more weeks of school left, but she said everything they have done to-date has been in preparation for this test, so now she is just coasting until graduation. We will be heading to Wilmington the weekend of May 9th for a reception with the college president on Saturday, and graduation on Sunday. That will be especially cool, since Erin was undergoing her bone marrow transplant 4 years ago when Jess graduated from High School. I stayed in Minneapolis with Erin, and Kevin and Katie flew home to attend graduation. I really hated missing that, so I am really looking forward to attending her college graduation (... and it goes without saying that Erin is excited to be going, too!).

Jessica also had an interview with Cincinnati Children's Hospital this past week. She interviewed with the HR department, and they took her immediately to meet with the team in Orthopedics while she was there. Typically, HR screens applicants and if you make the first cut, they schedule you to come back later for a second interview with the doctors/team members. Jessica's qualifications were great for the job she was interviewing for, and apparently they wanted to move her through the process faster. She said she thought it went very well. Now, we're all on pins and needles waiting for "the call." They offer tuition reimbursement for grad school, so not only would she be getting her foot in the door in a very desirable hospital -- but she'd also be free to pursue her PHd at the hospital's expense. Sounds like a win/win to me! She will be an asset wherever she ends up working. She's such a neat kid!

Katie has an overnight campout thing downtown tomorrow. The kids are "marching" through downtown and ultimately camping out in a park to draw attention to the plight of the "invisible children." (You can check out their website at www.invisiblechildren.com) It's a crisis of international proportion -- but nobody is doing anything to help. Our youth pastor recently asked the teens to commit to helping draw attention to this situation as a mission-type project, and Katie was happy to do it. The weather should be very nice for this event. (I'd be curious to see how strong her conviction was if the weather was going to be cold and rainy during the march and camp-out! He he he) Anyway, I'm pleased to see her getting involved. We fully support them. It's a reminder that this world is full of such horrors, and we are very blessed to live in the country we live in.

So that's the latest form our neck of the woods. Our neighbors new house is really coming along! They started putting the "log" portion of the home up yesterday. I'd love to be home to see that come together. It's really going to be a charming house when it's done, and it will be so nice having another neighbor back there with us.

Have a great weekend!