GRADUATION weekend

We had a whirlwind, but fabulous, weekend. Friday night we went to a reception/awards ceremony where I realized that the wife of Will's classmate and friend was a girl that I knew from church camp years ago. That was fun. We'll get together with them sometime this summer when they come up in this area (her parents live up around here). After that we went out to a nice place for dinner.

Saturday was the BIG DAY. We got the kids all packed up and headed out. Will was afraid of being late because we had to stop at Walmart on the way, so we left early and I ended up sitting alone with the kids for two hours before the ceremony started. Yeah, that was fun. A lot of Will's friends came, he was so tickled to see so many people there that didn't "have" to be. All of my family came except for my brother who's in GA (military) and my sister who was in OK watching her new stepson graduate with a similar degree. He already has a job. Not fair. :p

After the ceremony we went and got checked into our hotel and called one of Will's friends who wanted to take us out. He and his family came by the hotel room and hung out for a bit. Then we all walked down the street to a pizza place. It was crazy loud in there but the food was awesome. We had, bar none, the best spinach dip I have ever tasted. We stayed and talked (or, shouted is more like it) until about ten and then the kids were about ready to drop on their feet so we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ate cold pizza and spinach dip for breakfast, and then went to the zoo. Hung out there for a few hours and then went to a park for a picnic lunch. I made the mistake of throwing a bread crust out to some geese that were walking by, we had to spend the next half hour frantically tossing torn up pieces of bread to keep them from coming right up on the table with us. After we got rid of the geese and the kids played on the playground for a while, we went out for ice cream and then went to Will's cousin Lynn's house boat (it was she that paid for this trip) to hang out and fish. The river was up so high and running so fast the fish weren't really biting, but Nathan snagged a turtle by the back leg and I caught two small catfish. We also saw a couple of water moccasins and I got sunburnt. Not too bad though, it's almost all faded now. Once we got tired of fishing Lynn took us out for Mexican for supper. Jacob set the emergency exit alarm off on the way back from the bathroom. Nathan was so embarrassed, I had to remind him that he did the same thing to me at Old Navy once.

After supper we went back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the indoor pool for a couple of hours before bed. They had the pool to themselves and had a blast. Jacob would walk back and forth from one side of the 3 foot area to the other with his little floaties on and exclaim "I'm SUCH a great swimmer!" every time he got over close to us.

Monday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet (you could cook your own waffles and everything, so cool) and then went to the Museum of Discovery, which was right across the street from the hotel. The kids had a pretty good time, although it wasn't as much hands-on fun as the museum they're used to over here. A group of school kids acting like wild monkeys showed up around noon so we decided it was a good time to head out. We walked across to a popular catfish place for lunch. It was *really* good. We had talked about going at other times, but the line was always out the door and wrapped around the block the other times we passed by. Still busy when we went, but we only had about a fifteen minute wait for our food.

After lunch we walked to the trolley stop and rode the trolley all around the city and over the river. That was neat, very relaxing. Next time we go up to Little Rock for a concert or something we'll definitely have to park across town and ride the trolley, it stops right in front of the arena. After the trolley ride, it was time to head home. Thankfully we were only staying about an hour and a half from home, so we didn't have a ridiculous car ride back. The kids still all conked out about halfway home.

So, that was our weekend! We had a great time. Nathan was absolutely flabbergasted when he realized (on Sunday night) that he and Dana were going to miss school all day Monday for no reason other than to hang out and have fun. The look on his face was hilarious.

Just wanted to post a picture...

...of my GRADUATE.

Doesn't he look good in black and orange?

We're DONE. DONE. DONE!!!

Vacation pics

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Will and I went to stay at a cabin in Eureka Springs for a couple of days this week while everyone was on spring break. The kids went to stay with my folks. It's the first time we've been anywhere without the kids since Dana was born, but we felt like they were all finally old enough to be without us for a couple of days. We had a lovely time.

We stayed in a private cabin about ten miles out of town. We were right on the edge of a valley (that statement pretty much describes our location no matter where we went, LOL) and I bet that later in the spring when the trees are green and blooming it's really beautiful down through there. It was so nice and relaxing to sit out on the porch swing and listen to the wind blow through the trees.

Here's a picture of the neighboring cabin, looking out from the right of our wrap-around porch. See how some of the trees have limbs that are snapped off and/or damaged? That's from the ice storm last winter. The damage up in that part of the state is staggering. In some places you would look out and almost every single tree - no matter how big - had the top snapped out of it. It's no wonder it was months before all the power was restored in some of those areas.

Here's a picture of our heart-shaped jacuzzi tub. Ahhhh. I miss that tub.

While we were there we visited the Christ of the Ozarks.

Next to the chapel there is an actual section of the Berlin Wall.

Very powerful to stand there and touch something that held so many people in bondage for so long. Loosely translated, this section of the wall says: And it goes even into the darkness. I have no anxiety! Psalm 23.

My husband, as some of you know, can't go anywhere without geocaching at least a little. Here are some deer who really wished we'd just move along already.

And here are a couple of pictures where you can get an idea of the ice storm damage.

This is the last 'vacationy' place we stopped at, the War Eagle Mill. We had a fabulous breakfast there (I had a whole grain waffle with blueberries and whipped cream - YUM) and then bought a bunch of yummy slow ground corn and wheat products, cherry butter, pumpkin butter, raw honey and sorghum, toys for the kids...lots of stuff.

OK there is a notice that blogspot is performing maintenance in a few minutes, so I'm going to post this while I can. Thanks for looking!

Wedding pics

You may recall my sister got married this past weekend. Just thought I'd share a few of the pics. :)

The ceremony was in my parents' house. There was probably 50 or so people there. Everything looked very nice.

One of her friends made the cake. It was fabulous, and I'm not much of a cake person. I wish now that we would have brought some of it home, heh.

Here's the minister, Bro. John, and the groom, Russell.

And here comes my sister, Pam, and my dad, Charles. (That's my oldest brother Robbie there to her right. And the picture on the wall behind him is my grandmother, who passed away in '92.)

Here's a picture of all of us together. L to R: My dad Charles, brother Robbie, sister Pam, me, brother Victor, mom Marie.

And here's a picture of Will and me under the arch. Nathan took this one, I thought he did a really good job.

All in all, everyone had a great time I think. I spent the night there Friday night so I could be up early Saturday morning helping them get the food and stuff together. We served finger foods - sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, fruit and veggie platters - along with the cake and punch. I told Will to be sure to get there on time, but not to be too early because I didn't want the kids tearing up the house, LOL. The pastor's wife and son did all the flowers and decorations. He owns his own floral shop and has such a great talent for it. They did the flowers for my wedding too.

Ha ha, after the ceremony I told Pam that she now holds the title in our family for the shortest wedding ceremony. Will and I walked in to ours at 2 pm and were walking back out at 2:10, but they managed to beat that. Just my kind of ceremony! Heh.

I'll post pictures from our vacation next, I want to make sure this all posts right.

Will applied for a Voluntary Severance at work yesterday

They had been hoping that work would pick back up in March (he has only worked a full week once since before Christmas - the rest of the time he's worked 0, 1, or 2 days per week) but it's not looking any better than it was, so they started offering a voluntary severance package. Based on the length of time he's been there, if he gets approved for it he'll get ten weeks of full pay with benefits before he's officially unemployed. That puts him at having a steady, full time paycheck again until after he GRADUATES IN MAY, plus he won't have to pay back any of the tuition reimbursement he's received (if he was to get another job and leave, he would have to pay it back) so we really feel this is the best course of action for us right now. The dept manager spoke with him for a while yesterday before he turned in his paperwork, and said they could work something out so that he could come in and work two nights steadily during the week (the reason his work has been so hit and miss is because he works the weekend shift and they just don't have enough work to keep it open right now) but he couldn't give him any kind of timeframe for when work would pick back up and he could get a full week's hours in again. So he'd actually be getting paid more by taking the severance package than by working.

He's got a lot of resumes out there for an engineering position, and has been to several interviews, but so far hasn't gotten an offer for anything. But, many places have expressed interest and are just waiting for him to GRADUATE IN MAY, so we aren't too worried about his ability to find something else. If worse comes to worse, we'll have most of the tax money in the bank still to tide us over for several weeks.

It'll be nice to have a semi-normal schedule with him again, instead of having to wait until Wednesday or Thursday to know if he's going to be at home on the weekend. The kids behave sooooo much better when he's here on a regular basis. He has daytime and evening classes both this semester, so even though he doesn't have many classes he's gone a good portion of the day and evening during the week.

He should find out next week if he was approved.

So if your tax e-file is ever rejected due to a wrong birthday on file...

...after almost a month of dealing with this, I can finally tell you how to take care of it!

First, go to your local social security administration, with your birth certificate, and have them correct the date. Be sure to ask them what the incorrect date on file is.

Then come home and e-file your taxes, using the incorrect birth date, because it's going to take several weeks for the system to update, and the only thing they use the birth date for is verification purposes. (This was the advice given to us by the IRS, by the way. And it worked.)

Voila! You're done!

FINALLY got our taxes approved by the IRS this morning. Hopefully the refund will deposit next Friday and they don't change the date on us.

For Jackie

I know it will probably be a few days before you see this, but I just wanted to share the lyrics to this song with you. It always brings me great comfort in times of loss.

The Valley Song ~ Jars of Clay

You have led me to the sadness
I have carried this pain
On a back bruised, nearly broken
I'm crying out to you

I will sing of Your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

When death like a gypsy
Comes to steal what I love
I will still look to the heavens
I will still seek your face
But I fear you aren't listening
Because there are no words
Just the stillness and the hunger
For a faith that assures

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

While we wait for rescue
With our eyes tightly shut
Face to the ground using our hands
To cover the fatal cut
And though the pain is an ocean
Tossing us around, around, around
You have calmed greater waters
Higher mountains have come down

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy