Making headlines

[Click the title of this post to go to the original news story online, at The Bellingham Herald website]



1st Christmas with baby was best, couple recalls
WWII pilot wasn’t told of child till his leave started

KIRA MILLAGE

June Veith doesn’t remember meeting her father for the first time, but she has certainly heard the stories.

It was less than a week before Christmas 1943. Her father, Robert Swigart, had spent 10 months in North Africa, flying in a B-26 bomber. The then-lieutenant had just finished his required 40 missions and rushed home to his wife, Geraldine, and their 6-month old daughter, whom he had never seen before.

“At last, you were a family and that’s important,” June, now 63, told her parents Friday afternoon while looking through slightly yellowing photos of the reunion. “It’s always fun to hear your own birth story and all the things that set you apart from other people.”

For June to even be there was a miracle. She was born about 2½ months premature.

“I didn’t get to see her for 10 days and then when I saw her, she looked just like (Robert), but a skeleton,” said Geraldine, 84.

“It was lucky you were even alive,” she said to June.

Robert wasn’t notified of June’s birth until shortly before he came home because they were afraid she would die before he arrived.

“I think I was a little dumbfounded,” said Robert, now 87, of learning his child was already 6 months old.

Their first Christmas as a family was spent at Geraldine’s mother’s house in Long Beach, Calif., where there was a big tree and dinner. But, Christmastime surprises didn’t stop for the Swigarts.

In mid-December 1965, June was set to marry Dennis Veith, a Navy officer and Annapolis graduate. But Dennis’ ship ran aground and he wasn’t allowed to leave until the investigation into the incident was over. He missed the wedding date. But the family quickly rescheduled and the two exchanged vows on Dec. 26.

Other Christmases over the last 63 years have brought together all the family members, many of whom have settled in Western Washington. But Geraldine and Robert think of that first Christmas with June as the best they’ve had in their 64 years of marriage.

“This is just a happy time,” Robert said.

Merry Christmas!

Here are the latest; me with Hope and Toni with "Uncle Rob".

Christmas Eve

Trying to take a nice picture of Rob and I, here in NB on Christmas Eve. Best o' luck to me, eh? Silly man.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Hope and Rob's church. Lots of wee folks, a family service.

Off to bed now, I suppose. Early to rise is going to happen anyway, with the kiddies in the house. Though we're technically late for early to bed, at this point.

The wee folk

My niece Toni is hilarious. She has this crazy face that she makes where she pulls on her lower eyelids. Once she saw it on the computer screen, it was the only face she would make. She'd be smiling pretty then, as soon as she saw the "3... 2... 1..." on the screen, showing that a picture was about to be taken, up goes the hands, down go the bottom eyelids. What a crack-up! You can also see my sister Hope and nephew Liam. Also, Rob in the first picture.

The last day here

They had church this morning at Cross of Christ so we went. The power came on at 9:30; exactly coinciding with the start of first service. However, they were all set up to do it by candlelight so they did it with the candles anyway. There's a pithy something in there, somewhere. :)

Couldn't find a laundromat that wasn't packed to the gills so we're bringing dirty clothes to Canada. I hope there's no law against such things.

Charging our laptops now at the library before I wash the makeup off of my face in the bathroom and we head back to Woodinville. We need to pack and clean out our room before it gets dark, which will be within the next few hours.

Found lattes, though we didn't get to them until after 1PM. Victor's in Redmond, actually had milk to make them with.

As of Monday evening, we will be reachable by email only, just so you know.

Surviving

These are photos from http://www.king5.com ... go there to see more. These show what most of the Eastside roads looked like this morning.

We're both fine. Yes, part of a tree crashed on the house where we're staying and took out the power box on the outside wall. But our smart friends called the power company right away and were at the top of the list when repairs began the next day. We, however, left town at 8:10AM, headed for a concert in Salem, OR. They still had no power when we left. It took us 2 hours to make the first leg of the journey, the part that should have taken us 30 minutes. A lot of that had to do with trees on power lines. We tried to get to 520 our normal way but had to turn around and come back the way we came. Eventually, I took out Streets & Trips with the GPS and just fly-navigated our way out of there; we'd come to a tree too fallen into the road to pass, we'd do a U-turn and try another way, route-changing on the fly. It was a bit crazy. No ... it was a lot crazy. Every tree that we drove under, I thought, "This is freaking nuts!" I also wish I'd had our camera, for posterity. But we prayed and drove on. Thank God our impetuous persistence didn't get the best of us. We made it to Salem safely. Saw Larry Norman in concert. Are now in the hotel, getting ready for bed. Praying for good driving weather tomorrow.

Hot shower, good. Place to plug in laptop, good.

Bakonography

Helping a friend make Christmas cookies for the neighbors today. After making candy-cane cookies, we ended up with more pink dough than white so I got a little wacky with the dough. Made a little baby Jesus cookie. He stays on the plate though because his head fell off. Looks like he's standing on my finger. Note the 2 extended fingers on his right hand. As Homer would say, "Sacrilicious!"

Rainy day journeys

Got a clean bill of jaw health from Dr. Maring this morning. The gums are sealing nicely and everything looks clean in there. No infection. Gotta use a weird syringey thing to clean it though. I can barely feel the wound areas anymore. 3 sutures fell out on our way to Dr. Maring's office this morning. Now, I only have one in my upper left gum. I'm glad the sutures are going; feel like little spider corpses in my mouth all the time.

After the doctor visit, went to pick up clearance letters from the sheriff's office in downtown Seattle. Parking was craziness, of course. The sheeting rain didn't help. The clearance letters are to show that we have no police record, for our Namibia visa. Then, we drove to Bellingham. Will work from Rob's folks' place for the next couple of days. Then back to Woodinville for a speaking thing on Wednesday night.

Making turkey soup right now. Or, rather, boiling bones and working up to making soup.

At the 1 week mark

I've decided that today is my last day of looking like death warmed over ... and I'm making the most of it, as you can see. The bruise is still there, a little bigger now, and I've got a little one on the other cheek now. Weird that the bruising would kick in so late. I hope it's not gangrene.

Wednesday was a full day, with the cookie swap in the morning and Advent vespers in the evening. In between, we pretty much drove from one place to the next. Traffic into Seattle was a nightmare; an hour and a half from Bellevue to West Seattle, bumper to bumper. We pretty much collapsed when we got home.

Got to see Rob's folks yesterday. We met them for lunch in Everett. We had Mosaic band practice in the evening and then came home and watched Casanova, the last of my wisdom teeth movies. And I took my last ibuprofen last night. I feel OK today. Still needing more sleep than usual but the pain is just chewed-too-much-gum. The sutures are getting floppy in there but I don't think I've lost any yet.

Afterlife of the party

Bruising. Light, greenish patch by lower left jaw, corner of mouth. Still tender, puffy. Went to the library to call the folks, let them know I'd recovered from the weird codeine thing on Sunday night. Picked up ingredients for soup for dinner. I wanted to go to the WELCA smorgasbord at Cross of Christ tonight but I'm still feeling gross and would have to bring a main dish ... and wouldn't actually be able to eat anything, or talk to anyone. Everyone would be, like, "MMMM ... this is so good ... I mean, sorry, Eshinee. It's not that good." Way to ruin a good feast for everyone ... bring the girl who can't eat anything that requires chewing. Oh, and who looks sarcastic when she smiles and can't always be understood when she talks.

Now, I must make cookies for the LWML event that Rob and I are going to in Puyallup tomorrow; an LWML cookie swap.

Days 3 and 4

So, this was around the end of day 2. Shiny happy people.


This was early yesterday. I was back on the codeine at this point, had been since Saturday afternoon. Was also feeling really groggy. Like, could use the mouse but that was most of my movement capability. Then, yesterday evening I started to itch. At around 9:30PM, my head started to hurt. That weirded me out. Like, I'm taking pain meds ... how can my head hurt? So I went to bed. Woke up at 3AM, head hurting more now, face starting to. Also, I am still really groggy and now am nauseous. I check out the patient monograph with my oxycodone. Itching, nausea, extreme fatigue, grogginess ... allergy? Overdose? Something was wrong. Rob was up getting me things to make me feel better; earl grey tea, white bread, peppermint oil, water. I throw up dinner, which was gravy bread and hummus. Then, when rinsing my mouth, I find that I'm bleeding again. Argh. Now, I have to decide; take Advil for the pain? Wait until I'm not nauseous anymore? I call Dad because it's 4:30AM here at this point, which makes it about 9AM in Newfoundland. The phone bill will be outrageous, I'm sure. We don't have Canada on our calling plan. But, by now, we were thinking emergency room so an expensive phone call (15 minutes in the end) would still be cheaper. Dad says it was probably the hummus that I reacted to but said to take Advil instead. Dad's a pharmacist, by the way. I say goodnight to the folks and go to sleep in the living room.


And here's me today. I'm actually feeling a lot better than I did the last couple of days. And today is "hot beverage" day so Rob got me a cinnamon latte. I was not doing dairy because of the pain meds but Dad said that wasn't necessary. So, latte! Am drinking it now.

Mom, who was the first person that I talked to when I called home this morning, pointed out that Percocet is usually overkill and she doesn't know why anyone prescribes it. She says that Advil does the trick without the side effects; why go the "big guns" route? She's had lots of cancer customers (in the pharmacy) being miserable, nauseous, out-of-it and groggy ... who feel better when they lay off the Percocet. I have to say, this most recent experience of mine has changed the way I was ranking pain killers. I thought of Percocet as being tougher. At least in my case, it proved to just be more problematic. And I'm feeling better as a whole today.

Day 2

These are a couple of shots I took before going to sleep last night. I couldn't move my lower lip at all so the second shot is my best smile. Reminded me of that Kids in the Hall skit, of the guy at a party with sarcastic disorder; "No, I *really* want to talk to you. It would be *terrible* if this conversation were to end." I have full movement back in my lower face this morning, though. Yay!

Stepped down from codeine to ibuprofen this morning because of he swelling. It's too early for frozen peas, man. It's 7:15AM and I'm still warm in bed.

When I can do what

All check times at noon:

Friday (yesterday) - wisdom teeth surgery over by about noon
Today - stop using frozen peas ice packs, begin rinsing mouth wth saline solution 4-5x/day, gently brush teeth without spitting or toothpaste
Sunday - worry if there's still bleeding, soft diet (cool foods, lukewarm soups, iced beverages) until now
Monday - can have hot and carbonated beverages now, don't need to sleep wih head elevated anymore
Tuesday - swelling might be gone
Thursday - expect the swelling to be gone, 2 ibuprofen 4x/day until swelling does go down
Friday - consider eating soft foods until now, can suck on candy, can suck through a straw, facial bruising should be gone by now

Yesterday, I took 3 "oxycodone w/apap 5/325"; 1 at 3:30, 1 at 7:30 and 1 at about midnight. Since I took only 2 ibuprofen at about 1PM yesterday, I'm gonna see if the ibuprofen alone does the trick today. I took 2 about an hour ago and I'm still waiting for them to "kick in".

Post-op pics

This is me right after the surgery. I think around 12:30PM.

These are a couple of people who helped with the surgery. They were great.

Me, home and in bed about an hour later, I think.

Listening to Rob's recording of the time after the surgery, when I "awoke". From what little I've heard of the recording so far, I woke up at least 3 times. Each time I would say, "Rob ... they put the IV in and it twinged. But the pain went away and the next thing I remember was waking up." Like I had never said it before. Freaky. Gotta podcast it eventually.

Rob says the bloody looking tongue is normal. It's not hurting or anything so I'm not freaked out.

Thank God for petite peas. And mittens, which is what I'm wearing for my 20 minute pea-pack intervals. I've watched SNL's Best of Will Ferrell and The Wedding Crashers already today. I'm doing very well.

Thank God for making this rough place smooth! Dr. Thomas Maring said they didn't need to go near nerves at all. I'm not even bleeding in there. Rob says he can't even see where the teeth were. Thanks for your prayers. I am blessed.

Surgery

See how calm I look, night before a grand adventure?

Wisdom teeth being taken out, Friday, 10:30AM. General anesthesia. Pray for me, OK?

It's not really 12:45AM. Can't fix the time on the posting.

We're ready. Got the frozen peas, got the comedy DVDs, got the soy-based frozen treats (no dairy with the pain meds). Got directions back home for when I'm out of it and useless as a navigator. Rob's bringing the Marantz to record everything I say after surgery, in case I'm amnesic for an extended time beyond the actual surgery. Might be our first podcast.

Like, I said ... pray. Not the most fun thing I've ever anticipated, eh?

Where we're at

We had a busy Thanksgiving day, even though I wasn't the one cooking (I only helped with the sweet potato casserole, spicy edamame and gravy). Friday, we just didn't do anything all day. Saturday, we had a sitting for our church directory portrait in the morning. We had considered going to see a movie but my uterus started freaking out so we had to go home. The pain went away in a few hours so we began to think of things to do that evening. Kate's parents were borrowing their kids for the weekend so we decided to have a grownups night out. We went to Illuzions (sp?) in Issaquah and played arcade games for an hour before singing karaoke for another hour. I hadn't done karaoke in in a long time. I got to sing echo (with Eric) for "If I had a million $" and lead on Aerosmith's "Dude looks like a lady" and Alannah Myles "Black velvet". Eric did U2's "With or without you" and Rob did Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be stupid". I actually blew out my voice singing, for the first time ever! I got it back in about an hour though, so it's all good. Just must warmup next time.

Rob presented during adult education hour at Cross of Christ (our home church) yesterday morning. I put up our new, permanent ministry display in the library there. Then, we came home and hung out together all afternoon. I'm feeling much better now, starting to feel normal again. I should be at full physical capacity some time today.

Our Trumba calendar thing isn't going to work anymore (they're making it un-free in January) so we're using iCal from now on. I just need to figure out how to integrate that with this blog. Keep your eyes peeled ...

Taking care of business

I've emailed almost a hundred pastors in the last 5 days. And I've already gotten preliminary responses from 6 of them ... yay! Things are looking hopeful for the spring bookings.

And Dielda just emailed me this picture, which she took at the Mary and Martha group we spoke at last week (at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Renton).

We have a doctor's appointment this afternoon so I'm finishing up what I can this morning.

in case I forgot

The link to hear one of Rob's sermons from speaking at Trinity Lutheran in Bellingham is http://www.touchmyfez.com/trinity ... I'm assuming the link to his message is still there. I'm going through the inbox today, getting receipts together for LBT.

We got the power

Made it home fine with dinner before 9PM. Ate by candlelight, then pondered what to do with all the meaty (Chicken Posole) leftovers. Thankfully, before the decision needed to be made, the power came back on. At 10PM, we even got to play Neverwinter Nights 2 for a bit. Will post a screenshot tomorrow, I think. Now, bed.

Outage

The power went at about 3PM so we're limited in what we were able to accomplish today. I had a crockpot dish cooking that had an hour left on it so we waited to see if the power would come back before doing anything drastic. Well, 6:30 rolled around and still no power so we picked up the crockpot and brought it to Kate's church. We left it plugged in on high and dinner should be done by 8PM, when we're going back to eat. We're at the library now, which is across from the church.

I just bought a bunch of meat to cook for meals this week so I'm really hoping and praying that the power comes back on pretty quickly. For now, we'll just not open the fridge. And I'll get in a couple of hours of library time, where they still have power.

Endometrial update

Had the sonohysterogram today. I have 3 big polyps in there. So, they'll scrape them out during a hysteroscopy, probably in January.


Normal endometrium












What mine kind of looked like (not the actual picture: I just found one online that looked kind of like what I saw onscreen)

Home sweet home

Made it back to Woodinville, safe and sound. Man, I'm beat. Rob's making me go to bed. He says I'm looking way tired. I can't argue the point. I couldn't find my supplements before I left for Dallas and, therefore, didn't take them all week. Plus, I had training all day, each day. Plus, I got up at 6AM to fly today. And 6AM Dallas time is 4 AM here. If I didn't look like dogmeat, I'd be Wonder Woman.

All done

Here's a shot from this afternoon, in the classroom, right after class finished.

Training is complete ... yay! It was fabulous. I even caught a free (bonus!) training on how to do a monolingual demonstration, from Mike Cahill. I wonder if I'll get the chance to try it soon.

I fly back to Seattle tomorrow.

Chicken! Head?

Training is great. Met some other LBT-ers here. Had lunch with Anna Moore on Monday, will have lunch with Tim and Michelle Miller today. Reading books from the library that I can't get anywhere else. Gotta run to class now. May post more later.

Safe and sound

Rob made it to the Hunger Symposium in Belfair and back, despite the nasty weather that doubled his travel time. Flooded roads and all, I hear. We were on iChat earlier, catching up.

I'm in my dorm room, in Dallas. Realizing now that I hadn't actually been in any of the dorm rooms when we lived here, back in the fall of 2004. We lived across the street, in the Zuni St apartments. I'm online so all is well. A friend of ours from when we'd been here before picked me up at the airport, Emma. She also took me to get groceries before bringing me to my room. I had kind of forgotten how there's nothing to eat here on campus and you can't walk anywhere in Dallas. But I now have a bunch of bananas, a bag of apples, some yogurt drinks and a container of ruby red grapefruit juice. Oh, and a bunch of rice cakes. That should last me until the cafeteria opens on Monday.

Also, I'm going to Cedar Pointe Church tomorrow. They meet here on campus as their permanent building is still being built. Bill Leckie is the pastor I talked about in our most recent newsletter, in my "Wait Training" article. Looking forward to seeing the CP churchfolks again.



Here I am, in my dorm room. I took the picture with PhotoBooth by clicking the photo button and running to the bed across the room to sit down.

Could have been SO much worse ...

So, I went to install Neverwinter Nights 2 on my MacBook last night, only to discover that it absolutely would not run on it. I was shocked and saddened. I mean, it's a brand new computer ... what's the deal? Come to find out, the Intel GMA 950 graphics processor doesn't support graphics-intensive games (read 3D games, like UT2004, Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 ... everything Rob and I play, basically). And yes, I do mean even with Windows installed, running in Bootcamp and with Direct X and Direct 3D enabled. This is a known issue, though not known to me until I Googled "MacBook" and "World of Warcraft" together. However, I was pretty miffed that the sales guy at the Mac store in Redmond hadn't known about this. Should they know everything about every computer, what they can and cannot do? I don't know. Thankfully, this is a question that didn't need to be answered conclusively.

We went to the Mac Store in Redmond, where I had purchased my custom-spec MacBook, and explained the problem. The manager, Tim Jahn, not only didn't give me grief about exchanging for a MacBook Pro (which runs Windows 3D games in Bootcamp just fine, as Rob can testify) but made the transaction utterly painless and easy for me. I even get to keep this MacBook until the refurbished MacBook Pro comes in, a great relief to me since I'm flying to a software training tomorrow morning for next week, to Dallas, and kind of needed a computer for that. I was so happy that I bought an optical mouse from him right then and there, said that I would sing his praises from the rooftops. He laughed, told me to sing loud. That was the best customer service I have received, in any situation. I highly recommend Tim Jahn and the Mac Store in Redmond, WA for their devotion to my total happiness. Kudos!

Redmond Mac Store site: http://www.thecomputerstore.com/redmond.php

Wash lives!

Rob and I drove up to B'ham today for his grandma's costume/birthday party. We went as Zoe and Wash, from the Firefly series. How did we do?


Zoe


Wash

(images from www.firefly-tvs.com)

Tee hee

A picture we took on Rob's Mac this morning. Fun, eh?

Great news!

I just got a call from Dr Nelson, our naturopath, about yesterday's blood test results for me. Here's the update:

* My thyroid seems to be functioning better! My TSH dropped from 3.9 to 1.8 since the end of September. Wowsa! I knew I flt better. It's just nice to know that the testing can confirm that it's not all subjective. So, I stay on the Thyroid Support as it seems to be helping.
* My iron levels are looking good! So, I can slack off a bit on the Chromagen Forte, take it twice a week rather than every day. Great! It was contributing to my nightmare problem.
* My CA-125 test came back normal! That means that I don't have the conditions in my pelvis region that might cause inflammation, such as endometriosis (which was a possibility) or ovarian cancer (which was less of a possibility, though the excess fluid around my ovary did have us asking questions).

I'm glad to see that our pre-Namibia doctor visits are producing positive results. I'm also thinking that having people praying for positive health changes for Rob and I are just what we've needed and God is working in that. Not that we were all sickly or anything. But I am starting to get an idea of how much better I might function if my individual parts did.

Oh ... and I got my new computer yesterday. Double woohoo! The photo here was taken with my built-in camera. I'm holding the Christmas Messenger (LBT's newsletter), which features Rob and I, doin various things. That's me on the cover.

specs on the new computer

We ordered my new MacBook on Tuesday. It will have a 120Gb hard drive, which I will partition so I can run Windows things for work and Mac things for creativity, online things and correspondence. So, I'm figuring out how big I'll need to make the partition so I can run Bootcamp.

Work Needs:
* Windows - 1.5 GB (or 5.5 GB, truth be told*)
* Office - 600 MB
* Translator's Workplace - 25 MB
* Paratext - 60 MB
* Shoebox - 62 MB
* Lingualinks Workshops - 250 MB
* Lingualinks Library - 10 MB
* Fieldworks - 2.6 GB
* Streets & Trips - 1.3 GB
* Data Manager - 5.3 MB
* Adobe Acrobat - 121 MB
* C-Pen - 7.8 MB
* NET Bible - 13 MB
* QuickMem Greek - 0.6 MB
* Keyman - 1.5 MB
* WinZip - 7.3 MB

Fun Needs:
* Skype - 15 MB
* Neverwinter Nights 2 - 4.6 GB
* UT 2004 - 3 GB
* Age of Mythology; Titans expansion - 1.5 GB
* World of Warcraft (maybe...) - 4 GB
* Biorhythm Calculator - 2.3 MB
* Custom Cookbook - 77 MB
* Google Toolbar - 5.4 MB
* Inspiration - 29 MB
* Neverwinter Nights - 11 GB
* Object-Dock - 11.6 MB

So far, that's about 33.3 GB of application space, in the Windows partition.

Then, I have 9.3 GB of documents from my old computer. Without leaving room for expansion, that requires 42.6 GB. So, if I partition my drive for an even 60 GB per operating system, I should be fine for doing everything I need (and want) to do.

And If I keep all my pictures (2.6 GB) and media files (2.6 GB) on the Mac side, that eliminates another 5.2 GB from the Windows side requirement.



* Rob says that he has 16GB of stuff on his Windows side. Between S&T, NWN TK, Acrobat Reader, AOM and UT2004, he put an estimated 10.5 GB of additional stuff on there. That means that installing Windows actually put about 5.5 GB of stuff that he can't get rid of on that side, rather than the stated 1.5 GB that Windows would require. He's tried uninstalling some of the things he'll never need (like Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger) but the computer reinstalls these things whenever he restarts. Gak!

update ... more to come

I had food poisoning on Friday and lost the whole day. I wrote a big blog posting on it but it's trapped on a different computer. Will post more on that later; just thought folks should know.

I'm fine. Puked it up, developed (and beat) the fever, moved on. Still not eating much in the way of food (and off coffee altogether) but not much the worse for wear.

Fun with endometrium

Remember the ultrasound I had done in September? Well, I had a gyno explain it to me today. She said that my endometrium registered as 13mm. A "normal" endometrium is 6mm. So, I'm either double the norm or there's something in there (fibroid, polyp, etc.) that makes things look thicker than they actually are. Getting a sonohysterogram done on November 14, take a closer look.

a Canadian Thanksgiving

Liam and Toni; the cutest nephew and niece ever.

What do you mean? That is an objective statement.

:)

Birthday!

... and be sure to write to Rob (reveith@lbt.org), wishing him a happy 37th birthday. It was his birthday on Saturday.

Full Sunday!

Rob preached 3 sermons and I did 2 Sunday Schools yesterday at Trinity Lutheran in Bellingham! Wowsa! Busy day. We made some great connections with people, got really pumped. Then, Rob went back to his parent's place, had lunch and pretty much passed out on the bed. I watched a bunch of "What not to wear" episodes from a similarly horizontal position. We're unwound, now.

We got up pretty early this morning (6AM) for us to drive back to Woodinville so that Rob could bring the car in to the shop to have the remaining repairs done from the break-in 2 weeks ago. They should have the car for about a week. At least we'll have a rental car, paid for by insurance, while repairs happen.

And I'm waiting to hear about what computer replacement I'll be getting, hopefully hearing on that some time this morning so I can go ahead and place the order.

Moving forward

Does it seem like most of my posts these days are about chugging along? It certainly feels that way. Here's the latest synopsis of my days:

Wednesday - presentation at Hope Lutheran School in Seattle. Despite a Powerpoint glitch that nearly derailed my presentation, "Praise God with a WHAT?", Rob got the computer back on track and it went well. The kids got involved, asked all the right questions, made all the right comments. The pastor liked it well enough to invite us back in December to present to the adults as well. Yay!
Thursday - doing "paper"work. I went through a bunch of magazines that I'd been holding onto, in case of their usefulness for presentations. I threw out what I won't be using, itemized what I can. Called Kirby at SIL Computing to touch base with him on his SIL software test, on Macs with an Intel chip running Windows in Parallels. It's OK if none of that made sense to you; it's a pretty new idea. Long story short - no problem! I'll be getting a Mac soon, one way or another. Got tahnk-you cards mailed to our supporters for August. I used up all our "fall vegetable" stamps and picked up a whole bunch of superhero stamps; they're pretty cool! Called Bill at Cross of Christ to talk about future partnership development possibilities. Went to worship team practice in the evening.
Friday - finished our MMR (monthly missionary report) for September and emailed it in. Am seriously considering getting dressed. :)

Kate is making a special dinner for Rob tonight. I'm contributing "creamed corn"; I just have to go buy the ingredients. She's making the cake. I don't do much with cakes.

Tomorrow, we have an LWML rally in Kent, a birthday dinner in Bellingham with Rob's folks and Rob is preaching 3 services at Trinity Lutheran in Bellingham on Sunday. Also, we may go to Canada for Monday ... if I can get a hold of my brother, Robert.

Remembering Haiti

I just got an email from one of my classmates from Youth With A Mission in Haiti, Lubens. Lubens has gone on to start a new YWAM ministry in Haiti, which is his own country. He is a very cool and caring Christian man and I am very excited to have been able to follow his life and ministry, to see what God has been blessing him to do. His personal ministry needs are very small: $800 per month for his family. However, he currently has no regular supporters for the ministry itself: $3500 per month. While that doesn't seem to me to have stopped him (I get stories of his ministry fairly regularly), I feel like I can vouch for Lubens' ministry and family as a great place to invest in truly indigenous ministry, in a country that needs the loving support of the body of Christ. For more information on Lubens and his ministry, click here. What an opportunity!


Lubens

Silly teeth

Well, I never had my wisdom teeth removed in my 20s so, now that they're impacting my molars, I am having them out. Surgery is scheduled for December 1 at 10:30AM with Dr. Thomas Maring. Not excited at the prospect, me. First time being fully sedated. They're cutting them out, not pulling. I think he's a good surgeon, though. Preparing for and getting to my appointment with him took up the better part of the day. Downtown Seattle is a real beast to navigate.

Now, I'm calming down before dinner, so I can digest.

Busy days

It's been a full weekend. We went to an LWML Rally in Puyallup yesterday and another one in Bothell this afternoon. There are a bunch of rallies happening this month in the LWML WA/AK district. We made some great contacts and anticipate having at least 10 new LCMS churches to connect with from the recent rallies.

Another joy report: we got to be on the Mosaic worship team at our home church this morning: yay! And we have pictures, taken by fellow Mosaic member, Pete Stewart:









You can click on any of these to see them bigger. Thanks, Pete!

Computer update

The police report has been filed, with the serial number, model number, warranty number and all the information we had. I'm talking with my supervisors at LBT now about what computer will replace this one.

I had recently started writing information in a Control Journal (paper notebook) as part of my FlyLady program so even alot of the data accumulated in the last few weeks is still available to me; thanks be to God!

I said to Rob last night on the way home in the car that I felt like God has known about the theft as a definite possibility for at least a month because of all the "urging" I've felt to get away from my laptop as a main place to store important information. Also, I backed up everything about 3 weeks ago because of how wonky my computer has been acting lately since the video card crapped out in May.