2017 Week 28: Event-filled week

 Another very full week. Brace yourselves for many photos and stories . . . or not.

One Independence Day week blended into another. I like this ad on Facebook because it represents how I feel about my identity as an  ATCK, adult third culture kid.

However, it was a double celebration as July 9, Nueve de julio, is not only Argentine Independence Day, but it is also Leah's adopted birthday! So we celebrated!

Almost everyone had a go on the zip line. This was Leah's valiant effort, eyes-closed and screaming.

I will not bore you with photos of the many other zipliners--Karen, Stephan, Skye, Jimmy. . .

Kristie and kids came by briefly on their way to experience the Rubixcube finals in Fort Wayne. We watched Elijah put together a 2x2 in 6".

And in the evening we had a welcome program at the church for the 6 Basque students visiting for the month.

Whew! That was only Sunday!

We took Jon to Monday Night Dinner where we enjoyed deep-dish pizza and berry pies. Stephan gave him a tour of the ice studio and the farm.

We so enjoy the colorful changing skies on the way home.

Wednesday I left the guys to fend for themselves and traveled north to visit Mother. 

Mother and her fancy new walker

We spend every available moment together reading the weekly letters from Mother and Dad to their families back in the US. We read and laughed our way through two months worth (July-August '46).

Very rarely does anyone get glimpses of their early childhood as I am privileged to through my parents notes to their folks about the funny or naughty things I did. For example:

Rita certainly brings lots of laughs for us. Yesterday we were walking along hand in hand to the carpenter shop. She said, "Let's run, Daddy". Se we ran for quite a little ways. Then she looked up at me very sternly and demanded, "Let me walk." Of course, I said that would be all right. Then she began to laugh and said, "I did it. Rita did it." I said, "Rita did what?" She answered, "Rita told Daddy."

And in another letter:

At times Rita is a joy and other times she is a pest. When she wants something, she will stand and call for it with ever increasing volume until we get it for her. She has no patience whatsoever. . . She is as stubborn as her mother and Dad put together.

Hmmm. . . stubborness or terrible-twoness?

Thursday when I got home from the long dentist appointment, Jon had cooked one of his favorite meals for us--lots of veggies, beautifully plated.

The Hulk, a.k.a. Jon, preparing dinner--sausage, mixed vegetables, tomatoes, mashed avo with olive oil, bread

Unfortunately we don't have ready access to the wonderful fresh baguettes we so enjoyed in the Basque region, nor have I been up to making any.

Of course our Basque friends must have the Ivanhoes experience while here. We ended up going two nights in a row. The second time, with Unai (Sam and Kristie's guest) who was persuaded to try the same Jon had enjoyed the day before--Texas burger and Cookie Monster sundae! Ahhh, too much!
These young people have very healthy eating habits. They only drink water, prefer fruits and vegetables, and don't eat many sweets.

Unai spent the night with us because early the next day they traveled to Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis to a robotics competition. I went along and caught occasional glimpses of our PhyXTGears drive team.

This was a totally new experience for our Basque guests. This year's game is complicated and difficult to follow at first. Some may have been bored at times, but they always have their devices to entertain them and, of course, they love hanging out as a group and rattling off in euskera constantly.

To end the day there was a picnic at Taylor Lake. Overall a fun day.

Saturday Michael was up at the crack of dawn again for the second day of IRI (Indiana Robotics Invitational) which has become an elite event, accepting only the best of the best. What a privilege for our little team to be invited! So, even though they ranked 60 out of 68, they were thrilled to be there.

I watched the entire event online, catching occasional glimpses of our people.

The Basque kids were gone till late night, first to a water park and then a concert.

For me it was a long day alone sitting in front of the computer, toggling between screens--robotics matches, and the project I was working on. A nice long walk was in order. 

That's one way to become tall!

Sunday, after church we said goodbye to our hijo, and the Basque students as they left for a week of camp in Lawton, Michigan.

Then Michael and I took off for a long tandem ride. 

At our eating destination we met up with several friends on their way back from a weekend Wandering Wheels family ride What a beautiful fun day!

Will this next one be a quieter week?

2017 Week 3: New Beginings

A week of looking back and looking ahead; considering, remembering and moving forward on this journey called life.

Monday Elijah and I spent his school holiday together celebrating his upcoming birthday (12 on the 27th) with a movie and shopping trip. We saw the new movie Hidden Figures, perfect for Martin Luther King Day! Every time the colored were disrespected, put down, and much worse, we were disgusted and Elijah would say, "Slap him!" When NASA finally did away with distinctions of color, we clapped, and others joined in!

Mother was released from the hospital so the next day, Tuesday, I traveled north for a meeting with an administrator to talk about the possibility of her moving into the Assisted Living area. We went to see an available suite (one bedroom apartment).
Then the brothers started crunching numbers. Financial realities combined with the fact that Mother really does not want to move right now, led us to work on an alternate plan for her safety and well being--meal plan, med alert, and outside help.

Wednesday at tap class we started practicing a new routine and had a friend practice with us who will hopefully join our team of mature women tappers! 

The Tap Dancing Divas

This was the first time I saw our group photo and videos taken of last week's performance.

New York New York

Thursday's PhyXTGears' progress report included greater success with the ball shooter, ongoing prototyping; chassis building. Here you can also see the field taking shape. Week 2 is over, four more to go!

Friday, from the comfort of our home, we joined the millions watching the proceedings  in Washington D.C. Along with our former governor now Vice President Mike Pence, I claim the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14.

That same day my 2016 Meemaw Moments blook arrived, another good way to look back and reflect on the past year.

I met Dana virtually some eight years ago through the blogging circle called Project 365. We met in person when she came for a visit a few years back. Before moving further away from Ohio to N Carolina she was able to drive up from Indianapolis Saturday after her niece's national cheer competition the night before. 

The obligatory pic with Garfield

Thank you, Dana, for your friendship, your faithful and thoughtful comments on my blog, and for making the effort to visit one last time before the move south.

The message of the weekly coloring I completed today, Sunday, seemed very fitting.

Tomorrow a new semester begins.

2016 Week 33: A quieter week

A quieter week, not so many of my own photos, so I'm borrowing from various Facebook postings, for my weekly record of events and memories.

Sunday was Rebecca's birthday. We had celebrated with a party at her house the day before.
I liked cousin Bruce's picture of mommy-hostess Kayla and Rebecca wearing the festive dress she started out with.

The lovely dress was removed for cake-eating time. During gift-opening, Nanna Leah quickly dressed her in one of the many new outfits. The finishing touch came when Rebecca opened the gift with Mouse ears. She immediately went to check out her look in the mirror. Leah was able to capture this priceless reaction, my favorite pic!

I also enjoyed Bruce's views of our homestead.

Stephan had fun carving fruit and veggies:

"Playing with planets...and yes, that is the Death Star in the background lest we become complacent..."

My artistic outlet was this weekly coloring while watching the Olympics or listening to music.

However, my main accomplishment of the week was the syllabus and preparation for teaching Spanish 101 again, starting Monday.

Friday's routine was somewhat rearranged. Mike was invited to another of the robotics students birthday celebration. It was here in town and I stopped by for awhile.

What are they watching?

Oh, the trampoline tricksters!

The whole town was out of electricity for a couple hours. The birthday-boy did not have to go in to work and my writers' meeting was cancelled, so we all lingered.

When we got home, Mike taught me how to turn this thing on. Can you guess?

I tried a new recipe from a beautiful Argentine cookbook.

The leftovers of Medallones de berenjena con queso

Saturday there was another Ivanhoes' Garfield sighting, this time with four Koch-boys.

Photo credit: Kristie Koch

2015 Week 18: Comings and Goings

"The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”  (Isaiah 40:8)

Yes, flowers do come and go.

One lone tulip.                                                Fading narcissus.

In the light of eternity, our lives are also fleeting.
Every year around this time,we are privileged to attend a special event at Taylor University to remember a beloved professor who died suddenly at age 42. We did not know him well, but his widow became our dear friend. And his daughter was our granddaughter Kayla's friend and dance teacher. Heather and her family moved to Indiana so were able to attend this year's Rick Seaman memorial chapel and luncheon.

Both Heather and Kayla have little girls now. I haven't seen Rebecca in a few weeks, but here is a recent favorite pose borrowed from Facebook.

Wednesday, our ladies' Bible study group gathered at The Bridge Cafe for breakfast and fellowship. 

All week we've been preparing to host two events in our home. Mike asked me to pick up his bronzes from where they've been displayed at the local jewelers ever since the Poetry and Arts festival. 

Now they adorn our home once again to welcome our many guests.

The first group arrived Saturday afternoon, only two,Tim and Barbara, visiting from far away SE Asia. We've known them for many years, but rarely seen them in person. Mike and Barbara were in college together at John Brown University in Arkansas.

Another local acquaintance, also a Tim, has followed their work overseas for more than thirty years. We were all invited for a delightful dinner that evening to his beautiful home on the hill overlooking Taylor Lake.

Barbara was not well, probably bronchitis, brought on by lower temperatures even snow in Colorado and Minnesota earlier on in their travels. 70 degrees is cold where they come from.    

We did get out, however, for a walk in the woods and a visit to Ivanhoe's.

Today, Tuesday, we anticipate our largest group, 50+--the robotics team members and their families--for the annual social. There is so much to celebrate this year. (Read about our trip to the World Championship here.)

The "team grandparents" watching the competition

 Photo courtesy of Eric Wood.

More about the big day next week.

Special Visitors

The week's highlight was the visit of blog-friend Sara and son Jared all the way from Arkansas, our first face-to-face meeting!
More about that later. Let's rewind to last weekend--Super Bowl Sunday.
Indianapolis saw thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of visitors for this exciting event. We enjoyed watching with friends at their house, and all rejoiced in another Manning win. Can you believe I have no photo to show for it?

Monday I started back to Zumba, now that we are more settled after an entire month in our new house.

Tuesday, a wonderful surprise for me--a piano! It is perfect in every way. So far I have enjoyed playing some every day.

 It was fun to see the guest beds come together.

The Ship Room

The theme of this room represents the five years of our life on board a missionary ship, the M/V Doulos.
I hope Sara doesn't feel sea sick.

The craft room/Argentina Room

I've already hung a map of Argentina and gathered some of the memorabilia, but there is much more to be done.
The click 'n clack sofa doubles for a cute bed. The colorful bedspread has a neat story. People all over the world prayed for us when they heard about our house fire. My cousin shared with her church in Tennessee and an elderly lady asked if she could give us a quilt.

Sara and Jared traveled eleven hours on Thursday and when we met it was like we already knew one another like old-time friends.

Friday they were busy with two university visits: Anderson, primarily, and also nearby Taylor.

Mike and I went along for the latter. We were all so impressed with our tour guides. Here we are fighting the cold wind. The twin wind turbines were named, in jest, Mary Kate and Ashley due to their proximity to Olson Hall.

We had a memorable time chatting, sharing, cracking nuts, scattering shells all over the kitchen, laughing.

Jared dipping hazelnuts in Nutella

In the evening we attended an excellent theater performance of "Proof".

That brings us to today, Saturday, big day for Jared--his audition for the music department at AU. I don't know who was more nervous, mother or son. He did very well!

Relaxing after the BIG day

One much anticipated, not-to-be-missed Upland eatery--Ivanhoe's! We enjoyed the real experience, long lines, crowded tables, but great service and fabulous food.

We shared...

...a cowabanga

And even made room for shakes and a sundae!