A Late Summer Update

Summer has slowed down to a crawl. Nice, though. It's good to have some quiet time before the busy-ness of fall. Yes, even for those of us without children, fall just seems to get busier. AWO signup will take place early September and the new year will be off and running. We are definitely gearing up for that. Fall always means the Craft Fair, our big fund-raiser for Nastenka, the childrens oncology hospital we support. I have no specific role this year (for the first time since I moved here!) but I attend the meetings to offer the wisdom of years past, to fill in where needed, and to just "keep my hand in."

Meghan has made the big move to Dallas. She also has a job! She will be teaching 3rd grade at Ethbridge Elementary in Garland. As I understand it, she will be teaching everything but math, which makes her MORE than happy! She is excited about teaching science which she has never taught before. Of course she has only been at school one day, the kids don't start til the 24th and I've only spoken to her briefly, so she may not know much...and I know less! But she is very happy to be settled in Dallas and not having to drive every other weekend to see Jacob.

We hear from Drew even less frequently than we do Meghan! He is 5 hours ahead of us in Korea, and believe it or not, that makes it more awkward to get ahold of him. Plus, he is working (duh) but his Blackberry only works at his hotel. Go figure! Anyway, last news was that he was heading back to the US around Aug. 20th. He will be happy to see "what he pays for" (his words) and sleep in his own bed. He has been gone since first of March, if I remember correctly. We haven't seen him since Christmas! Hopefully that will be remedied soon.

I thought of a couple of interesting things I've done this summer. On Tuesdays, my friend Bonnie and I get together with a Russian Language teacher, who has been around the ConocoPhillips group a long times and knows most of us. She knows Bonnie and me well....we ONLY want language in a fun environment (shopping, sightseeing, cooking.) So among the many things we have done this summer, one of them is to learn a couple of classically Russian dishes. One is called pelmeni, which is a little meat (or anything else you wish to put in it) dumpling wrapped in a dough that is alot like a noodle dough. It was fun, tasty, and dinner was cooked for that night. These are very traditional and are sold everywhere.....restaurants and stores. I enjoyed learning how to make them. Will I ever do it again....maybe. They are time intensive! But sometimes I get motivated....so maybe. The other thing we learned to make is called cirniki . Cirniki is a kind of cheese (tvorog....kind of a cross between a cream cheese and a cottage cheese...has some small curds in it, but creamy) pancake. You mix it with egg, flour, a bit of sugar, and fry them, potato pancake style. They are served with sour cream and jam. Really good! I haven't made them at home yet, but will do it soon. Maybe I will even take pictures like my friend Kerry!

We have enjoyed a run of beautiful weather the past week or so. Warm, sunny days. We try to get out and enjoy. I've taken Abby to the park a couple of times, we try to have coffee or eat outside when we can.

Hope your summer has been full of fun things as well and that you are ready to face YOUR busy fall, rested and refreshed.