Miller update

We just put up some recent video of the kids on our family website: www.xanga.com/aandbmiller

Feel free to cruise on by to check it out!

Update from Laura

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to update that I have officially accepted a job in Chicago. I will be working for Daley, DeBofsky, and Bryant from May 26-August 7. They are located in the loop and it is paid! The firm is very small and they do mostly appellate work. This means I'll be writing briefs to the Court of Appeals concerning disability and employment law issues. The good news is that since we don't really meet with clients, I can wear casual clothes!

My semester is going well. I'm very busy as an associate editor of the Gonzaga Journal of International Law, 16 credit hours of class, and a job in Spokane Valley (about 15min drive). The firm I currently work for represents clients in construction and business law litigation (small town cases).

I hope everyone else is doing well!
Laura
My roommates and I at Oktoberfest (from left to right: Faye, Sarah, Katie--recently engaged, and myself!)

Pictures of our new house

Here is a link to our family website www.xanga.com/aandbmiller where we've posted some pictures of our new house. We've still got to get a picture of the outside posted and I'll try to get that done tomorrow during nap time! :) We've been working on the yard this weekend pruning shrubs and digging out dead bushes. Andrew mowed the lawn for the first time tonight, but we ran out of light so the fertilizing will have to wait another day. Hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous fall weather!

Our new address

Our new address is:

11698 Tylers Close
Fishers, IN 46037

The unpacking is still underway, but we're making a lot of progress! Thanks to everyone who was able to help in the move either in the physical sense or the prayers! It was a better experience than I thought it was going to be. :-)

We're Moving!

Hi Family!

We just wanted to let you know that we pending an inspection we have found a home in Fishers we are going to buy! It will be an honest 40 minute commute for Andrew which is fine since he'll still be working from home sometimes. From Fort Wayne his commute was about twice that time. We're going to be 5 minutes off the interstate near the Geist Resevoir. Thanks for all your prayers. It took going through a lot of houses before we found this one and we're so happy with it.

Living in a sea of boxes!

We move our entire house into storage tomorrow! It's going to be crazy and we'll be living out of other people's homes until we can get a house. We have about 4 possibilities at this point after looking all over the Fishers/Noblesville area. We'll be reviewing our options on Sunday and hopefully be making an offer on one. The kids have been holding up alright thus far. Sophia has stopped sleeping through the night, but I'm going to attribute that to the fact that Monday she started getting her first tooth! Caleb has been having more trouble sleeping as well and I think it's because when he wakes up his room looks different from normal and it scares him. He calms down after some cuddling with Mama. I'm sure that the coming weeks will have more of the same behavior issues dealing with this adjustment.

Cleveland Woehlke Update

Hi all,

John leaves for Germany next week for a job interview. The potential position is still with Novelis, but based in Zurich. I guess you never really know where life will take you.... of all the options, Zurich is definitely not a bad option. It would be hard to leave all of our family and friends, but as everyone continues to tell us, it would be an amazing opportunity. So, we wait and see what is in store for us. Here are a couple of pics from our trip to Zurich this summer and a couple of the "Cleveland Princess" as Grandpa calls her.... and as she now refers to herself.

lots of love,
John, Leanne and Kathryn

Probable move to Milwaukee

Dear Family,



Thank you, Betsy, for once again providing information on how to post a note. We enjoy reading everyone's messages but this is the first effort at making a contribution.



Some of you already know that Tom has recently been given additional responsibilities to manage the three foundries owned by TMB equity firm. This occurred about three weeks ago and he has moved most of his files from Minneapolis to Stainless Foundry in Milwaukee. So....will be putting our condo on the market and are evaluating how best to do that in the slow market. We foresee renting an apartment in Milwaukee until the house is sold despite Lynne's determination that we camp with her and Bill for the duration. In the meantime, we are staying with them when in Wisconsin on a short term basis and it is wonderful.



I marvel at how many of the Woehlke's are moving this year. Congrats to Dad, McEvoys, Bridget & Andrew, Stefan and Mary for making transitions and handling everything so well. Let's hope we are all completely settled soon.

Hope all is well with everyone. Love to all.

Marie and Tom

Stefan at Montpelier

Got the word from Stefan today that he'd accepted a job at President James Madison's plantation, Montpelier. Check it out online at http://www.montpelier.org/. Great news. The grant that's funding the position lasts a year, though the position may outlast the grant. Comes with inexpensive housing on the property.

This is a major project. The DuPont family acquired the property in the last century and added - I think - 50 or 60 rooms to the mansion. They are now pulling that apart trying to restore the hose to the way it was when Madison died. Really worth seeing next time you're near Charlottesville.

Starts work tomorrow - Sept 8.

Jim

Complete craziness

Hello all!  Well we got an offer today on our house and we've accepted the offer as well.  The only catch is that we have to be out of the house by Sept. 19th!  Yikes!  We're going to be in an awful big hurry to get packed up and also try to find a new home.  Please keep up your prayers!  We're pretty stressed just because we've got so much to do in such a little time span.

Life with the Miller Clan

This summer has been an extremely busy time for our family. We just came back from a week vacation to visit friends in Chicago and celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary in Bloomington. We were happy to see Matt and Meg's new home. They were kind enough to watch the kids for us so we could continue our tradition of celebrating our anniversary over dinner somewhere in Bloomington. It's funny how a place can be "home" for 4 years and then after being 4 years removed it can still feel so familiar and strange all at the same time. Caleb enjoyed running around the campus. We love to see him explore new things and he found plenty of sticks, rocks, and leaves to keep him curious for an entire day.

Sophia slept through the night last night for only the 2nd time in her short life thus far! I was pleasantly surprised to wake up for the first time this morning around 8am. Let's hope and pray that this trend will continue! I have a lot of missed sleep to make up. She's growing so fast... soon to be 5 months! Caleb started crawling at 6 months and we're already starting to see her try to inchworm across the floor for toys! It's slow and not always as effective as she would like, but since we know the progression I'm betting she's going to be moving by next month too. We'll see though... they are all so different!

Hope this finds everyone enjoying the last bits of summer! I can't believe fall begins in only a couple weeks! Here are a couple good pictures of Andrew and I with the kids!

A Rough Start

Hi all!

Well the title says it all. This football season has been rough so far. In the first game we played Northwest High and beat them 31-6. I know that does not sound bad... just wait. The team found out that we had to give up the win because our long snapper did not have enough practices in. Even though that happened, the team was not all that down. The general feeling was that if you ask anyone at the game who won the answer would be us.

But it gets better. Then the night before our second game against our cross town rivals, Southside, two of our starters get themselves into discipline troubles and can't play. (They happened to be some of our best players.) Anyway, we lost to south pretty badly and all things considered, we should have. It is just frustrating to have a team that sabotages its self like that. I can only hope that we can pull together and do well thins season. I will try to keep you updated.

Much love,

Nathan

Back from Mongolia!

Hi Everyone!

It's Laura. I'm back from Mongolia and have already had a week of law classes. Time flies when you are having fun! : ) Classes are going well. I'm taking Agency and Partnership (think LLC's and LLP's), Intellectual Property, Federal Taxation on Individual Income, Immigration law, Legal Writing, and Professional Responsibility (Ethics). This is a very full load, 16 credits total, and I'm also working as an Associate Editor for the International Journal. The biggest thing that I'm filling my time with right now is finding a (PAID!) job for next summer! Hopefully I'll end up in Chicago.

Above and below are a few of my favorite pictures from Mongolia. If you are interested in seeing more, send me an email! thelauramiller@gmail.com

Pictures from Tulle

Well it is now probably an entire year late. But I do have many many pictures from France that I just haven't gotten around to posting. I'll start with one of my favorite towns in France which was Tulle. Tulle is a town that was built on the hillsides of France. There is more than likely a history as to why this town was built on the hillside; but I do not know it. The hillside location of the town made for some very interesting infrastructure. There is probably a good reason as to why this public restroom is so clean.

Love

Thomas

A classic shot from the Z's

I thought you all would enjoy this shot. Timmy has been enjoying some computer time every few days during school hours for the girls. He absolutely loves it and he is learning while he is doing it, so the best of both worlds... busy Timmy for a short while, he is learning, and loving it! I took this picture after I told him it was time to get off the computer. He was very sad to have to get off of the computer, but very willing to pose for this shot! I took several! It was very hard not to laugh as I was taking the picture.

Lots of love to you all!

Starting School

We started homeschooling on Thursday! WOW! We are all excited. Abby is starting Second grade. Chrissy is in Kindergarten and Tim is having fun entertaining us. So far, I have had many comments from Abby "Mom, I love school!" Chrissy loves it too, but she doesn't know much else, like her sister did.Our first day, we finnished about 1:00. Shortly after, the girls went to a friend's house to spend the rest of the day and night. They spent the afternoon exploring a river by our friend's house, playing and enjoying thier friends. We then joined up and had school later on Friday. Homeschooling is GREAT! The kids get socializing in a whole new way...We will have to be more scheduled next week, but this was a good start for us. :) Lunch times have been great for me! As I listen to my kids interact with one another and me, I am thrilled that I get to be a part of their lives during the day! They are all such blessings! God knew what He was doing when He called us to do this.The girls were excited to tell Daddy what they had been learning. Rick has even gotten into the process of encouraging good attitudes during class time. If they do well all week, they get to give Daddy one of thier chores! (which the girls usually pick the dog poop duty!) He is a great encourager and supporter!Tim also got to go on a date with mommy when the girls had their sleep over. He thought that was great! We went to Long John Silver's and danced in our seats to the juke box (Tim did most of the dancing). Daddy and Mommy and Tim then went shopping for his 3rd birthday party (sept. 10). We had fun finding lion things and watching him try to act like a lion at the store... growling most of the time. :) Rick and I cannot believe that our baby is going to be 3 in less than a month!

A Close Friends Accident

Dear family,


I'm sorry to say; but, unfortunately a very good friend of mine Jacob Garbini was in a very serious scooter accident. At this point it is strongly believed that the accident will not take a fatality toll on him; he did cut it very close though. Jake would be my closest friend in Charlotte and a very inspirational role model to me. He's attending UNC Charlotte and has recieved a degree and is almost done with his masters. After recieving his masters he was planning on going for his PhD as he was accepted to their program. Like me, he is, or will be, a civil engineer. His specialty is in Geotechinical Engineering. I'll keep you posted with his progress as he gets through this ordeal. He's just gotten through an operation so I'm going to visit him.

Love
Thomas

Quick Update on Grandpa

Hi All,

I just wanted to take a minute and update you on Grandpa.  If all goes as planned, Grandpa will move back into his apartment on Wednesday.  I have ordered a hospital bed so that he can get in and out of bed with less pain.  It should be delivered tomorrow at 4 pm.  He is more than ready to get back to his computer, his cable TV and his comfortable space.  He is also ready to get back to his friends in the dining room.  Keep your fingers crossed that all will go as planned.

The McEvoy's have moved into their new house today.  It is beautiful!!  Keep them in your prayers.  There are many boxes to unpack and everyone needs to kick into school gear by Wednesday.  Jim's first day was today.  

Love you all!!

Betsy

Picture of Laura in Mongolia

I thought you all might enjoy seeing this picture.  think she will have some great stories to tell when she gets home.  

115 (not 130) Mile Ride Complete

Yesterday I completed my Ride from Pumpkin Island in Canada to Syracuse. Unfortunately the ride was not 130 miles it was only 115. This is probably a good thing because I was pretty tired by the end of it. For the most part it was smooth sailing although at mile 90 my legs did feel like they were on fire, and I was the most fatiqued at that point. This was also the break where I ate and drank the most. I stopped at someone's house and asked them if I could have some water. She was a little concerned about me because of how tired I looked, but after maybe 30 minutes of resting and some stretching I felt better. We also had a brief conversation where I learned that she worked as a teacher in East Syracuse. I then hopped back onto the bike and rode the rest of the way back. In total the ride took 11 hours. Actual bike riding time added up to 8 hours. I average 14.37 mph on on the and alittle over ten for the whole day.

My general goal was to ride for two hour increments and then stop and eat some and rest breifly. In total there were five long segments but I didn't actually ride through them all. On the first hall I walked across the bridge between Canada and the states which probably took at least 15 minutes. I also had brief 10 to 15 minutes rests in the gaps. The first gap was roughly 2 hours and I burned (according to my heart rate monitor) 1271 calories, my average heart rate for that segment was 132 bpm. My next segment was another 2 hours, I burned 1479 calories and my average heart rate was 146. The third segment was another 2 hours, I burned 1533 calories, and my heart rate was 150. The fourth segment, which was the most grueling as it had the most hills was an hour and a half. I burned 1372 calories and my average heart rate was 157. The fifth and final segment was an hour and 46 minutes, I burned 1343 calories and my average heart rate was 146.

My attention span in weak at the moment I'll update this post with pictures and stuff later.

The Millers get crafty!

Those who know us know that's we're not really "craft/project" people, but we decided our bedroom needed some help. We spent today working on making our own upholstered headboard and this is our end result! We're really proud of it! At least we won't be hitting our heads on the wall while we cheer on the Colts! :-) We think with the extra materials we have we may even try to build a bench to match in the coming weeks.

Life is moving right along with 2 babies in the house. Caleb has gotten 2 more teeth recently and Sophia is trying to get into a napping routine. We stay busy with playdates with our friends when we can get to them. Andrew has been traveling a lot the past couple weeks which has been an adjustment for Caleb since he is so used to Daddy being home 3 days a week. Thank goodness this is only 4 times a year.

Caleb loves the park! We went with a bunch of friends and he wore himself out trying to keep up with the big kids who treat him like he's 3 yrs old!


Sophia is taking a real interest in toys that Caleb leaves close to her. Here she's sampling the helicopter and Caleb wasn't too happy with her for trying to eat it! She was awfully proud of herself for grabbing it and getting it into her mouth though! :-)

130 mile ride

Well today I'm going up to Pumpkin Island in Canada and I'll be riding back on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll be leaving no later then 7:00AM. I bought the pump, I bought new tires, I bought levers (?), an inner tube, a map, and food for the journey. My food consists of 2 lbs of trail mix (minus .5 lbs because I was hungry and now am full), 3 soy protein shake mixes (It will probably only be two on Saturday), 8 whey protein shake mixes, and three bananas. In terms of liquid I will be bringing my 1.5 liter camelbak (ironically named because camel humps are filled with fat, not water). At the moment I have something called Cytomax in the camelbak. The mix is diluted to about 2/3rds or 3/4s of what they recommend and its pupose is to keep me hydrated. I will also have a protein shake mixed and diluted which will have about .7 liters of liquid in it. I figure 2 liters should be more then enough to get me from town to town.

I plan on brining a heart rate monitor with me. I've been riding to and from work while averaging around 145 and 150 bpm (beats per minute) for a 20 minute period. This means that a good mark for this trip would be around 130 to 135 bpm, I can always ease up a bit if I need to, but I'm not trying to delay the trip any. I'm sure my neather regions will be quite worn by the end of the trip and there is no reason to be biking for more then 10 hours. \

I'm carrying a passport (naturally), a credit card, a debit card, an expired license, a valid temporary license, and identification. I'm also bringing a cell phone should anyone feel compelled to call me when I'm riding (call my dad for the number). I probably wont answer right away; but I'll definetly return your call when I'm breaking. There is some concern about getting across the border. It will look somewhat sketchy because I still have stuff from Muncie in my car in addition to chairs which belong to a friend of mine and his book shelf (maybe I should take the hatchet out of my car). This means that my car will probably be "randomly searched" but I can understand why. The problem is the car is returning via a different driver so I will have to be sure and mention that to them while I'm crossing.

The last item I'm bringing is my cemera. I doubt there will be many interesting pictures as the roads are apparently very flat (even slightly down hill I'm told). If I see a sight I'll be sure and take a picture, and post it on the web for you all. Gotta get back to work this post is only slightly proof read.

Love
Thomas

Hello From Mongolia!

I have written a very detailed (probably too much so) email to my Dad. Hopefully he passes it on to you all. Please let him know if you didn't get it.

All is well here and with the team! We are building like crazy and eating pretty well too (too bad i don't eat meat, as most everything is an all meat dish). However, the guy who had horse didn't fare so well the next day. . .lets just say he will never ever eat horse again. hahaha. Horses do outnumber people though--4 to 1. You look out at the hills and there are packs of them. They are pretty small, almost pony size. There are lots of cows too but those aren't too interesting. : )

Just wanted to say hi and hope that Grandpa is doing much, much better! You are in my thoughts and prayers Grandpa!

Much love,
Laura

Stefan and Mary Back in the Upper 48

Stefan and Mary returned from the Virgin Islands this week. Will be staying here for a week or two while working to land new positions. Stef's got applications in with Montpelier, James Madision's home north of Charlottesville, and Geo. Washington's boyhood home near Fredricksburg.

We had a sewer back up here last Sunday. $400 to $600 to get it cleared up on a Sunday. So Jay and I learned a new trade. Rented a machine from Home Depot; took a couple of hours to get the clog cleared and the machine returned.. Stef, Jay, Henry and I worked yesterday hauling most everything out of the basement yesterday and getting it cleaned up. Looks nice.

Kristal's friend Janell is hear with her two youngest children. The project they were hoping to work on this summer was room painting. We're planning to give Jay the room over the garage, Henry Jason's room, and Henry's room will become an upstairs TV room.

All for now.

Jim W

Fun times for the Z kids

The kids and I had a great time the past couple of days. Oh Thursday we drove to Dayton OH and when to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. The kids had a ball! It was my first time, but not their's. Rick took them almost a year ago. It was a lot of fun to not take a stroller for the first time! Tim did pretty well.

I really enjoyed just being able to play with the kids, or just watch them play and not worry about other projects and such.

This afternoon we took atvantage of the Indiana heat and humidity and "swam" in our pool and played with the slip and slide. They had a ball. We were joined by 3 other neighbor kids. What fun!

A cute story for you all.

Rick loves to tell the kids bedtime stories every once and while. He usually makes them up or embelishes some he knows. He also likes to reinforce virtues the kids need to work on.

Tonight he told a story of Benjamin bunny, who is a bad bunny and does not obey his Mommy and Daddy. His parents told him not to go into the forest. Benjamin's ball went into the forest, so Benjamin went into the forest. A wolf came and ate off his tail!

So of course, the moral is, obey mommy and daddy. But this is not the funny part. Tim was so affected by this story that he told Rick the story over and over, so Rick had him tell me (several times as well.) He is actually continuing to repeat " mommy and daddy need to go in the forest to get the ball" even as I write this, and it is 9:48 ! He is not scared, just very excited and set that Mommy and Daddy need to get the ball next time. We of course reminded him what is important; to obey Mommy and Daddy. It was quite hard to hold a straight face as he told me the story many times! He is now wanting to tell me again! I now know how he processes things! I better go and settle him to bed.

Children are such a blessing!

Bird Rescuing

I don't have time to proof read this. I hope it's okay.

I was working on the stone project at the Galson's last Tuesday and saw a bird on the ground next to the porch. It wasn't moving so I had assumed that the bird was dead and continued to work. After putting three or four more stones in place I took a short break and suddenly noticed that the bird was actually moving. I remembered that birds were not supposed to be handled with hands and gloves should be worn. This was no problem because I needed gloves to work with the stone anyway. Beyond handling the bird with gloves I was not sure what to do.



I ended up calling Nirelle (household wife, not to be confused with housewife) at the island. I did not get her on the phone but I did get her sister-in-law Eva (Ed's wife; Ed is Allen's brother). Eva had asked if the bird had hit a window or not. She said that if a bird hit a window it. could be in shock from hitting it. Unfortunately the bird did not appear to be in shock. It was moving around in fright when I was handling it, and one of it's leg's appeared to be injured. Later upon further inspection I noticed that one of the bird's claws was able to grab a pencil, the other claw didn't seem to want to grab anything. The claw which did cling on to things was close to the bird's chest and the leg seemed as though it could move. The other leg was stretched out and didn't really move at all.



Eva's advice for me was to give it some sugar water. I think she said a quarter cup of water for a quarter teaspoon of sugar. I diluted the sugar even more then that and then tried to feed it to the bird. The bird regretably refused to drink my sugar water I had made for it. The next thing I tried to give to the bird for energy was bird seed which it also rejected. After the bird seed I tried to feed the bird a worm. This was particularly difficult for me because I had been saving all the worms that I found while I was digging by relocating them. It was tough to feed the bird a worm when it was alive and still wiggling for dear life. But in the end the bird rejected the worm too.



I wasn't sure what to do at this point. The bird rejected everything I tried to feed it. The next step that I took was to call Nirelle's daughter, Betsy. She also said that there was not much you could do for birds but recommeded that I call an animal rehabilitation service. So I then pulled out the phone book and looked up animal rehabilitation onle to find that there was no service mentioned in the book only animal control. I called animal control on the offchance that they would give me another number to call which they did. I then called the new number and a lady picked up the phone. She told me that she had too many cases for that night and asked if I could possible bring the bird by in the morning.



I agreed to her request but asked how I should keep the bird overnight. She instructed me to get a box and put paper towels in it and keep it in a dark, quiet place. I couldn't find a box so instead I grabbed a basket and put paper towels in it. This bothered me becuause I was also told not to use a particular material for the basket because the bird could get its tallons caught (I don't remember what specific material it was); why wouldn't the bird get it's tallons stuck in paper towels? So I also put some hay in the basket. I put my fingers in the center of the basket and spread them out towards the edges of the basket to make something similar to a next.



At this point it was getting pretty dark, so I didn't bother with putting the bird in a dark place. I then waited until morning to bring the bird into town. I woke up around 6 and figured it would only take me about 20 to 30 minuets to get ready and about 30 minutes to deliver the bird. This would then give me another 30 minutes to get back to work and I would half an hour early. Unfortunately on the directions that I had printed out There was a road listed called "Swamp Rd.". This road didn't really exist, it was simply call "Swamp Rd." by the locals. So while going there: I passed the road, figured I went to far and turned back, and didn't see it on the way back. Figuring I missed the road twice I decided to stop and ask a local about the road. They told me to go back from wense I came and it would be on the left. What they neglected to tell me was that the road was simply called swamp road by the locals and was actually called Peter something.

I ended up driving for another 30 minutes before I found the place. I had to ask another person for directions. He also gave me directions to Swamp Rd. and not Peter something but in his directions he directed me to the road I needed to be on in the end. I delivered the bird to the lady and drove back to work. I was 30 minutes late, not 30 minutes early.

Love
Thomas

I'm Still Learning

Hi Everyone,

I have spent the last hour trying to connect my picture with my draft.  Sorry I sent the picture three times.   Happy, Happy Birthday Marie!!!  Here is the rest of my draft.  Laura left for Mongolia about 1 pm today.  She met most of the people in her group in Chicago and said that they all seem great.  The flight to China will be 17 hours and then another 3 hours to Mongolia.  Please keep her in your prayers.  If she is able to send emails I will be sure to forward them to you.

Nathan and I went to Indy to pick up a few birthday gifts for Chris.  It was one of Nathan's last days of summer vacation.  Football two-a-days start on Monday.  When I talked to Dad this morning he told me he went to exercise class from 9:30 to 10:00 am.  Way to go, Dad!!!  You are a real inspiration to us all!!!    

I love you all.......and Happy Birthday Marie,

Betsy

PS   The picture was taken last Friday right before Laura left for Chicago.  We were celebrating          her 24th birthday which will be Sunday the 3rd.

ABC'S

We spent a wonderful weekend with our friends and Sophia's godparents in Noblesville, IN. We did some initial neighborhood searching and determined commuting wise what will work for us. We also want to check out some neighborhoods in Fishers. I updated our family website with lots of pictures so feel free to check it out: www.xanga.com/aandbmiller

Happy Birthday Marie

Hi Everyone,

First off I want to say......Happy Birthday Marie!!!  I hope you are having a GREAT day and that it is the start to an extra special year.  WE LOVE YOU

1st one from Libby.

Hey guys!

Its Libby, and I just got the link to the blog and figured I should try it out. Nothing is too special tonight. The most interesting part of the day so far for me was listening to my mom put the twins to bed. Its funny, that always happens to be the best part of my day b/c the twins always come up with new excuses as to why they shouldn't go to bed. Todays was the best.

Annie is over at a friend's house right now, so I plan to watch an "Indiana Jones" movie, though I haven't figured out which one yet.

<3 Libby

Yarra's 1st Birthday

Hi everybody!!!

Above are a couple recent pics. Yarra (our dog who is named after a beautiful wine valley in Australia) just had her first birthday. She spent literally hours chewing that bone! The last pic is a pic from our trip to Muncie - where Bob took us to late night dinner. Thanks again Bobo!

Jim & Kirsten

Getting a little closer to Indiana

The last week and a half has been almost as crazy as the rest of the summer. We had an inspection of our house and there are some things we have to fix but no deal-breakers (we think). For any homeowners in the family, the inspection uncovered a rot problem with Anderson windows (vintage 1993) that is no longer covered by the warantee (of course). Email me if you need any more info. Luckily the inspection on the new house was not a problem, just a couple of relatively minor things.

Jim got a placement at a large high school outside Indy. The teaching fellows program decided to share the wealth with other schools that fit the profile of their mission. He will be teaching chemistry at Ben Davis High School in Wayne township (I didn't know he had a chemistry minor until a couple of months ago, either). He is really excited, and the district has been very professional and organized so far. He drove home Sunday and back today (Tues) so that he can meet with HR tomorrow and go to the new teacher orientation on Thursday. We had hoped he would have more time at home this trip, but knowing that he is getting settled with a job makes it a lot easier. Luckily he has a few more days off before the in-service, so we decided to fly him home Friday and back again on next Tuesday. We really miss him around here!!!

We are set to close on the MD house on Friday, Aug. 8 at 1 and on the Fishers house on Monday, Aug. 11 at 10 or 11. The movers are scheduled for a lunchtime move-in. Let's hope and pray all goes smoothly - we're scheduled pretty tight.

The schools in Fishers have been pretty accommodating so far. They have some stringent rules about residency but have an appeals process that we were able to take advantage of. The kids will be starting on the third day of school and a full two weeks before their friends out here.

I'll keep you posted as things develop ...

Love,

Peg and crew

Biking from Canada to Syracuse

I had planned accouple weeks ago to go on a bike trip which would have been about 130 miles from Pumpkin Island which is near Gananoque to Syracuse. Due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to get a ride up to the island. Now sometime in the next three weeks I should be able to go on this biking trip. In terms of mechanical/repair equipment I'm planning on bringing a spare innter tube, a tool to take a tire off of a bike, and a bike pump which can use either CO2 containers or can manually be pumped. In terms of nurishment I'll be bringing a 1.5 liter Camelback filled with water, protein shake mix, an electrolite formula, and some dehydrated foods. These things will most likely get me through the journey. I'll also bring a tent, should I need to stop half way at some point, and a cell phone for emergency purposes. For navigation I'll have to aquire maps and a compass. I have a cyclometer for distance and pace.

This will be an interesting ride. I'm told it should be mostly flat with the exception of one area. I may be riding alongside lake Ontario for some of the distance. The most important part about this ride is that it will give me a good idea of what I will be capable of accomplishing. I will also be able to use this ride as a reference point for when I plan my biking trip across the country, which I have already started planning for. Thus far I've done some reading on the necessary steps which need to be taken. The more I read about it the safer it seems to be. Currently I plan on doing the tour with between 15 and 25 lbs of luggage. I am also going to make plans for this trip as if I were going alone; but, would be more then willing to go with a small group if people show interest. I should have more on these plans in the future.

Love
Thomas

update from Rick and Amy

Hello there all!

I wanted to add one great photo of the McEvoys. I though it was very cute!

Abby and Chrissy took swimming lessons last week and the week before. We were amazed at how they grew in their confidence in the water! Chrissy didn't even like to put her face in the water in March, and now you will see pictures of her jumping off the high dive. She is a high dive maniac! She is also swimming really well under water now. :)

Abby was tentative on the high dive, just like her mom at that age, but she conquered her fear and jumped off anyway, several times! She still perfers the low dive, but can do the high dive too! She can also now swim about 1/2 a lap without having to touch! Way to go Abby!

Tim loved the water too! The pool allowed the sibblings to "swim" in the kiddie pool during lessons. He still asks to go to "swimming wessons."

The last picture is of the kids with a bunch of thier friends that they swam with . It was great that we could have them learning together!

Update from Laura

Hi everyone!

Well I am done with my summer internship at Beasley & Gilkison law firm in Muncie. I cannot believe how fast it went! Although I wasn't sure how much I'd like working in Muncie, the internship and summer turned out much better than I ever expected.

I'm in Chicago now--in a recording studio listening to Eric and his band, called MacGuffin, record a demo CD. They are actually really good! To me (and I'm sure Eric will disagree) they sound like a mix between Modest Mouse and Radiohead. Eric plays the drums and comes up with a lot of the ideas for music. His older brother and his brothers two best friends also play in the band. As soon as I get my camera plugged into the computer, I'll get pictures up of the studio. Their motto is "If it sounds good, play it."

On Thursday morning I'll be heading out to Mongolia! I fly from Chicago to Beijing (17+ hours) and then from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (3 hours). The trip is 18 days and I recruited 11 other people. 3 are from Canada, 1 woman from Singapore, 2 from North Carolina, 3 from Boulder, 1 guy from Chicago, and 1 guy from Portland. I think we'll bring a lot of hard work to the people of Darkhan, Mongolia and have a lot of fun at the same time. Pictures to come after Aug. 18th.

Hope all is well the Woehlke family!
Laura

Outing to Ivanhoes!

Betsy, Dad and I went to Ivanhoe's in Upland for dinner and ice cream this afternoon and evening. We tried to be moderate in our dinner choices in order to leave plenty of room for one of the LITERALLY one hundred choices of sundaes or one hundred shakes. True to his German heritage, Dad chose the Black Forest sundae - chocolate ice cream, crumbled chocolate cookies, a lake of hot fudge and a man's handful of cherries! By the way, Coke didn't pay us nearly enough for the product placement in this picture.

The next time you are in central Indiana, be sure to remind us to take you to Ivanhoes.