17 March 2013 - More Preparations

Several years ago, Joanne went to Seattle to see her friend Maren for spring break, and while she was gone, I surprised her by putting tile in the master bathroom.  Unfortunately, I did a poor job, and the floor in the master bath has not really looked very good since.  Several of the tiles cracked and the grout never looked nice.  After looking at ways to fix it, Joanne helped me understand that we needed to tear it up and redo it.  Then she helped me do the work.

Madeline brought home an excellent painting of a horse from school this week.

Joanne's art is of a different sort.  She's been working hard on this 'biscuit quilt'.  She just finished and it looks awesome.

Last week I started feeling like we shouldn't put off our house hunting trip to Idaho.  I had planned to go in May, but I just knew we shouldn't wait.  I could bore you with the details, but I'll just say that everything came together very quickly for us to be able to go this weekend.We originally made an offer on a different house but due to a mistake, we changed and have made an offer on this house.  We have not heard back as to whether or not our offer is accepted.  We will know by the end of the week.  If it is, we close in mid-May and I'll be moving our stuff out to Idaho before we leave for Argentina.

10 March 2013 - Fingerprints and Basketball

I played in the annual W&J vs. Steelers Charity basketball game again this year.  We lost again, but at least I looked good running the floor right?

For our youth activity on Wednesday, the leaders invited a state police detective in our ward to teach them about investigations.  The girls did a little fingerprinting.

The kids also dusted for fingerprints on various surfaces.

3 March 2013 - Move Preparations

We told the girls that we needed to get the house ready to sell.  We had an appointment for an agent to come over so we told them to get their room cleaned up.  They did, but Madeline made sure Mahonri was available to greet the agent when she came.

This is Gingerpuss, the newest addition to the collection.  

Since the girls decided they were getting a little too old for the puppet collection, they wanted to have one last puppet show before they pass them on to a new generation of kids to play with.

This week I went to Washington D.C. to  advise on a grant panel at the National Science Foundation.  It was the first time I'd done this type of thing, but it was a good learning experience and I had some fun.

24 February 2013- Madeline's Birthday

This week was our ward's annual cake auction fund raiser for scout camp and girl's camp.  I've made no secret about my own personal feelings on this event over the years, but thus far I've failed to effectively change it.  Despite my reservations, the event was successful, well-attended, and apparently enjoyed by those who came.  The girls made posters to promote it.

Here is a sampling of the cakes that ward members donated for the auction.

The youth leaders selected a Mexican theme with a taco bar and pinata decorations.

Our girls made trays of cupcakes as our donation to the cause.

On Sunday, we had Madeline's birthday.  The monster theme carried over from the cake auction cupcakes to Madeline's birthday cake.

The girls made even more monster cupcakes for Madeline's slumber party with a few friends from the ward.

Peachy-O's with Dum-dums make excellent monster eyes.

Joanne made Madeline a monster poster for her party.

Joanne planned lots of fun for the girls.  Here they're wearing plastic garbage sacks.  Read on...

Blindfolded partner pudding feeding it apparently now a party game.

Perhaps equally messy, but less dangerous, Joanne had the girls decorate their own pillow cases.

Madeline loves being the center of attention every year when her birthday rolls around.

Here's the princess opening presents.  Thank you to all who send cards or gifts.

Opening gifts with friends.

On President's Day, Joanne took the girls to history walk around Washington, PA.  It was cold, but at least the sun came out.

17 February 2013 - Valentine's Day and Big News!

This week, everyone was sick.  We had plans for Valentine's Day but canceled them to try and get well.  Some of you may not have been introduced to Madeline's eel from SeaWorld yet.  This is Mahonri Moray-ancumer.  We just call him Mahonri.  He's 4 feet long, although you can't really tell from this picture.  He's been helping Madeline get over her wicked cough.

Emily made us a heart cake, and despite being down sick herself, Joanne made sure that everybody got a Valentine's present.

Now for the big news.  This fall, I'm going to be working here:

Where is here?  It's...

I have accepted a professorship and this summer our family will relocate to the Caldwell area for me to begin teaching here.  The College of Idaho was founded in 1891, and if you know anything about my earliest years, you may know that I was born in Caldwell, ID, sometime after 1891.

If the Maryland experience two years ago taught me anything it is that I love teaching in a small Liberal Arts college environment, and The College of Idaho provides just that, only a lot closer to many members of our family.  While we will be sad to leave those who are here in the east with us, we are excited to be much closer to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  We are in the early stages of planning the move, so we don't have many details yet, but Joanne has been busy communicating with Aunt Kathy and Eric and Laura who all live in Nampa right near C of I's campus.

Some of you may also know that I have been offered a Fulbright appointment for this summer in Argentina.  We are planning on spending the early part of our summer there before our move to Idaho.  So it will be a busy summer, and there are plenty of bridges to cross between now and fall.

10 February 2013 - Cupcakes and Birdhouses

The girls have been getting crafty in the kitchen again.  They made the chocolate hearts on top of these cupcakes themselves, and adorned them in pink and red.  They were most yummy.

We had a lot of snow during the first part of the week, so Emily and Madeline took advantage of the opportunity to ride their sleds before it melted.

On Wednesday evening, all of our youth got together to help one of our young men, Sam, assemble birdhouses for his Eagle Scout project.  We'll still need to head out to a county park to hang all the birdhouses in order to complete his project.  This was a good start though.

Saturday was our final regular swim meet for the winter season.  Here's Jessica in full action.

We were very excited because Emily qualified for the District Championships in two individual events (50 Yard Butterfly and 100 Yard Freestyle), and in two relay events (200 Free and 200 Medley).  This was a major goal of hers at the beginning of the season.  The relay qualifications occurred earlier this season, but she made us sweat until the final meet of the season on the two individual events.  We're very proud of her.  Unfortunately, the District Championship for her age group is on a Sunday, and Emily feels very strongly against swimming on the Sabbath.  So barring some accommodation, the season is done for all three girls.  We're proud of Emily for her conviction as well as her swimming ability.

3 February 2013 - Swimming & Sewing

We are still busy with swim season.  Joanne and I caught a little bit of the girls' practice this week.  Here's Madeline at the end of practice.

Joanne's been busy getting ready for Valentine's Day.  She made a patchwork runner and now her friends in the ward want her to teach them how.

Here we are at the swim meet.  As you can see, Jessica is just out of the pool.  I'm wearing a white shirt with no tie because we had a baptism in the ward, so I had to go to the swim meet, then run to the church, then back to the swim meet.  Fortunately we only missed one event while we were at the church.