Jill and Don: June 2006

Things have quieted down quite a bit this week ... especially with the Mavs losing :-( so now I have a few minutes to provide a report on our family.

Jill is doing great. I just got off the phone with her and she told me quite a story. Jill is part of a fruit/vegetable group. A group of women all throw in some cash and once a week two or three women will go to the Farmer's Market downtown Dallas and buy fresh fruit and vegetables ... excellent quality for very low prices. A couple of weeks ago, it was Jill's turn to go buy the fruit. She and two others got up at 5:00am, drove downtown, bought the fruit, came home and sorted the food. After most of the other women had come to pick up the food, Jill and her friend realized that they were missing two or three orders. So that stressed Jill out and she and her friend figured out something. It was a big fiasco.

Then this morning, Jill was heading to the temple. But before that, she had to drop off our kids and someone else's kids to a singing group and then she had to drop off Erick and the food group notebook (that contains about $200 in cash). She put the notebook on top of the van while she got the kids in the van. She drove off. Two houses later she realized what happened. She got on the cell phone and called her friend to see if she had found the notebook ... very stressful. A few minutes had passed and some man had called Jill's friend and said that he had found the notebook. The miracle of it is that only Jill and her friend knew the notebook was lost. There are about 2o names on the list in the notebook and Jill's friend's name and number are not at the top of the list. This man found the notebook and "randomly" called the one friend of Jill's that knew the notebook was missing. Jill said it was a huge answer to prayers. So, needless to say, Jill is relieved that her food group duties are done for a while.

Emma and Ben are enjoying the Summer. They go swimming pretty much every day or every other day. Erick loves the pool. Jill has to keep a real close eye on him when he's in the pool. Emma and Ben went to a bible school camp last week. For the grand finale, they did this singing presentation. Jill and I went to the church (Methodist) and watched. They had a band with drums and guitars playing for music. It reminded me a lot of the evangelical churchs in Guatemala. Emma and Ben had a lot of fun. It was good experience for Ben as he'll be going to pre-school there this Fall. He's pretty excited to start school.

Erick keeps growing. He's finally getting some hair. I told Jill the other day that Erick could have been named Charles and we could have called him Chuck or Charlie Brown. He is built solid.

The baby is doing well. Ben was laying next to Jill the other day when the baby kicked so hard that Ben felt it. He thought that that was pretty cool. I don't know if Jill wants me to tell the names we're thinking of, but it's a short list: Bethany, Brooke & Corinne. The last one is my favorite.

As for me ... I'm pretty much down to my LAST FOUR CLASSES!!! I have a final for my database class on Wednesday ... piece of cake. For my leadership class ... I just have to finish my paper. The last four classes I have are: Security Valuation (finance), Managing Teams, International Finance & Advanced Master Negotiations. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. If you're interested in reading more details about my MBA (and chess interests) go to this blog.

I'm still playing basketball 3 times a week. I don't run anymore ... the last time I went running was Dec 15, 2005 ... it's sad. I plan on starting running again in September when I'll only have one class a week (as opposed to two). This Tuesday I had a big toe injury. My toe nails are brittle. I've already split one in half playing basketball earlier this year. Well, this week, I stubbed my right big toe as I was stealing the ball. It felt like I just broke the nail, but it was very painful. By the time I got to work, my toe was in excruciating pain. I couldn't sit still it hurt so badly. So I left work and went to the doctor's office. My toe nail was all blue ... it had become separated from the skin. I thought it was broken because of the pressure and extreme pain. She took an x-ray and found that the toe was not broken. I took lots of ibuprophen that day. The next day it didn't hurt so bad. By Thursday the fluid that was built up in the toe and thus causing all the pain had finally started to drain. My sock was a bit soaked that day. Today it's pretty much back to normal. I'm afraid the toenail might fall off completly now. I'll just have to wait and see. But the good thing is that I can put my weight on my toe now which means I can play basketball. I bought some new shoes last night ... I think my old ones were a little too small ... they were size 12 in Nike. I think I'm a size 13 in Nike now ... crazy.

That's about all for now ... we sure wish we could be in SLC for Vanessa's wedding. Please take lots of pictures and videos for us lonely Texans.

Take care and have a great 4th of July. I'll post some more pictures and videos next week sometime after finals are over with.