I can't believe it's the first week of October already! Time really does speed up as one gets older...argh. I am, however, very much looking forward to decorating for Christmas in the near future!
Well, the most exciting news we have to share right now is that Eric has received insurance coverage to do the upcoming ferry flight of our new Caravan! This is something Eric has really been wanting to do, and it all hinged on whether or not insurance would cover someone like him (no prior trans-Pacific ferry time). Well, they've accepted him at the same price as our professional ferry pilot we hired in 2007, so that's not bad at all! No dates are set yet, but Eric plans to be in the States early next month. The new plane is being outfitted with a complete glass panel, so Eric will be going for some special training on that before flying back over here. He's also looking into doing some egress training as well, since that would really come in handy if he had problems over the big pond! His total time away from home should be right about three weeks or so.
Zachary has been working on various projects for his classes. His first major project was planning a residential move for his fictitious family. It was a lot of fun researching information and putting it all together. This assignment was for his world geography class, and he'll be turning in the finished project tomorrow morning. His next project, due in 10 days, will be taking this same fictitious family on a 10-day trip through Canada. The project is a bit more involved, but should still be fun.
This past week I started up an activity group for two- and three-year-olds. We meet up at the international school each Tuesday and Friday morning for about an hour. For about the first half hour we play outside doing group games or activities that encourage gross motor skills. The remaining half hour we spend in the library cooling down and reading books. So far we've had a good little group and all the kids are very excited to be involved (and the moms are grateful for a distraction two mornings a week). Please pray that I can continue to be inspired with ideas for the kids, and that this can be a fun and positive time for everyone.
I am now out of the house every weekday morning! I'm not sure how long I can keep up the pace, but it's working well so far. Monday and Thursday mornings I play indoor field hockey, Tuesday and Friday mornings I do this play group, and then on Wednesdays I meet with a friend of mine. Jason goes with me to hockey and to the play group, of course, but on Wednesdays he stays with Grandma. It's keeping us busy, that's for sure! Of course, on days when there is no school up at the international school we usually don't have hockey or the play group, so that will give me a day every now and then to catch my breath.
I hear it's been cooling down in the Pacific Northwest, but none of that cool weather has reached us here! It's been just terribly hot the last several days, so we've been very thankful for stable power to run our fans. All this hot weather means we'll soon be seeing some serious rain, but in the meantime we swelter!
We've 90% confirmed that we'll take our furlough in 2011. We are technically due next summer, but we're in no hurry to go. We'd initially changed our 2010 dates to 2011 so that we could attend Stephanie's graduation from academy. However, now that she's returning home that's no longer a factor. We then thought we'd go back with the 2010 plans, but after lots of discussion as a family this weekend (well, Jason didn't have a lot of input, but Eric, Zachary and I discussed things) we decided it would be best to go with the 2011 plans. SO many things could change between now and then, so we'll see how this goes... It'll be something new taking a furlough with Zachary in school since we'll be limited to go when he's on school holiday, but we can manage. The biggest challenge is always in finding a place to stay while in the States and, since Zachary will be 16, we'd like him to find a job for the few weeks we're over there (and get his driver's license!!!). Ah, I sure wish it wasn't so complicated, all this planning...
Stay tuned...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Starting Over.
So, here is my feeble attempt at getting this blog going again! I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I've enjoyed using Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, but I'm finding out that not all of you are on there, so perhaps you'll enjoy catching up with me here! I won't bother running down all that's happened since my last post; we'll just start up from today...
Eric has been in Manokwari since Monday. If the weather stays decent he'll be back here late Friday afternoon. He has Marc with him. Marc has officially begun his Porter training now, and at the same time he is getting familiar with the Manokwari area. So far he's doing fantastically in the plane, and Eric is pleasantly surprised! If things continue going this well Marc will be fully checked out in the Porter by mid-October and ready to transfer full-time to Manokwari. This will be a real big help since that will then leave just Wamena to cover with pilots rotating every couple of weeks. We have a new pilot with us now, and he lives in Wamena, but he'll only be flying part-time, so we need to keep rotating someone out of there. Perhaps sometime next year we can look for a full-time Wamena-based pilot, once we have a house available.
Zachary enjoyed a four-day weekend thanks to the Idul Fitri holiday. He had a very light amount of homework so enjoyed spacing it out to allow ample time to sit around and do nothing! We got his progress reports last week and so far he's holding a steady B average. He got a few really bad grades the first week or so of school, which is to be expected, but the grades have been steadily rising and will hopefully average out nicely by semester end.
Monday evening Jason went along with Bob to visit the contractor who is working on the new hangar. He is Muslim and was having a traditional party at his house to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Basically, it's just like come-and-go Christmas parties in the States. You go, eat a bit, chat a bit, shake the host's hand, give your greetings to everyone, and leave. Jason had fun and can now boast having done something that Eric, Zachary and I have yet to do...! Yesterday Jason and I went to market to try and find some nice t-shirts for Eric. The ones he has are getting so ratty! I was nervous there would not be too many vendors open for business today due to the holiday, but there were lots of folks doing business. We found one guy selling loads of t-shirts, but they were all either white, black, or covered in designs, all of which Eric doesn't want! I did manage to find a few that he might like, so we purchased those and we'll see what the verdict is later this week. The good thing is, if Eric doesn't like them I can just stick them in a bag and send them out to a village somewhere and they'll be greatly appreciated! Jason really, really likes going to market with me, and I'm glad he can have this cultural exposure.
Today was a good day. I have been meeting the last few Wednesday mornings with a new friend, and she's been a huge encouragement to me by helping me deal with a lot of things that have been weighing heavily on my spirit in recent weeks. Jason stays home and spends time with Grandma & Grandpa while I take this time for myself...it's real nice... On top of that it's been real gray and rainy for the past several days, so that's a nice reprieve from the heat that will soon be upon us again...
Stay tuned...!
Eric has been in Manokwari since Monday. If the weather stays decent he'll be back here late Friday afternoon. He has Marc with him. Marc has officially begun his Porter training now, and at the same time he is getting familiar with the Manokwari area. So far he's doing fantastically in the plane, and Eric is pleasantly surprised! If things continue going this well Marc will be fully checked out in the Porter by mid-October and ready to transfer full-time to Manokwari. This will be a real big help since that will then leave just Wamena to cover with pilots rotating every couple of weeks. We have a new pilot with us now, and he lives in Wamena, but he'll only be flying part-time, so we need to keep rotating someone out of there. Perhaps sometime next year we can look for a full-time Wamena-based pilot, once we have a house available.
Zachary enjoyed a four-day weekend thanks to the Idul Fitri holiday. He had a very light amount of homework so enjoyed spacing it out to allow ample time to sit around and do nothing! We got his progress reports last week and so far he's holding a steady B average. He got a few really bad grades the first week or so of school, which is to be expected, but the grades have been steadily rising and will hopefully average out nicely by semester end.
Monday evening Jason went along with Bob to visit the contractor who is working on the new hangar. He is Muslim and was having a traditional party at his house to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Basically, it's just like come-and-go Christmas parties in the States. You go, eat a bit, chat a bit, shake the host's hand, give your greetings to everyone, and leave. Jason had fun and can now boast having done something that Eric, Zachary and I have yet to do...! Yesterday Jason and I went to market to try and find some nice t-shirts for Eric. The ones he has are getting so ratty! I was nervous there would not be too many vendors open for business today due to the holiday, but there were lots of folks doing business. We found one guy selling loads of t-shirts, but they were all either white, black, or covered in designs, all of which Eric doesn't want! I did manage to find a few that he might like, so we purchased those and we'll see what the verdict is later this week. The good thing is, if Eric doesn't like them I can just stick them in a bag and send them out to a village somewhere and they'll be greatly appreciated! Jason really, really likes going to market with me, and I'm glad he can have this cultural exposure.
Today was a good day. I have been meeting the last few Wednesday mornings with a new friend, and she's been a huge encouragement to me by helping me deal with a lot of things that have been weighing heavily on my spirit in recent weeks. Jason stays home and spends time with Grandma & Grandpa while I take this time for myself...it's real nice... On top of that it's been real gray and rainy for the past several days, so that's a nice reprieve from the heat that will soon be upon us again...
Stay tuned...!
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