Porch with rails

So this is what you get to make it "legal" we hope.

The A/C unit required a $500 fan one week and the next week it needed a $1200 compressor.

No, renting is not fun. At least not this year.

Porch at 1305 Before

This is the porch as inspected by the insurance rep. Note the spaces slightly larger than 4 inches where a kid could fall off!!

2007 Chrysler Town & Country MiniVan

I went to KC today to trade the 07 Honda Civic EX for this minivan. It has the stow and go seats so will be very flexible without having to manhandle the seats in and out of the vehicle like we do on the 98 Voyager.

The silver color in this picture is a little too blue. It has 39000 miles on it and was a program vehicle in Michigan.

I've already used it as a work vehicle, as I hauled some CCA lumber to put railings on the small back porch in KC by the Med Center. Insurance requires less than 4 inch spacing so kids can't fall thru!!

This was August 2008

So far this PWC hasn't even been in the water this year. Hope that Vince and I can get it going during July. Might even try to get the Jet ski going, too.

We have been having so much rain that I've only watered once since coming back from Brasil. The pump on the dock needs to be re-primed each time as the backflow valve doesn't hold the water that long.

Just had another 0.5 inches last night sometime after 10pm when I called it quits. We had re-watched "The Last Samari" and all the stuff on the second disc about making it.

Temperatures are supposed to be in upper 80's today which will seem much nicer than the upper 90's and low 100's we have had the past week.

If I can find my camera, the next blog should have a photo of our "new" toy. A 2007 Chrysler mini van. I head to KC on Monday to pick it up and put railings on the back porch of the house by KU Med.

Come on down and enjoy some of the tomatoes and peppers which are appearing daily. The water should be warm, too, if you are in the mood for a swim.

Have they changed much since 2007??

The swimmers pictured here were forced to take a break from the lake. Will they have changed much by August 2009?? I know they have!!

Hope to see them in a month plus a day or two.

MTC Freshman Class 2009

Wemerson, Max, Sara, Lucas, Patricia and Jasiel. The four adults are a VERY small class for MTC. A concerted effort is being made in the next few months to recruit more students for the 2009-2010 year. A group of three went to Sao Paulo the last week I was there to attend a large conference. They were distributing info on WTC. Others will go out to surrounding communities and churches and distribute info and "put out the word".

We just returned from KC where Carol had cataract surgery on her left eye at 1:30pm Tuesday. We spent the night with the Rosines (Sally had had same surgery a few months back) and then saw the Dr this morning at 10:30am in Independence, MO. Forgot to take a picture of mom with her big white protective eye patch!! My Bad!!

WTC June 2009

Thanks, Sara for sending this picture.
I will try to remember the names. Let me know if I need to correct, ok.

Standing L-R: John-NewZealand & Camilla-Malasia(dk hr), Jane-England (gls), JoAnn-Ohio, Aria-MG(wht bls), Rosane-Brasil, Anna-Australia (blnd), Gabriel-MG(rd shrt, twin), Deborah-MG(dk lng hr), Katherine-England, Gigi-MG(grn), Romulo-MG, ???, Raphael-MG(cap, twin), Phillipe-MG(dk shrt), Deborah -MG(wht bls), Roberto-Venezulea(ckd) & Elizanth & Fernando (yel shrt), Ine-MG

Seated top row L-R: Julio-Africa, N'tambu-Africa, Tharso & Liseth-MG, Wender-MG, Alexia, ?? , Liny-Venezuela & Alex & Alexia(girl)

Seated bottom row L-R: Wemerson-MG & Max & Sara-MO & Lucas, Marizette-MG & Cornelio (parents of twins), Regina-Recife & Big Lucas & Sergio and Julia, Claudinho-Bahia, Jasiel-MG.

MG stands for the state of Minas Gerias. Montes Claros is in the north of this state and Belo was southern middle. The picture was taken on the steps of the cafeteria/girls dorm building which is up the hill from the main classrooms/office building.

Oh, Deer, What Can the Matter Be?

We looked out the cathedral side window just past where the cars are normally parked and saw this "friend" enjoying a weed!! No he or she was not smoking it! We had noticed that some of our daisy blossoms have been missing with just a naked, straggly stem sticking straight up and we think this may be the culprit. If Sis would just grow some better stuff at the top of the hill, maybe these "darlings" wouldn't have to come down and eat our lovely flowers. The garden is about as nice as it can ever get. Come on by and enjoy it with us.

Carol should be able to see these guys better in the near future, as we head to KC on Tuesday for the first cataract surgery. They claim she will only need reading glasses after both lens are replaced. No astigmatism! Will stay overnight with Sally and return Wednesday ASAP, as I have an afternoon shift at Waste Watchers. Have alerted them that I will be a little late.

The Study with Holes

Well, the leak is not in the wall to the right. Instead it is at the base of the stool in the upstairs bathroom. Carol had suggested that I find the source of the water before digging down 6-8 feet on the outside. I removed the drywall at the bottom of the study wall (underneath the ladder is where some of the mold was growing) and the bathroom wall on the backside and found water on the 4" sewer pipe running upstairs. Poked a couple of holes into the upper part of the wall (just above the cute giraffe on top of the ladder) and was able to see the leak on the underside of the floor above. The device on the pipe for fastening the stool has some sort of offset shape and I think is going to require more wax than the two I tried that John had available at Crossroads Lumber. After I reset the stool, I still have a leak. Nothing is ever easy.

I think I have to replumb the hot water heater I installed in the lake rental on Friday, as a couple of slow leaks have not stopped by late Sunday.

Also have some electrical problems in the rental in KC!! I think I should have stayed in Brasil!!!

Happy Birthday VERY late, SAM--June 1

No card, no present, but I finally did remember!!
Sorry I couldn't be at your graduation party. Sounded like a good time.

The picture is our study and computer area, which has a leak on the right side wall which is coming out under the chair for the computer. I will probably have to dig down about 8 feet on the outside and seal a crack that has developed. Gee it is fun being a homeowner. Hope you haven't encountered anything like this with your new home.

We are getting mold growth on the walls behind the computer and file cabinets which makes both of us have an allergic cough, etc. Must get this fixed, soon.

A Bouquet for Pat and Gary's Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, Gary and Pat. Missed it on June 3, as I was up at 4am which would have been 2am for you, so decided not to call!! Hope you had a great day. Come on down and see your flowers in person. The roses are on an everblooming, dwarf rose that we bought this spring and has just done wonderful. The other flowers have been constant bloomers ove r the past several years and seem to work their way up and down the hillside in a random pattern. The ones that work up hill must be seeded by the wind off the lake blowing them up the hill?? One of the blueberry plants is just to the left and has over 2 dozen little berries already. Thanks for the idea last year, Gary. Hope your plants are doing as good.

Jungle Growth at the Lake

Wow, what a little fertilizer, some water and judicius weeding can do for a flower garden. Here is a photo just outside the west door of the lake house at 7am. I had arrived home from Brasil at 5pm the previous day after leaving Sara and Wem's at 4:30am on June 3. Took a 12 hour bus ride ($R83 or $40) to Belo from Montes Claros which was bumpy, lurchy and stopped over 25 times to pick up passengers in various towns and rural locations. NO, no one got one with any chickens or livestock!! I was asked that by my Brasilian seatmate on the plane to Miami and by Carol E. when I mentioned it to her on the drive back to the lake. There were several older people who obviously lived very close to the soil and had worked hard all their lives. This bus must be one of their few means of travel, as they greeted people as they came on and as they left. My favorite part of the trip was that because we sat up high in the bus, I was able to see over the weedy roadside and could enjoy more of the landscape and buildings and way of life than I could when we drove to Montes with Wem driving the small car. I was able to take a couple of naps on the trip so was in fairly good shape by the time I reached Belo and had to haul my luggage (thank goodness, I only had one big bag and 2 small ones) up some steep steps to the upper level of the bus station. I finally found the bus line for the airport at Confins (north of Belo) after asking 3 people and walking past it 3 times. The last lady at the info booth wrote the name UNIR, which is the bus line, but pronounced it UNIQUE. I was always looking for a word with que at the end. Now I realize that the letter R in Portuguese is pronounced as a gutteral H which sounds like QUE at the end of a pronounced word.

Bus ride to airport was uneventful, but they took a route I wasn't familiar with until we went past the Habibs restaurant that we had eaten in the first night that I was in Brasil. The bus cost $R7.50 which is about $3. It was a local also, but didn't stop very often. It did get off at major off ramps on the way to the airport, evidently to see if any passengers were waiting, but would stop at the intersection and then just go back the on ramp and finally to the airport. Wem had mentioned that they had a lan house (computer store) on the main level inside the airport, so I was able to send e-mails to let Sara and Carol that I was on time with my flight to Miami. All flights were on time or arrived early. Weather was very cooperative. Did see some lightning about 3am as we were flying to Miami, but we were above the clouds. Eric, hope you didn't get toooo much rain in Philly/Baltimore area!! TV in Miami airport was predicting travel delays in that area.

We Three Boys Wanted to be Seen, Too.

We had an herb planting session on the veranda. Max is really quite patient and careful, but the meddling hands of Lucas needed some old guy guidance!! Sara will try to keep a few herbs outside her door and may take over the larger garden outside the kitchen off the cafeteria.

Wemerson and the guys do Gideon

Wemerson and Roberto led a group of 5 guys doing a drama about Gideon and his doubts about God. It was very humorous but educational with audience participation and movement. Roberto was Gideon, Wem was translator and Julius was the narrator. For these sessions one person speaks English and the other translates into Portuguese. This was at chapel on Tuesday morning at 8am.

Following the drama, Wem did a small sermon and related events in his life to the story It was very good.

Sara Singing Sweetly

The English church service on Monday night featured this quintet of students and wives singing three songs of worship with the words and picture images projected onto the wall behind them to the right. They did a great job. The CD they were using carried on each song about double the length needed, but it worked fine. Students, staff and family make up the congregation. I had gone to one done in Portuguese but didn´t understand enough.

Monkey Business

I finally got a shot of the elusive monkey with some facial features. Sis, the B&W actually does the critter mored justice than the colored version. This photo was on the electric wire just outside Wem and Sara´s house. A family was going to the other houses as they have fruit trees growing in their backyards and the clan was headed over for dinner. This pose is defensive.

The sky behind is actually very bright blue.