7 Months Done

This summer has flown by! With that in mind, here is a quick update of June and July...

June brought Summer Orientation to UNI for all but 2 days of the entire month. Paul kept busy helping new students, meeting with parents, and trying to keep up with other 'office' stuff! Along side that mowing weekly and a couple sets of tennis lessons (teaching, not taking) has rounded out the weekdays! The weekends included weddings, camping, and trying to keep up with housework!


Melissa tried to stay cool in June and take care of her back. Other than general Pastoral stuff and covering for a colleague who has retired, she has been slightly less busy than the during the school year.

As always, Carlos stays busy and tries working out, get as many hours as he can at 4 Queens, and prepared to detassle in July!

The 4th of July weekend was spent in Peoria with Melissa's family. Lots to celebrate, as we got to meet our nephew Myles and proudly became his Godparents, celebrated Dave's birthday, and just spent time as a family! Tenderloins were consumed, dominos and cards were played, and our first-ever family viewing of Nathan's 4th of July hot-dog eating contest!

July 23 brought the West Delaware Class of 2001 reunion. With Kurt, Paul tried golfing (and lost 6 balls) at Pin Oak Golf and Country Club in Manchester, followed by a meal and some great conversation. There was a lot of laughter, lots of catching up, and some tentative plans for getting together more regularly before the 15 year reunion!

The past week, Josh and Joe (Melissa's sister's two youngest boys) have been staying with their cool aunt and uncle! As of this post, the activities have been frequent and regular, and lots of good times have been had! Two highlights from the trip happened after work this week.
 On Monday, we rendezvoused at Hansen's Dairy Farm outside of Hudson. This interactive farm tour took us through many buildings and provided many opportunities to interact with animals. We got to see wallabees and cows, we fed baby calves, we milked a full grown cow, made our own butter, and sampled milk and ice cream. As Melissa and I get more financially stable, we are trying to support more local growers and farmers and consider eco-friendly operations to limit the damage we do to the environment. Hansen's dairy makes excellent products and keeps things local, providing a great experience and great value for our money! The four of us enjoyed our trip, and Paul said he would go back in a minute!

On Thursday, July 28, we trekked to downtown Waterloo with Ryan and toured the KWWL news station. After over a year of planning, we finally had arrangements made and got to meet with Tara, Ron, Mark, and the fine folks of KWWL! They were very friendly, generous, and provided insight into a lot of different angles of producing a 30 minute news show! We enjoyed meeting these celebrities and getting to watch a live airing of the news! I encourage any viewer to contact the station manager and get a tour. Tara Thomas said she enjoyed having visitors, and very few people actually take the opportunity to see the set and meet the people who provide the news!

The month of August looks to be busy as well, as there are weddings to celebrate, baby classes to take, school to start, lawns to mow, and 'stuff' to sort through and get rid of (are you ready Goodwill?)!!! As always, keep us updated on what is happening with you and come to visit when you get a chance! If you are reading the Blog, feel free to leave a comment, so we know who is out there. We also take requests for topics you would like to hear about!