Greetings Tim and Ruth

The Double-Daters, the Party Animals, and the Babysitters

On Tuesday night, we had a wonderful double date with our dear friends and coworkers, Tim and Ruth Bixby. We enjoyed dinner at Olive Garden and then dessert afterward at Panera Bread. This was one of our last hurrahs with Tim and Ruth before they leave for France next Wednesday, so we were grateful to the Lord for the time with them. Here we are, the Double-Daters:

Meanwhile on the homefront, Micaiah, Miriam, and Viviane partied themselves out! When we got back home, they were having a blast running all over the place. At one point, I heard Miriam and Viviane thoroughly enjoying themselves in Viviane's bedroom and went in to find them both snuggled up in Viviane's bed. I told them to stay there so I could get the camera and then heard Micaiah say, "Wait, I'm coming!!" When I got back with the camera, they were all three in the bed! Here are the three Party Animals:

And, last but definitely not least, our dear friends the Hursts were the gracious babysitters for the evening. They were so kind to provide a pizza dinner complete with sugar cookies to frost for dessert! Thank you, Hursts! And, for our final photo, here are the Babysitters with their "subjects":

With the Christys

We made it to New Castle and we are being spoiled by Shaun and Pam! They have been so kind to us. They fixed up a space in their basement for us to use while we base out of their house during our trip to Western PA. Last night we had a good time visiting with them and then we attended a service with them at the Alliance church in town (one of the two they are thinking about). Afterward, we spent some more time visiting with them. It is so good to reconnect and talk about what God has been doing in our lives. We know that our time with them is going to be beneficial for us and we look forward to learning a little more about the area.

So far, Viviane has fit in quite well. She is intrigued by their cat and a little scared by their dog. It is taking her a little while to warm up to Shaun, but she has taken immediately with Pam. And Pam has been so kind. If you know Viviane at all, it will not surprise you that she immediately asked Pam (she calls her "Ham") to read a book to her. We'll keep you posted.

"Water, Water Everywhere...

...nor any drop to drink!"

I awoke this morning at 1 to the sound of running water. My first thought was "Is someone in our house?!" so I jumped out of bed to figure out what was going on. (And what would I have done if it HAD been someone in our house? Hmmm...didn't think about that at 1 AM!) I walked into the hall and found water spraying out of one of the pipes under the bathroom sink. I ran back into our bedroom to get Michael and he awoke with a start thinking that an intruder was trying to get into our house. I quickly told him it was okay...it was just water :-)

There was water, water EVERYWHERE (nor any drop to drink!). It was pooled on the bathroom floor and had soaked the rugs; had flowed out into the hallway and soaked another rug; had sprayed all over the toilet and up into the toothbrush holder and basket of washcloths on the top of the toilet; had dampened the bath towels on the shelves above the toilet; and had moistened everything in the trash can!

Michael couldn't get it stopped in the bathroom, so he had to turn off the water outside. It was quite the adventure! Our friend Dave--who knows everything about house "things"--graciously came over today and fixed it (with Michael as his trusty assistant). While he was at it, he also redid the seal around the toilet to improve that situation. (That's the repair step pictured below...sorry, no photos of the spraying water or pools it created or the actual repairing of the sink pipe.)

Thanks, Dave!

Lunch with a Dear Friend

Viviane and I got to have lunch yesterday with my friend Sarah. It's always a pleasure to spend time with her and talk about what God is doing in our lives. Hope to see you again soon, Sarah!

Tickled Pink

I'm not sure if this was pre- or post-"proposal," but I snapped the picture just when Micaiah and Viviane were both tickled about something (of course, Viviane was probably laughing only because someone else was :-) ). I reached back into the July 4th "archives" to have something new to share, but I promise more recent pictures are coming soon!