This week, our family is on vacation at the Skyland Bible Conference in Dayton, TN. This conference holds a special place in our hearts because it is where my wife and I met 19 years ago!
Today, after hearing a great speaker in the morning, we spent the afternoon at Pocket Wilderness where we hiked and swam in the cold water of the mountain stream.
What a wonderful day it has been; hearing the Word of God, enjoying the beauty of his creation, and spending time with family and friends!
She Said. First Sacrifice on the Altar of Foreign Service Career
We sold our big beautiful boat today at a loss. Just the first sacrifice on the altar of the foreign service career. My husband listed it on ebay, but then sold it to someone who saw it out in the forks of the road before the end of the auction. Better to have money in hand then wait until the end of the auction and sell for less.We figured we better sell it now at the beginning of summer rather than hold on to it and try to sell it this winter when we will probably find out if we are going or not. Even though we don't know for sure that we are going, we are trying to economize and unload some of our possessions that may not make sense if we do go overseas. We'll probably get posted to the Bahamas now and wish we hadn't sold it. The only time we drove this boat in the ocean we went to Bimini on a Bahamas boating fling sponsored by the Bahamian government. It was so much fun. We tied up at the marina and slept on the boat. Every day we went out fishing and snorkeling. They had these neat places to snorkel-- a sunken ship, a sunken plane. We walked on the beach and ate fresh conch salad.
I had my physical today for my medical clearance. My doctor had never done one for the State department before and she was really interested to hear all about it. They forgot to order one of the blood tests, a 6BCG or something like that to do with blood glucose. My doctor said she had to look it up in her manual because she hadn't ordered one in forever, maybe never, or studied about it since medical school. My husband went to the main health campus to have his blood drawn and they said they had never done one of the 6BCG before and they are drawing gallons of blood every day for people all over Anderson. There were no problems with my physical and my cholesterol was down to 204 since my last doctor visit.
One of our neighbors is retired from the State Dept. He was in the civil service and worked in maintenance for the State Dept. He worked there many years in Washington, DC, so he has been telling me all about it. We know him and his wife pretty well because they invited us to join their square dance club about two years ago, and we've been square dancing ever since. He keeps telling me how hard it is to get in and how a lot of people get excluded at every stage of the process, but he thinks I will make it. I told him that when the security investigator comes to our neighborhood he better do his part.
She Said. Ice cream scooter
We are down in Myrtle Beach for the 2009 Atlantic Coast Exposition and we saw this neat ice cream trailer being pulled by a moped. It looked like it had its own little generator and it was hooked onto the back axle of the scooter. Maybe when our son is a teenager I will let him get one for the Vespa.
He Said. Summertime at the lake
Saturday, our oldest daughter had a party and invited a few of her friends over. It was very warm and a great day to enjoy a ride on the pontoon boat. We took a slow ride of about two hours and stopped at another friends house for food and swimming.