just so everyone knows...


here's my blog:
http://elykkyle.blogspot.com

So who needs a new invite? Let me know in the comment section, and maybe, just maybe, I'll reinvite you. If you're cool enough.

begin excerpt from Mary's journal:
Last night I mixed 12 pounds of plain baking soda with 2 pounds of Arm & Hammer "Pet Fresh" Carpet and Room Deodorizer. I coated the living room floor and poured it liberally all down the hall (which smelled like a litter box even after shampooing the carpets twice). This morning after some "help" vacuuming it up, I did think it smelled better. The smell lingers mostly near the linen closet and bathroom. Pouring baking soda all over the floor created "dust" on all the furniture and now my glider rocker has a different "gritty" squeak. ("") But worse than that, the "freshness" makes all the bedrooms (which before smelled fine to me) smell stale, and it even seems that Suzan's smells of wet dog.

Last week we closed on a very nice house in the suburbs. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn't as bad as it sounds. People in our neighborhood go for walks (saying "hi" as they pass) and kids playing in their front yards spill out into the street. There are no neighbors behind us, rather an open field that is used by the nearby roundup club for pasturing cattle for their rodeos. Our house is large and open with a patio facing west. The back yard has room for a small garden and a small girl to run around flapping her arms "like a bird." We found the house rather unexpectedly at the end of some bad winter weather (which had discouraged other home shoppers). The owners were being transferred to Kansas City so we had a slight advantage over them I think. They took with them some things we expected them to take: their pets, some curtains and a black ceiling fan. They took some things we did not expect: the refrigerator, the washer, dryer and a magnolia from the front yard. The appliances were theirs by contract; apparently I cannot read properly. They did not reserve the magnolia. A magnolia? They were moving into temporary housing!

In spite of the lingering pet smells (growl, hiss, moan, sob, rage) and the added expense of appliances, I think we will be very happy here. It feels like home already.

The last couple weeks have been busy here. My mom and sister and I made a trip out to Kansas to visit my grandparents on the occasion of my grandfather's 90th birthday (Grandma's almost 94!). It was great to have almost a week with them in their home nearly a year and a half since our last visit. Amazingly, they're still keeping up a house, driving, walking a mile or two a day, playing scrabble, dominoes, or freecell every day, leading a Bible study, and traveling. Since we drove out, we also had fun exploring Lawrence, Kansas (there's a very nicely done coffeeshop/art gallery/book store there...Christian-run with art by a couple Wheaton/Chicago artists); and we had the chance to visit with my aunt and uncle in St. Louis. They live in an 120-something-year-old house that they've redone and have all sorts of interests and humor to share with us. AND I had a couple hours to catch up with Andrea, which was fun after four (?!) years. Thanks again, Andrea!

My most recent work has been lettering a trail of "inspiring" words along a middle school's hallways out in West Knoxville. They wanted specific fonts for the different words and phrases, so I spent a lot of time at the copier enlarging the letters [to about 16" high] so that I could trace them up on the walls. Then the fun began...standing on a ladder for hours trying to trace onto slick concrete block walls (almost impossible) with hordes of middleschoolers going every-which-a-way below. (Middle schoolers make some really weird comments...not to mention the different conversations I overheard--students and teachers--since I was apparently invisible on the ladder.) Now the kids have the job of painting all the letters in...hopefully more carefully than they have yet.

This next week is our church's missions conference, which pretty much means an event/meeting or two every day; lots of busyness, but we always look forward to it. Eva's also waiting to hear about grad assistantships at UT and hoping the outcome will help her decide whether to pursue a masters in piano or not. If she opts not to go the grad school route, the two of us are considering applying for a work holiday visa to New Zealand for 2008.

Daffodils still blooming after a month and a half. I hope the rest of you are finally getting some spring-like weather! Anybody celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday today? You might try On Beyond Zebra.

HAPPY SAINT DAVID'S DAY!!!