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.