Planet Earth & Questions & Sasha

Planet Earth
I have to share with you something awesome. I am in awe of God's wonder.
I just got done watching a documentary done by the discovery channel on the planet Earth. I was dumbfounded by the total beauty and by the way that everything is connected and works together. They had powerful footage aided by the wonders of modern technology that enabled us to see our Earth in ways humans have never seen it before. They had a high speed camera that caught ever detail of a shark capturing a seal. They had an underwater camera that enabled us to watch elephants play and swim under water. They had a satellite camera that viewed the planes of Botswana as we watched the herds of animals migrate as a group across the Continent. It was breathtaking. Over and over again this documentary displayed the beauty of this world we live in. And over and over again I was struck by God's awesomeness. There really are not words to describe how big and powerful and how EVERYTHING He is. 20 minutes into the show I wanted to fall on my face and worship how great He is. Over and over I kept saying "Amen God you are so cool." I was so blessed by this documentary that I just had to share it with you guys.
The show talked about how rain 1000 miles away will mean flooding in the plains of Africa 5 months after it had fallen. The whole world is a balance that is taken care of by the Almighty. That reminded me of the verses in scripture that talk about how he takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields, how much more will he take care of us. Some times we have such small minds. Then a show like this reminds me of how really big He is and I am reminded of how He really cares for me.
I am also blessed by the thought that even the rocks and the trees will cry out to worship Him. And now in our modern day, even cable TV will have to cry out in worship to the creator (even if they didn't mean to). God is so sovereign that nothing is out of His reach, not even cable TV. He chose to use it to proclaim His majesty. He is the God of Gods. There is none like Him. Amen. Hallelujah. I have been blessed!

Questions
OK, on a totally different note I have a couple of questions that I was hoping you all could help with.
-I cant remember the ending to the song "I'm bringin' home a baby bumble bee." Can anyone help me out?
-Mom- I am doing a sewing project and I bought some fabric. Flannel, cotton, and seersucker (sp?). Usually I am so impatient that I sew first and wash later. But I know that I will get better results if i wash first. So I did. But when I took it out of the washer it was a mess of fray and strings all tangled up together. Is that normal? or did I do something wrong?

Sasha
This has been a big week for Sasha, it seams like she learned several new tricks all at once.
This morning when I went into her room she was standing up in her crib holding onto the rail. This was the first time she pulled up to stand. Not only that but she can walk along stuff now too (cruz sp?).
Also this week she learned how to wave bye bye. Not all the time but she does it sometimes.
But most exciting is that we are seeing more obedience in her then I expected. If she starts to get into something that she is not supposed to we can say "Sasha NO." and she will turn around and crawl away from it. She does try again a few minutes later, but we say no again and she obeyes again. I am so blessed with such a good baby.

Tonight Sasha gets to meet some of her family that she has never seen before. Nick's Aunts and Uncles are coming from Idaho and Minnisota today. Next weekend we are having the funeral for Nicks last grandparent, Terry's dad. It's a sad time but its good for Sasha to know her family, even if they are not blood related.
Its good to have family connections, right? Just like what we are doing right now. Love you guys and girls. :)
Shawn

Shift Space update

So the student gallery Shift Space that I was working on getting funding for from SGA got great news today. After rejection, appeals, and being sent back to committee (the meeting was last night), we were approved for $21,500! That is enough to cover rent and then some for a year! It took a lot of hard work, phone calls and old fashion politics and some high school politics too. I have become the unofficial Art Advocate to SGA. I am an amateur lobbyist of sorts. It's kind of cool, I feel powerful, like I'm actually doing something meaningful. Campaigns are going on at school and I have started to be the voice for art students so I am getting a lot of e-mails from the different parties, mostly one, the one we don't like. But they are trying to get our support, through me. Anyway, it's been exciting and it's neat that a lot of people now know me by name.

Also, I entered nine black and white photos in a school contest and one was received for the show and it won first place! I get a cash prize of like $50 or so and a blue ribbon. When I get it back I can post it. It's still up at the Student Center's gallery.

Pump iron

Kent is now in training for weight lifting. He mainly worked on swats. His team is the Wichita Independents. They practice at the West YMCA. One of the other team members is Kyle who used to compete with Kent on the Free Spirits when we were in Derby. Kent thinks he is back on the Free Spirits. I am not sure he will get it until he competes in the Special Olympics. He has a chance to do well at his age and weight. We are going to try to get him to compete on the bike. He will go to practice tomorrow. Our only issue is transporting the bike to and from practice. Emily is a great help in providing transportation and lifting the bike is a bit of a challenge.
Kent says "Hi families."

My Sunday Morning

May 11 Kent will graduate from high school! Everyone is invited.
School wanted growing up photos of all the seniors for a slide show. Do we have any cute photos of that boy growing up????Maybe just one or two!!!
Daddy dug out all of the boxes of photo albums that have been tucked away since moving into the gallery. They were stored in the bottom and back of the stairway closet. Emily is the only one to unearth them previous to this. She uses them as subject matter for her painting class projects. You all look good in oils!
I spent the morning pouring over all of your growing up years, reliving your antics, remembering your high times, enjoying your smiles. What a busy happy bunch, I mused as I turned each yellowed page. What beautiful children! You all are just the greateset group of humans that God and two unassuming people could come up with! I am so proud to know you all!!! And I was blessed in my Sunday morning search, all over again, by the light in see in you all, by the enthusiasm for life we captured in those pictures. Thank you for visiting my life with your greatness! thank you for such a sweet, nostalgic Sunday morning.

just an epdate

Just thought that i would fill you all in on whats been up with us lately.
Sasha had RSV, but is much better now. She recovered much faster then expected-thank goodness for prayer. God is good.
This week i got a promotion at work. and that also means a raise. i am looking forward to the new challenge and more responsibility. i start working in there this week. it is the Toddler 2 room. lots more kids. and they run a pre-preschool program. its very good.
Last night (Sunday Night) we had some friends over for a grill out. it was a lot of fun. so good to hang out with Friends and play games. i learned a new card game called 66. it is very challenging. its in the Hoyle book for those of you who have it. lots of strategy involved.
That's about it for us.
i look forward to hearing about whats new with everyone else.
Shawn

Scholarship

FYI: I received notification today that my efforts will pay off. I got a $1,800 scholarship for next year! Hooray!

Allison's Birthday Bananza

Allison had a FUN FUN FUN birthday celebration on Sunday. It started when a friend took us horseback riding. Allison wasn't at all scared and even rode by herself. She loved it when we trotted for a bit too. Then a quick drive-thru lunch before heading home to ready the house and us for the party. Picked up the cake and then the inflatable moonwalk was delivered at 12:30pm. Allison stayed in it until her friends came at 2:00pm. They all had a blast, even the adults. Her friends left at 4:00pm and Allison stayed in the moonwalk still until Terry and I took her to dinner. Since she had no time for a nap she took the drive to the restaurant as an opportunity to do just that. We carried her in and laid her on the booth seat where she slept the entire dinner. Nor did she wake in the middle when she slid off the seat onto the floor under the table. My foot held her head up while Terry dove under to get her. We laid her back down and that's where she stayed. On the way home we picked up some McDonald's for her. Then came home and played with her new gifts. It was such a blast and the weather worked with us too, 75 and breezy. Beautiful. Especially because next day was rainy and is still. I think the pictures speak volumes.

A Toad at My House

(dictated to Mama by: Raimy)

One day I found a toad in my yard. It was a little one. I think it was 2 inches. It looked like a toy. It was green and had white spots on its back. When I saw it I wanted to study it because we did not know if it was a toad or a frog. I found it by a window. A friend came to see it. I was surprised to see it. We thought it was from the water that came out by itself. Here is the picture of it.

sidewalk chalk

Sasha and i spent some time outside on our back patio today. the patio next to us was occupied by four little blond girls coloring zealously with sidewalk chalk in big beautiful patterns. i introduced myself and they explained the urgent situation to me. it went something like this:
there is a terrible witch out there and she likes to eat children. BUT she hates color, so we have to cover the entrance to our house with lots of different colors. that will protect us. since you have a baby do you want us to color your patio too? you don't want the witch to eat your baby do you?
me- no i do not. thank you very much for your help girls, i appreciate it.
moments later i hear shrieking,
THE WITCH! THE WITCH! SHE'S COMING! Quick everybody start dancing on the pictures. that will save us! Dance come on dance more!!
It made me laugh so hard to see those girls playing. and i remember the feeling of freedom and imagination that come with spontaneous games like that. i felt young all over again. and i am so excited for when Sasha comes to that stage. But the excitement was not over yet....
the youngest one of them all came walking up to the rest and said,
"look! i got the witch, she's right here. i captured her." then she turned to the invisible thing in her hand. "now witch you have been very noddy. it is time for bed. then maybe you can wake up and be nice to everybody, OK."
what a totally sweet ending to a precious afternoon of play.

Sasha is doing well. she loves to clap, she does it all the time. and she loves to walk around when her hands are held. she even stands independently for a few seconds at a time. today she ate her first real food. bananas. she loved them and did great with it. she also eats crackers and of course still baby food.
We plan on going to the zoo on Tuesday afternoon. it will be Sasha's first trip. i am really looking forward to it.
Nick and i are doing good. but the computer is still under construction. so i dont know when i will be back on again.
Angie-i got the update on Shirely, but it was all in spanish so i forwarded it to you, would you mind translating for me?

Connection Culprit, Case # 42

In this communication age we have various connection culprits at large. Some of the guilty parties are: telephones, cell phones, beepers, pagers, email, snail mail, CBs, walkie-talkies, and the infamous internet. Decent citizens beware for there is another one on the loose. I reveal to you the web cam. More lethal than you may expect. Not only does it broadcast a moving image to wherever nice quiet on line computers may be found but (brace yourselves) it's stealth like microphone and USB port act together transforming it to a sound device as well. You heard right, it's the sci-fi prophesied video phone. And that is not the worst of it folks; this inconspicuous little imp commits his crimes for free! But he seems to only attack those that have Instant Messenger through Yahoo. Make necessary provisions now my friends: man, woman, child, and infant. No person is safe. You might just be abducted, I mean connected, today.

taking a short break

hay everybody. i just wanted to let you all know that i wont be available via computer for a few days. Nick is doing some routine maintenance and i will not have access to it until Sunday at least, but he promised to make it as fast as he could. but i will be excited to catch up on everything once i can log back on. i never would have thought that i would miss the computer for only a few days. i use to go weeks without getting on.

Sasha has started to do the cutest thing. she has figured out how to blow. she is kinda young i think. but she does it all the time. she just puts her cute little lips together and blows. it makes the softest and sweetest little sound. she does it while she is playing or just hanging out. just for the fun of it.
mom- i think she got your smile. she doesn't smile big very often but when she does it look just like your smile.
and dad-some of her expressions with her eyes and eyebrows and just like you. also she does the thing where she sticks the tip of her tong out of the corner of her mouth just like you do.
its amaizing to me to see signs of previous generations.

talk to you all in a few days. love

Spring Time is Here

Hey, next week is Spring Break!!! I am glad for the break from the regular, but I am going to spend most of my time in the library working on a 15 page paper for my politics class. I am to research the 1928 election and write 15 pages about it. I have to have 20 sources and some articles only count as half a source. YIKES! I really want to use my break to get this thing kicked out and then not have to worry about it ever again. This is contrary to my usual procrastinative pattern. I guess I realize that 15 pages is not a last minute paper you can write at 3am the night before it's due.

Well, in other news... I went the SGA hearing for Student Fees budget in reguards to Shift Space last Thursday. Monday morning we found out that they allocated ZERO funds to Shift Space. That day we had a meeting with SGA President for immediate funds for renovations. We asked for 3-5000 and he thinks he might be able to get us 2000. We hope so. This will pay for sheet rock and track lighting which students will install. And since the Student Fees didn't give us any money we were able to appeal the decision Wednesday night (last night). This time we wanted to show them how much the students wanted this and got over 50 students to attend the meeting (the most they've seen there) and whipped up a petition in one day of 468 signatures. Going to the meeting was exciting for me since I have put some energy coordinating people to get this money and was denied, it propelled me even more. Talking to some of the students, they felt that it was unfair that all the sports teams have substancial support from SGA financially and they gave us ZIP. I feel that art is our sport. We practice, we perform, we have an audience, we compete (for shows, for recognition), but we don't charge people to see our work like the traditional sports teams do. But the Dean of the School of Fine Arts came to the meeting in our defense and expressed that Shift Space fulfilled in a strong way the university's goal to connect to the community being a urban school. He also urged SGA to support Shift Space as well. We'll see what they say.

I have sent 9 photographs to a contest on campus which may be displayed and may even win money. I'll let you know what happens with that.

I love all of you.

Kent's Ghost Rider

Note: I am Kent's Ghost writer for now; he doesn't want to say much now (go figure). Kent was sick today and stayed home from school. He says he is better now and wants to be going to school tomorrow. Sunday, Kent went with Emily and Terry to see Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage. Here is what he says about it: "Horse fire, Nicolas Cage a ball of fire, a scary guy." Today he says it was a scary movie but yesterday he said it was awesome. Saturday, Kent and Dad went to Maize High School to a city-wide variety show featuring members of Circle of Friends. Circle of Friends is an unique outreach program that works directly to address the concern that everyone wants to belong. Sponsored by the Arc of Sedgwick County, Circle of Friends works to create lasting relationships between regular education students and students with special needs. They do this by a buddy system. A regular student pairs up with a special needs student. The show was great. The performers were mainly students, both special needs and regular. It was comprised of many skits, comedy, singing and dancing. It was a quality production with a top-notch director and a talented choreographer, a professional technical director doing the lighting design, and a former television producer as stage manager. Some of the students, I thought, were as good or better than many of the finalists in American Idol. Kids today seem so much more talented and expressive than when I was a kid. Kent performed during intermission with a drum group. Kent is very much into March Madness. His favorite team, KU is doing well. We will see if they will make it to the Final 4. Watching a basketball game with Kent is quite an experience. He is very expressive and totally into the game. Kent graduates May 11 and we are going to celebrate but as for details, I guess we don't have any yet. We will post them as soon as we have them. We will see if we can continue to get Kent to contribute to the blog.

mish mash

Hi Family,
its so good to have this in place. this is the most communicating we all have done since we lived together, i think.
Angie that was an awesome report from the birthday party. i wish i could have been there. it sounded like so much fun.
mom/dad- i would love to get a blog from Kent. I'm not sure what he would want to say but i would love to hear from him.
also- i would love to get more info about Kent's graduation and party. specifically when. Trent is graduating the same weekend and Nick and i need to do some creative scheduling.
Washington Family- once upon a time i heard a rumor that you ALL were coming to the states in April. is it true?

All is well in the Smith household. Nick is so close to getting on board with the family blog, i will keep working on him. but i have not talked to Luke in quite a while so i don't know about him.
Omaha got up to 80 degrees today. HOT!!! too hot for me. but Sasha looks very cute in her hand-me-down tank and shorts from Allison. I have an eye appointment on Thursday and Sasha is getting her eyes checked for the first time. i am very curious to see what they do to check a babies eyes. they cant exactly ask "which one looks better, the first or the second, the first or the second."

Nick got the grill fired up today. that made him very happy. all our windows are open and the neighbors are all hanging out in their yards. such a time of renewal.

Emily thanks for offering to help. i tried to call you on Sunday but i must have missed ya.

Love you all- Shawn

Untitled

Congratulations Raimy for your awesome birthday party!

Tonight Kent, Terry and I went to a movie. We ended up seeing Ghost Rider. It was pretty cool and the effects were smooth. It was dealing with a lot of evil but in the end the Ghost Rider almost quotes scripture and turns his powers back on the devil in "avengence." It gave me chills. Kent was hyped up after the movie and was pretending to throw balls of flame at bad drivers. It was funny.

Nine is just fine

First, I extend a hearty welcome to our first Omaha delegate to jump on the family blog band wagon! We are glad that you are with us Shawn.

Raimy had a GREAT birthday celebration. The horse back riding was a blast. She was so happy because the guide taught her how to hold the reins and turn the horse all by herself. The guy was just walking along beside her and the horse, but she was doing it! All her little friends had a good time too. Timothy and Gabrielle were not frightened at all. Click through to my Xanga site to see some other photos. I will be making available more pictures later because there was another gal with her camera there and she is going to pass me some great shots that she got.


After the horse back riding we all came back to the house and had games, pizza, cake and presents (in that order). After a bit more play time the girls got dressed for bed and we put on Annie. At 9:30 I sent them to bed. The laughing, jokes, tickling, talking, and giggling finally lulled to a hushed whisper and occasional squeak at about 10:15. They were all asleep at 10:30. Not too bad if you ask me. At 6:30 Sunday morning they were chattering away again. Donuts and scrambled eggs (per request) for breakfast and then off to church.

On the ride out to the horses and then all throughout the party spontaneous song broke out. All but one little girl were friends from church. All the songs were ones that the kids knew from Sunday School. They had so much fun singing at the top of their lungs. Later on in the party the little girl from the neighborhood asked, "How do you all know such fun songs?" The matter-of-fact response was, "From church." She then said, "I want to come to church to learn those songs." So the girls told her that she should come.

As the kids were restocking their pop-corn, chips and drinks during the movie one grinning little girl sighed contentedly, "This is the best night of my life!"

It was amazing to me that though this was the very first slumber party for ALL the girls they instinctively knew the appropriate customs for such an event. They had it all! Pillow fights, food fights, running around and screaming, rolling all together in a pile while they were inside their sleeping bags, giggles galore, buddy bathroom runs, trying on each others clothes, ... the list could go on. I felt like I was watching one of those nature documentaries and any minute a low soothing voice-over would blurt out something like, "We will now observe the pre-adolescent females join together in the ancient grooming rituals as the cute pink barbie brush is passed from one head to the other. Note the apparent lack of importance placed on the actual end result ... "

I am so glad that Raimy had a fun time!

finally

I DID IT!!!! With much help from my patient husband. Now I can join in all the fun. Yippy!!
In my first blog ever it is my pleasure to wish Raimy a very happy birthday. Its very sad that we cant celebrate with you, but you have all my love and best wishes. I love you beautiful girl.
Aunt Shawn

They're here!

The Sisters sent greetings to all in Bolivia!
Hope that Rai Rai's birthday party is a BLAST!
Love love love you all! - Mom

Weekend plans for Raimy's Birthday

Sounds like it is a party weekend!

We will be celebrating Raimy's 9th birthday on Saturday. She has chosen to do a slumber party. This will be a first for me. I am open to ALL last minute advice! I limited it to 5 guests. They will get here at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. From here we are going to take them horse back riding. The guy is going to have two horses there and let the kids take turns riding as he leads. Just 10 bucks for the hour; who can pass that up? We will bring them back to the house for cake, presents, pizza and games. Raimy has chosen that they are going to watch Annie (the old version that I grew up with, only it's in Spanish - hilarious). I am going to try to get them to sleep because we have church the next day. Donuts and scrambled eggs for breakfast. It will be a fun time. Her actual birthday is the 11th which is Sunday. Nine years old!!! Ahhh!

Girl's Weekend

Sisters are converging on Wichita for the weekend. And Kristy's friend Sheri Wells with her 3 daughters. They are from Omaha. Shawn and Sasha may ride along with them. And Jenny is coming with Kris. They will all arrive late tonight and will stay til Sunday.
Sheri is the impetus for the visit. Her son Joseph wants his room redone in stars and moons. Sheri expressed to Kris that she wasn't sure how to pull that off. Kris told her about our little bathroom in the studio, with the star theme. She wanted to see it. So this is the weekend for that. It will be fun. Besides the bathroom viewing we will try our hands at some pottery making. And Saturday evening we will take in a dinner theater, Foot Loose at the Crown Uptown Theater.
That little bathroom has interested many folks. Even our mailman was impressed. He brought his wife to see it!
Wish you were here,Ang.

Wisdom from Gabrielle

Today at dinner we had the opportunity to hear from our 5 year old Gabrielle as she talked about her children's Bible. We got on the subject of the children's Bible because Angie was talking about what type of book she wanted to write. Gabrielle jumped into the conversation and said that the books that Angie would write would be like her children's Bible because it had a lot of good stories. So she informed us of what great stories her children's Bible had.

1. She liked the story of David and the Lions (I think she meant Daniel).
2. David and "thelieif" (sounded like David and the life)
3. She really like the story of daneva. They ate a bad apple and their story had a little bit of the devil in it. Daneva gave it to a necked guy and asked him to give it a try.
4. After they eat the bad apple they walked over to Jesus and asked Him to forgive them and he did. But that was not the end of the story because the disciples forgave them as well.

Made me want to read that children's Bible to see if it was doctrinally sound (you know with the necked people in all). But the way I see it at least she got some of the characters right.

DaRonn

Allisonism, Aliism, whatever

Today (and yesterday) Allison was complaining of the back of her head hurting. So I asked her if she bumped her head. She said she didn't but I rephrased to clarify and asked if she bumped her head maybe yesterday being when the hurt began. Annoyed she responded, "NO! Not soon or later or today!"

This is an example of what I have tried to convey in my art. The difficulty children have grasping the concept of time. Also thrown in there is the language issue. We have so many ways to convey time and it's passage and it's relative nature. Hmmm. It's a thinker.

Adventures in Angieland

At the Washington house...

Tyler turned 6 months old today! He is enjoying eating rice cereal. He will eat the mashed up bananas, but doesn't like them as well because they have more texture. As soon as it ripens I am going to try to give him papaya; that was Gabrielle's baby food of choice when we were still living in Santa Cruz. He can sit up for a few minutes by himself until he wobbles over to one side. He loves going around in his walker.

Gabrielle is amazing me with her thirst for knowledge. She is a Kindergartner now. Almost every day before I begin class with her she tells me, "I want to work hard today so I can learn." I am much obliged to consent to her request. She is showing a great aptitude to numbers and logic.

Timothy continues to be mechanically minded. Our hard wood floors are nicely accented with Legos, paper airplanes, folded boats, origami, sketches of inventions and numerous reference books open to the pages of machinery, cars, space craft and other such gadgets. The other day he sketched out the breakfast machine from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Raimy got started in her art class and is loving it! She goes two times a week for two hour sessions and comes home with a new masterpiece every time. Her teacher is a well known Bolivian artist. Her instructor was especially eager to teach Raimy upon discovering that her grandma is so artistically inclined.

DaRonn and I are doing well. Keeping busy as usual. I with my home school and mothering duties, he with the brunt of the ministry work.

Following is a little anecdote that I posted on my personal site that I think you may enjoy.

The Finite Points of Life

While cleaning up around the house with the family I stuck my finger in a live current. Upon hearing my yelp my good husband inquired, “What happened? Are you ok?” A bit disgusted with myself I responded, “Yeah, I just stuck my finger here and got a shock.” My five year old asked, “Did you get burned?” “Yes, I did,” I said. Moved to sympathy she cooed, “Ooh! Ow!” as she examined my finger. Glancing over and surveying the situation big sister purses her lips and frowns at the little one then curtly replies, “Yeah, but at least she is still alive.”

My pinky is still tingling, making it hard to type my a’s. But, as the sage said, at least I am still alive.

Another Birthday Photo

Surprizing that this wasn't the first photo added from my birthday by others but here it is, mess and all.

This week is not near as busy

Hello Family! I hope you all are fine. The weather here is delightful... wish you were here too. Today I went to photography class and made some neat prints, my teacher was impressed as usual. I took down my art from the scholarship portfolio review. Wainting on the results e-mail. I will make a few phone calls today and when Kent gets home we'll go to the YMCA to play in the gym. Then we'll pick up Ali for her gymnastics class and go back to the Y. This evening looks like one of the first ones in a long time to just sit and veg in front of the TV (if you don't count this weekend where I sat in front of the TV for 4 movies and some live television). Maybe that's why I had a headache yesterday and why Mom slaughtered me in Scrabble.

Hi I'm in

This is my first post. I had a learning curve of trial and error to properly access the site. I'm sorry to say took way too long.

I just read a book entitled "Execution: the Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Larry Bossidy.
He has a good line I will share with you all: "We don't think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking".

He also had much to say about culture (he was referring to the business setting, but it also applies pretty much universally).
"Culture is the sum of shared values, beliefs and behaviors. It may come from training, experiences, what we have heard, and our perceptions."

I enjoyed the weather earlier this week when it got up to 72 degree F (22.2 C for the Bolivians). I was able to do some biking. 25 miles Monday, 18 miles Tuesday and 28 miles on Wednesday. Then it got cold and windy (50 F/24 C and below) and the bike is in the garage. It is only 20F/-6.77C now. I still go swimming no matter what the weather (I try to get a mile in each morning that is 72 lengths of the pool).

We have been interviewing college students as candidates for new engineering jobs at or internships at Cargill. One girl I interviewed yesterday was Katherine Pfefferkorn. She is a Chemical Engineering student, University of Missouri-Columbia. She is the President and founder their local chapter of Engineers Without Borders. She managed a team that went to Bolivia the Summer of 2006. They helped a village in the Andes about 70 miles from La Paz for landslide stabilization and improved sanitation. She was impressive in many ways and we are going to offer her a job.

I also read an article "Grumpy is Good" by David R Butcher. Bad moods may not be so bad after all. A new study claims that grumpy workers are the most creative. According the Jing Zhou, an associate professor of management at Rice University. He suggests that both positive and negative moods are necessary for optimal productivity. Good moods enhance expansive thinking, which can be particularly useful when brainstorming strategies, yet bad moods demonstate a discontent with the status quo and a need to fix it--qualities that are useful for creative problem solving. Another recent study, led by psychology professor Adam Anderson at the University of Toronto, also showed the "a bubbly mood may enhance creativity, but feeling happy can actually hinder the ability to focus on a task". The article also went on to later saying "there is that thin line between grump and jerk". Just wonder what your experiences and feelings are on those comments.

Greetings to all, love DAD (sometimes known as Opa)

Traveling Hats Link

Click on this title to link through to my personal blog and read a story that I wrote on my personal blog about Raimy's new hats. You can click through to the comments to see what some nice people have had to say.