Just the news

I’m very happy to say Dad’s throat problem is NOT cancer. That’s such a relief. They think his vocal cord paralysis was caused by a virus and they are going to try some various treatments over the next few weeks.

Six weeks of class are finished as of today. Amazing. That makes it day 29 out of 168. That means 139 days to go. (not including holidays or weekends!). So far, so good. I think I am getting a reasonable grasp on all the lessons we have covered so far. It is a complicated job. I truly think my programming background is a huge asset here. There are many rules to follow and computer coding that goes hand-in-hand with each rule. There are also many exceptions to rules. It’s interesting when the lessons move along. It’s tough to stay focused and not daydream when its slow going. Our class seems to be pretty good, on the ball. Of course from what I hear we will all be at each other’s throats by May 16th (graduation day)! Let’s hope not.

Just Faith is going well. We are heading into week 5. The first few weeks focus has been on poverty, so some of the video and reading we are assigned is tough to take in. We had our opening retreat last Saturday and that was a very beautiful day, clear blue skies and mild temperatures. Since we were such a small number we shortened it to one day rather than an entire weekend. The swan at the Precious Blood center was behaving himself for a change. He didn’t try to chase us or anything. Although when Sara fed some leftover donut to the geese he swam up and they made way immediately. He must be “king of the pond”.

I finally finished my Santa cross-stitch that I’ve been working on (off and on) for 2 years. I took it up for framing and hopefully it will be back soon. I forgot to stitch my name on it! I will have to write it on the back of the frame I guess. Now I am working on an “Antique Wedding Sampler” that I picked up on the cross stitch hop in May on a clearance rack. It is really hard. Since there is a lot of symmetry, any mistake MUST be fixed. No shortcuts or ad-lib. So far I’ve had about 5 major re-do episodes. Very, very annoying. However, in the end it will be a beautiful piece.

With just 2 girl scouts yesterday we took a walk and the girls decided (mostly Kari’s doing) to pick up trash along the way. We cleaned up one whole side of the road!

That’s all the news for now.