Quick Update

Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since the last entry. Here's a short update:

I'm still at Fujitsu, which has been a tremendous blessing. Updates to the house have been on hold for a while, but we now have carpet and blinds on order. I'm hoping that they arrive soon so that we can start decorating for Christmas. We're going to have to move everything out of the living room for the carpet, so it hasn't been practical to decorate.

Roxanne passed the THEA (Texas Higher Education Assessment) exam and was able to drop developmental math. She took the final for her biology class last Wednesday, so she's done with school for a while.

We had the fifth annual International Student Thanksgiving Banquet at Hillcrest Church on Friday, November 17. It was probably one of our best ones in a long time. We had a full house, the food was great, and the program was the best organized one in years.

The night before Thanksgiving, we drove down to my aunt and uncle's home in Tyler. We had Thanksgiving lunch there, plus celebrated some birthdays and had a mini baby shower for my cousin John's wife Jennifer. Later that afternoon, we drove to Canton to visit my dad and Marcia. We took a drive through a Christmas light park in Athens. We'd been there the year before, and I think it was even better this year. Link: http://www.christmasparkathens.com

We spent the night in Canton, got up and attended a funeral in Crockett, Texas for my dad's youngest brother, Royce.

Roxanne's father got a job for a company outside Washington and her parents have moved to Virginia. They left us with their season tickets to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and to the Dallas Opera. I was probably more excited about the symphony than the opera, but it's growing on me. The Barber of Seville last night wasn't bad.

First Anniversary / Job / Roxanne's Birthday

It has been a wild couple of weeks. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Sunday, September 24. We didn't actually go anywhere, which was really nice. We haven't had many weekends lately that weren't filled with activity.

We've placed renovations on hold for a while to see what happened with my job. It turns out that my contract has been extended indefinitely. How long that might be is an open issue due to a headcount freeze, but it looks like they'd love to hang on to me for as long as possible. That's great news.

Our next big item on the "to do" list is probably putting new carpet in the living room. Also on the list is new window treatments and a new dishwasher. We've really got to get the bathrooms redone, but that may have to wait for a while.

Roxanne's birthday is Sunday, October 8, which is tomorrow (well, this morning). We celebrated on Saturday by going to Spaghetti Warehouse and Starbucks with our friend Sheena. We're meeting her parents tomorrow for lunch.

Home Renovations - Round II

Our refrigerator and stove are both currently residing in the living room, along with half of everything we own. That's because my uncle is back in town to continue working on the house. This time, he's laying tile in the kitchen and dining area, the entry hall and a strip of the living room leading to the back door.

We got a great deal on tile last week at a store in Plano. We paid only $0.37 per 12" tile. I was worried about the color and the quality, but it looks like they're going to work fine. Laying tile through the middle of an occupied house is a bit tricky. Walter got about half laid today, leaving open space for us to walk around. He'll lay the rest tomorrow, and the ones laid today should be okay to walk on by then.

Did I mention that our washer and dryer are also disconnected and sitting in the garage? Fortunately, we did an adequate amount of laundry this past weekend to cope. I'm trusting we'll have them back before it's time to wash again.

First ICF Home Group for Fall '06

We had our first ICF home group meetings for the Fall '06 semester last night. The home groups originally started when demand for the Galaxy rooms became so high that we couldn't reserve them enough to hold weekly meetings. GOD used that "problem", however, to create a whole new ministry opportunity.

Roxanne and I were originally assigned to the group meeting at Bo and Peggy's house. Early this past week however, Ray got worried about the fact that we had only planned for meetings in three homes. Given the high turnout at the last meeting, there was a high risk of overwhelming the existing homes and having unmanageable sizes. Ray got in touch with Dave and Judy Corder, friends of ours from Hillcrest Church. Dave and Judy had helped us with the Christmas Progressive Dinner back in 2004. They have a gorgeous house that is extremely well suited for hosting social events. They also happen to love hosting such events, and they graciously agreed to help out on short notice. Since we knew them really well, Ray reassigned us to their house.

Judy did a great job with dinner. She served buffet-style tacos and taco salad. I definitely ate too much. Laurie Cotton and some others brought desserts. Roxanne and Timo handled music. Alween and I were in charge of the discussion, although Alween largely handled that. I was glad Ray and Laurie came, as it gave them a chance to meet and get to know Dave and Judy. They all hit it off really well.

A total of 19 people were in our group. The other groups probably had close to that number as well. The addition of the fourth home was a smart move.

We're scheduled to host a group in November and possibly October. Hopefully, by then we'll have everything back together following the renovation my uncle is doing.

Fall '06 Int'l Student Ministry

We launched the Fall '06 semester for the International Christian Fellowship (ICF) at UTD last Friday (8/18) with our Fall welcome party. We had a really good turnout. Amazingly, we actually had enough food. Two church groups helped bring food. Both were first-time churches.

Last night, we had our first regular ICF meeting of the semester. Again, we had a very large turnout. Food was a little dicey this time, but I think it all worked out. Next week will be our first home meetings of the semester.

After a year of being in charge of the the serving supplies, Roxanne and I have been able to transfer that duty to our friends Bo and Peggy. Instead of that, I've taken responsibility for the resource table. I'm hoping to bring the usefulness of the resource table up a few notches. I've found some books on eBay for really good prices. I'm also checking with area churches to see if they will assist. Last week, I received a donation of books and CDs from Heritage Church, a new church in Richardson started by Hillcrest Church founder Morris Sheats.

Renovation Update

My uncle made a lot of progress on the house this week. The living room has been painted and looks great. Well, it looks as great as it can with everything still in the center of the room.

Much of the work this week centered on the kitchen. Where the refrigerator used to be, against the wall that backs up to the living room, there is now a bar and an extension to the lower cabinets. All the cabinets have received a new coat of paint. They were a dark shade of brown. Now they're white. The kitchen also has two new flourescent fixtures. Of the two previous fixtures, one didn't work at all.

Next week, the tile counters go in.

First Entry

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the blog of David & Roxanne Richmond!

Things have been crazy lately at the Richmond household. As I write this, our living room is unusable. All the furnishings are pushed into the center of the room. My uncle Walter from Tyler is here doing some badly needed updates. We bought it from my landlord this past May after I had lived here over 10 years. The house was built in 1968 and I don't think it had been updated since then, which was partly why we got such a great deal on it.

Last week, Walter tore all the wood paneling out of the living room and stripped all the wallpaper in the kitchen/dining area. The paneling turned out to be truly original to the house. The drywall behind it wasn't even taped and bedded! The paneling also made the room so dark that you could hardly read in there.

Roxanne started her second semester at UTD last Thursday night. She wasn't able to get all the classes she wanted, but that may turn out to be a blessing. One of her classes, a biology class, looks as if it may be pretty taxing.

Prior to her returning to school, we went travelling the previous two weekends. One weekend, we visited my aunt in Houston. She drove us down to Galveston where we visited Moody Gardens and had dinner at a restaurant on the sea wall. Last weekend, we went to San Antonio. We stayed at a terrific hotel called the Emily Morgan. It was right across the street from the Alamo and very close to the River Walk. We had dinner Saturday night at the Casa Rio. We got a seat right beside the river.

I'm still at Fujitsu. What was supposed to be a 2-3 month contract is now in its fourth full month and may go much longer. I am definitely not complaining, as it's going to help pay for updates to the house, Roxanne's tuition and a lot of other things. Besides, the efforts to go on staff with ISI have hit a big roadblock. I really need the moral support of my chuch with that, and I'm getting nowhere with them.

That's all for now. Stay tuned.