Well, I still have a job!

Things were a little tense at work today. It seems the department has been ordered to reduce headcount by one contractor. Fortunately, it seems there has been a one month reprieve. After that, though, I don't know what will happen.

What do I hear? Nothing but the rain!

Well, we needed rain, but I never imagined that ICF would be cancelled over it. Wouldn't you know it? I spent a couple of weeks preparing to give the presentation tonight. I hope to be able to give it later. Otherwise, I spent a lot of time on it for nothing.

Handel's Messiah

When Roxanne's parents moved to Virginia several months ago, they gave us their season tickets to the Dallas Opera and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Last night, the DSO performed Handel's Messiah. I don't believe I've ever seen it in it's entirety before.

The most remarkable thing to me is that it is entirely based on Scripture, running from the birth of Christ to the eternal reign. In the comments in the program, the writer noted that most people associate Messiah with the Christmas season, but it is in fact far more appropriate to Easter.

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.