THE BULGARIANS CAME

Aug. 3, 2015

This post was supposed to be titled: The Bulgarians Are Coming.  But they came and went.  Travis rented his apartment as an Air B & B to four travelers from Bulgaria.  I think it motivated him to clean and reorganize.  The tourists ended up being four women who spoke excellent English.  They were polite and appreciated the beds (instead of the floor).  They met in an English immersion school.  I think it was pleasant and enjoyable.  He has also hired a cleaning lady from the Ukraine, Galina, who seems to do a good job.  He was told that if he wanted a cleaning lady, he would end up getting a Ukrainian.  And he did.  Seems like all societies have their sub-cultures. 

He is also coming to Seattle at the same time we are!  I am so excited.  He is presenting at a big gaming convention.  It's the rare convention where gamers come and play games and meet other gamers as opposed to a trade show.  Witcher has an interactive game for them, where they step into the Witcher animation.  Very cool.

Dad is working in Clearfield all week and I miss him!  I like having him here.  He is training on the project he will be working on from home for a long time.

Danny and Jenni and boys seem to love and appreciate their new home, especially the back yard.  Danny is using all his building permit expertise to get approval to expand the house into the garage.  The irony of the whole thing is that the garage is too small to park a modern car.  Yet the city wants off street parking, preferably covered, for every residence.  He his hoping for a variance due to the hill they live on.

Tommy and Rilee.  Oh dear.  They dreaded having renters in the basement of their lovely home and it has turned out to be a nightmare.  They hope to resolve this situation soon, or, sadly, move.  There are people in this world that you don't want to share a house with.  They are just finishing a carb/sugar-free diet called Fresh30 (I think).  A sort of paleo diet.  They have learned a lot and hope to make better choices after they are done.  I think their work is going well. 

Tyler and Dawn have visitors coming from Utah.  Their house is well-organized but small, and they hope to cope with the two days of company.  The girls are signed up for a second session of swimming at Hueneme High School,  and Dad and I are very grateful for that.  California kids need to learn to swim.  School will be starting there all too soon, but Lilah and Laurel love school.  Ty and Dawn have been working out.  Ty has been running on the beach, probably the most envied workout there is.  We loved visiting them. 

Alex is very busy writing papers and working.  He sends me photos of his wonderful meals.  He is quite the cook.  He prepares meals with produce from his co-op garden share.  It's nice to see him staying away from take-out and junk food.  We see the damage the quick, cheap food causes in our work downtown.  Alex returned a week ago from a conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  It was a rare event, put together and taught by experts with a focus on a big data set.  Alex learned a lot and has some ideas for his thesis.  He met peers in his field and some of the top quantitative sociologists.  That's about all I know, but it was a good experience.

Travis got his dna results back. We gave him a test for his birthday.  He will have to tell you the results, but he is already showing up on my results as either my parent or my child.  I love this stuff, family history, dna, so fascinating.  He has a lot of Greek/Italian! 

It's raining today which means that we are being blessed.  I'll never get over rain.  It is a blessing to me. 

Did I tell you that we went to Green River?  Dad, Tommy, Rilee, and Rilee's sister Erin ran the river.  I drove shuttle.  Last year we had to walk out of the river over the bed of rocks that used to be rapids.  I didn't want to do that again.  But this year the water was high, so no rocks.  They came down pretty fast (2 hours, 15 minutes.)  I had an enjoyable time  reading and watching them, then we all swam in the river and had Mexican food at the Vera Cruz.  While I was waiting, the temperature in the van said 107 degrees.  I believe it.  It was hot!

I am playing the piano in Primary downtown and teaching Sunbeams.  It's all very enjoyable, even though I don't want to be this busy for very long.  The two children I taught scribbled all over their pictures of a family saying family prayer.  I thought, ok, I guess we're done with that.  But no, they weren't!  They scribbled and scribbled, and held the pictures up now and them to look at them.  I guess in the end, the pictures looked exactly like they wanted them to look!  In the meantime they hit each other and the girl (the other is a boy) started crying.  I decided that it was time to teach the lesson, so I put my hand on her head and patted her while I read a story.  I might survive a couple more weeks of this.

Dad is between projects in the shop, but is waiting to see if Danny needs carriage doors for his garage which he will build here.  He runs almost every morning and looks relaxed and fit.  I hope he doesn't have to drive to work very often. 

We love and miss you all.  We enjoy being with you and hearing from you!

Love, Mom