Good-Bye Papa!

Don't my men look cute in their Sunday best?

Lawrence, Kansas

We are moving to Lawrence, Kansas. Joel is moving to Los Angeles to live with two classmates. No we are not getting divorced I had to inform Adelle, who I didn't even know knew what that was. Joel's parents are taking the kids and I in while Joel pursues his career in Hollywood. It is a temporary move, hopefully less than a year for him to find steady work and for us to build up a savings for those lean months of work. The joys of self-employment. We are going to miss him dearly. I am sad for him for all the things that he will miss in the children's lives. I am sad for me that he won't be coming home at night. But I have to admit after spending so much of the last three years as a single mom I am looking forward to having a 1 on 1 ratio of adult to child, help with the daily chores of running a household, and to doing less laundry (the cloth diapers are going to storage and we are only taking 2 suitcases, mostly filled with craft projects!). I love Lawrence, my in-laws, and Kansas summer. Okay that last part is a lie. It is hot and humid and this Alaskan girl may die. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!

Graduation

He did it!! Joel is officially a Master. We are so proud of him. Thanks to the family that came to celebrate with us. It was a great weekend and now we are busy packing up our home. Above photos: Us with Mike, the director of one of Joel's thesis films; The Balli's and us, Fevzi directed Joel's other film; Joel and his girls; and the visiting family, Joel's dad, sisters, and brother in law. Finally at 31 we are ready to embark on life outside of school. 

Cecil Awards

Joel didn't win the award for cinematographer but we got to walk down the red carpet! (Joel, Bruce, my FIL, and I did anyway. Sharon (SIL) was content to be the photographer.) The award ceremony was probably like the Oscars; parts were entertaining, parts were a little boring. There was a big difference between the acceptance speeches of the undergrads and the grads. I guess I am getting old because most of the twenty year olds' speeches were just silly. But it was fun to be there to support Joel. We stayed for a little while at the after party but since I am not much of a dancer and Jude cried for most of the evening with my friend, Debbie, we left Joel to tear up the dance floor alone while I put the kids to bed. 

Craigslist

I was reading the Proverbs 31 about being a virtuous women and two verses stood out to me this time. "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard." and  "She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant." I decided that there had to be a way for me to help our family budget a little and get the things that I *need*. So I signed up for a craigslist account to sell all the things that we can't move with us anyway and would have ended up at Goodwill and I held a garage sale with our homeschooling friends from church who are also moving the end of this month. I've made enough money so far to buy the baby carrier I want off ebay and to contribute to our moving expenses. It is so exciting that people want to buy our unwanted stuff. Yeah for Craigslist. I don't feel too guilty that a few of the things I sold were given to us freely by moving neighbors who didn't want to take it with them. 

Unfortunately Craigslist hasn't produced a rent free 2 bedroom place for us to live yet. We went and looked at places in North Hollywood. I am sure there are nice place in NO HO just not in our budget. The first place we saw I think would make me depressed by the time I got down the long, dark, dirty hallway to my apartment. That is if I wasn't shot first (I'm joking). We found a nice place in Burbank for a reasonable rent (California reasonable) but have since decided that isn't the right thing for us right now. We are still trying to figure out God's will for us right now. 

Recipes

Here are two of our favorite recipes. The chicken soup one is really my favorite chicken soup. I cut the recipe out of some magazine years ago and we love it. The chinese recipe is from a friend at church who did a class on chinese cooking. We eat chinese style dinners probably as much as we eat pasta these days. This recipe I like because you can substitute any meat you have on hand (we've used chicken, beef, and pork) and any vegetable (we've used green peppers, green beans, broccoli-my favorite) and they all taste good. Sorry about the messy recipe. I spilled on it a few times before I put it in a plastic sleeve. :)

Artist Study

I've been sick with a cough and cold the last few weeks making my energy level very low. Something about 6 months of sleepless nights catching up to me. Though my voice hasn't quite returned to normal I am feeling much better. 

This term we are studying Vincent Van Gogh. Basically that just means displaying one of his pictures for two weeks at a time (6 pictures total for the term) and reading a biography about his life. The two pictures we have studied so far are the Night Cafe and Vase with Sunflowers. The interesting fact about him that Adelle learned from the biography this week was that "he used oils to paint with so that there were little globs on his paintings."