first day of school

yesterday a day of "lasts" -- last bikeride of the summer, last picnic before school starts...
labeling crayons, wiping sticky stuff out of backpacks, picking out colorful outfits.
reading books on the front porch before bedtime (our new routine),
telling stories about our first days at new schools,
trying to go to sleep early. Isaac said it was like trying to sleep before his birthday.

Bobby came over at 7:30 this morning as a surrigate grandma and took photos of our boys.
We 5 walked the 2 blocks together and the boys trotted into their rooms with smiles, reservations undoubtedly just below the surface.

flood

Here are a couple links to video clips from the flood that happened Tuesday night in Bluffton. I was awake most of the night vomiting, apparently in tune with Gaia. I knew it was a lot of rain, but had no clue what was happening until our neighbor Wendy told us in the morning. I think it was the worst flood since around 1913. We had some water in the basement and a leak in the roof of the guest/laundry room, but otherwise we got off easy. The University's Marbeck Center became a refuge for stranded or evacuated individuals, despite the fact that the water was within a couple inches of that building, and had already flooded the science building.

http://www.limaohio.com/video/index.php?bcpid=992398979&bclid=1028788754&bctid=1150771085
http://www.limaohio.com/video/index.php?bcpid=992398979&bclid=1028788754&bctid=1150614263

crickets and crawdads

Yesterday we spent time in the backyard catching crickets and went to the creek on campus to catch crawdads. We had natives along to show us how to grab the crawdads. Theo rescued the crawdads when I put him down to snap a photo.


We also got class assignments for Seth and Isaac both of them have met one kid in their class.


We can't get over the great location of our house. We've used our car only a few times since we moved here, since we can bike or walk to the pool, library, school, park, grocery store, movie theater, coffee shop, farmer's market, campus, and to our friends'. (And that about sums up everywhere one can possibly go in Bluffton!)

Hugs and Kisses

After a week of helping us unpack and set up the house, mom and dad left Ohio on Saturday (August 4th), with kisses and hugs and promises of coming back soon.

Moving Day

Lois Jean loaded her truck on the same day we loaded ours, and we both drove off Saturday afternoon, July 21st, our truck headed east and theirs west. We had incredible help from neighbors and church friends. One neighbor, whose name we weren't sure of before Friday, helped 6 hours Friday and 8 on Saturday, staying almost until we drove off. Len and Joan loaded their moving truck, headed for Goshen, the week prior. In our case, it has taken 2 villages to move our family, first the one in Newton and then the one in Bluffton.

Dancing our goodbyes

We had a farewell potluck with friends the week before we moved. The evening ended with dancing in our living room. About half danced, while the other half stood on the other side of the picture window laughing at those of us dancing.