Hot Town! Summer in the City!

Well, I clearly fell out of the blogging habit... Time to give it another go!

Let's see what's happened since my last post...

March
We had a FANTASTIC time with Agnes at the North Texas Irish Festival! Good food, fun sights, awesome music... Lots of fun had by all. Agnes found some beautiful silver earrings and bought herself her own "Murphy's Law" wall hanging, after having seen ours and liking it so much. It was great to run into Burt, Margaret, Kate and Sam at the park!

Christopher turned 24 in March, which was noted by a nice night out at Gloria's - one of his favorite restaurants. (It's a Salvadoran [and Tex-Mex] place... great mojitos!) Also in March, we started a study at our church called First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God. This twelve-session study was very interesting - we recommend it if you're interested in a historical look at the "matrix" (social/historical/political context) in which Jesus lived.

Oh! And perhaps the biggest life event yet this year: we bought a (functioning) car! After putting way too much work ($$) into the ol' truck, we called it quits and bought a 2001 Honda Civic, which gets 31 miles to the gallon in the city and runs well every day. We're quite pleased with it, and are relieved to have a reliable car again. (Plus our gas expenses have gone down incredibly...) Picture(s) coming soon. (Want an old truck? We've got one for sale!) ;-)

April
We shared a wonderful Easter lunch at Burt and Margaret's house on April 12th, and Catherine's 26th birthday followed a week later. Catherine stretched her birthday celebration out for more than a week, starting with a party with friends on the 18th... Dinner with family on the 21st (at Sangría - a great little tapas place in town)... Dinner with the Tunkses on the 22nd... and dinner with Louise, Jeanne and Tom on the 24th at Louie's, a fantastic little pizza place in East Dallas.

May
May was kicked off with wedding #2 (of 5) for 2009: Catherine's friend Aren - who she's known since Indian Princesses in Kindergarten! - got married at Agnes' church here in town. The reception was at a wonderful little wine cellar called Times Ten Cellars in Lakewood. (I'm linking all these things in case you Dallas area folks wanna try out these places!) Shortly after Bill and Corinne's 35th wedding anniversary (on Mother's Day - May 10th), Gordon turned 27 (May 12th). (We spent a lovely Mother's Day [full of Cajun food!] by hosting lunch with the Bryans and dinner with the Tunkses.)

Then the family travels began... On the 17th we sent Jeanne, Tom, Gordon, Sarah, and Fernest off to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu!! I'll see if I can't get a picture or two from them to post... Then on the 19th we sent Bill and Corinne off to Singapore!! (Bill is setting up a relationship for placing interns from Perkins School of Theology [at SMU], where he works.)

June
So far this month has been pretty full! Another wedding (#3 for 2009) took us to Austin for the weekend. We spent an afternoon at Barton Springs with Michael, Melissa, Caleb and Danny, which was TONS of fun... Then headed out to Stonewall, TX, where Becker Vineyards is located, for a wedding. Last week Adam, Catherine, Tom and Jeanne all taught Smooth Sailing at IP (Interest Project) College - a summer week-long program that allows Girl Scouts to complete several Interest Projects (like badges). Father's Day included grilling burgers and playing games with the Tunkses, and dinner at a Mexican place and coffee and brownies at home with the Bryans.

... and that catches us up to this week! Wow! It's been quite a spring, and we're already into summer here with temperatures well into the upper 90­°s.

Oh! One other pretty big item: Catherine started a pet-sitting business!
Check out www.CatherinesPetCare.com, and - if you're in the Dallas area - think of Catherine the next time you're headed out of town to watch over your critters. Referrals to friends in the Dallas area are also much-appreciated!

We hope that you are doing well! Please shoot us an email if you have a chance... We'd love to hear from you!