Beach Trek to Visit the Dodds

This was a busy week - it started off with Amy going to the AHS CFO/CNO Conference down at Captiva Island for the first half of the week. The boys decided to stay home and "batch" it, so Amy enjoyed a little quiet time by herself. The island has recovered from Hurricane Charley and was quite lovely - except for the "no-see-ums" (spelling?) - which left Amy with easily 40 bites all over her arms and legs and itching like crazy. For anyone contemplating a trip to the island, there were two great restaurants - "The Bubble Room" and the "Island Cow" - very fun restaurants with lots of ambiance! Next Amy flew over to Southwestern to do a quick recruiting trip before heading on home.

We ended the week with a visit to the beach to see the Dodd family (Amy's cousins from Tennessee). The day was rainy and grey to begin with, but ended up with blue skies. It was great fun to see everyone and catch up. Karis and the kids had a great time on the newly purchased boogie boards (see earlier September beach post where Karis vowed that he'd never return to the beach without boogie boards!). In the posted picture, Karis and Elizabeth are playing on the boogie boards while Dennis, Aunt Louise, Amy's Mom and Zachary watch intently.

The Hawk & The Turkey

This week's post is all about birds. In a bizarre twist of events, a HAWK decided that he needed to be inside of our screened-in pool enclosure. In order to gain entrance, he somehow flew into the screen hard enough that he tore an 18 inch gash in the screen and came on in. Karis noticed him that afternoon, and had to devise a way to get the hawk out. Luckily, it would appear that the hawk was exhausted from the efforts to get inside the screen, and Karis was able to gently nudge him with the long pool broom out the door and to freedom. Now we're left with a huge tear in our screen that Karis will attempt to patch. Here is a picture of the hawk sitting on top of our baby-guard fence which separates the house from the pool.

Last week was Canadian Thanksgiving (Happy Belated Thanksgiving!) and we are celebrating this week by having attending a small get-together at the Deininger's home. It will be fun to eat turkey, pumpkin pie and all the general Thanksgiving type foods. It is great to have TWO Thanksgivings every year! :)

Recruiting Trip to Southern

This week I made a quick dash up to Southern to recruit for summer interns and folks looking for full-time employment. I had the opportunity to visit with part of my family while I was there - Kathy, Dennis, Brenden and Elizabeth - it was such fun to visit and catch up! The Dedekers (the other part of my family) were at the school play "The Sound of Music" in which Jason was Captain Von Trapp (spelling?) and Jenna was in several scenes as well. I feel very fortunate to have a great family - albeit they are definitely flung all over between the U.S. and Canada!

The trip was fairly uneventful with the exception of the return flight home in which I was stranded in Atlanta for 4 hours and didn't arrive home until midnight last night. I am too old for this!

Anyway, several observations from my trip:

1. Why did I not go to Southern and avoid the bitter Andrews' winters? Was I crazy? The only reason that I can come up with is that I perhaps would not have married Karis - so in that case, the winters were worth it. Southern is amazingly beautiful and so charming both in terms of the campus itself and the surrounding landscape.

2. I ABHOR the Atlanta airport. Why do I forget this every time and blithely book my flights through this connector city? You can just about guarantee yourself late flights either coming or going, and you're lucky if you don't end up stranded in the airport, which is so over-crowded that you're lucky if you find some breathing room to rest your weary bones!

3. Although it was hard to accept that I am now "middle-aged," I can say without a doubt that I am glad that I am out of the college phase of my life! I could never understand it when adults would say that they wouldn't repeat the highschool/college phase of their life, but I have to say that after interviewing these kids, I don't miss studying, having no money, and wondering if I would ever get married!

Anyway - the Zs have now been reunited and I am trying to catch up on some much-needed rest!