Ring in the Diploma!

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes--the diploma has finally arrived! Now copies must be certified, legalized, calcified and deep-fried, then sent off to the Brazilian consulate. We hope to be departing on August 29th, which would be really good becuase school started on August 6th, but it all depends on the consulate in San Francisco (and how fast the postal employees run/drive in between mailboxes).

Here is George clutching the treasured diploma. Some of our visa paperwork is posing below him on the floor.


Other news. We had an awesome Culture dinner at South Hill Bible Church on July 27. Scrumptuos food from Brazil, Italy, and Asia was served--like a giant multicultural party. Thanks Tom and Connie, the immigration officials (they kept everything legal), and everyone else!

We had a great yard sale last Saturday. Not only did we get rid of several truck loads of bric a brac, but we made some sweet scratch--enough to ship the rest of our detritas to Brazil!
We spent several days up at Priest lake last week--stayed at the Skiffington's incredible cabin. Brother-in-law Dan and I decided that our skin needed to be envigorated and exfoliated by the native clay (Dan is the one with the one with his eyes closed; I'm the one who looks like Gollum). After we washed off, our skin glowing with health and vitality, I realized that my wedding band was gone. Yipes! I felt like Gollum, and was half expecting to see Elijah Wood making off into the forest with my precious. To compound the problem, our little spa party had clouded the crystal clear water, making it impossible to search. As the light began to fade 4 or 5 hours later, after I had already made plans to make my new ring out of a piece of copper pipe or maybe duct tape, sister-in-law Shelley looked off the end of the dock and thought she saw something. There it was, my precious, wedged between a couple rocks, in about 5 feet of water. Hallelujah! After 6 years of wearing the ring, I am sort of bound to it. Thanks Shelley.