Still not moved in, but I think getting closer. Like maybe this weekend.

New job is OK, still getting settled into it.

Cornerstone was great fun as usual. Pete even liked it enough this year to want to go back next year. He and Tino played Stomp for hours a day... like the whole time concerts were going on at Main Stage, ~ 5:00 - 11:30, plus whenever they could get up, or find, a game somewhere else.

There were some really good speakers this year. Shane Claiborne was there, but he did a two-hour spiel and we were nearly asleep after the first 45 minutes so we left. In fact, Joe was asleep, and we left him there, asleep. There were a bunch of other people in the audience who had nodded off as well. Shane, another guy, and some of the guys from Psalters, put on basically a production, like you'd expect to see at Easter in a lot of churches, telling the story of Christianity from OT times thru Christ. No new material in the first 45 minutes, and that's what we were there for. In fact, I skipped talks by two other speakers to attend Psalters and Shane... shouldn't have.

William Cavanaugh was great. I really liked all four of his presentations. He has some papers posted online. I haven't read these but I'd like to get around to doing so.

Crystal Downing  also spoke and was very good. She has a book out entitled How Postmodernism Serves My Faith. Haven't read that either, but that was basically the premise of her talks.

Miroslav Volf was the third guy that I really liked. I only got to hear him once, though.

Go check them out if you're interested.

Yay, we have wireless at the new house, so I don't have to access the net from Panera anymore - and Panera won't let me access Xanga.

However...

We still don't have an occupancy permit for the new house. Not sure when we get to officially move in. We have painted, cleaned, and moved in a bunch of our furniture. Bunch of boxes in the garage. Hard to keep track of what's at the new house and what's at the farm. Still a long commute from the farm to work for Ric.

So if you feel inclined to pray for an occupancy permit and an ASAP move-in date (like this weekend!), please do!

Brief interlude of internet access... no such thing at the farm!

Arrived in St. Louis ~ 2 am last Sunday. Unloaded stuff at new house. Arrived at farm ~ 4 am. Ugh.

Hopefully we'll get to officially move in next weekend (14-15) but at least we got to store the last load in the garage instead of hauling it all the way to the farm.

Went to a Cardinals baseball game Monday night. Perfect way to celebrate being back in St. Louis...

Elephant Rocks State Park on Tuesday, and the older kids went to Six Flags on Wednesday.

Since it's been about a dozen years since we actually lived in St. Louis, I recently asked friends for recommendations for doctors, dentists, auto mechanics, etc. Three of my high school friends recommended the same dentist, a guy from our high school graduating class. I'm not sure I want someone I know as my dentist - I'm rather dentist-phobic and not a good dental patient. It could be embarrassing to have a dentist I know.... OTOH, I didn't really know this guy in high school. I don't think we ever had any classes together. I only have one memory of him. We were at the same graduation party, and he'd had a bit to drink, I think. He was also about 6'3" or more and I was about 5'2" at the time. We danced a slow dance together - stand and sway variety of dancing, nothing inappropriate. Only his was more "Stoop" and sway since he was so much taller than I was, LOL. I suspect he has no memory of it at all....

Moving day - one week from tomorrow. I will be so glad to be living in the same city with my husband again. For over six months, Ric's been working either in Kalamazoo or St. Louis.

Last weekend we hauled another load to the farm in Missouri. For Mother's Day, Ric prepared a garden area for me so we could move some of my favorite plants from here to there. We took the trailer to a local nursery for a load of mulch and topsoil. They loaded the topsoil in the back of the trailer and the mulch in front.

You know how "they" tell you to put the heavy stuff in the front of the trailer? Well, "they" know what they're talking about. The topsoil was very wet and it was amazing how unstable it made the trailer.

Like... we're lucky we lived through it, didn't roll the van and trailer, and so on. Ric pulled onto the highway (local state road) and by the time we hit 40-50 mph, we could both feel the first sway of the trailer - and by then it was already too late. Usually you can dampen the sway by speeding up or slowing down or steering into it... Ric tried it all. His hands on the wheel looked a cartoon, or someone playing a video game - boom-boom-boom left, boom boom boom right. Happily there were no other cars northbound on the highway - because we swayed across both lanes and I think both shoulders. (I can't swear to that... part of the time my eyes were closed)

We swerved back and forth like that a good six to eight times and Ric thought it was 50-50 whether we were going to roll or not. Neither of us is quite sure how he managed to get it under control and over to the side, but he did.

We were both really glad he was driving and not me.

We limped the rest of the way home at < 30 mph.