Mother's Day and Week 16 ultrasound
15 years ago
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Caymans Bound
Got the news this afternoon that our 6 month temporary work permits have been approved. Katie has her passport and we are all packed and ready to go. By this time tomorrow we will be in the Cayman Islands. Big thanks to Russ, Gail and Stephanie for putting up with us this past week. Its never easy having two unexpected house guests for an extended stay and we really appreciate it. Once we have cell phones in the islands we will forward numbers. Meanwhile you can email us and we will update the blog when we arrive.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Washington trip/ A week with the Loski's and Final Travel Plans
By Scott:
As the last entry indicated, all of our plans and schedules got shot to pieces last week by a combination of two governments, a broken computer and plumbing issues. We put off our travel plans for a week and have been living with the Loski's as we get everything together to make the move. We now have Katie's passport, our computer is back and we are totally out of the apartment and packed up to go.
Before everything went wrong last week, Katie and I had a good trip up
to Washington state to visit her relatives and mine. We arrived Thursday morning and were picked up by Katie's Grandparents at the airport. We then met Katie's cousin Erica and the five of us went to Woodland Park zoo. Katie and I are huge zoo aficionados and I have to admit that the Seattle zoo is very impressive and I strongly recommend it to anyone from both our families visiting the greater Seattle area. From the zoo we headed over to the locks and the salmon ladder. After a full afternoon we went back into downtown and went to a Mariners game against the Anaheim Angels. A very full day.
Friday dawned bright and sunny. Katie and I picked up the rental in West Seattle and headed for the Olympic Peninsula. We just made the ferry over the sound and drove up to Sequim our ultimate destination for a 10 mile round trip hike out to a lighthouse which sat at the end of a long spit out in the bay. We started around 12:30 and had plenty of beach and good weather. The funny thing was as we walked out there were several groups of senior citizens coming back and they didn't even look winded. We also got several warnings to watch the tides. We got out to
the lighthouse around 2:30 and had lunch then took some pictures. I got overly excited and instead of the 30 minutes we were supposed to spend out there it was closer to an hour and 15 minutes. When we left at 3:45 the weather had gotten cold and rainy and the race was on to beat the tide and the rain back off the spit. It started to rain with about two miles left to the shore and by then the tide had come in causing us to have to walk on the driftwood. That extra 45 minutes at the lighthouse had cost us. When we hit the shore line Katie and I both let out whoops of victory. Those senior citizens definitely have my respect as I felt that hike for four or five days after. From Sequim we headed back East and caught the ferry at Port Townsend over to Whidby. Once again we just made the ferry and got to my Mom's house around 8ish.
On Saturday we had planned to go out to San Juan Island but both of us felt like a slower day would do us good. The weather also had turned and while there would be spots of good weather rain was expected to dominate the day. We slept in and then went with my Mom over to the thrift shop. While Mom took care of some things Katie and I went across the street to the PBY
museum and got to fly a simulator. We then headed out Fort Casey to do some kite flying. There were several clubs out there for kite flying and the winds there are so good coming off the sound that even someone who cant fly kites can. We had dinner at the Chinese buffet in Oak Harbor enjoyed a quiet evening. That evening we discovered that our rental had picked up a nail and had a flat tire. We talked to enterprise and decided to switch out cars Monday morning in Oak Harbor since we didn't want to drive back to Seattle on the spare.
The weather Sunday was very rainy and we headed down to Greenbank to see the stores, do some wine tasting and see the central part of the Island. We had planned to do dinner at Deception Pass but the weather made that impossible so we had the cook out at Mom's. Alex came over and we watched The 300 on DVD.
Monday we switched out the rental and headed back to Seattle for
Katie's grandfather's 74th birthday. We took the boat shuttle across from West Seattle over to downtown and walked the public market then had lunch at the Crab Pot. After ice cream we headed to the airport and our flight home.
It was when we got home that our troubles started. We had talked to the passport people no less than seven times in the two prior weeks including calls on Friday as we drove up the peninsula and Monday afternoon while we were downtown. On each occasion they had told us everything was still being processed and there were no issues. But on our answering machine Monday night were three messages all asking us to call. We did that first thing Tuesday and discovered for the first time that apparently there was a problem with the application. They had it for 12 weeks and had cashed our check 8 weeks ago but now less than 48 hours before we were to leave they suddenly have an issue. We Fed Ex' d the new application and spent Tuesday cleaning the apartment and getting our stuff out. By Tuesday evening we knew that we would need to push back our flight. We decided to push back our plans by one week to give time for everything to get finished. That evening our computer had broken and that was an additional factor in our decision to push our plans back a week. Dell sent someone out to get it that same night they fixed it and had it back to us by Friday.
We had planned to do Six Flags as a wind down day and last Wednesday we spent the day at the park. By way of comment the last Wednesday before school gets out is the day to do Six Flags there were almost no lines and we got to ride everything we wanted.
We moved in with the Loski's Thursday and have been staying with them while we finish everything and wait on our work permits to get finally approved. Gail and Russ have been great and Stephanie graciously has let us stay in her room. We have been chomping at the bit to get going and this week has been difficult just because things out of our control have determined what is going to happen. Everything happens for a reason and this one week delay has been good because it has given us a chance to wrap up everything and let Katie spend some time with her family. On Friday she got to help her Mother clean out her school room which has been something of a yearly tradition. This week we are pretty much just marking time until Thursday and our departure.
Will update with a post when we get to the Caymans this weekend.
As the last entry indicated, all of our plans and schedules got shot to pieces last week by a combination of two governments, a broken computer and plumbing issues. We put off our travel plans for a week and have been living with the Loski's as we get everything together to make the move. We now have Katie's passport, our computer is back and we are totally out of the apartment and packed up to go.
Before everything went wrong last week, Katie and I had a good trip up
to Washington state to visit her relatives and mine. We arrived Thursday morning and were picked up by Katie's Grandparents at the airport. We then met Katie's cousin Erica and the five of us went to Woodland Park zoo. Katie and I are huge zoo aficionados and I have to admit that the Seattle zoo is very impressive and I strongly recommend it to anyone from both our families visiting the greater Seattle area. From the zoo we headed over to the locks and the salmon ladder. After a full afternoon we went back into downtown and went to a Mariners game against the Anaheim Angels. A very full day.Friday dawned bright and sunny. Katie and I picked up the rental in West Seattle and headed for the Olympic Peninsula. We just made the ferry over the sound and drove up to Sequim our ultimate destination for a 10 mile round trip hike out to a lighthouse which sat at the end of a long spit out in the bay. We started around 12:30 and had plenty of beach and good weather. The funny thing was as we walked out there were several groups of senior citizens coming back and they didn't even look winded. We also got several warnings to watch the tides. We got out to
the lighthouse around 2:30 and had lunch then took some pictures. I got overly excited and instead of the 30 minutes we were supposed to spend out there it was closer to an hour and 15 minutes. When we left at 3:45 the weather had gotten cold and rainy and the race was on to beat the tide and the rain back off the spit. It started to rain with about two miles left to the shore and by then the tide had come in causing us to have to walk on the driftwood. That extra 45 minutes at the lighthouse had cost us. When we hit the shore line Katie and I both let out whoops of victory. Those senior citizens definitely have my respect as I felt that hike for four or five days after. From Sequim we headed back East and caught the ferry at Port Townsend over to Whidby. Once again we just made the ferry and got to my Mom's house around 8ish.On Saturday we had planned to go out to San Juan Island but both of us felt like a slower day would do us good. The weather also had turned and while there would be spots of good weather rain was expected to dominate the day. We slept in and then went with my Mom over to the thrift shop. While Mom took care of some things Katie and I went across the street to the PBY
museum and got to fly a simulator. We then headed out Fort Casey to do some kite flying. There were several clubs out there for kite flying and the winds there are so good coming off the sound that even someone who cant fly kites can. We had dinner at the Chinese buffet in Oak Harbor enjoyed a quiet evening. That evening we discovered that our rental had picked up a nail and had a flat tire. We talked to enterprise and decided to switch out cars Monday morning in Oak Harbor since we didn't want to drive back to Seattle on the spare.The weather Sunday was very rainy and we headed down to Greenbank to see the stores, do some wine tasting and see the central part of the Island. We had planned to do dinner at Deception Pass but the weather made that impossible so we had the cook out at Mom's. Alex came over and we watched The 300 on DVD.
Monday we switched out the rental and headed back to Seattle for
Katie's grandfather's 74th birthday. We took the boat shuttle across from West Seattle over to downtown and walked the public market then had lunch at the Crab Pot. After ice cream we headed to the airport and our flight home.It was when we got home that our troubles started. We had talked to the passport people no less than seven times in the two prior weeks including calls on Friday as we drove up the peninsula and Monday afternoon while we were downtown. On each occasion they had told us everything was still being processed and there were no issues. But on our answering machine Monday night were three messages all asking us to call. We did that first thing Tuesday and discovered for the first time that apparently there was a problem with the application. They had it for 12 weeks and had cashed our check 8 weeks ago but now less than 48 hours before we were to leave they suddenly have an issue. We Fed Ex' d the new application and spent Tuesday cleaning the apartment and getting our stuff out. By Tuesday evening we knew that we would need to push back our flight. We decided to push back our plans by one week to give time for everything to get finished. That evening our computer had broken and that was an additional factor in our decision to push our plans back a week. Dell sent someone out to get it that same night they fixed it and had it back to us by Friday.
We had planned to do Six Flags as a wind down day and last Wednesday we spent the day at the park. By way of comment the last Wednesday before school gets out is the day to do Six Flags there were almost no lines and we got to ride everything we wanted.
We moved in with the Loski's Thursday and have been staying with them while we finish everything and wait on our work permits to get finally approved. Gail and Russ have been great and Stephanie graciously has let us stay in her room. We have been chomping at the bit to get going and this week has been difficult just because things out of our control have determined what is going to happen. Everything happens for a reason and this one week delay has been good because it has given us a chance to wrap up everything and let Katie spend some time with her family. On Friday she got to help her Mother clean out her school room which has been something of a yearly tradition. This week we are pretty much just marking time until Thursday and our departure.
Will update with a post when we get to the Caymans this weekend.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Best Laid Plans
By Scott:
Sometimes you're the window shield and sometimes you're the bug, today Katie and I have been the bug. No passport for Katie (long story she will tell soon), still waiting on the work permits (should come in this week and wouldn't be an issue if passport issue hadn't come up) and our computer broke along with the only toilet in our apartment. Computer is off to Austin to get fixed (Dell has great customer support and has been one bright spot in working with us).
Will update with much more later, new departure date is May 31. Also have much to tell about our trip to Washington state. When we have access to net will put in detailed posts. Will be at apartment through Thursday with our cell phones and then at Russ and Gail's until we leave on the 31st.
Sometimes you're the window shield and sometimes you're the bug, today Katie and I have been the bug. No passport for Katie (long story she will tell soon), still waiting on the work permits (should come in this week and wouldn't be an issue if passport issue hadn't come up) and our computer broke along with the only toilet in our apartment. Computer is off to Austin to get fixed (Dell has great customer support and has been one bright spot in working with us).
Will update with much more later, new departure date is May 31. Also have much to tell about our trip to Washington state. When we have access to net will put in detailed posts. Will be at apartment through Thursday with our cell phones and then at Russ and Gail's until we leave on the 31st.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Moving is NOT fun
By Scott
As I write this post I am in my second to last day as a practicing lawyer and Kathleen and I are just 10 days away from our move to the Caribbean. We are now living in an empty apartment with our clothes and stuff we are taking to the Caymans, some TV trays, cooking implements and an I-home for our clock/radio/alarm. On Friday Kathleen oversaw a massive move that involved the complete removal of all our furniture and then a two phase trip for dropping stuff off, first to her parents home and then on to a storage facility. Katie had packed up just about everything, telling me that for the good of our marriage she would oversee everything and do it since we have such different philosophies on moving. She wants to move stuff in a timely fashion where as I want to delay and procrastinate and generally deny that I actually have to move until right up to the point where it absolutely has to be done. It meant that every morning last week I left to go to work and in the evening when I returned another room was completely packed. She did an awesome job and I am extremely lucky that she knew what to do because if it had been left to me we would still be dealing with it. I'm just not good with moving and the process of choosing what to take to Kevin, what to store with Gary, what to put in the facility and hardest of all, what to sell/donate when you have 36 years of stuff is no fun at all.
We spent Friday night at her parents house, which by the way is perhaps the best place in the whole world to do a garage sale. They are right on the corner of a major connecting street in Duncanville so we got a huge amount of traffic. Thanks to Russ and Gail who were incredible not just in letting us use their yard and driveway but also in letting us store stuff the night before, getting us limeaides during the hottest part of Saturday, getting lunch from Whataburger, helping translate and even moving some stuff for us. Thanks also to Stephanie who let us use her room Friday night.
Katie and I got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and started moving everything out into the driveway and yard. We were selling our entire bed set with the two side stands and chest of drawers, our big couch, our kitchen set, 5 book cases, our patio set, electronics, TV stand and a whole lot of smaller items. We sold two of the book cases at 6:15 a.m. when a nice elderly lady walking by saw us setting up and bought them. She asked if I could deliver them right around the corner since her husband was in Nigeria with Wycliffe (ironically the organization Katie's parents worked for bible translating in Indonesia) so that was an auspicious beginning, except for the fact that right around the corner was really about three blocks and making two trips with the book cases I was winded and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet our official start time. Traffic was constant all morning and early afternoon. We had placed an ad and I wish we had asked more people if they were drive by traffic or coming from the ad just to know, the ad was only 14 bucks but we probably could have gotten by without it. Some were definitely from the ad as they mentioned things that clued us in to that but most had to be drive by and I think all the big items went to drive by people who saw all the stuff out. We reached our financial goal by noon and still had the bed set. We eventually sold the bed set at a pretty reduced amount from our original number but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get rid of it. We ended up making enough to pay for our movers and give us some spending money for the Seattle trip coming up. It started to rain around 4 so we wrapped everything up. Russ and I took everything we had left to Goodwill and donated it. After dinner with Russ and Gail to thank them for everything it was back to the apartment for Katie and I and an early bed time for both of us.
When we woke up Sunday morning every muscle in our bodies ached. We had been moving furniture all during the garage sale and used muscles I at least hadn't used in a while. We had slept on an air mattress which is fine for one person but with two every time someone moves the air shifts and the other person feels it, so not the best of sleeps. Sunday afternoon it was back to Duncanville and a Mother's Day dinner for Gail, Russ grilled some steaks and we had picked up some steamed shrimp. A nice dinner that was actually our last Sunday dinner with Katie's family (a weekly event) for a while.
Kathleen has been really incredible getting the move done. I have not been handling it well. I don't react well to change and she has had to hold my hand every step of the way. Once the change is made I am fine but the process is no fun. We picked up a web cam and microphone Sunday and it is up and working. Please email Katie (she is also our tech person) to figure out which service to use (Windows live messenger, MSN. Yahoo etc.) so we can talk online. When we get to the Caymans we will be getting cell phones but International calls are way too expensive so we want to talk to everyone on line.
We head to Seattle Thursday to spend five days visit her relatives and mine. We plan to spend time with family, do some hiking on the peninsula and on San Juan Island and basically refresh and recharge. Next Tuesday we are doing Six Flags and then Wednesday is the catch all day to close out any remaining accounts, deal with any apartment issues etc.
We do still have a couple of government hoops to clear both in the US and Caymans. Our work permits are still before the Caymans Immigration board and awaiting approval. They were to be considered last week and we are hopeful that we get the news soon on those. Ironically it is the US govt and the passport mess that is a bigger concern. We put in the paperwork 13 weeks ago to get a name change (normal processing time is 4-6 weeks) on Katie's passport and still haven't gotten it back. They are so backlogged because of the law change for all people flying out of the country that they aren't even addressing issues until you are two weeks from your date of travel which for us is May 24. So last Thursday Katie called and after several attempts to get through finally got a customer service person and was told they would send an emergency email about our situation and we should call back Tuesday the 15th in the afternoon. They even asked what time we leave on the 24th to see if they could get us the passport the morning that we travel (we leave early so we have to have it by the 23rd). What a mess, but a good reminder to everyone get your passport stuff in now if you want to come visit, as bad as it is this year, it will be worse by an order of many magnitudes next year when it extends to road and cruise travel.
We will try and do an entry while we are in Washington. Thanks again to the Loski's for all their help on the garage sale.
As I write this post I am in my second to last day as a practicing lawyer and Kathleen and I are just 10 days away from our move to the Caribbean. We are now living in an empty apartment with our clothes and stuff we are taking to the Caymans, some TV trays, cooking implements and an I-home for our clock/radio/alarm. On Friday Kathleen oversaw a massive move that involved the complete removal of all our furniture and then a two phase trip for dropping stuff off, first to her parents home and then on to a storage facility. Katie had packed up just about everything, telling me that for the good of our marriage she would oversee everything and do it since we have such different philosophies on moving. She wants to move stuff in a timely fashion where as I want to delay and procrastinate and generally deny that I actually have to move until right up to the point where it absolutely has to be done. It meant that every morning last week I left to go to work and in the evening when I returned another room was completely packed. She did an awesome job and I am extremely lucky that she knew what to do because if it had been left to me we would still be dealing with it. I'm just not good with moving and the process of choosing what to take to Kevin, what to store with Gary, what to put in the facility and hardest of all, what to sell/donate when you have 36 years of stuff is no fun at all.
We spent Friday night at her parents house, which by the way is perhaps the best place in the whole world to do a garage sale. They are right on the corner of a major connecting street in Duncanville so we got a huge amount of traffic. Thanks to Russ and Gail who were incredible not just in letting us use their yard and driveway but also in letting us store stuff the night before, getting us limeaides during the hottest part of Saturday, getting lunch from Whataburger, helping translate and even moving some stuff for us. Thanks also to Stephanie who let us use her room Friday night.
Katie and I got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and started moving everything out into the driveway and yard. We were selling our entire bed set with the two side stands and chest of drawers, our big couch, our kitchen set, 5 book cases, our patio set, electronics, TV stand and a whole lot of smaller items. We sold two of the book cases at 6:15 a.m. when a nice elderly lady walking by saw us setting up and bought them. She asked if I could deliver them right around the corner since her husband was in Nigeria with Wycliffe (ironically the organization Katie's parents worked for bible translating in Indonesia) so that was an auspicious beginning, except for the fact that right around the corner was really about three blocks and making two trips with the book cases I was winded and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet our official start time. Traffic was constant all morning and early afternoon. We had placed an ad and I wish we had asked more people if they were drive by traffic or coming from the ad just to know, the ad was only 14 bucks but we probably could have gotten by without it. Some were definitely from the ad as they mentioned things that clued us in to that but most had to be drive by and I think all the big items went to drive by people who saw all the stuff out. We reached our financial goal by noon and still had the bed set. We eventually sold the bed set at a pretty reduced amount from our original number but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get rid of it. We ended up making enough to pay for our movers and give us some spending money for the Seattle trip coming up. It started to rain around 4 so we wrapped everything up. Russ and I took everything we had left to Goodwill and donated it. After dinner with Russ and Gail to thank them for everything it was back to the apartment for Katie and I and an early bed time for both of us.
When we woke up Sunday morning every muscle in our bodies ached. We had been moving furniture all during the garage sale and used muscles I at least hadn't used in a while. We had slept on an air mattress which is fine for one person but with two every time someone moves the air shifts and the other person feels it, so not the best of sleeps. Sunday afternoon it was back to Duncanville and a Mother's Day dinner for Gail, Russ grilled some steaks and we had picked up some steamed shrimp. A nice dinner that was actually our last Sunday dinner with Katie's family (a weekly event) for a while.
Kathleen has been really incredible getting the move done. I have not been handling it well. I don't react well to change and she has had to hold my hand every step of the way. Once the change is made I am fine but the process is no fun. We picked up a web cam and microphone Sunday and it is up and working. Please email Katie (she is also our tech person) to figure out which service to use (Windows live messenger, MSN. Yahoo etc.) so we can talk online. When we get to the Caymans we will be getting cell phones but International calls are way too expensive so we want to talk to everyone on line.
We head to Seattle Thursday to spend five days visit her relatives and mine. We plan to spend time with family, do some hiking on the peninsula and on San Juan Island and basically refresh and recharge. Next Tuesday we are doing Six Flags and then Wednesday is the catch all day to close out any remaining accounts, deal with any apartment issues etc.
We do still have a couple of government hoops to clear both in the US and Caymans. Our work permits are still before the Caymans Immigration board and awaiting approval. They were to be considered last week and we are hopeful that we get the news soon on those. Ironically it is the US govt and the passport mess that is a bigger concern. We put in the paperwork 13 weeks ago to get a name change (normal processing time is 4-6 weeks) on Katie's passport and still haven't gotten it back. They are so backlogged because of the law change for all people flying out of the country that they aren't even addressing issues until you are two weeks from your date of travel which for us is May 24. So last Thursday Katie called and after several attempts to get through finally got a customer service person and was told they would send an emergency email about our situation and we should call back Tuesday the 15th in the afternoon. They even asked what time we leave on the 24th to see if they could get us the passport the morning that we travel (we leave early so we have to have it by the 23rd). What a mess, but a good reminder to everyone get your passport stuff in now if you want to come visit, as bad as it is this year, it will be worse by an order of many magnitudes next year when it extends to road and cruise travel.
We will try and do an entry while we are in Washington. Thanks again to the Loski's for all their help on the garage sale.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Cinco de Mayo
by Katie
This past weekend, on Cinco de Mayo, Scott and I did Trader's Village in Grand Prairie. A giant flea market, Trader's Village is a place for people to sell basically anything. There are a lot of farmers with produce, florists, garage sales, random clothing and jewelry, basically anything you can think of. According to the people around us, people make good money if they know what to bring to sell and how to price it. Sadly, for us, Trader's Village was a complete bust!!
We got there at 7 in the morning to get set up and stayed till 4. It sprinkled most of the day; although, that didn't keep people from coming. They just didn't want candles. In that time, we sold 16 out of the 54 candles that we still needed to sell and we sold them at a huge loss. After this past weekend, I had to come to the realization that I just wasn't going to be able to break even in this business and I have now simply become a statistic. Ah well, it has been a learning experience and I enjoyed making the candles.
After that long day, we met Melanie, her new boyfriend Seth, and Stephanie in Dallas to celebrate Mel's 21st birthday (she is a Cinco de Mayo baby). Since our day had been so long, we left Mel and Seth to continue the night and went home to bed!
We had dinner with my family Sunday to celebrate Mel's birthday with the folks. Seth got to meet Mom and Dad for the first time; I think it went well.
I got the go-ahead from Scott to do a massive packing when he realized just how close we are to leaving, two weeks from tomorrow and five days of that we will be in Washington. The movers come on Friday to move most of our stuff to my parents who are letting us use their drive way for a garage sale and then the rest of the stuff to the storage unit in Duncanville. We are going to try to sell all of our furniture (except the hutch) and will therefore be sleeping on an air mattress and eating off TV trays for the remaining time. I hope that the garage sale on Saturday and Sunday goes much better than Trader's Village last weekend but whatever we don't sell is going to Salvation Army on Monday.
This past weekend, on Cinco de Mayo, Scott and I did Trader's Village in Grand Prairie. A giant flea market, Trader's Village is a place for people to sell basically anything. There are a lot of farmers with produce, florists, garage sales, random clothing and jewelry, basically anything you can think of. According to the people around us, people make good money if they know what to bring to sell and how to price it. Sadly, for us, Trader's Village was a complete bust!!
We got there at 7 in the morning to get set up and stayed till 4. It sprinkled most of the day; although, that didn't keep people from coming. They just didn't want candles. In that time, we sold 16 out of the 54 candles that we still needed to sell and we sold them at a huge loss. After this past weekend, I had to come to the realization that I just wasn't going to be able to break even in this business and I have now simply become a statistic. Ah well, it has been a learning experience and I enjoyed making the candles.
After that long day, we met Melanie, her new boyfriend Seth, and Stephanie in Dallas to celebrate Mel's 21st birthday (she is a Cinco de Mayo baby). Since our day had been so long, we left Mel and Seth to continue the night and went home to bed!
We had dinner with my family Sunday to celebrate Mel's birthday with the folks. Seth got to meet Mom and Dad for the first time; I think it went well.
I got the go-ahead from Scott to do a massive packing when he realized just how close we are to leaving, two weeks from tomorrow and five days of that we will be in Washington. The movers come on Friday to move most of our stuff to my parents who are letting us use their drive way for a garage sale and then the rest of the stuff to the storage unit in Duncanville. We are going to try to sell all of our furniture (except the hutch) and will therefore be sleeping on an air mattress and eating off TV trays for the remaining time. I hope that the garage sale on Saturday and Sunday goes much better than Trader's Village last weekend but whatever we don't sell is going to Salvation Army on Monday.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Wicked!!
By Katie
Last night in the middle of three major storm systems, my mom, sisters, and I went out to dinner and then to see Wicked for all of their birthdays. We were completely soaked by the time we walked through the parking lot as umbrellas did nothing to keep the sideways rain off us. Walking in high-heeled strappy sandals was a bit difficult for all of us and Mel even took off her shoes to make the trip. We were lucky they had to start late because of power problems before the play started or we might have been late. Scott says that the storms were crazy last night with hurricane force winds that blew down many power lines (on our way home there were portions of the highway that were dark because of power outages) and massive flooding. Even with the three times we lost power and the play had to stop while they reset their computers, it was a fantastic show! I think that everyone enjoyed it and I may have created at least one more Wicked obsessed person.
Yesterday I started getting the "Longhorn" room (which doesn't have much that is Texas Longhorns since all of that is down in Houston) packed. Scott handles change better if we do it in small steps so we are packing small bits of the apartment at a time. Everything will be packed away unless it is coming with us to the Caymans by next Thursday so that the movers can move it all to my parents for the garage sale or into the storage unit. Next weekend we will be living in a very empty apartment!
It is a bit scary to think that three weeks from today we will be heading down to the island. I know we are both very ready to get started but it is still scary. As Stephanie pointed out last night, we aren't going to be able to hang out like this anymore. No matter how ready I am to get started in the Caymans, it will be a bit hard to leave family.
Yesterday I started getting the "Longhorn" room (which doesn't have much that is Texas Longhorns since all of that is down in Houston) packed. Scott handles change better if we do it in small steps so we are packing small bits of the apartment at a time. Everything will be packed away unless it is coming with us to the Caymans by next Thursday so that the movers can move it all to my parents for the garage sale or into the storage unit. Next weekend we will be living in a very empty apartment!
It is a bit scary to think that three weeks from today we will be heading down to the island. I know we are both very ready to get started but it is still scary. As Stephanie pointed out last night, we aren't going to be able to hang out like this anymore. No matter how ready I am to get started in the Caymans, it will be a bit hard to leave family.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Three Weeks from our Move
By Scott
I am back from my second visit to Grand Cayman where I went last weekend to present the Strategic Plan to the College Board of Trustee's. John and I flew down on Friday and got in around 6 in the evening. We stopped off at Fosters the supermarket about 2 miles from the college and got food and drinks for the weekend. Restaurant food is very expensive on the island and while groceries are more expensive than the US they are still far less expensive than we would pay in restaurants so we got enough for a couple of meals. We stayed in the apartment at the college that Katie and I are going to live in for our first six months on the Island. That night we unloaded the four full suitcases we had brought down of stuff (at 40 plus pounds each, those suitcases were heavy as all get out) and settled in to prepare for the board meeting the next morning.
Saturday morning we met with the Board and the President Dr. Elsa Cummings in the library at the college. Kathleen had put together a power point for us that went off without a hitch. The board seemed very enthusiastic and had lots of questions and comments. What I had planned to be a 30 minute presentation lasted almost two hours because of all the comments and discussion that was provoked.
On Saturday evening I had the opportunity to attend the launching of a new book written by Roy Bodden, a former Minister of Education in the Caymanian Government entitled The Cayman Islands in Transition. I drove back from the event with Elsa, my first time driving on the left side of the road which will definitely take some getting used to. I had paid attention as a passenger during our last visit but the first time you actually drive and not just watch as a passenger is intense. I kept thinking "left left left left" every time I came to a turn.
I have already started the book and am three chapters in. The work is a fascinating study of Caymanian politics and society. Sunday morning, John and I had brunch with Elsa up in West Bay and the photo below is of me on the deck of the Cracked Conch where we had our meal. The afternoon was spent out on the eastern end of the Island taking care of some things in preparation for our move. Sunday night we had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant and got in early for our 4:30 a.m. wake up call to make our 7:15 departing flight.
The flight back through Miami was fine though in the future we recommend avoiding that airport if you decide to come visit. There are non stop flights from Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale (which we also suggest avoiding based on comments from John and April). We are going down through Houston in May and hopefully that is more pleasant than Miami which is under construction and which has a very time consuming customs and immigration check in because the lines are so long.
Katie and I head back on May 24. We will stay at the college the first two nights then go to a resort on the Eastern end of the island for our one year wedding anniversary. We officially start June 1 but unofficially will be helping beginning on May 28th as we move in.
Katie's weekend consisted of finishing up her volunteer work with Defend Darfur Dallas and spending quality time with her sisters. She is working on our wedding scrapbook which she is thoroughly enjoying. On Tuesday we were able to get out from under the Acura lease for substantially less than we thought we would have to pay and so we are a one car household for the next two and a half weeks presuming JJ (Katie's name for her Saturn) doesn't die on us. This weekend is our second try at traders village and assuming no tornado interruption we hope to unload the last of the candle supplies and materials. Next weekend is the garage sale, my last day of work is the 15th and on the 17th we head up to Seattle to visit Katie's Grandparents, my Mom and Brother for five days.
I am back from my second visit to Grand Cayman where I went last weekend to present the Strategic Plan to the College Board of Trustee's. John and I flew down on Friday and got in around 6 in the evening. We stopped off at Fosters the supermarket about 2 miles from the college and got food and drinks for the weekend. Restaurant food is very expensive on the island and while groceries are more expensive than the US they are still far less expensive than we would pay in restaurants so we got enough for a couple of meals. We stayed in the apartment at the college that Katie and I are going to live in for our first six months on the Island. That night we unloaded the four full suitcases we had brought down of stuff (at 40 plus pounds each, those suitcases were heavy as all get out) and settled in to prepare for the board meeting the next morning.
Saturday morning we met with the Board and the President Dr. Elsa Cummings in the library at the college. Kathleen had put together a power point for us that went off without a hitch. The board seemed very enthusiastic and had lots of questions and comments. What I had planned to be a 30 minute presentation lasted almost two hours because of all the comments and discussion that was provoked.
On Saturday evening I had the opportunity to attend the launching of a new book written by Roy Bodden, a former Minister of Education in the Caymanian Government entitled The Cayman Islands in Transition. I drove back from the event with Elsa, my first time driving on the left side of the road which will definitely take some getting used to. I had paid attention as a passenger during our last visit but the first time you actually drive and not just watch as a passenger is intense. I kept thinking "left left left left" every time I came to a turn.
I have already started the book and am three chapters in. The work is a fascinating study of Caymanian politics and society. Sunday morning, John and I had brunch with Elsa up in West Bay and the photo below is of me on the deck of the Cracked Conch where we had our meal. The afternoon was spent out on the eastern end of the Island taking care of some things in preparation for our move. Sunday night we had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant and got in early for our 4:30 a.m. wake up call to make our 7:15 departing flight.
The flight back through Miami was fine though in the future we recommend avoiding that airport if you decide to come visit. There are non stop flights from Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale (which we also suggest avoiding based on comments from John and April). We are going down through Houston in May and hopefully that is more pleasant than Miami which is under construction and which has a very time consuming customs and immigration check in because the lines are so long.
Katie and I head back on May 24. We will stay at the college the first two nights then go to a resort on the Eastern end of the island for our one year wedding anniversary. We officially start June 1 but unofficially will be helping beginning on May 28th as we move in.
Katie's weekend consisted of finishing up her volunteer work with Defend Darfur Dallas and spending quality time with her sisters. She is working on our wedding scrapbook which she is thoroughly enjoying. On Tuesday we were able to get out from under the Acura lease for substantially less than we thought we would have to pay and so we are a one car household for the next two and a half weeks presuming JJ (Katie's name for her Saturn) doesn't die on us. This weekend is our second try at traders village and assuming no tornado interruption we hope to unload the last of the candle supplies and materials. Next weekend is the garage sale, my last day of work is the 15th and on the 17th we head up to Seattle to visit Katie's Grandparents, my Mom and Brother for five days.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Scott In Caymans for Board Meeting
By Scott:
I am in Newlands today to attend a meeting of the College Board of Trustees and present a strategic plan we have been working on for the last several weeks. I will update next week with the highlights of my second visit to Grand Cayman. Katie is working on Global Days for Darfur this weekend back in Fort Worth and we will also let you know how that went.
Last week we were in Houston to visit Gary and Elizabeth and see Christopher who is growing in leaps and bounds. Thanks to them for a great weekend and also for keeping an eye on my Longhorn stuff while we are away.
Will update next week.
I am in Newlands today to attend a meeting of the College Board of Trustees and present a strategic plan we have been working on for the last several weeks. I will update next week with the highlights of my second visit to Grand Cayman. Katie is working on Global Days for Darfur this weekend back in Fort Worth and we will also let you know how that went.
Last week we were in Houston to visit Gary and Elizabeth and see Christopher who is growing in leaps and bounds. Thanks to them for a great weekend and also for keeping an eye on my Longhorn stuff while we are away.
Will update next week.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Georgia for Easter
By Scott
Katie and I drove a car full of boxes out to Georgia this past weekend. Kevin and Kristy graciously offered us part of their guestroom closet to store our wedding albums, scrapbooks and photo albums. The stuff that could not be replaced and which we were very leery of putting in a storage facility. We left Friday at Noon and after a brief stop in Duncanville to take some photos in the bluebonnets (thanks to Gail and Stephanie who came out with Terry to take the photos) it was on the road. We made Tuscaloosa Alabama by about 9:30 p.m. and called it a night. We awoke Saturday morning to a dramatic change in the weather. The temperature was in the 30's and as we entered northern Georgia we could see snow on the ground. We arrived in Macon around noon and had a great lunch with Katie's college friend Jennifer and her husband Ryan. Jennifer had just learned she was pregnant the day before and the lunch became a celebration.
Then it was on to Bonaire and fun with the Georgia Cummings clan along with Kathy Scott who was visiting. Kevin grilled some steaks, I got to spend time playing soccer with my nephew and Katie got to catch up with Kristy and Kelsey. Kelsey recently received written proof of what we already knew, she is smarter than all of us, and she has been invited to several college summer programs. Though only a freshman in HS the debate is already on, should she go to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or Yale. No pressure there. Scott Kieren has top AR marks and has a mighty powerful soccer kick to boot. Kevin and I had another of our spirited political discussions (I'm sure Kristy had to tell Katie that we both enjoy arguing with each other far more than we actually care about what we are arguing about, the tragic consequences of too many years of debate).
Easter Sunday morning we went to mass with the family before hitting the road for the long drive back. We went to the 7:00 a.m. service and all but had the church to ourselves which was really nice. We got home around 10:00 p.m. and both agreed that long drives are for the birds.
We are selling the remainder of Katie's candles this weekend at Traders Village in Grand Prairie. Next week Katie starts her Access course at TCC and that weekend we head to Houston to say goodbye to friends down there and also drop off my Longhorn paraphernalia. The last weekend in April I head down to the Caymans for the board meeting while Katie is assisting with the Global Days for Darfur. My last day at work is now officially May 15th and after a trip up to Washington state to visit relatives we should head out May 24 or 25. It seems so strange to say this but in two months we will be in our new home working our new jobs. Thanks again to the Georgia Cummings for a great Easter weekend.
Katie and I drove a car full of boxes out to Georgia this past weekend. Kevin and Kristy graciously offered us part of their guestroom closet to store our wedding albums, scrapbooks and photo albums. The stuff that could not be replaced and which we were very leery of putting in a storage facility. We left Friday at Noon and after a brief stop in Duncanville to take some photos in the bluebonnets (thanks to Gail and Stephanie who came out with Terry to take the photos) it was on the road. We made Tuscaloosa Alabama by about 9:30 p.m. and called it a night. We awoke Saturday morning to a dramatic change in the weather. The temperature was in the 30's and as we entered northern Georgia we could see snow on the ground. We arrived in Macon around noon and had a great lunch with Katie's college friend Jennifer and her husband Ryan. Jennifer had just learned she was pregnant the day before and the lunch became a celebration.
Then it was on to Bonaire and fun with the Georgia Cummings clan along with Kathy Scott who was visiting. Kevin grilled some steaks, I got to spend time playing soccer with my nephew and Katie got to catch up with Kristy and Kelsey. Kelsey recently received written proof of what we already knew, she is smarter than all of us, and she has been invited to several college summer programs. Though only a freshman in HS the debate is already on, should she go to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or Yale. No pressure there. Scott Kieren has top AR marks and has a mighty powerful soccer kick to boot. Kevin and I had another of our spirited political discussions (I'm sure Kristy had to tell Katie that we both enjoy arguing with each other far more than we actually care about what we are arguing about, the tragic consequences of too many years of debate).
Easter Sunday morning we went to mass with the family before hitting the road for the long drive back. We went to the 7:00 a.m. service and all but had the church to ourselves which was really nice. We got home around 10:00 p.m. and both agreed that long drives are for the birds.
We are selling the remainder of Katie's candles this weekend at Traders Village in Grand Prairie. Next week Katie starts her Access course at TCC and that weekend we head to Houston to say goodbye to friends down there and also drop off my Longhorn paraphernalia. The last weekend in April I head down to the Caymans for the board meeting while Katie is assisting with the Global Days for Darfur. My last day at work is now officially May 15th and after a trip up to Washington state to visit relatives we should head out May 24 or 25. It seems so strange to say this but in two months we will be in our new home working our new jobs. Thanks again to the Georgia Cummings for a great Easter weekend.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Chicago Visit
By Scott:
Katie and I flew up to Chicago this past weekend to meet our new nephew Nicholas and spend some time catching up with Johanna, Brent and our Chicago area relatives and friends. We arrived Friday night in cold snowy Chicago at Midway airport. Chuck came to pick us up and said he couldn’t recognize us because we were so covered up by hats, scarves etc. Good thing we are headed to a more tropical climate because neither of us is good with the cold weather. We stayed with Chuck, Twila and the girls and send them a big thank you for the guest room use, use of the car and also for coordinating the Sunday brunch with relatives from both the Koclanes and Spetter side.
We got to spend a quiet day Saturday with Johanna, Brent and Nicholas. In the morning we went with Jo and Nicholas to a pediatrician appointment and then over to see Aunt Catherine at Sunrise in Naperville. Aunt Catherine seemed to really enjoy seeing Nicholas and we told her all about our pending move to the Cayman Islands. After about 45 minutes it was time for her to head to lunch so we headed out. We had lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery where the waiter recognized Jo and asked her if she wanted the usual (must be a real Cummings trait as there are several restaurants in Fort Worth where people recognize me and ask me if I want the usual). Nicholas was struggling with a cold and with the snow falling and temperatures in the 30’s we headed back to Jo’s house and spent the afternoon and evening inside playing with Nicholas when he was awake and watching movies while he slept. We ordered in pizza for dinner and all in all had a great time meeting our nephew and catching up with Jo and Brent.
On Sunday morning it was back to Jo and Brent’s and a more active though still under the weather Nicholas. We got to take several really cute pictures and will try and post some later on through Yahoo photos. From there it was on to Grandma Sally’s pancake house in Naperville for brunch with Chuck, Twila, Cory, Christy, Julia and Nick from the Hughes/Koclanes relatives and Donnie, Denise, Sue, Phil, Mary Kay, Uncle Hank and Aunt Mary from the Spetter/Wolfe and Kaminski relatives. Uncle Hank looked really good and Aunt Mary is planning a trip to the boats so all is right with the world.
After the breakfast it was back to the Midway area for our flight home but not before a stop off at White Castles and a quick visit to Tina. Jenny is knee deep in wedding plans and we got to hear about the wedding expo and the plans to date. One of the nice things about staying in the Western Hemisphere is that for big family events like Uncle Hank’s 90th Birthday, Jenny’s wedding, and Katie’s sister’s graduations from High School and College, we are just a short flight away.
As we post this entry, Katie is already working on registration items for the spring quarter. We don’t yet know the exact date we will head down as I am waiting on what happens with my law partner but we will definitely be down there by May 26th and hopefully sooner. I will be headed back to Grand Cayman sometime in April to attend the board meeting where some planning details will be discussed. Meanwhile, Katie starts taking Access courses through the Tarrant County Community College in a few weeks.
Thanks again to everyone we got to spend time with this past weekend.
Katie and I flew up to Chicago this past weekend to meet our new nephew Nicholas and spend some time catching up with Johanna, Brent and our Chicago area relatives and friends. We arrived Friday night in cold snowy Chicago at Midway airport. Chuck came to pick us up and said he couldn’t recognize us because we were so covered up by hats, scarves etc. Good thing we are headed to a more tropical climate because neither of us is good with the cold weather. We stayed with Chuck, Twila and the girls and send them a big thank you for the guest room use, use of the car and also for coordinating the Sunday brunch with relatives from both the Koclanes and Spetter side.
We got to spend a quiet day Saturday with Johanna, Brent and Nicholas. In the morning we went with Jo and Nicholas to a pediatrician appointment and then over to see Aunt Catherine at Sunrise in Naperville. Aunt Catherine seemed to really enjoy seeing Nicholas and we told her all about our pending move to the Cayman Islands. After about 45 minutes it was time for her to head to lunch so we headed out. We had lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery where the waiter recognized Jo and asked her if she wanted the usual (must be a real Cummings trait as there are several restaurants in Fort Worth where people recognize me and ask me if I want the usual). Nicholas was struggling with a cold and with the snow falling and temperatures in the 30’s we headed back to Jo’s house and spent the afternoon and evening inside playing with Nicholas when he was awake and watching movies while he slept. We ordered in pizza for dinner and all in all had a great time meeting our nephew and catching up with Jo and Brent.
On Sunday morning it was back to Jo and Brent’s and a more active though still under the weather Nicholas. We got to take several really cute pictures and will try and post some later on through Yahoo photos. From there it was on to Grandma Sally’s pancake house in Naperville for brunch with Chuck, Twila, Cory, Christy, Julia and Nick from the Hughes/Koclanes relatives and Donnie, Denise, Sue, Phil, Mary Kay, Uncle Hank and Aunt Mary from the Spetter/Wolfe and Kaminski relatives. Uncle Hank looked really good and Aunt Mary is planning a trip to the boats so all is right with the world.
After the breakfast it was back to the Midway area for our flight home but not before a stop off at White Castles and a quick visit to Tina. Jenny is knee deep in wedding plans and we got to hear about the wedding expo and the plans to date. One of the nice things about staying in the Western Hemisphere is that for big family events like Uncle Hank’s 90th Birthday, Jenny’s wedding, and Katie’s sister’s graduations from High School and College, we are just a short flight away.
As we post this entry, Katie is already working on registration items for the spring quarter. We don’t yet know the exact date we will head down as I am waiting on what happens with my law partner but we will definitely be down there by May 26th and hopefully sooner. I will be headed back to Grand Cayman sometime in April to attend the board meeting where some planning details will be discussed. Meanwhile, Katie starts taking Access courses through the Tarrant County Community College in a few weeks.
Thanks again to everyone we got to spend time with this past weekend.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Grand Cayman
By Scott & Katie
We are back from the Caymans and have much to tell. As we flew to the island, looking out the airline window, all you could see was the dark expanse of ocean as we started our descent into George Town. Suddenly, the coastline became clear with the glittering of lights of West Bay. Quickly the plane descended and after a rough, slam-on-the-brakes landing, we disembarked from the plane and found ourselves on Grand Cayman.
We were there from Sunday night to Wednesday afternoon. The weather was a nice 75-80 degrees with bright, blue skies most of the time. It is a beautiful, though somewhat schizophrenic, country. George Town and Seven Mile Beach look pretty much like any American town. Almost every fast food restaurant can be found there including the Burger King, right on the water in George Town Harbor, where we ate breakfast on Monday morning. Major clothing stores like Polo Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss can be found next to high end jewelers and accessory stores like Fossil and Rolex. Hotels and resorts crowd the land around the city with million dollar condos interspersed. The people you see walking around George Town scream vacationer and tourist with their swimsuits, shorts, and cameras. You can always see the tops of huge cruise ships as you near the harbor or, if it is rough on the seas (like it was for us on Monday), you can see the cruise ships and the subsequent people coming in at Spotts beach. Texaco and Esso gas stations service the island with On the Run convenience stores that are almost exactly the same as here in the States, if you don't look at prices. There is a Blockbuster, Subway, TCBY, and Haagen-Dazs.
Contrary to all that glitz, there is also a beautiful island with swaying palm, towering coconut, and full banana trees. Roosters roam free and can be seen (and heard) anywhere. Along South Sound Road, as you head towards the east end of the island, there are small pastures with cows (we saw a lot of young calves still nursing as well) and a random horse, such as the one tied up in the field adjacent to the college.
Once you get past Bodden Town, about eight miles from George Town and just east of the college, you enter a completely different world. There are long stretches of undeveloped land to your left and long, empty beaches posing as a border to the beautiful blues of the ocean. Most of the houses in the East End of the island are more traditional Caymanian but there is the occasional multi-million dollar home. Life seems to slow down (it even feels like it takes forever to get anywhere out there even though you're only talking about a 10/15 miles expanse of road). The traffic thins out and the people seem much more relaxed. The stark thing about the east end of Grand Cayman is the evidence of the damage from Hurricane Ivan. Homes are still completely gutted with trees down in what used to be beautiful yards. Trees are still trying to recover and leaves are just now starting to appear, according to John. It is Hurricane Ivan that brings us to Grand Cayman as well.
Hurricane Ivan caused massive destruction to the college. The building that used to hold their library and administrative offices still has a huge tree in it and another large palm tree fallen just ten feet away from the building as well. The room that housed their library and resource facility has absolutely no roof and still contains debris from the storm as well as new friends that have made the room their home. In the two years since Ivan, the college has rebuilt (with the help of generous community members) their classroom building as well as a new building for administration. The college has a nice apartment where we will be staying for at least the first six months. It is a small two bedroom, one bath with a good sized living room and a small kitchenette. These living arrangements will mean absolutely no commute, unless you count the ten step walk from our front door to the side door to the building. It also enables us to be around, if needed, at all points in time.
Hurricane Ivan didn't just wreck havoc on the buildings. Obviously, everything in their library was ruined and the student population has decreased from 400 before to storm to only about 100 now. The goal, at this point, is to try to return to pre-Ivan status. Scott and I are being brought in with that focus in mind. (They have also recently brought in a new business office person and a librarian.) We have, through a couple of meetings, gotten a clearer picture of exactly what we will be doing.
I am going to be the Admissions Rep and the Registrar. Increasing the student population is one of the big goals, so recruitment will be a big part of my job. I will handle the data side of the admissions process making sure that all applicants have what they need in order to be considered for admissions as well as the registration process and graduation.
Scott will be the new dean. His job will basically involve every aspect of the college from reviewing applications for admission and graduation to the accreditation process to approving class schedules and teachers and even counseling students and fund raising. He will also teach courses each quarter.
We are now in the process of getting all the information for our work permits. We have to get medical forms completed and even a certified letter from the police that we have clear records.
We will be heading back down for good in a few months. Scott is wrapping up his law practice and I will be getting everything together for our move. We are on our way to Chicago next weekend to meet our new nephew Nicholas. We will let everyone know how that trip goes.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Scott's surgery a success
Today I went in for my EGD to fix my esophageal stricture which has been causing swallowing and choking issues. Like a guy I had been ignoring my ever worsening acid reflux for many years and the acid was traveling up from my stomach and was causing my esophagus to literally close. In fact, if Katie hadn't hounded me to see the Dr. about it, and I had gone on ignoring it, it probably would have killed me (and that unfortunately is no joke because Katie is darn proud of herself that her nagging could be said to have saved my life). Life lesson, get married to someone who won't let you just ignore problems. I went into my Doctor just two weeks ago and he wanted me to go in for the procedure immediately since we are planning on going out of the country in June for the next couple of years. Not much to say about the procedure, I'm told it took about 20 minutes, they stretched out the esophagus to its normal size and also took tissue samples from two different areas of inflammation. I will be on prevacid for the foreseeable future to combat the acid reflux and prevent recurrences. The procedure was a total success and we can now head down to the Caymans without any medical concerns at the forefront.
Katie and I leave on Sunday to go down to the Caymans to interview for the positions at ICCI, meet with board members etc. Assuming all goes well and we are offered the positions we have decided to accept them. We have been doing a lot of research on the island and on the college and are very excited.
We have also heard from the Peace Corps and got an invitation to a program in the Republic of Georgia. However, when we contacted them about the EGD, they put an indefinite hold on our applications and told us this would delay our placement. It means that we would not be assigned to a program until the fall at the earliest, which would be ok, or even next year which we had both agreed we didn't want to do. This opportunity in the Caymans really came along at the right time. Being on the other side of the world and without access to adequate care could have been a real problem. As it is, the Peace Corps is very reluctant to accept us into the program because of concerns, understandably, about this condition which is controllable but can be a real problem if not controlled. While we had already decided to take the Caymans positions instead of the Peace Corps, this development has helped us to feel like this was meant to be as the Peace Corps was likely not going to occur at all now.
With that in mind, keep us in your thoughts next week as we interview with the board at ICCI as this is something we are really enthusiastic about and really want to do.
Scott
Katie and I leave on Sunday to go down to the Caymans to interview for the positions at ICCI, meet with board members etc. Assuming all goes well and we are offered the positions we have decided to accept them. We have been doing a lot of research on the island and on the college and are very excited.
We have also heard from the Peace Corps and got an invitation to a program in the Republic of Georgia. However, when we contacted them about the EGD, they put an indefinite hold on our applications and told us this would delay our placement. It means that we would not be assigned to a program until the fall at the earliest, which would be ok, or even next year which we had both agreed we didn't want to do. This opportunity in the Caymans really came along at the right time. Being on the other side of the world and without access to adequate care could have been a real problem. As it is, the Peace Corps is very reluctant to accept us into the program because of concerns, understandably, about this condition which is controllable but can be a real problem if not controlled. While we had already decided to take the Caymans positions instead of the Peace Corps, this development has helped us to feel like this was meant to be as the Peace Corps was likely not going to occur at all now.
With that in mind, keep us in your thoughts next week as we interview with the board at ICCI as this is something we are really enthusiastic about and really want to do.
Scott
Thursday, February 8, 2007
New Direction
After many months of waiting for the Peace Corps to give us any concrete information and getting jerked around by them through multiple "you'll-know-where-you-are-going" dates, a new opportunity has come up. John approached us with a few different employment opportunities at ICCI (International College of the Cayman Islands, http://www.icci.edu.ky/), a school that Scott's grandfather founded. It is a small, commuter college of only about 200 international students that was started to give a higher education option to Caymanians.
The college is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Ivan which left it underwater in 2004. They are looking for a new perspective on how to approach the problems facing the staff which is Scott's role. He will be a dean with the role of campus director as well as assisting with business aspects. He will also be able to teach some classes which is a very exciting prospect. I will be the registrar and help with the bookstore. Although both of us were okay with the positions the Peace Corps had put us in, they did not correspond with what we wanted to do when we returned to the States so these new positions enable us to get experience in fields that we are actually interested in working in when we get back.
We will be living in a furnished apartment on campus. The campus is located about seven miles from George Town (the major tourist stop). According to the maps we have found, it is about half way between the south side of the island by St. Pedro Castle and the beach for North Sound. It is along a road that runs north/south off of the main thoroughfare that runs from George Town to the eastern side of the island. The nearest big (island big....) city is Bodden Town. Here is a site with good maps of the island: http://maps.caymanlandinfo.ky/imagemapfiles/gcindex.htm.
We are going down there February 18-21 to have a look around and meet some of the board members and staff. We'll post pictures from our trip on here and let you guys know what new things we find out!
Katie
The college is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Ivan which left it underwater in 2004. They are looking for a new perspective on how to approach the problems facing the staff which is Scott's role. He will be a dean with the role of campus director as well as assisting with business aspects. He will also be able to teach some classes which is a very exciting prospect. I will be the registrar and help with the bookstore. Although both of us were okay with the positions the Peace Corps had put us in, they did not correspond with what we wanted to do when we returned to the States so these new positions enable us to get experience in fields that we are actually interested in working in when we get back.
We will be living in a furnished apartment on campus. The campus is located about seven miles from George Town (the major tourist stop). According to the maps we have found, it is about half way between the south side of the island by St. Pedro Castle and the beach for North Sound. It is along a road that runs north/south off of the main thoroughfare that runs from George Town to the eastern side of the island. The nearest big (island big....) city is Bodden Town. Here is a site with good maps of the island: http://maps.caymanlandinfo.ky/imagemapfiles/gcindex.htm.
We are going down there February 18-21 to have a look around and meet some of the board members and staff. We'll post pictures from our trip on here and let you guys know what new things we find out!
Katie
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