Fun visit

Chris, Beth, and Gina came to visit us for the day on Saturday. We went out to eat at Black Buggy (an Amish buffet) and then went to the mall. After that we chatted at home and then went to the riverwalk, a path that takes you through a little woods past some houses and into downtown Newburgh. It runs along the Ohio River and is very pleasant. It was a lot of fun to see them again (I hadn't seen Gina for seven years so she never met Arlene or David!).

All of us standing on the bridge.
Chris holding David up.
Chris, his wife Beth, and David.
Lucky guy! Surrounded by beautiful women! An omen of the future?



David having fun swinging.

Budwesier Horses

The Budwesier horses came to town the other day and we went to check it out.

Fun around the house

Random moments of fun

David likes to crawl under Arlene's shirt. Sometimes she'll wear mine so he won't stretch them out.
David plays with these letters for housr.



More of David swimming.



David learning to ride his bike.



David saying hi in Korean and Visayan.

Dissertation News

I wanted to give an update on the progress of my dissertation. It is divided into two sections, one on one of the people I'm studying and one on the other person. The first section consists of three chapters on Hwang Sayong (who tried in 1801 to bring a Western armada into Korea to force the kingdom to tolerate Catholicism) and the second of four chapters (about An Chunggun, a Catholic who assassinated a high Japanese official, Ito Hirobumi, who played an important role in the colonization of Korea). In addition to an introduction and conclusion I also need a transition chapter between them. I have completed six of the seven chapters and they have been approved by my adviser (provided I make a few minor revisions), am almost done with the introduction and have done significant work on the last of the seven chapters (I have finished very little on the conclusion however). So what this all means is that provided that my readers don't demand major revisions I should be able to defend in the Spring of 2011 (right after the oral defense, provided I pass, I will be a phd.) If there are any complications I should be able to be done by the summer.

So what does this mean? Basically, I am over the hump, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, as long as I keep going I can make it. For those of you who I owe emails or visits, my apologies, I hope to get caught up before too much longer.

239 and feeling fine!

On an old episode of the "Simpsons" Homer became seriously overweight and resolved to slim down. In the same episode, Marge painted Mr. Burns. Homer slimmed down to 239 (which I believe is his official weight) and came down the stairs and shouted "Marge, I'm 239 and I'm feeling fine." At that point Mr. Burns laid into Homer and told him how fat he was!

Well, now I'm 239 and feeling fine:). I finally lost enough weight to be equal to Homer. I need to keep going, but I've managed to lose over 40 pounds since we married (six years ago). I hope I can lose at least another 20. My doctor wanted me to get to 200 but I weight 216 when I was a sophomore in high school (that was when I was wrestling and was in football and was definitely not overweight!).

Health Updates

Thanks everyone for the prayers. My friend who went in for the medical test had an unclear result, but at least they eliminated the worst possibilites. Papa Alex is doing better. It looks like he has diabetes but it is something that can be controlled with medicine (and thankfully without injections). God bless you all!