July News

Hi, we are home from our cruise and have finally caught up on our sleep. That 10 hour flight home and being up for 22 hours was a killer. We had a great time, spent 3 days in Rome, then onto Sicily. We really liked Sicily. It was not crowded and much less tourist orientated. It was beautiful and we spent time in a small city up in the mountains. The next day we were at sea, then onto Athens. We thought at one point that we would be going to Malta instead because of the rioting in Athens. But that settled down. The taxis were on strike the day we were there but we had hired a van for the 8 of us and he picked up right up at the port and took us everywhere in Athens. We were with him for 9 hours! Ephesus in Turkey was another favorite place. It is the cradle of civilization and the ruins were unbelieveable. We went to a place where they sold Turkish rugs and saw how they are made from the silk worm to completion. Most in our group of 8 bought a rug, but not us. They were still high and I didn't see one I couldn't live without. Crete was our next spot, very nice, olive trees everywhere. We went to an olive oil factory and toured the country side. Overall, a real nice trip, but glad to be home.

Kyla is enjoying summer camp. Ashley and Darin are fine. We found a nice leather sofa yesterday at an estate sale off Mandarin Rd yesterday for only $90 so we bought it and will try to deliver it up to their 3rd floor apt. tonight. Ryan and Tracy are coming down because she has a 4 p.m. cleaning appointment so Ryan can help move the sofa too. Yesterday it was raining and we really couldn't take it. Tracy just got a new job at the hospital. I don't know the details yet, but it is full-time with benefits. She was working 20 hours a week there and picking up hours at Outback on Friday and Saturday night. I'll hear more about it tonight when we see them. She gets to wear scrubs for this new job too which will help on the clothing side of things. Okay, now I'll try to load up a few pictures.