Limeade

Three weeks ago or so was move-in day here at Umass and there was a line of cars in front of our house for hours... the boys "just-so-happened" to have a lemonade stand planned for that day. We made lots of scrumptous limeade and put smiles on all those waiting to move their sons or daughters into the dorm rooms down the street. Mason, Aman and Isaiah made a hefty $5.20 each!!! Even with a traitorous competitor who set up just up the street from us who was selling cokes with his sons at outrageous prices... We also had a chance to go see the season opener of the UMass football game...

Saunders Visit

Well it has been a few weeks of wait and see as far as Jere is concerned. Definite progress has been made and there is a chance that we can take him back to Costa Rica next saturday... vamos a ver. In the meantime I realized that I haven't mentioned a few key happenings here. Right when we got back from CR we had a visit from some dear friends who are now living in Dubai. They have been there for a few years now and have been sorely missed as we found out this visit. Zia is from Atlanta. Everybody knows Zia being that he is the coolest, calmest, most in tune guy you have ever met (except for a few amazing stories he has about rare occasions of severe confrontation with established injustices...). Seff his wife is from Papua New Guinea and they have two amazing yittle ones (huge now actually) Samira and Senai. Seff couldn't make the trip up here as her vacation time had run out but Zia and the kids were here a little over a week at our house. The kids clicked immediately with legos, water games and silliness and it was fun catching up after 7-8 years worth of distance. Thanks again guys for honoring us with your visit... it was a full blast of wonderful fresh air that was sorely needed. And I can't even begin to tell you how much you are missed!!! Let's do it again soon! I also include a recent pic of the cousins having a picnic in their fort And the boys and I sitting on the car I learned to drive on in the early 80s!!!

Updates and Final CR notes

Well the nuttiness of life never lets up does it? One thing after the other testing our commitment to the path we have chosen to follow, sucking at our energy with a relentless pounding ... like waves on a sandy beach... My step father Jere has been battling cancer for many years. He is an amazing dude with lots of energy, persistent positivity and an incredible dedication to service... (you know the keen, basic awareness of those around him and their needs...) Recently, the cancer has been causing him great pain and so they flew up to Florida where he can receive treatment at the VA hospital ... The basic goal is to get the pain under control while fighting severe nausea (a side effect of the pain medication causing severe dehydration). I talked with Mom earlier this week and the doctors (he is currently staying at the hospital) believe after looking at several xrays and cat scans that the cancer is in some lymph nodes that that begun to put direct pressure on the surrounding nerves. This is the source of the pain. One of the ways of dealing with this would be to attack those nodes somehow using chemo to lessen the pressure on the nerves. So the focus right now is to find out how this can be done in Costa Rica and what they need to do to make that happen. David is doing some investigative work for them through a friend whose father is going through a similar ordeal. They also were going to get an MRI done today to see if they could get a better look at what the cancer is doing in the lower back. Aria has posted some more details from today at her blog...

Anyway that was a little update... please keep Jere, Mom and family in your prayers.

What else? The boys started back at school this week. Both have new teachers and have some of their same friends. Work is booming for both Britt and I. I tried to unsuccessfully buy two gerbils for the boys today. Did you know that 25% of americans did not read a single book last year? Or that your heart pumps 75 gallons of blood every hour when you are at rest? Or that there are only 3 (THREE!!!)countries in the world who do NOT use the metric system, Liberia, Burma and the U.S.!!!! Or that through our DNA you and I are 99.99% the same!

Whoah... I need some sleep.

The remainder are a few Pics from the last of the Costa Rica trip. Beach trip, saying good bye, one of Britt's favorite churches on the way to the beach, Sasha let the boys and I take her to the children's museum in downtown San Jose for THREE Hours without her mom... we were very honored.

Reunion Part 2

Fall type weather has dropped in suddenly here in Massachusetts. Cool nights and semi warm days. We just wrapped up a nice weekend with today where Amán and I went exploring the Umass campus on our skateboards and scooters while Isaiah went on a nice bike ride with the Alschulers and Oma. I ended a day with a grueling mt bike ride at a place called Bachelors street that I had heard about for years and never had a chance to explore. I got pounded to say the least... half the ride was fun and the rest was just plain old pain... And the depth of tiredness reminds me of the epic 8.5 hour hike that Britt and I took while in CR. You may remember a year or so ago me posting about Britt and her friend Anne and others in Costa Rica attempting to find a path from Escazu where Anne lives to Ciudad Colon where we lived. 3 attempts (two forward and one backward) were made which all ended with them arriving at some yittle town way out in the middle of nowhere bumming rides from the local pirate taxis to get home... 9-10 hours later... Britt and I got to spend the most continous time together we have in years and finally conquered this same run. It was tiring but exhilirating... 8.5 hours and the way both of our knees hurt we seriously thought our legs were just going to fall off! The next morning we drove to the beach with more adventures but that'll have to wait til after a sleep a little.

We have been going non stop all week with work and painting our bedroom... we are done except for the radiators and are severely sleep deprived. I include also a couple more Costa Rica pics of a little romp we did with Aleta and Beau to the river during their visit to the house. They later came to the beach with us too....

Mckinney-Ruhe Reunion Part 1

Well it is official... we did it! Got all the siblings from the Jere-Julie clan together .... except one. Lisa, Eddie and their two girls were not able to make this time around... but Jaleh, Aria, David, Giannina, Ali, Ilka (Ali's girlfriend), Britt, Colin and all the respective kids managed to land in the same house for a few weeks! It was a very nice lovefest to celebrate the family, meet the new niece Ela (insanely beautiful, cute and buttery) and catch up... The boys were so good with Sasha and played tons out in the yard with her and the new puppy Barney... the old swing got a lot of attention of course being that it is by far one of the cooler swings on the planet (thanks to Jaleh of course). Here is a few pics from the first couple of days. We had a few sessions of trying Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans ... some with disasterous result as the booger, vomit, earwax and others do in fact taste like what they say they are... sugary but disgusting... There are a few pics of obvious near vomiting... We also took TT (Jaleh) to our favorite "top of the world" spot above the university for peace. I was amazed that she hadn't been there and happy that we could share. Britt watched Sasha while Aria took a break. The watching really was watching her run out in the rain and play in the big mud puddle... along with all the boys and the puppy of course. Isaiah of course had to try and get his footprint up on the ceiling of the garage which is the underside of the David and Gianni's porch... The prints I put up there a couple of years ago are still there... This was done via the two swings that Jere had installed under the porch... of course Isaiah did it quite quickly while Aman made it his goal to smack the leaves of the mango tree with his head... which he did quickly also... Well a lot more to tell but it cooled down considerably here today... tonight the temps will be in the low 50s and perfect sleeping weather... I am going to go snuggle up with Les Miserables and go to sleep... (I include also a pic I took of Mason and Anika sleeping just before we left...)