Haven Heartbeats

Dear Grandma,

Hi, there! Just thought I would jot a letter off to you this morning.

I have a feeling all of my children will be sleeping in till at least ten am. They had a party last night. It was supposed to have happened last Thursday night while we had friends in town.........but, a few folks got sick so we had to postpone. The party was a barbeque followed by "a dance." Even last night a few folks could not come due to more illness. Ha, ha...I guess that includes me, too! I woke up yesterday am with nausea and malaise. I slept most of the day. Horizontal was the most comfortable position and reading, computering and watching movies was dizzying. By late evening I felt good enough to grab some photos of the party.

The dance was held on the front lawn where Matthew had mown a dance floor in the grass. He then used his theater lights to surround the dance floor with lights, including colored. He took the stereo outside, too. There was a table set up with punch and desserts. I know the kids had a great time......and they had to be made to quit dancing at 1am. I hope the neighbors are not too mad at us. :/ There was a lot of swing dancing (Matthew did not re-injure his knee! :) ), dancing to 80's and 50's music and the Virginia Reel, of course. The crowd was 12 to 23 years old, except for 7yo Malachy, who came in at one point and told me, "I am having so much fun dancing out there!" And he sure did, trying to keep up with the big boys! There were sixteen total, till Marty came home and joined the dancing. He had been home earlier and did the barbequing for the kids. All I did was lay in my bed. :)

When I looked out at the crowd of kids, all I saw were homeschoolers. Funny, there was a time when the kids didn't really have many friends.......and now, they actually have a bit of a social life. One of the things I love about homeschooled kids is their ability to interact well with people of all ages, and you could really see that last night. Except for two guests, all of the guests were present with at least one to two more more of their siblings. That is another thing I love about homeschool kids: how well they can socialize in their sibling groups. They were such a great group of kids! Our friends who had been visiting the week before were greatly missed......and this was mentioned on several occasions from several of my children.

I have to say, since this dance was a success, I do believe there will be plans to do this at least once each summer. What joy to dance with your friends, under the light of a full moon!

The clean-up does not look too bad this morning.

Marty came home last night in a new car for Anne. She will not actually get to own it, but use it while she is away at college. It is a 2001 Honda Accord, 2 door. I just went out and peeked at it. It is immaculate inside, with leather seats. It is gold metallic and formerly owned by a grandmother who only put 40,000, miles on it. Looks great! Anne will be putting daily miles on it since she will live with Jennifer in the south of town.....and the university is in the north of town. Anne said she loved driving it last night. Marty is so good to his kids.

Speaking of Anne and school, we will move her over on the 16th, probably, and we will stay a week to visit with our family there. Anne has an orientation day on the 20th. She starts school on the 24th. She is excited, but worried these classes will be more challenging than the JC. We all just keep telling her she will be fine. :) She will be taking Spanish, an English class, a drama class and something else....all are basic UNR requirements.

And as for Matthew, he will be flying out of San Francisco International Airport on Monday the 10th, our 24th wedding anniversary. It looks like I will drive him down with at least a couple of my kids. We will stay with our friends, John and Gloria. We still have a lot to do to get him ready. He needs patches sewn on his Rotary jacket, to narrow his packing down and load in the duffle bag, or two, to pick up a few more gifts for his host families (and wrap them), learn to iron, and to make a DVD of his life here. I am sure there is more......but these are the priorities. I will start working on the patches when I finish this letter.

Our garden is doing well, but desperately needs weeding.......kids are going to have to go do that today! Our chicks are getting so big......it is funny to hear them still peeping. They are nine weeks now. They are nice group of ladies. So, far, I think I only have one rooster...but still too early to tell for sure. After a few losses, we are down to 42 now.

We ran out of hot water yesterday.......actually, we ran out of fuel to heat our water. Apparently, the float is not working right, and we missed the getting low sign. I just got a call that the guy can bring fuel today........I am glad......I need a shower, a load of laundry washed and have a full dishwasher.

I am getting sleepy now, so I will sign off. It was nice to get to use Anne's new laptop while laying on the couch to write this. Matthew has a new laptop as well.....and I will inherit Anne's old lap top for use around here for me and the other kids.

Goodbye and God bless, for now,

Love, Chari