June 2005 Archives

I was just reading the archives of this website, and remembering "the good ol' days" when our evenings consisted of relaxing on the front porch swing. My, how times have changed! We are so incredibly busy these days!

Kevin will complete his Masters Degree from Ball State University at the end of this month. Until then, he is driving back & forth to Muncie every day, Monday through Friday, for class. On top of that, he is working full time, teaching an adult small group at church, doing homework at night, and always being a top notch dad to Hale & Addi. I'm so proud of him, and just thinking about his schedule makes me tired!

The kids and I are definitely enjoying our freedom this summer. With the end of school came the end of my babysitting gigs! We have lots of fun stuff planned for the summer, including a vacation (our first one since the year before Hale was born!), trips to the zoo (Fort Wayne & Indy), the Children's Museum, Cousins Camp, and of course, many trips to Shelbyville to the Ingle Waterpark located on Doran Avenue!!

We'll try to keep the website as up-to-date as possible given our busy schedules! Rest assured that our camera pretty much goes wherever we go, so we will have plenty of visual memories from our summer adventures!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we added twelve (12) new albums to the website today. We've got a little of everything there, including fun & sun, trains & games.

We've also got some great pictures of Addi that I took the other day at Momo's house. She was playing on the slides and took a minute to strike several poses. If these photos don't convince you that she's adorable, I don't know what will.

Enjoy!

You know how libraries rock, right?

You know how libraries rock, right?

You know... I'm not sure you do.

Let me tell you why they rock: obviously it has something to do with the fact that instead of going to a bookstore (or a store with books) and laying out hard earned money for something you will likely read only once you can go to a library and get the same book | same experience for little or no expense. As if that weren't enough, say you want a book in an alternative format (audio tapes, anyone?) but would have even less reason to buy a copy for yourself -- a library has it. But what if my library doesn't have the title I'm looking for? They get it for you. For free. That rocks!

Okay, now for the part I'd never thought of until now -- and this really doesn't rock because I've just figured it out in my last semester -- you can just go check out the books you need for class without spending a dime on the ever-more-expensive required reading. Why am I just figuring this out? This summer I have spent nada on books for 9 credit-hours worth, and each class has required reading. Several books were there waiting for me at the library and one (with a price tag of $130+) was rushed to me through inter-library loan. I can't believe I didn't think of this before.

How many books that you bought for college courses do you still have? I have a handful from my undergrad, and none from my masters. However, I imagine I spent at least $3,000 over the years for that vanishing paper, and probably got 10% back from "trade-ins". It all seems so silly now.

So here's my advice -- race to the bookstores with a pen and paper, write down the required reading, and then just check the shelves or request a book-on-loan and save some money.

... and you might not want to tell your friends about this. But I'll thank one that told me: aloha Marcus.