Update and Final Maui Video

Things around here have mostly been school work and going to work. : P I have just finished a course on Linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, etc.). Today I begin a course in Advanced Grammar. My courses are accelerated in that they are comparable to semester long courses crammed into 6 six weeks, hence, one course at a time is considered full-time. I will graduate in May of '09. I'm thinking of also doing a certificate in CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) so that I can teach English from home via internet with students all over the world someday when we have little ones. That would take another 6 months to complete.

Ryan has just begun meeting with two guys from Hong Kong once a week as language partners. He helps them with learning English. We'd like to take them around and show them some of American culture. I hope to invite some of my students too. I have a student from Thailand who is nannying here that doesn't get much interaction with other Americans her age.

Of course we're also trying to spend time with family and friends, and mostly planning quality time with one another so that our other commitments don't keep us away from each other. I don't have any new pictures as we haven't been out much lately! Last weekend, mostly all weekend, I was finishing a research paper on male-female discourse (how we differ in the ways that we talk). There were some surprising findings such as there are many situations in which men talk more. Anything in the public arena, men have been found to be the talkers!

For now, I hope you'll enjoy our final picture video from Maui.

It's Fall

These are some recent pictures of a couple outings that Ryan and I have had in between homework. Some of the pictures are from the recent "Festival of Family Farms". The others are from a walk we took in Bellingham yesterday to enjoy the fall leaves before heading to the Co-op to study for the evening. We had a refreshing time with God as we walked, enjoying the quiet beauty around us.

It's going to be a busy week for us with homework, as always. I've got a research paper to crank out this next week too. Plus, I'm subbing some (on top of my regular hours) for another teacher who is having a medical emergency with her son. My college classes are going well so far, thank God. Ryan is also doing very well over all. We are thankful to have this time in our lives for further education.

Flying Pumpkins

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin catapulting contest here in town. It was a lot of fun, though quite chilly, seeing pumpkins flying up to 1800 feet!!! Ryan and I went and my uncles met us there.
Groups of guys made these catapults (also known as trebuchets) and competed to see whose machine would hurl an 8-10 lb. pumpkin the farthest. The winner is now the current Guinness World Record holder as of last weekend. You can see one pumpkin flying in the bottom-right picture.

There were a lot of great activities for the kids. This was zucchini car races. The bottom right picture is a girl playing pumpkin bowling. I don't know who these kids are. I hope it's legal to post them! : )

We're looking forward to trying to make it to the Festival of Family Farms this next weekend if it's not too rainy and we get enough homework done.