Retirement?

Hello one and all. I realize that I am well overdue for an update and as usual I have no good excuse for the delay. I hope there is still someone reading this...
Anyway. First of all congratulations go out to the Kodi Nixon family on the birth of Parker and to the Andrew Steele family on the birth of Henry! Both extremely cute babies and they both have a jealous Aunt Camille and Uncle David who wish they lived closer!! By the way, where did Parker get all that HAIR?! Doesn't he know that babies are supposed to be bald unless they are Hispanic? (In my limited experience working in the nurseries of hospitals only Hispanic babies are born with tons of long hair!)
So, David finished his twenty-five years of work with Electronic Data Systems on April 30. I have already been asked at least once if he is driving me crazy yet being at home all day. The surprising answer to that question is "no, not yet". He does spend most of the day in his office working on the computer. He is researching job opportunities, working on investments, revamping his resume, buying pool supplies, etc. etc. etc. He does have a couple of job opportunities in the works, however. One in Chicago with a utilities company and one in Ft. Worth for Cook Children's Medical Center. He has a second interview with Cook Children's a week from Friday. So, we wait.
Meanwhile, we are "pretending" like we are retired. Last week, for example, we took off for what turned into a really fun road trip. It started out as a trip to Branson, MO. David has talked about going there for a while now. It is supposed to be loads of fun (according to people we know who have been there)and it is within a days drive from here. We took off without any reservations of any kind and decided to see what happened once we got there. The area is really pretty--green and hilly. Branson itself is situated between a couple of lakes. The trouble is that what there is to do there isn't really what we enjoy doing. There are LOTS of shows to see starting at 10am every day. There are two amusement parks, miniature golf and go-carts on every corner, two outlet malls, two regular malls and lots of places to eat. It is hard to know which of the shows are ones you would like and they cost between $20 and $50 each per person. We decided to see one called SIX. It is a family of six brothers who sing making the sounds of intstruments with their mouths--singing acapela the whole time. We like the LDS group Inside-Out (who do the same kind of show), so we thought we would like SIX. They were really good and it turns out they are LDS too. They come from a family of ten boys from a mom who was told at 17 that she wouldn't be able to have kids. The show was really good and very entertaining. The next show we decided to see was an Elvis impersonator. I have always been an Elvis fan and saw a very good impersonator perform during Parent's Week one year at BYU-Idaho. This particular performer was touted as being voted the #1 Branson enteratiner for the past 6 or 7 years--so we thought we would give him a try. Big mistake!! He was way into himself and not so much into Elvis. He did sound like Elvis, but I just couldn't handle his ego. Too worried about how his hair looked and he even sang a song he wrote himself. Each of us wanted to leave at intermission, but didn't say anything to the other. Too bad. A wasted two hours.
The next day we decided to make a break for it and drove to Memphis. I used to live there and have always wanted to revist Graceland. When I was there last you could drive up to the front of the house when Elvis was out of town, but you couldn't go inside. So, we went to Graceland. It was really cool! They have an audio tour that you listen to as you walk through the house and it was very informative. The house is straight from the 70's and it isn't hard to imagine Elvis living there. Of course, it is all terribly commercialized--but we got over that part. Except David was sorely tempted to buy one of the powder blue jumpsuits availble for a mere $3,000



After Graceland we drove on to Corinth, MS (where my grandfather was born), Red Bay, AL, Baldwyn, MS (where many of my ancesters lived and are buried),and Tupelo, MS (where my mother was born--oh, and Elvis too!) We found three different cemeteries using our GPS and I was able to take photos of all the headstones of my ancestors there. I had never done anything like that before and it was a blast, believe it or not! We had a really good time looking for and tromping through all the cemeteries. Driving through the cities and area where my ancestors lived was cool too.

On the way back home we stopped off in Memphis again for some BBQ and on to Hot Spring, AR for the night. Hot Springs is an interesting place. We took a tour of one of the original bath houses and rode up the observation tower in the National Park there. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed the bath house tour a lot more than we thought we would. Best of all--it was all free!! The next day we headed for home. We had a lot of fun just being together and sort of just following our noses. I really can't remember the last time we took a trip like that just the two of us.
Now, on to the rest of the family: Mike has been working for Kroger for the past several weeks. He works in the evenings and it looks like it is turning into a full time position. He is also going to begin some free-lance graphic design work for a company in UT this week. He can do that from his computer here at home. Melinda continues to work at the pre-school. After school is out she will go to part time there for their summer program. Chris continues to work at his job in San Fran. He still likes CA, but wishes his work was a little more interesting. Once the new guy starts in a few months, he is hoping some of the grunt work will get passed on. Matthew is working full time at the Independent Study Office on campus. He likes it well enough and it is paying the bills. He joined a gym too and is working out again. Soon he will send in his application to the Marriott School of Business and hopes to get accepted for the fall semester. We are keeping our fingers crossed for him. Sara and Wade continue to work through the summer preparing for graduate school in the fall. Wade was accepted into the Sociology program where he will be for the next two years. Sara continues working in the kiosk at University Mall, but is trying to find a receptionist/secretarial position. She isn't having too much luck, but she is applying for everything she can find.
So, that brings you up-to-date with this fam. We can all use your prayers: David with his job hunt, Mike with his continued job hunt, Chris that his job will get more interesting, Matt that he'll get accepted into the Marriott School, and Sara that she will find another job soon. We appreciate you all and love reading your blogs etc. I'll try to keep you informed about our comings and goings.