I feel so overwhelmed at the thought of trying to have everything done before we leave on June 6th. June 5th is our last day of semester exams, so I won't even have a work day between classes and leaving, much less a day for organizing and packing. I keep thinking of things I need to do, but I'm so scattered. Like: I need to call the credit card company & tell them I'm going to China so pretty please don't cut off my credit. Get some plug adapters There was other stuff I was just thinking about... Now what was [View Full Entry]

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I've been working on getting donations for our gifts to the Chinese schools. So far I've contacted the state house, the Hot Springs Department of Tourism, The Arkansas Heritage Society, a couple of places in D.C., Disney (what could be more American), an my senator. The smaller the place is, the more willing they seem to be to donate. Today I got a sack of pens and arkansas shaped notepads from the Heritage Society (Thanks Mrs. Whitfield!). They look great. Susie got some t-shirts from LRSD today. I am hoping we can get some of those postcards with the picture of [View Full Entry]

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I got a notice on my forum query about Ryokan Rikiya. This was encouraging. [url=http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g298564-i2712-k1892281-l11914997-Ryokan_Rikiya_or_Yuhara_Info_needed_quickly-Kyoto_Kinki.html#11914997] Ryokan Rikiya review [View Full Entry]

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Day two of the workshop started at a much more reasonable time, 9:00 a.m., with some Tai Chi. I don't know if I would like it. Mostly I felt awkward, but everyone else did too. I think I'll stick with Yoga. The nice thing about Yoga is that you can feel when you get it right, and the time in the positions is much longer, allowing for self-adjustments & meditation. But I can see the appeal of Tai Chi. We continued the individual current events presentations. I think we were all ready to be done, though. Too much sitting! We took [View Full Entry]

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We had our first day of the two-day workshop, beginning at the crack of dawn. We had to be at the UALR campus at the obscene time of 7:15 for a 7:30 three mile hike. I was a little trepidatious about this part of the "test." I have lost 22 lbs since January, but honestly I haven't ever gotten into an exercise habit. Still, I'm a tough girl. I didn't know that the leader of this thing was going to be a flippin boot camp instructor (literally) and that he was going to lead us on a sprint-paced all uphill death [View Full Entry]

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I have been trying for a month to find a place for Susie and me to stay while we're in Kyoto, Japan. I really wanted traditional Japanese for our stay. At first I researched & researched for the perfect place, and I finally came up with this place, the Heianbo . Unfortunately, they were booked. Then I tried another place... and another... and another. I was getting desperate. Fortunately, someone at tripadvisor lead me to the itcj, the International T [View Full Entry]

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Obfuscator writes: The night of storms in Texarkana continued through the morning. We drove into town to check out some of the sights. Of course, since it was basically pouring on us, we didn't feel it necessary to look too closely. We did stop at the Post Office which straddles the state line, and is quite lovely. In front of it is a little statue to the Confederacy (of course), which was also picturesque, and crosses the state line as well. We drove northeast from there, heading toward Hot Springs National Park. We stopped briefly in Hope, Arkansas to see the [View Full Entry]

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Well, after a very long day Friday, all seven of us finally made it home. We were honestly concerned that we might not have made it back before Monday, but the Lord took care of us and got us home; we just had to be patient. We received an e-mail from Brad (the pastor of CrossChurch) this morning that said that they had 83 people at their first service last night! And more than that, 14 people tithed to the church that were not on staff!! God is faithful and is strong when we are weak. San Diego is an absolutely [View Full Entry]

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Today was the first of all the days off in Dallas I actually got up in time for breakfast. There’s nothing quite like waffles in the shape of Texas. Craig was at the bus shop, so Beth and I just hung out in our room; well, actually, I was checking me eyelids for holes, if you know what I mean. Craig came and got us and took us to the shop; Beth left us from there in the van, headed for Little Rock, I think. A bit later, as we were still waiting for the bus to get finished, Uncle Brother [View Full Entry]

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test entry. [View Full Entry]

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