Baton Rouge Week 32

Well, we have started yet another month here in Baton Rouge. We had the two women that are in my writing group over for dinner with their two husbands. We did it on Monday night and then played aggravation for a while. It was a lot of fun. They were all pretty quick studies and picked up the game in a hurry. The Bishop came by to sign some welfare forms just as they were coming by so we got to tell them a little about who he was and what he did.

The big Reflection on Christ program starts next Sunday for two weeks. The Saturday paper had a photo blurb on the front page and then a couple of large pictures on the cover of the Life and Religious section. It was really a nice bit of coverage for the church. Here is the weblink: http://www.2theadvocate.com/features/38725227.html

I hope that this works for you all. The pictures are very nice. The ward also had an activity called a ward blitz. It was a bit like a census. The activity committee put together packets of people on the rolls that we don’t know much about. It was very interesting. Dana and I went around to about 11 addresses in a little over 2hours. We found some people and got some updates on others. Of the folks we found we were able to get some of them to accept more visits from home and visiting teachers. These are the lost sheep that maybe we can reactivate. It was followed up by a luncheon and some members stayed around and played volleyball. It is the kind of activity that a ward like ours ought to do every year. I wonder if it would be good to do a week or two before a ward dinner.

When we got home I then went to help my home teaching companion put some plywood sheeting on a shed that he is building. He has done most of it, but putting sheets of plywood on a roof alone gets to be a little tricky. I was over there for about two hours. I am not too sore all things considered. When I got home we went to the movie. We saw Inkheart. I liked it well enough.

It was a good week at work. I met with my writing group and finished up a small piece that I am sending to English Journal. It is always good to be in the English Journal, so I am hopeful for this article.

The weather has picked up a bit. I don’t think I needed a coat this week. Flowers are out all over the place. I am trying to put a few pictures on our blog.

I will be teaching a graduate class in late June and through July. I just this week posted some fliers in the English department and in the Education department. The good news is that I already have enough students to carry the class. This is great news. It is an 11% boost in pay to teach a summer class. That still gives us a most of May and most of June to take some time off. I think that we might do a couple of writing camps. We might go some place without a television and write for four straight days (8 hours-breakfast 4 hours-lunch -four hours- small dinner-long walk). Anyway that is something that we need to figure out.

We are going up to see Abbey in a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to the visit, but not the weather. I do really like Boston. I haven’t been there in the late winter. I am sure that there are things to do that don’t require people freezing to death. I am sure Abbey will have some ideas.

As you can see we are pretty boring. We do school work, church work, and then we try to see a movie and play games. We have been good about inviting people over. We will keep trying to socialize; it keeps us kind of normal. One of our new colleagues in the education department is having a few people over for the super bowl so we are going over there for a few hours.

We love you all, take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana