Thursday July 25th

Blinds are down and the house is much cooler. I don’t think we will ever take air conditioning for granted again. J Unless we live somewhere without it, which is sort of likely. We are loving having our own place and feeling free to cook or sleep or read on the couch without feeling like we are disrupting anyone else. We are very happy here. We are even getting used to the cats. I don’t think we’ll ever be cat people on our own, but these two are cute. The one is more like a dog and we are thinking of nicknaming her puppy. She likes to have her tummy scratched and she likes a little bit of rough housing. They both think the bed is their territory once we are no longer sleeping in it. In fact, Nikki slept in a bit today, and the one cat tried to push her out of bed. It kept nudging her and walking over her trying to see if it could get her to move. It was sort of like a light massage. Thanks kitty.

We decided that it has been too long since we have been to the beach. We went to a new beach tonight and enjoyed the cooling down weather as we talked, wrote, read, and just relaxed. We are loving living by the ocean. It is such a peaceful place.

One of the things we talked about tonight is how blessed we are for KD to have this internship. His research beforehand drew him to the Consular Section. This section helps citizens abroad: lost or stolen passports, births, deaths, hospital visits, and incarcerations. He said that he has really enjoyed helping those citizens. Although, there is a lot of data entry and that could be done for a posting or two, but not something that would be stimulating for an entire career. However, the Consulate is only available to the public from 9am to 1pm. This means that KD has been able to work on projects from other sections as well and has given him a broad training of the Consulate. What a blessing to have half of the day to do additional training on top of the specified training he came here for. The projects he has worked on have been great to show that he is a hard, effective, and organized worker. He has done amazing with every project and has learned a great deal. This experience is going to be indispensible for his resume and when we are looking into his master’s program. Thank you to all of you who helped to get us here. Especially our parents and family who have put up with us for 22+ years. We are such a lucky couple. We have the best family and friends!