Well Susan is certainly the hero of the hour (weekend, week, month?) here at Stonegate. In honor of MCC’s 10th birthday, Susan gave her a very special box full of antique barbie clothes, barbies, accessories, and even a wig! These were Susan’s when she was a little girl, and Kelly and Claire have been playing with them continuously this weekend, repeatedly telling me how special these are. Kelly emphasized how Susan gave these to Mary Claire for her to share (with Kelly.) The two girls have done a marvelous job sharing.

Kelly is also very happy that Mary Claire got her own pool cue and is allowed to play pool now at Grandaddy’s, because now she has someone who will play pool with her.

Happy Birthday Claire! Thank you Susan! And I’ll caution the girls to not let immoral, modern Barbie behavior spill over to these special Barbies.

Kathy called tonight from Jamaica to report that she and Danny had made it through their first day working for Missionaries of the Poor. She said she had an easy day visiting with the elderly women of The Lord’s Place where the women wanted to talk, sing, dance, and laugh at their photos on the digital camera. Father Raymond also kept her laughing.

Danny, Casey, and Dillon (the three young guys) were all assigned duty in Bethlehem House (a.k.a. the combat zone.) This is where the young boys live, and Danny had to help with shower duty. Kathy laughed as she related the story where Danny picked up one boy, and one of the brothers cautioned to not pick him up, but to put him in a wheelchair. Danny said, “It’s ok, I can pick him up.” (Danny looks twice as big as many of the brothers.) He suddenly smelled why the brothers were cautioning him, and he realized too late that he had a smelly mess on his shirt.

In the afternoon, the three guys got to go on a “Biscuit Run.” They went in a truck with one of the brothers to pick up surplus cookies at a factory. They road through the slums of Kingston handing out free “biscuits” to all takers. Danny tried to use cookie crumbs to rub out the stain on his shirt. Didn’t help much. He says he will bring an extra shirt tomorrow, just in case.

Kelly, Claire, and I were all relieved to hear Kathy was doing well.

Betty Claire is experimenting with blogging. She is using blogger.com, which Google bought last year. I’ll put a link to her site under the links page here. When she has 50 posts, I’ll help her graduate to MovableType! (We can even migrate the past entries.)

http://foxfire5.blogspot.com

Nicole made Dean’s List in her second-to-last semester at UGA. This earned her a prize from her mom and dad– a U2 iPod. Danny is finishing his final year of high school. He has applied to Notre Dame and Spring Hill. He will be applying to several (secular) Georgia colleges in the next few weeks. We had plenty of fall athletics with Kelly and Mary Claire playing soccer, Danny playing baseball, and most recently, Claire starting up basketball. Kelly entertained us with her violin at her Christmas orchestra concert.

Jeb and Danny installed a new range and microwave for Kathy. This included installing a new gas line. You can read about their adventures with gas and electricity on mac.fiveforks.com. Kathy is very excited and did a lot of Christmas cooking.

Kathy and Danny are both planning a trip to Jamaica to work with Father Ho Lung’s Missionaries of the Poor. They will be gone 5 days in early February, returning just in time for Mary Claire’s 10th birthday.

Some photos from Halloween 2004 which had the best weather I can recall. I walked the girls around the neighborhood in short sleeves and sandals. Neighbors set up tables along driveways to hand out candy and drinks. One Dad even offered me an “adult beverage.”

Bats were out at twilight chasing down bugs. I tried taking a picture of one flying overhead, and all I got was a remarkable red dot on a black background, which is the reflection of one of the bat’s retinas. Red eye also worked well in Kelly’s photo below since she was all dressed up in pinks and reds.

Mary Claire had an amazing nerd walk that I think was better than Steve Urkel’s. MCC also designed Jack O’ this year. That’s a bow tie and a one-toothed mouth.

Dad, myself, Ted, and Grant are all preparing to head down towards Savannah for a 4 day vacation. We plan on refreshing Colonel Smut’s War Chest. Meanwhile, this weather guy on the iMac is telling me that Hurricane Jeanne is heading our way, too.

I think I’m most impressed that there is a guy talking to me and showing me what is going on on the iMac. We may be rescuing the cache just in time.

Kathy drove Danny to St. John Neumann today to go on the Steubenville Retreat. They drove in the Wrangler with the top down and Clyde was in the back.

After dropping Danny off, a woman saw Kathy in the Jeep and said: “I see you are going through a midlife crisis. You have a convertible and a blonde!”

Turns out she was a Golden Retriever owner, too.

Thursday, June 27, 2002

Dear Kelly,

I hope you are reading this on Friday (which is tomorrow, but for you it is today.) If this is Friday, then it is a GREAT day because we will be coming to pick you up! Are you ready to come home? Remember that we have a white van now, so don’t look for a gray van.

Do not worry about anything changing while you were gone. I mostly just went to work, and we did not change anything. Sometimes kids get nervous that things will be different when they come home. Do you remember me telling you the story about when I came home from Notre Dame for Christmas Vacation, and they had changed dogs but did not tell me? That’s when Gramalie and Grandad got Sheba instead of Sam. They were both Bull Mastifs (big dogs) so I did not realize they had switched.

Sheba did not know who I was, and she just barked and barked at me and was very mad because she thought I was a stranger. I could not figure it out, so I tried to get closer to her and pet her. (Although I thought I was trying to pet ‘him’ — Sam.) She just got madder and barked louder.

Then I heard everyone in my family laughing from inside the house and your Aunt Carol said, ‘That’s not Sam, that’s a different dog!’

I jumped out of the fenced back yard and slammed shut the gate as fast as I could. I was mad, because what if Sheba had tried to attack me? (It turns out Sheba was a whimp just like Charlie.)

Well, we have not switched dogs without telling you, since I do not think that would be funny. Nor have we switched anything else.

We did paint the bricks on the house. They are

sort of a medium to dark green. So you now will

live in a green house. (See photo.)

Can’t wait to see you! Hope you are still having

lots of fun!

Love,

Dad

P.S.

Just kidding about the green house. We really painted it pink.

P.S.S.

Kidding about the pink house, too!

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Dear Kelly,

It seems like you have been gone a really long time, and I miss you. I feel like you have gone away to college.

I have included a picture of me and Mom just in case you are starting to forget what we look like. I shaved my beard, though, as you may well remember.

The dogs did not sleep in your bed last night, in case you are wondering about that.

I only get two kisses at night now. One from Mom and one from Nicole. No kisses and hugs from you or Mary Claire. Isn’t that sad? I guess I could let Charlie and Ginger lick my face, but that would be a poor substitute.

It rained for a little while today while I was at work. I was hoping that it was not raining on you while you were out hiking or in a canoe or something. I do know know if you brought a rain coat or a water proof hat.

Are you checking for ticks? The best way is to lightly scratch all over your scalp, kind of like when you shampoo your hair. If you feel a bump, tell somebody in charge, and they will get the tick off of your head. Grandaddy removed a tick from my head when I was a little boy. He wanted to use a hot cigar to burn the tick off, but Gramalie said that would be dangerous. So she made him use a hot needle, instead. I had to sit very still, and it did not hurt at all.

I hope you are having a lot of fun at camp. Do you think when you are older (16 or 17) you would want to be a camp counselor? Would that be a fun job? Do you think you could help a little girl get a tick off of her? If so, you might be a good camp counselor.

Have a great day!

Love,

Dad

Monday, June 24, 2002

Dear Kelly,

I miss you and the dogs miss you. Mom decided to let Ginger sleep in the house and not leashed to our bed. I told mom that I thought the dogs would just both sleep downstairs. I was wrong. When I got up to go to work in the morning, look what I found!

I think this was all Ginger’s idea and not Charlie’s, because Charlie never got on furniture until now. I think Charlie decided to get on the top bunk because she can climb stairs, jump in the jeep, and is generally more atheletic than Ginger.

What do you think?

The good news (in case you are worried) is that Ginger did not chew up anything in your bed.

I guess the dogs really do miss you.

I am going to sleep in the lower bunk tonight, just to make sure the dogs don’t sneak back into your and Mary Claire’s bed.

However, I do want to see how Charlie climbs ladders, so I may lie real still and watch that, and then tell her to come back down and not get on beds ever again.

I hope you are having fun at camp. Please do not adopt any stray dogs that you meet at camp. Or cats, either.

Love,

Dad