My two older girls are together in Chicago this weekend. I hope they are having a fabulous time. :-)

Bryna is upstairs practicing her piano - and waiting for her piano teacher to arrive.

Jared is at work with his dad. Walt and his associate, Chuck, are in an old building that Chuck is renovating. Walt said that Jared has measured every inch of that building! Jared is then entering all of this data into his Sketchup program and "building" the building and "renovating" it on his computer program. Jared wants to be the general contractor for this project in the worst way! I can see my son as an architect some day.

He stayed up until about 11:30 last night (knowing he was getting up at the crack of dawn to go into work with Walt) just to tell me all of his plans for this building. We found some old blueprints in the basement - blueprints we rejected before the blueprints that we finally chose of the house we built in Indiana. We had fun talking about the house we built - Bryna was there too. Jared's memories of that house were vivid (Of course. I think he remembers every building he's ever been in.), but Bryna's were sketchy. She's was 4 when we moved from there. Jared had such good memories of that house. :o) I told him maybe we'll build again. He asked excitedly if he could draw the blueprints. I told him we would probably find a way for him to apprentice with an architect to draw them. That got his juices flowing.

Well, this is getting long...and isn't the post I had in mind when I came down to the basement and sat down on the couch with my Mac! I think I'll start a separate post...

I love this guy!

Jillian graduates! :-)

Although as Jillian has said, she feels like high school graduations are over-rated. She has said that she's not done, that she is just moving from one educational environment to another, but to think one is done with one's education at 18 is silly. We tend to agree. :-)

Jillian has finished her last exam, a Greek one, as a high school student. Although because she is such an amazing hard-working, smart-thinking fiend, she requested to do an "independent study" with her Latin teacher during the summer.

Jillian has chosen to attend the University of Dallas in Texas to study History and Classics (with an emphasis in Greek). She received a full-tuition scholarship and some additional departmental scholarships, so the price is right. :-) As we've seen on the UD facebook page she is one of 20 National Merit scholars in their incoming freshman class.

We are thankful to God for His blessings upon our Jillian Grace.

One of the things that attracted Jillian to UD was its core curriculum. It was designed by a woman (who is in her 90's! and still teaching!) named Louise Cowan (who co-wrote Invitation to the Classics), and who was just named one of the "20 Most Brilliant Christian Professors" by an online journal, The College Crunch. UD's core is incredibly thorough and demanding. Jillian is looking forward to the challenge. She is also looking forward to studying in Rome for the spring semester of her sophomore year. :-)

Jillian, we are so very proud of you!!