Hi Everyone --

This has been a busy week with Doug's old boss here. He liked to spend every evening with us -- sometimes he would come here for dinner, sometimes we would go to the guest house for dinner, sometimes we would go out for dinner. The hard part is that dinner isn't until 8 or 8:30 p.m. and we wouldn't get done until 10 p.m. Needless to say, we didn't get much Skype chatting done this week and we didn't get our taxes done, and we didn't get our tour reservations made or our hotel reservations, etc., etc. Reno left for the US on Friday afternoon, so we have been able to pick up some of the pieces this weekend.

We made our Petra tour reservations, but they said that they needed a bank transfer within 24 hours. Thursday I went to the bank and the bank was closed for an Indian holiday. Friday I went to the bank, but it was the wrong bank and then I went to the right bank. There were 2 forms to fill out and they needed copies of all of our passports and visas and the flight reservation/confirmation for us. I went home and got all these papers together. Back to the bank and I waited in line because I had no clue how to fill out the forms. The girl showed me and I went over and filled them out and got back in line. When it was finally my turn, she looked them over and said they were ok and that they would make the transfer that afternoon. All this took 2 hours. At 7:45 p.m. I got a call from her and she said that they couldn't do it because they needed Doug's last three months of pay stubs. That just put me over the edge. I called our friendly, hometown credit union in Waterloo, Iowa where she filled out one form on the computer, e-mailed it to me within 15 minutes, I printed it out and signed it. Unfortunately, our scanner is on the fritz so Doug faxed it on Saturday from the office. I went back to the bank on Saturday to pick up all those copies of those important papers, but they wouldn't give them to me because they said they needed verification for the auditors. I asked if I needed to put in writing that I was cancelling the transaction, and she said no. She would just tell them and that would be enough. Isn't life just a bunch of contradictions!

We went to Mumbai for church today. Our new-member family from Pune was confirmed today. It was also pot luck. I have been thinking all week what to take for the pot luck. I asked my housekeeper if she had ever had deviled eggs before. She said, "Sorry Madame, we don't have that holiday in India." I told her that was a good thing and that it was actually a recipe. She really laughed and laughed over that. She told me that she sometimes makes egg curry when the kids get tired of the other food -- that would be hard boiled eggs in Indian "gravy." I told the people at church this story and they thought it was pretty funny. The Indians and the kids really liked the deviled eggs. I also took 2 loaves of homemade bread, cut cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions, 2 dozen deviled eggs, and a 9x13 frosted cake. It must have been good because it was all gone!

We are getting excited about our trip to Israel. We will be gone March 30-April 8. Hopefully we will have access to Internet while we are gone.

Michelle and Ryan are returning from Columbia today (Sunday). I think they are looking forward to being back in the US and getting back to "real life." They have been gone -- out of the country to India, Guatemala, and Columbia-- since Thanksgiving.

Update on the wedding tablecloths -- I got part of the fabric on Monday. They didn't have all the colors and the quantities I needed, so I got what I could and decided to look around for the rest. Unfortunately, I couldn't match the fabric anywhere else. I went back on Wednesday and got matching fabric in different colors, so that the fabric will all be alike, not exactly the correct shades Heather picked. I tried to pick ones that would blend and look nice. I got all the tablecloths (23) squared up and sewn. Reno took them back in his suitcase and his wife will mail them to Julia. That was a good job done!

I guess that's all for this week!
Have a great week! We love you and miss you lots!
Lucinda