Eleanor Gene Grubbs Umek passed away suddenly this morning. Funeral arrangements at Berrien Springs, Michigan are still pending. I will miss her as will all her family and friends.

It's been a long time since I've written anything on here. I've been preoccupied with reconnecting with former students and old friends on Facebook. We have settled in pretty well here in California. We're getting a lot more snow that we expected, but it doesn't get very cold, so we're not minding it.

I'm beginning to get to know some of the people from church and making friends. I was invited to a stamping "party" and got to meet a few new people and got to know some others a little better. Don and I took a seminar of Dave Ramsey (videos) that lasted about 12 weeks and we got to know several people there pretty well. They were in our discussion group. It was fun...and yes, Don would say the same thing. If you ever get a chance to go, we highly recommend it.

We had a foot of snow that is melting since it has turned to rain and the temperatures remain just above freezing at night and about 40 in the day time. Maybe it's the rainy weather, but I've been feeling pretty lazy and blah lately. Or maybe I'm just bored and need a job or something!
Oh, well, I'll get over that when the sun comes back out.

We got a letter from Jairo on Sabbath. It is amazing how much his faith remains strong even when things don't seem to be always going as well as he'd hoped. He just got moved again, (for the 3rd time) and he just got a work assignment driving a tractor outside the prison, so he seems to be feeling good about that. We got a call from Natalie today, and she has gone to Michigan where her mom lives and is living with her. We are coming to Michigan in May for Tandita's graduation and plan to drive down to see Jairo, and she and Junior plan to go with us at that time. Jairo plans to come to live with us as soon as he can after he gets out, and Natalie indicated that she wants to come, too. Please keep them all in your prayers as they are trying to put their life back together on solid ground.

Don is dealing with auditors this week and last and who knows how long. They are doing a 3-year audit since that's how long since it was done...unusual.

Me...I'm starting my day with the book THROUGH THE BIBLE with HMS Richards, and am enjoying this plan that keeps things in sequence (at least that's my understanding and is how it's been so far) I'm in the book of Exodus now and will do that slowly since there's so much there, and also since I am attempting to write a Biblical novel about the Exodus. I'm even combing through the begats! So if any of you are an expert about this story and especially about people like Caleb and Joshua, please share. I especially am interested in their geneaology and how old they were when the Hebrews left Egypt.