Avis Rosella Rogness, 7/24/1916 - 6/21/2008

We are on our way to North Dakota to pay our respects to my dear grandmother.

Goodbye, Grandma.

Whistler's Mother's Son

Doesn't everyone have some superhero quality? I'm not that tall, or that strong, or that fast, but there is something at which I am unsurpassed as far as I know. So that makes it rather unofficial, I realize, but still...

The other night I stopped by the cleaners' to pick up my shirts and pants. I wear stuff over and over in the winter time, but with Chloe around they get stinky for reasons that aren't directly my fault, but anyway...

I stepped up to the counter, and the lady behind it, exclaimed, "Whose are these?" and pointed at a handful of freshly cleaned clothes on hangers sitting on the rack right there. "They must be hers!" she continued, as she gestured towards a car that was backing out of the parking space directly in front of the door, windows up (as far as I could tell).

I sprung into action. I walked out the front door, and, as she had just shifted the car out of reverse and into drive, I whistled. Twice. Loud. She looked at me, and I pointed at her clothes, and she smiled, nodded and parked.

"Thanks," she said sheepishly as she walked in and got her clothes. "No problem," I replied. Later the cleaning store lady thanked me again. "I sure can't whistle like that," she said. No she can't. :-)

Eating, Etc.

Here are our little girls in action. I hope this makes you smile as much as they make us smile every day.

Material Girls and Boys in the Spiritual World

Remember the Police? We Are Spirits in the Material World. They were too cool. Isabelle got me a DVD of all their videos the Christmas before last. Walking on the Moon, So Lonely, etc. They perk me right up.

But how about it? How often does anyone really recognize either of these paradoxes (Being Spirits in the Material World or being Materials in the Spiritual World)? It's so easy just going along being material in the material world.

Last night we went to Target, and I browsed the Blu-Ray selection, which I last visited before Christmas so we would have a few good flicks for our new Blu-Ray player that we got for Christmas to go along with our new HD TV. Most movies were 24.99, 29.99 or 34.99, which was OK for Christmas, but more than I wanted to pay. Then, there it was: T2, $14.99. That's Arnold. Schwarzenegger. In his prime. #73 on imdb.com's top 250. I already have The Terminator, on DVD (#188). A no-brainer, right? Less than the price of 2 tickets to the actual movies for a high-def version of one of my favorite movies of all time, which we can watch on a projector with surround sound.

$16 (with tax). So we can stay home and watch it for 2+ hours, every once in a while. Oh and so we can watch the first one for 2 hours also just prior, most likely, also.

Does anyone else have a budget? We do. That's our material contract with ourselves. But it's a bit preposterous, isn't it? How many people in the world never see $16 at one time? That just slid right into our disposable income. I don't want to think about it.

Oh, and that time we spend watching our movies, that comes from our calendar, which is another contract with ourselves. And (gulp!) it's more spiritual than material! I really don't want to think about this one.

It's so much easier being reactive than pro-active. What must we pay? Bills! What must we do? Change diapers! But wait--why am I watching TV?

Trained! (And A Travel Reprieve)

Ah, training! Nothing scratches a technologist's itch quite like a week of on-site, pertinent, challenging, and thorough training. Our Database Administrators at my workplace (Bank Of America) were thoughtful enough to include us developers in a course called "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SSIS for Administrators." For those who are technology or acronym challenged or both, SQL stands for Structured Query Language (a standard across all databases) and SSIS stands for SQL Server Integration Services.

Another interesting connection here is that a friend of mine since I first arrived in St. Louis, Gerald Hinson, was on the SQL Server 2005 team at Microsoft, and here I was learning all about it. Pretty cool. Gerald can be found among my friends in Facebook. Gerald has since moved on to the Microsoft Zune team.

And, great news about our upcoming trip back to Mauritius. We had been told by Air Mauritius that they had closed their US office. Instead they upgraded, moving from New Jersey to New York. And when we checked, their prices for tickets from St. Louis to Mauritius via London were the same as the last time we went. Whew! No Euros or Pounds required, apparently. Who's coming?

The Trip!

Well, whatever could be next but some details around our upcoming trip back to Mauritius. We're looking at leaving at the end of October, and I'll return in mid-November, probably visiting our missionaries in Marseille, France on the way back. Isabelle, Julia and Chloe will be staying in Mauritius without me until they return in January.

Ticket prices have gotten really expensive, but we discovered some tricks that are easing the pain. Frequent flyer tickets have become more valuable than ever. We have found that it works out to be better to buy miles for a frequent flyer account even if you have no miles, in order to redeem for a ticket, than to try to buy tickets directly. But you do have to get them early.

So, who's with us? Springtime in Mauritius! And a visit in the south of France!

Foreign Mission Sunday

This Sunday, April 13, we are having Foreign Mission Sunday at our church, Mid-County Church of Christ in St. Louis. Materials here will supplement and in some cases duplicate the live presentation.

It is a world tour. We start in Richmond Heights, Missouri, at our Sunday morning meeting place, and then we fly off across the Atlantic Ocean to...

Marseille, France

Newsletter about their recent trip to Italy

And then, across mainland Africa to its furthest corner...

Mauritius

Slideshow of the Leuteritz family's adventures in Mauritius

Now we're heading across the Indian Ocean to...

Laos and Cambodia

Our friendly American visitor in Laos

Dale Lundy's Cambodia newsletter



We're off again across the vast Pacific Ocean to...

Lima, Peru

One of our favorite daughters, Stephanie (Grigg) Fletcher and her husband Lee's slide show

Lee and Stephanie's Proposal for Partnership for their mission to Lima, Peru

Leon, our favorite South American's Peru slide show

Finally, we make our way back to St. Louis, overwhelmed by the enormity of the Great Commission, but encouraged by those who are a part of it.

Sunday's materials:

Mauritius Slides

Mauritius Script

Slide of Dale Lundy in Cambodia