You're not in Iowa anymore, Dorthy!!!

Rob has not gone back to Iowa since the end of May. He continues to do some small jobs for Prism, but does them from home. He's been doing some part-time work for a local company in Tempe, but has had just a few interviews elsewhere as the job market is tight. He has had a 2nd interview with a company in Scottsdale that looks very promising. It's in the Lord's hands and at His will, but we're praying for a successful offer.


We've been able to go on some neat vacations this spring/summer that started off with the Grand Canyon, Slide Rock, and Montezuma's Castle.






A Shumway Family reunion in Heber, AZ






and a Merkley Family reunion in Show Low, AZ





Xarissa competed on Swim Team this summer. She discovered that she's not too bad at breast stroke. Her first 2 meets she got the blue ribbon in the event. She went to preliminaries and came in 6th out of 64 girls (top 16 go to the championships). At championships, she came in 5th, and each time she competed, she took 2-3 seconds off her time, so perhaps next years she'll be fine tuning some more.

For Xarissa's birthday, she got to go to the play Wicked, then to the lake the next day, where she almost got up on skis. Later that evening she got to go to the Harry Potter movie and out to dinner with her dad. Then the NEXT day (the day after her birthday), she finally opened a present from her sisters and we had a birthday cake. Her sisters said they'd like their birthdays to last this long from now on, so somehow we have to arrange 3 day birthday celebrations in the future. OH BOY!!!