Update: September 2013

I have realized the past few weeks that people are still reading the blog. People are looking for advice on moving companies when moving across the ocean. I thought I would give you an update since I have posted in years.

My husband and I split up. The divorce was final in 2012. Did our troubles in Europe contribute to our marriage problems? Probably. But that's a long story, and there is a lot of blame to go around on both sides, so we'll save that for another post. Or maybe not.

The girls and I moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and we're happy here. And since this blog was about moving, I will say for the record that we did move ourselves with a large U-Haul truck. The girls and I were homeless for a few months and living with families from our church. When it came time to actually move into the house I had bought, it took some time driving around collecting things from all over. It was a very interesting time for us. But we've been in the house now for over a year, and we're settled. This is the first time in a long time that I have felt like I have a home.

My oldest daughter is a junior at the University of Alabama Birmingham. She is a Blazer Elite Scholar, a very good scholarship. She is studying mathematics and anthropology, and she's going very well. She finished high school very near the top of her class. I'm very happy that we stayed with Christian Liberty Academy (CLA) through the Luxembourg years and in Tennessee, too.

My youngest daughter is a senior in high school with CLA. Now that we live in a town with a decent school system, people wonder why she's still doing correspondence school. At this point, it's all that she's known, and we know it prepares the girls well for college, so she's finishing up her school work through correspondence, just like we've been doing for years. She is still taking tours of colleges and deciding where to go to college next school year.

My middle daughter, the one who absolutely hated Luxembourg, is now an Airman in the United States Air Force. She credits living in Luxembourg as one of the factors in her decision--living in Luxembourg (which she calls "Suxembourg") helped her to appreciate how much she loves the United States. However, with as much as she loves the U.S., she also decided that there were parts of the rest of the world that she likes very much. She asked for assignment to Lakenheath AFB in the United Kingdom, and she was given her wish, so she will be moving to the U.K. as soon as she has finished her training.

On her application for the Air Force, she needed a reference from everywhere that she had ever lived for a background check. We asked Joan Lyon, one of our pastors in Luxembourg to be the reference. We also discovered that it's easier to get into the USAF with a real high school diploma (for example, one from CLA) that it is if you are strictly homeschooled. Once again, I was reminded of two great decisions in made in Luxembourg: being a part of the Anglican church in Luxembourg and correspondence school through CLA.

I am still working for Catherine Hood Consulting. I also work fairly regularly at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Working for Belmont gives me a chance to get health insurance. I also really enjoy teaching statistics, and I get to teach elementary statistics to the business and psychology majors. It's a lot of fun.

Missing England

A few days ago, I was helping my mother plan a trip to London. We got out the scrapbooks and the guide books, and we talked about what my girls and I had done when we were in London back in 2002. My youngest was only six then, so she has very different memories of that trip than I do. Then again, I spent part of that trip working at the Bank of England while she was sightseeing with my husband, so I have very different memories also.

Last night, my youngest and I were watching the movie Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit along with one of her friends. We were enjoying the movie much more than our friend. I think it's because it's such a British movie. I love seeing the British gardens and the fair at Tottington Hall. It's so much like the church fairs in Luxembourg. And I realized last night that I've never been to a church fair in England, or been to someone's house in England. All my memories of these very British things are memories from Luxembourg. So I think it's time to get out my scrapbook from Luxembourg. As I look through the pictures of my friends at the English-speaking Church of Luxembourg, I will thank God for the wonderful memories and the wonderful influence they have had in my life.

May's Scary Picture from Tennessee

This is a picture of our driveway and the creek during the floods the covered Middle Tennessee on May 1 and 2, 2010. Our house is high enough on the hill that I don't worry about flooding at the house. The scary part is my husband having to wade across this in the dark to get to our van (parked at the neighbors) so he can get to work. The governor asked that everyone stay home, but the company my husband works for didn't seem to get that memo.

April's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

Another anniversary

Today is the four year anniversary of my fall, broken ankle, and surgery. On most days, I forget my leg was ever broken. Today the weather is clear, and my ankle feels good.

It seems like a dream that we ever lived in Europe or that we got to vacation at the Italian Riviera because I broke my leg. It seems like lifetime ago that I worked at Census. I love my job, and I love teaching the girls, too.

I got out my scrapbook of our trip to the Mediterranean to remind myself that God does use all things for our good, and that He does work in mysterious ways.

March's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

February's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

January's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

December's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

I knitted all the "boys" camouflage ponchos and hats for Christmas.

November's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

We adopted our beautiful Sophie on Thanksgiving Day! What a wonderful gift for us!

October's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

The end of August (and the end of summer)

August ends on Monday. I realized today that in many ways, this month has seemed really long, which is a bit unusual for me. Then I realized that it only seems long because we managed to cram so much into just one month.

• On August 1 the girls and I were staying with my friends Kathy and Dave in Southern Maryland, getting ready for church and the start of my Joint Statistical Meetings in DC on August 2. I got to play for church that day, and the girls sang a trio. I had a great time at the meetings. The girls and I got to go out to dinner and a bit of sightseeing with our friend Monique from Switzerland, and I had a great time seeing all my time series friends at a party at Dr. Findley's house on August 5, which just happened to be my 20th wedding anniversary.
  
• In the midst of the meetings, the girls and I also managed to get in a couple trips to Six Flags America.
  
• On the way home I got into poison ivy at Mom's house and dealt with that for a couple of weeks.
  
• I had tons of work to do for clients this month, including some new clients. I've also been working on updates to the web pages for my consulting business, with help from a contractor/friend.
  
• I signed up with Creative Memories again, partly to get a discount on the pages I needed and partly to motivate myself to start scrapbooking again and keeping the house clean enough to host scrapbook parties.
  
• On August 17 the kids started school in earnest. (Fortunately, I had finished most of the planning in July.) The biggest part of planning now is planning for E's Bible course (a bit of independent study) and M's AP statistics course.
• On August 22 I was back in DC to teach a short course, staying with my friend Julie. I flew on an airplane for the first time since 2006, which might not seem like a big deal, but it seemed really big to me. I also got to play the piano for church again, and I sang a duet with Kimberly.
  
• Tomorrow I'll sing in the choir in the morning service and go to Sunday school. In the evening, I'll go to choir practice and two bell choir rehearsals because I will be filling in for Melinda in her bell choir in September.
• On August 31, I'll be driving N up to Lebanon to take her written test for her learners permit. Then the driving lessons begin for daughter #2.

Sometimes I wonder how I have time to sleep, let alone run a small business on my own. Yet somehow, it all gets done, and I have a great time doing it.

New School Year

I was looking through old blog posts about what classes the girls have been taking. Here's the list of what the girls are taking this school year.

My 11th grader is taking

• AP Statistics (taught by her mother, and not through our correspondence school)
• U.S. History
• American Literature (1/2 credit)
• Creative Writing (1/2 credit)
• Government, year 2
• Theology
• Art, Music, PE (taught by her parents)
• Latin (again, taught by her mother, who is learning Latin along with the girls)
• Maybe chemistry from a junior college in the spring semester
  

My 10th grader is taking

• Trigonometry
• World History, part 2
• World Literature (1/2 credit)
• Grammar (1/2 credit)
• Sophomore research paper (1/4 credit, required)
• Government, year 1
• Biology
  
• Old Testament, part 2
• Art, Music, PE (taught by her parents)
  
• Latin (taught by her mother)

Last year, my 10th grader took Spanish, but N wanted nothing to do with that. She says that Latin is enough for her, though she might study some Italian from the BBC web site, she says.

My 8th grader is taking

• Geometry (and she's already in Chapter 6, so we'll start Algebra II before the year is over)
• Omnibus (Middle Ages/Renaissance), which includes theology, literature, and history
  
• Spelling
  
• Grammar
• Logic
  
• Bible
• Art, Music, PE (taught by her parents)
• Latin (taught by her mother)

Next year will be our biggest challenge with all three in high school!

ttfn

August's Beautiful Picture from DC/Maryland

A beautiful friend. We don't try to dress alike, it just happens. It's no wonder that people think we're sisters. Fortunately for me, we are sisters, even if we have different parents. :-)

My 20th Anniversary

Dr. Estelle Dagum, formerly of Statistics Canada and the principal author of X-11-ARIMA, told me I was a flirt and had always been a flirt. For me, I see it as an occupational hazard of being in a mostly male profession. Is it my fault that I get to hang out with so many good-looking men?

And is it my fault that Dr. Findley had a party for all of us at his house on the same day as my 20th wedding anniversary? If I can't be with my husband, then I might as well have a good time.

The girls and friends at the Joint Statistical Meetings

With Zekie


With Uncle Brian (I love this picture!)


With John and Siem Jan


With Diane

With Monique

May's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

One benefit of being back in the States was that the kids finally got the braces they wanted for their teeth, and then of course, off they got the braces off eventually. Here are the results from my oldest child after about a year and a half in braces. She's very happy with the results.

February's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

December's Beautiful Picture from Tennessee

My oldest plays "Silent Night" for us.

October's Beautiful Pictures from Tennessee

Belmont University, where I teach part-time, was host to one of the three Presidential debates this year. The entire campus has been buzzing about this for months and months.

The bell tower:


The Curb Event Center, site of the debate: