They're on Land...Finally!

Rich's four coke drums are finally sitting on the shores of the Mississippi River! It was a long trip from Belgium with a lot of worry along the way. There is a major look of relief on Rich's face. You can see some water in front of them and also behind them. That water is not supposed to be there! We have had so much rain. The other night when we were listening to the weather forecast the weatherman labeled the clouds as being "juicy". We concluded that they were running out of terms to label our very wet skies and the weather patterns that have passed through the mid-west.

It's a Graduate!

Marshall graduated on Saturday afternoon! Yahoo! 4 down, 1 to go. Marshall is wearing a medallion from the Thespian Society. Way to go son! Especially love the glasses.

Marshall and Sarah at Zapata's Restaurant...his choice for dinner after graduation.

Before Marshall went on to other events of the evening, we stopped by the Gray's home in our ward. Erica is also headed out to Provo for school. Our ward had 7 high school graduates. We'll miss them all.

It was kind of tricky trying to figure out what a good graduation gift would be for Marshall. Katie came up with this terrific idea...a George Foreman Grill! He was pretty excited...especially about the spatula, silverware and towels that came with it. Marshall is planning on living in a dorm where he has to do a lot of his own cooking. Anyways, his grill has 5 different plates, capable of cooking all sorts of things - from pizza to waffles to steak! Yummmy!

We Found Bambi In Our Yard!

Look who we saw in our back yard this morning. I was able to get within a couple of feet before she got up and skampered away. We see deer fairly often, but I've never seen one left alone without Mom, looking pretty scared. Babies are SO cute!

Not Even Tornado Sirens Could Stop Us!!

OK, We were just a little determined to go to our dinner and show that had been planned for a week. It was to be a surprise for Heather. However, Katharine took care of that one...while talking to a friend on the phone shortly after we were on our way, she happened to mention, "Yea, I'm on my way to dinner with my girlfriends and then to see Mamma Mia." And then she realized what she had done and we all had a good laugh about that one. It had been pouring down rain a good part of the afternoon with watches all over the place. Our tornado sirens were even going off. I'm a real whimp in these situations, but also really wanted to go, so I showed the brave side and off we went. I think we had missed the worst of it in St. Louis, so we had it good afterall. Sign post on side of road...weather looking questionable?

Kirstin Lindsay, Heather Porter, Lisa, and Katharine LeCheminant...well, they all have birthdays fairly close together (not Lisa) so we needed to do something extra special, especially since Katharine will be leaving us sooon...so, so, sad, but exciting, too! We held the dancing to a minimum. The St. Louis crowd was probably a bit more subdued than NYC. Too much fun, though! Thanks for going gals!

No Longer a Freshman!!!!

Happy day, school is out!!!!! I'm finally free to sleep in until 10:00...unless my mother decides otherwise. My mom likes to refer to me as "Sarah the Sophmore," however i please ask you all to NOT address me like that!!!! (Still love ya mom!) Of course, I still have my priorities this summer. I am still trying to lose a bit of weight this summer, and by doing so, my parents are rewarding me. Hopefully, I will be able to have a new room, new makeup, and a new haircut!!!!! total, that will bring me to have lost 30 pounds. Wish me luck!!!

Any suggestions?

Mother and myself are taking a trip to Washington DC, and we are trying to figure out where in the world to start...ANY SUGGESTIONS? Please write on the comments board if you have any ideas of things to do.

Guest Blog from Rich

Ok, so I was asked to write a guest blog. I'm being forced into the 21st century here.

So I thought I would show what I did today. This is a picture of the first of my four coke drums. Fabricated in Belgium, this giant vessel came over on a ship, and was then transferred to a barge at New Orleans. It came up the Mississippi to a terminal near the refinery. Here it is being offloaded using a self propelled 16-axle transporter, rolling off the barge across a heavy-duty ramp and onto a landing we built up. The river was high and rising today; it's been a challenge to design for offloading with all the changing river conditions we've experienced in the last 2 months (very high levels, fast rises and falls, swift current, major flooding in the area). This brute weighs 1,200,000 pounds empty. It's 31 feet in diameter! My boss asked me if it would float, if we dropped it. I responded that it would float, downstream, along with all our careers! One down, three more to offload. We're still waiting on a permit to begin construction, so for now we will just store these vessels at this terminal.

There you have it, my first blog entry. Only an engineer could love it.

Rich