I had a great birthday today, thanks to my wonderful family! By 9am I had received several happy birthday wishes. Had a little present opening party at breakfast with Brian & Deb (We missed you Chris, but hope you're enjoying the break at the dude ranch in California). Brian picked up a couple friends & headed to Lauren's lake house where they enjoyed Memorial Day with about 16 other kids. I told him he could go (and miss my birthday at home) if he delivered a photo of his cow encounter last weekend at Eileen's farm. Looking forward to posting that!

Mom & I had a very nice wine & cheese party, then BBQ'ed dinner at the airport. Ahhhh.The weather and the company was great. What a nice day.

Dad

No, I do not fly the airplane in this position. But I do spend a lot of time building it like that. One of Mom's awsome birthday gifts to me was working at the airport with me today. We got lots done on the upholtery work in the Glasair and had a really nice time in general.

Starting the Day Off Right

Christina,

I haven't written you a postal letter yet, but Mom and grandmother have so I'll cover the Blog approach this week. I know you won't be able to access these until you visit San Diego on Sunday, but maybe you can print & take them with you then.

Well I guess you're waking from your second night in Tijuana about now...I hope you're sleeping well and getting settled in. Is it cold or hot in your tent at night? How's the temperature when you get up in the morning? Is your 'bed' comfortable? Do you have a tent-mate? So many questions. Inquiring minds want to know!


Must say we have all slept well in the Beaird house lately....largely because we're all exhausted by end of day. Working and playing hard. Especially Brian Patrick. He met up with the Elmwood boys last night...not sure when he rolled in but at least was in bed when I got up at 5:30am. He's getting more brain work and less braun work each day at work and seems to be enjoying it.

I had a special start to my day this morning: Sometimes I take a stroll around 'the estate' before breakfast. It's very quiet and cool and green and pleasant and the critters are all still out. (btw, your Grandaddy used to do that too, in Dallas when I was little. We have photos of us doing it together). Anyway, this fine morning a bird sent me a special delivery right onto my shoulder. Good news is it could have been worse...a few inches over and I would have been cursing instead of laughing. Ah the joys of nature.



Oh well, all clean now (and in a clean shirt).

Take care Chris. Love you. Dad

Christina's text message today really hit home...'we're about to cross the border, have a great week, I love you!' Now I know how it felt when Apollo when into communications blackout behind the moon...already looking forward to Sunday. I'm glad you agreed to carry a charged cell phone Chris...although I know its turned off.

Meanwhile, Brian Patrick traveled into & out of another world for the fourth day on his summer job...to the way-south side of Chicago where he spends the day surveying routes for future communication cables. He's learning a lot (about surveying as well as...other things) and already has some very interesting stories to tell...

Grandmother & Granddaddy 'checked in' tonite as requested, via phone call from Little Rock, AR. They reached their intended midway stop for the nite enroute to Tyler Texas. I spent the afternoon in an ExxonMobil meeting at Harrah's Casino of all places...I'm no gambler so I left as soon as possible, and also passed up a skybox at the Joliet Jackammers baseball game this evening. Came home & ran a couple miles instead...at < 8 minute/mile pace with no injuries which is good.

Deb, Brian, and I had a late dinner on the front porch. We all missed you Christina. I laid on the hammock a minute...and stared at the same moon you see from Tejuana. I miss my Chris! Which made me think...would you like us to send you one of those lightweight hammocks? Like the ones we saw in Hawaii...might be very nice if you can find a couple attach points ~ 15 feet apart. May beat the hard ground. Just let us know if you're interested.

Well time for bed.
G'nite all.
Brian

Monday May 21st, 2007

First day into our new "summer routine". Christina "crossed" the border into Mexico and text messaged that she will talk to us in a week. Brian P. caught the 6:25 am train to the city with his new steel toed boots and Dad and Mom headed to work.

I am going to try to add a week-end picture from the pre-Prom pictures. If we are lucky we will get a post-prom party picture of Brian riding a cow..... Not too successfully by the state of his jeans!

This time I have words in my post!

I enjoyed Keywester a lot too on Thursday night! mmmm...seafood.

I didn't mean to wait til Sunday to write this post, but packing took about a million years, and now I'm procrastinating on going to bed even though I have to be up in less than 5 hours to fly to San Diego!!!!

Why did I pick the 8:15 a.m. flight?!!!

Oh well. I'm kinda nervous b/c I've never flown by myself, but I figure if I'm tired enough maybe I'll just crash (er, fall asleep) on the plane.
Yeah, so not too much exciting so far, I just feel like I have too much stuff packed, but that's what Girl Scouts will do to you, making you want to be prepared for pretty much every imaginable situation. Of course there are plenty of situations I haven't imagined yet like...well, I haven't imagined them so I don't know what they are. Oh well.
Sorry about the rambling. Pretty much that is all that is new.

I'm gonna miss everyone so much!
Goodnight ;-)

Well it's Saturday night past bedtime. Chris is pretty much packed & acting like she's really going to go through with this Tijuana thing (gulp!). Brian and Lauren are still steppin' out at the NCHS prom and related parties! They looked and acted so...well...adult-like at the photo session before the dance.

Deb & I will drive Chris to O'hare airport early tomorrow morning. Then we'll be thinking & praying for her for the next 12 weeks! We've all enjoyed our time together as a family over the past few days & said our prayers and then we've all gone our different ways tonight: Brian's started a very interesting job in the city (Chicago) this week and now he's out dancin' with Lauren....Chris has caught up with friends this week, and went to someone's place to cook & eat dinner tonight...Deb & I went to the Duffy's for a drink on their patio with some track parent friends.

It seems we're all poised & ready for the next phase...stay tuned...

Alright this time I'm learning how to add a post. Seems easy. I sure enjoyed our dinner at Keywester in Naperville last nite. It was probably our last outing as a 'complete set' for a while since Chris leaves for Tequana (sp?) in a couple days. (Ok I havn't found spellcheck in Blogger yet).

Cool idea with the blog, Dad!The Beairds on a glacier (not in the 'ville)

Ok. I just created this Beairdville blog! Whatever that is...
My first big decisions included:

• Naming it - I suggested Beairds of Naperville, which Deb shortened to Beairdville. Which we both agree sounds right. So welcome to Beairdville.
• Picking a format template - ok I actually looked at all dozen of the choices. I chose 'Scribe' b/c it looks kinda like a paperback journal. An I like journals. 'Minima Black' was my second choice, but it looked a little too ...well... black. So Scribe it is for starters.

Ok so what's the purpose of this blog? I dunno...TBD...to be determined I guess. The four Beairds of Naperville (sounds romantic...like Wearwolves of London, or Knights of the Roundtable or something) agreed it might be useful & fun, since we will all be going different (but interesting) directions this summer and this might be a good way to stay connected and document our expereinces. Chris leaves for Tequana (sp?) Sunday. Brian Patrick started a new job under Chicago(?!) today. Yes I said under. Deb's going to Waste again (pun intended), and Brian Walter (me) going to...work/play/fly/whoknows...destination unknown...Hey I think I just invented a new word: whoknows. Its related to 'whatever'. only different.

But I digress. Purpose of this Blog. Yet to be determined really. Whatever it evolves into I guess. Let's just start using it & see where it goes. Or doesn't go.
So hey...I dare you other Beairdvillians to jump in here...

Blog on y'all! (whatever that is). I sound like such a geek.

Brian Walter (the dad) Beaird. of Beairdville