Dear family:

I am overwhelmed at the thought of trying to write something that will adequately cover all the many sights and sounds of the past weeks. My comfort is that we have seen almost all of you, except for David’s family, so many of the memories would be shared ones anyway.

In April and May I was occasionally substituting at Peter’s high school. This was a way for me to help the school and to get a window into Peter’s life. The substituting was sometimes a challenge, because I was called in for any and all subjects, and not just the history or English that I had offered to cover. I sweated out one day as a Spanish teacher, and managed to pull out of the recesses of my memory some Spanish from twenty five years ago. At the very end of the last class of the day, I discovered the teacher’s manual with the answer key! Another day I was the biology teacher, and was supposed to lead a discussion on a video we watched about bio-intensive farming. The scary part was that, even after viewing the video, I had no idea what bio-intensive farming was. I very adroitly led the discussion into an area I did know something about – namely, the Irish potato famine! Yet another day, in the typical cost-cutting measures of a Christian school, I was BOTH the geometry and Spanish teacher, with both classes together. All in all, I enjoyed the experience. The students at his school have a good rapport with their teachers, and no one played any tricks on me, as far as I know.

Peter ended his first "real" school year with distinction. He was on the high honor roll, and won the German prize. He was nominated by his school along with two others to be part of Lehigh’s High School Scholar Program, and Lehigh selected him and one of the others. So he will be taking Engineering 1 at Lehigh University(free of charge) this fall. He ran for Student Council president but lost to the incumbent. I was so impressed that he was willing to put himself out on the line like that, considering he is a newcomer to the school. It signified to me that he feels that he fits in there. These days he is playing twice a week in the Summer Soccer league. Unexpectedly he got the job of goalie, a position he has never played in his life before, but he has done well. While he prefers running the field, he says that being goalie is better than warming the bench, which is what he did most of the fall season. Right now he is nursing a swollen ankle from a basketball game at a graduation party, so his soccer career may come to an abrupt end. He has an application in at a number of local businesses for a summer job. He is trying to avoid a fast food place, though.

Ben also ended his first year of school (nursery school). Nana and Poppa arrived in time to attend his end of the year sing along. Unlike his cousin Samuel, who impressed us with a video of his kindergarten program, Ben continued the Green tradition of refusing to sing or dance. He loved the school, though, and asks when he can go back. Fortunately he is distracted a bit by the next door girl, Amy, and another little tyke, Katie, from down the street. With the weather nice like this, there is a steady stream of neighbors in and out of the house. In one week he wore out the knees of two pants, so I’m glad it is shorts season. Now we just go through boxes of bandaids.

David’s year has a cycle, too, that follows the school year. We had a flurry of end of year events, culminating in a picnic we hosted here. Some students are around for the summer (in fact, we had two over for most of today) but he is spending the bulk of his time straightening out the office work which was neglected through the spring semester. It was a great semester on campus and the only disappointment was saying good-bye to three wonderful seniors. In addition to the office stuff, David has preached at Packer Chapel on Alumni Weekend, at a church in Easton, and at our own church this weekend. I think he is quite relieved to have finished his biology and chemistry classes in New Jersey, including grading the lengthy exams. Next year he will only be doing the biology.

Daniel is suffering under the heat of a Baltimore summer; however, next weekend he moves into an air-conditioned apartment. This is his first experience of cooking for himself, and it sounds like his roommate is turning out to be a lifeline in this area. Apparently they are existing on typical bachelor fare, with about the same amount of furniture as a prison cell, and yet enjoying the adventure. The course he is taking is very hard, and I think Daniel was discouraged to hear the professor admit that most of the material they will be learning is stuff they will never hear of again. He did believe he had done well in the midterm, at least. This Friday he has the final and then the following Monday he starts the second course.

Stephen saw a light at the end of the tunnel and went great guns to finish his school year early. That means he has lots of time for his cadre of friends who ring our doorbell all day long. Much of the neighborhood activity focuses on retrieving our bunny, who escapes daily. The contraptions set up to block her escape routes only inspire her to find new ones. Stephen has also been reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in direct defiance of Christopher’s insistence that he isn’t old enough to appreciate them.

Certainly a highlight of our family life has been having Nana and Poppa around for most of a month. Nana is willing to read aloud much longer than I am, so Stephen cosied right up to her! We had a wonderful reunion at Spruce Lake in honor of Poppa’s 80^th birthday with all of my brothers and their families. The final days of Nana and Poppa’s visit centered around signing an agreement of sale for them to purchase the house next door to ours. They may be moving back here as soon as September!

In addition to my usual activities, I could mention that I drove my parents up to Canada for a very brief visit with relatives there. A special memory was visiting the cemetery where my paternal grandparents, my cousin Kim, and my brother Paul are buried. Another such meaningful time was going through boxes of mementos, letters, and photographs with Auntie Doris. We shared lots of calories with Aunt Marianne and Aunt Grace at some of Canada’s favorite restaurants, too! This trip came on the heels of another trip I took to Atlanta to participate in a MAFA conference.