Hello from Okinawa!

Hey everyone,

Sorry Eric and I have not been in touch. Congrats to Shannon and Eliza and to Mike and Michelle! I'm so happy for all of you. My news is that I have a 4th grade teaching position, so I am employed again:) I also am keeping my wine-tasting job...remember, I give the wine tastings, I don't just drink all of the wine myself.

About one month ago, a Category 5 typhoon, Man-yi, passed directly over Okinawa, and Eric and I have some video footage. It was pretty intense. This video was before the worst of it. I believe it was when the winds were sustained around 100 miles/hour.

If you want it....you can have it...all you got to do...

Finish the lyrics.

Anyway... Updates, Updates, Updates....
Here's a few dates: September 27th, 2008 or October 4th, 2008 and September 26th, 2009 or October 3rd, 2009.

Those would be potential wedding dates. We're planning the wedding to be in the Des Moines area and possibly outside. Obviously more details to follow.

Other than that, work has been going ok. I was on day shift all this week which was somewhat of a relief. I didn't accomplish much, just learned how my first shift counterparts ran their ships.

Eliza started her job at Orchard Place (a youth shelter home for emotionally and behaviorally challenged kids) two weeks ago and is working overnight hours. Guess she really likes me, huh! She's getting used to the hours and really enjoys helping the kids get ready for school. Otherwise, all is well in our neck of the woods.

We're thinking of you all and can't wait for the next Neary congregation.

Love you all,
Shannon and Eliza

First Day of Class

Hey Family!
Here is my update!! I just had my first day of class at UNI. I'm taking Humanities, Old Testament and Other Hebrew Scripture, Africa, Physics I and Microbiology. I just got back from Physics and am kind of nervous about this semester. My professor is Chinese and has a very thick accent as well as a lisp. He's terribly hard to understand and I was struggling tonight to keep up. I'm hoping I get used to it after a couple weeks but we'll see... I'll keep you posted. Other than that things are pretty great. It's been fun seeing all my friends and hearing about their summers. I had several friends spend the summer in other countries doing missions work so it's been fun to look at all their pictures and hear their stories. I have no idea how to say this without sounding corny but I have a boyfriend now! His name is Alex and he's an accounting major here at UNI. He's amazing and you guys will absolutely love him! Yay! : D Anyways, I'm off to watch High School Musical 2 with my girl friends (No, I am not ashamed to admit that) so that's all for now. I'm excited to hear everyone else's updates! Get typing!!!!!
Love you all!

Updates

Is anyone out there? I hope to hear from ALL of you ASAP!

Here is the link to Mike Mundus' Caring Bridge website: http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=mikemundus

Good news from Madison: I am officially a school counselor at Akira Toki Middle School in the Madison School District. It is a urban school of a little over 600 6, 7, & 8th graders. The kids start the day after Labor Day but I've already started getting my office ready, registering kids, etc. I'm the only counselor but I will work closely with a social worker and school psychologist.

Again, is there anyone out there? Please post or I will hold Grandma's cookies hostage at the next family event!

Bad 4 wheeler accident by the farm

I just wanted everyone to include Mike Mundus in their prayers. He was hurt pretty bad Sunday night...he wasn't found until Monday morning. (Mike lives just west and north of the farm...hunts with Joe and is a really good friend of Joe's.) Joe got a call early Monday morning saying Mike was missing---he had been on his 4wheeler Sunday night and hadn't come home...Joe went in the jeep and a couple of guys got their 4 wheelers out, but they couldn't find him...so they called someone with a plane...the plane spotted him right away. He was just about 25 yds. upstream from the pasture fence line. He had crossed the river and was trying to go up a bank to get to the farm's pasture (he had been at another neighbor's house, and had decided before he went home that he'd go and look at where the 'cabin' is going to be built---the log cabin that Joe and all these guys are going to build)...well the way the grasses were growing along the embankment, it looked more like a gradual incline, but it was just a straight up and down 6' embankment. The 4 wheeler didn't make it up the embankment, and it fell back on him and pinned him on the ground. He laid there for 12 hrs....his wife had been looking that night when she noticed he wasn't back yet. They have a tent site on a sandbar, and they go there quie a bit, so she thought he might have just stayed there, but he normally didn't do that on a Sunday night when he'd have to work the next day...and he wouldn't normally do that by himself either... regardless...he laid there a long time. Joe and 2 other guys got to him as soon as the guy in the plane told them where to go. Joe said when he started looking for him, he didn't keep going the direction of where Mike was, because there were no new tracks that direction, so he didn't think he'd be there...well, Mike came from the other side, so Joe wouldn't have seen the tracks....Anyway.....A life flight came from Mason City and landed on the sandbar near where Mike was at. Mike had his vertebrae crushed and as of right now, he's paralyzed from chest down. He also hurt his neck, but the spinal cord was not severed. He has use of his arms...they were not under the 4 wheeler....he couldn't reach a cell phone in his pocket to call when he got hurt... The doctors say there is a slim chance he could regain feeling, but more likely he'll be paralyzed. Joe went to Mason City yesterday and saw him, and Mike seems determined to do all he can do to try and regain whatever he can. He'll be going to Des Moines next week to be assessed and then to start the rehab process.Mike's an independent bricklayer, so this will definitely affect his life in many ways. So, it'd be great if you could include Mike in your prayers...he sure needs a bunch of them. We'll keep you updated...

We're good to go in Madison

So, Dave and I are in our new townhouse. We have our first GARAGE which we are super excited about but no car to put in it b/c one is getting new brakes and my parents are driving the other to us tonight.

Bob, thanks for sharing the news about the hearing....very cool!

Dave's family and all of our friends are safe and accounted for in Minneapolis. We were so shocked when we heard the news. That is the way I commuted to work every day when we taught at that charter school near downtown back in 04-05. The news really hit us when we realized if we had still been lving there, we easily could have been on our way to the Twins game. The Metrodome is right past the bridge if you haven't seen all of the pictures. It really makes you appreciate life even more.

Well, back to the unpacking. I miss you all!

Amy (& Dave)

Summer in DC

Yesterday I had the pleasure to be the lead VA witness at a hearing on health care in New Orleans and was on a panel with Mayor Ray Nagin and others. Quite a time. For those insomniacs out there, the url for the video is:

http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.080107.KatrinaPart2.shtml

My statement starts at the 1:04:37 mark and the questioning begins at the 2:18 mark.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Mayor got most of the attention.

Hope all is well with everyone.