|
Merion, PA 19066 Ph 610-667-7499 mizzmic@aol.com 11 MAY 2002 Dear Family, Well I see from the date on my last letter, almost another year has flown by and in re-reading it , would seem we are all doing more of the same except for the kids I guess. The Anniversary cruise was the best vacation we have ever been on and it was a perfect way to take an extended family vacation. We all saw plenty of each other but also had time by ourselves or with organized activities like snorkeling. We saw some really big fish in the ocean, like a 10 foot long "tarpon" (I think that is what they called it). Thankfully the shark reports and problems happened later in the summer or I may have been more reluctant to snorkel. Lisa is just about done with her junior year of high school and we have done the early part of college shopping with her. She is looking for a school in a large city with good academics as she is thinking medical school at the moment, so New York is on her list , Atlanta and maybe even Chicago. At 17 and with her own car, she is very independent and is ready for this next step. She has been working for the HIV study 3 half days a week during school and they want to keep her for the summer. Steven is at the moment in Quebec, Canada on a French/school organized 4 day trip and is having a blast up there. They are doing some educational things and some tourist things and he is in great spirits when he has called. Otherwise he is about to finish 8th grade and move on to the high school in the fall when he turn 15. He has been free-lancing building web sites and doing other consultant type jobs involving computers. He is also very involved in Science Olympiad through his school where two weeks ago the team he is on won second place in the state (of 38 teams competing). That earned them a spot at the National competition next weekend. He competes in many different events, but one of my favorites is they build bottle rockets out of empty 2 liter soda bottles. Complete with separating nosecones and deploying parachutes! Julie has her two little girls keeping her very busy and we try to get to see them every six weeks or so. At four Rachel is very bright and already doing her letters and numbers and beginning to read. She is also a very sweet tempered and kind child and likes to help me bake when she comes to visit. Sarah is 15 months old and running around and jabbers a blue streak. Definitely cute kids! Harvey is still doing his chief job at the University, and the other program to dispense HIV medicine and care is up and running in Botswana. It may be that we will do a stint in Botswana next summer. His grant funding is secure and he is enjoying more time in his lab. This summer he has a meeting taking him to Australia for a week, so we decided to make that our family vacation as well. We leave in mid-July and return in early August and hope to be coming to the reunion at Pete's. He is also going to Mykonos in Greece to be a speaker at a meeting and is taking Lisa and Steven along with him for the experience. That meeting is the last week in May so they are missing a few days, but it falls over the Memorial Day holiday so not much. I am not going to Greece with them as I have two major deadlines that come up for the first week in June and need all the days between now and then to meet the deadlines. I have an exhibit of my quilts along with 5 other Philadelphia quilt artists opening at the University of Penn's Arthur Ross Gallery June 15. I have been working on a very large quilt (8' x 7') that is a family portrait of almost life sized figures that is yet to be quilted. I am also doing a fashion ensemble for the goofy fashion show that I have done before and which will premier in Houston in October but must be finished and in Houston by June 1. This is a tribute to zippers and is called Masquerade Unzipped. It will be up on my web site only after the October premier as they want the viewing public to be surprised by all they see. I will close here with best wishes for a healthy and happy summer and tell everyone to follow their dreams – you never know what tomorrow brings. Love to all, Cindy, Harvey, Lisa, Steven, and Julie and Leo +kids |