Ok people, I am finally sitting down to write about what's going on in our lives here in the Chicagoland area. Let's just say that it's been a hectic few weeks around here. First of all, on my father's side, I have a cousin visiting us from Pennsylvania. This has taken most of our time over the last week. She is only 17 and it's been our duty to make sure that she does not have one bored moment while she's here. After she leaves, we'll know everything there is to know about what to do downtown and where to park for the least amount of money.

I had a bomb dropped on me at work last week on Tuesday. My big bosses from Phoenix showed up for simple "meet and greet" meetings. They got the VW crew together and told us that UTI and VW will be closing down the Chicago campus in two months. This means I won't be teaching VW classes anymore. What a shock!!!!! They pay for me to get out here, train me in Phoenix for a week, depend on me in the first three weeks to start teaching on my own, and are already taking me out of the VW program. The only other places now to teach VW are in Rancho Cucamonga and Exton, Pennsylvania. I don't want to move out to the Ranch, and we aren't ready to move to Pennsylvania. They have openings in both Boston and Orlando for Mercedes Benz instructors. Boston has a huge Brazilian community and we would love to live there. The only problem is that we just started living here and are already starting to like it. Who knows what will happen? They have already guaranteed my salary and position, no matter what I decide to do. I asked them if they would pay for "tattoo removal" since I won't be needing the VW's I have all over my back. They laughed and said that I should hold onto them because I might need them in the future.

Like I said, we don't know what's going to happen. We hope it'll be for the best. I know I am not happy to be leaving the VW brand, but a job is a job. We'll take pictures when Jeff shows up on Thursday and put them up on the blog. Thanks for the requests for information from here, I'll do better after all of our visitors leave.

This is the beach David´s parents went to while on their honeymoon, so it was special for David. As you can see the water here was SUPER CLEAR. Of course, it was also the hardest beach to get to. With all of the beaches on the island that you can drive to, park and walk 30 seconds and you´re there, we had to go to all the hard beaches to get to. David has to find the deepest and clearest water so that he can dive down and see how far he can go. He was a scubbadiver in the army so he loves to be in the water....and he can go really far down and hold his breath for a really long time.

No this is NOT David getting out of the water. This is after he was dry and after we climbed up the hill from the beach in the last picture.

A pretty lighthouse, made me think of Grandma Ginn.

Nope it´s not a monster it´s David covered in mud!!

At another beach (that we also had to walk a good 15 minutes to get to) there was an area of mud. David ran right to it, I decided not to. His skin was nice and soft after he rinsed off the mud, but for the next three days he had mud in his fingernails and an orange glow he couldn´t quite wash off!!

A windmill in the middle of the city.

YIPEE!!! we finally made it!

It was well worth it. There were lots of fish to see. You see what kind of looks like a little island? It looks closer than it is. We swam over there. On the way there I didn´t wear the fins...I was tired! On the way back I wore David´s fins...much less tired!
As you can see the sand here is a golden color, not white like the others.

On the way to what turned out to be one of Davids favorite beaches. It was a good 25 minute walk....oh, what we do to find the prettiest beaches!

These walls of rock are all over the island. They use them to separate land. Instead of wood or fencing....they use rocks. I guess when you live on one big pile of rocks that´s what you do!!

Almost there...

A cute boy and pretty water.

...everyone gathers in the center of town (pretty much everyone is drunk...or getting drunk) where they have put a bunch of sand and when the horses come around the people get up close to the horse and pat it on the chest and scream so the horse lifts up onto his back two legs...

...here you can kind of see the group below the horse and the horse is "dancing". David was scared we would get hurt so he didn´t want to get to close. But the obedient wife that I am, I got right up close to horses while they were exiting the sand (and supposed to be calmed down) and one got out of hand and almost landed on top of me!! David wasn´t happy when he saw that I almost got demolished by the horse...at least it shows he loves me!!

How odd...another beautiful beach!!

One of the many cristal clear water, white sand beaches we went to. (by the way, that´s David standing in the middle of the picture)

I like taking funny pictures, at least that´s what my husband says. Almost all of the buildings are white with dark green doors and window shades.

I LOVE lamps. In Europe there are such wonderful street lamps.

Ok, these next few pictures are taken in a town called Fornells. In Menorca they specialize in horse breeding. Some of the best horses in the world are from Menorca. Here in Fornells they have a fiesta and they get the horses all dressed up and the horse riders all dressed up in old costumes and the make the horses "dance". What I mean by dance is...

I hope you´re all ready for LOTS of pictures. If you get bored, I´ll understand!!

So all of you have an idea of where Menorca is...see the little red islands to the right of Spain? Menorca is the little Island on top.

OUR TRIP TO MENORCA

And we´re off to Menorca.

We left at 8:30pm from Barcelona and got to Menorca at 6:00am. David and I didn´t take any sweatshirts (because it´s really hot here) so sleeping outside on the boat was cold and sticky. Let´s just say we didn´t get much sleep that night. (or any night of the trip for that matter!!)

I took this picture while we were entering the Port (is port correct in english?) in Menorca. I just thought it was prettey.

Just having some fun yesterday getting each other wet.

Bobby's House now that the Grass is growing. Thanks for the help Dad!

What Up Grandma and Grandpa?

Milena is the 10th Ginn to sleep in the cradle Dad built

Nathan, Bobby Jeff, Cindi, Alexa, Brinley, Stacia, Landon, Natalie and Milena. Who's Next? Thanks Edmund C Ginn Jr. For the longlasting Heirloom

Fri night and Jeff and his friend Chris cook Omaha Steaks
for the Holst and us. Chris cooked up as mean bell pepper
onion mushroom and garlic veggie dish wow!
after dinner we played phase 10 until a little after 10pm.
The Holst went home and the boys went out to play? My wild
son Jeff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff came home for a few days. We picked him up at the airport and went
immedidately to the Niguel lab to fix a broken toilet seat!! If that isnt classical
Ed Ginn Sr. for you I don't know what is!!!! It was always work. so here are some lab pics
and then we went to A's Burgers for dinner. In and out was way too busy so we went back to A's
We will continue to post the activities of the weekennd with Jeff and his friend Chris

Well It sure is hot in California even at the beach so last weekend
we went up to Big Bear it was cool and rainy. We had to go up because the
roof had begun to leak and we had to sign off on the replacement. Cassy
and I went up a few weeks ago to pick out a color. We couldnt decide so
I broght home some samples. Marie and I picked the yellowish tan color.
The roof looked very well done. Here is how it looks from the side/

Our big outing was to big Kmart for some shopping. We stayed out of the rain
and got some VERY IMPORTANT STUFF we couldnt live without??????? sure

I still havent fgured out how to place pixs so you will just have to figure it out.
It is vewry hot and muggy
Love DAD

Hola to all. Thanks Abby, Cass and Joc for all the great information about Paris. Needless to say, I´m just excited about seeing my parents. My dream would be to have EVERYONE over to Europe for a family reunion!!! I think we´ll have to wait a while for that one! But Joc, we would LOVE to see you and the family if it´s not too much trouble for you!!!

David and I are heading off to Menorca (island off the coast of Spain) today for a week on the beach. We are going to rent a car and camp for the week. The island is small so we should see a good part of it, if not all! David is sooooo excited (he´s always wanted to go to Menorca and his idea of a perfect vacation is being at the beach 24 hours a day).

Love you all and hope everyone is doing well. Hugs and kisses.

Thank you Jocy for the info. We would like to try to get together too we will make
more detailed plans as our itinerary gets more focused. Here is a pix of Cassy the
day she drove me up to the cabin. We really enjoyed that time together.

Sorry, it's me again - I'm on a roll! Just this last post to ask Cindi what you are doing at the end of the summer? We will be in south west France the last week of Aug and first week of Sept. I haven't checked to see how far away you are from that area but wondered if we could meet you somewhere. I just wondered what your schedule was like?

Oh, Carcassonne is a medieval town in SW France that we'll be going to visit. It's probably the best preserved medieval town in France. I'll let you know how our visit goes and if we recommend it.

Now that you're talking traveling in France, you're not going to be able to shut me up!
Jocelyn

One morning last week Margot decided to make a puppet (a girl). Guillaume followed suit (a dog). When Alienor came home from school she made one too. She got the prize for most elaborate. Perceval had to keep up with his siblings so he glued paper to his puppet to decorate it. I forget what he said it was. Overall, the puppets turned out great and I was really impressed that they did it all by themselves with no help from me. I just had to post the pictures so they can see themselves on the computer!! They get such a kick out of that.

It's been really hot here the last few days. Of course, not like Spain-hot, but for Luxembourg it's hot. I made the comment to Patrice tonight - wouldn't it be nice to live somewhere again where air conditioning is common and not an eccentricity?!

Well, gotta get to bed so I'll stop posting for tonight.
Jocelyn