On Friday I got a call from my not-so-little brother, Murray. He’s a senior in high school, and we’ve all been waiting in suspense to see if he’d break the tie (Me and my dad went to Virginia Tech, my mother and sister went to UVA). He got word on Friday that he’d been accepted to Virginia Tech.

I’m sure that he’s thrilled, seeing as he’s been planning on being a Hokie since the age of five. But I hope he realizes the responsibilities that come with attending such a fine university. First and foremost, he must be willing to endure all sorts of early mornings, long lines, and bad food. . . while he waits in line for football tickets for his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.

In all seriousness, I couldn’t be more thrilled that Murray is a Hokie, and I’m confident that he’ll succeed in whatever path he chooses to take at Virginia Tech. Congratulations, Murray!

I swiped this photo from my the mantle over my parent’s fireplace today. I think it’s a great picture. I’m pretty sure it was taken at my grandfather’s house. Isn’t Erin’s cranium enormous?! She was bald like that for what seemed like forever.

I’ve been meaning to post an update about my sister’s bike trip across the country for a couple of weeks now. I’m finally getting around to it. According to the schedule on Bike and Build’s site, Erin’s group just finished up their blitz-build in Colorado Springs, and are headed out today for Buena Vista, Colorado. Today’s trip is a measly 80 miles.

The real reason for this post is to send you to Bike and Build’s site so you can look at photo’s from Erin’s trip. Hers is the Southern U.S. trip, but I believe I can link you directly to their albums. Erin’s digital camera seems to be serving her well, and there are quite a few pictures taken by her, and of her, in the albums. I’ve ripped a few of the more. . . interesting. . . pictures off that site and thrown them in this post, for fun. Hee.

Again, how much fun does this look like?!?! Well, here are some more pictures, just for the heck of it. These are just some of the ones of Erin, but there are lots of other fun pictures on the Bike and Build site.

You’ll recall I recently posted about my sister’s graduation from college. I also mentioned that she’d soon be starting a cross-country bike trip. She’s leaving today from Annapolis, MD, and GOD-WILLING will end up in San Francisco on August 20. My family is flying out to meet her in San Fran, and I will have to make up for my lack of travel-edge by sending her lots of notes along the way.

She’s doing this trip with an organization called Bike & Build, which sponsors several per year. The bikers bike across the country, stopping periodically to perform repairs and construction on run-down and dilapidated homes in need of repair. They’ll stop in Colorado Springs for a week to “blitz build” a house from the ground up. Wow!

I am so excited for my sister, as this sounds like something that will really be an awesome experience. If I could, I’d take 3 months off of work and do it with her. It sounds like so much fun! Unfortunately that’s not a possibility.

Erin has said that she wants to document her trip on a blog of her very own, so she and I sat down on blogger a couple of weeks ago and put one together for her. I anticipate that it will be updated infrequently, if at all. I mean, really. If I had just spent the day biking and building, I think that posting to my blog might be very low on my priority list. I believe that sleeping would be number one. However, hopefully we’ll see the occasional post from her there. It’s in the links to the right, so check it out occasionally.

Good luck, Erin! We’ll be praying for you daily!

Click for larger picture.

Yesterday my sister completed her undergraduate career at the University of Virginia. Kate and I made it down for the day, and while we missed the major commencement exercises, we were there to see her receive her diploma at her departmental ceremony.

Anybody who knows me knows that I hold my sister in very high regard. I hold my brother in high regard too but he’ll have to wait for his own post. Erin has grown up to a be a strong, independent, very spiritual, and generally well-rounded person that everybody in my family admires. Her natural intelligence and strong work ethic made her a wonderful student, and will make her successful in future endeavors. And her commitment to social justice and the Church have already shown fruits in her choices for those first few next steps.

I’m so pleased that Erin will have some time to spend with her family before the next stage in her life - a volunteer position at Nazareth Farm in West Virginia. Nazareth Farm is “devoted to developing relationships and eliminating sub-standard housing through home repair in rural West Virginia”. So we get Erin all to ourselves (as much as is possible) while she is home in the Fall.

Notice I specified the Fall. Erin will be plenty busy this summer as she BIKES ACROSS THE COUNTRY. As if that weren’t enough, the program she is involved with will stop periodically and build homes for those in need. I’ll have more about this later in another post, but it sounds like a once in a lifetime experience, and so much fun.

So congratulations, Sis! We are so proud of you and love you so much!