Our BIG transition that was set into motion two years ago tomorrow (yes, it was the first Thursday that I had my 3 year old preschool class in 2008) has been achieved! Steve just returned from DU’s campus after his first session of new student orientation, and he has officially registered for classes!! At the session today he was introduced to faculty and the other new students enrolling in the Conflict Resolution graduate program. Originally, he was slated to register for classes tomorrow, so he was pleasantly surprised to accomplish registration this evening. He’ll be taking two classes this term, at the suggestion of his student peers who have one year behind them. His classes will involve a great deal of reading and writing, so that alone will be an adjustment. One class meets on Wednesday afternoons, 2-5, and the other on Thursday evenings, 6-9. The great thing about Thursday evenings, is that I have my Spanish class on campus those nights. When I’m finished, I’ll just head to the campus library to study and wait for Steve to join me for a walk home together (a little reminiscent of Iowa State days 37 years ago). I am so pleased for Steve as he eagerly anticipates his role as graduate student. This is an answered prayer!!
Getting back into the school mode is quite interesting. Today my Spanish class syllabus was published on-line and I have homework already! Last week I obtained my Pioneer Student I.D. Card (Steve had to wait until registration to get his). The great thing is that we get 10% discounts at various eateries near campus. Since I have non-credit status, my perks pretty much are limited to having access to the DU library. As a graduate student, Steve will have free access to public transportation, the fitness center, student health services (hurray), and discounts to events. All of the “free” stuff ends there. Next week the tuition and activities bill will be paid (gulp) and the rest of his textbooks will be purchased tomorrow (cough).
Lately, I’ve been knocking around ideas for what I’m going to do besides becoming proficient at Spanish. Refreshing my resume is certainly one of the first endeavors over the next week. Yesterday, a friend of ours here in Denver kindly put me in touch with a number of people at agencies or people involved with projects in the Denver area. Many of the agencies work on behalf of improving education and academic achievement for all students in Colorado. Some of these programs are striving to empower parents to become more involved as partners in education. Some reach out to parents of children with disabilities. Another works at designing programs as young as infants and toddlers, with a parent-education component. Denver’s Road Home hopes to end homelessness here under an aggressive, 10-year plan. They are 5 years into it already and making a wonderful difference.
I’ve been reading website after website to try to become more informed as I begin to see the bigger picture in Denver and Colorado, especially on the social service front. Ideally, I’d like to be involved in a social service agency, whether it be with children, youth, families, older adults, or a combination of those groups. In the next two weeks, I intend to make contact with the Institute of Gerontology at DU. We shall see where my path takes me!
This has been Batavia week! On Monday morning we had a light brunch for Paula, Jeff, their three children, Amy, Julie, and her son. (Amy, Paula, and Julie are all sisters. Paula and her family moved to the Boulder area in June from Batavia. The rest of the group flew here to see them over Labor Day). Later on Monday, we went to dinner with Jenny, Meghan, Colleen, and Ryan (Colleen’s boyfriend). Mom Jenny has been out here on two different trips over the last 3 weeks to bring Colleen to Denver Seminary and then this week to bring Meghan to DU. Both Meghan and Colleen have been were in our high school youth ministry with us back in Batavia. Jenny took us to dinner where we had a lovely visit with everyone.
We anticipate more company over the next couple of weeks. We are thrilled to say the least! We also have nabbed a couple of video chats with Jeremy and Michelle and other Batavians, Carol and Paul. Steph and Shane had a 45 minute speaker phone chat with us last week too.
Other updates: 7 boxes of “stuff” will be donated to Cameron Church tomorrow for their rummage sale (yes, we continue downsizing). Today we mailed our voter registration forms as we don’t want to miss out on participating in the November election. Last week our property manager approved some repairs, but it looks like cleaning the filthy windows and clearing the wild sumac from the yard will be up to us. As of this week, we have a television and newly installed Direct TV satellite service. We’ve been out on bike trails several times this week. The sun has appeared every day since we arrived on July 23. Our home congregation is observing its 175th anniversary this year and on Sunday they’ll have a big banquet to celebrate. Our Pastor’s wife will be playing the organ at the Mormon Tabernacle on Friday night. (It’s a big weekend for them, isn’t it?)
Okay folks. This is our update for the moment. Please email us or call us with your updates: school, work, kids, pets, hobbies, and travels.
Love from the Mile High City,
Diane (& Steve)