Jalone Family Update – June 6, 2008

This has been a year that is flying buy and it is hard to believe but this past week included Mikie’s last day of school and we are now officially entering the summer season. It was a good school year for Mikie and as much as he would deny it, he is enjoying school and learning new things. He is pretty proud of his reading accomplishments and likes to tell everyone he is multiplying and dividing. His school focuses on reading and achieving your reading goal is not easy. Mikie has been staying after school two to three times a week just to read and take the comprehension tests. It is hard work but it has been interesting to see him learn to read at such an early age. I recall reading my first chapter book in 7^th or 8^th grade. Mikie and his classmates have been doing that in the 2^nd grade. What will be interesting is if he will continue to read on his own this summer or if we have to push.

Julie remains very busy with her business and MagnumOne Realty. It has been a hectic and fast spring with a good deal more activity than we anticipated so we have struggled to keep up. We have hired a second part time assistant for Julie and brought on an intern for the summer so finding places for them to work and training them has taken time but as of this week Julie is feeling very positive about the contribution they are starting to make. Although Julie now has eight agents at MagnumOne we are still working out of the house and will most likely continue to do so for at least the balance of this year. We have converted Julie’s exercise room into our office and although not ideal it seems to be working well.

I just returned from a quick trip to Kentucky to visit Mark, Tiffany and the girls and help build a front porch at their home in Elizabethtown. I hesitated in going because we have been so busy but I am really glad that Mark made me feel guilty enough to make the trip anyway. I left on Thursday morning and returned home Monday evening, June 2^nd and now wish maybe I had stayed a few extra days. It was fun helping Mark build the deck and getting to see how big Melynn is now. We spent the first night in downtown Louisville at 4^th Street Live and it was fun to have dinner with Haley and Melynn and catch up with Mark and Tiffany. They are doing very well and I am very proud of them! Here is a shot of Mark and me on the finished front deck. I did convince Mark to alter his design and build a much more sleek deck than a conventional porch with steps and rails. I think it makes the entrance stand out more and it turned out very nice!

With the weather getting better in Alaska, Kevyn and Dave have been busy with work. Dave has spent some time in Anchorage working on a few projects and Kevyn has returned to the Park Service and is getting ready to head out to Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park. In May she organized a photo scavenger hunt on Flickr called the “Condor Classic.” She invited eight others to participate and provided 21 categories to photograph. Some included a self-portrait, local color, jump, eyes, who does your hair and several others. It turned out to be fun and pushed me to be a bit more creative than taking house pictures for Julie so it was fun. I managed to get all 21 photos taken and uploaded on time! The actual “Condor Classic” group is private but here is a link to the photos I entered. The voting takes place next Tuesday and there are some great interpretations and photos. I am looking forward to doing it again. Kevyn’s first trip back to homer from Silver Salmon will be on the day we arrive at her house in our rented RV. We are looking forward to some nice summer days and evenings in Homer!