criplomats

With Ann and Pam at Madeleine Albright’s event

Here we are, back in DC! We arrived yesterday, after leaving Hot Springs early Friday morning. We had great sunny weather and Flavia did fine on the ride. I saw a lot of deer, 40+ hawks and a pileated woodpecker on the way.

We had a great time during our last week of home leave. Last Sunday, we went to Little Rock to visit with John’s former co-worker Leland and his family. He grilled us some yummy venison while we yakked. Great to see him, Cathy and the kids, and nice to meet Cathy’s parents, too.

Afterward, we went to see “David and the Divas.” David is John’s former director of the River City Men’s Chorus. He played piano for three lovely divas, one of whom is Alison’s good friend Diane. We really enjoyed the concert, and also loved seeing many familiar faces from the chorus.

Tuesday, John and I met Pam and Ann at the Clinton Presidential Library to hear former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and to see her collection of pins. She is a wonderful speaker and we were happy to get to see her.

After the talk, we went to a local bar to hear John’s good friend Hooper and his band – they’re very good and fun to listen to. We also got to see his wife Ruth, and old friends Claire and Dave. What a fun evening!

Otherwise during the week, I picked up my new glasses, finally tracked down a bird bath for Mom (hard to find in the winter) and did a lot of last-minute stuff we’d been putting off. And, of course, we watched a lot of Olympic coverage. Mom took us back to KJ’s Grill for an early anniversary dinner (14 years coming up!).

Then we hit the road early Friday morning! Home leave was really fun and restful – which I needed before tackling Hebrew on Monday!

Bald eagles on the way to Mountain Home

Unfortunately, we are coming to the end of home leave…by this time next week, I’ll be writing from DC. We sure have had fun!

The first part of the week was relatively quiet – we had a surprise snow on Monday, so John and I settled in with another British mini-series all day, and I took care of Aunt Bonnie’s leg so Ann and Sue didn’t have to get out in the snow.

John spent time with some of his friends on Tuesday and Wednesday while I held down the fort in Hot Springs. I went to one of Mom’s doctor’s appointments with her, cooked for her and Aunt Bonnie and ran errands.

On Thursday, John and I drove up to Mountain Home where we saw the bald eagles – they were just gorgeous! We had a good visit with Pete and Ginger (Pete is recovering nicely from his knee surgery).

We left the next morning and met Pam at the new Hendrix cafeteria for lunch – they have a beautiful new facility. Nothing like it was when I was in school there! She took us on a tour of the other new buildings on campus. We saw a couple of familiar faces, including Dr. Guthrie and Pete the security guard (yes, he is still working!). Click to see photos of the campus.

After our Hendrix tour, we had a meeting in downtown Little Rock, then met Dail and Nancy for dinner. It’s been so nice to get to spend time with them!

Yesterday, Mom turned 85 – hard to believe. We took her to dinner at KJ’s Grill for a delicious steak, then settled in to watch some of the Olympics.

Pamela and John in the new Hendrix cafeteria

On campus

With the golf girls

This was a fun-filled week – I got to see a lot of friends. Last Sunday night, I met my good friend Holly in Benton – we talked non-stop for a couple of hours, getting caught up on all of our old Dillard’s friends.

On Thursday, John and I toured the Arkansas Passport Center here in Hot Springs, where they print about 90% of all of the U.S. passport books. We gave presentations to both shifts of employees (about 200) about the Foreign Service. We had so much fun! The staff was incredibly welcoming and really gave us the VIP treatment.

Friday night we met my golf girlfriends at a restaurant in Maumelle, then went to Camille’s house afterwards to continue the party. It was so wonderful to see everyone!!!

It was back to Little Rock on Saturday. We visited with our wonderful friends Julia and Marilyn, and met the newest member of the family, their baby, Lucy Jane. She is just beautiful!

Afterward, we headed to Mary’s house for dinner with her, Deb and Doug. While Doug and John solved the world’s intellectual problems, we girls hung out in the kitchen and yakked for hours – lots of fun!

We spent the night with Mary Saturday night, so we could leave from there to go to Fayetteville. We met Phillip and the twins for lunch (yummy omelettes), then went to see his electric car – he’s in the process of converting a car to all-electric. From there, we went for a tour of their new house – lots of acreage and (!) alpacas next door! Andrew and Alise are very enjoyable and getting all grown up at age 10 and 1/2.

We planned to drive on over to Mountain Home, but a winter storm warning turned us back down south to Hot Springs instead. We’ll have to reschedule and hope for better weather!

Click to see more home leave photos!

John, Phillip, Alise and Andrew

Proud moms, Julia and Marilyn wth Lucy Jane

With Doug, Deb and Mary

At the Arkansas Passport Center

With Leslie, John, Donny and Jim at the Oyster Bar

This was another great week of relaxing and visiting with friends and family.

Tuesday, John, Mom and I took some steaks out to Alison’s to grill. Yum! We’ve missed our grill since we’ve been here. It was fun to relax with Alison – she’s always a hoot.

On Wednesday, all of the ladies from the family (plus John) had lunch together at a favorite little BBQ place. Afterward, Kay, Annette and I went thrift store shopping during the afternoon and brought home several treasures. Made it back just in time to drive to Little Rock to get together with friends at the Oyster Bar. In a good example of “when worlds collide,” my good friend Leslie now works with an old college buddy of ours, a good friend of John’s, and another wonderful woman from Nuvell, so we all got together to visit (plus Leslie’s darling boyfriend). It was great fun.

It was back to Little Rock on Thursday to have dinner with Mike and Debbie at Star of India. As soon as we opened the door to the restaurant, Sami, the proprietor, holllered “Mr. John! Long time no see!” His name recall is incredible – he hasn’t seen John for at least three years! It was fun to catch up with Mike and Debbie and get updated on their two boys, one of whom is at the Coast Guard Academy. On the way home, we stopped by the Magic Shop to say hi to Jim.

Winter weather started moving into Arkansas on Friday, so we stayed tucked inside on Friday and watched a British mini-series, “State of Play,” all day (yep, all day). It was great, and better than the American movie version. I also became a home health nurse and got Aunt Bonnie in and out of her compression stockings – no small feat!

By Saturday, the roads in Hot Springs were clear, so John and I went to the library and went out for a Mexican lunch. I spent a while in the kitchen making homemade tomato soup and chicken curry. Last night, Mom and I watched the Miss America pageant, followed by Law and Order.

John and I have also played a few games of Scrabble, one of my favorite things to do! I also finished another Chris Bohjalian novel – he’s one of my favorite authors.

John and Alison

With Ann and Pam

Home leave is a very, very good thing. It’s mandated by Congress that Foreign Service Officers spend at least 20 business days back in the good ol’ U.S. every couple of years to reconnect with America.

We spent the week reconnecting with some of our favorite people. On Wednesday, I went to Little Rock to have lunch with my good Nuvell friends, Lynn and Jim (I also know Jim from growing up in Hot Springs). We had a nice long lunch and got caught up.

Thursday night, it was back to Little Rock for a wonderful dinner with Dail and Nancy (Dail is a cousin on my dad’s side of the family). We had a great dinner at Caper’s and visited, and also got to hear Dail play a little on his new guitar.

Friday, John and I had coffee in Hot Springs at Josh’s coffee shop and visited with him and his wife, Shelly. They’re doing a great business and seem happy. That night, our good friends Kelly and Brian drove to Hot Springs to have dinner with us at Central Park Fusion. Afterwards, we walked down to the Arlington Hotel lobby for drinks, and were thoroughly entertained by the older folks cutting a rug on the dance floor. Watching them always makes John and I want to take dance lessons – they’re so cute and have so much fun.

Saturday was an open house at Aunt Bonnie’s, so I got to see a lot of family. That night, Ann and Pam drove into town to stay at a friend’s lake house for the weekend. I went out Saturday night to visit for a while, then went back early Sunday and stayed until late Sunday night. I don’t think we took a breath from talking until late in the afternoon! I went back this morning and stayed until they got packed up late in the afternoon. They’re both doing great, and it was wonderful to visit with old friends.

With Brian and Kelly at the Arlington

Dail with his new guitar