The Heymann Family Journal

Nicole is going into her Jr year of high school. She is already looking at American Universities. At the top of her list is Oregon State University. Why? Because she could study both art and plant science. She could also live for free at Grandma and Grandpa's house (at least for awhile). International tuition is $19,000 per year. In state tuition is under $6,000 per year. It only takes one year for her to establish residency...so she is thinking of going there for a year first and then starting school. So the question is what can she do in Oregon for one year? She could work? I'm thinking she could actually go to Corvallis High School and get an American high school degree. Germany has such a high academic standard, an US high school should be super easy for her. If she can pull straight A's then she could get some good scholarships. She could also take the US SAT. It could be fun and worth the year of effort. Nicole is actually graduating a year early from German high scho...

http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews_Files/images/interactives/pdf/TyrannyofTrillions11Jun09.pdf Here is the video.

Israel is great! Why is anyone surprised Obama is no friend to Israel? Why are they surprised Obama spends money he does not have? Why is anyone surprised by Obamas ideas on abortion? He told us what he would do? He told us what he believed? My question is…why didn’t everyone listen?

Today was the last day of school! The kids are zoning out in front of the TV. I'm looking forward to sleeping in Friday. Actually, tomorrow I have to get up early to take Philip to a heart appointment. He was born with 2 holes in his heart (ASD/VSD). He had surgery when he was 6 months old, but we have to get checkups just to make sure all is well. I don't expect any trouble. Today I bought Jessica a mini laptop computer. Juergen is looking into a special adaptive keyboard. I will load the laptop with Jessica’s favorite movies and computer games. It should help calm her down on the trip to Thailand. We decided to get the lap top for Jessica’s 18Th birthday gift. Jess will be 18 years old Sept 8th. Amazing! What a lovely girl she is! Perhaps she can take her laptop to school in the fall. We are hoping she will begin writing more independently. We may even try her out on voice generating software. This is software that will speak everything you type. Some non ve...

I read most of this last summer 2008...

Yes, I know most of you are already planning on sending your kids back to school. I even read a blog that said they are already back to home school (they want to take some weeks off in the fall). Well, our kids are enjoying their last week of school. We begin the 6 week summer vacation Thursday. Nicole goes to camp on Saturday. The boys go to camp a week later. Then we go to Thailand for two weeks. The last 2 weeks are free. I have some appointments in those last two weeks, but mostly we plan to be home! So this week we had the last this…and the last that. I’m looking forward to the extra sleep each morning. It’s rained so much this summer it doesn’t feel like it could be August. I’ve got to go do some work in the garden. The roses are so rusty, and the weeds have taken over.

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The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds more Americans disapproving (50%) than approving (44%) of the way Barack Obama is handling healthcare policy. In general, Obama receives higher marks on his handling of international issues than on domestic issues. I WANT HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE BUT THEY NEED TO SLOW DOWN AND GET IT RIGHT!!! WHY IS OBAMA TRYING TO PUSH THIS...NOT LISTENING TO WISDOM. HE WOULDN'T EVEN WANT THIS PLAN FOR HIS OWN FAMILY!

I just booked our car in Thailand. The best deal was a 12 passenger van ....how cool is that? It is an automatic with unlimited miles and of course air conditioning and GPS. I don't think we would try to go it alone with out GPS. We were going to go with out a car, but felt like we could manage a little more adventure this time. Juergen understands Bangkok pretty good. Both our vacation apartments have free parking. I'm sure I'll still take a few tuk tuks. Anyway, I can take lots of luggage there and back. If you have anything you want to give to Thomas and Philips orphanage let me know. I would love toys, cloths, and shoes. Very gently used or new stuff please. We leave in 29 days and I'm getting pretty excited!!! The best way to keep kids from fighting in a car is to make sure they all get a window seat! Now I can get Juergen to stop at all the cool road side shops... Oh yes this will be great!!!

Yesterday we were finishing lunch when our neighbor rang the bell. His basement was flooding. Something was wrong and they needed to turn the main line of water off (we live in a row house). It was Sunday and they wouldn’t be able to get it fixed until Monday afternoon. So we rushed to fill jars and bottles with water, started the dishwasher and filled the bathtub with water. Unfortunately the water was dirty. It turns out the neighbors pond had contaminated the water supply. So I had enough water to flush the toilets, but that’s it. The dishes only got half rinsed. We had no water for coffee, and I couldn’t even wash the dirty table because the water was dirty. I had to be home this morning to let the workers in and out of our house. My kitchen stank, and so did I (no shower). They finally turned the water on at 4:30 this afternoon. I did the stinky dishes, and cleaned up the dinning room and kitchen. Then I took a bath. I’m going to water my plants with contaminated wa...

The US needs health care reform, but not what they are now pushing! I hope that Obama’s health reform will not pass because it's going to cause even higher unemployment! But they need to do something to help the millions of un insured people. Maybe they should look to Israel? BTW, McCain said we should tax health care, and the tax would cover the cost of insuring the uninsured. Obama refuses to tax health care, so now he has zero way to pay for his plan. If I was rich living in the USA, I would think about moving out of the country. Obama thinks he has a right to all your money! What a mess he is making!

I was listening to Beth Moore interviewed on Christian TV today. She was asked why she thought God healed some people from addictions instantly, and others over time? She said something that I think applies to all of our lives. She said it depended upon what God would teach us. If he wants to show us his supremacy, he will do something immediate and if he wants to show us his sufficiency, he provides little by little (daily bread). I have sought God for years to heal Jessica from autism. I believe nothing is impossible for him, he is supreme! But God has shown me he is also sufficient. The only time I get into trouble is when I think too much about tomorrow. But God is so sufficient to help us every day. I know this very well.

I'm getting ready to go to Thailand next month. Today I ordered "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-Of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine" to read on the trip. I also just ordered a new pair of noise cancellation headphones. These things block almost 100% of the noise on a flight. I got them to help Jessica on the 12 hour flight. We have a portable DVD player with a memory chip (we don't need to carry DVD's anymore) and I have an I- pod with a 6 hour battery. Hopefully that will make the flight manageable. It's a direct over night flight. I probably will not get to sleep on the flight, but I'll be so tired it will help me get over the jet lag fast.

I have a very small garden. A great amount of my tiny yard is given to the flowers I love so much. Some of my plants were just collected over the years. Others are very special to me because they were gifts from friends and family. Today Juergen’s mother would have turned 72 years old. She gave me many of the perennials I have in my cutting garden. Today it gave me both joy and sadness to cut a vase of these very special flowers. They remind me of Oma's life. It was beautiful and fragrant. I hope I never forget her. I’m glad I have this confidence that we will one day meet again. Happy birthday Waltraud. We miss you very much! "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands for ever." Isaiah 40:8

As long as they keep the National debt high (very, VERY HIGH) the dollar will be worth dirt! And is Al Gore trying to be the president of the world? Oh please!!!! BTW the debt is -$ 11,565,081,634,548 (-11 trillion) and growing daily.