Happy Snow Day from the Coachers!

Christian and Emily ... home safe and sound from their backpack trip through Central and South America!!!

Today at 12:20, Emily's parents (Jan and Melinda), Chloe, Jerry and myself all got to feast our eyes on beautiful Christian and Emily for the first time in 3 months!! They were beaming ... as were all of us ... and the hugs were long and intentional! Oh! It was good to see them! After soaking in as much of them as possible, we headed to baggage and then all to lunch. They are filled with experience, perspective, new hopes and dreams, and amazing stories. They look great and other than some bug bites and smelling like street people ... they are as perfect as the day they were born.

Tomorrow night about 15 family members will gather at Emily's parents for dinner, a slide show (1800 pictures between them) and many, many stories. They said they missed family, big towels, long showers, choices in clothes (they each packed 2 outfits), and Thai food (aka lunch today!). At lunch Christian said - "It is so nice to hear English and to be understood!" No doubt as they get re-acclimated to Seattle urban life, they will miss their life of adventure and novel experience ... and I don't doubt this is one of many trips for them ... but gosh, it is sure good to have them home!

Thanks for all your prayers for their safety and experience. God obviously listened to you!!

Tina xo

Joshua's 5th Birthday

College Acceptance Letters Roll In!!

Here is Chloe glowing as she reads 3 college acceptance letters! Six to go!

Happy Halloween!

Over the River to Getreidegasse - Tina in Salzburg 10/30 - 11/6

The back to back conferences begin tomorrow so I figured today was the day to explore what I could of Salzburg on foot. I decided to head toward Getreidegasse, a quaint area of shops and restaurants that I had read about. It had rained all night and the air was chilly ... all the excuse I needed to buy a green scarf along the way. About a half a mile down the street I walked through a market of crafts, textiles, fresh baked good, cheeses and cured meats. People seemed relaxed visiting with venders, buying their goods, talking with each other and eating lunch. The pace felt much less hurried than home. I saw continuous buildings of 'flats' as I crossed the Salzach river over to Getreidegasse. The cobblestone streets, historic buildings, adorned storefronts and spired hillsides reminded me of Carcassonne - a midieval city in the south of France that sits inside a fortress. The vast history and beauty was awesome!

I attended a big Election Party at Hotel Sacher in Salzburg with a colleague, Nancy. The election fell during the Salzburg Jazz Festival - so on this historic night the entertainment featured Freddie Cole - Nate King Cole's brother and his band. They were incredible!! Nancy and I were both interviewed (the token Americans) three times over the course of the night by an Austrian TV News crew (I was able to send the news link home after it aired late the next day).
Salzburg is 9 hours ahead - so Ohio did not come in for Barak until 3:45am ... but who could sleep anyway!! It was clear by the end of the evening that hope in America had been restored.









Here are a few pictures of how the conference discussions continued well into the wee hours ... over fabulous food and spirits! There were avg 22 people at each conference from avg 13 countries. You've got to love the collective wisdom of the countries shared over Austrian beer!!

Seattle Fall

I thought I'd share some pics of the kids. Joshua in the tree isn't quite as exotic as Christian & Emily's parrot w/tarantula in a tree, but that's our life in Seattle. Soccer and riding bikes and climbing trees have been our main activities this fall.

The Architecture in my Salzburg hood ...

I landed about 5am today Seattle time - 1pm Salzburg time. About 18 hours of travel. I slept 6 hours on the long stretch from Denver to Frankfurt (ambien induced!) and have done pretty well since. It's almost 6pm now - and I will probably try to get to bed by 9 and see if I can be fully on Salzburg time by tomorrow. I took a walk around town for about an hour to take pics of the architecture (Chloe was curious) ... found a good bottle of beer and wine to take back for the room ... and stopped at a little cafe for a cup of espresso. The cafe was of the same genre as our favorite hippie breakfast place in Fremont. I had to laugh at that! I feel like a dork not speaking German ... but people are patient and often know fairly good English. I am surprised tho, how many words from 30 years ago I recognize. I guess that teenage memory is still storing the info! Love to all - tina

Mastif's start out little ...

Meet "Savannah" ... she is the sweetest, softest, ummy-est puppy smelling 8 week old mastif ever ... and the latest family member of the Coacher Family. Here is Chloe holding Savannah with Jessica and Josh after Jessie's last soccer game.

Blanchet Homecoming and Bo's BD

Bishop Blanchet 2008 Homecoming Game - 10/18/08 against Seattle Prep. Blanchet 20 Seattle Prep 3
Bo's birthday dinner at The Melting Pot
The Big-O ....