Update from Romania

Just thought I’d send a little update on us! We are finally getting some colder weather here with some heavy frosts in the mornings, but we are still being blessed by beautiful sunny days! I like the frost because Barney doesn’t get so muddy on our walks. The roads here around the house are so torn up from big trucks and all the construction going on.

Speaking of roads…………The Autostrada is receiving a lot of bad press and NO MONEY. So once again, they are going to slow the project down and probably send several Bechtel people home. (We only have 21 here at the present…the rest are the ENKA Turkish and locals)
There is an election here in a couple of weeks, but there is apparently no money and they (the bankers and economists) don’t expect any money to be flowing in country until around March! Right now, the gov’t owes us 100 million Euros…WHEW! So Mike is super busy, talking to banks, TRYING to talk to the gov’t who cancels their meetings and do not want to talk. Bechtel keeps sending in the experts to deal with some of this and the gov’t won’t talk to them either. We are at last responding to some of the propaganda the gov’t keeps publishing in their papers…for the first time every publicly.
I know you are wondering why doesn’t the gov’t want the project….They do…but under their terms….everyone wants to make a buck on it….We don’t go along with their plans so they clamp down on the project…Plus, now they are thinking they could get EU money for the project if it was an EU job. In the meantime,,,,they signed a contract with Bechtel. That’s part of it!

So WE are looking forward to a little get -away over the Thanksgiving weekend. We are going to Pisa, Italy. We were planning to meet Shannon there, but it turns out she has to stay in country for that weekend. And Jeroen will be going there to see her now. We are going to drive to Budapest (4 hours) and fly from there to Pisa.

We are also looking forward to CHRISTMAS and seeing all of you. We arrive on Dec. 21 but will head to the lake…come to Hiawatha on the weekend after Christmas to be with you! Shannon will be going to the Netherlands to be with Jeroen and his family for her 1st week off after 3 months of work. We have something going on every weekend up until we leave so the time is going to go by FAST! Oh…Megan will be with us over the Christmas holidays and C & B will stay in Arizona.
Casey and Brian are flying to Massachusetts in a couple days. Brian’s mom is having a big Jack’n Jill party for them….for all their friends and relatives back East. It’s going to be quite an affair. And Megan will join them for that and then Thanksgiving at the McNulty’s.
After Christmas, I am planning on staying in the states until the end of March. I’m going to fly to AZ on Jan 5th and then I’ll be back and forth between Ks, Mo, and Az until after the wedding..

Well, that’s enough to keep our heads spinning for a while!

Love to you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am so thankful for my family!!!!!