Subject: Weekend Update: Eastertide
Date:    Mon 4/5/99  8:58am

You know, our family worked hard this Saturday around the house and
yard, but the more important story to tell is and was centered around
Easter and its meaning in the lives of many of you.  Many of you on
this list entered a Lenten fast, perhaps for the first time ever,
dedicating to God something you enjoy.  You encouraged me by your
sacrafices of discipline for love.  In my own family, chocolate,
Nintendo, lunch, and Coke fell by the wayside for nearly seven weeks.
And I know there are quite a few people who don't understand what it
is about.  But for you who do and did, thank you for your testimony to
me.

It was a little tougher on church-going folk to have daylight savings
time coincide with early Easter Sunday activities, but the day after
seemed all the more difficult.  Even the sun was logey this morning,
not rising to greet me until after I'd taken my shower.

The weatherman told us that Easter was going to be cloudy and wet but
instead we were delivered a breezy and sunny day.  We had 16 for
Easter Sunday dinner and held a small Easter egg hunt outside for the
visiting children (some of them up to 22-years old!).  It was good to
have our college girl home for a brief stay, and my niece Charity,
too.  A couple of other college friends came along for some Easter
fun, too.  The more the merrier at the Manor.

I want to apologize to Rich ahead of time for embarrassing him like I
am going to do. (He's on this mailing list.)  I am so very proud of
him and his lovely wife Wendy - they had five of the kids at our
dinner table yesterday, four of whom are foster children; taken in to
a home where love and care are meted out in abundance.  Few of us know
the lives some of these children have had to deal with (and I mean
foster children in general), and to see these four foster children
happy in a happy home just pops the buttons on my vest.  My wife's
family took in foster children when Joy was young and I have the
highest respect for people such as these.  Thalia (their natural
daughter) also enjoys having instant sisters.  The girls (Kristen,
Stephanie, Ashley - three sisters, Kimberly, and Thalia) delighted us
with some singing in the living room yesterday afternoon.

Miranda's birthday is on Wednesday, April 7; she will be 19-years old.
She shares a birth date with L. Mark Hall and one of our former pet
dogs, Misty.  It is probably worthy of note that Miranda cut at least
10 inches of hair from her head, donating it to people who need hair
pieces (children undergoing chemotherapy, for example, who lose their
hair).  It is still rather long (halfway down the back) but a shock to
some of her friends nonetheless.  The other women in my family are
wondering about similar transformations.  []  

Mark

        __   __            Mark Metcalfe                         ,
       /  \./  \/\_        Cadence Design Systems, Inc.          \_0__,
   __{^\_ _}_   )  }/^\    270 Billerica Road                      M
  /  /\_/^\._}_/  //  /    Chelmsford, Massachusetts 01824        .|\.
 (  (__{(@)}\__}.//_/__A____A_______A________A________A_____A___A___A__
  \__/{/(_)\_}  )\\ \\---v-----V-----V---Y-----v----Y------v-----V-----
    (   (__)_)_/  )\ \>    Email: metcalfe@cadence.com
     \__/     \__/\/\/     Phone: (978) 446-6451
        \__,--'            Fax:   (978) 446-6351        A rose for you.