Summer Update

I know, I know, you all thought that I dropped off the face of the earth. Nope! I'm still here. The last few months have just been extremely crazy.

Here is a letter Daniel wrote to his sister a month or so ago. It gives a quick summary of our summer. I will make another post soon to catch you all up with us.

he kids are getting excited for our DisneyLand trip in October. We'll be on the road form the 7th to the 17th, visiting Marc (who lives in Northern Cali. right now; wasn't sure if you knew) for a few days, and staying at Disney for three days. We'll have to head home in time to be back for one of Christopher's rehearsals for the Singing Christmas Tree here in Portland.

The kids have been in school for a couple of weeks now, and they're liking it. Mostly. Getting up at 6:30 is not much fun for them, but they do pretty well as long as we get them to bed before 9:30. Robin and I are both teaching at the school this year: 5th grade Math for me, and 3rd grade science for her. It's fun, fits with our schedules, and also means that we don't have to pay anything for the kids to go to PHA.

Michael just started walking around last week. He's getting more and more steady on his feet, and he'll wander around in circles for minutes at a time just to practice. (At least, that's how it looks.) He's not saying a whole lot yet, but makes lots of noises that he expects us to understand. I imagine we'll get better at it soon.

Briona just barely turned 5, and just started pre-school. She loves her class and her teacher and, most of all, the snacks she gets at school. Not sure what she's learning yet, but that'll come.

Kira had a great time this summer. Just before her 10th birthday, she and Robin went to "Sisters' Camp", a three-day hang-out with lots of other girls her age and their moms (mostly), doing all the same kinds of things that Christopher has been doing at Scout camp: riding horses, shooting BB guns, cooking over a fire, tying knots, sleeping in a cabin and hiking all over the place. She loved it!

Christoper is nearly twelve, and will soon be ordained as a Deacon. He's pretty happy about it, but not quite as excited as he was, since I'm not working with the Deacons anymore, so he still won't be in the class I teach. He's doing great in school, and has a huge jump on his Math, since he tested through the first half (and then some) of the book.

Robin works at JoAnn Craft Store, staffing the cutting table and the framing counter. She loves the framing part, since she gets to work for long periods of time on one job, without being distracted by "Mom!" this and "Mom!" that every 2 minutes. Working the cutting counter, though, is no different from being at home, just with bigger and grumpier kids. We hope that with her working, and some of the other changes we've made. we'll be able to get completely out of debt (not counting the house) in a couple of years. It's a long road, but SO worth it.

I'm still working computer jobs, and loving what I do. Again, mostly. Office politics always make the job a little tougher, but it's a small price to pay for getting paid to do something I like so much.