Thanks for not giving up. Here is an up date so that I can possibly jump back in for another of run of posts. However, I make no promises.

C.W. It is as if he has found his mother ship here with all his fellow seminarians. My job is to keep him grounded in real life. Well, that is one of my jobs. I have many. Oh, I’m sorry I was talking about C.W. Right.  School is great. Ministry is stretching. He likes not being in charge and responsible for an entire ministry. And speaking of ministry, his time spent with international student is so very different from working with midshipmen. I am tempted here to make up a bunch of stuff that C.W. thinks and feels, but I am thinking that I probably shouldn’t do that. So, I will move on to the kids. I am pretty sure that I know most of what they think and feel since I spend most of my time with them and, you know, they don’t really hold anything back.

Joseph. He is two and he is proud of it. Testing every boundry that I put in place. I am weary, but at least he is normal. He has maintained his unimpressed and generally nonplussed disposition. I think that he is going to be less of a whiner than his big sister, which is a hope to which I am clinging for the sake of my sanity. When the doc at his two year well check asks me how many words he has, my initial response was…"all of them, I think." He chatters and sings constantly. He loves puzzles and is a little "rain man-ish" with them. Heaven forbid that a piece be missing.

Brenna. She turned 4 last week. What?! I have a four-year-old? Ridiculous. She is great. Today’s conversations with her included the following. A discussion of why dew forms on the car in morning. What is jail? How long and why babies stay in their mommy’s tummies. How Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb. What two colors mix to make orange? A discussion of whether or not the fairy godmother from Cinderella was the same as God. When we can go back to Maryland. She has a lot of questions.

It is late. So, I am going to post this and continue my update later. Good night. Oh, and here are some photos.

 Brenna just finished up some swimming lessons. The goggles kill me. They were a necessary and wonderful part of her training, and we could never manage to get them on quite right.

Visitors! Woohoo! Brittney, the mom of the exceedingly cute baby came too, but she didn’t make the pic.

I walk with a friend on Tuesday and Thursday mornings during the time that the kids usually wake up.

C.W.’s Hebrew class includes an assignment of watching instructional DVD’s outside of class.

So.

I came home from my walk this morning to the three of them sitting around the breakfast table eating breakfast…..and watching, on C.W.’s laptop, Dr. Fuller demonstrate how to write Hebrew letters on a white board. I have to say the kids were pretty intrigued.

A Mother’s Prayer: "Dear Lord, please allow our children to grow up in our household without being too weird. Amen."

We love the zoo! "Cheese" smiles. Who ever thought that saying the word cheese would produce an authentic looking smile? They were way wrong. 

Joseph….shhh.  I have the urge to do something similar occasionally. 

The backpack was permantly affixed to her back during this trip. At least I got her out of the princess dress.

Anything big sister can do….. 

This is our new friend Katie.  She is even cuter from the front. The girls here are checking out the gorillas. 

Katie is the sweetest little red head in Louisville. No contest there. Brenna is a year older than she is. Doesn’t my girl look so big? 

I am not sure what exactly was going on in these pictures. She definitely was on some sort of mission, but I tried to not ask questions while snapping pictures so as to not interrupt the preciousness of her pretend world.

Note: Rocky baby, pictured here, is practically a member of the family. Don’t the strap-on sunglasses really make the outfit? I think so.

The backpack too. A girl can’t play pretend without her backpack. I love it. 

The pledge of allegience? 

 Then she stood watch for quiet a while.

Our Joseph….a plain joe next to little miss dress up. 

But really, who needs a fancy dress when you are this cute?

This one is, by far, my favorite. I think that I have seen that frown somewhere before. 

in my new big boy bed!!!

Hmm…..if she can fill ice trays, what else can she do around here?

15 minutes – push 70 lbs of children and 10 lbs of stroller to the park at a brisk pace

6 minutes – use the stairs on the playground apparatus like the step in a step class….until the kids decide they want to swing

15 minutes – push kids on swings using big arm movement and doing squats or leg lifts with each push

10 minutes – back to my "stair master"

I should be fitting into all those pants hanging in my closet any day now.

Do the best you can with what you have! That’s what I say.