Checking in

As I check for updates on the kids' blogs I realize that I am at the bottom of the list of blogs I follow... it's been two weeks again. Makes me really admire Lisa for blogging nearly every day while in PNG in January.

Since Lent started at the end of February, it seems I am extra busy. One more night of the week with somewhere to go, offering to count, and sometimes sermons to print out for Lou. We do a soup and bread supper before the Wednesday evening service, so sometimes I am cooking for those, but I have always sort of liked Lent services. We are doing the Holden Evening Prayer service by Marty Haugen -- it's been 3 years since we've sung it and we all sort of forgot how much we like the music in that service. It flows nice and is relaxing. So far Lou hasn't had to sing the liturgy (thanks, Carmen and Stan!) but I think he could if he had to.

My social life seems to have picked up this month, too, sort of. Kelli had a Discovery Toy party at our church room March 6 -- a great success with about 15 in attendance and lots of free or discounted toys for her to choose from as hostess. Saturday we left to go to western WA for the baptism of the firstborn of our oldest godson on March 8 -- I will write more about that soon -- and this past weekend kept us hopping. We played pinochle on Friday night with several couples at the O'Brien house (an early St. Patrick's Day celebration -- but any excuse will do). Nicholas got to come along and enjoyed watching the 'bigger' boys play Wii and Battleship; he also fell in love with Derek's ride-on battery powered backhoe and he quickly mastered the controls that moved the bucket.

This past Saturday afternoon I went to Caroline (Skaug)'s baby shower. Two months left until the baby is born (girl) and three months until she and Luke move to wherever they will be going next (I think he's air force, right Rachel?) They have 3 European choices, and 3 Western US cities they might wind up in. I would vote for Germany but I'm sure Laurel would prefer the US !

Yesterday we left for church, came home again for about 15 minutes, and then I went back to town for another baby shower (Kamie from church, also having a girl in a month), then Madison's 10th birthday party (Louis brought Lou in), and a Bible study, getting home at about 9 PM. It was a full day! We got to see Troy and Steph's new house out at Dune Lakes and we finally met their two mastiff puppies, Gus and Lucy. They are obviously still pups but nearly as tall as Omar already... they are going to be BIG dogs (in case you thought Boris was big, they will tower over him... you should see their feet now!). So fun to see mastiff pups again; what a fun and loving breed, and such beautiful dogs! They match the interior of the house even.

There seem to be a lot of people with colds or flu this week -- stuffy noses and watery eyes and sore throats. Moses Lake is also in the midst of a whooping cough scare -- the wrestling team was exposed at the state meet two weekends ago -- and chicken pox are going around so they are making sure kids are up to date with their shots or they exclude them from school. We have been having a lot of wind, cold wind, and that is not helping much. So far Lou and I have escaped any of that and I sure hope that trend continues.

On Saturday Ben and Kelli built the walls to their pump house at the new buiding site. Nicholas was there for a while but got tired of it pretty fast, so he came here through lunch until I left for Caroline's shower. Then I think he may have gotten a nap in the carseat ... When I got home we went over there and helped them put the roof on the pump house with the Manitou. It was my job to ride up in the bucket so I could unhook the chain from the roof when it was in place (Kelli got a picture of me;it was windy and cold!) The foundation is also done now and I think Ben got the driveway in (not perfect but 'passable'), so things will be happening fast for the next few weeks as floor, walls, and roof go up. Will be fun to watch. Kelli has been very busy acting as 'general contractor.'

And so that has been the month so far. Next time maybe I'll find some pictures to post.