Spring Days and Woes

It is finally spring here and we’ve had a few really nice summer days as well.  Today, however, is a rainy, windy and cold day.   All three kids are sick - Michael and Ryan with pink eye and ear infections again (that makes 8 so far in just over a year) and Megan has been feeling unwell as well.  All three have fevers.  Mother’s Day (tomorrow) looks like the same weather-wise and it appears as though Sarah will be spending a bit of time in the Walk-in clinic….

Good news though…Sarah has posted a bunch more pictures.  You can see them on page two.

Jeff

Happy Easter

Greetings from PNG! Hope you had a good time with the Prague team Jeff. The pictures you posted are great! Praise the Lord for this opportunity to give this very practical help! We were praying for His help and strength for each day, for all of you. How did the family make out back home? Are you going to be able to visit Gran-Nanny out in Cape Breton over Easter? We’ve been hearing about all of the winter storms over there…

There’s a lull in the busy-ness right now - lots of people have gone away for the Easter holiday! Some time for us to rest (or get caught up on emails Many of our friends got up this morning to meet the aviation bus at 6:15 to go to a Bible dedication! Everyone should experience one while they’re here! Today is the Kube NT dedication and visitors from as far as Korea were coming for overnight in the translators’ village location in Morobe Province. It was a bit misty this morning but we heard 3 planes take off about 7:30. There was a market for veggies and flowers this morning too so we went down about 6:45, coming back with bananas, green beans, carrots, leeks, tomatoes, cucs, and a bouquet of dahlias.

Just wrote to the little family - Parisa will be 6 on Sunday!  We don’t go on the Internet often now as we get charged by the amount “downloaded” - that’s every time we open up anything, including browsing and time taken getting on sites! Coming Apr 1, there will be other changes so that even sending (ie uploading) will be charged by actual use! We use the office computers though so I guess that saves us power but is also more of a hassle, walking down here after office hours! There is no inexpensive way to access Internet here :-(  Maybe when we’re in Australia later this year?

Our Easter weekend is 4 days, so it’s so nice to have time off for catching up a little on some personal notes- we get Monday off, but Daddy’s doing our taxes. Looks like we get money back again, and our BC Health Care paid too.

Easter Blessings to you all!

Love & hugs, Mom & Dad

37 Years of Love, Joy, 3 Amazing Children & Persevering through it all! All wrapped up in God’s grace

Is this a just assessement of your marriage? Feel free to correct me and/or add! And Congratulations! It really is worth it, n’est-ce pas?? Neil and I just passed our 1.5 years anniversary and are discovering new ways to get along, make each other laugh, serve each other, and occasionally spend time apart too! I laud my hubster for a beautiful Valentine’s Day candlelit dinner with red tablecloth, fine china and crystal, orchids, gummy candies (my fave!), and chocolates from Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. What a guy. But I digress. It was nice to attend a gorgeous wedding this past weekend, and we’re looking forward to going to Tofino with Ma & Pa Johnson this weekend. You’ll be happy to hear my leg muscles are recovering after dancing to midnight at the wedding, and doing pop/hip-hop dancing for 1.5 hours on Sunday…ouch! I could barely sit down/get up and avoided stairs at all costs. We also went for Neil’s first Hot Pot on Sunday night and boy did he find it yummy!!

Megan’s birthday

Megan had her second 5th birthday party today with family and a few neighbors. The last one was on the 10th and had 11 kids attend out of the 17 invited. We had the big Pricess and Pirates party at the MARC so the kids could go tobogganing. It was a great party but rather draining. Tonight’s party was smaller but just as noisy with the boys helping Megan open her family gifts and trying to eat everyone’s cake and ice cream.

Both boys are walking now, Michael is steadier on his feet but looks like Frankenstein or a sleepwalker. Ryan walks like he’s drunk and usually tries to run. They can both go about 8-10 feet at a time now and prefer to walk short distances rather than crawling. I am trying to decide which is worse - when they are fighting with each other or when they are cooperating. Cooperation makes life hard for mommy since two heads seem to better than one for getting into places they ae not supposed to but they are awfully hard on each other when they are fighting. Both boys are usually sporting black and blue marks on their foreheads, both pull the other’s hair and Ryan has a bad habit of biting Michael’s shoulders. Michael shakes his head no, no, no and Ryan says ba, ba ,ba (bad, bad, bad) after throwing food on the floor. Ryan jabbers up a storm and is likely to inheirted his sister’s (and Mom’s) gift of the gab if he continues when words come. Sometimes they ignore each other but more and more they are copying each other and at least a couple of times a day go into a “twin tizzy” when they get so wound up copying each other that they are flapping their hands and screeching at each other with delight.

Megan and Mommy are enjoying the Little House on the Prairie series and are ready to start the second chapter book. We’re hoping to visit a turn of the century living farm museum (Ross farm) on March break to give her a better picture of what life was like for Laura and her family. Jeff leaves for Prague on the 8th of March fro a week and the kids and I will be visiting grand-nanny in Cape Breton for Easter.

 I hope to upload some pictures soon….. If only there were more waking moments when teh twins were asleep in a day….

Another Snow Day

This year has been great for snow days.  When we woke up this morning, there was nothing really on the ground and I was surprised that things were cancelled.  It’s 4:00pm now though, and we’ve had, according to our neighbourhood weather guru, 17cm of white fluffy stuff.  The snow blower works great!

Jeff

Michael’s first steps

Michael, 5 days shy of his tenth month took his first three steps. Both boys have been standing for brief periods and Michael just decided the other night to move closer to the tv, took three steps then thought better of it and decided to crawl instead. I’m sure Ryan is not far behind. Both boys have their first two top and bottom teeth but I think they are working on more which is why they’ve gotten ear infections again. POh well hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and they’ll be back to thier happy selves.

Note from C and E

Christy only gets to write on the spur-of-the-moment, so here is an excerpt from her email today! Read and remember our dear ones:

I recently found Leif sitting in the kids’ room, with a pen and paper, trying to write!  He’s such a good boy, he often goes to the bookshelf and picks a book and sits there “reading” it, turning pages and all, instead of biting the book like most babies.  He has 7 teeth and he seems to be getting 3 or 4 more in at once now.  At the moment he’s kissing his sisters.  He sort of jumps on them, and bites their cheeks and makes smacking noises.  They love it. 

Erik took the girls hiking in the wadi a couple weeks ago, and Nisse fell and cut her head at the front hairline, had to go the hospital and get one stitch.  We are glad to have a good hospital nearby (more like a clinic but it’s great for minor things), and medicines available.  Parisa had tonsilitis at Christmastime- did I tell you?  So we got antibiotics for that too. 

Erik has just gotten back from five days in the village, going to a wedding (they last four days here) and supervising the work on our house there (cementing the floor and titing and painting).  We are staying in the town til it’s ready to live in. 

Signing in

Finally got a chance to get onto the site. It’s a great way to stay in touch. I just have to make a bit more time to get on the computer so I can stay on top of everyone’s news. Tonight I’m down to one child so I have a bit more free time than usual.

M&M are at Nanny’s for a sleep-over - the boys have double ear infections again and we’ve been short on sleep with both boys up the past few nights with earaches. I took them to the walk-in and got them both anti-biotics today so we should be able to get some more sleep in a couple of days. Michael usually sleeps through the night unless he’s sick or teething - so does Ryan but only in mommy’s bed. The boys are just a step away from walking (pardon the pun). They stanbd very briefly without holding on to anything and cruise around the furniture all the time. They are very active just like their sister.

 We registered Megan for “big school” on Thursday with mixed feelings on everyone’s part. She is excited and nervous but is more than ready to start primary in the fall. I’m working two days a week now at 4 nursing homes and will be going up to three days (6 homes) in April when the boys get their daycare spots. Nanny is babysitting for now but is looking forward to being able to just be nanny one day care opens up.

Marking Days

I’ve been sitting here in class all day marking various papers and tests.  This morning, the last of the exams was written (Biology 11) and now I’m almost finished marking them too.  The multiple choice questions were done reasonably well, but it is the written answers that I find funny at times.  For one question, a student writes an answer of “I wasn’t here for this.” Even funnier are some of the words used.  Here are some excerpts.  The names of the victims have been removed to preserve their anonimity.

• The purpose of this tool is to pick up liquid and then insert it into a vile
• Light the buns and burner (Bunsen burner) with the striker…
• …and  teens  today are subject to a lot of pier pressure. (perhaps here on the coast!)

I’ve come across lots more, but those are the ones from this year…

‘Tis a special day!!

Hope you have a wonderful day Jeffy! You know you already got your half-prezzie (the mini Coke fridge) and I know you’re already enjoying it too! Neil and I pray this year will bring you into a closer relationship with your perfect Father!! Neil and I think you’re a very special man, chosen for a special task out East.

I chose this photo cuz it shows what a great dad you are-spending time lovin’ on your girls (tho the pic is 1.5 years ago!) and now your boys too!