checking in...

If there is anyone who really reads this, I thought I'd check in as I haven't written in a while. Life has been sooooooooooo busy! Having another child, especially a teenage child is definitely an adjustment. I wish you could all meet her, she's such a neat kid! And i'm not just saying that because she asked to watch FOX news the day she moved in, or has a McCain sticker on her notebook. For all that she's been through, she's very resilient and a bright, interesting child.

But, between her 2x a week appointments and the sports that the kids are all now involved in we are constantly running. K is cheering for the tackle football league, J is playing flag football, and S is playing soccer.

Awana started back up last week and so that is another day to be busy. No hanging out on Sunday afternoon anymore.

And we've been traveling a bit. L (our teen) isn't used to all this family time, but she is learning to love it. See, we pretty much do everything together, even a "I need Milk" run to wal-mart is a family event. The best part, is that she has never, or rarely done most of the things that we take for granted. We took her to louisville for a weekend and she got to hang out with us during the semiannual hospital marriage retreat. And, it was the same weekend of the State Fair, to which L had NEVER BEEN!. We spent about 9 hours at the fairgrounds. We walked through all the animals, most of the exhibits, and then let all the children do some rides. We were so grateful to be staying in Louisville and not having to drive all the way back to Ft. Knox that night.

Then we went to Gatlinburg for 5 days of camping fun with our dear friends Tim and Erin. Not only had she never been to Gatlinburg, she'd never been camping! The kids enjoyed teasing her about bugs and snakes and general woody types of things. She survived and even admited she had fun. We had a blast, we took tubes and went tubing down the little river in the Smokey Mtn National Forest. Nothing like standing in your bathing suit on the side of the road and just jumping into the water. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium. I've got to say here. THANK YOU Ripley's and Gatlinburg. They have tremendous military discounts, and it is GREATLY appreciated. We got 6 Ripley amusements, including the Aquarium for all of us, for $32.00 (it cost our non-military friends more than that for the 2 of them to just get into the Aquarium. So, military, go to Gatlinburg! We played at the campground, raced in the go-carts, and played miniature golf. We had so much fun we didn't want to leave and got home very late on Tuesday when we had originally planned to be home by 5 for sports practices. Oh well, who knows when we'll get to go there again.

Mike is now in SanAntonio for a Emergency Medicine Ministry training and comes home Friday. He's very sad to be away from us and we're all missing him too. Especially since J starting asking me questions about Wet Dreams this week. Turns out, K had been reading my "what's happening to me" book that my mom gave to me, and he was reading along with her. Now, mind you, I answered all of his question plainly and without any embarrasment. I have no problems talking to any of my kids about s*x and development. That taken, Mike can answer the Penis questions much better than I can, for obvious reasons (like I don't have one!) But, J seemed happy with the information he received and hopefully knows that he ask Mom about anything. I guess they can, since he asked more questions after I read our daily chapter of Proverbs and had to answer more questions about "immoral women".

S turned 6 yesterday and he loved celebrating his 1/2 birthday yesterday. Since dad's gone we only did 1/2 the celebrating, hence the 1/2 birthday as he is calling it. We'll finish celebrating when Mike gets home. If only he can get it through his head that he got his whole presents :).

Well, that's a quick update of the highlights. If anyone actually reads this, leave a comment, so that I'll know to update more often!