Family Update

Again, it's been far too long since we've posted. Trust me, it's not that there is nothing to talk about. Quite the opposite. So much going on, so little time to post. But what's new?

I'll tell you what's new. Most recently, the dogs treed a groundhog. Yes, thats right, and that's him below. Trouble is, we (and the dogs) had no idea what to do with it.


He was about 15-20 feet up and trying to keep his grip. The neighbor had a BB gun, but as soon as he walked over with the rifle, that groundhog made a break for it. At least I have a better idea of where his den is.

Next up is our superstar soccer player, Addie. Saturday was her first game of the season. The girls did well, and several of her teammates had made quite the improvement over the winter. It took Addie a bit to warm up, but once she did, the other girls couldn't stop her.


(That's her with the yellow ponytail holder) She ended up with 3 goals, and very nearly had two others. Once, she had the opening kick. With that, and a second kick she nearly had another goal - the ball missed by about foot.

After the game, Margaret and I went to run some errands and Addie and Emily went to an estate sale. Little did I know they'd come back with a surprise.... haircuts! Addie had been wanting to get it cut short, and we knew it would be easier on all of us.


Here she was reading a book in the living room. Did I mention how great she is doing with reading. She loves it, and it is so fun to catch her reading by herself.

The previous weekend was Easter. It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with both sides of the family.

Emily and I have been busy Sunday nights teaching Financial Peace University at our church. This weekend was class 5 of 13. So far, our class has shredded 138 credit cards, and as of Sunday, two had payed off a car loan. That's a half-gallon Ball jar full of shredded cards.

We've also been busy with home repairs, though slightly less hands on as normal. This weekend, we ordered the shingles for our roof. We are planning to replace it in June or July this summer. A couple of weekends ago we replaced our boiler, and while we had the new one installed prefessionally, we did remove the old one ourselves. The old 'Majestic' incinerator left as well.

After an afternoon of hard labor, Ben and Tom and I agreed, were earned that $1600 that they knocked off the bill for doing this part ourselves. It was neither fun, nor easy, but nothing that the three of us couldn't handle. The new system is below.


Last, and certainly not least is Margaret. She's a busy little bee these days - talking terrorizing and getting into everything. The fun part is that she wants to interact with others more. She loves playing peek-a-boo (usually starting it herself), and she loves to raise her arm at dinner, hoping to get us to do the same.