Back to School!

Well, we made it through the first week of school. Timothy and Catherine went back to school on Tuesday, August 19. Timothy is in 5th grade and Catherine is in 3rd grade this year. This will be Timothy's last year of elementary school. Both of the kids got the teachers they wanted and they both have their best friends in their class. Because Catherine was is a 2nd/3rd grade combination class last year, she has the same teacher, Mrs. Cordial, and classroom this year. Most of the kids she was in 2nd grade with are now the 3rd graders in the combo class. Timothy really wanted to have a male teacher this year and he got Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson is one of the "cool" and layed-back teachers and one of the students favorites.

Catherine will be turning 8 on Saturday, August 30. I don't know where my babies have gone. Timothy can wear my shoes! We are planning to have a family birthday party at Mom's. John's dad is out of town, but his brother Jim and his family will be there. I'm not sure yet who else will be able to come. That's the bad thing about having a birthday on a holiday weekend. I'll try to remember to post pictures later.

The Gap fire in Goleta

John's dad, his brother Jim, and Jim's wife and two children had to leave their homes on Thursday, July 3, do to the fire. They were able to return home Sunday morning and get to stay there as long as the fire continues to burn away from their homes. Neither home suffered any damage, just a lot of soot and ash. Please continue to remember all of the families in Goleta that this effects and the brave men and women fighting this fire in your prayers. As of this morning no homes have been lost and there have been only a couple of minor injuries.
A couple of web pages that we have been using to follow the fire are geomac.usgs.gov and sbcf.com. If you click on the "inciweb" link at Santa Barbara County Fire it give you the latest info.

The month of May

Wow, did that month ever fly by. The kids were busy practising for their choir performance of "Cats", which took place on the 22nd. It turned out really well. All of the kids did a wonderful job. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out very well. I was sitting to far away for the flash to work. Got some great shots the the back of the persons head that was sitting in front of us! At least I remember to take a picture of them in their makeup before the show started.

May 22 was also Timothy's 10th birthday. We had a family celebration at Grandma's house the Saturday before. The weather was perfect and everyone had a nice time. Timothy isn't a big fan of cake so he had a birthday cookie. Aunt Pauline made one of her wonderful chocolate sheet cakes for the rest of us to enjoy. Timothy loved all of his gifts, but I think his favorite was the new "big kid" bike he got from Grandma and Uncle Michael. He had completely outgrown the smaller bike he had. He is really getting tall.

This is the last week of school. That school year went by way to fast. We don't have any special plans for this summer. The kids are going to take swimming lessons. They are both becoming excellent swimmers. John has to go to UCLA on the 17th of June for a liver biopsy. It's something he has to have done every couple of years just to make sure everything is ok. He's still dealing with some health issues. Continued prayers are appreciated.

Well, better get back to the laundry. We are having a party at the bowling alley for the kids today. Kind of a joint birthday party for them and their friends even though Catherine's birthday isn't until August. Her birthday falls right after school starts and coincides with Labor Day weekend so we decided to have her invite her friends now and maybe they would be able to come. Last year when she invited friends to her party at Grandma's house, no one came because of the holiday. Of course, this party hasn't worked out much better for her. She invited four friends. One had a death in the family and wasn't going to be home this weekend, one is moving out of state the day after school ends so they were too busy and one little girl we never heard from so we don't know if she's coming or not. Of course Catherine is pretty easy going about the whole thing. She says she'll still have fun "cause I like to bowl and my brother will be there with me". I told her we will do something special on her actual birthday with just one or two special friends. I'll try to remember to post pictures later.

Catching up

Well, finally a minute to set down and catch up. John is doing so much better. The doctor's finally decided it was just a really bad infection and alot of inflammation in the colon. After a course of very expensive antibiotics and being put back on Prednisone, which is a steriod, he is able to pretty much eat and do anything he likes. Thank to all who remembered us in their prayers.
Timothy and Catherine continue to do well in school. Catherine received an award this morning for outstanding work in multiplication. She is doing 3rd grade math even though she is in 2nd grade. That's what is so great about her being in a 2nd/3rd grade combo class. Her teacher recognized her abilities and makes sure she is being challanged with work she enjoys.
Mom and Aunt Pauline left yesterday to visit two of their sisters. They are headed to Anderson, CA. to my Aunt Bea's house. They hope to take Aunt Bea with them and go to visit my Aunt Jennie who is in an assisted living facility in Mantica, CA. They always enjoy this trip even though it is a lot of driving for my mom. I think they will plan to take the train when they go back in October. The kids and I really miss them when they are gone. Timothy and Catherine take turns spending a night at Grandma's house on the weekends. Staying home with Mom and Dad for the whole weekend isn't nearly as much fun.
John and I celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday, April 19. I can't believe it's been that long, it's gone by so fast. We have truly been blessed with John having a dependable job, a nice home and two beautiful, healthy children. God is very, very good to us.
Well, time for dinner. Catherine gets to select the restaraunt as a reward for the award she got from school today. Don't know where we're going, she wouldn't tell anyone but her dad since he's driving!

Well, our Easter didn't go exactly as planned. We were going to go to Santa Barbara on Sunday to attend services with John's family and then go to his dad's house for lunch. John is still dealing with health issues. He saw both our family doctor and a gastroenterologist on Friday. The specialist started him on yet another antibiotic. They seem to think he has a really persistant infection in the colon. We ended up going to the hospital on Sunday morning to meet with Dr. Lin, the gastroenterologist, with the idea that John might be admitted. Instead Dr. Lin is going to do a complete colonoscopy on Tuesday. He wants to look at every part of the colon from top to bottom, not just the lower section where the diverticulitis was. Hopefully this will finally provided us with some answers.

The kids were out of school on Friday, so Mom went to Santa Barbara and picked up Michael's son Kasey so that the kids could color their Easter eggs. They each got to do six eggs each. I'm going to try to attach photos. They had a ball and didn't make to big of a mess. On Saturday I went out in the backyard at Mom's and hid the eggs for all three kids to hunt for. They found all of them with just a little help from Michael and I. John was taking it easy at home and didn't get to participate.

Easter Sunday did bring a special addition to our extended family. My cousin Brian Girsch and his wife, Danielle, welcomed a little girl to their family. Eden Mae Girsch was born at 12:08am Sunday morning. Mom, Dad, baby and big brother Noah are all doing great. This makes great-grandchild number four for my Aunt Pauline. Brian's sister Charity (the one in Missouri) is expecting a second daughter any day now and his sister Lea has another baby due in June. Our family blessings just keep multiplying!

Update on John

John is feeling better today. He was able to work a little more than half his normal day. Thanks to all who have included him in their prayers.

Getting Started

I love reading other people's blogs, so I thought I'd give it a try. Since I'm new at this please bear with me.

March has gotten off to a very hectic start. Timothy and Catherine have both missed school due to illness. Timothy has had a cough that just doesn't want to go away. Catherine has had an infection in both ears and to make life interesting they both had conjunctivitis (pink eye). This was all at the same time. Finally got them back to school last Thursday. Now John is sick. We spent about 4 hours in the emergency room yesterday. Apparently it's a flare-up of his diverticulitis and/or his ulcertive colitis. He's going to be OK, just has to watch his diet and take the antibiotics. When this happened the day after Christmas he was in the hospital for 4 days. So far I have managed to avoid all of it.

Both kids are in the school choir this year. They are going to be doing a production of "Cats" in May. Timothy has been chosen to do part of the introduction for the performance. He seems very excited about it, but considering we can't hardly get him to go up front and sing with the other kids at church getting him to stand on a stage in front of a much larger group of people and recite a part from memory is going to take some practise!

Well, enough for now. Time to get the kids ready for bed. I'll try to post every couple of days or when something new happens.