not much to update. :) We are doing well and enjoying our last bits of summer. School started around here for most of the districts, Gary's school starts 9/8. He's been swamped with projects and still being as helpful as he can at home. I can't tell you enough how grateful I am for him.

Sue is back in the hospital for her next round of Chemo. You can once again keep up with her status via our church website. It's on this page at the top right, click on "Meet the Pastor" and then "Family Updates" We have many many more friends going through major, life changing issues at this time and ask if you read this to join with us in prayer. I know I"m sometimes overwhelmed with grief for those we love when I pray and I"m so thankful our God can meet all our needs.

I"m now 31.5 weeks along in my pregnancy. Things are starting to slow me down but I"m healthy and hanging in there. My mood swings are a bit disturbing but other than that, we just plug along day by day. Tyler's doing well with his homeschooling and we are looking at possibly purchasing a curriculum for him to follow rather than me making things up as I go. Either way I"m confident he'll be ready for Kindergarten next year both emotionally and academically. And if not... well, we'll cross that bridge when it comes. He's so smart and we're working on getting him to collect his thoughts and present them in a more organized fashion. He gets a bit carried away sometimes and stutters and gets very loud. It's not a problem, but something to pay attention to. I would like to see him better able to communicate his knowledge to others. One of my favorite things he's started to do more often is "reading" his books. Grace does it more often but i love to hear him sit down with a favorite book and go page by page and retell the story. He often recalls some of the words from hearing them and can recite the stories very well. Sometimes he makes it up as he goes and it's just so fun. I love to see how he gets himself confused and then goes back and changes things to make better sense. It shows me he's learning and some days when I feel i'm wasting my time, it lets me know I am doing right by him.

Grace is also doing very well, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Age two can be very trying but also SO very rewarding as they change and learn SO much. She's not quite the performer Tyler is so she doesn't share some of her talents with those outside the house. She speaks in full paragraphs now, (often competing with her brother which gets quite loud!) can count to 10 sometimes, knows many colors and shapes, loves letters and STILL has a better pencil grip than her brother. She's newly obsessed with animals and what they look like and sound like and where they live and what they eat. She loves all things "school" and "house". Where Tyler's a tornado, she's content to sit with a coloring book and crayons or "teaching" her babies and "reading" to them.