busy busy and more opportunities!!!

With the balmy breezes of spring, the pace of life has picked up - we are now almost in frantic mode. It seems like early spring has that tendency. Here are some of our recent highlights!

Aaron has turned 9 months old - and has mastered pulling himself up and then getting back down without head trauma, has cut another tooth (the one to the left of the front 2 that haven't grown in yet) which makes a total of 3 and a weird looking grin. The other 3 top teeth have been trying to make their debut. He's also saying "mom" and "dad" but we still think that it is more experimental than actual understanding of who we are.

We have been working feverishly in our yard to get things to a decent condition. Everyone around us has beautiful, lush yards. Ours looks like a nightmare, and although it certainly would be nice to have a lawn service just come and "fix" it for us, I can't imagine what it would cost. It is scary right now.

We've demolished 2 hills in the front, and, consequently, the funky shrub/bush/plants that were growing therein. We now have 2 large bare dirt spots in which we've planted grass seeds, but are yet waiting to see the sprouts from that venture. We have also trimmed some dead branches off the trees. I'm waiting with great excitement for the time later this summer when I can move the odd planting of lilies and tulips from yet another spot in the front yard. The lilies have an adoptive home waiting and the tulips will be transplanted to another part of our yard.

We also completely emptied the office and have re organized it to make a spot for the bookshelves that were relocated from our living area to make room for the piano. We are not quite finished with that project, although it is much more pleasant to work in the office now, and makes future organization a real possibility.

Garage sale season has begun! So far, we've been able to cross a few items off our "wish list" - a bread maker, a fan, another filing cabinet and a small table, some clothes for Aaron, and a few other miscellaneous items. Michael is particularly excited about a snowblower and a book of Far Side comics. I am pretty happy about the Baby Einstein videos and DVD's we found.

DAD graduated Saturday from Central Michigan University with his master's degree!! We all went to the commencement, including Aaron, who sat for over an hour on my lap, most happily! I was relieved at how well he did, and am so happy for dad. He's worked on this degree for awhile.

This week is the school play at Calvary Baptist Academy, for which Jenny will be helping the students do stage makeup. They're performing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which should be very interesting! We are looking forward to it!

Sunday, we caught up to one of our junior high students and his family after the morning service. They have only been coming for a couple weeks and Michael wanted to make sure they knew they were welcome! The mom mentioned to Michael that she was bringing her boys to church because they had told her that they wanted to be baptized and she wanted to make sure that they understood before they made this step. By her words we think perhaps she doesn't have the right idea about baptism - or possibly salvation - and it looks like we may have the opportunity to bring the boys to church on Wednesday nights to be a part of the youth group as well as meet with the whole family for discipleship! Please PRAY for this single mom, J and her two boys, M and D. We would LOVE to see God use us to help them progress in their spiritual growth. They have all been in an abusive situation and are just beginning to get back on their feet.