And Another Year Begins

So, in two days we head back to work and have a week of preparation before the students arrive. We are kind of excited this year because the summer has been hectic and even a little stressful. The routine of school will be a welcome change. The end of the previous year was exciting for Don because he got to see some of the students he had in his first year of teaching cross the stage to receive their diploma. It was also exciting because we got to see our first foreign exchange student, Claudia, receive an American diploma. She still has to finish school back in Italy, but it was a great experience to have her with us for most of the year. Since we had such a good experience, we decided to take on another foreign exchange student this year. Alba, from Spain, will be arriving this evening and we are looking forward to it, but are a tad bit nervous. We have talked with both Alba and her mom several times using Skype and have begun the process of getting to know each other.

This summer, while hectic, has been spent pretty much in Florida. We started out the summer just hanging around town and catching up with some decluttering in the house. We also visited Busch Gardens and Aquatica a couple of times to just enjoy some of the perks of living in Florida. We began talks with the Brobstons, good friends of ours, about coming for a visit when we flew up to IL for a wedding (Congratulations Jerrod & Alyssa Leonard) and I was beginning to wonder if things would work out because of some issues at his workplace. Things worked out last minute and we found out Thursday morning that they would be arriving late Friday night so preparations began to make room for them in the house. We were able to make room and the visit was awesome. Jesse even installed ceiling fans in our large living room (it took two since it is so large) to help keep the air moving and provide some much needed light to the space.

Tara spent three weeks in Sarasota to visit with her nieces and nephew while keeping them occupied so that their mom and dad could continue to work. This is where some of the stress came in however and some family issues were encountered and yet remain unresolved. If you are part of a family, you know how these things go. Please pray for healing in these relationships and that they will be restored to better than before. There are some family members that need salvation, so that is a top priority in our book. While Tara was in Sarasota, Don was able to visit his family in northern WI for about 10 days. He was able to relax in the cool weather and even got to visit a full-pads practice for the best team to ever play professional football, the Green Bay Packers. While some stars were not present, it was a wonderful experience. It is quite neat to see the players come out and choose bicycles to ride from the locker room to the practice field. Imagine the experience for these kids as they walk along side these bigger-than-life "heros" and get to talk with them as they head to the field. I wish my kids could experience that sometime in their lives.

Devon, the little brute that he is, had two trips this summer to the doctor to get stitches. Both times he hit his head on immovable object because he was running in the house and tripped. Not sure if he has learned his lesson yet, but his brothers haven't seemed to learn from his mistakes. We still have to tell them to stop running in the house and to stop the horseplay. What is the saying? "Boys will be boys!"

So, now we are back home, welcoming a new daughter into our house and preparing ourselves for the abrupt changes back to the schedule that work requires. The boys are not real excited. They understand that it means earlier bedtimes, homework and early mornings. Our children take after their mother in that mornings do not agree with them. Hopefully our "slug" from last year will get his act together and not make us force him to get ready in the mornings. Oh yeah, the boys did get a nice surprise in that we found a cute dog that was free (and small) for them to enjoy. They have been begging for at least two years to get a dog and daddy finally gave in when God provided a little, free bundle for them. Maybe that will make them more eager to get up for school. Well, we will sign off for now, but will update once we see how the start of school is going. We hope that you are in good health and spirits.