Mon., Mar. 17 - Wed., Mar. 26

Our company last week was wonderful. Travis & his friend Kristen were here for three full days and parts of two. They got to enjoy some of the lovely things about Tucson in the spring, and still had a nice amount of time with us each day! One of my favorite things about the week was that Justus got to know Travis again. He was just barely learning to talk when we moved fro NE, and some of his first words were the following good-bye to Travis: “I love you.” It made Travis CRY because he knew Justus wouldn’t remember him, even though every year on Justus’s birthday we talk about Travis a little, since they share the same birthday. So now those two of ‘our children’ (ha) are properly reacquainted.

A wonderful report!! Natasha has been doing excellently at doing the daily household service before being told to!! In addition, she has been helping pull weeds without being asked to do so, and doing good work helping in the kitchen lately!

On Friday we made a ‘family day’ of driving to the East Side to purchase the gift certificates for Ladies’ Day appreciation. That night was Date Night for Jeremy and N, who went to see … and greatly enjoyed … Horton Hears a Who. Justus and I had what Justus referred to as an “At Home Date Night”; since we had a houseful of leftovers, I didn’t even have to cook, so Justus ‘helped’ me build a science project gift the children were given for Christmas. A push-button light on the ground shines through a dome of pin-punched holes and shines the constellations on the ceiling and walls. We had a really nice time.

[Justus took many more than just these three pictures I've shared here....]

Saturday was Ladies’ Day, and all that entails…. It was a good time of encouragement, but we were also happy to come home and fall into naps. Jeremy and Justus went to the zoo!! However, they, too, were unusually tired, and came home hours earlier than they otherwise would have, for naps. UGGH!

Sunday was Easter, and we were invited to the Meanses’ house for lunch along with Tad & Deb (our landlords). Lunch wasn’t ‘til 2pm; this is one time I was thankful that our services are early, and we get home around 11:30, because that meant that following a light snack, there was time for the children’s naps BEFORE ‘dinner’. We took three dishes, but Shirley had built probably twelve other dishes herself. I guess it’s one of their family traditions to have a dish of all of their favorite things on Easter. OHMYGOODNESS there was so much food. After Tad & Deb went home, we played Cornhole with Dick and Shirley until evening services. Cornhole is played with bean bags, but is much like washers and horseshoes. It was an extremely enjoyable, afternoon, playing this relaxed/relaxing game in the shade on an absolutely gorgeous day.

On Sunday we were gifted three working bicycles from a Snowbird couple who is not coming back next year; they sold their house in Green Valley and have returned to NE permanently. They offered us these three bicycles, and I couldn’t turn them down!!!! I am so super-excited that one of these bikes will work perfectly for me!!! As a young lady I enjoyed hours upon hours of transportation on a bicycle, but haven’t even been on one in the past twelve years – at least. And I have MISSED it! It got to the point that the first item on my wish list for birthdays/Christmas, etc., is a bicycle, so for Arden & Jan to give us not one, but three bicycles (another is perfect for N to grow into, and the other is a man’s bike we will find a different home for) was a God-send!! I am sssso thankful.

On Monday Jeremy worked in Sierra Vista with Cecil again, but was home by 5:30 because Jennifer asked to meet us at the church building at that time so she could be baptized. She and Shane have been married for 9 years, I think, and she has always attended services with him, but she had never made Jesus her Lord until Monday!! God is praised for bringing another soul back into reconciliation with Him through Jesus, and we all rejoice!!

So, we have been working for a while now on creating some more space in the family room for a ‘game table’/crafting space. We gave the couch to the Balderramas, but haven’t gotten it to their storage shed yet. [They moved to Phoenix last weekend. :*( ) The next step was to find an entertainment center that would close away and consolidate some of the books, movies, and games. Believe it!! >> God provided that to us this weekend as well, for free!! Jeremy drove across town on Tuesday evening after work to pick it up.

The children and I have been alternately weeding, practicing riding bikes, and reading our library books about airplanes and Iowa during available hours of the last three days. Much progress has been made in all three areas. I pumped up the tires of the red, training-wheel bike (for J) and the purple girls’ bike (for N), and after watching me spin around the street a few times, even N is inspired to learn how to ride a bike. It is a big deal for her because, as has always been true, she is not as ‘quick’ to pick up physical things; couple that with her Drama Queen personality and you have quite the e-v-e-n-t. It rrrrreally doesn’t help that it has been uncomfortably warm (for us) (80’s … we MUCH prefer 40’s – 70’s) in the hours of the day that we have available for this kind of activity.

Check out www.grandviewchurchofchrist.org, the next congregation we’ll be interviewing with; you can even listen to Jeremy speak, if you’re so inclined!! They are flying the Four Fab there, and we will have layovers in both Dallas and Chicago. CHICAGO!! None of us has ever been to Chicago! And, actually we won’t get to *see* anything but the airport [I wonder for how many people this is true!!] because our layover there is a short 50 minutes. We’re hoping to even just be able to catch our flight out!! lol – maybe we’ll be spending more time in Chicago than we’re expecting….

For weeks I’ve been wanting to post about three great business names here in Tucson. Two are alterations places, “Sew What,” and “Seams Right”. The other is a chocolate shop: “Choc-alot”. I’m happy creative people are in the world!

Last week Justus was sad that the children’s computer has been out of service for a year. He asked, “Do computers have batteries?” I said, “Not computers like yours; they plug into outlets.” He said, “Is ours plugged out?”

I took some pictures hoping to show a good size comparison update, between Chewie & Jabba. None of them turned out very good, but this picture is classic.