The most exciting thing that happened Thursday was that Natasha learned how to ride a bike. Literally, it happened practically in one day ... well, of course, due to the great amount of effort and d-r-a-m-a that went into all the difficult practice she did on Tuesday and Wednesday!! She is THRILLED about this major accomplishment, as are we!! :) Justus is greatly enjoying his time on his bike, too. I *tried* to include a video in this post; we'll see how it works. gr In this picture Justus was just finishing 'fixing' his bike while Natasha was flying by. And actually [How sad is this??] both kids' bikes are out of commission now. All that for that. One of Justus's training wheels has weakened over time and won't hold his weight anymore, so tomorrow Jeremy will change them over to a different pair of training wheels we have. The back tire of N's bike has a hole in it!! :*( This is really no surprise, since we received the bicycle second-hand with no knowledge of its prior treatment ... not to mention that we have moved it twice and let it sit through on Arizona summer. Still, it's an easy fix and she'll be back up and running soon.

Friday we ended up doing an unexpected trip to the East side for a four-hour shopping trip. Blech. We were extremely blessed to have received $150 each, for Jeremy and me, from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. “Please purchase things that will help you portray the image you wish to portray. I know it takes money,” etc. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! We were able to do the shopping for Jeremy's items this afternoon ... and what a pain it is. His is one of those sizes that is in the 'gray area' and very few places actually have stuff his size. Tomorrow he wants to sort through all of his dress clothes with me and figure out which items can be worn together, which is why the clothes were hung like this. The beige colored $200 blazer, we picked up off a clearance rack at Dillard's for $24. (blink, blink) It's exactly what he was hoping for. Two pairs of slacks were purchased from Men's Wearhouse for $35 each, one khaki, one navy. In addition, Mervyn's had some long-sleeve casual shirts on sale for $6 ea. that can be worn in a variety of ways!! Jeremy chose three of them. WOW!! What DEALS! We are ssssssso thankful!! :) :) :)



Before and after supper on Friday, N and I worked in her room to clear her desk. It is a major accomplishment, what with the 'clutter-bug'/pack-rat she is!! However, having it cleared is SUCH a nicer way to live, and now that we have more storage in her closet to help us use that space better, my big hope is that she will learn to greatly appreciate the convenience and ease of use of a cleared-off space; she'll have to keep up on it, of course, which will require much reminding in the weeks and months to come, I expect. Actually, I think I'm going to work it into a new routine list; it's just too important. Otherwise, with her high levels of output, stuff gets piled up so fast and becomes overwhelming even to me.... If she/we worked on it a little every day, it would be much more manageable and build much better lifetime habits. :)

Saturday’s big fun was that our family was treated to dinner at Carrabba’s, wwway up north off Ina Rd. We met Charles & Gerry at their house; this was my first experience with ORANGE BLOSSOMS. I’d always heard that their scent is amazing. WHAT an understatement. I believe that heaven will smell like orange blossoms. It was out of this world. I just wanted to stay there all day and forget Carrabba’s! lol Well, maybe not; Carrabba’s is awesome, and we haven’t gotten to eat there in over 3 years now, since moving away from Omaha. Our dinner with the Koenigs will remain a pleasant memory. It was a really lovely time. When we got home, the children stayed with Elaine and Jeremy and I went to Wal-Mart to order new glasses for me. Of course, they were closed; that shocked me! When I worked in the Vision Center we never closed before 9 except on Sundays! Gr! Instead we shopped. We made a little splurge purchase, the first four Rocky movies were being sold two-to-a-disk; I’ve never seen them, and they are some of Jeremy’s favorites (along with the rest of the world), so we are now the proud owners of the Rocky movies, of which I have now seen the first three. Interestingly, I like them. Not as much as Jeremy, but I do like them. ;)

On Sunday there was a new young couple visiting for the first time! They live over on one of the ‘Don’s, where we used to live!! They’ve been driving to services across town for a long time, and were very happy to have learned of a congregation closer to them! We got to know them a little bit over lunch; they were fun and interesting to talk to. I did laundry in the afternoon, and prepped the food we took for Sunday evening; after evening services was the Ladies’ Day Follow-Up Meeting, so we all took food and ate at the building together. Jeremy had two really nice phone calls with Grandview church folk, and before bed that night we played Go Fish as a family.

Monday was an errand day. Justus napped at the building while N & I clothes shopped a little bit (ack), went to the Library, and to the health food store. In the evening Jeremy worked on the children’s bicycles, so they were up and flying again … although not Justus, really, since he is now learning to ride without training wheels. The evenings are sssssssso-so-super pleasant, and that evening I was able to walk the dogs by myself! That’ll clear one’s head!

Tuesday we spent 3 hours in the mall – on the east side – getting new glasses for me. The pair I was wearing are nine years old. Now I have more thanks to express, this time to Elaine, who took pity on my plight and pitched in just over half of the cost of me getting new glasses. It just broke my heart that the $150 I’d been gifted could barely get me started toward the new glasses I’d been needing for so long. Argh. But, I have them now!! Consider: It took a total of $310 (including exam) to get these glasses, and they were on CLEARANCE for 50% off, and Lenscrafters gives the customer 50% off the lenses, too, when he/she purchases a clearance frame. GOOD GRIEF. At any rate, I’m very happy having a little different, new look. And my eyes should be happier too, though they weren’t telling me they were unhappy. ;) My prescription actually got a little better. Hm! Lunch in the mall for our family of four was $35; it was like at the movie theater, with prices so inflated. Kill me now. The children got in a bunch of bike riding, when we got home, AFTER, that is, we listened to a most-pleasant phone message from a brother from Grandview, just telling us how he is/they are looking forward to our visit and praying for our safe trip. (blink, blink) Wow.

That evening the children and I made Cut-N-Seal pb&j sandwiches for the plane ride on Friday. Two of the sandwiches had jelly leaking out of them. Justus asked, “Why are those two leaking?” I said, “I used holey bread on those two.” He gasped, “Mom! You just used God’s last name!”

On Wednesday, yesterday, there were many hours of bike riding practice. N is getting downright proficient! The only two remarkable things that happened are that 1.) N boiled water 100% by herself for the first time. I was upstairs and asked her to begin preparing lunch; and 2.) I drove to Donna’s house so I could borrow her sewing machine to tailor an item of clothing I purchased on Monday. Here is a picture Elaine took of N, J, and me on the way to Bible class.

Today has been spent almost exclusively in preparing for our departure tomorrow. Jeremy had the privilege of escorting Chewie to and from his appointment with the vet. He got lots of compliments on his behavior while they had him all day; he’s been super-mellow today (kind-of a nice change – lol) as the morphine wears off and his recovery comes along. Laundry, packing, you get the picture. Justus made some major progress in his bike riding efforts!