Let's start with Maura. Dear, sweet Maura. She loves to explore. And destroy. Here is her latest conquest:
This is a laptop I bought for the kids for Christmas. It was an older laptop, so it's not like she ruined a brand-new machine or anything. STILL, it is going to take me a while to click all those keys back on. I swear, she popped them off like dandelion heads. She is one fast little girl. I've been trying to expose her to lots more words and teach her parts of her body, but she kinda stares at me blankly. Also, she doesn't really say too much. But, ask her to do something and she will do it... if she wants to. "Sit Down, Maura" and she does. "Come to Mommy" and she does. "Say AAAHHH" and she does. So, she gets it, but the words will come eventually.
John recently decided he wants his head to look just like Daddy's. So he shaved it. Bald. With a razor and shaving cream. Nothin' but skin. Uh, I don't think it was the BEST decision ever, but he likes it. Well, he did until the kids at school teased him and called him "baldy" (only after he called himself that first - but it's like "I can say it but you can't!"). His reading skills are picking up. He's pretty good with sounding words out and recognizing some sight words.
RJ is a voracious reader. He tears through books in no time flat. He usually checks out books from the library 10 at a time, and he's ready to return them about a week later. I don't know when he got so fast or so interested in reading, but he just amazes us. He's sailing through 2nd grade. I've never seen so many 100% papers. And, he's made some really good friends at school who he loves to call on the phone. And, of course, he's into those crazy Webkinz, the stuffed animals with an online game.
Sarah is growing into such a beauty. She is getting close to being as tall as me. Her hair continues to grow very very long, as she's hoping to cut it off soon once it's long enough to give to Locks Of Love again. She enjoys playing the recorder, that she learns at school in music class. She did an excellent job in the Christmas Play at church (it wasn't a Christmas play really, but a play put on at Christmas Time. It was called "Hark, Harold the Angel Sings"). I was shocked how well she did memorizing all her lines. She didn't stumble even once. It was cute and impressive too.
Ryan continues to enjoy working at the prison. He just got his schedule changed (finally) so that he has Sunday mornings off (he goes in at 12:30) and now he can come to worship with us at church. He will soon begin offering services for the inmates in the medical unit, those who are unable to leave to come to worship services in the chapel because of medical reasons. Also, he's had the opportunity to fish with some people from work a couple of times. That's been nice for him.
Me, Gretchen, I'm just hanging out and taking care of kiddos, as usual. I am trying really really hard to keep the house cleaned up, so that when it gets messy it's not such a mountain to conquer. It's going to take a while to get everything to the starting point of "clean" but I'm working my way through it. I continue to go to the gym pretty regularly, even though I'm not losing any weight. But I feel better and healthier, and that was my goal when I joined.
We are all excited about our trip up to St. Louis & IL next week. We are going to be in St. Louis through Saturday 1/24, then Ryan will have to go to Chaplain Training in San Diego on Sunday 1/25 and I will head over to IL to visit with friends. The kids are SOOOOO excited to be attending school at Hoffman again that week. They will attend M-T-W, then we will head back over to St. Louis on Wednesday Night or Thursday morning. We head back to Ft. Worth on Friday morning 1/30. My sister is coming with me to help with the drive, and she'll fly back on Sunday evening.
Hope you all are doing well. If you want to get in touch just email us at ferrinlutheran@yahoo.com or you can leave a comment and I'll get it on email!
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