This year has been crazier than usual. I got a part-time job in Sept. of '08 working at a neighboring middle school as their attendance clerk. Let's just say I'm not as good at organizing my time as I thought I was. Plus, between Jacob and I, we were sick alot this winter. Jacob missed a total of 17 days of school this year which is insane, so Rusty and I had to take turns staying home with him.

Spring was slow in coming, but were ready for Joshua's fifth year of Little League. Plus, springtime means band concert practice with his tuba, and Boy Scout outings to Cooperstown and white-water rafting. So far we haven't gotten Jacob involved in anything extra-curricular--just for my own sanity.

This year Rusty is trying to see how many stamps he can get on his passport. In April he went to Guatemala again for Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity. In May-June he traveled to Europe for the 65th Anniversary of D-Day. He stopped in Belgium, Holland, France and England. Check out his blog at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/rustyd/1/tpod.html .
He leaves again in October for another Thrivent Builds trip in El Salvador. Thank God for my parents and in-laws who have helped me with the boys each time he's been gone.

Joshua is now a teenager. He's headed to middle school in a few weeks. He is hoping to try out for basketball this winter for the first time. Joshua's excited because he just got his own Facebook account, and he spends all his free time playing video games on the computer and Wii.

Jacob is now 7 1/2 and entering second grade. He is my artistic and creative one. He still loves doing crafts and drawing pictures. He still loves trains, especially after receiving his first HO scale model train set for Christmas.

This summer the boys and I spent two weeks in Chicago with my family. We also spent five days camping in Bellefonte, PA with friends, where we also worked on a local Habitat house (yes, I did my first build!). Rusty and I also spent five days in July at our annual Thrivent convention in Washington D.C. It ended up being an awesome vacation for us.

Hopefully August will be a quiet month at home. We've got a week of VBS, then Rusty is taking the boys camping for a weekend in Gettysburg, so I get the house to myself. Soon after we have to get back into school mode. My school starts August 31, but the boys don't start until Sept. 9.