we're back

It's been about a week since we arrived home from vacation, and we've been very busy getting back to "real" life ever since. It's a shame we can't all go on holiday at once like the French so that no one would miss anything while they're away.

We had a WONDERFUL and relaxing vacation. Arlan and Marcy (the friends we stayed with) called it our "babymoon"... the last chance to get away before our reality changes forever. They took care of us and fed us good food and chauffered us around. It was a tremendous blessing.

Now we're 100% in kid preparation mode. At home this means getting a ton done on the house. Last Saturday Becky repaired our rotting fence (and contracted poison ivy in the process) while Peter worked on cleaning out the garage for the first time since we moved. Now Peter is running wires and installing lighting in the kids' room. Saturday Becky's grandfather will help install windows in their room (so those cute little warm blooded Africans won't freeze to death this winter in the coldest room of the house). The following week and weekend will be dedicated to painting their room with the fun paint from the oops rack at Lowe's and moving all their furniture in. If we accomplish all this in Sept, we'll move on to figuring out how to have hot water all winter (a novel concept) and finishing up the kitchen. We've had the supplies for all these projects for a long time, but we haven't had time to do them. We're so thankful that Peter has had the chance to develop so many useful skills over the past few years. We can't imagine what it would cost to have these jobs done.

The to do list involves plenty of other non-house items as well, so we're going to have a very busy fall. It's the good kind of busy though. The kind with a purpose... and we are really in love with the purpose.